Chapter 367

Thinking of a certain foreign guest suddenly eating duck blood vermicelli, and for a piece of duck blood, directly killing hundreds of ducks.

Zhang Jie can only say that poverty limits the imagination of this old monk.

"Amitabha, I don't know what it means for Your Majesty to suddenly parachute a Law Enforcement Elder to our Great Xiangguo Temple."

In a Buddhist hall of the Great Xiangguo Temple, a group of old monks with gray eyebrows were gathering together with worry.

Today, there was suddenly an angel from the palace who arrived at their Great Xiangguo Temple,

saying that the current Emperor is benevolent and wants to conduct a so-called 'pilot project' in them,

preparing for the subsequent clarification of the Buddhist sect, and specifically parachuted a Law Enforcement Elder.

"Amitabha, could it be that the tragedy of destroying Buddhism during the Three Wus and One Zong is about to repeat itself in the Great Gan?"

A group of old monks who can reach this position have truly eaten more salt than ordinary young people have eaten rice,

if you let them do other things, it might not work, but when it comes to looking at policies, looking at forms,

and guessing the thoughts of those nobles in the palace, their eyebrows are simply empty.

Although the little eunuch who came to announce the edict did not reveal how the current Emperor wanted to 'clarify the source' in the Buddhist sect,

but the bloody storm in this is simply self-evident.

When the Son of Heaven is enraged, a million corpses fall and blood flows like a river—is this a lie?

Not to mention that the person sitting on the dragon chair in the palace now is the Ancestor of a dynasty who overthrew the Great Song and established the Great Gan.

Such an emperor, his firmness of mind, ruthlessness of means, and long-term layout are unimaginable.

The Three Wus and One Zong destroying Buddhism is a pain that the entire Buddhist sect finds difficult to speak of.

The first destruction of Buddhism was the Taiwu destruction of Buddhism.

Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao, initially revered their Buddhism, but later turned to Daoism under the influence of the evil Daoist Kou Qianzhi and the treacherous official Cui Hao.

In the fifth year of Taiping Zhenjun (444), under the pretext that the monks were "spreading evil words to confuse the public," he issued an edict banning the private raising of monks and nuns.

In the seventh year (446), he conquered Gai Wu to Chang'an, and discovered weapons, wine-brewing utensils, and "lewd rooms" in the Buddhist temple,

suspecting that the monks were colluding with rebels, he ordered the killing of monks, destroyed scriptures and statues, and dismissed monks under fifty years old.

This destruction of Buddhism was the most cruel; according to the classics, "within the territory, there were no more monks"!

The second destruction of Buddhism was the Zhou Wu destruction of Buddhism.

After Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong, ascended the throne, he gradually restricted Buddhism.

Starting from the first year of Tianhe (566), he repeatedly summoned officials, monks, and Daoists to discuss the "Book of Rites" and promote Confucianism.

In the second year of Jiande (573), he set the order of the three religions as "Confucianism first, Daoism second, Buddhism last."

In the third year (574), he issued an edict to ban Buddhism, destroyed more than 40,000 temples, ordered monks and nuns to return to secular life, and confiscated their property.

After destroying Northern Qi in the sixth year, the policy was implemented throughout the north, and a large number of monks fled south.

Although after Emperor Wu died, Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, who later revered the Buddhist sect, took power,

and under his support, Buddhism gradually recovered, and this destruction of Buddhism did not kill people on a large scale like Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei,

but the blow to the Buddhist sect was still unimaginably heavy.

The third destruction of Buddhism was the Tang Wu Sect destruction of Buddhism.

When Tang Wu Sect Li Yan ascended the throne, there were nearly 50,000 temples in the country,

and nearly 300,000 monks and nuns. In the second year of Huichang (842), he began to limit Buddhism:

Ordered those who were guilty or violated precepts to return to secular life, and banned the court from donating to temples.

In the fourth year (843), he demolished small temples without imperial edicts and inspected the property of monks and nuns.

The fifth year (844) reached a climax: all monks and nuns under 40 were ordered to return to secular life, and those under 50 and those with incomplete procedures were also dismissed;

a total of more than 1,600 large temples and more than 40,000 small temples were demolished, 260,000 monks and nuns returned to secular life,

hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile land were confiscated, and 150,000 temple slaves were released as two-tax households.

Except for the Chan sect, the eight sects of Buddhism all declined, and it was not until Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne that he issued an edict to restore Buddhism.

The fourth destruction of Buddhism was the Shizong destruction of Buddhism.

Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou, Chai Rong, issued an edict to destroy Buddhism in the second year of Xiande (955), and the measures were more rational:

Abolished temples without imperial edicts, banned private ordination of monks and nuns; banned self-destructive behaviors such as burning arms and refining fingers;

ordered those with talent and courage to take exams to enter politics or the military; confiscated folk copper Buddha statues to cast coins;

created two volumes of monk registers every year, and those without records returned to secular life. A total of more than 3,000 temples were abolished, and more than 70,000 monks and nuns returned to secular life.

Until Chai Rong died in the sixth year, Song Taizong Zhao Kuangyin added a yellow robe at Chen Qiao,

establishing the Great Song Dynasty of his old Zhao family, and Buddhism was barely restored.

Although this destruction of Buddhism focused on rectification rather than destruction, Buddhism had already been seriously injured.

"Amitabha, may the Buddha be compassionate."

Thinking of the cruelty of destroying Buddhism recorded in the classics, the faces of the group of old monks were full of sorrow that could not be dissolved.

"Brothers, we cannot sit and wait for death, we must take action!"

The head of the Luo Han Hall, whose muscles were knotted and whose face was full of fat, looking more like a butcher than a monk,

could not stand such a heavy atmosphere and spoke in a muffled voice.

"Amitabha. The current Emperor does not believe in our Buddha, and even the ladies in the palace do not believe in our Buddha,

so we cannot even indirectly change the Emperor's mind.

If the Emperor's mind does not change, how can he withdraw his order?"

An old monk, who was in sharp contrast to the muscle-knotted head of the Luo Han Hall,

was extremely withered, with not a few taels of meat on his body, as if a breeze,

could immediately blow him to the Western Paradise to see the Buddha he believed in, spoke with bitterness.

"Amitabha!"

The monks put their hands together, chanted the Buddha's name in a low voice, and the sorrow on their faces was about to turn into bitter water.

The Emperor's mind is made up, what can these monks use to change it?

The question of whether the Emperor is bigger or the Buddha is bigger has always hovered in the hearts of monks in successive dynasties.

Perhaps in the eyes of those little monks, of course, the Buddha is bigger!

After all, people have always worshiped the Buddha, where have you seen the Buddha worship the Emperor?

Unfortunately, these old monks who have experienced the world all know,

this is actually the biggest blindfold in the world.

No matter how great and omnipotent the Buddha is in Buddhist scriptures and classics,

he is ultimately empty, and there has been no manifestation in front of people since he entered nirvana.

But the Emperor and the Son of Heaven are real, and the dynasty behind him with tens of millions of people,

and the thousands of troops that can destroy temples with a single order are also real! After suffering enough after the Three Wus and One Zong destroying Buddhism and other emperors' intentional or unintentional suppression,

as long as it is a wise bald thief, he knows that he cannot confront the dynasty and the Emperor head-on, and must take a roundabout route.

"Without the state master, there is no way to accomplish Buddhist affairs," this sentence of only nine words,

is a lesson that their Buddhist sect exchanged with endless blood and tears!

The reason why their Great Xiangguo Temple is named "Great Xiangguo Temple,"

is also because during the Great Tang period, Tang Ruizong issued an edict to change the temple name to Great Xiangguo Temple,

and wrote "Great Xiangguo Temple" to commemorate his own ascension to the throne from the Prince of Xiang.