Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 242: Scripture Feast and Standing in Line

The next day, Zhu Youjian found that many people came to support the rectification of the sacrificial canon.

This surprised him. He didn't understand why so many civil servants supported the reconstruction of the Martial Temple and found so many reasons.

It wasn't until the lunch lecture when Dong Qichang politely advised him not to learn from Emperor Shizong Jiajing but to study "Zhenguan Zhengyao" that he understood the thinking of officials -

I know that these people regard the matter of correcting the sacrificial ceremony as a major ritual meeting of the Chongzhen Dynasty. So they all stood up and expressed support for themselves.

This made Zhu Youjian dumbfounded. He realized that the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were really afraid of being punished by the Great Ritual Discussion, and regarded all matters involving etiquette and law as the Great Ritual Discussion.

Regardless of whether he has this intention or not, he must cooperate with the officials now. Otherwise, those who support will not be rewarded and will not support so enthusiastically next time.

Calmly, Zhu Youjian responded to Dong Qichang:

"It's windy and cold in the depths of winter, so it's not advisable to go to war."

"Now I only hold lunch lectures to review the classics and history, or read random calligraphy and calligraphy."

"I think this is very good. We will discuss the change of classes next year."

"We will officially change courses until next year during the feast."

There are two seasons of Sutra Banquet: Spring and Autumn. The spring lecture starts on February 12th and ends on May 2nd. The autumn lectures will start on August 12th and end on October 2nd. Held on the 2nd, 12th and 22nd of each month.

This was not only the emperor's learning activity, but also part of the court ceremony, which represented the emperor's emphasis on learning.

Civil officials can also "rectify the emperor's heart" through sutra feasts and make the emperor's thoughts consistent with theirs. And use the knowledge and etiquette and morality in the book to restrain the king's behavior.

Those lecturers recognized by the emperor are more likely to be called emperor teachers and will be promoted quickly in the future.

Therefore, civil servants attach great importance to the Sutra Feast and believe that a wise ruler must hold the Sutra Feast, attend the Sutra Feast diligently, and learn Confucian culture.

But the emperor didn't like the Sutra Banquet very much, because at the Sutra Banquet, the emperor's status was as a student, and compared to usual status as a monarch, their status was lower -

Although the righteousness of heaven and earth, master and master, the righteousness of teachers and students ranks behind the righteousness of monarch and ministers, they cannot be ignored.

No matter how respectful the ministers were to the emperor at the Sutra Banquet, the emperor would feel uncomfortable at the Sutra Banquet because they had to accept the teachings of a teacher like a student. These teachers cannot be punished casually like ministers.

Especially when they meet officials with strong personalities, they may even use the behavior of wise kings in books such as "Zhenguan Politicians" to advise or even accuse the emperor. Let the emperor who has done something wrong be embarrassed at the Sutra banquet.

Therefore, many emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not like Sutra feasts. Some simply did not hold them, and some deliberately destroyed them.

For example, Emperor Jingtai often asked eunuchs to throw money on the ground when holding sutra banquets and let the officials pick it up, claiming to be graceful. Use this kind of nonsense to disrupt the sutra feast ceremony.

The consequence of this was that not many civil servants were willing to be officials during the Jingtai period. Civil servants' recognition of Emperor Jingtai has never been very high. Not many people complained for him and let him have a temple name.

Zhu Youjian knew this and realized that if he wanted to be a wise king, he must hold a sutra feast. Otherwise, there will be many non-parliaments in the world, and there will even be rumors that the emperor is ignorant and ignorant.

So he took the initiative to bring up the Sutra Feast and used this matter to delay the change of classes.

Sure enough, when he heard him mention the Sutra Banquet, Dong Qichang immediately stopped admonishing him——

The emperor placed the matter of changing classes on the Sutra Feast, which shows that he attaches great importance to the Sutra Feast. This is a good thing and should not be taken into account.

Besides, the opening feast on February 12 is only two months away. Even if the emperor is asked to study "Zhenguan Zhengyao", it will not take more than two months.

The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and even if I change courses, I won’t be able to teach much. It’s better to wait until next year and officially start the lecture at the Sutra Banquet.

After delaying the change of classes with the Sutra Banquet, Zhu Youjian took the "Di Jian Tu Shuo" again and said: "You think this book is simple, but you don't know that Mr. Zhang's expectations for the king are all in it."

"This is Mr. Zhang's painstaking effort and cannot be treated as child's play."

"In the future, remember to remind me to read the "Emperor's Illustrations" every once in a while, so as not to forget the teachings."

He also issued an edict:

"Zhang Juzheng and others have contributed greatly to the compilation of the "Emperor's Illustrations", so the cabinet will prepare a decree to praise them."

"In addition, I will gather talents who are proficient in books such as "The Great Learning", "Shang Shu", and "Zhenguan Zhengyi". I will inspect them and select the outstanding ones to be lecturers."

Dissatisfied with the existing Japanese lecturers, Zhu Youjian felt that they had nothing outstanding. It's okay to help you review your homework, but it's not enough to deepen your ability.

There is no one here who can make the emperor "happy" after listening to his lectures like Sun Chengzong.

Zhu Youjian didn't want these people to occupy the position of lecturer, so he wanted to change the lecturer at the banquet next year and recruit more talents——

He used to be a vassal king and didn't have many people around him. The only teacher, Liu Hanru, was not very capable, so he planned to choose capable ministers to get close to him through the Sutra Banquet.

To arrange this matter, Zhu Youjian asked the Hanlin Academy to organize officials to conduct assessments in this area. Under the guidance of Dong Qichang, he began to learn writing.

His calligraphy was originally learned from Ouyang Xun, which is not the same as Dong Qichang's "Yan Gu Zhao Zi". Now, because of my good body control, I am learning other fonts besides European regular script. As a master of calligraphy, Dong Qichang can naturally provide guidance.

After finishing today's study, Zhu Youjian rewarded several lecturers. He also asked Dong Qichang about his progress in hard-tipped calligraphy and asked him to improve it and teach it to him in the future.

Only then did he calm down and think about the ceremony.

Now this matter is regarded by the officials in the court as a side, and it has somewhat deviated from his original intention. His approach to correcting the sacrificial rituals was to learn from Emperor Jiajing, but he had no intention of launching a grand ceremony.

But thinking that this misunderstanding was not harmful to him, Zhu Youjian decided to let it go and let the officials understand——

The Zhengsi Dian was a measure taken by a wise king and was recognized by many civil officials. This matter is unlikely to be opposed by many civil servants like the Great Ceremony.

Therefore, this matter will not cause division in the court. Instead, it can test the attitude of the officials in the court to see how many people support them.

If they even oppose the rebuilding of the martial arts temple, it means that they are not satisfied with Zhu Youjian's elevation of the status of military commanders, and will not accept future military honors, and may object fiercely.

Of course, Zhu Youjian must suppress such officials and limit their influence.

Therefore, no matter what the original intention was, Zhu Youjian and the court officials regarded the matter of correcting the sacrificial ritual as a side. Use this kind of ceremonial thing to let the officials in the court express their stance.

In this way, Zhu Youjian naturally had to consider the impact of this incident on the world. In order to avoid having too serious impact on Buddhism and Taoism, Zhu Youjian ordered Taichang Temple to summon eminent monks and Taoists, and ask monks and Taoists from all over the country to send representatives to form Buddhist associations and Taoist associations.

These two associations were used to isolate the rectification of the immortal system from the imperial court's rectification of the sacrificial rituals. Let the two religions negotiate internally to decide on their respective immortal systems. It was then up to the imperial court to decide on the national sacrificial and Buddhist and Taoist deities.

After thinking about this clearly, Zhu Youjian responded to the memorials supporting him one by one. I am not shy about praising him for his thoughtful and well-written memorial. Let these supporters see that you know their intentions, and as long as you work hard in the future, you will not treat them badly.

In particular, Yang Jingchen, who wrote the best, was recalled by Zhu Youjian for his contribution during this period, and was promoted from the third-rank official to the second-rank minister. On the way to becoming the minister of political affairs and the minister, he also made great achievements. A step forward.

　"History of the Ming Dynasty" Biography No. 40:

　　(The first year of Jingtai in Yiming) He will also be the official of the banquet next year. Whenever the emperor came to give a lecture, he would often order officials to throw money on the ground, and any lecturer would pick it up and call it "grace."

　　Among the civil servants, apart from Gao Gu and others in the cabinet, there are only a few people named Wei Ming and Yu Shan, Yu Gang, Xiao Tan and Zhao Wan.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)