Chapter 20 5. Taiwu and Liangwu

Buddhism is in dire straits. In 446 A.D., four years after Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao went to the Taoist altar to accept the talisman, he ordered a complete ban on Buddhism across the country.Emperor Taiwu's order was very clear: all temples and Buddha statues must be destroyed, all scriptures must be burned, and all monks, old and young, must be murdered.Moreover, Emperor Taiwu, who led troops away from Beijing to suppress the rebellion, had already done so in Chang'an. Fortunately, the crown prince Tuobahuang who stayed behind in Pingcheng didn't think so.So he wrote a letter to his father, Huang Lichen, and deliberately leaked the news, so that monks from all over the place hid it with scriptures and Buddha statues.However, the temple that could not be hidden was destroyed, and the prince himself paid a heavy price.However, if it is not for his secret maintenance, Buddhism will be faced with a catastrophe.

This is the first great difficulty in the history of Chinese Buddhism. There are many reasons for the difficulty of the law.The root cause will be discussed later, but there are two direct reasons: one is that Emperor Taiwu discovered that a certain temple in Chang'an had hidden weapons, treasures, wine utensils and women; It was Cui Hao who pushed Emperor Taiwu. Cui Hao is Tuoba Tao's confidant and Kou Qianzhi's ally.At that time, Kou Qianzhi came to Pingcheng with fabricated myths and scriptures, but he did not expect that the authorities were not so easy to deceive.Emperor Taiwu only arranged board and lodging for him, and the ruling and opposition parties were also skeptical.Without Cui Hao, Kou Qianzhi would have accomplished nothing.

So, why did Cui Hao help Kou Qianzhi? Like-minded, or related interests. Cui Hao, who came from a prominent family, is the defender of Chinese civilization, and his ideal is to realize the complete Sinicization of the Xianbei nation and the Tuoba regime (see Chapter 2 of this book).Therefore, Cui Hao is very disgusted with foreign cultures and religions such as Buddhism.What he wants to respect is Confucianism, even if this Confucianism is not pure. Kou Qianzhi deeply understands and sympathizes with this. This is also not surprising.In fact, in a certain sense, Xintianshi Taoism can be said to be New Confucianism dressed in Taoism, and Kou Qianzhi’s religious reform is the Confucianization of Taoism.He even humbly asked Cui Hao for advice and said: The mission entrusted to me by the Taishang Laojun is to assist the Taiping Zhenjun and inherit the eternal tradition, so I also studied Confucianism.It's a pity that I'm ignorant and ignorant, so please give me some guidance!

Therefore, Cui Hao helped Kou Qianzhi to supplement Confucianism. Kou Qianzhi taught Cui Hao the secret recipe of health preservation. After figuring out that it can be mutually beneficial and win-win, Cui Hao advocated for Kou Qianzhi in front of Emperor Taiwu.Cui Hao's long speech actually has only one point: the fact that a Qingde Yinxian like Kou Qianzhi came uninvited, it can only show that the destiny received by His Majesty can be equivalent to that of Xuanyuan Huangdi back then. After hearing this, how can Emperor Taiwu be indifferent? Kou Qianzhi's success is due to Cui Hao's contribution.

However, Cui Hao wanted to destroy Buddha, but Kou Qianzhi disagreed.Yes, Taoism and Buddhism do have differences of opinion and conflicting interests.But this can only be a war of words, not real action.Both the Buddha and Laojun will not support the matter of killing everything.So Kou Qianzhi said to Cui Hao: If you destroy Buddha and kill life like this, you will bring disaster to the whole family! Later, Cui Hao was indeed exterminated. Buddhism is revived.After the death of Emperor Taiwu, the succeeding Emperor Wencheng issued an edict to revive Buddhism, and blamed the previous responsibility for destroying Buddhism on the fact that the relevant departments had misunderstood the intention of the former emperor.As a result, the monks, Buddha statues and scriptures that had been hidden due to the secret protection of the former prince Tuobahuang all appeared again.Buddhism flourished again in northern China until it encountered the second Dafa disaster (see Chapter 5 of this book).

The second time was in AD 574.During the 130 years here, Buddhism has been respected by the northern rulers.An empress dowager who was in charge of the court in the Northern Wei Dynasty not only built a temple to worship the Buddha, but also planned to cut her hair and become a nun after losing the struggle.It's a pity that she was not blessed by the Buddha, and was still thrown into the Yellow River by the angry coup d'état. Amitabha, sin, sin! However, the Yongning Temple built by the Queen Mother in the new capital Luoyang is a symbol of the prosperity of Buddhism in the Northern Wei Dynasty.It is said that there were more than a thousand Buddhist monasteries in Luoyang at that time, which were called Jialan (Sangharama, Jia read like eggplant), and Yongning Temple was undoubtedly one of the most spectacular temples.Its golden plate is so dazzling that even Bodhidharma, the first ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism, had to bow his hands and fold his hands together for several days when he saw it.

The Buddha's Birthday on the eighth day of April is even more grand than ever.The flags and flags are like a forest, the treasure cover is like a cloud, the cigarette smoke is like a mist, the golden flowers are scattered in the sun, and the sound of Buddhist music and chanting resounds through the sky.Luoyang is simply the capital of the Buddhist kingdom. In fact, a few years after Emperor Taiwu exterminated Buddhism, the Yungang Grottoes in the western suburbs of the capital, Pingcheng, were excavated.Since then, it took more than 100 years to dig out more than 100,000 Buddha statues, the largest of which is as high as seven feet.After the capital was moved to Luoyang, the Longmen Grottoes were excavated in the south of the city, and the project lasted for 400 years.Coupled with the Dunhuang Grottoes dug in the former Qin Dynasty, etc., the kind face and eyes of the Buddha can be said to be everywhere.

Thousands of caves in the Northern Dynasties are comparable to 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties. However, Buddhism received the highest courtesy and respect only eighty-one years after Emperor Taiwu exterminated Buddhism.In this year (AD 527), an emperor of the Southern Dynasty came to a temple in Jiankang. Such as Theodosius kneeling in plain clothes in the church (please refer to the ninth volume of the History of China, "The Two Hans and Two Romes").It's just that the Roman emperor wanted to repent, and the Chinese emperor wanted to sacrifice his life. To sacrifice one's body means to give up one's mortal body to worship the Buddha.

It was Emperor Wu of Liang who voluntarily sacrificed himself, and the place was Tongtai Temple. Its former site is now the Jiming Temple built in the Ming Dynasty.Emperor Liang Wu sacrificed his life four times, of course, each time he was redeemed by the officials, and the ransom was 100 million.That is to say, Emperor Wu of Liang sacrificed his life in Tongtai Temple four times and raised 400 million national donations for the temple. This is really the biggest sponsor of Buddhism. Emperor Liang Wu was so proud that he even called himself the "Emperor Bodhisattva".However, Bodhidharma sneered, thinking that he had no merit (please refer to the fourteenth volume of this history of China).In fact, he didn't have any—the money for meritorious deeds was not his personal income, every penny was paid for by the people.

What's more, Emperor Liang Wu's fanatical support of Buddhism has seriously affected the country's finances and people's livelihood.You should know that according to the policy at that time, the land of the temple was free of money, and monks and nuns were not taxed.As a result, as one official put it, half of the household registration in the world has been lost.And if things go on like this, it is bound to build temples everywhere, every family will shave their hair, and there will not be an inch of land or a person belonging to the country. Of course, Emperor Wu of Liang understood this. His solution was to abolish the Theravada Buddhism's regulations on meat eating, strictly prohibit alcohol and meat, and take the lead in vegetarianism.It's a pity that this kind of fake compassion can't solve the problem, not to mention that Emperor Wu of Liang's vegetarian dishes were not cheap.

In fact, Buddhism has been destroyed many times, including the destruction of Taoism at the same time as Buddhism. One of the reasons is also here.Yes, no regime would be willing to turn its labor force and combat power into monks who are useless in the eyes of the ruler. Controlling the scale of religion is something that rulers have to consider. In addition to economic reasons, there are also political reasons.In fact, if religion intervenes too deeply in politics, rulers have to take precautions and fear.On this issue, they are only concerned about Confucianism.Because according to the teachings of Confucianism, a filial son is a filial son at home, and a loyal minister when he goes out. Who doesn't like such a person? It's a pity that Confucianism is not a religion, and it is only suitable for governing the world, not for troubled times.In troubled times, there is no order, no authority, no hope, and only God is reliable.Yes, the rulers want to use the power of ghosts and gods, the rebels want to fake supernatural powers, and the grassroots look forward to the savior, so Buddhism and Taoism flourish. All that remains is choice. Selection can also be based on various criteria, including the ruler's personal likes and dislikes, but in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were also ethnic issues.Shi Hu said that the Buddha is the God of Rong and should be enshrined.In this way, it is only natural that the north emphasizes Buddha and the south emphasizes Tao. However, the strange thing is that Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty was a Hu, but he exterminated Buddha; Emperor Liang Wu of the Southern Dynasty was a Han, but he admired Buddha.Isn't this upside down?Why did Taiwu and Liangwu make such a choice?What is the mystery behind the inversion? Perhaps, the answer lies at the moment when the Northern and Southern Dynasties ended.

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Notes: Volume 124, and please refer to "History of Chinese Buddhism" edited by Ren Jiyu and "Encyclopedia of China Religious Volume".