A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 784 Great Divine Power

Snow and wind were blowing.

Li Yi sat in the carriage heading towards Baiguwu, more than a hundred miles from Luoyang.

The cold wind was howling, and the carriage was bumping along, but there was a stove inside, so it was warm enough.

He held a book in his hand, reading it with great interest.

"Young man, what's so interesting about Buddhist scriptures that you're so engrossed in them?" Li Cunyi was a Qiang man. Although he was currently a fourth-rank general in the Tang Dynasty and spoke fluent Mandarin, he had little interest in Buddhism. The Qiang people believed in animism and worshipped their ancestors and nature.
They believed that white stones were symbols of deities, so every household worshipped white stones, and five white stones were also placed in the house, on the roof, and in the four corners, symbolizing the gods of heaven, earth, mountains, the goddess of the mountains, and the tree god.

The main hall houses household gods, and there are many kinds of household gods, including ancestral gods, goddesses, gods of wealth, and door gods.

Li Cunyi now believes in the Han Chinese God of Heaven, but he does not believe in Buddhism.

He always wore a white stone around his neck, which represented the many deities worshipped by the Chipai Qiang people.

The scripture in Li Yi's hand was a gold-edged palm-leaf scripture, written on palm leaves and bound into a book. It is said that such a scripture can be preserved for a thousand years.

"Why are these Buddhist scriptures made of tree leaves? Don't they have paper?"

Do you know Kumarajiva?

"Judging from the name, he sounds like an Indian, a great translator from the translation center of Daxingshan Temple in Chang'an?" Li Cunyi asked.

"Kumārajīva's father, Kumārajīva, came from a prominent family in India. Later, he went to Kucha in the Western Regions and had a son named Kumarāja. At the age of seven, Kumarāja became a monk with his mother. He initially studied Hinayana Buddhism, but later went to Shale and met a famous Mahayana monk from Shache, and switched to Mahayana Buddhism."

Fu Jian of the Former Qin Dynasty sent Lü Guang to attack Yanqi, and then destroyed Kucha. He abducted Kumarajiva to Liangzhou. Three years later, Yao Chang killed Fu Jian and destroyed the Former Qin Dynasty. Lü Guang then seized control of Liangzhou. Kumarajiva stayed in Liangzhou for seventeen years until Yao Xing attacked the Later Liang Dynasty. He personally welcomed Kumarajiva to Chang'an and treated him with the respect due to a national teacher. He also organized a large translation center in Chang'an. After that, Kumarajiva translated scriptures and preached in Chang'an for more than ten years, becoming the most famous Buddhist scripture translation master in China.

The Buddhist scripture in my hand is called the Vimalakirti Sutra, one of the many Buddhist scriptures he translated. It is said that this copy was personally engraved by Kumarajiva, and these palm leaves were brought back by him from the Western Regions.

Kumarajiva said that the tree grows from Magadha, is six or seven zhang tall, and does not wither in winter. There are three kinds of this tree, and the scriptures from the Western Regions use the bark and leaves of these three kinds.

"Those are Buddhist scriptures, what's so interesting about them?"

"This sutra is also known as the Inconceivable Liberation Sutra. Vimalakirti is an abbreviation of Vimalakirti, who was a lay Mahayana Buddhist."

He was a famous wealthy man from the city of Vihara in India.

Li Yi was engrossed in reading the Vimalakirti Sutra, not because of the Mahayana Buddhist teachings or the philosophies of life it contained.

He mainly viewed Vimalakirti's experiences and supernatural powers in this Buddhist scripture as a fantasy novel.

While Shakyamuni was teaching the Dharma to his disciples, Vimalakirti pretended to be sick at home, and the Buddha sent someone to visit him.

But when the man arrived, he cursed everyone he met. Even the Buddha's ten great disciples hesitated to approach, and even Maitreya Bodhisattva dared not visit. In the end, the Buddha had no choice but to send Manjushri Bodhisattva, the teacher of the Seven Buddhas, along with a group of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to visit the sick man.

Vimalakirti lived in a bedroom that was only one zhang square, yet when Manjushri Bodhisattva led thousands of people into his bedroom, it was not crowded at all.

Vimalakirti also used his supernatural powers to retrieve 32,000 lion thrones, each 84,000 yojanas high, from the distant Buddha Land of Sumeru Lamp King.

These Leo constellations are the same height as the Buddha Sumeru Lamp King. A large yojana is about 60 li, a small yojana is about 40 li, and 84,000 yojanas, even a small yojana, would be more than 2 million kilometers high.

Vimalakirti obtained 32,000 Leo constellations, each over two million kilometers high, for Manjushri Bodhisattva and his companions to sit on.
His bedroom, which was a meter long, didn't get bigger, but neither did the chair; they coexisted in such a magical harmony.

His small room not only contained so many Leo seats, but they were also arranged in an orderly manner. Many bodhisattvas, the great disciples of the Buddha, Indra, Brahma, the Four Heavenly Kings, and others present all had seats, which greatly surprised them.

This room is even more magical than the space Li Yi brought with him from his time travel.
Of course, it's even more impressive that Vimalakirti could borrow so many Leos.

He borrowed the Leo throne and invited the bodhisattvas to sit on it, but then transformed them into towering figures of 84,000 yojanas to sit on the Leo throne.

As a result, only some bodhisattvas with supernatural powers could transform themselves and sit on it, while many others lacked the supernatural powers to transform themselves to a height of 84,000 yojanas and sit on it.

Vimalakirti then said, "If you bow to the Tathagata Sumeru Lamp King, you may sit on the throne." The crowd bowed and indeed all sat on the lion throne.

To see Mount Sumeru enter a mustard seed, or to put Mount Sumeru into a grass seed, is naturally a great supernatural power.

Vimalakirti also said that many demon kings in the ten directions are actually bodhisattvas who have attained inconceivable liberation. Their displays of cruelty or insatiable greed are actually skillful means to teach sentient beings and strengthen their resolve…
Talking,

In Vimalakirti's bedroom, which was only one zhang square, celestial maidens appeared and scattered flowers in mid-air. The flowers landed on the bodhisattvas, but did not stick to them and fell off naturally. They landed on the arhats, but the flowers did not fall off. The arhats used their divine powers, but they could not remove the flowers.

Sariputra, the chief disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha, insisted on asking the celestial maiden, "You are so powerful, why don't you transform into a man?"

Then the celestial maiden transformed herself into Sariputra, and turned Sariputra into a woman, asking him, "Why don't you transform into a man?"

Kumarajiva's translation skills were indeed the best of his time. Even Xuanzang, who later returned from his pilgrimage to the West and translated scriptures for many years, including the Vimalakirti Sutra, could not match Kumarajiva's version.

In fact, this Mahayana Sutra is a dialogue between Vimalakirti and Manjushri Bodhisattva, Shariputra, and others, which explains the meaning of Mahayana Buddhism.

However, Li Yi prefers to view this as a fantasy story.

Shariputra, the Buddha's chief disciple, ranked ahead of Kasyapa, Ananda, and others, was also the Shariputra mentioned in the Heart Sutra. He was renowned as a child prodigy at the age of eight, but in this Vimalakirti Sutra...
He became a supporting character, acting foolishly. Buddhist stories, in reality, all follow a few formulas; Vimalakirti is the protagonist template: a wealthy man from Vaishali, possessing great supernatural powers, practicing Buddhism at home, marrying wives and concubines, living a carefree life.

If someone pretends to be sick, even Buddha would send people to visit them in droves.

When guests arrive at his home, he can borrow 32,000 lion thrones from the distant Sumeru Lamp King Buddha Land; when the Bodhisattvas are hungry, he enters meditation and transforms himself to go to the Fragrant Land to ask the Fragrant Accumulation Buddha for fragrant food…
This lay Buddhist had already attained Buddhahood. He was exceptionally intelligent, enjoyed all the riches and honors of the world, and was also skilled in discussing Buddhist teachings, earning the deep respect of the Buddha.

In any case, many scholars and officials in the Tang Dynasty admired Wang Wei and felt a strong connection to him. They all wanted to be like Wang Wei, who could enjoy wealth and honor without having to become a monk, and also transcend worldly affairs.

Later, the great poet Wang Wei took Vimalakirti as his model, adopted the courtesy name Mojie, and became known as the Poet Buddha.

During the Song Dynasty, Vimalakirti became even more popular, and even Wang Anshi was very fond of him. He not only wrote a commentary on the Vimalakirti Sutra himself, but also frequently quoted the Vimalakirti Sutra in his poems.

If these nobles and scholars were to shave their heads and become monks, probably few would be willing, but they would aspire to be like Vimalakirti.

On the way to Shaolin Temple,

Li Yi flipped through this scripture to pass the time.

Of course, this 30,000-word Vimalakirti Sutra is also a precious ancient text, given to him by Abbot Huiyin of Baima Temple before his departure.

He also gave away more than ten other scriptures, including the Forty-Two Chapters Sutra.

The history of Shaolin Temple is not as long as that of White Horse Temple.

It was built by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty to house the eminent monk Batuo from India. Because it is located in the forest of Shaoshi Mountain in the heart of Songshan Mountain, it is named Shaolin Temple.

Later, the eminent monks Ratnamoti and Bodhiruci successively established translation centers at Shaolin Temple.
Huiguang promoted the Four-Part Vinaya at Shaolin Temple, and through generations of development, it formed the Four-Part Vinaya School.

During the reign of Emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Bodhidharma, the 28th disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha, crossed the Yangtze River on a reed and came to Shaolin Temple. He meditated facing a wall for nine years and transmitted the Chan (Zen) school of India, becoming the patriarch of the Chan school in China.

Li Yi heard that Shaolin Temple now mainly practices the Diamond Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and the Vimalakirti Sutra.

I flipped through them along the way.

No matter which classic Buddhist scripture it is, it is actually rich in philosophy. It's just that these days, there are fewer monks who can truly recite the scriptures.

It's estimated that many monks, after reading the Vimalakirti Sutra, would only be interested in the magical bedroom, which is only one zhang square, the Leo constellation, which spans 84,000 yojanas, the celestial maidens scattering flowers, and the bowl of nectar rice that Vimalakirti obtained from the Fragrant Land Buddha, which could feed the entire world for ten thousand years and still not be exhausted.

He quickly finished reading the 30,000-word scripture.

He closed the sutra and did not pick up any other sutras to read.

After its introduction to China, Chinese Buddhism, following its development during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, saw the decline of various Theravada Buddhist schools, while Mahayana Buddhism gradually rose to prominence.

Historically, the Tang Monk's pilgrimage to India also involved obtaining Mahayana Buddhism.

Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the universal salvation of all sentient beings and advocates attaining Buddhahood through the Six Perfections and myriad practices of generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

Theravada Buddhism pursues personal liberation and emphasizes practices such as upholding precepts and meditation.

The Vimalakirti Sutra advocates that in every place a place of practice, the land is at peace as the mind is at peace, and all dharmas are equal, without high or low, without duality.

···
Baiguwu
Named after the cypress valley and fortified platform to the east of the village, it was a strategic military location during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and is located fifty li northwest of Shaolin Temple.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was a devout Buddhist and once bestowed upon Shaolin Temple a hundred acres of land in Baiguwu.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty's Daye era, Wang Shichong declared himself emperor in Luoyang. Because this place was a strategic location that military strategists would fight over, he sent his nephew Wang Renzhe to build the fortress of Huanzhou and station troops there.

Wang Ren seized the land in Baiguwu of Shaolin Temple and destroyed the Shaolin Temple's manor buildings.

This angered the Shaolin monks. Later, when the Tang army attacked Huanzhou, the Shaolin Temple instigated Wang Renzhe's generals to defect. Thirteen Shaolin monks entered the city, captured Wang Renzhe alive, and surrendered the city to the Tang.

For this achievement, after the war, all 10,000 mu of land in Baiguwu were returned to Shaolin Temple, along with 4,000 mu of permanent land and 3,000 mu of allotted land.

now,

The entire Baiguwu area is Shaolin's farmland. There are three water mills, two oil mills, and a large area of ​​mountain forests and medicinal gardens, all of which belong to Shaolin Temple.

The villagers here are all tenants of the Shaolin Temple.

Ancient cypress trees stand tall to the east of the village, and the Majian River to the south is an important inland river port, but the riverbed is dry due to the drought this winter.

A team crossed directly across the dried-up riverbed.

"Situ, we're at Baiguwu just ahead. There's a wedding being held there by some villagers."

Li Yi, who was holding a hand warmer in the carriage, smiled upon hearing this. "I'm bored anyway. Let the procession stop here, change our clothes, deliver some wedding money, and mooch off the wedding feast. It'll be a good opportunity to see how the tenant farmers under the Shaolin Temple are doing!"

(End of this chapter)