Chapter 55: Western Clergy

  Yang Ling's gaze shifted, and he saw that beside the delicate and refined young man stood a middle-aged man wearing a soft hat and a loose-fitting official robe. This person was pale and refined, with an air of elegance, and his appearance shared seven parts in ten with the young man, suggesting they were father and son. However, this middle-aged scholar was slightly on the plump side, and although it was still chilly in early spring, there were faint signs of sweat on his delicate skin.

  Yang Ling was somewhat embarrassed, he didn't know whether this sentence really came from the Buddhist scriptures or not. He had no knowledge of it, and when he heard the young scholar recite several Buddhist classics that he had never heard of before, he knew that the other person was a true reader and had studied Buddhism extensively. He didn't dare to answer randomly, so he just dryly laughed and said: "Uh... this, haha, I'm good at reading books but don't seek to understand them deeply, really can't think of which classic it is from".

  That young scholar's dark eyes rolled around, and he suddenly smiled slyly: "I understand now, this brother was just making it up as he went along, trying to make his wife happy. Truly quick-witted, I admire him, I admire him."

  The middle-aged man next to him chuckled and said, "My son is talking nonsense." Although he scolded his words, he was smiling and laughing, obviously doting on his son, with a kind fatherly expression between his eyebrows.

  The young bookworm said discontentedly: "Originally it was, sister, your husband is often talking nonsense and coaxing you into happiness?"

  Han Youniang's face turned red, and she gently spat at him. Her face was flushed, but she sweetly looked back at Yang Ling with a tender and loving gaze that could no longer be hidden. The young man clapped his hands and laughed: "The beauty of the world is like flowers, moonlight, spring breeze, painted bridges, and willows in smoke, but how can it compare to the eyebrows like spring mountains and eyes like autumn water when a woman is deeply in love? Sister looks at her husband with a sweet and beautiful smile. However, I see that your husband is handsome and talented, he must be good at coaxing people. You should be careful, beware of him being flirtatious."

  Han Youniang hummed, just about to open her mouth to refute, when she suddenly thought of Ma Lian'er. Such a beautiful woman, even she, a young girl, couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat when she saw her, yet she was willing to follow Yang Ling and be content with being his concubine. Who knows, maybe Master really knew how to coax people, coaxing them until they were dizzy and confused, and then handed their hearts over to him. Thinking this, she couldn't help but shoot a resentful glance at Yang Ling.

  The middle-aged scholar chuckled and patted his son on the head, scolding him: "Nonsense!" Then he bowed to Yang Ling with a smile and said: "This young master, my child is mischievous, please forgive him".

  Yang Ling hastily said: "I don't dare, I don't dare, Master is intelligent and clever, with knowledge surpassing others, like unpolished jade, in the future you will definitely be a top scholar."

  That young scholar heard and his face seemed to smile but not, his expression was somewhat strange. Yang Ling saw that this middle-aged man did not know the name, had no intention of chatting with himself, so he said: "I want to enter the temple with my wife to burn incense, I'll leave you alone".

  The middle-aged scholar smiled and said: "Never mind, young master, please go ahead."

  Yang Ling pulled the young woman along the corridor, just a few steps out, when the little prince suddenly shouted again from behind: "Hey, brother, you haven't said yet, why did I look back at you more than 500 times in my past life?"

  Yang Ling turned back and smiled: "This... only two kinds of people can make me turn my head constantly, one is a stunning beauty, the other is a scoundrel who owes money and doesn't pay back. I wonder which kind of person you are, little brother." He said with a haha laugh, then pulled You Niang and hurriedly walked away.

  The young scholar tapped the golden fan, and weighed it seriously for a moment: "This... peerless beauty? Not suitable. The scoundrel who owes money... seems not suitable either, ah, this kid is fooling me".

  The young scholar turned back, puffed out his chest and took off in pursuit. The middle-aged scholar tried to stop him but was unable to catch up, so he could only shake his head with a wry smile, wave his hand lightly, and four or five men who seemed like travelers appeared from the shadows under the eaves, quietly following behind.

  A middle-aged scholar slowly followed behind, accompanied by an old servant who caught up to support him, saying in a low voice: "Master, it's getting late, let's go back".

  The middle-aged scholar smiled and said: "Hehe, this kid usually doesn't even have a playmate, it's rare for someone to accompany him to argue, let him play for a while longer."

  The old servant nodded and supported the somewhat stout middle-aged man as he laboriously walked into the Golden Temple, when suddenly a commotion was heard from the direction of the Heavenly King Temple. The Chinese man's expression tensed up, and he hastened his steps, anxiously saying: "Quickly go take a look, what has happened?"

  Passing through the hall, I only saw several high-crowned red-robed Tibetan monks standing on the moon platform in front of the Heavenly King Hall. Five people wearing long gowns were standing under the steps, and one was lying on the ground. Both sides were arguing there.

  The young scholar and Yang Ling, You Niang stood together stretching their necks to watch the excitement, six or seven sturdy men standing around them, seemingly also onlookers, but had already subtly protected them in the middle.

  Several Tibetan monks on the stairs shouted and scolded in a loud voice, while several tall and thin men in long gowns below pointed fingers and toes, arguing loudly in an even stranger tone, extremely indignant.

  Yang Ling saw that there were several Tibetan monks on the platform, and he already knew that he had entered the wrong temple door today. Seeing the long-robed men with high noses and deep eye sockets beside the bronze cauldron below the steps, all of whom were Westerners, he couldn't help but feel even more surprised. The two groups of foreigners quarreled for half a day, when suddenly a tall Westerner burst out from among them, his face flushed red as he loudly shouted: "Under heaven, everything is the king's land; within the king's borders, everyone is the king's subject! You drive us away without reason!"

  The young master exchanged a glance with his father, and couldn't help but laugh. The Tibetan monk on the stage also said in Mandarin: "It's not us... we won't take you in, you Western monks are no good, bringing sick people here will spread the disease."

  The foreigners under the stage shook their heads one after another, saying: "No, no, no, he's not suffering from the plague, it won't be contagious." The people on both sides were arguing with each other in stammering Chinese, and Yang Ling and others standing aside only vaguely understood the general idea.

  These foreigners were missionaries from the Western Ocean (Spain and Portugal), who had been in the Ming Dynasty for three years. A few days ago, they successfully converted their first follower in the Ming Dynasty, a beggar who was suffering from an incurable disease, with festering sores all over his body and on the verge of death. They took him back to the temple where they were staying, taking care of him while teaching him the doctrine of Catholicism. The monks at the temple were worried that the sick man's illness would spread, and after several unsuccessful attempts to intervene, they drove them out.

  Yang Ling saw that the several foreign missionaries were helping a Han Chinese, and although they had their own motives for developing followers, it was still a good deed, so he stepped forward to help reason with them. However, those few barbarian monks were completely unreasonable and did not mention the Buddhist teachings of compassion.

  The young scholar whispered a few words to his father, beckoned a servant over and gave him some low-key instructions. The servant rushed up to the platform and said a few words to an executive lama, who was delighted to hear that the kind-hearted person below was willing to donate 3,000 taels of silver for oil money. He immediately agreed to their request to accommodate Western missionaries.

  This temple, which covers an area of ten mu, can easily arrange a separate courtyard for them. The reason why they are making a big fuss today to drive away these Westerners is that in the eyes of the Chinese, they are indeed sinister and strange, but in their own eyes, these blonde-haired and blue-eyed Western monks are even more uncivilized savages and cannibalistic barbarians.

  Those missionaries had a place to stay and were overjoyed, they went forward to thank the kind-hearted man and Yang Ling who spoke righteously. Then they went to their residence to move their boxes, bedding, and mattresses to the backyard. The tallest foreigner seemed to be the leader of this group of missionaries, he kept thanking Yang Ling and Xiao Shu in very poor Chinese.

  Yang Ling was very curious about these missionaries. In his impression, the early Western missionaries who came to China were relatively civilized and upright, and they indeed came to preach in the East due to their fervent religious beliefs, so he chatted with them politely for a few sentences.

  These missionaries came to the East to preach under the command of the Vatican, but they were met with resistance everywhere and few people were willing to listen to them. At this time, when Yang Ling took the initiative to talk to them, the missionary was very excited and immediately introduced himself in a stuttering manner.

  The missionary was named Sassi, and he and a dozen other missionaries were sent to the East under the command of the Franciscan Jesuit Order. They first arrived in India, but the spread of their teachings did not go well, and several missionaries were even beaten to death by local residents due to differences in doctrine.

  Later, they heard that there was a more powerful and civilized country further east, so they left India by sea to the Ming Dynasty. As a result, their fleet was detained by local indigenous troops when it arrived in Malacca. Later, they bribed the guards and smuggled through local merchants to Japan, leaving behind several priests. The remaining five people landed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and came to the Great Ming.

  But the gospel of God is somewhat difficult to promote in Han areas, for ordinary people, a god who created a woman from a man's rib is not as powerful as Nüwa Niangniang, who created humans from clay. Moreover, this Western god does not allow those poor men and women to understand propriety and shame, making them run around naked in the garden all day. This half-baked god is obviously less attractive than the harmonious Buddha and the mighty Taishang Laojun who can exorcise evil spirits.

  So these five missionaries mixed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for more than two years, but did not develop a single believer. In desperation, they came to the capital, hoping to be summoned by the Ming emperor, so that they would have the opportunity to spread their teachings in the Ming dynasty.

  They changed into long gowns to make it easier for the Han people to accept them, learned the Four Books and Five Classics, and even remade a world map to put China in the center to cater to the Chinese concept of round heaven and square earth. They spared no expense, but unfortunately, the officials from the Ministry of Rites heard that they were not envoys from a small foreign country coming to pay homage to the heavenly court, so they chased them out. Until now, they still haven't seen the emperor and are almost becoming beggars.

  That young scholar found it interesting and couldn't help but interrupt: "Where is your country located, and how big is it?"

  "In the far, far west, after a long, long voyage by ship, our country was originally very small, not even as big as Jiangsu Province. However, twenty years ago, the Queen of Castile married our King of Aragon and our two countries merged, so now our country is much bigger than before, slightly larger than Jiangsu Province."

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