Chapter 76 Qiu Chuji's Journey to the West

Before Genghis Khan's westward expedition, Hu Lan's words made Genghis Khan make a major decision. If something unexpected happens, Wo Kuotai will inherit his foundation.On the way to the West Expedition, Genghis Khan sighed and said to people: "After all, we are mortals, and we are mortal!" This is a question that every ordinary man will consider in his twilight years, especially heroes.Fear of death and longing for longevity are more prominent in heroes, and Genghis Khan is no exception.When he sighed, a confidant named Liu Zhonglu immediately solved his problems.Liu Zhonglu said that there is a Taoist priest named Qiu Chuji in the Central Plains, who is over 300 years old and still looks like 60 years old. It can be seen that he has the art of beauty and longevity, so it is better to find him and let him order to turn back time.

Genghis Khan had no culture, or he didn't know that there was such a magical culture in the Central Plains culture, so he was elated, and immediately ordered Liu Zhonglu to go to the Central Plains to invite Qiu Chuji with the Golden Tiger Talisman of the World Pass. Liu Zhonglu didn't know Qiu Chuji at all, because Qiu Chuji was not three hundred years old at all. He was born in 1148 and was only seventy-two years old in 1219.Qiu Chuji was a native of Penglai, Shandong Province. He entered the mountains at the age of twenty to learn Taoism from Wang Jia.This Wang Jia is Wang Chongyang in Jin Yong's novels. He is an innovative Taoist priest who melted the loyalty and filial piety of Confucianism, the precepts of Buddhism and the alchemy of Taoism into one furnace to create the Quanzhen Sect.Since then, Quanzhen Sect has become the most prosperous sect in Taoism, with seven disciples, Jin Yong called them the Seven Sons of Quanzhen, among them Qiu Chuji.Qiu Chuji has a strange talent, he has forged himself into an otherworldly Quanzhen sect real person in ten years.After the Emperor of Jin knew about him, he sent someone to invite him to preach, but he refused.After the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty knew about him, he also sent someone to invite him, but he still refused. The reason was that he was an outsider and didn't want to get involved in the world.

Liu Zhonglu invited him with Genghis Khan's edict, and he was tempted.Genghis Khan's imperial edict is majestic, and the lines between the lines reveal the domineering arrogance of a generation.Probably Genghis Khan's ideas and Yelu Chucai's handwriting moved him.This edict roughly says: Although I am invincible in the world and have trampled countless people under my feet, I am still a barbarian in the eyes of you Central Plains people. I know this, so I especially hope that the Central Plains culture can shape me. If the old man You don't care about the remoteness of the desert. When I come to Genghis Khan's tent, I not only hope to get the magic of longevity from you, but also hope to get your cultural education and assistance.

Qiu Chuji was moved by this passionate letter, saw Liu Zhonglu dripping with sweat and earnest words, and saw that the people in the world were devastated, all of which were caused by Genghis Khan, so he hoped that he could use what he had learned all his life to persuade Genghis Khan to stop killing and use compassion to rule the world. The world, so he led eighteen Taoist priests to follow Liu Zhonglu on the road happily. In the spring of 1220, Qiu Chuji and Liu Zhonglu came to Jinzhongdu, and he was warmly received by the Mongols.But when he heard that Genghis Khan had marched west, he couldn't help expressing regret.

He asked Liu Zhonglu: "Didn't you say that Genghis Khan was waiting for us at the border between the Great Mongolia and Western Liao?" Liu Zhonglu replied: "Genghis Khan has already started to use troops against Khwarazmo, we must catch up quickly." Qiu Chuji shook his head like a rattle.He said: "I am seventy-two years old, with old arms and legs. How can I travel such a long distance? Let's wait for Genghis Khan to come back!" Liu Zhonglu finally invited him out of the mountain, so he would not let him go so easily, and hurriedly sent his own letter and Qiu Chuji's letter to Genghis Khan to Genghis Khan.

Qiu Chuji's letter basically said that I am too old to travel far.Even if I can travel far and be honored to meet you, but you are at war, I don't know anything about war, all I can do is to persuade people to abstain from lust with a moral heart, this is a matter of a donkey's lip and a horse's mouth, so go and don't Go, same effect. Genghis Khan got serious and asked Yelu Chucai to write back to Qiu Chuji, hoping that Qiu Chuji would follow the story of Sakyamuni's journey to the east and Laozi's journey to the west, so he must come.The purpose of coming is of course not to guide him in combat, but to educate people culturally.

It was February 1221, one year later, when Qiu Chuji received Genghis Khan's edict.Seeing Genghis Khan's letter, he had no choice but to follow Liu Zhonglu on the road. Today, there is a stone engraved map of "Changchun Real Man's Journey to the West" in Baiyun Temple in Beijing. This map is the map of Qiu Chuji trekking thousands of miles to meet Genghis Khan.From this map, we can see the distance of the journey and the difficulty of the journey. In February 1221, Qiu Chuji set off from Xuande and crossed Yehuling. On April 1, Qiu Chuji arrived at the Kerulun River, the base camp of Genghis Khan. Timuge, who was sitting at home, asked Qiu Chuji to teach him the art of longevity.Qiu Chuji laughed and said, "You are full of murderous intent, you need to fast for fifteen days before I can tell you." Timuge obediently fasted for half a month, but on the appointed day, it was snowing heavily, and Timuge had to go out to inspect Livestock, had to give up.After returning from inspection, Temuge suddenly enlightened and said: "Genghis Khan sent an envoy to invite you all the way. He wanted to hear about your longevity art for the first time. How dare I preempt it. You should go on the road."

On April 17, 1221, Timuge presented Qiu Chuji with hundreds of oxen and horses, ten carts, and sent 1,000 troops to send Qiu Chuji on the road.Qiu Chuji and his party went west along the Kherlen River, crossed the Tula River and the Orkhon River, and arrived at Genghis Khan's Ordo in Naiman.At this time, there were many concubines in Ordo waiting for their man Genghis Khan to return triumphantly. Seeing this group of concubines competing for beauty, Qiu Chuji was amazed.He probably never thought that Genghis Khan, a barbarian, would have so many beauties. Before Ordo left, Liu Zhonglu selected a hundred virgins to go west.Qiu Chuji was very reluctant, he said: "I am from the mountains, how can I walk with a group of girls?"

Liu Zhonglu was taken aback and felt ashamed of his rashness.However, he still secretly brought a hundred virgins along, but he walked behind instead of dangling in front of Qiu Chuji's eyes. Ten days later, Qiu Chuji and his party arrived in Zhenhai City (southeast of Khobduo City in Mongolia today).It was June of 1221. Qiu Chuji really didn't want to continue westward, so he asked Zhenhai, the lord of Zhenhai City, panting, "I traveled thousands of miles to get here, and several pairs of shoes were worn out. There are no crops in the desert. I am very happy to see that the autumn crops are ripe here. I want to spend the winter here and wait for the return of Genghis Khan, okay?"

Zhenhai tactfully refused: "Genghis Khan has issued an order to the people along the way, and if they meet a real person passing by, they must not delay their journey. This is because Genghis Khan desperately wants to see a real person. If you stay here, you will make me commit a crime. I am willing to walk with a real person and take care of you." A real person is as filial as taking care of my father." What else could Qiu Chuji say, this old man in his seventies could only go on the road.They crossed the Jinshan Mountain, entered the territory of present-day Xinjiang, marched west along the North Tianshan Road, followed the road opened by Chagatai and Wokuotai, and crossed the Ili River, Chuhe River, and Syrah River in turn. On November 18, 1221, Qiu Chuji arrived in Samarkand, the capital of Khwarazmo.

Genghis Khan was approaching Shenhe at that time, and military issues were more important than the physical issue of immortality, so he ordered Qiu Chuji to wait for him in Samarkand.He didn't think of Qiu Chuji until the middle of March of the next year, so he ordered someone to send Qiu Chuji to his place.On April 5th, Qiu Chuji arrived at Genghis Khan's temporary residence in Balu Bay. After more than two years of hard work, he finally met Genghis Khan. Although Qiu Chuji was on the way to see Genghis Khan, there were several times when he wanted to pick someone up, but Genghis Khan was still very happy with Qiu Chuji's arrival, because: "The Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty have invited you, and you ignored it, but now you come to see me, I am very happy. !" Qiu Chuji's heart was churning, the journey was full of hardships, the heavy snow could freeze people into popsicles, and the altitude sickness made people half-dead.After entering the territory of Khwarazmo, corpses can be seen everywhere, just like hell.But Qiu Chuji is an expert in the world, he has a world without complaints, and Taoism says that if you come, you will be at ease, and the fatigue of the journey has become a cloud.Besides, making everyone happy is the pursuit of Taoism. He showed a smile that was neither humble nor overbearing, and flattered Genghis Khan without showing any traces: "It is God's will that the poor Taoist came to see His Majesty under the order." Genghis Khan was overjoyed when he heard the words, and ordered Qiu Chuji to sit down.He began to seriously look at this 300-year-old man. He was as thin as a stick, probably because of the long journey, but he was full of energy. He really didn't look like 300 years old.After looking at it, he couldn't wait to ask: "Did you come from afar, do you bring the medicine of longevity?" More than a thousand years ago, King Liang Hui of the Wei State asked Mencius who had come thousands of miles away: "Old man, you have come a thousand miles away, will you benefit my country?" Mencius replied: "Why does the king need to talk about profit, benevolence and righteousness are enough." This is avoiding the truth, Qiu Chuji is also playing this now: "Why does Khan want the medicine of immortality? There is no such medicine in the world, only the prescription of prolonging life." Genghis Khan was undoubtedly disappointed by Qiu Chuji's answer.He summoned the 300-year-old man in front of him from thousands of miles away, just wanting to get the elixir of life, but what he got was such a disappointing sentence.But he was deeply impressed by Qiu Chuji's frankness, so he didn't show any dissatisfaction. The easiest way to test a person's strength is to shatter his hopes.If he is still calm, it shows that he is a person of noble character, generosity, and absolute self-control.Genghis Khan is such a person. On the surface, he is half a barbarian, but in fact he has the air of an aristocrat. After that, he respected Qiu Chuji even more.He asked Zhenhai: "What should I call this worldly expert?" Zhenhai replied: "Some people call him a real person, some respectfully call him a master, and some call him a living god." Genghis Khan nodded and said, "From now on, let's call him a fairy." The fairy Qiu Chuji and Genghis Khan forged a deep friendship in the scorching April.Qiu Chuji told Genghis Khan the "South China Scripture" and all the philosophical issues he knew. Although Genghis Khan didn't understand, he sounded serious and looked like a good student.However, this exchange was short-lived, because Genghis Khan was preparing to pursue Zalandin, so Qiu Chuji was asked to go back to Samarkand first, and he said: "When I wipe out the last resistance force of Khwarazm and return to Samarkand, we will go back to Samarkand." Let’s talk by candlelight again.” In August 1222, Genghis Khan returned to Samarkand, and he communicated closely with Qiu Chuji, so he came up with the following philosophical proposition. Genghis Khan asked: "How to unify the world?" Qiu Chuji replied: "Don't kill anyone indiscriminately." Question: "How to govern the world?" Answer: "Respect for the sky and love for the people is the foundation." Question: "How to live forever?" Answer: "It is important to have a pure heart and few desires." Genghis Khan thought so deeply, and said: "The Immortal of Tianxi, let me use my aspirations." On the eve of the Spring Festival, when the winter thunder came, Genghis Khan asked Qiu Chuji anxiously.Qiu Chuji replied: "Thunder is also the power of Heaven. There is no greater crime than being unfilial, and being unfilial is disobedience to the sky, so the power of Heaven shakes and warns them. I heard that there are many unfilial people in your country. Your majesty should be prestige tomorrow to guide others." public." Genghis Khan was silent. When it comes to unfilial piety, he has a son who is fully qualified to be struck by lightning.This son was Jochi. Since the capture of Jade Dragon Jiechi, Jochi lived his life west of Khwarazmo and never returned to Genghis Khan's side.He didn't understand, what happened to this son, is it just because of his origin that he has become self-degraded, broke his jars, and even abandoned his father? Thinking of this, he nodded firmly and said: "The gods are right, those unfilial people should use the sky to shock him!" Qiu Chuji smiled. Before he came, he had written a poem in Hebei: My emperor stands on the river, and wants to give up fighting to bring about peace.This is the purpose of his coming. He hopes to use what he has learned all his life to persuade Genghis Khan to put his swords and guns into the warehouse, put his horses on Nanshan, and make the world peaceful. However, the longer he was in contact with Genghis Khan, the more he felt that this was an illusion.The old man with gray temples in front of him still has a lot of energy and an inexplicable conquering mood.Qiu Chuji's feeling was that he wanted to conquer forever, until the end of the world, and there was only one situation that would stop him from fighting, and that was death taking him away. However, Qiu Chuji noticed that even if this world conqueror left the world, the idea of ​​"eternal conquest" he instilled in his descendants would still cling to the Great Mongolian Kingdom like a ghost, seeping into the bone marrow. It will not disappear because of Genghis Khan's departure from the world, and it may be improved to a higher level. Qiu Chuji, the ultimate thinker who combines Confucianism's "peace is the most precious", Taoism's "no extravagance to kill" and Buddhistism's "compassion", is helpless in the face of Genghis Khan, who regards fighting and killing as his lifelong mission. In the early winter of 1222, Qiu Chuji asked Genghis Khan to let him go back to the Central Plains. He said in a roundabout way: "I am a Taoist priest, and I like to sit quietly. Now I am always with the army, and my spirit is not good, so it is better to leave." Genghis Khan seemed to hear the implication that Qiu Chuji hated war, and he also understood that he could not be molded by Qiu Chuji. There was only one person in the world who could mold him, and that was himself who represented Changshengtian.He readily agreed to Qiu Chuji's request, but at that time the weather was bad and the road was difficult, so he asked Qiu Chuji to postpone the trip, and gently accepted Qiu Chuji's persuasion.He said: "I am also planning to return to the east. Let's go together when the army that is sweeping everywhere returns!" Qiu Chuji was so happy with this answer that he almost carried himself away.So the two spent the winter in Samarkand. In the first month of 1223, Genghis Khan held a large-scale hunting event.When he was chasing a wounded wild boar, he accidentally fell off his horse. The wounded wild boar immediately turned to stare at him, opened its bloody mouth and screamed strangely, shaking the forest.Genghis Khan was in great danger at the time. If a wild boar rushed at him, he would surely die.But the wild boar just barked a few times, then stared blankly at him for a while, and then turned around and ran into the dense forest under the yelling of the guards who rushed over immediately. When Genghis Khan returned to the camp, he was shocked, and Qiu Chuji immediately stood up and said, "The way of heaven is good for life. You are old now, so you should hunt less. This time you fell off the horse, it is the heaven's warning; the wild boars dare not attack you, the sky is protecting you." Qiu Chuji's words were well-founded, making people have to listen to them.However, Genghis Khan's response was also very ingenious. He first thanked Qiu Chuji for his kindness, and then said that hunting on horseback was a habit he had developed since he was a child. Having said that, Genghis Khan did not hunt again for at least half a year.Maybe, he really thought what Qiu Chuji said was right, maybe, he just used this way to comfort Qiu Chuji's heart. In March 1223, Qiu Chuji couldn't wait for Genghis Khan, so he asked to return to China again.Genghis Khan readily agreed, and before leaving, Genghis Khan asked him: "Do you have many disciples in the Central Plains?" Qiu Chuji proudly replied: "Very many." Genghis Khan said to the officials around him: "All the disciples of the gods are exempted from taxes." Qiu Chuji was very grateful, and Genghis Khan also had a generous gift: he sent 1,000 cavalry to escort Qiu Chuji back to the Central Plains, changed the Tianchang Temple in Beijing, the capital at that time, to Changchun Palace, and ordered the construction of Baiyun Temple, combining Changchun Palace and Baiyun Temple. It is collectively called Baiyun Temple. Before the Mongols officially entered Beijing, they had already left traces of their thoughts in Beijing. After Qiu Chuji returned, Genghis Khan sent people to greet him many times. The most famous one is a letter written by Genghis Khan to Qiu Chuji on November 15, 1223. It can be described as meticulous and affectionate. Qiu Shenxian, don't make your spring moon trip to summer, the road is hot and difficult, do you have to ride a good horse along the road?Are there more food and more food in Luli?When you go to Xuande Prefecture and other places, do the officials expect you to come?Can the people below come?Are you feeling well?I often think about you, the god, I have never forgotten you, and you will never forget me.The fifteenth day of the eleventh month of the Guiwei year. (Excerpt from "Changchun Real Man's Journey to the West Notes") In 1227, Qiu Chuji drove west of Hebei, and in the same year, Genghis Khan died of illness.It is conceivable whether the two friends can still talk freely in the kingdom of heaven. Genghis Khan sent troops thousands of miles away to invite the thinker Qiu Chuji, which is a good story in human history, but it is not the only one.During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in order to welcome the eminent monk Kumarajiva, Fu Jian sent 70,000 troops to conquer the Kucha Kingdom for him, thus obtaining Master Luoshi.In order to win Master Dao'an of the Eastern Jin Empire, Fu Jian used 100,000 troops to attack Xiangyang, the residence of Master Dao'an, and took him captive. However, Genghis Khan is more noble than Fu Jian, because he originally asked Qiu Chuji for the elixir of life, but after Qiu Chuji let him down, he did not get angry, but respected Qiu Chuji even more.The nobility and greatness of people are often displayed at such times.