There are not many records about the love of flowers in ancient books. People's understanding of Love Between Flowers mainly comes from the Inflorescence written by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen, two great poets in the Tang Dynasty. This is also the earliest written record. According to these two records, it is generally believed that the Garden Celebration was founded in the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. Yuan Zhen's record is very simple, with only the figure of "Tianbao abandoned Spent Stone and used Huayuanshi", while Bai Juyi's record is a little more detailed, saying that "Tianbao abandoned Spent Stone and used Huayuanshi instead. When asked, the people said,' As the old saying goes, the stone of Sibin cannot be reconciled, and the original stone tries it, but it is reconciled', so it will not be changed. " Another great poet, Shen Li, once had a poem that spread to China, but there was no record of Li Shen's poem in The Whole Tang Poetry. Many of Li Shen's poems are lost. Three of his famous poems are lost, and one of them is lost. Huayuan's poems are also lost. Zheng Qi, a native of Tang Dynasty, recorded an anecdote during the years of Kaiyuan and Tianbao. He said, "Princess Taizhen (Yang Guifei) is the best at playing the piano and making new sounds, although the pear garden is too talented." Yang Guifei entered the palace in Tianbao for four years, so she hit China.
According to the limited written records, it can be inferred from Bai Juyi's Old Cloud that Hua should have been born in Tianbao period. Tianbao ordered the imperial court to abandon Si Bin Shiqing and change to China. Of course, it was the Tang Dynasty emperor who loved music. It was at this time that court etiquette and music were all changed to China and used as national gifts. It was also at this time that envoys from various countries and Japan and Silla sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty. So when was Hua born?
The existing Hua Yuanqing in Nara, Japan provides us with relevant information.
As an important ritual vessel in ancient times, ancient parallelism can be divided into special parallelism and parallel arrangement. Teqing is a musical instrument played by the emperor when he worships heaven, earth and ancestors. Pianqin is a combination of several pianos and hung on a wooden frame to play, which is mainly used for court music or grand ceremonies. 1978, a set of stone braids in the early Warring States period was unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suizhou, Hubei Province, with a total of 32 pieces of * * * (most of them have been crushed, and 9 pieces of * * * are in good condition), which were hung on the exquisite bronze frame of the animal head in turn. Hua Yuanqing of Nara belongs to Teqing.
The original chin of Kofukuji Zanghua in Nara, with an outer diameter of 24.3 cm, is hung on an exquisite bronze cast chin frame and wrapped by four smart Yunlong, which shows the exquisite realistic artistic style of the Tang Dynasty: the base is a lifelike lying lion with eyes forward and tail curled; A hexagonal prism rises from the lion's back, and the dragon hovers upward, with the top of the faucet high and the mane loose, standing proudly to both sides. The chin of the dragon is curved, and a pair of dragon claws at the top hold up a disc-shaped Buddha statue, which is 96 cm high. The modeling concept is similar to Teqin in the Warring States Period.
According to the introduction of Nara Temple in Japan, the flower hung by the four dragons is not a special green flower, but a golden drum. This golden drum was post-cast, which was equivalent to the Japanese Kamakura period in the Song and Yuan Dynasties in China. The reason for making up for it is nothing more than a long time ago. By the time of Kamakura in Japan, no one knew where the damaged Huayuan Qingyu came from, but it was made up with golden drums. In addition, there is an original statue of a bodhisattva, which can rotate in all directions on a tray supported by a dragon's claw. It is said to be a wonderful bodhisattva, which has been lost. China is also equipped with a beautiful statue of Brahman who attacked the Qing Dynasty, and the original has also been lost. The existing Brahmins were recast during the Edo period (equivalent to the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties in China).
Kofukuji's Hua Yuan Qing is used to worship Buddha, so it was placed in the temple under the altar in front of the Buddhist temple, first stored on a stone pedestal, and later replaced with a wooden pedestal. According to textual research, this flower was brought back from China by Japanese monks in the Tang Dynasty. He studied the tradition of worshipping Buddha in China. Yun Xuan is the fourth generation descendant of the Japanese birthplace. He studied Faxiangzong in China for 20 years, and when he returned home, he brought back many Buddhist items from China, some of which were given by the imperial court. After returning to China, the temple where Yun Xuan preached Buddhism was Guangfu Temple. Yun Xuan returned to Japan in the seventh year of Tian Ping in Japan (AD 735), that is, in the twenty-third year of Tang Kaiyuan. Accordingly, at the latest in the early years of Kaiyuan or earlier, China's Huayuanqing had already appeared, and as a Huayuanqing specially made for worshipping Buddha, it had a lot to do with Faxiangzong.
Faxiangzong was founded by Master Genjyo Sanzo, a famous monk in China. Yuhua Temple is the birthplace of Faxiangzong and the ancestral home of Faxiangzong. After four years of translation, Tang Priest and his disciple Kui Ji founded Faxiangzong. The Tang Priest has 3,000 disciples, among whom Daozhao, the first generation descendant of Japanese Faxiang Sect, and Zhitong Zhida, the second generation descendant, all studied in Xuanzang's place and were Xuanzang's disciples. After entering the Tang Dynasty, the third generation of descendants Zhi Feng, Zhi Luan and the fourth generation of descendants Yun Xuan all studied under the third disciple of Xuanzang, breg, and Xuanzang's knowledge of knowing only the Dharma spread to Japan.
Xuanzang is in Yuhua District, near Huayuan. Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people here have widely used jade carvings. It is not impossible for Xuanzang to ask craftsmen to make a statue of Buddha in Huayuan. He also invited Song Fazhi, a famous painter and sculptor who collects Buddha statues in Tianzhu, to worship Buddha in Yuhua. Worship Buddha with flowers, or as Xuanzang's creation. During this period, he made a lot of artifacts, and he still inherited the throne of Siddhartha Gautama, which was inscribed by Xuanzang himself. There are also stone carvings, Buddhist monuments and so on. The lost Buddha statue on the seat of the Huayuan Buddha in Guangfu Temple should be a sitting statue of Sakyamuni. Later, Miao Bodhisattva and Golden Drum were built together. As the fourth generation descendant of Japanese Faxiang Sect, Yun Xuan will of course pay homage to Yuhua, the ancestral temple of Faxiang Sect, and he will also know the story of Xuanzang using Huayuanqing to worship Buddha, but the specific period is unknown. Fortunately, Hua left some imagination and clues for future generations to guess and study, and also left us a treasure of Hua in China for future generations to admire.