Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 158
Three moments before it is right.

Jinling Normal Academy.

In the back garden.

Fang Xiaoru and Mei Yin were walking with Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhao Junchen, Wei Xian, Sai Hazhi and others were guarding not far away.

"I heard that residents along the coast of Guangdong and Fujian have begun to build their own seagoing ships and do business with overseas countries with great fanfare. I wonder what these two doctors have to say about this?"

Zhu Gaoxu has already received the exact news, and now it has become a fact for private people to go to sea for trade.

Therefore, he wanted to hear the views of contemporary Confucian scholar Fang Xiaoru and Confucian scholar Mei Yin on the imperial court's new policy.

"Your Highness, as far as I know, people in Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places took advantage of the seven-day trade to privately build ships and go to sea for trade. Some even colluded with merchants to start big businesses, and some ministers resigned from their posts. After that, he became a giant businessman overnight.”

Mei Yin said respectfully.

After hearing what Mei Yin said, Zhu Gaoxu did not express any opinions, but took a leisurely walk minding his own business.

He knew that what people in later generations often referred to as "going to sea to do business" originated from the changes in folk customs brought about by Zheng He's voyages to the West.

"Your Highness, being loyal to the country is the duty of a minister. Being willing to be poor is the character of an official. Isn't it like a fly chasing dung to abandon the country and pursue small things to benefit the goods market?"

Fang Xiaoru then said: "The word "profit" makes countless people flock to it. Some people get rich overnight, buy a house and beg for a woman. When they go out, they are surrounded by women, and when they come in, they are well-dressed and well-fed. They do not plow the fields or cultivate the land, spend their lives in drunkenness and dream of death. .If things go on like this, where will the dignity of the imperial court be?"

Zhu Gaoxu knew that Fang Xiaoru's words were not without some truth.

It is easy to go from thrifty to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal.

Once the wind of extravagance blows, it will easily induce people's greed, and speculators will spring up one after another, causing more chaos.

Just like many people in later generations, if they can deny their relatives for money, how can they still have conscience?

As the saying goes, the prosperity of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit.

However, if there are no businessmen who sell books to fund the printing of books, can ordinary people see cheap printed copies of "The Analects of Confucius"?
Zhu Gaoxu stopped, glanced at the green bamboos, pines, and wintersweet in the garden, and asked: "Pine, bamboo, and plum blossoms are called the three friends of winter by scholars. The so-called gentleman is someone who is noble and regards money as dirt, right?"

Fang Xiaoru said: "If you lose your reputation because of money, money is not as good as dung."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "Pine, bamboo and plum blossoms can be noble and refined, but everything in the world has different qualities. Some can be viewed as ornaments, while others can be used as pillars. Everyone has their own ambitions, so we can't force them."

"If someone doesn't want to be an official and wants to do business, he will definitely not do well as an official. Even if he is forced to sit in that position, he will harm the country and the people. Why not let him live?"

"Didn't Confucius say, 'Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you'?"

Fang Xiaoru retorted: "But Your Highness, Emperor Taizu once said, 'Government depends on good customs, and good customs depend on education.' But now that the official administration is decaying, how can we talk about great governance?"

"Dr. Fang, scholars can't always look at the past, otherwise they will be alarmist and ignore the present."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "Now the people have clothes to wear, all the officials have things to do, all the nations are celebrating the Ming Dynasty, and the heaven is covered by the world. But you turn a blind eye and turn a deaf ear to these. Isn't it just a generalization?"

"Your Highness is right. Some officials want to resign and start doing business. It is indeed not appropriate to blindly stop them. As the saying goes, it is better to block than to remove. The court should take the opportunity to establish regulations on resignations rather than forcibly prohibit them."

Seeing that Fang Xiaoru was being scolded by Zhu Gaoxu, Mei Yin didn't know what to say, so she took over and helped Fang Xiaoru get off the stairs.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said, "Yes, what Dr. Mei said is very pertinent."

Fang Xiaoru did not appreciate it, but spoke again: "Your Highness, the world is declining, people's hearts are not as old as before, and the country will not survive! If things go on like this, how will the Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty create a prosperous age?"

Zhu Gaoxu felt a headache.

He knew that today's scholars in the Ming Dynasty still have too many people who hold Fang Xiaoru's ideas.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to usher in the Age of Discovery and establish an empire on which the sun never sets, it must change ideas like Fang Xiaoru's.

Fang Xiaoru studied under Song Lian, and his articles and knowledge were the best among Song Lian's disciples. He despised literature and art but emphasized education, and took it as his own duty to understand the king's way and bring peace.

His prose often uses physical metaphors to express his thoughts directly, his writing style is fluent, his words are concise and his meaning is clear, and he is widely read by people of his time.

For example, the article "Zhiyu" takes "thumb disease as a warning" and points out that "things in the world happen from the smallest to the biggest disasters", admonishing people to take precautions before they happen.

But such a great Confucian who is proficient in Confucianism sometimes lacks reason and only acts based on temporary thoughts and emotions.

Fang Xiaoru in history was a representative figure of scholars in the world in the late Hongwu period. He could be said to be highly respected and knowledgeable.

Yao Guangxiao once advised Zhu Di not to kill Fang Xiaoru, and Zhu Di nodded in agreement. However, because of Fang Xiaoru's "ignorance of current affairs," Zhu Di finally killed him.

Fang Xiaoru tried his best to advise Zhu Yunwen at that time. Almost all imperial edicts passed through his hands, including unreliable personnel appointments and wrong decisions.

But he was not good at strategy and military affairs, so most of his strategies to resist Yan King Zhu Di failed.

Fang Xiaoru believed that Zhu Di was the leader of the rebels, so he chose to resist to the end. Even if Zhu Di killed his entire family, he would not compromise.

Although he is not a hero, his perseverance deserves the respect of future generations.

The reason why later generations do not think highly of Fang Xiaoru is mainly because his death implicated more than 800 innocent people.

Originally Zhu Di did not want to kill Fang Xiaoru, but Fang Xiaoru angered Zhu Di over and over again, which made Zhu Di determined to kill Fang Xiaoru.

Fang Xiaoru could not think about him personally, after all, he had already decided to die, but what about his family and friends?

Ants can steal their lives, let alone humans!
Most of his family, students, and friends are ordinary people. Ordinary people often just want to live in peace, and may not necessarily be willing to be loyal martyrs who die for their country.

Because the royal power struggle has little to do with ordinary people like them.

King Yan Zhu Dijing's difficulty in obtaining the throne is different from that of ordinary dynasties that perish.

Zhu Di is the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty. In the feudal dynasty of the family world, Jingnan can be regarded as an internal struggle in the Zhu Ming royal family. For most people, it doesn't matter whoever is the emperor becomes the emperor.

In fact, after the success of Jingnan, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Zhu Yunqi cannot be compared with Zhu Di at all. Zhu Di's being emperor is more beneficial to the Ming Dynasty.

If Fang Xiaoru was not motivated, he could have refused to write the imperial edict for Zhu Di, or even directly refused to meet Zhu Di, and chose to commit suicide alone to serve Zhu Yunwen.

Not only will this not directly anger Zhu Di, but it will also provide a way for more than 800 innocent people, including his family, friends, and students, to survive.

Because Zhu Di is different from Zhu Yuanzhang, as long as Jianwen's old ministers choose to surrender, Zhu Di will not intentionally embarrass them again. For example, famous ministers such as Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang Pu, etc. have all chosen to submit and have been reused.

Zhu Di did not harm the families of those ministers who silently committed suicide for Zhu Yunwen, such as Xie Jin and Hu Guang's fellow countryman Wang Gen.

"The truth becomes clearer with each passing day. Whether opening the sea is right or wrong, I don't think we can just judge based on personal likes and dislikes. What does Dr. Fang think?"

Zhu Gaoxu thought of a clever trick to influence Fang Xiaoru's thinking.

Fang Xiaoru said: "Your Highness is right."

"I want to call all the students in the academy to hold a debate meeting in the square in front of the Zhengxin Hall to discuss the pros and cons of opening up the sea. What do you two doctors think?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked around at Mei Yin and Fang Xiaoru and asked in a deep voice.

"It's all up to His Highness to send you."

Fang and Mei bowed.

"That being the case, I'll give you two quarters of an hour to make arrangements."

Zhu Gaoxu took out a pocket watch from his pocket, checked the watch with Fang Xiaoru and Mei Yin, and said: "It is now the fifth day of the Lunar New Year ([-]:[-] p.m.). I will attend the meeting on time at the forty-fifth day of the Lunar New Year." ." Mo Qiaosi was ordered by Zhu Gaoxu to study the mechanical clock that was invented after several years. Although it looked similar to the clocks that were common in later generations, there was a huge difference between the two.

This kind of mechanical clock has a 24-hour clock on the dial. There is no second hand, only hour and minute hands.

The shortest hand on the dial is the hour hand, the slightly longer one is the minute hand, and the running second hand is hidden under the dial like in later generations.

Since the Song Dynasty, each of the twelve hours was divided into two parts, namely Chu and Zheng, namely Zichu, Zizheng, Chouchu and Chouzheng. Going down in sequence, it is exactly 24 hours, which is consistent with the 24 hours a day in later generations.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu used this standard and divided the day and night into twelve hours. Each hour was divided into two parts, the beginning and the right, and each part was divided into sixty parts.

At present, the time it takes for the minute hand on a mechanical clock dial to move around is half an hour.

The hour hand moves once, that is, twelve hours.

Because the common sense that there are eight quarters in an hour has not changed, with the advent of mechanical clocks, the saying that one quarter of an hour equals fifteen minutes gradually emerged.

It is now the fifth day of Shenchu, and the forty-fifth day of Shenchu ​​is two quarters of an hour later. Both Fang Xiaoru and Mei Yin can understand it.

The pocket watches of Fang and Mei were gifts given by Zhu Gaoxu.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu comparing their watches, the two of them took out their pocket watches one after another and looked down at the time.

"Yes."

The two of them said in unison when they saw that the time was the same.

after dark.

Qinhuai River.

"You are so bad, don't touch my slave's house!"

"Oh, um, it's annoying, it's so itchy! Don't scratch me!"

"Sir, come and play! Come on, don't leave!"

"A few guests, please come in. Some new girls have arrived today."

Fang Xiaoru walked quickly through the door of Yihong Courtyard and covered her ears angrily when she heard the sounds of intimacy coming from the courtyard.

He then walked a hundred steps forward and came to a shop specializing in selling the Four Treasures of the Study.

Fang Xiaoru took a closer look and found that the door of this shop called "Yalangzhai" was closed, but the lights in the house were on.

With doubts in his mind, he tried to push the door of the shop, but found that the door was not locked. He pushed it gently and the door of the shop opened.

The shopkeeper who was over fifty years old saw Fang Xiaoru pushing the door open and said quickly: "It turns out to be Dr. Fang, please come quickly, please come quickly!"

"Shopkeeper, has the big wolf hair that Fang ordered arrived?"

Fang Xiaoru said politely.

When he was preparing to write the professor's diary after dinner, he suddenly found that the big wolf was useless. He remembered that he had ordered two big wolf cents at Yaliangzhai half a month ago, so he rushed here in a hurry.

Although Fang Xiaoru was Zhu Di's cabinet adviser, he also served as a doctor at Jinling General Academy of Sciences, and he also had followers around him.

However, he liked to be quiet and disliked lively scenes. Regarding his personal affairs, he often liked to handle his own personal affairs, which was different from later generations of doctors and professors.

This afternoon, Zhu Gaoxu held a debate meeting in the academy to discuss the pros and cons of opening up the sea.

Most students at the meeting believed that the move to open the sea would do more good than harm to the Ming Dynasty's court and people.

This result was completely beyond Fang Xiaoru's expectation. Even many students who spent time with him insisted on this view.

This situation gave Fang Xiaoru a big blow.

He would not have thought that Zhu Gaoxu had already transformed the minds of the students of Jinling Academy through various study groups or experimental groups.

Fang Xiaoru was deeply affected, so he wanted to take a walk along the Qinhuai River to change his mood when he came to Yaliangzhai to pick up his pen. However, he did not expect that he had not been to the Qinhuai River for half a month, and the banks of the river would turn out like this.

"It's here, it's here."

The shopkeeper quickly took down two pens from the shelf and handed them to Fang Xiaoru.

"Why does the shopkeeper do business behind closed doors?"

Fang Xiaoru expressed her doubts.

"I don't have the guts to open the door for business!"

The shopkeeper shook his head and said: "Nowadays, the world has changed and the world is getting worse. My house faces the Qinhuai River. I am so embarrassed that people dare not go out. It has brought shame to our ancestors."

While the two were talking, a woman dressed in a coquettish way suddenly walked in.

"Shopkeeper, how much does this little wolf cost?"

the woman asked.

"Thirty cents," the shopkeeper replied.

"Here, don't look for it."

The woman took out a copper coin from the pink purse she carried with her and threw it on the counter.

The shopkeeper lowered his head and saw that it was a hundred copper coins. He immediately said, "Girl, stay here. I don't have the habit of owing money to anyone."

As he spoke, he quickly counted out seven ten-coin coins from the money box behind the counter, and then stretched out his hand to hand it to the seductively dressed woman.

"If you say you don't have to look for it, you don't have to look for it. I'll buy you a new dress with the extra money!"

The woman saw the shopkeeper's clothes were old and said with a smile.

"I'm getting old and I don't dare to spend dirty money to buy clothes for fear of being disliked by others."

The shopkeeper couldn't help but said.

"How dare you contradict me when you are so shabby? My aunt, let me tell you, these days, you have to have money in your hands, so you can speak louder. Otherwise, it would be the most embarrassing thing for people like you to eat one meal and not finish another!"

The charming woman took the pen and turned around angrily and left.

When she went out, she did not forget to mutter: "Humph! If my aunt is not as knowledgeable as you, I still have to give a little wolf hair to Chief Liu of the Criminal Department!"

Fang Xiaoru was dumbfounded when he heard this, and there was a burst of anger in his chest.

"We can't continue like this! Even if it makes Long Yan furious, Fang must report to His Majesty and deal with this matter seriously!"

When the shopkeeper heard Fang Xiaoru's encouraging words, he immediately echoed: "It's time for the court to rectify the chaos in the Qinhuai River."

PS1: There was a clerical error in the previous article regarding Liu Jing’s age, which has been corrected. Liu Jing was born in the [-]th year of Yuan Zhizheng, and is ten years older than Zhu Di.

PS2: In the previous chapter, the imperial wine offering was written as Xie Jin, but it was actually Hu Yan. This has been revised.

(End of this chapter)