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Chapter 636 Helping Buddha clean up the house 2
"..." Looking at the emperor with a sinister smile on his face, all the ministers including Yuan Yingtai were speechless. This move is too cruel, but the Immortal Buddha is even worse.

If all the temple monks abide by the precepts, there will not be many temples in the world, because they can't save money and attract believers. Who wants to be a beggar who doesn't have enough to eat all day long?

Stop talking about Buddhism. It’s not as satisfying as big fish, meat, gold, silver, and treasure. Whoever loves to practice should practice. It is best to donate all your family property to the temple. I will not compete with you for the ticket of reincarnation in this life. Let's reincarnate slowly.

Without tax-free farmland and tenants, without temple-owned shops, without the ability to collect incense money, with only one meal a day, and with alms bowls filling the streets, there may not be many temples in the entire Ming Dynasty that can survive.

But no one could object yet. The emperor had already made it clear that he could govern the country well without the help of Buddhism. At the same time, he said that he was not deliberately punishing the monks in the temple, but urging them to abide by the rules and precepts.

Why beg for mercy? The rules and precepts are written in the Buddhist scriptures. It doesn't matter if no one takes them seriously in normal times. Now that the emperor has taken them seriously, you can only consider yourself unlucky. Who asked you to write them but you can't do it?

"Yang Tingyun, you and Li Kezhuo of Honglu Temple go to the Divine Music Department and Chaotian Palace in Nanjing to select ten Taoist priests from Zhengyi and Quanzhen, and tell them about your mission to the Luzon Special Administrative Region.

There is no need to build Taoist temples for the time being. The Spaniards left many churches in Luzon, and there is no problem in converting them into Taoist temples. Belief is in the heart but not in the traces. Don't be too obsessed with the form. "

Suppressing Buddhism alone is not enough. Zuo Guangdou on Luzon Island is still waiting for a reply. Now I really have no choice. I can only try to lift the Taoist out first, and then let's see if it works.

It just so happens that the royal family has many Taoist temples, the two largest of which are in Beijing and Nanjing. Come on, it's your turn to contribute, don't hold back, go over and try your best to deceive me, and see how long it takes to get all the local natives to kneel down and worship the Supreme Lord.

"Your Majesty, I don't know whether to say something or not..." Yang Tingyun, the Minister of Rites, didn't look very good either. Hearing that the emperor was going to send Taoist priests to Luzon Island, he stopped talking.

"It must be inappropriate to talk about it. I know that both you and Xu Guangqi were baptized and believed in God. It doesn't matter. The Europa Temple outside the Beigong Gate was built by my decree, and it will be allowed to be built in other cities in the future.

In my Ming Dynasty, you can believe in anything you want as long as you don’t use your faith for other purposes. If I believe in Christianity and can make all the Mongolian tribes surrender immediately, then I can be baptized now.

Of course, if destroying Christianity or Buddhism can eliminate border troubles, I will demolish all churches and temples without hesitation. From now on, all you need to remember is that I will trust whoever can make the Ming Dynasty stronger, and I will destroy whoever can make the Ming Dynasty stronger! "

Hong Tao knew what Yang Tingyun wanted to say. Since he knew everything, he should stop talking nonsense. However, those present were all high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty, and one thing must be emphasized again.

The so-called religion is just a tool used by those in power to facilitate their rule. There is no distinction between who is good and who is bad, only whether it is useful and what purpose it can achieve. It is best to recognize this clearly, otherwise you will not be able to be consistent with the emperor, and then it will be difficult to make progress.

The debate in the court was temporarily over, and no one could change the emperor's thoughts and actions even when the imperial power was at its peak. But among the people, this great change in religion has just begun. In early June, "Ban Yue Tan" took the lead in publishing the news that two temples in the capital were raided by Jin Yiwei. It seems like it is describing a piece of news, but after reading the entire article, I feel that it is taking the opportunity to attack all temples and monks for not observing the precepts and polluting the pure land of Buddhism.

After seeing this report, some officials in Beijing quickly told their families to stop going to temples to offer incense, or to convert to Taoism altogether. They had already smelled a strong smell of conspiracy, and it must be the emperor who wanted to cause trouble again, so they asked "Half Moon Talk" to come out first to blow the whistle.

This set of practices has become a routine. Whenever the emperor wants to punish someone, the first one to take action is not Jinyiwei or Dongchang, but this newspaper headquartered in Tongzhou.

First find all kinds of evidence and accusations, and describe a certain person or organization as extremely evil and heinous in public opinion. After the government and the public are no longer shocked and partially accept it, then resort to thunderous means, which often gets twice the result with half the effort.

It is necessary for people to understand and be able to see through it, but the problem is that there are too few people who understand, and even fewer are influential and dare to respond to everything. On the contrary, the effectiveness of newspapers is becoming more and more obvious. Each issue can have anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands copies, which can be spread all over the country in ten months. Most people cannot tell the truth from the false and will only blindly follow it.

This time was no exception. Not to mention the restaurants and tea shops in the capital. Under the sonorous and powerful voice of the newspaper reader, diners and teagoers heard that the temples had hidden so much wealth and occupied so much fertile land. , also did many dirty things, all without exception slapping the table, staring and cursing.

The inspections, confiscations, and arrests of hard laborers were too light, and the people thought they were all being chopped up on the street, and they would not be able to forgive their resentment. Because some of them have contributed money for incense to these two temples. The most annoying and embarrassing thing in the world is to be cheated without even knowing it!
Now the emperor is wise and his ministers are capable, and these thieves are caught and punished. Although the incense money is not returned, the hatred is relieved. In particular, the common fake monks on the streets are gone, which makes the people of the capital even more happy. These guys are committing all kinds of crimes by stealing and kidnapping money. God finally opened his eyes.

Is there anyone who is dissatisfied or even resentful? It must be true. If a policy only has supporters but no opponents, it is most likely false. There are always two sides to everything. If someone benefits, someone must suffer. This is more accurate than the law of gravity.

For example, departments, officials, and people who have interests related to the temple will definitely be dissatisfied and even hateful. The temple was finished and they were forced to restrain themselves, and their interests were gone and reduced. Even if they were just collecting rent for the temple and cultivating the land, it was not considered a benefit.

We don’t understand what national policies are. Anyway, the money we could get every month and the food we could receive every season are gone now. That means we are dissatisfied, and we will hate whoever caused it.

It's a pity that it's useless to hate. The emperor issued the decree, the Jin Yiwei arrested the person, the crime was determined by Dali Temple, and even the navy escorted the criminals. Count them one by one, who can be moved? Gathering a crowd to petition and hoping that the law will not punish the crowd is just like the old man Huang Li.

It’s not as if the riots that took place outside the Songjiang Prefecture shipyard and textile factory last year were not mentioned in the newspapers. More than 2,000 people were killed and no less than 5,000 were arrested. As a result, more than a hundred local wealthy and wealthy gentry were ruined. What was the result? Just two words, mob!

The dead ones' homes would be confiscated, while the living ones would be sent directly to Annan to plant trees. It is said that the mosquitoes there are as big as wasps, and I don’t think they will come back alive in this life.

Whoever dares to do it again in the capital is not putting pressure on the emperor, but putting pressure on the mosquitoes in Annan. They have eaten all the food in their mouths. How uncomfortable it will be if there is no blood from the Ming people to eat in the future!

(End of this chapter)