A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 312 Liuli Temple, final conclusion
Ten days later, in the north of Luoyang City, there was a sea of ​​people. Emperor Liu Zhuang personally brought the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty to the Dharma altar to listen to Mo Teng's explanation of Buddhist scriptures. Many people also came after hearing the news.

Seeing so many people, Shemo Teng thought that the great success of Buddhism in Han Dynasty would be today, so he started his explanation with great joy.

But Frank, who was in the audience, could see very clearly that except for a few people, most people came because of Liu Zhuang's face.

Although Liu Zhuang's face showed great interest, Fran could see that there was nothing like the king of the Western Regions or even the Kushan Kingdoms in Liu Zhuang's eyes, and it was obviously a joke.

As for the civil and military ministers under Liu Zhuang, the civil servants were okay, because most of them were Confucian disciples. Most of them looked at them with a critical eye and did not make any big moves. However, the generals just dozed off on the field without the slightest respect.

He became more and more convinced that his path was correct.

At the end of the Dharma conference, just as Shemo Teng was happily waiting for people to arrive one after another, he saw the same believers from the past outside the door, with few new faces. He was greatly shocked and felt despair in his heart. In the end, he devoted himself to To translate Buddhist scriptures.

Fran also accepted the personal invitation of Bai Xi, the grandson of the Bai Kingdom, to serve as the abbot of Chaoge Liuli Temple, and accepted a Bai family son named Bai Zheng as his disciple, becoming the first disciple he accepted in the Han Dynasty.

(Those disciples at White Horse Temple are all disciples of Shemo Teng. Fran’s own disciples are all in Kushan and are unwilling to travel with him. They even wanted to prevent him from going to Dahan.)
He also studied the Taoist sect and arranged the characters according to the following: "Wisdom is pure and morality is perfect. It is as true as the sea of ​​nature, and its tranquility illuminates the ordinary. The source of the heart is broad and continuous, and the original awareness is prosperous. The saintly fruit of benevolence and magnanimity. Only by passing on the seal of the Dharma, will the true enlightenment be integrated." Adhere to the precepts and inherit the ancestors forever." To inherit the legacy of Liuli Temple, I hope that Liuli Temple will become a great temple comparable to the Tianshi Mansion in the future.

Then he personally ordained Bai Zheng and took the Buddhist name Zhiyuan. He also used gray-white as the color of the monk's robe in Liuli Temple. Because of the cold weather in the north, Fran cut the dark red monk's robe he brought from Tianzhu and draped it in gray-white. The outside of the monk's robe keeps out the wind, and he calls himself a cassock. They also decided on a gray-white hat, called a monk's hat, to protect their heads from the cold from the sky.

And the cassock has become something that only abbots and eminent monks are qualified to wear.

Although he decided to modify some teachings, Frank still decided to leave the ordination as a precept. He believed that this precept could distinguish Buddhism from other sects, and he also hoped that Buddhist disciples could let go of the past and devote themselves to the Buddha.

And as Fran officially settled in Liuli Temple in the east of Chaoge City, the seeds he passed down in prison last time sprouted immediately. Several people immediately came to Liuli Temple to become ordained and became a monk, and worshiped Fran as their teacher. From then on, he dedicated himself to worshiping Buddha and studying Buddhist scriptures, hoping to change his ways and seek spiritual comfort.

And the young monk Zhiyuan, who was only sixteen years old, naturally became the youngest senior brother in Liuli Temple.

Not only that, in order to compete with Flan, the Tianshi Mansion sent Song Zhenxian, a high-ranking official, to Haoling Temple in the north of Chaoge City to serve as the temple's master, competing against Liuli Temple.

Since then, the rivalry between Haoling Temple and Liuli Temple has begun. In Chaoge, quarrels between monks and Taoists on the street are also common and have become one of the five sceneries in Chaoge.

In the past, there were only four scenes in the Chaoge, namely the annual lantern festival, debates in the law hall, law officials whipping lawbreakers on the street, and the bustling market. Now add to this the tit-for-tat Taoist priests and monks on the streets.

Since Fran became the abbot of Liuli Temple, the doctrines of Baima Temple and Liuli Temple changed, and Buddhism has since split into two factions, the North and the South. That is, Liuli in the north and Baima in the south.

Although Liuli Temple is within the sphere of influence of the Taoist sect, due to Fran's relatively gentle attitude towards the Taoist sect and the acquiescence of the Bai Kingdom, other forces rarely interfere.

Therefore, the development of Liuli Temple in the north is relatively smooth. On the contrary, Baima Temple has been in dire straits since Shemateng was attacked, and it has been focusing on translating Buddhist scriptures in the temple.

Moreover, due to his tough attitude towards Taoism and the belief that Fran's Liuli Temple had betrayed Buddhism, he was even more conservative in his adherence to doctrines, and was secretly resisted and hindered by Taoism and Confucianism.

Even with Liu Zhuang's support, its development was extremely unsatisfactory. When Liuli Temple became a temple with a few hundred people, White Horse Temple was still a small temple with a dozen people.

Even Liu Zhuang was considering whether to abandon the White Horse Temple, but thinking that maintaining the White Horse Temple would help weaken the influence of Confucianism and Taoism, he did not abandon the White Horse Temple. Instead, he increased support and allowed them to Temples were opened across Henan to preach, but the efficiency was too slow.

Although Liu Zhuang liked Confucianism, it did not mean that he could tolerate Confucianism controlling the court. Therefore, he relied more and more on the chancellery and consciously alienated foreign dynasties.

Yongping fifteen years

After decades of recuperation, the strength of the Han Dynasty has been restored. According to the imperial household registration records, the country's population has reached more than 30 million at this time, and it can deal with the increasingly resurgent Northern Huns.

The first step is to cut off his two arms, namely the left arm of the Western Region and the right arm of the Liaodong region.

Now Xianbei and Wuhuan in the east of Liaodong have been freed from the enslavement of the Xiongnu, so only the Western Regions are left. The entire northern Xiongnu relies on the transportation from the Western Regions to maintain a strong military strength.

In addition, in the past few years, Liu Zhuang continued to send envoys to contact the countries in the Western Regions that opposed the Huns, and now the time has come.

So Liuzhuang sent Dou Gu, the captain of the carriage, and Geng Bing, the captain of the consort, to station their troops in Liangzhou to make preliminary preparations for the management of the northwest.

Yongping 16th year

Everything was ready, Liu Zhuang decisively ordered Dou Gu, Geng Bing and others to go out in four directions from Liangzhou to attack the Northern Huns. Dou Gu came out from Jiuquan County and defeated King Huyan sent by the Xiongnu to the Western Regions in the Tianshan Mountains. He pursued him to Puleihai and took the land of Yiwulu.

In this battle, the Han army beheaded thousands of people and defeated Queen Huyan. Dou Gu retained some soldiers and horses to garrison in Yiwulu City, thinking to monitor the northern part of the Western Region and guard against the Huns, and he personally led the army back.

After capturing Queen Huyan, Liu Zhuang sent fake Sima Banchao and 36 people from his department to go out of the Western Regions and open up the southern road to the Western Regions. In Shanshan and Khotan, he defeated the pro-Hongnu forces in the countries and supported the pro-Han forces.

At this point, all the countries in the Western Regions began to "send their sons to serve Luoyang" again, and the Western Regions once again began to communicate with the Central Plains.

In the 17th year of Yongping, Dou Gu, Geng Bing and others led an army to defeat the Northern Xiongnu again at Puleihai. The Northern Xiongnu suffered heavy losses again and fled to Mobei.

The Han army returned with a great victory.

For a period of time after that, the Han army continued to fight against other Xiongnu forces. First, they defeated King Huyan again, and then defeated King Zuoguli. They captured Cheshi Kingdom and competed for Jinpucheng. The Han army continued to exert influence in the Western Regions. promote.

The countries in the Western Regions began to face choices again.

In August of the same year, Liu Zhuang re-established the Western Regions Protectorate in Qiuci Kingdom, and established Wuji Xiaowei in Cheshi Kingdom, restoring the leadership of the Han Dynasty over the Western Regions.

Just when Dou Gu, Geng Bing and other generals expected to completely eliminate the Northern Huns in one blow, bad news came from Luoyang.

Yongping 18th year

August
Renzi Day

Liu Zhuang died in the front hall of Luoyang East Palace. When Dou Gu and others heard the news, they immediately shortened the front line and withdrew to the west of Zhuoxie Mountain.

As a foreign relative, Dou Gu immediately set off to return to China, leaving Geng Bing to lead the frontline troops and asking him to take good care of the Western Regions and not to start war easily. Everything would be done after he came back from Luoyang.

Although Geng Bing was regretful, he knew the seriousness of the matter and immediately agreed.

16th

Liu Zhuang was given the posthumous title "Ming" by his ministers, referring to him as Emperor Xiaoming of the Han Dynasty. They also listed Emperor Ming's achievements against the Han Dynasty in these years.

Rectifying the administration of officials, suppressing foreign relatives, clarifying laws and regulations, encouraging culture, expanding the Imperial Academy, frivolous corvee and underpaying taxes, attacking the Huns in the north, recovering the Western Regions, etc., are all done by a wise king.

Therefore, the officials proposed to build a temple for Emperor Ming to offer sacrifices.

The Empress Dowager Ma issued an edict to the world about this idea, and asked the princes, kings and people of the world to write a letter stating whether they agreed or not.

Regarding the regulations of erecting temples and conferring posthumous titles, the Han Dynasty or China has formed a hidden rule that it must be fair and just, otherwise it will be ridiculed by the people of the world.

Wang Mang once wanted to build a temple for Emperor Ai and Emperor Ping, and give him a good posthumous title to show the sage of the two emperors with his assistance, but he was stopped by the Bai family.

Bai encouraged scholars all over the world to write that the posthumous title was customized by China and should not be acted upon arbitrarily. If the posthumous title could be changed at will and determined at will, then the Chinese system would suffer irreversible damage, which would be detrimental to the world.

Originally, Wang Mang wanted to push it forward, but even his closest comrade-in-arms Bai Xuan strongly opposed it, believing that he could not risk the disapproval of the world, so he had to give up and let the ministers discuss it fairly.

However, they vigorously promoted the establishment of temples. However, even if they were implemented, when Xinmang was destroyed and Emperor Guangwu succeeded to the throne, he invaded Guanzhong and rebuilt Chang'an, the first thing he did was to cancel the temples of Emperor Ping and Emperor Ai, thinking that this was not in line with etiquette. system.

Therefore, the posthumous title of an emperor needs to be agreed upon by the ministers. This is also the right of scholars in the world. It’s hard for me to tell you when you are alive. If you are dead, do you care how I give you a posthumous title?
The prince who is about to succeed and the queen who has not yet become the queen mother are not easy to stop. After all, the time when the posthumous title was given was when the emperor died and the new emperor did not officially ascend the throne. In other words, at that time, the world was leaderless and ministers. Holds the highest power in the world.

If the prince objects, the ministers will wonder what he is doing. He has already acted arbitrarily even before he became emperor. In this way, the originally stable throne will begin to turmoil.

The same goes for the queen. She needs the support of the ministers to become the queen mother. If she offends the ministers, things may change again.

Therefore, almost no one dared to disturb the ministers discussing the emperor's posthumous title at this time. This is also the reason why the emperor did not dare to offend the ministers wantonly. If you offend them, when you die, you will inevitably have a bad posthumous title, so you have to be sad. Xi Ah, mourning and other posthumous titles tend to be evil.

The establishment of a temple is another stipulation. After the group agrees, it needs to be announced to the world. If there is no objection from the princes, kings and people, then the temple can be established.

Because the establishment of a temple requires the cooperation of the princes and kings, that is to say, the temple cannot only be built in the capital of the country, but also in the ancestral temples of the princes and kings.

If the princes and kings do not agree, even if the temple is erected, it will be revoked later.

Therefore, when the imperial court issued an edict to build a temple for Liu Zhuang with the temple name "Xianzong", it began to reflect Liu Zhuang's score in front of the princes and kings.

But fortunately, Liu Zhuang was very kind to the princes and kings. He even took the initiative to invite King Dongping to the court as an official to assist him in handling political affairs, so all the princes and kings in the world expressed their agreement by writing.

Bai Guo wrote a letter and agreed, and sent a delegation of hundreds of people, headed by his son Bai Xu, to Luoyang to express condolences.

With the recognition of the Bai Kingdom, officials from various places in Hebei and the Wanmin Book representing the opinions of the people also came to express their condolences to Emperor Xianzong.

The reason why the Bai family recognized Liu Zhuang's outstanding contributions to the Han Dynasty was because even though he secretly used many obstacles and tricks against the Bai Kingdom, they were all within the rules and within reason. This cannot erase his contribution to Zhu Xia.

(End of this chapter)