Wanli 1592

Chapter 1342 Punch Out
The imperial court's control over local areas has weakened, and the results of this weakening will be reflected in all aspects.

Putting Buddhism and Taoism on the head, the result is that the number of monks and Taoists has increased, and more and more lands are not taxed by temples and Taoist temples. Some large temples and Taoist temples even own tens of thousands of acres of land, which is not less harmful than the local gentry.

Such behavior has become common practice, which directly leads to fewer and fewer people paying taxes.

Although the properties of temples and Taoist temples in the Ming Dynasty were not as large as those in the previous dynasties, they were still considerable.

After learning about this fact, Xiao Ruxun was very disgusted with this phenomenon, and made up her mind to punish them severely.

After the Xiao Qin regime came to power, in February of the first year of Longwu, Xiao Ruxun directly turned the Longevity Palace, which symbolized the religious color of the Ming royal family, into the residence of the Supreme Emperor, and drove out all religious things in the Forbidden City, and set As a rule, no religious buildings are allowed in Beijing.

In March of the first year of Longwu, Xiao Ruxun issued a religious policy.

He once again made it clear that Taoist priests and monks need to be recognized by the imperial court to be recognized, and only the Religious Management Department of the Ministry of Households in the capital has the right to issue the certificate. The local government has no power to issue the certificate.

Private degrees are completely prohibited. Once discovered, the person who performed private degrees, the monks and priests who performed private degrees, and the temples and Taoist temples they belonged to will be banned immediately, and all will be assigned as coolies.

In addition, Xiao Ruxun also sent people to conduct a nationwide survey of the private properties of Taoist temples and monasteries, and register them together. He also made statistics on the years of Taoist temples and temples in various places, and assessed the identities and knowledge levels of Taoist temple owners and abbots.

Once every three years in the future, it is absolutely not allowed to stop.

After a series of actions, the imperial court closed 36 Taoist temples and 27 temples in the second year of Longwu, closed 48 Taoist temples and 21 temples in the third year of Longwu, closed 29 Taoist temples and [-] temples in the fourth year of Longwu, and closed [-] temples in Longwu. Five years later, [-] Taoist temples and [-] temples were closed.

The reasons are very clear.

Before the imperial court issued the certificate, it sent special personnel to various temples and Taoist temples to investigate the understanding of the Buddhist scriptures and Taoist scriptures by the monks in the temples and the Taoist priests in the temples, to see how the academic level is, and to see if it is true. Whether the Buddha is dedicated to the Tao, is he really a monk?

Now it can be regarded as a big problem to be found. A large number of fake monks and Taoist priests who can't read a single word have been sent out, and those who cheated people's hard-earned money were also found out.

Originally, Xiao Ruxun's order was to find out what happened to me even if there was nothing wrong, but it turned out to be fine now, and there was no need to wrong anyone.

So the local government immediately announced to the outside world, publicized it, and used the trend of land reform to criticize and completely tarnish their reputation. As a result, the local people were extremely annoyed and supported the government to ban monasteries and Taoist temples.

Not only that, those local grassroots officials who are good at organizing manpower to launch campaigns adhere to the central idea, incite people to worship temples and Taoist temples and completely destroy them, and temples and Taoist temples are not allowed to appear again wherever the movement affects.

Needless to say what happened next, a large number of monasteries and Taoist temples suffered bad luck, they were banned, and all their properties were confiscated. Those fake Taoist priests and monks were immediately assigned to do coolies. I don’t know if they can come back alive. Anyway, the chances are slim .

But this is not enough.

There are indeed fake Taoist priests and fake monks, but there are also many real monks and real Taoist priests who hold the formal certificates of the previous dynasty. Xiao Ruxun is quite disgusted with this kind of organization that competes with the state for population and tax revenue. All kinds of means are used.

The level of Taoist priests in some temples is not enough, they don’t understand Taoist morality, the level of abbots in any monasteries is not enough, they don’t understand Buddhist scriptures at all, they don’t understand Buddhism at all. Just ban it.

As for the true monks and Taoist priests in the banned temples and Taoist temples, Xiao Ruxun decisively forced them to return to the secular world, and they were not allowed to become monks again for life, let alone preach Buddhism and Taoism.

In order for them to start paying taxes in production, Xiao Ruxun did not allow them to return to their hometowns, and they were all resettled in places where the land was being allocated.

They also forced everyone to arrange a local orphan and widow or a woman captured by Japan, and gave them land, houses, farm tools, and seeds, so that they could integrate into the local farmers' association.

Regarding Xiao Ruxun's methods like this, some courtiers stated that Taoism and Buddhism existed for thousands of years, and such a drastic ban would probably make the subjects of the world panic.

Xiao Ruxun issued an order to severely reprimand the above-mentioned official and fine him half a year's salary as a warning to others.

He issued a decree to inform the court that he was very dissatisfied with Taoism and Buddhism not because he was dissatisfied with themselves, but because they were not productive.

Doing some mysterious things to fool people's hearts all day long, many monasteries and Taoist temples actually dare to buy land arbitrarily, expand private properties, and compete with the court for tax revenue!

These lands still do not need to pay taxes, and the monks in the monasteries do not need to pay taxes for all the people's fat and people's anointing. They blatantly compete with the court for land, population and tax revenue.

The imperial court grasped the righteousness in hand, and declared that this Taoist monk was a liar, a Taoist priest, a monk, and a monk who cheated hard-earned money. He was dragged to the surrounding villages and cities to demonstrate, mobilize the people to criticize, and then directly banned the people there. Temples, land and other property will be nationalized.

The imperial court did not play tricks with them, but directly came to be ruthless, attacking Buddhism and Taoism with heavy blows.

After the news spread, a large number of lazy people who had no pious heart and only wanted to eat and drink enough to dawdle were scared and fled. Many temples and Taoist temples were directly abandoned, and they were easily accepted by the local government and became under the jurisdiction of the government. warehouse.

Such an approach greatly limited the living environment of Taoist priests and monks.

In just three or four years, the Xiao Qin government forced more than [-] Taoist monks to return to secular life and confiscated more than [-] mu of land, which severely damaged the economic foundation of Buddhism and Taoism.

Not only that, in the places where Buddhism and Taoism flourished in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, the government also targeted [-] or [-] fake monks and Taoist priests who were not guilty of deceiving sex and money, and widely spread their deeds.

Make up nursery rhymes and teach the children to sing them.

Make up a story and teach it to the storyteller.

They even issued administrative orders to some well-known opera troupes in some places to compose operas within a time limit to compose operas in which fake monks, Taoist priests cheat money, cheat sex, and defraud people's families, ruin their lives, and spread them on a large scale.

In the school textbooks, add relevant stories of fake Taoist priests and fake monks cheating, teach them to the Mongolian children, let them learn, and tell their parents when they go home.

Such an approach has greatly dealt a blow to the prestige of Buddhism and Taoism among the people, and had a considerable long-term impact.

In the third year of Longwu's first issuance of ultimatums, only more than 300 monk ultimatums and more than 100 Dao ultimatums were issued.

At the same time, Xiao Ruxun took a relatively moderate approach to some large temples and avenues that have a long history and good reputation and have contributed to the country and the people, such as Shaolin Temple and Chongyang Palace.

Instead of forcibly banning them and mobilizing the masses to destroy them, they were required to pay taxes.

The incense money is taxed according to a certain ratio, and the land is reserved for temples and Taoist temples at a rate of [-] mu per person, and the excess is nationalized, and the land of temples and Taoist temples needs to pay taxes like ordinary people.

The Religious Management Department of the Imperial Household Department sent officials to temples and Taoist temples to supervise the production of incense money, monks and the study of Taoism and Buddhism.

All in all, the imperial court wants to manage you, restrict you, check your accounts, and collect your taxes.

Don't resist, accept management honestly, otherwise His Majesty the Emperor has ten thousand ways to kill you.

(End of this chapter)