Song Gexing

Chapter 159 Expansion of Military Officials
"Your Highness's purpose is to eliminate the dominance of civil servants over military ministers, right? If it is so big, there is no need to add two commercial and agricultural departments, just six departments will be enough, and then focus on the Ministry of War, the Privy Council and the Three Yamen Forbidden Army, concubine Your Highness, Jue, can expand the number of instructors in the army to appease the resistance of civil servants, and can also subtly influence these civil servants who join the army to favor the interests of military officials."

Han Xue's final summary made Zhao Fang suddenly realize it, and he was pleasantly surprised to find benefits that he had not expected.

Originally, he created the instructor system just to deal with the problem of redundant officials and to cultivate centripetal force for the army.

We have forgotten that the most important point is the integration of civil and military forces. You must know that those who become instructors are civil servants, and after these people enter the army, their interests are tied to the army.

Anyone with the same interests can voluntarily form a group with a little guidance. At that time, these civil servants will be the backbone of the fight for equality between civil and military forces in the future.

Zhao Fang, who was overjoyed, picked up Han Xue and put her on her with one click. He was punched several times by the disgusted little pink fist, but he laughed and spun around without being ashamed at all.

In the next few days, he continued his efforts, drafted a new memorial specifically for the expansion of military instructors, and also adjusted the name.

Those at the military level are called political commissars, with one deputy and four instructors. They are responsible for the ideological education of the entire army. Of course, it is an educational concept of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.

The Thousand Household Battalion is equipped with two instructors, a principal and a deputy. One in the military under the general command is renamed an instructor, and one in the Hundred Houses Camp is designated as a deputy instructor.

He also suggested that, in addition to those who were kind enough to serve as officials, allocate people who are familiar with military affairs from among the Jinshi, and use Confucius's teachings to promote those who hold these positions in the army to educate the soldiers and prevent anyone from leaving. The scope of Confucian education.

After the memorial was published, it immediately stirred up a stir. When the instructors were originally set up, the people who went there were basically Enyin officials. Now that Jinshi is also included in the selection of officials, naturally many people are opposed.

People in the Song Dynasty looked down upon the army, otherwise there would be no such insulting term as "thieves with the army", but it is not that there are no supporters, and there are many.

The reason Zhao Fang used was too strong. Strengthening the ideological education of the army and making everyone aware of propriety, justice and integrity was the goal pursued by scholar-bureaucrats.

After some debate, it was extended to Taixue and Imperial College, and soon the supporters gained the upper hand. This was another strategy used by Zhao Fang to retreat in order to advance.

After all, young people are more enthusiastic, and they have not yet become stubborn. After being preached that there is no distinction between education and distinction, they take it for granted.

The debate ended half a month later, and a group of young officials were sent to the army. Zhao Fang said at the farewell meeting: "... I hope that everyone in the Song Dynasty will be literate and know etiquette, so I suggest that everyone, when they arrive in the army, Later, I promoted the literacy movement and set aside a few days every month to teach the soldiers to learn. Here I have prepared a small booklet, which is an excerpt from the Book of Rites..."

Now he didn't care whether Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao would scold him, and just produced "University". However, this was not originally the original work of his two brothers, and he had no idea of ​​guilt.

Originally, he wanted to separate "The Doctrine of the Mean" as well, but after thinking about it, as a popular book, "The Great Learning" is enough.

Moreover, "The Great Learning" is very suitable for shaping a person's outlook on life and morality, otherwise it would not have been regarded as a Confucian classic in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and used as the first required reading for students after enlightenment.

At this time, Er Cheng has not yet become a great master, nor has he classified the Four Books, but I have to say that these two brothers do have unique vision.

The independent writing of "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" not only marked the formation of the Four Books, but also marked the beginning of Confucianism's true penetration into the hearts of the people.

Even though Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had only respected Confucianism, the fact that the country implemented Confucianism as national science did not mean that the people could practice it profoundly.After all, before the Song Dynasty, the books in the imperial examinations were too profound and were completely confusing to ordinary people, and no one would explain to you what Confucianism was.

The way of enlightenment can only be found among scholars, and the only one that is relatively easy to understand is probably the "Book of Filial Piety".

Er Cheng's contribution was to put aside the complicated "Book of Rites" and let readers study those, and then select two articles that were easy to understand and popularize to form a separate book.

Moreover, the status of these two articles was raised to the level that scholars and gentlemen must read it. This made many literate people naturally want to read it, and gradually it became popular.

This is naturally related to the small number of words in "The University". An article of more than 2000 words does not have as many words as a longer legendary story.

There is another point, that is why Zhao Fang uses the article "The University" to educate the people. It is the first sentence of "The University" that clearly states: "The way of the university lies in the clear virtue, in being close to the people, and in ending with the ultimate goodness." .

This sentence is the most important guarantee for him to continue reform. If it is popularized and everyone remembers this sentence, he will be much smoother in the future.

This is not a moral statement, but it means that people should recognize themselves through continuous learning and achieve perfection.

Among them, the three words "being close to the people" are the key. People who don't understand think that being close to the people means that the superior is close to the people. In fact, it is completely wrong.

Kiss here is a Tongjia character, a Tongxin character, which has the same meaning as Gou Rixin, You Rixin, and Ri Rixin in the Book of Changes.

Tell people not to be bound by their inherent old ideas, but to be new people who are good at accepting new knowledge and changing their own bad ideas.

In fact, it can be seen from this that Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was not a rigid thought as later generations thought. It was not Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism that imprisoned the people, but the Ming and Qing rulers who used Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and tampered with it to rule.

Especially in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, although the Ming Dynasty also used Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, they still retained most of its vitality and tolerance.

There are more than a dozen schools of Neo-Confucianism, and there is no reason why Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism can stand out. Aren’t people like Zhou Dunyi, Su Shi, and Wang Anshi great?

However, the schools of Neo-Confucianism created by them have basically been submerged in history. Only the Xinxue created by Lu Jiuyuan is left. After the successor Wang Yangming carried it forward, it can compete with Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

"Your Highness, let's go and have a look. Guangnan South Road sent two strange beasts. They said they were unicorns, but everyone said no, but they didn't recognize them."

Zhao Fang, who had rarely rested for two days, had just rested for a day when Wang Zhongzheng ran in and called him.

I wanted to give him a kick, but I was startled and remembered that this happened in history. They were two strange beasts that were paid tribute by the Li Dynasty of Jiaozhi Kingdom. No one knew what they were.

Now he was also curious. After all, people in later generations had never seen the real thing. They could only speculate from written records and couldn't figure out what it was.

(End of this chapter)