After the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism six hundred years ago, Taoism occupied the Central Plains. Under the strong promotion of Lushan Jianji Temple, taking advantage of the power of victory, it integrated various Taoism schools, roughly achieving one province, one pavilion, and one mansion.
The practice pattern defines the scope of acquisition of practice resources for each school.
At the same time, Jianji Temple also established a three-level secular system of temples, palaces, and courtyards to strengthen the monitoring of government affairs and ensure that believers can effectively gain trust.
As the loser, Buddhism is different. After being driven out of the Central Plains, Buddhism came to the West and established Buddhist kingdoms of various sizes. In this process, the top leaders of Buddhism belonged to the defeated side and did not have the extremely high level of Taoism's Jianji Guan.
Due to their prestige, various Buddhist temples inadvertently established mountain gates according to the rules of strength and order, and divided the territory on their own - various battles were unavoidable during this process, and were ultimately confirmed by the senior Buddhist officials.
Including Tianlongyuan, they were actually established later to fight against Taoism.
Therefore, some temples occupy good sites, while others go to relatively poor areas. There is a huge gap between the temples.
For example, Tianmatai Temple, according to Aslan, this Buddhist lineage arrived in the West relatively late, which resulted in today's tragedy.
No believers, no donations...
The land is barren and there is no farmland...
The spiritual eyes are thin and the medicine garden has low yield...
Well, even Zhao Ran couldn't stand listening anymore and asked: "Didn't the eminent monks of your temple go to Tianlongyuan for help? They are all from the Buddhist sect."
Regarding this question, Aslan said: "There are many temples like ours, especially at the southern foot of Helan Mountain. Among the thirteen temples, seven are similar to ours, and they are not much better."
Go, where can Tianlongyuan take care of it?"
This is the biggest problem in Buddhism now. There are too many temples and there are no restrictions.
On such a barren land as Helan Mountain South Road, thirteen temples were actually built. Where can I argue? Just like the Bayan Hara Mountain that Zhao Ran visited a few years ago, with one peak and one temple, nineteen peaks and nineteen temples.
However, I thought it was extremely unreasonable at the time. If it were placed in the Taoist Gate of the Ming Dynasty, it would probably only accommodate one Taoist temple.
It really complies with the saying that more monks have less meat.
If you think about it carefully, it is actually no different from those casual cultivators under the Ming Dynasty. No, it is even worse than the casual cultivators!
Next, Zhao Ran still needs to find out the cultivation strength of Tianmatai Temple. Regarding this, Aslan has nothing to hide. He really knows everything and speaks everything.
There are more than 200 monks in Tianmatai Temple. The abbot is Master Longji who is in the Arhat realm. The abbot and the four major classes are in the Bhikkhu realm. Among them, the abbot, Master Longyang, has a higher level of cultivation. He is an eminent monk of the Long generation in Tianmatai Temple.
Next, there are more than ten second-generation disciples of the Xuan generation, all of whom are in the novice realm. More than twenty second-generation disciples of the Xuan generation and more than forty disciples of the Bamboo generation are in the monk realm, including Aslan.
My name is Xuan Heng.
Zhao Ran was stunned when he heard this. This cultivation strength is quite impressive. In terms of top-level strength, Tianmatai Temple may be slightly inferior, but compared to the basic level of cultivation, Tianmatai Temple is really strong.
When he asked Aslan this question, Aslan himself couldn't explain it clearly. In the end, Zhao Ran could only attribute it to the unbreakable common sense that children from poor families should become masters early.
Zhao Ran held the tea cup and calculated for a long time before getting down to the topic and asked: "I heard that your temple made three black ginseng pills a while ago. I wonder how effective they are?"
In the world of spiritual practice, there are several kinds of elixirs that are the most widely used, such as the Taoist sect's heart-nourishing pills and the Buddhist sect's Wushen Pills. These two elixirs cannot be said to be the most effective - there are many elixirs that are stronger than them.
But it can be said that it has quite a wide range of uses.
But even though the names are the same, each sect actually has its own refining recipe. The same refining recipe is refined by different people, and the effects are very different.
Aslan immediately felt confident, patted his chest and said: "Dong Cheng, when it comes to refining elixirs, our temple is absolutely no problem. Especially the black ginseng pills refined by my abbot, I can't say that they are as effective as Xia Guoyi's.
Absolutely, but at least it’s undoubtedly superior.”
"Can you get a black ginseng pill for me to take a look at?"
"This... Chengdong family forgives me, but my temple can't refine it now."
"Why is this?"
"To be honest, Master Cheng, the money used to buy snow lotus this time is three black ginseng pills refined by my abbot. In order to refine these three black ginseng pills, the Chinese medicine garden of our temple has been completely plundered..."
"It's simple. If you trust me, Jinbo Club, just send me a prescription for Wu Shen Pills. Jinbo Club will provide the medicinal materials, and your temple will be responsible for refining the elixir."
Aslan hesitated and said: "I still need to contact the temple about this matter, and it will be decided by the temple. I just don't know what the Chengdong family wants? Do you want to buy the elixir from our temple?"
Zhao Ran said: "Master, didn't you ask me, Jinbo Club, for some advice to save your temple from the famine? This is the solution."
Aslan was a little happy and asked: "Chengdong family, do you really want to buy the elixir from our temple? As long as the Chengdong family helps our temple solve the problem of medicinal materials, our temple will be able to refine good medicine. It's just that this medicinal material is difficult to find."
…”
Refining elixirs requires a variety of elixirs, and elixirs are usually grown and collected by the temples themselves, so they are not willing to sell them casually. This is the main reason why there are so few elixirs on the market.
Zhao Ran waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. You ask clearly first and then we can discuss it. Is your temple willing to come up with the prescription? Is your temple willing to cooperate with me in refining the elixir? That's all."
Aslan left the Jinbo Club in a daze. Liang Xingxia listened to the whole process. At this moment, he couldn't help but ask Zhao Ran: "In the Chengdong family, it is difficult to find the elixir for refining the elixir. Is this feasible?"
Zhao Ran said: "It all depends on his prescription. Wouldn't it be much easier if he removed the most difficult to find medicinal materials?"
Liang Xingxia was confused: "But is this still a panacea?"
"Brother Liang, I have always told you before that when doing business, we must focus on the target group. Who is the target group of our business? Is it a practicing monk? Obviously not. Of course, the elixir we produce must be sold to
Ordinary people, ordinary people do not practice cultivation, and many uses in spiritual elixirs are meaningless to them. Not only are there no benefits, but they are also toxic. What we have to do is to refine ordinary elixirs that are beneficial to ordinary people.
It's the magic pill' that can make this profession last for a long time."
Liang Xingxia was suddenly enlightened and patted his forehead: "The Chengdong family is tall, really tall." As he said that, he took out a small book from somewhere, touched his tongue with the langhao pen, and began to write down in the small book: "We provide medicinal materials.
Tianmatai Temple is responsible for making medicines, and we use them to sell them, what kind of trick is this?"
Upon hearing the previous sentence, Zhao Ran immediately felt very bad, but he still patiently answered Liang Xingxia's next question: "This is called processing with supplied materials."
Recently, Liang Xingxia flattered Zhao Ran with great detail. He often followed behind and recorded in a notebook. Zhao Ran felt a bit like a "great man".
A few days later, Aslan came over again and asked to see Zhao Ran. Zhao Ran still met with the monk merchant from Tianmatai Temple in his study.
Aslan used his precious flying talisman to report the situation to Tianmatai Temple, but the reply he received was different from what he originally expected.
Tianmatai Temple not only agreed to give out the prescription for Wushen Pills, but was even willing to provide the formula. However, it was not a cooperation in refining the elixir, but it planned to sell the formula to Jinbo Club for a one-time price of 1,500 taels.
As for why he doesn’t want to cooperate in refining the elixir, according to Aslan’s guess, it is probably related to his previous efforts to promote the snow lotus. To put it bluntly, this is a big loss and the consequences. Tianmatai Temple does not dare to engage in this kind of business anymore.
They just want to get their money back as soon as possible, make a quick deal, and buy back the grain and seeds they need to survive the famine.
He was willing to exchange the precious formula passed down from his ancestors in his temple for money, which was really beyond Zhao Ran's expectation.
You must know that a formula is different from a prescription. It not only includes the ingredients and proportions of various medicinal materials, but also the refining method: such as the order in which the medicinal materials are added, the heat during refining, etc. This is a very precious experience.
If what Tianmatai Temple brought out was a prescription, Zhao Ran might have agreed, and sending this thing back to the Ming Dynasty could be considered a credit.
But now that Tianmatai Temple has come up with a more precious formula, Zhao Ran is not willing to do it. Just kidding, you showed your trump card and expected value in advance at the negotiation table, and you expect me to stop here, how can you be so good?
matter?
No matter how you look at it, this is an opportunity. We must pursue it fiercely!
Zhao Ran pinched his nose and announced to Aslan that since Tianmatai Temple had no intention of in-depth cooperation with Jinbo Club, the business would be closed. Jinbo Club was not interested in the formula of Wushen Pills. He himself expressed this deeply
Regret and regret. I wish Jinmatai Temple can get out of the predicament as soon as possible and survive the famine.