Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 237: Rectification of Sacrificial Canons and Immortal System
The fact that Taoism used the Three Purities to suppress the Emperor Tianhou Tu made Zhu Youjian frown.

As the supreme deity in the national sacrificial system, one can imagine the official importance of Huang Tianhou Tu.

Especially since he, the emperor, is called the Son of Heaven, the decline of the emperor's status will affect his authority.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian has already thought about improving the status of Emperor Tianhou Tu and not being suppressed by the Three Purities.

The supreme gods of other pantheons are also lower than Huang Tian Hou Tu.

Only in this way can the status of the emperor be maintained and the authority of the emperor be improved.

In particular, he wanted to form the City God God system in the future only for the Supreme God in the Tuhuang Land. The status of the emperor, emperor, and queen needs to be improved even more and cannot be suppressed by Taoism.

After tentatively talking about the City God's Temple, Cao Sicheng mentioned something that made Zhu Youjian more cautious. Know that matters concerning faith cannot be adjusted at will.

Cao Sicheng said:
"In the 23rd year of Jiajing reign, more than 80 scholars in Quanzhou who participated in the examination all failed."

"Yu Zibo, then the prefect of Quanzhou, discussed with the officials and gentry in the prefecture and invited famous alchemists to assess the situation. He found that the county's dragon's head vein was occupied by a monk's temple, Zishou Temple, so he was shaved in the examination. Bald."

"So Zishou Temple was renamed Fuchenghuang Temple. Since then, there has been an endless stream of scholars, and it has become as prosperous as it is today."

This is an interesting story circulated among scholars. If Cao Sicheng didn't take the initiative to tell it, Zhu Youjian would never know about it.

Now that he heard him mention it, Zhu Youjian knew that there was another reason why Quanzhou had so many talents. The source of the Jinjiang Party that I am worried about is also here——

There are Jinshi in each list, and the accumulation will naturally form the power of the township party.

Although he doesn't think that changing the Monk Temple to the City God's Temple will have such a big effect, unfortunately people nowadays believe this. If something bad happens after modifying the City God's Temple, it is likely to attract criticism.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian temporarily put aside the idea of ​​changing the City God's Temple, and planned to investigate and study it before considering how to adjust it.

The City God belief was promoted by the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years. If the City God temples in various places unite, it is hard to say whether it can be spread as a religion, but self-protection should be no problem.

This will help stabilize faiths in various places and prevent the invasion of Western monotheistic religions from causing big troubles such as God-worshipping religions.

Thinking about this matter, Zhu Youjian continued to listen to Cao Sicheng's story, and his understanding of the national sacrificial system became deeper.

In addition to the belief in heaven and earth, another aspect of the national sacrificial system is the belief in ancestors. It is reflected in the official system of the Imperial Temple and the Confucian Temple.

However, this system is lame because it lacks martial arts temples. Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang used the excuse that Jiang Taigong was a minister, so he asked him to worship in the emperor's temple, go to Wucheng as the king, and stop worshiping in the temple.

However, there is also a need among the people to worship the Martial Saint, so the Guan Gong Temple, which is highly respected by the government, gradually takes on the meaning of a Martial Temple——

Guan Gong is now the new Martial Saint, replacing the original Martial Saint Tai Gongwang.

After realizing this, Zhu Youjian frowned. He admired Guan Gong's loyalty very much, but it was a bit inappropriate to become a martial saint.

Regardless of Guan Yu's achievements, not only Taigong Wang was worshiped in the Martial Temple, but also Zhang Liang, Zhuge Liang, Li Jing and others. How could Guan Yu, a general, replace these people? Putting him together with Confucius, who was worshiped in the Confucian Temple, no one would think that the two can be tied.

In addition, Zhu Youjian wanted to praise military generals and improve their status. So he already had the idea in his mind to rebuild the martial arts temple and reshape the martial arts temple system.

This is a newly built temple and has little to do with the original sacrifices. Even the Guan Gong Temple, which may have been influenced by the Martial Arts Temple, was not qualified to oppose the establishment of the Martial Arts Temple because Guan Yu had not yet become a Martial Saint. In addition, the foundation of Guan Gong's faith is people's worship of Guan Gong's loyalty and righteousness. Even if the Wu Temple is established, it will not have much impact on him.

Therefore, after Zhu Youjian considered it, he immediately said: "Taizu dismissed the sacrifices in King Wucheng's temple in the past because Taigong Wang was a minister and should not be king and accept sacrifices."

"For the same reason, Emperor Sejong Jiajing changed the title of the most holy teacher Confucius when he revised the sacrificial ceremony."

"Therefore, I thought that I could change the title of Wucheng to King and build a new temple to offer sacrifices."

"What does Cao Qing think Taigongwang's title of King Wucheng should be changed to?"

These words shocked Cao Sicheng, because he could tell that the emperor wanted to rebuild the martial arts temple.

As a civil servant, he did not want to see the emperor improve the status of generals. So he immediately tried to respond:
"Tai Gongwang has already worshiped in the emperor's temple, so there is no need to worship alone."

"If you want to build a separate temple, you can imitate the Shoutinghou Guangong Temple of the Han Dynasty and build the Qihou Taigongwang Temple."

This certainly did not satisfy Zhu Youjian, because what he wanted to rebuild was the entire martial arts temple system, not a temple specifically for Taigong Wang.

When Cao Sicheng was unwilling to answer directly, he could only decide for himself:

"Confucius is called the most holy teacher, Taigongwang should also be called a saint, and he can be called a martial saint."

"Tai Gong looked at "Tai Gong's Art of War", also known as "Six Tao". It is the earliest book on the art of war, so it can be called a military master."

"Together, they are the Martial Saint Arms Division and the Jianwu Saint Arms Division Taigongwang Temple, or Martial Temple for short."

"We will worship the ten wise generals and follow the example of the Tang and Song Dynasty martial arts temples."

When Cao Sicheng heard this, he secretly complained in his heart. Because he had realized that the emperor was determined to rebuild the martial temple system and left this matter to him.

If you are not willing to do it, you may be rejected by the emperor and you don't know when to get out.

If he does things according to the emperor's wishes, he will be criticized by the literati, who think that he is flattering and does not have the character of a literati.

Cao Sicheng, who just now thought about spreading the news about his remonstration to improve his status, was extremely reluctant to do this. However, considering his reputation as an eunuch and those eunuch officials who had their property confiscated and even had their homes confiscated, he could only accept the order silently and did not dare to speak out against it.

Zhu Youjian had seen a lot about default matters. Seeing him like this, he urged:
"Cao Qing needs to write a charter and submit it as soon as possible regarding the martial arts temple."

"In the past, Emperor Sejong Jiajing rectified the sacrificial rituals. I will also rectify them again and determine the system of gods."

"Tell the monks and Taoists in the capital and various places about this matter, and let them select representatives to participate in this matter."

"When I perform sacrifices, I will pray to the ancestors of heaven and earth for this matter."

This is to use the authority of the emperor to sort out the immortal system of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, so that the three religions can form a joint force to resist the invasion of other religions.

Cao Sicheng felt even more bitter after hearing this, because he had realized that the current emperor was doing even greater things than Emperor Jiajing. As an official of Taichang Temple, he will have countless troubles in the future.

At the same time, he also understood why the emperor had to adjust the Nine Temples before. Such a troublesome matter really needs to be handled by a special yamen——

The yamen of Taichang Temple are responsible for handling these chores and helping the six departments bear the pressure.

(End of this chapter)