A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 454

Early in the morning, Lao Yang came to Huaiyu.

Originally, it was rare to have a ten-day rest day, and people were not quiet. Last night, Fan Xuanfu dragged him to pay the public rations, so he wanted to catch up on sleep in the morning.

"Morning, Mr. Ande."

"It's getting late, hey, Erlang has black eye bags, he looks a bit like the three iron-eating beasts you raised, and he was busy with business again last night?"

For the emperor's brother-in-law, Wu Huaiyu was not polite, and asked the maid to bring breakfast.

Xiaolongbaozi, steamed pork ribs with taro flour, siu mai, shrimp dumplings, whitebait porridge.

Yang Shidao, who had already had breakfast, saw Wu Huaiyu's exquisite breakfast, but couldn't help but decline and asked for a copy.

The Xiao Long Bao is small, and the inside is filled with pork, but the soup is tender and the skin of the bun is also very soft.

"Isn't this meat stuffing like mutton?"

"pork."

Hearing the word pork, Yang Shidao was stunned for a moment. When did the dignified Hongnong Yang's son and the Duke of Guande eat pork? In his impression, pork was cheap and filthy. .

"Erro, just kidding."

"It's indeed pork, but don't worry, I raise it in my own village. It's clean. I only eat bran, pigweed, and sweet potato vines. I haven't eaten anything else. It's half-circled and half-raised. It's white and fat. ,"

"It doesn't taste like it."

"That's because the piglets raised in my village are castrated after seven days of birth, so not only do they grow fast, but they also don't have that smell when they grow up."

The disciples of Yang Shidao's famous family are the most elegant. What he usually likes most is reciting poems and making Fu, entertaining friends, and especially likes to make friends with famous people. There are also many literati in his family.

It is naturally impossible for him to understand what seven-day castration of piglets, what postpartum care for sows, what raw and cooked feed, how to breed, and he will not understand.

But the xiao long bao was delicious.

"There should be something good added in it, otherwise it's so fresh."

"In fact, it's nothing, just soak the onion and ginger in warm water. When adjusting the stuffing, add the onion and ginger water three times, and you can also add a little pepper. The meat filling needs to be rich in soup and delicious. Another key is to use two fats. Eight skinny."

"No wonder it is said that Yi Guogong is good at food and knows how to cook. Now he is really convinced."

He tried Xiao Long Bao, and he added shrimp dumplings. The skin of this dumpling is the same as that of Cherry Piro, the skin is transparent, and the whole shrimp is wrapped inside. The shrimp is also unexpectedly large, but it is very fresh and delicious after a bite. Sweet and tender, the dumpling skin is very tough.

After eating a few in a row, I tried the steamed pork ribs, which were fresh, tender and smooth.

Even the taro on the bottom was pink and glutinous, a type he had never eaten before.

"Guizhou specialty taro."

Even the siu mai wrapped in glutinous rice is delicious, especially the diced meat that is delicious in the glutinous rice.

Yang Shidao finally gave up.

He almost forgot the reason why he came to visit Wu Huaiyu early today.

"The matter of the third-order sect is a bit troublesome. They refuse to hand over the farm, and even those who are attached to them are not willing to be naturalized and register... And now other temples are also starting to operate. Rumors are flying all over the sky, and many gentry have objections."

Wu Huaiyu ate the last shrimp dumpling with a smile on her face.

Many of the gentry he mentioned had objections, probably including himself.

The follow-up influence on the actions of the Third Tier Sect is continuing to ferment. The matter is not so simple to end. The frivolous goods and frivolous wealth hidden by Wu Wuxi have been taken away, but the fields, workshops, milling houses, mansion shops, car shops, etc. are still there. Cleaning up.

Now many monks are unwilling to return to the secular world, and those tributaries and tenants attached to the temple are still singing against the court and want to continue to maintain the previous state. There must be monks secretly instigating and colluding.

"Who is against it?"

"The ten great virtues of the capital also jointly wrote a letter to His Majesty, I hope Your Majesty will think twice."

The ten virtues of the capital, these are the monks established during the Wude Dynasty to lead the monks in the temples in Chang'an. These ten virtues have a characteristic. Basically, they are eminent monks from the Southern Righteous School who went north, and many of them went north when Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. Some of them were met by Yang Guang when he was guarding Yangzhou, and later he invited them to Chang'an after he proclaimed himself emperor.

The Southern Righteous School accounts for a large proportion of monks in Chang'an, especially eminent monks.

The ten virtues that Li Yuan appointed at the beginning were basically eminent monks from the south of the Yangtze River, and they were all in the three major Buddhist temples: Daxingshan Temple, Dazongchi Temple, and Dazhuangyan Temple.

In the ninth year of Wude, Li Yuan prepared to eliminate Buddhism and Taoism. At that time, the edict clearly stipulated that only three temples were left in Chang'an, and each of the prefectures kept one temple. The three temples left in Chang'an were these three big temples.

Their rank is the highest, belonging to the Royal Gongde Temple, which is higher than the temples built by the imperial court, and higher than the temples donated by the royal clan and nobles, let alone those ordinary temples.

All of the ten virtues are highly respected in Shamen. Although many sects and theories emerged during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the authority of the three major temples and the ten virtues is absolutely beyond doubt.

Of course, the three major temples occupy the largest area, have the largest number of monks, and are extremely powerful, including financial resources.

For example, Daxingshan Temple occupies an entire square next to Zhuque Street.

The ten great virtues all stood up and wanted to write to the emperor to persuade them. This has already fermented to a very serious level.

Yang Shidao changed from official minister to Yongzhou Biejia, and it was his duty to continue to clean up the third-tier sect, but now he came to Wu Huaiyu, in fact, he wanted to put down the pick.

This guy, like Xiao Yu, worships Buddha.

"Let's go, go to the three major temples and visit the ten virtues."

Wu Huaiyu dragged Yang Shidao around Chang'an for a day.

He has visited all the three major temples, and he also chatted with the ten great virtues and some abbots and eminent monks for a long time, mainly to listen to their opinions.

Wu Huaiyu did not give any direct answer.

After the morning court the next day, Wu Huaiyu asked for a correct performance.

Huaiyu talked with the emperor alone for a long time.

"How do you think you should respond?"

"I have an idea. Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world has been fighting endlessly. Many battlefields have been bloody, and there are still many dead bones that have not been restrained. I request that some eminent monks be sent to hold grand religious ceremonies in some famous battlefields. To honor the souls of the fallen soldiers, build a temple on each of these major battlefields, build towers and monuments inside, remember the battles, commemorate the heroes, save monks and become monks, and set aside some fields for the temples."

Wu Huaiyu also proposed the first batch of seven large battlefields, building seven temples, and each temple will teach [-] monks to become monks, and each temple will give [-] mu of land.

This made the emperor very surprised. Although Wu Huaiyu was not the same as Fu Yi's Buddhist extermination sect, but he also weakened the restrictive sect. Now he wants to build seven Buddhist temples, save more than 100 monks, and give them back their land?
"Your Majesty, all the expenses for doing things on the battlefield, building temples, and erecting Buddha statues, etc., were all spent in the endless collection of the imperial court. We divided the money into three special funds, the first of which was for the maintenance of temples all over the world. .”

Anyway, there is no need to spend a penny from the imperial court, and the money confiscated before is used to do this, which is just to ease the menacing counterattack of Samana.

One advance and one retreat, you can't just rush and fight blindly when doing things, you have to be resilient.

Through this incident, it can also be proved that the imperial court did not rob Shamen's money, but really managed it, and it will be used in the agreed place. At that time, the money will also be supervised by the ten virtues and the abbots of various temples. The responsible monks supervise.

At the same time, it was also used to let the recluses know that the imperial court did not intend to destroy the Buddha, but only dealt with the matter and not the people, and still respected the recluses of Buddhism. Temples, which shows that the imperial court continued to respect Buddhism.

"Is that all?"

asked the emperor.

The lid has been opened, and the emperor has seen the serious problem below, and he is very eager to solve this cancer.

"Your Majesty, don't act too hastily. Let's take our time. Let's do this matter first, and make it more grand and lively. After the limelight, I suggest that the imperial court cancel the appointment of monks and officials with ten virtues." The reason is that these top ten virtues are all too old, many of them are in their 70s and 80s, and some are even in their 90s.

We restored the Chongxuan Office of Honglu Temple, and officials appointed by the imperial court were in charge of managing Buddhist and Taoist temples. The scope of their responsibilities included temple quotas, management of monk registration, selection of monk officials, system of monks and nuns, and activities of monks and nuns outside the monastery.

In addition, the management of monk registration and the selection of monk officials must also be supervised by the Ministry of Officials, the monks must be supervised by the censor, and monk affairs must be supervised by the lower shrine department of Guanglu Temple.

After the abolition of the ten virtues, new monks and officials were established in Zhuzhou and counties. For example, each prefecture set up monks, each county set up monks, and the capital set up capitals. In addition, in the two counties of Wannian in Chang'an, there were lay officials on the left and right to cultivate meritorious deeds. , responsible for building temples and pagodas, casting Buddha statues, translating classics, and holding Buddhist ceremonies.

There are left and right monk records under it, which are served by eminent monks to assist meritorious envoys in managing monk affairs.

Each monastery should have a unified abbot, recommended by each locality, and appointed by the imperial court. Below the abbot of each monastery, there should be deacons, who should also be recommended by the temple, and then appointed by the imperial court. "

This set was written after he came back from visiting the three major temples yesterday.

Its purpose is very simple, to break the current situation of self-government of religious orders, to really control the imperial court, the imperial court must strengthen management, and even the monks and officials must pay more attention to it, and they cannot let freedom go.

The top ten virtues have been proved to be useless, so we have to take advantage of their old age and simply abolish their management responsibilities. In the future, temples will also be divided into grades, royal, imperial, imperial, state, etc., divided into numbers, etc. Different grades are strictly limited There is a quota for monks and nuns, and their quota of land ownership is limited.

Not only that, but you have to make good use of the sharp weapon of assessment. No matter what sect or sect you are, you must be familiar with it. If you don't even know the scriptures, then you have to become a monk and be forced to return to the vulgar.

If you fail the exam, but it is not completely unreasonable, if you want to continue to become a monk, you have to buy a monk certificate and spend money to buy it.

As long as there are vacancies in the monastery, you can buy it.

For example, for the three major temples in Chang'an, one hundred guan will be charged for a degree certificate.

This time, more than 2000 monks and nuns of the third-tier education passed the exam, and only about 2000 passed, and more than [-] failed. If they don’t want to return to the vulgar, then those whose exam results are not good enough can be eligible to buy a certificate of degree. That's fine.

Of course, those who don't know anything about scriptures are not eligible to buy them if they have money.

In the future, all monks must have a degree certificate to become a legal monk, and if a monk wants to be ordained to become a monk, he must be approved by the relevant administrative department of the court. He must be voluntary, and he must be of the same age. In addition, there must be a monk's forehead in the temple. At the same time, you have to spend money to buy a certificate.

One per person, one certificate, cannot be passed on, and the certificate is invalid upon death.

"One hundred thousand dollars for a monk certificate?" Li Shimin felt that this seemed like a money grab, even robbers would not dare to ask for so much money for a kidnapping ticket. This is one hundred thousand dollars.

"Your Majesty, since you are a monk, you must be sincere. You can't just become a monk casually. There are 300 million monks and nuns in the Northern Qi Dynasty, but how many pious Christians are there? Rather than abuse, we must set up a threshold."

The emperor admired Wu Huaiyu's serious nonsense, but he also understood that the monk's certificate for a hundred times seemed to be a good way to limit Buddhism, and the court could increase a sum of income.

Wouldn't it be 30 yuan to pay three thousand monks, which is almost equivalent to one year's household tax and small tax.

"I feel that, like the Huadu Temple of the third-tier religion, those monks who have passed the scripture examination can continue to become monks, but they should also be awarded official monk certificates."

Wu Huaiyu understood in seconds, which meant that they also had to pay the money.

200 people, that's [-] yuan.

Of course, the money of the Third Tier Sect has been 'supervised and kept' by the imperial court, but the payment of the ultimatum fee can be withdrawn and paid.

Although the money was poured from the left hand to the right hand, the [-] guan that was poured out was justifiably the revenue of the imperial court, and the monks lost even their nominal supervisory power.

"You plan to build seven temples on the battlefield. I think it's good, but there are only [-] monks in each temple. Some are too few. Let's have [-] monks in each temple. The land will still be awarded on the basis of [-] mu per person, and one temple will be divided into one. A thousand acres of land."

The emperor stroked his beard.

Seven new monks, 350 monks, it is obvious that the emperor is going to pre-sell 350 monk certificates, and it is [-] yuan. This does not even need to be sold from the left hand to the right hand, but directly to the outside world.

The emperor is very savvy.

"My minister arranges a time to call a meeting of eminent monks and abbots in Beijing to discuss it,"

"Okay, I leave it to you,"

In order to show the emperor's respect for the monks, the emperor asked Wu Huaiyu to go to Shaofu to order a batch of purple cassocks and Zen sticks, which will be rewarded to those famous eminent monks.

The abbots of the major temples will also grant seals and sticks at that time.

The emperor didn't expect that Wu Huaiyu had so many money-making ideas, and this monk's certificate was more profitable than kidnapping for ransom.

At that time, if you can’t afford to buy a monk certificate, you are not a legal monk, you are an illegal monk, and you have to be forced to return to secular life.If you have money to buy certificates, the imperial court is also willing for you to become a monk. One person has a hundred crowns. A common man is 21 years old, and he is 60 years old. For 40 years, he will rent two stones, two feet of silk, and three taels of cotton for the imperial court every year. , plus 20 days of free labor, the accumulation of 40 years is far from a hundred.

A monk's certificate is equivalent to collecting rent for decades in advance, so it's a good deal.

Li Shimin doesn't mind the spread of Buddhism and Taoism, but only if it doesn't threaten the imperial power and the country.

(End of this chapter)