Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1326 Discipline Yourself and Others

As the year draws to a close, the affairs of Chang'an city become increasingly busy. Because this is the first anniversary of the new dynasty, a systematic summary of internal and external military and political affairs is required to reflect the governance results and personnel achievements of the past year. Therefore, the emperor and his ministers are all focused on their work and dare not be careless.

When Li Tai was reading history books in the past, he often saw that when history books praised a certain emperor for his diligence, they would say that he got up early and went to bed late every day, and got up to work before the cockcrowed, and often persisted for several years or even more than ten years. He was a little skeptical about this, and always wondered whether this description was about cattle and horses or the emperor?

But now that he himself has taken this position, he understands that the descriptions in history books are not groundless speculations that are completely divorced from reality. At least for him, since he ascended the throne at the beginning of the year, he has hardly slept in, and he has seen the Chang'an Palace at four in the morning again and again.

As an emperor, if he has any sense of responsibility for the affairs of his country and family, even if he does not need to do everything himself, he will inevitably have to take charge of the overall situation.

Especially in the ancient feudal system, there is a magnification effect from top to bottom, and officials are used to guessing the intentions of their superiors from subtle details. A famous story about this topic is that King Zhou was frightened by the ivory chopsticks, which foresaw the emperor's arrogance and power out of control from a pair of ivory chopsticks.

It seems to be a very pleasant thing to serve one person with the whole world. However, laziness and pleasure are human instincts. The whole world is tempting one person. If you have a dream tonight, someone will realize it the next day regardless of dangers and obstacles. The sense of expansion brought by this kind of arbitrary will is simply indescribable, and many people have no way to resist it.

Especially since Li Tai had many memories from later generations, he had seen a lot compared to the current times. If he really wanted to enjoy himself, he would have countless times more ideas. Not to mention the exploration of personal enjoyment, just enduring the idea of ​​testing all kinds of so-called social reforms that were out of touch with reality in his mind was very hard for him.

The chaos of the Middle Ages was not over yet, and social productivity was still very fragile. If you want to implement any deep reforms that touch the fundamentals of society, the dangers in the process are far from being completely dealt with by simple military suppression. Once the situation collapses, it will not only bring down the price of beef, but also the price of human flesh. Anyone with a knife in hand will have a buffet outside.

Therefore, in the past year, Li Tai has become increasingly strict with himself. Whether it is his personal living habits or his style of managing military and political affairs, he is basically cautious and thinks twice before acting.

In terms of the court's administrative structure and rules and regulations, it basically followed the development trend of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, forming an administrative structure with three provinces, six ministries, nine temples and five supervision offices running in parallel and gradually improving it.

As for the local power structure, since the chaotic times have not yet completely ended, the power of the local governor is still very large. However, compared with the original governors and prefects of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it is still very different.

First of all, the imperial court had absolute say in the appointment of these prefecture and county governors. Secondly, in local administrative management, the influence of local powerful families was gradually weakening. Because of the further standardized implementation of the equal-field system and the registration of the dead and wandering people, the control of local personnel resources was gradually concentrated in the hands of the government.

The third and most important point is that the local armed forces have transitioned from powerful militias and rural militias to prefectural military offices. The establishment of military offices in various states allowed the court to directly control the local armed forces. At the same time, these armed forces became new military landlords through land grants based on military merit, which constituted an important part of maintaining local order.

Of course, there are also some places where the military offices have not yet been established and improved. For such areas, Li Tai would rather delay the equal distribution of land and the punishment of the powerful, rather than using simple administrative means to crack down on local forces before the military foundation is formed, and still retain their various privileges in the local area.

Although force is not the only means to solve social problems, it can provide the greatest guarantee. Especially after the turmoil of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, many social problems were caused by war. We should pay attention to the unity of these problems, but also not ignore their uniqueness.

The abuse of force cannot fundamentally solve the problem. In history, when Sima Yi suppressed the rebellion of Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong, his strategy was basically to kill those who could be killed and relocate those who could be relocated, which almost artificially created a vacuum in Liaodong.

But this vacuum only lasted for a short time, and then the Donghu Xianbei tribes rose up on this land and became the main force of the chaos in China. When the Xianbei forces poured into the Central Plains, Goguryeo took the opportunity to rise up and swallowed up most of the Liaodong region.

Failure to face up to the problem and solve it properly, the so-called killing of everyone is just to clear the field for some currently inconspicuous interest groups. Cutting the Gordian knot is certainly refreshing, but afterwards one may face the dilemma of having no rope to hang oneself.

From the perspective of the regime, sufficient force plays a greater role in ensuring that the nobles and local tyrants who represent the problem dare not use force lightly, thus allowing for greater room for mediation and solutions. If the restrictions on the privileges of the nobles and the weakening of the local power of the tyrants need to be coordinated with other government orders and can only be effective after long-term implementation, then the sanctions against the monks are a concrete and classic example of this idea.

After the beginning of autumn, the examinations and appointments of the tribute candidates from various states in Hebei were completed, and all the tribute candidates were selected, either serving in the court or being appointed to local positions. After the examination, Zu Ting, who had been selected, was appointed as a doctor of the Ministry of Sacrifices and was given a new assignment, which was to inspect Buddhist and Taoist affairs in Hebei and conduct a systematic screening of these outsiders.

Of course, since Buddhism was worshipped and Taoism was condemned in Northern Qi, the main purpose of this trip was to purge the monks. After arriving in Hebei, Zu Ting first spent more than a month visiting the medium and large temples in various states of Hebei to conduct a survey of the current situation of the monks in Hebei. Then, according to the order of the court, he returned to Yecheng and summoned a group of monks in the country to take a test. After passing the test, he would grant them a certificate of ordination and become a Buddhist monk recognized by the court.

  This tactic is naturally the same as the one used against the monks in Guanzhong, but the monks in Hebei have no better choice. After all, they cannot win by fighting, and if they escape, not to mention how far they can run, can life elsewhere be comparable to staying in Hebei?

The Northern Qi Dynasty worshipped Buddhism and flattered Buddha, so the monks were all mixed up and of low quality. It was easy to correct the mistakes and destroy Buddhism. However, the huge share of the monks in the Northern Qi Dynasty was difficult to deal with. The reason why the Qi ruler Gao Yang worshipped Buddhism and destroyed Taoism was certainly related to his personal beliefs, but it was also closely related to the people's beliefs in the Northern Qi Dynasty.

Historically, after Emperor Wu of Zhou conquered Qi, he also implemented the policy of destroying Buddhism in Hebei, but he died the following year. After monks in Hebei petitioned him, the successor Emperor Xuan of Zhou ordered the restoration of Buddhism in Hebei. The destruction of Buddhism in Hebei lasted only a little over a year.

Li Tai's attitude towards Buddhist monks has always been to strengthen supervision rather than to eliminate them directly. When strengthening the management of Buddhist monks in Hebei, he did not label all of them as heretics, but selected a group of people who could be won over, namely the Buddhist Vinaya monks in Hebei.

The so-called Vinaya School is to study and uphold the precepts as a way of self-cultivation. In short, it is to control oneself through rules and regulations and achieve true purity of mind and few desires. This way of practice is somewhat similar to Li Tai's current state of strict self-discipline, but it is also known that it is impossible to gain the faith and support of the monks.

The true Vinaya school was born in the Tang Dynasty. The reason was very simple. With the unification of the country and the stability of the political power, the power of the court became stronger and stronger, and the control power naturally became greater and greater. If the monks no longer studied the precepts on their own, they might face the end of their bodies being liberated. Therefore, the Vinaya school became the most prominent school of Buddhism at that time.

However, the predecessor of the Vinaya school has now appeared. These monks studied the Buddhist "Four Part Vinaya", which is also the most widely circulated and influential Buddhist precepts in later generations. Now, the Hebei monk Huiguang has written the "Four Part Vinaya Commentary" based on the Four Part Vinaya and preached it to his disciples, which is also the theoretical foundation of the future Buddhist Vinaya school.

Therefore, in this Yecheng sutra examination, in addition to testing and evaluating the monks on Buddhist scriptures, "Commentary on the Four Part Vinaya" also became one of the examination contents, and the sutras and the Vinaya were assessed together.

Since Monk Huiguang had passed away long ago, his disciples were still alive. They felt honored that the court had designated his Buddhist scriptures as the official legal text. They immediately became the most enthusiastic supporters of the court's decrees in Hebei, and they traveled back and forth and promoted this sutra test in many ways.

But this made it hard for other Hebei monks. Although there were certain religious factors behind these monks' becoming monks, it was more out of greed for benefits. Even if it was just for the sake of appearances, they might know a thing or two about Buddhist scriptures and could barely cope with it.

But apart from a very small number of devout people who would study the precepts, who would delve into it in depth? Even a considerable number of monks in Hebei had never heard of the name of the "Four-Part Vinaya Commentary". Now that it was to be used as part of the examination, it was naturally a blind spot.

What's even more terrible is that the precepts are different from the Buddhist scriptures and have a lot of room for self-understanding and interpretation. Each item clearly states how monks and nuns should observe the precepts and what regulations they cannot violate. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It is clear at a glance and there is no room for perfunctory or fooling around.

Therefore, after the examination, more than 90% of the monks were directly deprived of the qualifications to preach and practice.

  When this result appeared, the whole of Hebei was in an uproar. The monks were certainly indignant, but the vast majority of believers were even more indignant. These monks were high and mighty, and did not do any work. They seemed to be reciting scriptures and worshiping Buddha devoutly every day, but in the end they didn't even understand the precepts. It turned out that they were just fooling us!

Many things are afraid of being laid out and seen clearly. These monks certainly have a lot of devout beliefs and social resources, but when they are intimidated and dare not resort to violence and need to obey the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, there are naturally ways to deal with them. And when this most feared public opinion base is destroyed, it becomes a natural thing to conduct deeper management against them.

So next, the wealthy monks in Hebei gave a huge boost to the emerging Tang Dynasty regime!