Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Probably these monks were fed up with this kind of suffering, so soon after Li Tai summoned the two old monks, the eminent monks wrote letters one after another, hoping that the court could eliminate the filth and evil practices of ascetics.

Of course, Li Tai would not turn a blind eye to such a voice of justice. He immediately ordered Wang Songnian, the Minister of the Ministry of Worship, who had just completed building the family temple for Duke Tang and returned to Chang'an not long ago, to discuss with the monks and work out a plan to rectify the monks. plan, thus serving as a standard to carry out sanctions management for various current situations of Salmon.

The monks are eager to get out of trouble. In addition, Li Tai already has a complete set of control plans here. Now he is trying out some of the terms according to the affordability of these monks. Naturally, a consensus can be reached soon.

After ten days of discussion, a "Sacrificial Dharma Protector Style" for the management of temples and nunneries was drawn up. The four legal provisions of the legal order format are the regulations and standards for the court departments to deal with specific personnel matters, and this standard can be added, deleted, and adjusted with the development of the times, and it is the most flexible type of regulations.

"The Dharma Protector Style of the Sacrifice Department" first confirms that the Sacrifice Department has the power to supervise and manage various affairs of ascetics. Of course, considering that there is no precedent for the court to directly manage the personnel of ascetics temples before, the worship department does not manage the affairs of recluses directly through the administration. The power is realized through the Dharma Protector Hall of the Sacrifice Department.

In addition to the court officials dispatched by the Ministry of Sacrifice, the Dharma Protector Hall also included eminent monks conferred by the imperial court. In other words, it is not only the administrative power that manages the development of the Buddhist industry, but also the leading figures in their industry. The formulation of the provisions of the "Dharma Protector" was also the result of joint consultations.

The reason why Li Tai reserves a certain right to speak for these eminent monks is that only the elites within the industry know how to recruit talents most effectively. The second reason is that those who are targeted also need to have one or a group of specific goals. The object of emotional venting.

After the Dharma-protecting Form signed by all the eminent monks was written, the Bafu army took these articles and spread out in all directions with Chang'an as the center, and began to check whether the temples in various places complied with the Dharma-protecting Form's provisions.

According to the regulations of the Dharma Protector, the temple is roughly divided into four levels.

The lowest level is the small temple temple for private worship. Temples at this level are not qualified to teach the Dharma, nor can they openly accept worship. There are also strict restrictions on the Buddhist rituals that can be held. If you want to strive for relaxation of restrictions, you must go to a higher-level temple to ask for sutras and invite sutra masters to live in the temple and practice.

Temples at the next higher level have sutra masters as abbots, and sutra masters must pass the examination of the Ministry of Sacrifice. Only if they are proficient in certain Buddhist scriptures can they be granted the qualification of sutra masters and abbot a temple. Temples at this level can have sutra pavilions and can preach sutras and Dharma, accept offerings from believers, and hold some Buddhist ceremonies.

Temples at a higher level need to have a Zheng Dharma Master. The Zheng Dharma Master does not pass the sacrificial ministry examination. Instead, the Jing Dharma Master must follow a great virtuous monk to learn Buddhism and obtain the recommendation of three great virtuous monks. This status can only be obtained after obtaining certification from the Ministry of Sacrifice.

A temple of the highest level would naturally have a virtuous and eminent monk in charge. Any temple without a virtuous monk in charge will have various restrictions and rules. Only a virtuous monk in charge can avoid many troubles. This also directly elevates the transcendent status of the virtuous monk from the administrative level.

Buddhism, as a Tibetan religion, has been in China for a long time and has grown wildly for many years. There have also been many attempts at localization, and its size and influence cannot be underestimated.

Such a behemoth is difficult to kill from the outside. Historically, it has also experienced the blows of three martial arts and one sect that destroyed Buddhism, but it often revives quickly and develops better than before. Compared with the destruction of violence, its internal The impact of improvement and self-correction can be more long-term.

Li Tai now does not want to completely obliterate Buddhism, but to use the head effect of these so-called virtuous monks to tame the entire Samana. Even if it cannot be tamed in a short time, it must be tamed through its internal shocks. The controlled social resources are gradually released.

As the "Dharma Protector Style" was officially implemented, the temples around Gyeonggi Province were the first to bear the brunt.

Buddhist temples in Guanzhong are also relatively prosperous, especially as the society has gradually stabilized in recent years. Many people have good years and many ordinary families have little savings. As a result, many ascetics took the opportunity to preach that good weather was the result of the Buddha's blessing, and called on the people to worship the Buddha more sincerely in exchange for the Buddha's continued protection. As a result, many believers enthusiastically donated money and donations, and the number of donors increased.

According to preliminary statistics from the government, there are nearly a thousand temples and nunneries in Jingzhao County alone, large and small! Although nearly half of them are private temples that do not solicit external believers, some clans, for example, build a temple in order to increase internal cohesion and facilitate their people to worship Buddha and worship the Dharma.

However, before the implementation of the "Sacrifice Ministry and Dharma Protector Style", there was no clear limit and regulation on whether these temples were profitable. The so-called inability to make profits was just that the temple operators themselves lacked the ability to make profits.

After all, so many sickles suddenly appeared in the Faith Market, and they were all sharpened, but there were only so many leeks, and who could cut them all depended on their skills.

Even excluding these poorly managed temples, there are still more than half, that is, more than 500 temples that are profitable and have a considerable scale. Among them, the largest group includes large temples with several halls, hundreds of monks, and hundreds of monk households and donors. Temples of this size are often even more capable of squeezing people's power and wealth than local governments.

Mingde Temple is located in the southern suburbs of Chang'an. It is a medium-sized temple among the temples in Jingzhao County. The temple building itself has several buildings, hundreds of Buddhist temples and houses, nearly a hundred monks in the temple, and more than 100 novice monks and slaves in total. There are hundreds of people, and they own several farm properties, including weaving mills, kilns, carbon kilns and other industries.

This temple was originally built by a Fan monk from Longyou during the Datong period. He once offered Fan medicine and cured the then emperor Yuan Bao Ju. Therefore, the emperor gave Jingnan Temple a temple and ten hectares of surrounding fields to support Fan. monk.

As a result, Monk Fan became famous, and more and more local monks gradually came to join him, making the temple grow larger and larger, reaching the scale it is today.

Monk Jōmei, the abbot of Myōtōji Temple, is also considered the number one figure in the Kinei religious circle. Recently, he has also been very concerned about the Buddhist and Taoist debates in Beijing. He goes to the city almost every day to follow the progress of the debate.

During this period, I saw that all the eminent monks were becoming more and more weak. Monk Jingming was also in a very bad mood. Occasionally when he couldn't control his temper, he would even curse in the temple. These so-called eminent monks were so incompetent that they would replace the dogs raised in the temple. The barking may be more powerful.

Monk Jingming is also an old monk who has been observing the precepts for many years. He started to get so angry that he stopped cultivating his oral ethics. That was really a sign of urgency. In addition to worrying that the monks might be hit by this, it was also because he was a sponsor behind a certain eminent monk who participated in the debate. He collected thousands of dendrobium rice and other gold and copper materials to make the project. That eminent monk came to the stage to praise him, but the other party performed so poorly. How could he not feel resentful?

Because he was angry, the eminent monk summoned him several times, but Monk Jingming was too lazy to go see him. But he didn't know that this willfulness of his would bring him disaster that he would regret for the rest of his life!

On this day, a group of armored soldiers suddenly poured into Mingde Temple. The monks and soldiers who were supported by the temple were stopped by the armored soldiers before they came in, and were cut to the ground by the armored soldiers. The other monks fled in panic when they saw this, and the soldiers who led the group into the temple Only then did the chief shout loudly: "According to the order of the Jingzhao Mansion, we are here to arrest the evil monk Jingming and his followers. You will be captured as soon as possible. If you want to resist, we will not kill you!"

Monk Jingming has been depressed and unable to sleep recently, so he had a few extra glasses of wine last night. At this time, he was still awake. When he heard the novice monk's confession, he was shocked to realize that he had become a monster monk. He hurriedly rushed out of the Buddha's house and shouted: "I'm wronged." , What an injustice! The old monk is committed to worshiping the Buddha and obeying the law. How can he be a monstrous monk who violates the law? Master Faming of Guangye Temple can bear witness, General..."

"The demon monk is still making sophistry? Your crime was exposed by Master Faming, why don't you catch me quickly!"

Hearing the soldier commander's answer, Monk Jingming was immediately dumbfounded. He must know that Master Faming was the eminent monk who was supported by him. Why did he expose his sins to the government now?

Soon all the monks of Mingde Temple were arrested, and all other people and objects in the temple were also sealed and imprisoned. However, due to the large number of buildings in this temple, two skinny novices inevitably escaped through a dog hole. After deliberation, they had nowhere to go, so they went straight to Jingzhao Mansion to lodge a complaint, accusing Master Faming of trying to usurp their temple. Produce and oppress the good!

With the picketing of prostitutes in temples in Jingzhao County, various complaints of being wronged have also flooded in to Jingzhao Mansion, because there are too many similar cases. Zheng Daoyong, who serves as Jingzhao Yin, is facing I don't dare to make a decision, I can only report the relevant situation to the Bafu.

Such a situation was naturally within Li Tai's expectation. Many so-called inside stories that are kept secret from outsiders are often already open secrets in the industry. As the same saying goes, if something doesn’t have a scale, it won’t have the fourth level, but if it does, it can crush people to death.

However, Li Tai was currently referring to something else, so it was naturally impossible to interrupt him midway, so he ordered the Jingzhao Mansion to properly resettle the complainants, provide them with food and clothing, and store the relevant evidence in separate files. , Don’t miss it, just have it ready for later use!