Chapter 30 Caoxi Holy Water Nan Hua Buddha Tea

Driving forty miles from Shaoguan in northern Guangdong, the winding roads turned around and Caoxi was in sight.Although the frost has passed and the order is in the third autumn, Lingnan is still green and green, with gurgling springs.After passing through a forested foothill, Nanhua Temple, which has "the first Zen forest in south of the Five Ridges", is already in front of you. Nanhua Temple was originally named Baolin Temple. It was built in the Southern Dynasty when Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty. Later, the sixth patriarch Huineng opened a temple here to teach the Dharma for more than 40 years. The first treasure temple, the only way of Zen Buddhism, has always been known as the "ancestral court".Since the Tang Dynasty, although it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, the real body of the Sixth Patriarch and a number of important Buddhist cultural relics are still preserved in the temple. I am particularly fascinated by the more than 300 woodcarved statues of Arhats in the Northern Song Dynasty.Apart from the story of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng’s opening of the Nanhua Temple to discuss the Dharma and the founding of the Southern School of Zen, I don’t know much about Nanhua Temple. In the mid-1950s, the Great Monk Xuyun was lecturing scriptures and discussing the Dharma in Beijing, silently praying for peace.This great monk Xuyun is a legendary figure. Since he became a monk at Yongquan Temple in Gushan, Fuzhou in the early years of Guangxu, he has visited all the ancient Buddhist temples in China and visited the four major Buddhist Buddhist mountains.When the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, Xu Yun fled west to Chang'an with Cixi and Guangxu, and then went to Southeast Asia and other places.When he presided over Nanhua Temple in the 1930s and 1940s, he had close contacts with the top figures of the Nationalist Government and the Kuomintang. After liberation, he served as the honorary president of the Chinese Buddhist Association. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Master Xuyun is a political monk.However, his asceticism and Zen skills are also valued by others, and he is an eminent monk of modern Zen.As for Master Xuyun's age, it has always been a mystery. When I saw him when I was young, it is said that he was over 110 years old. If we calculate this way, when Master Xuyun passed away in 1959, he should be nearly 120 years old. .

I have been fascinated by Nanhua Temple for a long time. From the sixth patriarch Huineng to Master Xuyun, from the real body of the sixth patriarch to cassocks in the Tang Dynasty, woodcarvings in the Northern Song Dynasty, imperial edicts in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Beiye Jing, they are all full of mystery to me. . In the late autumn of 1991, I went from Guangzhou to Shaoguan.Finally got his wish. Nanhua Temple is really spectacular. Entering the mountain gate and crossing the garden flat, there is a thousand-year-old giant camphor tree. The Tianwang Hall and the Daxiong Hall are magnificent.At that time, the abbot of Nanhua Temple had just passed away, and it was Master Zhike Chuanzheng who presided over the affairs of the temple.This Master Chuanzheng is less than fifty years old, and he is very capable. He is also a well-known religious figure and social activist in Shaoguan and even Guangdong.He first accompanied me on a general tour of the main halls, and then came to the abbot's living room for a rest.During the break, Master Chuanzheng talked about the religious, historical and cultural connotations of the Sixth Patriarch's "Tanjing" from the history of Nanhua Temple. He also asked me about my views on Zen.I am not a Buddhist, and I also spoke bluntly about the view of "Buddha is in oneself", but Master Chuanzheng appreciated my view very much.I also told him that in the 1950s, when I was young, I saw Master Xuyun. Master Chuanzheng was even more surprised, so I called the monk on duty in the Hall of the Sixth Patriarch and told him to open the door of the hall and personally accompany me to the Sixth Patriarch Hall. Ancestral Hall.

The real body of the Sixth Patriarch is in the hall. The seated statue is less than one meter high, painted with reddish-brown lacquer on the outside, the legs and feet are coiled in the cassock, and the hands are folded in front of the abdomen.This seated statue is much smaller than I originally imagined, but its vivid expression and extraordinary temperament are unimaginable.Master Chuanzheng told me about the preservation process and the catastrophe. It seems that there is no doubt that it will be molded with a mummified body.It has been more than 1,270 years since the real body of the Sixth Patriarch was sculpted in the second year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty. It has survived both natural erosion and man-made destruction, and it can be said to be preserved to this day. It can be said to be a miracle.Standing in front of the real body and looking at it for a long time, it is not so much the shock of the refraction of the Buddha's light, but it is more based on the dignified sense of history.Then Master Zheng ordered the monks to open the upper door of the Sixth Patriarch's Hall and accompany me up the escalator.

The upper floor of the Hall of the Sixth Patriarch is where the precious cultural relics in the temple are stored. There are the cassocks of the Thousand Buddhas of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial edict of Wu Zetian (suspected to be a copy of the Ming Dynasty), the imperial edict of the Pasba script of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Beiye Jing in blood. showy.The head of the cultural relics section of the Municipal Cultural Bureau who accompanied me from Shaoguan said that he had been in charge of cultural relics for many years, and this was the first time he had seen these precious cultural relics.Judging from the situation upstairs, it seems that the management is neglected, the dust is very thick, and there is also a sense of insecurity.There are quite a few plaques piled up on the ground, including those of Jiang Zhongzheng, Li Jishen, and Li Gengen. They may all be old things from when Xuyun presided over the temple affairs.

There are still more than 300 woodcarved Arhats in the Northern Song Dynasty, which are very precious. The statues are extremely vivid and vivid, and the carvings are refined, with high artistic value, which is amazing. Coming down from the hall of the Sixth Patriarch, Master Chuanzheng asked the comrades from the Shaoguan Cultural Bureau to accompany me to go back to the abbot’s living room to rest, and then gave some instructions to the monks in the living room, and then accompanied me to visit Zhuoxi Spring and Lingzhao behind the temple alone tower.Along the way, we monks and laymen talked about the "persistence" and "equanimity" of Zen, as well as the understanding of "enlightenment".

After returning to the abbot’s living room and just sitting down, three or four monks came in one after another, and placed four or five fruit dishes on the table, including several kinds of dried tofu and Chaozhou candied fruit, and served a covered bowl of tea cup. Open the lid of the bowl, the fragrance is refreshing, and the tea in the bowl is dark red.Taste it lightly, it has a sweet taste.Master Chuanzheng said that this is the famous Nanhua Buddhist tea, which was hand-planted by the Sixth Patriarch and continuously cultivated by the eminent monks of the past dynasties. Although the leaf stalks are thick, they are produced in the temple and never outside.Taste it again, it has a slight taste of licorice, and the teeth and cheeks have a sweet feeling.After drinking one cup, refill the water, the color remains the same, and the sweet taste remains unchanged, and the same is true for the third cup.While drinking tea, they talked about Master Xuyun's age. According to Master Zhengzheng, the date of Elder Xuyun's birth cannot be tested, and the legend is not credible.He should have been in his nineties when he passed away.When he was ordained at Yongquan Temple in Gushan, Fuzhou in the ninth year of Guangxu, he was less than twenty years old.During the tea break, I finally solved my confusion for many years.

It was getting late, and it was said that Master Zheng wanted to stay in the Vegetarian Restaurant. According to my wish, I would like to stay, but the Cultural Affairs Bureau had already arranged activities for the evening, and the next morning I had to pay my respects to the tomb of Tang Qujiang Zhang Jiuling, so I had to leave.In order to thank Master Chuanzheng for his hospitality and respect for Nanhua Temple, I offered incense offerings. Master Chuanzheng also presented Nanhua Buddhist tea as a gift, and told me that the Buddhist tea I drink here is brewed with water from Caoxi River. Both of them come from Buddhist holy places, so they can complement each other, and the tea brewed in other places may taste slightly different.Sure enough, after returning to Beijing, brew it with boiling water. Although the sweet taste is still there, the special fragrance is hard to find.

When we entered the temple in the afternoon, the mountain gate and the second gate of the temple were closed. We parked the car outside the mountain gate and entered through the side gate.When saying goodbye to Master Chuanzheng, he ordered the monk to open the second gate and the mountain gate with the "Baolin Daochang" in the cave, and sent me straight out of the mountain gate from the middle road. Opening the Zen Gate of Zhusi", explained it, and then said goodbye again. After boarding the car and turning around the foot of the mountain, the ancient Nanhua Temple has disappeared into the night.