After Wang Meng left Chang'an, the peace talks between Qin and Jin and the exchange of horses and weapons could not be concluded. However, on the morning of the 15th, Chen Caozhi, accompanied by Dou Lang, sent two carts of newly cast weapons transported thousands of miles to Diqin.
Ordnance Department, these weapons were originally used as samples, and the Di Qin soldiers were allowed to try them out first. This would not only demonstrate the magnanimity of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but also be a strategy to seize those who want to seize them first -
Compared with the weapons of Di Qin, the batch of long spears and short halberds brought by Chen Caozhi this time are obviously superior in terms of iron quality and forging craftsmanship. In military exercises and hand-to-hand combat, the gap between the quality and inferiority of weapons will be more obvious. Those Di Qin weapons
After the Qin soldiers use these weapons, they will report the advantages of these weapons to Wang Meng and Fu Jian——
In the late afternoon, the eunuch Zhao Zheng and the eunuch Meng Feng of Ganlu Palace came to the residence to invite Chen Caozhi to enter the palace to give lectures to Queen Mother Gou. Ran Sheng and Su Qi followed, but they could only stop outside the gate of Jianzhang Palace.
Eunuchs Zhao Zheng and Meng Feng led Chen Caozhi to the outside of Ganlu Palace. They saw a boy with hanging hair coming forward to greet him. Zhao Zheng and Meng Feng hurriedly greeted him and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince." Chen Caozhi also bowed and saluted.
This boy is Fu Hong, Fu Jian's eldest son. When Fu Jian came to the throne, Fu Hong was not yet one year old, so he was appointed as the crown prince. Now Fu Hong is seven years old. His appearance and behavior are very father-like. He also has a huge head, long upper body and short lower body.
, although he was young, he spoke calmly and asked Chen Cao to go to the palace and said that his grandmother, the Queen Mother, and his mother-in-law had been waiting for a long time.
Ganlu Palace Jingfu Hall has a rammed earth load-bearing exterior wall, and the interior is a wooden beam frame with overlapping trusses. The building is magnificent. The walls are made of gold, containing blue field biscuits, decorated with pearls and green feathers, five-color tassels, green inscriptions and purple ribbons.
Honeysuckle tweezers and flags illuminate the hall.
Chen Caozhi followed Gou Hong up to the main hall, and a palace maid rolled up the pillars and curtains. The main hall suddenly lit up. Empress Dowager Gou, who was plump and dignified like a goddess in makeup and beautiful clothes, sat on the brocade couch.
The rest of the palace maids stood by.
Empress Dowager Gou is in the middle, and Queen Gou is slightly to the left. There are two separate couches in front of the palace. Chen Caozhi and Fu Hong greet Empress Dowager Gou. After seeing the ceremony, Queen Gou kneels and sits on the left and right couches respectively.
The Empress Dowager Gou, who is over forty and still has a lot of charm, looked at Chen Caozhi with a smile. Yesterday in the Taixue lecture hall, she could not see clearly because she was far away. Today, she was within ten steps and saw Chen Caozhi's picturesque features.
With his handsome appearance, this handsome man from Jiangzuo is as pure as a jade, pure and clear, making people dazzled.
Queen Mother Gou said: "How young is Ambassador Chen?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Caozhi felt a little uncomfortable being teased, so he could only answer respectfully: "I have wasted my twenty years this year."
Queen Mother Gou asked: "Have you ever been married?"
Chen Caozhi replied: "There is a daughter of the Lu family, and I swear to grow old with her."
Empress Dowager Gou had already heard about Chen Caozhi's difficult marriage to the girl of the Lu family of the three Wu clans. Now after hearing Chen Caozhi's answer, she said: "Chen Envoy is young and handsome. He must be admired by many people, so why not Lu?"
If your daughter doesn’t marry, isn’t it just that her years are wasted?”
Chen Cao said: "It is very difficult to explain marriage in the past life. Foreign ministers are also addicted and unable to awaken. However, the Queen Mother wants foreign ministers to lecture on Buddhist scriptures. She is very ashamed."
Empress Dowager Gou then remembered that she had invited Chen Caozhi to give a lecture on the sutra today, and said: "Envoy Chen, please don't be too modest. The widow once listened to an old monk from the Western Regions preaching the "Human Origin Desire Sutra", and wrote it down word for word, but the meaning of the sutra is
It is difficult to understand that I heard that Chen Envoy’s wonderful interpretation of Buddhist principles was praised by the eminent monk Zhu Fatai. Fortunately, Chen Envoy was on an envoy to Chang’an, and the survivors are willing to bow down and ask for advice.”
After saying that, Empress Dowager Gou, who was wearing a snow-white girdle gown, stood up and left her seat, walked to the couch where Chen Caozhi was sitting alone, knelt down on her knees, put her hands on the ground, and her high bun almost touched Chen Caozhi's kneeling posture.
knees——
Chen Caozhi hurriedly left the bed and knelt down to return the gift. When he looked up, he saw Queen Mother Gou's plump cheeks were slightly red, her eyes were watering, and her chest was heaving. Chen Caozhi secretly became wary and thought to himself: "This is a Buddhist who claims to be a widow."
Why? She looks so full of lust! It seems that I can enlighten her with Buddhist teachings and not to indulge in lust. Well, educating and persuading an empress dowager is better than building a seven-level pagoda."
"The Sutra of Desire for Life" was translated by An Shigao in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. An Shigao was a prince of the Parthian Kingdom. After becoming a monk, he traveled to various countries in the Western Regions and finally came to Guangzhou. He was the first translator of Hinayana Buddhist scriptures. Compared with later generations,
The Buddhist scriptures translated by Kumarajiva, Xuanzang and An Shigao are quite obscure and difficult to understand. Without explanations by eminent monks, it is difficult to understand the meaning of the scriptures. Chen Caozhi once read Zhu Fatai in Waguan Temple.
Master Qi Daoren Dao'an's commentary on "The Sutra of Humanity's Desire to Live" was now held in hand and he explained it in detail to Queen Mother Gou, Queen Gou and Crown Prince Gou Hong——
"The original desire of human beings to produce sutras is based on the twelve causes and conditions to form the four truths. The original is delusion. The desire is love. The living is life and death. When people are in life and death, they will all linger in the three lives, lingering in the world.
The Nine Stops are prepared for the eight fetters. The twelve causes and conditions are based on the Nine Stops, and the first person is also Heaven. What the Four Noble Truths can learn from is the Nine Stops, and the Eight Interpretations can correct the eight evils. If the evil is correct, there will be no way out.
If you are not at peace and stop learning, then you will never go anywhere without being happy. If you go nowhere without being happy, you will be able to see through the surroundings. If you are not going anywhere without being at ease, you will be able to change your mind and respond accordingly. If your mind will change and respond accordingly, you will be able to understand the situation quickly without being too fast.
If it is illuminated and connected, it will be transformed without words. It will be transformed without words, so no one will be abandoned; it will be quick without being quick, so there will be no leftovers. Things will not be left behind, and people will not be left behind. This is the reason for Zen wisdom. Therefore, the sutra says: '
The Tao comes from the wisdom of Zen and is close to Nihuan. 'Isn't this false?"
This is Shi Dao'an's "Commentary and Preface to the Sutra of Desire for Life". Naturally, Empress Dowager Gou's nephew could not understand it. Chen Caozhi explained it one by one in plain and easy-to-understand language, and also quoted from "Huayan Sutra" and "Huayan Sutra".
Forty-Two Chapters Sutra", "Zahan Sutra", "Eight Masters Sutra", and "Perfect Enlightenment Sutra" to explain the meaning of "Human Original Desire for Rebirth Sutra", such as "Get liberation from all kinds of delusions and demonic realms, and from the worldly path"
, just like a lotus that does not touch water, just like the sun and moon that do not touch the sky." "All the species in the world, egg-born, womb-born, wet-born, and metamorphosis, are all due to lust and righteousness. You should know that the love of reincarnation is the foundation." Another example is "In the beginningless time.
Life and death are covered by ignorance, tied by the knot of love, reincarnated in the long night, not knowing the origin of suffering”…
Queen Mother Gou's eyes were wandering at first, and she was uneasy. However, Chen Caozhi did have the appeal of nodding his head when preaching the truth. He explained Buddhism in a simple and profound way. He also specialized in telling stories about karma, retribution, blessings and punishments that women love to hear.
With the Buddha's visit, we should be alert, such as: "Luxury is an impure act, and it leads to confusion and deviation from the right path. The spirit and soul are wandering, and the life is damaged, leading to an early death. Suffering from sin, stubbornness, ignorance, and desolation, death returns to the evil path. I am afraid of this, so I abandoned my home and returned to the forest."
"——
Empress Dowager Gou was frightened when she heard this. She gradually put away her disrespect and sat upright to listen to the Dharma. The seven-year-old Crown Prince Fu Hong was also quite good at sitting. He always sat on the couch alone, but later he started to take a nap.
Queen Gou's eyes never left Chen Cao's face, looking at Chen Cao's appearance and the way he spoke, but she didn't even listen to what Chen Cao said -
Chen Caozhi spoke for more than half an hour and then stood up to leave. Empress Dowager Gou praised her happily and asked Chen Caozhi to come back to the palace tomorrow afternoon to preach. Chen Caozhi said: "The foreign minister is not a monk and does not promote the Dharma. Because the Empress Dowager worships the Buddha,
Therefore, I did not want to explain the Buddhist scriptures to the Queen Mother. If the Queen Mother permits, if the foreign ministers are in Chang'an and have free time, they will come to the palace to lecture on the Buddhist scriptures for the Queen Mother on odd days." If Chen Caozhi wants to leave Chang'an smoothly, this Queen Mother Gou is
The key point is that there are many people in the palace with mixed ears and eyes, so there is no need to worry about Queen Mother Gou having lustful thoughts. She is preaching and educating people at this time——
Empress Dowager Gou ordered Prince Fu Hong, eunuch Zhao Zheng, and Meng Feng to escort Chen Caozhi out of the palace. After Chen Caozhi left, Empress Dowager Gou still sat in silence, wondering what she was thinking.
Queen Gou on the side did not say anything, but quietly looked at Queen Mother Gou, her aunt and aunt, thinking about Queen Mother Gou's romantic affairs, and was filled with envy.
More than ten days later, Chen Caozhi, accompanied by Dou Lang, visited the high-ranking officials and nobles of Di and Qin, whether they were noble relatives of the Di people or important officials of the Han people. Chen Cao Zhi visited them one by one, because Fu Jian paid tribute to the envoy from Jiangdong, and at Taixue
Chen Caozhi became famous again in the lecture hall, so those high-ranking officials did not dare to disrespect Chen Caozhi. However, relatively speaking, Han officials were more friendly to Chen Caozhi, while the Di nobles were relatively cold, especially the leaders.
The general's strong will is the most obvious——
Qiang Wang was the younger brother of Qiang De, an aristocrat of the Di clan. The Qiang family had been married to the royal Fu family for several generations. Qiang De's sister was the queen of Fu Jian's uncle Fu Jian. After Fu Jian came to the throne, he appointed Wang Meng, beheaded first and then executed Qiang De.
The power of the family declined greatly because Wang Meng was favored and trusted by Fu Jian. When Te Jin entered Fan Shi, he was beheaded in the West Hall by Fu Jian for offending Wang Meng. Qiang Wang knew that he could not resist Wang Meng, so he had no choice but to cater to him, but his resentment in his heart has not diminished to this day.
, Qiang Wang listened to Chen Cao's praise in the Taixue lecture hall that Fu Jian and Wang Meng were wise kings and wise ministers. It seemed that the situation that Qin was in today was all due to Wang Meng's efforts. Qiang Wang was very angry, and naturally he didn't have a good look towards Chen Cao.
It was just for socializing, but Chen Caozhi did not feel resentful. He deliberately praised Wang Meng for his virtue and forced Wang to endure hardships. When Chen Cao went out, he drew his sword and slashed at the square couch where Chen Caozhi had just been sitting. His hatred was hard to overcome.
.
General Fu Liu of Chariot and Cavalry was Fu Jian's elder brother, and Henan Gong Fu Shuang was Fu Jian's half-brother. When Chen Caozhi visited, he noticed that these two men had great resentment towards Fu Jian.
He praised Fu Jian and Wang Meng, but they just sneered——
In the afternoon of every single day, Chen Caozhi went to the palace to explain Buddhist scriptures to Queen Mother Gou. It was no longer limited to "The Sutra of Human Desire to Live". Chen Caozhi started from the Desire Realm, the Color Realm, and the Formless Realm, talked about karma, and talked about the Six Paths.
Reincarnation, and then mixed with stories of karma and retribution with names, surnames, time and place (all of which were attributed to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Queen Mother Gou had no way of verifying them anyway). Queen Mother Gou listened with rapt attention, and looked deeply enlightened. She was originally interested in
Chen Caozhi's lust turned into respect, and he really respected Chen Caozhi as a virtuous monk.
On May 24th, Wang Meng returned to Chang'an and reported to Fu Jian the locust plague in Jingyang and Sanyuan counties. He was worried that the locust plague would continue to expand, and asked for the recruitment of soldiers and civilians to fight the disaster. Fu Jian ordered Wang Meng and Wuwei General Wang Jian to take charge of the matter.
Wang Meng was in a hurry, but he still remembered the transaction with Jin, and asked Dou Lang to tell Chen Caozhi that if Chen Caozhi wanted to go to Longyou Racecourse to watch horses, he ordered Dou Lang to accompany him.
It takes at least more than a month to go back and forth from Chang'an to Longyou, and Chen Caozhi is just an envoy. When there is a real deal, officials from the Eastern Jin Dynasty who are responsible for the matter will naturally come. This is Wang Meng's procrastination trick. How can Chen Caozhi
I don't know, he has been in Chang'an for more than ten days, and he should reach an agreement with Di Qin as soon as possible, because he is still concerned about the safety of Luoyang, and Lu Weirui, who is waiting eagerly in the distant Jiangdong.
