I'm really not doing business

Chapter 566: The daily life of the people is the way

Zhu Yijun was not a dictator who would not listen to any opinions. Otherwise, someone like Lin Fucheng, who was always pointing fingers at the government affairs, would have been silenced long ago. How could he have the chance to keep chattering?

Lin Fucheng has been lingering on the edge of the red line very cautiously.

If he is not in his position, he will not seek his government.

You are not in that position and don't know what difficulties you will face. It is certainly okay to point out problems, but if you must make plans for specific policies, you can take the route of imperial examinations and climb to the highest position step by step.

Just like Zhang Juzheng standing on the top of a mountain and overlooking all the other mountains, he made plans for the fate of the country.

Zhang Juzheng is a vivid example here.

Zhu Yijun took a last look at Li Zhi. It seemed that this trip to the capital had been quite a blow to him. He looked a little dispirited.

A dandy young man left Li Zhi speechless and made him doubt his life. He felt that the capital was indeed a place where many hidden dragons and crouching tigers were created!

Are Master Huang and Master Wang ordinary people? One has the support of the General's Mansion, and the other has the support of his father, the Deputy Assistant Minister of Justice. They are not ordinary people. Moreover, the two are eloquent, which is also known to everyone in the capital. Lin Fucheng, who can debate with many scholars and steal the show in many gatherings, is no match for Master Huang.

Young Master Huang is not a playboy at all, he is clearly the devil that the warrior is challenging. The devil not only does not stay in the palace, nor does he set up various levels of challenges for the warriors to gain comrades and equipment on the way to the challenge, but he directly blocks the gate of the novice village and kills everyone. Naturally, he is invincible, but it is also somewhat unethical.

"Check the past of this Li Zhi and send him to the palace." Zhu Yijun instructed the commander Zhao Mengyou. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to know all the information about Li Zhi in one day, and three minutes would be too much.

Zhao Mengyou took the order and handed it over to the Chief Justice. It was not Zhao Mengyou's turn to personally take action against a hermit like Li Zhi.

The emergence of liberals like Li Zhi and Lin Fucheng was very normal, because the economic structure of the Ming Dynasty was quietly undergoing earth-shaking changes, especially the five major maritime customs offices. Lin Fucheng was from Songjiang Prefecture and Li Zhi was from Quanzhou. They were both at the forefront of opening up the sea, thinking about where the Ming Dynasty should go in the cultural exchange and integration between China and foreign countries.

The economic structure of the dynasty is changing, and the social structure is also changing dramatically as a result. Society will move towards transformation. During this period of transformation, the whole Ming Dynasty is thinking about institutional changes. In the wave of great thinking, all kinds of people will surely emerge, and a hundred schools of thought will contend and a hundred flowers will bloom.

Li Zhi heard about the trend of gatherings and discussions in the capital, so it would be strange if he didn't come.

This kind of gathering without any bottom line and without any rules is actually very dangerous. It will tear apart all the groups in the Ming Dynasty, and then there will be endless fighting over various propositions. The liberals are the first to emerge because they are the boldest, the most unrestrained, the most eager to break conventions, the most daring to question, and the most daring to express themselves.

Zhu Yijun came to watch the fun and even personally blocked the warriors in the novice village. In fact, he was setting rules. The rules are that you can find problems and express opinions, but you cannot dictate policies, attack the court's orders with an attitude that you are absolutely right, and take actions that further worsen the situation in the Ming Dynasty.

Take Li Zhi's proposal for this gathering as an example. He put forward a radical theory that attracted everyone's attention, and then kept clamoring for this radical theory, making more and more people believe it and support it, and finally it became a combined force that influenced the court's policies.

No representation, no taxation. If there is no representative of the poor and coolies in the court, the poor and coolies will not have to pay taxes. This seems very good, but those who mix up the names and impersonate others will snatch the definition of the poor and coolies. Because there are no rules, they will exploit the poor and coolies more unscrupulously.

This was already happening in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yijun was not worrying about nothing. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of poorhouses and official residences were set up in various prefectures to accommodate desperate vagrants to survive the harsh winter. However, these poorhouses and official residences were occupied by some people. Although they clearly controlled a large amount of resources, they still coveted the little food that the poor laborers needed to survive and cut off their last hope.

When Zhu Yijun returned to the palace, Li Zhi's personal resume was already placed in front of Zhu Yijun's desk, and all the articles written by Li Zhi before coming to Beijing were also placed in front of the emperor.

Li Zhi is no longer young. He was born in the sixth year of Jiajing and is now 56 years old, only two years younger than Zhang Juzheng. At the age of 56, he is a mountain man, while Zhang Juzheng was already the prime minister of the empire at the age of 47 eleven years ago.

Li Zhi and Zhang Juzheng were both scholars of the Ming Dynasty. They both entered the stage of imperial examinations. Li Zhi became a scholar at the age of 22 and a juren at the age of 26. However, Li Zhi did not pass the imperial examination and became a teacher like Hai Rui. Li Zhi became a teacher in the 36th year of Jiajing. In the 9th year of Wanli, he retired as the prefect of Yao'an, Yunnan.

"Being an official first and then a monk is not surprising." Zhu Yijun looked at Li Zhi's life and found that compared with Hai Rui's courage to make suggestions while carrying a coffin, and Zhang Juzheng's attempt to save the country as prime minister and regent, Li Zhi's achievements as an official were not outstanding. It's not that he was not outstanding, but that he was an unknown person, and his performance evaluations for several years were not very good.

From the perspective of Emperor Zhu Yijun, Li Zhi was unable to rise in officialdom.

After retiring from his post as prefect of Yao'an in Yunnan, Li Zhi lived in the home of Geng Dingxiang's younger brother Geng Dingli. Geng Dingxiang disliked Li Zhi's unorthodoxy very much, so after Geng Dingli became seriously ill, Li Zhi moved to Macheng, then returned to Quanzhou, and then came to the capital from Quanzhou.

The trend of gathering for discussion was very strong in the capital, and Li Zhi went to the capital for the discussion for his own ideas, which were his own liberal theories.

At the age of twelve, Li Zhi began to criticize Confucius, or it can be said that Li Zhi has always been the kind of person who is not willing to be bound by rules.

People like him are not popular in officialdom, because officialdom is a place where rules are more important than anything else. Li Zhi, who does not follow the rules and can only live in seclusion, naturally has a bad career.

"The Old Farmer and the Old Gardener's Theory." Zhu Yijun saw Li Zhi's comments on Confucius when he was twelve years old.

The old farmer and old gardener comes from "The Analects of Confucius: Zilu".

Confucius's disciple Fan Chi asked to learn how to farm, Confucius said: I am not as good as an old farmer; Fan Chi asked to learn how to grow vegetables, Confucius said: I am not as good as a vegetable farmer;

After Fan Chi left, Confucius said to his disciples: "What a mean man Fan Chi is! If the ruler loves courtesy, the people will not be disrespectful; if the ruler loves righteousness, the people will not be disobedient; if the ruler loves trustworthiness, the people will not be disloyal. If this is the case, people from all corners of the country will come with their children on their backs. Why would we need to farm?"
Fan Chi is a villain. If the ruler is kind and courteous, the people will dare not be disrespectful. If the ruler is kind and righteous, the people will dare not disobey. If the ruler is kind and trustworthy, the people will dare not be dishonest. As long as courtesy, righteousness and trustworthiness are used, people from all directions will come to him with their babies on their backs. Why will there be a need to farm?
This is the same as Mencius's use of division of labor to refute agronomy. The world of great harmony pursued by Confucianism is a world with strict hierarchy, where everyone does their own thing well.

'The wise men farm together with the people' was the idea advocated by the agronomist Xu Xing, but Mencius refuted Xu Xing by using the division of labor.

In the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, etiquette is above all else. So every spring when the emperor offered sacrifices to the god of spring, he would just push the plow as a token of his appreciation, to show an attitude of joint participation.

Zhu Yijun's marriage to a farmer was a very unorthodox act. It did not cause any trouble at first because everyone thought that he was just a ten-year-old kid playing tricks. At that time, there was not a single scholar in the court who knew how to farm. Fortunately, Zhang Juzheng found Xu Zhenming, who was active in the capital, and brought him to the emperor.

But ten years later, the Ming Dynasty's sweet potato seedling cultivation fire rooms have spread all over the country, and sweet potatoes, a famine-relief food, have been widely planted. At the same time, various forage grasses from the West have also been planted throughout Suiyuan, and sugarcane, rubber trees, and palm trees have filled this Southeast Asian plantation.

To some extent, Zhu Yijun's behavior is very consistent with Li Zhi's doctrine.

For example, Li Zhi believed that women should also study. The Weaving Institute, a girls' school in the Ming Dynasty, was the first public school in the history of the Central Plains to provide a place for women to study. Before that, women studied at home.

Li Zhi said that there were no representatives of poor and laboring people in the court, but there was a high degree of overlap between the poor and laboring people and farmers in the Ming Dynasty.

Is an emperor who knows how to farm a farmer, or is he qualified to be a representative of the poor and coolies? All the decrees made in the Ming Dynasty court need to be explained to the emperor, which means that he must be responsible to the farmers of the world.

Zhu Yijun believed that he was qualified. He had been farming since he was ten years old and worked in agriculture every year. He had also been to the desert in person and saw the hard work and helplessness of the Ming farmers. Lin Fucheng pointed at Baoding Prefecture and cursed the emperor for being incompetent, but Zhu Yijun, as the final reviewer, tolerated Lin Fucheng. Didn't he let him curse just to make life easier for the people?

The edict abolished the lowly slaves, showing great benevolence and merit, and the countryside and fields were full of miserable people;
The emperor's decree abolished the slave system, and the literati in the court all praised it, thinking it was a benevolent policy. However, there were still miserable people living in the countryside. The emperor's decree was like a fart; it was useless.

This was a denial of Zhu Yijun's efforts, and even an accusation of Zhu Yijun's incompetence. You are an emperor, but your imperial edict is useless. If it's not incompetence, what else can you say? Zhu Yijun only deleted this sour poem, but kept the whole article. The whole article criticized the emperor's decree for not being implemented.

Zhu Yijun felt that as an emperor, he was qualified to represent the poor and laboring people. He would rather be scolded than not make the lives of the people better.

Li Zhi criticized Confucius at the age of twelve. His words were somewhat childish. At the age of twelve, Li Zhi asked: If Confucius didn't study how to farm, what would he eat and drink?
Li Zhi was a very unruly person, so he was naturally incompatible with the eight-legged essay. In Li Zhi's own words, "I cannot understand Master Zhu's deep mind, so I blame myself and want to give up." I am a strange person and cannot fit in with Zhu Xi's way, so I have to give up.

Zhu Yijun liked Li Zhi's articles very much. Li Zhi was the lifelong enemy of the lowly Confucian scholars. In comparison, the criticism of the lowly Confucian scholars in the court seemed very mild, and Zhu Yijun's criticism also seemed mild.

Li Zhi even cursed Confucius. In his writings, Mencius and Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism were simply garbage swept into the garbage dump of history.

"According to Li Zhi's statement, we should immediately carry out another round of book burning and burying of scholars." Zhu Yijun looked at Li Zhi's article and said to Feng Bao happily.

Feng Bao leaned forward to take a look, and said with disdain: "What a madman's words. When he said these words, there was no contradiction. He burned all the Confucian classics and killed all the Confucian scholars. What's the point? He said it in a nice way. These folk madmen have always been like this. They think they have mastered the truth, and they are the most annoying when they point fingers."

"Sir and His Majesty are in conflict, and only then can we have something to replace it. Will it take time for it to take effect? ​​If we really do what he says, the world will be in chaos. It's like a person wearing clothes. If you burn the clothes and don't have new clothes, what will you wear?"

Feng Bao didn't like this kind of crazy husband at all, even including Lin Fucheng, who ate and drank from His Majesty, took shelter from His Majesty, and in turn was sarcastic to His Majesty. What a thing!
If His Majesty had not stopped him, Lin Fucheng would have been in big trouble long ago, and those men in the East Depot did not eat the emperor's food for nothing.

"Very good." Zhu Yijun still liked Li Zhi's articles very much. He should not have made such outrageous remarks. If he sorted out the collections of essays he wrote over the years and published them, he could also become a mainstay among the imperial scribes.

Li Zhi just encountered the devil who blocked the Novice Village, otherwise he would have been a powerful figure in the literary world of Beijing.

"Haha, it turns out that Li Zhi didn't come here on his own. He was driven to the capital by the Quanzhou locals, hahaha." Zhu Yijun laughed as he watched. Li Zhi was "escorted out of the country" with courtesy. After Li Zhi returned to Quanzhou, the prefect of Quanzhou saw that he thought, "Well, such a big troll has returned. You should go to the capital to make a name for yourself!" Quanzhou was too small to accommodate this big Buddha, so he gave him a sum of money to travel to the capital.

"The local authorities have no way to deal with this kind of opinions. If they suppress it, they will block the channels for speech. If they don't suppress it, it will just make people hate them. We might as well send him out of the jurisdiction and give others a headache. This Quanzhou prefect has no loyalty to the emperor. He sends such a hot potato to the capital." Feng Bao said viciously. When it came to speaking ill of civil servants, Feng Bao never had a good word to say.

When Tan Lun was still a member of the Jin Party, Feng Bao also criticized Tan Lun. Later, when Tan Lun made it clear that he would no longer be with the Jin Party, Feng Bao immediately praised Tan Lun for returning to the right path.

"Looking at his experience in Huangzhou Prefecture, he is very suitable. Alas." Zhu Yijun carefully studied Li Zhi's articles and was convinced that Li Zhi had a lot of things, but he just played the wrong cards. Li Zhi's experience after retirement can no longer be described as a tragedy.

At this time, in Guangde Bookstore, Li Zhi visited Lin Fucheng with gifts.

As the leader of the Songjiang Liberal School, Lin Fucheng had to pay his respects to Li Zhi, a liberal even though he was old. Lin Fucheng originally did not want to accept the gift and was ready to kick Li Zhi out along with the gift, but in the end Lin Fucheng generously forgave Li Zhi without being petty.

Mr. Huang liked to watch the fun, but he just watched and seldom participated in it himself. Since he gave a long speech this time, it must be that Li Zhi's arguments had some merits, so he was willing to talk so much with Li Zhi.

"Don't call me a traitor to the liberals anymore. You can see that the environment in the capital is like this. If Mr. Huang is so powerful, then how powerful Mr. Ming must be." Lin Fucheng showed Li Zhi a cup of tea and said very seriously, "If we fight among ourselves, won't it be a joke to outsiders?"

"Mr. Lin is right." Li Zhi also wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. He had a bad start. It was indeed difficult to survive in the capital.

"But this lord is only powerful during the reign of Emperor Wanli. He was just so-so before that. In order to gain the power to suppress the Japanese pirates, Yan Song framed Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong, causing the Japanese pirates to become more rampant. Li Chunfang was a prime minister who was promoted by luck. Xu Jie was even more of a fraud who carried the banner of the clean stream, but he was more greedy than Yan Song."

"Gao Gong was honest and incorruptible, and had a good reputation, but what did he do? He protected the people of Jin in the great plan of the world, which led to the expansion of the Jin Party. He fought against corruption and arrested corrupt officials, but they were all petty officials. They wanted to do something but didn't dare to do it. They were very stubborn and obstinate."

"It's just that Duke Jiangling is powerful. In just ten years, the world has prospered. He is really powerful. Wang Chonggu is also powerful, but if it weren't for Duke Jiangling suppressing him, Wang Chonggu would be a traitor and usurper."

Li Zhi resigned as the prefect of Yao'an in the ninth year of the Wanli reign. He had read every issue of the court bulletin and knew the court better than Lin Fucheng. Ming Gong was not as mysterious as Lin Fucheng thought. If they were talented, they were all talented. If they were powerful, they were all powerful. But whether they were used in the right place or not was another matter.

"It seems that the layman has a very high opinion of Lord Jiangling." Lin Fucheng said with a smile: "I thought the layman had many complaints about Zhang Juzheng, but I heard that the officials have a lot of complaints about Lord Jiangling."

Li Zhi said helplessly, "I just don't have the ability. If I had the ability, I would have tried to get a special honors! I am incompetent and have not been able to get the top evaluation for nine consecutive years. I finally stopped at the prefecture. After all, it was the Lord of Jiangling who gave the poor people in the world a chance to try. If I can't get it, I can't blame Jiangling for being too narrow."

As Li Zhi was in the officialdom, he could only keep himself clean and self-disciplined, but he was somewhat overambitious and became a loser in the officialdom competition.

"Where did your idea of ​​no taxation without representation come from?" Lin Fucheng asked curiously. Could it be that it also came from the West?

Li Zhi did not hide anything and said with a smile: "It comes from the theory of contradiction. Contradiction talks about the unity and opposition of things. So the current policy of the Ming Dynasty is both top-down and bottom-up. I have to say that this theory of contradiction is really powerful. If I had studied it earlier in Yunnan, I might have made further progress."

Li Zhi was in Yunnan when the published version of the Mao Dun theory was brought to Yunnan in the third year of the Wanli reign. Li Zhi was a little disdainful at first and did not study it until the fifth year of the Wanli reign. After studying it, he was immediately amazed by it, but the officialdom has always been like this. If you lag behind others by one step, it means that others are two steps ahead.

In the end, I couldn't get past others.

"The resistance of the Netherlands is just. It was only after I had this idea that I learned that there was a region in the Netherlands in the West that had put forward such a proposition." Li Zhi explained in detail the origin of his proposition.

"That's right." Lin Fucheng nodded. The source of liberalism did come from the West, Lin Fucheng admitted, but it was quickly localized. It was actually very difficult for foreign monks to chant sutras. Whether it was Buddhism, Nestorianism, or Hui Islam, they all had to be localized, otherwise they would not be able to move forward.

None of the Huihui temples in the Ming Dynasty had a dome; all of them were Han-style buildings, just like the temples.

In the seventh year of the Wanli reign of the Qing Dynasty, Shaanxi Governor Shi Maohua rebuilt the Tongxin Huihui Temple in Ningxia, dismantled the dome and replaced it with a Han-style eaves. Shi Maohua said in his memorial that this was a return to the original source. The Huaining Temple in Guangzhou was the first Huihui Temple in the Central Plains. It was built during the Sui Dynasty and did not have a dome from the beginning.

The Roman hemispherical dome, the Persian gyroscope dome, the Ottoman pot-lid dome, the Timurid radish-head dome, and the Mughal onion dome are not what the Huihui Mosque of the Ming Dynasty should look like. Shi Maohua's purpose in demolishing the Tongxin Huihui Mosque was naturally to establish a province in Gansu and to reopen the Western Regions, not to make trouble out of nothing.

Therefore, any religious doctrine introduced into the Ming Dynasty had to be localized, and the doctrine of freedom was no exception.

Lin Fucheng combined it with Xiaoyao. Now Lin Fucheng's Limited Liberal Sect has nothing to do with the Free City in Cape Verde anymore. It is more appropriate to call him the leader of the Xiaoyao Sect.

"Did you understand Mr. Huang's long speech?" Lin Fucheng asked with a smile.

Li Zhi said with a complicated expression: "I have some understanding. Mr. Huang's implicit meaning is that criticism is fine, but you can't teach the court how to do things."

"That's right." Lin Fucheng nodded continuously. The Lord of the Ming Dynasty court has his own difficulties. It's okay to criticize and point out problems, but if you insist on teaching others how to do things, you still have to climb over their heads. The Lord is in a high position and has great power. It's already generous of him not to care about your criticism.

To be honest, Lin Fucheng sometimes felt that the reason he was still alive was because Master Huang was so powerful. Every article he published could lead to death. His survival was a symbol of the cultural openness of the Ming Dynasty court.

"To be honest, I'm ashamed to say that Li Yashi did steal something and translated my strange story into Western countries." Lin Fucheng talked about an article he published in Xiaoyao Yiwen.

Legazpi translated the Freedom Talk and the Anecdotes of Freedom, and translated the concept of the three mountains into Latin. His Majesty made a reply, saying that it was inappropriate. But Legazpi finally gave the article to Solon, who took it back to Taixi.

It is indeed not suitable for the Ming Dynasty, but for Spain, whose vassal feudal system has come to an end, it is also a way out. Every road must be tried. It is not possible to just go on like this in a muddle and be blocked in the Strait of Gibraltar, unable to move. By then, it will be too late to do anything.

Spain must win the competition with England and the Netherlands, otherwise it may really be stuck in the Mediterranean and unable to get out.

"I've read your article. It's really too liberal." Li Zhi had actually read the structure that Lin Fucheng discussed. He stood up suddenly and said with a frown, "Your plan seems to coincide with my elected officials!"

"I think I know why Mr. Huang criticized me so harshly!"

Lin Fucheng was stunned. The system of the three mountains that did not rely on the country and the people was really in line with Li Zhi's argument! Especially when the system is immature and the exploration is insufficient, it seems that it will inevitably go through this stage.

"Fortunately, it was refuted by Mr. Huang, otherwise it would have caused a disaster." Li Zhi said with lingering fear. With three big mountains and immature elected officials, one can imagine what kind of chaos will be caused.

Li Zhi and Lin Fucheng had an in-depth discussion. The more they discussed, the more frightened they became. Fortunately, they were refuted by Master Huang, otherwise they would have really poked a hole in the sky.

"Here are some articles I wrote in the past." Li Zhi took out his collection of essays. He had published them after he came to Beijing, but the sales were extremely poor, so he thought of gathering at Taibai Tower for a chat. Everyone needs to eat.

Li Zhi wanted to make a name for himself by leveraging the sales of Lin Fucheng's Xiaoyao Yiwen.

"Bring tea, bring good tea." Lin Fucheng flipped through the book and took a look. Some of it was already on sale in the market, and some of it was Li Zhi's manuscripts. As soon as Lin Fucheng saw it, he immediately asked someone to bring good tea. His copy of the Baoding Prefecture Notes had been stolen, so it was stolen. He had basically written down everything he had seen and heard, except for the fact that the people rebelled against the officials.

Lin Fucheng, who was worried about materials, found new materials.

"Look at you, what are you talking about taxes? Just write this, write this down and post it on Xiaoyao Yiwen!" Lin Fucheng said with mixed feelings after reading the materials.

Li Zhi's second and third daughters starved to death in Huangzhou Prefecture.

Li Zhi was a juren (a scholar) with honors and honors. He was also an official and served as a prefect. He retired in the ninth year of the Wanli reign. However, his three daughters followed him and two of them starved to death. Li Zhi was an honest official. He was extremely incorruptible and had no extra wealth. He was so honest that he would not allow anyone to take his land from him.

When he was in Huangzhou Prefecture, Li Zhi only had seven acres of thin land. He usually farmed the land himself, but due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, the land only yielded a few bushels of weeds. His second and third daughters all starved to death. If it were not for some financial help from his good friend Deng Shiyang, Li Zhi and his eldest daughter would have starved to death as well.

"The daily life of the people is the Tao!" Lin Fucheng looked at Li Zhi and said, "Just write this! Wearing clothes and eating food are the human ethics and physics! Apart from wearing clothes and eating food, there is no ethics!"

"Isn't it a bit too sharp?" Li Zhi said with a complicated expression.

"It doesn't involve any specific government orders, so what are you afraid of?! If something goes wrong, Master Huang and Master Wang will take care of it. Write it down and publish it as a free and easy story!" Lin Fucheng said with great confidence: "You have to believe that Master Huang has tremendous power. Look at this. This is a fifth-rank doctoral degree in the Five Classics. Master Huang got it."

In order to give Li Zhi confidence, Lin Fucheng took out his official ivory badge.

Lin Fucheng was not in the officialdom, so he did not understand the process of this ivory card, but Li Zhi knew it very well!

There is something wrong with this ivory plaque, a big problem! An official position in the Ming Dynasty, especially a doctor of the Five Classics with the protection of the imperial guards, can really be obtained by a son of a general's mansion? !
(End of this chapter)