Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 446 Cultural Reorganization
"What's the news from the north?" Xiao Siwen was dressed in a Han official uniform with a thick fox-fur cloak on his outside, his eyes flickered.

"Your Majesty is still the same as before. It has been more than two months since I went to the grassland this time. The concubine in the palace can't keep his heart. He likes to stay with wild wolves, foxes, and horses." In the hall, an official from the north While chewing the mutton, he said rather dissatisfied.

He is a dusty man, and his clothes are very different from those of officials in Nanjing. They are traditional Khitan costumes.

In Nanjing, ordinary people can tell at a glance that this is someone from the north.

Xiao Siwen didn't speak, but asked something else, "Is Your Majesty the same as usual? Especially in the palace."

The man looked at him without speaking.

"Don't worry, there are many treasures in the South Courtyard, and it's far away from Shangjing." Xiao Siwen said.

The officials who came to Beijing put down the meat in their hands, and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty still likes to drink. After being drunk, he often beat and scolded his eunuchs and court ladies, and killed many people. Especially after being defeated by Qin again, His Majesty became more and more serious. Getting more irritable."

Xiao Siwen nodded: "Is there any change in the court?"

"Young brother Yeluxiu is a newborn wolf cub. He followed the prime minister to quell the rebellion at a young age. Now he has a high prestige in the court. His Majesty also met him on the grassland."

Xiao Siwen nodded, thinking about the news he had heard, and then he asked a lot.

The one who came was a close friend of the emperor of Beiyuan. He came to Nanjing to collect some tribute from the emperor. This is also the best way to inquire about news from the north.

After inquiring, he sent people to send a lot of treasures, and then arranged envoys, and then hurried out to discuss things with Guo Xi, the political order of the South Court, and Gao Xun, the privy secretary of the South Court.

Xiao Siwen has many secret alliances and capable generals in both the North and South Courts. The generals are like the Yelu royal family, and Yelu Xiezhen, who is now boarding under him, is the most important alliance. One is Guo Xi, the privy envoy and political order of the South Court.

And they all have a common goal. Gao Xun is a person who likes to make friends with nobles and longs for fame and fortune. He surrendered from the Jin Kingdom in the south and was named King Zhao.

For a person like him, a major opportunity, a chance to get promoted is very hard to find, but it is right in front of him.

And Guo Xi is a very capable and traditional Han official, loyal to the emperor, patriotic, and conscientious.He wrote letters to the current emperor several times, hoping that the emperor would not be addicted to hunting, he should pay attention to state affairs, take care of the world, and be diligent in government affairs. This goes on.

What's more, the current His Majesty relied on mutiny to ascend to the supreme position, so he got the wrong position, so he also has other thoughts.

In addition, there are many Khitan Eight Great Clans who have secretly expressed their dissatisfaction to him. After years of defeats, the Khitan people suffered heavy casualties, and the inaction of the court made many people more dissatisfied. With ghosts in his heart, he wanted to settle the old accounts from many years ago.

Before he knew it, he realized that he had many more allies, which made Xiao Siwen even more excited.

Over the years, the northern and southern parts of Khitan have become more and more Sinicized.

Under the rule of King Nanyuan, the Han people gradually became the largest ethnic group, but the Khitan people, the main body of the country itself, were not culturally rivals of the Han culture at all, and were more and more assimilated. Copying the Han system, more and more new-generation officials, such as Xiao Siwen, not only read the Four Books and Five Classics, but many customs are more and more biased towards the Han people.

The northern courtyard is close to the grassland, and it is the political center of the Liao Kingdom where the Khitan people are the mainstay. The Sinicization is slower, so the officials in the southern courtyard are almost exactly the same as the Han officials in the south if they don’t take off their hats to see their hairstyles, while the officials from the northern courtyard Many still retain the Khitan people's clothing, food, housing and transportation habits, which are very easy to distinguish.

Apart from their dissatisfaction with today's world, they all agree that if the Daliao Kingdom wants to have a long-term future, it must learn from the methods of the Han people. The country must be regulated, and the culture needs to be passed on. Not enough, if they don't act fast, sooner or later they will not be the opponents of the South.

Fortunately, the emperor of Qin sent a letter before, although he still urged him to send Yanyan there, but he also gave him a grace period of two years, allowing him more time to mediate.

And judging by Shi Congyun's tyrannical tone, they must temporarily suspend fighting in the next few years. If the Qin Imperial Guards are all in Daliang, they are actually very afraid. In the previous two disastrous defeats, once they lost all the land south of Youzhou. He once lost all the land south of Yanmen Pass, and he still remembers it vividly, and he dared not disobey it.

Speaking of this incident, he also had a headache.

It would be understandable if the prince Ye Luxian liked Yanyan, because the two were childhood sweethearts and often played together near Yongxing Palace when they were children, but why did Shi Congyun, who had never even seen Yanyan, keep staring at her?
Xiao Siwen didn't understand, it could only be attributed to the rumor that the emperor of Qin State liked women very much, maybe he heard that Yanyan was still young but a rare beauty in the Liao Kingdom, so he wanted to ask for it.

In the end, he had to put these troubles behind him. He still had a lot to prepare for.

"You don't even know what Confucius' Confucianism is." In the garden outside the city, Emperor Shi shook his head and said to the several prime ministers around him.

Today was a rare day off, and old father Shi Yanchao was lucky enough to hunt a deer, and his family couldn't finish it all, and there was no refrigerator, so he simply asked a few prime ministers with good relations to come over and have a big meal.

At the banquet, after drinking almost, they discussed whether the Khitan people would be able to rule well after the Liao Kingdom was conquered in the future.

Everyone was pessimistic, thinking that the Khitans might be as difficult to deal with as the Huns and Turks back then, and they were not easy to rule. They needed to be prepared for long-term tug-of-war and repeated battles.

However, Shi Congyun was more optimistic. He felt that as long as they were defeated and went to Beijing, the rule of the Khitan people would not be easy, and it would never be as difficult as it was for the Huns and Turks.

The reason is simple, because the Khitan people have "worshiped Buddhism and obeyed Confucianism" for many years.

Everyone didn't understand, so Emperor Shi said that they didn't understand Confucius' words.

In fact, what does Confucius mean, not to mention today, after more than a thousand years, there are all kinds of explanations for Confucianism that are beneficial to oneself after Confucius' death. There are different opinions, but a spirit of Confucianism is very important and is also It is the reason why the civilizations of later generations, as long as they respect Confucianism, are cohesive and powerful.

People didn't understand what he said, and Emperor Shi didn't bother to explain it to them, but he knew very well in his heart that as long as the Khitan people continued to respect Confucianism and let them continue to Sinicize, it would be easier to rule in the future.

The core of Confucius' thought can be clearly seen from a short story.

Another time Zigong said to Confucius: "Guan Zhong is not a man of benevolence, is he? Duke Huan killed Prince Jiu. Guan Zhong did not commit suicide, but he became Minister of Duke Huan again."

Confucius replied: "Guan Zhong assisted Duke Huan, made Qi the hegemony among the vassals, and rectified the world, and the people are still benefiting from him to this day.

Without Guan Zhong, we might have become a backward nation with disheveled hair and skirts on the left.Could it be that Guan Zhong, like ordinary mediocre men and women, hanged himself in a small ditch in order to keep the integrity, without being known by others? "

This is the most important part of Confucian thought. Later generations often use various words of Confucius to make far-fetched conclusions, emphasizing the importance of morality.

But in fact, according to Confucius, cultural inheritance is far higher than morality.

The story is very simple. Zigong felt that Guan Zhong's actions were immoral and contrary to Confucian morality.

Confucius taught him that Guan Zhong protected culture, and that morality and immorality are not worth mentioning in front of cultural inheritance.

Therefore, from the beginning, Confucianism emphasized the supremacy of cultural inheritance, and morality is far from being comparable to the priority of cultural inheritance, at least before Song and Ming Dynasties.

It is also because of this that at this time it has extremely strong cultural assimilation, or aggressiveness. Liao's sinicization reform will indeed make them recover and make them stronger, but at the same time, they have also unconsciously Accepted Confucian culture.

The core of Confucianism today is the supremacy of culture, and other things are not so important. There is no distinction between education and education. As long as you accept education, you are a good citizen.

Once the Liao Kingdom gradually restructures its own culture, it means that there will be less resistance to ruling between the same culture in the future.

This is actually a mixed blessing for Emperor Shi. The worry is that they may recover, become more united, and stronger; the joy is that if they carry out cultural reforms themselves, they will overcome it in the future and rule will be a matter of course.

Of course, the north and the south must have their own plans, and both the north and the south must have their own wishful thinking. No one can say for sure what will happen in the future.
(End of this chapter)