Daqin: When I return from sea, I will offer you a map of the world

Chapter 147 The role of printing and papermaking!

"Emphasis on common people over nobles?" Li Si repeated and then looked at Zhao Si.

"Is this the reason Zhao Shilang tried to lower the price of salt that day?"

Zhao Si nodded calmly and said, "Yes!"

"Dare to ask Li Xiang, what is the basis?" Zhao Si asked.

"You are the foundation!" Li Si said without thinking.

The monarchy system is the core of Legalism, which is unquestionable, unalterable, and even more unshakable.

Zhao Si nodded, but did not deny Li Si's statement.

Although Zhao Si, as a modern person, takes it for granted that the people are the foundation of the world, as Mencius said, the people are the most important, the community is second, and the king is the least, but this is just a beautiful vision.

However, in fact, no king in the past dynasties can do this sentence. Kings always put themselves first.

Li Si's answer was expected by Zhao Si, and it was also the answer that Zhao Si wanted Li Si to answer.

"Aristocrats are more important than ordinary people?" Zhao Si asked.

"Nobles, and common people?" This comparison made Li Si fall into deep thought.

If we look at the Spring and Autumn Period, it is natural that nobles are more important. The emperor is a prince, the prince is a noble, and the nobles are herdsmen.

The social structure of the Spring and Autumn Period was somewhat similar to Western feudal society, that is, my slave's slave was not my slave, and my courtier's courtier was not my courtier.

Most of the nobles have their own fiefs. They have to pay taxes and serve the king, but they enjoy autonomy within the territory.

With the collapse of rites and music, the world has no ethics and laws, and countries have successively reformed their laws, essentially breaking this ecological structure where the monarch governs the noble and the noble governs the people.

Taking the reform of the Qin State as an example, the hereditary salary system was abolished, the well field system was abolished, and the prefecture and county system was implemented. In essence, it was competing with the nobles for local governance rights.

By this time, the social structure had undergone serious changes.

In fact, Li Si subconsciously replied that nobility is more important.

In the past reforms, no matter how much they changed, no matter how much they weakened the rights of the nobles, in essence the reformers still believed that the nobles were more important than the common people.

Because the common people don't know how to resist, and the monarch also needs the nobles to govern the world.

But at this moment, Li Si hesitated...

In fact, when Li Si reformed the Qin law and implemented the Qin system, he still followed the old path, exploiting the common people, restricting the nobility, and strengthening the imperial power.

"Qian Shou, as long as they can live, it's enough to have enough food." Zhao Si smiled.

"Li believes it or not. If it can be guaranteed that the head of Guizhou will not die of exhaustion and starvation from the corvee, the head of Guizhou will be willing to obey the corvee. Not to mention building the Great Wall in Shangjun, they are even willing to enclose the whole of Daqin."

"What does the head of Guizhou need? What does the nobleman need?" Zhao Si questioned his soul again.

Li Si is not a fool, it's just that he is in it, and this moment is a major change that has never been seen in China for thousands of years.

It was also the era when the co-system between the emperor and the nobles was about to die out.

The system of co-governance by the monarchy and nobles is called the feudal era in history books.

Westerners jumped directly into modern society from the feudal era, and generally divided human society into feudal society and modern civilization.

In fact, as early as 2000 years ago, the Qin Dynasty ruled the world and opened up prefectures and counties, and the Han Dynasty continued to strengthen the centralization of power. The aristocratic era had died out nearly 2000 years ago.

The Xia after the Qin and Han Dynasties can no longer be simply described as the feudal era. This is an era independent of feudal society and civilized society, and an era that the Western world has never set foot in.

Although it is relatively backward compared to modern civilization, it is undoubtedly extremely advanced compared to the feudal era.

Slavery was abolished very early in Zhuxia, and the key features of the feudal era could not be found in Zhuxia a long time ago. In the West, until the time when modern society is about to enter, slavery is still widespread. Existence, if not for the flourishing of industrialization, I am afraid that Western civilization would never have abolished slavery.

Now is a critical period of social transformation, and the Qin and Han Dynasties are the era connecting the past and the future. Li Si looks forward and can only see the old regulations.No one cares about kings, nobles, and Qianshou.

Looking back, I was also confused.

"I've heard that Legalism emphasizes that things don't need to imitate the ancients, and the law doesn't need ancestors." Zhao Si had a smile on his face.

"The common people are the most important, and the nobles are second..." Li Si frowned and spoke slowly, but his expression was uncertain.

Li Si's mind is a little confused, what Zhao Si said is reasonable and well-founded, but there are some real problems, for example, Li Shu doesn't know the law, doesn't understand the law, sticks to the old rules, doesn't know how to adapt, and the promotion of Qin law and the popularization of Qin law are inseparable from the nobles s help.

They really want to replace Tian Muzhi, including the grassroots Qin officials who are widely present now, and all those who can read and write, who is not a nobleman?
The officials of Daqin are generally of military merit and noble background, let alone mentioning it for the time being, it can be said that they are not nobles with good roots.

But now that the Great Qin ruled the world, the vast territory and people could not be maintained with the current scale of officials in the Great Qin. Wouldn't it be necessary for the nobles to govern the place?
"No..." Li Si shook his head and looked at Zhao Si. He was keenly aware that Zhao Si was secretly changing concepts.

"Nobles..." Li Si began to elaborate on the theory of blood lineage and the history of the separation of nobility from the emperor.

"Times have changed... Lee Sang!"

"The current nobles are nothing more than His Majesty's official tools to guard the world." Zhao Si said with a smile.

"Don't you have to be a nobleman to work for His Majesty?"

"The head of Guizhou is uneducated..." Li Si shook his head.

"Then think of a way. Isn't the selection system for Qin officials formulated by Lord Shang just to fight against the nobles?"

"It's too difficult..." Li Si shook his head.

The official selection system of the Great Qin Dynasty was born based on the system of military merit. A civilian head of Guizhou, after having a certain military merit, will be selected as a grassroots official if he has a certain cultural quality and a certain understanding of the laws of Qin. After becoming an official at the grassroots level, there are two ways to be promoted, one is to manage political achievements, and the other is to fight on the battlefield and get promoted to the rank of nobles through hard work.

Due to the fact that the bamboo slips are still used in this era, in fact, the personnel training system in Daqin is extremely imperfect.

First of all, most common people are illiterate and have no qualifications to be selected and trained as official officials. Secondly, it is not easy to write bamboo slips. Every time an official is trained, several bamboo slips need to be engraved. The official officials of the Great Qin Dynasty have a Qin law. It is a standard configuration, but the Daqin government can only give them a Qin law.

Therefore, Daqin's official selection system and Daqin's military merit system faced the same problem.

That is to say, the real beneficiary is not Guishou, but the nobles.

The laws enacted by Shang Jun are evil people, giving small nobles a channel to rise up, and restricting big nobles.

And what Zhao Si wanted was good people, to give the real head of Guizhou an upward channel to break the old aristocratic system.

"Then what if Daqin has enough books for the training of officials?" Zhao Si understood Li Si's meaning and smiled.

"How much is enough?" Li Si smiled.

"As much as is enough, as much as is enough, and even as much as every household has a copy of the Qin Law." Zhao Si laughed.

"Hiss! If that's the case, then the selection of officials in the Great Qin Dynasty and the training of officials really don't need to depend on nobles." Li Si thought for a while and nodded seriously.

"This is what I mean. It's not that the nobles have the natural right to replace His Majesty's herdsmen, but that they are literate, able to understand His Majesty's decrees, and understand the laws of Qin. That's why they can manage Li Shu instead of His Majesty. This has nothing to do with their noble blood. If a person was born in Guizhou, but he is a qualified Qin official, is it because he was born in Guizhou that he is not qualified to govern the region?"

"Hundred officials in the world are tools of His Majesty!"

"Whether it's Li Xiang, me, or civil and military officials, it's just a public tool to govern the people. You and I are public. If the public tool breaks, you should replace it in time, instead of continuing to use it knowing it's broken." Zhao said. Si spoke seriously.

"Public weapon?" Li Si seemed to have caught something.

"Yes, Gongqi, Li Xiang was born in Cai, and he claimed to be a commoner. Logically speaking, Li Xiang was also of noble origin, but this noble blood has been handed down to this day, how much is left in Li Xiang's body? Li Xiang really cares about these trivial things. Bloodline? Does this little bloodline really have any effect on Li Xiang?" Zhao Si asked.

Li Si was lost in thought.

Zhao Si's Theory of Public Organs and People-oriented Theory did give Li Si some inspiration.

It was genuine inspiration. For a moment, Li Si thought that he might really be able to abandon Shang Yang's old path and take a brand new path.

It is no longer the king set by Shang Jun, the nobles are the base, and the people are the last.

It is not the so-called Confucianism that the people are the most important and the emperor is the least.

Instead, the monarch is the foundation, the people are the foundation, and the nobles are the supplement.

Crack down on the big nobles, cultivate the beneficiaries of low-level military merits as officials, and replace the ruling structure in which the nobles are the core of local governance.

However, there is a key problem with this idea.

"After all, Zhao Shilang is just assuming that although I have a meager blood, I have a family education that will keep me from being illiterate. Although my family is poor, it can support me to study without distractions.

If it weren't for this little bit of noble blood, I wouldn't have the education of my family, and I wouldn't have the opportunity to read and write. If my family didn't have those fertile fields, I wouldn't be able to travel around the world and learn from Xunzi.

In the final analysis, my commoner is for Shiqing, not for Qianshou.

Qianshou was born illiterate, he had no family education, and he had no money left, and Daqin couldn't afford to support so many people to read and write..."

"How can there be so many books to read to people?" Li Si shook his head.

If Daqin wanted to truly govern the region, it had to leave some leeway for the nobles, and the order to move nobles only hit the big nobles. In fact, the nobles were nobler than the heads of Guizhou. This was due to their blood and family education.

Under the circumstances that the nobles still have family education and Daqin is unable to train officials from scratch, they must compromise with the nobles.

"What if there are so many books?"

Zhao Si looked straight at Li Si and asked.

For the current Daqin, talking about universal education is tantamount to nonsense.

However, with printing and papermaking, Daqin can completely invest in the cost to cultivate grassroots leaders with military merits.

At present, how many heads of Guizhou have grassroots titles in Daqin?Zhao Si estimated that at least hundreds of thousands or even millions.

With papermaking and printing, aren't these the reserve civil servants of Daqin?
"Is this true?"

Li Si looked at Zhao Si in surprise.

If what Zhao Si said is true, then the vision he had just had a flash of inspiration may really come true.

That is!Abandoning the influence of Shang Yang, reforming a new way, can be called the temptation of the son!

From the ternary system of the monarchy and aristocrats to the dual system of the monarchy!

(End of this chapter)