Chapter 23 Restricted Religion, King of Ruthlessness

"Your Highness is too much, I am ashamed of taking it." Xuanzang refused quickly. He knew very well what Li Zhen meant, and it was nothing more than raising himself and then letting himself serve as the head of the Buddhist Society. But to be honest, he was really a little worried about this position - the Buddhist Society is a department that supervises and manages Buddhism, and it is probably to be affiliated with the imperial department in the future.

Not to mention whether holding this position will waste your time and disturb your translation of Buddhist scriptures, just say that the seat at the head is burning down, and you may burn yourself to death at any time - this is destined to offend all Buddhist colleagues. Even if returning from the scriptures brings endless prestige to you, it is related to the life and death of Buddhists, and I am afraid that many people will want to kill themselves.

"Master, don't you dare?" Li Zhen aroused Xuanzang a little.

Xuanzang nodded, admitted it honestly, and said with a wry smile: "Amitabha, I will not hide it from Your Highness. I am really afraid of this offending work, even I am afraid of it.

What's more, although I took the scriptures back from India, I still need to organize and translate them. This work alone is enough for me to do my whole life. I am really powerless to manage a Buddhist society."

"Since that's the case, then forget it." Li Zhen's tone became cold: "If there is no Buddhist learning, then we can only let the court come by himself. But I want to apologize to the master in advance. After all, the officials of the court are not monks, and they have some shortcomings in their understanding of the Buddhist scriptures. If there is something that has hit the sect, please don't mind it."

"..." Xuanzang could only hear the hairs behind his back exploded, and cold sweat instantly covered his back.

Li Zhen’s meaning was obvious. If he did not agree to take the position of the leader of the meeting, he would avoid Buddhism and prepare to let the court do it himself. There was no familiar Buddhist person to take care of the Buddhist society. If the court issued an order that was not conducive to Buddhism in the future, the Buddhist school would have to be left alone and would have no power to resist. After the power of Buddhism was greatly hit, if it was done like this, the Buddhist school would really become a slave to the court.

"Forget... Amitabha, if I don't go to hell, who will go to hell?" Xuanzang was silent for a long time and smiled bitterly: "Since your highness respects me, then if I refuse, I will seem to be ungrateful. It's okay to ask me to be the leader of this meeting, but there is a small request - that is, I hope that your highness will not make this proposal to Your Majesty for the time being. After I return to Chang'an, I will make it to the emperor. I wonder what your Highness wants?"

"Of course there is no problem with this." Li Zhen thought for a while, nodded and agreed: "It just so happened that in two months, the Nanyang prisoner ceremony organized by his father will also come. I have gained some gains in Lingnan. I am preparing to go back to Beijing to report it. The master can go back with me."

This was Li Zhen’s plan. Xuanzang’s reputation has not spread throughout the Tang Dynasty. If he formed a Buddhist society at this time, it would inevitably be that some people would not be convinced when he sat in the head of the society.

So before this, I must help him promote it and raise his reputation to the highest level in the shortest time. It is better to have a more sensation than in history - these two months are just enough.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

“…”

After seeing Xuanzang off, a person came out from behind the screen and said with a smile: "Your Highness, bullying an honest man like this is too ignorant."

"Honest man?" Li Zhen was obviously in a good mood, and smiled at him: "Sir, would you think that a person who has the courage to smuggle abroad and travels more than 50,000 miles alone just to seek the true scriptures is an honest man?"

"Haha, it's the old minister who thought it awkward..." Cen Wenben smirked: "But Xuanzang is indeed a master. If he can return to Chang'an smoothly this time, he will definitely gain fame, and the Buddhist sect that will fall into decline will also recover - Your Highness took the lead in bringing him under his command today, and this step is really great."

"I think so too." Li Zhen sneered at the corner of his mouth: "I want to see what expression will be like when those so-called Buddhist virtues see people they highly respect and personally propose the concept of the Buddhist society."

"Hahaha... that will definitely be very exciting." Cen Wenben also laughed.

"But Your Highness, this is probably not your entire plan for attacking the Buddhist family, right?"

"Of course not." Li Zhen shook his head and said, "I have no intention of letting go of Buddhism, Confucianism, aristocratic families, those hidden forces, and even Taoist sects."

"What? Taoist sect?" Cen Wenben widened his eyes: "The Taoist sect has always been on His Highness's side. Not only did he make a lot of efforts in fighting against Buddhism, he even signed His Highness as the Holy Son of Zhenyuan, and raised His Highness's status to the point of being second only to the Taoist lord - you have to restrict them now... This... is a bit unreasonable, right?"

"Sir, I want to say that this move is a bit like killing the donkey, right?" Li Zhen smiled faintly and explained softly: "Of course, I don't mean to kill the donkey. When the Taoist sect was the most dangerous time, he saved my life. I was so grateful that I would give them enough rewards afterwards. How could I do such a thing?

But gratitude is to be favor, and state affairs are to be national affairs, and this must be clearly distinguished.

Taoism has kindness to me, so I naturally remember it, but religion needs to be restricted, and there is no doubt that this is.

Otherwise, if they can continue to develop unscrupulously and without restrictions in the name of the court, tomorrow's Taoist sect will sooner or later become the Buddhist sect today. Isn't it that I hope that one day in the future, our Tang Dynasty will come to limit Taoism again?"

"Your Highness is far-sighted and I admire you." Cen Wenben was convinced after listening to Li Zhen's analysis.

But then the question arose: "It's just that Your Highness wants to reward Taoist sects and limit their development. The balance between this is not easy to get. If the reward is light and the limit is heavy, your Highness will inevitably be said to be a person who is naturally cold, but if the reward is too heavy and the limit is too light, it will not have the corresponding effect... I wonder what Your Highness is going to do?"

"This matter is easy to say." Li Zhen thought about it for a moment and said, "We might as well pay the rewards and limit the price."

"The rewards and limits are heavy? What does this mean?"

Li Zhen said lightly: "When I return to Beijing this time, I want my father to request that Taoism be enthroned as the national religion of the Tang Dynasty, and the Taoist sect masters be enthroned as the heavenly masters, and promised to be enthroned with huge tens of gold and silver."

"I'm afraid, they don't care much about these things." Cen Wenben said: "Taoist people cultivate themselves and cultivate their nature, like to live in seclusion in the mountains and avoid the world. The imperial court rewards them with great rewards, but they are all external things."

"Sir, don't worry, I haven't finished my words yet." Li Zhen said: "This is only part of the reward. The most important thing is that when I return to the capital, I will make a statement to my father, ask the court to contribute funds, gather Taoist sages, collect Taoist scriptures from all over the world, and use this as a basis to remove the drought and preserve the essence, and help them to practice a "Ten Thousand Books of Taoism" that combines the theories of various Taoist schools and stores the essence of each school, and promote the Taoist heritage."

"This is good." Cen Wenben showed a happy expression: "Taoist people are pure and have few desires, and do not have much demands on material things, but the "Wanjuan Daozang" is a collection of the essence of Taoist classics. This is a treasure related to inheritance. I think Taoism should be satisfied with this reward."

"This is naturally. They had this plan." Li Zhen smiled and said, "I have to thank Li Chunfeng for saying that when he visited this king, he once accidentally mentioned that several Taoist masters made this proposal at a party.

However, after their research, they found that there were many difficulties. Since ancient times, Taoism has been established by the Taoism, and now it has many sects. There have been countless sages and celebrities for thousands of years. Each of them has written works. To this day, they cannot count how many classics there are in the entire Taoism.

Just counting these classics, if you rely solely on the power of Taoism, not to mention how much money it will cost, just say that this time will take at least three years.

After the statistics were completed, the concepts of each faction were different. How to integrate them together and form a reasonable outline was another difficult task. It is estimated that they will have to make arguing for three to five years.

Only by combining ideas can we initially complete the preliminary preparations and start compilation, but this step is also the most difficult. Even if we gather all the power of Taoism, it is not a simple matter.

According to the statistics given to me by Li Chunfeng, if the entire book is edited by Taoists themselves, it will take at least thirty years, and the money required is even more huge.

After obtaining this data, almost 90% of the Taoist sect leaders gave up their plans.

There is a lot of regret in words.”

Don’t think that writing a book is very simple. In ancient times, some large-scale works were often completed in years. For example, the "Siku Quanshu" was written for ten years and the "Yongle Encyclopedia" was written for six years. This was still with the support of the state's rights. If there is no national support, this time would be extended at least three times.

Moreover, "Tianquan Daozang" is different from the above two books. The reason why the above two books can be used so short is mainly because these two books are not academic works, but an encyclopedia. The books compiled are not easy to read, and they are all compiled according to the entire, whole article, or Chengduan to ensure the documentary value of the original work as much as possible.

Such a description is very similar to modern books such as the Chinese National Encyclopedia or the English Encyclopedia. At most, it only adds one's own understanding, but this situation rarely occurs.

However, "Ten Thousand Volumes of Taoist Canon" is different. This is not an encyclopedia. It is also a truly academic book that combines different ideas of Taoism. There must be many difficulties. Not to mention the early collection of data, but to say how to integrate the ideas of each school without conflict is a very difficult task. Even if the power of the entire sect is gathered, it is not easy to complete.

"A book that can be passed down from generation to generation was not born because of the difficulty of compiling it, which is a pity." Cen Wenben nodded in understanding: "So, does Your Highness want to mobilize the power of the country to help them edit books?"

"Yes, nothing can stop the power of the country." Li Zhen said confidently: "It is indeed difficult to compile the "Tianjuan Daozang" with the power of Taoism, but if it is supported by the state, then things will be much simpler."

"But it is true. It takes thirty years for Taoism to be compiled by itself. If the court presides over it, it will be ten years at most." Cen Wenben smiled and said, "Your Highness has this important gift, and I believe Taoism will not say that you are stingy. However, if you have said this heavy reward, what should you do if you limit the limit? Should you use the method of limiting Buddhism and limiting Taoism?"

"It's not bad."

"..." Cen Wenben was choked: "Don't joke with your highness."

"I am not kidding, I have this intention." Looking at Cen Wenben's expression of wanting to speak but stopping, Li Zhen added with a smile: "Of course, there are definitely not as many restrictions on Taoism as Buddhism. After all, Taoism should be established as the national religion of the Tang Dynasty. If the restrictions are too much, it is not good, but there must be all the restrictions that should be."

“How to say it?”

"The specific terms are basically the same as Buddhism, but the Taoism is all weakened."

Li Zhen gave an example: "For example, the money for incense in Buddhism will be collected 90% of the money, but Taoism will only collect 70% of the money. The amount of land issued by each Buddhist is the same as that of ordinary people, but the amount of Taoism is 20% higher than that of Buddhists. For example, taxes, each Buddhist is also equal to that of ordinary people, but Taoism is only 70% of that of Buddhists. Or the specifications of Taoism and the size of temples, Taoism is 30% greater than that of them... Such various things, although there are restrictions on Taoism, their lives are much better than Buddhism."

"..." Cen Wenben looked at Li Zhen deeply and said nothing - Taoism's treatment is indeed a little looser, but Li Zhen finally put a rope cover on Taoism. With this rope cover, Taoism will be firmly controlled in the hands of the court in the future, and it will only become a sharp sword in the hands of the court, and it will not be possible to hurt the Tang Dynasty.

What's more, Taoism's treatment does seem to be a little better than Buddhism, but as the saying goes, people are not afraid of equality, and Taoism's treatment is better than Buddhism. What do you think about Buddhists? Over time, will they hate Taoism's people? This is to provoke disputes between the two factions.

In the future, even if Taoism becomes bigger and Buddhism is there, it can still be more than one rope to restrain Taoism, which will benefit without any harm.

But as a person who has received great favor from Taoism, he can turn against others in a blink of an eye and plot against Taoism. Cen Wenben knew that this was Li Zhen's transformation from a prince to a qualified monarch.

calculating one's life-saving benefactor is indeed a manifestation of ungratefulness for a person, but if this person is the king of a country, it is a good thing for this country.

This is the reason why the king is ruthless.
Chapter completed!