***
The words of the Qin Emperor caused a great shock to Master Faqing. After the Emperor left Daci'en Temple, he immediately conducted a deep reflection.
Snowflakes were still floating outside the Zen room, and the room was silent. Zen Master Faqing seemed to be in a trance, saying nothing and moving nothing, letting the sandalwood incense on the stove linger.
Da Ci'en Temple is the birthplace of the Faxiang School. The eminent monk Xuanzang once presided over the temple affairs and led the translation of Buddhist scriptures here. He also personally supervised the construction of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is said that there are relics in the center of each floor of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, with perhaps one thousand, two thousand, or more than ten thousand grains in total.
Due to various reasons, Ci'en Temple has a very prominent position in the history of Chinese Buddhism. To be the abbot of the Great Ci'en Temple, one must be an eminent monk with profound Buddhist knowledge and high moral character, and Zen Master Faqing is no exception.
But today, the words of the Great Qin Emperor were like a wake-up call, and he fell into a whirlpool from which he could not extricate himself. Buddhism before the Tang Dynasty was full of pioneering spirit. It experienced catastrophes time and time again, but it was always able to quickly rise from the ashes and continue to expand.
Why
Isn’t it the result of great monks like Xuanzang and Jianzhen, who spread the Dharma unyieldingly, regardless of life and death
Since the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism has indeed become trivial and lacked pioneering spirit as the current emperor said. Instead of further expansion, it has continued to shrink.
There are very few Buddhist monks like Xuanzang and Jianzhen.
On the contrary, people saw that the Muslim sect was constantly invading the east, constantly engulfing the territory of Buddhism, and had spread to the Hetao area;
What we see are Western missionaries who travel thousands of miles across the ocean to preach. In order to preach, they can endure hunger, endure countless cold stares, and sacrifice their lives...
Buddhism lost Xuanzang and Jianzhen, but others have produced countless Xuanzang and Jianzhen.
One rises while the other falls.
Now, the Emperor of Qin is very dissatisfied with the Buddhists' complacency and increasing extravagance. If this continues, Buddhism's survival will be in jeopardy.
Zen Master Faqing chewed over the emperor's words word for word. When he mentioned Jianzhen's voyage to the East, he affirmed Jianzhen's contribution to the spread of Chinese culture. From this, it can be seen that the emperor still had some hopes for Buddhism.
At the same time, he also heard that the current emperor was very wary of the spreading Islamization. No matter how intense the war was, he never stopped promoting Hanization in Hetao.
The emperor's sudden visit to the Da Ci'en Temple this time sent such a message, obviously hoping that Buddhism could assist the court and play a positive role in it.
After a deep reflection, Master Faqing felt that this was a huge crisis and a great opportunity for Buddhism. He immediately invited the monks of various sects and large temples to come to Da Ci'en Temple to discuss countermeasures in the name of praying for the emperor's father.
***
After the car left the south gate of Chang'an City, we could see wheat seedlings budding in the winter and snowflakes falling on the roadside fields.
Qin Mu sighed inexplicably: "I traveled all over the world, day by day and year by year. Snow and frost fell, and the shepherd's purse and wheat grew luxuriantly. If you were not hurt, I would not have met you."
As the saying goes, "To be with the emperor is like being with a tiger." Gu Jun'en tactfully did not answer, in order to avoid being asked to put on more clothes to keep warm like he did just now.
After walking another two miles, we saw a large number of greenhouses on the roadside. The roofs of the greenhouses were covered in white, just like the surrounding fields. There were many chimneys around and in the middle of the greenhouses, with wisps of green smoke rising.
In front of the greenhouse, several officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and a middle-aged man in his forties with a plump face were standing in the snow, waiting excitedly and nervously.
After Qin Mu and Gu Jun'en got off the car, they all bowed down in haste: "Your Majesty, long live your Majesty, long live your Majesty, long, long live your Majesty."
"Stand up."
Qin Mu's tone was relaxed, and the uneasiness of the few people was replaced by joy.
The highest-ranking official among the few people was Chen Gui, the chief clerk of the Sinong Temple. He was about thirty years old and had an ordinary appearance, but his eyes were clear and upright, which made him very likable. He stepped forward and answered: "Your Majesty, it is warmer inside, but the environment inside..."
"Please lead the way, Chen Zhubu. If I were afraid of getting dirty, I wouldn't have come."
"Yes, yes, please, Your Majesty."
As soon as he entered the greenhouse, Qin Mu immediately felt a warm breeze blowing towards him. There was a thick layer of straw on the ground, which was obviously laid by Chen Gui and his friends as a temporary footrest because they were worried that the mud would get on their shoes.
Haha, you are quite careful. What would happen if your shoes were covered with mud when the leader came to inspect
In those days when there were no shoe covers, laying some straw was an economical and affordable method. Not bad, really good, I'll promote you later.
In the greenhouse, all kinds of vegetables are fresh and growing well. In addition to green vegetables, there are also mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, fungus, beans and the like, planted in rows and lines.
As you walk along, you can also see jars of flowers, such as peonies, herbaceous peonies, etc.
Qin Mu thought the light in the greenhouse would be dim, but he was wrong. There were brick walls on both sides of the greenhouse and large pieces of glass inlaid.
The ceiling beams and columns are made of a combination of steel pipes, wood and brick columns. The steel pipe beams and columns are also covered with glass roofs, while other places are still covered with thatched roofs. The brick columns are actually the chimneys of the built-in stoves.
No wonder, a greenhouse of 200 acres requires an investment of nearly 100,000 dragon coins. Nowadays, there are many wealthy families who can afford 100,000 dragon coins, but there are definitely not many who are willing to spend 100,000 dragon coins on this.
Chen Gui led the way and introduced, "Your Majesty, Sinong Temple has set up 15 pilot projects of varying sizes in Xijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Jinan, Taiyuan, Beijing, etc. All of them are funded by private individuals, and Sinong Temple is responsible for providing technical methods.
All the output of the greenhouse will be distributed in the form of 85% to the private sector and 15% to the Sinong Temple. The income of the Sinong Temple will be mainly used for crop variety improvement, grafting technology research, etc.
Qin Mu nodded and said, "How is the harvest now?"
"Your Majesty, take the greenhouse in Xijing as an example. We have invested 89,000 dragon coins. Judging from the current situation, we can get back 30,000 to 40,000 dragon coins this winter, and the entire investment cost can be recovered in two to three years. The situation in other places is similar to that in Xijing. Only the greenhouse in Kaifeng may take longer to recover the cost."
"Oh, why is Kaifeng special?"
"Your Majesty, Kaifeng was severely damaged by war a few years ago, and there are few wealthy households in the city. I believe Your Majesty also knows that the vegetables produced in this greenhouse are relatively expensive, and ordinary people can hardly afford them. Therefore, the speed of recovering costs is closely related to the number of wealthy households in each place."
"Well, that makes sense, but your prediction is probably not very accurate. I believe that within the next one or two years, the number of wealthy households in various places will increase rapidly, and their purchasing power will also increase accordingly."
"Yes, yes, your Majesty is diligent in his work and loves the people. People's livelihood in various places has recovered very quickly."
"Haha, go on."
"Yes, Your Majesty. After the greenhouse has recovered its costs, Sinong Temple will no longer be involved and will be fully managed by the investor. If Sinong Temple is still needed to provide seeds or cultivation technology support, the corresponding amount will be paid separately."
Qin Mu pointed at the glass on the wall and said, "This is the glass produced by my Great Qin, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. At present, Daqin has more than 20 glass factories. The glass production is increasing and the quality is improving. The cost has dropped a lot, and the price has also dropped. Although it is still a bit expensive, it can basically be used in greenhouses.
In addition, the cost of these steel frames is almost the same as that of brick columns, but steel columns can take up much less space. This is also due to the improvement of Daqin's smelting technology and the decline in steel prices brought about by the successive commissioning of six large-scale mines such as Ma'anshan in Nanzhili and Anshan in Liaodong. "
After hearing this, Qin Mu felt very happy. He did not cover everything and give personal instructions everywhere, but the injection of some new ways of thinking and the relaxation of some policies soon gave birth to many new things.
Building greenhouses like those in Sinong Temple may not be a big deal at the national level, but this move contains many innovative elements, and it is difficult to predict what else it will lead to.
There was a smell of coal in the air, and Qin Mu guessed without even looking that the greenhouse was heated by burning coal. In Guanzhong, Shanxi and other places, people had been using coal to make fires a long time ago, so this was not surprising.
Qin Mu suddenly thought of the honeycomb coal that was popular in later generations. The processing technology was simple, but it was easy to burn and greatly improved the utilization rate of coal. Qin Mu was afraid that he would forget it later, so he immediately told Chen Gui and others how to make honeycomb coal.
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