Songshan.

Monk Xu rode to the bottom of the mountain with a six-grade green-robed general priest from the General Administration.

In the distance, the abbot, who had already received the news, led a group of monks down the mountain to greet him.

Guangzhang Daoxin looked at Monk Xu who was wearing a flying fish supplement uniform, and felt a little strange, this baby that he picked up in front of the mountain gate back then, now takes off his monk's robe and changes into a flying fish robe, with a thousand cattle knife at his waist, he looks so tall, and even has a majesty.

"Abbot!"

Monk Xu stepped forward to bow, and the abbot hurriedly let go.

"The donor is no longer a person in Buddhism, nor is he a monk in this temple, how dare a poor monk."

Monk Xu was stunned for a moment.

The young messenger smiled and bowed to the abbot first, and then asked the abbot to prepare an incense case to welcome the holy decree.

Everyone returned to the mountain.

In front of the Daxiong Treasure Hall in the temple, the young Tongshi Sheren read the holy decree.

At the beginning, the two words under the door made the abbot also know that this was not a central decree, but an official decree of the three provinces.

The holy decree is very long, the scroll is long enough to be long, and the content of it is even more beautiful, at a glance, you can know that it is from the hands of Hanlin scholars, the abbot is a literate person, although he is a monk, but he is also well-read, and can even write poems, so he immediately understands the holy meaning under these gorgeous words.

The emperor specially gave the abbot as the protector of the country, and respected the Qingjiao Wang Zhiyuan of the Southern Heavenly Master Dao branch as the protector of the country.

Wang Zhiyuan is a disciple of Tao Hongjing, a famous Taoist priest of the Southern Dynasty, who is known as the prime minister of the mountain.

At this time, the Taoist sect in the world, the Heavenly Master Dao is actually not the strongest, the most powerful is the Louguan Dao in the north, even if it is the Heavenly Master Dao, there is also a distinction between the North and the South Heavenly Master Dao, but the emperor did not respect the more powerful Loushi Dao in the South Mountain as the Heavenly Master, but respected Wang Zhiyuan, a branch of the Southern Heavenly Master Dao, as the Heavenly Master, which is indeed interesting enough.

Even if it is Shaolin, in fact, among the Buddhist sects at this time, it is not the top in strength, and the reputation of the abbot is not very high, but the emperor just gave him the title of protector.

The abbot knew that this protector was not good, no, the emperor's Buddhist reform started from their Shaolin.

In addition to announcing the decree, this general priest also has to preside over a Buddhist scripture examination, and only those who pass can be issued a degree, and those who fail to pass must be forced to return to the vulgar.

Not to mention that even if you pass, not all of them will stay.

The abbot will also enter Luoyang to accept the position of the world's monk of the Sanglu Division, which is the deputy prefect of the Sanglu Division, and its chief is the Sanglu Shilangzhong.

Although it is a good thing to confer the title of official, Shaolin is not the head of Buddhism in the world at this time, and the abbot is not the authority of the Buddhist world, but he gave him this honorary official position, which is clearly to be roasted on the fire.

What's more, after taking this position, you have to take the lead in starting the reform in Shaolin.

This huge Shaolin, after many generations of accumulation, has reached its current scale, but only a hundred monks can be retained, all slaves must be released, and only 1,000 acres of land can be left.

Although the emperor said that he wanted to build the East Shaolin Temple for Shaolin in the Belt Fang, the South Shaolin Temple in Guangnan, the North Shaolin Temple in Wuchuan, and the West Shaolin Temple in Dunhuang County, at first glance, it was indeed very remarkable.

Each was given 1,000 acres of monk's land.

It's just that in this way, the Shaolin of Songshan will inevitably weaken.

The Buddhist temple is originally a quiet place outside the world, a place of practice, but since it is in this red dust, no one can transcend the world. Even this Shaolin is the same, with more than 30,000 acres of temple fields, Wanguan temple property, and hundreds of temple net slaves, which allows the monks in Shaolin to build a majestic hall, erect tall Buddha statues, and paint the golden body of the Buddha statue tree, so that they can train their own scribes, copy scriptures and translate scriptures.

Under the solemnity of the image on the surface, it is inseparable from the support of the huge temple property, and the guarantee of these temple properties is inseparable from the support of the imperial court and the government, otherwise it will be like Wang Shichong when he was in Luoyang, with an order, there will be countless soldiers and horses to come over to forcibly seize the temple property and take away the temple property.

Now, the emperor gave him the title of protector of the country, and gave him the position of a monk in the world, which is a reward from the emperor in exchange for his allegiance.

Bowing his head in front of the emperor, the abbot felt that it was normal, no abbot of any big temple dared to despise the emperor, unless it was a wild monk, anyway, he had no roots and no foundation, and he was at ease, but he couldn't.

"Poor monk leader, thank the emperor!"

In the end, the great monk wearing a purple and gold robe and a bright head stepped forward to receive the decree and thank him.

The young Tongshi Sheren didn't seem to be surprised at all, as a Confucian disciple who read the books of the sages, his perception of Buddhism and Taoism could only be said to be average, and the dispute between the three religions was not a matter of one or two days.

In Middle-earth, the more powerful Confucian disciples all need to sell goods to the emperor's family, so how can Buddhism transcend things?

"Under the whole world, it is not the king's land, the guest of the land, and the king's minister. As long as it is in this sunny place, whether it is secular or extraordinary, it is under the jurisdiction of the Son of Great Qin, the secular world is under the control of the emperor, and the secular is also under the control of the emperor, the Emperor of Great Qin is the son of heaven, whether it is Confucianism, Buddhism or Shinong, industry and commerce, all must obey the will of the emperor, and the emperor is the only spokesperson in the world! ”

These domineering words were announced, and the abbot did not say a word of rebuttal.

The three sects of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism can be argued and attacked, but the emperor's words cannot be argued or attacked, especially this Son of Heaven, or the abbot seems to be the strongest person in the three hundred years of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and it is even more impossible to argue and attack.

The abbot believed that there would definitely be people in Buddhism and Taoism who would oppose the emperor's new policy, and there would definitely be people who would oppose him, but he didn't want to be the one who came out.

"Abbot, from now on, you will not only be the abbot of Songshan Shaolin, you will also be the Great Qin Protector and the world's monks. Now that you have received this decree, you must do a good job for the emperor. You must know that the propagation of Buddhism and the development of followers in Middle-earth are inseparable from the permission and support of the emperor. Huanghuang's millions of Qin armor soldiers, popular all over the world, have never been invincible, and no one will be willing to try the iron cavalry and war swords of the Qin soldiers. ”

Others may not know why the emperor wants to respect this Shaolin abbot as a protector, but he knows some.

Because there are many Buddhist schools today, and Shaolin was built by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty in order to place the Indian monk Batuo Venerable whom he admired, in the northern foot of Shaomu Mountain in Songshan Mountain, which is opposite the capital Luoyang.

Shaolin is the ancestral court of Zen Buddhism, but compared with the ancestral court of Tantric Sect in Chang'an City, Daxingshan Temple is much smaller in terms of reputation and scale.

Tantra was extremely influential at this time, but the emperor chose Zen Shaolin.

It is said that the emperor said that Zen Buddhism is not Han Buddhism, and it does not deviate from Han Buddhism, but Buddhism after Middle-earthization. They did not copy the Buddhist scriptures and precepts of Tianzhu, but based on the customs of Middle-earth, geography, people, etc., and absorbed the reasonable parts of the Theravada precepts suitable for China's national conditions, and formulated a new management system.

More importantly, Sima Daoxin, the fourth ancestor of Shaolin Zen Buddhism, who is only 42 years old this year, is a person with a unique understanding of Buddhism.

Compared with Daxingshan Temple, Qinglong Temple and other big temples like to introduce Tianzhu monks, a large number of translations of Tianzhu Buddhist scriptures, there is no doubt that Shaolin Daoxin abbot this kind of everyone has Buddha nature, epiphany into Buddhism, more appreciated by the emperor, but also more suitable for localization.

It is precisely for this reason that he was given the title of protector by the emperor and the position of monk in the world, which is to show his support for Zen Buddhism, and also to use Zen Buddhism to improve the current Buddhist schools.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty respected Confucianism because Confucianism was more helpful to his rule, and the emperor now chose Shaolin Zen Buddhism and Maoshan Shangqing among the Buddhist and Taoist sects, and the same is true.

His Majesty once talked to Xu Shiwei about Zen Buddhism, and he was very much in favor of the Venerable Master's Buddhism, and said two words, "The mind is the Buddha!" "Pointing directly to the hearts of the people, seeing the nature to become a Buddha!" At that time, the Bodhidharma patriarch sat in meditation facing the wall for nine years, and once he had an epiphany and became a Buddha, the key was epiphany. ”

These words shocked Abbot Daoxin.

The reason why Shaolin is called the ancestral court of Zen Buddhism is because their practice method pays attention to zazen, while the four ancestors Daoxin took a different path, that is, he believes that it is not necessary to zazen gradually, but can become a Buddha by having an epiphany, he believes that everyone has a Buddha nature, and does not necessarily need to practice through zazen.

Seeing through the origin of the mind is the main purpose.

His doctrine has actually brought about a huge change, but although Daoxin has been in charge of Shaolin for many years, he is still young, and his set of doctrines has not yet been fully formed, and is still in the stage of pondering and perfecting.

But now the words of the emperor spoken by this general servant are the little things that he has been pondering in diamonds but have not yet figured out.

These words of the emperor are exactly what he has been searching for and has not yet been able to understand.

He felt that now that the emperor had pulled it out a little, he suddenly had a feeling of breaking through the sky and making him have an epiphany.

This is exactly the kind of Buddha-minded nature he is seeking.

Suddenly, he felt like he had become a Buddha.

"I didn't expect Your Majesty, but I would have had an epiphany a long time ago." Daoxin was extremely impressed.

At this time, all the disciples of Daoxin were shocked, especially Hongren, who was known as having a very Buddha nature and had a deep Taoist true transmission, and was even more shocked.

Now the master said that the emperor had an epiphany?

"Hiroshinobi!"

"Master, the apprentice is here."

"The teacher decided to send you to Dunhuang to establish the West Shaolin Temple by order, you choose fifty monks, and prepare in advance!"

From the beginning of the Bodhidharma patriarch to the Middle Earth, to the present day of the four patriarchs of Taoism, the position of Zen Buddhism in the Middle Earth Buddhism has been very embarrassing, and it has been squeezed out by some sects such as Tantra.

Now, Zen Buddhism can finally be appreciated and supported by the emperor of Great Qin, especially the emperor actually knows so much about their Zen Buddhism, Daoxin believes that they have nothing to hesitate about, and must fully support the emperor.

In this way, Zen Buddhism can be carried forward.