Several successive performances made Taoism easily accepted by the citizens of Shangjing, and the influence of miracles quickly spread to the entire empire, and Zhang Wei felt that the opportunity for religious reform was ripe. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

One of the most unstable factors in the empire at the moment is religion, where most of the world's religions are located, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism, as well as many endemic religions. Because of the different religious beliefs, there are many times when there are fights between religious believers because of the division of dioceses and the competition for believers.

Zhang Wei is even more worried that in the future, these people will engage in separatism after they have **consciousness**, so he has been trying to find a way to deal with these religious people, but there are too many people and too much involvement, so they can only be tried slowly, for example, for the Acehnese people, it is difficult to suppress them by force alone, or they will all be arrested or all of them will be shot, in which case the cost is too high.

Zhang Wei knows how crazy it is for people to encounter conflicts of consciousness with people who are different from their own beliefs when they grow up in religious influence, and it is the most convenient thing to nip them in the bud.

The last time the constitution was drafted, Zhang Wei asked the court to make Taoism the state religion because he didn't like the Chinese people to believe in any messy religion, and he hoped to use Taoism to check and balance the development of other religions.

Taoism, which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period of China and the Warring States Period, is a polytheistic religion that worships many gods, and its main purpose is to pursue immortality, become immortals, and save the world, and occupies an important position in ancient Chinese traditional culture.

The inhabitants of the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian themselves believed in Mazu, and after coming to Nanyang, these immigrants continued to believe in Mazu, and within the empire, there were many islands, and the people living on the coast and islands had the belief in Mazu, and Mazu was one of the main gods of Taoism.

The people's belief in the Jade Emperor is even more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

People's belief in the God of Wealth is even more enthusiastic, the God of Wealth has Zhao Gongming, Guan Gong, and the God of Wealth is Bigan and Fan Li; There are also Caigong Caimu, Hehe Erxian, Lishi Xianguan, etc., all of which have a broad mass base.

Following Zhang Wei's intervention, the Supreme Court quickly issued the Regulations on the Administration of Religion, reaffirming Taoism's status as the state religion.

Originally, Yun Zhenzi hoped that the empire would set Taoism as the religious administrator of the empire, but Zhang Wei and Zheng Daoyou vetoed it; Instead, a special religious administration office was set up within the empire, with branches in provinces, cities, and counties.

Chief of the General Staff Lu Weimin did not agree with this, and also suggested: "Your Majesty, now the natives within the empire can no longer make waves, and the natives on the island of Java are either captured as free labor, or sent to the southwestern autonomous territory; As for the local inhabitants of Sulawesi, Sumatra, and Kalimantan, it would be enough to outlaw religions other than Taoism, and who would be so troublesome if they did not carry out the orders of the empire and were directly arrested as free labor? ”

Zhang Wei enlightened them and said: "We should not only see the current religious situation in the empire, but also take a long-term view, and one of the major effects of the development of Taoism is to confront Western religions. Another role is to divide the religions in the newly occupied areas in the future, those people who have believed in religion for so many years, do not let them believe in the original religion, and always help them find a new spiritual sustenance, otherwise the people who have been poisoned by religion will do quite a lot of harm to society after they go crazy. ”

Zheng Daoyou directly suggested: "Your Majesty, how about we directly promote Lamaism?" ”

Zhang Wei said: "Premier Zheng, I also want to promote Lamaism, but now is not the time, the level of productivity is still very low, the empire to develop, to build, it needs a large number of labor, we from the Qing Dynasty immigration speed is still too slow, and the empire territory expansion speed is too fast, so now it is inseparable from the indigenous people to provide a large number of free labor, and in the future, when the time is right, the indigenous people will be required to believe in Lamaism." ”

The Regulations on the Administration of Religion require that people who believe in any religion must go to the local religious administration office for the record;

No religion is allowed to propagate religion everywhere, but only in fixed places such as churches, temples, and mosques, otherwise they will be arrested or pay a fine of 1,000 taels of silver per person if they are discovered;

Those who believe in a religion must pay a religious administration fee of 1 tael of silver every year, and the religious administration office will issue them a religious belief registration certificate after paying the fee, otherwise they will not be allowed to participate in any religious activities;

Those who propagate religion must pay a religious propaganda management fee of 100 taels of silver every year, otherwise they will be arrested or fined 1,000 taels of silver if they are found;

Each religious permanent mission site must pay an annual management fee of 1,000 taels of silver, and if the delivery is delayed by one month, the government will arrange for someone to demolish the religious site;

Allowing persons without religious certificates to enter religious propaganda sites will result in a fine of 1,000 taels of silver for religious propaganda sites and 100 taels of silver for individuals;

No religion may privately solicit donations from its followers, and each fundraising must be filed with the local religious administration office before it can be approved before it can be used to raise donations from believers, and the government will take 20% of the donations as taxes;

Any manuals and documents for the promotion of religion must be filed and reviewed at the local religious administration office;

The police have the right to carry out security checks on religious places at any time.

For other religions, which have not yet become the climate, it is the best time to eradicate them, and the longer they are delayed, the more difficult it will become. The police and garrisons in all localities were ordered to closely monitor the leaders of religious organizations in various localities, and to strictly enforce the "Regulations on the Administration of Religion"; if they wanted to resist, they should just get rid of them all, and if they did not resist, they would cut their flesh with a blunt knife and slowly clean them up, and when their property was looted, their religion would naturally go bankrupt, and if they dared to proselytize illegally, it would be a good excuse to eradicate them.

Yun Zhenzi is a qualified Taoist administrator, after the promulgation of the "Religious Administration Regulations", organized manpower to begin to compile Taoist classic books: "Tao Te Ching", "Nanhua Zhenjing", "Chongxu Zhenjing", "Wenshi Zhenjing", "Tongxuan Zhenjing" and other books and published these books one after another.

He also ordered people to compile Taoist story books such as "Eight Immortals" and promote them among the masses.

He also set up a martial arts academy in Taoist temples to teach Taoist Taijiquan methods for strengthening the body among the Chinese, and sent a telegram to Ambassador Wu Wenbin through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking him to find martial arts masters such as Sulutang and Huo Yuanjia in China to open martial arts halls in the empire, or hire them as Taoist martial arts instructors; Taoism supports the development of Chinese martial arts around the world.

Yun Zhenzi also organized people to design and produce new Taoist clothing.

Yun Zhenzi is still compiling "Taoist Management", hoping to standardize Taoist management.

While developing Taoism with the help of miracle events, Yun Zhenzi also actively built new Taoist temples in various provinces and cities in accordance with Zhang Wei's orders, and stipulated that each Taoist temple has a certain number of places every year, and can participate in the sacrifice meeting of the Nine Jade Emperors at the beginning of the first month of each year. Moreover, in the future, the sacrificial meeting on the ninth day of the first lunar month can only be attended by Taoists.

While other religions in the empire were suppressed and shrunk, Taoism flourished within the empire.

At the same time, religious administration fees became a major source of tax revenue for the imperial government. (To be continued.) )

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