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

Chapter 304 "Explanation of Ancient Prose in Shangshu" and Japanese Lecture

Since they have to take the blame together, when Shen Yiguan looks over, the six ministers, no matter which party they are from, can only unite as one.

The two Hanlin officials and Li Tingji, the Minister of Rites, who were more familiar with "The Classical Texts of the Official Book", nodded proactively, and Shen Guanyi invited the three of them to come up and talk about "The Classical Texts of the Shangshu" together.

At first, Emperor Wanli was skeptical about the content of such an offensive classic as "Shangshu Guwenshuzheng", but after listening to the four people talking about this book together, he soon discovered that the research of this book directly pointed out the shortcomings of "Guwenshangshu" .

"Explanation of Ancient Texts in Shangshu" mercilessly analyzes many issues in "Shangshu in Ancient Texts" and gives his own judgment. Emperor Wanli also had doubts about some of these issues when he was studying them, but they were just like others. Like scholars, Emperor Wanli also subconsciously had an attitude of worshiping authority when he was studying. He often kept these doubts in his heart and did not take them seriously after a long time.

At this time, after hearing Wang Wenlong's doubts in "The Classical Documents of Shangshu", Emperor Wanli realized that these doubts were not his own mistakes in understanding, but that there were indeed many errors and omissions in "The Classical Documents of Shangshu" that could not be explained by themselves.

Moreover, Wang Wenlong also quoted from many sources, pointing out that many literati and scholars over thousands of years had expressed doubts about these errors and omissions in their books.

Just like the reaction of all scholars who have studied "Shangshu" for many years when they first discovered "Shu Zheng", Emperor Wanli became more and more surprised the more he heard about it.

The four people here remember only a few dozen items in "Shangshu Ancient Texts", but this was enough to interest Emperor Wanli.

After listening for a long time and asking many questions, Emperor Wanli found that he did not have the original book in his hand to compare, so it was inconvenient to understand it after all.

He was in high spirits, so he raised his head and said to the back of the screen: "Bring a letter from the Book of Documents in my imperial study."

Objectively speaking, the level of this discussion is extremely high. The ministers present at least have the title of Jinshi, and they are all second-level or above, and there are several number one and two. They followed Emperor Wanli to read the "Book of Secretaries" together, and they seemed to be together. Living dictionary.

The daily lecture stipulated that the little emperor had to read a book five times. Every time the emperor read the book, the eunuch would stack a copper coin in his hand on top of it. The eunuch would not be allowed to leave until five coins were stacked. In addition, the eunuch also had the responsibility of watching the clepsydra. The supervisory emperor must study for a certain period of time.

Soon the eunuchs brought a letter from "Shang Shu", which was the textbook that Emperor Wanli used when he was studying. It contained many notes that Wanli had made when he was still studying hard and wanting to make a difference.

With the help of these ministers, it was much easier for Emperor Wanli to understand the book "Shang Shu Ancient Texts and Evidence".

The classics mentioned in "Shangshu Ancient Texts" have been read by so many people present. Every time Emperor Wanli asked a question, the ministers below could directly recite the original text.

During the day's speech, there was usually a eunuch behind the screen who was folding money and waiting for it. This was for the young emperor, usually the empress dowager's confidant.

At this time, Emperor Wanli had just listened to the fifth article of "Shangshu Ancient Texts" and had not yet reached the corresponding part of the original text. He was in a state of excitement and did not want to give up.

Several eunuchs who were familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics and helped the emperor tidy up his study room quickly took the order and left.

Now that Emperor Wanli was almost forty years old, he obviously didn't need to fold money. All the civil servants listened to the eunuch who served him: "Your Majesty, it's time for you to have your meal."

Emperor Wanli opened the book and read the contents one by one with the doubts raised in "Shangshu Ancient Texts". When he encountered any doubts, he directly asked the ministers present.

Hearing this, he said to Li Tingji: "How about we go have a meal after Li Qing has said this?"

All the civil servants were overjoyed when they heard this - the emperor was detained in court!

If this is said out loud, all the officials in the DPRK and the Central Government will say that they are capable. Li Tingji said: "I obey the order."

The first day of the daily lecture stayed in class for more than a quarter of an hour. Emperor Wanli still enjoyed it and his energy improved a lot. When the get out of class was over, he was quite reluctant to leave. He said to the eunuch: "I will have dinner and wine with you sir."

All the officials saluted and went out. They dared to wink at each other only when they arrived at the entrance of the side hall. It was not easy to talk to each other in the imperial city, but everyone's face was filled with joy.

Although "Shangshu Ancient Wen Shuzheng" is controversial, it is also a serious book. If they can use this book to attract the emperor, what they have done is a great achievement among the courtiers.

Emperor Wanli was even more happy after the ministers left. In terms of studying the classics and history, he was no different from ordinary scholars. Even Emperor Wanli was a bit surly in his character. He liked to find faults in others and tease others. He was rich. The "Shangshu Ancient Prose and Comprehensive Evidence", which has the power to kick over the nest of right and wrong, can arouse the interest of Emperor Wanli even more.

After the lecture, Emperor Wanli said directly to the eunuch beside him: "This book is extremely interesting. Go and buy a set of "Shangshu Ancient Wen Shuzheng" for me to submit."

The eunuch was very efficient in his work and bought the book in less than half a day. However, at this time, the genuine Shuzhongtang's "Shangshu Ancient Wen Shuzheng" had not yet spread to the capital. The version circulating in the capital was the newspaper copying house's own. It was printed with wax paper and ink, and the method was irregular.

Emperor Wanli really liked this book, but he didn't mind it either.

Wanli directly asked the eunuch to present the mimeographed version first. After reading it for two days in the palace, he fell in love with the book even more. However, a few days later, Emperor Wanli ordered the eunuch to get the original version of "Shangshu Ancient Texts". This was a pirated version that he was afraid of seeing. There are typos in the book, which affects the understanding of the book.

Five days later, Emperor Wanli held another lecture, greatly condensing the content of the Four Books and Classics and History. Wanli's main purpose was to capture a group of ministers to help him explain "Shangshu Ancient Wen Shuzheng".

This book is full of references. If you want to read it by yourself, you need to consult a lot of information, which is very troublesome. Emperor Wanli was too lazy to spend this energy, so he recruited a group of top Confucianists selected from the imperial examination to help him make a living dictionary.

As soon as the news came out, the whole court was shocked. Although some people criticized Shen Guan for misleading the emperor with his eccentric remarks, more officials praised Shen Yi Guan and the ministers for being smart and able to come up with such a way for Emperor Wanli to speak to the Japanese. Interested, there was even a second daily lecture.

Although this book was recommended by Ding Yuanjian before, "Shangshu Ancient Texts and Evidence" was only circulated among the learned people in the capital.

Many people are not high enough to talk to Ding Yuanjian. After hearing the contents of "Shangshu Ancient Texts and Evidence", most of them think that this book is pretentious and shocking, and has little reading value.

Now that Emperor Wanli has brought goods and recommended them, the situation is very different.

First of all, a large number of Beijing officials studied this book one after another, and other scholars gradually heard about the emperor's daily discussion of "Shangshu Ancient Wen Shuzheng" and came to read this book out of curiosity.

The response was mixed, with many people still unable to accept the idea of ​​falsifying ancient documents, but there is no doubt that Wang Wenlong has gained great popularity in Beijing.

It's just that the news in this era spreads very slowly, and this matter is just a current affairs news in the capital, and it is not enough to affect the government affairs. The newly published Dibao only writes that the emperor is gone again. Kairijiao, at most, stated that this was because Shen always quoted strange texts in his speeches, and did not mention "Shangshu Ancient Prose and Comprehensive Evidence".

However, after seeing the Di newspaper, some foreign officials were curious about how Emperor Wanli's character could suddenly be so hard-working and want to study?

(End of this chapter)