Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 603 Differences in the underlying logic of civilization

In any era and any country, there are some problems that are unsolvable and will always exist.

How to do it?

develop!

As long as the country as a whole is developing in a positive direction, the governance can be considered a success.

Looking at current social issues from Jia Lian's perspective, it is said that Huang Chao solved the problem of the aristocratic families. In fact, this is not the case. There are other academic opinions that I will not discuss. The aristocratic families did not disappear, but they just exist in other forms.

When our generation was young, the amount of social information might not be comparable to that of today's Internet age.

This is the benefit brought by development. Ordinary people have easier access to information, even if many of them are just rumors.

Therefore, development is the bottom line. When society develops as a whole, more will overflow downwards, and ordinary people will have the opportunity to obtain things that they could not get before.

Even Jia Lian, a time traveler, is powerless to do anything about many things because what he sees is very limited.

But when one person tries his best to promote social development, the whole society will inevitably be affected and will move forward, however subtle it may be.

After blatantly skipping work for a day, Wang Xifeng brought up the Shi family's affairs during dinner, hoping that Jia Lian would help transfer the Shi brothers back to the capital, and said that this was the old lady's intention.

Jia Lian did not refuse explicitly, but just implied that he would talk about it when there was a chance.

The tactful Wang Xifeng immediately kept silent. She could see that Jia Lian could stay with the pregnant Daiyu for a whole day, which was something no other woman could do.

Throughout the summer, there were only two, or one, incident that attracted the most attention. Both were caused by fake tickets.

Long Jinwei's trip to Nanjing was in vain. He did not catch anyone, but only captured a group of workers, as well as some printing plates and machines.

This incident reveals a phenomenon, which is the advancement of printing technology.

Jia Lian did discover that with the rapid development of newspapers, the technology of metal movable type had also made great progress. The technology of lead alloy movable type came on the scene and soon became the mainstream.

Many technological advances in history did not continue to develop, largely because there was no market.

During the reign of Emperor Chenghui, the economy developed, more people in the society had the opportunity to receive education, and newspapers became popular, which laid the foundation for the market demand for printing.

Jia Lian proposed and promoted practical learning, which led to a trend at the time and laid a certain foundation for the acceleration of technological progress.

The latest news from Europe is that the anti-French alliance has been established and the monarchies in Europe are joining forces to strangle the French Revolution.

When the term "Republic" reached Emperor Chenghui's ears, he felt a chill down his spine.

Emperor Chenghui, who had not slept well for several days, specially called Jia Lian to Rehe.

It was not the first time that Jia Lian traveled on a hot day, but he never felt good every time. When riding a horse, his thighs were rubbed raw and soaked with sweat, which was a great feeling. Riding in a carriage under the scorching sun could suffocate you to death, and even if you traveled in the morning and evening, it was extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, Jia Lian became more determined to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

"I'm not getting up!" Emperor Chenghui leaned listlessly on the recliner, and when he saw Jia Lian he just greeted him weakly.

After Jia Lian came forward to greet him, Emperor Chenghui gestured for him to take a seat. After Jia Lian sat down, Emperor Chenghui said, "I see that all the newspapers in Beijing are reporting on the French situation. What do you think?"

Jia Lian instantly understood Emperor Chenghui's mood, and he was afraid. How could he not be afraid? It is true that the Chinese have the best endurance in the world, but they also have an unyielding spirit of resistance in their bones.

In history, Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang were both successful examples of rebellion by the lower classes of society. From the perspective of imperial power, all the traitors should be killed, and they should all be killed as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, I think this is a good thing." Jia Lian's tone was always direct, and Emperor Chenghui was used to it. He motioned Qiu Shi'an to help him sit up, looked at Jia Lian and asked, "Please tell me in detail."

"Your Majesty, the turbulent times recorded in the history of our great China are enough to warn the wise, but not enough to wake up the common people and those who are blinded by greed. From the news, the change in France is due to the excessive plundering of the royal family and the people's misery. This is what is happening, and it will naturally alert more people in the world. I think this matter should be specially written and circulated throughout the country to warn officials at all levels. The people can't survive, so they naturally take risks to survive. Before Huang Chao entered Chang'an City, the officials in Chang'an just thought it was someone else's business. Therefore, it is good if one more official is warned."

Emperor Chenghui remained silent after hearing this, and Jia Lian waited silently.

After a while, Emperor Chenghui said, "Continue!"

"Your Majesty should issue an edict, ordering all officials to write essays on this topic, and use this to reflect an official's true thoughts and true ability from the side. I think that those who write essays on this topic with flowery words but no substance are not practical officials. Those who can dig deep into the essence behind this matter and propose countermeasures should be capable officials. In the future, when the Ministry of Personnel selects officials, this essay can be used as an auxiliary criterion for judgment. In the future, if similar chaos occurs in the country, officials can also write essays to discuss it. Things have happened, and we cannot pretend that they have not happened. We must learn from them."

"The way to govern a country is to make the country strong and the people rich. When the people have enough food and clothing, the world will naturally be stable."

Noticing that Emperor Chenghui was in a somewhat dazed state, Jia Lian stopped and waited for the emperor to think it over before speaking.

After a long silence in the room, Emperor Chenghui finally came out of his daze and shook his head bitterly: "I am really worried that the same thing as happened in France will happen in our dynasty."

Jia Lian smiled and said, "The relationship between China and the West is completely different. Western countries have only been freed from theocracy for a short time and have little experience in governance. Looking at their history, there is no cycle of dynasties changing and ordering and chaos, so there is no history for Western countries to learn from. Our dynasty draws lessons from history books while observing the changes in Western countries. Taking them as a reference, we will surely be able to maintain long-term stability. Now we have a sage king in the court, and all the ministers work together to comfort the people at home, expand abroad, and achieve prosperity through civil and military governance. Therefore, in my opinion, Your Majesty is worried too much."

Jia Lian's words did work. Emperor Chenghui's brows were visibly relaxed and he slowly leaned back in the recliner.

"The unity of heaven and man, and the universal peace, is so difficult to achieve." Emperor Chenghui said to himself.

"The way of heaven is to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency, and the way of man is to reduce the deficiency and make up for the surplus. Governing a country is an extremely difficult task, and one cannot be impatient."

Emperor Chenghui fell asleep. Jia Lian shut up in time and quietly retreated. Qiu Shian carefully escorted him out and said with his arms folded, "The Saint hasn't slept so soundly for several days! Thank you, Lord Jia!"

"Mr. Qiu is overpraising me. This is just my duty as an official."

Emperor Chenghui was asleep, and Jia Lian could not leave yet, so he could only stay in Rehe and wait for the emperor's next summons. Lin Ruhai called Jia Lian over and asked him the reason.

After Jia Lian explained the situation in detail, Lin Ruhai was stunned for a moment, but then he quickly reacted and understood Emperor Chenghui's concerns.

If this kind of information could be concealed, the emperor would definitely want to conceal it.

But things are different now. The Zhou Empire has opened its doors to the world, and the benefits brought by trade with the world can no longer be given up.

Therefore, Lin Ruhai also agreed with Jia Lian's point of view that it is not a bad thing to let the Chinese people know what the world is like and what is happening abroad.

"I didn't expect that the royal family of France, a powerful Western country, would perish so quickly!" Lin Ruhai was also amazed at the speed at which the French royal family was overthrown.

Jia Lian communicated with Lin Ruhai very patiently, and based on his knowledge of history, he tried his best to explain the nature of the revolution in France.

"What are the parliaments of Western countries? They are so rebellious!" Lin Ruhai said so, but his heart was pounding.

As traditional Confucians, ruling by doing nothing is what Confucians have always pursued.

Jia Lian said disapprovingly: "In Western parliaments, members are elected. Whether they can be elected is not about their ability to govern the country, but their acting skills. They are not trying to govern the country well, but trying to make the people believe that under their governance, the country is getting better. These members have almost no experience in governing the local areas. When they are suddenly promoted to high positions, they will be at a loss in the face of various practical difficulties, and the things they do are bound to be laughed at. In contrast, the cabinet ministers of our dynasty all started from the bottom and have rich experience in governing the local areas. In terms of governing the country, they are far behind. The reason why the Western powers are strong is that they plunder the world to enrich one country, and their industrialized production has greatly improved production efficiency."

Lin Ruhai nodded and said, "What Buqi said makes sense, but our dynasty also has various problems that are difficult to solve."

Jia Lian smiled and said, "The so-called family, country and the world, the smallest unit is a person. As long as a country is composed of people, there will be various unsolvable problems, so there will be irreconcilable contradictions. Those who govern the country can only follow the general trend and strive to keep the country moving forward. Many problems will be solved in the process of development. Therefore, the most important task of the cabinet is to develop and plan ahead. We cannot wait until development stagnates and the unresolved contradictions in the past and the new contradictions gather together and explode. Policies will always lag behind, and there will always be problems, unless everyone is dead."

This development method was still very new to Lin Ruhai. He thought it was a bit heretical at first, but later he accepted it.

For example, our ancestors have long raised a question: what is worrying is not the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of wealth!

Let me ask you, is it solved now?

The problem of injustice has always existed and has never been solved.

Ultimately, you have to make the people at the bottom feel that they can get by, and you can’t force them to become invincible.

Once a person has nothing to lose, he becomes truly spiritually invincible.

"Universal peace is the highest state of mind. In my opinion, I will never be lucky enough to see it in this lifetime. So let's just regard it as the highest ideal and goal. Just like Hengqu's four sentences, it is because of the highest ideals of the predecessors that the later generations will tirelessly strive towards the goal. Anyone who slanders it is a traitor to the people!" Jia Lian's tone gradually became excited, and there was anger in his eyes.

(PS: I feel that the structure of Hengqu Four Sentences has been stigmatized as false and empty recently! The bastards who threw dirty water on Hengqu Four Sentences must not die well.)
Western society has looked up to China for a long period of history. In the short 200 years of modern history, the mentality of Westerners towards China has changed, from the initial contempt for China under the rule of the Qing Dynasty to extreme contempt and plunder. Even when China was at its weakest, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Boxer Rebellion dealt two blows to Western countries, causing them to become fearful. Why was it fearful? Because they had read through history books and could not find similar historical materials. What frightened the West even more was yet to come. When the Chinese people stood up, they completed a complete transformation on the battlefield in a very short time, and dealt a heavy blow to the most powerful imperialism on the peninsula.

Now looking at the extremely slanderous remarks against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Boxer Rebellion on the Internet, everyone should have a clear idea in their mind.

There was also a period of time when those people were the target of the most extreme slander on the Internet.

How can I describe that period? My personal opinion is that the original intention was good, but we were too hasty and productivity had not yet developed to the corresponding stage. In the end, in the process of implementation, it was distorted and resulted in a bad result.

(PS: Development is the only way forward, and this is why I personally admire the chief designer the most.)
Huntington said that China is a civilization disguised as a country, which is a profound metaphor.

This is also the underlying logic behind the West's fear of China.

Our history books record suffering not because suffering is worth praising, but because all suffering serves as a lesson for future generations.

The West advocates victory studies not because their rulers like it, but because their people like it.

The underlying logic of Eastern and Western civilizations is different. The underlying logic of Western civilization is religion, which is Rome.

The underlying logic of Chinese civilization is secular and universal. The national cohesion between the two is completely incomparable. We are naturally identified, while they need to build it up later.

There is absolutely no comparison between the two, which is why we can catch up in just a few decades.

For example, our neighbor Japan. When I was young, I read all kinds of chicken soup articles and Japan was praised as a paradise. When I was able to go there in person, I found that this so-called developed country gave me the feeling that it was "small" everywhere. This smallness is not in the spiritual sense, but in the material sense.

The roads are small, the buildings are small, the bowls for eating are small, and so on.

I really only went there once and I don’t want to go there a second time.

Of course, it may be related to the fact that I don’t have much money. Rich people who go to Japan may be able to enjoy more advanced and grander things.

But then again, for truly rich people, it wouldn't matter where they go, let alone Japan.

Closer to home.

That day, Jia Lian was exhausted and went to bed early.

The next day, Emperor Chenghui summoned all the ministers who were accompanying him, and Jia Lian was also called to attend.

Emperor Chenghui seemed to have had a good rest and was in good spirits. He looked at his ministers and his opening remarks were very direct.

"Because of the matter of France, I specially called Buqi here and had him talk to me. I have some understandings, so I would like to discuss it with you."

(End of this chapter)