A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 590
When a whale falls, all things are born.

Most of the thirty miles of Fanchuan between Shaoling Plateau and Shenhe Plateau, and the fertile farmland on both sides of the Jishui River, were annexed by Prime Minister Pei Ji in ten years.

Now that Pei Ji's family was confiscated and exiled to Jingzhou, the land of the Pei family in Fanchuan was immediately divided up by the nobles of Chang'an, and their owners were changed one after another.

However, all this has not changed much for the people of these manors and forts in Fanchuan. The landlords have changed, but they are still tenants.

Wu Huaiyu accompanied the emperor across Lishui and up to the Shenhe Plain. When passing Xiangji Temple, the emperor came to the Pure Land Sect specially. Abbot Daochuo also led his disciple Shandao and others to greet him and offered him his happiness. Collection of two volumes.

Bordering the Liao River to the south, the Li River to the west, and Fanchuan to the north, the scenery of Xiangji Temple is indeed very beautiful.

This temple is still very large, covering an area of ​​[-] acres. However, although it was built by the emperor's decree, it is still relatively simple in today's atmosphere.
The archway, Shanmen Hall, Heavenly King Hall, Stele Gallery, Bell and Drum Tower, Main Hall, Dharma Hall, etc. are all available. It can be seen that there are quite a lot of followers of the Lotus Sect. Even though the court has been strict in the past two years, they still can't raise enough money. With little money and silk, the court relatively turned a blind eye to this situation.

However, although Xiangji Temple is quite large, it does not dare to blatantly go against the new imperial regulations. Generally speaking, it is relatively simple.
In particular, Xiangji Temple did not dare to put any thought into the land. Except for the temple land previously rewarded by the court, they did not dare to acquire more than one acre of land. No one dared to make random donations. Secondly, several nobles and businessmen donated money to the big temple in Chang'an. As a result, the court imposed heavy penalties mercilessly. Not only did they confiscate the donated land, they also imposed three times the land penalty and a maximum fine. Even the temples were fined and confiscated with the same amount of temple land as the donated land.

After doing this, no one will dare to mess around with the land anymore.

Currently, Xiangji Temple is mainly composed of disciples of the Lotus Sect, but there are also some disciples of the Third Order Sect and disciples of the Vinaya Sect. They are all practicing mixed practices and are not allowed to be divided into sects.

The fields under the name of the temple and within the temple walls are used by Dao Chuo and his monks to grow wheat and vegetables themselves, while the rest are tenanted and rented to nearby villagers.

Those villagers obtained permanent tenant rights and became customers.

"Xiangji Temple wants to build a spiritual pagoda to enshrine the Buddha bone relics of Huiyuan, Tanluan, etc., the former eminent monks of the Lian Sect,"

Dao Chuo's plan is to build a thirteen-level spiritual pagoda, about thirteen feet high, built of green bricks, with dense eaves imitating a wooden structure. It is [-] paces wide around, in a square shape, with each side three feet long. The shape of the tower is The dense eaves imitate the attic style.

"Where's the money and food to build the tower?"

Huaiyu asked.

"Xuanzhong Temple and some other temples are willing to help raise funds,"

In the previous rectification of Buddhism, the imperial court basically took over the longevity treasury of major temples and temples. The money was nominally kept by the imperial court, and the purpose of the funds was divided into three parts, one of which was used for the maintenance of Buddhist statues in pagodas and temples. ,
But this is only for repairs, not new construction.

Of course, what Dao Chuo said about raising money was not to use the money, but to make alms, that is, to find believers. But under the current court system, such large donations are not allowed. At least they must be approved by the court, and To be included in the supervision, funds must be earmarked.

Xiangji Temple applied several times, but the responsible Chongxuan Office did not approve it.

Today he took the opportunity to make a request to the emperor in person.

Li Shimin walked around Xiangji Temple and was quite satisfied with the new temple. It was not overly splendid or anything like that. The monks also performed well. He selected a few for them to memorize sutras and all of them were satisfied. Good carry.I even saw them growing vegetables and grain in the open space of the temple. After asking Xiangji Temple, they no longer lend money for pawns, and workshops such as Didian Mill are no longer in operation, which is good.

There are no slaves employed in the temple.

Li Shimin finally agreed to the construction of a pagoda in Xiangji Temple and asked Dao Chuo to prepare a detailed cost budget. Then the Chongxuan Department would send someone to follow this list to help supervise Xiangji Temple to collect the money from believers and request Donations are not allowed to be collected from people below the household level, and donations cannot be raised more than the amount collected according to the declaration form. Even construction must be supervised by the government.

I also had a vegetarian meal at Xiangji Temple.
Really simple meals are very simple. The grain is collected from rent and the vegetables are grown by oneself. Apart from a little salt, there are only a few oils in the vegetables.

The rice is still wheat rice, which is very rough and much more unpalatable than pasta.

The emperor was quite satisfied, but monks had to endure hardships to practice.

When leaving Xiangji Temple, Li Shimin even said with great satisfaction that since he asked Wu Huaiyu to start rectifying Buddhism and Taoism, the ten Taoist disciplines in the world are still rectifying it. The effect is very good. Not only has a large amount of temple land been recovered, but many monks and Taoism have also been restored. Return to home.

The country has more household registration fees and more taxes.

Many of the treacherous people who took refuge in temples or relied on temples to escape taxes and labor were also eliminated.

Of course, we also collected a lot of workshops, money, silk, food, etc. from the temple. The amount was very considerable.
Nowadays, many tenants, slaves, etc. who were originally in the temple have either been allocated temple land and become good households, or they have also been allocated some permanent tenant land and become customers.

There are thousands of temples in the world, all of them are undergoing renovation.

There are also an even more astonishing number of Lanruo Wanjia. The so-called Lanruo refers to private monastic residences. Most of them are not real monasteries at all. They are just private monasteries owned by wealthy and powerful local nobles who pretend to practice Buddhism to avoid taxes and servitude. They even put land workshops, etc. under their names to evade taxes.

Ordinary people sometimes had no choice but to cut off their limbs in order to escape Yao service, which was called lucky hands and feet. But the powerful gentry could not do this. There were many ways, including serving as an official to avoid serving, or becoming a monk and practicing asceticism.

If you practice Lanruo by yourself, you can say that you are practicing with your hair. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, this kind of Lanruo has been the most common.

The purge of Buddhism and Taoism that began in Zhenguan cannot be said to be the eradication of Buddhism, but it is indeed very intensive. All monks and Taoists have to take exams. Temples have temples, monks have monks, and most of them are eliminated in the exam.

Even those who had staff marks tattooed on their bodies, or who had committed adultery, raised wives, or did not practice the precepts, were forced to return to secular life, and all the slaves in the temples were forced to be released.

Although they did not directly demolish temples or melt down the golden statues of Buddha, they prohibited temples from keeping slaves, operating industrial and commercial workshops, and prohibiting temples from lending money and pawns, etc., which is indeed very drastic.In just over two years, more than 10,000 slaves and maidservants in temples around the world were freed, and more than 10,000 monks were forcibly eliminated and returned to secular life. There are also a large number of tribesmen and good people who were originally attached to the temples and served as slaves.
Not to mention shutting down a large number of Lanruo private temples,
The imperial court received a huge amount of land, population, money and silk. In addition, many Hu temples and Tibetan religions were banned.
It's just that Li Shimin and the Zhenguan court were more skillful in handling affairs. They were not simply banning or destroying temples. While banning and banning a large number of temples, they were also constantly edicting to build new temples. Generally speaking, it is more reasonable to use the word "rectification". Those who truly practiced Buddhism The monks and Taoism were not affected much, especially the eminent monks from all over the world, who were invited to Chang'an one after another by Li Shimin, arranged to practice in major temples, and were even given purple robes.

Outside Xiangji Temple.

On both sides of the river.

The wind blows the wheat waves, turning them golden.

The wheat is about to be harvested,

Li Shimin specifically emphasized that the imperial guards, officials, etc. must not trample the crops.

"You also have a village here, right? Did you grow wheat this year?"

"The Chen family has a thousand-acre village here. The imperial court collected the third-level temple land and subscribed it when it was put on sale. This year, most of the crops grown here are corn,"

New crops such as corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes have been continuously promoted in the past two years and more and more are planted. In Chang'an, corn is no longer so novel.

However, the Wu family still grows a lot of corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. every year. The main purpose is to breed and sell seedlings. They also sell a batch of tender fresh food every year. It is more convenient to transport them to Chang'an and sell them nearby, and the profit is higher.

"What's Zhuangzi's profit?"

"good."

"The summer grain hasn't been collected yet, and the price is already [-], [-] yuan per dou of rice," Li Shimin was quite proud when he said this.

Although the price of food is too low, it has an impact, but from a large perspective, it means that there is no shortage of food. Only when the food is sufficient can the people be safe, the country can be stable, and the army can be strong.

As for cheap grain hurting farmers, there is currently no solution.

Compared with the high food prices in the late Sui Dynasty and early Kingdom, Li Shimin still prefers to see the current cheap food prices. Although the farmers are not rich, at least they are not hungry.But in the early years, there was a shortage of food and soaring food prices, which was really fatal.

Not to mention famine and hunger, people often had to pawn their wives, sell their children, go bankrupt or even lose their homes.

"Ma Zhou told me that cheap grain hurts farmers. Today's low food prices are not always a good thing. I don't know that, but it is better than being hungry."

In fact, some people have long understood the saying that the low price of grain hurts farmers.

Ban Gu of the Han Dynasty summarized it in the Han Dynasty, saying that the purchase of goods is very expensive and hurts the people, but it is very cheap and hurts the farmers.If the people are hurt, they will be separated; if the farmers are hurt, the country will be poor.

"Huaiyu, do you have any good way to get the best of both worlds?"

"I believe that neither too high nor too low is good. The price of rice should be maintained at twenty or thirty yuan, which is more reasonable. This will neither harm the people nor the farmers."

"How can it be done?"

"This is actually a relationship between supply and demand. The world is unified, the country is stable, and food cultivation is guaranteed. In good years, food production increases greatly and supply exceeds demand, so food prices will naturally fall.

The key to how much farmers can sell grain depends on the output. The demand is relatively stable and does not change much, but the grain output varies greatly when the grain output is good or bad.

However, many large landowners do not have to rush to sell their crops during harvest.

Low grain prices hurt farmers. The more abundant the harvest, the lower the farmers' grain prices and the lower their profits. The court needed to take action. "

“In good years, Chang Pingcang raises the purchase price and buys a large amount of grain for storage. This is the most important adjustment method.

Secondly, even if there is more grain, the court must also adjust its policies and liberalize appropriately, such as allowing grain to make wine and exporting some to surrounding areas. For example, it can also encourage people or businessmen to engage in breeding and use coarse grains to raise poultry and livestock. , this can also increase the supply of meat and eggs, consume and convert some food, and also increase people's income.

Furthermore, various regions can make more foresight and coordination when it comes to growing grain. For example, on the basis of ensuring the cultivation of basic grains, they can appropriately develop the planting of other crops. For example, in Gyeonggi, prefectures and counties, cities and towns can grow vegetables. Plant fruits, or grow mulberry and hemp in some places, or plant medicinal materials. "

When the Tang Dynasty equalized land among the people, they generally required Yongye fields to be planted with mulberry trees, jujube elm trees, and grain crops. This way, they could not only pay grain and silk to complete the tax task, but also be self-sufficient in food and clothing.

This was the most ideal small-scale peasant economic model for the imperial court.

But in fact, the further inland the Central Plains, the less land available to ordinary people.

"I suggest that after this summer's harvest, the imperial court can use more money and silk to open up the market to purchase grain, raise the price of grain, and provide more protection to the people. And now a bucket of rice only costs two or three dollars. This price can be said to be the highest in decades. At the lowest level, even if you add a little bit of harvested grain to store in the warehouse, you will never lose money. The harvested grain can be used to prepare for famine and disasters, and can also be used for brewing, breeding, etc."

(End of this chapter)