The Dharma Sea of ​​the Green Snake

Chapter 128
"From the difficulty of the law to the extermination of the Buddha, it seems that there is not much time left for him..."

Hui Ji, who vaguely guessed something, froze for a moment, then murmured to himself thoughtfully.

"Do you know about the extermination of Buddha?"

This time it was Chihu's turn to widen her eyes in surprise, she never expected that Huiji would know this in advance.

"It's not surprising that His Majesty hates monks and Buddhist temples today."

"Buddha's 'difficulties' have never stopped since the day he became the throne..."

In Hui Ji's impression, the legal difficulty had already started five years ago.

At that time, Huiji was only 17 years old, and she was still practicing in He'an Temple, quietly becoming her own monk.

Unexpectedly, in that year, Emperor Wenzong who initiated the "Manna Change" died in depression, and Ying Wang Li Yan was embraced by a group of eunuchs as the emperor's younger brother and became the new Ninth Five-Year Supreme.

However, unlike his elder brother Tang Wenzong Li Ang, the new emperor clearly favored Taoism and rejected Buddhism as soon as he took office.

In addition, he himself has great ambitions and ambitions. From the moment he took office, he has been weakening the power of eunuchs, feudal towns and monks and landlords.

Today's world can maintain this short-term peace, which can be said to be inseparable from the hard work of the new emperor.

To be honest, even though she was born in a temple, Hui Ji never thought that there was anything wrong with weakening the power of religion, eunuchs, and feudal towns.

According to Pei Wende, it is really abnormal for the emperor to tolerate the expansion of religious power when supernatural individuals such as "practice" really exist.

Don't look at the current emperor who rejects Buddhism and favors Taoism so much.

But that is based on the premise that Taoism has been weakened by the previous emperors and is much less threatening than Buddhism.

Hui Ji has no doubt that once the power of Buddhism declines, the next unlucky one will definitely be Taoism, which is now very popular.

"According to what you're saying, the 'Decree to Exterminate Buddha' started five years ago?"

Sensing keenly that things might be different from what he had imagined, the red fox asked suspiciously.

"The difficulty of the law is the difficulty of the law, and the extinction of the Buddha is the extinction of the Buddha. The two are not the same."

Staring at the front with deep eyes, Hui Ji remembered at this moment the desolation and chaos of the people that he had seen along the way when he left He'an Temple.

Just a "difficulty in the law" caused countless ordinary people to be hungry and displaced, but the rich and powerful gentry took advantage of this to amass wealth and land.

Huiji couldn't imagine what kind of waves would be caused once this "Decree on the Extermination of Buddha" spread to other places.

Years of ills can never be changed with just one order or one policy.

It is an innovation that requires years of steering and correction by those in power to complete.

Without considerable determination and cognition, today's holy majesty's attempt to replace the old and innovate with just one decree will only lead to more serious consequences.

"Once the 'Buddhist decree' spreads, not only all existing Buddhist temples and statues will be destroyed, but even monks who believe in Buddhism will be forced to return to secular life."

Hearing this, even the red fox, who had a superficial understanding of humans, understood the seriousness of this incident.

If we say that the original "difficulties in the law" only weakened the influence of Buddhism in the country.

So the current "destroy Buddha" is undoubtedly to completely cut off this belief from the root.

"Is your emperor crazy? Can this kind of thing be done recklessly?!"

If it is simply to weaken the number of monks and strictly control the number of registered monks, Chihu may also understand that Buddhism is too powerful and has affected the stability of secular imperial power.

But this kind of behavior of forcing monks to return to secular life and destroying Buddhist statues in Buddhist temples can no longer be simply understood as the concentration of imperial power.

This is clearly to hope that the beliefs and culture of Buddhism will completely disappear on this land.

The most important thing is that this "Buddhist decree" is equivalent to an official amulet for the local rich and powerful gentry, allowing them to unscrupulously invade the land originally occupied by Buddhist temples.

As for the land that has been reclaimed to the central government, will it be redistributed to local refugees?
As well as the taxes on these lands, can they be taken back by the current Holy Majesty to the treasury as they wish?
That's a complete unknown.

At the very least, Hui Ji was not optimistic about this simple and rude approach, and even felt that it might lead to a new round of "rebellion in feudal towns".

............................................................................................................

When Pei Wende returned to Tongqing Temple, he immediately learned about the "Decree to Exterminate Buddha" from Hui Ji.

"Buddhist decree?"

Looking at Hui Ji with a serious expression in a daze, Pei Wende couldn't tell whether the other party was joking with him or not.

In Pei Wende's impression, all the rulers who dared to "destroy people's beliefs" in ancient and modern times, all over the world, seemed to have a good end.

Even in a nation like China that does not believe in ghosts and gods, or believes in ghosts and gods utilitarianly, this is an extremely exaggerated thing.

[Three martial arts and one case of extermination of Buddha? 】

In a daze, Wen Wende suddenly remembered the events he saw in some textbooks and books in his previous life.

In the 21st century when Pei Wende's previous life lived, the four large-scale Buddhist extermination campaigns in Chinese history were collectively referred to as "Three Wu and One Buddhist Extermination Events".

Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty exterminated the Buddha, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty exterminated the Buddha, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty exterminated the Buddha...

Because the posthumous titles or temple titles of these incumbents all have the word Wu, and at the same time suppressed the development of Buddhism, scholars of later generations collectively referred to them as "Three Wus to Exterminate Buddha".

Coupled with the incident of exterminating Buddha during the reign of Emperor Shizong of the later Zhou Dynasty, this became the famous "three martial arts and one sect exterminating Buddha" in history.

[It turns out that the era I am living in now is the Tang Wuzong period after the "Manna Change"? 】

It wasn't until this time that Pei Wende had a general impression of his current Tang Dynasty.

After all, although Pei Wende knew through some details that he was now in the late Tang Dynasty of the "Anshi Rebellion", he also knew that the Tang Dynasty in this era had begun to turn from prosperity to decline.

But he didn't know what happened after the "Anshi Rebellion" and which emperors succeeded him.

【Unfortunately, I am not the protagonist in those historical novels...】

[I don't intend to hug the future emperor's thigh, knowing that these detailed dates are meaningless at all. 】

Shaking his head regretfully, Pei Wende only wants to practice now, and has no interest in what happened in the court.

"Speaking of this, it seems that I have to thank my cheap sister."

"If she hadn't helped us register with the government in advance, our Tongqing Temple would have become one of the targets of the 'Buddhist Decree'."

—Recommendation ticket—/—Monthly ticket—

(End of this chapter)