Who is the No. 1 God in the three realms? I hope it can help you.
(I)
In the first two issues of this series of articles, snail introduced the glorious deeds of the Jade Emperor and the Tathagata respectively. In this issue, we solemnly introduced their leading elder brother, the first great God of the three worlds, the tianzunlao revolution.
Only when we understand the complicated relationship between the characters in the original work can we understand why the Jade Emperor went all the way to invite the Tathagata when the monkey king caused havoc in the heavenly palace; Only then can we understand why the Tathagata warned Sun Wukong against being poisoned when he met him for the first time; Only then can we understand that the Tathagata Sutra project has clearly dug the Taoist corner, and the jade emperor has also given full support
As we all know, the journey to the west is different from the worship of gods. Hongjun’s ancestor is the most famous. For this mysterious figure, the romance of gods is described as follows——
Lying high in the nine – fold sky, Pu Tuan is a Taoist priest
The world is dark and yellow. I should be the leader of the sect
Pangu was born with Tai Chi, and the two instruments and four signs followed
One preaches to three friends, and the other preaches and interprets
The Xuanmen all led the show, and the sound turned Hongjun
That is to say, the universe (called chaos in ancient times) was all created by him. First there was Hongjun, then Pangu opened the world.
He had several disciples: the eldest disciple, Taishang Laojun, founded Taoism; The second disciple, Yuanshi Tianzun (Pangu), founded the elucidation; Lao San Tongtian, the leader of the church, founded the truncated religion.
Hongjun’s ancestor was also the founder of the Sanqing sect. Later, he was handed over to the founder of Tianzun and Tongtian sect. It’s a pity that the three disciples often fight, making the three realms noisy.
However, this is only the setting of characters in the romance of gods, which is never recognized by Taoism. There is no record of Hongjun ancestors in any Taoist classics or immortal genealogy. Taoism has also criticized many evil cults in later generations, listed Hongjun as the object of worship, and wantonly spread fallacies and fallacies to undermine religious harmony.
In the view of Taoism, the Supreme God is the Supreme Lord, and the ancestor of Hongjun is just a fiction made up by novelists after drinking.
The Supreme Lord, the master of the great road, and the ancestor of all religions, is out of the beginning of Taiwu, starting from the source of infinity, ending at the end of infinity, and being poor at infinity.
No matter whether it is Hongjun’s ancestor or Taishang Laojun, it seems that the position of the eldest can not reach the original Tianzun. When did he get the upper position?
In fact, this is due to the “one Qi, three cleans”.
“One Qi turns three Qings” is also derived from the romance of Fengshen. It is written that when the Supreme Lord and the leader of Tongtian sect fight each other, they use one Qi to turn into three Dharma bodies.
There is also a saying in Taoism that “one Qi turns three Qings”, which originates from the belief of “three Qings”. With the development of Taoism, sectarian theories began to separate. In addition to Zhang Daoling’s Tianshi Zhengyi school, Maoshan school and Lingbao school also appeared.
Maoshan school is also called “Shangqing school”, and the representative figure Tao Hongjing is the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty; The representative figures of Lingbao school are Xu Xun and Ge Hong, and the offerings are Lingbao Tianzun; Zhang Daoling, the representative of the Zhengyi school, offered the Supreme Lord.
The Shangqing school insisted on the “one Qi to transform three Qings” of Tianzun at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Tianshi school insisted on Laozi’s “one Qi to transform three Qings”. To put it bluntly, it is still the battle of the boss.
It is controversial who the boss is, but “one Qi, three cleans” has been recognized by all parties.
Why did one leader suddenly become three leaders? There are also two ways of saying this.
One theory is that during the northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism entered China under the banner of “saving the suffering and the difficulties” in troubled times, and its development was very rapid. Taoism saw that other people were the third horizontal Buddha and the third vertical Buddha, and there were not enough five sided Buddhas and the past seven Buddhas… There were too many heroes to stand up. Therefore, under the promotion of Tao Hongjing, Taoism also embarked on the movement of creating new gods, and launched the “Sanqing” against the “third Buddha”.
Another view is that when Buddhism entered China, it found that Taoism had the belief of “Sanqing”. In order to do as the Romans do and gain a foothold as soon as possible, it also launched the “third generation Buddha”.
No matter which view is correct, in the eyes of many people, since the “Sanqing” came into being, the Supreme Lord gave up the Supreme God to the first emperor.
(II)
Then, in the journey to the west, which of the two great gods is the eldest brother?
First of all, the Supreme Lord is still the creator God of Taoism.
Nuwa was transformed by the Supreme Lord. In the 35th chapter of the original book, the king of silver horn said this when explaining the origin of the purple gold gourd——
“My gourd is the first division of chaos. Heaven and earth were opened up. There was a great ancestor who solved the name of Nu Wa, refined stones to mend the sky, and saved the world of Yan Fu. When he touched the ground in the dry palace, he saw a wisp of fairy vine at the foot of a Kunlun Mountain, with this purple gold red gourd on it. But it is the one left by the old gentleman to this day.”
It can be seen from this paragraph that mending the sky is actually a masterpiece of Lao Jun, but he didn’t want to be too high-profile, so he chose the name Nuwa.
Lao Jun did the same thing. In the eighty sixth chapter of the original book, Sun Wukong met a leopard spirit. When he heard that his name was called the king of Nanshan, he was furious——
The walker cursed: “how old are you? How old are you to call Nanshan? Lao Jun Li is the founder of the world and still sits on the right side of the Taiqing Dynasty; the Buddha Buddha is the ruler of the world and still sits under the Mirs; the sage Kong is the leader of Confucianism and only calls him master. How dare you call him the king of Nanshan? He has been dissolute for hundreds of years!”
From Comrade Sun’s words, we can see that Pangu was also transformed by Lao Jun, and Lao Jun seems to be the worthy boss.
However, in the 44th chapter of the original book, when the scripture collection team came to Chechi country, the master brother of Sun Wukong broke into the Sanqing temple at night, there was a dialogue different from the above views——
The Walker said, “what Bodhisattva is sitting on this?” Bajie said with a smile, “Sanqing can’t recognize me, but I do recognize what Bodhisattva I am!” The Walker said: “what about Sanqing?” Bajie said: “in the middle is Yuanshi Tianzun, on the left is Lingbao Daojun, and on the right is Taishang Laojun.”
According to the Chinese custom, the eldest sits in the middle, followed by the left and the right. That is to say, in the design of the people traveling to the west, Yuanshi Tianzun ranked first and Taishang Laojun ranked third.
On the left of Yuanshi Tianzun is Lingbao Tianzun, and on the right is Daode Tianzun
From this, it can be seen that the saying that the first heaven is the first God of the three realms is true.
(III)
At the beginning of the year, Tianzun was so powerful, but in the seventh chapter of the original book, he did something that made people lose their teeth.
Sun Wukong caused havoc in the heavenly palace, and the Supreme Master could not cook it well in the Bagua stove. The Jade Emperor had no choice but to order the Buddha to subdue the demons. After the Tathagata came, he pressed the monkey king under the five elements mountain with a game of turning his hands.
As soon as the Tathagata saw that the task was completed and I had nothing to do, he packed his schoolbag and prepared to go home to eat instant noodles. Unexpectedly, Zhu Bajie stopped and said, “the Jade Emperor asked you to have lunch before you leave.”. He’ll be here soon.
The Tathagata dare not move.
After a while, the jade emperor did come, and asked the Tathagata to sit on the table and pass the message——
That is to say, the gods of the Ministry of thunder invited Sanqing, Siyu, Wulao, liusi, Qiyuan, Baji, Jiuyao, Shidu, qianzhen and all saints to come here and thank Buddha. As the leader of the three circles, the Jade Emperor is still very popular. He is not like the one shot in the 86 version of the journey to the West. He is a straw bag.
The Jade Emperor ordered it. What was the result?
Not for a moment, the Jade Emperor Yuanshi Tianzun, the Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun, and the Taiqing Daode Tianzun… All held bright pearls and exotic treasures, longevity fruits and flowers, and worshipped the Buddha and said: “feel the Buddha’s boundless magic power, and subdue the demon monkey. The Great Buddha gave a banquet and called, and we all came to express our thanks. How about the Buddha establish a name for this meeting?” The Tathagata was entrusted by the gods and said, “if you want to make a name today, you can make a peace meeting.”
Yuanshi Tianzun actually thanked the Buddha and asked him to name his lunch! Isn’t this damaging the prestige of the three greatest gods?
As the leading brother in the whole universe, why did he obey the Jade Emperor’s orders? Even if you listen to the order and come to attend the Antian meeting, the Tathagata salutes him. There is no need for him to bow down and thank him? Even if I bow down to thank you, there’s no need to ask Tathagata to name the lunch?
You know, in real life, the boss is the c-position in the camera station. He sits in the top position when eating, walks in the middle, and even goes to the toilet. The leader is the first to go. This is the No. 1 God in the three realms. It’s not like the boss.
Not only that, many people still have a question: why didn’t the first emperor of heaven do something when the monkey king was making a big fuss in the heaven palace? With his magic power, one finger can turn over the monkey king. There is no need to give the spotlight to the Tathagata? This also seems too weak.
What on earth is he afraid of?
IV
To answer the above questions, let’s first analyze whether or not the first emperor of heaven should take action when the monkey king made a big disturbance in heaven.
As the first deity of the three realms, if he wants to strike, he must meet at least two conditions: first, the enemy of the same level appears; Second, Tianting was destroyed.
Let’s look at the harm caused by the monkey king’s havoc in heaven: 1. He defeated the pioneers of King Li, such as the giant spirit God and Nezha; 2. Overthrow the Eight Diagrams furnace of Lao Jun; 3. A knife will not kill you; a thunder will not kill you; 4. He went to the front of the Jade Emperor’s office building, but was easily stopped by the security guard.
No matter which of the above, it is not enough to let the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty do it, and there is no reason for the Jade Emperor to arrange for the old adviser to come forward. Lingshan is a department of Tianting. It is normal for the Jade Emperor to order the leaders of this department to solve problems.
Let’s analyze the second question. Does the first Heavenly Master want to thank the Buddha.
First of all, in the Yuan Dynasty, no matter how old the emperor is, he is also the leader in front of the heavenly court and the old minister of the current leader, just like the ancient Buddha who lit the lamp. The Jade Emperor ordered everyone to come to the meeting and thank the Tathagata, but the original emperor could not listen.
Secondly, Sanqing is a great elder who changed the world. The order of the three realms was made by them, and the Jade Emperor was also supported by them. People who have made contributions will be rewarded. This is the rule of heaven.
As the saying goes, without rules, there is no square. Everyone is equal before the system, not to mention the rule makers, who should set an example. If he does not take the lead in doing so, the Jade Emperor will lose face, and he may not have face. Without rules, the heaven will be in chaos.
This is also true in our real life. If veteran comrades are self reliant on hard work and meritorious service and give directions to the current leaders, they will inevitably arouse the disgust of the current leaders. If the prestige of the current leader is damaged, he will certainly launch a counterattack. In this way, the unit fell into internal strife, and in the end, everyone could not get along well.
If the old leader knows how to be a person, let the current leader do it. If he does well, he will find a successor for himself. The current leader will also thank the old leader; If the work is done badly, the current leader will bear the brunt. At this time, the old leader will show his importance even more.
As an old leader, Yuanshi Tianzun could not fail to understand this truth. Therefore, during his journey to the west, he was very low-key and rarely appeared in the mirror. The jade emperor also respected him. However, the ancient Buddha who lit the lamp was not good. He came out to give directions on the way, which disrupted the Tathagata’s plan and made the Tathagata very unhappy (refer to the passage in the wordless Sutra. In the process of changing the Sutra, the Tathagata’s words of reprimanding Sun Wukong were actually told to the old leader).
There is another reason why the founder is so humble. As a rookie, the Tathagata enjoys a high momentum and likes to show his face everywhere. If Yuanshi Tianzun quarrels with him about eating, it will appear that he is stingy, and he will also become known as relying on the old and selling the old. It’s better to let the bullet fly for a while to see if he really has the ability.
We should know that all old people come from new people. They have been young and enthusiastic. Why are they unwilling to do something? It is because they have planted a hole in this respect and know that this is not feasible.
There is a folk saying that a driver who has never had an accident is not an old driver. The new driver likes to drive fast and run amok. It’s no use telling him anything. But as long as he gets honest once, he knows that the pot is made of iron.
In the eyes of Yuanshi Tianzun, Tathagata is just a new driver. Just like in the eyes of the Tathagata, Sun Wukong is a new driver. Disclaimer: the above content is from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. If your original copyright is infringed, please inform us, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.