Chapter 278: Liangzhou Divided in Three

Liangzhou City, Dayun Temple — this majestic temple was one of the Eight Scenic Sights of Liangzhou.

It had originally been the palace of Zhang Gui, King of the Former Liang; during the Wu Zhou period it was converted into Dayun Temple, and under the Western Xia it was called Huguo Temple. Later generations could still see its grandeur and majesty, and the bronze bell of Wuwei's Dayun Temple was renowned far and wide.

At this time, no temple in Hexi could compare with this temple's standing.

Moreover, Liangzhou's Dayun Temple was linked by countless threads to the Dayun Temple of Shule in Anxi and the Samoji Temple of Khotan.

The last Chief Monk Overseer of the Four Garrisons of Anxi at Shule's Dayun Temple had come from Liangzhou's Dayun Temple, and after the Tibetans captured Shule's Dayun Temple, the Chief Monk Overseer's disciples had received the protection of the Khotan royal house, and many of them were the founders of Khotan's Samoji Temple.

The current abbot of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple had once studied the Sutra of the Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Essentials of the Lotus Sutra under the Samoji Temple abbot, Tripitaka Master Sangharama, so the two also shared the bond of master and disciple.

At this moment, the gates of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple were thrown wide open, and a procession of some two hundred monks, chanting the Buddha's name and dressed in the plainest black robes, walked in solemn reverence through the eastern gate, Xuanwu Gate.

Liangzhou's Xuanwu Gate was exceedingly tall, grand, and vast, even surpassing the eastern gate of Chang'an. Whenever court envoys and eminent monks of great virtue came to Liangzhou, they entered through this gate.

Although Liangzhou at this time no longer possessed its former glory, it was still the greatest city in Hexi, though the city's original ward-and-market structure had been completely destroyed, replaced by a clear-cut division based on status.

Around the eastern gate, Xuanwu Gate, lived the Han people of Liangzhou who still upheld Han traditions and regarded themselves as soldiers of the imperial court.

These people had two origins. The first was the descendants of the Li clan of Guzang. Their ancestor was Li Kan, King Jing of Liang, the fourteenth-generation descendant of the famed Han general Li Guang and the grandfather of Li Song, founder of the Western Liang.

The Tang imperial house, the Li clan of Longxi, actually originated from the Li clan of Guzang. Li Kan was the tenth-generation ancestor of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang, and thus the eleventh-generation ancestor of Tang Taizong, Li Shimin.

With this connection, even after the Tibetans captured Liangzhou and indeed all of Hexi, and most of the Han descendants in Hexi and Longyou gradually sank into becoming Wenmo, the Li clan of Guzang alone held on.

To speak of a closer relation, the fourteenth grand-uncle of Zhang Zhao, Li Mingzhen, the great general of the Guiyi Army who married the fourteenth daughter of Zhang Yichao — their branch, the Li clan of Shazhou, also originated from the Li clan of Guzang.

It could be said that the Li clan of Liangzhou and Li Cunhui were of the same clan, and the Li Wenqian whom Zhang Zhao wished to expel was a direct-line descendant of the Li clan of Guzang.

Back when the Guiyi Army took Liangzhou, Zhang Yichao had broken such a giant city with only seven thousand elite Han and barbarian troops, and the Li clan of Guzang had threaded the needle throughout, contacting the various Wenmo tribes to respond to the Guiyi Army and expel the Tibetans — a contribution of the highest order.

The second origin was this: in the fourth year of Xiantong of Emperor Yizong of Tang, the Tang court, in order to contend with the Guiyi Army for Liangzhou, allocated funds that year to repair Liangzhou's defenses. At the time, Pei Shi, the third son of the famed minister Pei Du, was serving as Military Governor of Tianping Army, and the court dispatched two thousand five hundred men of the Tianping Army from Yunzhou to march west to Liangzhou and garrison the place.

Later, during the Huang Chao rebellion, the Tang court completely lost its ability to control Liangzhou, and with a series of upheavals, these two thousand five hundred men of the Yunzhou Tianping Army put down roots in Liangzhou.

At present, the Han people east of Liangzhou city were chiefly these men. Together with the Li clan of Guzang, they numbered more than three thousand households and twenty thousand people, and they held nominal political power in Liangzhou as well as vast tracts of fine farmland outside the city.

Near Chongde Gate in the west of Liangzhou city lived Sogdians who had become Wenmo-ized.

The term Wenmo basically referred to Tibetanized vassal tribes of the Tibetans, of extremely complex composition — Han, Tuyuhun, Sogdians, and even Tangut.

These peoples, who had gradually Tibetanized during the decades of Tibetan rule over Hexi, were all called Wenmo.

This group of Sogdians was led by the Cao family, with the Kang, An, Shi, and other surnames as well.

They controlled most of Liangzhou's economic activity, mainly as traveling merchants, and also numbered close to three thousand households and more than twenty thousand people — though of course, like the Han above, not all of them lived within Liangzhou city.

The remaining southern gate, Zhaowu Gate, and northern gate, Tonghua Gate, were inhabited by clansmen already highly Tibetanized — mostly descendants of the former soldiers of Hexi and Longyou, with a minority of Tuyuhun, Tangut, Qiang, and other peoples.

Among them, those more deeply Tibetanized had already changed their surnames to Dulun, Sulun, Cuiyan, and other surnames thick with Tibetan coloring.

Those who considered themselves Wenmo but still kept Han surnames included the Zhou, Zhao, Ma, Xing, Lan, Wang, and other clans.

These people were the true main body of Liangzhou. It was they who formed the Wenmo Six Valleys Tribe, also called the Wenmo Six Barbarians, yet politically and economically they were in a suppressed position.

At this time, Liangzhou was still on the eve of unification, and the local Tibetanized Wenmo tribes did not yet have the strength to integrate the various tribes.

The Tibetanized Han families such as the Zhou, Zhao, and Wang, whose Tibetanization was not so deep, had already accepted the Wenmo identity, but at the same time still retained certain Han cultural traits.

At the same time, the descendants of the Yunzhou Tianping Army and the Li clan of Guzang — the most important sources of Han population in Liangzhou city — had not yet fallen. Everything was still in time.

If one waited until a dozen or so years later, when Guo Wei sent Shen Shihou out as Military Governor of Hexi, it would be too late.

Back then, the full-of-confidence Shen Shihou arrived in Liangzhou and his heart went cold at once. The descendants of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers had all become Wenmo-ized, and after several upheavals, the descendants of the Yunzhou Tianping Army survived at only one or two in ten — no more than a hundred-odd households — while the Li clan of Guzang was nearly exterminated.

It could be said that this moment was Liangzhou's last chance to return to the Han fold and to pull back the Wenmo-ized Han people.

Ten years later, the Zhebushi rose within the Wenmo, unified the Wenmo Six Barbarians, and began calling themselves the Tibetan Six Valleys Tribe. From then on, the term "Liangzhou Han" vanished for several hundred years.

Inside Dayun Temple, the abbot, Master Shanyuan, trembling, received two sutras wrapped in silk and placed within a red sandalwood box.

The sutras were written in Sanskrit and looked extremely old, but it was not only Master Shanyuan who trembled with excitement — all the monks in Dayun Temple were greatly stirred.

For these two sutras had come from the ends of the earth, from Nalanda Monastery in India: the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra, hand-copied by King Prasenajit, friend and disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha.

The Chinese have always believed in the notion of destiny, and Buddhist monks were no exception.

Add to that the Chinese reverence for teachers and antiquity, and sutras of such immense historical and religious significance held an absolutely different place in the hearts of Indian and Chinese monks alike.

"Master Baoyingzi, Master Huixing, Junior Brother Yegaluomo, please take the seats of honor!"

Only after several eminent monks of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple had calmed themselves did they invite the senior monks of the sangha into the Buddha hall to be seated.

Master Baoyingzi was the junior fellow disciple of Master Baotongzi, the senior seat of Nalanda Monastery in India, and was an eminent Indian monk whom Zhang Zhao had specially "invited" from India to Hexi.

Master Huixing was the senior disciple of Master Daozhen, the last abbot of Shule's Dayun Temple — that descendant of the Anxi Army who practiced the vow of silence, Yang He.

Yegaluomo was a disciple of Sangharama of Samoji Temple.

All three were eminent monks of the sangha whom Zhang Zhao had summoned to his side, come specifically for Liangzhou's Dayun Temple.

After the several men took their seats and exchanged pleasantries for a while, then discussed their insights into the Dharma for half a shichen, the abbot of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple, Master Shanyuan, finally spoke at a leisurely pace.

"Has the Holy Wheel Dharma King truly decided to come to Liangzhou? This would be a grand occasion for the Buddhist world! I wonder in what way Dayun Temple might be of service?"

Precious Buddhist treasures such as the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra hand-copied by King Prasenajit would not be so easy to obtain — this much Master Shanyuan understood.

"Liangzhou is the metropolis of Hexi. The Dharma King considered the matter at length before deciding to propagate the Dharma in Liangzhou.

He has brought not only the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra, but also the Yogacarabhumi-sastra hand-copied by Tripitaka Master Xuanzang of old, relics of Shakyamuni Buddha, and dozens of life-size seated and standing statues.

These Buddha relics come from Shule's Dayun Temple, bestowed in former times by the Holy Divine Emperor, the Zetian Great Sage Empress. The life-size standing and seated statues come from Nalanda Monastery, Vikramasila Monastery, and Odantapuri Monastery in India.

If such Buddhist treasures were gathered in Liangzhou, Dayun Temple — to say nothing of leading Hexi — would be revered as supreme even across the Qingtang snow plains and the Three Qin of Guanzhong. It would even be permissible to build a new vihara specifically for them."

Of the three, the one Zhang Zhao trusted most was of course the monk Huixing. He was a descendant of the Anxi Army and had long been deeply bound to Zhang Zhao, so such words were generally spoken by him.

Master Shanyuan's eyes brightened as he listened, and he could not help showing a deeply moved expression.

If such great treasures could all remain at Liangzhou's Dayun Temple, then, just as Master Huixing said, the day when Dayun Temple led Hexi and Longyou, the Tibetans of Qingtang, and the Three Qin of Guanzhong would be within reach.

At that time, he as abbot could likewise leave his name to posterity, revered for ten thousand generations by myriad monks and believers.

Of course, Master Shanyuan also understood Master Huixing's final sentence very well: if his Dayun Temple did not give face to the Wheel-Turning Holy King and the Silver Wheel Dharma King, the Dharma King would build a new temple.

At that point, it would not be as simple as Dayun Temple merely missing an opportunity.

With so many Buddhist treasures and a temple backed by a powerful monastic community, whether Dayun Temple could maintain its current standing was very much an open question.

At that thought, Master Shanyuan had already softened inwardly. "May I ask, Master Huixing, what our humble temple might do to serve the Holy Wheel Dharma King?"

"The Dharma King has heard that Liangzhou's Dayun Temple leads all of Hexi, and that the chiefs of the Wenmo Six Valley Tribes, both within and beyond Liangzhou and in the He-Huang valley, are all devout followers of Dayun Temple.

The Dharma King will arrive in Liangzhou before long, and he hopes Master Shanyuan can summon the chiefs to discuss the arrangements for welcoming him."

Yegaramo said this softly. Dayun Temple of Liangzhou and Samora Temple of Khotan were so closely connected that Yegaramo naturally did not wish to see Dayun Temple come into conflict with Zhang Zhao. He knew this Silver Wheel Dharma King's methods well.

Master Shanyuan understood now. This Dharma King Zhang, great-grandson of the Grand Guardian Zhang, was indeed coming for Liangzhou itself. He weighed his words carefully.

"The Wenmo Six Tribes are constantly at strife with one another. Though they revere our humble temple, I fear getting them to welcome the Dharma King into the city will be no easy matter."

Master Huixing smiled faintly. "The Wenmo Six Tribes have little strife among themselves, but I fear they bear considerable grudges against Acting Military Governor Li. The Dharma King personally leads ten thousand elite troops precisely to mediate the conflict between the two sides.

Dayun Temple holds a position above worldly affairs, and I trust the Wenmo Six Tribe chiefs will certainly grant you this face.

The Dharma King has said: what is the Buddha's returns to the Buddha; what is of the human world returns to the Wheel-Turning Sage King of the human world. The fighting shall be resolved by the Dharma King; the gathering of hearts and minds, we must ask the Master to devote his care and effort to."

Master Shanyuan also smiled faintly and nodded lightly. What he had been waiting for was precisely this line — "what is the Buddha's returns to the Buddha."

As long as Dharma King Zhang held such an understanding, it would not be difficult for Dayun Temple to act as the go-between. The Wenmo Six Tribes were devout believers in Buddhism, and Master Shanyuan believed he still had that much face.

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