Daming 1805

Chapter 395 Who Are Daming People?

Zhu Jianyan finally decided to make Daming strong forever.

To perfect the excellent physical and geographical space as much as possible for the areas directly under the Central Government.

The eastern part includes Kuwu, Ezo, the Japanese Islands, the Korean Peninsula, Ryukyu, and Dongning Island, all of which are directly under the Central Government.

The north includes the Outer Xing'an Mountains, Beihai, and the entire Xianbei Wasteland except the West Xianbei Principality.

The west includes Balkhash Pool, Congling Mountains, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, and the end of the Himalayas.

The south includes a circle of peninsulas and islands such as Myanmar, Siam, Malacca, Old Port, Borneo, and Luzon.

The land area is directly connected to two oceans, surrounded by natural geographical boundaries, and has multiple completely enclosed inland seas.

Many times, many things are difficult to determine. The key reason is that decision makers are uncertain, or no one is responsible.

The emperor made up his mind and determined the direction, and the planning of the native province was quickly determined.

The local core area, densely populated places, according to the traditional setting of smaller provinces.

Border areas, sparsely populated areas, set up provinces with larger areas.

Outside Xing'an Mountains and north of Beihai, there is only one Xianbei province, and the Xianbei region that Zhu Jingyuan mentioned at the beginning is gone.

Plus one province in Mobei Mongolia, one province in Monan Mongolia, and three provinces in the northern frontier.

The Lelang Chief Envoy in the Liaodong area was split, the west was merged into Liaodong Province, and the east was merged with Kuwu to form Jinghai Province.

The logic of such a split is to expand Liaodong as much as possible, but not allow Liaodong to have a coastline of Jinghai, reduce the complexity of Liaodong's geographical scope, and completely hand over the Jinghai coastline on the mainland to Jinghai Province.

In addition to the basically unchanged Heishui Province, there are three provinces in the northeast frontier.

The two chief ministers of the Korean peninsula were merged to form Korea Province, two and four chief ministers on the Japanese archipelago were merged into two provinces of Edo and Nara, and the chief ministers of Haidong including Ryukyu and Dongning Island Incorporated into Fujian Province.

In this way, there are three provinces of Asahi and the Eastern Sea Front.

There is one province in Luzon in the south, one province in Borneo, one province in Malacca and Old Port, and three provinces in the southern sea area.

Yunnan merged with the entire Burmese Chief Political Officer, Jiaozhi, Lancang, and Chenla merged to form Guangnan Province, and Siam was a separate province.

Three provinces of Xijiang, Xueyu and Qinghai were established in the west.

Other provinces in the original core area remain basically unchanged.

In this way, the original two capitals and thirteen provinces, plus the fifteen provinces on the frontier, there are a total of thirty provinces directly under the central government of the Ming Dynasty.

On the contrary, Nanyang was dismantled, and the border areas such as Luzon were completely gone, and the key core areas such as Borneo, Old Port, and Malacca were gone.

In this way, the remaining Nanyang Islands are basically a land of miasma.

Among the remaining regions, only Java has a slightly larger population, and then there is Tiannan Continent.

The rest of the land is basically south of the equator, so the Nanyang Dayu was also gone, and it was renamed Tiannan Dayu.

After the relevant decisions were finalized, they were not made public immediately, but began to be adjusted step by step.

But Zhu Jingyuan, as the most special participant, immediately received a direct message from his father.

Looking at his father's explanation and the general map plan, Zhu Jingyuan was completely confused.

I explained clearly the pros and cons to my father. I originally thought that my father, as a traditional monarch, should consider and make decisions in a way that limits the scale and geography of the country.

It turned out he took the exact opposite direction.

Zhu Jianyan didn't let his son guess his true inner thoughts.

Based on the mentality that if his father educated himself, then he should find opportunities to educate his son, Zhu Jianyan wrote down his thinking and decision-making ideas.

Zhu Jingyuan was completely dumbfounded after reading these explanations.

"Is this really the Ming Emperor's way of thinking? Are you sure it's not a nationalistic cynical youth?"

Zhu Jingyuan looked at these words and understood what his father meant.

After thinking about it for a long time, I slowly realized that I was different again.

My previous judgment on the difference in thinking between myself and my father and grandfather was not accurate.

The biggest internal difference in self-cognition between myself and my father is not at all the question of whether I think the traditional monarchy system is backward, or whether I will consider the possibility of the collapse of Ming Dynasty.

The fundamental difference is that I think I am a Chinese, but my father, the emperor, thinks he is a Ming.

The point is, the concept of one's own Chinese is complex.

The concept of Father's Daming is simple.

In this world, of course there is the concept of China, but this China is not that China.

The most direct meaning of the word China in Zhu Jingyuan's mind is the name of a country.

But in this world, the "two characters" of China in Ming culture are not the name of a country.

It is not the official name of any ethnic groups and dynasties in China, nor is it even an informal folk name.

The imperial court and bureaucrats said "I am Ming Dynasty", and ordinary people also said "we Ming people".

The two characters of China are a broad identity, basically only used in the field of history and literature research.

Zhu Jingyuan remembers that in the fourth year of Xigong in "Gongyang Biography", there are:

"The southern barbarians and the northern barbarians made contact with each other, and China was like a thread. Duke Huan rescued China and defeated the barbarians and barbarians, and died in Jing. This is the king's business."

Duke Huan of Qi rescued Xing Guo, Wei Guo and other countries, and was called "saving China", which shows that the word itself was a general term at first.

Confucius' "Spring and Autumn" has:

"The princes use barbarian etiquette to barbarian, and enter China to China."

Han Yu's "Original Dao" contains:

"Confucius' work "Spring and Autumn" also states that the princes use barbarian rituals to barbarians, and enter China to make China."

The words of Han Yu and Confucius, one is the original words, the other is a quotation, of course, the meaning is exactly the same:

"If the princes learn the etiquette of Yidi, they will be regarded as Yidi. If the princes use Chinese etiquette, then they can be regarded as members of China."

It can be seen that the word "China" is also an identity label, which is used to distinguish those who adhere to tradition and those who betray tradition within the group.

You, a vassal, use Chinese etiquette to deal with me, so I will recognize you as a vassal.

If you don't deal with me with Chinese etiquette, then I will treat you as a barbarian.

The popularity of this definition and related topics is basically inversely proportional to the strength of the Central Dynasty.

When the military power and culture of the Central Dynasty were flourishing, this kind of topic was hardly brought up by anyone.

Because there is basically no possibility of betrayal by members of the group, there is also a difference between being ridiculed to death and being beaten to death.

Only when things started to go downhill, when various problems broke out, would they be taken out to identify traitors.

When the Central Dynasty finally fell, the conversation turned the other way.

During the Yuan Dynasty, there was a saying that "if you can use scholars today and practice the Chinese way, you will be the master of China".

In the Qing Dynasty, there was "China and the barbarians, and the barbarians; and the barbarians and China, and the Chinese."

Whether the scope of identification of "China" has expanded, from whether there is betrayal within the group, to whether outsiders can integrate.

Nowadays, scholars from various countries in Thailand and the West often discuss these topics enthusiastically.

They basically adhere to the two-way logic, that is, no matter whether they are born in China or Barbarians, their actual identities can be transformed into each other through learning.

This is the theoretical basis for their desire to become Ming people.

The current Ming Dynasty has reached its limit, and this kind of topic has no place in Daming itself.

If one had to give an explanation, it would be China where the Ming court ruled, where the laws and rituals of the Ming were used, and not vice versa.

So what is Daming?

Compared with Taixi, Daming is another world.

Compared with the Thai and Western countries, the Ming Dynasty is another country.

Compared with the various ethnic groups in Thailand and the West, Ming people are a unified name for another group of people.

Compared with the languages ​​of other countries in Thailand and the West, Daming Yayan is a unified name for languages ​​and characters.

Westerners in this world will not use China to refer to Daming, but they will judge whether other people are Chinese enough.

When Thais and Westerners learn the language of Ming Dynasty, they don’t say that they are learning Chinese, but they are learning the correct pronunciation of the elegant language of Ming Dynasty.

When writing the characters of the Ming Dynasty, they are not writing Chinese characters, but are writing "Daming Yawen Orthodox Style".

Because the exchanges between Taixi and Daming are very close, because the two sides have been communicating, trading and fighting for hundreds of years.

Because the Ming Dynasty is absolutely powerful relative to the whole world.

Because the Taixi people know enough about Daming.

Taixi people know that Daming is the current official name of the local ethnic group and regime in China.

Qin Stein, Khitan, Qin Na, and Cha Na are the names that have been handed down from ancient times. The key is that the inaccurate transliteration of various names that have been changed a few times has long been used by no one.

The point is, if the Thai and Western countries continue to use that title, the Ming court and people will not pay attention to them at all.

This is completely different from Zhu Jingyuan's previous life, during the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty did not require the Thai and Western countries to call him the Qing Dynasty. Instead, according to the habits of the Thai and Western people, it was changed from the Qing Dynasty to China.

Ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty do not feel that they are Qing people, they are bannermen or other people.

Even among the bannermen there are the Upper Three Banners, the Lower Five Banners, the House of Internal Affairs, the Han Army Banner, the Mongolian Banner, etc...

At that time, the Qing Dynasty was completely torn apart, both inside and outside.

This situation at that time seriously hindered the efficiency of the Qing Dynasty's thorough reform and catching up with the process of industrialization.

The current Ming Dynasty has now achieved complete consistency among ethnic groups, cultures, titles, countries, royal families, and courts from inside to outside, from top to bottom, from self-awareness to external recognition.

This is the rudiment of the nation-state formed by the natural development of modern times.

They speak the same language, use the same characters, have the same identity, and have the same cultural habits, and they are all proud of it.

In this environment, the emperor of Ming Dynasty said "I am the emperor of Ming people".

Just like Napoleon in the French Revolution, his title of emperor was the emperor of the French, not the emperor of Rome.

The Great Ming of this world is smelting out a group called "Da Ming", a group named after their country.

Zhu Jingyuan even considered, if such a great Ming unified the whole world, would the earth still be called the earth?
The earth is not actually called the earth anymore, it is now the world, the world, and the universe.

If the Great Ming unified the whole world, then this world would be the Great Ming, just like the Great Qin that unified the world is still the Great Qin.

If it goes a step further, Ming has entered the cosmic era, if it has contacted other alien civilizations.

That Ming Dynasty may even become the synonym for all human beings, and the civilization of this planet is called Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Jingyuan thought through these things, he realized again that his buttocks were drifting, and he was the only one who was separated from his brain and hips.

My father, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, has a very stable ass and brain.

Zhu Jingyuan also once again realized the urgency of integrating other ethnic groups within the Ming Dynasty.

The ethnic group of the Ming Dynasty is not completely stable yet, and is still in the process of "retaining the same and removing the different".

Retaining the same and removing the difference has two meanings.

One is to keep the same place and discard the different place.

The second is to retain those who have a common understanding and discard those who do not.

In the current Ming Dynasty, if someone insists that he is not a member of the Ming Dynasty, and he does not want to be a member of the Ming Dynasty, then this person will struggle in the Ming Dynasty and even in the world.

Therefore, there is no such thing as seeking common ground while reserving differences, that is, keeping common ground while discarding differences, and completely smelting the entire country and people into one.

During this process, everyone in the entire country will "unify their minds" to some extent.

When faced with certain national problems, most people will naturally make the same choice.

As a result, the entire country can erupt with very terrifying power.

In the traditional classical dynasty era, for a country of 1000 million people, it is not bad to have 10 soldiers.

At that time, ordinary people went to the army to make money, to survive, and to fight for the king and nobles.

But once a nation-state is formed, a country of 1000 million people can even pull out 100 million troops.

The army of this country, they will take it for granted that it is fighting for their country.

As a result, not only the mobilization ability has skyrocketed by an order of magnitude, but the combat enthusiasm will also increase by a large level.

Even with the same productivity, a nation-state with a unified mind is still crushed compared to a traditional classical country.

There are indeed many advantages, but the disadvantages are also very obvious, especially for the royal family and nobles...

That is, ordinary people gradually began to have a sense of ownership, and they felt that they were also the masters of the country.

They will no longer feel that the land and the country belong to the monarch anyway, and how the monarch tosses and enjoys has nothing to do with them.

The monarch and nobles are no longer the masters of the country. Both he and the monarch are the masters of the country, and the monarch is only a higher-ranking leader within the master group.

How this leader manages the country and what decisions he makes are closely related to himself, and they are all things that affect the future of his own ethnic group.

So I have to keep an eye on what the monarch is doing, whether the monarch is doing well, and if the deduction is not good, I have to give my opinion and ask the other party to correct it.

Of course, they may have been well-intentioned, but the monarch could not ignore it.

Otherwise the consequences could be very serious.

To put it bluntly, the ruler has no way to fool the people casually.

Zhu Jingyuan didn't know if his father was aware of this.

It should be unaware, or unaware of the existence of this difference.

Because as a part of the entire Daming group, he himself was unified in this situation.

His current thinking is from the perspective of all Daming people.

He... As a prince cultivated by the prince, he has never had the cognition and habit of wanton entertainment since he was a child.

Probably... In his cognition, the emperor should be such a person.

Now that the emperor has the consciousness of being the emperor of the Ming people, it is only a matter of time before the royal family also becomes a symbol of the Ming people.

The royal family, which has a relatively long heritage and a certain prestige, is itself a good tool to enhance the cohesion of the ethnic group.

But what should I do now and in the future?

My butt and brain are still drifting, and I haven't found a place to land.

I don't have the consciousness of a Daming person that formed spontaneously.

What I have is Chinese cognition, and I have a strange human cognition.

Should I fall into the melting pot of the Ming people, or continue to maintain my independent mentality?
(End of this chapter)