Chapter 336 The Harm of This Religion

Under the gaze of Li Si and others, Gan Yu shook his head and said, “No, the monks of the Maurya Kingdom are exempt from corvée and taxes. Since the rise of Buddhism under King Ashoka, Buddhist temples and pagodas have been built everywhere in the Maurya Kingdom. It is said that there are more than 84,000 Buddhist stupas enshrining Buddha’s bones.”

Wang Wan, Li Si and others were astonished by this number. Even if the Buddhist relic pagoda was not difficult to build, the manpower and material resources wasted with such a large number would be enormous. What’s more, this was only the Buddhist relic pagoda, and no other buildings were mentioned.

If all were counted, the resources wasted by the Peacock Kingdom on Buddhism would be even more astonishing.

What were the people of the Maurya Kingdom thinking when they spent so many resources on Buddhism, a religion that required neither corvée nor taxation? Wouldn’t it be better to use these resources for farming and production to strengthen their own national strength?

But it is a good thing for Daqin that the Peacock Kingdom wastes its resources on these things. I hope that the Peacock Kingdom can continue to carry out this operation so as not to pose a threat to Daqin.

Wang Jian then asked: “Can everyone in the Peacock Kingdom have enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear?”

Gan Yu shook his head: “How is that possible? There are also people in Peacock Country who don’t have enough to eat and wear warm clothes!”

After getting Gan Yu’s answer, Wang Jian raised his eyebrows: “It seems that Buddhism is hypocritical!”

After giving this evaluation, Wang Jian immediately explained the reason for his evaluation: “Buddhism teaches people to do good deeds and to accumulate virtue, and that all living beings are equal. However, there are still people in the country who cannot have enough food and clothing, yet they spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build the Buddha’s stupa.”

“If these manpower and material resources were used for farming, many people who were starving would have food to eat and people without clothes to wear. However, they turned a blind eye to the people in their country who were hungry and cold, and instead built that tower, and even had the nerve to say ‘doing good deeds and accumulating virtues’. Isn’t this hypocrisy?”

Judging from what Wang Jian said, the Buddhism of the Peacock Kingdom was indeed hypocritical. Wang Jian said to the First Emperor: “Your Majesty, such a hypocritical religion must not be allowed to spread in Daqin!”

The First Emperor nodded. Even though Buddhism in the Maurya Kingdom was beneficial to internal governance, it did have many drawbacks and defects.

Wang Wan asked: “Then, with Buddhism doing this in the Peacock Kingdom, didn’t it cause resentment among the people of the Peacock Kingdom?”

If the people of Peacock Country were a little bit normal, they would definitely feel resentment and resistance towards the Peacock Country Buddhism because of the operations carried out by the Peacock Country Buddhism in the Peacock Country: We are still hungry and cold, and you bastards are actually wasting resources to build that kind of stupa?

Hearing Wang Wan’s question, Gan Yu looked strange and shook his head, “No!”

Upon hearing this answer, Wang Wan, Li Si and others were stunned. They did not feel any resentment or resistance. What kind of people are the people of the Peacock Kingdom?
Gan Yu explained: “The Peacock Kingdom has a very… strange system called the ‘caste system’. Under this caste system…”

As Gan Yu explained, everyone in the hall recalled that Li Nian had once told them about this thing, and that it was a rather outrageous system.

At the time they had just listened to it as an anecdote for fun, but now after listening to Gan Yu’s personal account after he returned from the Peacock Kingdom, they realized that this surname system was even more outrageous than when Li Nian had told them.

But the most outrageous thing is the people of Peacock Kingdom, who can actually tolerate such a system and are even willing to obey and protect it!

Who are the people of Peacock Country? Are they really normal people?
After listening to Gan Yu’s talk about the caste system, Wang Jian shook his head and said, “This further shows the hypocrisy of Buddhism. They claim that all living beings are equal, but they haven’t even broken the caste system. How can we talk about equality?”

Li Si commented: “No wonder Buddhism flourished in the Peacock Kingdom. With such people, there is such a religion!”

Wei Liao said sternly: “Our Great Qin must never use this system!”

Although there was also inequality in the Qin Dynasty and people were divided into different classes, it was not as outrageous as the caste system in the Maurya Kingdom.

Moreover, it is not feasible to do this in Daqin. The people of Daqin are normal people. If they dare to do it, it won’t be long before a fox speaks human language in a certain place, a one-eyed stone man emerges from the river, and a meteorite with a prophecy falls from the sky…

The people of Daqin will not endure it like the people of Peacock Kingdom, and will not take the initiative to defend it. Then the world will surely be in chaos.

Gan Yu continued, “In addition to the caste system that makes the people of the Peacock Kingdom very tolerant, there is another important reason why they have no complaints or objections to Buddhism. The resources of the Peacock Kingdom are indeed abundant.”

“We have visited Tanmo Lidi. The local people’s farming methods are far inferior to ours, and their diligence is also far inferior. However, their land is fertile, the environment is suitable, and the climate is suitable. There is no need to cultivate it intensively, and there will be a good harvest.”

“The mountains, forests, rivers and lakes are also rich in products. When you are hungry, you only need to go into the mountains to find wild vegetables and fruits.”

Everyone understood Gan Yu’s meaning. The Peacock Kingdom was rich in resources and it was relatively easy to obtain food, so the people had a high level of endurance. If the king wanted to build temples and pagodas for the monks, then they should just build them. They would not starve to death anyway.

If you think about it carefully, it is true. In many eras, the lower class people did not have high demands. As long as their basic survival needs were met, they could endure even if they lost something.

But this Peacock Kingdom is really a good place. If there is a chance, Daqin must take it down!
Wang Wan, Li Si and others secretly thought in their hearts that if the news brought back by Gan Yu was true, then it would not be difficult to take over this place, and it should not be difficult to govern it. The people here could even tolerate that kind of surname system, so they would surely be able to tolerate having the Great Qin father above their heads.

Gan Yu continued to explain why he believed Buddhism could not be spread in Daqin, saying: “Third, in Buddhist teachings, once you join the religion, you are considered to have ‘left home’. The so-called ‘left home’ does not mean ‘leaving home’, but severing worldly ties, that is, relationships with the secular world, such as the relationship with parents, the relationship with wife, and the relationship with brothers and sisters.”

“After becoming a monk, one is no longer the son of parents, the brother of sisters, or the father of children. One only has one identity: a Buddhist disciple. For example, the Buddha was once a prince of a certain country, with parents, a wife, and children. But after becoming a monk, he was no longer a prince, nor was he the father of his wife or his children.”

These words made Wang Wan, Li Si and others frown. The teachings of Buddhism were too contrary to their ideas: if they join your religion, they will even abandon their relatives?
Gan Yu added: “After entering Buddhism, you can only convert to Buddhism and believe in Buddha. You are not even allowed to worship your ancestors!”

Wang Jian immediately sneered and said, “What? If my descendants convert to Buddhism, they will also lose me as their ancestor and no longer recognize me. They can only recognize that damn Buddha?”

The Chinese people not only respect their ancestors, but also attach importance to caring for their descendants. This is a great advantage that enables Chinese civilization to thrive and multiply. Generation after generation of ancestors have worked hard to open up the way for future generations, which has led to today’s situation.

They also inherited this culture, walking the same path as their ancestors, commemorating their achievements and paving the way for future generations.

But Buddhism wants them to abandon their ancestors, which means they will cut off the inheritance of civilization. How can they meet their ancestors after death? How will their descendants see them? No, if they really follow Buddhism, they will not have any descendants, and they will not be able to enjoy the sacrifices and commemorations given to them by their descendants.

If everyone in the world followed the Buddhist teachings and became a monk and severed ties with family, then no new people would be born in this world and all humans would become extinct sooner or later.

This is not a religion that guides people to do good, it is clearly an evil cult!

The First Emperor, Wang Wan and others also saw this. If the Buddhist teachings were really followed, it would have an impact on family relationships, population reproduction and other issues. Families would no longer be harmonious and the population would decrease. Family and population are closely related to the development of a country.

Of course, this is actually impossible to do!

Because not everyone believes in Buddhism, and not everyone will strictly follow Buddhist teachings, just like practicing any one of Confucianism, Taoism, or Mohism can make the world a beautiful place, but it has never been done.

Qin Shi Huang, Wang Wan and others also understood this point, but even if they could not do it, it was certain that Buddhism would bring about various negative effects, which was unacceptable to Qin Shi Huang.

In response to Wang Jian’s question, Gan Yu said, “General, that’s exactly it! If you convert to Buddhism, you must cut off your connection with the secular world, and naturally you can no longer worship your ancestors.”

Wang Jian sneered, “Mundane? It’s as if Buddhists are not ordinary people, and they have all become immortals, and don’t need to eat, drink, defecate or urinate? Since everyone is not ordinary people, but immortals, then why do they still beg for food and ask for donations? It’s hypocritical, hypocritical to the extreme!”

Wang Jian shook his head and looked at Wang Ben: “I can’t control other people, but I, the Wang family, will never allow anyone to join Buddhism. If any of my descendants want to join the foreign religion, the others will fight against them. When we go back, we will include this in our Wang family’s ancestral precepts!”

When his father spoke, Wang Ben immediately said yes. The First Emperor also joined in the fun and said, “I will add one more rule for the old general. If any of the descendants of the Wang family joins the Yi religion, the other descendants of the Wang family will kill them, and it will not be considered a violation of the law.”

This was equivalent to endorsing Wang Jian’s ancestral teachings from a legal perspective. This was not actually a good thing, but Li Nian thought about it and did not speak out against it. He also did not want Buddhism to take root in China in this world.

The past cannot be changed, but the Qin Dynasty in this world is still a blank sheet of paper. He does not want it to be stained with some messy colors. If he can prevent it, he should try his best to prevent it.

The three points that Guang Ganyu said have caused everyone in the hall to hate Buddhism. This thing must never be spread in Daqin, otherwise it will be a poison for future generations.

In history, even Emperor Ming of Han, Liu Zhuang, who dreamed of golden men at night and sent envoys to India to seek Buddhist teachings, saw the harm of Buddhism and issued the “Anti-Buddhist Order”, prohibiting Han people from becoming monks and strictly restricting the development of Buddhism.

Unfortunately, what Emperor Ming of Han did was not enough. He did not expect that during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism would find an opportunity to flourish in China.

Wang Wan looked at Wang Jian and said, “This is not just a matter for the old general’s family, but it concerns the entire Qin Dynasty, and even the future generations of the Qin Dynasty. We should be more cautious.”

After saying this, Wang Wan looked at Gan Yu again and asked, “Buddhism is very powerful in the Peacock Kingdom and is the largest religion. Is there no crisis?”

Gan Yu said: “Prime Minister, there are two main reasons why those monks wanted to preach in our Great Qin: First, Buddhism flourished during the reign of King Ashoka and spread to all directions at that time, so they wanted to preach in other countries and places.”

“Secondly, the reason why Buddhism flourished was that Ashoka promoted it vigorously. However, Ashoka has been dead for ten years. The current king of Maurya Kingdom is Ashoka’s grandson. He does not believe in Buddhism, but Jainism.”

“This made the Buddhist monks such as Moye feel threatened, so they came from Tanmo Lidi and wanted to preach in my Great Qin.”

Wei Liao raised his eyebrows and said, “Originally, they regarded Daqin as their retreat route. As long as they succeed in preaching in Daqin, even if they fail in Kongque Country and Jainism takes away its position as the largest religion, they still have a way to retreat and will not be destroyed.”

“They can also use the Great Qin to recuperate. If there is any change in the Peacock Kingdom, the Jainism will be in danger and they can return to the Peacock Kingdom. These monks have a good idea, but are they so confident that they can succeed in preaching in the Great Qin?”

The First Emperor was curious and asked, “What is Jainism?”

Gan Yu said: “Your Majesty, Jainism is also a major religion in the Maurya Kingdom. Although it does not have as many followers as Buddhism, it is still not small. As far as we know, it appeared earlier than Buddhism, and Buddhist doctrines borrowed a lot from it, so they are very similar in some aspects.”

“For example, Jainism also believes in the cycle of cause and effect, and the retribution of karma, that is, ‘good deeds are rewarded with good, and evil deeds are punished with evil’. It advocates doing good deeds, not using violence, not killing, and advocating abstinence and asceticism. It believes that farming is killing, slaughtering is killing, hunting is killing… all should be prohibited!”

Why does it feel like this is a religion even more outrageous than the Buddhism of the Maurya Kingdom?
Li Si asked, “Do they also beg for food and accept donations from others?”

Gan Yu nodded and said, “Yes! Because of the extremely strict requirements on killing, most Jains are merchants. Jainism discriminates against women and does not allow women to join the religion or enter its temples. Some of its followers worship ‘celestial clothing’, also known as ’empty clothing’, which means not wearing clothes and exposing the body!”

“Jainism also advocates fasting. The Maurya King Chandra was a Jain. He died of fasting according to Jain customs.”

Hearing this, Qin Shi Huang and others looked surprised. The ultimate cause of death of King Yuehu, who founded the Peacock Kingdom, was that he starved himself to death?
Not only are the people of the Peacock Kingdom abnormal, but even their king is not normal. If the Qin Dynasty governs this place in the future, will it not be infected?
The First Emperor asked again, “Why did King Yuehu believe in Jainism?”

Gan Yu said: “Your Majesty, it may be related to King Yuehu’s birth. Although there are rumors in the Maurya Kingdom that King Yuehu is a Kshatriya of noble birth, we believe that this rumor is false. King Yuehu’s original caste must not be high, and he must be a Shudra!”

After hearing this, the First Emperor understood that because his caste was not high, King Yuehu was not the same kind of person as the original high castes, and he believed in Jainism in order to use Jainism to fight against the original high castes.

The First Emperor said: “The current King of Maurya Kingdom believes in Jainism, but he just follows his ancestor, King Chandra. No one else can criticize him.”

“However, he believed in Jainism, and like King Chandra, he had the idea of ​​using Jainism to fight against the high-caste nobles in the Maurya Kingdom and suppress Buddhism, which flourished under King Ashoka.”

“The King of the Peacock Kingdom does have some ideas, but I wonder if they can be implemented?”

(End of this chapter)