Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 183: Getting people to hold on is the hard part! (Second update)
Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned completely black.

Xia Zhibai was directly accusing others of something wrong, saying that he was deceiving himself.

There were not many "scholars" in the Ming Dynasty. From himself to the officials, all of them were born as "landlords". It was only because the status of "scholars" was too prestigious in the past that scholars in the court flocked to them and were happy to label themselves as "scholars".

This also leads to a big problem.

There is a loss of order between superiors and subordinates.

The world order he wanted to create was one in which all officials served the people and the number of officials would be strictly controlled.

Therefore, even now, the number of official officials in the Ming Dynasty is still less than ten thousand, and the vast majority are "clerks", "sub-clerks", and some "military officials" in service. These "clerks" are not eligible to enjoy privileges such as exemption from military service and using their status to offset penalties.

In Xia Zhibai's view, this is a very polarized and clearly hierarchical society under extremely autocratic imperial politics.

but.
These so-called "officials" in the Ming Dynasty were actually "landlords", and in the mind of Zhu Yuanzhang, landlords were a group of "people".

That’s why the current discipline is in chaos.

Letting a group of central "landlords" dressed in "scholars'" clothes to manage local landlords and households will naturally not achieve the well-governed society he wants. Instead, it will aggravate the corruption of the people in the world, and the upper and lower classes will follow suit, causing the continuous collapse of society, because over time, more and more people from all walks of life will be mixed in among the "officials" and "clerks" of the Ming Dynasty.

And he actually tried to make a group of "landlords" talk about ethics and morality.

Isn't this just playing the lute to a cow and deceiving yourself?

Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned ashen, and veins bulged on his hand holding the memorial.

Seeing this, Zhu Biao quickly poured Zhu Yuanzhang a cup of tea and said to him, "Father, Xia Zhibai has always been outspoken. Father, please don't hurt your body because of this."

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath, glanced at Zhu Biao, and waved his hand, saying, "We're fine."

"I just feel so upset."

"Does Xia Zhibai dislike me so much? Does he have to treat me like the landlord of the world?"

"In the past, he said that we regarded officials as farmhands and the people as slaves. Now he even pointed out that we are the biggest landlords in the world. In his eyes, our overthrow of the rule of the tyrannical Yuan Dynasty is so insignificant?"

"We have selfish motives."

"But what did we do wrong?"

"Do I have to be scolded by Xia Zhibai again and again?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned red with anger, and he pounded the table hard with both hands, with the anger in his eyes having nowhere to vent.

Zhu Biao was also frightened by Zhu Yuanzhang's rage. His face turned pale and he trembled with fear, not daring to breathe.

Zhu Yuanzhang was like an angry lion at this moment, and the murderous intent in his heart reached its extreme. However, as an emperor who had sat on the throne for nearly twenty years, he finally forced himself to calm down. Although he was angry and annoyed, he had to admit that Xia Zhibai's words made some sense.

Among the nobles who had fought through life and death with him, few were from high-class families.

Even Li Shanchang was just a gentry, and was very different from the aristocrats of the past.

Are there any scholars in the Ming Dynasty?
Maybe there is.

But these people couldn't climb up.

He adhered to the principle of "all people from all corners of the country" and also advocated pragmatism. As long as they could be useful in governing the country, they would be given important positions. However, over the years, those who really occupied the court were mostly officials like Guo Huan who were content with their positions.

They have neither short-term consideration nor long-term planning.

These people have similar interests and can easily form cliques.

He spent a lot of effort to suppress the Zhejiang East Group and the Huaixi Group. Now he simply does not have much spare energy to screen the world. After a generation, most of the scholars cultivated by the Ming Dynasty are "birds of a feather".

This is what makes Zhu Yuanzhang worried.

After these three massacres, he felt the difficulty of changing this social trend.

It may even be impossible.

Zhu Yuanzhang slowly closed his eyes and calmed himself down completely.

he knows.

The reason why Xia Zhibai wrote so much was to point out that he had misjudged the current situation and the world situation, and then chose a wrong path. If he failed to recognize his mistakes and make corrections, the Ming Dynasty would only go further and further on the wrong path until it became irreversible and the country would collapse.

Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the magnifying glass again and looked at the thick memorial again.

"If you have a wrong understanding of the world, you will naturally go astray."

"If we want to re-understand the world, we can only start from the actual situation of the world. As the traditional political system becomes increasingly corrupt and the old institutional structure has been destroyed, we can only start from the most basic direction."

"Land!" "Everything in the world is built on land."

“Therefore, only by focusing on the land can we see everything above the land.”

"At the top of the world are the royal family, relatives of the emperor's wife, meritorious officials, and bureaucrats. They are the most powerful landlord class today."

"They are vassals of the Ming Dynasty, and their survival and development are also dependent on the Ming Dynasty."

"They firmly stand on the side of the Ming Dynasty, but they are extremely backward and reactionary, and will constantly hinder other living forces from moving forward. This group of people is the most eager to maintain the status quo and the least willing to accept change. To a certain extent, they are also the worst."

"They have considerable power and wealth, but they don't have much perseverance. If the world is in trouble, these people will only seek glory and suffer humiliation."

"Their own characteristics are destined to make them the long-term enemies of the Ming Dynasty."

"Next are the gentry, the landowners without status, and the 'officials'."

"They should be classified as middle class."

"This group of people is very contradictory. They are easily won over, but also easily divided. Their goals are confused. However, as local landlords, they are also conservative and snobbish. If their own interests are affected, they will become very sharp. When they are targeted by the court, they will also show great pain. If they are appeased by the court, they will also be grateful."

“This group is bound to be volatile.”

"Below them are self-employed farmers, handicraftsmen, and some intellectuals who have mastered a certain amount of knowledge but are not capable enough to obtain student status. This class can be divided into the petty bourgeoisie, which currently constitutes the majority of the world."

"For self-employed farmers who travel around the northern border, at present, these people have extra money and rice."

"And from what I've observed, this group of people has a strong desire to get rich."

"What they want most is to be part of the local middle class. They see landlords who own large tracts of land and do not have to cultivate it themselves. They are envious of landlords with a certain status. However, these people are timid. They are afraid of officials and turmoil. They become panic-stricken at the slightest sign of trouble."

"These people are essentially landowners without any status, with certain middle-class attributes."

"As for handicraftsmen, given the current state of the world, they can barely be self-sufficient."

"They also want to get rich, but the Ming system, especially the quota system, and the court's tyrannical oppression, are hindering them from getting rich. This group of people are the most dissatisfied with the court and have the most resentment, because they have skills and production capabilities, but because of the court's requirements, they work hard and can only exchange for meager money and food from the court."

"And there are many such people in the world now."

"The number of people, including kitchen workers and water diggers, has reached one million."

"This is the real 'millionaire'."

"As for the intellectuals who are unable to obtain the status of a student, they are currently living in poverty in the Ming Dynasty, unable to move up or down, and they are unwilling to take off their long gowns."

"As the imperial court increases the number of 'labor services' each year, the lives of these people are becoming increasingly miserable. These people usually groan and groan, but if there is a real change in the world, these people are the most motivated to push for it, and they are also the most capable of making noise."

"Next are the semi-proletariat."

"The so-called semi-proletariat are semi-self-employed peasants, poor farmers, and small handicraftsmen."

"Semi-self-cultivating farmers are farmers who cannot be self-sufficient. Although they have a certain amount of land, they generally do not have enough food. They need to rent other people's land or sell a certain amount of labor to make up for it. In spring and summer, when there is a shortage of food, they will also borrow money from others at high interest rates and buy grain on credit at high prices."

"Although these people live in hardship, they can still make a living."

"As for the poor peasants, they are farmers who have no land but have a certain amount of productive farmland and a place to live, and they mainly work as hired labourers."

"This kind of people live the most difficult lives. They are exploited by landlords all year round. In times of famine and poverty, they can only beg for mercy from relatives and friends. Even in years of plenty, they can only barely make ends meet. They just barely get by in the midst of hardship and destitution."

"For the subsequent small craftsmen, they are mainly the lower nine classes such as entertainers and actors."

“These people are at the bottom of society in terms of their status.”

“Although they have a free and simple means of livelihood and are self-employed, they are often oppressed and exploited in various ways. Moreover, the daily family burden is heavy, and the income and expenditure are often disproportionate. Moreover, they are often oppressed by poverty and have the fear of being homeless.”

“They are much the same as poor peasants.”

"In the end, there is nothing left."

"Most of these people are slaves."

"The next are the sedan chair bearers and dung bearers that can be seen from time to time in the streets and alleys. They have nothing but a pair of hard-working hands. Then there are the farmhands and hired laborers who have no fixed place to live, no land, and can only work as hired laborers for others."

"There are many such people in the Ming Dynasty."

"Only by making a simpler and clearer division of the world in this way can we better understand the current situation of the world."

"The enemies of the Ming Dynasty's long-term stability are also clearly revealed."

(End of this chapter)