This plot comes from Chapter 78 of The Journey to the West. Since Journey to the West is a supernatural novel, the story of using childlike innocence as an introduction to drugs should be pure fiction. But the world is full of miracles. In the history of China, a similar story really happened, which made people feel that it was not enough to sit in the right position.
Let's talk about an extermination movement.
As we all know, there have been four top-down campaigns to exterminate Buddhas in the history of China: Wu Tai in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Liang Wudi in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Tang Wuzong and Zhou Shizong. The four emperors were not interested in Buddhism, but rejected and attacked Buddhism, so in the history of Buddhism, this was called the "Three Unique Cases".
Tang Wuzong forced some monks and nuns to secularize, and those who violated the precepts of the criminal law could no longer be family members; Some temples have also been demolished. Those who live in temples with less than 200 people and those who have not been approved by * * * before building temples will be demolished. Part of the temple's property, such as land, houses, metal Buddha statues and private savings of some monks, was confiscated and all were nationalized.
If Tang Wuzong only brings disaster to Buddhists, it doesn't matter. Buddhists are only a minority after all. Besides, for real Buddhists, if you destroy the temple and force me to return to the secular world, I can still be a layman and practice at home, right? The problem is that Tang Wuzong has brought disaster not only to Buddhists, but also to ordinary people.
Tang Wuzong rejected Buddhism, but he believed in Taoism, especially superstitious Taoist immortals. A Taoist priest who owed him a flat told him that using people's hearts as a drug primer can be refined into magical pills, and long-term use can lead to immortality. Tang Wuzong actually believed that "let all roads enter the hearts of 15-year-old boys and girls"-asked local officials all over the country to supply him with the hearts of 15-year-old boys and girls.
Why do you have to be a 15-year-old boy and girl? It's not mentioned in the history books. I guess it may have something to do with Uncle Luo. Luo Shu is a seemingly mysterious arrangement of numbers. There are nine numbers arranged in three rows. No matter which line of numbers adds up to fifteen, there are vertical addition and oblique addition. Tang Wuzong may think that the number of Luo Shu contains some power, which helps him to live forever.
After winning the hearts of the people, how can we make a "panacea"? It is not mentioned in the history books, but we can infer from the alchemy of people's hearts recorded in the spell books. According to a spell book, before the alchemy, an altar should be built with loess, and the mage should climb to the altar to draw a symbol to recruit immortals, and then recite the spell: "I will order the old gentleman to enter the palace to recruit immortals quickly, and don't disobey the emperor's orders." As urgent as the law! " Light the symbol, take a breath in the east, and blow the fire with this breath. After the spell is burned to ashes, it is sprinkled into a tripod, water is added into the tripod, the water is boiled, and then a virgin heart and a virgin heart are put into it to cook. After cooking, bury the heart and use the soup inside as medicine. You can only take one pill at a time. It is said that to become immortal, you always have to eat 500 tablets, which is equivalent to killing 250 boys and 250 girls!
Tang Wuzong used people's hearts to make an alchemy. The specific process may not be exactly the same as described above, but the number of boys and girls he killed is certainly amazing, because the literature clearly says: "At the age of fifteen, he killed all the way into the hearts of boys and girls." The "Dao" here is a kind of administrative district, which is at or above the county level, smaller than the present province and larger than the present city. During the reign of Tang Wuzong, there were more than 40 such administrative regions in the Tang Dynasty. Even if he asks each administrative region to hand over only one virginity heart, more than 80 people will die tragically! In human history, dictators are so cruel, stupid, selfish and selfish.
Did Tang Wuzong become immortal after eating the "elixir" made by people's hearts? No, in the fourth year of Huichang (AD 844), this fellow asked local officials to supply the people's hearts. In the sixth year of Huichang (AD 846), he died at the age of 33. The physician said that he died of "dysentery", and I don't know if he had indigestion because he ate too many people's hearts.
Among the emperors in the Tang Dynasty, Tang Wuzong was not the only one who believed in alchemy, and Tang Wuzong was not the only one who died of alchemy. Tang Muzong, before Tang Wuzong, was also an alchemist. He was poisoned by Dan medicine and died at the age of 30. There is also the famous "generation of saints" Emperor Taizong, who was also an alchemist in his later years. His Dan medicine ingredients should be unpopular, but there is stalactite grinding powder. After taking it for a long time, he finally died of "dysentery" like Tang Wuzong.
Speaking of this, I believe that there will be fans of Emperor Taizong standing up and asking, "What evidence do you have?" It's simple. Just look through the 95th volume of the Book of the New Tang Dynasty and the 199 volume of Zi Tong Zhi Jian. Some friends also said, "alchemy is a hobby of Taoism, but Emperor Taizong believed in Buddhism. Didn't he support Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures? " How can I go to an alchemist! "In fact, Xuanzang went to India to learn Buddhist scriptures without the permission of the imperial court. He went there illegally. In addition, alchemy is not a hobby of Taoism, but a sideline of the combination of alchemy and Taoism. Besides, faith has been mixed here for a long time, and some materialists will also ask "masters" to give advice on architectural feng shui. Why can't Emperor Taizong believe in Buddhism and alchemy?
Don't say that Emperor Taizong, including several writers in the Tang Dynasty, such as Han Yu, He and Li Bai, also believed in alchemy. Han Yu fed the cock sulfur, and then ate the cock until he died suddenly; When he was 80 years old, he pulled up the alchemy furnace; Li Bai asked his fourth wife, Zongshi, to enter Lushan Mountain for monasticism, and worshipped Li Kongkong, a female Taoist, as a teacher to learn the art of wandering immortals. He also used mercury, cinnabar, mica and the placenta of a newborn child (this thing is called "placenta" in alchemy, and Li Bai also mentioned it in his letter to a friend), all of which are examples.
Kings make an alchemy, so do literati. From our current scientific point of view, they are all stupid. Fortunately, scholars are stupid and kill a few cocks at most (such as Han Yu); If the king is stupid, he may kill many lives (such as Tang Wuzong). It can be seen that the stupidity of ordinary people is not terrible, but the stupidity of leaders is terrible. On second thought, leadership stupidity is not terrible. The terrible thing is that we have no ability to stop his stupidity.