In ancient China, "vegetarian" didn't mean "no meat". The word "vegetarian" originally meant white, clean and simple.
Some experts have verified it. In ancient China, vegetarianism had three meanings: first, it refers to vegetable food, which coincides with our modern vegetarianism; Second, it refers to eating all kinds of fruits and plants raw, which is similar to natural vegetarianism in the modern sense. The only difference is that it is difficult for modern people to eat their concept of "natural vegetarian food"; The third refers to getting something for nothing, which is already in the field of sociology and has nothing to do with the purpose of this paper.
According to China's traditional health preserving theory, people should not pursue a strong and fatty diet, and "blandness and tranquility" is the last word of health preserving. With the introduction of Buddhism, Liang Wudi, known as the "Bodhisattva Emperor" in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, made vegetarianism a prominent feature of Mahayana Buddhism in China.
Liang Wudi is an important figure in the history of Buddhism in China. Former Buddhists, even in India where Buddha Sakyamuni was alive, allowed practitioners to eat "five clean meats". Since Liang Wudi, vegetarianism has become a major symbol of Han Buddhism in China. Therefore, since ancient times, the most conscious, thorough and selfless person who takes the vegetarian road of combining theory with practice should be recommended as a Buddhist in China after the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Ancient Chinese medicine has always advocated the use of light vegetarian dishes, less fat and thick taste. Sun Simiao, the drug king, said in "Prepare a Thousand Daughters and Wings": "If you eat it endlessly, people will suffer. So eating the freshest dishes should be kept simple. Diet should be frugal, too much greed will hurt the health, and the old man's stomach will lose weight, and if it is too much, it will not be needed. "
When I say "keep the dishes fresh and simple", I mean that we must eat less meat, and don't hurt our health because we are greedy for delicious food, especially the elderly, who have weak digestion and absorption function, so we should think twice before eating. Sun Simiao further said, "Old people who are so ill sometimes catch too much cold in spring and summer, and their diet is too cold. Therefore, their fish, lettuce, raw meat and fishy cold are harmful to people and should be cut off frequently. "
Dietotherapy methods of making vegetarian food with vegetables are recorded in ancient Chinese medicine books such as Huangdi Neijing, Shennong Materia Medica, Drinking and Diet, and Compendium of Materia Medica.
The Song Dynasty was an era of highly developed culture in China. According to Tokyo Dream of China and Liang Dream, there were vegetarian restaurants specializing in vegetarian dishes in Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty and Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. There are more than 65,438+000 kinds of food in Shanjia Qing Palace in Lin Hong, most of which are vegetarian, including flowers, medicines, fruits and bean products. It is also the first time to record the imitation meat at that time, such as "fake fried fish", "winning meat buns" and "vegetarian steamed chicken". In addition, Chen Da's Ben Xin Zhai Shu Fang also recorded 20 kinds of vegetables and fruits vegetarian.
During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development of vegetarianism became more and more prosperous, and the records of vegetarianism in various documents were also very rich. According to the Traffic History of China written by Japanese scholar Takehiko Jin Gong, Yuan Yin, a monk, brought China's vegetarian cooking skills when he visited Japan in the late Ming Dynasty, and named it "vegetarian cooking", which integrated the superb spiritual cultivation of Buddhism into daily life. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Xue wrote a monograph on vegetarianism, which described more than 200 kinds of vegetarianism, and its vividness and richness have greatly surpassed those of the previous generation. It's really dazzling and magnificent.
The attitude of Buddhism on the issue of "fasting" attracts the vegetarian population in China most. In traditional monasteries, monks who live together meet in a place on the first and fifteenth day of each month, and ask laymen to be good at saying precepts and reflect on whether their practice in the past half a month conforms to them. If someone breaks the precepts, repent in public. As a disciple of Buddhists at home, laymen can only eat vegetarian dishes if they want to fast and purify their souls on such days.
Buddhism's fasting at the beginning of the month has been supported by more and more modern science today. According to the tidal theory, the influence of the moon on the earth is mainly the water exerted on the earth, which is often reflected by the periodic fluctuation of ocean tides. Water accounts for more than 80% of the body, and the concentration of salt in human blood is almost the same as that in the ocean. Therefore, whenever the change of ocean tides reaches the maximum on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the surging blood "tide" inside our human body also reaches the maximum.
At this time, people's blood gas is either the most prosperous or the most declining. In short, emotions will fall into an extreme state. Studies abroad have found that: at the full moon in May, people's emotions are generally more easily excited than usual, the crime rate in society will rise sharply, and the incidence of car accidents is much higher than usual; On the first day of junior high school, people's mood is generally lower than usual, depression patients will increase, suicide rate will increase, and some mental patients will be more difficult to control themselves than usual.
From this point of view, you can understand why those ancient monks and great virtues said that fasting was more meritorious at this time. The reason why the temple chose this day to chant Buddhist scriptures and preach precepts is indeed because people are most likely to break precepts under the influence of the moon's greatest spring tide!