Chapter 1032: Inside the Cloud Ascending Temple
Daoist Zhang stood in the "Grand Hall" of the Cloud Ascending Temple—calling it a Grand Hall, it was merely a three-bay tiled house. Yet in this rural corner of southern Shandong, it counted as an impressively neat and regular structure. He gazed down at the sentient beings in the courtyard, their eyes raised to him with pious devotion. A faint smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
The hall contained only statues of the Three Pure Ones. According to New Daoism's concept of "no idols," there should be none at all—but Zhang Yingchen judged it unwise to appear too unconventional at present. Drawing attention from local gentry and officials would be counterproductive. Better to present the traditional image of the Way of the Celestial Masters.
The Cloud Ascending Temple itself was quite small, yet it had expanded considerably with the Zhuang family's full support. Beyond some land "donated" by the Zhuangs, most had been purchased by Zhang Yingchen himself. Though buying land during a famine year was easy, the Zhuang family had invested significant effort in the process. Zhang Yingchen had come to appreciate how essential the support of local gentry was for operating within the Ming Dynasty.
Because the surrounding area was unsafe, several masters of the Zhuang family had suggested Zhang Yingchen quickly transform the Daoist temple into a fortified stockade. Natural disasters plagued southern Shandong, with refugees and bandits everywhere. Villages and stockades of any size were rushing to construct walls and train militias. The Cloud Ascending Temple, though only four or five li from Dadian Village, stood isolated in open country. Originally an abandoned courtyard no one wanted, it now sheltered hundreds of refugee households and served as headquarters for New Daoism—making it an attractive target.
Zhang Yingchen agreed the Zhuang masters had a point. Manpower was plentiful—besides the large number of believers at his disposal, he had sufficient grain to recruit refugees willing to work for food. He immediately began constructing earthen ramparts.
Money posed no obstacle. Though he had declined the Zhuang family's donations and exempted believers from "incense money," most of the South Infinite Sect's real estate had fallen into his hands after its local disintegration—excepting some movable property and holdings seized by Ma Weisan. He sold part of the real estate to the Zhuang family, obtaining several hundred taels of silver and several hundred dan of grain.
Building materials required no worry either. During famine years, abandoned villages were plentiful. Zhang Yingchen mobilized refugees to dismantle houses and transport every brick, stone, timber, and even adobe block back. Soon, a wall five hundred meters in circumference rose around the Cloud Ascending Temple, with a moat dug beyond it. Corner towers at the four corners completed the structure, giving it the appearance of an earthen fortress.
To maintain the signboard of "charity," the Ciji Hall charitable organization established by the Zhuang family was also installed in the temple—ensuring close ties with the Zhuang family while diluting his own secret-society coloring.
The Ciji Hall now occupied the left and right wing rooms of the main hall. Zhang Yingchen did not interfere with its organization or personnel. After all, the Zhuang family provided the money, grain, and connections. His interest lay solely in the refugees.
The refugees lived outside the Cloud Ascending Temple but inside the earthen ramparts. Following Zhang Yingchen's blueprints, the Zhuang family had constructed rows of refugee-camp-style longhouses using adobe bricks and rice straw—purpose-built to shelter refugees. The believers under Zhang Yingchen were responsible for guarding and caring for them.
Zhang Yingchen maintained extremely strict control over his believers, forbidding them from preaching to the refugees. He propagated to believers only the doctrine that visiting the poor and inquiring about their suffering constituted "great merit" and represented "the immortals of the sea saving people"—avoiding suspicion from both the Ming Dynasty and the Senate.
Many of his believers had themselves become refugees, lacking sufficient food and clothing. Zhang Yingchen helped them survive the winter by distributing relief rations and bedding through group leaders, but he did not shelter them or arrange their departure. He could not yet guarantee the reliability of these former Infinite Sect believers. If they were transported to Jeju or Taiwan and caused trouble, the consequences for him and his New Daoism would be severe.
Zhang Yingchen descended the steps slowly—the morning consultation had concluded. He continued to see patients at the Cloud Ascending Temple for half of each day. His medicines proved miraculously effective, and he refused payment from the poor, causing his reputation to grow ever greater. The refugees, believers, and staff gathered in the courtyard parted to make way for him. Zhang Yingchen wore a compassionate smile, nodding or bowing in return from time to time, occasionally stopping to speak a few words with someone.
When certain believers saw him approach, they fell to their knees. Some shouted his name in wild ecstasy; others rushed forward attempting to touch his garments. The scene descended briefly into chaos. Zhang Yingchen knew some believers had even tried bribing the Daoist boys who served him closely, hoping to obtain his face-washing water or old clothes as medicinal primers. He had been forced to severely criticize this practice at group leaders' doctrine study meetings, denouncing it as "demonic."
Surrounded by Ming Qing and other trusted aides, he finally departed the main courtyard and walked toward the rear compound. This rear section had three distinct areas, serving as the New Daoism's offices and his personal residence and workspace. It was also the Senate's nerve center for the southern Shandong region.
Daoist Daoquanzi had accomplished several things here that he had always wanted to do but previously could not. One was finally gathering enough people to open a Daoist student training class. The Daoist—who had been constantly squeezed out and despised while fighting for a few Daoist student quotas—finally held his head high. With sufficient fame and a huge refugee population, he had selected fifty handsome young men and women as Daoist students according to his own aesthetic tastes and selection criteria.
Rows of houses lined the walls of the rear courtyard—dormitories and classrooms for the Daoist students. It was noon now, and since the canteen had not yet been constructed, the students were scattered in twos and threes throughout the courtyard, squatting or standing with their bowls, eating.
The food was simple, even harsh: gruel made of relief rations and dried vegetables. But for the Daoist students, it was the finest delicacy, and every one of them slurped it down with relish. Each student wore a short Daoist robe fashioned from locally purchased homespun cloth by female relatives of believers, many modified from dismantled and washed old clothes—nothing that would display too many Lingao characteristics.
Zhang Yingchen did not approach the Daoist students, fearing to cause a "crowd watching" incident. Recently, he had noticed the color of personality cult forming around him was growing thicker. This worried him deeply.
For this batch of Daoist students, he used his first group of disciples—Ming Qing and others—as teachers, first instructing them in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, then moving to doctrine. The so-called doctrinal teaching involved reciting pamphlets he had personally compiled: Introduction to the Daoist Canon, Questions and Answers on the Daoist Canon, and Compilation of Essential Scriptures. His time was limited, so he adopted a method primarily based on memorization, using one class period daily for explanation and indoctrination. Only the most crucial music course had no instructor. Though Daoquanzi had conducted considerable research on Daoist music, he was unfortunately hopeless at both instruments and singing.
This batch of unpolished jades cannot stay here, he thought, watching the Daoist students active in the courtyard. The environment is too dangerous. It would be a pity if they were ruined. He stood entranced for a long moment.
"Daoist Master..." Ming Qing prompted softly.
"Hm?! Oh." Zhang Yingchen came back to himself, coughed, and continued along the paved path toward his residential courtyard.
Several new tiled houses occupied this courtyard, exclusively for the residence and daily activities of himself and a few trusted disciples. Usually, Zhang Yingchen also compounded medicine here. But as Qiwei's freight routes became increasingly familiar and more patent Chinese medicines were shipped from Hong Kong, the pressure for him to make medicine personally had decreased considerably.
He returned to his chambers, and Luo Chun served him a bowl of clear tea. He drank half in one breath. The room was tidy and quiet, obviously carefully cleaned. He felt quite satisfied—having a woman made all the difference.
Luo Saichun—Zhang Yingchen had found her name too common, too "jianghu," so he had removed the "Sai" character. Now she was simply Luo Chun. She stood silently at his side. Since being subdued by his "magical power" at the Dharma Assembly, Luo Chun had become utterly devoted to the Daoist. Zhang Yingchen understood the psychology of such women perfectly. Once the psychological pillar in their hearts was destroyed, their worldview, outlook on life, and moral values would be completely torn down and rebuilt, making personality reshaping simple. And he, Zhang Yingchen, had read quite extensively on psychology and practice in this regard. After a period of careful training, the results were remarkable. Though Zhang Yingchen was not yet one hundred percent assured of her, he had at least eighty percent trust.
When matters here conclude, he pondered, I'll send her back to Lingao for a round of "purification" plus "re-education." She'll make a qualified professional religious person of New Daoism in the future.
Luo Chun stood beside the "Perfected One" with bated breath, ready to listen to his instructions at any moment. Having changed her allegiance, she held added awe for this Perfected One with boundless magical power—worship, almost. She considered herself merely a servant, attending to the Perfected One's daily life with care. All this was to beg the Perfected One to show mercy and perform rituals to chant scriptures for Hu Qi'er, delivering her soul to the "Immortal Mountains and Divine Realms on the other side of the sea." Though Hu Qi'er had no blood relation to her, Luo Chun had no other relatives in the world. Her only disciple had been her closest kin.
Zhang Yingchen employed both grace and authority with Luo Chun, striving to win her over completely. Luo Chun had served as Saintess of the Inner Dharma Hall of the South Infinite Sect for many years and knew the sect's internal affairs intimately. He intended to launch larger-scale activities in southern Shandong to seize territory from local sects, and Luo Chun would serve as his guide.
He did not trust Ma Weisan—though Ma responded to every plea, his attitude of controlling large amounts of sect property while keeping Zhang at arm's length made him deeply uncomfortable. When convening group leader meetings, Ma Weisan either made excuses not to attend or sent a deputy group leader to fill his seat, obviously full of wariness toward the Daoist.
Anyway, removing you is as easy as lifting a finger! Zhang Yingchen thought secretly. He need only say a word to Xiao Ye, and there would be no person named Ma Weisan by tomorrow night. Yet he still couldn't bring himself to act. Though this high-level figure was deeply unpopular, most group leaders and deputy group leaders had worked with Ma Weisan for years. Rashly killing him might make them feel like the fox mourning the death of the hare.
"Luo Chun, what do you think of Group Leader Ma?" Zhang Yingchen set down his tea bowl and asked slowly.
"Reporting to the Perfected One: Ma Weisan is not firm in faith. He possesses talent but lacks virtue."
Though she came from a background of performing street acrobatics, her years among the sect's upper echelons meant her speech was far from vulgar.
(End of Chapter)