Xinshun 1730

Chapter 563 Enlightenment Tool Man
When the road came here, it was no longer possible to copy homework. You could only cross the river by feeling the stones and find a way that belongs to Dashun.

Kang Bushao's idea is good. At this point, since history can no longer be used as a mirror, he can use other stones to attack jade.

But there is no way to "attack" in the first step.

The difficulty of the whole incident lies in the enlightenment before the incident, not in the system after the incident.

In other words, what Europe needs now is to describe a Utopia; while Dashun is about how to get to the "rule of three generations".

For a long time, Dashun has "Western learning eastward", and Europe has "East learning westward".

To a certain extent, at least to a certain extent, the French side can make a great event, thanks to Dashun Daming and China.

But Dashun can’t do it here. There is no way to learn from those enlightenment scholars and create a “Utopia like China” tool people, so they can only dig in the direction of “Government of Three Generations”.

The difficulty lies in how to dig?How to solve the problem?

Just as Kang Bushao said, the pride of the Celestial Dynasty for thousands of years, the mentality does not allow a more perfect country than the Celestial Dynasty in the world, unless it is so bad that no one can compare.

There can be an utopia, but this utopia can only dig out the rule of three generations from history.

On the other hand, in Europe, the Celestial Dynasty can be used as a perfect tool man for enlightenment.

In fact, in the eyes of Europeans at this time, there are two completely different images of China.

And these two images can be seamlessly switched at any time according to the needs-a bit like the later generations of the United States when they need money from Congress, they shout threats;

This time is exactly the same, it can be "static history", "writing is a barbaric remnant of the age of the gods", "child-like understanding", "arrogantly stagnant".

It can also become "pursuing advanced technology wholeheartedly", "the most perfect law", "the most open mind", "the most humble morality", and "the most free religion".

As for the truth, no one cares, China is just a "tool man" who transforms properly when needed.

Even Walter on the battleship Centurion at this time thought he was "barbaric ignorance, the childhood of human beings", and Vico's original intentions that influenced his thinking in this way were ulterior motives.

I don't care about China at all, the purpose is to enlighten my own country, and the China I describe is just a tool.

The logic is also very simple.

Times need to change, everything in the past is bad, and people must be enlightened to overthrow everything in the old era.

Therefore, a static history is not good, and rolling forward is good.

To break away from everything in the old era, one cannot stand still because of "tradition".

Or else "there is the same vanity and delusion that they are older than all other peoples, and have long ago created the things necessary for the comfortable life of mankind, and that they themselves recall a history going back as far as the world itself." origins. They think all they know is as old as the world" . . . the savages.

If you don't want to stay in the "barbaric age of gods and continuation of human childhood", then go forward, don't think that you have created everything necessary for a comfortable life for human beings, and have the courage to try new things.

This is a bit logical and makes sense.

And when it comes to Voltaire, even logic is not needed.

There are even many inconsistent and inconsistent portrayals of China.

As long as the purpose is achieved, it doesn't matter whether the description is the truth.

Voltaire had been to England, and of course he had seen the situation in England, and he knew that "there is no freedom at all on the earth, and in England the powerful speculators and liars dominate."

However, it doesn't matter.

Most French people have never been to the UK, they just know that France is an absolute monarchy, while the UK is a constitutional monarchy.

Therefore, Britain, where "there is no freedom at all on the ground, and powerful speculators and swindlers dominate", has become a desirable country in the book.

As long as the constitution is enacted, everything will be fine.

The same is true for the introduction to China.

Historically, astrology was popular in Paris, France, and feudal superstition was popular.

In order to mop up the astrologers on the streets, Voltaire raised the banner of "technological determinism" and introduced China in this way:

China was conquered by barbarians twice because there were no cannons.No focus on technology.Although the Chinese invented gunpowder, they did not know how to use cannons at all.

Later, France advocated that "God's will can explain the world." In order to fight against it, Voltaire came up with "environment and culture determine many things, and obviously God's will cannot explain the world."

The image of China has become like this again:
China had cannons and used them, but the Manchus did not have cannons.However, [the Manchus without cannons defeated the Han Chinese with cannons, which is very remarkable].why?Because the environment determines the character of the nation, the nations in the north are more united and good at fighting, not like some people say, God's will can explain everything.

According to it, the mechanical and materialistic environment can determine the character of a nation.

Will China use cannons?Was it because of "technical determinism" or because "environment determines national character" that the Manchus entered the customs?
The truth is not important, the important thing is to shoot first and then draw the target.

Whether there is a cannon or not is a superposition state, which can be switched at any time.

In order to prove that "hereditary inheritance is not a matter of course", Voltaire fabricated the Manchu Qing Dynasty as "a model of rebels against democracy, democratic system and freedom", and called it "this man who was oppressed by the governor of Ming Dynasty and first took up arms to defend his freedom" nations, do not know hereditary rights.So we see that in the early days, all ethnic groups elected their leaders to carry out wars, and hereditary...].

If you haven't read Chinese history books, you'd think that General Longhu, a subordinate of Ming Dynasty, was holding a tricolor flag and shouting "free doom" before rebelling.

But in fact, the focus of the whole discussion is the words after the words "and hereditary...".

In order to oppose the rule of the church in France, Voltaire praised the Qing Dynasty under Yongzheng, [only the ancient Romans can compare].

why?Because Yongzheng rebuked the missionaries and curbed the ambitions and tricks of the monks.

Voltaire, on the other hand, was anti-church.For this, we can boast.

In short, such inconsistencies abound.

One second it was "China doesn't know how to use cannons", the next second it was "Han Chinese with cannons can't beat the Manchus whose environment has shaped their national character"; one second it was "barbaric Tatars", and the next second it was " Only the ancient Romans could match it."

The tool man in China is extremely perfect.

further than the UK.

It is difficult for ordinary people to touch and cannot expose the truth.

richer than Britain.

People have the mentality of admiring the strong and admiring the rich. If someone is so rich, everything must be right.

Less likely to be disliked by the French than the British.

France and Britain are feuds. Even though the French long for enlightenment, they are just like the later generations boasting about Japan. The Chinese always have a natural aversion to boasting about Japan.

More mysterious than England.

Ordinary people don't know what it is like over there, so they can round up their own private goods and add the most beautiful system they imagine to this ideal country.

The most important point is that China also believes in "God", not Zoroastrianism and other messy religions known to Europeans.

As for whether you really don't know that "this God" is not "that God", or if you know to pretend not to know, or if you really don't know, then it is unknown.

In short: [When other nations were still worshiping idols, the Chinese really knew God... All dynasties in the imperial edicts would say: God is in the dark, the father of all peoples, and rewards and punishments are just...]

Compared with using those heretical and pagan countries as an ideal country, this China that "knows God" is more suitable for the common people to recognize.

Therefore, under various conditions, China became the favorite utopia of the backbone of the Western Enlightenment Movement.

It's not just Voltaire who likes to use China as a tool man.

Contemporaries such as Diderot, Holbach, and Quesnay also liked to use this almost perfect "tool man".

True, false, idealized, fragmentary, misinterpreted, pervasive...all strung together.

In order to want a supervisory system, the Swedes said that the Tang Empire had a people's supervisory system.

In order to have a constitutional monarchy, Voltaire explained that the Qing Dynasty was a constitutional monarchy, and the emperor had no ability to do things outside the law.

Du Pont of the Physiocratic School, published "Physiocraticism, or the Natural System of Management Most Beneficial to Humanity", and directly wrote the place of publication as "published in the Forbidden City in Beijing".

Quesnay urged Louis XV to learn from the emperor of China and perform the great gift of "acting plowing" in spring.

This is understandable, but he turned around and said that "the autocratic system of the Chinese Empire is a perfect interpretation of natural law and a model of liberal economics", hoping that the French government will let go of any economic control and let it be laissez-faire—doing nothing. Governance, in order to be as prosperous as China.

When later generations see the words "Physiocratic School", they may think that this is a farmer just like seeing "the farmer of the philosophers".

But in fact, the core idea of ​​this school is to "only tax farmers, abolish all industrial and commercial taxes, and implement complete laissez-faire", with the purpose of opposing some economic controls in France.

It's not that foreign monks like to chant scriptures, but that the old way has really failed, and the new way has not yet been established.

Like Dashun's side, they are all in a broken state.

Dashun can trace the "rule of three generations", in fact, Europe can also trace the "heaven on earth".There is no difference between the two in an idealized sense.

It's just that the French Enlightenment scholars have realized that the "heaven on earth" itself is an accomplice of feudal oppression. If we want to destroy everything old, we can't move forward with old-fashioned slogans.

So, at this moment, East and West, especially China and France, have come together in a strange way.

The French, who were keen to describe the "Utopia", fantasized that all Chinese dynasties were ruled by "three generations", and under the banner of "Utopia under Three Generations", they moved towards a vigorous revolution.

Get rid of old ideas, old customs, old habits, and old morality, and smash to pieces the deception that has oppressed the "heaven on earth" for thousands of years.

Smash Notre Dame, rescue the true God, God is nature, nature is reason.

East Asia, which is keen on "taking history as a mirror" and "recalling the sages", has no way and it is impossible to say that there is an "Utopia" besides the Celestial Dynasty.

So he chanted the slogans of "returning to the past", "ancient Confucianism", "breaking Cheng Zhu, and approaching Confucius and Mencius", held high the retro banner of "three generations of governing the ideal country", and struggled to find a way forward.

Only by first smashing the dreams of the corrupt priests and the heaven on earth can we truly build the heaven on earth and the city on the hill; .

The French idea of ​​"smashing Notre Dame and saving the true God" is not quite the same as the idea of ​​"breaking Cheng Zhu and approaching Confucius and Mencius" by the ancient Confucian school in Dashun, but they are similar: Whether it is the Holy Mother or Cheng Zhu, they used to be advanced, but now they have become the totem and fig leaf of the old era.

As for Dashun, he was stuck on the step of "smashing".

When the kingdom of heaven on the ground has become an accomplice to the oppression and corruption of the priests, the French can attract external Chinese as tool people.

But when the rule of the Three Dynasties has become the decadent and legalized Confucianism rather than the accomplice of Confucianism, Dashun, as the Celestial Dynasty, cannot find an ideal from the outside when it is not rotten to the point of hopelessness, and from comprehensive self-confidence to comprehensive inferiority complex. country, how could it be smashed first?

If it doesn't break, it won't stand, if it doesn't stop, it won't flow.

Only when it is broken and then erected can it get rid of its dross, extract its essence, and extend its spirit.

In fact, whether it is the "Utopia" or the "Government of the Three Dynasties", the ancient Greek sages and the pre-Qin philosophers have tried this road once.But productivity was not up to par, and both sides failed almost simultaneously 2000 years ago.

The image of China that is passed down to the eyes of European enlighteners is just the ghost of the pre-Qin philosophers.But it is not the real pinnacle of feudal autocracy after the Neo-Confucianism was legalized since the Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)