Chapter 18 Chapter Sixteen

Sally was still fiddling with the gold grate, and when she heard Xie Huiren's words, she was so surprised that she dropped the gold grate on the coffee table. "Empress Dowager?" Her eyes were full of doubts, could this old man belong to the Japanese imperial family? Xie Huiren also stared blankly at the old man. At this time, the old man had sat down on the sofa again. He closed his eyes, as if he was recalling the distant past. After a while, he said slowly: "Hui Ren, from here Go out, walk 20 miles west, and you will be at Tofuji Temple." Xie Huiren thought of something and was startled, "You mean..."

"My family's former family temple." Xie Huiren guessed it, oh my god, he turned out to be a descendant of this prominent family! Sally was completely confused. She pulled Xie Huiren's clothes and asked him softly, "What empress dowager? What family temple?" It is obviously impolite to talk about his family's family history in front of the old man, so Xie Huiren could only briefly say to Sally: "This is one of the most famous families in Japan. In history, there have been dozens of queens in this family. There are quite a few who have been queens." Xie Huiren didn't mean to be perfunctory to Sally, he knew that this surname later branched out into many smaller surnames, and that ancient surname full of royal colors, every word is a sign of royal blood, However, he didn't know what the old man's last name was.Could it be that ancestral name?

"Hui Ren, go on." The old man still closed his eyes and said with a smile, "It seems that Miss Sally is a little interested in the history of my family." "But I..." Xie Huiren stammered, "I don't know much either." "Well, this period of history is too long. Even members of our family may not be able to explain it clearly. Let me tell you what you know. I would like to hear how much you know." Is this also an exam question?Xie Huiren thought to himself, how did the mystery of Buddhism turn to family history, and it was a family he didn't know very well.

"What I know is almost all related to Buddhism. This family believes in Buddhism very much. In fact, after Master Jianzhen went to the east, the Empress Dowager Guangming, the prince and almost all Japanese nobles asked Master Jianzhen to give him precepts." .” "Yes." The old man nodded, "Yes, my family believes in Buddhism, and the envoys sent to the Tang Dynasty several times were all from my family." "Send Tang envoys?" Xie Huiren remembered that Abe Zhongma and Li Bai had a very good relationship, and that was actually a deputy envoy. The old man smiled slightly, he knew that Xie Huiren was testing his surname, "Go on, I will tell you, but you should solve this mystery yourself."

Xie Huiren also laughed, and he continued, not only to introduce Sally, but also to confirm his thoughts step by step, "This family actually ruled Japan...well, about a thousand years?" The old man interjected, "Only intermittently." "Wait." Sally had doubts as soon as she heard it, "Isn't the emperor ruling?" "Oh, this is a long story. In fact, when this family was the most prominent, it was possible to abolish the emperor. In fact, they were in power. This family has produced so many empresses, in fact, it is politics through marriage. The method actually controls the government, and Japan’s emperor’s succession system is not like China’s father-son inheritance system. It can also be said that having the status of the royal family in Japan meets the conditions for being the emperor. Therefore, this family can marry their daughter to the prince, and then support their own The son-in-law became the emperor. After the emperor took power, they persuaded the emperor to abdicate and become a monk, and let the younger prince be the emperor. In this way, from generation to generation, they will always actually control the power. This is somewhat similar to the dictatorship of foreign relatives in our country. The empress dowager Guangming just mentioned , is the daughter of this family."

Xie Huiren was being polite when he said that. After all, in front of the descendants of the family, he still had a lot of things to say. Behind this dictatorship of foreign relatives, the bloody coup d'état and dirty transactions were indeed unsightly. Sally thought about it, and asked: "So, their family still has such a big influence now?" "The last one is the empress of Emperor Taisho. You may not know Emperor Taisho, but his son Hirohito, Emperor Showa, is that..." Xie Huiren couldn't continue. The old man interjected, "It doesn't matter, Huiren, I can just say that he is the idiot who launched the war of aggression against China."

"Uh, uh." Xie Huiren decided not to mention that name, "His mother belongs to this family." Sally asked in surprise, "Just now we were talking about the Tang Dynasty, why did we suddenly transition to modern times?" "Indeed, this family has been influencing the Japanese royal family for thousands of years." Sally seemed to be searching for the memory in her mind, and after a while, she remembered something, "I remember, what seems to be the shogunate that affects the Japanese regime." "That's right, the shogunate is the political system of the Tang Dynasty in our country, which was learned by this family. One of the political characteristics of this family is to promote Buddhism. The period when they were the most powerful was the period when Japanese Buddhist culture reached its climax. In this era, they created The Asuka period and the Hakuho period of Japanese Buddhist art. Another characteristic of governance is to learn from the Tang Dynasty." Xie Huiren finally found a point of conversation with her. "In fact, this family is the Japanese shogunate system, that is, the Regency. The initiator of the white system... isn't that accurate?" His last sentence was obviously addressed to the old man.

The old man still sat with his eyes closed, listening carefully to Xie Huiren's words, "It's about the same, there's no need to study these details." "Later there was a great shogun named Toyotomi Hideyoshi." "Well, I know." Sally nodded. "In order to be in power, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to recognize this family member as his adoptive father, so that he could obtain the status of aristocrat. At that time, the Japanese political system did not talk about blood, but about status. Therefore, the queen of this family was born after the death of the emperor. , and some directly become empresses, and do not necessarily pass the throne to the prince."

Xie Huiren paused, he thought of a very interesting story, and said with a smile: "Later, when Japan entered the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the generals became more powerful, so they inevitably bullied the descendants of this family. For example, there was a man named Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. General, you forced the prince born to the concubine of this family to become a monk in the temple." "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu?" Sally had obviously heard this name before, and she burst into laughter, "Smart Ikkyu?" Xie Huiren also laughed, "That's right, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the actual ruler of Japan at that time. He ended the division of Japan's Southern and Northern Dynasties, but the emperor at that time belonged to the Northern Dynasty, called Emperor Komatsu, and his concubine belonged to this family. His mother also belonged to this family—you see, how close this family was to the royal family at that time—but the problem is that his concubine supported the Southern Dynasty, so he had to compare this concubine with the one who had not yet been born at that time. The little prince kicked out, and then let the prince become a monk. He is Ikkyu. In history, his name is Ikkyu Zongjun, a famous eminent monk in Japan. Oh, look—” He pointed to the wall Fachang "Ape", "This painting is collected in Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, and Master Ikyu is the forty-seventh abbot of Daitoku-ji Temple."

"Oh——" Sally couldn't help but look at the paintings on the wall again. Today's experience obviously made her feel very interesting. "In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the history of Japan at that time was the family history of this family. In the past thousand years, almost all Japanese political events were related to this family." "Haha, it's a bit alarmist to say that." The old man opened his eyes and said with a smile, "Hui Ren, you can't say that, but you still know about my family, although there are some vague words , but to be clear, a thick book can’t finish it.”

Xie Huiren also laughed, he knew he guessed right. Sally was still in the dark, "Then, what kind of family is this? I don't know until now." The old man wanted Xie Huiren to reveal the answer to the mystery, but he made a funny expression, "Well, Huiren has guessed it, now it's your turn. Miss Sally, let's watch Japanese TV dramas, the descendants of my family have a big Where's the star?" "Big star?" This time it was Xie Huiren's turn to be confused. To be honest, he had no interest in Japanese movies and TV series, let alone celebrities. Sally was a little excited, "Who is it?" Seeing that the old man didn't answer, she looked at Xie Huiren again, but he obviously didn't know at all, frowning with a confused look on his face.He muttered, "A star with the surname Fujiwara?" "Fujiwara Norika?!" Sally exclaimed.The old man nodded with a smile.

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