Chapter 63 16. Emperor Wu of Zhou banned Buddha

In the Wuping period (570-576 A.D.) at the end of the Gaowei period in the Northern Qi Dynasty, from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside, they were all terminally ill, politically chaotic, and militarily not even the weakest opponent of Chen Guo in the past.Emperor Gao Wei is still addicted to holding lances, and the games he plays are constantly "upgrading". Gao Wei's half-brother Nanyang Wang Gaochuo was the governor of Dingzhou, wandering the streets all day long, taking pleasure in killing people.Gao Wei found out, so he sent someone to lock Gao Chuo here, and instead of punishing him after meeting, he asked Gao Chuo with concern: "You are an official in the state, what do you think is the most fun?"

Gao Chuo thought for a while, and said: "There is a very interesting thing, catch a bunch of poisonous scorpions, mix them with maggots, mix them together, this is bliss!" Gao Wei was "greatly inspired" and ordered people to catch two or three liters of scorpions overnight and stuff them into the bottom of the bathtub. Then he stripped him naked, tied them up and threw them into the bathtub. Naturally, he was stung by the scorpions and wailed. Gao Wei watched it enthusiastically from the side, laughing, and complained to Gao Chuo: "There is such an interesting thing, why didn't you tell me earlier?" From then on, Gao Wei added "Human Scorpion Pool" to his daily games Such an item.

The emperor of Northern Qi was such a jerk, and Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, who had always wanted to conquer Qi and rule the world, still did not take action. He did not immediately take any large-scale military actions during the three years in power. This was because he still had to spend a few years to solve Yuwen Some long-standing disadvantages left over from the protection era. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yizhou, Jiangling and other places were annexed, and the land increased dramatically, but the household registration did not increase proportionally.It turns out that in these areas, especially Jiangling, a large number of people were captured during the war. Except for a few officials and nobles, most of the common people were taken captive to Guanzhong and reduced to official slaves. Various taxes rose accordingly, and social conflicts also intensified.In October of the first year of Jiande (572 A.D.), Emperor Wu of Zhou issued an edict that all the people who served as official slaves after the Jiangling War should be good for the people. This move not only restored the household registration, but also improved the country's fiscal revenue.

Yu Wenhu advocated extravagance and followed suit. The extravagance among the people in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was once very popular, and Emperor Wu hated it deeply.Once when he was out hunting, he found that the Shanshan Hall in the Xinggong Palace was too magnificently built, so he ordered it to be set on fire.In the second year of Jiande, he issued an edict to promote frugality, and all extravagant and wasteful etiquette in weddings, sacrifices and other activities should be abolished or streamlined. In terms of army building, Emperor Wu of Zhou also carried out a series of reforms.In the third year of Jiande, he renamed the sergeants in the government soldiers as servants, and recruited ordinary people as soldiers.Fubing's original concept of family subordinates (this is the theoretical root of Yu Wentai's change of Xianbei surname in Fubing) was weakened, the number of Han soldiers and Xianbei soldiers tended to be equal, and the Fubing system gradually matured.

Next, Emperor Wu of Zhou turned his attention to religion and culture.His main opponent is Buddhism. The social problems of Buddhism in the Northern Dynasties have a long history.Buddhism cultivates monks, builds Buddhist temples, competes with secular regimes for land and human resources, monks and nuns violate laws and precepts, intervene in politics and disrupt the law, and Buddhist affairs consume a lot of money, all of which have formed a huge resistance to social development.In the chaotic world with frequent wars, this problem is even more serious. Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty exterminated Buddhism, but it lasted seven or eight years before Buddhism revived and became more prosperous than before. In the period of confrontation between the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty, Buddhism can be said to have reached a peak.Gao Yang, the founding monarch of the Northern Qi Dynasty, even outlawed Taoism. In the sixth year of Tianbao (AD 555), he forced Taoist priests to be ordained as monks and respected Buddhism alone.Therefore, even if these people see the problems of Buddhism, they have no possibility to solve them.

Emperor Wu of Zhou was different from other rulers. He admired Confucianism and believed in the way of governing the country and the world. Of course, he could not tolerate the consumption of resources and harming society by Buddhism. The "Mi Luo" in "is originally another translation of "Maitreya". He is named after Buddha, but he does not believe in Buddhism).He liberated officials and slaves, simplified etiquette, and reorganized government soldiers. He did everything possible to expand the country's financial and military resources. If Buddhist resources can be nationalized by destroying Buddhism, the national power will surely be further enhanced.

Emperor Wu never fought an unprepared battle and brought down Yu Wenhu. He waited for twelve years.In order to gain an in-depth understanding of Buddhism, he made private visits to Buddhist temples, got along with monks, and participated in Buddhist affairs.Due to the wide range of followers of Buddhism, he must act only when the conditions are ripe.Therefore, it is best not to put forward the idea of ​​exterminating Buddhism by Emperor Wu himself, but by others. In fact, long before Emperor Wu came to power, someone had proposed the abolition of Buddhism, and the proposer himself was actually a monk.His name is Wei Yuansong.

Wei Yuansong was born in Chengdu, and Liang Mo became a monk.He has a flamboyant personality and weird behavior, and likes to predict the future with prophecy.At first, no one paid any attention to his wild predictions, but after comparing them, they are often very effective.People regard him as a magical monk like Baozhi. Interestingly, this monk did not believe in Buddhism at all.After capturing Chengdu in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Wei Yuansong moved to Guanzhong.In the second year of Tianhe (AD 567), Wei Yuansong wrote to Emperor Wu and put forward his proposition. Wei Yuansong opened the article eloquently, presenting facts and reasoning, clarifying the crux of Buddhism: "In the time of Yao and Shun, there was no Buddhism, but the country was very stable; in the Southern Dynasties, Qi and Liang built many temples to educate the people, but in the end the country perished. Facts show that, The people will not stop rebelling just because they built temples, and the country will not be stable forever because they believe in Buddhism. The original intention of Buddhism is to make all living beings happy, not to enslave the people with suffering. What about the Buddhists now, In order to show piety, constructing large-scale construction projects, laboring people and wasting money clearly violates the spirit of Buddhism, but how can it make sense to say that it is to serve Buddha?" He believes that Buddhism should be reformed, centered on Confucianism, and integrate the views of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

Emperor Wu of Zhou agreed very much, ordered Wei Yuansong to return to vulgarity, and vigorously promoted his ideas.In the fourth year of Tianhe (569 A.D.), the court of the Northern Zhou Dynasty launched a big discussion on the pros and cons of the three religions.One group, represented by Taoist priest Zhang Bin, demanded the immediate abolition of Buddhism and promoted Taoism and Confucianism;The two factions fought fiercely. Although Emperor Wu of Zhou intended to suppress Buddhism, Yu Wenhu, who controlled the government, favored monks. The order of the three religions was not determined.

In the second year of Jiande (573 A.D.), Yu Wenhu had been killed, and Emperor Wu once again called Confucian scholars, Taoist priests, and famous monks to debate.He intends to use his authority to forcibly set the order of the three religions, with Confucianism first, Taoism second, and Buddhism last. However, the Buddhist team is strong and sent many famous monks to try their best to slander Taoism.The eloquence of the monk was really strong, and the Confucian scholars and Taoist priests lost several rounds of confrontation, and finally the debate had to be settled. Emperor Wu of Zhou would not give up lightly. In May of the third year of Jiande, Emperor Wu organized the debate meeting of the three religions for the third time.At the meeting, the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism reached a fever pitch. Emperor Wu did not hesitate to join the debate as an emperor, denouncing the Buddhist concept of impurity.The eminent monk Zhixuan retorted: "Taoism's theory is even more unclean!" This sentence suppressed the arrogance of the Taoist priests, and the scene fell into a stalemate.

At this moment, Emperor Wu was suddenly awakened.He saw clearly the tricks of the monks. They wanted to use Taoism as a threat to prevent Emperor Wu from dealing with Buddhism. If you say my Buddhism is not good, Taoism is even worse and uglier! How could Emperor Wu of Zhou be threatened by several monks?Since Taoism has more scandals than Buddhism, the two families will catch them all.Emperor Wu issued an edict to ban Buddhism and Taoism, destroy all sutras and statues, and force monks and Taoists to return to the common people.Then, Emperor Wu established Taoism, recruiting scholars from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and engaged in theoretical research on the integration of the three religions (different from Emperor Wu of Liang's theory of "the same origin of the three religions", Emperor Wu of Zhou's unity of the three religions is a Confucianism should be the core, supplemented by other religious studies).Buddhism was almost instantly wiped out in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. This is the second incident of "Three Wus and One School Exterminated Buddha"-Zhou Wu exterminated Buddha. Compared with other Buddhist exterminations in Chinese history, especially compared with Taiwu's extermination of Buddhism one hundred and thirty years ago, Emperor Wu of Zhou has several notable features: First, only Buddhist scriptures and statues were destroyed, but no Buddhist temples were destroyed, and no monks were massacred like Emperor Wei Taiwu did. Therefore, strictly speaking, it should be called "Forbidden Buddha", not "Destroy Buddha".Ordinary monks return to secular life, while educated eminent monks enter Taoism work (equivalent to changing from "research monk" to "graduate student"). The methods are relatively gentle and the impact is not so bad. Second, both Buddhism and Taoism are banned together.The extermination of Buddhism in Chinese history is often accompanied by advocacy of Taoism. The most typical one is Tang Wuzong's "Huichang Law is Difficult".Emperor Wu of Zhou preferred Confucianism. When the Taoist priests failed to argue against the monks, he did not hesitate to abolish Taoism together. Thirdly, after the Buddha was banned, Taoism was established.Emperor Wu of Zhou did not want to completely destroy Buddhism spiritually, but on the basis of advocating Confucianism, he mastered the three religions to achieve the state of integration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The greatest significance of Emperor Wu of Zhou's extermination of Buddhism was not to add a lot of social resources to the country, but to increase the prestige of Emperor Wu in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. No one dared to doubt Emperor Wu's courage and determination in dealing with affairs.Half a year later, General Wei Xiaokuan went to Emperor Wu and presented three strategies for crusade against Northern Qi: 1. Make a good relationship on the surface and recharge your energy; Emperor Wu adopted Wei Xiaokuan's strategy. On the one hand, he sent envoys to Qi State to show "friendliness", and on the other hand, he prepared his troops and prepared for a decisive battle aimed at completely destroying Qi.