Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 642 Taoist Priests Division
Hedong, Pi family.

The Yuanshi battleship turned into the Fen River and went upstream.

Although it has no sails, its speed is far higher than other transport ships.

All the large and small boats encountered along the way avoided the two banks and watched the warship go to the northeast.

At the bow of the ship, Zhen Mi leaned on Black Bear's left shoulder, looking at the scenery on both sides of the river with a gentle gaze.

This time, Dongxiang and Xixiang each sent more than 50 people, who were arranged to live on the second floor of the cabin.

Only during the day would they go to the deck to admire the scenery or bask in the sun.

"Sir."

When Black Bear heard the call, he slowly turned around and saw that it was Guo Tai. Guo Tai was leaning on a seven-section staff and wearing a purple Taoist robe with three-bar patterns, and was bowing to him.

He also bowed to Zhen Mi, who was covering her face with a green scarf: "Madam, how are you?"

"I retire."

Zhen Mi bowed slightly and walked towards the spiral staircase near the bow accompanied by two female officials.

Black Bear was slightly displeased and asked, "What's the matter?"

The warship stopped at Pi's ferry to replenish vegetables, fruits and meat, and also exchanged official documents.

Guo Tai handed over a letter: "Sir, there is internal strife in the Tianshi sect."

"Oh?"

Black Bear took the letter and found out that the fight was caused by the management rights of Zhang Lu's Zhaohua Temple.

It cannot be said to be management rights. One-fifth of the donations from believers and commercial taxes received by Zhaohua Temple is used to maintain the operation of Zhaohua Temple and the accommodation and meals of the Taoist priests, Taoist children and believers in the temple.

The other four-fifths were handed over to the Shogunate's Dorokusi to cover expenses for worshipping mountain and river spirits.

Therefore, all the members of Tianshi Dao were competing for the position of abbot of Zhaohua Temple.

The word "abbot" means management, distribution, fairness and justice.

Although Zhang Lu had ten sons and ten daughters, the older sons all opened Taoist temples in Chang'an University, with Zhang Wei as the presiding officer; the eldest daughter inherited a fief of 500 households, was interested in medicine, and lived in Zhongnan Mountain.

Anyway, after Zhang Tianshi ascended to heaven, he never showed his divine power, nor did he show his divine power within the family, and he never responded to the requests and prayers of his disciples.

So the Zhang family was unexpectedly low-key, but the core Taoist priests were fanatical.

Zhang Wei did not restrain himself and deliberately let them go, which led to a fight between the Taoists.

"You handle this matter. Consult Zhang Wei and Yan Pu for their opinions. Kill those who need to be killed. Don't show mercy."

Black Bear said as he handed half of the dragon-patterned token for summoning the 'Heavenly Master' to Guo Tai, while Guo Tai kept the tiger-patterned token.

When the two sides of the token fit together and the longevity peach core is activated, the Heavenly Master can be summoned out in a fixed motion trajectory and driven to kill the enemy.

Guo Tai bowed his head, grabbed the seven-section rattan staff and took the dragon-patterned token with both hands: "Sir, will you severely punish the leaders of each faction?"

"Well, leave some so that the Zhang family won't dominate."

Black Bear did not specify which people would be dealt with, but Guo Tai did have this authority. The Tianshi Dao just raised them and harvested them regularly.

The moment they gave up their business of destroying mountains and cutting down temples, they lost the greatest meaning of their existence.

You can leave the Zhang family members alone, but there is no need to keep Zhang Lu's original disciples and old officials.

The ascension of the Heavenly Master brought huge dividends, but the Zhang family members did not dare to eat any of them, so these people ate a lot.

These people were even trying to intercept the money and grain tributes offered by Tianshidao believers when they visited Zhaohua Temple.

Not only the Tianshi Dao, but also the Taiping Dao began to split.

The two major factions also began to diverge in terms of clothing. The Taoist robes of the Taiping Taoist of the Nanhua Taoist school of Zhuangzi adopted the three Bagua patterns, which represent heaven, earth and man respectively. The Laozi school represented by Li Feng still used the Taiji Bagua, and Taiji was the two Ba patterns of yin and yang.

Whether it's Laozi, Zhuangzi, or Tianshidao, the color matching of Taoist robes is still the same. The highest is purple robe, followed by red robe, then blue robe, and finally green robe. The Taoist children below wear black, white and gray.

The purpose of diverting Taoist priests is to prevent them from becoming obstacles to the ruling party after they become too powerful; and the purpose of supporting the Tianshi Dao is purely to maintain a dynamic balance to prevent one sect from dominating the country.

However, Zhang Tianshi did not show his power for a long time, and after the fanaticism within the Tianshi Dao subsided, heresy arose.

The Zhang family worships Taiqing Laozi, while the heretics created Shangqing Yuanshi Tianwang, who was not created out of thin air. He can be understood as one of the incarnations of the Tao. Taiqing Laozi is also an incarnation of the Tao.

If nothing unexpected happens, Zhang Lu's eldest son will also be awarded a purple robe after his coming-of-age ceremony in the future, and will be nominally on par with Guo Tai and Li Feng.

However, Guo Tai was very worried, so he said, "Your Majesty, I am afraid that the news will leak out and attract the attention of the followers of the Tianshi Dao."

"Since they want to fight, each of them should send out fourteen people, totaling twenty-eight people, and gather at the top of the mountain. You can let them fight with swords, and the winning faction will become the abbot of Zhaohua Temple. Also, select their elders and leaders to fight with swords. They are the ones vying for the abbot position. There is no reason to let young people die in a sword fight."

Black Bear also understood Guo Tai's concern, which was that he was afraid of summoning the other side's Heavenly Master, which would cause the situation to get out of control.

Anyway, this is for Guo Tai to protect himself, so it doesn't matter if he is not summoned.

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But based on Black Bear's understanding of Guo Tai, why would he hide the authorization after getting it with great difficulty?

Since you want to use it, create a relatively closed environment.

Guo Tai also felt that it would be safer to take action on the top of the mountain. As for the coming and disappearance of the Heavenly Master, in Guo Tai's eyes, this was a very normal thing.

In fact, if we understand and perceive the world according to orthodox classical mythology, we will find that the so-called various spells and incantations are actually executable commands and codes.

As for the remains of Zhang Tianshi...if his soul ascends to the upper realm, it doesn't matter whether his body remains are burned or used as pillars by others. It is just a carrier of his soul, just a piece of unwanted clothing.

Like an insect turning into a butterfly, the butterfly is the true self.

Guo Tai asked again: "Should the Taoist books left by the person who died in the sword fight be returned to the Heavenly Master Dao?"

"Well, give it back to them and let the Dao Lu Si evaluate the Dao children. The winners will be promoted to Green Robes."

Black Bear didn't care much about it. There were many backbones in the Tianshi Dao, but after Zhang Lu ascended to heaven, the ranks of the Tianshi Dao were redefined, and there were only 244 Taoists of various levels.

Only these 244 people were exempted from corvee labor.

What limits the number of Taoists in Taiping Dao is the assessment of Taoist children, and there are still many shortages now.

In the future, basically a county will need at least three Taoists to operate, and a large county will need five.

These three or five Taoists are responsible for the county's life and death rituals, collecting herbs, curing illnesses, worshipping mountain and river spirits, and training Taoist children.

Taoist children are selected and trained by Taoist priests in each county, assessed by the Taoist Records Office, and after passing the assessment, they are assigned to Taoist temples at the large regional level.

It will take at least twelve years from the selection to the training of Taoist children until there are a large number of Taoist priests.

Twelve years later, the peak period of destroying mountains and temples in the southwest region began.

During this period, Taoist priests were recruited from two sources: either they were promoted from former junior Taoist priests, Taoist boys, and servants, or they were selected and assigned from the Qinghua Camp.

Some people are very talented in being Taoist priests. Just by virtue of their origin in Qinghua Camp and the education they received, they can naturally pass the Taoist child assessment and become green robe priests.

Anyway, Taoists do not prohibit marriage, and the Taoist career is another kind of official career.

In order to prevent the expansion and inaction of the Daoluosi, Daoist palaces will be built in large areas every few years to cross-manage the various Taoist temples.

The Taoist system is merely a channel for collecting folk songs and conducting investigations that is different from the orthodox official career.

They cannot consume many resources, but they can help him supervise officials; Taoists are good at martial arts and can also suppress the violence of the powerful.

The reason why many powerful families became rich is not because they are good at business or research, but simply because they are violent enough and grew from the bottom up; some of them dared to do evil, became the pawns of officials, and made their fortunes by eating leftovers.

(End of this chapter)