Manjuji was founded in the Tang Dynasty in the fifth year of Wanli (1577). At the request of his mother Li Taihou, Emperor Wanli ordered his trusted eunuch Feng Bao to build a temple in Jingxi to store Buddhist classics. After on-the-spot investigation, Feng Bao chose this temple near the Yangtze River for expansion. After the completion of the project, Emperor Wanli named it "The Grand Collection of Protecting the Country", and Zhang wrote an inscription "Building the Grand Collection".
Deng Wei, the transformed Manjuki Mountain Gate, took a group photo.
Interestingly, while expanding Manjuji, another temple not far away is also under construction, that is, the tower of Tower In Cishou Temple. This temple was also built by Emperor Wanli for his mother Li Taihou. The Xihe drum, which has been circulating for hundreds of years, has a saying: "Linglong Tower, Linglong Tower, thirteen floors of Linglong Tower", which sings the tower in Cishou Temple Tower.
What are the origins of these two temples and Li Taihou?
The empress dowager from Tongzhou
Although you are the Empress Dowager, you have different opinions about Li Taihou's early experience, which may be due to his humble origin, which leads to no exact records. However, when she reached the peak of her life, the fate of a small village in Shexian county also changed.
In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), the Yongle store in Shexian suddenly became lively, and the three major projects were officially started by Emperor Wanli himself. These three groups of buildings are arranged side by side, and the "Jingmingtang" is located in the center. According to the Ming History, its regulation is "front door and back pavilion, surrounded by walls, and three squares outside the door". Among them, the main building Jingming Hall is a five-bay hall, which is located on an independent pedestal with the east and west halls. There is also a pavilion behind Jingming Hall. There is a wall outside these main buildings and a gate just south. In front of the door are three archways, arranged like in front of the Lama Temple.
This building was built by Emperor Wanli for his birth mother Li Taihou. In the eyes of the royal family at that time, this small village was already a sacred place. Therefore, shortly after the completion of Jingming Hall, the emperor personally decreed that the surrounding order must be strengthened and any act of destroying Jingming Hall and its surrounding facilities should be severely punished. This alert level is almost equivalent to the Forbidden City.
In addition to Jingming Temple, Huayan Temple, which protects the country and shows filial piety, is built on the east, and Guan Gong is the temple that protects the country from Chongning to Dezhen Army on the west. Together with the Jingming Temple and the one Buddha and one Buddha buildings in the center, it constitutes the "Birthplace Project of Empress Dowager Cixi in Suiyi Yongle Store". After the completion of the three buildings, Emperor Wanli personally inscribed poems to commemorate them.
Portrait of Li Taihou
Next to the village, there is also a tomb of marquis of Wuqing. Wu is the father of Li Wei.
The Li Wei family were originally ordinary people who moved from Shanxi to Yongle Store. During the Jiajing period, in order to avoid chaos, Li Wei and his family came to Beijing for a living. Soon, he sent his daughter to the palace.
At first, Li's position in the palace was very humble, just a "Duren", the most common maid-in-waiting. Fortunately, she was assigned to become Princess Chen's personal maid of honor. Li's legendary road began. Soon, due to her outstanding beauty, Yu Wang took a fancy to her and was lucky. Later, she gave birth to a son for Yu Wang, the future Wanli Emperor.
Mother is your son. In the first year of Qin Long (1567), Zhu Zaihou, Yu Wang (pronounced "thick", and some people say that his name is Zhu Zaiyu, pronounced "send"), which is the position of the emperor. First, Chen was crowned queen in January, and then Li was crowned imperial concubine in March. The following year, Zhu Yijun, Li's son, was made a prince. In the sixth year of Qin Long (1572), Ming Muzong died, and Zhu Yijun proclaimed himself emperor. The second year was changed to the first year of Wanli. Emperor Wanli honored his biological mother, Li, as Empress Dowager, as Empress Cisheng, while Empress Ming and Chen as Empress Rensheng.
The profound meaning of wantonly building Buddhist temples
Emperor Wanli was less than nine years old when he acceded to the throne, and he was at the age of having fun. In order to enable the little emperor to systematically study The Study of Kings, Li Taihou can be said to be heartbroken.
Emperor Wanli's first teacher was a cabinet record sheet. This famous politician in Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the education of the little emperor, and even wrote textbooks for the emperor himself. This is the book "The Emperor's Painting Theory" that has been handed down to this day. Li Taihou naturally showed great respect for the imperial master, and the two sides cooperated quite tacitly. At this time, the little emperor had not yet reached the rebellious period of youth, and he had great respect for his mother and Zhang.
According to historical records, Emperor Wanli got up early every morning to study in his study, and Li Taihou was an extremely responsible "alarm clock". At Zhang's suggestion, those who should have lived in Cining Palace moved to the palace where the emperor lived. Once the emperor is bedridden, she will not hesitate to pull him out of the dragon bed and urge him to get dressed and go to school or court at once. "Ming History" records: "When the dynasties changed, the fifth watch went to the emperor's bedroom, called out the' Qi Emperor', squatted beside the emperor, took water to wash his face, and boarded the chariot." It's like wearing a sleepy emperor to attend a court meeting.
He was also extremely concerned about the emperor's studies and told Zhang to be strictly disciplined. Once, the emperor wrote a calligraphy work that he was very satisfied with and gave it to Zhang. However, Zhang directly canceled the emperor's favorite calligraphy class, on the grounds that the sage should not indulge in these skills all day, and warned him not to be an emperor who was so obsessed with calligraphy and painting that he forgot the national affairs.
On another occasion, the emperor read the text in front of the teacher and accidentally read a wrong word. Zhang immediately corrected the emperor's mistake in a very strict tone, which really startled the little emperor.
It is worth mentioning that it was during this period that Empress Dowager Cixi and Zhang Fu assisted Emperor Wanli in building a large number of temples in Beijing. According to historical records, under the auspices of Li Taihou, in the early years of Wanli, more than 20 temples and workshops were built or renovated in Shi Jing alone, including Haihui Temple, Cheng 'en Temple, Pu 'an Temple, Cishou Temple Tower, Tsz Shan Monastery and Manjuji.
Of course, this is related to Li Taihou's worship of Buddhism. The Biography of Filial Piety in Li Taihou in the Ming Dynasty records: "It is very expensive to care for the Buddha and set up a multi-Brahma temple in the capital, and the emperor can do nothing about it." Living in the sun, I tasted it and found it useless. "
But in the eyes of later historians, there are deeper considerations behind Li Taihou's behavior. Historian Yan Chongnian once made such an analysis in the article "Ci Sheng Empress and Yong An Guarding Tower": "At that time, the struggle of the imperial palace, the East Palace and the West Palace of the imperial palace, the foreign emperor and the prime minister were interdependent and fiercely fighting, and the Ci Sheng Empress and the Wanli Emperor were the axis of this struggle. The fundamental weakness of their mother and son is that Empress Dowager Cixi was born in the palace, and Emperor Wanli is at the peak of her life. In order to strengthen the power of the empress dowager and the young emperor, one of the ways is to resort to divine power. "
In particular, the Cishou Temple Tower, which was built in Wanli for four years, can better reflect the "political intention" behind the construction of Buddhist temples. One day, it was said in the palace that Li Taihou once met a bodhisattva in his dream and dictated Nine Hokkekyo. After waking up, he can recite word for word. Since then, Li Taihou has also been called the reincarnation of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva. Later, when Tower In Cishou Temple built the tower, the last temple entered the temple, and the pavilion was dedicated to the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva.
Today, there is only one pagoda left in this magnificent tower of Tower In Cishou Temple, and its overall shape is modeled after the Liao Tower of Tianning Temple. The original name of the tower is Yong 'an Wanshou Tower, and its architectural style is dense-eaves octagonal thirteen-level solid brick tower, with a height of about 50 meters. The tower is beautifully carved. It can also be imagined that Yongle Store's "Building the Birthplace of Empress Dowager Cixi" must be extremely gorgeous. Unfortunately, this group of buildings disappeared in the Qing Dynasty.
Cishou Temple Tower
In the five years of Wanli, Manjuji was also built on the bank of the Changhe River. According to the article "The Memoir of Man Ju" written by Zhang, it can be seen that the original intention of building Man Ju Ji was to fulfill the emperor's last wish. Qin Long five years (157 1), Mu Zong fell ill and ordered people to rebuild Fan Jing factory and Han Jing factory, but Mu Zong collapsed. Therefore, Li Taihou wants to build "a temple and burn it with Tibetan scriptures, which will become the legacy of the first emperor." Emperor Wanli built Wanli Ji as "only a place for the emperor to test and pray, but also an important place to commemorate and recommend the blessing of the Virgin Mary". Shortly after the completion of the temple, Huayan Zhong, which was cast in Yongle period, was moved to the temple, and it was not until Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty that it was moved to Juesheng Temple (now Dazhong Temple).
After the "old lady Buddha"
When Cishou Temple Tower and Manjuji were built one after another, Empress Dowager Cixi was still in the Qing Palace to take care of the daily life of Emperor Wanli. In the sixth year of Wanli, the emperor got married and the queen mother returned to Cining Palace. At this time, with the growth of age, the emperor began to have his own ideas, and the characteristics of self-esteem and rebellion were gradually reflected in him. During this period, a "joint effort" with Zhang cast a shadow over the young emperor's psychology.
The story happened on a day in November in the eighth year of Wanli (1580). At that time, the emperor drank too much. Stimulated by alcohol, he ordered one of his eunuchs to sing a song for him. The little eunuch refused the emperor's request. As a result, Emperor Wanli began to lose his temper and cut off the little eunuch's hair. This matter soon reached Li Taihou's ears through Bao Feng, so she dressed in Tsing Yi, took off her jewelry, and criticized the emperor's immorality to the ministers, and claimed to go to the ancestral temple in person, asking her ancestors to abolish the emperor and change her second son, Wang Lu, to be the emperor. Emperor Wanli was frightened and regretted his behavior. He couldn't afford to kneel outside his mother's palace and promised that he would repent.
Zhang also actively cooperated and gave the emperor an assignment that day: reading Biography of Huo Guang. Huo Guang was a minister who abolished the sea faint and made Xuan Di emperor in the history of the Western Han Dynasty. Maybe Zhang's move is to warn the emperor not to make the same mistake. Wanli understood the seriousness of this matter and finally wrote "review". Zhang presented the emperor's review to the cabinet minister. This move hurt the emperor's self-esteem, and also laid the groundwork for his future liquidation.
In the tenth year of Wanli, Zhang died, and the emperor Wanli began to hold real power. From then on, Li Taihou gradually retired to the second line, no longer asked about major events in North Korea, and devoted himself to practicing Buddhism. However, she still pays attention to the daily life of the emperor in the palace and some actions of his concubines, and exercises her power as the mistress of the queen palace when necessary.
Li Taihou's first intervention in the emperor's private life was about Wang Gongfei's promotion to imperial concubine. Wang Gongfei was originally an ordinary maid-in-waiting in the palace. Emperor Wanli once came to inquire about her mother's harem, just when her mother was away. While waiting, she found that the maid-in-waiting was quite attractive, so she was very lucky. Later, the palace girl gave birth to Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor. When the Queen Mother learned that, instead of blaming the emperor, she thought that the royal family had successors and was happy for her son. But soon, Qin Shihuang married Zheng again and gave birth to Qin Shihuang's third son Zhu. Because Zhonggong (the queen's name) didn't give birth to a prince, the future heir to the throne had to choose from the illegitimate children born to concubines. According to this rule, Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, should become a prince. However, because the emperor loved Zheng very much, the matter was delayed again and again. This is the "national struggle" that sensationalized the imperial court.
Zheng was promoted to imperial concubine shortly after giving birth to the emperor's third son, only one step away from the queen. And Wang, who gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor, was still an ordinary concubine, which attracted the attention of the old lady. One day, she called the emperor to ask about it, and the answer he gave her made her furious. Emperor Wanli believed that Wang, the biological mother of the emperor's eldest son, was born from humble origins and was just a "native" who did not deserve such generous treatment. This hurt the old lady's nerves, because she was also an ordinary maid-in-waiting when she first entered the palace.
When Emperor Wanli realized his mistake, he quickly kowtowed and admitted his mistake, and Wang Gongfei was soon made the imperial concubine.
The second intervention originated from the protection of Prince Zhu. According to the regulations of the Ming court, when a vassal came of age, he would go to the place he designated to be a vassal. Zhu's fief is in Luoyang. Emperor Wanli and Zheng Guifei spoiled the Axe King, so they postponed his visit to the fief. Therefore, above the court, there was a voice of opposition. The Queen Mother called Zheng Guifei and asked about it. Zheng Guifei asked Axe King to leave for San Francisco after attending the Queen Mother's birthday celebration on the grounds of celebrating the Queen Mother's birthday. But this matter was rejected by Li Taihou: "According to the imperial concubine, can I ask my son Wang Lu to come back from Weihui House for my birthday?" Zheng Guifei knew he was wrong when he heard this, so he had to agree to let the axe king leave immediately.
In the forty-two years of Wanli (16 16), Li Taihou finished her legendary life. In the early years of Wanli, Li Taihou played an active role in training and restraining the emperor and stabilizing the political situation. After Wanli acceded to the throne, she maintained the stability of the harem, so later generations spoke highly of her.