Chapter 190 Chang'an Never Sleeps

In the eyes of the Tang Dynasty's rulers and ministers, Xuanzang's route on the light screen gradually disappeared.

"Dong!" A dull drum beat accompanied by an unknown instrument seemed to hit people's hearts, and the Zhenguan rulers and ministers suddenly felt their hearts tighten.

Then a distant pagoda was shining, the nearby roofs were shining, and the road was decorated with lights and trees.

The Ganlu Palace suddenly became restless:

"Is the immortal watching from the clouds!"

"Are we flying?!"

Li Shimin had seen the high-altitude view of Chengdu that never sleeps before, and he said without changing his color:

"Why be surprised by the thousands of methods in the future? Watch in silence!"

Fang Du suppressed his laughter, while Wei Zheng and others admired: You are worthy of your majesty!

Yan Liben in the back opened his eyes wide. He didn't plan to draw it for the time being, but planned to engrave it firmly in his heart and then slowly reproduce it.

"Dong!" It was still the drum beats and the sound of instruments, and it was still a silhouette that flashed back, making the Zhenguan rulers and ministers more and more itchy.

The next moment, it seemed as if a thousand kinds of musical instruments were playing together, and it seemed as if a hundred immortals were singing loudly in the clouds.

The bright lights appeared again, and the picture in the light curtain seemed like a banished immortal coming to earth, taking the ministers of Zhenguan to see the scene thousands of years later.

At the same time, the light curtain also marked the name intimately.

The ancient pagoda was clearly visible in the light curtain, and every brick and tile on it seemed to tell the vicissitudes of time.

[Big Wild Goose Pagoda]

The statue of a monk on a blank field looked resolute, holding a Zen stick and gazing to the south.

[Xuanzang Statue]

The picture in the light curtain followed the Xuanzang statue to the south, flew over a long corridor of lights and a long street with people coming and going, and dozens of group sculptures came into view.

These sculptures have different expressions and postures, and are dotted with poems, books, paintings, and steles.

Some are singing with emotion, some are worried about the hardships of the people, some are contented, and some are solemnly contemplative.

There was a small stone tablet with the name next to each statue. The Zhenguan group also tried their best to identify the names that flashed by, but only a few people could be identified because of the angle.

"Li Bai!"

"Du Fu... Du Mu!"

"Liu Yuxi!"

These were the names they had known through various scraps before.

"Wu Daozi!"

"Wang Wei... Wang Zhihuan!"

"Yan Lide... Yan Liben!"

[Heroes of the Tang Dynasty]

Everyone looked back suddenly. They never thought that the first familiar person to appear among them was this court painter!

Yan Liben himself stood there at a loss, and his body was a little shaky for a while, as if he was drunk.

Can I also be famous with my brother?

Li Shimin didn't bother to comfort this minister, so at this time the light curtain continued to fly, and he saw himself!

There was a majestic band in front, flags fluttering behind, and the generals rode on horses and whipped their whips and followed him closely, guarding their emperor.

Li Shimin held the reins of the majestic horse with one hand and gently pressed down with the other hand.

Changsun Wuji took advantage of the opportunity to say: "This statue has the meaning of pacifying the world and has the style of a great emperor!"

The four big characters "General of Zhenguan" on the pillar of the statue are square, and Li Shimin smiled and was quite satisfied.

The generals tried to look at it, even Li Jing sat up straight and opened his eyes wide: There are six riding ministers beside the statue of His Majesty, so there should be a place for him, right?

[Zhenguan Reign]

No matter how satisfied Li Shimin was, he would not stay longer because of him, and the picture continued to move forward.

What surprised him was that the next group of sculptures today were neither generals nor civil officials.

Women embraced babies, strong men protected young children, old men had fun with their grandchildren, and young and strong men carried goods to the distance.

Wei Zheng also read out the name of this group of sculptures:

[Water can carry a boat but can also overturn it]

Without thinking, Wei Zheng blurted out: "The king is like a boat, and the people are like water. They can carry the boat but can also overturn it."

The words of the sage in "Xunzi Wangzhi" are familiar to the king and his ministers, but now seeing it carved solemnly by later generations, all the ministers bowed their heads in thought.

Li Shimin even thought of Huang Chao, who seemed to have a deep hatred for the Tang Dynasty. Later generations called him "rebellion".

This Tang Dynasty made the people live a good life, so they held up the huge Tang Dynasty boat.

And when the Tang Dynasty became the source of their suffering, they sank it to the bottom of the water?

The tranquility of Ganlu Hall was broken by Yuchi Jingde: "Congratulations to the Duke of Xing and the Duke of Cai."

Fang and Du raised their heads and saw a group of sculptures of civil officials in the light curtain. The two ministers in the first place, one twisted his beard in thought, and the other waved his hand to make a decision.

As for the identities of the two? The annotation next to the light curtain was clearly written:

[Fang's Strategy and Du's Judgment]

Everyone present congratulated, and Changsun Wuji's eyes were filled with disappointment and envy, which eventually turned into congratulations.

Fang Xuanling twisted his beard and laughed, while Du Ruhui cupped his hands:

"Without the foresight of the great men, how could the Zhenguan be passed down? How could the prosperous Tang Dynasty be prosperous."

Li Shimin laughed and stretched out his hand to press it in a reserved manner.

The minister had a reputation for talent, so it should be worth praising that he, Li Shimin, could give him the opportunity to display his talent and ambition?

However, the sculpture that followed made Li Shimin unable to laugh.

In front, there was a fan-holding official holding a five-bright fan, and behind it was a canopy, and behind it was a ceremonial fan.

The ceremonial guard that should have belonged to the emperor was guarded by a woman.

The text next to the light curtain was also clearly written:

[Empress Wu's Procession]

Wei Zheng frowned and criticized:

"Even if she had made contributions to the Tang Dynasty, how could the empress exceed the rules?"

Since the harem was involved, the generals kept silent knowingly. The excitement on Du Ruhui's face faded, he shook his head and said:

"It's not over the limit."

Wei Zheng was still about to argue, but Du Ruhui said word by word:

"Because she was also called the emperor, and later generations called her the empress, Wu Zetian."

Wei Zheng was speechless for a moment, and when he turned around to look back, he saw His Majesty's face looking lost in thought.

The surrounding generals were shocked for a moment and lowered their heads, trying hard to hide the expressions on their faces.

Shaking his head tiredly, Li Shimin also found that he finally had to face this problem.

If you still have some doubts about why a female emperor was born in the Tang Dynasty before.

So since he knew that his prince had ascended the throne, it was difficult for Li Shimin not to speculate in that direction.

Seize the throne!

Is the prince's rule just to imitate himself and seize the throne?

Did this Empress Wu also become Emperor Wu by seizing the throne?

For a moment, Li Shimin felt more tired than ever before.

He had the confidence to stabilize the country, make all barbarians surrender, and usher in a prosperous age.

But how should Li Tang do his family affairs?

He also saw the achievements of Prince Zizhi. Although he was a little overjoyed with his achievements, he wanted to destroy Goguryeo and the Western Turks for himself.

Prolonging the prosperous age and creating a giant Tang Dynasty are also written in history.

Therefore, at this time, Li Shimin felt an unprecedented fatigue welling up in his heart.

In a daze, he seemed to see brothers fighting again, blood flowing in the palace, and plots to kill the prince in the palace.

In his eyes, the splendid Tang Dynasty seemed to be shrouded in a faint layer of blood.

Waving his hands tiredly and sinking into the chair, Li Shimin looked up at the last group of sculptures in the light curtain.

【Kaiyuan prosperous age】

The three-story platform dates back to the prosperous Kaiyuan Dynasty, when Xuanzong stood in front of the golden dragon and jade and looked in all directions.

The next level is a circle of civil servants and generals who are harmonious, seeming to stabilize the country.

At the bottom is a circle of band drumming.

But Li Shimin was in a bad mood at this time. He wanted to throw something up, but he stopped reluctantly.

Changsun Wuji said carefully:

"Everyone, from the time of Xuanzong, the Tang Dynasty will still be the Tang Dynasty of Li Tang."

The words were convoluted, but Li Shimin understood the meaning. Wu's relatives seized the throne and were eventually taken back.

Staring blankly at the light curtain that had turned dark again, Li Shimin lowered his head and saw the concerned eyes of his ministers.

Finally smiled freely:

"Later generations have such magical methods, and they must also have good ways to govern the world that we have never had in the Tang Dynasty."

"There are still twenty years left in Zhenguan, and the prince is only one year old in Zhizhang. The time limit is also wide to teach his character and talents."

There was a determination in his words that could not be disobeyed.

…

“This city that never sleeps is just one street, and it’s still not as good as Chengdu.”

The spiritual Yizhou native Liu Bei made a judgment at this moment.

How about a statue? How will your reputation be passed down to future generations?

Is it comparable to the fact that we have temples and people still offer sacrifices to this day?

The so-called city that never sleeps doesn't look like a place of worship.

"And this empress actually became the Empress of Martial Arts first and then the Empress."

For a moment, Liu Bei was reminded of what Guang Mu had said inadvertently before: "When Empress Lu was in power..."

Could it be that Empress Wu imitated Empress Lu and ultimately went one step further than Empress Lu?

Although Liu Bei was not sure, he always felt that these powerful dynasties were too similar?

Eunuchs and relatives, can they really take turns?

For a moment, Liu Bei was even very curious: The Han and Tang Dynasties had already learned from the past twice, so there was no reason for the Song and Ming Dynasties to do it again, right?

Kong Ming further said:

"My lord, please remember this saying that water can carry a boat or capsize it."

Liu Bei smiled and said:

"If the people attack the government, the emperor will not be in control. Why don't I understand?"

Kong Ming nodded happily:

"There are many talented people in the Tang Dynasty, but my country can't lose either."

Then he looked at Liu Bei regretfully:

Probably the only thing that can't be caught up is the Lord's leadership ability.

Liu Bei looked at himself inexplicably, and then gave Kong Ming a questioning look.

Zhang Song and Liu Ba on the other side looked at the light screen eagerly.

Just now when we saw the city that never sleeps in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Bei, Kong Ming and others had already talked to them about the city that never sleeps in later generations.

It is said that the bustling scenery is more beautiful than this scene, so both of them are itchy.

Especially Zhang Song, who is from Chengdu himself, just wanted to get into the light curtain.

But it is a pity that the city that never sleeps comes to an end and after the light curtain lights up again, there is still a striking bald head in the middle of the light curtain.

[In comparison, although Master Xuanzang’s original purpose was to learn scriptures, his greatest influence on later generations was "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty".

First of all, the most rare thing about Master Xuanzang should be his recognition of the identity of the descendants of Yan and Huang.

We still have spiritual Ami people, spiritual Nordic people, and spiritual Vietnamese people now. So it is not surprising that there are spiritual Tianzhu monks in the Sui and Tang Dynasties when Buddhism was flourishing in the north and south.

For example, Master Faxian, whom we mentioned earlier, arrived in Tianzhu with a monk named Daozheng.

Fa Xian later went to find Dao Zheng when he wanted to return to China, but Dao Zheng wished to be born in Tianzhu for the rest of his life and refused to return.

Faxian, who was already seventy years old at the time, could only return to China by boat alone, and even almost died at sea.

There was another eminent monk Daoxuan who was contemporary with Master Xuanzang. He wrote "The Fangzhi of Sakyamuni" at that time, in which he made a long conclusion:

If India is right, the Tang Dynasty cannot be overturned.

And after Xuanzang returned to China, Daoxuan described Master Xuanzang in his own "Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks":

When Master Xuanzang first arrived here, he felt suffocated. After a long time, he woke up and saw spiritual images. The sutras he had heard in the past were now vividly before his eyes. I hate living in a remote place and being born in the last days.

In his writing, Xuanzang complained that he was born in a remote and bandit-ridden place like the Tang Dynasty because he saw the Buddhist holy land of India.

And finally described Xuanzang's state in the Tang Dynasty as "double suffocation".

But is this possible? Xuanzang was a person who obtained three doctoral degrees in Mahayana, Jietuotian, and Tripitaka Master, and even the abbot of Nalanda Temple hoped that he would inherit the family property.

If Master Xuanzang really had this idea, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes for him to stay in India? 】

The next chapter will return to the Tang Dynasty family line.