Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1519 Economy
The outlaw preached his shocking words: "So engaging in economics is a crime in itself. All economics is a crime."

“Ahhhhhh.” Shangluo and Zhu Xianxun were already overwhelmed.

They thought that Zhang San was just trying to scare everyone and make them pay attention to the class. But they didn't expect that the surprise on the first page was just the beginning, and the second page claimed that the economy itself was a crime, which was the "king bomb".

"Mr. San San." Zhu Xianxi raised his hand in the back row, "Can I ask why economics is a crime?"

"Hey, Professor Zhu Ye asked a very good question. Let's start from here. Why is economics a crime? Because economics has been a crime from the beginning, and it is a great crime - this land is born and raised by nature, and has been here since Pangu created the world. But why can some people occupy these lands and claim that these lands are their own? Did they help when Pangu created the world? None of that. It was not known how many years passed after Pangu created the world that humans evolved from apes. What do those kings, princes, generals and ministers have to do with these lands? Not at all."

“But we have reclaimed the land.”

"Hey, Professor Zhu Ye raised another good question - enclosure is wrong, but reclaiming land is a kind of labor, and labor is not a crime. As for why, we will talk about it later. It involves the problem of robbing the fruits of labor by trickery, which will be mentioned in the middle and late stages of economic history. Today we will mainly talk about the early economic form of mankind, and we will also spend a lot of space to introduce the origins of human economic activities. Because if we want to know where the future is going, we must first study the specific circumstances of our origin with a historical attitude. In addition, this economic history covers a wide range. For example, I will talk about an example from the west next. Some of our classmates may already know it."

When he said this, he looked at Shangluo: "That's the Earth Born Man."

The earth-born man is the ancestor of many city-states in Greek mythology. This earth-born man is obviously a patch for "the first enclosure, the first crime". Many people will think: Why do you say that this land is yours, and then you want to collect taxes? The patch of the Greeks for this is "earth-born man".

The Greeks who claim to be descendants of earth-born people would explain that we grew out of this land. Our ancestors were dragon teeth planted in the ground by some hero, god, or demigod, and then earth-born people grew out of the dragon teeth, married the women of flesh-born people, and then we have the citizens of today's city-states.

"But we can also notice that this explanation itself is just a myth, it does not touch the root. But we can see from this explanation that this is a problem that can be discovered with a little thought. It was because the ancients felt that this matter was not reasonable that they had doubts and legends to explain the doubts. So back to the beginning, we have to establish a principle for this class: history is not right or wrong, but historical perspectives need to be right or wrong. What kind of historical perspective is correct and what kind of historical perspective is wrong is the truth that Confucius himself has already explained in his book "Spring and Autumn Annals."

He looked at everyone and said, "So in this class, we are not only going to explain historical facts, but also historical perspectives. Historical facts are objective facts, and historical perspectives are what our school wants to teach everyone, especially students in the history department. So, what is the historical perspective that our school wants to teach? It is - fairness! Fairness! Still fairness! This word "fairness" is very profound."

After saying that, he glanced at Zhu Xianxi and said, "Why is Professor Zhu Ye standing all the time? Sit down. Just sit down after I ask you a question. Why do I have to ask you to sit down?"

"Oh indeed, I forgot. Sorry."

His aching legs constantly reminded him that he had definitely not forgotten. However, he was now like Sun Wukong in the Four Saints' Zen test. He clearly saw that the man in front of him was one of the "Four Saints". Those explosive speeches just now were doubly explosive in his mind, making him a little dazed.

"So, let's continue - so why do you say that abandoning benevolence and righteousness can make a hundred times the profit? Because benevolence and righteousness are actually fair, and benevolence and righteousness have made great efforts to protect fairness. Although benevolence and righteousness are still far from true fairness, if you criticize benevolence and righteousness based on this point, it is nitpicking. Benevolence and righteousness are not absolutely fair, but they are relatively fair. If you don't even want benevolence and righteousness, then the most profitable business in the world should be to enclose a field and let sheep eat people, which is called 'profit a hundred times'. Because the earth is created by heaven and earth, as long as you give up benevolence and righteousness, you can make 100 times the profit. Everyone here, do you want to make 100 times the profit?"

Everyone shook their heads. This was not the right time to make money.

"So, when I talked about fairness just now, that was only half of the story. Our historical perspective cannot promote absolute fairness, because that would be fairness for the sake of fairness. What we want to tell you is relative fairness, dialectical fairness. This dialectical fairness is the historical perspective we want to convey to you in this "Economic History" class. In future courses, we will also explain from the perspective of historical facts and then evaluate from the perspective of historical perspective. However, although we will talk about both sides, please still distinguish between what are historical facts and what are historical perspectives. We are all college students, and since we are sitting here, we should be able to distinguish them."

Hearing this, Zhu Xianxun finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had heard before that Wen Ge Lao himself had approved this course, so he had naturally checked the contents of the teaching plan. These contents had also been reviewed by Wen Ge Lao himself, and this "Zhang San" had obviously also been seen by him. Although the entire course seemed a little outrageous, it was generally fine.

Zhu Xianxun himself found it a little funny. How could such a class in the Imperial College cause such a big problem? Impossible.

However, Shangluo, who was sitting next to him, had a different expression from his.

"Hmm? What did you think of?"

"I was wondering what the profound meaning of what Sanfeng Tianshi said today is. In fact, I have already guessed it a little."

"You guessed it already?"

"Because I have actually learned something similar. Things like the origin of family and country. I have learned all of what he just talked about. It is precisely because I have learned it that I know he is actually talking about a very serious issue - human society itself is built on violence and unnatural oppression. The Liangzhu state quickly disintegrated after the ecological recovery and quickly regressed to its original state, which also shows that the state form is not human nature. In other words, if you want to return to nature, you must have no father and no king, and abandon your country and family."

"Is it human nature to... to benefit a hundred times?"

"That's not the case. Human nature is not like that, but what Tianshi Sanfeng meant is that if we just demolish benevolence and righteousness, then we will only get huge chaos." Shangluo replied, "If there is a 100-fold profit, let alone enclosing land to graze sheep, even if it's something like selling noose to hang your whole family, I'm afraid there will be people willing to sell it. I think in this first lesson, Tianshi Sanfeng is explaining a truth to us: if we really let everyone develop their own nature and really let everyone return to their original nature, then it will be a lot of fun."

"So, what Sanfeng Tianshi really meant was..."

He and Shangluo looked at each other, and they both knew the answer:

If you abandon wisdom and knowledge, the people will benefit a hundredfold; if you abandon benevolence and righteousness, the people will return to filial piety and kindness; if you abandon cleverness and profit, there will be no thieves.

This matter is also recorded in Chapter 19 of the Tao Te Ching.

Sanfeng Tianshi's viewpoint has not changed from beginning to end. What he wants to abandon is not actually benevolence and righteousness, or it is not just benevolence and righteousness.

The return to nature he described is to abandon all three social elements: wisdom, benevolence, righteousness, and cleverness.

Wisdom is the good of talent. Benevolence and righteousness are the good of man. Skill and profit are the good of use.

These three virtues are the greatest of all.

But if we want to return to our original nature, we must first get rid of evil thoughts, but even the three virtues must be cut off resolutely.

Do not let great kindness never end, because kindness is also an active act.

The way is to do nothing. "Shangluo, are we really going to take this path?" He looked at Shangluo, "I think this path is too difficult."

The path of inaction is not easy, it is very painful.

Because all the good and beautiful things that were born with human society must be cut off along with the evil thoughts. Because after stripping away all the existence, what is left is the nothingness that can accommodate everything.

"I think there's something wrong with this." Shangluo said in a deep voice, "I think there's a big problem with this."

"Oh? What do you think?"

"It's not how I see it. In fact, Master Sanfeng encouraged us to think this was problematic, otherwise he wouldn't have raised the second point - historical facts and historical perspectives. He said that historical facts and historical perspectives can be easily distinguished. In reality, how can it be so easy? Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, with subtle words and profound meanings. Who can tell which are facts and which are historical perspectives?"

"Ah, this." Zhu Xianxi pondered for a moment, "What does Tianshi Sanfeng really mean?"

"He wants us to think about a question, to look at 'inaction' dialectically - is inaction really a historical fact? Was it inaction at the beginning, or was it action at the beginning? The path that belongs to us is, of course, action at the beginning! Everything created by human society is of course valuable and extremely important. We cannot cut them all off for the sake of 'inaction'. Because if we strip away all the elements related to us and society, and even strip away right and wrong, good and evil, and the eyes through which we look at the world. Then am I still me?"

If there is nothingness in the beginning, then it is the Tao that gives meaning to everything.

If there was action in the beginning, then it was not Tao but man that gave meaning to everything.

"I think we should stand on the side of humanity."

"That's right! We must stand on the side of humans!"

"Hey, hey, hey." Zhang San knocked on the blackboard at the podium, "The two people at the back, please don't talk to each other during class."

[Weren't you talking in the private chat channel just now? How did he hear it? ]

Shangluo glanced at the podium and made eye contact with the "outlaw" named "Zhang San".

He smiled and said, "What this means is that we are both right. This is what he meant. His knocking on the blackboard is the same as the Daoist Patriarch knocking on the chime. The Hunyuan Dao Fruit that Tianshi Sanfeng wants to talk about is for us to judge for ourselves, to choose the Taichu Action or the Taichu Inaction. He will talk about both sides, and he will talk about the interactive relationship between the Dao and people. Then, let us make the judgment ourselves."

"Finished." Zhu Xianxun put down his pen.

"Brother, what's wrong with you?"

"I want to take leave every week. But they won't let me take leave every week. It's not in accordance with the rules."

He took a leave of absence to come here today, which was an exception. If he didn't go to court every week because he had to attend classes, then...
"That doesn't seem to be a problem, hey."

"Is it really okay?"

"Oh, it's no problem." Zhu Xianxun waved his hand. "I've enjoyed myself for so many years, can't I study hard for a while? Just treat it as a research, research doesn't count as absenteeism. I'll explain it to Lord Wen. Anyway, I was only away for one morning, it's no big deal. At worst, I can go back in the afternoon and finish the work."

Zhu Xianxi knew that he had to attend this class because it was not just a lecture, but also an expression of the Heavenly Master's attitude.

This is also a kind of action.

Since the Heavenly Master is speaking above, then his thoughts will inevitably flow out from his words. Their attitudes will also be displayed here.

"What we need to do is to understand what Tao is from this lesson. Only when we understand what Tao is, can we understand what things outside of man are. And if we exclude things outside of man, we can understand what man is."

At 10:50, the one and a half hour class ended.

Shangluo and Zhu Xianxin both stood up from their seats. They had wanted to talk to Sanfeng Tianshi after class, but as expected, he disappeared after class and no one knew where he went.

"Oh." Zhu Xianxi shook his head. "It seems that the old man is not going to let us miss any questions. I suddenly found the feeling of the class back then."

"Back then?" Shang Luo asked in surprise, "Brother, you haven't graduated for a few years, right?"

"It's only been five or six years, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that I finally found the way. As expected, the old men will not give up on us. They are still willing to give us some pointers at the critical moment. Ah, I'm so happy. Shangluo, how about we go to Jinling Hotel for lunch?"

"That's fine, but Brother, I have something I want to ask of you. Do you have any medicine that can cure toothache?"

"Do you have a toothache? Can I take a look?"

"It's not me, it's Miss Yanqiu."

"Oh~~~" Zhu Xianxun nodded, "She doesn't dare to see a dentist, so you want to bring me, a dentist, to her house, right? Oh, then you've found the right person. I'm an expert in dentistry. When my sister lost her baby teeth when she was a child, I pulled them out for her!"

(End of this chapter)