Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1140 1135 [The Beginning of Scientific Thought]

As winter goes and spring comes, the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River is beautiful.

Zhu Guoxiang, enjoying the early spring breeze, bid farewell to Hangzhou where he had lived for half a year, and went upstream along the Zhejiang River (a general term for the Xin'an River and the Fuchun River).

Although the Changsheng Garden where he once lived had been cleansed of its evil spirit, no one was interested in it for the time being.

As corruption cases in Zhejiang's officialdom become bigger and bigger, not only are officials feeling insecure, but even businessmen are trembling with fear. Who would have the mood to buy a garden at this time?
What's more, it is not certain whether the evil spirit has been completely eliminated.

Didn’t you see that the retired emperor had only lived there for a month when one of his grandsons was exiled?
The evil spirit of Changsheng Garden was so strong that even the emperor could not bear it. However, the emperor was still the Yao and Shun of the modern times, and he had his own destiny. The evil spirit randomly transferred to one of the emperor's grandsons to deal with the disaster.

If the emperor didn't live in Changsheng Garden, Prince Cai Zhu Zhi would definitely be fine!
Such statements are quite popular in Hangzhou, and even some officials believe them.

The fleet passed through Fuyang, Tonglu, Yanzhou... stopping and starting along the way, and rested when they arrived in Huizhou. Zhu Guoxiang stayed in Huizhou for more than half a month.

By the way, go climb Mount Huangshan to watch the sunrise.

Next, they did not take the Hui-Rao waterway to Jiangxi, but took the Hui-Xuan waterway to Xuancheng. Occasionally they abandoned their boats and walked, as the boats had been prepared by the local government.

It did not disturb the public, and officials in the areas passing through were all happy with it.

Even the owners of the requisitioned ships seemed to have won the lottery, as they provided the ships to the emperor and his entourage free of charge, and also had the opportunity to be received by the emperor.

Using their ship will only take a few days and won’t delay anything, but they can brag about it for the rest of their lives!

Zhu Guoxiang made a big detour from Hangzhou, sightseeing along the way, meeting with officials and citizens, and finally arrived in Nanjing.

This was the capital of Jiangnan East Road in the Song Dynasty, and its economy was very developed.

After being designated as Nanjing by the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing annexed many prefectures and counties in Zhejiang and stationed heavy troops here. Nanjing's prosperity reached a new level.

The prefect of Jinling, or the mayor of Jinling, was the famous Zhang Zeduan.

The painter initially worked in the Hanlin Academy of Painting of the Ming Dynasty. Later, he repeatedly applied to be a civil official and was demoted five levels to become a county magistrate.

Surprisingly, he has achieved remarkable political achievements.

In fact, it can be seen from "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" that Zhang Zeduan was proficient in architecture, shipbuilding and various industries. Take the various ships in the painting for example, every part of the ship is so detailed that it is impossible to draw it without understanding the structure of various ships.

In history, Zhang Zeduan should have been dead for five or six years, but now he is still alive and well as an official.

Zhu Guoxiang met with officials, gentry, celebrities and common people, then went boating in Xuanwu Lake and then visited the Qinhuai area.

At that time, Qinhuai River was not yet a red-light district.

There are also brothels, opera houses and theaters, but they are not mainstream and are more like prosperous commercial areas along the river.

I also checked in at Changganli, which is the core commercial area of ​​Nanjing. I don’t know how many childhood sweethearts are hidden there, but I can only say that the phoenix has left the stage and the river flows on its own.

Before leaving Nanjing, Zhu Guoxiang went to pay homage to Wang Anshi's tomb and met with Wang Anshi's descendants.

Wang Anshi spent one-third of his life in Nanjing, and finally chose to be buried in Nanjing. Wang Anshi's tomb was moved to Linchuan, Jiangxi when Zhu Yuanzhang built the Xiaoling Mausoleum.

The emperor's visit to Wang Anshi's tomb caused a huge sensation in the academic circles of Nanjing, where there were a large number of new scholars who had long been integrated into the Ming academic system, but they still retained their own school of thought.

Zhu Guoxiang's tribute to Wang Anshi is tantamount to a comprehensive affirmation of Wang Anshi.

Why are the new scholars so excited?
Because of the successive emergence of new school disciples such as Cai Jing and Qin Hui, and the failure of the Northern Song Dynasty's reform, the New School and Wang Anshi have been repeatedly attacked in recent years.

Qin Hui, in particular, grew up in Nanjing, the holy land of new learning, and was a legitimate descendant of new learning.

The new school followers in the Jinling Prefecture heard the news and came one after another to request the retired emperor to visit Maoshan.

Of course not, I’m going to Maoshan to learn Taoism.

There is Maoshan Academy, one of the four major academies in the early Song Dynasty and the six major academies in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Private academies were quite popular in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the prosperity of official schools, many great scholars from the private sector were called to teach in official schools. Due to the shortage of teachers, private academies gradually declined.

The same was true of Maoshan Academy. Even the 300 acres of school land granted by the emperor were seized by the Maoshan Taoist priests next door.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, many former Song officials who were not recruited or were unwilling to serve as officials in the new dynasty returned to their hometowns to set up academies and give lectures.

As a result, private academies across the country flourished again.

Even the school land of Maoshan Academy was taken back from the Maoshan Taoist priests by taking advantage of the court's ban on temples.

"Chen Gongfu, a commoner from Jiangzuo, pays respect to the emperor!"

At the foot of Sanmao Mountain, an old man in his seventies, leaning on a cane, led the students to greet them.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, there's no need to be so polite."

They knew each other before.

Chen Gongfu was a graduate of the Imperial College in the third year of Zhenghe. When Kaifeng was besieged by Zhu Ming and Jin soldiers from the north and south, Chen Gongfu was a staunch advocate of war under Li Gang.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Gongfu refused to accept his official position and fled to Hangzhou to seek refuge with Emperor Huizong of Song. He worked for only half a year before he was framed by Zhu Jie and dismissed from office. From then on, he became a teacher.

He has an old grudge against Zhu Jie.

He had been an official in Zhu Jie's hometown. When Zhu Jie's elder brother celebrated his birthday, all the local officials went to pay their respects, but Chen Gongfu not only did not go himself, but also did not allow his students to go.

This man not only had a grudge against Zhu Zhen, but also against Li Bangyan.

Zhu Guoxiang climbed the mountain with a cane, and Chen Gongfu followed with a cane.

Zhu Guoxiang asked, "Mr. Chen once criticized the new learning. Why did he become the president of the academy in this place where the new learning is flourishing?" Chen Gongfu said, "There is no new learning now, only the Ming Dynasty national learning. When I criticized the new learning, it was not to completely deny Mr. Wang Linchuan, but to impeach Li Bangyan and other people who sold out their country for personal gain."

The treason here refers to selling the State of Song to the thief Zhu.

Tired of climbing, sit down and rest.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "What kind of knowledge is being taught at Maoshan Academy now?"

Chen Gongfu said: "It extended and expounded the Ming Dynasty's national studies and formed its own school, which was named Jinling School."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled when he heard this.

Wang Anshi’s new school of thought is also known as “Jinling School”.

Chen Gongfu is a very interesting person. Historically, he criticized the New Learning in the late Northern Song Dynasty and banned Neo-Confucianism in the early Southern Song Dynasty.

This person actually has the talent to be a prime minister, but unfortunately he has too bad a temper.

He would rather teach in the countryside than be an official in the Ming Dynasty, and always regarded the Zhu father and son as bandits.

But I have let it go over the years.

Firstly, Emperor Zhu treated the Zhao Song royal family well, and secondly, Emperor Zhu was indeed better at governing the country than Zhao Ji.

Whenever there was news of the court's crackdown on corruption or victory in foreign wars, Chen Gongfu would be so happy that he would have a few drinks. He even began to study Zhu Ming's scholarship. After Zhu Ming promoted Xunzi to a classic, he still studied Xunzi seriously.

Even at an old age, he still asks young people about astronomy and physics.

Zhu Guoxiang continued to climb the mountain and came to Maoshan Academy, where Chen Gongfu presented his book "Qi Lun" to him.

This was written by him combining Wang Anshi's new learning and the current Ming Dynasty official learning, including knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, physics, etc.

It took twenty years in total.

That night, Zhu Guoxiang read by candlelight.

The first chapter talks about philosophical thoughts, and begins by saying that the universe is composed of "primordial energy".

Yuan Qi is a chaotic substance, which then evolves into Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and all things. All the evolution processes must follow the laws of physics, which can be explored, discovered, and summarized.

He also believed that mathematics was extremely profound and that the rules of physics could be expressed using mathematics.

It also reinforced Wang Anshi's idea that "Heaven and man are unrelated", believing that the heaven and the earth have their own rules of operation that cannot be interfered with by ghosts, gods or humans.

But people can use the laws of physics to do things, such as Zhu Guoxiang's agronomy and the use of firearms.

Chapter 2 talks about economics.

It is also based on Wang Anshi's thoughts and studies the national policies of the Ming Dynasty in recent years, combining the two for discussion.

He believed that the natural resources between heaven and earth were fixed, and if big landlords and big businessmen took more, ordinary people would have less. Therefore, the court should intervene and use various means to curb mergers and monopolies.

At the same time, they believe that although natural resources are fixed, people can create wealth through labor. They also believe that the circulation of goods needs to be strengthened in order to make the country and the market more smooth.

Chapter 3 talks about education.

It advocates practical application of knowledge to the world, emphasizes thinking and practice, and does not just focus on picking out sentences from scriptures.

Chapter 4 talks about ethics...

The book does not have many words, just over 30,000.

The academic works of great Confucian scholars in the Song Dynasty had long been written in a semi-vernacular and semi-classical style, so the amount of information in these more than 30,000 words cannot be compared with that in classical Chinese.

This book, "On Qi", is more like a summary of Wang Anshi's thoughts on new learning, Ming Dynasty official learning, Northern Song Dynasty policies, and Ming Dynasty policies.

It also analyzes why Wang Anshi's reform failed, and explains why a series of Ming policies were successful. In his discussion, he mainly quoted the ideas of Xunzi, which he hated the most when he was young.

By the way, Chen Gongfu hated Neo-Confucianism very much. He was the first person in the Southern Song Dynasty to propose banning Neo-Confucianism.

"This person is very talented!" Zhu Guoxiang exclaimed after reading it.

Although the content of the first chapter is a bit nonsense, it is already a great progress at this time. It completely abandons the theory of ghosts and gods and completely uses materialism to explain the universe and everything.

It’s just that his materialism is still about vital energy, yin and yang, the five elements, and all things.

He materialized Yin Yang and the Five Elements, believing that they were some kind of invisible and intangible substance.

The next day, Zhu Guoxiang carefully annotated the book in the academy.

For example, in the chapter on the formation of the universe, Zhu Guoxiang commented: This theory is very wonderful, but it needs to be verified. Unverified theories can be regarded as hypotheses for research. They may be correct, wrong, or have errors and omissions. Readers should redouble their efforts to distinguish the true from the false.

There is another most important comment: I have already mentioned this to the emperor. The principles of all things can indeed be expressed by mathematics. The reason why it cannot be expressed by mathematics is not because it cannot be done, but because of the insufficiency of current academic research. Future generations should work hard to do so.

Zhu Guoxiang supplemented the remaining chapters in the form of annotations, for example, he racked his brains to write down the common sense of economics he knew.

Moreover, in the education chapter, Zhu Guoxiang publicly wrote about his views on epistemology, methodology, and theory of contradiction for the first time.

"Make two copies of it together with the comments, one to send to the emperor and one to Chen Gongfu," Zhu Guoxiang said as he put down his pen.

A few days later, after touring the scenery of Maoshan, Zhu Guoxiang went to Nanjing and took a boat up the Yangtze River.

Chen Gongfu got the transcript and read it carefully and thought about Zhu Guoxiang's comments.

He was amazed and said with emotion: "Everyone says that the emperor is the Yao and Shun of the modern era. Today I finally believe it. It's a pity that I didn't know a wise ruler and didn't stay in the new dynasty to serve as an official!"

(End of this chapter)