Chapter 6 From worshiping gods to beating Bodhisattvas

Hu Shi's house is a two-story building newly built after his father became an official.Although not very luxurious and rich, it is also exquisite and generous.There are soaring eaves on the front wall.There are two black painted doors under the eaves.There was a big red note on the door that read, "There is no chance for a monk to be a monk."This is a typical mark of the Neo-Confucian family in the old days.Hu Jieru, Hu Shi's uncle and teacher, also had a note on the door saying "the monk has no destiny".They believe in Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism, do not talk about strange powers, do not believe in superstitions of gods and Buddhas, and do not give to monks and Taoists.Paste this "no monks and Taoists" note, monks and priests will not dare to come to the door.

However, the female family members of the Hu family firmly believe in the gods and Bodhisattvas.After Hu Chuan's death, the note on the gate that said "no chance to become a monk" also changed from red to white, and then it completely peeled off and disappeared without a trace.The female family members sincerely and freely prayed to God and worshiped Buddha.The family suffered from three calamities and two illnesses, so they recite scriptures and make wishes, asking gods and Buddhas to bless them; they even respectfully invite monks to come to the house and set off flames to save the wronged souls.

In such an environment, when Hu Shi was a child, he often heard the old ladies who believed in Buddhism tell stories about "Mulian saved his mother and went to the underworld" and "Princess (Guanyin) of King Miaozhuang became a monk to practice cultivation".He has also watched some series of dramas promoting gods and ghosts, and read "good books" brought by old ladies such as "Jade Calendar" and "Miaozhuang Wangjing" to encourage good and punish evil.As a result, his young mind was also filled with the concept of gods and Buddhas.The Lord of the Ten Temples, with the head of a bull and the face of a horse, the cruelty of hell, and the pain of reincarnation caused him an inexplicable fear, most afraid of turning into a pig and a dog in the next life.In addition, Hu Shi was weak and sick since he was a child, and his mother often asked God to make wishes for him, teaching him to respect Buddha sincerely.

Every year when I went to my grandma's house in Zhongtun, on the ten-mile road, as long as there were gods and Buddhas, my mother would teach him to worship.One year, she personally took Hu Shi to pay homage to Gukuang Mountain, and burned incense in front of Guanyin Bodhisattva to fulfill her vows.The mountain road was rugged, and her little feet were very difficult to walk, but she didn't cry out in pain; at this time, Hu Shi was naturally a very pious little pilgrim and believer. But this pious little believer soon became an atheist.Things started from Zhu Xi's "Primary School":

One day, I was reviewing Zhu Zi's "Primary School", and I read Sima Wengong's family precepts, in which there was a saying about hell, saying: "When the form decays, the spirit also floats away. Although there is burning, pounding and grinding, there is nothing to do. ..." I reread these few sentences, and suddenly jumped up with joy. The horrors of hell in books such as "Mulian Rescue Mother" and "Jade Calendar" were presented before my eyes, but I didn't think I was afraid anymore.The portraits of the king of Hades in the ten halls displayed on the altar by the monk at the mouth of flames, and all kinds of bull-headed and horse-faced faces in the eighteen floors of hell use steel forks to fork sinners up the mountain of knives, fork off the oil pan, and throw them down the Naihe Bridge to feed hungry dogs and poisonous snakes,—— All these tragedies were also presented before my eyes, but now I don’t feel afraid anymore.I repeated this sentence over and over again: "Since the form perishes, the spirit also drifts away. Even though there is burning, pounding and grinding, there is nothing to be done." I was very happy in my heart, really like Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva pointing his tin staff and opening the gate of hell① .

Scientific thinking challenges superstitious thinking.Hu Shi learned about Sima Guang's simple materialism on hell from Zhu Zi's "Primary School", which made him suspicious and no longer believed in the nonsense of hell and reincarnation.Soon, he read Sima Guang's again, from which he learned of Fan Zhen's "On the Extinction of God": Zhen also wrote "On the Extinction of God", thinking: "The shape is the quality of the god, and the god is the function of the form. The god is in the shape, and the benefit is in the knife. I have never heard that the knife is gone and the profit is there. What?" After this theory came out, the government and the public were clamoring, it was difficult, and they could not be subdued in the end.

Fan Zhen used a popular metaphor to say that the relationship between shape and spirit is like the sharpness of a knife and its edge. Without a knife, there would be no "fastness" of a knife; without a body, can there be a soul? Such a simple For example, it illustrates the profound materialist philosophy, which made Hu Shi, who had just started his knowledge, completely believe in the principle of the absence of gods and ghosts.He said, "Sima Guang quoted the 35-character "Shen Mie Lun", which actually drove away countless ghosts and gods from my mind. Since then, I have become a person without ghosts and gods without knowing it"; Moreover, "influenced his thoughts throughout his life" ③.

After this "emancipation of the mind", Hu Shi stopped worshiping gods and Buddhas devoutly.But since he was a child, he was very filial to his mother. In front of his mother, he did not dare to say that he did not believe in ghosts and gods; when his mother asked him to worship gods and Buddhas, he did not dare not to go, for fear of hurting his mother's heart.And when his mother was not around, Hu Shi would talk about ghosts and gods to his friends, and even beat the Bodhisattva.There is a Sanmen Pavilion in front of Zhongtun Village, in which there is a statue of Lord Guan; There are several Arhat Bodhisattvas in the small temple next to the village.When Hu Shi went to his grandmother's house, he often went to play in small temples or pavilions with his friends.

He slapped the Bodhisattva's ears, but not obviously; sometimes he plucked some of the Bodhisattva's beards, but he never plucked them all.Therefore, it has not been discovered by adults. One year during the first month of the year, Hu Shi went to his elder sister's house to pay New Year's greetings, and stayed there until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, when he and his nephew Zhang Yanxiang rushed back to Shangzhuang to watch the lanterns.Pass the Sanmen Pavilion in Zhongtun on the way.They went into the pavilion to rest.Hu Shi said to Yanxiang, "No one here has seen it. Let's dismantle these mud bodhisattvas and throw them into the toilet, okay?" Scared.Zhang's family and the long-term workers who sent them hurriedly tried to dissuade them, saying, "Bodhisattvas should not be offended."Hu Shi was still not convinced, but wanted to hit the statue with stones.Just when someone from the village came, they left.

Back in Shangzhuang, the sound of gongs and drums, lion lanterns and dragon lanterns was very lively, and many guests came to see the lanterns.Hu Shi had a lot of passengers and drank a few glasses of soju.As soon as the cool wind blows at night, he is so drunk that he talks nonsense, shouting and calling for the moon to come down and look at the lights.Seeing this, Hu Shi's mother was anxious and frightened, and dragged him into the room, not knowing what to do. The long-term worker of Zhang's family came into the room and whispered what he had said at Sanmen Pavilion during the day. Reported to Hu Shi's mother, and said, "I'm afraid I offended Shinto, and the Shinto monster has come down."At this time, Hu Shi actually knew in his heart that he was worried about drinking and making trouble, and being punished by his mother.Hearing what the long-term worker said, he made up his mind, uttered crazy words, and became more and more violent, pretending to be possessed by spirits and ghosts.Hu Shi's mother was so anxious that she hurriedly washed her hands and burned incense, prayed to Sanmenting Shinto, begging for forgiveness of the ignorant child, and made a wish to burn incense in front of Sanmenting Shinto in person after recovering from her illness.Hu Shi secretly rejoiced that he escaped a punishment with a small trick; but he never expected that the punishment would be a month later——

A month later, my mother and I went to my grandmother's house in Zhongtun.She took out the money, made a pig's head offering at her grandmother's house, and prepared paper money for incense sticks. She asked my uncle to take me to the Sanmen Pavilion to thank God and fulfill my vows.My uncle is a pious person, he respectfully arranged the offerings, lit the incense candles, and knelt down with me to thank God.I couldn't help laughing, and saluted respectfully——I only blamed myself for not thinking of such a punishment that was more embarrassing than being beaten④ when I lied that day! Hu Shi spent his childhood and adolescence gradually among his hometown in Huizhou and his relatives.Here, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, but also barren and closed; there are not only profound cultural traditions, simple folk customs, but also strong feudal consciousness, ignorant and backward superstition.Hu Shi has lived here for nine years. He has grown taller, his knowledge has just begun, he has also received a little training in life, and developed a little habit of studying.However, his thirst for knowledge has been hard to satisfy.The mountains in my hometown are so tall, verdant and lovely.But what is on the other side of the mountain? He longed to see the world outside the mountain beyond the barrier of the mountain. ① "Forty Self-Reports", "From Worship to Godlessness", Shanghai Yadong Library Edition, p. 37. ② Sima Guang’s volume 136, "Qi Ji Er", the second year of Emperor Wu Yongming (484), contains Fan Zhen’s debate on Buddhist karma at the residence of Xiao Ziliang, king of Jingling in the Southern Qi Dynasty: Fan Zhensheng said that there is no Buddha.Ziliang said: "If you don't believe in cause and effect, how can you be rich, poor, or humble?" Zhen said: "Life is like a tree and flowers growing together, and scattered with the wind; Among them. Those who fall into the grass mat are the same as your Highness; those who fall into the dung are the same as the lower officials. Although the high and the low are different ways, where is the cause and effect! "Zi Liang has no difficulty.Zhen also wrote "On the Destruction of Gods". (Middle abbreviation) Wang Yan of Taiyuan ridiculed Zhen and said: "Whoa Fanzi! I didn't know where the gods of his ancestors are!"Zhen said to him: "Prince Wuhu! You know where the gods of your ancestors are, but you can't kill yourself to follow them!" Ziliang sent Wang Rong to say: "You are so talented and beautiful, why don't you come to Zhongshulang; so Guaila is here for this." Discussion, what a pity! It should be destroyed urgently." Zhen laughed and said: "Fan Zhen sold his theory to get an official, and it has reached the order and servant (according to, referring to the order of the minister and the left and right servants, who are equivalent to the prime minister). Shulangxie!" Fan Zhen (approximately 450-approximately 510), a famous materialist philosopher and atheist during the Qi and Liang Dynasties.The book "Shen Mie Lun" is contained in the forty-eight biography of "Liang Shu" volume, and attached to Liang Xiaochen's "Difficult God Mie Lun" in Volume 9 of "Hongming Ji" edited by Liang Shisengyou.The text quoted here by Sima Guang is a combination of the original text, with slight literal changes.However, "Zhen Laughing" and so on, Xuxu conveyed the open mind of an upright and honest intellectual, worthy of the writing of a great historian. ③Hu Shiwei did not know where the full text of "Shen Mie Lun" was contained.When it came time to write an article, Fang quoted the original text of "On the Demise of God".In December 1930, when I wrote the chapter "From Worshiping Gods to Godlessness" in "Forty Self-Reports", I probably didn't check the original text carefully. I picked the most wonderful passage and inserted it into his immortal history", and still mistook the concatenated passage for the original text of "the most wonderful passage" in "God's Extinction" (see "Forty Self-Reports" subsection Eastern Edition p. 38). However, Fan Zhen's "On the Destruction of Gods" was indeed "influenced on Hu Shi's thoughts throughout his life". In 1908, Hu Shi took over the editing of "Jingye Xunbao" at Shanghai China Public School. He published many articles of "Wugui Conghua" in the "Talking Cong" column, which were published in the 25th to 32nd issues of the magazine successively. The first article He quoted Sima Guang's "Family Instructions" and Fan Zhen's "Shen Mie Lun" (see the twenty-fifth issue of "Jingye Xun Bao"). In August 1914, Hu Shi wrote "The Theory of God's Extinction and God's Immortality" and "Fan Zhen's Theory of Cause and Effect" in the sixth volume of "Zanghui Room Notes".Because of the improvement in thinking, there were slight criticisms of Fan Zhen's "flaws in reasoning", but the main thing was still affirmative, and praised Fan's "life is like a tree and flowers growing together, with a great meaning of equality. Falling into the grass and dung, pay It’s a coincidence, and it’s not without a heart of resentment” (see "Zanghui Room Notes", Yadong Edition, p. 364). From 1919 to 1921, he wrote an article again quoting Fan Zhen's "On the Destruction of the Gods"; and pointed out in particular a few words in the "On the Destruction of Gods", which "moved him a lot in his heart, and later influenced his thinking for half his life. act" (see pages 105-115 of Volume 4 of "Hu Shi Wen Cun"). In 1945, he also wrote "Kao Fan Zhen's Published "Shen Mie Theory" in Liang Tianjian for six years" (revised in April 1946, published in "Ta Kung Pao? Literature and History Weekly" No. 35).It has been 45 years since I read it when I was a child, and I will never forget it in my life. ④ "Forty Self-Reports", "From Worship to Godlessness", Yadong Edition, page 42.