Feng Deyi was overjoyed to receive this compliment, and he immediately puffed up his lips and flattered him.
Li Po was used to the formal compliments from his ministers, and waved his hand and said: "There are many things to do next year, including forming an alliance with the Turks, opening up subjects to recruit scholars, and the Tang Code will be completed next year. Alas,
I really can’t take any time off.
Then I will leave it to you to take charge of the preparations, and let Taichang and Shaofu assist you. By the way, where was the king's sacrifice to heaven held before?"
Feng Deyi replied: "The ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven must be to look south and worship. Therefore, in the past dynasties, it was also called offering sacrifices to the southern suburbs. When the Supreme Being ascended the throne, it was an expedient measure to offer sacrifices to the ancestors of heaven and earth in front of the Taiji Palace. It is not the same as the ancient method."
Li Po nodded and said: "Okay, then we will worship heaven in the southern suburbs next spring. What I mean is not to be grand, but to be sincere."
In the end, he still showed a bit of a stingy look, which made Feng Deyi smile bitterly, thinking that the Supreme Being really didn't care much about these things, and the risk he took this time was a bit high.
Will an emperor who disrespects heaven, earth, ghosts and gods resort to cutting down mountains and destroying temples in the future?
His thinking was a bit far-reaching, but it was not without purpose.
During the Sui Dynasty, Buddhism and Taoism were at their peak. Most of the children of wealthy families worshiped Buddhism and Taoism and built temples in their homes. The nobles in the south were even more unrestrained. Even if the people suffered, they did not show any compassion, but they were willing to spend a lot of money.
money to build temples.
In the 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties, the many towers in the mist and rain vaguely describe the disasters of Buddhism and Taoism at that time.
Among them, Buddhists are the most rampant. They do not engage in production, but only serve people. The government, nobles, and wealthy households have given them large tracts of land, turning many people into their farm laborers.
When Nanchen died, this situation had reached its peak. There were huge temples and vast hectares of fertile land. The monks were all very rich, making friends with powerful people, and deceiving the public with their evil words. This was actually a major disaster in the south at that time. Otherwise, people who had believed in Buddhism since they were young
Yang Jian would not want to demolish temples and drive away monks.
The background at that time was actually that Yang Jian wanted to open up a subject to recruit scholars, and respecting Confucianism was the first thing to do. However, the Buddhists believed in the Buddha of the West and did not care about the saints. This was very directly related to Yang Jian's big policy.
The conflict led to the cutting down of mountains and destruction of temples in the early years of the founding of the Emperor.
Li Po didn't like bald people either. Even if his enlightenment reading was a Buddhist scripture, if the bald people interfered with his affairs, they would definitely do more than what Emperor Wen Yang Jian did.
However, the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty severely damaged the Buddhist power, especially in the north. Many temples were deserted. Even those temples near Luoyang that were very popular in the past are now abandoned and overgrown with weeds.
It is said that Wang Renze went into the mountain and burned down the Songshan Shaolin Temple. I don’t know whether it is true or not, or whether it was a story made up by later people.
Anyway, among the heroes at the end of the Sui Dynasty, except for Li Yuan and Xiao Xian who were very restrained, the others were all evil stars sent from the sky, disrespectful of heaven and earth, and not afraid of ghosts and gods. Who the hell cares about the life and death of the monks?
……………………
"I remember that the ancients said that if a king with a surname of Yi brings peace, he must be granted the title of Mount Tai. This is also called the title of Zen. Both the First Emperor and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty have done this, right?" Li Po said casually while drinking.
When Feng Deyi heard this sentence out of the blue, his heart stopped for a few beats. Just now he said he didn't want to mobilize people and waste the treasury, but now, he actually wants to go to Mount Tai to become a Buddhist monk?
Feng Deyi couldn't help but feel frightened. If the emperor had such thoughts, if word spread, wouldn't everyone think it was Feng Deyijin's slander?
He calmed down immediately, observed the emperor's expression, and did not rush to persuade the emperor to give up this idea, because the time was not right to make such a move.
He thought about it for a moment, then followed the emperor's words and said: "This is an ancient ritual of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it is also an act of offering sacrifices to the heaven and the earth. Those who consecrate the gods offer sacrifices to the heavens, and those who practice Zen plow the earth.
In ancient times, many Confucian scholars in Qi and Lu believed that Mount Tai was as high as the sky and as deep as the ground. It was the first of the Five Mountains, and all the mountains in the world were subordinates. If a virtuous king came out, he would be granted the title of Mount Tai.
Later, the First Emperor became the leader of the world, so he summoned the Lu Confucians to discuss with each other and sealed it on Mount Tai to show that the world was peaceful and there would be no more chaos among the six kingdoms.
In the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to eliminate the old disadvantages and consolidated his foundation through the act of granting Zen. Since he had not achieved any achievements at that time, he made a lot of achievements during the granting of Zen. He built palaces under the foot of the mountain and the reign name was Yuan Feng.
, this is a guilty conscience.
Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty revitalized the Han Dynasty. He read the picture of the Hui Fu in Hechang at night and saw the nine red Lius. He was impressed by the sentence of Huiming Zongdai. Because he was the ninth grandson of Han Emperor Gaozu, the Han Dynasty was prosperous due to the virtue of fire.
Due to the destiny of heaven, he decided to enshrine Zen and reveal it to heaven and earth. He restored the Han Dynasty and reproduced the achievements of peace.
In addition, the rest are waiting to go to Mount Tai..."
Feng Deyi shook his head and smiled and said: "In ancient times, the princes hunted once every five years. There were many people who looked at Mount Tai and worshiped them. They may be admired by the world. But these three emperors are all the heroes of the world, even if they are not granted the title of Mount Tai.
, and no one can conceal his merits.
I think that Yang Guang also had the intention of granting Zen status many times. I remember that Pei Ju and others advised him that it would not be too late to bring the Goguryeo monarchs and ministers to Luoyang before doing so, and then..."
Having said this, Feng Deyi shook his head and laughed again, with a sarcastic look on his face. The lingering sound was self-evident, and he was short of saying that he was not overestimating his own abilities.
Li Po actually just said that. He had been aroused a little angry before, so he wanted to tease him and see how he would respond, but he got such a big comment instead.
I said unhappily, "If you don't want us to go to Mount Tai, just say so. It's really not easy to come up with such an article after a long time."
It seems that admonishing the king is indeed a dangerous technical job. Fortunately, we are the emperor now, otherwise we would have to speak so carefully and be exhausted?
Feng Deyi behaved well. He did not encourage the emperor to go to Mount Tai to have a look, but gave tactful advice. Moreover, he knew that the emperor did not like Yang Guang, so he dragged Yang Guang out and whipped his corpse again.
What made Li Po envious was the historical skills of his ministers. Any one of them was much better than later historians. As long as historical events were involved, they could talk about them.
, this so-called citation of scriptures has even been integrated into their daily lives, and is one of the basic accomplishments of the literati of the world.
At this time, he sighed in a pretentious manner and said: "It seems that the act of enshrining Zen is destiny. I am still a little short of it, so I have to work hard. I hope that one day I can follow their example and go to the top of Mount Tai to see the scenery.
"
Feng Deyi breathed a sigh of relief and felt his mouth was a little dry, "That's right. If I can accompany the Supreme Lord to Mount Tai in the future and seal him, I will die without regrets."
This is true sincerity. No matter for the king or his ministers, being granted the title of Zen and Mount Tai is a supreme honor, which cannot be obtained without great merit.
Li Po unified the world, and he actually already had the preliminary qualifications, but his achievements were a little weak. If he went to Mount Tai with great fanfare at this time, it would be equivalent to traveling and it would not make much sense.
……………………
After a few jokes, Feng Deyi was invited to have two drinks, which was enough to calm down the cunning veteran, and then he got back to the topic.
"Your Majesty said there are two things to do. Offering sacrifices to the world is just one of them. What about the other?"
Feng Deyi almost forgot all about it, and after thinking for a while he said: "I remember that when the Supreme Leader started his army, he paid homage to the fallen soldiers and set up a cemetery to bury the remains.
Not long ago, Li Ya, Huang You and others came to Beijing, and I talked with them. Now, whether in Yunnei or in the cemeteries outside Mayi City, there is an endless stream of people offering sacrifices to heroic spirits every New Year.
The people in the frontier fortress all know about his achievements, and almost everyone knows them. People there also talk about the achievements of the Supreme Being with great enthusiasm. Those who do not know what he said will be despised and ridiculed by others.
When it comes to containing people's hearts, the sages of all ages could only do this...
This great event of benefiting the country and the people, I thought it would be better to continue it in the capital and set up cemeteries and monuments to commemorate the meritorious soldiers who died in the war.
And admire it."
Li Po pondered for a long time, and the first thing that came to his mind was Lingyan Pavilion.
Man, why don't you take Wu Gou and collect the fifty states in Guanshan? Please go to Lingyan Pavilion for a while, like a scholar with ten thousand households.
Lingyan Pavilion later became famous. Li Shimin listed the portraits of the twenty-four heroes of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Lingyan Pavilion for people to worship and admire. It can almost be said that it was the highest reward from an ancient king to his subjects.
This shows Li Shimin's ambition. Neither the previous kings nor the later emperors were like this, because they were too late to take precautions against the heroes, so how could they be willing to use such a method to improve everyone's status and merits?
Li Shimin had such courage. Many of his heroes died well, and each of them was remembered for their merits. This was rare among ancient emperors.
Lingyan Pavilion was built by Li Shimin out of emotion when he saw the founding heroes passing away one after another.
The original intention seems to be similar to what Feng Deyi said, which is to commend the meritorious officials and distinguish the achievements of the founding of the country from those of those who came later.
Feng Deyi actually wanted to go further. He felt that some people were promoted too quickly when the country was founded, and he wanted to use this to restrict people who came later, so that those who came later would slow down, and gradually put an end to the problem of people who were rewarded for their merits being promoted.
What is hidden is to solve the problem of excessive reward and merit, which leads to the incompetence of many people's moral character.
Of course, this is certainly not what Feng Deyi means alone, but is the view held by most senior officials in the three provinces and six ministries.
In other words, everyone thinks that this year-end reward will be the last large-scale reward, and then the founding of the country will be concluded with celebrations such as offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, building cemeteries, and inscriptions.
Li Poshen thought so. Titles in the Tang Dynasty were worthless now. The most important thing to reward meritorious ministers now was not titles, but rewards for officials and fiefs.
With the population of the Tang Dynasty declining sharply, a large area of land was barren. It was very cheap to grant titles to meritorious ministers. Some generals wanted to be promoted to the Shangzhu Kingdom, but there were only so many top-level official positions. There were only empty titles like the Shangzhu Kingdom.
Some more should be added for the purpose of rewarding merit.
Overall, it’s time to take control...
This chapter has been completed!