Not focusing on the main business~~ At least it's original

Using the incident of secular monks (no longer called 'lecherous monks'; by the way, who isn't lecherous, right? 'Wealth cannot lead to lechery' is nonsense), it's a good opportunity to briefly sort out Han Buddhism.

The origins of Buddhism: In the 7th century BCE, the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born in a small Indian kingdom, over 100 years before Confucius. At that time, Hinduism dominated the Indian subcontinent, insisting on patience and endurance, claiming that common people must endure in this life to be reborn into higher castes in the next. Siddhartha questioned the benefits of high caste in the next life and proposed that one should break free from the cycle of reincarnation, aiming for the bliss of Nirvana, thereby founding Buddhism, which added that not only must one endure, but one must also practice.

Buddhism's development: The status of Hinduism was difficult to shake until the emergence of the first unified empire in India, the Maurya Empire, led by the ruthless Ashoka, who unified all of India and began to support the weaker Buddhism to brainwash Indians. This allowed Buddhism to spread widely for the first time. Therefore, the development of religion must be combined with political power from the beginning, as they mutually utilized each other, which is why authoritarian governments are so wary of religion. Later, India splintered again, with Hinduism and Buddhism being used interchangeably by rulers. However, Ashoka aimed to promote Buddhism worldwide, leading to two main routes of dissemination: Southern Buddhism and Northern Buddhism. Southern Buddhism reached Southeast Asia, becoming what is now known as Theravada Buddhism; Northern Buddhism spread to Central Asia, marking the beginning of Mahayana Buddhism.

Buddhism enters China: The Buddhist influence from Central Asia arrived as the great Yuezhi people, fleeing westward from the Huns, defeated the Hellenistic kingdom established by Alexander the Great. They discovered that Buddhism could be effectively utilized and established the Kushan Empire, launching campaigns to the west and south, essentially unifying India. This marked the second unified empire in Indian history, which initially adopted Buddhism as the state religion. At this time, Buddhism had begun to incorporate some organizational aspects of Christianity. During the Eastern Han period in China, a diplomatic mission from the Kushan Empire brought back the first Buddhist scripture (the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters), which was that of Wei Xiaobao, and a White Horse Temple was built in Luoyang to store the scriptures. This marked Buddhism's first entry into China.

The blossoming of Buddhism: The Han Dynasty was a time when Confucianism dominated, and the ruling class revered Confucianism. Some rebellious figures and the public engaged in Daoism, while the subsequent Jin Dynasty produced a bizarre metaphysical discourse without any space for Buddhism to survive. It wasn't until the arrival of the Five Barbarians that those northern tribes, unable to accept indigenous Confucianism and Daoism, brought forth Buddhism, also a foreign religion. The former Qin ruler Fu Jian sent an army of 100,000 to conquer a small nation in Central Asia to capture a high monk, Kumarajiva. This marked the first blossoming of Buddhism in China, and the fame of Shaolin Temple began around the same time when Master Bodhidharma crossed the river with a reed to meditate at Shaolin Temple.

Later, there were some excesses, such as the Liang Wu Emperor of the Southern Dynasties who kidnapped himself to a Buddhist temple and had his ministers use state funds to redeem him, doing this four times in total, directly disrupting the economic lifeblood of the Liang Dynasty. Later, the Sui Dynasty unified the Northern and Southern Dynasties and established Buddhism as the state religion.

The low tide of Buddhism: In the subsequent Tang and Song Dynasties, there arose the 'Three Wu and One Zong' movement against Buddhism, where four emperors opposed Buddhism because it consumed too many social resources. Monks and nuns did not work or pay taxes, living off offerings while enjoying privileges and lending at high interest. Han Buddhism fell into a low period. After this, Buddhism obediently complied, and Mahayana Buddhism was entirely co-opted as a tool for regime harmony. Most Han Buddhist monks became just a profession, and with the arrival of the end-of-the-law era, Tibetan Buddhism began to transform into a more sought-after goal for those aspiring to practice in the post-Republic era.

Lastly, let's talk about Shaolin Temple: I feel that the abbot's downfall is not a problem. For centuries, Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, has been closely tied to political power. From the thirteen monks of Tang's Li Shimin onwards, the martial monks were a strong IP used by the regime, reportedly 'practicing martial arts by imperial decree', which is no different from Stephen Chow's 'begging by imperial decree'. Since they chose to engage with the world, it's fine for monks to turn into secular monks; why force Shaolin monks to meditate? The abbot's downfall is more likely the result of failed political struggles among state-owned enterprise leaders.