prosperous age

Of course, Wei Guangde knew about the book "Emperor's Illustrations". Zhang Juzheng designated the book compiled by Ma Ziqiang and other Hanlin officials as a textbook for Emperor Wanli.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part, "The Rules of Sages and Philosophers," tells the story of the emperors' efforts to rule the country, and the second part, "The Foolish Mistakes" analyzes the misfortunes of the emperors of the past dynasties.

This book was written according to Zhang Juzheng's thoughts, and naturally explains the emperor's way in Zhang Juzheng's heart, or in other words, this is the quality that a wise king needs to have in his mind.

In order to cater to the age of the little emperor Wanli, the whole book is composed of short stories, each story is accompanied by vivid illustrations.

The illustrations in the book are woodcut prints from the Ming Dynasty. They have simple lines and clear outlines. They are simple yet childish, cute yet expressive, and are both appreciative and collectible.

So after the book was delivered to the little emperor Zhu Yijun, he couldn't put it down and read it often.

The upper part of "Emperor's Illustrations" is titled "Sages and Philosophers' Fanggui", which catalogs 23 deeds of 81 ancient emperors from Yao and Shun to the Tang and Song dynasties.

The lower part is titled "Crazy Foolish Misdeeds" and records a total of 20 bad deeds of 36 emperors of three generations or below who were "evil and can be punished".

"The Book of Changes" calls nine as Yang Yao and six as Yin Yao. When selecting examples, these two books use nine, nine, eighty-one or six, six and thirty-six respectively as numbers to distinguish good from evil, which coincides with the "Book of Changes". It can be said that it is well-intentioned.

For the examples taken, each article also has a title, and the title is limited to four words.

For example, for Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, there were "contracts upon entry into the customs", "appointment of three heroes", etc.; for Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, there were "removal of the palace and residence", "respecting the virtuous and cherishing the harrier", "Hongwen opening the museum", "face to face rebuke" To win the political power of Qin Shihuang, it means "sending envoys to seek immortality", "trailing Confucian scholars and burning books", "camping palaces"; to Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty Zhao Ji, it means "serving flowers and stones", "appointing six thieves", etc. .

Each case has a plot and characters, and the content comes from historical records. "If the records are not detailed, we dare not record them." In addition to quoting historical records, each article also comes with an explanation written in the vernacular of the time. Some chapters are followed by There are also some short comments from time to time.

For example, in Chapter 17 of "Shengzhe Fanggui" "Que Qianli Horse", the editor commented on the motivation of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty in rejecting the offer of a thousand-li horse by his ministers: "The thousand-li horse is a good horse, but Emperor Wen thought it was not suitable for the emperor to use." , even if it is not accepted, what about other pearls, jade treasures, rare birds and exotic animals?

How can it be enough to move people's hearts if they are not concerned about their daily needs?

The book says: "If you don't do anything useless or harmful, you will be successful. If you don't value foreign things and use things cheaply, the people will be satisfied." '

It is also called Emperor Zhengwen. "

It can be seen from this that his comments are profound and simple, and his words are concise and profound.

But in fact, although the young emperor Zhu Yijun once loved this book very much, what he saw and heard after he grew up and really took charge of the government was because of the huge gap between it and the "Di Jian Tu Shuo", so he couldn't help but have doubts and overturned it. all previous education.

Zhang Juzheng did not listen to these earnest teachings at all, but it was counterproductive. When this "young master and prince prince" died, he completely overthrew the New Deal advocated by Zhang Juzheng. From then on, Yan stayed in the palace, neglected the government affairs, and openly asked for money. Tibet became another extremely fatuous emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

It has to be said that Zhang Juzheng took great pains to educate Emperor Wanli well, and it can be said that he gave the Ming Dynasty the best educational resources.

However, because the requirements were too high and unrealistic, Emperor Wanli became rebellious and did bad things.

At this moment, Wei Guangde sighed a little when he heard Chen Ju saying that the empress dowagers of the two palaces liked the "Di Jian Tu Shuo" compiled by Zhang Juzheng.

He had read it and knew it was a good book, but the flaw in the book was still obvious.

The guiding ideology of Zhang Juzheng who presided over the compilation of this book is very clear, that is, "regard those who are good, take them as teachers"; "regard those who are evil, take them as warnings".

Its purpose is based on Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty who used the past as a reference. "Through the Tang and Yu to the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, the rise and fall of chaos, gains and losses can be used as advice. There are more than a hundred incidents, each drawn according to the incident, and the theory is connected." , hence the title "Emperor's Illustrations".

Because of its rich illustrations and text, it really inspired the young emperor's interest in reading.

However, Zhang Juzheng was a civil servant after all and a staunch supporter of Confucianism, so it was inevitable that he would add some private goods.

The main purpose of the book can be roughly divided into two categories. One is to express respect for the Confucian officials, and the other is to express the admiration for Confucian codes of conduct.

These stories mainly include three categories of themes: treating Confucian officials with courtesy, delegating authority to others, and receiving advice.

The so-called courtesy to Confucian officials means to give Confucian officials sufficient respect in words and deeds.

As the emperor, he has a series of ritual systems to enhance his majesty.

However, what the Confucian officials dreamed of was to have the emperor give them special treatment without weakening the emperor's authority. The daily relationship between the emperor and his ministers should be as equal, friendly, harmonious and intimate as in Suzong's "Burning Pear Couplet" of the Tang Dynasty.

Confucian ministers are particularly concerned about face. Even in front of the emperor, they must maintain their airs and let the emperor condescend to respect me.

This attitude can be said to be rotten, or it can be said that the scholarly ethos of the Spring and Autumn Period still exists, and it is quite similar to Mencius's style of conduct.

Therefore, this book can also be said to be the Confucian ministers in the mid-Ming Dynasty who wrote a general declaration about the fantasies and requirements of the civil servant group or Confucianism for the monarch. It is a vivid dream.

For the sake of world peace and the Confucian ideal of unification, the emperor's authority must be maintained, but without formal and effective means of restricting imperial power, Confucian ministers could only choose to limit imperial power, protect and compete for political power by influencing the emperor personally.

The ideal of Confucian ministers is that the emperor's will determines everything, and Confucian ministers determine the emperor's will.

Under the influence of such enlightenment books, the young emperor Zhu Yijun's three views were shaped according to the standards of a wise king.

And the young Zhu Yijun lived up to expectations. At such a young age, he behaved like a virtuous king. However, Wei Guangde knew that life was easy to overcome.

When the little emperor truly grows up and realizes that the so-called wise emperor in the book is actually a puppet on the strings of civil servants, the stress reaction he will have will be much stronger.

In fact, what the young emperor should learn is how to govern the country and how to control his ministers, rather than how to be a moral model.

Judging from Emperor Wanli's subsequent behavior, Zhang Juzheng was just daydreaming.

It is futile to cultivate perfect emperors and restrict imperial power, while the authority of ennobling Confucian ministers is imaginary.

And he himself probably never imagined that after his death, the emperor who had read "The Emperor's Illustrations" would abolish the sutra banquet and not go to court for twenty-eight years, which would put him in a situation where his family was ruined.

Confucian ministers cannot determine the emperor's will, and moral education cannot replace strength constraints.

Wei Guangde shook his head slightly, not knowing what to say.

When he first saw the book, Wei Guangde actually had some ideas, but Zhang Juzheng's book was so well compiled that he had nothing to say.

From the moral high ground, what else can be said.

If you object to Zhang Juzhengxiu's book, you need to ask him to give his reasons. Can those reasons be expressed?

"Shan Loan, but what's wrong with that book?"

Chen Ju has also read that book. In this era, most people who read will not realize anything deeper after reading this book.

But when he saw Wei Guangde's reaction, he was also very surprised, so he asked like this.

"The book is a good book, but it may not be a book that Your Majesty should read."

Wei Guangde sighed and said.

"Why?"

Chen Ju was even more surprised and naturally wanted to ask more questions.

"It's too idealistic. What's advertised in the book is naturally correct, but there's not so much beauty in the world.

What the emperor wants to learn should be the royal way rather than Confucianism.

Now that His Majesty is still young, he naturally does what the books say. But once he grows up and learns to think independently, he will find that things in the world are not the same as what the books say.

Tell me, what will His Majesty think at that time? "

Wei Guangde lowered his voice and explained in a low voice, "What he should learn is more about his grandfather, the late Emperor Jiajing's way of governing, rather than talking about the harmony between emperor and ministers." Wei Guangde had actually pointed out the contradiction, and Chen Ju also He's not a fool, he's somewhat aware of something.

"Then why didn't you say it before?"

Chen Ju knew the reason and felt that Wei Guangde's words were reasonable, and he became even more confused.

"You have read the book. What reasons do you have for objecting to it?"

Wei Guangde was too lazy to answer and just asked a question, leaving Chen Ju speechless.

"No wonder, in your lectures with the Emperor, apart from talking about "Shang Shu", you spent the rest of the time talking about the affairs of the previous dynasty."

Chen Ju finally figured out the difference between Wei Guangde's class and other Hanlin lectures. In addition to the prescribed scriptures, the lectures were about history.

If what happened more than ten years ago can be considered history, Wei Guangde is still talking about history.

In fact, for ancient societies, due to the slow development of social economy and science and technology, governing the country has become very simple. Most of them are based on old practices, and there are few sudden things that have never happened before.

Although it is different every time it happens, it is generally the same. If you do it as usual, at least you won't make a big mistake.

This is also the reason why most of the Ming Dynasty cabinets were officials without grassroots work experience, but they could still manage the country well.

When they were in the Hanlin Academy, they had already read the old documents of the previous dynasty thoroughly and knew what happened in the past and how they were dealt with.

After you take the position, you can just follow the example of the gourd.

Most of those so-called "reformers" are very keen on their surroundings. They combine what they saw and heard before entering office with what they saw afterwards, discover problems that arise, and then find ways to solve them.

If you do well, your reputation will remain in history.

If you do something wrong, that's all.

"They may be qualified as teachers, but they cannot be considered qualified imperial teachers."

When Wei Guangde said this, Chen Ju seemed to be shining brightly in front of him.

He knew who Wei Guangde was referring to by "them".

Indeed, Zhang Juzheng and the Hanlin he selected were both people in the court who had read poetry and books. They must have talents, and there was no problem in teaching ordinary students.

However, they did not realize that they were teaching the emperor, so how could they educate them in the same way as ordinary students.

Chen Ju nodded, realizing that when Wei Guangde told the young emperor about the Jiajing Dynasty, he was actually instilling in him the Jiajing Emperor's balance in the court.

Perhaps this was also a mistake. Wei Guangde just realized that Zhang Juzheng's teaching method was not good, and he also knew that Emperor Jiajing was very capable, so he chose to tell him more about the old events of the Jiajing Dynasty, so that he could have some idea of ​​the tactics in his mind.

The emperor, as a high-ranking person, cannot do things himself, so he must learn to use people.

They are all civil servants, so they will inevitably stick together. At this time, you have to learn to divide them.

To put it simply, as an emperor, the way to control your subordinates is to win over one faction and fight against another. Anyway, you can't make your subordinates harmonious.

Emperor Longqing did a good job at the beginning. After he came to power, he made full use of Gao Gong's temperament and pitted him against Xu Jie.

Later, he took advantage of Gao Gong's temperament and successfully pitted him against Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and himself.

When he realized that his body was weak and he knew that Zhang Juzheng alone could not check and balance Gao Gong, he hurriedly recalled Wei Guangde, hoping that his joining would make the cabinet form a tripartite force.

In short, all the layout is to make the cabinet form two factions and fight with each other, while the emperor sits on the throne and controls the power.

Both factions must be restrained and balanced. The stronger faction must attack decisively to avoid losing its tail.

When it is time to support the weak faction, we must choose the right opportunity to intervene to ensure the balance of power in the court.

Did the Wanli Emperor in history understand this?

He should have understood it, but he didn't learn how to control it.

This does not mean that ministers became smarter after passing through the Jiajing Dynasty and knew the emperor's methods.

All they knew was Emperor Jiajing's methods.

Emperor Wanli didn't learn the essence, so he naturally didn't know how to use it. Even though the so-called Qi, Zhechu Party and Donglin faction had appeared in the court, he didn't know how to intervene to balance their strength.

I have to say that this was Zhang Juzheng's mistake.

In the end, Emperor Wanli realized that he could no longer control the power of the court, so he chose to hide in the harem instead of going to court, and used slack in government to fight against the aggressive civil servant group.

Moreover, the most important thing is that Emperor Wanli was clearly aware of the problem, but he was helpless.

He has never learned these, and has even been taught that these ideas and methods should be rejected, because these are extremely evil in the eyes of civil servants and should be abandoned by "the wise kings of ancient times".

It should be said that Emperor Wanli actually read the book compiled by Zhang Juzheng.

And because of this, he was at a loss and didn't know what to do.

As a later generation, Wei Guangde naturally knew that the content of educating ordinary people and educating the emperor must be completely different.

The priests had high morals and how to do things, and taught the emperor how to select and employ people.

"Shandai, have you ever considered that the things you talked about may conflict with what the emperor learned from books. How will the emperor deal with it then?"

Chen Ju frowned and said.

"I will let him learn to think and learn to know what his own interests are."

Wei Guangde just said lightly.

At this time, Chen Ju was actually conflicted inside.

He also knew the wise sayings in the book by heart, but he also understood that what happened in the court actually involved the struggle between the imperial power and the prime minister's power.

The power of the prime minister here does not refer to the chief minister of the cabinet, but to the interests of the civil servant group.

Wei Guangde obviously did not think that having too much power was a good thing. It needed to be restrained by imperial power.

Correspondingly, imperial power also needs to be restrained by the power of the prime minister to prevent the emperor from acting according to his own likes and dislikes, which will cause endless harm.

"Shandai is the emperor of my Wanli Dynasty."

At this time, Chen Ju finally sighed. (End of chapter)