This large-scale campaign to destroy Buddhism, which was called "Huichang Fanan" by the Buddhist community, demolished more than 4,600 temples and more than 40,000 temples in Zhao Ti and Lan Ruo (private practice places and places where monks from all directions stayed), forcing 260,000 monks and nuns to return to the customs. At the same time, the government forbids people to support and pay homage to the Buddha's tooth relics, let alone temple tickets and merit boxes. As long as the donor finds a penny for the monk, both sides should bring 20 sticks.
There is nothing wrong with tearing down temples and destroying buddhas. Among a series of orders issued by Tang Wuzong, one sounded particularly strange: people were forbidden to keep black livestock. So, what do black pigs and black dogs have to do with this? Why does Tang Wuzong insist on having a hard time with Buddhism?
Appearance: The direct reason why foreign cultures have been smashed by local strongmen is the encouragement of Taoist Zhao Guizhen and others. Li Er (Lao Zi) is considered to be the ancestor of the royal family in the Tang Dynasty, so emperors from gaozu Li Yuan all respected Taoism. Even though some people, such as Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi, Wu Zetian and Xian Zongchun Li, elevated Buddhism to the supreme position, it did not inhibit Taoism. Li Yan, a native of Tang Wuzong, likes Taoism since he was a child. After he ascended the throne, he summoned 865,438+0 Taoist priests, including Zhao Guizhen, to the palace to practice alchemy and learn the art of immortality.
At that time, the power of Buddhism far exceeded that of Taoism. In order to establish the orthodox position of Taoism in religious circles with the help of imperial power, Zhao Guizhen did everything possible to vilify and attack Buddhism. They spread public opinion that when Lee's eighteen sons became rich, the emperor in black would rule the country. At that time, the robes were mostly black, so I explained that this folk song meant that monks would replace Li Tong, and only by respecting Taoism and restraining Buddhism could this black spirit be suppressed.
In order to prevent the rise of black gas and the birth of the black son of heaven, Tang Wuzong, on the advice of Taoist priests, ordered that everything with black color be banned, even black pigs, dogs, donkeys and cows raised by the people should be slaughtered. It is also stipulated that unicycle is not allowed. It is said that this kind of car will run over the middle of the road, which will make Taoist feel uneasy during practice and affect improvisation.
The contradiction between Buddhism and Taoism has a long history. Buddhism was introduced into the Central Plains from the Eastern Han Dynasty and became more and more popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Especially after Kumarajiva and Xuanzang translated a large number of scriptures, Buddhism brought systematic, complete and brand-new spiritual sustenance and cultural shock to the people of Middle-earth, and worshipping Buddhism became a fashionable and popular social life style.
Taoism, with Taoism (Huang Lao) as the core and the belief of local gods in China, was spread by Zhang Daoling and others in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and also formed a relatively complete theoretical system.
Buddhism and Taoism constantly compete for religious status. At first, it was just a theoretical debate and an academic debate. Later, it will inevitably lead to blushes and personal attacks, followed by mutual slander and even fists and feet. Due to the different attitudes of emperors to Buddhism and Taoism, the forces of the two sides changed, and each side took the lead. But on the whole, because the Buddhist ideology was more grand and complete, it came from behind and gained the upper hand.
At the moment when foreign religions are tearing, Confucianism, the ancestor of local culture, can't bear loneliness and jumps on the stage to join in the fun.
Buddhism advocates leaving the world and becoming a monk, which is incompatible with the Confucian concept of loyalty and filial piety and the idea of self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world. For Confucianism, Taoism's thought of quiet health and inaction is negative, but it still belongs to the masses that can be reformed. Buddhists who don't care about production and have no husband and father are simply parasites of society and can't play happily together.
Han Yu, a great scholar in the Tang Dynasty, heard that Tang Xianzong was going to welcome the relic into the palace for three days, and wrote the famous "Persuading the Buddha's Bone Table". He not only bluntly said that Xian Zong's move triggered a national Buddhist cult, wasting people and money, but even hit the nail on the head and wrote: The Buddha is just a person who changed the emperor. Even if he is alive now, you just want to meet him, give him a dress and send him back. Liang Wudi gave his life to worship Buddha three times, but in the end it was not for the rebellious Hou Jing to starve to death. Most of the emperors who respected Buddha in the previous generation were short-lived ghosts!
At the end of the article, Han Yu simply made an appointment publicly: it is said that the Buddha can manifest his spirit and bring disaster. That's how I hang up. Hit me if you dare!
Han Yu's article is quite vigorous. Su Dongpo praised him for eight generations of famine, and it was not without reason that Dao Ji drowned in the world. It can be seen that he is not angry with Buddhism for a day or two. Xianzong didn't kill him, but he was demoted to Chaozhou (now Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province) and found a step for himself, saying, I know Han loves me, but this old boy cursed me for not becoming a Buddha for a long time. That's terrible!
At that time, many Confucians attacked Buddhism, and Du Mu hit the nail on the head: many people worship Buddhism from the inside out. On the one hand, officials and businessmen extort money and cheat to get rich, on the other hand, they donate money to temples in an attempt to get rid of sins and pray for blessings, while many monks buy blessings and sell crimes, such as holding left deeds (contracts), and completely regard faith as business.
What would Xiao Du think if he lived to this day and saw that the temple economy was booming, a column of high incense cost millions, and all the chain temples were opened abroad?
These Confucian scholars' remarks are very representative. In particular, Han Yu's point of view didn't have much effect at that time, but it had more and more influence in the following decades. In particular, the poems he wrote to his nephew Han Xiang during his exile won enough sympathetic tears from male and female fans-
A letter in the sky, eight thousand in Chaoyang Road at night.
If you want to eliminate disasters for the wise, you are willing to decline and cherish the old!
Where is the home of Yunheng Qinling? The heavy snow hindered the horse's progress.
Knowing that you came all the way, you should have done it on purpose so that I could collect the bones by the river.
Sometimes, a good literary work, its emotional lethality is far greater than a battle. For example, the social impact of this poem is far greater than that of "The Table of admonishing Buddha's Bones". It is through this poem that many people know that Teacher Han also had a fight with Buddha!
Tang Wuzong Li Yan thinks that Taoism is light of Buddha and Confucianism is light of Buddha. After all, this western culture is not as reliable as our local culture. Alas, it's all ruined!
In fact, Tang Wuzong didn't just help the ox nose destroy the Buddha. Taking this opportunity, he also ordered the protection of Leda Qin mother, only to secularize 3,000 people, to secularize foreign missionaries and Christians, and to keep the purity and original flavor of Chinese civilization intact.
Daqin here is Persia, Muhu is a Persian missionary, and Xian (pronounced cotton-padded jacket) is the source of Manichaeism. China was also called Zoroastrianism because of his belief in fire and light. Is the later Zoroastrianism related to Jin Yong's novels? Yes, Zhang Wuji, the founder of Zoroastrianism in "Eternal Dragon Slayer", is playing the foreign stuff of Persian Zoroastrianism.
Tang Wuzong has a clear-cut stand and a firm stand to eliminate foreign cultures, so as not to cause spiritual pollution to the people.
Essence: The proliferation of Buddhism threatens the stability of the regime. In addition to the resistance of local culture to foreign cultural instinct, the deep-seated reason was that the excessive proliferation of Buddhism at that time had threatened the stability and economic development of secular regime.
In fact, there have been four large-scale Buddhist exterminations in the history of China, namely, three armies and one Buddha. In chronological order, the three chivalrous men refer to Tuoba Tao, Taidi of Northern Wei Dynasty, Yuwen Yong, Wudi of Northern Zhou Dynasty, and Li Yan, a pig's trotter in Wen. Chai Rong in the post-Zhou Shizong era is an example.
In this team, Li Yan is a little weak, and the other three are not fuel-efficient lamps, which can be called a generation of heroes. They declared war on Buddhism in unison, taking into account economic, political, military and other practical issues besides their personal cultural orientation.
For example, in the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were 30,000 Buddhist temples and 2 million monks and nuns (the national population in the Northern Wei Dynasty was only 2 1 10,000); During the Southern Dynasties in Liang Wudi, there were 500 temples and 654.38 million monks and nuns in Jiankang (now Nanjing). These monasteries occupy a lot of fertile land and have a large number of slaves. They don't serve as soldiers, pay taxes and refuse to take corvee, which makes the country's military financial resources increasingly exhausted. Buddhists, who should practice asceticism, have formed a special class of monks and landlords, living a luxurious life of pampering and pampering.
This situation is neither what the secular emperor wants to see, nor what the Buddha himself wants to see. It is said that during his lifetime, Sakyamuni saw some monks who refused to persist in penance, but were eager to make friends with powerful people. He had anxiously predicted that it was these unscrupulous disciples and grandchildren who would lead to the demise of Buddhism in the future! (Destroy my teachings, people who wear my clothes)
In addition, some religious fanatics gain the extreme worship of believers by cutting meat to feed birds and burning incense with iron hooks, which weakens the authority of secular regime. When people are in trouble, they don't go to the government, they go to the temple to burn incense and make a wish, and let the government take the blame. Therefore, Tang Wuzong's action of destroying Buddha was naturally supported by most officials headed by Prime Minister Li Deyu.
To win the support of the people, we must thoroughly explain the order to destroy the Buddha. Tang Wuzong gave the following three reasons:
In terms of consumption, it is sheer extravagance and waste to spend manpower on civil engineering, to seize people's good impression of Jinbao decoration, to spend labor on useless buildings in temples and pagodas, and to use folk wealth on the gilding of Buddha murals.
In interpersonal relationship, the monarch is close to the teacher, violates the spouse's precepts, abandons the way of monarch and minister, the love between father and son, and the love between husband and wife, which makes the society and family unable to function normally;
In production, there are people who are hungry without farmland; Women are not silkworms, there are those who suffer from their cold. Today, countless monks and nuns are waiting for farmers to eat and silkworms to dress. It is inevitable that material resources will wither and customs will deceive. Everyone went to chant Buddhist scripture and waited for others to feed them. As a result, material resources were scarce and the country was devastated.
During the disaster in Huichang, temples were destroyed, and building materials such as masonry tiles were distributed to the surrounding people. Bronze statues and bronze bells were used to cast money, and iron materials were cast into furniture. The state recovered tens of millions of hectares of fertile land and confiscated 6.5438+0.5 million temple handmaiden. From the emperor to the people, they have firmly passed the addiction of returning to the local tyrants to divide the fields.
This incident cannot be blamed on Tang Wuzong. History tells us that when the contradictions between religion and secular regime in land, labor and social influence accumulate to a certain extent, conflicts are inevitable. This is true at all times and in all countries. If you are interested, you can read the French writer alexandre dumasfils's three musketeers and see how foreign churches and kingship are fighting with each other.