Chapter 237: The Khan Has the Buddha in His Heart

Master Baotongzi vaguely felt a pain in his balls, though ever since he had entered the service of the Buddha, he had paid little attention to that superfluous object.

But today, he suddenly felt an inexplicable ache between his legs, as if someone had seized his balls and was yanking hard on them.

And the person making even the Chief Seat of Nalanda Monastery feel this pain in his balls was a man in a strange blue robe sitting across from him — the envoy sent by the Juer Khan.

The envoy held his head high, and since he was naturally tall, from the short, thin Master Baotongzi's angle, almost all that could be seen were two huge nostrils, from which poured the stench of a heathen.

Right! The stench of a heathen. As the Chief Seat of Nalanda Monastery in an age when the Dharma was in decline, Master Baotongzi was very familiar with this expression and bearing.

Because those Brahmins who worshipped Shiva often looked at them with exactly this expression.

"Having received the generous favor of His Majesty the Juer Khan, and been granted treasures of the Eastern Land, our humble monastery has nothing with which to repay him. May I invite the envoy to view the Yogacarabhumi-sastra."

Master Baotongzi waited a moment, and seeing that the envoy still showed no sign of lowering his nostrils, could only take the initiative to speak.

Zhang Zhao had indeed sent quite a few gifts through Guo Guangsheng, mostly Shu brocade and a small quantity of extremely precious porcelain.

This porcelain in particular — although in the Central Plains, one bolt of Shu brocade could buy a dozen such pieces, here in India, after a journey of over ten thousand kilometers, even an ordinary porcelain bowl was worth a thousand in gold by the time it arrived.

So when Master Baotongzi said he had received Zhang Zhao's generous gifts, he truly was not being modest. But this remark of his was actually a probe.

The Yogacarabhumi-sastra is the foundational treatise of the Yogacara or Consciousness-Only school and the Faxiang school of Mahayana Buddhism. It is traditionally said to have been spoken by the Bodhisattva Maitreya, a disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha, and recorded and compiled by Asanga.

More importantly, the Yogacarabhumi-sastra was one of the most important true scriptures that the Tang monk Tang Sanzang brought back from India.

Nalanda Monastery holds a scroll of the Yogacarabhumi-sastra, copied by Tang Sanzang's own hand, and its significance is extraordinary.

Any dharma-seeking monk who came from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land, upon arriving at Nalanda Monastery, would first of all ask to view this scripture.

But if someone had no interest at all in this book, or did not know its origins, then one could basically conclude that he was most likely no disciple of the Buddhist gate.

Sure enough, things proceeded exactly as Master Baotongzi had predicted. The envoy, nostrils to the sky, gave a light snort.

"Viewing scriptures — there will be time enough for that later. I have come for the sake of an alliance between our two houses.

His Majesty the Juer Khan personally leads fifty thousand fierce, wolf-like warriors and has already subdued the Shahi kingdom. He has heard that the Rajputs of the Parihara kingdom oppress the monastic community and destroy the scriptures. The Khan gnashes his teeth in hatred of them and wishes to punish these wretches. I wonder whether His Majesty the King would be willing to join in the campaign?"

King Rajyapala of the Pala dynasty first exchanged a glance with Master Baotongzi, then the two of them gently shook their heads at the same time.

Clearly both felt that this envoy did not seem like a Buddhist, but rather like a heathen with sinister intentions.

However, Rajyapala glanced at the squad of fifty warriors outside the hall in the distance, and his heart wavered somewhat.

It was not that he feared the fifty warriors the envoy had brought could do anything to him. However unimpressive the Pala dynasty's military preparations might be, they would still not let a mere fifty men do anything to him.

What Rajyapala actually saw in those fifty warriors was what lay behind them.

He had been entertaining the Juer Khan's envoy and deputy envoy here for nearly half an hour, and those fifty warriors had stood outside in full armor the entire time, keeping guard. Far from removing their armor to sit and rest, they had not even shifted position, still standing ramrod straight.

This king actually had some understanding of military matters.

Warriors who could stand in full armor under the sun for half an hour with backs straight — in his thirty-some years of life, he had not only never seen such a thing, he had never even heard of it.

Judging from this, even if not all fifty thousand of the Juer Khan's warriors were like this, as long as there were even two or three thousand, that would be frightening enough.

"Er... this... I must inform the envoy that our kingdom has always advocated peace. Moreover, in recent years floods and droughts have been rather frequent, making it difficult to collect provisions and fodder. I fear that sending troops will be somewhat difficult."

For the first time, Rajyapala felt as though his tongue had tied itself in knots; his speech actually came out stammering. At this moment, he suddenly felt somewhat afraid of the Juer Khan's arrival.

The Rajputs were hateful, to be sure, but the two sides had fought for so many years that they knew each other thoroughly.

In particular, after he had employed the "lying flat" strategy, the strength of the kingdom's monastic community had been fully brought into play. They could not defeat the Parihara kingdom of the Rajputs, but self-defense was no longer much of a problem.

But this Juer Khan, with such warriors under his command, and not appearing very devout toward the Buddha either — why should he provoke such a star of calamity?

Having the Parihara kingdom in between as a buffer seemed safer, after all.

But while he did not want to provoke him, he certainly did not want to offend the Juer Khan either, so he made his wording even more tactful, and did not grow angry at the envoy's rudeness.

"Hmph!" A cold snort burst from the nostrils, and Rajyapala froze in astonishment.

He had not expected that his stammering deliberation would make the envoy opposite him even more insolent — the man actually snorted coldly at him.

However good this king's temper, he was still the ruler of a nation, and Rajyapala's face immediately darkened.

Fan Shun, standing behind Guo Guangsheng, nearly burst out laughing too. He had not expected Guo Guangsheng to act so convincingly; the man was truly good at making himself hated.

"Your Majesty the King, Master Sanzang, it is growing late today. We have traveled day and night to get here, and the warriors outside are tired as well. Why not allow us to withdraw and rest for the night, and come to pay our respects again tomorrow?"

"Very well!" Rajyapala nodded with a dark face. At least this deputy envoy seemed presentable. Suppressing his anger, he rose and made a gesture of seeing his guests out.

"Then please, envoy, go and rest first."

The Veda Hall of Nalanda Monastery — one of the eight great halls of Nalanda, covering an extremely broad area, and also a quiet place for entertaining honored guests.

Fan Shun, who had said he was going to rest, had at this moment been brought before King Rajyapala and Chief Seat Master Baotongzi.

"Has the deputy envoy come to apologize to Master Baotongzi?"

Rajyapala leaned back on his throne, and he did indeed look thoroughly angered.

Although he asked Fan Shun whether he had come to apologize to Master Baotongzi, he was actually asking Fan Shun whether he ought to apologize to him.

Fan Shun nodded, then shook his head, and said with a cupped-hand salute: "If it were only a matter of myself, then today I did indeed offend Your Majesty the King's august countenance, and I fear an apology alone would still be lacking in proper courtesy.

But no matter what happened today, Envoy Guo came representing His Majesty the Juer Khan. Though there was rudeness, there is no question of an apology. The great Khan of Khans need not apologize to anyone."

"Then please have the deputy envoy convey to the envoy that he may depart tomorrow."

Rajyapala swept his sleeve. What did this Juer Khan take him for?

Did he take himself for King Harsha, who had unified India? Or did he take him for one of his own subordinates?

If that was how it was, what was there left to discuss?

"Alas!" Fan Shun let out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and in his mind reviewed the deeds of loyal ministers such as Minister Qu and the Martial Spirit King Zhuge. Then he slowly opened his eyes, and a look of compassion appeared in them.

"Do Your Majesty the King and the Chief Seat Master know that His Majesty the Juer Khan will leave India by the sixth month of next year at the latest?"

Rajyapala and Master Baotongzi looked at each other, not knowing what Fan Shun meant by this. In the end, it was Master Baotongzi who spoke and asked.

"Since the Juer Khan has already conquered the Shahi kingdom, why would he withdraw? That land is rich in produce; surely it must be better than Huwen City?"

Do not assume that because he dwelt on the lower Ganges, this Master Baotongzi lacked knowledge. In fact, he was quite well-informed; he knew of the grievances between the Shahi kingdom and Huwen City, and had probably guessed where the Juer Khan had come from.

Fan Shun slowly shook his head. "The Chief Seat Master thinks the Juer Khan holds only Huwen City and the surrounding lands. If that were so, how could he be called the Juer Khan?"

How mistaken! His Majesty the Ju'er Khan actually possesses Hexi of the Great Tang in the East, Khotan and Shule of Anxi, and Suyab, Ferghana, and Samarkand in Transoxiana. His territory extends far beyond ten thousand li, and the people under his rule number not merely in the hundreds of millions!

The Xiaxi was a tiny state of no consequence. Had it not repeatedly raided the city of Hucheng, the Great Khan would never have led troops to chastise it at all.

Now that it has been pacified, taking its king, queen, and consorts back to Samarkand for judgment is enough. How could he remain long in this place? Alas!"

When Fan Shun finished, he heaved another long sigh, leaving the two of them even more bewildered.

But hearing Fan Shun say that the Ju'er Khan intended to return north, Rajyapala's mind stirred a little. If this Ju'er Khan truly possessed such a vast empire and looked down on the Xiaxi state, too lazy to rule it himself, that was also believable.

"Why does the Vice Envoy keep sighing so heavily? If you have words from the heart, by all means speak freely!" Rajyapala began his gentle coaxing.

"Very well! Today, since I have been able to come to this sacred land of the Buddha, I will make an exception just this once. If I can save Nalanda Monastery, foremost of the myriad viharas, it will at least count as a great deed of merit."

Fan Shun clenched his fists hard, as though he had made an enormous resolution.

"Your Majesty the King, and the First Seat Master: I, Fan, have believed in the Buddha since childhood, and my late mother was even more devout. I have always held that the land of India is a Buddha-land on earth, and have truly longed for it.

But only after arriving did I learn that in India today, the land of the Buddha's birth, the Dharma has declined, the faithful have scattered, the monastic community is bullied and oppressed, and there are faint signs of imminent collapse!"

Rajyapala's face went dark, and Master Baotongzi was even more ashamed.

Indeed! Believers outside India still imagine that India remains as flourishing in the Dharma as before. In former years, Nalanda Monastery alone had over ten thousand monks, dozens of teaching halls, and more than a hundred Dharma lectures delivered daily. Those drawn by its fame came from as far as ten thousand li away.

Not only were doctrines and scriptures taught there, but also astronomy, mathematics, and medical knowledge.

Nalanda Monastery was not only a sacred site of the Buddha, but could also be called the light of India's civilization. Yet such a Buddha-land on earth has long ceased to exist.

"Your Majesty and the First Seat may have already noticed that Chief Envoy Guo is not a believer in the Buddha. Those people are in fact followers of the Daqin Law (the Luminous Religion).

Their fellow believers number in the countless thousands, surrounding the Ju'er Khan day and night. All they ever say is to urge His Majesty the Ju'er Khan to abandon the Buddha and convert to Alaha."

"So that is why! No wonder this Chief Envoy Guo is so wildly insolent! So there is this reason behind it."

Master Baotongzi's heart stirred, and he vaguely guessed at something. It seemed that within the Ju'er Khan's court, the struggle between the Dharma and the Daqin Law had already become extremely fierce.

"Fortunately, beside His Majesty the Great Khan there are also our myriad believers in the Buddha. This time, the Great Khan sent envoys here in the hope that, after chastising the Pala state, we might go on to Nalanda Monastery to pay reverence to the place where the Buddha preached.

If Your Majesty the King were to send us back just like this, the followers of the Daqin Law would surely slander Your Majesty and the First Seat Master most viciously.

If one day the Great Khan were to change his faith, then the most powerful supporter of the Buddha outside India would cease to exist."

The information Fan Shun was forcefully conveying came down to two points. First, although the Ju'er Khan's faith was currently firm, there was still the possibility that it might change.

Second, the Dharma in India was in decline and must have powerful outside support, or the day of its collapse was not far off.

Now it remained to be seen whether the two men before him would take the bait.

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