Huang Jie said that when Emperor Taiwu of Wei destroyed the Buddha, the main prominent was the Prince of Wei Tuoba Huang, and now it is said that Tang Wuzong destroyed the Buddha, and the prominent ones are also the two tax households.

These two tax households also refer to the households that paid taxes according to the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and the cause of the Tang Wuzong's destruction of the Buddha was also a very serious livelihood problem at that time, that is, a large number of people in order to avoid paying taxes, they have chosen to give their fields to the temple at a low price or even free of charge, and then lease the land to the temple at a very low tenant rent to cultivate.

Some people even simply take the whole family to become monks, the men become monks, the women become nuns, and the children become novices. Some simply bought themselves to be slaves and maids for the monastery, and since then they have lived a good life without paying taxes and with food and clothing.

Moreover, at that time, because of the fourteenth year of Yuanhe (819), Tang Xianzong welcomed the Buddha bones (that is, the so-called Sakyamuni Buddha relics) in Fengxiang Famen Temple. First in the palace for three days, and then sent to the temples in the capital for monks and laymen to pay respects, thus once again setting off a national religious fanaticism. At that time, "the princes and the people were willing to give alms, lest they would be affected." There are those who give full production, and there are those who burn incense and provide for the top of their arms" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 240).

Giving full production, that is, donating all the family's property to the temple, but this is not a. The so-called burning of the top of the incense arm is to burn the scar or light the "sky lantern" with incense on the top of the head, and the burning arm is divided into the big arm (arm) and the small arm (finger), that is, it is really lit and burned...... (For details, please see Du Niang keyword search burning finger offering to Buddha)

Moreover, the people who are engaged in these things are not the evil branches of Buddhism, the records of burning the top, burning the arms, and burning the fingers are in the Mahayana scriptures that Tang Xuanzang took from Tianzhu with great difficulty. For example, Article 16 of the Sanskrit Net Bodhisattva Vows says: 'If you don't burn your arms and fingers to support the Buddhas, you are not a monk. In the Lotus Sutra, there is also a record of burning one's body to make offerings to the Buddha, which says: "If one has the heart to attain the three bodhisattvas of Anuttara, he can burn his head and even one finger of his feet and make offerings to the stupa than his wife in the country, and the three thousand lands, mountains, forests, rivers, pools, and treasures." ’

Therefore, in the eyes of Tang Wuzong and the courtiers, you Diao people not only think of tricks to evade taxes, but also play self-harm, which is too much. Well, since you like to kill yourself, let's have a more desperate one, so from October of the second year of Huichang (842), Tang Wuzong ordered that all monks who violated the precepts of Buddhism must return to the laity and confiscate their property.

Since then, Tang Wuzong has successively ordered to limit the number of monks in Buddhist temples, not to shave their ordination without permission, and to limit the number of monks to keep slaves and maids, many monasteries have been demolished, and a large number of monks have been forced to return to the world. In February of the fourth year of Huichang (844), Tang Wuzong issued a decree that "it is not allowed to offer Buddha's teeth", and at the same time stipulated: Daizhou Wutai Mountain and Sizhou Puguang Temple, Zhongnan Mountain Wutai Temple, Fengxiang Mansion Famen Temple and other places with Buddha finger bones, it is strictly forbidden to offer and pay respects, if one person gives a penny, carry a cane twenty; If a monk or nun receives a penny alms in these places, he will carry twenty rods.

In the fifth year of Huichang (845), Tang Wuzong began a larger-scale extermination of Buddhism, he ordered all monks under the age of 40 to return to the laity, and soon stipulated that they were under 50 years old, and soon even those over 50 years old who did not have the degree of the ancestral hall should also return to the laity, and even the monks from Tianzhu and Japan who sought the Dharma were forced to return to the laity.

At that time, the Japanese monk Yuanren, who came to the Tang Dynasty to learn scriptures, recorded in detail the situation of this "Dharma difficulty" in his "Pilgrimage to the Tang Dynasty": according to the will of Tang Wuzong, the Buddhist temples in the world were cut and merged in July of this year, and one temple was left in Shangzhou in all parts of the world, and if the temple was dilapidated, it would be destroyed; The temples in Xiazhou were all demolished. Chang'an and Luoyang began to allow the retention of ten monasteries, each with ten monks, and later stipulated that each temple should retain two monasteries, and each temple should retain thirty monks.

As for the total number of temples demolished, as well as the confiscated land money, I will not say much about the above.

It is said that after Huang Jie deliberately pointed out the two tax households, Zhao Guanjia naturally continued to praise: "260,000 monks and nuns, 150,000 slaves and maids, not much." Will Ming, a country that can be reached in the next county? ”

Seeing that the Zhao Guan's family needed help, Wang Hao was naturally clever, so he also replied: "Your Majesty, according to the regulations of the national dynasty, more than 4,000 households are Wang County, more than 3,000 households are tight counties, and more than 2,000 households are Shang County. More than 400,000 people, at least 100,000 households, starting and ending in Xia County...... If you live in one place, it may be Chi County! ”

The local administrative system of the Song Dynasty implemented a three-level system of roads, prefectures (prefectures), and counties. The counties are divided into red, gi, subred, sub-chi, wang, tight, upper, middle, lower, and lower ten. The counties in and around the capital city are divided into one to four grades, namely Chi, Ki, Cichi, and Ciji, and the other counties of the fifth to tenth grades are more than 4,000 households in order of number of households, 3,000 or more households are tight counties, more than 2,000 households are upper counties, more than 1,000 households are middle counties, more than 500 households are lower counties, and less than 500 households are lower counties, and they rise and fall once every three years.

Even now, the Chi County of the Great Song Dynasty is only Kaifeng County, Xiangfu County, Yingtianfu Songcheng County, Henan County, Luoyang County, Henan Province, and Yuancheng County.

When Zhao Guanjia heard this, he also sighed, but he looked sideways at the kneeling prince Zhao Heng, and when he saw him bowing his head, he also smiled coldly, and he also gave Huang Jie a continuing look.

Huang Jie also knew what was going on, and continued: "As for Zhou Shizong after that, he killed less people, but only destroyed 30,336 monasteries, and cast countless Buddha statues and bells, chimes and other magic tools into money. However, after the defeat of Zhou Shizong in the west, after Shu, three expeditions to the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the northern expedition to the Liao Dynasty, the military baggage used, it is said that it is the destruction of the Buddha. ”

According to historical records, the main reason for the four extermination of the Buddha by the "Three Martial Arts and One Sect" is that the motives of each emperor are different, and the situation is different, but they are all the same. It is nothing more than political reasons; 2. Conflicts in the ideological and cultural spheres; Third, it is a defect in the sangha style; Fourth, it is the contradiction of economic interests between monks and laymen.

But on the whole, the reason why the emperors of the past dynasties destroyed the Buddha was really not much for the name or the gas, and the huge harvest of the previous Buddha destruction should be the main reason. Therefore, Zen Master Zongyi of the Song Dynasty made a review for this: "Born with three martial arts and disasters to my sect, Shizi went home to the tower and the temple was empty, it should be the worship day of the past, and it was impossible to clear the inspection and guard the true wind." ”

However, about the matter of the destruction of the Buddha by Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Guanjia was indifferent when he heard it, thinking that it was because it was about the Song Taizong Dynasty Zhou, seeing that Zhao Guan's family did not come to pick up the stubble, Huang Jie paused for a while, and then said: "Therefore, in the opinion of the ministers, the destruction of Buddha in the past dynasties is mostly to remove its surface and limit its law, but it has not destroyed its roots and destroyed its heart." Therefore, the minister's policy is naturally to synthesize the strategy of destroying the Buddha in the past dynasties, and increase the ruthlessness and poison. This first step is to make it clear to the world, ordering the world's liberators to hand over the fields, forests, temple properties, and money they occupy within three months, and after the government receives them, they can return a certain amount of money according to the number of years they have been ordained, so that they can return home and return to the world! (To be continued.) )