It's just that Master Zhang is not interested in standing in front of the main hall and acting like a fairy and nodding and answering the common people. He is obviously more interested in holding study meetings. 【Read full text】
Although he has established a grassroots organization and a base here in Yizhou, these believers are essentially no different from folk sects such as the Nanwuliang Sect or the White Lotus Sect. Pirates Quanzi knows very well that in order to build New Taoism into one of the "cornerstones" of the ideological field of the "new society", it is unreliable to rely solely on this almost superstitious belief - there must be new religious beliefs that meet the needs of the new society. Just replace their superstition.
He was very clear about the Senate's attitude toward religion. He was well aware that some senators had a deep distrust of traditional religions and had the idea of "starting over again."
Rather than introducing foreign religions that are not adapted to the local conditions, it is better to transform them with Taoism that is native to China. Zhang Yingchen has always insisted on this point at religious work conferences.
Liang Quanzi's ambitions were great. The reason why he worked tirelessly to develop New Taoism was not simply to fight against foreign religions, but also to find a new path to purify and replace Chinese folk religions.
It is easy to eliminate the Ming Dynasty, but the various folk religions left by the Ming Dynasty and numerous believers are a threat to any regime. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, every political power except the Nationalist government has attacked and suppressed Huidao sects in an attempt to completely ban them. However, folk sects have always existed secretly. Once the pressure is slightly relaxed, they will revive. There are even new folk religions emerging constantly.
Zhang Yingchen has always believed that before the emergence of industrialized countries, religious precepts and propaganda were to a large extent one of the main forces regulating social behavior. That is to say, in the context of the Ming Dynasty, when Confucian scholars tried to establish Taoism and Buddhism, radicals such as the later famous Figures like Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi also believed that religious Shintoism had a social function. Although it does not help to curb the great evil, it can make the so-called pious women "obsessed with evil". Therefore, the scholar-bureaucrats' exclusion of Taoism and Buddhism was mostly due to Confucian intellectuals seizing the dominant position in ideology after Song Confucianism and excluding the influence of Taoism and Buddhism on the upper class of the landlord class. However, they welcomed the use of these two major religions to fool the lower class people. Very.
It's just that Zhu Chongba's bizarre religious system destroyed the basic foundations of Buddhism and Taoism, and caused the official religion to lose its ability to self-purify and eliminate and assimilate "heretics" during the Tang and Song Dynasties. This gave a large number of Taoist sects room to move.
The Ming Dynasty created a rigorous system in religious management. Zhu Yuanzhang's most important creation was to strengthen the original temple economy of Taoism and Buddhism in China. On the one hand, he prohibited religious personnel from contacting the masses and required Taoist monks to stay in Taoist temples and Buddhist temples and "not to mix with the common people." This resulted in the formal religious groups of Taoism and Buddhism being unable to contact society. Zhu Yuanzhang also established the "Nianji Taoists", a de facto serf class in the temple economy, which consolidated and transformed the temple tenant farmers into serfs. In this way, a small number of religious people with strict ultimatums actually became serf owners, and they were serf owners who were divorced from social activities. This is fatal to the development of religion. The original social functions of the sect were completely destroyed, causing Buddhism and Taoism to withdraw from social ideology and public opinion on a large scale, giving the Huidao Sect the soil to develop.
Later, he separated military households, craftsmen households, etc. from civilian households, and explicitly prohibited entry into Taoism and ordination. Therefore, the most powerful Monluo sect in the future was the creation of Luo Qing, a military household in Shandong, which can be said to have the greatest influence on this system. of ridicule.
As for the abandoned temple view. Each prefecture and county is only allowed to have one temple each, private temples are not allowed, women are not allowed to become monks, the perverted censorship system for monks, religious personnel are prohibited from making friends with lay people, Taoist monks are prohibited from alms, etc. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it can be said that they will become empty words. All the vitality of Taoism and Buddhism has been wiped out. The proliferation of Huidao sects in the Ming and Qing Dynasties has a lot to do with the fact that the Ming and Qing Dynasties continued to use Zhu Yuanzhang's strange system.
Yizhou. Or to be precise, Yinan County was the first experimental field for his new religion - the religious reform he carried out in Hainan was based on bayonets and the strong material power of the Senate, and could only be regarded as a greenhouse. flowers. Only in the Lunan region, where folk guilds and sects are intricately intertwined, can we truly test the success or failure of our own religious reform.
The location of the "Dharma" is located in the second "palace". Unlike ordinary monks and Taoists, Zhang Yingchen does not use a futon to teach his sermons. Instead, he "states the truth", and there is a big blackboard behind him. Every time he talks about a key point, he always picks up chalk and scribbles it on the blackboard. Naturally, the "spell" of flicking the tip of chalk with perfect accuracy is also indispensable.
Such study meetings are held every day, and the participants are the group leaders of each group and the selected "trainee Zhu Shi". There are men, women, old and young. The common feature is that they all have a certain level of education and can read and write.
Zhang Yingchen wore a traditional Taoist robe - his military-style Taoist robe was a bit shocking and had to be used in Hainan - walked to the blackboard, took a sip of tea given by his apprentice, moistened his throat and started speaking.
What we are talking about today is "The Transformation of All Things", and I don't know which Taoist scripture it comes from. The last time I talked about it was "The Opening of Chaos", but it did not deal with the story of the creation of gods like ordinary monks and Taoists. The single Taoist scripture is At the beginning of ancient times, the energy of chaos exploded due to the intersection of Yin and Yang. This explosion was the true form of Pangu's creation of the world. After the explosion, a void was born. This void was the Yuanshi Tianzun. In the void, one energy evolved, and the stars, sun and moon all moved with it. Qi is formed, and the ground under a person's feet is also a thing transformed from Qi. Therefore, Zhang Zai, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, had a glimpse of the truth and said that when Qi gathers form, it will transform all things. The one above spoke with great interest, while the one below seemed to understand.
"Everyone, the height of Mount Tai is only one grain of sand and one stone; the height of Lingchun is one grain of flower and one leaf. You must know that among all things in the world, there are small ones first, then there are big ones, there are humble ones first, and then there are noble ones. , first there are those who are young, and then there are those who are old and old. After the heaven and the earth were formed, all things came into being. First there were algae, and then there were grass and trees. Why? I have a piece of moss and a wisp of sphagnum here. Which of you has good eyesight? Come up and take a look, and after you’ve finished reading, I’ll explain it clearly to everyone.”
Playing with a ball of spigot soaked in water that was half green but not yellow in the porcelain bowl, and a piece of dry moss that had just been sprayed with water, Zhang Yingchen looked around at the study group leaders under him with great interest.
According to the outline, the first day of these days’ classes should be about the new Taoist cosmology, including the big bang, heliocentric theory, the law of universal gravitation, etc. Of course, this is just a general discussion. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, it is nothing more than a new version of Taoism that combines the Qi theory of Song Confucianism with the Huntian theory of Han Confucianism.
On the second day, I started teaching the theory of evolution. I first taught about the classification of plants, including algae, mosses, herbs, woody plants, gymnozoa, and quilts, and then taught about animals, including invertebrate coelenterates, platyhelminthes, annelids, molluscs, arthropods, and vertebrates. of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. In the end, it boils down to what the Tao says: Of all things in nature, human beings are the most precious. The three talents are in their proper place, and they are born in two realms. Why is it that people are only good at things? Among the ancient saints, the Chao family and the Suiren family taught the people to build nests to avoid tigers and wolves, make fire and eat cooked food. The Shen Nong family taught the people how to cure diseases by tasting herbs, established crops and taught the people the basics of farming. Bows and arrows are used as pestles and mortars, clothes are made, crowns are made, armors are made, and calculations are made. Therefore, he is the head of the Five Emperors and the first ancestor of humanities.
Change means change, and there are three signs of change to respond to the three talents. The stars move, the four seasons rotate, the sky changes, the high ones become mountains, the low ones become rivers, the rivers change their courses, the sea changes, the land changes, people multiply, craftsmen work and fight, Moral education, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the changes of people.
While he was talking in a riotous way, he glanced around and suddenly realized that several young men from the banker were also listening below, and the leader was Zhuang Yongling. They did not openly move chairs and sit down, but stood aside and listened quietly, looking very attentive.
Several young men of the banker's generation, headed by Zhuang Yongling, had read the book "Little Knowledge on Investigating Things" given by him. They usually asked him to go to the banker and always pestered him to ask questions. Naturally, Zhang Yingchen would not miss this great opportunity to "poison young people". He answered all questions and often gave him some thinking questions.
His knowledge opened a door to a new world for these young people who had only read the Four Books and Five Classics. These young people also went from a temporary "novelty" mentality to truly respecting and believing in this Taoist Zhang.
However, after all, the family rules of the banker are very strict, and in this kind of farming and reading family, learning "making skills" is always the core of learning. Other books are "idle books", and they are not allowed to be read before they have gained a certain degree of fame, let alone Needless to say, delving into this aspect of knowledge - that is simply "self-indulgent". Therefore, Zhang Yingchen must grasp the timing every time he meets these young people. So as not to be disgusted by the banker's people.
It was the New Year, and there was no need to study. A few teenagers slipped out probably in the name of watching a ritual ceremony. This was a great opportunity for me to further deepen my relationship with them and spread new knowledge.
The Taoist priest was secretly happy, cheered up, and began to show off even more, his words were as eloquent as a river, and his tongue was as bright as a lotus flower. After all the "explanation", I felt sweaty through my heavy clothes, but I could see that the effect was excellent.
After finishing speaking, he returned to his living room, changed his clothes under Luo Chun's service, wiped his face, and was drinking tea, when his apprentice came to report that several young masters from the banker's family were here to pay their respects.
"What are you praying for? It's too foreign." Zhang Yingchen said with a smile, "Please invite some young masters to come in."
Several teenagers filed in, led by Zhuang Yongling. In addition to the few he knew, there were a few more teenagers this time. They are probably all nephews and nephews of the banker's clan.
Zhang Yingchen was secretly happy - curiosity is the nature of a young man, and the new knowledge he instilled into Zhuang Yongling and others will inevitably have a great impact on the young people around him.
He could not reform the people of Zhuang Qian's generation, he could only make them understand the situation clearly and serve as a leader. But such young talents have great potential in education.
