So is there really a man named Fahai in history?
Indeed, there was a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty. His legal name is fahai. He was not only a famous monk at that time, but also a famous minister, Dad Peixiu, who became famous as a prime minister.
Pei Xiu worships Buddhism, and he and his contemporaries Pang Yun, Bai Letian, Li Ao and Lu Gen occupy an important position in the history of Zen Buddhism. However, since the extinction of Buddhism by Wu Zong, Pei Xiu struggled hard, but after middle age, he began to be a vegetarian, abandoned all desires, burned incense and recited scriptures, and the world called him "Master Hedong". Therefore, Pei Xiu sent Pei Wende, who was short, into the Buddha and became a monk, which was later known as the Fahai monk.
According to the records of Records of Jinshan Temple, Records of Dantu County, Records of Three Mountains in Jingkou and Records of Landscape in Jingkou, the founder of Jinshan Temple, the old Zen master Fa Hai, was Pei Wende, the son of Pei Xiu. After Fahai became a monk, he practiced in Weishan, Hunan Province according to his father's arrangement, then went to Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province to participate in meditation, and finally meditated at Zexin Temple in Jiashan, Zhenjiang.
But at this time, Zexin Temple, which was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, collapsed and was overgrown with weeds. Fahai, 46, knelt in front of the remaining Buddha statue and vowed to repair the temple. To show his determination, he clicked a finger directly. ......
Since then, Fahai, an old monk, has lived in a cave, opened mountains for farming and devoted himself to studying Buddhism. It is estimated that the Buddha opened his eyes. Once Fahai accidentally dug up a batch of gold while digging a temple, but CSI was still unmoved and handed it over to Li Qi, the governor of Zhenjiang at that time. Li Qi played Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and the emperor was deeply moved. He ordered the gold to be transported back to Fahai to repair the temple and named it Jinshan Temple. Since then, Zexin Temple has been renamed Jinshan Temple, and Fahai has been honored as the "founder of Jinshan Temple".
At present, there is still a "Fahai Cave" (also known as Peigong Cave) on the lower west side of the Jinshan Temple Tower, which is said to be the cave where Fahai lived when he built the temple.
So how did such a monk become a nosy, stubborn, archaic "guardian" and reviled monk?
Fahai in history has never separated other people's couples and families, and certainly has never met a white snake. The earliest white snake story in history comes from the white snake Leifeng Pagoda in Yongzhen compiled by Feng Menglong in the late Ming Dynasty. However, Fahai in the story is a real monk, and this story is a warning to the world. The image of the white snake is the desire for love. Not the kind of person who is serious anyway. What happened to them was not just love. Feng Menglong's story is more about people's performance in front of desire. .....
But after the story spread, storytellers and novel lovers re-created it and gave it more elements. Of course, love is one of them, but the most important thing is the establishment of Fahai and the imprisonment of feudal ethics to the real world. The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the heyday of feudal ethics, and people expected such stories, which was a spiritual accusation and normal.
Poor master Fahai has thus become the most indelible villain in literary and artistic works. The touching love that happened by the West Lake in Hangzhou, the old Zen master who rang the bell and recited the scriptures at Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, the ancient pagoda by the West Lake and the temple on Jinshan are far away in space and distance. There shouldn't be much overlap, so how can it be connected?
According to Feng Menglong's Warning Records, Xu Xian and Bai Niangzi got to know Fahai Zen Master of Jinshan Temple after opening a pharmacy near Zhenjiang Wharf, thus making Fahai involved in this legend.
And how did the white snake come from?
According to the "Jinshan Temple", "The Python Cave, on the side of the left peak, is dangerous and as deep as four or five meters. In the past, white pythons bit people, and they deserve to be driven away by Buddhist monks. "
When the old monk Fahai built a temple on the mountain, a white boa constrictor often climbed out of the cliff, and people were afraid to burn incense on the mountain. The old monk bravely struggled with the white man and finally drove him to the river.
Zhang Shangying, a poet in the Song Dynasty, praised him in another poem:
"Half stone meditation, cover generation fame is not easy to grind. White mans turn dragons into the sea, leaving old monks in the rocks. "
Generally speaking, this is how the prototype of the story of White Snake came about.