People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 676: Cultural shaping is like a pressure cooker, locking up the innovative spirit of the ancients

Zhu Biao actually agreed very much with Chen Han's statement. He also believed that if he really wanted the Ming Dynasty to live in peace and tranquility in the future, or even to move forward, he must improve the productivity within the Ming Dynasty.

If productivity cannot keep up, no matter how good your monetary policy is, there will surely be a day in the future when the entire monetary policy will collapse because productivity cannot keep up with the changes in monetary policy.

Such cases can be said to be everywhere in modern times. Whether it is the Zimbabwean dollar or the former four little dragons, etc., their development speed has changed or even collapsed due to productivity issues.

Modern China, after laying the foundation for its industrial base as a rising star, has taken steady steps to combine the real economy with the foreign trade economy to consolidate its domestic foundation.

Improving productivity and taking industrial production as the most important starting point in the future.

As expected, after productivity in other parts of the world dropped, they could only watch as Chinese products became popular all over the world, and finally they were forced to build a tax fortress and isolate themselves in a very small area.

He deceived himself with the halo of the past, but he didn't realize that he was no longer able to compete with the outside world.

What Chen Han had to do was to transform the Ming Dynasty into the later China. The productivity had to keep up, and the cheapest goods had to be exported.

It is necessary to stimulate other markets, make other markets the dumping grounds for the Ming Dynasty, let other citizens become workers for the Ming Dynasty, and let the Ming Dynasty's industries prosper while also being able to reap large gains from the world.

Now Chen Han is slowly laying the foundation and he also hopes that the Ming Dynasty can take off all at once, but this is unrealistic. The first point is that in order to improve productivity, the efficiency of the system must be improved.

Therefore, when he was carrying out reforms, multiplication test had to be given the first priority. He wanted to put the longest shackles on officials in the world. At the same time, if he wanted to make the horse run faster, he had to feed it with fodder to fatten it up.

Every position must be made very tempting, and you don't want to be pulled down by any mistake in this position.

To satisfy those who want to be officials, they must not only obtain material foundation, but also reputational foundation, and have the opportunity to leave their names in history.

Only when their basic material and dignity needs are met can they exert their subjective initiative and have the motivation to move forward.

Otherwise, just to solve their own daily necessities, they have to solicit bribes from the people. The accumulation of such fear will make these officials anxious and worried.

The more daring officials think that there are so many corrupt officials in the world and they cannot be caught alone, so they are not afraid of becoming more corrupt and taking bribes.

Of course, they are not going to be the first to take action. They are just continuing the inertia left over from the Yuan Dynasty as usual.

In their eyes, the purpose of being an official is to collect money, and after becoming an official, the purpose is to live a good life. As the saying goes, if you still have to live a poor life after becoming an official, then why become an official?
After ten years of hard study and saving, he finally became an official. So he must have some desire.

There are very few officials like Zhuge Liang, Wen Tianxiang, Yu Qian and Hai Rui.

In fact, most people are vulgar. They are greedy for money and lustful. So once they have power, they will definitely do this kind of thing. Therefore, some people think that many of Zhu Yuanzhang’s policies may be idealistic. He wants all these officials to be gentlemen like Zhuge Liang and Wen Tianxiang, and to devote themselves to their work until their death.

But if we look back at history, we will find that it is impossible to achieve this. Many officials actually just want to fatten their own pockets and live a good life.

So in the final analysis, these people are the truly normal people. On the contrary, people like Zhuge Liang, Wen Tianxiang and Hai Rui are no longer normal people. Each of them has transcended the standards of ordinary people and cannot be held to the same standards as everyone else.

It is precisely because of this that Chen Han now will not let those officials feel aggrieved. He really hates those corrupt officials.

But we have to admit that it would be sad if there was no one in the world to work for you and no officials to implement your policies.

After all, you are alone and you have to rely on them, so you can only increase their income, stabilize their emotions, and let them help you govern the world.

If the overall environment cannot be changed, then let these officials be relatively clean, which is also the greatest protection for ordinary people.

Because no matter how strict your policies are, no matter how severe your laws are, human nature is not worth testing. It is bound to have flaws. What is lacking is just how much someone will offer.

If a person is capable, but his family is always in a mess, he must deal with the intrigues in the officialdom, and when he returns home, he has to face a cold stove. No matter how great his ideals and ambitions are, they will not only wear away his edges and corners due to long-term wear and tear, but also his dignity.

Therefore, Chen Han does not believe in the idealism of officials, nor does he believe in their self-correction. He only believes in the price.

To put it simply, no matter whether you are a corrupt official or an honest official, I will give you enough face, let you live a decent life, and ensure that your family does not need to worry about the daily necessities of life.

It allows you to go out and communicate with normal readers in the same poetic and picturesque way.

I just don't want you to indulge in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling like those worldly people, but I will satisfy you in the pursuit of pleasure as a scholar.

After all, people pursue not only material needs, but also spiritual needs. This is also a bridge to building the future health of the Ming Dynasty.

Because we must admit that since ancient times, most of those who were able to leave behind articles, poems, and paintings were officials.

Take poetry for example, it started from the earliest Han Dynasty. There is no need to say much about the Seven Scholars of the Jian'an Period, they were either the masters of political power, or the noble families, or officials, they did not need to worry about food, clothing, housing and transportation, so they had more time to devote to cultural cultivation.

Not to mention the most talented people who emerged during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Li Bai was born in a relatively low class, but we have to admit that his family actually had a foundation in Sichuan. When Li Bai died, who published his poetry collections? It was his uncle who had the ability to publish his poetry collections, so his family must have had some business.

The same is true for Li Bai. His family was in business, so he could travel the world with a sword. If he had to worry about his own food, clothing, housing and transportation all his life, Li Bai might have difficulty even learning to read. The following famous poets, such as Lu Zhaolin, Wang Wei, and Wei Yingwu, were all wealthy young men from large families.

Even the great poet Du Fu had a prominent background. His family was the Xiangyang branch of the Jingzhao Du family, and his mother's family was even more prominent, namely the Qinghe Cui family.

Therefore, these cultural masters are actually officials or have strong family backgrounds. If you want to promote cultural undertakings, you have to rely on these officials who have read books and have profound cultural accomplishments to promote them.

There is no need to say how profound the influence of culture is on a nation. We have always emphasized how the 5,000-year-old civilization came about. In addition to those historical records, inscriptions, golden books, and antiques, what is more important is the shaping of a nation by cultural undertakings.

Looking at the entire five thousand years of civilization, we can see that in the past, a hundred schools of thought flourished, and every country was looking for the most reasonable way to govern the country, so various branches were born, such as Taoism, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Military Science, and Agriculture.

After Emperor Wu of Han established Confucianism as the only official school of thought, Confucianism became a prominent school of thought until the Qing Dynasty.

As for the influence of culture on the quality of a nation, it is not convenient to say more. The Confucian concept of family, country and the world was passed down from the second sage Mencius to the present day. The reason why Chinese people live in this way today is also influenced by these cultures that have been passed down for thousands of years.

Culture needs a carrier. No matter whether it is novels, operas, or poems, they are all different carriers of culture. Even folk songs are the same. Poetry, calligraphy and painting in particular fully embody the wisdom, style, pursuits, character and ambitions of the ancients, which makes the younger generations amazed after reading them.

The poems, songs, calligraphy and paintings of these cultural masters have a huge influence on shaping the character and spirit of the Chinese people, so Chen Han would never allow the culture of the Ming Dynasty to be confined by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

The reason why Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became popular is not to blame any one person.

People in later generations have always felt that Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was a huge cancer that poisoned the thoughts for hundreds of years since the Southern Song Dynasty.

There are many people who hold this idea, but we must also see that Chengdu Neo-Confucianism has some relatively progressive aspects. It can only be said that it was born in later generations, or that it was the rulers' meaningful distortion that demonized Cheng Neo-Confucianism just like Confucian culture.

Because the rulers need to use ideas to shape the people's minds according to the conditions of the country they rule, so that the people can be turned into docile sheep, which is their ultimate goal.

For example, why would kings order annotations to be made to the classics? In fact, what they wanted was annotations or to enrich the culture. Instead, they wanted to use this method to smooth out the edges of some of the more prominent ideas.

The most typical ones are some of Confucius' classic sayings that are known to modern people, such as the famous saying, "Repay evil with virtue." If it were not for the following saying, "How can I repay justice?", then people would feel that Confucianism is very soft. Even if some people repay kindness with evil, we still need to speak to them politely.

But we can see from the following sentence that Confucius did not mean this. Is "repaying evil with virtue" a question? It means that if someone treats you badly, but you still treat him well in return, isn't this the behavior of a pedantic person?
So the original sentence should be "Repay evil with good, how to repay good? Repay evil with justice, repay good with good."

It can be seen from the original drama that Confucianism does not teach you to act in a pedantic way, but rather to be straightforward. If others are good to me, I will be good to them. If others are not good to me, I do not need to be good to them.

This can be seen from just a very simple comparison, why must the last twelve words be castrated?
In fact, this is a very clever and vicious exaggeration of thought.

You know, thoughts are very important in shaping people's character and behavior.

If everyone believes in "repay evil with good, how can we repay good?", this is a straightforward and distinctive way of doing things.

So if one day the government is forced to impose taxes on the people because of a war in the north, how will the people act according to the principle of "repaying kindness with kindness and repaying evil with justice"?
That must be, I won't give a shit about you. If you treat me badly, why should I respect your government? Why should I give you face? If you want to kill me, I will lead my people to rebel.

This will give people an extremely strong spirit of resistance. Does the emperor need such a spirit of resistance? Especially the founding emperor, he would like to see that the people under his command are all troublemakers, absolutely not.

How can we reform it? It's very simple. We need to castrate your rebellious spirit in terms of ideology and culture.

I will first elevate Confucianism to the status of a prominent school of thought, and let you scholars feel that the emperor respects you, and then you will be loyal to me.

Then I let all the people in the world see that studying is the best shortcut to promotion and wealth.

As a result, the status of scholars was raised. In a village where everyone was a peasant but there was only one scholar, the scholar's right to speak would surpass or even override that of the head of the village and ordinary petty officials.

And everyone is willing to believe what he says. Why? Because the emperor and the government all agree that scholars will be future officials. He will govern us. He is an official and worships power. This is the same no matter what era it is.

Then it will be easy at this time. Since one educated person can influence the thoughts of a large number of uneducated peasants, I will let these educated people influence those peasants.

How does it affect?

So that there are no sharp words in the books you read.

Therefore, we must reform the classics, cut off the beginning and the end, and change those words that easily shape people's thoughts into sharp ones, and make them gentle. For example, most people feel uncomfortable when they hear the phrase "repay evil with kindness". Why should I smile and smell good when others are not nice to me? Aren't you a despicable person?

But scholars will explain it to you like this: a well-educated person should not argue with those who are uneducated. We should greet them with a smile so that they will feel embarrassed to hit us.

Of course this is the crudest explanation, but this is what consciousness is all about. It is to force those who control public opinion to shape their thoughts as softly as possible.

This group of scholars who hold the right to speak will pass it down from generation to generation, which will lead to a softening of the entire social atmosphere, which is most suitable for the rulers to rule.

Just like Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, it molds everyone's thoughts into a pressure cooker, with the ruler being the ruler, the minister being the minister, the father being the father, and the son being the son, just like a pressure cooker, with each level suppressing the next, and everyone is locked in this pot...

(End of this chapter)