In the apse of the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Youzhen glanced at the five low-level civil officials wearing blue and green official uniforms before he spoke: "You are all selected by me from the southern and northern prisons, and you are all from the Hui Hui Division, some of you believe in the Heavenly Sect, and some of you don't. But your loyalty to the Ming Dynasty is clear to me.

In the past two years, Shu has asked you to take Hui Hui to compile a Chinese version of the Tianfang Sect based on the Tianfang teachings deleted by Emperor Yi. I've already seen it, and the content is pretty much the same. After that, the five of you will oversee the printing of this version of the scriptures, replacing them with the confusing and incomplete versions of the scriptures in various places or in foreign languages.

Anyone who dares to hide a book other than this version of the sutra in private will be exiled abroad for the crime of confusing the people, and his family will not be allowed to go to school, or to enter the official position, or to pray in the Tianfang Temple, or to own more than one hectare of land..."

Standing in front of Chongzhen, Wang Daiyu, Bei Yuanzhen, Gao Chang, Wu Mingxuan, and Yang Guangxian, they listened to the emperor's reform proposal for the domestic Heavenly Fang Sect with trepidation, and did not dare to raise any objections.

Because of the particularity of the business, Qin Tianjian is the most abiding by the rules of the world. The officials of the Qin Tianjian were divided into astronomical students and yin and yang students, the former at the beginning of the country because of the lack of strict control over the private study of astronomical knowledge by the people, so there were also outsiders to join. However, Yin Yang Sheng, a person involved in divination and national fortune, has always been strictly controlled by the imperial court, so few outsiders join.

Since Chongzhen's accession to the throne, the Royal Academy of Sciences was established, and Xu Guangqi's suggestion was approved, and he began to revise the calendar and comprehensively reform the Qintianjian. The astronomy department was retained, the climatology department was newly established, the yin and yang department was downsized, and the Hui department was completely abolished, which made many officials of the Qin Tianjian very dissatisfied. However, the object of their dissatisfaction was not the emperor, but Xu Guangqi and those Western missionaries.

Therefore, Wang Daiyu, Wu Mingxuan, Yang Guangxian and others wrote several times to attack these Western missionaries for causing trouble in China, and their intentions were suspicious. Among them, Yang Guangxian was the most active opponent, and he not only advocated that these Western missionaries should be driven out of China, but also that their books should be burned and their houses burned. And also criticized the theory of the circle of the earth put forward by the Academy of Sciences.

"The earth is like a round ball, and the sea water on all sides and in the depression of the land below, somehow can I not ask, I have seen round water, water standing on the wall, and water floating on top and not dripping?"

"If the earth is really round, then Europe on the other side of the world should be immersed in the sea, and everyone in Europe is eaten by fish and turtles, and there are still people in Europe..."

Although Yang Guangxian made quibbles, his remarks still confused many people, even in Europe, the Diyuan theory was not accepted from the beginning. Sometimes people prefer to trust their ears more than their own eyes. As a result, the science popularization made by the Academy of Sciences to prove that the earth is spherical did not win many people's recognition, but the joke that Europeans lived in water spread all over the capital.

It's a pity that Yang Guangxian found the wrong opponent, the earth is like a round ball has not only been confirmed by the Europeans' voyage around the world, but Chongzhen, who has the soul of later generations, has not known how many times he has seen the earth under the satellite pictures. Therefore, Yang Guangxian and others refuted the natural science theory put forward by the Academy of Sciences, which was completely not recognized by Chongzhen.

However, Chongzhen also realized that it was not a good thing to let these Qin Tianjian officials who had been dismissed from their errands wander around at home. The identities of these people are too sensitive, and at this time, the people of the Ming Dynasty are too ignorant, and the people of the imperial court are probably half-convinced, but these officials of the Qin Tianjian said a few words, and the people took it as the truth one by one, and they thought that they had gained some heavenly opportunity.

However, Chongzhen soon found out what these eliminated Qin Tianjian officials could do. They may not be able to study the scientific calendar, but they know a lot of tricks to fool fools, and some people are not deeply involved in the study of their own karma, but they are extremely serious about the study of the teachings of the heavens.

For example, Wang Daiyu, who was born in Nanjing's Qintianjian, not only familiarized himself with the foreign scriptures of the Tianfang Sect through Arabic, but also studied the history of Chinese scriptures, Song and Ming Dynasty, and Taoist and Buddhist works.

So Chongzhen ordered these eliminated officials of the Qin Heavenly Prison to be gathered, and asked them to revise a Chinese version of the Tianfang Sect Sutra based on the revised version of the Tianfang Sect scriptures by Emperor Zhengde, preparing to correct the true faith of the followers of the Celestial Sect in China.

Since the Tianfang religion was introduced to China in the Tang Dynasty, under the influence of the Semu people brought back to China by the Yuan Dynasty, there was a period of large-scale spread of the Tianfang religion in China. Although after the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty restored the Central Plains, he attacked the Tantric Buddhism believed by the Mongols and the Tianfang Sect believed by the Semu people, but the Tianfang Sect has taken root in various parts of China and is difficult to eliminate.

Based on the strategy of first attacking the Meng Yuan, Emperor Taizu Gao adopted a gentle policy towards the descendants of these Semu people, in addition to forbidding them to continue the endogamous system, and dismantling them and living in various places, trying to assimilate these Semu people. More than two hundred years later, these people could no longer see their national characteristics because of their intermarriage with the Chinese, but Tianfangjiao did not transform into a Chinese-style religion like Buddhism.

These Celestial Christians still use scriptures in foreign languages and give themselves foreign names, calling them scripture names... All these customs show that the adherents of the Celestial Sect stubbornly reject Chinese assimilation and try to preserve their independence.

Of course, there are also people like Wang Daiyu who try to combine the teachings of Tianfangjiao with Chinese Confucianism, so as to truly integrate Tianfangjiao into China. However, Chinese scholars have always been extremely wary of foreign religions, even though Tianfang Religion has been circulating in China for hundreds of years. People like Wang Daiyu did not have a high official position and a low reputation, and his ideas were not accepted by mainstream scholars and doctors.

But for Chongzhen, people like Wang Daiyu who are willing to sinicize the Heavenly Sect are still extremely useful. After hundreds of years of spreading in China, although the religion has not been sinicized, its followers have spread throughout most of China, especially in the northwest and Yunnan.

However, in Yunnan, the Celestial Sect was squeezed by Theravada Buddhism, the most powerful in Southeast Asia, and in the northwest it was suppressed by Tibetan Tantra. In the Western Regions, it was defeated by the forces of the same religion. In this era of scarcity of materials, there is no such thing as a bastard who is back in the world. In the agricultural era, believers could only offer so much property, and it was already very difficult to provide for local imams, where was there still surplus food to feed imams from other places.

Therefore, in order to maintain control over the local believers, the upper echelons of the Heavenly Fang Sect of the Ming Dynasty were extremely loyal to the royal family at this time. Because they knew that only with the approval of the emperor could they have the legitimacy to control these congregations. The use of religious beliefs to drive believers to respect the imperial power, and then use the majesty of the imperial power to deepen the authority of the imam over the congregation, is the essence of the divine right of the king.

However, Zhu Youzhen knew very well that this kind of loyalty was maintained on the basis of information and transportation in the agricultural era, and as the Ming Dynasty opened the country and began to conduct frequent trade with the whole world, various trends of thought of foreign Tianfang Religion would flow in, and at that time, the Tianfang Religion that was not completely sinicized would retreat back and become more extremely conservative fundamentalism, which would bring great trouble to the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he used Wang Daiyu and other officials of the Qin Heavenly Prison to prepare to revise a Chinese version of the scriptures for the Tianfang disciples of Daming, so as to expel and guard against those foreign scriptures.

“… In addition, the Niujie Tianfang Temple was renamed Beijing Tianfang Temple, and after the promulgation of the new doctrine, the direction of worship should be changed to Beijing, and the daily prayer can be done once in the morning and once in the evening. If someone still wants to pray in the old way, an additional titheflower tax is levied on the local Tianfang Temple, and the person is indicated as a non-believer.

The five of you, as well as the people who wrote the scriptures before, have been transferred to the National and Religious Council as of this day to begin the new doctrine. In the future, the five of you will be the hereditary Heavenly Sect Patriarch, and Wang Daiyu will be the Grand Patriarch. In the future, if there is a vacancy in the Grand Imam, he will recommend a candidate from among the five of you, and then the Emperor will appoint him..."

After the emperor finished speaking, Wang Daiyu finally couldn't help but say boldly, "Your Majesty is the lord of the world, and it is a matter of course for you to formulate rules for the Heavenly Fang Sect. However, the worship method of the Heavenly Sect was handed down thousands of years ago, and if the congregation were to change it, would it cause an uproar? ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and asked, "What is the most basic Heavenly Doctrine?" ”

Wang Daiyu replied without thinking: "All things are not the owner..."

Zhu Youzhen immediately replied: "Since you also know that all things are not the Lord, you don't set up idols. Is fixing the direction and frequency of prayer in keeping with the doctrine that all things are not Lord? The prophet told you not to set up idols, because they were afraid that the world would be deceived by the rod of God and eventually become superstition. Set the direction and frequency of prayers, and consider the Hajj to Mecca as a merit... How does this differ from idols erected in other religions?

It's just that they worship idols, and you worship rules. Where can this be called observance of the teachings of the Lord? I will add to you today that you are not allowed to go to Mecca for Hajj until 50, not to go to Mecca for Hajj without the permission of the Imam, and not to do Hajj to Mecca for superstition.

If a person violates these three instructions and goes privately, he is not allowed to return to China, and anyone who dares to steal back to China will be hanged. Believers who know that others have gone to Mecca for Hajj in private and do not denounce them are guilty of the same crime. ”

Wang Daiyu didn't expect that he would ask one more question, and he would make the emperor so angry, so he didn't dare to say anything more. In front of the Ming Emperor, it is obviously not a wise idea to emphasize the rules that no emperor can interfere with.

Seeing that Wang Daiyu's claim was rejected, Yang Guangxian and the others didn't dare to say anything, their knowledge was not as good as that of the new University of Science and Technology. Besides, they were finally reassigned by the emperor, and they didn't want to anger the emperor and went home to do nothing.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the five people in front of him who were submissive, and then slowed down his tone and said: "After you are transferred to the Ethnic and Religious Committee, you will each be assigned to Yunnan, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia to correct bias and superstition.

In addition, the internal strife of the Yarkand Khanate in the past two years caused some Turpan people to flee to the Suzhou area. Wang Daiyu, you and Yang Guangxian went to Suzhou together, first, to assist the local government to appease the people of Turpan who defected to our country; The second is to see what people are available among them, and to ask them about the situation inside the Yarkand Khanate..."