Religion As Means To Weaken Resistance (宗教愚民政策)

Throughout human history, politicians have used religion as means to weaken or fool internal resistance forces. There are just so many examples around us currently and historically. Let us just refer to the historical case of how Manchu (满洲人) uses religion as a mean to reduce Mongols (蒙古人) population from 12,000,000 strong to just a few hundred thousand heads during the end of Ching Dynasty in China…

During Ching Dynasty, the Manchu used religion as the killer weapon to fool and weaken the Mongols. As we all know it that Lamaism (喇嘛教) was introduced to Mongol society in the 15^th century. When the Ching Dynasty was in power, Lamaism was prevailing amongst the Mongols. Almost immediately that the Manchu noticed Mongols’ weakness and they use religion to control the Mongol population. In the words of the Manchu: “It is best to build a temple than dispatching 100,000 soldiers.”

So the Manchu emperor encourages the Mongols to become monks and incentives were given to those who opted to become monks. In a fairly short time, there were a few hundred thousand Mongol monks. Indeed the Manchu emperor’s strategy worked as almost 47% of the male Mongols become the unproductive Lamas! Without Mongol next generations, the once strong Mongols continued to become minorities under suppressions until the end of Ching Dynasty.

In modern times, our governments often make use of religions to control, divide and direct the emotions of general public for their personal interests. Religious contents can be changed with the patronage of the central government so that donations can pour into the account of the religious leaders. For example, the Mahayana Schools are quite different from the Theravadas as historically the Mahayana Buddhism has the patronage of royal families and that they once allowed owning land, properties and also slaves to work the lands. A very big difference is that the Mahayana monks would stand up to receive the emperor. On the other hand, an emperor would kneel down in front of the Theravada monks as nothing is above the three gems (三宝).

Hence I would safely conclude that religions and politics are indispensable pairs and both are the works of human for gaining humans’ own interests. That is of course, my personal opinion. I am sure that if one engages more in religious activities, he/she shall see the light at one time in future. And magic practices are simply illegitimate forms of good old religion.