Buddhism has a long history in China, since the Eastern Han Dynasty was introduced to China, has maintained its vigorous vitality, there are many rulers in history have admired Buddhism, Buddhism in China once developed to the peak.
And donating incense money to the Buddha has become a way for many Buddhist believers to show their respect for the Buddha. There are even many people who think that the more incense money is given, the more they worship the Buddha, so the income of many temples is very high, and the pure Buddhism is actually not quiet.
When it comes to Buddhism, many people's first thought is probably Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Temple as a Buddhist holy place, has a lofty position in China's Buddhist system, every year believers donate hundreds of millions of incense money to Shaolin Temple, not to mention that there is also ticket income to enter Shaolin Temple, but Shaolin Temple's abbot Shi Yongxin said that his salary is only 700 yuan, where is the money used?
Shaolin Temple ticket revenue of hundreds of millions of yuan
Shaolin Temple is the ancestral garden of Zen Buddhism in China, and it is located in Shaomu Mountain, west of Dengfeng City, Henan Province. The Shaolin Temple has a long history, probably originating during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when the monk Batuo of the Heavenly Anchor arrived in China, where he preached the scriptures and received the courtesy of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
In the 20th year of Taihe, that is, in 496 AD, the emperor ordered a temple to be built in Shaomu Mountain, Henan Province to preach the scriptures for this famous monk, because this temple was built in the mountains and forests of Shaomu Mountain, so it was named Shaolin.
Later, Shaolin Temple attracted the attention of successive rulers and almost became synonymous with Buddhism in the Central Plains. Shaolin Temple is famous at home and abroad for its long cultural heritage and Buddhist heritage, so it has become a tourist attraction in today's society because it carries a heavy culture.
Especially in 1982, after the broadcast of the movie "Shaolin Temple" starring Jet Li, the sentence "The world's kung fu comes out of Shaolin, and Shaolin's martial arts are the best in the world." "Let the Shaolin Temple become famous for a while, and there is an endless stream of people who come to visit the Shaolin Temple.
Shaolin Temple has therefore also achieved considerable ticket income, according to authoritative estimates, Shaolin Temple's annual ticket income is about 150 million yuan, in addition to Shaolin Temple also has a considerable amount of incense income, once reached tens of millions of yuan, such a huge amount of money, where is it used in the end?
The abbot with a salary of 700 went out to drive a luxury car
Shi Yongxin, the current abbot of Shaolin Temple, answered the public's doubts, saying that most of the Shaolin Temple's ticket revenue is used for the repair and maintenance of temple antiquities, as well as the restoration of ancient temple buildings.
Who is Shi Yongxin? And what did he do? Why does it arouse suspicion and speculation among the public?
Maybe the story starts from the day Shi Yongxin officially entered the Buddhist organization, after all, many people have only heard this name, and they are not familiar with this person, but it is indeed he who has developed the Shaolin Temple to its current peak. When he was in his 20s, he was found to have a Buddha fate by the abbot of Shaolin Temple when he was traveling in Shaolin Temple, so he planted the seeds of worshipping Buddha in his heart.
In 1981, 23-year-old Liu Yingcheng persuaded his parents to arrive at Songshan Shaolin Temple in Henan Province from Yingshang County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province.
His ability was outstanding, which was naturally valued by the abbot, and after he returned from his travels in ancient temples around the world, he began to help his master, the Shaolin abbot at that time, deal with the daily events in the temple.
At that time, the Shaolin Temple was also gradually declining, in front of Shi Yongxin, is a Shaolin Temple that only has more than 1,000 years of accumulated fame and martial arts classics, in order to restore the Shaolin Temple to its former vitality, he began to organize manpower and material resources to publish Shaolin classics, carry forward the spirit of Shaolin, and establish the Shaolin Warrior Monks.
He achieved remarkable results in all these actions, so after the death of the previous abbot, Shi Xingzheng, the mantle was passed to him, and he began to fully preside over the work of the Shaolin Temple.
With the growing reputation of Shaolin Temple, a series of doubts are also sounding in the society from time to time, although Shi Yongxin said that his monthly salary is only 700 yuan, but he uses an Apple mobile phone, a notebook, and the car he went out is the top Audi Q7, and there are other luxury cars After the news was exposed on the Internet, the whereabouts of the Shaolin Temple ticket money caused many netizens to discuss, and also attracted the attention of people from all walks of life.
Is the commercialization of Shaolin Temple right or wrong?
Later, after an investigation by the relevant departments, it was confirmed that Shi Yongxin's salary was indeed 700 yuan, and he told the truth to the public, and the car he used to travel was not his own car, but belonged to the Shaolin Temple, which was the office car of the Shaolin Temple.
However, the doubts on the Internet are still endless, and then while questioning the mismatch between Shi Yongxin's income and expenditure, they are also questioning whether the current business development model of Shaolin Temple is correct and whether it is appropriate to build business on religious culture? All this is worth pondering.
And since Shi Yongxin took over the Shaolin Temple, a series of activities have been carried out, such as holding Shaolin cultural activities, organizing the Shaolin Warrior Monk Group, and publishing books and classics about the Shaolin Temple, all of which have greatly promoted the culture of the Shaolin Temple and made the Shaolin Temple famous at home and abroad.
The money from the entrance fee and incense was used to build the main buildings such as the Dharma Hall, the Tianwang Hall, and the Daxiong Treasure Hall, which were burned down in 1928. And in 2015, Shi Yongxin also spent a huge amount of 20.4 million yuan to build a branch of Shaolin Temple in Australia, which is accompanied by a four-star Shaolin Hotel and Shaolin Kung Fu Academy.
Today, Shaolin Temple also has branch temples and cultural centers in many parts of Europe, all of which require a lot of money, and the construction and management of these places require a lot of money.
There is no doubt that Shi Yongxin has revitalized the thousand-year-old Shaolin Temple, but there are still many problems. Under the management of Shi Yongxin for more than 30 years, Shaolin Temple has changed from a thousand-year-old temple to a multinational economy integrating various related industries, which makes many people very dissatisfied.
The quiet place of Buddhism has become a profitable business organization, no matter how you look at it, it is awkward, and it is natural for people to suspect that Shi Yongxin embezzled money, after all, it is he who has turned a quiet Buddhist place into a huge "business empire".
Brief summary:
Shaolin Temple's annual ticket income is as much as hundreds of millions of yuan, but Shaolin Temple's abbot Shi Yongxin has always insisted that his salary is only 700 yuan, and a person with a salary of 700 yuan must be accompanied by a luxury car, which will inevitably arouse suspicion.
Even if all this is fine, it is obviously not appropriate to apply the cold business model to the quiet Buddhist holy places, although it is conducive to promoting the culture of Shaolin Temple, but it feels awkward to look at it.