Chapter 687: Inside Ganye Temple, late at night

When many TV dramas were filming the scene where Wu Zetian became a nun, they placed Ganye Temple deep in the mountains and forests.

This kind of plot is a bit ridiculous.

Not only is Ganye Temple not located in the deep mountains and forests, it is even located next to the most prosperous Zhuque Street in Chang'an City, in Anyefang, one of the 108 fangs.

After leaving Anyefang, walk north along Zhuque Street and you will reach the Zhuque Gate of the Imperial City in less than twenty minutes.

Of course, although Ganye Temple is located in a downtown area, it is a royal temple and outsiders are generally prohibited from entering and exiting. It is a kind of royal forbidden garden.

The main purpose of the royal family building Ganye Temple was to provide a place for the concubines of the late emperor to practice Buddhism.

(The deceased emperor is the deceased emperor.)
On weekdays, Ganye Temple was directly under the jurisdiction of the inner court, and there were special female officials in charge of its management.

Also because of its strict management, Ganye Temple has a good reputation in Chang'an City.

Many prominent families and high-ranking officials would send their daughters here when they wanted to "offer them to serve the Buddha".

Xiao Yu's three daughters were placed in Ganye Temple to practice.

Let's talk about the custom of "serving Buddha", which started in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

In history, Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, in the Southern Dynasties, became a monk four times and devoted himself to serving Buddha, forcing court ministers to empty the national treasury to redeem him.

In fact, when Emperor Wu of Liang devoted himself to serving Buddha for the first and second time, the treasury of the Southern Liang court had been emptied.

When Emperor Wu of Liang devoted himself to serving Buddha for the third time, the imperial court could not come up with the money. It was the imperial court that exploited the aristocratic families and ordinary people, and only then did they raise a large sum of money to redeem Emperor Wu of Liang.

This incident caused great public outrage at the time.

Even so, Buddhism was still not satisfied and tempted Emperor Wu of Liang to continue devoting himself to serving Buddha.

As a result, when Emperor Wu of Liang devoted himself to serving Buddha for the fourth time, the people could no longer bear it.

General Hou Jing took the opportunity to rebel.

When Hou Jing started his rebellion, he only had two thousand people around him.

However, the aristocratic families in Southern Liang hated Emperor Wu of Liang for his pro-Buddhism, and they defected to Hou Jing, allowing Hou Jing's army to quickly expand to 100,000 people.

By this time, Emperor Wu of Liang had been deserted by his friends and relatives, and there was not a single person around him who could be used.

Hou Jing finally besieged Taicheng, but did not attack it, and directly starved Emperor Wu of Liang to death in the palace.

This Emperor Wu of Liang was Xiao Yu's great-grandfather, and his fourth-generation ancestor.

Xiao Yu's family not only had such a peculiar grandfather, Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, but his sister was even more famous than his great-grandfather. She was Empress Xiao, the wife of Emperor Yang Guang of Sui.

Empress Xiao was the beautiful queen who was ridiculed by later generations with the name "Liuwei Dihuang Pills".

Among the six legendary emperors, there are not only Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, Yu Wenzhi, Li Mi, Dou Jiande, and the Khan of the Turks, but also Li Shimin.

Su Mingzhe thought of Empress Xiao and searched his memory.

As far as he could remember, Li Shimin had met the stunningly beautiful Empress Xiao several times when he was young.

Empress Xiao was already in her forties at that time, but her beauty not only did not fade, but became even more dazzling and bright.

Therefore, in Li Shimin's imagination and speculation, it is possible that Yu Wenzhi, Li Mi, Dou Jiande, the Turkic Khan and others had done something bad to such a beautiful Empress Xiao.

What's more, Empress Xiao also had the buff of being the Empress of Emperor Yang of Sui.

So, many things are possible.

As for whether Li Shimin did certain things.

Su Mingzhe searched through his memories but found no relevant memories.

This is not to say that Li Shimin had no feelings for Empress Xiao.

In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing brought Empress Xiao back from the grassland.

Both Li Shimin and Li Yuan went to visit Empress Xiao.

When the father and son saw Empress Xiao, who was already in her sixties, they both showed expressions of surprise and fascination.

Unfortunately, after Empress Xiao returned to Chang'an City, she was taken away by Xiao Yu to be raised, leaving no chance for Li Yuan and Li Shimin, father and son.

The topic turned back to Xiao Yu.

After Emperor Wu of Liang, most of the Xiao clan members inherited the tradition of Emperor Wu of Liang and devoted themselves to serving Buddha at any time.

Xiao Yu was reluctant to give up his wealth and glory, so he gave up his three daughters and one son to become a monk in his place.

Now, some people are talking about the fact that Xiao Yu’s fifth daughter became a nun last year.

Su Mingzhe knew that someone wanted to use him as a gun to deal with Xiao Yu.

In the court, Xiao Yu had a foul mouth and often got into verbal fights with other ministers.

This resulted in Xiao Yu having very poor interpersonal relationships and also made him make many enemies in the court.

The Xiao clan had a particularly large number of members, and they occupied many high positions in the court.

It is normal for someone to use Su Mingzhe to attack Xiao Yu and gain a certain position.

Su Mingzhe looked at the memorial and wrote down the name of the person who wrote it.

As for the memorial, Su Mingzhe asked Zhang Ananda to copy the content and give it to Xiao Yu, asking him to defend himself.

The impeached ministers must submit memorials to defend their innocence.

This is an unspoken rule in the court.

However, if the emperor trusts his ministers, he will return the memorial or keep it for further processing.

Now, Su Mingzhe copied the memorial to Xiao Yu, which meant that he was also puzzled and questioned Xiao Yu's intention of offering his daughter to serve Buddha.

Su Mingzhe knew clearly that Xiao Yu had done nothing wrong, but still asked him to defend himself.

This is naturally because Su Mingzhe is ready to take the opportunity to carry out reforms in Buddhism.

However, after Xiao Yu received the memorial impeaching him from the emperor, he got used to it.

He had many enemies in the court and was often impeached.

Some impeachment memorials obviously make no sense at first glance and are simply fabricated.

The emperor basically ignored it.

However, some memorials would also arouse the emperor's anger.

If Xiao Yu could not explain clearly, he would be demoted and dismissed.

This is the reason why Xiao Yu was dismissed from his position as prime minister six times during the Zhenguan period.

This time, when Xiao Yu saw the content of the impeachment against himself, he was furious. Offering his daughter to serve Buddha was an old tradition of the Xiao family.

How is it related to the emperor's selection of concubines?

Although Xiao Yu was very angry, in order not to be wronged, he still wrote a self-defense letter and sent it to the palace. After Su Mingzhe saw Xiao Yu's self-defense letter, he casually placed it on the imperial desk.

Now, I have to prepare for fasting, bathing, and the Qingming Festival sacrifice, and I have no time to take care of Xiao Yu.

I'll look for trouble with him after the Qingming Festival.

In a blink of an eye, Qingming Festival is coming.

Citizens all over the country need to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, and according to regulations, everyone must fast for three days.

Fasting activities became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and lasted until the Song Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, because Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan was a Buddhist, the regulations on fasting were more stringent.

Emperor Gaozu stipulated that as a Buddhist disciple, one must fast for ten days every month, during which one must fast every day.

This Buddhist disciple does not refer to those Buddhist disciples who have become monks, but refers to those lay Buddhists who have not yet become monks.

The Qingming Festival is a large-scale sacrificial event.

According to the rules, everyone in the country must fast for three days in advance.

During these three days, you cannot have sex or eat meat.

Some Buddhists even fast during these three days, that is, they do not eat for three days.

The reason why Su Mingzhe followed the three-day fast was that as an emperor, he had to abide by the rules and avoid disputes between the court and the public.

The three-day fast is over.

Su Mingzhe, sitting in a sedan chair and accompanied by a large number of ceremonial guards, came to Ganye Temple to burn incense and pray for his biological mother, Empress Taimu.

Because of past practices, the abbot of Ganye Temple arranged everything as usual.

After praying, the emperor would go to the backyard to copy a Buddhist scripture.

People in later generations often copied "The Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva", "The Diamond Sutra", "The Heart Sutra" and so on.

The more orthodox ones copied the "Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva".

If you are lazy and want to save time, just copy the Heart Sutra.

However, in the early Tang Dynasty, there were no "Earth Store Sutra" and "Heart Sutra".

Therefore, if you want to copy Buddhist scriptures, you can only copy the "Diamond Sutra" to show your sincerity.

The Diamond Sutra has more than 5,000 words, and not everyone has the perseverance to copy it.

Therefore, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, many powerful people invented the "printing technology" in order to save time and effort.

This kind of thing sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

But, it is what it is.

Printing, one of the four great inventions, was created for the purpose of printing scriptures.

Now that Su Mingzhe is the emperor, if he wants to pray and offer sacrifices sincerely, he can only do it by hand.

When the emperor was copying scriptures, there must be someone beside him to add incense and grind ink.

There are more than 200 nuns in Ganye Temple. Among them, the older ones do not meet the requirements, and Li Yuan’s concubines do not meet the requirements.

Those with ugly appearance do not meet the requirements.

Finally, Ganye Temple brought out a dozen young and beautiful masters, and Su Mingzhe selected a pretty and pretty one among them and asked her to serve him in copying scriptures.

Because it was a common practice, no one noticed anything wrong.

In this way, Su Mingzhe copied the scriptures in the temple until midnight, and only then did he finish copying the entire "Diamond Sutra".

At this point.

Su Mingzhe was still in high spirits and felt that there was nothing wrong with him finding a few people to fight with.

But the little nun who was grinding next to her had already turned pale and blue with hunger.

However, even though she was almost starving, the little nun still diligently helped to put away the scriptures that Su Mingzhe had copied and put them into the box.

"Little Master, what's your name?"

Su Mingzhe felt a little distressed when he saw the little nun's frail body.

"Your Majesty, this is the disciple Fa Deng."

"The Dharma lamp? The 'lamp' as in the lamp?"

Su Mingzhe stared at her curiously and continued to ask.

The little nun felt a little shy being stared at, and nodded with a red face.

Su Mingzhe then smiled and asked:
"When did the young master become a monk?"

"Last year, in October."

The little nun also served Su Mingzhe for a whole day. Seeing that Su Mingzhe was quite friendly, she felt good about him and gradually became more relaxed in her speech.

"It's April now, and it was October last year. Add a leap month, and that's half a year."

Su Mingzhe chatted with the little nun for a few words, and noticed that the little nun's eyelids kept drooping and she began to yawn, so he asked her to go to the bed next to her to sleep and rest.

"No need, Master asked me to serve Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you should rest first."

Fadeng is quite persistent and has a stubborn streak.

After hearing this, Su Mingzhe felt heartbroken and at the same time, he remembered his own plan.

I couldn't help but ask her:

"Fa Deng, if I ask you to go back to the palace with me, will you refuse?"

"what?"

Fa Deng was a little surprised, but she reacted quickly. Her face quickly turned red and she said shyly:
"Your Majesty, I am a monk and cannot serve you."

"You are a monk now, so you naturally cannot serve me. But when you return to secular life, won't you be able to do so?"

Su Mingzhe's words made Master Fadeng's face turn as red as blood, and he looked charming and beautiful.

However, she never talked to men again.

Su Mingzhe refused to let her go and said directly:

"Since you don't say anything, I'll take it as your consent. Tomorrow, I'll find the host and ask him to take you away."

"No way."

Fa Deng was still shy, and under the repeated pressure of the man, she finally explained:
"Your Majesty, my father sacrificed his life to offer his disciples to the temple. If I follow Your Majesty, the karmic fire will descend upon my father..."

(End of this chapter)