The number of temples per district was legally fixed. A person could
become monk only if the head of the family gave its permission. He had
to be over fifteen years of age and had to know by heart at least one
hundred pages of texts. The state took over the control of the
ordinations which could be performed only after a successful
examination. Each year a list of all monks had to be submitted to the
government in two copies. Monks had to carry six identification cards
with them, one of which was the ordination diploma for which a fee had
to be paid to the government (already since 755). The diploma was, in
the eleventh century, issued by the Bureau of Sacrifices, but the money
was collected by the Ministry of Agriculture. It can be regarded as a
payment _in lieu_ of land tax. The price was in the eleventh century 130
strings, which represented the value of a small farm or the value of
some 17,000 litres of grain. The price of the diploma went up to 220
strings in 1101, and the then government sold 30,000 diplomas per year
in order to get still more cash. But as diplomas could be traded, a
black market developed, on which they were sold for as little as twenty
strings.



(B) Period of Moderate Absolutism


(1) The Northern Sung dynasty

1 _Southward expansion_

The founder of the Sung dynasty, Chao K'uang-yin, came of a Chinese
military family living to the south of Peking. He advanced from general