In 71 AD, the first Buddhist taoist controversy was ushered in in China. The two sides test who is not afraid of fire. As a result, the Taoist scriptures were burned by fire, while the Buddhist scriptures were not only not burned, but also emitted five colors of brilliance. At that time, the Han Ming Emperor ordered the construction of a "scripture burning platform" at the place of the competition to commemorate this event. Buddhism has since spread widely throughout China, reaching a peak during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, when emperors of various countries proclaimed themselves Buddhists. Until the Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong came to power and began the second Buddhist Taoist controversy, after seven debates between hundred officials, Taoists, and monks, Emperor Zhou Wu began the campaign to eliminate Buddhism, destroying Buddha statues, burning Buddhist scriptures, making monks return to customs, and staged the "burning of scriptures and destruction of statues".
62 years after Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed the Buddha, a monk came to the capital Chang'an with 657 sutras, which caused quite a stir, and thus derived a famous book - "Journey to the West", this monk is the Tang monk.
In Journey to the West, the cause of Tang Monk's sutra is that Li Shimin did not stop Wei Zheng because he promised to save the Jinghe Dragon King who violated the Heavenly Rule, and let Wei Zheng kill the Jinghe Dragon King in his dream.
The Dragon King of Jinghe filed a complaint in the Difu, and Li Shimin began a "day trip to the Difu". Under the arrangement of the prefectural staff, Li Shimin visited various attractions in the prefectural government, and the staff also specially let Li Shimin see the ghosts killed by himself, including his brother and brother. Li Shimin was very frightened, and the prefectural government staff took the opportunity to let Li Shimin hold a water and land conference to surpass the souls. Li Shimin thought that the prefectural staff was very enthusiastic, but he did not know that he had already entered the Buddhist routine.
Later, we know that the Tang monk was the reincarnation of the second disciple of Rulai, The Golden Cicada, and in order to make the Golden Cicada return, while preaching Buddhism, Guanyin and others single-handedly planned the "Western Heavens to Learn the Scriptures" plan, including Li Shimin's trip to the prefecture, and even the death of the Dragon King of Jinghe.
After Li Shimin returned to the Yang Realm, he held a water and land conference, during which Guanyin transformed into an old monk and sent a robe and a Zen staff to the Tang monks, which made Li Shimin determined to send people to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures. For this reason, the Tang monks were also named "royal brothers" and went to the Western Heavens to seek the true scriptures.
But the real history of the Tang monks is not as beautiful as in "Journey to the West".
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan recognized himself as a very powerful ancestor - Lao Tzu, because Lao Tzu was the founder of Taoism, so Taoism became the "state religion" at that time, and Buddhism was naturally compared.
Some monks entered the path from the Buddha, and some monks concentrated on studying the Buddhist scriptures to soothe their own souls. The Tang monk was the second type of person, but he immediately found that many of the Buddhist scriptures were not accurately translated, and each person translated a different version. This is because when Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed the Buddha, he burned some of the classic Buddhist scriptures, and some monks who were proficient in Buddhism were forced to return to the world, and then almost all died on the battlefield.
As a result, many people in the translation of the scriptures in later generations have translated them based on their feelings and patted their heads. As a Buddhist study monk, The Tang monk naturally could not tolerate the translation of these problematic Buddhist scriptures, but he needed to understand Sanskrit for his own translation. He then reported to Emperor Taizong of Tang that li shimin was going to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures, hoping that the boss would allocate some financial support and give some identity support, such as visiting scholars, that is, "publicly funded business trips".
Tang Monk made several reports, but did not get Li Shimin's approval.
There was no way, he had to take his apprentice to the Western Heavens at his own expense. At the same time, because Li Shimin did not approve it, Tang Monk did not get a "passport" and could not pass through the relevant passes normally. However, God gave Tang Monk a chance.
In 629, a great catastrophe occurred in Chang'an, and the imperial court asked the people to go out to make a living for themselves. Tang Monk and his disciples disguised themselves, mixed with the victims, and left Chang'an.
Tang monks went west along the Silk Road to Liangzhou, and since there was no passport such as "Customs Clearance Wenmu", Tang Monk had to choose a small path, leave Datang, and go to the Western Regions.
In "Journey to the West", Tang Monk encounters his daughter country and wants Tang Monk to stop traveling west and stay in his daughter country. In real history, although the Tang monks did not have such blessings, they also encountered similar things.
After the Tang monks arrived in Gaochangguo, the king of Gaochang was a buddhist, and after he heard about the Tang monks, he entertained the Tang monks well and talked about the Dharma with them, and when he found that the Tang monks were profound, he married them, and at the same time tried his best to let the Tang monks stay in Gaochangguo.
Tang Monk had no choice but to go on a hunger strike to protest, and when King Gaochang knew about it, he was very ashamed and sent someone to escort Tang Monk to India. The Tang monks then promised the King of Gaochang that when he returned, he would stay in Gaochangguo for 3 years and preach to the king, the people, and the monks of Gaochangguo.
Therefore, the Tang monks can indeed be called "royal brothers", but they are not Li Shimin's "royal brothers", but the "royal brothers" of King Gao Changguo.
After the Tang monks arrived in India, they went to nalanda Monastery, the holy place of Buddhism at that time, to study, and worshiped the senior monks and sages in it as their teachers.
In 642 AD, the King of India held a Buddhist debate, and the Tang monks were the masters of the debate, similar to the "wrestlers" who are now beating. At that time, the kings of the countries in the Western Regions and the three thousand monks would ask him a question, and the Tang monks answered it like a stream. As a result, the name of the Tang monk "Holy Monk" had spread in the Western Regions.
After tang monks finished their studies, they set off to return to China, which was much better than when they came. When many countries on the road heard that the Tang monks had arrived, they would entertain them well and send someone to escort them.
The fame of the Tang monks also passed into the Tang Dynasty. When the Tang monks arrived in Chang'an with 657 Buddhist scriptures, because Li Shimin was fighting in Goguryeo, he ordered the chancellor Fang Xuanling to greet the Tang monks.
The monks of the Chang'an City Temple and the hundred officials of the court came to greet the Tang monks, to see what the Tang monks really looked like, and how they could accomplish such a feat.
After Li Shimin returned to Chang'an, the Tang monks met with Li Shimin on horseback and told Li Shimin about the resources and customs of the countries in the Western Regions and India and other countries along the way, and Zhang Qian and Ban Chao did not have any relevant records. Li Shimin listened to Tang Monk's observations and felt as if he had opened the door to a new world. He persuaded the Tang monks to return to the world, and then gave the high-ranking official Houlu, who had been tempered on the way to the west to learn the scriptures, and had already reached the realm of "being patient with the heart, and being rigid without desire".
He knew that Emperor Taizong of Tang gave him an official position in order to lead the Tang Dynasty's army to conquer the territory beyond the Western Regions like Zhang Qian.
At the same time, since the Western Regions and other countries are all countries that believe in Buddhism, allowing themselves to serve as officials can better make the Western Regions submit to the Tang Dynasty.
In the end, as the most famous monk, he chose to be a lay official, which will also set an example for other monks and reduce the number of monks. It can be seen that Li Shimin did not believe in Buddhism, and he showed such a welcome to himself, just for his own ambitions.
Thinking of this, Tang Monk rejected Li Shimin with a Buddhist title, but he wrote his experience into a book "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty", which satisfies Li Shimin from another aspect.
The so-called "all things are insightful and learned, and the cultivation of human feelings is the article", Tang Monk, as a senior monk, also has a deep understanding of this. But he knows the world and is not sophisticated, but does not forget his original intention, worthy of the name of "high monk".
Then he began translating the Sutras himself, what he first wanted to do. He translated and spoke at the same time, which benefited the disciples a lot. The youngest of them, the Debater monk, because of his outstanding Buddhist studies, often went to the places of the princess and the prince to preach to him after Li Shimin's death, and also had a relationship with Princess Gaoyang. It can be seen how prosperous Buddhism was after the Tang monk Xi tian took the sutra to Chang'an.