The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 125 Two Wives Reunited
In the end, Li Guozhu could only grit his teeth and said: "If my sister is brave, Jianyang, you are not allowed to be weak. Otherwise, not only will brothers have nothing to do, but I will also have to fight against you. When you introduce me, it depends on whether what I say is accurate or not!"

Wang Wenlong could only nod and said: "Understood."

Wang Wenlong also knew that he was actually very weak emotionally. He wanted Li Guoxian and Shen Yixiu, and it was best to have them both together, but he didn't have the guts to express his dirty thoughts. He couldn't afford to offend the Shen family and the Li family.

In my heart, I thought I was respecting her by leaving this matter to Li Guoxian to decide, but in fact I was still avoiding it.

The rest of the people seeing off were unaware of this episode. After watching Li Guozhu talking to Wang Wenlong, they all waved their hands to send Wang Wenlong away.

Wang Wenlong had something in his mind. When the boat was far away, he couldn't help but ask Xu Guangqi: "Brother Zi Xian, does he know that there are equal wives in this dynasty?"

Xu Guangqi shook his head: "I've heard of it but never seen it."

Wang Wenlong still held a glimmer of hope in his heart: "I heard in Quanzhou that a businessman married an equal wife."

Xu Guangqi understood for a while, shook his head and said with a smile: "Businessmen say they have equal wives. In fact, they are just marrying a concubine outside the house without letting the mistress of the house see each other. They also call the concubine 'wife wife' in front of outsiders." , in fact, she is still a concubine.”

Xu Guangqi thought for a while and then said: "In ancient books, I have heard of two wives marrying each other. For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, Jia Chong had two wives, and the governor of Anfeng in the Western Jin Dynasty married two wives and multiple concubines... But this is all about the collapse of etiquette and the destruction of music. Things."

Xu Guangqi commented with integrity: "A wife is a wife and a concubine is a concubine. How can there be two wives at the same time? It's probably because he couldn't offend two families, or he deceived women from two families. He didn't know how to settle the score, so he simply messed up the etiquette. These people are so daring that we, the literati, should be ashamed of themselves!"

Wang Wenlong blushed, feeling guilty that Xu Guangqi was secretly teasing him. After watching for a long time, he felt relieved when he saw that Xu Guangqi's expression was as usual.

Fortunately, the lighting in the cabin was not good, so Xu Guangqi didn't notice this guy's guilty conscience.

Wang Wenlong finally understood that according to what Xu Guangqi said, such a thing as having a wife does exist at this time, but the chance of it happening is very small.

The resistance of literati and officials of this era to equal wives did not stem from women's rights, but felt that equal wives destroyed the traditional Confucian family structure.The man is the master of the house, and the woman is the master of the house. People in this era think that there can only be one mistress in the house. If there are a lot of wives, what kind of chaos will the family look like?
If you really want to marry more women, just take concubines. Why marry more wives?

Of course, it is possible to marry two wives who want to avoid being gossiped about behind their backs. Xu Guangqi gave an example: If Wang Wenlong had a legal wife at home, he went to Beijing to take the exam, won the first prize in the exam, and then was asked to marry again by the emperor.

The wife who is accused of marriage must be the head wife, but due to etiquette and law, the head wife of the family cannot be neglected, so it is natural that there should be two wives.

The beauty of this story can probably only be heard in opera.

But if this is not the case, what is meant by equal wives in reality actually depends on whether the woman can believe in his character, Wang Wenlong, and whether he can treat several wives equally, and there will be no distinction between the priorities even when the family is separated in old age.

This is much more serious than not having a marriage certificate.

Wang Wenlong felt quite guilty and didn't know what to do, so he simply immersed himself in his work by the dim light of an oil lamp in the boat canopy and forgot about other things.

He began writing "The Wealth of Nations".

Wang Wenlong finally decided to follow the example of Adam Smith, the original author of "The Wealth of Nations", and tell the content in a layer-by-layer manner.

In the past half month, Wang Wenlong has read "The Wealth of Nations" several times in his mind. The more he reads, the more he can appreciate the ingenuity of Adam Smith's mind when he wrote this book.

"The Wealth of Nations" starts with the concept of labor productivity, talks about the division of labor that increases labor efficiency, then moves from division of labor to exchange, from exchange to currency as a medium of exchange, from currency to the price composition of commodities, and from price composition to Wages, land rent and profits systematically describe the economic operation process step by step.

Only this way of writing is the most scientific.

Because "The Wealth of Nations" covers so much ground, and every step involves the introduction of economic concepts, finding a starting point to advance step by step is the most reader-friendly way of organizing it.

Of course, it can also be replaced by other methods. For example, like the economics textbooks of later generations, it is divided into chapters and paragraphs. Each paragraph starts with an economic term, followed by a lot of explanations, and then practical examples, so that it can be explained clearly. , but this kind of thing will make people dizzy even if they read it. The reading is not as good as Adam Smith's original work.

More importantly, such an analysis can clearly demonstrate the logic of economics as a social science. Rigorous logic and scientific dialectics are the main watershed between modern social science and classical philosophy.

There are many philosophy books these days, and each book has its own way of explaining the world. However, these books first propose a concept and then apply natural phenomena to it, while modern social sciences must first explain the world. What we do is to reverse this process, first analyze the theory from natural phenomena, then use the theory to make hypotheses, and conduct experiments based on the hypotheses to see whether the experimental results are consistent with the theory.

Just like the essence proposed in "Tianyan Lun", practice is the only criterion for testing truth.

Wang Wenlong knew that if he lost this logical essence of the original book when writing "The Wealth of Nations", the power of the book would be greatly reduced.

The original version of "The Wealth of Nations" has more than 50 words, but Adam Smith's original text rambles on a lot, and also introduces the scene of the Industrial Revolution at this time. If it is just to talk about economics, many things can be deleted.Wang Wenlong compared several versions of "The Wealth of Nations" in his mind, and the final length was reduced to about 40 words, which is similar to the number of words in The Scholars.

And after reducing the length, he can also check less information.

Wang Wenlong gradually entered a creative state, comparing various materials in his mind with "The Wealth of Nations", and thinking repeatedly to make the book read logically and at the same time be as easy to understand as possible in presenting economic concepts.

When Xu Guangqi put down the book, he saw Wang Wenlong scribbling repeatedly on a piece of paper and sorting out the words. He couldn't help but curiously asked: "Jianyang is writing a book again?"

Wang Wenlong nodded and said: "I have compiled enough information in the past few days, and I am about to start writing the book on trade."

Xu Guangqi smiled and said: "Can you show me the manuscript after you finish writing?" He also knew that Wang Wenlong had checked the information for more than ten days. He was quite surprised by Wang Wenlong's photographic memory, but he only thought that what Wang Wenlong was going to write was " "Fujian Shangzhi" is a topography book that describes the trade situation.

Seeing Wang Wenlong nodding, Xu Guangqi continued to read his mathematics notes expectantly. The two of them did not disturb each other. The only sounds in the cabin echoed were the sound of turning books, writing, and the squeaking sound of the boatman rocking the oar.

While Wang Wenlong was busy writing and adapting "The Wealth of Nations" in the cabin, Yuan Wuya in Suzhou was actively paying attention to the sales of student certificates on the market.

At this time, the most popular books in the bookstore were novels, followed by Cheng Wen's ink scrolls. The sales of ancient Chinese prose and classics and historical miscellaneous works could only be described as mediocre.

But any high-end bookstore must have this kind of books to support its appearance.

Among the Zixue books published by Yuan Wuya's Shuzhongtang this year, only one, "History of Portugal", is really selling well. However, this book is different from other Zixue books. It only introduces the history with a little discussion. It has not clearly formed its own ideological system, and its status is stuck between history books and historical novels. To put it bluntly, it is not profound enough or lofty enough.

Yuan Wuya had originally contacted Macheng to publish Li Zhi's new collection of essays, but he did not expect that Feng Yingjing would drive Li Zhi away. Then there was the Tax Supervision Rebellion in Hubei. At this time, Li Zhi's collected works in the current publication were a little out of date.

Yuan Wuya was still loyal, and he agreed with some of Li Zhi's ideas in his heart. In order to show his support, although he did not publish the book, he had already sent the royalties to Li Zhi in Henan Province.

However, due to practical considerations, he could only suppress Li Zhi's manuscript for the time being and wait for things to turn around before publishing it.

The most well-known thinkers on the market today are Gu Xiancheng, Gao Panlong and Li Zhi.

Among them, Gao Panlong and Gu Xiancheng are both Donglin Party bosses, so we know how deep the foundation of the Donglin Party is.

Gao and Gu were giving lectures in Donglin, and the world looked up to them. Many people wanted to buy their works and study them.Both of them have cooperative booksellers and are high-profile celebrities who cannot be tempted by some monetary benefits.

Li Zhi's book could not be printed, and Yuan Wuya wanted to print the books of Gao Panlong and Gu Xiancheng but could not get an appointment. Although "History of Portugal" sold well, he always felt that there were some shortcomings.

It has been almost 80 years since Yangming's theory of mind was proposed. Among scholar-bureaucrats, the theory of mind has long been regarded as an important part of the Confucian worldview rather than as a weird knowledge.

The thoughts of Li, Gao, and Gu basically mixed the psychology and Neo-Confucianism. Li Zhi was already a person of the previous generation. His thoughts came from the Taizhou School that carried forward Wang Yangming's psychology. The three great masters of the Taizhou School were also He is the only one left, now in his 70s and gradually entering the state of an old god.

Gao Panlong and Gu Xiancheng were still young. They both mixed Neo-Confucianism with psychology, but they were more inclined to the Neo-Confucian school, and they also respected Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming.

In fact, the thoughts of these people were divided into many schools at this time, which seemed very complicated, but in Wang Wenlong's simple philosophy textbooks of later generations, they can all be summed up in one sentence: idealism.

Neo-Confucianism believes that the essence of the world is the laws of heaven, and everything appears because of the laws of heaven. From this, a lot of rules are derived to guide human production and life, such as kings, ministers, fathers, sons, and sons.

Xinxue also believes that the essence of the world is natural law, but this natural law does not exist in the rigid monarch, minister, father and son, but exists in everyone's heart. Human conscience is the natural law, and all things emerge from the natural law that exists in human conscience. This gave rise to a lot of rules for human production and life.

But you want to ask one more question: Why is the essence of the world the principle of heaven?These theories can only give you circular arguments.

But all Wang Wenlong's works reveal another idea: I don't know what the nature of the world is.But I have observed some phenomena and summarized some theories, which can be repeated and put into practice.

All theories are not thought up by me sitting there, but summed up from social practice.

It doesn’t matter whether the essence of this world is the law of heaven, Buddha, the Three Pure Ones, or Jesus Christ. Anyway, my theory is true and feasible.

……

This simple but effective thought was only vaguely reflected in Wang Wenlong's past works, but in "The Wealth of Nations", it appears in large numbers that cannot be concealed at all. It is estimated that when "The Wealth of Nations" is finished, it will be If people realize the power of another way of thinking, it will definitely cause a sensation.

(End of this chapter)