Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 391: Stop Evil and Do Good

This debate among the three religions, apart from the final decree issued by Duke Su to ban the parade of Buddha statues, did not lead to the supremacy of any particular religion, or the result of exterminating any particular religion as everyone had speculated before.

Or, as Wang Sizheng said at the beginning, the goal of this debate on the three religions is to "study the essence of the three religions, not for the sake of ranking them, and not to consider the pros and cons of each school, but for the sake of understanding the principles and seeing the truth."

To put it bluntly, it's just a debate.

None of the three religions were satisfied with the result.

The Confucians felt that Buddhism had become so rampant that it was attacking even the most basic human ethics and loyalty, and even the military service system of Duke Su. It was truly "to make it crazy before destroying it" and that they only needed to fan the flames a little more and Emperor Taiwu might take action to destroy Buddhism.

The ideas of Taoism and Confucianism are similar. Kou Qianzhi's self-castration of Taoism's reform actually showed his awareness of the changes of the times.

Because of the country's progress in organizational form and organizational strength, its control and governance over the grassroots are constantly improving.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the whole country was in chaos due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, but in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a small court in a remote corner, Sun En's Taoist uprising was finally suppressed.

All this shows that the control of the imperial court and government over the local areas in this land is still being strengthened. If Taoism is not reformed and they still choose to establish Taoist sects in local areas to compete for local control, they will eventually be destroyed by the rulers.

It wasn't just Kou Qianzhi. The two leaders of the Tianshi Dao, one in the south and one in the north, made the same final choice.

Is it that Taoism is unwilling to retain the system of offering sacrifices to wine and develop faith at the grassroots level?
It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t.

It’s just that these foreign monks don’t understand this truth yet.

In the history before Su Ze traveled through time, fifty years later, Buddhism, which had flourished in the north, encountered a catastrophe. Emperor Wu of Zhou issued a decree to destroy Buddhism, ordering "to first cut off Buddhism and Taoism, destroy all scriptures and statues, dismiss monks and Taoists, and return them to the people." At the same time, he also ordered "the Three Treasures and blessings to be distributed to the ministers, and the temples, pagodas and shrines to be given to the princes."

However, Su Ze did not think that Emperor Wu of Zhou was successful in destroying Buddhism. The most typical example was that Buddhism remained popular during the Sui and Tang dynasties. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhism even reached a point of nationwide fanaticism.

In Su Ze's opinion, it was not until the Song Dynasty, when Buddhism was not destroyed, that Buddhism was truly integrated into this land.

After that, no matter in the Ming or Qing dynasties, the overt religions never caused any waves. Instead, they actively became a grassroots force in maintaining stability, which is extremely rare in the whole world.

Su Ze had no intention of destroying Buddhism, or at least he had no intention of destroying Buddhism until now.

Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou destroyed Buddhism, but in fact he did not have the power to destroy Buddhism.

The method he used was to "distribute the Three Treasures and wealth to his subjects." By declaring Buddhism illegal, he allowed the entire upper-class interest groups to join in the plundering of Buddhism.

The result was that although Buddhism seemed to have been destroyed, a part of it was actually integrated into the ruling group. For example, Yang Jian was a great advocate of Buddhism and even spent his childhood in a temple.

Another result was that the Guanlong aristocratic group also grew stronger while sharing the Buddhist religion, and obtained a large amount of money, grain and land.

If it is the business world in the future, it is "If you can defeat your opponent, it is best to swallow up the market share after the opponent dies, otherwise you will create a market for other competitors."

When Su Ze was still unable to completely control Guanzhong and was still engaging in a battle of wits and strategy with the Guanzhong gentry, Su Ze was not yet prepared to use drastic measures such as destroying Buddhism.

However, through this debate among the three religions, Su Ze also realized that Buddhism had reached a point where it had to be attacked.

This is why there were laws prohibiting the parade of Buddha statues and regulating the casting of Buddhist statues.

But most monks don’t think so.

Many radical monks believed that Master Guanghui had clearly won the debate against both Confucianism and Taoism, but it was the crazy monk Bodhidharma who came out to sabotage them, which eventually led to the Duke of Su County ordering a ban on statues.

At this time, in Baizhang Tower.

Su Ze looked at Damo, who was wearing a patchwork robe and sitting in front of him, and couldn't help asking:

"Master, aren't you going back yet?"

No one expected that after the debate, Bodhidharma and his disciples would rely on Su Ze and even follow him back to the Baizhang Tower.

In fact, Su Ze could have expelled Bodhidharma, but firstly, he was too famous in history, and secondly, Bodhidharma gave him a way out during the debate among the three religions and he also acknowledged his status as a high monk. It would be unkind to expel him now.

Bodhidharma put his hands together and said:

"If I go back now, I'm afraid I'll be beaten to death by the monks, so I can only rely on the county lord."

Hui Ke, who was standing by, trembled all over.

Hui Ke knew that his master had criticized Xiao Yan, but who was Xiao Yan? He was a Bodhisattva emperor who ordered people to eat vegetarian food and not kill. He would not kill people just because you criticized him.

Su Ze is different. He is a local lord who dominates Guanzhong. Moreover, Su Ze himself is not friendly to Buddhism and has issued many laws to restrict monks. Master, will you really not be beheaded for doing this?

Su Ze didn't expect that a Zen master would actually cheat. He said with a smile:
"Since Master has spoken, you must have expected this outcome. Why do you have to rely on me?"

"The cause and effect falls on the Duke of the County. As a monk, I can only stay here and beg for a vegetarian meal."

Su Ze said again:

"Master, you are pretending to be confused. You are not speaking for the sake of Buddhism. What does it have to do with me?"

Su Ze certainly understood what Bodhidharma meant by coming forward. He used his profound Buddhist theories to take a step back and prevent Buddhism from angering the government. It was a pity that the monks outside did not understand his good intentions. Instead, they felt that it was Bodhidharma who ruined Buddhism, as they had already competed for the first place in Buddhism.

"My Lord, the monk and his disciples don't have much to eat. Please take them in."

Su Ze was also speechless and could only say:

"Then please let Master and Disciple stay here for a while."

Su Ze had no way to deal with this pair of master and disciple who came to his doorstep, but fortunately there was no shortage of rooms in Baizhang Building.

After Su Ze left, Hui Ke said to his master:

"Master, why do you do this?"

Who knew that Bodhidharma said:

"Why is this so?" Hui Ke asked:

"Why do you want to help those mediocre people? It's unlucky that they don't appreciate your help."

Bodhidharma looked at this disciple, sighed and said:
"Hui Ke, you still haven't reached that level of cultivation."

"Has your master ever told you to stop doing evil before doing good?"

Hui Ke nodded, and Bodhidharma continued:

"If you don't stop having evil thoughts in your heart, no matter how many good deeds you do, it will be useless. Instead, it will only increase the cause and effect."

"My disciple is dull and still cannot comprehend this Zen."

Bodhidharma said patiently:

"For example, if you have great power and rescue the people of a certain place, and the people build a Buddhist temple for you and make a golden statue for the Buddha, is that a good deed?"

Hui Ke said without hesitation:
"Of course it is good. Saving people is good, and persuading people to become Buddhas is even greater good. This is the greatest good!"

"If I do good deeds, then turning to Buddha is the result of good deeds, right?"

"That is natural. If there is a cause, there must be an effect. If the people of that place are saved because of my disciples, then it is natural to worship the Buddha."

"Okay, then what if, over time, the local people are not sincere in chanting the sutras, and the tributes are not paid on time?"

Hui Ke had been following Bodhidharma for so long after all, and he said, "The Buddha would not care about such trivial matters, so just let them be, as long as it does not affect their kindness."

"What if time goes on for a longer time, and the people who received your kindness have forgotten or died, and the local people no longer worship the temple?"

Hui Ke thought for a moment and said:
"If you don't want to offer, then don't offer. I have already gained practice."

Bodhidharma asked again:
“What if the government issued an order to ban Buddhism, and the local people rushed up the mountain to demolish the Buddhist temple, steal the incense money, and tear up the golden body of the Buddha statue?”

Hui Ke immediately said angrily:

"What an ungrateful fellow! If my disciple has any thunderous means, he should be destroyed!"

Bodhidharma shook his head and said:

"This is because you haven't reached the stage of cultivation yet. First, cut off evil thoughts, then do good deeds. Now that you have entered my sect, doing good deeds is your own choice. How can you ask for a favor in return for doing good deeds?"

"If you fight and kill people and return to that place, what's the difference between you and those people outside who worship Buddhism for the sake of worshippers? You're even worse than them. They just want money, but you want to kill people."

Hui Ke immediately said:

"The disciple has violated the precept of anger."

"The act of doing good is only because you have good intentions. It has nothing to do with others. As for whether others worship Buddha or are ungrateful because of it, it has nothing to do with you."

“I stood up for the Master, not for these monks.”

"What about you, Master?"

"To see the Holy King!"

Bodhidharma looked in the direction where Su Ze left and said to his disciples:

"I have come all the way to the Middle Earth just to meet this Dharma Protector, the Holy King!"

Huike still didn't understand. It was obvious that Su Ze was not friendly to Buddhism, and was not even friendly to his master and disciple. Why did his master believe that he was a saint king?

When Bodhidharma was in Southern Liang, he was treated with courtesy by Xiao Yan.

Bodhidharma shook his head and said:

"Xiao Yan of the Southern Liang Dynasty was not a saintly ruler. He was just a monk who became an emperor. Everything he did was selfish and harmful to the world. His closeness to Buddhism was a disaster for Buddhism."

"And the Duke of the County, this Saint King, is a man who treats the world as one, and is not biased towards our sect. Isn't that the quality that a Saint King should have?"

"I will follow the sage king and educate the world!"

Hui Ke still looked at his master in confusion. After a while, a young official came out.

"I am Wang Sizheng, the Inspector General."

"Meet Prosecutor Wang."

Hui Ke bowed hastily, knowing that this inspector was a close associate of the Duke of Su.

"The Duke of the County specially bestowed a purple gold cassock on Master Bodhidharma and wanted to invite him to serve as the Grand Abbot of the Buddhist and Taoist Department under the Government Affairs Hall."

"what?"

Even Huike was dumbfounded. The Buddhist and Taoist Affairs Department under the Zhengshi Hall was an important department in charge of Buddhist and Taoist affairs.

The Grand Abbot is the highest official in charge of Buddhist affairs. It seems that Lord Su is not fond of his master and disciple, yet he has entrusted them with such an important position all of a sudden.

The special bestowal of a purple gold cassock was the highest level of courtesy bestowed by the County Duke's Mansion on Buddhism, and it has only been bestowed on Bodhidharma so far.

Hui Ke began to believe that Su Ze was really the Holy King that his master had mentioned.

Buddhist theory, does not represent the author's views

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(End of this chapter)