Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

It is a tradition to value the past over the present. The imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were based on the Four Books and Five Classics, and scholars also liked to quote from the classics.

Even when Zhu Youjian remade rituals and music, he inevitably quoted the words of ancient sages as the basis for his reforms.

It can be said that there is naturally a group of people who worship the ancients in the Ming Dynasty at that time.

They were already skeptical about remaking rituals and music, and after Qian Qianyi published "On Production" and shouted that we were entering a new era, these people were in a state of panic.

Even though they hoped to use etiquette and laws to restrain imperial power, they did not oppose the so-called era of ritual.

However, the idea of ​​dividing the economy into different periods according to the means of production and the saying "the world will surely progress, and will be better than it is now" were strongly discredited.

The two groups that are arguing most fiercely in newspapers right now are the ones that worship the past and the ones that favor the present.

They argued over everything from means of production to production relations, from the court system to rites, music and laws, from literature and art to morals and ethics... they argued over almost everything.

At first, the antiquity-worshipping school undoubtedly had the upper hand, but after the modernism school displayed pottery and porcelain, bronze and iron, bamboo slips and paper... they firmly established their foothold in the field of utensils.

Later, he began to have exchanges with the ancient worshippers in other aspects.

It opened the eyes of the scholars in the capital.

Although Chen Jiru had just arrived in Beijing, he had heard about this and said to everyone with a smile:

"The faction that reveres the past has its reasons, and the faction that respects the present is not without basis either."

"In my opinion, we should learn from the current emperor's dichotomy and look at the problem in two ways."

These words have some conciliatory meaning, but they are also somewhat novel.

Dong Qichang wondered:

“What is dichotomy?”

“Should we look at the problem in two parts?”

Others were also somewhat puzzled, Chen Jiru smiled and explained:
"This is what I heard from Zhang Tianru. He said that the emperor once mentioned:"

“Everything has its yin and yang sides, so we should look at things in two ways.”

"For example, the status of the monarch, the subjects and the people is explained by the emperor using a dichotomy."

This is what he heard when he was communicating with Zhang Pu while writing an article about the monarch, his subjects and the people.

In fact, it is dialectics. Zhu Youjian once communicated with Zhang Pu and others, and planned to write this theory in the current writing style.

At the same time, he was also writing about the theory of yin and yang, the theory of contradiction, and the mind-body theory that expounds idealism and materialism, all of which are based on dialectics.

Most of the people present did not know this, but Qian Qianyi guessed from the creation process of "On Constant Property" and "On Production" that the emperor might have collaborated with Zhang Pu to write the article. This made him feel a sense of crisis:
"It seems that I am not the only one who has heard your Majesty's theory!"

"If Zhang Tianru passed the imperial examination and became a recorder, wouldn't it be like being close to the water and getting the moon first?"

He was already thinking about how to separate the emperor and Zhang Pu.

Qian Qianyi smiled and said with a pleasant expression:

"Since it is according to the emperor's method, there must be something new and novel about it."

"We are all ears to hear what Mei Gong has to say about the ancient and modern schools."

Chen Jiru said with a smile that he dared not, and after a few humble words, he said:

"The emperor divided the status of the monarch, his subjects and the people into groups and individuals."

"I divide the ancient and modern schools into two categories according to tools and morality."

"In terms of equipment, the ancients were certainly inferior to modern people. The firearms used by modern people are incomparable to any weapons used by the ancients."

"But in terms of morality, the virtues of the ancient saints are so great that people can look up to them."

"The reason why people today admire the ancients is that they admire their virtues!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone cheered loudly.

I think Chen Jiru's evaluation is extremely appropriate.

It is certain that modern people's utensils are better than those of the ancients, and various utensils handed down can prove this.

But if you say that the virtues of modern people are better than those of ancient people, no one will believe it.

For example, the great sage Confucius is a role model for all ages.

However, some people disagreed. Yuan Keli said:

“The ancient sages have accumulated over thousands of years from ancient times to the present. There are not necessarily more sages in each era than there are now.”

"Like Mr. Liu from Jishan, he is a person like Yan Hui."

"Mr. Muzhai's "On Constant Property" and "On Production" would have been a great treatise in ancient times."

“There are no fewer saints and sages in our time than in previous generations.”

These words highly praised Liu Zongzhou and Qian Qianyi, and placed the two on the same level.

After hearing this, Qian Qianyi kept saying "I dare not", but his heart felt as sweet as if he had drunk honey.

Wasn't his purpose of currying favor with the emperor and writing articles according to his opinions just to improve his academic status?

Now that the results are evident, he feels that his choice was correct.

This gathering soon turned into a party to praise Qian Qianyi. Everyone was amazed that he could write "On Production".

This is different from "The Theory of Permanent Property", which is based on the theories of ancient sages. "The Theory of Production" is almost entirely new stuff.

In the eyes of those who do not know how Qian Qianyi wrote this article, the fact that Qian Qianyi was able to come up with this theory is enough to establish a new school of Confucianism.

In order to show that he wrote the article himself, Qian Qianyi was so familiar with the content that he could recite it backwards. No matter what questions people raised, he could easily answer them.

It can be seen that he really took "The Theory of Production" to heart. Unlike after he wrote "The Theory of Permanent Property", he did not take the initiative to stand up and promote this theory until Zhang Pu, Liu Lishun and others competed for the right of interpretation.

This was also the effect Zhu Youjian wanted. He needed Qian Qianyi to lead a group of people to fight for him.

These people are now the main force criticizing the Song Dynasty in newspapers, believing that the Song Dynasty took the wrong path, which led to the demise of the country.

They were already thinking about criticizing the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty, overthrowing Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and establishing the status of practical learning.
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Chen Zilong and others were naturally aware of these trends in the academic community.

Not only were they in the newspaper industry and well-informed, they also considered themselves scholars and were extremely interested in academic theories.

In particular, Ai Nanying, who was diametrically opposed to Chen Zilong, was now promoting Qian Qianyi's "On Production" in the "Datong Daily", almost praising Qian Qianyi as a contemporary saint.

Chen Zilong was very angry, but he could not find any theory to refute Qian Qianyi's "On Production". He could only sulk by himself and occasionally write sarcastic articles in the newspapers.

However, all these could not change the popularity of "The Theory of Production", and Qian Qianyi, Ai Nanying and others gained increasingly higher status.

Thinking about these things, Chen Zilong said to Zhang Pu in a somewhat depressed tone:
"It's good that Brother Tianru is back!"

"You've been away for a while, and I've been really upset."

"That Ai Nanying has been criticizing us in the newspapers."

"And there's Qian Qianyi, who wrote another article called 'On Production'."

He gave it to Zhang Pu to read carefully and asked him to study it seriously.

Zhang Pu had been traveling by car all the way, so he was inevitably a little unresponsive to the news from the capital.

Although he thought the book "On Production" was good, he did not expect it to put such great pressure on Chen Zilong. He asked with some doubt:

"Aren't there more discussions about the Three Kingdoms among the people?"

"On my way to Beijing, I heard people discussing The Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

"The circulation of Ming Pao is also greater than that of Tatung Daily."

This is obvious. Zhang Pu saw Ming Pao being sold in various places in the north on the road, and he was very pleased with the development of Ming Pao.

But Chen Zilong wanted more than that. He missed the heated discussions in major newspapers when Romance of the Three Kingdoms was first published.

Unexpectedly, the trend passed in just one month. No matter how well he revised it, the most discussed work in the newspapers was "The Theory of Production".

Holding the recent issues of the newspaper, Chen Zilong said:
"Brother Tianru, you will know after taking a good look."

"Look at the three-star authors. Which newspaper has the most of them?"

This is the star rating given to public figures by the Congressional Ethics Committee a few days ago.

Samsung represents a moral role model and has a certain influence in society.

These authors used to like publishing articles in Ming Pao, but after the publication of "Production Theory", they preferred to discuss it in Datong Daily.

Those who occasionally contribute to Ming Pao are mostly conservative people who admire the past.

Chen Zilong was a person who studied science under the arrangement of the emperor. How could he agree with these people?

So after he rejected their manuscripts one after another, these people turned to other newspapers, and as a result, fewer and fewer articles were published in Ming Pao.

Now because of the serialization of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there is no major problem for the time being.

However, after the serialization of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" ended, the circulation of "Ming Pao" might plummet or even collapse.

After Zhang Pu realized this, he also felt a sense of crisis.

Because he knew that Ming Pao was his own public opinion tool, and his talent in public opinion was the reason why the emperor valued him.

If Ming Pao collapsed, it would mean that his ability to influence public opinion was not that strong, and the emperor might no longer value him in the future.

Therefore, he attached great importance to this matter and said immediately:
"We can't let this go. We need to find more writers."

"You can invite three-star authors according to the list and give them more royalties."

"Our Ming Pao has such a large circulation that we can't recruit people without money."

Chen Zilong was embarrassed when he heard this and explained:
"I have increased my writing fee and asked many people to write for me."

"It's a pity that these people are so self-righteous that most of them didn't respond."

"Most of our friends are young scholars who cannot be rated as three-star authors."

Most of the people who can publish articles in newspapers are scholars nowadays. Those who are rated as three-star authors can be regarded as one of the leaders of the scholar community in a certain place.

These people cannot be attracted simply by money, not to mention how wealthy they are.

In the south, where the business atmosphere is strong, it may be possible to impress some people with money. But in the north, it is difficult to work, especially since Qian Qianyi is one of the Nine Ministers.

Zhang Pu had gotten used to living in the south last year, and only now did he think of the differences between the north and the south. He slapped his forehead and felt a little embarrassed.
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It was not until he was assigned something by the emperor during an audience that he figured out how to break the impasse:

"Establish a journalism award to honor the press, and confer the status of a public official or even a Yuanshi on the winners."

"No wonder His Majesty asked me to bring Zhang Yao with me when I went to the capital this time."

Zhu Youjian nodded and smiled:

“Although the newspaper industry is booming now, it seems to be somewhat mixed.”

“The purpose of establishing a journalism award is to set an example.”

"In particular, journalists should truly take on the responsibilities of civilian censors."

This is the trend he found when he read the briefings from the Public Opinion Department.

After strengthening supervision of public figures and regulating groups such as journalists, he found that the number of people who dared to criticize officials in newspapers suddenly decreased.

This was not the effect he wanted, so he hoped to set an example and encourage the "civilian censors" to charge into battle.

To this end, he offered several vacancies for Gongshi and even promised to grant at least one Yuanshi status every year.

Zhang Pu was extremely excited when he heard this. The emperor's attitude showed that he valued public opinion, and there was a lot of room for his talents to be brought into play.

Moreover, the emperor specifically asked him to bring Zhang Yao with him, which was obviously to indicate that he wanted to set Zhang Yao as an example and grant him the status of a Yuanshi.

This is also an honor for him, as all his disciples have obtained the status of Yuanshi.

So he immediately said:
"I will do my best to run the journalism award, Your Majesty, please rest assured."

“I don’t know what kinds of awards there are.”

Zhu Youjian said:
“The most important thing is the public service award. Journalism should serve the public good.”

"I intend to award Zhang Yao this prize and grant him the status of a Yuanshi in recognition of his performance in the struggle against hired workers."

"As the focus of the struggle, he never gave in and made important contributions to protecting the rights of hired workers and freeing slaves."

He praised Zhang Yao's actions in the workers' struggle and believed that he was a talented person with a fighting spirit.

However, it was obviously not him who made the greatest contribution to the Suzhou workers' struggle. Zhu Youjian looked at Zhang Pu and said:

"Actually, this award should be given to Mr.

"However, since you have the talent of a top scholar, I will not grant you the title of Yuanshi for the time being."

"Let your disciple take advantage of this opportunity and continue to shine in the newspaper industry."

He told Zhang Pu openly that Zhang Yao should not become an official just because he became a Yuanshi, but should stay in the newspaper industry.

After all, it is a role model for the newspaper industry. One cannot just be granted the status of a Yuanshi and then become an official.

Zhang Pu felt a little regretful when he heard this, because he had wanted his disciples to become officials to help him.

But thinking about Zhang Yao's talents, he felt that it would be a good idea to keep him in the newspaper industry. At least he could help him manage Ming Pao.

So he agreed to this and planned to tell his disciples when he returned.

Then, Zhu Youjian discussed with him the establishment of a news communication award to commend the correspondents and reporters in the army and government offices, including press spokespersons and other personnel who wrote and issued official press releases.

There are also news awards such as the News Communication Award, News Feature Award, News Column Award, News Media Award, News Commentary Award, and News Interview Award to commend corresponding news and personnel.

There are also smaller awards such as editing award, typesetting award, proofreading award, printing award, journalist award, author award, newspaper literature award, serial literature award, picture award, comic strip award, advertising award, innovation award, and technology award to recognize corresponding works and individuals.

Finally, the highlight came. Zhu Youjian specially set up several awards to commend the "civilian censors":
“Special awards should be set up for journalists who conduct investigative journalism on the front line, such as the Investigative Journalist Award and the Investigative Report Award, to recognize their achievements.”

"We should make investigative journalists the main force of public opinion supervision and the voice of the people. We should encourage them to speak with facts and reveal the true situation of the Ming Dynasty."

“These people should be given priority in being awarded three stars. The proportion of frontline investigative journalists among three-star journalists should not be less than half.”

“Public Service Awards, with priority given to investigative journalists.”

He personally wrote the two big characters "Public opinion supervision, the voice of the masses" and "Let facts speak for themselves" as his expectation for investigative journalists.

Zhang Pu looked at these words and soon came up with an idea on how to get more three-star authors in Ming Pao. (End of this chapter)