Allusions in Journey to the West with Crane

When it comes to "cranes" and "riding cranes", the most famous poem is The Yellow Crane Tower written by Cui Hao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty: "In ancient times, yellow cranes carried saints to heaven, but today there is no yellow crane tower. The yellow crane will never return to earth, and the white clouds will never fly without him ... ". This poem is a masterpiece, which is said to have been written by Li Taibai. In my opinion, the "people in the former dynasty" in this poem is a general reference, which is related to "Yuqiao farming and reading, Confucianism and Buddhism" and has nothing to do with it. This "religion" refers to various foreign religions, such as Islam, Judaism and Catholicism. But after this poem became famous all over the world, many people, especially poets, associated "crane" with Taoism. There are many examples, such as:

[Tang] Li Bai: "I am a very famous fairy, and I learned to fly here."

[Song] Huang Kun: "If you go, you won't come back. It is an empty Yellow Crane Tower ".

[Yuan]: "There are many flying fairies in the ethereal world, and there are traces in the super shake. Before the yellow crane comes, it is important to add color. "

[Ming] Ni Jing: "The Crane Immortal of the Yellow River is gone forever, and idle water flows into the sea from the east."

Since the Qing dynasty, there have been many such poems, so I don't want to list them one by one. Especially in the Song Dynasty, most emperors believed in Taoism, which added fuel to the fire. It seems that the overall situation has been decided. Anyone who has a "crane" is Taoist, and no one else can get their hands on it!

However, some people don't think so. For example, in the Yuan Dynasty, a "poet and monk" released Da Gui and lived in Ziyun Temple in Quanzhou, Xi. He has a poem "Map of Yellow Crane Tower": "The fairy tower is separated from Penglai, and the yellow crane flies west and does not return. According to the times, the autumn waters are wide and the sails come to Hanyang. " Although Penglai was already a place of Taoist practice at that time, Buddhists were not shy about these themes and poems. It can be seen that there was no clear view between Buddhism and Taoism about "cranes and driving cranes" at that time, and outsiders were "speculating". However, the above is not the main argument. First, Shinrikyo in Japanese Buddhism is the largest Buddhist sect in Japan, with more than10 million followers. His ancestor was a master of "Empty Sea", and during the period of "Tang Shunzong", he sent envoys of the Tang Dynasty to study in China. In 805 AD, Konghai first lived in Kaiyuan Temple in Fuzhou for more than a month, and then went to Qingyuan Temple in Tang Dou to meet Master Huiguo, a monk at that time. When Huiguo saw Konghai for the first time, he attached great importance to him and immediately accepted Konghai as an apprentice. In three months, Konghai finished The True Story of the Master. Master Huiguo said that because he is old, he is eager to give everything to others, and he is afraid that he will "ride a crane" in the near future, hoping that the empty sea will carry forward tantra. In February 65438+ AD, in 805, Master Huiguo passed away. Konghai wrote an inscription for the master and returned to China. Sure enough, he lived up to his teacher's expectations, founded the "True Word School" and became a great calligrapher, known as the "five-brush monk" of seal, kai, xing and Cao. This incident is also recorded in Japanese history.

As far as Driving a Crane to the West is concerned, I haven't seen any earlier records. And "Taoism" didn't connect driving cranes with immortals at this time, did it?

Second, at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there was a "revolutionary monk" in the south of the Yangtze River who praised Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the father of the country, for his great cause of "expelling Tatars and restoring China". His surname is Su, his first name is Zi Gu, and his legal name is Schumann, that is, Su, a famous poet, painter, novelist, revolutionary and Buddhist master in modern history. Here is not a detailed introduction to his life story, but only one thing:

In A.D. 19 10, Master Schumann went west for the second time to seek Buddha. I attended a month's class at the Muntuan Temple in India and returned to China in the spring of 19 1 1. On the third day after returning home, he received a poem from his good friend "Jing Yao Yue", and spoke highly of his journey to the West, comparing him to the ancient legend that "Ding" became an immortal in the mountains and returned after a thousand years. The poem reads: "After He Hua returned, Su Gong called Schumann. Love you like the sea like the moon, spit you like beads. Knowing Lu Gu can help you explore Sanskrit. Tiannan has memories, in nothingness. "

In addition, in the future, the poet "Gao Chuiwan" wrote to Master Schumann, saying: "Recently, it was learned that the bright moon will return to Pengshan and Wan Li will be close at hand; Full of water, like a shuttle. All obstacles are removed, the body and mind are smooth, and the wild cranes are fascinated. "

Master Schumann's friends seem to be "returning cranes" and "wild cranes in the clouds" in their poems and letters. Didn't they blaspheme the "Buddha" people with the word "Tao"? Master Schumann just laughed it off! What is this?

To sum up, the four-letter character was first invented in the Tang Dynasty when it returned to China, but it was stolen by arty poets and Taoist children unconsciously, and later became a patent of Taoism, as if all the characters related to cranes were Taoist. If someone else uses it, it means "entering the wrong Dojo and reciting the wrong scriptures." What logic is this? What a joke!

For this joke, the first person has long told the truth: Gong Sanyi, a scholar in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a poem: "Immortals can live everywhere, and they turn into white clouds and yellow cranes." Like this satirical poem, it is so straightforward that it doesn't need any explanation!