Section 11: New Religions

He Ying knew that the engraved books of the Ming Dynasty were quite expensive, and the patriarch had to spend silver privately, so Delong's exchange procedures were very troublesome. Ordinary patriarchs don't bother to do this. This Ying Chen is really willing to spend money. On the snow-white wall hangs a picture of Lao Tzuhua, which is the work of a local painter of the Ming Dynasty in this time and space, and was probably bought from the loot of the Gou family.

Zhang Yingchen wore a strange dress: a navy blue collared road coat with a waist tie, which was cut by Lingao's garment factory according to his design, and Zuihou also had a short ponytail-style hair, which looked like a modern art person.

The man hummed a song and wrote something quickly on the paper. After He Ying listened carefully, he knew that he was filling in the lyrics for the scripture.

"It's a pity to do this with such haode propaganda talents." He Ying looked at a few new Taoist scriptures written by Zhang Yingchen and said with a little regret.

"It's not a waste to be able to play the most suitable position and contribute to the crossing group." Only then did Zhang Yingchen notice that he had come in. Quickly took off the headphones. Smile and make him new tea.

"As a person who is about to accumulate hair, it is necessary to live frugally and be cautious in what I say and do. Therefore, all tobacco and alcohol were abstained. There are no good things to entertain you either. ”

"It's okay," He Ying thought that this person was really dedicated. He took the teacup and said straight to the point, "I just want to hear about your new Taoist system." ”

"Take a look at this first." Zhang Yingchen opened it as he spoke, and opened a box beside him, which contained new books that exuded the scent of ink. At first glance, you can see that it is a book printed by the printing office.

He Ying took it and looked at it, and the cover read "Taishang Dongyuan Passage of the Jade Sutra", and he didn't know anything about Taoist classics. After flipping through a few pages, I didn't feel a little dazed.

"Look at these words." Zhang Yingchen pointed.

He Ying looked at it fixedly, and saw that it was written: "In the world of the Ming Dynasty, when the world is at the end, the people are not pure, and Miao Yin is born." But I heard the sound of crying corpses, I didn't hear the sound of fairy songs, the people were dirty, the three holes were congested, the plague of one hundred and six, the sword and the plague, the demon king was poisonous, the killing of the good, the door was fierce, the mourning was looking for each other, the living beings were killing each other, they were troubled by themselves, they were involved in death, they were foolish and suffering, and they didn't know how to come out. ”

"Da Ming?" He asked a little hesitantly, "Is this Da Ming we are here now?" ”

"That's right, it's this Da Ming." Zhang Yingchen nodded and picked up a copy again, "You can look here again." ”

"When the catastrophe came, there were immortals in China, the immortals Wu Mei, and the immortals and horses, who led five hundred immortal saints and took an iron boat together to pick up the Taoist priests and those who had scriptures, and the son waited for them."

He Ying immediately understood, this meant that he was surprised to cross the group and asked, "Is this what you wrote?" ”

"Yes and no." Zhang Yingchen was a little proud, he took out another book from the bookshelf and turned it to a certain page for him to see.

The title of the book is "Taishang Dongyuan Divine Mantra", and He Ying carefully looked at the section he pointed out: "When the great water came, there were immortals Tang Ping, immortal Yuguang, and immortal horses in China, leading 80,000 heavenly people. The immortals took an iron boat to pick up the Taoist priest and the person who had the scriptures, and the son waited for him. ”

"The paragraph of 'Da Ming' you just read, the original text is actually 'Da Jin'."

"You are tampering with Taoist classics" He Ying suddenly realized, this Yingchen is powerful enough to think of this hand. Those who are not extremely familiar with Taoist classics and have in-depth research cannot do it. He couldn't help but be impressed by this doctor.

"That's it. I want to push for a new Taoism, not the old system. Zhang Yingchen nodded, "I, Jihua, based on Lao Tzu, Xiang'er Annotation and Taiping Sutra, is the only designated classic for Lingao Taoist clergy. ”

"It's not going to work with such a big change, right?" He Ying expressed his doubts, "Although Taoism here in Lingao is very weak, it is still a very strong existence in the whole country. This scripture will not be the only one, and you will be exposed if you directly tamper with it. ”

"You don't have to worry about this, doctrinal arguments exist everywhere, it's just a matter of who has the upper hand." Zhang Yingchen didn't care about this, and seemed to be confident.

"Doctrine aside, now that the Catholic Church has occupied a place, how can a new church get along? Isn't it going to cause a great confusion in the faith? ”

"The way to reconcile is for the two new religions to work in parallel, recognizing each other as brotherly religions and at the same time restraining each other. Because my Taoist template adopts the Taoist theory of the savior and the kingdom of God on earth, which is Taiping Dao, it is almost the same thing as the Christian idea of the millennial kingdom of Christ. Zhang Yingchen said, "There is a lot to be done in it, and there is room for how to develop in the future." If the practice of Dean Wu is followed, the theocracy of a single religion is extremely inflated, and its influence on the crossing country in the future will only exceed that of the Senate. This sequelae must be prevented. ”

He Ying nodded, this is also what he has been worried about recently. Now the other party's thinking is very clear, and this plan has a drama.

"Tell me what you think."

First of all, the ultimate belief in Taoist doctrine is the Tao, the so-called "things are mixed and born from nature", which is philosophically and theologically many times more brilliant than the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. ”

He Ying thought that this beginning was not surprising, and he generally had to belittle his competitors first.

"Secondly, the Taoist view of shijie comes from the Taoist Qi theory, up to the ghosts, gods, stars, and down to mortal ants, all of which are the evolution of Yuan Qi."

"Qigong's qi?"

"No, it's Qi," Zhang Yingchen dipped his hand in tea and wrote the word on the table. "'Qi' is the innate Qi, and 'Qi' is the acquired Qi. The two are completely incompatible. ”

He went on to explain: The so-called Qi is a metaphysical mysterious energy, which is different from Qi.

"In our theory of traditional Chinese medicine, it refers to the most basic energy that constitutes the human body and sustains life activities, and also has the meaning of physiological functions. In TCM terminology, Qi is used in conjunction with different words to express a variety of different meanings, such as the Qi of the five internal organs, the Qi of the six internal organs, and the Qi of the meridians. And an important concept of Taoism is 'one Qi into three purities'.

"I see." He Ying somehow suddenly thought of "psionic energy". Could it be that the concept of subspace energy is plagiarized from Chinese Taoist ideas? Thinking of the "Tao" and "Harmony Theory" of the TAU people, He Ying became more and more determined to feel this way.

Zhang Yingchen didn't know that Director He had such associations. Continuing to explain the most important concept of his religious system:

"Note that it's 'Yiqi', not 'Yiqi'." Zhang Yingchen emphatically said, "Based on these two points, we can carry out transformation." ”

His idea is to start from the roots, based on the traditional "Dao Qi theory" and take deism as a reference point, completely discarding the Taoist ghost and god system represented by the "Three Clears and Four Emperors", and interpreting all ghosts and gods as the manifestation of "Dao Qi" at a certain level.

Second, Lao Tzu is regarded as the godfather, not the supreme god. This leaves room for expansion in the final form of the Supreme God.

Third, all ghosts and gods, including Taoist gods and gods of other religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, should adopt the attitude of the Vatican's Congregation for Faith and Doctrine under the guidance of Taoism. These gods are just the manifestation of Dao Qi on a certain level.

"In Japan's Shinto system, there is a concept of 'power and appearance,' which plays a role in reconciling the contradictions between Buddhism and Shintoism, and forms a de facto 'dual-track system' of Japanese religious beliefs.

"Our goal is to thoroughly integrate these beliefs into the new religious system of Lingao and become the existence of saints to Christianity.

"Of course, in such a fusion, the old place will inevitably be attacked. The Yin Ritual Faith must be eliminated, and then the local positive immortal beliefs will be transformed and transformed.

For example, the far-reaching local gods such as Mazu and Baosheng the Great in Fujian will inevitably be the focus of Neo-Taoism, making them the objects of refuge in Neo-Taoism. At the same time, it is also necessary to reform the problem of the actual separation of the belief in local gods from the Taoist organization in the past.

Zhang Yingchen was full of interest, and the more he talked, the more interested he became.

"Let's not talk about that. How are you going to promote your new Taoism? To what extent is this propaganda able to promote the domination of the Crossing Bloc? Ho Ying interrupted his lofty talk about the doctrine.

"It is worthy of Director He, and he talked about the core issue at once." Zhang Yingchen quietly slapped a sycophant, he said: When propaganda is carried out for ordinary believers, the focus is on "doing good", "abiding by the law", and "supporting the Lingao regime". At the same time, it is necessary to propagate the legitimacy of the Lingao regime based on the prophecy of "the true monarch will come to life" in Taoist scriptures such as the Taiping Sutra and the Dongyuan Divine Mantra.

"Of course, how to do propaganda also needs to communicate with the comrades at the propaganda mouth. In this way, they can play a complementary role. He said, "I still only have some superficial ideas, and I am not very mature, so I will not be ugly for the time being." My first step was to establish the image of the new Taoism. Religious personnel must have conspicuous signs so that they can identify themselves and show the presence of religion. ”

He Ying nodded, and looked at the slender doctor again.

"How long have you been researching this material?"

"Not long after, when I was studying, I audited a course on Taoist studies. It's kind of a personal hobby. I'm interested in not just Taoism, but all forms of religion. I was prepared to kill time when I was bored, but I didn't expect it to be used. ”

Zhang Yingchen shrugged indifferently, picked up the teapot at hand, and refilled He Ying's teacup.

In short, the new Taoist uniform is the first propaganda weapon. We must give the people an intuitive understanding of the new Taoism and separate it from the old Taoism. Therefore, I chose this Tang-style right-sided narrow sleeve roll-neck Hufu as a blueprint, and asked colleagues in the garment factory to design this set of uniforms for ordinary faculty members. ”

Zhang Yingchen said, pulled a rattan box from the side, took out two sets of gray-blue lapel beard suits with military uniform style, and hung them on the hanger.

"In order to distinguish between male and female teachers, the comrades of the garment factory referred to the army uniform system and sewed a red armband on the right arm of the uniform.

A hypocrite is still a hypocrite of great ability and religious qualities. Looking at the military-style lapel robe in front of him, He Ying defined the man in front of him like this. In essence, he, like Wu Shimang, is a god who respects his post and loves his industry. The difference is that he has smeared a rich doctrinal layer on his ambitions. And Dean Wu simply went into battle shirtless.

He talked a lot about theological arguments, the compilation of texts, the revision of doctrines, the mode of organization and management, the training of personnel, and so on. He Ying was secretly surprised. This person has clearly been planning for a long time. This set of things cannot be done without months of repeated consideration and revision, and the so-called "nothing to kill time" is obviously deliberately understated.

"Of course, the preparation for the establishment of the Taoist Council also needs the guidance of leaders and comrades. I can't do it alone behind closed doors – there is an element of assumption involved. These teachings, precepts, rituals, uniforms, and management are just a few superficial thoughts of mine, and they all need everyone's supervision and control. He concluded with a clichéd statement.

When he said this, Zhang Yingchen still smiled gently, but He Ying felt the need to reevaluate this doctor.

"What you're doing is a bit like the relationship between Protestantism and old Catholicism."

"It does have that meaning." Zhang Yingchen nodded. "Old bottles should be filled with new wine. The end result is a new religious system, note that it is a system, not a monopoly. A church that can influence society as a whole is dangerous for a secular regime. He said, "I think we should remind every veteran who engages in religious activities that no matter what religion, religion is just a propaganda and stability maintenance tool in the service of the Lingao regime." Other than that, nothing. ”

"This is an inevitable contradiction between the secular regime and the religious bloc." He Ying pondered for a moment and suddenly came up with a new concept:

"Since the state religion will inevitably have a finger-pointing against the secular society, and the contradictions between the two are irreconcilable, how about the complete integration of church and state? Take the UK, for example. The king is the head of the church. He continued, "If you have five hundred immortal saints, doesn't that mean that every patriarch is a 'god' in this system? ”

"There is a problem with theocracy: England has a king who is the natural head of the church. Who do we have? Five hundred people are archangels, is Mr. Wen the archangel? Do you agree or disagree? Zhang Yingchen asked himself, "Obviously, you won't agree, no matter who is the archangel, everyone won't agree." The dangers are obvious to everyone. ”

"You put the plan in order, and I'll report it to the executive committee." He Ying said, "Most of this matter will have to be heard at the Standing Committee of the Senate." There is no trivial matter in the field of ideology. ”

"It's okay to hear the testimony, I'm sure the senators will be able to fully understand my intentions." Zhang Yingchen has a great grasp of this, no matter how you say it, Taoism is also a native of China, and its status in the minds of the patriarchs is very different.

PS：

I would like to express my gratitude for the exposition of the theories, concepts, costumes, and details of Neo-Taoism all provided by Thief Quanzi (i.e., Zhang Yingchen in this book) of the LK Forum