Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1958, everyone is jealous

The next day, early morning.

"If you have something to play, you will retreat if there is nothing!"

As the eunuch's sharp voice echoed in the hall, many ministers got up their spirits one by one to see if anything happened today.

For many years, the Ming Dynasty has held banquets in the Haiqing River, and with the implementation of the reform of the administration of officials, the officials of the feudal borders in various places are now working harder than before, and when they are in the court, they have much less work.

Of course, the most important thing is to pay attention to pragmatism now, which is different from before. Do something as soon as possible. In the past, more people focused on etiquette and morality to fight and fight.

For example, when Emperor Hongzhi entered the hall today, his left foot advanced. This must be criticized carefully, and he must be told by citing scriptures that when entering the hall, he must step on his right foot first, and it is wrong to step on his left foot.

In addition, the battles and struggles among the courtiers are extremely fierce. What kind of faction or that faction fights endlessly, but the state affairs are all put on the back burner.

Fortunately, the Hongzhi Dynasty, this kind of struggle was not fierce or obvious, mainly because Emperor Hongzhi didn't like it. At other times, the civil servants would fight with the military general Xungui, and the civil servants in the south would fight with the north, and those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang To fight with Qi Chu and so on.

In short, most of the time, they are actually doing some meaningless things endlessly. In fact, there is very little time to deal with national affairs.

Now Liu Jin is the chief assistant of the cabinet, and he sits extremely steadily. Not only can he hold down civil servants, but also convince the military generals and noble groups. The second assistant Wang Shouren and Han Wen are both pragmatic officials. not interested.

More than half of the six ministers were promoted by Liu Jin, like Zhong Fan, who couldn't beat Liu Jin.

The resulting situation is that the court is also very stable, and under the country's prosperity and people's peace, there is nothing to do in the early court.

Many ministers looked at me and I looked at you, and they seemed to have nothing to do, and they were about to retreat.

At this time, Emperor Hongzhi said: "Since you have nothing to do, let me tell you something."

As soon as everyone heard this, they immediately became energetic, and it was obviously a big deal for Emperor Hongzhi to talk about this matter.

"Not long ago, there was a drastic change in the state of Chu. A monk intended to overthrow the state of Chu and establish a so-called Buddhist state. He still called himself a Buddha emperor."

"I just heard that now my Ming Dynasty's Buddhism is at its peak, and there are more and more temples and monks, and this Buddhism has a good way of making money."

"At first, I still didn't believe it. Yesterday happened to be the weekend, so I went to Fahua Temple to have a look when I had nothing to do. I just happened to see that Fahua Temple was holding some Dharma conference."

"For this puja, you have to donate at least 50 taels of sesame oil to go in. If you want to enter the treasure hall to listen to this puja, you have to pay at least a thousand taels of silver, even outside the main hall. One hundred taels of silver."

Emperor Hongzhi stood up and walked down the steps while talking.

When many ministers heard this, they immediately began to think hard. This Emperor Hongzhi would definitely not talk about this matter indiscriminately, so there must be some deep meaning in it.

Undoubtedly, now Emperor Hongzhi should be criticizing the Buddhist sect for accumulating money, and accumulating money in the name of the Fa Conference.

"I counted at the time, and there were hundreds of believers outside the temple alone. This would cost tens of thousands of taels of silver. As for how many people were inside, I don't know, and after the Fa conference is over, everyone will be asked to pay for it." Donating silver, this is a rough calculation, this Fahua Temple can at least get more than one hundred thousand taels of silver for a show."

"It's no wonder that this Fahua Temple has a Dharma meeting every month. This month is for the Son-Song Guanyin, and the next month is for the Tathagata Buddha. There are monthly."

"Here's the incense, and there are grades. The first-class incense costs thousands of taels of silver, and the first-class incense costs hundreds of taels of silver."

"This one is that the temple collects millions of taels of silver a year, which is more than the annual tax money of our court in the past."

"There are more than a dozen temples like this in the entire capital, and each of them is about the same. Calculated, tens of millions of taels of silver are in the hands of these temples a year, and those monks are raised with fat heads, big ears, and swollen faces. , Many monks are monks during the day, and they eat, drink, prostitute and gamble a lot at night."

"The common people of our Ming Dynasty have to pay taxes, and the merchants also have to pay taxes. These temples are good, but they don't have to pay taxes for a penny of crazy money. How comfortable are these small days."

"In ancient times, Buddhism prospered in the Tang Dynasty, Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties. The people suffered and the country was weak. Today, the Chu State is almost destroyed because of Buddhism. Dear dear friends, please tell us what you think about this matter."

Emperor Hongzhi's words immediately caused an uproar.

For a long time, people have not paid much attention to the affairs of this Buddhist school, because many of them believe in Buddhism, and there are also many people who believe in Buddhism in their families. It is very normal in this era to ask God and Buddha.

When I went to the temple, I would donate some sesame oil or something.

But no one has thought about how profitable this temple is in detail.

This Fahua Temple can actually collect several million taels of silver a year, which is too profitable. Everyone is jealous, thinking in their hearts that if they open a temple by themselves, wouldn't it be a big profit?

You must know that when you are an official, you can only earn a salary of a few hundred taels or a thousand taels of silver for a year of hard work. These monks are lucky, and each of them is so rich.

"Ma Dan, thanks to the fact that I gave them a few hundred taels of silver back when I went to the temple yesterday, it turns out they are so rich."

Some people couldn't help scolding in their hearts, these monks are too rich.

"This temple is so profitable. It collects millions of taels of silver a year. No wonder this Bodhisattva cultivates more and more, and the scale of the temple is getting bigger and bigger."

"These stinky monks are making so much money. No wonder every time they go, they need money for this, and money for that."

Many officials couldn't help scolding in their hearts. There is no doubt that everyone was cheated of a lot of money. Originally, they only thought about giving these things to the gods and Buddhas first, and begged the gods and Buddhas to bless them, but they were willing .

Now who knows that this temple can collect millions of taels of silver a year, this is incredible.

"Your Majesty~"

"I think it is necessary to severely crack down on Buddhist money-gathering, limit the number of them, conduct regular assessments, distinguish between true and false, impose heavy taxes on temples, strictly prohibit them from expanding their scope and land at will, and strictly limit the construction of new temples."

Someone immediately stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, Buddhist temples don't do production, but they can amass a lot of money. If everyone becomes a monk, who will farm the land? Who will do the work? Who else will serve as the soldier? Pay taxes?"

"This trend cannot last forever, it must be curbed in time, and our Ming Dynasty cannot be allowed to repeat the mistakes of Chu State."

"Your Majesty, people are easy to be fooled by their ignorance, and the temples wantonly amassed money. It is precisely this that is used. I think that in addition to cracking down on temples to collect money, we should also broaden the wisdom of the people and let the people know that the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty today is the result of the Shang Dynasty. The son of heaven has great strategy, culture and martial arts, loves the people so much, and devotes all his efforts to the merits, and there will be the fruits of my great Ming's tens of thousands of people's diligence, thrift, hard work, and hard work."

"It has nothing to do with the Buddha of Buddhism. It is neither the blessing of the illusory Buddha, nor the credit of the Buddhist monks, but they are sitting on their hands. It is really abominable and should be severely punished."

Ministers one after another continued to stand up.

The minister's words also made Liu Jin's eyes light up, which is fundamental.

Not only is it necessary to crack down on monasteries' money-making, but the key is to enlighten the people's wisdom and let everyone know that everyone can live a good life because of their own efforts, not by some so-called blessing.

In fact, it's not just a matter of the Buddhist sect accumulating money, feudal superstition has always been prevalent in Daming.

Of course, this thing is not only true in ancient times. Even in the 21st century, feudal superstitions are still popular, such as Feng Shui, which is believed by countless people, from high-ranking officials to ordinary people.

They all believe in feng shui, and choosing the location of the cemetery is extremely important. There is also a complete set of feng shui theories, such as why this cemetery can produce capable people, a certain type of mu can make children rich, and there is even a legendary dragon Tomb, buried in it, future generations can be emperors.

There are a lot of people who believe it, not just one or two, but countless people believe it, those who have money believe it, and those who have no money believe it even more, even those who are officials believe it.

"Your Majesty~"

"I think that the whole temple should be taxed heavily, and everyone should pay the tax, and this Buddhist temple is no exception. Otherwise, if things go on like this, the temple will become richer and richer, and it will inevitably attract more people to become monks. How can I be a monk by then? Isn't it going to become another Chu country?"

"Your Majesty, I think that a new yamen should be set up under the Ministry of Households to manage these religious affairs, grade and report all temples, Taoist temples, monks, Taoists, etc., and issue documents to be considered real monks and Taoists. .”

The ministers stood up one by one to express their views. There is no doubt that everyone is extremely dissatisfied with the monastery's crazily accumulating money. Damn, everyone who is an official is not making money like monks like you.

PS: Ask for tickets~
(End of this chapter)