The second year of the New Year (762), early March.
The Northern Tang Dynasty court conducted a thorough investigation of hundreds of Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, Zoroastrian temples, etc. in the Hexi area, and the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Rites, the Jinyi Guards, and the state and county guards jointly conducted a thorough investigation.
A thorough investigation of the reasons for religion reveals divergent opinions.
Some people say that some common people jointly wrote a petition accusing the temple of usury, taking away private property, and forcing believers to become tenants; others said that there are Buddhist temples that have occupied land, even the royal cemetery.
The emperor was furious.
No matter what the reason was, it has become a well-known event that Emperor Zhou Jun issued an order to start a thorough investigation of religious illegalities in the surrounding area from Liangcheng.
Regarding the emperor's imperial edict, there were originally voices of opposition in the Liangcheng court.
After all, among the people of the Tang Dynasty, believers accounted for the majority. Even the previous emperor Li Longji became a registered disciple of Taoism. If there were to be an investigation, many ministers would be involved.
However, the emperor's attitude was extremely resolute. He not only wanted to investigate, but also conducted a thorough investigation on a large scale.
Originally, the ministers in the court thought that after all the investigation, it would be trivial cases at most.
As a result, in the first month of the religious inventory, when Fu Si of Jinyiwei North Town reported the results to the court, almost everyone was shocked.
Around Liangcheng, the wealth in the name of many religions is simply beyond ordinary people's imagination.
In the entire Hexi territory, the most famous "Three Mountains, Seven Views and Twelve Buddhas" has a total of more than 30 million yuan of assets recorded in its name and with illegitimate origins.
Especially in Buddhism, among the major temples, there are only more than 2,000 monks registered with the Ministry of Household Affairs. However, after careful inspection, the number of tenant farmers, temple slaves and other hidden people in Buddhist temples has actually reached a jaw-dropping number.
Thirty thousand.
On average, each registered monk is supported by fifteen hired workers or slaves.
This ratio is even more exaggerated than the landowners and gentry in ordinary counties.
These hired workers and slaves had no choice but to seek refuge in the temple because they were unable to repay the temple's usurious loans or because they had nowhere to go.
A large number of people were bound to religion and became hermits that the imperial court could not touch. For the Northern Tang Dynasty, which had experienced countless wars and had a declining population, it was simply a major crime that could not be ignored.
If hermitage is just a drop in the ocean of religious crimes, then the land and wealth occupied by temples and temples is another fact that makes everyone angry.
During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhists occupied a large number of land and used religious means to either persuade and force believers to donate their fields, or to use loans to seize private fields from farmers. After a hundred years of snowballing, the fields under the name of Buddhist temples became increasingly valuable.
Coming more and more, getting bigger and bigger.
Even in the history books, some Buddhist temples tried to occupy the clan mausoleums based on their reputation. This is not a new thing.
After talking about Buddhism, let’s talk about Taoism. Although Taoism does not have much demand for population and land, it also has many illegal things.
For example, in the name of immortality, a Taoist temple defrauded wealth and obtained treasures. A nunnery turned its religious temple into a high-end club, recruited a large number of young women, and provided special services to dignitaries, becoming an out-and-out romantic nunnery.
place.
However, compared with Buddhist temples, these crimes are inconspicuous.
The Jin Yiwei compiled all the results of the investigation into a book, and dozens of people carried it into the palace.
The ministers who originally tried to persuade the emperor were shocked and angry after seeing the Kan book. They all changed their words and demanded that the school be investigated.
Zhou Jun had read history books and knew that the major religions during the An-Shi Rebellion took advantage of the war to attract believers and invade unowned land, causing the religious assets to reach a terrifying figure.
But when he actually saw the results reported by Jinyi Guardian, Zhou Jun was still shocked.
He knew that the world was in chaos and religion flourished, but he did not expect that monks and Taoist priests could actually become so wealthy.
Just for the usury deeds collected by major temples, the Ministry of Punishment used six warehouses to put them down.
The gold, silver and jewels hidden in the temples, together, filled the provincial treasury of the Ministry of Finance, enough for the court to launch another Battle of Fanyang.
In the court hall, Wailang Yis, the director of the ancestral temple department, said to Zhou Jun: "Your Majesty, in the Taiping years, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. Although they had a need for religion, they did not suffer from it. Now, with the endless wars in the world, the people are becoming more and more miserable.
, the more they seek comfort from religion. Under such a premise, those monks and Taoist priests will have the opportunity to defraud people of their wealth."
Zhou Jun nodded and said: "That makes sense. Religion has become a common practice. For a long time, people have been led to become believers. In the end, they will only know the Buddha and not the court. This is extremely detrimental to the Tang Dynasty."
I only know the Buddha, but I don’t know the court.
These eight words from Zhou Jun are very serious.
The ministers in the court trembled slightly in their hearts after hearing this.
Yissi: "I believe that there are tens of millions of believers in the world. To investigate and deal with religious illegal activities, we must not only use thunderous means, but also divide them so that religious forces cannot cause trouble."
Zhou Jun: "Oh, tell me, how should this differentiation be done?"
Yis: "Buddhist temples and believers have written loan deeds. This will tie the people to religion and prevent them from being free. Your Majesty can spread the loan deeds widely throughout the world, stating that temples lend money and are no different from merchants. This is
Any act of blasphemy is contrary to the teachings and should be invalidated."
Zhou Jun: "You want to say that by declaring religious loans invalid, you can divide believers so that even if those religions are investigated, they will not dare to mobilize believers to cause trouble?"
Is: "Yes."
Zhou Jun: "Abolition of religious lending is just a temporary solution. What else can be done to curb religious chaos?"
Yiss: "In the Ministry of Rites, there is a Department of Ancestral Affairs that manages temples and Taoist temples all over the world. But now it seems that the Department of Ancestral Affairs only registers and compiles religions. This is far from meeting the religious management requirements of the Tang Dynasty. I suggest
, on the basis of the Ancestral Temple Department, an additional supervisor was added to be responsible for religious management matters."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Zhou Jun: "Tell me, what should this new religious prison do?"
Iss: "First, if any religion wants to establish a religious center in the Tang Dynasty, it must first come to the religious supervisor to apply, and then proceed with the construction after approval; second, any religious gathering that exceeds a certain number of people must first come to the religious supervisor.
The time and place shall be reported, and the time and place shall be determined, and shall be supervised by a dedicated person; third, the appointment of religious managers should not be handled privately by the religious denomination, but must be evaluated by a religious invigilator and confirmed to be qualified before they can take office."
After Zhou Jun listened to the three things that Yis said, he nodded slightly and asked the ministers in the court: "My dear friends, do you have any objections?"
The ministers in the court all heard it now.
Every move of this sect leader who came to Liangcheng from Anxi was completely authorized by the emperor.
At this juncture, no one dares to question it.
Seeing that the ministers had no objections, Zhou Jun announced the decision of religious reform:
1. Conduct a nationwide religious crackdown. Regarding the illegal activities of sects, according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, they should be exiled or decapitated. They should not bend the law for any reason.
Second, for religions involved in lending, all loan deeds are declared invalid. People can take the deeds and go to the local government to cancel them.
Third, all the land occupied by the temple shall be returned to the imperial court. All the hermit households who have been taken as tenants and slaves by the temple shall have their employment and deeds of sale abolished and turned into free citizens.
Fourth, the Department of Ancestral Temples is independent from the Ministry of Rites and forms its own supervisor, which specializes in managing the world's religions. When it encounters illegal things, it can hand over the case to the Dali Temple or the local area for handling. If the case involves the royal family, it can hand it over to the Jinyiwei.
This chapter has been completed!