Chapter 11: The New Religion

He Ying knew that block-printed books from the Ming Dynasty were quite expensive, and for an elder to spend silver, the exchange process at Delong Bank was very troublesome. Most elders couldn’t be bothered. This Zhang Yingchen was really willing to invest. On the white wall hung a painting of “Laozi Converting the Barbarians,” a work by some local Ming Dynasty painter, probably also bought from the spoils of the Gou family.

Zhang Yingchen wore a strange outfit: a dark blue, cross-collared Daoist robe tied with a cloth sash, tailored by the Lin’gao clothing factory according to his design. He also had his hair in a short ponytail, looking like a modern artist.

This man was humming a tune while writing something quickly on paper. Listening closely, He Ying realized he was setting lyrics to a scripture.

“Such great talent for propaganda, it’s a bit of a waste to use it for this,” He Ying said with some regret, looking at the several new Daoist scriptures Zhang Yingchen had written lyrics for.

“As long as I can shine and contribute to the transmigrator group in the most suitable position, it’s not a waste,” Zhang Yingchen said, only now noticing his arrival. He quickly took off his headphones and smiled as he brewed a fresh pot of tea for him.

“As someone who is about to grow out his hair, a frugal life and cautious speech are necessary. So, I’ve given up all things like tobacco and alcohol. I don’t have anything good to offer you.”

“It’s fine,” He Ying thought. This man is really dedicated. Holding his teacup, he got straight to the point. “I just came to hear about your system for this New Daoism.”

“Please take a look at this first,” Zhang Yingchen said, opening a box beside him. Inside were new books, smelling of fresh ink. The binding style immediately told him they were printed in their own printing house.

He Ying took it and saw the title on the cover: The Jade Scripture of the Supreme Cavernous Abyss for the Salvation of the World. He knew nothing about Daoist classics. After flipping through a few pages, he felt a bit lost.

“Look at these few sentences,” Zhang Yingchen pointed.

He Ying looked closely and saw it read: “In the era of the Great Ming, at the end of the world, the people are not pure, and the Miao descendants rise. One only hears the sound of weeping corpses, not the sound of immortal songs. The people are filthy, the three caverns are blocked, the disaster of the one hundred and six, weapons and plagues, the demon kings release their poison, killing the good and kind. Every household is in decline, cries of sorrow follow one another, living beings devour each other, creating their own suffering, leading each other to death, embracing foolishness and suffering, without knowing the way out.”

“The Great Ming?” he asked hesitantly. “Is this the Great Ming we are in now?”

“That’s right, this very Great Ming,” Zhang Yingchen nodded, picking up another volume. “Look here.”

“When the great calamity comes, in the Central Kingdom there will be the immortal Wen Si, the immortal Wu Mei, and the immortal Ma Shu, leading five hundred immortal saints, all riding on iron ships, to receive the Daoists who have the scriptures. Wait for them, my children.”

He Ying understood at once. This was about the transmigrator group! He asked in surprise, “Did you write this?”

“Yes and no,” Zhang Yingchen said with some pride. He took another book from the shelf and opened it to a certain page for him to see.

The book was titled The Divine Spell Scripture of the Supreme Cavernous Abyss. He Ying carefully read the section he pointed to: “When the great flood comes, in the Central Kingdom there will be the immortal Tang Ping, the immortal Yu Guang, and the immortal Ma Qi, leading eighty thousand celestial beings. The immortals will ride on iron ships to receive the Daoists who have the scriptures. Wait for them, my children.”

“The ‘Great Ming’ part you just read, the original text was actually ‘Great Jin’.”

“You’re altering the Daoist classics!” He Ying suddenly understood. This Zhang Yingchen was quite something! To even think of this move. It required someone extremely familiar with and deeply researched in Daoist scriptures. He couldn’t help but look at this doctor in a new light.

“Exactly. What I want to promote is a New Daoism, not to follow the old system,” Zhang Yingchen nodded. “I plan to compile the True Canon for the Interpretation of the Dao, based on Laozi’s Xiang’er Commentary and the Taiping Jing, as the sole designated scripture for the Daoist clergy of Lin’gao.”

“Such major deletions and alterations won’t work, will they?” He Ying expressed his doubt. “Although Daoism is very weak here in Lin’gao, it is still a powerful presence nationwide. This scripture is not a unique copy. Your direct alterations will be exposed.”

“Don’t worry about that. Doctrinal disputes exist everywhere. It all depends on who has the upper hand,” Zhang Yingchen said, seemingly unconcerned and full of confidence.

“Leaving aside the doctrine, the Catholic Church has already established a foothold. How will a newly emerged church coexist? Won’t it cause great confusion in terms of faith?”

“The way to reconcile this is to have the two new religions coexist, mutually recognizing each other as brotherly religions, while also checking and balancing each other. Because the Daoist template I’m using adopts the Taiping Dao’s theory of a savior and an earthly divine kingdom, which is almost the same as the Christian idea of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ,” Zhang Yingchen said. “There’s a lot of room for maneuver in this, and it leaves room for future development. If we follow Director Wu’s approach, a single religion’s divine authority will expand excessively, and its future influence on the transmigrator state will surpass that of the Senate. This is a side effect we must guard against.”

He Ying nodded. This was also what he had been worried about recently. Now, the other party’s line of thought was clear and organized. This plan had potential.

“Tell me about your specific ideas.”

“Firstly, the ultimate belief of Daoist doctrine is the Dao, the so-called ‘there was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth.’ Philosophically and theologically, this is far superior to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.”

This opening is not unexpected, He Ying thought. It’s common to start by belittling the competitor.

“Secondly, the Daoist worldview comes from the theory of Dao and Qi. From the gods and stars above to the mortals and ants below, all are manifestations of the primordial Qi.”

“The ‘qi’ of qigong?”

“No, it’s ‘炁’ (qì),” Zhang Yingchen said, dipping his finger in tea and writing the character on the table. “‘炁’ is the prenatal Qi, while ‘气’ (qì) is the postnatal Qi. The two are completely different.”

He continued to explain: the so-called 炁 is a metaphysical, mysterious energy, different from 气.

“In our traditional Chinese medicine theory, it refers to the most basic energy that constitutes the human body and maintains life activities. It also has the meaning of physiological function. In Chinese medical terminology, 炁 is combined with different words to express various different meanings, such as the Qi of the five viscera, the Qi of the six fu-organs, the Qi of the meridians, etc. And an important concept in Daoism is ‘One Qi transforms into the Three Pure Ones’.”

“I see.” For some reason, He Ying suddenly thought of “psyker energy.” Could it be that concepts like warp energy are plagiarized from Chinese Daoist ideas? Thinking further about the “Tau” and “Harmony Theory” of the Tau people, He Ying became more convinced of this feeling.

Zhang Yingchen didn’t know that Director He was having such associations. He continued to explain the most important concept in his religious system:

“Note, it’s ‘一炁’ (yī qì), not ‘一气’ (yī qì),” Zhang Yingchen emphasized. “Based on these two points, we can carry out our transformation.”

His idea was to start from the root, based on the traditional “Dao-Qi theory,” with natural theology as a reference point, and completely discard the Daoist pantheon represented by the “Three Pure Ones and Four Sovereigns.” All gods and spirits would be interpreted as manifestations of the “Dao-Qi” at a certain level.

Secondly, Laozi would be established as the founder of the religion, not the supreme god. This left room for the ultimate form of the supreme god to be expanded upon.

Thirdly, regarding all gods and spirits, including the Daoist pantheon and the deities of other religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, the attitude of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would be adopted under the guidance of the Dao-Qi theory. These deities were merely manifestations of the Dao-Qi at a certain level.

“In the Japanese Shinto system, there is a concept of ‘gongen’ (avatar), which served to reconcile the conflict between Buddhism and Shinto, forming what is in fact a ‘dual-track system’ of religious belief in Japan.”

“Our goal is to completely integrate these beliefs into the new religious system of Lin’gao, making them the equivalent of saints in Christianity.”

“Of course, in such an integration, the old local ‘improper cults’ must be suppressed. Improper cult beliefs must be eliminated, and then the positive local deity beliefs will be transformed and converted.”

“For example, influential local deities in the Fujian region like Mazu and the Baosheng Dadi will be key targets for absorption by the New Daoism, making them objects of conversion. At the same time, we must also address the problem of local deity beliefs being detached from the Daoist organization in the past.”

Zhang Yingchen became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke.

“Let’s not talk about that for now. How do you plan to promote your New Daoism? To what extent can this promotion advance the rule of the transmigrator group?” He Ying interrupted his grand discourse on doctrine.

“As expected of Director He, you’ve hit the core issue right away,” Zhang Yingchen said, subtly flattering him. He stated that when propagating to the ordinary believers, the focus would be on “doing good,” “obeying the law,” and “supporting the Lin’gao regime,” combined with the theory of the “Four Heavens of the Seed People,” to make them believe they were the chosen people of the True Lord. At the same time, they would use the prophecies of the “True Lord’s descent” from Daoist scriptures like the Taiping Jing and the Divine Spell Scripture of the Cavernous Abyss to legitimize the Lin’gao regime.

“Of course, how to do the propaganda still needs to be communicated with the comrades in the propaganda department. This way, we can complement each other,” he said. “Right now, I only have some rough ideas, not very mature, so I won’t embarrass myself for now. My first step is still to establish the image of the New Daoism. Religious personnel must have a striking identity, so that they can clarify their identity and show the presence of the religion.”

He Ying nodded and once again sized up the slender doctor before him.

“How long have you been studying these materials?”

“Not long. I audited a course on Daoist studies in college. It’s a personal hobby. I’m interested in all forms of religion, not just Daoism. I was preparing to use it to pass the time when I was bored. I didn’t expect it to actually be useful.”

Zhang Yingchen shrugged nonchalantly and picked up the teapot beside him to refill He Ying’s cup.

“In short, the vestments of the New Daoism are the primary propaganda weapon. We must give the people a direct visual understanding, to distinguish the New Daoism from the old. Therefore, I chose this Tang-style, right-lapelled, narrow-sleeved, turned-collar ‘hu’ robe as the blueprint, and asked the colleagues at the clothing factory to design this uniform for general clergy.”

As he spoke, Zhang Yingchen pulled over a rattan box and took out two sets of grayish-blue, turned-collar ‘hu’ robes with a military uniform style, hanging them on a clothes rack.

“To distinguish between male and female clergy, the comrades at the clothing factory referred to the army uniform system and sewed a red armband on the right arm of the uniform. The Qian trigram armband represents male clergy, and the Kun trigram armband represents female clergy. Simple and clear.”

A pseudo-believer, but a very capable and religiously adept pseudo-believer. Looking at the military-style, turned-collar clerical robes in front of him, He Ying defined the man before him. In essence, he was the same as Wu Shimang, a dedicated and professional charlatan. The difference was that he had coated his soaring ambition with a rich layer of doctrine and theology, while Director Wu was simply going at it bare-chested.

He spoke eloquently and at length, covering theological points, the compilation of scriptures, the revision of doctrines, organizational management models, personnel training, and so on. He Ying was secretly amazed. This man had clearly been planning this for a long time. This whole system couldn’t have been developed without months of repeated consideration and revision. The claim of “passing the time when bored” was clearly a deliberate understatement.

“Of course, the establishment of the Daoist Council still requires the guidance of the leadership and comrades. I can’t do it alone behind closed doors—there will inevitably be an element of wishful thinking. These doctrines, precepts, rituals, vestments, and management are just my own rough ideas. They all need everyone’s supervision and control,” he concluded his presentation with a cliché-style speech.

As he said this, Zhang Yingchen still wore a gentle smile, but He Ying felt it was necessary to re-evaluate this doctor.

“Your approach is somewhat similar to the relationship between Protestantism and old Catholicism.”

“Indeed, there is that meaning,” Zhang Yingchen nodded. “New wine must be put into old bottles. The final product is a completely new religious system, and note, it’s a system, not a single dominant entity. A church that can influence the entire society is dangerous for a secular regime,” he said. “I think every elder engaged in religious activities should be reminded, no matter which religion, that religion is just a tool for propaganda and maintaining stability for the Lin’gao regime. Nothing more.”

“This is the inevitable conflict between a secular regime and a religious group,” He Ying pondered for a moment and suddenly proposed a new concept:

“Since a state religion will inevitably have the desire to meddle in secular society, and the conflict between the two is irreconcilable, what about a complete theocracy? For example, in England, the king is the head of the church.” He continued, “The five hundred immortal saints you’re talking about, doesn’t that mean that every elder is a ‘god’ in this system?”

“There’s a problem with a theocracy: England has a king who is the natural leader of the church. Who do we have? All five hundred of us are archangels. Will President Wen be the great archangel? Do you agree?” Zhang Yingchen asked and answered himself. “Obviously, you won’t agree. No one will agree to whoever becomes the great archangel. The danger in this is something everyone can see.”

“Organize your proposal, and I’ll report it to the Executive Committee,” He Ying said. “This matter will most likely have to be heard by the Senate Standing Committee. There are no small matters in the field of ideology.”

“A hearing is fine. I believe the elders will be able to fully grasp my intentions,” Zhang Yingchen said with great confidence. In any case, Daoism was a native product of China, and its status in the minds of the elders was very different.

[Note: The theories, concepts, clothing, and details of the New Daoism were all provided by “Dao Quan Zi” (Zhang Yingchen in the book) from the LK forum. My thanks to him!]