Chapter 325: The Rise of Taoism

Originally, Li Shimin was actually very interested in the Buddhist Society, but he did not agree on the spot, because after Xuanzang put forward the concept of the Buddhist Society, there were immediately a large number of Buddhist believers who could not sit still, or simply the officials who were the spokesmen of Buddhism's interests in the court, almost opposed to death, so that even if Li Shimin knew their intentions, the number of persecutors was too large, and Li Shimin had to compromise and retreat, and put this proposal on hold temporarily......

Then the next day......

Xuanzang died in the residence arranged for him by Li Shimin......

No one knows who did it, but everyone has an object of suspicion, and it is also the person who is most likely to do something to Xuanzang - Buddhism, after all, the Buddhist Society is weakening the power of Buddhism, and seeing that His Majesty the Emperor is also very moved, the people who are installed in the court of Buddhism are desperate to block Li Shimin for a moment, if they don't take the opportunity to start, maybe tomorrow's court meeting, the Buddhist Society may really be established, and then their Buddhism should obey the regulations of the Buddhist Society, or should they rebel against the Buddhist Society?

It is definitely impossible to obey, after all, this will weaken the power of Buddhism, but if you disobey, it will not work either—after all, the image left by Buddhism to the world is that there is no dispute with the world, and if you confront the court at this time, Buddhism will not only violate the law, but their own image will be lost.

Then in order to prevent the emergence of the Buddhist Society, there is only one way, and that is to kill the person who made this suggestion, that is, Xuanzang.

Although Xuanzang's prestige is very high because of the scripture learning incident, and rashly killing him will cause public anger, but for the sake of the prosperity of Buddhism, he can only make this decision - Buddhism will be weakened by your proposal, who cares if you are a Buddhist monk or not?

What's more, there is such a thing as a substitute for dead ghosts in this world - the day after Xuanzang was killed, a folk Buddhist organization called the Hall of Compassion announced that it was responsible for the matter......

Then the matter ended here, except for the imperial court sent troops to destroy the high-level of the Hall of Mercy as a punishment, which can be regarded as an explanation to the boiling people, this matter has been closed so far, and no one has ever mentioned it again......

Li Zhen felt a pity for this, it would be great if Li Shimin could hold on at that time. However, Li Zhen can also understand that although there are not too many high-ranking officials who oppose it, the number is too much, and since they can go to the court, then they must be at least five grades or more ("Tang Hui Yao" quotes the "Ritual Order": "All civil and military officials in Beijing serve more than nine grades, and look forward to the Japanese Dynasty; Its civil and military attachés are above the fifth rank and supervise the imperial history, the staff of the foreign lang, and the doctor of Taichang, and the daily court. This sentence means: In Beijing, the civil and military officials of the first and fifteenth days of each month are above the first and fifteenth days of the first month (Shuowang Day Dynasty), and other civil and military officials are above the fifth rank and supervise the imperial history, the staff of the outer lang, and the doctor Taichang, who go to the court every day, except for rest days), this is already the mainstay of the court, and each of them is very weak, but once they all agree on the same opinion, even Li Shimin and those bigwigs have to compromise.

But this matter is not without gains, at least the actions of these officials made Li Shimin see the power of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty and the opposition - when he thought that his Buddhism had mixed so much sand into his own country, and then counted the spokesmen of the Confucian family and other forces...... During that period of time, Li Shimin was so sad that he could hardly sleep at night.

It's a bit far, to get back to the point, Xue Rengui began to believe in Taoism, which is actually a good thing - at least in the short term, Taoism can curb the power of Buddhism when it becomes stronger, and there is another point, Li Zhen is destined to conquer the world in the future, which means that more nationalities and lands will be included in the Tang Dynasty in the future.

And once this is the case, then we can't ignore another problem, that is, the belief of these nations, each nation has its own different beliefs, those small religions are just that, the problem is the future of Christianity and *** religion, these two sects can be inherited for thousands of years without weakening, which means that their brainwashing ability is quite powerful, at least the means of fooling the people are very awesome, since they can develop so well in Central Asia and Europe, Then there will definitely be a better market in Datang (this has been fully proven in history).

However, the Tang Dynasty is an era of respecting freedom of belief - in fact, most of the entire Chinese period, both the court and the people do not care much about faith, and they do not resist foreign gods and goddesses.

Therefore, in addition to some extremely evil sects, most of the foreign sects can be mixed very well in the Tang Dynasty (Nestorianism, Yuanjiao, Mingjiao, Judaism, *** Religion, etc. have all been mixed very well in the Tang Dynasty), and it is also at this time that some religions have taken root in China and carried forward (such as *** Religion and Mingjiao).

Therefore, Li Zhen must first support the local religions of the Tang Dynasty before these religions are introduced to the Tang Dynasty and form a comprehensive suppression of foreign religions, otherwise these sects will really be integrated into the Tang Dynasty and mixed into the upper echelons of the Tang Dynasty, I am afraid that the Tang Dynasty will become their world in the next hundred years.

Therefore, the rise of Taoism is imperative, and the rise of a religion is always easier to promote from top to bottom (Christianity is valued by the Roman royal family so it began to be promoted, *** religion is directly the caliph is the messenger of Allah, Buddhism into China is also the Han Ming Emperor took the initiative to welcome in, and then through the support of the royal family of successive dynasties to grow), so Xue Rengui believes in Taoism, in fact, it is a better sign, once the government and the opposition form this kind of atmosphere, then in the future, even if more sects enter the Tang, Li Zhen can also ensure that the culture and values of the Tang people will not be eroded by Western religions, and that the court will not be controlled by foreign religions.

Of course, the rise of Taoism is also limited, Li Zhen can't cultivate an uncontrollable freak for himself, religion and royal power are inherently opposite, Taoism can rise, but it must be within the controllable range of the imperial court, once Taoism has a tendency to get out of control, although the imperial court will not immediately turn its face and deny people, but it will also suppress Taoism by supporting other sects - just like now by supporting Taoism to suppress Buddhism.

However, at present, these are too early, compared to Buddhism, Taoism is still a little too weak, although the background is profound, but if you want to rise quickly, you still need the support of the imperial court.

And Xue Rengui is equivalent to a good start, coupled with Li Zhen's own support and Li Shimin's worries about Buddhism, I believe that it will not be long before Taoism should be able to form an absolute suppression of Buddhism.

(End of chapter)