Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1156 Epilogue : Confucianism can also be Brahmanized
The wall is quite high, and just using a stool is not enough; a ladder is needed.

Just as the ladder was moved and set up, mother Wang Yitong appeared silently.

The maid who had brought medicine to Xie Yan before was now hiding behind Wang Yitong, lowering her head and not daring to look at him. It was obvious that she was the informer.

"Where are you going?" Wang Yitong asked.

Wang Sheng was as frightened as a quail, and replied timidly: "Madam, please allow me to speak. My husband and I..."

"I didn't ask you!" Wang Yitong interrupted directly.

Xie Yan could only say: "I want to go to the provincial library and look up the chemical journals published in recent years."

Wang Yitong sneered: "Do you think your own mother has never been educated? You said you want to switch to science, but you haven't even started formal classes yet. Do you need to look up chemistry journals? The articles in those journals are not even tested in the imperial examinations. Only well-educated people can understand them. Can you understand them?"

"I understand. If mother doesn't believe it, we can go to the library together." Xie Yan said.

Wang Yitong stared at her son again and again, and did not deny it on the spot. Instead, she said, "Okay, I'll go to the library with you."

They called a few strong servants, and the mother and son went out in a carriage.

When leaving the inner courtyard, the younger sister followed him to the corridor, hid behind a pillar, and quietly made faces at Xie Yan, with an expression that said, "Sixth brother, you are dead."

There is no chaos inside the city, the real chaos is outside the city.

The carriage headed straight for the southeastern urban area, where the Confucian Temple, Imperial Examination Hall, provincial school, county school, primary school and library were all located. Most of the shops on the surrounding streets also sold cultural supplies.

This layout is common throughout the country, including the capital, and official cultural and educational institutions must be located in the southeast of the city.

The weather is cool today, and many people go out shopping.

I was suffocated by the sultry heat of the past few days.

Scholars of different ages, ranging from seven or eight years old to twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, gathered in the shops in this area.

There were even many female students, accompanied by their families or invited by their best friends, walking along the street holding various fans, forming a beautiful landscape.

Xie Yan pulled up a corner of the carriage curtain and secretly admired those ancient beauties.

Wang Yitong thought that it was time to find a matchmaker for her son. But she had to wait until next year for the imperial examination. If he passed the examination, she would be more confident when it came to finding a match.

However, my son hit his head and forgot everything he had learned before. He also wanted to switch from liberal arts to science.

Oh, how can I pass this exam?
The carriage stopped in front of the provincial library, and Wang Yitong led his son in.

The first floor was full of people, mostly students, but there were also quite a few ordinary citizens.

The common people actually had the leisure to read, which showed that the Ming Dynasty was not bad. Putting aside the poor people at the bottom of society and the vicious fighting among the bureaucrats, the Ming Dynasty was thriving from a macro perspective.

The Ming Dynasty truly entered its heyday after Emperor Dingtai took control of the army!
The reason why it looks so chaotic is that, firstly, there is a huge gap in development between the coastal areas and the inland areas, which has brewed very fierce regional conflicts; secondly, Emperor Dingtai's imperial power is threatened, and he has a very low tolerance for various behaviors of officials, and in his later years he deliberately made arrangements to intensify the conflicts.

In fact, if Emperor Dingtai had not been so tough, the entire court would have been filled with wise and virtuous officials in his later years, all of whom were good officials promoted by him.

It was possible to be tough, but Emperor Dingtai was old and sick at the time.

The emperor himself was not energetic enough, and he asked the prince to investigate the case thoroughly, which naturally made the civil and military officials panic. When the prince died of natural causes, the emperor became even more old and the ministers who had deep conflicts with the emperor must have had more thoughts.

At this time, Prince Yong also saw the opportunity and secretly colluded with those civil and military officials.

The eunuchs saw that the emperor would not live long, the crown prince had died of illness, and the crown prince was too young to be easily won over by Prince Yong and the ministers.

As a result, Prince Yong, eunuchs, civil officials, and military generals, the four forces joined forces to control the inside and outside, forming a big network just waiting for the old emperor to die.

The old emperor was powerless to resist, so he simply went with the flow and retreated to advance. He demoted the truly virtuous civil officials, transferred the military generals he could still trust to Chang'an and Kaifeng, and left a few of his absolute confidants in Luoyang to protect the crown prince's escape.

Those absolute confidants, especially the military generals who led troops, secretly accepted the emperor's orders and pretended to be in collusion with the corrupt officials, giving the treacherous ministers the illusion that they were in control of the overall situation.

The commander of the imperial guards who was in charge of escorting the crown prince to escape from Luoyang was originally just a viscount thanks to the influence of his ancestors. However, after the new monarch ascended the throne, he was directly conferred the title of county duke!

Xie Yan even suspected that it was because of his experiences in middle age that Emperor Dingtai became extremely easily susceptible to stress, resulting in overly radical governance methods in the second half of his life, turning himself into a lonely man.

To put it bluntly: There are always evil people who want to harm me!
On the first floor of the library, several students recognized the mother and son. As loud noises were not allowed here, they stood up and bowed, but did not speak or make any sound.

When Xie Yan saw his mother bowing in return, he also imitated her and bowed.

Wang Yitong whispered to her son, "Go upstairs. I won't embarrass the officials here. I'll wait for you on the first floor reading a book."

Xie Yan took out his student badge, showed it to the librarian, and then climbed the stairs to the second floor quietly.

Wang Yitong didn't think her son could understand academic journals, but she didn't care.

Anyway, since my son has gone upstairs, he won’t be able to run around anymore, and I can just read a book on the first floor.

She was bored at home and had always wanted to go out for a walk. Today she finally got her wish.

Wang Yitong walked to the rows of bookshelves where novels were placed and took out a realistic novel first.

She walked forward with a dignified manner and a calm expression. Suddenly, with lightning speed, she pulled out a novel about a scholar and a beautiful woman and used the previous novel to cover it.

Wang Yitong began to look for a seat.

A student standing nearby said in a low voice, "Zheng Dan, a student from the inner chamber of the prefectural school, greets the madam."

Wang Yitong returned the greeting and said, "Good luck, young master."

The student gave up his seat and said, "Madam, please take a seat."

"Thank you."

The student left his name in front of the magistrate's wife, then happily returned the books and left.

Wang Yitong exchanged seats with another person in the corner, and finally began to read the novel "The Scholar and the Beautiful Woman" without any scruples.

The few strong servants who went out with her scattered around and pretended to stand and read, secretly preventing anyone from coming to disturb them.

It was just a novel about a talented scholar and a beautiful woman. No one would laugh at her if they knew about it. But Wang Yitong had to maintain her image. When she was young, her family education was very strict and she was not allowed to read such novels. Although she is married now and her eldest son has married, there is no one to restrain her, but she still demands strictness from herself.

Reading a novel is like stealing!
When Wang Yitong read about the young lady in the book having a secret meeting with the down-and-out scholar, the corners of her mouth curled up. She quickly looked up and saw that no one was paying attention to her, so she continued reading.

However, she then raised her sleeve to cover her mouth to prevent anyone from seeing her giggling like a nympho while reading.

Oops, this novel has a lot of words, I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish it today.

Wang Yitong wanted to ask someone to borrow the book, but after thinking about it, she couldn't find a suitable person, and it seemed that the books on the first floor could not be taken out.

After thinking it over carefully, Wang Yitong beckoned her maid over and said, "Ask Yu Da to go with you to buy books. Don't let him see what you're buying. Wrap the novels in parchment and bring them back."

Having said that, he asked the maid to look at the cover.

The maid took the order seriously and left. She only smiled secretly after she left the library.

You know, this lady is known as a tigress!

But when Xie Yan went up to the second floor and asked carefully, he found out that all the academic journals were on the third floor.

He continued up, browsing the various books along the shelves.

The third floor houses a large number of classics, histories, and collections of literature that are not included in the imperial examinations, as well as a complete set of voluminous official histories.

This type of official history, due to low sales, was printed in small quantities and was often kept in the libraries of wealthy families. Ordinary scholars could either borrow it from the homes of the rich or look it up in public libraries.

There is no change in the historical books of the Five Dynasties and before.

Things changed during the Song Dynasty.

There is a long list including "History of Song Dynasty", "History of Liao Dynasty", "Book of Western Xia", "Book of Jin", "Book of Annan", "Book of Goryeo", "Book of Dali", "Book of Gaochang" and so on.

There are also "A Brief Account of the Countries in Southeast Asia", "A Brief Account of the Barbarians in the Southwest", "A Brief Account of the Countries in the Western Regions", "A Brief Account of the Countries in India", "A Brief Account of the Countries in the Arabian Peninsula", "A Brief Account of the Countries in the West"...

Xie Yan didn't know what Arabian Nights was, but he had heard of Arabian Nights.

I picked up a copy of "A Brief Account of the Various Kingdoms of Arabia" and when I looked through the catalog, I found a bunch of names of the Arabs, such as the White Arabs, the Black Arabs, the Green Arabs and so on.

After reading the preface again, I finally understood what Dashi was.

Dashi: From Persian, originally the name of a tribe, also translated as Duoshi, Duoshi, Dashi. Countries named Dashi all believe in desert religion.

Xie Yan was not familiar with ancient Chinese history, let alone Persia, Egypt, and Arabia.

He felt dizzy after reading it for a while, so he put the book back.

Then I took out the "History of the Western Countries", and this time I finally felt a little more familiar with it, including Rome, France, and the Crusades.

"A Brief Account of the Countries in the Western Regions" is more like a record of the fall of the countries in the Western Regions.

The son of Zhu Ming and Xixia Princess Li Qinglu fled to Central Asia and established the Kingdom of Dayuan, with its capital in Hezhong Prefecture (Samarkand).

Due to the implementation of the policy of religious freedom, the support of Buddhism and the development of Confucianism, Dayuan's territory was not large in the first few decades after its founding, and it was busy suppressing religious rebellions time and time again.

During this period, the King of Dayuan repeatedly requested the Ming Dynasty to relocate Han people there, and over the course of 30 years, 70,000 to 80,000 people immigrated there.

Only so many immigrants can be accommodated. Firstly, the journey is too far, and secondly, Anxi and Qihe also need immigrants.

The founding monarch of Dayuan conquered the revived Ghurid Dynasty in his later years. The westernmost territory of the Kingdom even reached Khorasan (northeastern Iran), and the southernmost territory included half of Afghanistan.

Soon, the King of Dayuan died, the war of succession broke out, and border troops returned to the capital to join the war.

The Ming Emperor issued an edict to denounce this behavior and dispatched the troops of the Qihe Protectorate to the south to mediate.

After the civil unrest was quelled, all the newly occupied territories that had not yet been digested rebelled, and the country was busy fighting the rebellion war for the next ten years.

The main reason is that the mountainous area of ​​Afghanistan is too difficult to fight.

The army of Dayuan could only control key cities and surrounding areas, and then order the mountain tribes to pay tribute.

The mountain tribes always surrendered and rebelled again. It was very costly to suppress the rebellion, and if too many people were killed, no one would pay taxes. In the end, the finances of Dayuan collapsed, and they had to support a puppet king, while the Dayuan army withdrew from Afghanistan.

In addition to financial difficulties, another reason why Dayuan withdrew its troops from Afghanistan was that it was at war with the Gochinin Dynasty.

After a series of wars, Gejining lost his northern and western territories, retreated back to the south of the Khyber Pass and dared not move, and quickly surrendered to the King of Dayuan.

After that, there was peace for twenty years, during which Dayuan mainly expanded westwards, trying to open up the Silk Road and control the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea.

When the Kingdom of Dayuan was on an expedition to the Caspian Sea, the new king of Gejining brazenly sent out troops, not only wanting to break away from the Kingdom of Dayuan and become independent, but also intending to recover the territory lost 20 years ago. Moreover, they also dragged in the puppet king of Afghanistan.

The third monarch of Dayuan was furious and pulled the army that had been on the expedition to the Caspian Sea back to Afghanistan to quell the rebellion. He also ordered the eastern army of Dayuan to march all the way from the Khyber Pass to the Indus River Basin.

The King of Dayuan asked his younger brother to stay there and appointed him as the King of India.

Tianzhu is India, just with a different transliteration.

Well, since he founded a country in the Indus River basin, he can be called the King of India.

Today, the Indian Empire still exists, with its main territory in the Indus River Basin. It is then expanding eastwards towards Punjab and has besieged the city of Delhi with heavy troops several times in a row.

However, India had already been Brahmanized.

The army brought when the country was founded was too small, and after defeating Ge Jining, it had to compromise with the local nobles.

The nobles in the Indus River Basin were willing to abandon the desert religion and lead the people to convert to Buddhism, and they also readily accepted Confucianism.

Gradually, Confucianism changed in the Indus River Basin, and the caste system began to appear in Buddhism...

Now, the princes of the Indian state always mention Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. Some even claim that these three Confucian sages are the reincarnations of the three main gods of Hinduism, but they accidentally reincarnated in China.

(End of this chapter)