对释永信的举报查无实据
The “CEO monk” who turned the kung-fu Shaolin temple into a sprawling commercial empire has been cleared by local officials of allegations that he funnelled money from religious businesses to fund a lavish lifestyle.
当地官员宣告，有关“和尚CEO”使用宗教事业资金支持自己奢靡生活的举报不成立。这位和尚把以功夫著称的少林寺变成了一个庞大的商业帝国。Yellow-robed Abbot Shi Yongxin disappeared for several months in 2015 after he was accused of embezzlement and fathering several children out of wedlock. The allegations created a storm in China, where a religious revival in recent decades has been accompanied by the commercialisation of Buddhist sites.
2015年，在被举报贪污和结婚生育几个孩子之后，身着黄色僧衣的释永信曾消失过几个月。那次举报在中国引发了一场风暴。在中国，伴随最近几十年宗教复兴而来的，是佛教场所的商业化。Mr Shi had been a high-profile promoter of the 1,500-year-old Buddhist institution on Song mountain, whose monks once created elaborate fighting systems and worked as mercenaries. He created a travelling troupe of performing monks that performs for paying audiences around the world, and travelled to Australia to present a $3.8m cheque for land for a kung-fu theme park, complete with a hotel and golf course.
此前释永信一直在高调推广位于嵩山、有1500年历史的佛教机构少林寺。该寺的僧侣曾创建复杂的格斗套路，并充当过雇佣军。释永信组织了一个僧人巡回表演团，为世界各地的观众举行收费表演。他曾访问澳大利亚，拿出一张380万美元的支票，为一个包括酒店和高尔夫球场的功夫主题公园项目购地。
As he travelled the world, he rubbed shoulders with luminaries including Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook, the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth II and Henry Kissinger, while securing a place in China’s rubber-stamp legislature the National People’s Congress, a position generally reserved for business elites. A plan to list Shaolin on the stock market was mooted in 2009.
在访问世界各地时，他遇见了不少名人，包括苹果(Apple)首席执行官蒂姆?库克(Tim Cook)、已故南非领导人纳尔逊?曼德拉(Nelson Mandela)、英国女王伊丽莎白二世(Queen Elizabeth II)和亨利?基辛格(Henry Kissinger)。他还是中国的橡皮图章式立法机构全国人民代表大会(NPC)的代表；这一般是留给商界精英的待遇。2009年曾有让少林寺上市发行股票的设想。But his rise was met with suspicion about an apparently indulgent lifestyle after he was gifted a Volkswagen SUV and spotted in an expensive cloak threaded with gold. He went to ground after an anonymous tipster claiming to be a temple monk posted allegations online that the official Buddhist Association said “affected the image and reputation of Chinese Buddhism”.
但是，在被赠予一辆大众(Volkswagen) SUV车、并被发现身着镶金线袈裟之后，这种明显放纵的奢华生活使他的崛起引发了怀疑。在遭到一名自称为少林寺和尚的匿名爆料者的网上举报之后，释永信开始低调了。官方的中国佛教协会(Buddhist Association of China)表示，“此事关乎少林寺乃至中国佛教的形象和声誉”。A government investigation team in the central province of Henan where the facility is located combed through the temple’s accounts and determined that Shi Yongxin’s stakes in companies were being held on behalf of the institution, the Henan Daily reported this week. A fleet of 15 automobiles were registered to the temple rather than Mr Shi, according to one of the investigators.
本周《河南日报》报道称，少林寺所在的河南省的一个政府调查小组在梳理该寺账目后确认，释永信所持公司股份是代表少林寺持有的。一位调查人员表示，15辆汽车登记在少林寺（而不是释永信本人）的名下。Several million renminbi donated by one of Mr Shi’s disciples between 2010 and 2012 were used to develop the temple and to support the studies of apprentices, the report said. “In the survey, we did not find the use of shareholdings to obtain dividends or other personal gain, and found no transfers of shares, forged accounts or personal invasion of Shaolin Temple assets,” an investigator said.
调查报告称，2010年至2012年间，释永信的一名弟子所给的数百万元人民币供养钱，已被用于发展寺庙和支持学徒的学习。“我们在调查中，未发现利用持有股份获取分红等个人收益的情况，未发现转移股份、伪造账目、个人侵占少林寺资产问题，”一名调查人员说。The investigation follows an earlier probe that dismissed Mr Shi’s alleged fathering of two children, but he did not emerge completely unscathed. It found that he was one of several monks who more than a decade ago had profited from selling incense, and that he had illegally held two household registrations.
在此次调查之前，还有过一次更早的调查，否认了释永信是两个孩子的父亲的举报，但他也并非完全清白。调查发现，他是10多年前通过卖香获利的几名僧人之一，并且他非法持有双重户口。The report added that one of the companies connected to the temple had taken on Rmb4m of debt to fund expanded facilities for visitors, who often expect free food when visiting Buddhist sites. Mr Shi could not be reached for comment.
此次调查报告补充称，少林寺的关联公司之一为扩建游客设施而负债400万元人民币，游客们经常期望在游览佛教景点时获得免费食物。记者联系不上释永信请其置评。
