novelAbuy Chapter 97 The New Rules I Established for the Buddhist Realm!
Chapter 97 The New Rules I Established for the Buddhist Realm!
Chapter 97 The New Rules I Established for the Buddhist Realm!
After several busy days, Cao Zhengchun and his team returned to the capital to report back to Zhu Houzhao after completing the follow-up work.
Forbidden City.
Cining Palace.
Cao Zhengchun and others knelt before Zhu Houzhao and respectfully reported their findings.
"Your Majesty, we have successfully completed our mission; Shaolin Temple has been razed to the ground!"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and nodded, then asked, "I heard you used a breech-loading cannon to reduce Shaolin Temple to ruins?"
Zhuge Zhengwo cupped his hands in greeting: "Indeed."
"Shaolin Temple is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it has many highly skilled monks inside. Using artillery-style terrain, we can wipe out Shaolin Temple with minimal losses!"
"Your Majesty, I have taken it upon myself to mobilize the Ministry of Works' artillery. Please forgive me."
Zhu Houzhao waved his hand, a smile on his face: "I ordered the Ministry of Works to manufacture these cannons so they could be used. Since these cannons are so useful, why not use them?"
"You did a great job in this battle!"
Zhu Houzhao was in a good mood. As long as the Shaolin Temple could be eradicated, he didn't care what methods his subordinates used to achieve this goal.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
After everyone expressed their gratitude, Yu Huatian continued to report to Zhu Houzhao on their gains at Shaolin Temple over the past few days.
"Your Majesty, we have seized a total of 1.76 million mu of land belonging to Shaolin Temple and liberated 130,000 temple tenants."
"Your Majesty, what should be done with these tenant farmers?"
The tenants of the temple were farmers who specifically cultivated land for the Shaolin Temple.
The grain they grew only needed to be handed over to the temple; they did not need to pay taxes to the imperial court.
Zhu Houzhao didn't care whose land it was, as long as the land tax for each mu of land was paid in full.
Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhou Jing, who was sitting on the other side of the room: "Minister Zhou, have all these lands and people been registered?"
Zhou Jing quickly stood up and replied, "Your Majesty, everything has been registered."
Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Then let these temple fields of Shaolin Temple be left to these people to cultivate, and the tax on each acre will still be 30%."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
With a single sentence from Zhu Houzhao, these tenant farmers were transformed from slaves of the Shaolin Temple into self-cultivating farmers.
After they pay their taxes to the state, the rest will be theirs.
In just a few years, these impoverished tenants will all become wealthy and live a happy life with enough to eat and wear.
Immediately afterwards, Yu Huatian continued his report: "Your Majesty, we have collected a total of 37,000 taels of gold, 6.2 million taels of silver, and 3.69 million shi of grain at Shaolin Temple, as well as 3,000 volumes of various scriptures and martial arts manuals."
"Your Majesty, what should be done with these things?"
The Shaolin Temple was bombed into ruins, but the gold and silver were at most shattered, not destroyed.
Tens of thousands of guards and constables painstakingly collected the gold and silver bit by bit from that huge pit.
It took more than ten days to collect so much gold and silver.
Even now, there are still people panning for gold in that big pit.
The grain was stored in various granaries within the Shaolin Temple's fields.
The grain stored in the Shaolin Temple granary had long been destroyed by artillery fire.
As for the three thousand scrolls of scriptures and martial arts manuals, Yu Huatian found them in that secret room.
Perhaps the monks of Shaolin Temple had anticipated that Shaolin Temple might face such a calamity, so in addition to storing the scriptures in the Sutra Repository, they also stored backups in a secret room beforehand.
This actually benefited Zhu Houzhao.
After all, aside from the scriptures, the martial arts manuals of Shaolin Temple are still very valuable.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao first smiled slightly, then slowly frowned.
"How much did you just say? A mere Shaolin Temple has over 30,000 taels of gold and over 6 million taels of silver?"
"Where did they get so much money from a bunch of monks who chant scriptures all day long, who don't engage in production or business?"
Zhou Jing hesitated for a moment, then gave a wry smile and said, "Your Majesty may not know, but faith itself is the most profitable business in the world."
"Leaving aside their temple lands that never pay taxes, the annual incense offerings alone amount to an astronomical sum."
"Every day, devout men and women flock to Shaolin Temple to burn incense and pray to Buddha."
"When they worship Buddha, they must have cultivated some good karma, right? Offering incense to Buddha requires sincerity; if you're stingy, how can you show your sincerity?"
"And those extravagant believers spend even more, with the first incense offering at Shaolin Temple each year fetching tens of thousands of taels of silver."
"Every year, Shaolin Temple can collect over a million taels of silver just from incense offerings!"
"Oh, right, and incense money too."
Zhu Houzhao then remembered that incense money was also a large part of the temple's income.
Zhu Houzhao's expression darkened: "This portion of the money must also be paid as taxes to me!"
Zhou Jing had long been mentally prepared for Zhu Houzhao's words.
He finally understood that within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, everything had to pay taxes to Zhu Houzhao.
No one has the right not to pay taxes to Zhu Houzhao!
Zhou Jing listened attentively and asked, "Your Majesty, what tax rate should be set at for temple donations?"
Zhu Houzhao gave a cold laugh and said decisively, "Ten percent!"
"Ten percent?!"
Zhou Jing exclaimed in surprise, his face full of shock.
He had anticipated that the tax rate set by Zhu Houzhao would be very high, but he never expected it to be this high.
A 10% tax rate means not a single penny will be left for the temples!
Zhou Jing couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, isn't a 100% tax rate too high?"
"Wouldn't this mean that all the donations from temples across the land would be collected by the imperial court?"
"You can't even afford a single copper coin for incense from Buddha?"
Zhu Houzhao said decisively, "That's how it should be! Why should this Western Buddha eat the incense offerings of my Eastern masters?!"
"Besides, could Buddha possibly spend money? Wasn't it the monks who spent it all?"
"Since that's the case, why not give all the incense money to me, and I'll become their Buddha!"
"Furthermore, temples are no longer allowed to hire people to cultivate temple lands; temple lands can only be cultivated by the monks of the temple to which they belong."
"The temple lands that cannot be cultivated will all be distributed to the local tenant farmers!"
Zhou Jing was deeply shaken and lowered his head: "In that case, temples everywhere will be unable to make ends meet, and fewer and fewer people will be willing to shave their heads and become monks."
"That's perfect!"
"The Ming Dynasty treated these monks too well in the past, which is why these lazybones didn't want to work and instead hid in the temple chanting scriptures."
Zhu Houzhao sneered repeatedly: "Reciting scriptures is much easier than farming."
"They love chanting scriptures, which is none of my business, but they still have to farm for me and pay my taxes!"
"Trying to escape labor by chanting scriptures? Dream on!"
"I intend to force them to return to secular life!"
Zhou Jing hesitated for a moment, then could only bow and nod, "Yes, Your Majesty."
Then, Zhu Houzhao looked at Cao Zhengchun: "Cao Zhengchun, I ordered you to investigate the illegally constructed temples and the monks who have illegally become monks. How have you done?"
Cao Zhengchun bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, I have already sealed off more than 40,000 small temples and 1,800 large temples."
"Two million 120,000 mu of illegally cultivated temple land, six million 900,000 shi of grain, seventeen million taels of silver in incense money were confiscated, and seventeen thousand temple tenants were liberated."
"A total of 330,000 monks and nuns without ordination certificates were forced to return to secular life."
Zhu Houzhao nodded: "These people will first serve three years of corvée labor before returning to secular life."
"From now on, any monk who is found to have shaved his head without permission will first serve ten years of corvée labor, and then be forced to return to secular life."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Cao Zhengchun hesitated for a moment, then said, "Your Majesty, I have also discovered that a large number of abbots and abbots of temples live extremely extravagant lives, with mansions, beautiful concubines, and a large number of illegitimate children."
"Your Majesty, what should be done with the private property of these abbots?"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was taken aback, then laughed in exasperation.
"As expected, bald monks are all the same, no matter where they are!"
"Do I recall that Buddhists don't talk about any strict rules or regulations?"
"Did the Buddha say how one should be punished for violating the monastic rules and precepts?"
Cao Zhengchun said solemnly, "He will fall into Avici Hell."
"good!"
Zhu Houzhao clapped his hands and immediately said, "If Buddha can't send them to hell, I will!"
"Cao Zhengchun, listen to my order: all private property of anyone who has become a monk is to be confiscated, and they are forbidden from owning any private property at all! If they do, kill them!"
"Any monk who has a child out of wedlock shall have their entire family executed!"
"From this moment forward, all those who wish to become monks must undergo purification! Those who do not will be killed!"
"All those who become monks later in life must personally kill all their own offspring; those who disobey will be killed!"
"Since you've become a monk, you should obediently ensure that you have no heir for me!"
Zhu Houzhao made the final decision: "Investigate now, and order all monks with descendants to return to secular life. Those who refuse to return to secular life will be executed!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Everyone who heard this order felt a chill run down their spines.
In this way, all monks would have to become eunuchs.
But aren't monks supposed to be bound by precepts and not get close to women?
Zhu Houzhao castrated them all, which is to help monks across the land abide by the rules and regulations. This is a good thing!
Perhaps all the monks in the world would kowtow to Zhu Houzhao.
Furthermore, Zhu Houzhao always believed that all corruption stemmed from the descendants.
Even monks, after becoming abbots and acquiring wealth and land, would think about having descendants to inherit the property they had embezzled.
Since that's the case, Zhu Houzhao should cut off the root of the problem by eliminating the source of these monks' misdeeds, so that they won't commit any more evil deeds.
To be honest, if it weren't for the experience of the Southern Han Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao would have wanted to implement this measure in the officialdom.
To become an official, one must be castrated and have no children—how wonderful!
Unfortunately, the chaotic internal affairs of the Southern Han Dynasty made Zhu Houzhao realize that this was not feasible, so he had to give up.
This system is difficult to implement in officialdom, but it has great potential in temples!
To become a monk, one must first purify oneself!
This is the new rule that Zhu Houzhao established for the Buddhist community!
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