Song Dynasty's Ignorant Prince

Taoism was very prosperous in Song Huizong a few years ago, but Taoism only occupied a high position in the center, and Buddhism flourished in the folk. Buddhism not only accepts incense offerings from believers, but also occupies a large amount of cultivated land, which is then leased to tenants for rent.

Looking at many temples, the construction is even more imposing than the magic bow. The big Buddhas are wrapped in gold foil, and the monks eat fat heads and ears. Although Zhao Ji knew about the dangers of Buddhism, he never took any measures because it was difficult to do it.

The common people believed in Buddhism, and the imperial court also needed Buddhism to give the common people a psychological support.

Even if Zhao Ji issued a decree to limit the land of large households to 200 mu, this policy has now spread from the capital to all parts of the country. Zhao Ji issued a strict order that if any chief or county magistrate did not do well, they would immediately be dismissed and investigated.

But this does not include temples, because temples do not belong to one family, they are outsiders, so the government just reported the situation and did not take measures.

Now when it comes to religion, Zhao Ji also thinks of Buddhism.

In fact, since the Northern Song Dynasty, many emperors have had the idea of ​​governing Buddhism. Even Song Huizong also supported Taoism to suppress Buddhism, but it was not successful.

Now that the issue of land reform is reported, Zhao Ji is also very troubled.

There have been many activities against Buddhism in history. The more famous ones are Taiwu Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty.

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Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty raised the butcher's knife, the monks grabbed it and chopped it up, dug a hole and buried it, and destroyed all the temples and courtyards.

Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty "removed the monks and Taoists, and ordered them to return to the people". After Zhou destroyed Qi, he also abandoned the realm of Qi-Buddhism,

Tang Wuzong abolished the Buddha, returned 265,000 monks and nuns to the two tax households, and collected tens of millions of hectares of plastered fields, and received slaves and maids as the two tax households of 150,000. Tang Wuzong also destroyed the bronze statues, chimes and bells of the abandoned temple and used them for coinage. All iron statues, cast as agricultural implements, gold, silver, or stone statues, etc., are sold and paid for. It can be said that destroying the Buddha has destroyed its place.

When Buddhism first entered China, the property obtained by the monastery from charity was collectively owned by the monastery at that time, and was mainly used to maintain the daily life of the monks and Buddhist activities. finally formed.

The monastery landlord is an integral part of the feudal landlord class, and the monastery landlord economy is a feudal landlord economy with the charm of Buddha added. However, its rapid development has added a real competition mechanism to the landlord class in the secular society, and also caused damage to the national economy. some damage.

Monks and nuns have the privilege to be exempted from the tax and the dependents of the monastery do not pay the rent tax to the state. This has sown the seeds of conflict between the government and monasteries. When the number of monks is small, the number of dependents is small, and the monks can persuade people to do good and obey the rule, this contradiction is not prominent. When the number of monks was large, which seriously affected the official tax revenue, and the monks did not play the role of persuasion among the people, but incited the people to resist, and even led the people to riot, the contradiction between the government and the monastery became prominent.

The feudal state was established and controlled by the secular landlords, and economic interests were fundamental. Therefore, when Buddhist forces seriously threatened their fundamental interests, the emperor, the general representative of the secular landlords, had no choice but to grieve against Buddhism in order to safeguard his fundamental interests. Hit the killer.

However, after the death of "Sanwu", Buddhism quickly revived, and now Buddhism is still a very stubborn force in the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Ji doesn't want to destroy the Buddha, all he wants is restraint, and the imperial power must always come first.

But this matter is not as simple as his next order. Zhao Ji has to worry about the thoughts of the people and cannot cause a relatively large turmoil.

So when discussing with the ministers, everyone came up with an idea, that is, the property of the temple will not be moved, but the fields must be confiscated. If they do not want to be confiscated, the monks will be allowed to work by themselves, and those who fail to do so will be punished.

For this reason, Zhao Ji issued an edict targeting Buddhism and Taoism, mainly saying that the temple and Taoist temple will not be held accountable, but only 50 acres of fields that are not cultivated by myself can be reserved, and those who exceed this number will be confiscated.

Not only are there edicts, but also officials at all levels have explained the matter, telling the people that the Buddha's salvation of sentient beings is not based on your property, and the Buddha did not let the monks embezzle the people's property. If there are, they are fake monks!

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Anyway, Zhao Ji has given power to officials at all levels, and Zhao Ji will check and let the officials deal with the situation according to the situation.

In this way, there are different ways to deal with it. Some officials are tough and take their yamen to confiscate the land and distribute it to the common people. Moreover, the loan sharks released by the monasteries will all be voided, and if the monks dare to ask for the loan based on the loan sharks, they will be imprisoned immediately. Don't say that you are an outsider, what kind of food do you have to eat, and what loan sharks do you put on? It's worse than a rogue!

There were also more moderate officials who negotiated with the temple presidency. Some temples voluntarily returned the fields, and some temples did not agree and called on the people to resist. For example, there is a temple called Ganlu Temple, which is full of incense and many believers, so that the common people obstruct the officials, sitting on the field and not walking, sitting there and reciting scriptures.

During the actual implementation, many things happened. The monks themselves are not powerful, but they can confuse the people. Moreover, many officials and their families are Buddhists, and there are many constraints in various aspects.

Every few days, officials complained to Zhao Ji, which made Zhao Ji very annoyed, and simply said, "Everyone else can do this, why can't you do it, don't you have this talent? If you really don't have it, it's better to let Xian!"

Threats are passed, and no one is long-winded. But there are still a lot of things that can't be done. Zhao Ji has to send someone to help, and that is Nie Chang, the chief in charge. Nie Chang has a lot of power and can mobilize the army. For things that are stubborn, he can only use iron and blood.

Anyway, Zhao Ji killed a lot of people, so he didn't care if there were more fake monks.

This time, the nuns and monks were crying, and they were all asking for the blessing of the Buddha.

But Zhao Ji doesn't sympathize with them at all. Most of the monks are lazy people. They recite the scriptures all day and pretend to be good. All deserve it.

What Zhao Ji did was gentle enough. If Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty did it, the monks would be killed hundreds of thousands of times.