Chapter 2 Chapter Two Gilded Green Tara Statue

In the evening, in the inner hall, Di Renjie and the guests sat down as the guest of honor, with Li Yuanfang accompanying him.The visitor was Yang Ju, General of Zuowei. General Yang took off his saber and put it on the coffee table. He took a sip of tea. The bundle in his hand seemed to be a wooden box, and he did not know what it contained.There is a bit of travel and dust on the face, but under a pair of silkworm eyebrows, the eyes are like stars, showing a heroic spirit.Di Renjie nodded secretly. "General Yang escorted the princess to Tupan on this trip, from Chang'an via Longnan, Xining, across the Riyue Mountain to Baihai, and traveled thousands of miles. Princess Anran escorted her to Luoxie City. It was a hard journey."

"To be honest, my lord, after sending the princess to Tubo this time, I was supposed to return to Beijing immediately to return to her command, but something happened on the way, and a lot of incidents happened. It seems that there are many strange things, but Yang is a rough man from the army. People, but they are not good at deliberation and analysis. I have heard that Master Di is famous for a long time, so I detoured to ask him for advice." Yang Ju clasped his fists in a salute, and then spoke bluntly. "Oh?" Di Renjie said: "The general is overrated, what is it?"

Yang Ju opened the bundle at hand, took out a mahogany box and handed it to Di Chun, saying, "Look at it, sir, can you recognize this thing?" Di Chun put the wooden box on the table, and when he opened it, he saw a small golden Buddha statue, about one foot high, but the face and clothing of the Buddha statue did not look like those in the Central Plains.Di Renjie took out the Buddha statue carefully with both hands. When he looked closely, he saw that the statue was wearing a multi-petal corolla on its head and a high bun with beads on top; its face was square and round, with a high nose and thin lips, slender eyebrows and fine eyes; Hanging bells, hanging down to the shoulders; short neck and wide shoulders, enlarged breasts and narrow waist, long arms and beautiful hands, both rigid and soft; the upper body is covered with silk, and the lower body is soft and long skirt; arm bracelets, anklets, wreaths, corollas, and ears Each bell is decorated with treasures such as coral, turquoise, agate, etc.;Sitting half-legged on the lotus pedestal, with one hand on the knee and the other on the chest, both hands spread the upper edge of the lotus to the shoulders; the left leg sits cross-legged, and the right foot droops and steps on the lotus.

"This statue has a dignified expression and a beautiful image. The overall image is very exquisite. From the texture point of view, it should be made of gilt copper. Such an exquisite object may not be owned by ordinary people." Di Renjie gently stroked his beard and looked at Yang Ju , then turned to Li Yuanfang and said, "Yuanfang, have you ever seen such a Buddha statue?" "The general has never seen a Buddha statue like this before, but just now General Yang said that it was related to his trip to Tubo, and he heard that Buddhism is popular in Tubo, so he probably came from the Western Regions?"

"You are right. This is the Green Tara Buddha statue, which is widely circulated in Tubo, Nepal and other places. According to legend, Guanyin Bodhisattva has saved countless sentient beings before countless kalpas, but one day, the Bodhisattva used her wisdom eyes to observe the six realms. When he found that the number of suffering beings had not decreased, he was suddenly sad, and tears flowed from his eyes. The tears turned into lotus flowers, which turned into green Tara, and then turned into twenty-one Tara. Twenty-one Tara There are six different body colors, namely white, red, blue, yellow, green, black and other six colors, which are the Buddha Mother embodied by the different careers of Green Tara, and Green Tara is all the merits of the twenty-one-degree mother. The total photo gathering." Di Renjie stood up and pointed to the Buddha statue: "Look, Green Tara is different from other Buddha mothers. Her left leg is single-legged, her right leg is stretched downward, and her footsteps are on a lotus flower, which means Rescue sentient beings at any time, put your right hand on your right knee, with your palm facing outwards, it is the seal of vows and holding a lotus, which is the wish to give the lotus to the world, so Green Tara is also the most compassionate and beautiful Bodhisattva in the secret vehicle .”

Yang Ju also nodded and said, "This Buddha statue is exactly what I got on the way back to Beijing from Tubo. The story must have started more than ten days ago." That day when I led the team back to Beijing and stayed overnight in Huangyuan County, a man asked to see him. He said that he was a follower of Princess Wencheng when he entered Tibet. His cheeks were flushed, and he looked like someone who had lived in the Tibetan Plateau for a long time.He claimed to be the son of the princess nurse, and wanted to present something to me secretly.At the moment, I moved away from the left and right, and he took out the green Tara statue, saying that this statue was originally one of the many Buddha statues built by Emperor Taizong and entered Tubo with the princess during the Zhenguan period. The statue of the mother is also to pray that the princess and relatives can bring auspiciousness and beauty to our dynasty and the people of Tubo.Therefore, for decades, the princess has worshiped the Buddha and prayed for blessings every day, and has always been close to her.Before the princess left, she called the nurse's son to her, and told him: "I have been away from Chang'an for more than 30 years since I married Tubo, and it is hopeless to return to the Central Plains in this life. , if you have the opportunity to see my envoy from the Celestial Dynasty in the future, please ask him to bring him back to Chang'an." Unfortunately, in the following years, the relationship between Tubo and Tang Dynasty, which the princess painstakingly maintained for many years, was no longer harmonious, and there were many wars and wars. See Datang sent envoys.During the period, the princess nurse repeatedly told her son that the Buddha statue was extremely important and was related to the national destiny of the Tang Dynasty, and that the matter of the Buddha statue must not be revealed to others, nor should it be shown in front of outsiders, and she asked her son to swear that no matter what hardships he had gone through, The princess' last wish must be fulfilled.At this time, I was ordered by the emperor to send Princess Xuancheng to marry, and the nurse's son finally had the opportunity to find all the way and hand over the Buddha statue to me.

Di Renjie sighed again and again, feeling that the princess missed his homeland, "It turns out that the Buddha statue has such a history." Yang Ju continued: "But what happened in the next few days was very strange, and it seemed to be related to this Buddha statue." After I accepted the Buddha statue, I made a solemn promise to the nurse's son that I would definitely bring the Tara statue back to Chang'an. He said that the princess's will had been fulfilled, so he left without mentioning it.Unexpectedly, that night, the posthouse was stolen. This trip brought back many gifts from the Tubo princes to our court, including gold, jade, jewelry, animal and sheep fur and other precious things. The room where the gifts were stolen was stolen. The scholar was killed, and the gifts were turned into a mess in the house by the thieves. What's frightening is that none of the other soldiers in the courtyard noticed it.I checked the account books the next day, and I was surprised and suspicious. The thieves seemed to pay no attention to the valuables in the house. After checking, there was not a single gift missing.Since the return journey, most of the roads have been in deserted places. If it is bandits and thieves, firstly they dare not steal court tributes, and secondly, they will definitely not choose to commit crimes in the county. Came here to steal gifts, do you have other plans?But yesterday failed to succeed, I am afraid it will come again.

Thinking of the Tara Buddha statue from the day before yesterday, I didn't put it together with many gifts, so I took another box so that there was no one else, and I chose a Jade Buddha in the box, put it away, and wrapped it up.Intentionally in front of all the soldiers, he ordered the box to be placed somewhere and strictly guarded so that there would be no mistakes.I personally kept the Tara Buddha statue by my side. After packing up, I ordered everyone to set off immediately and hurry back to Beijing. Speaking of this, Yang Ju couldn't help but smile wryly, "I'm ashamed to say, although I expected that the thief would come to steal again, and I was more careful along the way, but the wooden box was stolen in broad daylight, and this time no one was alarmed." , The wooden box seemed to disappear out of nowhere, the soldiers on duty had no casualties, but they didn’t even know when it was stolen, I reprimanded the guard soldiers, knowing that the thief’s ability was beyond comparison, so I had no choice but to give up.”

"Fortunately, the box that the thief stole was not the statue of Tara. I think it was temporarily deceived by the previous suspicious formation, but I think that when he first came to steal, he abandoned the house full of treasures. It must be because he knew roughly what he was going to steal. I'm afraid that I'll find out that I've been stealing the beam for a long time, and I don't know why the other party insists on getting the Tara Buddha statue, so I hurried all the way to Ningzhou, and I hope my lord will forgive me and help me." "In this way, the person who stole it seems to have come specifically for the Tara Buddha statue," Di Renjie said with his jaw lowered, and Li Yuanfang couldn't help but look at the gilded Buddha statue on the table. However, it is only a Buddha statue. Why did the thieves give up many treasures and take it alone?Di Renjie pondered for a while, and asked: "General Yang, when the son of the princess' nurse handed over the Buddha statue to you, did you mention anything special?"

"I didn't mention anything special that day, but in the past few days, I have been thinking about the reason. Today, my lord mentioned it, and I remembered something." "Oh?" "When the nurse's son presented the Tara Buddha statue, he seemed to have mentioned that the Buddha statue is related to our country's destiny. At that time, I just thought that the princess was thinking about the homeland of the Central Plains and praying for the prosperity of my dynasty and the well-being of all people. Is there something else hidden?" Yang Yang I recalled the scene of that day all over the moment, but there was nothing suspicious.

Di Renjie held the Buddha statue, frowned and looked at it carefully, but nothing unusual was found. "It's getting late today, why don't you leave this Buddha statue in your lord's mansion," while speaking, Yang Ju couldn't understand the matter of the Tara Buddha statue for a while, so he had to get up and leave, "Yang and his followers will go down to the posthouse in the city tonight. , I will come to your lord's mansion tomorrow to have a talk." Di Renjie hurriedly got up to see him off, originally wanted to ask him to bring the Buddha statue back, but then changed his mind, if he evaded it, it would show that he was unwilling to help, so he didn't mention this matter, he only said that he should visit the general at the post tomorrow.