The moon and the stars were scarce, and the snoring was loud in the small thatched hut at the foot of the mountain on the shady side of the Liangchan Temple, but it was an unattractive young woman who was so indecent. She spread her hands and feet and occupied most of the bed. She turned domineeringly and accidentally gave the middle-aged bald monk beside her to the bed. Kicking off the bed, the poor monk sat on the ground in a daze for a while, got up and put on a plain white cassock, and walked out of the room. The next door was divided into two small rooms by wooden boards. The monk in white came to the daughter's room and covered her. What a blanket, this girl's sleeping appearance is exactly the same as her mother's, restless. When I came to the apprentice's room again, I saw that this little idiot had a good dream in all likelihood, guessing that it was a dream about going crazy with things, so he just smiled. The shabby small room is neat and clean, and the shoes and socks of the two women in the family are always thrown all over the place. This is different from the north and the south. Everything is always meticulously arranged, just like he preached the scriptures to the monks of the Hui family in the temple.
The monk in white walked out of the hut alone and came to the Hall of Thousand Buddhas. The wall was painted with Vajra Arhat boxing, which was lifelike. The ground was uneven, with a total of 128 small footprints. It is rumored in the world that this is the most powerful in Liangchan Temple. With a supernatural power of subduing demons, whoever can face the wall and watch the boxing, and take one hundred and eight steps correctly, can be firmly ranked among the top three in the martial arts world. The reason why this hall is called the Thousand-Buddha Hall is that the two Chan Temples carve Buddha here once a year. So far, there have been more than a thousand Buddha statues. Standing at the gate of the hall and looking at it, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions are not the same. Compared with the Sanmianquan, it is more magnificent. The first generation of the two Buddhist temples left Buddhist words. Anyone who enters the hall, and everyone who sees, hears, and knows will be liberated from Bodhi. of the seeds.
A couplet hangs in the hall: It has been three thousand years since the lotus was born step by step, and the hall has been rebuilt for Arhats. After going through eighty-one hardships, I am willing to use the twenty-eight products to teach the Dharma to all living beings.
It's just that since the white-clothed monk returned to Tai'an City from the far west and then returned to Liangchan Temple, he only carved a statue of an Arhat. In that year, he just brought the little monk Ben Nanbei back to the mountain.
The monk in white looked up at the statue of Thousand Buddhas filled with moonlight after opening the door and sighed.
The little monk Wu Nanbei appeared behind the white-clothed monk at some unknown time, and said worriedly, "Master, my wife is going down the mountain again tomorrow?"
The monk in white said with a face of resignation: "Go, go, anyway, there are not a few copper coins left in the bowl."
Stupid Nanbei and old-fashioned Hengqiu sighed: "After going down the mountain a few times, now I will only pick the expensive ones with my wife, what should I do in the future?"
"Why are you awake?"
"I just held hands with something in my dream, but she woke up when she knocked on my chestnut. Hey, Master, why did you hit me?"
"What else are you doing besides holding hands?"
"No, just hold hands, what else can I do?"
"Really? Monks don't tell lies, so many bodhisattvas and arhats in the Thousand Buddha Hall are all looking at you!"
"Uh, besides holding hands, I also told the thing that I like her..."
"No wonder you got beaten."
"Master, the old abbot said that you are the reincarnation of the third unstained Arhat. According to Buddhist scriptures, this Bodhisattva has no delusion and troubles. Why do you always have a bitter face?"
"The great host also said that you are the last disciple of the Buddha, the Venerable Subhadhara, and you received the teachings and received the Bodhisattva fruit after the Buddha's Nirvana. It sounds amazing. How come you are wise, erudite, and eloquent? Don't talk about the temple and the mountain, just say that there are only four of us in thatched hut, who have you quarreled with?"
"Well, the old abbot likes to say good things to everyone, and it's really nothing to be happy about being praised."
"Master, why don't you teach me how to play chess?"
"Why do you want to learn chess?"
"Dongshi begged my wife to buy two boxes of chess pieces at the foot of the mountain, but my wife can't play. If Dongshi said he couldn't play with you, he could only play with me."
"My daughter is the smartest girl in the world, but she is learning chess. She is really brilliant because her understanding is not so amazing. Maybe she can't beat you. Then the master's copper coins will be wasted again."
"It's okay, I'll let her."
"Stupid! How many handicap games can you make?"
"For the rest of my life, anyway, I'll just wait until I become a relic, and it's not a few decades after all."
"Okay, Master hasn't touched the chess pieces for some years, you go and get the chess box."
"Now? How dare I go to the east and west rooms? I don't want to be beaten to death, and I don't dare to run. What if I run into the forest of steles like before and can't find my things? When the time comes, my wife will only be able to serve the meal." Give me half a bowl."
"Although tens of thousands of people will go to the place of Tao, they don't understand this truth? What kind of Buddha are you still practicing?"
"Master, aren't these words a warning to the world from the Confucian saints at the foot of the mountain?"
"Is that so?"
"It's absolutely true! Alas, I used to hear from the abbots in the monastery that you were very good at giving lectures and discussions on the Lotus Terrace once every ten years. Even those scholars and Daoists admired you. Give them coppers?"
"Fart! Isn't your wife staring at Master's private money?"
"Didn't you just ask me to bury the pottery pot under the stone tablet of "Twenty Classes of the Dragon Gate" at the back of the house?"
"Ha, Beinan, the moonlight is good today. You wait here, and Master will go get the chess box."
"..."
A moment later, the white-clothed monk held two boxes of chess pieces and a rough chess pier that the young monk cut down trees to make. The master and his disciples sat on the ground in the Thousand Buddha Hall. The white-clothed monk rolled his eyes at the crooked chess pier. Instead of using it, seventeen vertical and horizontal paths were carved on the floor with fingers. The ground in the hall is carefully paved with special stone materials. The world calls it "the diamond mirror surface". No marks were cut out, so the one hundred and eight clear footprints showed extraordinary powers. The young monk Wu Nanbei was not surprised at the line drawn by the master's finger, but said with a mournful face: "Master, the chief host is okay, the other abbots will definitely tell me about the Dharma for a few days and nights."
The white-clothed monk said indifferently: "Let them talk about it."
The little monk said sadly and angrily: "But they don't want to talk to you, Master, so they just caught me and won't let me go!"
Chattering is the unique mantra of the weird family of four in this monastery.
The white-clothed monk turned a deaf ear to it, glanced at the nineteen chess pieces, snorted, thought for a while, clapped his hands and laughed loudly and said, "Excellent, but unfortunately there is no wine. Back then, Master played two draws with you, an old rascal. Five ways and seventeen ways, he said angrily that if it was nineteen ways, Master, I would be no match for him. But judging from the situation at the time, this hooligan was not willing to be the first to propose a nineteen way chessboard. He is stupid, but he knows who it is The first?"
"It seems to be Xu Fengnian's second sister, named Xu Weixiong, and the name is magnificent. Dongshi has been envious of her for a long time, and complained to Master that you didn't care about choosing the name at all back then. Heh, actually I think the name Shixiong is nice. Just don’t dare to talk about it.”
"It's that bastard Xu Fengnian again! Master has to write down how many knives he has in the ledger when he goes back!"
"Master, you memorize the knife every day now. Xu Fengnian really wants to come to the temple in the future, what should I do? Should I help things or you, Master?"
"What do you say?"
"Help the master now, and help things later."
"Nanbei, Master really didn't realize that before, you are not stupid."
"No!"
"Not stupid or stupid, when you are not stupid one day, things really don't like you."
"Ah? Master, don't scare me, I won't be able to sleep at night! I won't have the energy to cook for you tomorrow."
"If that's the case, you're assuming the master didn't say that."
"Master, I don't want to learn chess anymore. I want to go outside the east and west rooms to read scriptures."
"Stupid Nanbei, master told you that chanting is useless. The scriptures and the thousand Buddhas in the Hall of Thousand Buddhas are dead objects. If only chanting sutras could produce relics, the host would have already burned tens of thousands of them. Don't talk about this, teach me You play chess."
The white-clothed monk just briefly explained the rules of Go. In the first game, the six players were handicapped. In the second game, the five sons were handicapped, and the little monk still lost. In the third game, the little monk lost three games in a row.
The white-clothed monk frowned and said, "Nanbei, this is not acceptable. How can you make a move tomorrow without letting her see that you are making a move?"
Once serious, the young monk with a solemn face nodded and said: "Master, I will play chess more carefully."
In the fourth game, only three pieces were handed over. According to common sense, the monk in white had fewer handoffs, and he did not deliberately let the water pass. Naturally, it should be that the young monk's chess game became more and more ugly. But gradually improved.
In the fifth game, the monk in white looked at the sky and said, "There is no handicap in this game. If you survive to one hundred and sixty moves, you will win. You can play chess with things tomorrow."
Ben Nanbei nodded vigorously and gave a hum. Just as he was about to hold the white first, he accidentally saw an ant scurrying around in the cassock. The little monk smiled innocently, and gently stretched out two fingers that were still holding the chess pieces, letting the little ant crawl. Get it in your hand, put it on the ground, and wait for it to go far, and then it will land on the diamond mirror.
In this round, after all, the little monk lasted to more than one hundred and seventy hands.
The white-clothed monk didn't go down any more, and said with a smile, "Are you asleep now?"
The little monk touched his bald head and said happily, "Okay!"
The white-clothed monk waved his hand and said, "Go, the pier and chess box are all left."
The little monk let out an oh, got up and left the Thousand Buddha Hall.
The monk in white, who was sitting cross-legged, waited for his apprentice to go far away, and returned to the hut after a while. Then, resting his cheek on one hand, he leaned over and stared at the chess game.
The white-clothed monk stretched his waist and said softly, "Cao Changqing, you are still so patient. No wonder he is called Guanzi Cao."
Apart from his words, the hall is still silent.
The monk in white stretched out his hand to grab it, and a dozen white chess pieces on the ground suddenly hung in the air, and with a light flick, the chess pieces shot to one side like a shower.
Later, an elegant man dressed in a scribe's green shirt appeared leisurely in the hall, holding the sixteen chess pieces in his hands, one chess piece was popped out at each step, and the chess pieces could not be seen in the air. In the blink of an eye, the monk's cassock in white was stuck. Fifteen pieces, this unscrupulous monk who drank and ate meat and married his wife and gave birth to a daughter remained unmoved, but the thousands of Buddha sculptures in the hall were all shaking, as if they had been invaded by a giant barrier from heaven and demons, especially the statues of Vajra Grime Bodhisattva and Arhat. When swinging back and forth, the momentum is particularly frightening. It must be that the fifteen chess pieces hit the monk's robes in white, and each chess piece brought a violent surge of energy ripples, which attracted such a vision.
The handsome and extraordinary middle-aged scribe only had the last pawn left in his hand, and said with a smile: "Sure enough, no one in the world can break your diamond realm."
Seeing no movement by the monk in white clothes, fifteen white pieces fell from the cassock to the ground, and then quickly rolled back to the original position of the chess board on the diamond mirror as if endowed with spirituality.
The monk in white said plainly, "Official Cao's Fifteen Finger Profound is just that, why don't you take out the Celestial Realm and try it out?"
The slender scribe smiled, lightly threw the chess piece in his hand on the ground, jumped forward a few times, just returned to his original position obediently like the fifteen pieces, shook his head and said: "Don't try it, it was claimed to be able to fight against Qi Xuanjiao back then. The first person from Beimang came southward and arrived at the Liangchan Temple. It is different that you will not be hurt at all, but you stepped on the ground with one hundred and eight diamond seals in anger. But I am very strange, you and Fighting is a draw, why do you still like to play chess? Huang Longshi first used the lives of more than 300 monks to fight against you, one for one, and forty-three people died in this game. The national war is over, Huanglong Shi forces you to play again, but they use hundreds of Buddhist temples in hundreds of counties in the world as chess pieces. If you lose a piece, you will destroy one, and if you win a piece, you will let the Liyang Dynasty build another one. Why are you still playing chess? A draw? After looking at the game record, you really have little chance of winning the first game, but you are clearly expected to beat Huang Longshi in the second game."
The white-clothed monk looked up at the famous Cao Guanzi. He was similar to himself. This guy also played chess with Huang Longshi himself. It is said that the hand-to-hand talks between the two were close to the level of officials. Cao Guanzi is of course stronger than those royal court players. It's more than a half-up, but facing such a fairy figure in the eyes of the world, the monk in white is still calm, and said flatly: "If I say that I am in a hurry to go home and cook for my wife, do you believe it or not?"
Cao Guanzi didn't laugh when he heard this rare joke in the world. He sighed regretfully and said, "Now that I even have a daughter, I don't have the patience to accompany me to the end. It seems that I have no chance to play chess with you."
The monk in white sneered, "Whoever wants to play chess with you can play a game of chess for months or years."
Cao Guanzi, whose real name is Cao Changqing, who has long been unknown, sat opposite the white-clothed monk, glanced at the chess game that he had already mastered by heart, and said with a smile: "You are really good, apprentice. You deserve to be regarded by Buddhism as the hope of the Dharma-ending apocalypse. "
The monk in white said calmly: "Cao Changqing, my temper is actually not as good as you think."
"You are willing to play chess with me, but I don't want to fight with you. Here, I found good wine for you in the palace."
Cao Guanzi took off the flagon from his waist and threw it to the monk in white. Then he picked up a white piece with his left hand and dropped it lightly, as if he knew that the monk in white would not play chess with him, so he picked up the black piece with his right hand and dropped it on the ground, forming a scene of self-entertainment, and said: "Don't worry, I will I would rather compete with Deng Tai'a's peach blossoms than have anything to do with you, the world only knows that you are invincible, but I know that you are fearful."
The monk in white took a sip of wine, frowned and asked, "Then the Korean cat didn't leave you behind?"
Cao Guanzi played chess on the left and right, shook his head and said, "It just so happened that we didn't meet each other this time."
The white-clothed monk wiped his mouth and asked, "You downcast scholar from Western Chu, are you still thinking about finding that little princess who is blessed with good luck and restoring the country?"
Guanzi Cao said with a dejected expression, "Why don't you think so. It is said that she died for the country together with His Majesty the Emperor, but I still don't believe that the little princess will die. The Dragon Qi of Western Chu is still there, and Qin Tianjian dare not admit it."
The white-clothed monk raised his head and took a sip of wine, "Cao Changqing, are you here for my new calendar? The Liyang Dynasty followed the old calendar, and it was originally enshrined in heaven, but after the annexation of the eight kingdoms, it is obviously out of date. Qin Tianjian is busy with this, I This side is intermittent, not in a hurry. Are you thinking of doing something? To preserve a glimmer of hope for your subjugated little princess?"
Cao Guanzi stood up suddenly, bowed to the bottom, and refused to straighten his waist for a long time.
The white-clothed monk sighed: "Cao Changqing, you really don't know that this is an act of usurping life against the sky? You don't know the fate of Ren Tianshi on Longhu Mountain?"
Cao Guanzi, who has almost become the leader of the rivers and lakes in one fell swoop in the past twenty years, and is as arrogant as anyone else, still does not straighten his back.
The white-clothed monk hesitated for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "It's not that I don't help, but that the general trend is the general trend. The old Western Chu can't do anything at all. So what if there is an old grand master Sun Xiji who cooperates with others? Is it true that the whole world is a fool waiting to die? Xu Xiao Gu Jiantang is not dead, the six vassal kings are not dead, and now Zhang Julu is added, and the one in the palace, Cao Changqing, Cao Changqing, the sages only say to turn the tide, but the tide is over, the overall situation is settled, what can you do? What? Not to mention you, even immortals like Qi Xuanzhu are useless!"
Cao Guanzi straightened up, stunned and speechless, with a desolate expression on his face.
Outside the Thousand Buddha Hall, thunder and lightning flashed, and soon there was heavy rain.
The monk in white looked down at the white son Cao Guanzi had placed instead of his apprentice, and resolutely ignored it. Where is Cao Guanzi's impeccable official son? For a while, I was a little bit agitated, and sighed, "Forget it, this pot of wine is good wine. I can only guarantee that the little princess of Xichu will not die. I can't help you with the rest. If you make further progress, I will at most go down the mountain to the palace to ask for it." A jug of wine for you."
Cao Guanzi bowed again, turned around casually, and walked into the heavy rain.
This is exactly what I am going to do even though there are thousands of people.
The pride of Confucianism lasts forever.
Even though the monk in white was in the door of release, he was still a little sentimental.
Just about to fall asleep, the young monk was awakened by the sound of thunder and hurried over with an oil-paper umbrella. Seeing a jug of wine in Master's hand, and thinking of the middle-aged scholar who walked out of the Thousand Buddha Hall just now, he asked in confusion, "Master, Is this wine given to you by the scholar?"
The monk in white nodded.
Ben Nanbei put away his umbrella, grinned and said, "I held one and took another. I met this gentleman just now, so I borrowed one from him."
The white-clothed monk stared and said, "What are you borrowing him for? You can only pay it back in the year of the ox! You need a lot of copper coins for an umbrella!"
The little monk wondered: "Then what should I do? I lectured in the monastery, and the chief abbot didn't give me copper coins. It would be bad if I asked my wife about things tomorrow."
The monk in white said helplessly: "Forget it, just say I bought wine."
The little monk shouted gratefully: "Master!"
The white-clothed monk rolled his eyes and said: "Master is going to the Buddhist scripture pavilion in the monastery to hide from your teacher's wife. Go to sleep."
The little monk said anxiously: "Master, why don't I tell Master the truth?"
The white-clothed monk stood up and slammed a chestnut on the stupid apprentice's forehead, "Idiot!"
The little monk smiled brightly.
The white-clothed monk earnestly taught: "Nanbei, if my wife is angry tomorrow, the most you can do is to eat less and work more, but your teacher is in a bad mood, so you don't always like to go down the mountain to buy some clothes that you can't wear even a few times a year." Clothes, this is all Master's hard-earned money."
The little monk suddenly realized.
The monk in white smiled and said, "Go, go to bed."
The little monk hummed and said, "I'm afraid of thunder, so I'll go outside the door and read scriptures for her."
The monk in white touched his bald head, this apprentice.
Standing at the entrance of the Hall of Thousand Buddhas, seeing Ben Nanbei running in the mud and ignoring the rain, the monk in white murmured: "Stupid Nanbei, you have a Zen, which is worthy of the Tathagata and worthy of Qing."