Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Minzhong Temple

In 644 of the seventh century, China was under the rule of Tang Taizong, the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty.He endured it for many, many years, and was determined to conquer Goryeo in the Northeast.At that time, Koryo not only dominated the Korean peninsula, but also extended to the Liao River Basin in Northeast China. This was something the overjoyed Tang Taizong could not bear.If he can't bear it, he can't bear it. He can't be careless, because the Sui Dynasty attacked Goryeo 30 years ago, leaving the country empty and causing a revolution. Tang Taizong took the opportunity to destroy the Sui Dynasty and establish the Tang Dynasty.Thirty years later, he had to be very careful when he launched this attack again.

Tang Taizong's plan was to use a force of less than 200,000 people to attack quickly and win the battle quickly.He told this plan to a veteran soldier who participated in the war against Korea 30 years ago, but the veteran said: Liaodong is too far away, and supplies are difficult.However, the old warriors could not dissuade Tang Taizong, and Wei Zheng, a minister who dissuaded him in the end, also died. No one could persuade him, and he was determined to fight this battle. In March 19645, when he was about to leave, his son who stayed behind was very nervous and cried for several days.Finally, when seeing him off, he pointed to his clothes and said to his son, "I'll change into this robe next time I see you."There is no need to change the seasons of clothes, and the battle will be won soon.

In May, the army of the Tang Dynasty reached the city of Liaodong, which is now Liaoyang City in Northeast China. After the bloody battle, they captured Liaodong City.In June, it has marched to Anshi (northeast of Gaiping County, Liaoning).Koryo mobilized 150,000 people, and the two sides launched a fierce battle. In the end, Koryo couldn't win, so they decided to fortify their walls and clear the country, cutting off human habitation for hundreds of miles, so that the Tang Dynasty army could not find supplies on the spot.In this way, the war dragged on. Summer is coming.Tang Taizong was still wearing the original robe and refused to take it off.July passed, August passed, the stored food was almost gone, the weather in the northeast was cold, and Tang Taizong's robe was torn.When the new robes were brought, he refused to change them. He said, the robes of the soldiers are all torn, how can I wear new ones by myself?In the end, they had no choice but to withdraw their troops. They spent September in the retreat, October in the retreat, and November before returning to Youzhou.When they arrived in Youzhou, only one-fifth of all the horses were left.

Youzhou is Beijing. Tang Taizong was very painful. He changed the old robe, but he couldn't change the old scar.It would be great if Wei Zheng was alive, he thought.If Wei Zheng is alive, he will persuade him not to fight this battle.He sent people to Wei Zheng's grave and erected a new monument.Find Wei Zheng's wife and son, and give them special condolences, expressing his nostalgia for Wei Zheng. He built a temple in Youzhou to commemorate all the soldiers who died in this expedition to the east. Their deaths were loyal to the country and died outside their hometown.Their deaths are heartbreaking, and their life experience is pitiful. The name of this temple should express this meaning. Tang Taizong finally decided that this temple should be called Minzhong Temple.

Inside the temple, a large building was built called Minzhong Pavilion. Many famous and unnamed commemorative tablets were erected.It means that it is so close to the sky. This is an early martyr's shrine in China. A thousand years have passed.After a thousand years of blizzards and wars, the tall Minzhong Pavilion has collapsed, but the Minzhong Temple still exists desolately. The old Beijing city that existed when the Minzhong Temple was first built has long since disappeared. There are no historical sites within the original old city, and the records left can only be traced back to the Liao Dynasty in the tenth century.The Liao Dynasty built a new city in Beijing, and the Minzhong Temple was surrounded by the new city, located in the east of the new city.In the twelfth century, the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao Dynasty, and it re-enlarged the city of Beijing.Outside the city built in the Liao Dynasty, a city four times as large was built, and it was enclosed inside. At this time, the Minzhong Temple was located in the southeast of Beijing City in the Jin Dynasty.In the thirteenth century, the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Jin Dynasty and rebuilt the city of Beijing. The entire city was moved northward, and only a small part of the northeast corner of the city of the Jin Dynasty was incorporated into the new city of the Yuan Dynasty. At this time, Minzhong Temple was thrown in the southwest corner outside the city.In the 14th century, the Ming Dynasty drove away the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt the city of Beijing. The entire city was moved southward, and a square city was built, which merged into two-thirds of the old city of the Yuan Dynasty. At this time, the Minzhong Temple was still in the The southwest corner outside the city, but it is closer to the city than it was a hundred years ago.In the sixteenth century, the minister told the eleventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty that the people outside the city were twice as many as those inside the city, and they had to be protected.So in 1550, the emperor asked Yan Song, a traitorous minister, to preside over it, and built an outer city on the south side of the city, which was a little wider from east to west than the inner city, and half shorter from north to south than the inner city.Since then, the appearance of this ancient city has been determined.In this way, for more than four hundred and thirty years, until today.

When the outer city was completed in 1550, the Minzhong Temple was formally relocated to Beijing.Ninety-four years later, the Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchus in the Liao River Basin ruled over Han China.Eighty-seven years later, Emperor Yongzheng, the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty, thought of this martyr's temple in 1731, the ninth year of his accession to the throne, and he renamed it Fayuan Temple.Forty-nine years later, Gaozong Qianlong, the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, also came here in person, and personally inscribed the four characters Fahai Zhenyuan, carved it into a plaque, and hung it in this temple.

More than one hundred and sixty years have passed, and the vicinity of Fayuan Temple has become more populated, and there are also more abandoned sites and barren tombs in the south of the temple. Many people who came to Beijing from other places died in Beijing and could not be buried. They are all buried here.Cremation was not popular at that time, and it was not easy to transport the coffin back to the hometown after death.They could not return to their hometown when they were alive, and they buried their bones here after death. They always hoped to have a taste of their hometown. Therefore, these cemeteries were also divided into sections. Jiangsu people were buried in Jiangsu Yidi, Jiangxi people were buried in Jiangxi Yidi, and Henan people were buried in Henan Yidi. , and those that cannot be clearly divided, there are many righteous places to bury.As for those who can be buried, the coffins are first parked on the temple, and a long bench is placed in the vacant room of the temple, and the coffin is placed on it. Sometimes it is placed for a long time, and no one even asks.Some coffins are not good, they will produce insects and emit a stench, and the people in the temple have to paint them with thick paint again and again.

In this way, the temples in Beijing have become a transition between people's life and death. The monks in the temples, in addition to their own practice in the world, their important duties are to solve the problems of humans and gods on behalf of people before they are alive, and deal with the problems of humans and ghosts after death. The same is true for the monks of Fayuan Temple. The difference is that Fayuan Temple has its unique sad atmosphere among the temples in Beijing.Most other temples were built for relatively simple reasons, such as Longfu Temple and Fahua Temple, which were built only by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in order to promote Buddhism at the request of the eunuchs; The residence of Dorgon, the Regent of the Qing Dynasty, was completed just by changing the residence.Fayuan Temple is completely different.It was built four years before Emperor Taizong's death, and its purpose is to commemorate the martyrs and national martyrs who died for China. Its mournful atmosphere is revealed from its original words of compassion and loyalty.The names of the temples in Beijing, such as Bolin Temple, Xianliang Temple, Puji Temple, Guanghua Temple, Baochan Temple, Miaoying Temple, Guangji Temple, Chongxiao Temple, Longshu Temple, Longquan Temple, etc., do not have the meaning of sadness. Zhu Temple, Ruiying Temple, Daqingshou Temple, Yanshou Temple, etc., are even filled with joy.Only Minzhong Temple, from the very beginning, revealed gloom and confusion.Its future history has been accompanied by this atmosphere again and again.Four hundred and eighty years after its construction, a subjugated emperor was imprisoned in it. That was Qinzong of the Northern Song Dynasty. He had a poor life experience. His father Huizong was far more an artist than an emperor. He reigned for 25 years , After messing up the country, he threw it to him. He only served as emperor for one year, then the country was destroyed, and then he was a prisoner for thirty years.In Minzhong Temple, he thought back to his homeland, and lived a painful and desolate time in the dawn and sunset.

In the thirteenth century, the Southern Song Dynasty also died.Xie Fangde, a Jinshi from Jiangxi, failed to participate in the resistance against the Mongolian soldiers, and his wife was captured.He concealed his name and told fortunes in the rivers and lakes. He refused to use Yuan Dynasty money, but only accepted rice noodles and other real objects. If he was given money, he got angry and threw it underground.When he was discovered, he fled to Fujian and hid in Wuyi Mountain.After the Yuan Dynasty unified China, in order to favor the Han people, they went to the south of the Yangtze River to visit the surviving scholars of the Song Dynasty and cooperate with them. A list of 30 people was made, and Xie Fangde was among them. The officials who invited credit found him and forced him to go north.After arriving in Beijing, he was placed in Minzhong Temple. He saw the monument of Cao E in the temple, and thought of Cao E, a Han Dynasty girl who committed suicide at the age of fourteen in order to find her father’s body. I can't be inferior to you!So he starved himself to death in Minzhong Temple.When he died, he was sixty-four years old.

Minzhong Temple, with such a tragic life experience, has come down from history.In the fourteenth century, before the Minzhong Pavilion collapsed, Zhang Zhu, an old man who was born at the time of the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty and died at the time of the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, left a mournful verse for it. yes: A Hundred Steps to the Blue Sky Leaning on the railing Haohao Na Changfeng. Gold and silver palaces are in the sky. Splendid mountains and rivers in one breath. Things go forward and people grow old, The soul comes to the sea and the ghost is the hero. I only pity the south garden of the spring scenery,

Loneliness leaves the old red. The story of this book began when I was alone in my spare time.