On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 461 Purification and Practice

The Buddhist Mahayana Emperor Gao Tansheng and his nun Queen Jingxuan were taken to Jinyang.

When the Ministry of Punishment was examining the case, Gao Tansheng scolded Cui Che for only allowing the state officials to set fires and not allowing the people to light lamps. Didn't he also raise troops in Yan and rebel against the imperial court, which is why he has the power he has today.

When the incident reached Cui Che's ears, Cui Xiangguo was deeply convinced, but he was not prepared to praise Gao Tansheng's rebellious spirit.

Instead, he gave Gao Tansheng two thousand knives.

On the execution ground, Gao Tansheng was cut with two thousand knives and executed in Ling Chi.

His queen, Jingxuan nun, was much luckier. She was beheaded directly with a knife and did not experience much pain.

Jingxuan is both the queen of the Buddhist kingdom and a nun, so it stands to reason that she would be in line with Cui Xiangguo's preferences.

But Cui Xiangguo is not really a vegetarian. A queen from a grass-roots team obviously cannot arouse his interest.

Cui Che vigorously suppressed Buddhism, but did not ban Buddhism.

He knew that scholars and people had their own spiritual needs, and that Buddhism could be revived again and again, which naturally had its reason for existence.

Cui Che decided to allow temples to accept offerings from believers, but they had to pay taxes, and they had to be heavily taxed.

All the sesame oil money that believers offer to the Buddha will be divided into 30 and 70 accounts, and this tax is called the sesame oil tax.

The cronies all felt that imposing a 30% sesame oil tax would be a bit ugly. After all, the commercial tax was only set at 5%, and the sesame oil tax was set at 30%. Such a high tax was almost unheard of.

Cui Che and his cronies were surprised and said:

"When will I only need 30%? Thirty percent belongs to the temple, and 70% is the tax amount."

When everyone heard this, they were stunned.

But Cui Che also has his own reasons. These monks are not producing, they are earning the hard-earned money of the common people.

Leaving them 30% of this ill-gotten wealth is already a generous act for His Highness King Yan.

If he really offends Cui Che, he will directly nationalize the temple and see who dares to oppose it.

At that time, there will be no need to pay 70% tax. How much money is collected for sesame oil and the cost of vegetarian meals for the monks will be left, and the rest will be collected into the treasury.

I don't know who spread His Highness King Yan's threatening words, and the monks in Guandong did not dare to complain about the 70% sesame oil tax.

It would be good to have 30% left. If the temple is really confiscated and people eat vegetarian food and drink porridge, who can bear it?

The incident spread to Kansai, and the emperors and ministers of Renshou Palace took advantage of this to ridicule Cui Che.

Even Yang Su, who came to Renshou Palace to recuperate, laughed at his son Yang Xuangan on the bed:

"Cui Che is very talented, but he is too calculating. He is like an overlord in splendid clothes and silver armor, but half of his abacus is exposed on his waist."

But as soon as he finished laughing at Cui Che, Yang Su looked sad and sighed repeatedly.

Yang Xuangan was puzzled and asked:

"Father laughed before, why is he sighing like this now?"

Yang Su sighed:

"The national treasury in Jinyang is tight, but Cui Che does not increase taxes on the people. Instead, he uses the power of thunder, regardless of personal reputation gain or loss, to plunder the monks' economy, and is dedicated to strengthening the country. Such an opponent is not terrifying."

Yang Xuangan was speechless.

In fact, the Eastern Sui Dynasty was far from the only one troubled by financial problems.

After losing the prosperous land of Guandong, the Western Sui Dynasty now also faced the dilemma of treasury constraints.

The Jiangnan area was developed to a certain extent during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but today it is still far from being compared with Hebei, Central Plains and other places.

What's more, it is extremely difficult to transport materials from Jiangnan to Kansai when it is impossible to pass through the Luoyang Basin and Nanyang Basin.

It's just that Yang Guang has always been superstitious, and he can't take advantage of the Buddha, so he can only choose to increase taxes on the people.

Cui Che's suppression of Buddhism did not stop there. He also specifically ordered the purification of monks from all over the country.

Purification in Buddhism refers to cleaning the body and mind through practice and chanting mantras in order to achieve a state of purity, purity, and liberation.

It is not only a method of practice, but also a state of practice.

But Cui Che asked them to castrate themselves on the physical level.

Anyway, the teachings of Buddhism require monks to abstain from sexual intercourse, so Cui Che simply imposed castration on the monks to cut off the possibility of the monks violating sexual intercourse at the source.

In the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Liang could prohibit monks from killing animals and eating meat. Today, Xiangguo Cui can also impose a rule of purification and practice.

This also prevents any more adulterous monks from deceiving believers into participating in Buddhism in the flesh.

This move naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction among the monks in Guandong, but unfortunately the monk soldiers had been forcibly disarmed. The governors of various prefectures and counties also copied the lessons of the Huairong County Magistrate and strictly guarded against the monks, so that the monks' dissatisfaction could only be suppressed.

Expressing verbally but not taking action.

Fortunately, Cui Xiangguo still gave the monks a chance to choose. If they didn't want to be purified and castrated, they could return to the secular world, be classified as tax households, and allocate public land to them. From now on, they can engage in productive labor with peace of mind and pay rent and taxes on time.

Of course, not everyone chooses to return to secular life.

In Buddhism, there are scum who deceive women under the guise of spiritual practice, and there are also Buddhist disciples who have firm beliefs.

There is no precedent for purification and castration. It was Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasties. Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, performed purification and castration and entered the palace to preach for Emperor Wu of Liang.

Many monks imitated Bodhidharma and even gave up two ounces of meat to chant sutras and practice in the temple.

For these people, Cui Che also let them go and made such a big sacrifice, which shows the firmness of his faith.

Cui Che felt that he had made great contributions to Buddhism. Even if he robbed all their belongings, he would still account for 70% of their future income from Buddhism.

But he did indeed purify the Buddhist environment, making the temple a truly pure place and no longer a place of filth and evil.

There was a saying in the Jiaqing Dynasty that Heshen fell and Jiaqing was full.

This is also the case in the Eastern Sui Dynasty today. By exploiting Buddhism, Cui Che finally achieved the goal of filling the national treasury before the autumn harvest. Moreover, because many monks returned to secular life, they obtained a large amount of labor force.

Although the Observation Department secretly visited and investigated, it was found that Taoism's ability to make money is far inferior to Buddhism, but mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are.

But just before Cui Che took action, the temple owners of the local Taoist temple in Jinyang approached Wei Zheng, a former Taoist priest, and asked him to advise Cui Che. They were willing to donate 50% of the temple's assets and would also pay the sesame oil tax in the future. Safety.

Cui Che was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately approved the matter.

Jinyang Taoist Temple has set an example, and other Taoist temples have followed suit.

Give it to him. At least half of the wealth accumulated over the years is still left. As for the sesame oil money in the future, he will only have to contribute 70% to the court.

Look at other people's Buddhism. Not only has it been plundered, but it has also been castrated and made an incomplete man.

Be content.

In the land of Three Rivers, all major transportation routes are bustling with traffic, all busy transporting wealth plundered from Buddhism, Taoism and corrupt officials to Jinyang.

Now that he has more money, Cui Che is ready to implement many of the things he had previously imagined.

Overlord and Abacus quotes Hong Kong film Chang Cheh's evaluation of Hong Kong film Li Hanxiang.

(End of chapter)