Li Tang claimed to be a descendant of Laozi and practiced Buddhism. Why did the Tang Dynasty vigorously develop Buddhism?

Deciphering the genes of cultural prosperity in the Tang Dynasty, we can easily find that the guidance of the government played an important role. Under the background of unification and opening up, the rulers constantly adjust their policies to support religions, namely Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and call them "three religions", which are an important part of China's traditional culture. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism fought and infiltrated each other in order to maintain their respective positions. In the Tang Dynasty, under the background of unification and opening up, the rulers constantly adjusted their policies to support religion, which greatly improved this situation. At the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, in order to raise the family status and deify the rule, Li Yuan recognized Li Er as the ancestor, and put Taoism before Buddhism, so that the princes and below could learn from Laozi and Taoism could flourish. Wu Zetian wants to be a queen and carry out the Wu Zhou Revolution. Monks Huaiyi and Faming created the Great Cloud Sutra to publicize Wu Zetian's descent into Maitreya and create public opinion for him. After Wu Zetian came to power, she devoted herself to worshiping Buddhism, building temples and purdue monks and nuns, and ordered all temples in the world to collect the Great Cloud Sutra, which raised the status of Buddhism to an unprecedented height. When Emperor Xuanzong was in power, he wanted to revitalize Li Tang, get rid of the bad influence of the late Wu and Zhou Dynasties, and put Taoism before Buddhism. Although the rulers before and after changed the status of Buddhism and Taoism for their own political needs, on the whole, the three were actively supported and fully developed in the early Tang Dynasty. The practice of respecting Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in the Tang Dynasty not only formed a unique ruling thought based on Confucian political ethics and eclectic Buddhism and Taoism in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which greatly consolidated the inheritance of imperial power, but also promoted the mutual absorption and continuous improvement among the three. It is against this background that Buddhism has matured and become a religion in China. Explanation 2: In the Tang Dynasty, all emperors believed in Taoism except Wu. The ancestor of the new wish in the Tang Dynasty was Li Er and Laozi in the pre-Qin period, which was one of the incarnations of the Taoist overlord. According to Taoism, it is inaccurate to say that Laozi is an old gentleman and an old gentleman is Laozi, so I won't go into details here. This is also one of the reasons why Emperor Taizong, posthumous title and Laozi were called "Emperor Taizong Xuanyuan". Emperor Taizong wrote "Make a Taoist write a letter in front of a monk" to determine the political status of Taoism. After Li's restoration, Emperor Xuanzong's devotion to Taoism was even stronger than that of the previous generation, and he greatly appreciated Taoist music. "This song should only be in the sky, and people can smell it a few times when they see it." Colorful Feather is one of the instrumental music made by Xuanzong for Taoist fasting places and Taoism. It is true that the Tang Dynasty was an era of Buddhism flooding, so Tang Wuzong later ordered the extinction of Buddhism in Huichang period. The demise of Buddhism in Tang Wuzong is the result of the economic conflict between Buddhism and feudal countries and the struggle for religious status between Buddhism and Taoism. In order to balance politics and orthodoxy. He wrote in the letter of abolishing the Buddha: "In Kyushu Mountain, both of them are deserted, and there are more and more monks, and Buddhist temples worship. Civil engineering rewards merit, and robbing people is conducive to Jinbao decoration; When you leave your husband behind your teacher, you violate your spouse's commandments. Evil laws do harm to people, nothing more than this. Some people endure hunger; Women are not silkworms, there are those who suffer from their cold. Today, countless monks and nuns are waiting for farmers to eat and silkworms to dress. There are a lot of tricks in the temple, and I don't know anything about Ji Ji. It's all clouds and algae, and I take over the palace. Jin, Song, Liang and Qi, material resources are dying, and customs are deceiving. " In his view, the abolition of Buddha is "the source of punishing the ages, and a hundred kings can help others and benefit the public" ("History of Wu Zong"). There is a saying that "Buddhists are foolish and Taoists are virtuous". Regardless of whether this statement is correct or not, it seems to have some truth. Buddhism mainly develops downwards, while Taoism mainly develops upwards. In other words, yes. Buddhism goes deep into the people. This greatly promoted the basic popularity of Buddhism, and the upper literati class also favored Buddhism, so Buddhist beliefs flooded. Although Taoism plays the role of cultivating self-cultivation and praying for good fortune, it is still elegant in image. But the image among the people is quite different, because folk witchcraft has not been completely divorced from Taoism, even now, so the people have no correct and clear understanding of Taoism, and they can only be compared with the general witch doctor Shen Han. There are also many people who know Buddha but don't know it. Often worship Taoist immortals as buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore, it is self-evident that there is suspicion between Taoism and Buddhism, and all problems should be analyzed from the lowest and most basic aspects, instead of saying that Buddhism is boundless and exclusive, because as a religion, people come to this world knowing nothing, and their principles and outlook on life have nothing to do with religion, but they have found common ground in a certain corner of religion, so their views have gone with religion. The information comes from Google and Baidu. It seems that mass base is very important. With numbers, anything is possible.