Chapter 12 The eleventh round of a hundred years of war, the rise and fall of the past is the past

The iron hooves of the Xixia cavalry ravaged Shazhou, killed Cao Xianshun, the Jiedu envoy of Hexi, and wiped out the Han forces who had occupied this land for a long time, thus controlling the entire territory of Hexi.In addition to the five states of Xia, Yin, Sui, You, and Jing that existed before, this time it has annexed the states of Ling, Gan, Liang, Su, Gua, and Sha. Xixia has now become a veritable big country.The Muslims in Khotan in the west stopped moving eastward, which is also a lucky reason for Xixia's victory in this battle.Muslims have never entered the border of Shazhou.

After Li Yuanhao captured Shazhou, he immediately divided his troops into left and right armies, and set up twelve supervisory divisions, each responsible for strengthening the defense of various places.Yuan Hao officially named the country Daxia, established Xingqing as the capital of the country, proclaimed himself emperor, and changed the year to the first year of Baoyuan (that is, 1038).Yuan Hao sent an envoy to send a letter to the Song Dynasty, claiming that if he did not agree, he would sever diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty.In the following year, the Song court cut off Yuan Hao's surname-given official rank, issued an imperial edict to reward Yuan Hao's head, and appointed Xia Song and Fan Yong as Xixia governors.Not long after Yuan Hao established his country, he invaded the border gates of the Song Dynasty on a large scale starting from Bao'an County. The attack was very fierce, and he invaded the Guanzhong area again and again.

The ministers of the DPRK and China have different opinions on the countermeasures against Xixia, and the personnel are at odds, so they have been replaced repeatedly.Xia Song and Fan Yong were later replaced by Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, and then by Chen Zhizhong, Wang Yan and Long Ji.Even so, it still failed to stop Yuan Hao's offensive.In the second year of Kangding (1041), Yuan Hao invaded on a large scale and reached Weichuan.The Xixia cavalry galloped across Shaanxi and Weibei. The Song army east of Jing and Fen could only retreat and defend themselves, and did not dare to go out of the city to fight.

Xixia gathered a large number of troops in Ganzhou and Guazhou, and set up a supervisory department.There is no opponent in the west of the Hexi Corridor, so Xixia can throw all its troops into the war with the Song Dynasty. At this time, it has adopted extremely strict ruling methods against other ethnic groups living in Xixia, especially the Han people. Just like treating a prisoner.The Han people in Shazhou were forced to wear Tubo clothes when they were ruled by Tubo, and now they are forced to wear Xixia clothes, and they have to bow their knees when walking outside. Jiedu made the whereabouts of all members of the Cao family unknown.All he knew was that Cao Xianshun had died in battle, and the others seemed to have disappeared from this land without a word from them.

Some people say that some members of the Cao family fled to Gaochang or Khotan, but this is not accurate.Merchants from Gaochang and Khotan still came to Hexi to do business, but we couldn't hear any news from them. In the fourth year after the fall of Shazhou, people in the streets and alleys talked a lot, saying that Xianshun's brother-in-law was caught and beheaded, and they didn't know whether it was true or not.In any case, there is finally some news about the Cao family. Under the rule of the Xixia people, the Thousand Buddha Caves were abandoned for a long time.Although Yuan Hao himself believed in Buddhism, and there were many Buddhist believers among Xixia people, the war with the Song Dynasty continued for many years, so he had no time to take care of Buddhist affairs.

When it was rumored among the people that Xianshun's brother-in-law was arrested and beheaded, one day, a caravan with more than one hundred camels arrived at the Thousand Buddha Cave under the slope of Mingsha Mountain without knowing where.As soon as the caravan arrived, more than a dozen tents were set up.On the top of the largest tent is a flag with the logo of General Mouse.When it was almost dusk, a strong wind blew up in the desert, and the flag fluttered in the wind.At night it began to rain again, and soon became a torrential downpour. In the middle of the night, the caravan braved the downpour, packed up their tents, and walked towards the cliff at the foot of Mingsha Mountain where countless grottoes had been dug.Men and camels were drenched from the rain.

Under the captain's order, the group stopped on a flat ground next to the Sanjie Temple. After placing the camels, the camel drivers continued to move forward.At this time, there was thunder in the sky in the heavy rain, and for a while, lightning illuminated the caves of all sizes on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain, and bursts of blue light were emitted from the entrance of the cave.Rainwater flows down the cliffs, and the Buddha statues in the relatively shallow caves come alive under the light of lightning, as if they are about to come out.The team of hunchbacks walked to the north of the Thousand Buddha Caves. Under the huge hill, people seemed as small as ants.

When there was lightning again, these thirty or forty people were lining up and climbing up the hillside in front of a three-story cave. After a while, when the third lightning struck, they had already reached the entrance of the lowest cave in the three-story grotto.Some of them had spades in their hands, some had hammers in their hands, and some carried logs. "start!" An order was issued in the darkness, but at this moment, an earth-shattering thunderbolt sounded in the sky, and the electric light pierced the surrounding darkness.Several people were so frightened that they quickly fell to their knees, while others scattered in panic.There was only one person with his hands in the sky, his body turned around, and he fell in front of the cave entrance.After a while, it was all swallowed up by darkness again.

The heavy rain on Mingsha Mountain lasted all night and didn't stop until dawn.Several hunchbacks were killed by thunder in front of the grotto, and the person closest to the grotto entrance wore different clothes from others.Maybe he was a captain, but it was impossible to tell from his charred body.A month later, I learned from a surviving camel driver that he claimed to be a descendant of the Yuchi Dynasty. In the first month of the third year of Qingli (that is, 1043), Xixia and Song finally reached a temporary peace agreement.At this time, Shazhou had been occupied by Xixia for six years.Song and Xixia have been at war for many years, each lost troops and generals, the treasury was empty, and all businesses withered, so they had to stop their troops to make peace.This peace talks also went through many twists and turns.Yuan Hao asked to keep the king title, but Song refused to agree.The Song Dynasty asked Yuan Hao to be a minister, and to treat the envoys of the Song Dynasty with the etiquette of the Khitan Kingdom, so that the Song Dynasty could give 100,000 pieces of silk and 30,000 catties of tea every year.After many negotiations, Yuan Hao finally expressed his willingness to surrender to the Song Dynasty on the condition that the amount of Sui Ci be doubled.After all, Yuan Hao is a person who does not seek fame, but seeks practical benefits.

In any case, now that a peace has been reached, the two sides will temporarily withdraw their troops for a truce.Once the war was stopped and peace was restored, Yuan Hao remembered his unfinished long-cherished wish of promoting the ancestors and revitalizing Buddhism.He ordered the protection of Buddhist temples and monks, searched for all kinds of classics from temples all over the country, and collected them in Xingqing collection.There are more than a dozen camels in the Shazhou area every day, walking eastward with scriptures.In the summer of the year when the peace agreement was reached, the Sanjie Temple was revived again, and many monks lived in it.The restoration project of the Thousand Buddha Caves has also started.

Among the monks living in the Three Realms Temple are Han Chinese and Xixia people.Five years later, in the autumn, the restoration project of the Thousand Buddha Caves was completed, a Daxiong Hall was built in the largest cave of the Thousand Buddha Caves, and a grand consecration ceremony for the Buddha's golden body was held.At this grand ceremony, hundreds of monks and nuns from the Seventeen Temples in Shazhou gathered together, as well as common people who came from all over Hexi to witness this unprecedented event. Infinite merit. For this consecration ceremony, an official named Fan was sent from Xingqing. He saw that several Buddhist caves in the north had not been repaired, so he ordered the relevant local personnel to complete the matter. Work will start immediately.At this time, a monk came from Shazhou City. He submitted a document and applied for him to complete the repair of one of the Buddhist caves.His application was finally approved, and he was entrusted with the repair work of a Buddhist cave. The documents of the Sanjie Temple recorded the monk's Dharma name, the name of the cave he built, and the original purpose of his petition.At the beginning, when Xixia invaded Shazhou, he and two other monks hid in this grotto for a while. Later, those two monks were shot by arrows and died unfortunately, but he has lived to this day, so he wants to use this method to commemorate the early years of sharing joys and sorrows. friend. In the eighth year of Song Qingli (that is, 1048), Yuan Hao was hated by the prince for seizing the concubine, and was stabbed to death by the prince at the age of forty-five.This year was the twelfth year after he conquered Hexi, and it was the sixth year after he made peace with Song.Yuan Hao has been king in the country until his death. The relationship between Xixia and Song broke down again.Twenty years after Yuan Hao's death, the Song Dynasty entered the era of Shenzong.After Renzong and Yingzong, the young and energetic Shenzong determined to regain the lost land occupied by Xixia when he came to the throne. The dream of peace that lasted for nearly thirty years in Hexi finally woke up and entered the era of war again.At this time, a businessman came from Khotan to Shazhou. He claimed to have brought donated items to the Sanjie Temple under the entrustment of the old royal family in Khotan.These items are Khotan jade and woven cotton, which are quite valuable.King Li Shengtian of Khotan once built a Buddhist cave in the Thousand Buddha Cave, but it was said that it had been abandoned for many years, so they wanted to entrust the temple to repair it. At the same time, there was another envoy in the Three Realms Temple who was also entrusted with something different from that of the Khotan royal family.It was a small package. When I opened it, I realized it was a book and a letter.The letter reads: "...by fate, I got a copy of the family tree of Cao's family from Shazhou Jiedu envoy because of someone's entrustment. As soon as I have it in the future, I hope that the people who come after me will donate this family tree to the temple and pray for the Cao family. Ming Fu. The Cao family has been an official for generations in Hexi, and considering the taboo of the authorities, it is inconvenient to publicize this matter, but it is enough to sacrifice in the Buddhist cave opened by Li Shengtian. Li Shengtian's daughter is the daughter-in-law of the Cao family, so it can be regarded as some family affection..." The things said in the letter were written in Chinese, Xixia and Zuoshu's Uighur script, with strong pen force and neat handwriting.Judging from the fact that this letter was written in three languages, it is certain that it did not happen after Xixia occupied Shazhou. The writer of the letter considered that this letter would be understandable no matter who it falls into in the future.His inscription at the end of the letter is "Zhao Xingde, Juren of Tanzhou Prefecture, Great Song Dynasty". According to the request of the old royal family in Khotan, Sanjie Temple repaired the Buddhist cave excavated by Li Shengtian as soon as possible, and set up an altar in the cave according to the request of another client. .As Zhao Xingde instructed in his letter, the temple did not dare to openly set up an altar to worship the Cao family.Therefore, except for the resident monks of the Sanjie Temple, no one knows that the family tree of the Cao family is enshrined on the altar, and no one knows who is praying. The family tree of the Cao family has recorded the names of the eight suzerains of the Cao family since the first ancestor Cao Yijin. The following are Yuande, Yuanshen, Yuanzhong, Yanjing, Yanlu, Zongshou and Xianshun, and they are recorded in detail. Birthday horoscope and life performance.Cao Xianshun, the last suzerain, died in battle in order to resist the invasion of Xixia. His death date is December 13th, the second year of Jingyou.Different from other suzerains, Yanshun’s younger brother Yanhui’s life is also recorded at the end of the scroll, “Before he was alive, he believed in Buddhism. When Xixia invaded, he was ashamed to escape, so he stayed alone in the city and burned himself to death in the fire... Abbot The interior is transformed into ten directions, and it looks like three realms in one cave. The eaves are flying with five flowers, and the moving houses are facing the wind..." The following paragraph reads like a sacrificial offering.His death date was also December 13th in the second year of Jingyou, which was the same as his brother. Cao's family tree was enshrined in the cave for only one day, and was transferred to the Buddhist scripture pavilion in the temple the next day, never to see the light of day again. Time flies, times change, and the long river of history has passed for hundreds of years. Shazhou has changed its name several times in this long historical change.In the Song Dynasty, it was occupied by Xixia and lost the name of the state; then, it was called Shazhou again in the Yuan Dynasty; it was called Shazhouwei in the Ming Dynasty; it was changed to Dunhuang County during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.The so-called "Dunhuang" means great prosperity.In the Han Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, this place was once a place where the culture of the Western Regions was introduced to the East. After Qianlong, with the recovery of the place name Dunhuang, Mingsha Mountain Thousand Buddha Caves was also renamed Dunhuang Grottoes.But the Dunhuang Grottoes did not flourish because of a new name.Although some people in the vicinity of Dunhuang County knew about these grottoes, a little further away, no one knew about them at all.In this way, these grotto groups have been obliterated in the desert in the long river of history. At the beginning of this century, a poor Taoist priest named Wang Yuanlu came to Mingsha Mountain and found a group of grottoes buried in the dust, so he cleaned up a grotto and lived in it.More than 850 years have passed since Xixia invaded this place.Daoist Wang was hunched over, lacking any charm, and with a face full of bad luck, he looked like he was very poor.One day, when he was cleaning the floating dust in a grotto, he accidentally found a place on the north wall of the cave that was more prominent than its surroundings.He used a wooden stick to smash down the soil at the protrusion, but found that this wall made a strange sound.Taoist Wang found another thicker wooden stick, and hit that place vigorously.After two or three knocks, the wall was broken, and it turned out to be a cave.He glanced inside. It was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.But he found that the soil fell into it, so he knew that the hole was empty. Taoist Wang brought another shovel, and after a long time, he finally dug up all the soil at the entrance of the cave, but he still couldn't see what was inside the cave.He returned to his cave, brought another candle, and looked into the cave by the light of the candle. He finally discovered the secret of the cave, which was full of various scriptures. Taoist Wang hurriedly reported the matter to the Dunhuang County Government, but after waiting for many days, there was still no reply.Daoist Wang had no choice but to go to the county government to inquire again, but Dunhuang County just asked him to keep it safe. Taoist Wang saw tourists visiting the Thousand-Buddha Cave, so he led these tourists to the cave he discovered, showed them a large number of scriptures in the cave, and then boasted to them that he discovered this scripture cave. In this process, in exchange for a little charity, there is no need to worry about food and clothing. In March 1907, the British explorer Stein came to Dunhuang.He visited the Thousand Buddha Caves and came to the cave of Taoist Wang.Stein took out the scriptures in the cave one by one.Taoist Wang was very surprised to see that the Englishman dared to enter a cave that he had never set foot in. Stein was careful about these scriptures, opened them one by one, and studied them carefully.He took out nearly one-third of the scriptures in the cave, so it took a lot of time.The British discussed with Taoist Wang, and he was willing to give him a large sum of money in exchange for these scriptures.Only then did Taoist Wang realize that the scriptures he had found were ancient books, and he was overwhelmed with emotion that these books could be exchanged for so much money. The British wanted to exchange all the scriptures, but Taoist Wang was worried that the government would pursue them in the future, so he insisted on refusing to agree.In the end, the British only bought 6,000 scrolls, but after packing them into boxes, they hired 40 camels to transport these scrolls away from the Thousand Buddha Caves. In March 1908, another foreigner came to the grotto, this time it was the Frenchman Belio.He wanted to get the scriptures left in Wang Daoshi's cave.Daoist Wang saw that there was no response from the county government. He thought about it and didn't know how to deal with it.In the end, out of his responsibility to the local government, he was still unwilling to sell all the land. Bellio bought half of the remaining scriptures, about 5,000 volumes, and hired ten vehicles to transport them away in May of that year. After Belio left, Taoist Wang also temporarily left the scripture cave.Due to the decrease in the number of Tibetan scriptures, tourists have no intention of viewing them, and some people even blame the matter. In the following years, Japanese and Russian explorers came to find Taoist Wang again.Daoist Wang regretted that there were fewer and fewer treasures left in his hands. At the same time, he was forced to exchange them for money to survive due to poverty.He kept thinking in his heart, why do all these foreigners come here to buy these old books? After the Russians left, another year passed, and some soldiers came from Beijing.They carried away all the scriptures left in the cave on horses.Taoist Wang hid when these soldiers came.When he found out that these soldiers had left, he went to the scripture cave again, but there was not even a single piece of paper left in the cave, and it was completely empty.Daoist Wang lit a lamp and walked into the cave.There are only murals painted on the north side of the surrounding cave walls, and they can all be seen at this time.The monks in the painting are wearing vermilion clothes, and the skirts of the women standing opposite them are blue. Daoist Wang was stunned to see these exquisite murals. Taoist Wang came out of the cave and sat on a stone in front of the entrance of the grotto.The lush trees in front of the Thousand Buddha Caves swayed gently in the breeze.Under the soft sunlight, the surroundings are quiet.Daoist Wang lazily looked at the scenery, thinking in his heart, how precious are the ancient books hidden in this cave?If this is not the case, then why do those old men come here to buy one after another?I'm blind and can't see the value in it.Reported to the county government, they also do not know.After seeing so much taken away by foreigners, even the military masters in Beijing couldn't sit still.I must have done something stupid and made the most uneconomical deal with others.Taoist Wang thought that he had let a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a fortune slip by under his nose, and was so depressed that he sat there blankly, unwilling to get up. In fact, the treasures in the scripture cave are of greater value than Taoist Wang imagined.Even Stein and Bellio, who introduced the scroll to the academic world after transporting the scroll, did not understand this huge value at the time. There are various types of these scriptures, with a total of 40,000 volumes, including the Bayeux Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures in the third and fourth centuries A.D., Buddhist scriptures written in ancient Turkic, Turkic, Tibetan, Xixia and other languages. It is the oldest manuscript in the world. Copied scriptures, and even Buddhist scriptures that have not been collected in the Tripitaka.Among the unearthed Buddhist scriptures are precious materials on the history of the transmission of lamps in meditation, various valuable local chronicles, and historical books on the teachings and history of Manichaeism and Nestorianism.In particular, a large number of Sanskrit and Tibetan classics have played an important role in opening up a new era for the study of today's ancient languages.In addition, the various historical materials contained in it have also greatly changed the research of Oriental historiography and Chinese historiography in the past. It is no exaggeration to say that the scriptures unearthed from the Dunhuang Grottoes are brilliant treasures not only for Oriental historiography, but also for all fields of world cultural history.It will take more time for future generations to ascertain the significant role they will play in the changes in these fields.