History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 681 Jigong's Eight Generations of Ancestors
The princess didn't care about that. She was going to die, so why should she care about the procedures? The system is dead, but people are alive. She immediately set out with five or six followers. When the emperor heard about it, he immediately instructed the local government to send troops to chase and escort them.

After Li Zunxu passed away, the princess strictly followed her duty of mourning for her husband, wearing mourning clothes all the time. After the mourning period was over, the princess never wore fancy clothes again. As a brother and sister, her brother Song Zhenzong personally used an exquisite hairpin to pin her hair, but she politely declined.

When the princess got old, she accidentally fell while bathing and injured her right leg. Emperor Zhenzong of Song wanted to punish the servant at that time. The princess said that it was her old age and her legs were not flexible, and it was not the fault of the servants. So the servant was exempted from punishment.

Although she was a princess, she never put on airs, never bullied her husband's family (this was a common problem among princesses, and also the reason why the civil service group did not want to be a prince consort), was good at housework, and treated other illegitimate children equally and as her own. She was a rare good wife and good mother in the princess circle.

The princess often taught her children and grandchildren to study hard and make progress every day, and to keep the words loyalty and righteousness in their hearts. They should not think that just because "my father is Li Gang", or "my mother is a princess", or "my uncle is the emperor", they can bully others and do evil. Otherwise, if they break the law, they will never be tolerated!

Later, the princess fell ill and became blind. Emperor Zhenzong of Song came to visit her and kissed her eyes with great sorrow, saying painfully: "There are 14 of us brothers and sisters in total. Now, only you and I are still alive, and you are unfortunately seriously ill..." He choked up and burst into tears, and all the entourage around him were moved and cried.

After feeling sad, Emperor Zhenzong of Song asked her what kind of unit she wanted to arrange for her children.

The princess declined politely, "How can I invite you to a reward just because my mother is ill?"

Since she refused to arrange a job, Emperor Zhenzong of Song simply offered her three thousand taels of platinum, but the princess declined again.

"Ah..." Song Zhenzong sat beside the sickbed, looking at the princess affectionately, three parts of grief, six parts of admiration, and the remaining one part of self-blame. Although he was the emperor, with overwhelming power, who in the world would not obey him? What could he not accomplish? However, no matter how capable the emperor was, he could not fight against the laws of nature. Facing birth, aging, illness and death, the emperor was helpless.

After a long time, Emperor Zhenzong of Song looked up and said to the gods passing by in the sky: "Oh, God, I am willing to transfer the princess's disease to me!"

Before the princess died, she warned her sons that their father had left a will that no gold, jade or jewelry should be placed in the coffin as burial objects, only a few everyday clothes would be enough, and that after she died, she wanted to be buried in this way.

In March of the third year of the Huangyou reign of the Song Dynasty (1051), the princess died of illness at the age of 3. The then emperor, Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhen (son of Emperor Zhenzong of Song), wrote a mourning couplet for her and wrote a stele for her; he also stopped attending court for five days.

When her newlywed husband cheated on her with her wet nurse, the scandal became a hot topic, and Emperor Zhenzong of Song was furious and wanted to kill the scumbag. The princess pleaded for Li Zunxu, and in the end, Li Zunxu was only demoted from the court. Later, he was gradually promoted.

Li Zunxu was very grateful to the princess, and from then on he never dared to flirt with other women again, and began to worship Buddhism. He was pure-hearted and abstinent. Li Zunxu's contribution to Buddhism was quite huge. He co-authored "Gatha" with Monk Chu Yuan, but it has been lost. He also wrote "Tiansheng Guangdeng Record" in 30 volumes under the imperial decree, which was included in the Buddhist canon in the Song Dynasty and is still preserved in the "Zhonghua Dazangjing". There are also other works.

His love and study of Buddhism also had a significant impact on his descendants.

Li Zunxu gave birth to Li Duanyuan, Li Duanyuan gave birth to Li Ping, Li Ping gave birth to Li Juan, Li Juan gave birth to Li Maochun, Li Maochun gave birth to Li Xiuyuan (also known as "Li Xiuyuan").

Li Xiuyuan's love for Buddhism reached the point of madness, and he finally became a monk. After converting to Buddhism, Li Xiuyuan had a Buddhist name - "Daoji", and later people were more willing to call him "Jigong". Pulling the perspective back from the Southern Song Dynasty to the early years of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Comrade Li Chongju, who was deeply admired by Guo Wei, was the ancestor of "Jigong Living Buddha" for eight generations.

Among the eight generations of ancestors of Living Buddha Jigong, his grandfather Li Juan, the great-grandson of Li Zunxu and the fifth-generation grandson of Li Chongju, is the most noteworthy:
He served as the magistrate of Chongyang County, Ezhou, in the first year of the Jing Kang period. It was the time of the "Jing Kang Incident" and the court mobilized troops from all over the country to go to Beijing to defend the king. Ezhou had seven counties under its jurisdiction and was allocated a military quota of 400 people, with an average of more than people from each county.

Li Juan of Chongyang County recruited 600 people, while other counties were reluctant to go and die. Li Juan resolutely led 600 people to Bianzhou. Some people advised him not to go too fast and wait until everyone was gathered before starting the group. Li Juan flatly refused, saying that the country was in trouble and there was no time to hesitate.

However, these so-called "soldiers" recruited temporarily are not soldiers at all, strictly speaking. They are basically street rogues and hooligans, real hooligans, but fake heroes. They can receive military pay and eat military rations, but they won't fight in the war.

Li Juan had no choice but to pay out of his own pocket, sell his family property to help them, buy good wine and meat, and reward them, just hoping that they could drive out the Tartars and restore China. Li Juan made an impassioned speech, saying that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the country, to die for the country, to die for the country, and to leave his name in history, this is the true nature of a man!
More than 600 people were moved to tears.

After crossing the Huai River, they encountered troops from Puqi County and Jiayu County, so the three counties joined forces and marched together. When they reached Caizhou, they encountered Caizhou residents fleeing southward. The residents told them in fear that the enemy troops were coming! Li Juan showed no fear and prepared for battle.

Soon, the Jin cavalry caught up. Li Juan shouted, led the way, and rode forward to fight the Jin cavalry. The 600 men he brought were all infantry, holding shields and marching forward in groups.

The Jin Kingdom conquered the Liao Dynasty and destroyed the Song Dynasty. It had never seen such a brave Han people on its way south. Even the regular army of the Song Dynasty did not dare to confront them. It was too unexpected that this mob dared to take the initiative to attack. The Jin cavalry was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses, so they actually retreated.

Li Juan led his troops forward and pursued them for more than ten miles. Then he encountered the main force of the Jin Kingdom. "Flying arrows gathered", and the friendly troops in Puqi County and Jiayu County immediately fled in the face of the enemy.

Li Juan was seriously wounded and bleeding, but he still fought bravely and refused to leave the front line. Li Juan cursed the deserters from the two counties and finally died in battle. The death rate of the 600 people he brought was as high as 70% (six or seven soldiers died).

However, his political enemies used coercion and bribery to force the surviving soldiers to accuse Li Juan of deserting the battlefield and treat him as "missing". It was not until the next year, when the Jin army returned north, that the people of Caizhou collected the remains of the martyr Li Juan and sent them to the court, and the truth was finally revealed to the world.

In order to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Later Zhou regime, Guo Wei, as usual, sought out descendants of the royal family of the previous dynasties (Later Jin and Later Han) to be the "Two Queens"; he appointed ten households of tomb keepers for each of Later Tang Zhuangzong Li Cunxu, Mingzong Li Siyuan, and Later Jin Gaozu Shi Jingtang, while the tomb-keeping office of Later Han Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan remained the same as before.

Guo Wei's leapfrog "ancestor worship" also reflects the frequent collisions and changes of political correctness and mainstream ideas during the Five Dynasties period.

Guo Wei relied on Liu Zhiyuan and then turned against Liu Chengyou; Liu Zhiyuan relied on Shi Jingtang and then turned against Shi Chonggui; Shi Jingtang relied on Li Siyuan and then turned against Li Congke.

This is the basic political logic of the "roujiamo" style unique to the Five Dynasties period, which always denies the predecessor and affirms the predecessor's predecessor.

(End of this chapter)