Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 303 Laozi transforms Hu and puts forward the theoretical basis of capitalism
Faced with Guo Kang's explanation, Princess Jeanna was speechless for a while.

Little Rangna wanted to speak up several times, but Guo Kang even came up with a theological argument, proving that Chinese characters originated directly from the Heavenly Father, and that they are the original language beyond the Tower of Babel.Therefore, it also has extraordinary spirituality and is the most suitable way to study knowledge.

This is not because Guo Kang suddenly realized and improved his theological knowledge, but because of the same reason - this thing has already been demonstrated by the smartest scholars in Europe back then.He just copied a series of conclusions drawn by Europeans around the 18th century.

According to the conclusions of later generations, during the Renaissance, Europeans learned and admired mainly China's material civilization, such as porcelain, silk and other utensils.By the 17th century, people began to pay attention to Chinese philosophy.By the time of the Enlightenment, the level of learning advanced Eastern civilization had risen to political and economic theories, and even Chinese religion.

At that time, European research on the Orient could be focused on three issues:

First, there is the question of the concept of talent.Is God an innate, universal idea?

Second, there is the question of the origin of civilization.Are Chinese characters the original language?

Finally, there is the matter of ancient history and chronology.Are the records of ancient Chinese history credible?If yes, what about the European record?
These three questions can cover almost all important aspects and even shake the religious and theoretical foundations of the whole of Europe.

For example, the first point is the research focus of John Locke, the originator of liberalism.

Locke collected a large amount of information, and even wrote under the map of China every day.He conducted a lot of research on Chinese beliefs, and finally concluded that in China, educated people mainly hold materialist and atheistic views.

At that time, the missionaries headed by the Jesuits tended to link Chinese beliefs with Catholicism to facilitate missionary work.However, a group of scholars headed by Locke were more radical, believing that Confucius's studies, especially the Neo-Confucianism that began in the Song Dynasty, were obviously a kind of atheism or materialism.

Locke believes that the core of Confucianism is "oneness of all things".Their God is not the God of Europe, but a general name for the subtle laws that exist between all things in the world.Ancient philosophers such as Confucius started this "sect", and the Chinese emperors were the high priests who enshrined this concept.

Thus, he was able to demonstrate that the concept of God is not universal.Based on this, Locke debated with those who supported the "divine right of kings": If such an advanced civilization as China does not believe in God, then what reason is there to say that belief in God is innate?If God's faith itself is not innate, how can He be qualified to empower human monarchs?
Locke's doctrine was welcomed by the bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy.Of course, some people are simply more radical than him, arguing that while other philosophies have turned to divinity, Chinese philosophy has always focused on man.Therefore, Europeans have always looked at human nature with the eyes of the theory of divinity, while the Chinese have discovered divinity from the theory of human nature and believed that "I am God", resulting in a fundamental difference.

The results of their research have been used for hundreds of years.It's just that the Europeans of later generations began to oppose rationality and enlightenment thinking, so they changed their direction and used this to attack China.

Of course, apart from Confucius, Lao Tzu is also one of the objects touted by Europeans. The word "laissez-faire" was originally the French translation of the word "inaction" by Quesnay and his followers.

According to their way of thinking, it can even be said that Laozi and Confucius are the pioneers of liberalism, and Confucianism and Taoism are the source of the development of capitalism...

The latter two issues have equally huge impacts.

The concept of "primary language" was once quite popular.It was Leibniz, another famous blower, who perfected this concept.

Leibniz's thinking was influenced by the French "King Mathematician" and Jesuit priest Bai Jin.Bai Jin and others admired the "Book of Changes", believing that the ancient knowledge in it started the development of human society.The Chinese characters used to express meaning in the Book of Changes are the divine "mother of all inventions" and the real key to all knowledge.

This idea is actually full of Catholic theological logic, but Leibniz and others firmly believe in it.They claim that Chinese characters are of a philosophical nature and should be introduced to turn European characters into such intellectual symbols.He conducted a series of researches. Although he was unsuccessful, his study of "Book of Changes" produced results, which provided inspiration for his binary algorithm.This strengthened everyone's confidence and made them believe that the Book of Changes is really useful.

But this kind of behavior also has great negative effects.According to the conclusion of later generations, Leibniz's dream has threatened the possibility of truth in European culture.Because according to their theory, those poor languages ​​in Europe are too far away from real knowledge, and it is impossible to develop good philosophy, including natural philosophy.

But judging from the situation of later generations, the relationship between technological development and language has nothing to do with each other.Even English can be used as an international academic language, Newton didn't dare to think so (Newton himself didn't write books in English).And if Leibniz knew about it, he would probably be able to come back to life...

And if these two items still threaten "Western authority," the third point is simply to directly negate "Western history" itself.At that time, mainstream scholars often opposed the "legacy" of "Ancient Egypt-Ancient Greece-Rome-Western Europe" proposed by the church, and believed that "ancient Greece" and the church were stumbling blocks to the development of philosophy and human enlightenment.Many people therefore opposed Aristotle, and even denied the original ancient history, thinking that they must be overthrown.

Newton wrote the "Revised Chronicle of the Ancient Kingdom", thinking that the history before Persia is not credible.The chronology of the Greeks is obviously exaggerated and full of "poetic fiction", and the accounts about Greece and Egypt are obviously made up.

Unfortunately, Newton was not very professional in this area. He often used myths to deny myths, and Bible stories to deny Greek chronology.So the impact of this book is also limited.Of course, he is not the only one who said that, even apart from Voltaire’s extreme view that "ancient European history is copied from China", there are not a few doubters. Even Newton’s old enemy Hooke believes that classical history is a large number of fictions. Yes, in order to oppose the restraint of the church.

Since then, this question has been bothering Europeans.

In later generations, in the face of many achievements, few people have questioned whether the European alphabetic writing is possible.However, doubts about history have not stopped.In the 20th century, Spengler still questioned that the source of the so-called "West" could not be in Greece, because it was a "non-literal culture".The foundations of Europe's modern achievements could not have come from here, only elsewhere.Furthermore, the three-stage theory of the classical age—the middle ages—the modern age cannot be established.

In the end, this question is even more tenacious than the vitality of the first two points.

Therefore, Guo Kang is not afraid of other people's doubts at all.This set of theories has been continuously questioned and reflected by many European scholars for hundreds of years, and many of them are immortal figures.It has been tempered to perfection, and it is not well known only because of its awkward situation.But it is definitely enough to deal with the current doubters.

　This month, there are 10 quotas for fan titles. According to the rules of the platform, an event will be held in the book review area to draw prizes.

　　I forgot to mention it before, so here is a special reminder.Interested book lovers can go to the book review area to have a look.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)