Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The reason why the natural disasters were attributed to the extermination of Native Americans by the Westerners was that Zhu Youjian had to find the cause of the natural disasters that occurred next.

In the Confucian theory of the correspondence between heaven and man, heaven's will and human affairs are in sympathy with each other. If the emperor violates heaven's will, heaven will send down disasters to condemn and warn him.

Therefore, when disasters occur, the emperor must take responsibility.

This theory seemed ridiculous to Zhu Youjian, but Confucian scholars held on to it tightly, using it to restrain the king.

Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Annals" further promoted the theory of disasters. This theory was so popular in the Han Dynasty that the emperor had to find ministers to take the blame and let them share the responsibility.

Because the emperor took the blame instead of his ministers, the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man was no longer so popular after the Han Dynasty. However, when disasters occurred in the world, some people would still blame the emperor.

In history, Emperor Chongzhen issued six edicts of repentance, one of which was specifically due to natural disasters, and three of which included natural disasters as reasons.

Given that the natural disasters in the next few decades were so severe, Zhu Youjian did not want to issue edicts of blaming himself frequently, so he had to find an explanation and blame the natural disasters on others.

Therefore, the mass extinction of Native Americans related to the Little Ice Age, which was speculated by some later scientists, was discovered by him. In the name of Taizu Chengzu’s dream, he informed the ministers in advance.

Let the people of the world know that natural disasters in the future are caused by the excessive killing of Westerners, and that they cannot blame themselves as the emperor or force themselves to issue an edict of remorse.

The ministers were unaware of the emperor's considerations, and many of them still did not believe it. But it was also difficult for them to deny the emperor's statement. Because the Purple Pavilion meritorious officials were previously given the title of City God, they had already tacitly accepted that the dream of Taizu and Chengzu was true and that the emperor had the power to confer titles on gods.

If they were to deny the emperor's statement now, they would have to deny the previous enfeoffment of the city god. Many officials were very unhappy about this.

After all, the City God Temple can have the descendants of the City God serve as priests, which can allow the descendants of the deified ministers to have a family business. For the ministers who do not believe in God, it is also a visible benefit.

How can we launch such a thing that benefits future generations?
In addition, the enthronement of the City God had already been decided, and many people in the capital were offering sacrifices. Even if they wanted to go back on their word, they no longer had the chance.

Therefore, most of the ministers remained silent about the emperor's statement. They did not express their support, but they also did not oppose it.

This gave Wen Tihen and other ministers who were attached to the emperor the opportunity to perform. They spoke actively and seemed to represent the silent majority, and their voices were filled in the court.

This was especially true of Wen Tiren, because he had previously planned to learn Western learning from Xu Guangqi and develop his own scholarship.

After the emperor arranged for Zhang Pu to learn from Xu Guangqi and promote science, Wen Tiren knew that his idea was shattered. However, because of his previous ideas, he can still be said to be one of the ministers who understands Westerners best in the court.

Through analyzing the personalities of these people, Wen Tihen believed that Westerners feared power but not morality, and were no different from the surrounding barbarians.

His explanation was easily accepted by the Confucian ministers in the court, because in their minds, except for the Ming Dynasty, other ethnic groups were barbarians.

These officials may not know much about Westerners, but they are very vocal in criticizing the barbarians. Some even mentioned that Shen Hong had banned Catholicism in Nanjing, and that Westerners should be banned from preaching.

However, this incident was fiercely opposed by Xu Guangqi. As a Catholic, Xu Guangqi certainly did not want another religious incident to happen.

Most of the Donglin Party and officials who were inclined towards the Donglin Party disliked Shen Hong because he was Wei Zhongxian's teacher, and they also did not support Shen Hong's measures to ban religion.

Therefore, the policy of banning Catholicism was not implemented.

Zhu Youjian also did not want to completely ban religion and interrupt cultural exchanges between the East and the West, so he only responded to the requests of some ministers and asked the Taichang Temple to formulate more stringent measures to restrict the spread of Catholicism.

As a Christian, Xu Guangqi was of course not satisfied with this. Facing his objection, Zhu Youjian said:
"Mr. Xu, do you know how many other religious sects there are in the West besides the Catholic Church of the Vatican?"

Xu Guangqi didn't know much about this because Matteo Ricci and others were Catholic Jesuit priests and they certainly wouldn't promote other religions.

Zhu Youjian used some of his knowledge to tell Xu Guangqi:
"Catholicism in the West belongs to a branch of Christianity and can be regarded as a sect of Christianity."

“The Catholic Church headed by the Holy See of Rome can be called Roman Catholicism.”

"In addition, there is the Orthodox Church believed by the Russians in Eastern Europe, which is very different from Catholicism and the two have long been separated."

"In recent decades, people like Martin Luther have founded new sects, which can be called Protestantism."

"Protestantism and Roman Catholicism were incompatible and even led to a war."

"As far as I know, the countries in the West that support Protestantism and Catholicism have been fighting for ten years. They may continue to fight for decades until they can no longer fight."

"Master Xu, do you think that after the Protestants know that the Jesuits will preach in Ming Dynasty, will they also send missionaries?"

"If they mislead some people in Ming Dynasty and then quarrel with the Jesuits, will we allow the followers of the two sects to fight a religious war in Ming Dynasty?"

This was the first time Xu Guangqi had heard of these things. He didn't know whether what the emperor said was true or not, but judging from the names and deeds of the people the emperor mentioned, it didn't seem to be false. After all, if Protestantism and Roman Catholicism really fought, the Westerners from Europe would not be unaware of it, and the name Martin Luther seemed easy to find out.

So facing the emperor's questioning, he could only remain silent. He even thought of what the emperor said about missionaries leading the extermination of Native Americans, which had a great impact on his beliefs. He was confused for a while and didn't know what to say.

When other officials heard the emperor say that Europe was fighting a religious war, they did not understand. This was because although there were some wars in ancient Chinese history that involved religious factors, there were no religious wars in the strict sense, and they would not fight just because of different beliefs.

They were very surprised by this, and some people thought that barbarians were barbarians and could not be treated as normal people. At the same time, they became wary of Catholicism and began to tend to ban it, so as to avoid a religious war if the number of Ming people who believed in religion increased.

After considering this, Zhu Youjian said:
"Except for the Society of Jesus, other Christian sects are not allowed to spread in Ming Dynasty."

"If there are Christian missionaries other than the Society of Jesus coming to the Ming Dynasty to preach, the Society of Jesus and other Buddhist and Taoist sects have the responsibility to report them."

By giving the Jesuits missionary privileges, they were able to deal with other Christian sects.

After all, in Zhu Youjian's view, the Jesuit missionaries still had some effect. They brought a lot of Western scientific knowledge and had a great impact on the ideology and culture of the Ming Dynasty. In some ways, they had a positive effect.

Moreover, the teachings of the Jesuits were very different from those of other Christian denominations. Even the Roman Catholic Church, which sent them to preach in Ming Dynasty, might not accept their teachings.

This is the sect most likely to become localized and fight against other Christian sects.

If the Jesuits could complete localization, it would be possible for them to become a new Christian sect like the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church. It could even spread to the West, allowing Westerners to accept Ming culture through this sect.

In order to achieve this goal, Zhu Youjian decided to integrate the teachings of the Jesuits with Buddhism and Taoism to make it more localized.

Looking at Xu Guangqi, who was silent and had no idea what he was thinking, Zhu Youjian said:
"I heard that the names of God and Heaven were translated by Xu Qing, Matteo Ricci and others."

"Can Xu Qing tell me why you translated it this way?"

After hearing the question, Xu Guangqi calmed down and said:

"Our God is the God mentioned in ancient scriptures. The Doctrine of the Mean quotes Confucius as saying: The rituals of suburban sacrifices are for serving God..."

"God has a court, so it is not clear that the sky is God. Looking through ancient books, we know that God and Heavenly Lord are unique names."

“So when Li Shi translated it, he called it Heavenly Lord or God.”

"We also discussed the translation when we met in Jiading last year."

When Zhu Youjian heard about the Jiading Conference, he was quite interested in it and asked Xu Guangqi to explain it in detail and express the opinions of those missionaries.

Xu Guangqi certainly didn't want to say it, because he knew that the more detailed he was, the easier it would be for the Jesuit teachings to be attacked.

But at the emperor's request, he could only briefly mention it and express the opinions of various missionaries.

Even though he had spoken very gently, the ministers still felt greatly shocked when they heard some missionaries' proposals that prohibiting the worship of other gods, prohibiting sacrifices to Confucius and ancestors, prohibiting the taking of concubines... They were very hostile to those missionaries who opposed the sacrifices to Confucius and ancestors, and more ministers agreed to ban religion.

Some people even changed their view of Xu Guangqi, thinking that this university scholar who mixed with missionaries was not a Confucian.

Some censors saw an opportunity and started to criticize. Some even impeached Xu Guangqi, saying that he was unworthy of being a Grand Secretary and should be dismissed immediately.

Facing the impeachment, Xu Guangqi could only take off his hat and plead guilty. Zhu Youjian did not want to lose this capable minister, so he asked the eunuch to help Xu Guangqi up and said:
"The Jesuits have not been banned, and the imperial court will not dismiss officials just because they believe in the Jesuits."

"But the teachings of your Jesuit order still need to be revised."

"You quoted Confucius' words and decided on the translation, so how can you not allow Confucius sacrifices?"

"What those missionaries say really doesn't make sense!"

After defining the nature of the incident, Zhu Youjian said:
"The two translations of Tianzhu and Shangdi are really too vague."

"Whose master is the Lord of Heaven? Is it Tathagata, the Lord of the Western Heaven, or Daode Tianzun, the Lord of the Great Purity Heaven?"

"I heard that God lives in heaven. Should we call him the Lord of Heaven to clarify God's identity?"

"The same is true for the name God. Does it refer to the God of Xuantian? Or does it refer to the Emperor of Heaven in the Upper Palace of Gouchen?"

"You can't refer to the Emperor of Heaven. Do you want to take the title of Emperor of Heaven?"

When the ministers heard this, they became even more disgusted with Catholicism. In their view, this God who did not specify the day wanted to be the master of heaven. Once God spoke, he was also trying to usurp the title of the Emperor of Heaven.

Therefore, they all believed that the emperor should confer the gods on behalf of heaven, canonize the Catholic gods, and clearly define which day and which God they were.

With their support, Zhu Youjian gave Deus several translated names, including Lord of Heaven, Deus God, Deus Heavenly Lord, Deus God, and Deus Supreme God, and asked Xu Guangqi to discuss with the missionaries to see which one they agreed with more.

After they have reached an agreement, I will officially confer the title.

If the Jesuits could accept it, then God would become one of the masters of the heavens, and God would become a deity like Xuantian God. People could worship them at the same time as they worship Zhenwu Xuantian God, Taiqing Daode Tianzun, Xitian Tathagata Buddha and other gods.

In this way, Christian gods can be integrated into the traditional Chinese mythology system just like Buddhist gods. In the future, the gods of heaven can be like the gods of Lingshan, and serve as relatively independent external gods outside the heavenly court.

In Zhu Youjian's view, this was a way to completely localize Christianity. It would be best if the Jesuit missionaries could accept it, but if not, given the current attitude of the ministers, they would probably support banning Christianity and drive them out of the Ming Dynasty.

Xu Guangqi listened to the words of his ministers and obviously thought of this consequence. At this moment, he felt really bitter and worried about the future of the Jesuits.

Before today's meeting, he really had not expected that this meeting against civil unrest and famine would first target the Jesuits.

At this moment, he only hoped that there would be more enlightened missionaries in the Society of Jesus who would allow sacrifices to Confucius and ancestors like Matteo Ricci did.

The more the officials learned about Catholicism, the more they felt they were being restricted. Some even thought of the Pope mentioned at the lecture some time ago, and the fact that the monarchs of the Western countries were crowned by the Pope.

They all felt that this kind of coronation should not happen in the Ming Dynasty. The translation of the name "Pope" was also an offense to the emperor. They believed that the name should be changed and the title of "Pope" should be banned.

The name of the pope was determined by the "Records of the Officialdom" compiled by Ai Ruliu in the third year of the Tianqi reign. It comes from the Latin word papa, which means "father" as you can tell from the sound. It was once used as a title for senior Christian priests. Later, after Christianity split into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the word papa evolved into a special title for the head of the Vatican in Catholicism.

The officials all expressed their disapproval of calling someone "father". Their dislike for Catholicism increased. They looked at Xu Guangqi with a hint of amusement.

After all, Xu Guangqi believed in Catholicism and had to call the head of the Roman Catholic Church "papa".

Finally, after some debate, Zhu Youjian translated papa as "Pope" according to later translations and ordered the Jesuits to revise it.

The ministers were encouraged and were ready to correct all the translations of the Jesuits. Zhu Youjian did not want to waste time discussing this at the court meeting, so he ordered the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Household Department to take charge.

While standardizing the translation of Western words, they were asked to formulate alphabetical translations for various words in the Ming Dynasty based on the phonetic scheme they proposed, and to compile dictionaries of major Western languages ​​such as Chinese and Latin. All future translations would be based on the dictionary.

Zhang Ruitu, Xu Guangqi, Wen Tiren, Meng Shaoyu and others were appointed to be in charge of this matter.

Then the meeting turned back to the civil unrest and famine, continuing the main topic. (End of this chapter)