The Maojin knife from the late Jin Dynasty

Chapter 251 Attitude towards Buddhism
"You said I need to kneel down and worship the Buddha when I see him?" Liu Tai said looking at the gentle-looking Fotucheng in front of him.

At this moment, Fo Tucheng's forehead was sweating profusely, because he really didn't understand that he was eating and chanting Buddha's name in the temple, while Liu Tai and his soldiers surrounded the temple aggressively.

Every monk in the temple was escorted, and the soldiers put the blades of their hands on the necks of these monks, obviously intending to destroy the temple if they disagreed.

Then Liu Tai came in calmly, and after seeing Fotucheng, he asked this question.

Fotucheng knew Liu Tai. After all, there were not many people in Yecheng who could make Zhang Liao stop crying, just this one.

So whether Liu Tai went on an expedition or when Liu Tai returned, Fotucheng had always seen what Liu Tai looked like.

There was no way, with Shi Le's downfall, all the connections that Fotucheng managed to manage were nullified.

Under such circumstances, Fotucheng knew very well that he needed to hug Liu Tai's thigh, otherwise it would be really difficult for the Buddha family to operate.

But I never expected that the first meeting between myself and Liu Tai would be like this. It was so terrifying!
At this moment, Fotucheng hurriedly said: "Since the king meets the Buddha, it is the Buddha meeting the king, so there is no need to salute."

"I am a Buddha, do you want to save me?" Liu Tai couldn't help but asked after hearing Fo Tucheng's words.

Fo Tucheng said quickly, "The body comes from the mind, and the mind sees the Buddha. The Buddha's mind comes from the human heart. The king uses his mind to cross the other side, and he is the Buddha of this world!"

"I can't explain the truth to you!" Liu Tai looked at Fotucheng and said helplessly, "So let's talk about physics!"

Fotucheng was a little stunned when he heard Liu Tai's words. Let's continue practicing meditation.

You are being unreasonable and this makes me a little scared. What is this so-called physics that makes you so confident? !
Liu Tai said: "It's fine that your subordinates are spreading Buddhism under Shi Le, but the problem is actually training Buddhist soldiers, which makes the soldiers lose their nature and are trained specifically to target our Han soldiers.

For this one thing, I will kill everyone in your temple, and I believe no one will dare to accuse me of my fault! "

"Your Majesty's magnanimity is really a blessing for me as a Buddhist!" Fotucheng couldn't help but answer after hearing Liu Tai's words.

At this time, Liu Tai said calmly, "I didn't say I forgive you. You don't need to give me a high hat so quickly. I saw you coming out to spread Buddhism. How about it? Are you interested in unifying Buddhism and becoming My big man’s authentic Buddhism!”

"The king wants to spread Buddhism?" Fotucheng didn't expect that Liu Tai would be interested in Buddhism. This was simply unbelievable.

"I'm not interested in spreading Buddhism, but nowadays, there are many treacherous people in the Samana community who are avoiding military service. If the Lord promotes Buddhism, I'm afraid more people will be deserting in the future. Wouldn't this be a loss for my great man's tax revenue!"

Liu Tai said seriously, "I believe the abbot doesn't want the Buddhist house to become the first choice for harboring evil and evil!"

When Fotucheng heard Liu Tai's words, he thought that even if it became a place harboring filth, as long as it could spread Buddhism, I wouldn't mind, but facing Liu Tai's eyes, these words really meant Don't come out!
Liu Tai said calmly, "I want to unify Buddhism and become the only officially compiled Buddhist theory. The other miscellaneous Buddhist scriptures are all fake books. I wonder if the abbot is interested in being the compiler of this Buddhist theory?"

"This is a great blessing for my Buddha. If the poor monks can participate, they will pray for the king day and night, and hope that the great man will prosper for thousands of years!"

Fotucheng did not show any restraint when facing Liu Tai. Fotucheng knew very well that if the book compilation could become an official text, it would consolidate the foundation of his own school of Buddhism. As long as the Han Dynasty is immortal, there will naturally be a Buddhist school. a way out.

"Well, since the abbot is willing to join, it is a blessing, but I also need to mention my request!"

Liu Tai looked at Fotucheng but did not hide anything, as if he just came to negotiate terms.

"The abbot needs to sign a treaty with the Han Dynasty on behalf of Buddhism. All monks who spread Buddhism and build temples in the Han Dynasty need to be officially canonized. Those who have not been canonized are not considered monks.

Buddhism should be under the law. The temple's fields need to be taxed, and the monks also need to perform corvées. However, the fees for registered corvées can be deducted from the tax as a special case. If there are handymen, the fees will be charged according to the "Common Service Tax".

Buddhist temples need to have specific precepts to impose strict discipline on monks. If they are found to be harboring filth and evil, the law will take precedence.

In addition, Buddhist disciples are not allowed to eat meat, are not allowed to marry and have children, and are not allowed to be greedy for property.

If you can't maintain poverty and human ethics, how can you count it as a belief? "

Liu Tai stopped here and said, "Let's stop here for now. I'll just add more disciplines later if I think of anything!"

To be honest, Liu Tai did not intend to destroy Buddhism, or if India did not destroy it, then Buddhism would spread to the Han Dynasty again sooner or later.

There is absolutely no way to avoid this. What you think of as destruction is just a nirvana for many doctrines.

Often by the time this doctrine is rediscovered, new shoots will sprout from the older trees and their vitality will be even stronger.

The same is true of Liu Tai's attitude towards Buddhism. Although this thing contains all kinds of dross and garbage, sooner or later it will be absorbed by Chinese culture and become part of Han culture.

Even if I try to stop it, no matter how many Buddhist rulers destroy it, it won't really destroy the Buddhist culture, so why bother with it.

Therefore, what Liu Tai wanted was to unify Buddhist thoughts and doctrines from the beginning while Buddhism had not yet developed.

Just like concentrating solely on Confucianism, we unify Buddhist doctrines, then establish the legal basis that secular laws are greater than Buddhist laws, and use Buddhist rules and precepts to organize ourselves so that Buddhism can get on the right track and standardize it.

Liu Tai knew very well that no matter how detailed the regulations were, Buddhism would definitely take advantage of them. Even if Buddhism talks too much about enlightening people and increasing their wisdom, future rulers will definitely give great blessings to Buddhism. Special gift, exemption from corvee taxes.

Even Liu Tai couldn't change this. After all, the sage-king model always depends on the wiseness of the ruler.

But he only needed to do this. Then when the emperor wanted to restrict Buddhism, it would be enough to use his own example to restrict Buddhism.

After all, as long as there is an emperor who wants to do something, who doesn't want his money bag to get bigger and bigger, and who would watch helplessly as the monks in the Buddhist temple eat so much that they don't even have the money to build a courtyard.

All in all, as long as there is a precedent in China, future generations will naturally take this precedent.

The Six Classics annotate me, and I annotate the Six Classics. When anyone uses the examples or words of the sages to prove themselves, it is often not because of how reasonable the words of the sages are, but just because they want to prove that they are right.

Moreover, in China, no religion is allowed to be more powerful than the emperor, because the emperor knows physics!Fotucheng never expected that Liu Tai would say so many demands for Buddhism at once.

To be honest, Fotucheng was still a little unresponsive for a while.

But soon, a satisfied and happy smile appeared on Fotucheng's face, and he was even a little elated.

Because even Fotucheng only wanted to spread Buddhist doctrine at most, and it was not as far as Liu Tai imagined.

At this time, it was not that the pillow had fallen asleep, but that it suddenly started to rain golden sand from the sky. Fotucheng felt that happiness came so fast that he could not catch it!
At this time, Buddhism was not one of the three major religions in the world. They suffered from the impact of local Hinduism in India, although the Buddhist theory of reincarnation was indeed very attractive to Indians at first.

But later, Hinduism absorbed Buddhist teachings, which made Hindus say that it is indeed good to have reincarnation and an afterlife, but after reincarnation, you cannot be the feet of God, so get out!I don’t want reincarnation, I want to be God’s feet.

It can be said that Buddhism was driven out of India by Hinduism. Of course, Buddhism is still competing with Hinduism, but as Buddhism continues to spread to the East through the Silk Road, it can be seen that Buddhism is actually in a state of decline in India. Downwind.

The reason is also very simple. A family wants to stay in its place of origin, while a poor family leaves for another place. This sentence can also be applied to many religions.

If Bi was really unable to survive, who would be willing to travel all the way from India to the Han Dynasty to spread Buddhism!
Look at the Taoism of the Han Dynasty, it is because it has been deeply rooted in the marrow of Chinese culture and has always stayed in the land of China.

Although the Tao Te Ching's teachings on how to behave in society may sound vague and confusing, they directly point to the human nature of the human heart. As long as you are a smart person, you can basically understand a thing or two from the Tao Te Ching, which completely breaks the Taoist orthodoxy. No.

As long as the book "Tao Te Ching" exists, Taoism will always be passed down among the Chinese nation.

Because of this, Taoism has been integrated into the foundation of China, so that Taoism has no sense of going out.

At the same time, compared with Buddhism and the afterlife, Taoism tells you to live and live well.

The common people at the bottom of the class receive baptism every day. If they read Taoist classics, they must have a deep understanding of it.

At the same time, there are teachings on how to live in poverty and how to live in wealth. Like many people who practice Taoism, they basically have no worries about food and clothing and feel empty and lonely. However, Taoist practice will tell you that you should eat and sleep. Sleep and live well every day.

As for why Taoism is the most rebellious doctrine, it is naturally very simple. A court can make people unable to live in this life. If we don't overthrow such a court, how can we make people practice, or let more people live? , for Taoists, this is a kind of practice in itself.

To be honest, Liu Tai kind of wants to change his Buddhist attitude towards life into a Taoist one.

But after thinking about it, I gave up. I just wanted the Buddhists to pay taxes obediently, and let history deal with the rest.

Not only do we have to believe in the wisdom of future generations, but Chinese civilization has really completely digested Buddhist teachings.

Liu Tai followed Fotucheng and quickly reached an agreement. His court helped Fotucheng to unify, revise and publish Buddhist doctrines. Fotucheng expressed support for the Han Dynasty on behalf of the Buddhist school.

Naturally, he was willing to provide food and grass to support the Han people, and Fotucheng even wanted to give it away.

In fact, Liu Tai decisively said that as the king of Qi, he had the nerve to take advantage of Fotucheng. He would definitely have to spend money to buy it.

These salt coupons were first purchased from your temple's grain and grass. When the Zhangshui River thaws next year and shipping opens, these salt coupons can be used smoothly.

Fotucheng looked at the salt coupons Liu Tai gave him and accepted them, but it was a pity that Liu Tai actually gave him money!

To be honest, confidence is more important than finance.

After Liu Tai defeated Shi Le, the salt tickets originally stored in the hands of these aristocratic families suddenly became usable.

Because they didn't know whether Liu Tai could defeat Shi Le or whether he could defeat Liu Yao after defeating Shi Le, they were not sure about using salt tickets. After all, there were risks involved.

But now, with Liu Tai capturing Liu Yao, destroying Shi Le, and ensuring the correctness of his regime with absolute force, these aristocratic families naturally have more confidence in Liu Tai.

For them, although the salt hall has not been reopened due to heavy snow and ice, they all believe that as the ice and snow melt and the waterway becomes accessible, the salt coupons can be exchanged for salt.

Naturally, the salt coupons in their hands can become currency again and begin to circulate in this trading market.

Therefore, Liu Tai came to Fotucheng not only to take advantage of an opportunity to sell food.

If there is a human relationship between the two parties, I am afraid that Liu Tai's favor to Fotucheng is greater. After all, from now on, the Buddhist doctrine spread by Fotucheng will become the orthodoxy of all Buddhist doctrines.

In contrast, Fotucheng wanted to understand cause and effect by sending food. As a result, Liu Tai was just buying and selling. At least Fotucheng felt that he had made a lot of money.

Liu Tai knew very well that compared to other people of this era, they only regarded Buddhism as a foreign doctrine. He did not know that this strange doctrine of Buddhism had completely become one of the most important religions in China.

There is no way, this theory of the afterlife is really useful to appease the people, especially those who are in poverty.

Especially for the rulers, there is no happier thing than allowing the people to willingly sacrifice their own shortcomings and make up for the surplus of those who eat meat. Since the advent of private ownership, exploitation itself has been a pleasure!

So I need to bring Ge Hong back.

He needs to temporarily get out of the ocean of knowledge and start to exercise targeted restraint on this Buddhist doctrine.

Anyway, Liu Tai is not very clear about who Fotucheng is, but Ge Hong, the little immortal who created the Nine-Character Mantra, is a figure that Taoism cannot avoid no matter what. With Ge Hong, he can definitely suppress Buddhism to death. .

When Ge Hong creates theoretical knowledge about the origin of the world, allows technology to enter the homes of ordinary people, and allows them to realize the benefits brought by the advancement of productivity, then the idea of ​​using Taoism to balance Buddhism can be successfully realized.

Then it is to guide the emergence of Confucianism, to maintain a certain degree of dynamic balance among these three, and to return Chinese history to the mainstream trend of the integration of the three religions.

Liu Tai took a deep breath. No matter what, with the grain purchased from Fotucheng, some simple tasks could finally be carried out smoothly on this snowy day.

(End of this chapter)