Third Disaster
The third Disaster of Wu started in 845, when Emperor Wuzong of Tang, a devout Taoist, ordered that Buddhist temples and statues be destroyed and their properties confiscated to state treasury. The ban was not a complete ban; two Buddhist temples were permitted in both the main capital Chang'an and the subsidiary capital Luoyang, and the large municipalities and each circuit were each allowed to maintain one temple with no more than 20 monks. More than 4,600 temples were destroyed empirewide, and more than 260,000 monks and nuns were forced to return to civilian life. The disaster affected not only Buddhism, but also Nestorian Christianity and Zoroastrianism. It appeared to end after Emperor Wuzong was succeeded by his uncle Emperor Xuānzong of Tang in 846.
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Famous quotes containing the word disaster:
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“When disaster waves, I try not to wave back.”
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