Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 386 The Pagoda (5K chapter combined)

“Esteemed benefactor, the Commandant Zuo is an official appointed by the imperial court. This humble monk dares not ask him to come out and greet us… This place still needs relief and aid. Please forgive this humble monk for leaving…”

The monk in the brocade robe was not afraid of Zhang Fei.

Seeing that Zhang Fei's men were all fierce and tough, they obviously did not want to clash with Zhang Fei, so they bowed and tried to leave.

Offering alms and relief?

Looking at the ragged, starving people, Zhang Fei couldn't bring himself to lash out.

These monks, dressed in fine clothes and with oily faces, were clearly using so-called merit to extract wealth from the people, but this soup kitchen was indeed providing relief to the starving.

However, how could there be so many starving people in Xiaxiang County, where the land was originally the most fertile and most of the local tyrants and bandits were eliminated during Que Xuan's uprising?

"The foreign Buddhist temples here have flourished to this extent; are you aware of this, Brother Mi?"

Zhang Fei turned to look at Mi Zhu, only to find that Mi Zhu also looked surprised.

Mi Zhu shook his head: "I don't know either... There are some discords among the officials of the various prefectures in Xuzhou. In order to avoid disputes, Prefect Tao divided the jurisdiction of each department. I cannot interfere in the matter of Xiapi."

The various powerful figures in Xuzhou had mutual grudges, which was a problem that existed from the beginning, and it was also the reason why all the families in Xuzhou had to curry favor with Liu Bei.

Tao Qian's decision to divide and govern the various prefectures of Xuzhou was a normal choice, essentially maintaining basic stability through a balance among the different jurisdictions.

But the balance was already broken after Tao Qian and Chen Deng fell ill.

"I'll go and take a look first, and then ask Brother Mi to inquire about the origins of this pagoda."

Knowing that it would be difficult for Zhang Fei to communicate normally with two hundred fierce men, he went to Xiaxiang first and let the more approachable Mi Zhu deal with the monks.

After Zhang Fei left, Mi Zhu dismounted, took out a money bag, and scattered money into the box.

The coins clattered into the box.

"Your kindness is boundless, benefactor..."

The monk in front of the box turned his head to look at Zhang Fei's departing figure, then at the kind-faced Mi Zhu, and visibly breathed a sigh of relief: "May I ask your name, benefactor? This humble monk will recite scriptures for you to cleanse your karma and ensure your karmic retribution in the next life."

"We merchants came here intending to do some business with the Zuo Commandant... Since you are providing relief to the starving people, I would also like to do my part. But I don't know what your Buddhist sect means by karmic retribution in the next life?"

Mi Zhu pointed to the starving people who were kowtowing: "I heard them say they've taken refuge in Buddhism... but what good is this refuge?"

"You, sir, are able to trade with the Commandant of Zuo on the main thoroughfare, and have such a strong and valiant man accompanying you. You must be no ordinary merchant. You should know the consequences that will be borne by your descendants..."

The monk raised his palm to his chest, forming a lotus finger gesture: "But there is no 'self' in this world. As long as one takes refuge in the Buddha, with the great power of the pagoda, one's soul can be preserved, and one can be reborn for countless lifetimes... In the next life, one can enjoy the fruits of this life's karma. Whether the next life is a blessing or a curse depends on one's cultivation in this life... This is the cycle of virtue and karma..."

This monk was clearly in charge of recruiting followers and was quite knowledgeable about the doctrines.

Mi Zhu was worldly-wise and had the financial means, so he quickly understood the logic of the Buddhist sect.

The Futu religion of the Han Dynasty was brought to the Han Dynasty by envoys from the Yuezhi, and it is different from Buddhism in later generations.

The concept of descendants inheriting the consequences of their ancestors' actions is actually the original doctrine of the Taiping Jing, which is a concept of cause and effect and retribution for good and evil. However, the core of this concept is not based on oneself, but on the idea that future generations should bear the consequences of their ancestors' actions.

The general idea is that if ancestors do good deeds, their blessings will extend to their descendants; if they commit many evils, disasters will befall their descendants.

The saying that a family that accumulates good deeds will have abundant blessings, while a family that accumulates evil deeds will have abundant calamities, is meant to guide people towards goodness.

In other words, descendants "inherit meritorious deeds and assets," but these assets may be savings or debts.

If one has a large amount of savings that one's descendants could squander throughout their lives, then even if one's descendants commit evil deeds, they may still have a peaceful end.

If a person has too much debt, even if their descendants do good deeds throughout their lives, they may not be able to repay it, and even the most virtuous person may not have a good ending.

This is also one of the core doctrines of the Way of Peace, which is based on the "family" and provides an explanation for the reality that "good deeds are not rewarded and evil deeds are not punished"—the retribution is in the hands of future generations, not in the present.

In a social environment based on family and with filial piety as the moral standard, this doctrine aligns with the beliefs of the majority of people and is therefore widely accepted.

Since most people don't know exactly how much 'merit' they have accumulated, they think about the blessings for their descendants, and thus tend to be benevolent overall, at least on the surface.

Of course, there are also villains who know they are doing evil, but who cares, since their descendants will suffer anyway... Besides, as long as they make enough money and have more resources, they can always make up for it by doing more good deeds...

Whether it's doing good or evil doesn't really matter, because it can always be aligned with the doctrine, explained, and highly applicable.

That's how religious doctrines are; they don't pursue high-tech sophistication, but rather universality.

This doctrine is a typical middleware component, which can be further developed according to actual conditions, that is, reinterpreted from different angles, and different terminal products can be launched with extremely fast efficiency.

Taipingdao is one of the end products.

As for who built this platform and who launched the Taipingdao product, we only need to look at which group benefits the most from this concept.

Are royalty and powerful families, and those aristocratic families who have served as officials for generations, equivalent to "ancestors accumulating good deeds to benefit their descendants"?
The common people, the criminals, those eight generations of poor peasants, are they equivalent to "the evil deeds of their ancestors causing misfortune for generations"?
This concept of accumulating virtue and doing good deeds to benefit future generations can promote social stability, and this concept is indeed deeply rooted in the hearts of Han people and passed down from generation to generation.

Taipingdao was originally a product designed to maintain stability.

As for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, that was actually a product-related incident.

Due to the extreme consolidation of social resources, and the constant natural disasters, man-made calamities, and internal struggles, the overall operation of the Great Han Dynasty encountered serious problems, and thus the Taiping Dao, its final product, collapsed.

Product manager Zhang Jiao defected, and the product team collectively rebelled—the shareholders of Dahan Group pushed all the operational responsibilities onto the product team, and in order to survive, the product team naturally had to drag some customers along to betray them.

Taipingdao, which originally held the largest market share, suffered a product malfunction, transforming from a stabilizing product into a rebellious and unethical one, losing user trust. Under such circumstances, other products naturally emerged to fill the market gap.

Thus, the Buddhist sect seized the opportunity.

Any product entering a new market must be adapted to suit the local ideology. When Buddhism was introduced to the Han Dynasty, it was very different from Buddhism in the Kushan Empire.

The fundamental idea of ​​descendants inheriting their responsibilities is still widely accepted in the Han Dynasty. Although the Taipingdao terminal product failed, the central platform was not affected.

So the Buddhist sect slightly modified the central component of 'bearing burdens' and grafted it onto the logic of 'reincarnation,' thus developing it into a new product called the Buddhist sect.

The Buddhist concept of "no-self" actually means not viewing oneself as a fixed whole, but rather as a 'part'.

"I" is not an entity, but is composed of the physical body, soul, thoughts, feelings, and "virtue, karma, cause and effect".

The pagoda emphasizes eternal existence and continuous reincarnation; all its components are variables, not fixed, hence the term "no-self."

Reincarnation is actually a process of constantly reorganizing these components.

The function of virtue, karma, and cause and effect is to change one's destiny in the next life.

The Buddha is called "Futu". After it was introduced to the Han Dynasty, it first borrowed the name of Laozi, the founder of Taoism, saying that after Laozi left the pass, he preached in the Buddhist world in the Western Regions. Therefore, Futu was also Laozi's student...

This was done to gain the recognition of the Han people.

After that, the Buddha was said to be the 'Western God who governs reincarnation'. After converting to the Buddha, one could use the Buddha's power to ensure eternal reincarnation—one could be reborn continuously, such as being reborn into a wealthy family to enjoy blessings.

Giving alms and doing good deeds eliminates karmic obstacles, and the resulting blessings are rebirth into a wealthy and noble life, or even Buddhahood to enjoy eternal bliss.

Those who commit many evil deeds will be reborn as animals or experience painful cycles of reincarnation.

This takes advantage of the existing concept of the blessings bestowed upon descendants and adds a "body-snatching" logic, claiming that if one does good deeds and accumulates merit in this life, one can become a descendant of a family that has accumulated good deeds in the next life and enjoy the blessings of the afterlife.

In other words, in the Buddhist system, the suffering in this life is not important; what matters is where one will be reborn in the next life, and one will bear the consequences of one's own actions in the next life.

At the same time, this does not affect the original concept of descendants inheriting their responsibilities.

The Buddhist religion did not abandon the fundamental concepts of the Han Dynasty, which is very clever and makes the Buddhist religion seem very advantageous.

Because taking refuge in Buddhism eliminates karmic obstacles, one can attain liberation, and one's descendants will no longer have to bear the consequences of one's sins.

This is the value of taking refuge.

Therefore, they would claim that after converting to Buddhism, one should forget one's past life and no longer be a secular person—in their doctrine, this is detachment, so as not to let one's sins affect future generations.

If one practices generosity and cultivates virtue, one will be reborn into a wealthy and noble family in the next life, and one's descendants will clearly share in the blessings...

This is a highly targeted improvement product.

This new product has many advantages over the Taipingdao (a type of Taoist temple) because it was not developed for the purpose of maintaining stability, but rather for the purpose of capturing the market.

The advantage of the Buddhist concept lies in the fact that everyone is immortal and everyone is responsible for their own karma. They bear the consequences of their own bad deeds, but their good deeds can be shared by their descendants. This is more in line with human selfishness.

At the same time, these ideas resonate more with the psychology of the common people, criminals, and evildoers.

Because the common people need "blessings in the next life" even more than the wealthy.

In order to quickly gain public recognition, the Buddhist sect also adopted the route of charity and relief, which is the fastest way to gain followers and build a good reputation.

Giving alms requires money and food capital, and the Buddhist sect, like the Way of Peace, first asks believers to "give alms of merit," and then monks act as intermediaries to distribute the merit to the starving people.

However, unlike the Way of Great Peace or the Way of Five Pecks of Rice, the Buddhist sect did not establish fixed standards for contributions, and they did not regard everyone as the same.

Their idea is that the more you give, the more merit you accumulate.

Moreover, almsgiving is not limited to donating money and food for relief and good deeds; it can also include building temples, sculpting golden statues of the Buddha, spreading Buddhist teachings, or even recruiting people...

It not only instills an involutionary mindset, but also employs the logic of pyramid schemes, only all of this is done under the benevolent guise of "giving alms."

This multi-pronged approach can be applied to all groups of people. The wealthy and powerful seek to eliminate karmic obstacles, the poor and needy strive for a better afterlife, the miserable want to forget their past lives, and criminals want to achieve enlightenment instantly…

Everyone can find a match for their needs.

They attract followers through almsgiving, and then use the amount of almsgiving to determine their merits in the next life.

To ensure that believers would donate money to the temple, the temple also promoted discipline and practice, advising people not to indulge in luxuries or love money, and to maintain a simple and frugal lifestyle. This way, believers would donate all the money they saved to the temple.

Moreover, this is for the merit of the believers...

They say that the Buddha forgives everything, and that one can become a Buddha on the spot simply by laying down the butcher's knife.

Thus, villains who often wielded butcher knives became henchmen of the Buddhist sect in order to receive retribution in their next life.

It was only natural that the Danyang soldiers, a force known for its frequent killings and plundering, would become its followers.

Impoverished believers did indeed receive relief, and upon receiving that bowl of porridge, they would sincerely spread the name of benevolence and kindness, thus making Buddhism a representative of benevolence and kindness.

Thus, the image of the Buddha's compassion was established.

In the end, Mi Zhu actually felt that the Buddhist sect was flawless...

Because everything they do is reasonable, justifiable, and legal, all their doctrines are of course fabricated lies and myths, but fabricating myths does not constitute fraud.

Monks are simply spreading their faith, and it's perfectly normal for them to ask for alms while practicing. Even if believers donate all their possessions, it's still their own act of giving for merit and good fortune, which is a donation and certainly not illegal.

……

Meanwhile, Zhang Fei traveled south and arrived outside Xiaxiang City.

Along the way, there was no water or fertilizer prepared in the fields, and the roads were quite muddy.

The city walls were dilapidated, and the post stations outside the city were left unattended.

Inside the city, a nine-tiered Buddhist temple rises from the ground, its layout resembling that of an imperial palace.

Thousands of laborers were carrying huge logs into the city in the wind and snow. Their shouts and chanting mingled together, sounding like the wailing of ghosts and howls of wolves.

Many Danyang soldiers are supervising the construction.

In front of the city gate, dozens of laborers, shirtless, were chained to a prayer pillar, with wooden shackles around their necks and the words "greed and delusion" branded on their foreheads with hot irons.

The wooden cangue was covered with scriptures that looked like scribbled symbols.

"Why is this? What is greed and delusion?"

Zhang Fei patiently stepped forward and asked.

“They do not respect Buddhism, do not abide by the precepts, do not obey the command of the captain, and their hearts are not sincere in giving alms to eliminate karma... so they can only practice here in shackles.”

The city gate guard stepped forward to explain, his words flowing smoothly, as if he were someone who often asked this question.

It seems those people were deliberately locked outside and displayed to the public.

As they were talking, a monk suddenly appeared, brandishing a thorn branch, and struck a laborer on the back, tearing his skin and flesh.

Blood splattered on the snow, like blooming red lotuses.

Why are you all hitting him?!

Zhang Fei roared angrily.

"This is the elimination of karma, which is the practice of cultivation. Only by eliminating karmic obstacles through arduous cultivation can one be freed from sins and enjoy ultimate bliss in the next life."

The monk clasped his hands together, the bloodstains on the thorny branch merging into his palms.

Zhang Fei grabbed the monk by the collar and lifted him up, then pointed at the people wearing shackles: "What is meant by eliminating karma? Is being bound by shackles really called ascetic practice?!"

"Once the shackles are worn away... the sins will naturally disappear."

The monk did not seem to be afraid of Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei turned and glared at the laborer, only to see the laborer nodding and saying, "I have no money to give alms, so I can only sacrifice myself to atone for my sins..."

Before the laborer could finish speaking, Zhang Fei slapped him to the ground: "I can't stand cowards like you! General Wei has ordered... that the Han Dynasty does not employ forced labor! All laborers must be paid! How dare you disobey orders?!"

The monk bowed, showing no anger: "Building a Buddhist temple is not a labor service, but a voluntary act by benefactors from all sides... If the benefactors wish to fulfill their vows, we cannot stop them."

Zhang Fei kicked over the sand gate and shouted at the city gate guards, "Zhang Yide is here! Tell Zuo Rong to come out and kneel to welcome him!"

The Danyang soldiers who were supervising the construction surrounded them.

However, these soldiers had clearly heard of Zhang Fei's reputation, and hesitated to approach.

Zhang Fei's troops raised the banner of the Wufeng Camp and drew their swords.

They didn't bring any ceremonial guards, but they did bring the banners of their troops.

Zhang Fei also drew his sword and pointed at the Danyang soldiers around him: "Farmers yield the land, travelers yield the road, this is the right way of China... You have abandoned farming and instead let barbarian heretics wreak havoc on this region... Wufeng Camp!"

"what!!"

The two hundred chapters were shouted in unison.

"General Zhang, wait!"

A person quickly walked out of the city.

This man, clad in a brocade robe, holding sandalwood prayer beads, with a vermilion dot on his forehead and a compassionate smile, said, "Please forgive me, General Zhang, for I was unaware of your arrival and failed to greet you in advance. Please forgive me..."

"So you are Zuo Rong?"

Zhang Fei looked him up and down, feeling even more enraged: "Where is the grain tax from the official settlement in Xiapi? Did you embezzle it all? Did you build that temple in the city?!"

"General Zhang, Rong has never embezzled any money... Building the temple was only to help the brothers eliminate their karmic retribution..."

Zuo Rong shook his head and chuckled, waving his hand: "We are all people with blood on our hands, burdened with sins. If we do not atone for our sins and absolve ourselves of karma, we may be reborn as animals in our next life..."

With a wave of his hand, a large number of soldiers poured out of the city and the city walls, numbering in the thousands.

"Humph……"

Zhang Fei pointed his sword at Zuo Rong: "I only know that serving the people is the true path of China! Zuo Rong, you have already become a beast by bringing chaos to the countryside with your barbarian cult; what hope do you have for an afterlife?!"

Upon hearing this, all the Danyang soldiers glared angrily at Zhang Fei.

"General Zhang, since you know neither the goodness of Buddhism nor the beauty of the Pure Land, why are you so quick to condemn someone's wisdom? We built this temple to pray for His Majesty and Prefect Tao... General Zhang, please don't ruin His Majesty's good fortune..."

Zuo Rong still wore a compassionate expression, and pointed to the city gate: "Since General Zhang has come to inquire about grain rent, why not enter the city and take a look first?"

Zhang Fei's face twitched as he glanced at the two hundred guards behind him.

Zuo Rong had at least several thousand men under his command, and those monks and believers would obviously protect him.

"...lead the way by leading the horse!"

Having come this far, Zhang Fei was naturally not going to back down. He was now the governor, and he couldn't back down no matter what, so he pointed to the horse reins.

Zuo Rong didn't hold a grudge and did indeed lead Zhang Fei's horse and guide him, behaving quite obediently.

……

This Buddhist temple is quite grand in scale; it was likely converted from the former Prince's Palace of Xiapi.

The giant Buddha statue, three zhang tall, was entirely golden, adorned with brocade robes and decorated with red and green ornaments.

Nine layers of copper plates, serving as lamps, were hung on both sides of the Buddha statue, illuminating it with a glittering golden light.

A huge hall and corridor were built under the Buddha statue, which can accommodate five thousand people.

"General Zhang, you may wish to go into the inner palace to check the accounts first. I, Zuo, have indeed not embezzled any funds."

Zuo Rong pointed to the inner hall of the temple.

Zhang Fei stepped into the inner hall and saw countless braziers on the ground, yet there was no chill inside.

Moreover, a group of extremely alluring women dressed only in thin gauze, their bodies half-hidden and half-revealed, appeared in the inner hall and bowed to Zuo Rong, saying, "Master!"

"...What does this mean?!"

Veins bulged on Zhang Fei's forehead.

"They are all orphaned girls that I took in..."

Zuo Rong still wore a compassionate expression and waved to the women: "Serve General Zhang well. If the general fails to enjoy ultimate bliss, you will all be reborn as animals!"

(End of this chapter)