 Competition for power, prestige, and wealth led to sectarian conflicts among Buddhists, Daoists, and Confucians. In addition, some aspects of institutional Buddhism were socially problematic, including the vast amounts of tax-exempt wealth controlled by monasteries and extreme religious practices such as self-immolation and self-mutilation, which were endorsed even by leading figures like Zhiyan and Fazang. Eventually, Daoists encouraged the Tang Emperor Wuzong to launch the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution (Ch. huichang huifo) of 842–846. During this period, Buddhist monks and nuns were forcibly defrocked, temples and shrines were destroyed, and their property seized. Although the persecution only lasted until the emperor’s death and was reversed by the next emperor, Buddhism never fully recovered from the damage to its social influence and intellectual prestige. 