Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 505 Destiny
Xu Cai and his companions walked into the office of the Zhizhisi, seeing that no one spoke, he couldn't help but be cautious.When I arrived at the backyard, I saw a newly built shed, and a group of public officials were busy.

Inside the shed, there was a table in front of it.In front of the table, there are rows of square tables, and a chair is placed behind each square table.There is a small card on the table with the name written on it.After finding his name, Xu Cai sat down carefully.

An official put teacups on each table, and an official behind made tea with hot water.Xu Cai took a look at the teacup, and it was filled with the best Xinyang Maojian, the kind that he wouldn't even drink when he didn't entertain guests.The envoy of Xindao Zhizhi is really generous, using such good tea.

After a while, Wang Xiaolie brought Chen Yuyi and Wang Ruohai in, and sat down at the table in front.

Looking at the crowd, Wang Xiaolie said: "You guys are newly recruited, and what you do is different from others. In my opinion, what you do is pragmatic, while other officials are doing pragmatic things. But , I heard someone say that you are all idlers."

Speaking of this, Wang Xiaolie smiled.Said: "It is wrong to say that you are idlers. The government is not so rich and supports so many idlers. But the things you do are indeed different from ordinary officials. This point must be made clear."

"Since ancient times, Chinese politics has had a tradition of recording history. In ancient times, there were Zhu Xia Shi and Yu Shi, and now there are also Living Sheren and Living Lang. This mainly records the affairs of the central court, especially the emperor. In addition, There are also records of civil affairs. However, since the Qin Dynasty, people have not paid much attention to civil affairs, and gradually there are no officials to do these things. How can this work? You officials are specially recruited to record civil affairs. Speaking of it , is a kind of historian."

"All kinds of official examinations, those in charge of administration examine "Shangshu" and "Book of Rites" and "Chunqiu"; those in charge of criminal law examine "Chunqiu" and "Book of Rites"; those in charge of etiquette law examine "Book of Rites" and Exam "Book of Songs" and "Book of Songs". You are mainly examining "Book of Songs" and "Spring and Autumn Annals". All this is just the beginning and will be gradually improved. Many people don't know, so I will explain it here."

"The "Book of Songs" is the first of the Five Classics, and its importance is self-evident. But what exactly is written in the "Book of Songs" and what problems it explains have always been different. We don't care about the arguments of the classics. In my opinion, the "Book of Songs" is The history of the folk. Let us know what the folks were like in that era except for the important events in the court. What kind of emotions did the ordinary people have, what yearnings, what hopes, and what dissatisfaction. For our descendants, the "Book of Songs" " is not only beautiful in writing, but more importantly, it has left behind the style of that era. You people are doing the work of those officials in the pre-Qin Shiji "Book of Songs". I hope you can do a good job and preserve this The style of the times."

Having said that, Wang Xiaolie took a sip of tea and didn't speak.Let the officials below sort out their thoughts.

From the "Book of Songs" in the pre-Qin Dynasty, to the poems of the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, to the tunes and lyrics of the Tang Dynasty, to the scriptures of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, to the novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this is a developmental thread, and it is the account of folk history by Chinese literati.Han Fu, Tang poetry, and Song Ci are the manifestations of literati.It can be clearly seen that after the Han Dynasty, the imperial court did not pay much attention to such folk history, and no one specially assigned to do it.

It is wrong to place Ming and Qing novels behind Han Fu, Tang poetry, and Song Ci, because they do not belong to the same system.After the Song Dynasty, if the Yuan opera still had some literati flavor, the Ming and Qing novels had little to do with the literati.Strictly speaking, novelists are not literati, they just read and write novels.It is also true that their works contain the most vivid people's livelihood.

From the experience of the previous life, Wang Xiaolie knows how important the people are to the country.If the history of a country lacks vivid people's lives, a large part will be missing.For the regime, this part must be made up.

Of course, setting up such a large group of officials is not just for recording people's lives.Their more important role is to provide power support for the regime.Only by clearly knowing what the people think, can we know what the government will do.

This is the relationship between the government and the people.The people provide the source of power for the regime, and the regime educates and guides the people.Changes in people's thinking lead to reforms in regimes.It is a relationship that complements each other, and nothing is complete without either side.

Putting down the teacup, Wang Xiao said: "The history of the world is not only the history of the court, but also the history of the folk. Without the history of the folk, the history we can record is incomplete. Of course, your job is not just to record the history of the folk. History, more importantly, is to understand the thoughts of the people. The thoughts of the people determine how we should govern and how the government should do a good job. You are the source of ideas for the government’s governance and the feedback of the government’s governance. Only when the government is in close contact with the people Together, things get better."

"We don't have many ancient books. What happened to Yu, Tang, Xia, and Shang? Many things are unclear. From the Zhou Dynasty, it was said that the emperor received the mandate of heaven and replaced the herdsmen. What is the mandate of heaven? In fact, there were not many discussions in the pre-Qin period. In the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu, dismissed all schools of thought, and respected Confucianism alone. One of the important contents was about the destiny. From natural disasters to man-made disasters, from earthquakes to nursery rhymes, to prophecy, there is a whole set of theories. This set of theories has been impacted since Wang Mang’s generation of Han, After the Later Han Dynasty, it was basically lost. In our era, what is the Mandate of Heaven? In fact, it is very vague. But how can a regime act if it does not know the Mandate of Heaven? This method is to know the will of heaven and make your own governance conform to the will of heaven. In addition to recording history, you also have another important function, which is to find out the will of heaven.”

"How to find God's will? The source of this is a sentence in "Shang Shu, Tai Oath" that the sky sees itself and the people see it, and the sky listens to the people. Since the sky sees the people, and the sky listens to the people, then we will You need to know what the people see, what they hear, and what they think. So is God’s will the will of the people? No. If it’s that simple, what do the government need to do? Instead, you need to know the will of the people, so that you can know the destiny. How to do it, You have to come from practice. There is nothing between things, and the result is determined before you do it. No matter how accurate your estimate is, it is only about the same.”

"When recruiting officials like you, one is to remember the history of the people, and the other is to know the opinions of the people. On the basis of knowing the opinions of the people, we analyze what the destiny is. After analyzing the destiny, the government governs according to the destiny. Not relying on this Officials are virtuous, and those officials are wise to govern. Officials are the executors of the destiny, so the official orders are sacred."

Speaking of this, Wang Xiaolie smiled.He said to everyone: "The matter of ghosts and gods is illusory and ethereal. We don't know if there are any. Since we don't know, how can we rely on ghosts and gods to guess the destiny? The sky is high above, and we mortals don't know what it looks like. I don't know." We can’t guess about things, and we’ll be wrong once we guess. Instead, we must try our best to find out by using the methods we can think of. How to find out? The most reliable way is the people. We must correctly understand the people and value them , in order to grasp the clues of destiny."

"The people we are talking about are living people, but not just people. A man is smart and brave, and a woman is virtuous and beautiful. Anyone who comes into contact with them knows it. They get married and form a family. What does this family look like? , It is impossible to know just by the appearance of this man and this woman. For a political power, the destiny is roughly the same. We not only need to know what the individual people think, but also what the family thinks, what the clan thinks, and all kinds of collectives How to think. Taken together, you can understand the Mandate of Heaven. Only when you understand the Mandate of Heaven, can the regime know how to govern. Governance is not to satisfy the people, let alone officials, but to be in line with the Mandate of Heaven.”

(End of this chapter)