The biggest fundamental of Lingao Church is of course in Li District. [Read the latest chapter] Under the efforts of the missionaries,
The missionary coverage rate in Li District within Lingao County has reached above oh. There were more than a dozen villages that were all baptized. The number of believers grew to five to six thousand. In the Han District of Lingao, missionary work has also achieved great success by assisting in "suppressing bandits and dealing with the aftermath" in several mountainous areas that had been severely infested with bandits in the past.
As the security war in Qiongbei unfolded, the missionaries followed the bayonets and work teams of the Fubo army, and then penetrated into the counties in Qiongbei, especially in Danzhou, and achieved great results.
Wu Shimang not only preached vigorously, but was also very scheming. He knew that many people in the Senate had concerns about preaching, but they felt eager and anxious about "changing customs." Therefore, Dean Wu instructed the missionaries from Europe and the activists among the local believers to carry out propaganda to change customs. And practice it among believers.
After discussions by Wu Shimang, Bai Duolu and others, the promotion of changing customs and customs was determined to be based on "cultivating hygienic habits and resisting bad social trends". Use religion to promote various modern hygiene habits, such as washing hands before meals and after using the toilet, cleaning up garbage in front of and behind the house...,
..., just as Ai Beibei of the Ministry of Health started to promote "hospital delivery" in Lingao, Wu Shimang immediately asked the priests to promote "hospital delivery" during their sermons.
They also generously organized a voluntary pick-up team to pick up local pregnant women in sedan chairs. Under the dual inspiration of heaven and hell, the admission and birth rate of Han Chinese parishes in Lingao suddenly reached that of Jiuyou, and even exceeded that of the Bairen Commune, which had always been a model. For a time, the church became famous. Ai Beibei praised the church and even presented him with a special banner.
In addition, Wu Shimang presided over a "Etiquette Service Department" that mixed ancient and modern Chinese and foreign etiquette and created a set of simple and grand etiquette services. But he cunningly named it the "Australian Rite" and, depending on the ceremony, did not need to add Christian elements to it.
Thus evading the doubts of some elders. For many naturalized citizens who don’t have much money, there is no need to spend money to hold a wedding or memorial service in a magnificent church. The church has a nice choir, beautiful and solemn music, many flowers, and a The amiable priest, regardless of whether you are a Christian or not, will say some gorgeous blessings or words of condolences. The ceremony is solemn and simple, so it soon became popular among the converted people.
The development status of the Lingao Church was conveyed to Zhang Ying'an, who was missionary in Sanya, through several letters from friends.
For more than a year, Zhang Yingchen used Sanya as a starting point to go deep into Li District of Hainan Island, and used medical practice as a means to spread his "New Taoism" and achieved quite obvious results. Especially during the march inward from Sanya, he had successfully "captured" four villages and "infiltrated" ten. The so-called "capture" means that the entire village is worshiped as a god, and "infiltration" means that there are some believers. And a "medical cottage" with both medical treatment and Taoism was established in a major village.
Although he was single and weak, he relied on his knowledge of modern Chinese medicine and the medicines purchased from Runshitang to practice medicine without any hindrance in Li District, and the effect of his preaching was not much worse than that of Catholicism. Of course, he has also encountered many dangers during his more than one year missionary career. The knowledge of wilderness survival and the modern weapons and tools he learned in surprise helped him a lot, and saved him from danger several times. But there are few people and no strength. Shan was always an important problem for him. Zhang Yingchen felt that he could not expand his team quickly. Dean Wu could sit in the center and continue to make money for church management. The Jesuit priests went out to preach and preach. He also had Bai Duo Lu acted as his assistant,
Communicate with local believers. Expanding believers, running churches, and training priests were carried out in three aspects at the same time, but he was completely focused on one and neglected the other.
Because no one was responsible for the training, several "Daosheng" who were finally obtained had to be temporarily placed in Fangcaodi to continue their cultural studies. This is not the case with Zhang Yingchen's plan. He originally planned to "1 cultivate" the boys himself, but now that it is in Hu Qingbai's hands, it would be bad if he instills any knowledge that is not conducive to the concepts he plans to impart.
Due to various practical concerns, Zhang Yingchen had to end his activities in Li District ahead of schedule and rush back to Lingao before the annual meeting. He planned to "arrange the situation" and stabilize his position first.
According to Zhang Yingchen's initial development plan, the core institution of New Taoism was located in Ding'an County, where there is Bijia Mountain, a holy land of Taoism and the place where Bai Yuchan, the master of the Southern Taoist Dan Dao Sect, emerged. With such a halo, New Taoism has unique conditions for building its own ancestral court in the local area.
As for the time to start construction, Zhang Yingchen originally planned to wait until the situation in Hainan was completely settled and the New Taoism had enough believers before starting the construction and reception of religious facilities. At least if there are more believers, funds can be guaranteed. But the current situation forced him to take action immediately. "New Taoism cannot do without its own religious facilities." Just building a medical hut in Sanya would not be enough. Since the development of the Catholic Church was faster than he expected, he had to take action quickly.
Zhang Yingchen first established a relationship with the Foreign Intelligence Service. His ultimate goal is the mainland. The Foreign Intelligence Service controls the funds, personnel and systems for activities on the mainland. Religion itself is an effective propaganda and infiltration tool. New Taoism at least It seemed more "local" than Catholicism, so he hit it off immediately during the talks with Jiang Shan and others. With the consent and matchmaking of the Foreign Intelligence Service, he reached a formal cooperative relationship with Chen Tianxiong of Leizhou Station, and transferred the Hai'an intelligence station to Suburban Monk Temple is a Taoist temple under the "New Taoism" system.
But there must be a Taoist temple in Lingao. No matter what, it will be the same in Lingao in the future. New Taoism in the "Holy Land of Cao Ming" must have a place.
It didn't take much effort to get the approval document for the proposal to build the Taoist temple from He Ying, and also obtained the material application for the construction from the Planning Institute. There were great difficulties in raising funds. The Ministry of Finance refused to allocate funds for the construction of the new Taoist temple. Before that, all the churches in Lingao had to raise their own funds. Although Liang Quanzi is much stronger than Dean Wu in terms of religious level, he has a very unfavorable condition: difficult sources of funds.
The Lingao Church is financially supported by the Jesuits. In contrast, the "New Taoism" can only receive limited activity fees from the Li-Miao Affairs Office. Of course, the Religious Office also has some activity funds allocated to it. But compared to Dean Wu, who can receive a box of silver coins from Macau every six months, and sometimes even get extra money from Macau under various pretexts, Zhang Yingchen's economic status is very poor. Although the people pay him tribute, Although he is a god, he cannot produce anything valuable to replenish the coffers of the new Taoism.
In the end, Zhang Yingchen had to resort to borrowing money. He borrowed a sum of money from Delong with his elder shares as collateral, and pooled all the remaining funds from the Li and Miao Affairs Office and the Religious Affairs Office to fund his activities. Finally, he After getting another sponsorship from a certain society, I barely scraped together enough money to build the Taoist temple.
Because of the tight cost, Zhang Yingchen went his own way and did not build a Taoist temple in the bustling Dongmen City. Instead, he chose to build a Taoist temple in Yongqing, five kilometers west of Lingao County. This is a Taoist temple built in the Song Dynasty. It was rebuilt by Taoist Zeng Daoning during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, destroyed by bandits during the Hongzhi period, and rebuilt by the county magistrate Wang Xi during the Zhengde period.
At this time, almost one hundred and fifty years have passed since the last reconstruction of Yongqingguan. The Taoist temple has long been abandoned, and only the stone foundations of the buildings remain.
Zhang Yingchen chose this place first because the land price here was cheap, not only lower than Dongmen City, but also lower than Lingao County. Secondly, it is not very far from the county seat, and the access road has been built, so the transportation is convenient, and it is relatively far away from the busy city and quiet. The foundations of houses here are well preserved and the cost of building a house is not high. There are still many ancient trees on the foundation, and after renovation, the environment is quite good.
Zhang Yingchen named this place Yunji Temple. He personally drew the floor plan of the building and communicated the styles he envisioned with the designers of the construction company one by one to ensure that they understood his vision. However, due to funding constraints, the entire project will be divided into several phases. In the first phase, a courtyard was built for his residence and maintenance, plus a courtyard for "Taoists" to live and study. In addition, he also built a scripture collection pavilion to store various Taoist classics he purchased and collected.
At this moment, Zhang Yingchen, the "headmaster" of "New Taoism" who calls himself "Stealing Quanzi", is entertaining guests in a clean room of the newly built Taoist temple.
Zhang Yingchen wore a "new Taoist uniform" designed by himself with a bun and beard. Because he has been preaching in Li District for a long time, he has a dark complexion, a thin figure, and a somewhat immortal air.
He held a cup of tea, blew lightly, took a sip, and then said after a while: "You want me to go to Hangzhou with you?"
"Not bad." The man who spoke was in his thirties, and he was dressed in Akito's attire. It was Zhao Yingong who applied to serve as consul in Batavia a few days ago. He applied to participate in the training program for foreign intelligence officers of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Prepare to go to Hangzhou to carry out work as a descendant of the Song Dynasty clan.
"What can a wandering Taoist priest do if he goes to Hangzhou to preach?" Zhang Yingchen said.
"Of course. You are a Taoist priest. Wouldn't it be better to engage in charity activities than me, an outsider who suddenly appeared?" Zhao Yingong's idea passed the approval of Jiang Shan and others, and was also approved by He Ying. Now it depends on Zhang Yingchen himself Meaning.
It is much more reassuring for a religious institution to come forward to do charity than a strange foreign rich man who suddenly appears to do charity. Zhao Yingong's idea was to ask Zhang Yingchen to come forward and build a Taoist temple first, and then use the Taoist temple as a base to run charities. Once the office has gained a bit of reputation, it will be much easier to come forward to take in the refugees when the Great Famine broke out in eastern Zhejiang in 1632. a.
