Chapter 1326 Discipline Yourself and Others

Chapter 1326 Discipline Yourself and Others

As the year draws to a close, the personnel affairs in Chang'an City become increasingly busy. Because this is the first anniversary of the new dynasty, a systematic summary of military and political affairs inside and outside the court must be made, so as to actually reflect the governance results and personnel achievements of the past year, so the monarchs and ministers in the court are all focused on the matter and dare not be careless.

When Li Tai read history in the past, he often saw that when history books praised a certain emperor for being diligent in government, they would say that he got up early and went to bed late every day, and got up to work before the cockcrowed, and often persisted for several years or even more than ten years. He was still a little skeptical about this, always wondering whether this description was about cattle and horses or the emperor?

But now that he himself sits in this position, he understands that the descriptions in history books are not completely unrealistic and unfounded speculations. At least for himself, since he ascended the throne at the beginning of the year, he has hardly slept in, and the Chang'an Palace at four in the morning is really seen again and again.

As an emperor, if he has a little sense of responsibility for the affairs of the family and the country, even if he does not need to do everything himself, he will inevitably have to take charge of the overall situation.

Especially in the ancient feudal system, there will be a magnifying effect from top to bottom, and officials are used to guessing the intentions of their superiors from the subtleties. A famous allusion about this topic is that Zhou was afraid of ivory chopsticks, from the foreknowledge of a pair of ivory chopsticks to the emperor's arrogance and power out of control.

It seems to be a very pleasant thing to serve one person with the whole world. But laziness and enjoyment are human instincts. The meaning of serving one person with the whole world is that the whole world is tempting him. If you have a dream tonight, someone will realize it the next day without fear of danger and obstacles. This kind of expansion brought by doing whatever you want is simply indescribable, and many people can't resist it at all.

Especially Li Tai has many memories from later generations. Compared with the current flow, he is really experienced and wide-ranging. If he really wants to enjoy himself, he will have countless times more ideas. Not to mention the exploration of personal enjoyment, just enduring the idea of ​​testing various so-called social reforms that are out of touch with reality in his mind at the moment makes him very hard.

The chaos in the Middle Ages was not over yet, and social productivity was still very fragile. If you want to implement any deep reforms that touch the root of society, the dangers in the process are far from being completely dealt with by simple military suppression. Once the situation collapses, it will not only bring down the price of beef, but also the price of human flesh. As long as you have a knife in your hand, you will have a buffet when you go out.

So in the past year, Li Tai has been more and more strict with his self-discipline. Whether it is his personal living habits or his style of managing military and political affairs, he is basically cautious and thinks twice before acting.

In terms of the administrative structure and regulations of the court, it basically follows the development context of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, forming an administrative structure of three provinces, six ministries, nine temples and five prisons in parallel and gradually improving.

As for the power structure at the local level, since the chaos has not yet completely ended, the power of the local general manager is still very large. But compared with the original governors and prefects of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it is still very different.

First of all, the imperial court has absolute say in the appointment of these prefectures and counties. Secondly, in the local administration, the influence of local nobles is gradually weakening, because the further standardization and implementation of the equal-field system, coupled with the registration of the deceased, has gradually concentrated the control of local personnel resources in the hands of the government.

The third and most important point is that the local armed forces have transitioned from the powerful troops and the militia to the military offices. The establishment of the military offices of various states allowed the imperial court to directly control the local armed forces. At the same time, these armed forces became new military landlords through military merit granting land, which constituted an important part of maintaining local order.

Of course, there are also some places where the military offices have not yet been established and perfected. For such areas, Li Tai would rather delay the equal-field registration and punishment of the powerful, and would not use simple administrative means to crack down on local forces before the military foundation is formed, and still retain their various privileges in the local area.

Although force is not the only means to solve social problems, it can provide the greatest guarantee. Especially after the turmoil of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, many social problems were caused by war. We should pay attention to the unity of these problems, but we should not ignore their uniqueness.

Abuse of force cannot fundamentally solve the problem. In history, Sima Yi quelled the rebellion of Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong, and the strategy he implemented was basically to kill those who could be killed and relocate those who could be relocated, which almost artificially created a vacuum in Liaodong.

But this vacuum only lasted for a short time, and then the Donghu Xianbei tribes rose on this land and once became the main force of chaos in China. When the Xianbei forces poured into the Central Plains, Goguryeo took the opportunity to rise again and swallowed up most of the Liaodong region.

Failure to face the problem and solve it properly, the so-called killing is just clearing the field for some interest groups that are not very prominent at the moment. It is refreshing to cut the Gordian knot, but you may face the dilemma of not having a rope to hang yourself afterwards.

From the perspective of the regime, sufficient force can play a greater role in ensuring that the nobles and local tyrants who represent the problem dare not use force lightly, so that there is more room for mediation and solutions to the problem.

If the restriction of privileges against the nobles and the weakening of the local power of the tyrants need to be coordinated with other government orders and can only be effective after long-term implementation, then the sanctions against the monks are a specific and classic example of this idea.

After the beginning of autumn, the examination and appointment of tribute scholars from various states in Hebei were completed. All the tribute scholars were selected, either serving in the court or being appointed to local positions. After the examination, Zu Ting, who had been pre-selected, was appointed as a doctor in the Ministry of Sacrifice and was given a new job, which was to inspect Buddhist and Taoist affairs in Hebei and conduct a systematic screening of these outsiders.

Of course, since Buddhism was worshipped and Taoism was destroyed in the Northern Qi Dynasty, the main purpose of this trip was to purge the monks. After Zu Ting arrived in Hebei, he first spent more than a month visiting the medium and large temples in various states in Hebei, and conducted a survey of the current situation of monks in Hebei. Then, according to the order of the court, he returned to Yecheng and summoned a group of monks in the country to take the test. After passing the test, he was awarded the certificate of ordination and became a Buddhist monk recognized by the court.

This routine is naturally the same as the one used against the monks in Guanzhong, but the monks in Hebei have no better choice. After all, they can't beat them. If they run away, not to mention how far they can walk, how can they live in other places better than staying in Hebei?

The Northern Qi Dynasty worshipped Buddhism, so the monks as a whole were mixed with mud and sand, and their quality was poor. It was easy to correct mistakes and destroy Buddhism. However, the huge share of the monks in the Northern Qi Dynasty was not easy to deal with. The reason why the Qi Lord Gao Yang worshipped Buddhism and destroyed Taoism was certainly related to his personal beliefs, but it was also closely related to the beliefs of the people in the Northern Qi Dynasty.

In history, after Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed Qi, although he also implemented the policy of destroying Buddhism in Hebei, he died in the second year. Under the petition of Hebei monks, the successor Emperor Xuan of Zhou ordered the restoration of Hebei's Buddhist beliefs. The destruction of Buddhism in Hebei lasted only more than a year.

Li Tai's attitude towards the monks' Buddhism has always been to strengthen supervision rather than directly eliminate it. This time, when strengthening the management of the monks in Hebei, he did not define all the monks as heretics, but selected a group of people who could be won over, that is, the Buddhist Vinaya monks in Hebei.

The so-called Vinaya is to study and uphold the precepts as a way of self-cultivation. In short, it is to control oneself through rules and regulations and achieve true purity of mind and few desires. This way of practice is somewhat similar to Li Tai's current state of strict self-discipline, but it is also known that it is impossible to gain the faith and support of the monks.

The real Vinaya was born in the Tang Dynasty. The reason is also very simple. With the unification of the world and the stability of the regime, the power of the court became stronger and stronger, and the control power naturally became stronger and stronger. If the monks no longer practice the precepts themselves, they may face the end of their bodies being transcended, so the Vinaya became the prominent sect of Buddhism at that time.

However, the predecessor of Vinaya School has appeared now. These monks studied the Four-Part Vinaya of Buddhism, which is also the most widely spread and influential precepts in Buddhism in later generations. Now, Huiguang, a high monk in Hebei, has written the Four-Part Vinaya Commentary on the Four-Part Vinaya on the basis of the Four-Part Vinaya, and preached it to his disciples, which is also the basis of the doctrine of Vinaya School in the future.

Therefore, in this Yecheng Sutra Test, in addition to testing and evaluating the monks on Buddhist scriptures, the Four-Part Vinaya Commentary also became one of the contents of the test, and the sutras and Vinaya were tested together.

Since Monk Huiguang had passed away long ago, but his disciples were still there, these monks were also deeply honored that the court designated his Vinaya as the official law text, and they immediately became the most enthusiastic supporters of the court's decree in Hebei, and they also ran back and forth and promoted it in many ways for this Sutra Test.

But this made other monks in Hebei suffer. The reason why these monks joined the monastic life was certainly due to certain faith factors, but more of it was due to the greed for benefits. Even if it was just for show, they might know a thing or two about the Buddhist scriptures and barely cope with it.

But apart from a very small number of devout people who would study the precepts, who would delve into it in depth? Even a considerable number of monks in Hebei had never heard of the name of "Four-Part Vinaya Commentary". Now it was actually used as the content of the exam, which was naturally blind.

What's more terrible is that the precepts are different from the Buddhist scriptures and have a lot of room for self-understanding and interpretation. Each item clearly states how monks and nuns should observe the precepts and what regulations they cannot violate. Right is right, wrong is wrong, it is clear at a glance, and there is no room for perfunctory fooling.

So after a sutra test, more than 90% of the monks were directly deprived of the qualification to preach and practice.

When this result came out, the whole of Hebei was in an uproar. The monks were not angry, but the believers were even more indignant. These monks were high and mighty, and did not work. They seemed to be reciting scriptures and worshiping Buddha devoutly every day, but in the end, they did not even understand the precepts. It turned out that they were just fooling us!

Many things are afraid to be laid out and seen clearly. These monks certainly have a lot of devout beliefs and social resources, but when they are frightened and dare not use force to cause chaos and need to obey the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, there is naturally a way to deal with them. And when this most feared public opinion foundation is destroyed, it becomes a matter of course to carry out deeper management against them.

So next, the wealthy Hebei monks gave the emerging Tang Dynasty regime a wave of fuel!