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

Chapter 147 The purpose of governing a country

Business people are more interested in "The Wealth of Nations" than scholars. Some shopkeepers and dye house owners who don't know many words are eager to buy "The Wealth of Nations", and even ask their husbands to read it word by word in order to understand the book.

After the publication of Wang Wenlong's "The Wealth of Nations", the earliest local economists quickly spawned. During the Wanli period, they were not very prestigious, but this trend continued. In a few decades, these economists will gradually come to the fore. onto the stage of history.

The "Wealth of Nations" he established as the originator of classical economics had a too high starting point. This book directly covered the scope of many economic discussions in later generations, and also directly limited the vision of later Chinese economists for more than a hundred years.

Until decades later, many Ming economists still directly shouted: "My pen is only annotation for Mr. Jingguan."

Moreover, many scholars interpreted this book in a strange direction, indirectly shaping a new type of Confucianism, trying to integrate Confucianism and economics, creating something nondescript and ultimately stale.

At this time, the influence of "The Wealth of Nations" has not actually reached its extreme, because the sprouts of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty are not yet obvious outside the Three Wu Dynasties. As the times develop, the greatness of this book will become more and more known to the world.

William Petty, the father of classical political economics and Europe's earliest macroeconomist, would not be born until more than twenty years later.

As a result, there has always been a big debate about the beginning of economics discussion between Eastern and Western economists in later generations.

Chinese scholars believe that Wang Wenlong is the crystallization of the development of Chinese economics and a sage in the budding period of Chinese capitalism.

However, many European scholars insist that the roots of economics originate in Europe, because European economics has a clear development path from the Age of Discovery to the Industrial Revolution, while Chinese economics seems to have grown out of stone.

Some Europeans even declared: "Without Wang Wenlong, China would not have economics in another 100 years."

"Wang Wenlong is the product of Western education in the East, a flower growing between stones."

However, Europeans cannot help but admit that the earliest economic works were born in the Ming Dynasty, and starting from this, Ming Dynasty's economic research has also passed down an obvious line of reproduction, surpassing Europe, and having a profound impact on the world.

At this time, Wang Wenlong didn't even know that his "The Wealth of Nations" had caused such a big impact. He was still staying in Fuzhou and busy with newspaper distribution. Some readers who were excited after seeing "The Wealth of Nations" had already gone to Fujian.

……

"Mr. Jianyang, is Mr. Jianyang here?"

Early in the morning, before Wang Wenlong had eaten breakfast, he heard someone shouting his name outside the door.

Wang Wenlong asked Wang Pingbao to take a look. Wang Pingbao went out and took a look and replied: "It's Mr. Huang who met at Xianxia Pass who came with two friends."

Wang Wenlong hurriedly asked Wang Pingbao to bring them in.

Huang Zunsu and Wang Wenyan met Huang Daozhou on the ship entering Fujian. They heard that both parties were looking for Wang Wenlong, so they came together.

Originally, after Deng Zhimo and others bought and rented houses and moved out, Wang Wenlong's family had some free time. However, when Wang Pingbao's wife came to Fuzhou with their children, Wang Pingbao had to live with Wang Wenlong in his home because he had to work with Wang Wenlong. The whole family also lived in the back house, so it was quite lively during the meal.

Under this situation, Wang Pingbao could not continue to insist on not eating at the same table as Wang Wenlong, otherwise his family would sit at a separate table from Mrs. Ma, and Wang Wenlong would sit far away to eat alone, as if he was being left out.

But when outsiders arrived, Wang Pingbao's wife and children quickly got off the table and made room for the guests.

Wang Pingbao took his wife and children into the kitchen. When he heard Wang Wenlong discussing the principles of studying outside, he asked his wife to bring his son Xiaohu over quickly, and whispered, "Xiaohu, listen carefully to the gentlemen outside and study hard."

Wang Pingbao doesn’t want his children to have to work long shifts throughout their lives, and now he is ready to send his children to enlightenment.

The opportunity to serve a scholar like Wang Wenlong is rare, so Wang Pingbao always brings his little tiger to have more contact with Wang Wenlong. He does not expect his son to understand, but only hopes that his child can imbibe some of Wang Wenlong's literary spirit.

As soon as he entered the room, Huang Daozhou introduced Wang Wenlong, "This is Huang Zunsu from Yuyao with the courtesy name Zhenlong, and this is Wang Wenyan from Shezhou with the courtesy name Shoutai." Wang Wenlong nodded and said, "Nice to meet you." He thought that they turned out to be the two great think-tanks of Donglin in later generations. , Wang Wenlong was deeply impressed by the titles of these two people when he was studying. Huang Zunsu and Wang Wenyan were later called "Huang Wang"... I always felt that it was inexplicably unpleasant.

Huang Zunsu and Wang Wenyan were quite happy to see that Wang Wenlong had a good attitude and did not dislike them for not being famous.

Naturally, Wang Wenlong would not look down on the two of them. Needless to say, Wang Wenyan controlled the world in white clothes. Huang Zunsu was also a Donglin general. The future strength of both of them should not be underestimated.

Moreover, Huang Zunsu was also good at teaching his sons. His sons: Huang Zongxi, Huang Zonghui, and Huang Zongyan were collectively known as the "Three Huangs of Eastern Zhejiang" and were the founders of Confucian classics research in the Eastern Zhejiang School.

It is said that the deepest impression on Wang Wenlong of Huang Zunsu's family is that this family looks like characters running out of novels.

Huang Zunsu studied hard when he was young, and was known as the "Donglin Think Tank" for his amazing talents. In the end, he died at the hands of the eunuchs and died without integrity. He was a loyal figure like Guo Jing.

However, the two brothers Huang Zonghui and Huang Zongyan failed the imperial examination. They felt that they had not achieved anything after studying for many years and were determined to increase their knowledge. So they met to "read all the books in the world behind closed doors and then publish them".

After they finished their studies, they happened to encounter the Qing army marching south, so the two brothers devoted themselves to the struggle against the Qing Dynasty with their full talents and knowledge. They were full of wits. Although they failed in the end, they both became famous all over the world and became the masters of the East Zhejiang School.

The standard counterattack routine of studying hard and practicing hard.

As for Huang Zongxi's legendary deeds, they are more exciting. At the age of 19, he went out to avenge his father and brought down all the enemies who killed his father. His life after that was even more legendary. Here is an example:
It is said that during the Qing Dynasty, the Fan family in Ningbo had the largest library collection in the world, "Tianyi Pavilion", which contained countless rare ancient books.

The Fan family has established strict family rules for book collection, which stipulates that the entire family owns and preserves the books together. Each room in the family holds the key to the bookcase, and all the children must collect the keys to unlock it. No one with a foreign surname is allowed to enter the cabinet.

This rule was followed for decades until Huang Zongxi came to Ningbo and asked to enter Tianyi Pavilion to read books.

He relied on his talents and knowledge to conquer every room in the Fan family, and was allowed to become the first person with a foreign surname to enter Tianyi Pavilion.

From then on, it was as if the skills had recognized their master, and the books in Tianyi Pavilion met the readers who could truly exert their power.

Huang Zongxi entered Tianyi Pavilion and read through the books collected by various scholars in the pavilion. It is similar to the martial arts novels in which he studied martial arts all over the world and finally mastered it.

Afterwards, Huang Zongxi wrote one of the most important intellectual histories in ancient China - "The Case of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty", which contains one million words and records all Confucian schools of thought in the Ming Dynasty.

The status of this book is equivalent to the Ming Dynasty Confucian version of the Nine Yin Manual. The thoughts, evolution, and communication history of various schools and schools in the Ming Dynasty can be clearly seen. Huang Zongxi came out to write the book, completely achieving the status of a great Confucian scholar in the world!
The story of this family includes martial arts training, obstacles, and explosions. It is completely the standard martial arts novel routine.

It's just that today Huang Zunsu is just a teenager who doesn't even have the reputation of being a scholar. Among the scholars, he is far from a reputation comparable to Wang Wenlong.

Wang Wenlong asked: "You three came to Fuzhou. Do you have any questions to ask me?"

Seeing Wang Wenlong's gentle attitude, Huang Zunsu thought that Wang Wenlong was indeed a humble gentleman.

Huang Zunsu felt that the opportunity to ask Wang Wenlong a question was very rare, so he asked the core question: "I wonder why Sir only proposed those three national policies in Changzhou but did not criticize the eunuchs?"

Wang Wenlong laughed and said: "I criticized the eunuch from the beginning, but I wasn't as harsh as others said."

The three of them all laughed as soon as these words were spoken. Huang Zunsu and Wang Wenyan also told Huang Daozhou what Wang Wenlong said at the Changzhou meeting. The three of them recalled that Wang Wenlong indeed said at the beginning that it was abominable for eunuchs to use various underhanded means to rob people's wealth. , but the difference from the Donglin Party is that Wang Wenlong later changed the topic to other places and did not spend all his time cursing the eunuchs.

Wang Wenlong looked at Huang Daozhou again, and Huang Daozhou also quickly asked his own question: "I read a volume of "The Wealth of Nations" written by my husband today. Does he think the country should rely on business methods to get rich?"

The zodiac week is indeed very spiritual, and any questions you ask will get to the deeper essence.

(End of this chapter)