Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 389 Idol
As expected, when Yuan Ziyou sent the suggestion to recommend Li Shengui to be the General of the North Army to the palace, Empress Dowager Hu, who was extremely insecure, approved the suggestion immediately.

Li Shengui was originally Empress Dowager Hu's male favorite and had the Empress Dowager Hu's trust.

After Empress Dowager Hu's other two male favorites were killed in a coup led by the princes of the royal family, led by Prince Gaoyang Yuanyong, Empress Dowager Hu did not dare to summon Li Shengui, her only remaining male favorite, into the palace.

But after all, the favor still existed. When Empress Dowager Hu heard that Li Shengui had returned to Luoyang again, she was naturally overjoyed.

After Yuan Ziyou recommended Li Shengui, Empress Dowager Hu made an even bolder move. She first ordered Li Shengui to be stripped of his love, using the reason that "the current situation is difficult and the court is looking for talents", and ordered him to stop mourning for his father and return to work immediately.

In the Northern Wei Dynasty, which had only been under the Han-style reforms of Emperor Xiaowen for twenty years, there was not as much moral pressure as in the later Ming and Qing dynasties. It was normal to continue to serve as an official after the death of one's parents, because it was rare for one to resign after the death of one's parents.

Immediately afterwards, Empress Dowager Hu agreed to Yuan Ziyou's petition and gave the important position of Beizhonglang to her former lover.

Empress Dowager Hu could not wait to summon Li Shengui into the palace, and this time the meeting lasted a whole night.

Even when Li Shengui was going to Beizhong City to take up his post the next day, Empress Dowager Hu was reluctant to let him go. In the end, she gave Li Shengui the wooden sign that allowed him to enter and leave the palace freely, and then let him leave the palace.

The return of her old lover was only one of the few things that made Empress Dowager Hu happy in these dangerous times.

The rebellion of Anle King Yuanjian, coupled with the downfall of Pei Yan and Yuan Ziyong, has put Luoyang in danger.

November, the third year of Xiaochang.

After conquering Xindu and destroying the armies of Pei Yan and Yuan Ziyong, Ge Rong immediately attacked Xiangzhou and marched all the way to Luoyang, stopping only at Ji County.

Ji County is already the eastern gateway to Luoyang. As long as Ge Rong works harder, Luoyang will be within reach.

Just as the nobles in Luoyang were in panic, Ge Rong actually withdrew his troops.

The Northern Wei court got a respite, strengthened the defense line of Ji County, and finally managed to hold the east gate of Luoyang.

Ge Rong retreated when Luoyang City was within sight. The reason was very simple: his army had run out of food.

Ge Rong claimed to have an army of 400,000, but in reality he only had more than 100,000. In the third year of Xiaochang, he basically fought in Jizhou and Xiangzhou.

When the government troops fought, Xiangzhou provided troops and food.

Before Pei Yan and Yuan Ziyong were defeated, they burned the food and fodder of the army. Ge Rong captured and incorporated a part of the government troops, adding more mouths to feed.

The turmoil of the past year had meant that Jizhou and Xiangzhou had no food production at all, and there was no grain even after the autumn harvest in October. Ge Rong's army could no longer hold on.

In addition to being out of food, Ge Rong's army had no warm clothing, and in the end they could only watch Luoyang retreat back to Dingzhou.

However, Ge Rong's withdrawal did not mean that the Wei court could breathe a sigh of relief.

Before withdrawing his troops, Ge Rong sent his general Xing Gao to Qingzhou.

Xing Gao joined Ge Rong because they, the wealthy families who were driven out of their hometowns by the rebels and who were bullied by local tyrants while living in foreign lands, rebelled.

At this time, there were also a large number of expatriate nobles in the Qi and Lu regions who, like Xing Gao, were squeezed out of their hometowns and oppressed by the local nobles in Qi and Lu.

The conflict between local and overseas nobles became increasingly intense as the court relied more on taxes from Qi and Lu and continued to increase tax rates.

Xing Gao quickly united a large number of expatriates living in Qingzhou and the nobles of Hedong, raised the flag in Qingzhou, and responded to Ge Rong's uprising.

The three states of Qing, Qi and Yan also began to experience war. In addition, Xuzhou had been occupied by troops from Southern Liang, and the Northern Wei court completely lost its supply of money and food.

It can be said that the only area that the Wei court can directly control today is the capital area near Luoyang.

Before the Chinese New Year this year, there was another wave of nobles fleeing Luoyang. Not only the nobles, but even a large number of monks and Taoists in Luoyang fled Luoyang carrying all kinds of gold, silver and treasures.

Some of them went north to Bingzhou, some went south to join Southern Liang, and some went to Guanzhong.
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Guanzhong, Yongle City.

When Bodhidharma came out of the monk's room, his disciple Hui Ke urged him:

"Master, the Three Religions Debate is about to begin."

Today is a big day in Yongle City. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have gathered together. Su Ze, Duke of Gaoping, built a temporary pavilion in front of Baizhang Tower, named Shiqu Pavilion, and invited the wise men of the three schools to debate.

Shiqu Pavilion is named after the homonym of Shiqu Pavilion in the Han Dynasty.

The Shiquge Conference during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han was an important event in the development of Confucianism and a major meeting for Confucianism to unify the classics community. It was a unified review and summary of Confucian schools from the early Han Dynasty to the reign of Emperor Xuan and determined the official ideology.

Although Su Ze, Duke of Gaoping, said that the debate among the three religions was just an academic exchange, anyone with a discerning eye could see that it was a debate to determine the order of the three religions and clarify their future status.

Since coming to Guanzhong, the Duke of Gaoping has shown a clear tendency to suppress Buddhism, which has made the Buddhist masters in the Guanzhong area very worried. The Northern Wei Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao had destroyed Buddhism.

Therefore, many monks in Yongle Temple also hoped that through this debate among the three religions, Duke Gaoping would be able to understand the essence of Buddhism and preferably convert to Buddhism.

This is true for Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Since the Three Kingdoms and Wei and Jin Dynasties, due to continuous wars and the destruction of the economy and culture of the north by the Five Barbarians, Confucianism now does not have the dominant position it had in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was even suppressed by metaphysics.

Although there were also foreign monarchs in the north such as Emperor Xiaowen and Fu Jian who highly respected Confucianism and studied Confucian classics themselves, in essence, these foreign monarchs employed Confucian scholars only because of the needs of ruling.

Since Su Ze established the Chongwen Pavilion, Confucian families in Guanzhong saw Su Ze's promotion of Confucianism and joined in one after another, greatly increasing the status of Confucian scholars in the entire system.

Compared with Buddhism and Confucianism, Taoism is more like a runner-up.

After Kou Qianzhi's reform of the Northern Tianshi Dao, Taoism as a whole declined. It could not compete with Buddhism in terms of folk beliefs, nor could it compete with Confucianism, which was tied to the bureaucratic system, in terms of official ideology.

Today in Guanzhong, the Taoist with the highest status is Liu Bozhi, the deputy governor of Hezhou.

This Liu Bozhi was an old friend of Su Ze whom he had known during his time in the Imperial Guards, and he was Liu Gui's cousin.

When Su Ze went to Hezhou to take up his post, Liu Bozhi confessed to Su Ze that he was a disciple of the contemporary Bei Tianshi.

Su Ze did not exclude him because of his Taoist identity. The Hezhou governor Li Shizhe basically did not care about the affairs. After Su Chao left Jincheng, the affairs of Hezhou were basically managed by Liu Bozhi.

This time, for the future development of Taoism, Liu Bozhi also came to Yongle City specially.

Bodhidharma still seemed to be taking his time, and Huike was a little anxious. When the two of them arrived at Shiqu Pavilion, the front row was already full, so they could only sit in the back row.

"In the debate at Yongle Temple a few days ago, Master Guanghui from Gaochang was elected as the chief debater."

Bodhidharma still didn't seem to care. Huike knew his master's ability and said indignantly:

"If Master takes action, how can Guang Hui be your opponent?"

Bodhidharma saw his disciple's emotional fluctuations, so he said:
"Hui Ke, you are obsessed."

Hui Ke was reminded by his master and began to reflect on the source of his anxiety. He quickly said:

"Thank you for your teaching, Master."

This Master Guanghui was the national teacher of Gaochang. The whole country of Gaochang revered Buddhism. He wore a Duobao cassock given by the king of Gaochang. He truly had the awe-inspiring appearance of a famous monk.

The person who represented the Confucian school in the debate was Qi Tai, the prefect of Jiuquan County.

Qi Tai's ancestor Qi Jia was a famous scholar in the Former Liang period. He established a school in Jiuquan to teach Confucianism. At the peak of his lectures, there were as many as two thousand people attending.

The Qi family is a famous Confucian family in Liangzhou area. Qi Tai was not very interested in being an official. After Su Ze's great victory in Dunhuang, he entrusted all government affairs to the deputy sent by Su Ze and devoted himself to studying Confucianism.

After Su Ze established Chongwen Pavilion, Qi Tai also sent the "Erjiu Shenjing" written by his ancestor Qi Jia to Chongwen Pavilion, and took the initiative to teach in the Liangzhou Official School to impart Confucianism.

Su Ze has always been generous to such scholar-officials. Now, the senior officials in Yongle City are saying that after the debate among the three religions, Qi Tai may be transferred to the Political Affairs Hall and serve as a scholar of the Chongwen Pavilion.

After the sound of ritual music, Su Ze led his ministers into Shiqu Pavilion, and everyone sat down one after another.

After everyone saluted Su Ze, the Duke of Gaoping, Wang Sizheng stood up holding a silk book and said:

"Today, all the wise men have come together to study the essence of the three religions, not for the sake of ranking higher or lower, and not to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each school, but for the sake of understanding the principles and seeing the truth."

These words are of course just polite talk, and those who participated in the debate among the three religions did not believe them at all.

However, some monks were relieved as this set the tone that the Duke of Gaoping was not going to deal with a certain sect or follow the example of Emperor Taiwu who destroyed Buddhism by force.

Wang Sizheng continued:

"Every debate, from ancient times to the present, always has a main point. This time, the main point was also drafted by the county lord himself."

Everyone looked over, and Wang Sizheng said:

“Idols, that’s the point of this debate.”

After the theme was read out, there was silence for a while.

As for idols, Confucianism has statues of predecessors, Taoism has tablets of Taoist ancestors and immortals, while Buddhism has the most statues. Today, there are countless Buddha statues spread all over the north and south.

It may sound fair to use something that is common to all three religions as the topic of debate, but in fact, people who are familiar with the three religions know that Confucianism's worship of sages does not lie in images but in scriptures. Even the images of the ancient teachers are only used during sacrifices and are not worshipped on ordinary days.

Although Taoism also worships statues, there are other things besides statues.

Only in Buddhism, Buddha statues are extremely important and fundamental things. Whether it is Buddhist temples or faiths, people are keen on making and requesting Buddha statues. There are even cave Buddha statues that took hundreds of years to carve out in the mountains.

Huike frowned. Is this aimed at Buddhism?
(End of this chapter)