A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 783 Shaolin
“Master Situ, these are all the fields, mills, workshops, money, silk, grain, and wheat under the name of Baima Temple. They are all recorded in these ledgers.”

Hui Shi handed over a large box of account books.

Li Yi simply nodded. "Whether or not these are handed over is not really important. The imperial court already has a good understanding of the properties of Baima Temple."

In a word,

This secretly alarmed Hui Shi, who was well-versed in worldly affairs.

"These funds and provisions belonging to the temple will be jointly registered and recorded with the temple staff, and ultimately incorporated into the imperial treasury's Luoyang granary."
In accordance with the regulations governing the inexhaustible treasury, eminent monks from Henan temples such as Baima Temple were invited to jointly supervise its use.

One portion of the inexhaustible treasury's wealth is used to support the expansion and renovation of monasteries throughout the land. In the future, any monasteries registered with the state can apply for funding for the repair of monasteries and Buddha statues.

Secondly, it was used to relieve hunger and famine and to help the orphaned, widowed, and disabled.

Third, it is used for low-interest loans to farmers and businesses.

Most of the money in your temple comes from donations from believers. Now that the imperial court is helping to manage it, it is used to benefit the people and to do good deeds.

Hui Shi couldn't respond to a single word.

They forcibly seized the temple's property and then invited the temple to jointly supervise it. Sigh.

However, remembering what Abbot Huiyin had just said, he held back. Compared to Wang Shichong and others who had plundered and seized property, Li Yi was still quite polite.

Hui Da also brought over several lists.

After the assessment, they selected two hundred fully ordained monks and three hundred novices to remain.
Around 800 monks from the temple will have to leave, as will more than 3,000 lay servants who perform the temple's duties.

Hui Da also wanted Li Yi to leave more monks behind.
Especially those lay Buddhists who manage the temple's property and perform duties.

Although these people are not monks, they are indispensable to the temple.

Li Yi simply shook his head.

According to Buddhist rules, one cannot eat a day without working. In addition to eating vegetarian food, chanting scriptures and practicing cultivation, monks also have to work. They must strictly abide by the precepts and be self-sufficient.

We can no longer rely entirely on servants, tenants, and laborers for sustenance.

“Master Situ, there are over a thousand monks, many of whom came to the White Horse Temple because their original temples were destroyed in the war. Now they have nowhere else to go.”

"Don't worry, the imperial court will take care of everything."

Those who make significant progress in their practice can be arranged to continue their cultivation in other temples.

Those who are not skilled in spiritual practice and cannot keep the precepts have no need to remain in the temple; they should all return to secular life, register their residency, and settle down.
You can return to your place of origin, or you can settle down here.
Each person will be allocated 100 mu of land, and I will also provide them with six months' worth of rations, six dou of millet to be collected from the government office each month, and a settlement allowance of 1,000 coins.

A monk from Baima Temple was granted a hundred acres of land, three shi and six shi of millet as rations, and a settlement allowance of one thousand coins.
The resettlement benefits are indeed quite good.

However, Li Yi was quite generous, since the expenses came from the White Horse Temple's assets and didn't require any money from the national treasury.

Land, food rations, and resettlement funds all require prior registration and household registration.

If these people refuse to return to secular life, Li Yi will not care about them, nor will he issue them a certificate of ordination. Even without a certificate, he will still be forced to return to secular life in the future.

More than three thousand laymen
These people can be called lay disciples. They take on various tasks, from guarding the temple to managing farms and workshops, collecting rent and lending money, and even cleaning and cooking in the temple.

Some of these people are believers who voluntarily come to serve the monks.

For most of them, it's really just like finding a job.

They still married and had children, still ate meat and drank alcohol, and their income was quite good.

This group of people is an important part of the thriving temple economy.

Now, within the imperial court, the faction led by Li Yi aims to gradually weaken and suppress the economy of monasteries until it is completely destroyed.

You should chant scriptures and worship Buddha as you should, regardless of which sect or school you belong to, just don't get mixed up in worldly affairs.

If one is able to recognize the times and comply, the court will stop there.

But if they don't cooperate, they'll end up like the Third Order Sect.

The more than three thousand lay Buddhists at Baima Temple, not counting the tenants and servants, actually lived a very comfortable life, dependent on Baima Temple. They were not registered in the household register, did not pay taxes, and did not perform corvée labor.

Li Yi was most dissatisfied with this group of people.
Many so-called "clean people" were actually wealthy landlords, or even local tyrants. They obtained this "clean person" status to evade taxes and corvée labor, or even to amass wealth and profit under the guise of temples and Buddhist institutions.

They're using Buddhism as a front.

Li Yi demanded that all three thousand-plus lay Buddhists at Baima Temple be expelled.

They must return to where they came from and register their household registration.

Those with assets are naturally the head of the household, while those without land or assets are the customers.

It doesn't matter if you don't have land. Li Yi is willing to give each person 100 mu of land collected under the name of Baima Temple, 20 mu for permanent use and 80 mu for household share. In this way, they will become the main households and tax collectors of the state.

Of course, many lay Buddhists actually entrust their assets to the temple.

Li Yi is now giving them a chance to reclaim their respective land and other assets; otherwise, they will be confiscated and placed into the imperial treasury in Luoyang.

Don't even think about hiding your household registration and evading taxes and corvée labor.

Outside the Mahavira Hall,

These three thousand-plus eunuchs gathered together, whispering amongst themselves, deeply dissatisfied.

Of the more than two thousand monks, at least five hundred could be kept after passing the exam, but all three thousand lay Buddhists had to be sent home.

Whether it's managing the temple's accounts, warehouse, reception, lending, pawning, or rent collection, you all have to leave now. From now on, these affairs will be handled by the monks in charge of the East Wing in the East and West Wings.

Li Cunyi, with a full beard as short as needles, was fully armored and his hand was on the horizontal sword at his waist. He strode up to them.

The armor clanged and clattered.

The export was like a thunderclap.

"You all come here to register."
If you have no land, the government will allocate land to you...

Li Cunyi spoke very directly.
Those whose land and property are registered under the name of Baima Temple should register now. Once the government verifies the facts, their assets will be returned to them.

If you don't register now,
Then they would all be placed into the Wujinzang Luoyang Treasury, which is managed by the imperial court. "We sincerely serve the Buddha and are willing to serve as laypeople in the temple and do chores for the temple. What does this have to do with the imperial court?"

"Why drive them away!"

"We're not leaving!"

Many noisy sounds arose.

Li Cunyi snorted a few times, "Pure people? You are not monks, what qualifications do you have to be in the temple? You are in charge of the eight impure things, how can you be called pure people?"
You are nothing but a group of fugitives fleeing the country's taxes and corvée labor.

The laws of our Great Tang Dynasty include a special law for apprehending fugitives; you are fugitive convicts who have absconded from the official register.

According to the law, all those who should be arrested will be punished!

"Now,
Minister Li is giving you a chance, letting bygones be bygones, and allowing you to reclaim your property. If you don't know what's good for you, then you will all be arrested and exiled to Lingnan to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land!

Those noisy sounds,

Stopped abruptly.

The Qiang general's blatant threat was more effective than any words.

While there are truly devout Buddhists who are willing to dedicate their wealth and themselves to the temple, such individuals are rare.
But they are extremely rare, few and far between.

The vast majority are not actually that pure.

Let alone laypeople, many of the more than two thousand monks in the temple were just trying to make a living.

Li Yi's trip to Baima Temple
Come back fully loaded.

They reclaimed over 900 hectares of land in one go.

More than 5,000 monks and laypeople who had returned to secular life have registered and settled in the city.
These are almost all men.
Those lay Buddhists, along with hundreds of acres of land that had been transferred to the temple, were cleared out this time.

More than 5,000 men and 1,500 hectares of land.
There were also tens of thousands of bushels of grain and a great deal of money and silk.

Even the debts of money and grain that the temple had lent out have now been transferred to the endless treasury under the control of the imperial court.

Given that the White Horse Temple cooperated so well,
Li Yi was very generous, issuing 500 monk certificates, reserving 10,000 mu of land, 5,000 shi of grain, and also leaving some silk, copper coins, sesame oil, etc.

One temple, five hundred monks

Li Yi actually felt that this number was still too much; a hundred would have been more than enough. But since the other party was so understanding, Li Yi decided to be generous.

This is, after all, the ancestral temple.
With this successful launch, the rest of the temples in Henan will have an easier time.

"Situ, I didn't expect these people to be so cowardly."

Li Cunyi felt that this trip had gone too smoothly, and although he had mobilized a lot of troops, they were of no use at all.

"The third-rank monks of Huadu Temple in Chang'an dared to send out two hundred warrior monks armed with weapons to resist the imperial court, but the White Horse Temple also has many warrior monks and guards, yet they dare not utter a sound."

Li Yi looked at the snow falling outside the carriage.

The snow is too light.
Sparse and scattered, it melts as soon as it hits the ground.

They say if the wheat is covered with three layers of snow this winter, you'll be sleeping on a pillow of steamed buns next year.

A timely snowfall promises a good harvest; if there aren't a few heavy snowfalls this winter, it will have a huge impact on next year's harvest.

Now,

As everyone knows, if there is no wheat harvest next year, there will definitely be a famine.

The people had lost all hope for the coming year's harvest; all that remained was worry and fear of famine.

Even if the imperial court can suppress those unscrupulous merchants who hoard goods and engage in speculation now,
However, if next year's summer grain harvest is poor or even fails, and the fields cannot be harvested, the crisis will still erupt.

A storm is forming.

He could only try to get as much food as possible before the storm arrived.

Otherwise, he would not have been willing to use such a simple and brutal method to deal with Baima Temple.

time does not wait.

The emperor is coming.

Famine is coming soon.

The main purpose of smuggling grain from noble families, powerful landowners, and even temples into the imperial court was...
I still hope that during next year's famine, I can provide some protection for the most vulnerable ordinary people.

Nobles, powerful landlords, and even temples would only offer symbolic relief like porridge during years of famine. Instead, they would take advantage of the disaster to make money through lending, seize land, and buy and sell people.

If the imperial court wants to provide disaster relief, it must have grain in hand.

During times of famine, nobles, powerful families, and wealthy middle-class households can save themselves.

Ordinary people at the bottom of society are often ignored. They sell their land cheaply, pawn their wives and daughters, and in the end, they can only leave their homes and flee famine. Most of them die on the way to escape famine.

For the country,

A major disaster can cause a country to lose many people subject to taxation and labor service, as well as many taxable lands, and can exacerbate land consolidation.

If the Tang Dynasty wants to revive, it cannot sit idly by; it must actively intervene and strive to preserve as much of its vitality as possible.

"Tomorrow, let's go to Shaolin Temple on Mount Song!" Li Yi looked at the gloomy sky, no longer caring about the snow and cold.

Shaolin Temple is also a famous ancient temple, possessing a large amount of land and grain.

Emperor Wen of Sui once bestowed upon Shaolin Temple a hundred acres of fertile land in Baiguwu, which was forcibly seized by Wang Renzhe, the nephew of Wang Shichong, at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Later, when the Tang army besieged Wang Renzhe's Huanzhou but failed to capture it, Shaolin, which had long harbored deep resentment towards Wang Shichong and Zheng Guo, decided to lend a helping hand.
Abbot Zhicao first sent someone to persuade Zhao Xiaozai, a general under Wang Renzhe, to become an inside agent. Then he sent thirteen warrior monks, including Tanzong, to launch a night attack on the city. They scaled the walls, infiltrated, captured Wang Renzhe alive, and handed the city over to the Tang army.

Afterwards, Li Shimin returned all the land that Wang Shichong and others had seized from Shaolin Temple to them, and also petitioned the court to reward them with 4,000 mu of fertile land.

Back then, Shaolin Temple resolutely supported the Tang army in fighting Wang Shichong for the sake of land.

It remains to be seen how they will react when Li Yi, representing the imperial court, comes to seize their land and grain.

(End of this chapter)