Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 715 To be such an official
The Song Dynasty has a characteristic that is different from the previous Han and Tang Dynasties and the subsequent Ming and Qing Dynasties, that is, the literati and bureaucrats have a wide understanding of the public.The world is not the world of one person, but the world of the people in the world.This sentence, or something similar, was said by more than one person.

Wang Yucheng of the Northern Song Dynasty said that the world is not controlled by one person, but by the people in the world.If the principle has its way, the people will assist it, and if it loses its way, the people will go away. If the people go away, who will be the same as the world?

Zhu Xi wrote a commentary for Mencius, saying that "the people in the world rule the world, not because of the private property of one person."

In this era in history, Song and Jin negotiated peace, and when Zhao Gou bent his knees to accept the imperial edict of the Jin Dynasty, Fang Ting, the censor, actually played it.What is said is the world, the world of China, the world of ancestors, the world of officials, surnames, and the three armies, not the world of your majesty.

In other words, among the literati and bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty, it is a widely accepted understanding that the world is public rather than the emperor's private world.This is because the understanding of history after the troubled times of the Five Dynasties, and the understanding of reality that the Song Dynasty was not good for foreign wars, gave rise to this concept among intellectuals.

The throne of the Song Dynasty is different from other dynasties.When the dynasty was established, it was Zhao Kuangyin who usurped the throne from the Later Zhou Dynasty, and it was wrong to win the country.Most emperors are aware of this point, no matter what they say or do, they are not as confident as the emperors of other dynasties.

Even Zhao Gou, when prices were soaring and lower-level officials struggled to survive, once the government stabilized, he immediately added ten guan a month to the salaries of lower-level officials.If you want officials to do their jobs well, what if you don’t pay them?
To say that Zhu Yuanzhang governed officials strictly, one must first understand that Zhu Yuanzhang set officials very low salaries, so he was called mean and ungrateful.

As a superior, you must learn self-discipline.The stricter the self-discipline, the easier it is to manage subordinates.Thinking that I am the one in power, if I am not restrained, I can do whatever I want and others will obey me, how is that possible?How can there be so many fools in this world?What if fools are not enough?The next best thing is to use treacherous ministers.So some people especially like treacherous ministers and dog legs, and think that this is a good minister.Are you stupid, or is this world stupid?

Corruption cannot be cured by harsh punishments, but by the self-discipline of the superiors.History has summed up this issue very well, the world is for the public.Therefore, no matter how severe the punishment is for Zhu Yuanzhang to deal with corruption, he can't deal with it.

After so many years, Wang Xiaolie understood a truth.It is impossible for a regime to fail to pay officials' salaries.Moreover, the official salaries that can be supported will never be low.If it cannot be issued, it means that the money has not gone into the pockets of the regime, but into other people's pockets.

It is precisely because Wang Xiaolie has always been self-disciplined that he can require officials to be self-disciplined and have enough money to give officials relatively high salaries.

Seeing everyone's appearance, Wang Xiaolie smiled.Dao: "There is a sentence that must be made clear. Giving you a relatively generous salary does not allow you to become officials for the sake of salary. This is the responsibility of a regime. If you don't give you money and let you do things, do you want to talk about ideals with you?" ?We must have ideals, but the superiors cannot ask the subordinates to talk about ideals. The government makes money, if it is not distributed to officials, who should it be given to?"

"As an official in the government, salary should not be something you consider. What you have to consider is how to do things well, how to implement the orders from above, how to make the people's lives better and better, and how to make the country more and more prosperous. Be strong. Believe that if you do well, you will be promoted if you should, and you will get more when you should get more salary. Believe that this kind of thing will come naturally, and you don’t need to argue with others.”

"Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about politics. Confucius said to him: Monarchs, ministers, fathers, sons and sons. We have stepped onto this stage and played a role, so we must do our best to play the role well. As a king, do your best. A monarch should try his best to do well. As a minister, try to do the job of the minister well. Only when both parties do well, can the play continue. If you wear costumes and don’t do what you should do, your No matter how good the costumes are, the drama is not a drama. You are officials under me, and you work hard, but I don’t pay you. Put the money in your own pocket, and put it in my seven aunts and eight elders. In my uncle's pocket, what I said earlier is all nonsense!"

"Zi said, my Tao is consistent. Zeng Zi said Wei. When others asked Zeng Zi what he meant, Zeng Zi said loyalty and forgiveness. One loyalty and one forgiveness are indispensable. This is the way. These two words cannot be said separately. Once separated, loyalty It’s not loyalty, forgiveness is not forgiveness. It doesn’t mean that you are a king and I am a subject, and I want to be loyal to you. It doesn’t mean that I am a king and you are a minister, and I want to forgive you. But in one thing, promise To treat others, being the same outside and inside is loyalty. Even if things are not ideal, others will know that you have done your best and do not blame you. This is forgiveness. Loyalty and forgiveness must be combined, and separation is not the way. Pure loyalty, you treat others as fools ?When we talk about filial piety, there is still the kindness of my parents who gave birth to me and raised me. What is the basis for loyalty? The basis is that the king is the king, not just in name, but in fact, the appearance is the same. If the king is only in name , It’s like wearing a costume in an opera, but you don’t say what the character should say, don’t do what the character should do, so why be loyal?”

Seeing the silence below, Wang Xiaolie did not dwell on this topic.

"I let you go around during this time to let you understand. In the places I rule, the lives of the people are better than in other places. The army I command is stronger than other armies. The people are rich and the country is strong. That’s why I’m qualified to say something like this here.”

"This school wants to teach you some basic knowledge. You have never learned this knowledge, so you have to come to the school to learn it. The important thing is what you have learned from the school. It is not that you entered this school. After you come out, you will have an extra identity and be more noble. There is no reason for that. What is taught here is some knowledge necessary for politics. For example, mathematics, many people were not familiar with it before, this is not acceptable. An official must know mathematics, must Know some statistics."

"Our world is very strange. There are sun, moon and stars in the sky, and rivers and lakes on the ground. Everything is clear. But when we searched carefully and wanted to find their boundaries, we found that we couldn't find them. We had to artificially set a boundary. .This I call limitless and unbounded. The sun, the moon, mountains and rivers exist naturally, and everything is so distinct. But there is no boundary, which is artificially set. How could this be? I don’t know.”

"In the real world, the boundaries are not so clear. Especially in a complex society composed of people, it is even more difficult to find boundaries. The simplest thing is that there are men and women in the world. It seems that the boundaries are clear enough? But there are not men. People who are not female, or male and female, are born this way. Therefore, an official must understand statistics in order to understand society and manage society better.”

Having said that, Wang Xiaolie took a sip of water to moisten his throat.Cai said: "Finally, let me talk about the teaching method. The basic knowledge just mentioned is of course the class. But the most important thing in this school is not the class, but learning to be an official. How to learn? According to our experience, it is to use Cases. In practice, I will tell you how officials deal with good and bad things. With the teacher’s comment, let everyone know how officials do it.”

"Mastering a large number of cases, conducting analysis, and making comments will not only be used in schools, but will also be used a lot in the future. This is a very big feature of our officials here. You have handled official business, and it must be recorded and cannot be changed without authorization. These official affairs may be selected as cases at any time. Where you succeed, let everyone learn from them. Where you fail, let everyone try to avoid them. This way, the more you learn, the easier it will be to handle official affairs. Don’t just because it may be used as a case, Then, if it becomes widely known, it will be secretly modified to look better. If it is discovered, it will be abolished for the people, which is unreasonable."

"The role of doing things in the government includes officials, officials, servants, servants, and so on. The salaries of officials are much higher than others, because of heavy responsibilities and high requirements. Therefore, the number of officials cannot be many. Since there are not many, check it out. It's easy. As an official under me, you must be ready to be investigated at any time. Being investigated is not because you have done poorly or have problems to deal with, but because this is the daily responsibility of the inspectors. They don't check you, they want them What are you doing?"

"I have said so much, you should understand what the officials under me look like. Finally, I wish you all the knowledge you have learned in school, and you can manage politics well and make your own achievements at work."

(End of this chapter)