Chapter 50 The splendid Hongqiao

"The mountains and rivers are different, the wind and the moon are in the same sky, send all the Buddhas to form a relationship together" are the four sentences embroidered on the cassock of the thousand rides given to Chinese monks by the Japanese Nagaya prince one thousand and hundreds of years ago.One thousand and two hundred years ago, the monk Jianzhen regarded Japan as a "country of destiny", and "spared his life", crossed the sea six times, and finally arrived in Japan with blindness in both eyes, completed his victory, and became a The Chinese who have been deeply loved and respected by the Japanese people for thousands of years.

Monk Jianzhen, like Master Xuanzang, is a master who "introduces clouds of kindness to the west and rains Dharma to the east".Among the "dharma rain" poured by him and his Chinese and Japanese disciples, there are not only Buddhism and law, but also literature, art, medicine, architecture, sculpture, etc. of the Tang Dynasty in China. The spread of these Chinese cultures has made The people of China and Japan have a common cultural language and a basis for mutual understanding and mutual learning. This is what the people of our two countries who are engaged in cultural exchanges and people-to-people friendship are deeply grateful for!

The delegation of Chinese writers visiting Japan came to Toshodaiji Temple in Nara on the afternoon of April 12th.This is the place I visited seventeen years ago.Walking into this simple and solemn great building, our hearts can't help but become solemn.We first went to the Jintang in front, where many Japanese believers were burning incense and worshiping.After seeing the scripture hall again, the host who showed us around specially opened the door and let us enter the Buddhist hall where the statue of Monk Jianzhen was enshrined. , but on the walls around his seat, the mountains and rivers of Yangzhou will be painted, so that the monk Jianzhen who is far away from his hometown can always listen to the sea waves and the wind of his hometown with a smile and closed eyes.

Finally, we came to the bone tower of Monk Jianzhen, saluted and presented a bouquet of snow-white flowers.Seventeen years ago, I plucked a red leaf from the tree next to the Bone Tower and put it in a small diary. Of course, I can’t find this red leaf now——At noon on April 13, we From Nara to Tokushima, in the waiting room of Osaka Airport, Elder Morimoto Takashita, who was wearing a yellow cassock, walked in and interrogated us. It turned out that he was escorting the image of Monk Jianzhen. For those going to Shanghai, we warmly wish each other "safe voyage".When we had a discussion with writers in Tokushima that night and watched the local Awa Odori dance, I thought: At this time, monk Jianzhen has already set foot on the land he left 1,200 years ago!

Today, with the advancement of science, people who are engaged in Sino-Japanese friendship only need a few hundred minutes to fly over Yingying Yishui, while our founder, Monk Jianzhen, spent twelve years and experienced thousands of disasters in the middle Hundred difficulties.How should we inspire and motivate ourselves with his shocking enthusiasm, perseverance and loyal image? We just returned from Nara, Japan, the second hometown of Monk Jianzhen.Japanese friends sincerely said to us: I hope that Monk Jianzhen will return to Nara, Japan as soon as possible after meeting his fellow countrymen in his hometown and the old capital of China.He is the most brilliant Hongqiao across the land of China and Japan. In today's cultural exchanges, the people of China and Japan, who are "exotic mountains and rivers, wind and moon in the same sky", cannot do without his "inspiration". .April 29, 1980