Since ancient times, the war between the nomadic peoples and the Central Plains peoples has never stopped, the two sides in order to survive in the space of the big fight, since the Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall defense line, successive Central Plains Dynasties have stationed large armies along the Great Wall, as the main way to resist or attack the nomads, but the actual effect may not be satisfactory, the Western Jin Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty are still due to the attack of the nomadic people and the destruction of the country.
The Ming army resisted the Mongol army
In addition to the special situation of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Western Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty also controlled the entire Great Wall defense line, the Ming Dynasty also specially set up a nine-sided defense line to garrison a large army to guard against foreign enemies, but the Great Wall did not give them much sense of security, the annual consumption of military expenses dragged down the finances, not to mention, the nomadic people with sufficient strength still regarded the Great Wall as nothing, it can be seen that simple military defense or attack is not a good way to eliminate the hidden dangers of nomads.
The real beginning in history to no longer worry about the military threat of nomads is the Qing Dynasty, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty themselves come from similar to the nomadic fishing and hunting peoples, before entering the customs to unify the world, but also close relations with the Mongols, so the rulers of the Qing Dynasty know a lot about the habits of nomadic peoples, and they also have a wealth of experience in how to manage.
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was able to intimidate the nomadic tribes and peoples in the large areas from Tibet to Mongolia, and in addition to the absolute threat of force, they also adopted many methods that had not been thought of by previous dynasties. This article mainly talks about how Emperor Gaozong Qianlong did not station a large army, but still implemented effective management and deterrence methods against Tibetan and Mongolian tribes and sects.
The Qianlong Emperor was a well-known rich man among the dozen emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and his father, the Yongzheng Emperor, saved tens of millions of taels of silver in the treasury when he died, and after Qianlong ascended the throne, he also accumulated a large amount of money for the inner treasury through the operation of the imperial palace, as well as the salt, iron, tea, customs and other tax departments, including tributes from the country, fines for guilty officials, and even loans.
The Qianlong Emperor
Data show that during Qianlong's reign, the money earned by helping the imperial treasury exceeded 80 million taels of silver, which was equivalent to the field tax of the Qing Dynasty for more than two years at that time, Qianlong earned so much money, of course, not to be a scrooge, when he was in power, the small life was very luxurious, many times down to Jiangnan to play, including the renovation of the royal garden for himself and the empress to enjoy, Qianlong is not bad money.
According to the list statistics of the Qing Dynasty's Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the eighth year of Qianlong to the abdication of Qianlong, a total of about 45,000 expenses were spent, of which more than 20,000 involved in religious expenses in Tibet and Mongolia, accounting for half of the total expenditure.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty played a fold
Why did Qianlong spend so much money on religion so generously? What he wanted to do was also very simple, that is, to build temples. As early as the Kangxi period, some ministers said that they wanted to build the Great Wall, and Kangxi directly dismissed it, saying that all the previous dynasties had built the Great Wall, and there was no one who blocked the iron horse outside the Guanwai, so we did not build the Great Wall, and directly used force to subdue it.
By the time of Qianlong, after several wars, from the Tibetan area to the Uyghur region to the Mongolian area, trying to resist the enemies of the Qing Dynasty, all that should be defeated were defeated, and the rest was to appease and govern, and the people of all ethnic groups in this huge area had a common characteristic when they arrived in the Qing Dynasty, that is, the vast majority of people believed in the Yellow Religion that originated from Tibetan Buddhism.
Yellow Monks
Qianlong started from the nine-sided defense line of the former Ming Dynasty garrison troops, all the way along Gansu and Qinghai, all the way to the edge of Tibetan areas, all the places bordering the Mongolian, Uyghur and Tibetan areas overhauled the Yellow Sect temples, built a great wall with temples, replaced the Great Wall originally guarded by the army, and gathered their hearts by respecting the beliefs of all ethnic groups.
Another advantage of using this method is that believers of all ethnic groups do not need to wander around, and all can find suitable temples nearby to worship, or organize corresponding religious activities, so as not to connect with each other, for example, what if the religious people in Mongolia do not have temples to worship? One had to travel long distances to Tibetan areas to visit the shrine, and vice versa.
Huangjiao Commemoration
Qianlong was also worried that Tibet and Mongolia were too familiar with each other, after all, their beliefs were the same, and they simply paid for the construction of temples, so that they could carry out activities near their respective regions and separate them. The construction of a large number of temples also shows the respect and importance that the Qing Dynasty government and the Qianlong Emperor attached to the beliefs of the people in Tibet, Uighurs, Mongolia and other places, and undoubtedly won their favor and eliminated their rebellious mentality.
In addition, Qianlong also made a big fuss about two nodes of the Great Wall of the temple, namely The Rehe River near Mongolia and Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty. Qianlong built more high-end temples at the node of Rehe, such as the Potala Palace in Tibetan areas, which was called the "Little Potala Palace".
Rehe Putuo Temple, known as the "Little Potala Palace"
The purpose of building the "Little Potala Palace" is to allow the Mongolian nobles to be able to make pilgrimages and worship Buddhas nearby, so that they can enjoy high-end Buddhist effects and a sense of accomplishment without running to distant Lhasa, of course, the most important thing is to avoid tibetan and Mongolian nobles from meeting for a long time because of this.
In Beijing, in addition to building some temples, Qianlong also set up the "Golden Vase Signature System" in the Lama Temple in Beijing, where religious leaders such as the Panchen Lama in Tibetan areas were identified, and later the establishment ceremony of the Mongolian religious leader "Hubilhan" was also set up in the Lama Temple. It is stipulated that the religious leaders after the two places will be selected in Beijing, don't mess around with themselves, and there are suitable temples in Beijing to help you with this.
Lama Temple, Beijing
The hierarchy of lamas in Tibetan areas (enjoying different treatment according to different levels) also stipulates that promotion ceremonies should be held in Beijing, and famous lamas should be invited to Beijing to practice and pray for blessings, and lamas who want to be promoted must come to Beijing for a visit, basically forming the form of lamas in Tibetan areas going to Beijing and nobles in Mongolia to Rehe.
With the right to choose religious leaders, the prestige of the Qing emperor in the hearts of these peoples was even more extraordinary, not to mention the large number of temples that Qianlong also spent his own private wealth to build in the border areas, including Qianlong himself, who also led by example, receiving the empowerment of Zhang Jiaguo, a living Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism (Qianlong was awarded the Great Master of the Yellow Sect in the sixteenth year), and himself was also studying Buddhism.
In addition to presiding over various religious activities in Beijing, Qianlong also visited Rehe many times, and went to Rehe 49 times during his reign, mainly to participate in and preside over various religious activities held in Rehe. He also arranged for the painter to paint a special statue of the Buddha for himself, and the general content was that the religious leaders of the Tibetan and Mongolian regions surrounded the Qianlong Buddha statue in the middle to show the dominance of Qianlong.
Statue of the Qianlong Emperor Buddha
Qianlong spent so much thought and a lot of money, personal beliefs are actually secondary, he is the emperor, it is impossible to focus on the beliefs of a certain sect, all actions are to stabilize and appease the nobles and people in Tibetan and Mongolian areas, and the results achieved by the methods he implemented are also very good, at least until the end of the Qing Dynasty, except for disputes caused by the intervention of external forces, these places have not brought any major trouble to the Qing Dynasty, and the tens of millions of taels of silver that Qianlong used were not spent in vain, and it was worth it.