Emperor Liu Hong

Upon hearing Liu Hong's words, Liu Shu and all the ministers began to think about how to solve the problem.But if this problem is easy to solve, Liu Hong will not be able to solve it for two years.Therefore, above the main hall, fell into silence

There is no way to think about it. Liu Hong even wants to learn from future generations, directly promote atheism, and ban all sects.But Liu Hong knew it was impossible, let's not talk about his time travel, let him deny atheism.As far as religion itself is concerned, Liu Hong also believes that it is a very necessary thing, and its advantages outweigh its disadvantages for people.After all, except for a small number of cults, most religions lead people to be good, which is very helpful for social harmony.

Of course, guiding people to be good is not the main role of religion.The reason why Liu Hong believes that religion is necessary is because he believes that the greatest use of religion is to alleviate people's fear of death.

There is great terror between life and death, but as a mortal, it is absolutely impossible for you to get rid of death.At this time, religion is the best way to alleviate this fear.

It is often said that fear comes from the unknown.People's fear of death is also due to ignorance.Whether it is the Western theory of heaven or the ancient theory of the underworld, it can reduce people's fear of death.In Liu Hong's view, this is a very sensible approach.But later generations, regardless of these benefits, dismissed all these as superstitions and forced people to accept the saying that they would completely disappear after death.And the consequence is that people have lost all faith.Doing things, especially doing bad things, no longer has scruples, so that people's morality has no bottom line, and they can do all kinds of things.

Besides, even if Liu Hong doesn't care about these at all, this religion is not something he can ban just by saying it.After all, the prestige of the red sun in later generations is not lower than that of him now.Even he failed to ban religion.In the end, those well-known sects had to be preserved, so that the rich and powerful people believed in ghosts and gods, that is faith, while ordinary people believed in ghosts and gods, that was four different superstitions.If he banned religion now, he believed it would be no better.

While Liu Hong was pondering, Hu Zhao said, "Your Majesty, most of the current religions are branches of Taoism. Even the Taiping Dao is in the name of Taoism. See if we can register it as your Majesty's book?" The form of Taoism brings Taoism under the supervision of the imperial court. Then the imperial court can safely support Taoism, and then guide the people to believe in it, so as to replace those cults that only know how to cheat money?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," other ministers also said one after another: "As long as these religions can be brought under the supervision of the court, the court can reform these religions. If they want to develop believers, they must follow the rules set by the court. They If they are disobedient, our officials can not only ban them, but also let Daozong exclude them in the religious circle, making them completely dead."

"That's right, it's a way."

Hearing what Hu Zhao and the others said, Liu Hong's eyes lit up.He finally realized that his previous thinking had fallen into a misunderstanding.After all, Buddhism, which is very powerful in later generations, has just entered the Han Dynasty.Haven't had time to develop yet.Taoism, on the other hand, believes in inaction and is not keen on developing believers.Although they are very famous, they are all cheaper than a cult like Taipingdao.

"In this situation, I just need to register a puppet pope. This religion can't just be reformed according to my wishes!" Thinking of this, Liu Hong became a little excited, "Since I can reform the religion and formulate the rules as I please, then I It is not a simple matter to leave a religion that is beneficial to the Han nation for future generations."

But Liu Hong also knows that everything has two sides, and things are definitely not as good as they appear on the surface.Perhaps this is beneficial to the Han people, but not necessarily to their royal family.After all, although he has reformed the religion now, the religion will also develop greatly through this.And with the demagogic nature of religion, the Pope is bound to wield enormous power.In this way, if the position of the pope is entrusted to someone else, it will be a disaster for the emperors of later generations.Therefore, he must consider it properly now, neither let religion hinder the development of the great man, nor let religion threaten the safety of their royal family.

"If it doesn't work, I will also support Buddhism and let it compete with Taoism. The royal family can control the balance, so that the threat of religious leaders to the royal family can be minimized."

The more Liu Hong thought about it, the more he felt that this method was feasible.Regardless of the fact that Buddhism is not powerful now, and even the name is called Buddha Sect, it will take many years to change its name to Buddhism, a promising name.But even so, they are definitely considered a well-known sect in Dahan.Not to mention other places, in this city of Luoyang alone, they have a White Horse Temple covering an area of ​​more than [-] mu.So if he wants to reform religion, this Buddhism is absolutely impossible to get past.

And judging from what happened in these years, history has amazing inertia.Therefore, in Liu Hong's view, the development of Buddhism is also inevitable.In this way, instead of letting it develop in the same way as later generations, it is better for him to transform it now and let it develop together with Taoism.At the very least, with his reforms, he can remove the negative side of Buddhism.

"For a big religion, these two are absolutely enough. Other sects can only exist as their branches. They must also accept the charter and management of the head church and the imperial court. In this way, the religion is basically It’s harmless.” The sect issue was settled, and Liu Hong thought that those who ran orders could help, “The big problems are all solved, don’t keep those witches and fortune-tellers, take this opportunity, Take care of it together."

For those witches and fortune-tellers in the village, Liu Hong feels that their existence definitely has more advantages than disadvantages.Of course, if you insist that they are all liars, no one will argue with you, because most of them are liars, and almost everyone understands this.

And why lie to people and say that their advantages outweigh their disadvantages.Because in Liu Hong's view, they are very similar to the role of a psychiatrist, and they have indeed relieved the mental pressure of many people.As for the money they defrauded, to a certain extent, it can be counted as medical expenses. After all, you need to spend money to find a psychiatrist.As for some people who don't know the heights of the heavens and the earth, assign them indiscriminately and cause greater harm to others, this is the bad side and needs to be guided.And Liu Hong wants to manage them in this regard, bring them into the supervision of the imperial court, and get rid of their disadvantages. (To be continued..)