Chapter 26, Doraemon? God Amun? (Part 2)
"...The most amazing and almighty god in the world! The incarnation of the sun, the great god Amun! Your arrival is our greatest honor!"
"...The most beloved god Amun of the Egyptian people! Thank you for your generous reward! I hope your glory will continue to shine on the earth for a thousand years!"
"...Oh! We will always sing your praises most devoutly! Great God Amun! The spokesperson of the universe!"
……
After the great priest Kabuda took the lead in kneeling down and worshiping Doraemon, the "God Amon". Immediately afterwards, the other priests also "suddenly realized" and led many believers to kneel and kowtow together, paying the highest praise to Doraemon.
As a result, as Wang Qiu and other time travelers were stunned, and under the fanning of a large number of priests, the thousands of Egyptians at the scene seemed to have entered a state of fanaticism in an instant. They first invited Doraemon to sit on a luxurious sedan decorated with gold and silver. Then, they lifted up the sedan chair and headed toward the city in groups, surrounded by Doraemon, who could only giggle. Someone even pulled a band from nowhere, and asked a group of women to carry baskets and scatter flower petals at the front of the procession. They held a lively religious procession along the way - the Egyptian citizens of Thebes almost came out in overwhelming numbers. People crowded on their knees on both sides of the street and sang unpronounceable hymns...
In this warm and jubilant atmosphere, Wang Qiu and other modern people were involuntarily included in the parade, and happened to be caught between the women throwing flower petals. Fortunately, they brought some candies and coins with them, so they threw them out along the way to make the worshiping women, children and children happy - although the coins in the modern world could not buy anything in ancient Egypt, they were so shiny. The small metal piece should also be considered a good decoration for the poor...
In the midst of the joyful and noisy chaos, only Prime Minister Imhodebu was cheering and cheering, but a hint of gloom flashed from time to time in his eyes.
——The canonization of Doraemon, the "great benefactor", as a new god was actually due to the vigorous advocacy and single-handed planning of Prime Minister Imhodebu. The purpose of this move was to moderately hit the over-expanded Temple of Amun and weaken its threat to the royal power.
In the Western world in ancient times, each city usually had its own patron saint, and sometimes there was more than one patron saint. The birth of these patron saints is all related to faith - in that barbaric era when productivity was underdeveloped, people were threatened by natural disasters, wars, epidemics and wild beasts. They always felt that the world was full of dangers, and they longed for a god to come in their hearts. Protect yourself and survive the disaster safely. Thus, the concept of the patron saint was born. Then, this vague concept gradually took on a specific image and name, and then temples and priests appeared, gaining power under the banner of worshiping gods, and finally formed the prototype of religion: this was also a way for ancient kings to control public opinion and maintain their rule. An important tool.
But the problem is that for the kings of ancient countries, the prosperity of this official religion helped to control thoughts and public opinion and ensure social stability. But it will also cause the temple's power to expand, become too big, and eventually devour the country's financial resources and manpower.
Generally speaking, ancient Egypt was a country that united politics and religion. The pharaoh, as a "living god" and God's agent in the world, exercised royal power. He used religious propaganda to strengthen his divinity and strengthen the foundation of his rule. The priests and priests group for their own sake In order to actively promote the pharaoh's divinity for the benefit of the ruling class; in return, the pharaoh gave generous gifts to the temple. rewards, which gradually strengthened the power of the priests and priests group - first they owned large tracts of cultivated land and herds of livestock, and then they had gold mines, copper mines and taxes from certain cities. If you include the devout people who often By donating alms to the temple, the wealth of these monks has far exceeded that of anyone in Egypt, even the Pharaoh!
From a macro perspective, Egypt's main social production is almost entirely controlled by the temple. The priest group controls almost all of Egypt's manpower and material resources. The pharaoh relies on his own army to maintain balance with the priest group. In this way, when the pharaoh is good at fighting and has a strong military, his control over the temple will be more effective. Once the Pharaoh's war ability weakened, the balance between royal power and divine power would tilt towards divine power. What's even more terrible is that the selection of officials in the ancient Egyptian pharaoh's government was also controlled by the temple - because government officials had to understand writing, and the grammar and teaching of hieroglyphs were strictly controlled by the temple. If the pharaoh wanted to rule the country, he would There is no way around the temple’s intellectual class.
Since the temple has such strong economic strength and human resources, it naturally has the capital to interfere with secular political power. What is even more advantageous is that in ancient Egypt, the priests occupied the moral high ground and controlled the public opinion propaganda position, because they were the mouthpieces of the gods and shouldered many responsibilities such as human spokespersons and image spokespersons for gods and immortals. In short, in an era when theocracy was supreme, priests could sway voters with their sharp tongue just like modern politicians... Oh, no, it was the public sentiment of the people of ancient Egypt, which could easily set off "group sentiment" Incident"...If this happens, Pharaoh will simply not be able to sit still! If one day he falls out with the temple and slams the table, he might be in danger of being bewitched by the monks and a large mob breaks into the palace and beheads him!
Faced with such a powerful and all-pervasive theocratic group, the reason why the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were able to maintain their power, instead of turning Egypt into a theocratic theocracy like old Tibet, was mainly because Egypt had too many gods. , the total number is more than two thousand, each region has different gods (Thebes is the god Amun, Memphis is the god Ptah, and some villages have the cat god, lizard god, and snake god), and the priests who serve them The group is naturally in disarray. Temples that worship different gods usually have no affiliation with each other. Instead, they have serious competition. They have never been able to form a joint force to fight against the royal power like Tibetan Buddhism and European Christianity. The pharaoh can sow discord, support one temple to suppress another temple at any time, and at the same time let his close friends serve as high priests to prevent the priest group from expanding out of control.
However, at this moment, because the recent dynasties that ruled Egypt all originated in Thebes, and the members of the royal family also believed in the god Amun, the result was that the church of Amun in Thebes was over-expanded and had Having acquired too much land and wealth has already posed a certain threat to the royal power - if it were in other places, it would not be a big deal for a certain temple to be dominant. Anyway, there are other temples in the next door area to contain it. But the problem is that the Temple of Amun is the only one in the capital, which is equivalent to having the status of an "invisible court" and directly threatens the operation of the entire central government. Even if the royal family can still suppress the temple, they cannot ignore these monks, but must often break them up.
It is a pity that although the young and violent King Memphis has great martial arts and has secured his throne with a series of glorious military exploits, he obviously did not inherit the mature political skills of the old king and took the expanding temple power around him lightly, so that some people People with ulterior motives lost their restraints and began to make trouble secretly... In the eyes of Prime Minister Imhodeb, the monks in the Temple of Amon have been a little too arrogant recently. Although it is far from being able to shake the royal rule, it is still a threat. Moderate knocking is absolutely necessary.
And in the city of Thebes, a new god was created and a new church was built to divide the believers and influence of the god Amun. This was the stick that the prime minister used to beat the temple of Amun.
——According to the custom of ancient Egypt, any god needs to build a temple and set up priests to offer incense and pray for oracles... In this way, they can justifiably pull teeth from the tiger's mouth of the Temple of Amun and redistribute part of them land and wealth.
However, it is not so easy to win over a new god. Without a suitable excuse, it may be difficult to gain public recognition and following. Fortunately, Doraemon's sudden arrival and various miracles demonstrated , making the above problems no longer a problem.
Imhodeb seems to have seen the wonderful prospect of two temples, one new and one old, fighting to the death in Thebes, allowing the court to benefit from it!
However, this seemingly foolproof trick turned out to be a fool's errand! ! !
The old prime minister never expected that the great priest of Kabuda would be so decisive! Such a bachelor! So shameless! In order to maintain the dominance of the Temple of Amun in the capital Thebes, he did not show any dignity or decency at all. He threw himself directly at the feet of the "foreign god" and lifted the round divine beast of unknown species onto the mountain. The throne of god Amun? ! The old prime minister was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped!
Hey, hey, you don’t play like this! Great Priest of Kabuda! What would God Amun in heaven think if you mess around like this? Are you still a servant of God?
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PS: Beyond word count: "War is Never Sacred"
Recently, an international observation team came to the Donetsk region and was shocked by the war atrocities committed by the Kiev mopping up troops. According to these experts, these included the gang rape of underage girls, the massacre of civilians, the harvesting of human organs for profit, etc. , the crime of genocide is simply not something that civilized Europeans can do, and they believe that these criminals should be punished in accordance with international law.
Alas, I remember that in April, Crimea held a citizens’ meeting in support of joining Russia. An old man who could not speak clearly came to the stage and gave a trembling speech, saying that girls in Ukraine would be used by the current Nazis to make canned human flesh. . At that time, Ukrainian TV stations rebroadcast this video in an attempt to prove that those who supported joining Russia were mentally ill. Now I can only sigh...
——This old man was probably born before World War II. People who experienced that era sometimes have a very sharp perspective. As for fair punishment under international law, I guess there is no hope. In South Korea, South Vietnam and Bosnia and Herzegovina, when did this kind of thing happen less frequently? From the current point of view, although Crimea has been severely trapped in the chaos, it is much better than being reduced to a scorched earth.