The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 308 The Holy Family Is Very Important

Although Wang Wenlong wrote his book in classical Chinese, he did not change the habits of later generations in planning the layout of the book. When writing "On the Nation and the State", he used the classic structure of total points and total points. The discussions are interlocking, and problems are raised and solved. Compared with this At that time, most of the literati's notes and narrative works were written in a loose style and should be much more organized.

Wanli was initially curious about the content of "On the Nation and the State", but when he opened the book and read it, he was quickly surprised by Wang Wenlong's writing method. The more he read, the more immersed he became.

The first part of "On Nation-States" identifies various contradictions that arise in the exchanges between Chinese civilization and other civilizations from Chinese history, and summarizes the concept of nationalism; the second part deconstructs nationalism and analyzes the reasons for the emergence of nationalism. ; The third part takes the example of nationalism that emerged after the European Age of Discovery, especially the emergence of nationalism in Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom after entering the Age of Discovery. It predicts that with the advent of the Age of Discovery, each civilization will definitely have its own transcendence in the future. increasingly strong nationalist tendencies.

Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" was originally published in 1983. At that time, the period of rising nationalism after World War II had passed, and the nationalist craze brought about by the development of emerging economies had not yet arisen. It seemed that mankind was about to abandon nationalism. Entering the era of globalization, this book deconstructs nationalism from the perspective of summarizing the last wave of nationalism.

Wang Wenlong's "On the Nation-State" was written during the enlightenment period of the nationalist upsurge brought about by the Age of Discovery. He wanted to inspire the nationalist thoughts of Chinese civilization and made great changes to the original work.

Wang Wenlong directly pointed out that the divided national identity like that of Europeans in the Central Plains dynasty would not only fail to unite the power of Chinese civilization, but would instead cause division and loss. The nationalism of Chinese civilization should ultimately pursue a Chinese national identity that unites all ethnic groups in the country.

But is this recognition possible?

Although Emperor Wanli went on strike all year round, he was still active in military affairs. The three major campaigns of Wanli all dealt with border and vassal issues. He felt that Wang Wenlong's predictions about the Chinese nation were too ideal, and he did not dare to believe that European nationalism would Rise up like Wang Wenlong said.

But except for the final prophecy, the completeness of the discussion and the rigor of the inferences in "On the Nation-State" gave Wanli a new perspective.

This was the first time for Emperor Wanli to read such a book, and he immediately became interested in Wang Wenlong's writings.

Zhao Lu observed the emperor's actions all day long and found that Wanli had been reading "On the Nation and the State" for several days. He quickly asked people to collect Wang Wenlong's works outside the palace, and then found the right opportunity to present the book to Wanli.

In fact, even without the emergence of "On the Nation and the State", the Ming people during the Wanli period were still experiencing a stage of rising nationalism.

Tian Yi said with a smile: "That was copied privately by a copy shop in Beijing. It's just two or three copies."

Tian Yi once served as the chief eunuch of Nanjing's ceremonial supervisor and in charge of the seal of Nanjing's internal officials. He had a group of godsons and die-hard loyalists in Nanjing. He remained calm in front of Wanli. After leaving the palace, he found a close confidant and said: "Go and write to Nanjing." , He said that the Holy Family attaches great importance to Wang Jianyang, and he must make good friends with him."

……

After Tian Yi heard this, he went to the eunuch who came back from Fuzhou to ask about Wang Wenlong's other works. A few days later, he asked his staff to compile and copy a collection of Wang Wenlong's "Strange People in the World" and other works. Wanli collected the book and did not know what it was. The collection was compiled by Tian Yi's family. Two days later, when I was watching the ministry meeting, I accidentally asked: "How much did Wang Jianyang's collection cost?"

Wan Li smiled and said: "It's so cheap. It seems that Wang Jianyang's book has been widely circulated."

Soon after, it became known to all officials in Beijing that Wanli appreciated Wang Wenlong's writing.

So in the next half month, "The Scholars", "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution", "The Wealth of Nations", "Liancheng Jue", "Di Gongan", "Treatment Records" and even several textbooks written by Wang Wenlong from the Suzhou Physics Society were entered into Wanli's library. Bedroom.

Wanli didn't like the "Records of Treatment of Diseases" and "The Scholars", which had the purpose of directly penetrating reality, but he felt that the plots of "Liancheng Jue" and "The Case of Di Gong" were intense and exciting, and his imagination was unconstrained. It could relieve his boredom and opened the door for him to read popular novels.

In the next few days, the eunuch Tian Yi, the Supervisor of Liturgical Affairs, Bingbi, also heard that Emperor Wanli often wrote notes asking the eunuchs to find books, most of which were books written by Wang Wenlong. Even some imitations of Wang Wenlong's pen name were presented to the palace.

Emperor Wanli had a headache reading "The Wealth of Nations" and "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" which required brain use and scientific thinking, and he only tried them briefly.

Like nationalism in all parts of the world, ideological differences among people always arise when struggles are intense.

For the middle and late Ming Dynasty, nationalism was mainly reflected in the understanding and evaluation of the orthodox status of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded in the early days, it still held a positive attitude towards the orthodox status of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, and based on this legal principle, the Ming Dynasty could attack Mobei and wanted to bring the land originally owned by the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasty under its own jurisdiction. Therefore, during the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang did not regard the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties as a foreign country. When he declared to the outside world, he also said: "I am a farmer who was happy to be born in the Yuan Dynasty." Zhu Yuanzhang also scolded the prime minister and said, "Although the Yuan Dynasty is a barbarian, it will be a monarch of China for a hundred years. My parents and I, including your ministers, all depend on it for their childbirth and support. The rise and fall of the Yuan Dynasty is a matter of luck. How can I foresee it?"

However, as time went on, the Ming Dynasty never wiped out the Meng Yuan Royal Court in Mobei, and the literati and officials gradually did not believe that the Ming Dynasty could destroy the Meng Yuan Royal Court. There were no two days in the sky and no two masters in the country. Naturally, people began to Criticize and liquidate the orthodox historical views of the early Ming and Mongolian Yuan Dynasties.

The landmark events were the Tumubao Revolution in the Zhengtong Period and the Gengshu Revolution in the Jiajing Period. The Han nation encountered the Mongolian threat, and national conflicts became very acute, so the Huayi distinction became popular.

After the orthodoxy, Zhu Yuanzhang's slogan of "expelling the barbarians and restoring China" was gradually mentioned repeatedly.

Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, was enshrined in the temples of emperors of all dynasties when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country. He was deposed during the Jiajing period, believing that barbarians could not become Chinese emperors.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the national sentiment of scholars became more and more excited. By the late Jiajing period, many scholars not only believed that the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was not suitable for worship, but even directly denied the existence of the Yuan Dynasty, believing that the Yuan Dynasty was just a puppet dynasty that usurped the throne of the Song Dynasty.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, he posthumously named his grandfather and father emperors. This actually created a fallacy. At the same time that Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather and father were alive, there were still emperors of the Yuan Dynasty in the world, which meant that there were two Ming dynasties at the same time. the orthodox emperor.

Of course, if someone raised this issue during Zhu Yuanzhang's time, Zhu Yuanzhang would probably think that these people were stupid because of their reading.

But after Jiajing, as the dispute between Hua and Yi became more and more intense, some literati went to extremes. A group of literati represented by Wang Zhu proposed that since the Yuan Dynasty was a pseudo-dynasty, there should be no emperor at all, so they created a Set up the narrative of "Ming Dynasty succeeded Song Dynasty".

It is believed that after the demise of the Song Dynasty, the emperor was not Kublai Khan, but Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather inherited the orthodox throne. After Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather died, Zhu Yuanzhang's father inherited the orthodox throne. After the death of Zhu Yuanzhang's father, Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor.

More than two hundred years ago, when Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather and father were begging and fleeing and were beaten to death, they could not have imagined that many years later, his life at this time would be described in the history books written by Ming Dynasties as begging for food while being a real dragon emperor.

During the Wanli period, many books were published that mainly discussed the differences between Huayi and Huayi, but they were not the same narrative formula as Wang Wenlong's "On Nation-State".

Changzhou Prefecture, Jiangyin County.

There is a magnificent library near the Yangtze River, which was built by Li Ruyi's family for generations.

Li Ru's family was a prominent family in Jiangyin. Li Ruyi's grandfather was named Li Xu, known as "Old Jie'an". He wrote many books and was a famous bibliophile in Jiangyin. He built a library called "Shidetang".

After the death of his grandfather, Li Ruyi himself inherited the family mantle. He had no interest in scientific research, but just liked collecting books. After the "Shidetang" library left by his grandfather was full, he built the "Deyue Tower". Within a few years, It was also full of treasures, so another "Luoluozhai" was built to store exquisite editions of ancient books.

Li Ruyi, like Xu Xinggong, was also an ideal bibliophile. He also advocated that "the best books in the world should be read together with the scholars in the world." Moreover, he was more devoted than Xu Xinggong and spent a lot of money to compile the "Deyuelou Bibliography". He compiled a catalog of all the books he collected at home, and annotated the contents of each book in detail to facilitate outsiders to borrow books. This was the first catalog book with detailed annotations in Chinese history, and Li Ruyi became famous in history.

Such a large collection of books in the Li family also relies on a complex purchasing system. Li Ruyi specially sends family members to visit and request books. Whenever there is a new book published on the market, Li Ruyi will send someone to browse it, select the good ones, and purchase them for himself. They also read carefully and write comments to facilitate those who come to borrow books to browse and choose.

At this time, Li Ruyi had two interesting books in front of him, one was Wang Wenlong's "On Nation-State" and the other was "Collected Works of Mr. Xu Bitong".

(End of this chapter)