Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2268: Economy and Party Struggle () From the Duke to the King?

Although the emperor said, "You must not refuse this time," it was obvious that Gao Pragmatic could not really refuse. However, for him, the leader of the Pragmatic School, he could not behave like other officials in the past. Death is not the same.

As a civil servant of the Ming Dynasty, how could you accept the emperor's reward without hesitation? Everyone wants to save face, but the way civil servants in the Ming Dynasty wanted to save face was quite special, even twisted.

For example, if the emperor praises you, you must be willing to accept it, as if not doing so means that you are power-hungry, fame-loving, and morally corrupt; if the emperor scolds you, you must be willing to accept it, as if not doing so means that you are not loyal and fearful of admonishment.

In short, you have to go against normal human nature. To a certain extent, this is probably one of the negative effects of Neo-Confucianism - preserving natural principles and destroying human desires.

However, as one of the current great masters of the Practical School, Gao Pragmatic has previously put forward a point of view: the laws of nature are human desires.

[Note: Some people in later generations said that Wang Yangming supported the principles of heaven and human desires, which is inappropriate. The science of mind emerged based on Neo-Confucianism, and Wang Yangming also cared about the principles of nature, but he believed that most scholars at that time knew or at least roughly knew what the principles of heaven were, but were unwilling to do it. Therefore, Wang Yangming paid more attention to the "zhi" of "toward conscience" and mainly advocated the unity of knowledge and action. However, probably no readers would like to read this issue, so I will not discuss it here. ]

However, Gao Pragmatic’s words have a premise, that is, before saying that “the laws of nature are human desires,” it is necessary to redefine what “human desires” are. In other words, he wants to make a standard for what he calls "human desire" - to distinguish what is "human desire" and what is "animal desire".

For example, "A gentleman loves money and gets it in a wise way" is called lust; cheating, kidnapping, and plundering is called animal lust; studying hard to honor one's ancestors is called lust; and cheating in imperial examinations in order to get promoted and make a fortune is called animal lust.

Although Gao Pragmatic objected to Shen Shixing and his colleagues frequently gathering together to give lectures, in reality they just stood around and talked, so he gave very few lectures himself, but this did not mean that he did not express "academic opinions." However, Gao pragmatically expresses his "academic opinions" not through lectures, but by publishing articles in his own newspapers from time to time.

There is no doubt that Gao Pragmatic does not do meaningless things. He has clear goals when expressing academic opinions: First, if the court wants to influence scholarly public opinion, he needs to come up with his own theory, and this A theory can't just sound good, it must also be possible to implement.

According to the strategy of high-level administration, it can be seen that his consistent attitude is to "attack a small number of vested interests, but pay attention to the majority of vested interests." If this sentence is difficult to understand, then you can change it to a more straightforward sentence: unite the majority and attack the small group.

Yes, any struggle must adhere to this principle, because only by uniting the majority can we be able to fight against the small group. Otherwise, if you yourself belong to a "small minority", what can you do to attack the majority? Take Tian Ling Gai?

The reason why he dared to propose that "natural principles are human desires" was because after he distinguished "human desires" from "animal desires", most people would side with him. Why? Because after you get to the bottom of things, you will find that Confucianism is originally a thought of "joining the world," and "joining the world" means doing things.

He pretends to be high-minded and talks about his character, but he doesn't understand shit, yet he dares to criticize anyone, but he does nothing but criticize. How is this Confucianism? This is cynicism!

Gao Pragmatic has not published many "academic opinions" in recent years, but there are many criticisms of this "cynicism", and the purpose of doing so is to highlight the "pragmatism" of the pragmatic school. If Wang Yangming proposed the unity of knowledge and action but did not specify what a person should "do", then Gao Pragmatic proposed seeking truth from facts and clearly pointed out what should be done.

What to do? It is not a general talk of "establishing a heart for the heaven and earth, establishing a destiny for the people, inheriting the unique knowledge for the past saints, and creating peace for all generations", but "developing the productive forces" and "reforming the production relations to adapt to the continuously developing productive forces."

In other words - don't be silly, leave it to me to find ways to produce more things! It’s not scary to have problems in this process. While new problems arise, we should also find ways to solve these emerging problems.

Some people say that if the Chinese want to do something, they often need to "reform the ancient system." Yes, Tuogu restructuring has a unique social foundation in China, because one of the important characteristics of Chinese civilization after Zhou Gong was to remove "god worship" and switch to "ancestor worship."

Respecting objective reality is a pragmatic and consistent style of acting, so come to Tuogu for reform. Everyone knows that he is the number one scholar in the Six Poems, and also knows that his original classic is "Yi", so he starts his discussion from "Yi".

His academic status is already here, so he dares to get to the bottom of things that others need to say that are mysterious and profound - what is Yi?

According to Gao's pragmatic and straightforward point of view: "Yi" means change, and "Book of Changes", in the final analysis, is just one sentence: The world is constantly changing, and you cannot change the world, so you need to constantly change yourself to adapt to changes in the world.

From this, Gao Pragmatic's discussion of "The Book of Changes" can be condensed into four words: change and adaptability.

To a certain extent, this is a major subversion of Gao Pragmatic’s ideological and theoretical system of Ming Dynasty—even China’s ideological and theoretical system for many years. Because the ancient Chinese dynasties did not have the idea of ​​developing productivity, or it can be said that it is difficult for the agricultural society itself to produce this kind of thinking.

The reason is not complicated. It is difficult for agriculture to progress and it is difficult for it to produce leap-forward development on its own. Take the matter of "farming" as an example: the emergence of a metal plow is a big breakthrough, the emergence of animal-drawn plows is another big breakthrough, and then what? Then it will be difficult to make new breakthroughs in the matter of plowing, because the peak of the "power" that agricultural society can use to plow is nothing more than animal power.

Under such circumstances, although the past dynasties still had some new technologies discovered by themselves in the development of society, such as the structure of this plow that could be optimized, overall development was slow. In this case, social productivity is progressing slowly, and production relations naturally do not need to be adjusted excessively. This is why Gao Pragmatic's reforms looked very radical in the eyes of his time, but he himself knew that they were actually very mild. People at the time thought he was radical because his view of the world was almost constant, but Gao pragmatically knew that he was very moderate because he was more accustomed to the speed of development in his previous life - a few decades was enough to turn the world upside down, and he could go from being an agricultural country to a farmer. To the industrial king of the world.

Of course, as for the current Gao Pragmatic, he knows that his own abilities are limited. While reforming, he must also solve the problems that will inevitably be encountered in the reform, so he also "creates allies" for himself from all levels.

The reason why he wooed the nobles who later generations think are all trash is because he knows that the nobles have enough original capital, and because of greed, they will support him and lead them to make more money - then, it doesn't matter how useless the person is, I I don’t need you to direct the battle. Your capital and greed are the power I can use.

When it comes to exporting academic opinions, the truth is actually the same: "animal desires" are not advisable. They are all despised by our Confucian sages, Confucius. We must be gentlemen, join the world, and adopt the right approach - that is to say, we scholars must Work hard to improve yourself and then get rewards through reasonable and legal means.

Why do this? Because only by instilling this idea into more people can the so-called "scholars not do business" idea be truly subverted - why can't I, a scholar, do business and run a factory? I am doing this for the country and the people!

If I run a business, I can let the people in the north eat cheap sugar from the south, and I can let the people in the south ride on the BMW horses from the north. Am I not benefiting the people?

I can set up a factory so that people who lost their land due to disasters can come to my factory to find a job, so that they can support their families and not starve to death on the streets. The things I produce can make production and life more convenient for more people. Don’t I? To benefit the people?

As for you saying that I made money from it, of course, of course I made money, but isn’t that what I should make? Isn’t it the right way for a gentleman to love money?

It is precisely because of this that Gao Pragmatic, as the source and main promoter of these ideological propaganda, can neither accept the emperor's words directly nor pretend to accept them. There is a certain degree of emphasis here.

"Your Majesty, it is natural for you to follow the sages of our dynasty and receive the title of Duke for your great contribution to the founding of the country and the peace of Nanjing. But you know, the people of the scholar-lin community still ridicule Shi Heng and Zhu Yong... to this day.

It has been more than thirty years since I was entrusted by the late Emperor to assist Your Majesty. Although I dare not say that I have tried my best, but I have put my heart and soul into it, and there is indeed a little bit of effort. However, these are just the achievements of the past, and the emperor did not miss the reward. Now that I have no new merits and have even just been impeached, how can I dare to accept this reward from the Duke? Please also ask the emperor to take back his order. "

Zhu Yijun chuckled and said: "New achievements, don't worry about this. I recently received a memorial from Mr. Shen in Nanjing, saying that the Nanjing palace is dilapidated and difficult to welcome, and must be renovated before it can be used. In other words, the Southern Tour is about There is no rush for now, it will be convenient after the victory of the Western Expedition...

Rixin, it was you who advocated and managed the restoration of the Western Regions. Although you were at the center, you commanded all directions and coordinated the world. If you win this battle, it will naturally be your first achievement. The Western Region is our homeland of China. It has been lost for hundreds of years. How great would it be if we restored it now? At that time, you used this merit as a basis, let alone granting the title of Duke of a country, even if it is a king with a different surname, why not? "

Gao pragmatic said quickly: "Your Majesty, please be careful. Taizu has ancestral precepts, and people with different surnames cannot be crowned kings..."

"I know!" Zhu Yijun interrupted: "But you said that people with different surnames cannot be crowned kings... So what if Chengzu granted Ye Xiantu Gan the title of Zhongyong King, and the late emperor granted me the title of Shunyi King? Is it possible that I, a Han Chinese, with a different surname are a different surname? , the Mongolian surname is not a different surname?”

Ah, this...

Gao Pragmatic was speechless for a moment, then thought for a while and said: "Of course there is a difference. There is a reason why the loyal and brave king Ye Xian Tu Gan (not Ye Xian Taishi) was granted the title. It was probably because Chengzu wanted to buy horse bones with his daughter. Besides, he This king is also very important, and he is actually located between the princes. The emperor remembers that it is recorded in the "Records": "Given a banquet, Jin Zhong was ordered to sit below the prince and above the princes." This shows how good this loyal and brave king is. "

Zhu Yijun waved his hand: "I haven't compiled records like you, and I can't remember these details. However, even if we don't talk about King Zhongyong, what about King Shunyi? Neither the late emperor nor I let King Shunyi sit under the marquis and serve as the governor. Go'ah."

Now Gao Pragmatism really couldn't find any etiquette reasons. After all, two generations of Shunyi kings had never been to the capital to meet the emperor. There was no objective proof as to which position he should sit in.

But Gao Pragmatic definitely didn’t dare to take on the problem of “a king with a different surname”, so he immediately thought of another reason: “The King of Shunyi is also a special case. I replied that Lao Wang was canonized with thousands of miles of territory and 100,000 cavalry attached. , I was born as a minister of the Han Dynasty, how can I compare with it?"

Zhu Yijun didn't expect that Gao Jingshi could find a reason for this, and he couldn't help but be speechless for a moment. But what Gao Jingshi didn't expect was that Zhu Yijun suddenly looked thoughtful and muttered: "You are right in saying that. Reason, but... if it's said that Obito is possessed, you can actually do it."
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Thanks to book friends "Yu Jian Fei Peng Chong Lou", "Yun Fu Yu Yu", "Altay's Old West", "CosifanYutte", and "CSX" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!

PS: It seems that you still think it’s okay for me to be alone, so you won’t accompany me... Okay, okay, I’ll take the order.