Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 932 0927 [Yelü Dashi expands again]

In terms of social influence at the time, Song Dynasty Buddhism was dominated by Zen and Tiantai sects, and the rest could be classified as "other sects."

In addition to being close to Confucianism, Zen Buddhism has also developed a very secular approach, combining practice with daily life. They can discuss the mysteries of the world with scholars, and are also good at telling stories to ordinary people.

The decline of other sects was mainly due to the suppression of Buddhism in the late Tang Dynasty and the wars during the Five Dynasties.

How can we revive the society if we can’t even find all the Buddhist scriptures at home?

The revival of Tiantai Sect originated from the reign of Qian Chu, King of Wuyue, who sent people to Korea and Japan to seek Buddhist scriptures and obtained more than 500 volumes of Tiantai Sect scriptures.

If that were the case, then the Tiantai Sect would only flourish in the Wu and Yue areas.

The real rise of this faction actually stemmed from internal divisions.

Among the hundreds of Buddhist scriptures retrieved from overseas, some were incomplete, some had been modified, and some were even fake scriptures of unknown origin.

Surrounding the controversy in the Buddhist scriptures, the Tiantai sect's side branch Siming School launched a debate with the Tiantai sect's orthodox Qiantang School. In the end, the side branch won the debate and became the orthodox, while the orthodox was denounced as heresy.

This is not the end yet. The Siming faction, which had just become orthodox, split again and started a fierce debate.

The debate lasted for eighty years. This is the dispute between the Buddhist sects inside and outside the mountain!
Other Buddhist sects, while eating melons in their daily lives, also learned more about Tiantai Sect. They quietly absorbed the theories of Tiantai Sect, and some even merged into Tiantai Sect.

……

In the autumn, the Buddha tooth from Shandong was brought back to Kaifeng.

The two Buddha teeth were gathered in the two capitals, which quickly attracted eminent monks from all over the country. Eminent monks from various sects came to worship the tooth and held various Buddhist meetings, where they took turns to preach to the believers.

As they talked, they began to debate.

The Zen and Tiantai sects argued with each other, and they also argued among themselves.

There are five schools and seven sects in Zen Buddhism, and there are mountain schools and non-mountain schools in Tiantai Buddhism. They are fighting among themselves and cannot unite to face the outside world.

Other Buddhist sects just sit on the sidelines and watch the fun every day.

The Huayan School was able to participate, as it was revived in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty. A monk named Jingyuan traveled all over the country, collecting, sorting out, and annotating Huayan School scriptures, making Huayan School the third largest school of Buddhism in the Song Dynasty.

The Huayan School absorbed the Zen teachings and had frequent exchanges with the Tiantai School.

At present, the center of the Buddhist Debate Conference has been completely moved to Kaifeng Daxiangguo Temple.

The area there is large enough and there are enough monasteries.

On this day, it was the turn of the Tiantai Sect to have an internal fight. In addition to the eminent monks from various sects who were spectators, there were also countless devout believers who came to listen.

The senior monk from the Shanjia sect talked eloquently and had a fierce debate with the senior monk from the outer sect in the back mountain.

The former was orthodox and received strong support from the Northern Song court.

The latter is more secular and has absorbed a lot of Zen theories and even the thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism.

Just when the debate was at its most intense, the emperor's envoy from Luoyang arrived at the Xiangguo Temple with a group of officials from the Buddhist Registrar's Office.

The debate came to an abrupt end, and both monks and laymen stood up to listen to the emperor's edict.

The emperor stood with his hands behind his back and said with a smile: "What's the point of you guys debating here? Why don't you go to the Western Regions to spread Buddhism?"

The monks were puzzled and asked what he meant.

The emperor's messenger said, "Yelü Dashi, a member of the Liao royal family, founded the Western Liao Kingdom in the Western Regions. There are people of different races and religions there. The people there have not been taught by saints, and they don't know what Buddha and Bodhisattva are. Yelü Dashi has sent people to ask for eminent monks and Buddhist scriptures. If you go there, he will build a temple for you to spread the Dharma, and he will also let orphans of different races become your disciples."

A monk asked: "How big is the territory of Western Liao?"

The emperor's envoys were not very clear either, so they said casually, "Western Liao has a vast territory, about half the size of the Ming Dynasty. If you go there to spread Buddhism, you can lead tens of millions of sentient beings and turn a foreign land equivalent to half the Ming Dynasty into a Buddhist country!"

Hearing this, many monks became excited.

This is a great merit!
The Zen Master Huiyuan, who was only in his thirties, was the first to stand up and say, "I wish to go to the Western Regions!"

Historically, in his later years, Zen Master Huiyuan accepted a disciple who was later honored as Jigong. He also accepted a Japanese disciple, which led to the prosperity of Zen Buddhism in Japan.

Master Miaoguan of the Huayan School said, "I am too old to travel far. Master Hui, you should go to the Western Regions and spread the Huayan Dharma there."

A monk in his thirties put his hands together and said, "I will definitely live up to your trust!"

Each sect has gradually confirmed its main candidates, and the next step is to select accompanying monks.

The monk registrar smiled and said, "Don't worry about your homeland. You can come back anytime after you go to Western Liao. In addition, you will also teach the books of sages to students of other ethnic groups in Western Liao."

The more senior the monk is, the less likely he is to refuse this.

Nearly a hundred monks were selected, most of whom were under 40 years old, as they were too old to withstand the ordeal.

Temples in Luoyang, Kaifeng and surrounding areas, as long as they had woodblocks, began to print Buddhist scriptures crazily.

In the spring of the following year, the monks set off with the envoys from Western Liao.

They took more than 4,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures and 5,000 volumes of Confucian books in large wooden boxes and sailed away. The monks thought that the Western Regions were in Gaochang and had no idea that they were going to Central Asia.

When passing through Gaochang, monks from Turpan and Hami learned that they had brought 4,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures, and they all requested the monks to stay for a while so that they could copy some scriptures they had never seen before.

When they arrived at Husiwoerduo (in Kyrgyzstan), they learned that Yelu Dashi had led his troops to fight.

In order to divert domestic conflicts, Yelu Dashi personally led an expedition to the Western Karakhanid Khanate!
In early summer, a decisive battle broke out between the two countries in Khujand (in Tajikistan).

The king of the Western Karakhanid Khanate at that time was the nephew of the Seljuk Sultan, namely Mahmud II.

Western Liao won a great victory.

Mahmud II fled back to Samarkand in a panic with his remaining troops, and frantically recruited soldiers in an attempt to defend the capital.

Yelu Dashi did not continue to pursue and kill them, but chose to stop while he was ahead. He set up the Fergana Basin as a prefecture, let his trusted confidants lead the army to garrison Khujand, and at the same time rewarded those foreign generals.

After this battle, the Western Karakhanid Khanate was devastated and nearly half of its territory was annexed by Yelu Dashi.

Especially the Fergana Basin, which is a major granary and is firmly controlled by Yelu Dashi.

Mahmud II was naturally unwilling to accept defeat, so he quickly wrote a letter to his father... no, to his uncle Sanjar. He asked his uncle to come and help as soon as possible, because if the Seljuks did not send reinforcements, his country would be doomed sooner or later.

What was Seljuk Sultan Sanjar doing?
He is in the daily suppression of rebellions.

His most trusted vassal general, Ajis, the King of Khwarezm, rebelled.

Ajisi and Yelu Dashi have reached a cooperation in private.

That is, Yelu Dashi sent troops to the Western Karakhanid Khanate, preventing Mahemu II from sending troops to help Sanjar. At the same time, the vassal states to the south of the Western Karakhanid Khanate were also blocked from the shortest marching route and were unable to send troops to support the Seljuks in suppressing the rebellion - in fact, it was giving those vassal states an excuse not to send troops.

At the same time, the Ajis rebellion also attracted firepower, making it impossible for the Seljuk army to rescue Mahmud II.

The cooperation between these two people was a win-win for both sides, and they caused great trouble to the Seljuk Sultan.

Because several vassal states were unable to join the war, the Seljuk army found it difficult to win quickly.

The Western Liao Dynasty had occupied the Fergana Basin, and Sanjar was still continuing to suppress the rebellion in Khwarezm. This rebellion war was expected to last for one or two years.

Upon learning that nearly a hundred monks had arrived, Yelu Dashi hurried back to Husiwoerduo.

Xiao Chala Abu immediately led him to the library, pointed to the nearly ten thousand volumes of books and said, "Your Majesty, I have invited four thousand volumes of Buddhist scriptures and five thousand volumes of books by saints from the Ming Dynasty."

Yelu Dashi was surprised and asked, "Is Emperor Zhu so generous?"

Xiao Chala Abu said: "Emperor Zhu is very generous and praised Your Majesty highly, saying that heroes are heroes wherever they go."

"Did he really say that?" Yelu Dashi asked.

"It's absolutely true," Xiao Chala said, "Emperor Zhu also acknowledged that the Liao Dynasty was a descendant of the Yan and Huang ethnic groups and was also the orthodox Chinese nation. They... they are still compiling the Liao History, and they recognize the Liao Dynasty as the orthodox one along with the Song Dynasty."

Yelu Dashi was both happy and angry: "The Liao Dynasty was still around, so why did he compile the History of Liao? Also, why not the Book of Liao?"

Xiao Chala explained: "There is a book called "Song Shu" during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, so the Ming Dynasty named the history book of the Song Dynasty "Song History". Emperor Zhu also said that from now on, the orthodox will be history and the separatist will be books. For example, the history book of the Jin Dynasty was named "Jin Shu". The rulers and ministers of the Ming Dynasty implicitly called us Western Liao."

"Forget it, they can call it whatever they want. Who caused us to lose our homeland of the Liao Dynasty?"

Yelu Dashi sighed, "I don't know when I can fight back."

Xiao Chala Abu said, "Your Majesty, I have made careful observations in Ming. I found that the ruler and his subjects get along well, the government is in good order, and the people are harmonious. Even though the country has just suffered a major disaster, there are no groups of refugees begging for food. In Shaanxi and Henan, the hungry people returned home after the disaster, and taxes were exempted for the year. The government is also distributing seeds to the hungry people. Such a big country is not easy to conquer, and Emperor Zhu is very popular among the people."

Yelu Dashi was silent for a long time, and then he said with emotion: "Emperor Zhu is generous and willing to give me thousands of books. How can I repay kindness with hatred? China has such a wise ruler. If the Liao Dynasty wants to recover its homeland, I am afraid it can only rely on its descendants."

Xiao Chala Abu said: "There was a severe drought in Xixia last year. Due to poor relief, many hungry people fled to the Ming Dynasty. This spring, I passed through Xixia and found that the countryside was not prosperous and many nobles were short of slaves. Some slaves escaped and some died. This was not only because of the disaster, but also because the slaves were treated too harshly."

"In the past, when slaves from the Western Xia died, they could go to the border of the Song State to plunder for replacement. But after the establishment of the Ming State, the Western Xia people dared not plunder anymore, resulting in a decreasing number of slaves."

The Iron Harriers of Western Xia were indeed powerful, but their real strengths were the capture of living soldiers and the collision of young men.

The capture army was the basic military force of the Western Xia Dynasty, with a strength of 100,000 at its peak. They abducted border residents of the Song Dynasty as slaves, and selected strong ones from the obedient slaves to form the capture army.

Although Zhuang Linglang was a cannon fodder, he was quite brave in fighting and always charged to the front in every battle.

Now, Xixia has not been able to plunder Han people as slaves for ten years, and naturally cannot select cannon fodder from among the slaves.

Without Han cannon fodder to lead the charge, the capture troops could only lead the charge.

Are the soldiers willing to capture the living?

Those capture troops were very slippery and came from various tribes of Xixia. If they suffered heavy losses, their pastures or farmland would be occupied by neighboring tribes.

Under such circumstances, the capture army would prioritize preserving its strength and would absolutely not fight to the death.

If the two countries go to war, I'm afraid the Western Xia army will be defeated very quickly!

(End of this chapter)