Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 714
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather turns cooler.

But the good news came one after another.

Ma Guozhu entered Shanxi, and Shi Tingzhu, Zhang Ji, Bian Dashou and others surrendered the city.Ma Guozhu, Li Jiyu, Xu Dingguo, Zhang Ding, Ding Qiguang and others quickly swept up Shanxi. When the first snow fell in Taiyuan, the entire south of Yanmen Pass, and all the prefectures and counties basically belonged to Daming.

Like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves, prefectures and counties all over the country are watching the wind and falling.

When the troops entered Shanxi, they encountered the heroic resistance of Zhou Yuji, the former general of the brave guard, and there was no decent resistance thereafter. Later, the Qing army went south, and it was like a broken bamboo.

Now the Ming army is still the same. As soon as Taiyuan fell, all places surrendered one after another.

"Your Majesty, Zu Dale led his troops to surrender Datong. Brother Zu Zerun declared rebellion at Zijingguan and Jidu announced that he would be rebellious. Lang Tingzuo announced an uprising in Baoding to kill Ma Guanghui."

When receiving the good news, Zhu Yihai had already returned to Luoyang, and was still visiting the Songshan Shaolin.A group of monks received the emperor with sincerity and sincerity, because the emperor has been acting in the past few years, and he is not friendly to Buddhism, Taoism, and other Catholicism, and neither worships Buddhism nor ethics.

More than once, he publicly opposed idol worship, and even criticized many issues such as land occupation by monasteries and churches.Before the emperor went up to the mountain, Governor Chen Qianfu had already arrived, and he brought many officials and soldiers to investigate the mountain temple property in a comprehensive manner.

It is necessary to check their industries, fields, workshops, and their monks. The governor requires all monks and Taoists in Jiangbei, Henan to participate in the government-organized monk and Taoist examination. The content is related to the scriptures, etc., which is very strict There is a quota limit. Each province, each province, each prefecture, each county, and each township can only have as many temples and temples as there can be people.

If you pass the examination, you have to pay the certificate of degree, and you can become a monk only if you have the certificate. Other things, such as monasteries, are not allowed to engage in business, lend money, buy land for rent, or even accept land donations. , the new regulations require too much.

And if you can't pass the exam, even if you have money, you can't get a certificate, and you have to return to vulgarity.

There is still a quota for the land property of each temple, and the excess must be taken away. The amount within the quota can be rented out, or it can be planted by itself, but the land and silver must be paid, and a penny must be paid. within the drawn line.

Even the temple area and building specifications have new restrictions, which cannot be exceeded.

According to these notices from Chen Qianfu to Shaolin, Shaolin, a famous temple in the world, will shed its skin this time.

So when the emperor went up the mountain, none of the monks were happy.

In fact, the vast majority of monks in the monastery have not passed the previous exams, and they will be forced to return to vulgarity immediately. Those who pass the exam have exceeded the quota by many places, and they still have to return to vulgarity, or they can only go to other temples. If the temple is deserted or the monks in it are unqualified, they can go there.

The monks objected, but what's the use of opposing now.

In the past, whether it was Tartars or soldiers, even later Li Jiyu, Xu Dingguo, etc. in Henan often came to Shaolin to pay homage to the mountains, but they just wanted some food and money, and even recruited some monks. .

But this time the court came for real.

It is said that people are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. Now that the emperor wants to attack the temple, Shaolin is the first to bear the brunt.

"As expected!"

When Zhu Yihai heard the good news, he was very calm. He specially put three sticks of incense in front of the Buddha, but turned around and said that the golden and bronze statues of the Buddha violated the regulations and demanded that they be demolished.

Zhu Yihai didn't want to exterminate Buddhism like the Three Wus in history, but he really couldn't understand these problems in today's temples. It didn't endanger the rule, but it was indeed not a small problem.

He can also be regarded as the ZTE master who rebuilt Ming Dynasty. Now that he has the strength to solve some problems, he should do it. If he doesn't do it, it will be even more difficult for others to do it in the future.

The king of Qin and the king of Han also offered incense just now, but unexpectedly the emperor turned around and wanted to tear down the Buddha statue.

"Practice the Buddha, you should cultivate the heart, not stuck in things, not trapped in the mind, not confused with people. Burning incense and worshiping the Buddha, asking for the blessing of the Buddha, this is not practice, but utilitarianism. The Buddha statues in the temple are the appearance. The real Buddha is in the heart, practice yourself,
But now these people occupy the mountains and invade the land, build Buddhist temples, and sculpt golden bodies. This is the evil way of foreign officials.

These people are not practicing, but getting something for nothing.

Let the common people worship the Buddha, but they only want incense and fire to worship. It is not the Buddha that can be worshiped, but the monks.These people claim to be monks, but they don’t do production. They accept donations, go around for alms, and use the money donated by the common people to lend money instead. Look at how many fields this Shaolin occupies, and this mountain is almost occupied by them. The Buddha is golden, and the monks are full of brains, but most of them can't even understand the basic Buddhist scriptures.
There are even monks who secretly raise women and give birth to children at the foot of the mountain.

They occupy so many fields and collect so much rent every year, not only to pay taxes to the court, but also to take advantage of the opportunity to lend money in disaster years.

The so-called food relief is nothing more than putting out a little money and food as a show so that more people can donate. "

"I have no objection to worshiping the Buddha, but to be devout, what is piety? A monk must behave like a monk. If you want to be devout, you have to practice hard work, and at least you have to support yourself."

"You can't even learn the Buddhist scriptures well in worshiping the Buddha. What kind of Buddha do you worship. Besides, people are born with many secular responsibilities, such as at least honoring their parents, supporting the elderly and raising children. If parents don't support them but go to become a monk. Should it?"

The extermination of Buddhism by the three warriors was at a time when the temple economy was inflated to a very serious level, which seriously threatened the rule. For example, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, there were 10,000 large and medium-sized temples in the country, more than [-] small temples, hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns, and temple slaves. There are [-]+.

These monasteries also occupy countless fertile fields, forming one temple manor after another.

There was even a saying at that time that the wealth of the world is very rich, and the Buddha has seven or eight degrees of severity. They collected land rent, issued usury loans, and opened quality warehouses to pawn, but they still did not pay taxes.

In the later period, dozens of monks were named Sikong Situ or even generals, and began to participate in politics.

The problem of temples and temples in the late Ming Dynasty was not as serious as when the Sanwu exterminated Buddhism, but in fact it was not much better. Although there were institutions and officials to manage monks and Taoists in the early Ming Dynasty, by this time, it was almost a decoration.

What Zhu Yihai wants now is to reorganize.

First, there will be a wave of clean-up and rectification. On the one hand, it will conduct the monk's Taoism examination, re-issue the monk's Taoism certificate, and return those who fail or exceed the quota to secular life.

The other side is to clean up temples and temple properties, all temples, clean up and register, keep some, register and grant licenses, and ban some.

Those who keep the licenses should also clean up the temple property, mainly to clear the fields, and reserve a certain amount of fields according to the scale and the number of monks.

After finishing these, there is one more thing to do.

The Senglu Division and the Daolu Division were reset, and the Senggang Division and the Daogang Division were set up at the local level, and officials such as Sengzheng and Daozheng were set up to manage monk and Taoist affairs.

All licensed temples and their presiding officers need to be evaluated, appointed and supervised by the imperial court. The procedure is that each temple nominates itself, and the imperial court evaluates and then appoints.

In addition, all properties reserved by temples and temples must be registered under the Senglu Division. These temple properties, from temples to fields, etc., do not belong to the monks, but belong to the Senglu Division. Infringement, but it is not used casually by temples, monks and Taoists.

They have the right to use, but the ownership belongs to the imperial court.

The imperial court has to audit every quarter every year, and some major expenditures have to be reported to the temple for approval.

After the monastery, apart from self-cultivation and tenant farming, they are not allowed to engage in financial industries such as lending and pawning, as well as all handicraft workshops such as mills and mills, and are not allowed to open shops and set up stalls in town markets and other profit-making activities.

The legal property of temples is used to maintain temples, provide food and clothing for monks and Taoists, and even print books and copy scriptures. In addition, monks and Taoists are not allowed to purchase real estate, buy horses and cars, etc. for consumption.

It also stipulates that temples can accept small donations from the people, but they are not allowed to accept large donations, especially donations such as fields are prohibited.

The recruitment of disciples and ordaining monks must be strictly supervised by the court and handled according to regulations.Even monks and Taoists who have obtained degree certificates have to take regular exams, just like scholars in government schools, the sixth-grade performance assessment method, if they fail three consecutive exams, the degree certificates will be withdrawn and expulsion.

Senglusi really took care of it.

There are more than 540 mu of Shaolin fields, [-] mu of temple foundations, more than [-] towers and halls, and more than [-] monks and disciples.

Despite the war, there are still a large number of monks.

Historically, during the land reform, there were only 28 monks left in Shaolin, and they were left with [-] acres of land to support themselves.But not many years later, it became a group again.

It is the same now, they have a large number of tenants, and they also have a team of monks, which is essentially the same as Li Jiyu's villages back then. They also have swords, guns, guns and even muskets, and their strength is quite strong.

Ordinary thieves, officers and soldiers want to trouble them, but they are not opponents.

"Buddhism is a holy place, but this place is not holy. Before I came here, I heard that no one would marry the daughter of a Shaolin tenant, and no one would marry a young man. Do you know why?

Because those monks in charge of the tenants openly threatened the tenants, those who had daughters planted water to irrigate the land, those with good wives planted good land, those with bad daughter-in-law planted bad land, and those without women reclaimed land. "

"Do you understand the meaning of this sentence?"

The local tyrants and evil gentry in many places, because they hold the land that is the lifeblood of their tenants, will cause a lot of oppression and injustice, not only rent, free labor, etc., some even put forward many excessive demands such as night rights.

This kind of thing has not been new and strange for thousands of years. Although it is not universal, it is everywhere.

These are some inevitable problems caused by occupying the means of production.

"Shaolin is considered to be a famous temple in the world. It needs to be rectified, so as not to spoil the name. Let's leave one hundred monks, and one thousand mu of land. It doesn't matter whether you cultivate it yourself or hire tenants, but the land is [-] per mu. Four liters and two liters of buckets must be paid accordingly, and if they are rented out, they can only harvest [-]% of the autumn grain, and they are not allowed to cross the line."

"Let Senglusi clean up and register all other properties in the temple. Those that should be collected and those that should be kept should be kept, but the remaining ones must be supervised and managed well. From now on, they will be properties under the name of Senglusi. The temple Monks also have to be supervised by monk officials in Henan Prefecture and Dengfeng County.”

"In the future, monks can practice with peace of mind. If you become a monk, you will pay less attention to worldly affairs. Gold, silver, money and other worldly things will be less touched. Let the monks and monks take care of them."

"The monks are all dismissed and must not be retained."

After Zhu Yihai finished speaking, he ignored the real and fake monks who were begging on their knees, and went directly down the mountain.

The snow fell more and more, and Songshan became more and more beautiful.

No one persuaded them along the way. The emperor first attacked the vassal royal family of Lao Zhu's family, and then he also attacked the Confucius family in Qufu. Now he would attack Shaolin and temples, which had long been expected.Moreover, the emperor did not directly kill monks, destroy Buddha statues, and ban people from believing in Buddhism like Sanwu.

It is still free to practice Buddhism and believe in Buddhism, but it cannot be detached from the outside world, and it can be managed by the imperial court.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, Taizu Zhu Yuanzu also formulated a complete set of management system for monks, Taoists and temples, but it was abolished a long time ago. Now the emperor has just reorganized and made it a little stricter.

A thousand acres of land is not a lot.

The rest will be owned by the public. The money will be given priority to resettle the monks who have returned to the secular life, and they will be given land to settle down. The temple land will also be sold to the original temple tenants at a preferential price.

Take it from the temple and use it for the people.

(End of this chapter)