God Weird Fairy

Chapter 441 Governing the Country with Merit
After learning about the recent situation in the capital, Nan Yi hosted a small banquet at the Luo residence that evening, inviting Shi Luofu, the envoy of the Kan Dynasty, to the banquet.

At the banquet, Nan Yi and Shi Luofu officially finalized the licensing agreement, allowing Shi Luofu to import his novels and publish and distribute them within the territory of Kanchao.

The two sides had already discussed this matter back in July.

At that time, Shi Luofu still wanted to gain benefits and wanted to take the position of Origin Warrior of Nan Yi's True Qi lineage.

Nan Yi refused, but agreed to name the Golden Wheel Dharma King Shi Luofu, thus providing him with some prestige.

Considering that "The Legend of the Twin Dragons of Dali" still needed polishing and revision, Shi Luofu suggested that they wait and see for the time being and did not immediately go through the formal signing of the contract and authorization.

However, although Shi Luofu did not formally enter into a contract, he had already hinted at his intentions to various bookstores in Shizhou.

Now, Nan Yi has slain the Emperor of Li and is nearly made the Grand Preceptor of Da Li. He has also made a duel with Kan Chao, and his fame is soaring.

Even simply importing his novels could generate widespread attention in Kansas.

Since Shi Luofu was disguised as the Golden Wheel Dharma King and could benefit from the fame and prestige, he naturally intended to promote this matter and did not want to delay any longer.

Upon receiving Nan Yi's invitation, Shi Luofu immediately went to the banquet and obtained the official distribution rights for the novel from Nan Yi.

However, for Nan Yi, simply distributing novels was a trivial matter.

The key is to use this method to make arrangements and find a foothold in Kan Dynasty, so that it can become a reliable support for one's own position in Kan Dynasty.

Between Kan and Li, the national conditions are vastly different.

The Dali Kingdom's system was somewhere between a feudal system and a constitutional monarchy. It allowed each prefecture to govern itself, and controlled each prefecture only through the collection of taxes and the allocation of gold and silver dollars.

However, generally speaking, as long as one does not interfere too much in the internal affairs of each prefecture, one can usually still command the prefects of each prefecture with an imperial edict.

However, the Kan Dynasty was similar to a complete feudal system, lacking centralized power.

The governors of each state obeyed orders but not proclamations, and only nominally respected Lord Kan.

Unless it involves national affairs, it is difficult for Kan Jun to interfere in the affairs of other prefectures and counties outside of Leizhou with administrative orders.

But this does not mean that Kan Jun is completely unable to influence other states and counties.

As the saying goes, "wealth can move mountains," and even if administrative means are inconvenient, it does not prevent financial means from becoming an invisible hand that can interfere in local affairs.

Of course, the Dharma should not be tainted by money.

Therefore, in the Kan dynasty, coins were called "merits and virtues".

In preparation for his journey north to Kanchao, Nan Yi specifically requested information about Kanchao from the Luo family.

In a sense, Kanchao's governance strategy can be described as governing the country through merit and virtue.

The people of the Kan Dynasty each had a book, called the "Book of Merits".

Shaped like a jade plaque, it was obtained from the clerk's office and served as both a personal household registration nameplate and a money account.

—Or rather, it's a combination of an ID card and a credit card, similar to a campus card or a merit book.

All transactions on a daily basis are recorded in the merit book.

At the end of the month, a unified settlement will be made, and old accounts will be cleared.

If one's merits are insufficient at one time, one can apply for installment payments; in case of emergency, one can also seek help from some large monasteries and use the collateral to advance one's merits.

Interest earned from advance payments of merit or installment payments is called "blessing".

If Nan Yi were to summarize the atmosphere of the Kan Dynasty, it would be in eight words: "profound merit and continuous blessings."

When peddlers sell their goods, payment is made immediately upon delivery, with no worries about overdue payments or defaulting on debts.

When ordinary people shop, they can enjoy the product first and pay later, without any financial constraints that could prevent them from missing out on their desired items.

How can such a social atmosphere not be considered "profoundly virtuous"?
As for the situation of excessive merit being overdrawn and unable to be settled, it is not considered a serious matter in the Kan Dynasty.

Because of the compassion of the Brahma Dharma, if the merits accumulated through labor are insufficient to settle accounts, one can go to the monastery where the accounts are held, face the incense altar, and sincerely offer incense and prayers to offset the merits.

It can be said that under the compassionate protection of the Brahma Dharma, as long as one can contribute incense and faith, even the most lazy person will not freeze or starve to death in the Kanchat. Such compassion is, for ordinary people, truly a blessing that lasts forever.

Under this atmosphere of "profound merit and continuous blessings", people in the Kan Dynasty, whether ordinary people or monks and shamans, are accustomed to enjoying first and paying later, sharing services, and borrowing money based on merit.

Ordinary people, when not engaged in labor, can only calculate their merits through the power of incense offerings and faith.

Those novices and monks who have a little opportunity to enter the path of spiritual practice can even use relics as a basis to directly rent or sell their own vital energy in exchange for merit.

However, to get back to the main point, since the Kan Dynasty governed the country based on merit and virtue, it would naturally not have only one book of merit and virtue.

Besides the merit book that everyone has, Kanchao also has a merit forest.

The so-called "Gongdelin" is both a spiritual realm under the name of the Kan Dynasty royal family and the key to Kan Jun's rule over the various states.

Among the four aspects of Qi, Soul, and Heart, the cultivator of Kan Dynasty returns to the cultivation of Qi.

Qi cultivation aims to attain the primordial unity of all things, emphasizing the unifying influence of a single breath, which allows one to gather the vital energy of many people into one body.

However, most low-level cultivators can only rent or sell their own vital energy, turning themselves into "inflatable treasures".

Only those who have achieved a certain level of cultivation can absorb the vital energy of others and store it within themselves.

But how can we gather them from all over the country?
The answer lies in "Gongdelin".

The "Merit Forest" is a forest without trees, only a forest of steles standing tall, each stele serving as a sacred site.

All cultivators who achieve success in their cultivation and have sufficient reputation can use their own spiritual practice as a guide and various industries and sources of profit as a basis to "transform their merits" in the "Merit Forest"—that is, to erect a monument, set up a monastery, and call themselves the abbot.

The presiding monk divides his own temple into "merit certificates" and hangs them in the forest, which is called "opening the forest to raise funds" - by this means, he can raise merit, incense, and vital energy from all over the world.

Anyone who holds a merit book can purchase merit vouchers to contribute merits to the presiding monk, including incense offerings and vital energy.

Those who subscribe are the Dharma protectors and benefactors of the temple, or patrons.

Depending on the number of vouchers held, one can enjoy the merit offerings of the temple on a regular basis.

The presiding official gains merit to carry out his work, and the benefactors enjoy offerings to increase their wealth; both benefit from this.

However, the abundance or scarcity of resources in a temple depends on the generosity or inadequacy of its offerings.

If the presiding monk governs well, his property prospers, his reputation spreads far and wide, and he is favored by the people, then his temple will be prosperous and the value of the merit certificates he issues will naturally increase.

The value of the vouchers held by the Dharma protectors and patrons rises with the tide, and they can be resold to other customers in the forest, reaping the profits. This is called "the rise of Zen opportunity".

Conversely, if the presiding official is incompetent and the source of revenue dries up, then offerings will be scarce, and the price of merit certificates will also drop.

Those holding the bonds may either reluctantly give them up or wait patiently for a turning point; this is called "the arrival of a Zen opportunity."

Therefore, within this Merit Forest, the incense offerings of many Buddhist temples from the Kan Dynasty gather, and the Zen teachings flow constantly, rising and falling unpredictably.

Thousands of Dharma protectors and benefactors either gaze intently at the stele, pondering the rise and fall of the fortunes of each temple; or whisper among themselves, comprehending the ebb and flow of Zen wisdom, occasionally exchanging their merit vouchers.

Among the many abbots of the temples in Kan Dynasty, Kan Jun and the other governors were the fourteen most revered abbots.

The temples under their names, namely the states they governed, could even be called Brahma's kingdoms.

In short, although Kan Jun controls the "Merit Forest" hub and cannot directly command the governors of each state, he has an invisible hand that deeply penetrates the lifeblood of each state through the rise and fall of thousands of merit vouchers.

This is a wonderful method that uses "merit" as a pretext to gather wealth from all over the world and transform the power of enfeoffment into an invisible bond.

Such national conditions are naturally quite different from those of the former Korea.

But Nan Yi was only thinking about one thing:

Buddhist monks from the Brahma Kingdom can erect monuments and plaques in the "Merit Forest," open the forest to solicit donations, and reap huge profits from the common people.

What about him?
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

(End of this chapter)