Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 213 May I ask you, what dynasty is it tonight?

Hearing Xia Zhibai's words, the expressions of all the scholars in the pavilion changed.

The current emperor's attitude towards scholars is well known to everyone. Isn't Xia Zhibai just offering himself up?

Besides, when is it Xia Zhibai's turn to comment on what's going on in the world? China has existed for so long, and it has its own reasons. Why is it the turn of a kid who is still wet behind the ears to point fingers here?
Huang Zhang's face turned red with anger.

He pointed at Xia Zhibai angrily and said, "Xia Zhibai, how long have you lived? What qualifications do you have to point fingers at the world? Who among us has read less books than you? Who among us has not experienced more things than you? Who among us does not understand the world more deeply than you?"

"Do you really think you're the only one with real insight?"

"Are the others all fools?"

"The court had no intention of making such moves in the past, of course, the court had its own considerations and assessments. The world has its own development, and now is far from that time. The world has just been settled, and it is time to recuperate and put the people first. Such a big move will not shake the foundation of the world, will it?"

"You are just throwing yourself into disarray. I think you are a traitor!"

"What a wicked villain!"

"I will report this to His Majesty and convict you of the crime of selling out your country for personal gain!"

Dong Guan also said in a cold voice: "The scholars are the backbone of the court. If you shake the foundation of the scholars, you are shaking the foundation of the country. Since you appeared in front of the world, you have been trying to shake the foundation of the scholars. You deserve to be killed and your crime is unforgivable!"

"The world has a lot of things to do, and now is the time to use people."

"It is the time for scholars to make great plans. At this critical moment, you want to abolish the old and establish the new. This is going against the grain. Scholars all over the world have been hesitant about our Ming Dynasty. By doing this, aren't you pushing these scholars to the opposite side of our Ming Dynasty?"

"If you abandon the scholars, the world will surely be in chaos."

"Words that bring disaster to a country, words that bring chaos to a nation!"

"He deserves to be killed!"

The other scholars also shouted in rebuke.

The criticisms were endless.

They did not dare to point fingers at Xia Zhibai directly, fearing that their words would reach Zhu Yuanzhang's ears, but they already hated Xia Zhibai so much that the sharpness and viciousness of their words were astonishing.

Fang Xiaoru frowned.

He looked at Xia Zhibai, who had a calm expression, then at the noisy scholars, and his brows furrowed even more.

To be fair.

He was also frightened by Xia Zhibai's words.

From ancient times to the present, even a tyrannical emperor like Qin Shi Huang only dared to burn books, and did not dare to control the learning situation of scholars. Even so, Qin Shi Huang still suffered crazy revenge from scholars, and the powerful Qin Dynasty perished in the second generation.

Now Xia Zhibai is even crazier.

Not only did he question the orthodox status of Confucianism and want to promote other things, he also wanted to control what scholars read, watch and learn. Can a scholar really say such a conscienceless and dictatorial character?

Fang Xiaoru took a deep breath, his eyes filled with a hint of coldness.

He originally had some good feelings towards Xia Zhibai, because he could see that Xia Zhibai had a heart for practical things, and he sincerely hoped that the world would become a better place. However, his methods and approaches were too sensational, and he was completely willful and self-righteous.

People like this have no future.

When the noise around him became a little quieter, Xia Zhibai stood with his hands behind his back, facing the crowd with grim faces, and spoke in a loud voice.

As soon as these words came out, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

"Tao Yuanming once wrote this sentence in his article Peach Blossom Spring."

"When asked what era we are in, I don't even know about the Han Dynasty, let alone the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

"I, Xia Zhibai, dare to ask you."

"What day is it tonight?"

There was silence all around, and everyone looked at each other, wondering what Xia Zhibai was thinking.

See this.

Fang Xiaoru took the initiative to say: "It is the Great Ming."

"Ming? Who said it? And who admitted it?" Xia Zhibai continued.

Fang Xiaoru frowned and said in a cold voice: "Of course it was decided by His Majesty himself. His Majesty said in his early years that the Song Dynasty would end. The emperor ordered the immortals in the desert to enter China and become the ruler of the world. His king, father, son and grandson have lived for more than a hundred years, and now the Song Dynasty has also ended."

"On the fourth day of the first lunar month in the first year of the Hongwu reign, your Majesty set up an altar on the south side of Mount Zhongshan and prepared ceremonies to announce to the Emperor that the name of the world would be Great Ming."

"Our Ming Dynasty has been established from now on."

"Who in the world would not recognize it?"

"Let alone the South, even the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, Liaodong, Northeast China, Northwest China, and even the Western Regions and Mongolia, who would deny the existence of the Ming Dynasty? Xia Zhibai, what exactly do you want to ask this question? What is your intention?"

Fang Xiaoru looked at him coldly with an extremely sharp look in his eyes.

Xia Zhibai sneered and said, "May I ask if this is the scholar's opinion? Or the opinion of the local people?"

Fang Xiaoru asked, "What's the difference?"

"Yes." Xia Zhibai looked at Fang Xiaoru and said coldly, "And the difference is huge."

"Because this is the view of scholars, it is not the consensus of the world at all."

"Tao Yuanming has pointed out a problem in this article, that is, hundreds of years have passed, and some people in the world are unaware that dynasties have changed. This situation existed in Tao Yuanming's time and it also existed in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, such "Peach Blossom Springs" can be found everywhere in the world!" Fang Xiaoru's face changed.

He looked at Xia Zhibai suddenly and said anxiously: "This is absolutely impossible."

"The imperial edicts of our Great Ming Dynasty have long been issued to all corners of the world. Even to the remote Western Regions and Luzon, the imperial edicts have been delivered. How could there be people in the world who don't know about the existence of our Great Ming Dynasty? Stop your alarmist remarks."

Xia Zhibai said: "True is true, false is false."

"A scholar's opinion is a scholar's opinion."

"May I ask, Master, how many people have you met and talked with regarding this matter? How dare you make such a boast?"

"Don't you think that once the imperial court issues a decree, the prestige of the Ming Dynasty will spread throughout the world, and people from all corners of the country will hear about it and feel grateful for it? The imperial court's decree can only be understood by literate people. Illiterate people don't know at all that the survival of the Ming Dynasty, to a certain extent, is not determined by the imperial court, but by the scholars of the Ming Dynasty."

"The scholars say that the Ming Dynasty does not exist."

"The Ming Dynasty does not exist."

"Because the mouth is on the face of the scholar, not on the face of the common people."

"Is there a big difference between the two characters Yuan and Ming?"

"big!"

“But not too big.”

"In the eyes of scholars, there is a world of difference between these two words."

"But in the eyes of illiterate people, these two characters are the same. They can't recognize either one, and after seeing them many times, they become the same."

"Many of you have just questioned why I included the Yuan Dynasty in the orthodox tradition."

"Perhaps in your opinion, your Majesty recognized the Yuan Dynasty as the orthodox dynasty in order to win over the people and facilitate the governance of the world."

"At the same time, because the Han people lost the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun for too long, the people of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun have more feelings for the Mongols, so recognizing the orthodoxy of the Yuan Dynasty is conducive to mending the rift between the northern Han people and the southern Han people and building a common historical memory."

"It also reduces the resistance of the northern Han people."

"Now that the Ming Dynasty has taken back the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the world has been stable for nineteen years. There is no need to continue to compromise."

"If you really hold this view, I can only say that you have no idea of ​​the actual situation in the world. You have been sitting on your chair for too long and are too far from the ground. You know nothing about the actual situation in the world."

“I’ve been to the North.”

“Spent nearly nine months in the North.”

"We have penetrated into many areas in the north, and have also been to Dongshengwei in the north."

"The more remote a place is, the more inconvenient the transportation is, the less we know the real situation in the world."

"Many villages and towns have no idea that the outside world has changed dynasties. People who have been away from the place and the village heads will not tell them that the world is now ruled by the Ming Dynasty. They will not use the Ming Dynasty's governance methods at all. They still use the old governance methods and brutally oppress the people."

"The change of dynasties has no impact on many lower-class people."

Still numb, in pain, living like an animal."

"Education is the duty given to scholars by the world, but do today's scholars really have the ability to educate people?"

"And it's not just the lower-class people, there are also many scholars in the north who don't appreciate the Ming Dynasty at all. Many of them complain about the Ming Dynasty, asking why the Mongols were driven away. Some even asked me, what's wrong with continuing to be slaves of the Mongols?"

"I can't answer that!"

"Because they don't know history, nor do they know the glory and pride of the Han people, they only feel a sense of torment now, and even have some hatred and anger towards the Ming Dynasty, thinking that it was the Ming Dynasty that destroyed their country."

"How sad?"

“But who can blame them?”

"They never had the chance to understand, and no one would tell them."

"The scholars were busy taking advantage of the chaos to reclaim land, thinking of making a big splash in the world, the landlords were busy exploiting the tenants, the merchants were busy traveling around, the officials were busy collecting taxes, these people all had a bright future, but the lower-class people who should know the truth were left behind."

“They have been forgotten by the world.”

"The world is now divided. The wealthy are exploiting the lower classes in various ways, and some are even deliberately keeping them in the dark, using the Ming dynasty's methods to deal with corrupt officials to deceive the lower class people, and then use the Yuan dynasty's simple and crude governance methods to govern the local areas."

"You sit here in a high-sounding manner, making bold statements and pointing fingers at others."

"You are the real sinners in this world!"

"To forget history is to betray."

"And every one of you, especially the scholars in the south, are deliberately ignoring, neglecting, and downplaying some history. You are the ones who are truly betraying this world."

"The current education system in the world produces people who curry favor with the powerful, rather than gentlemen with integrity and perseverance."

"The gentleman is harmonious but different, the villain is the same but not harmonious."

"I, Xia Zhibai, don't have that much ability. I just want to completely tear apart the hypocritical and bloody scene in the world and expose it to the people of the world, so that they will know what year it is today, who they are, and what kind of glorious past they have under their feet."

“Without knowing history, how can we plan for the future?”

Xia Zhibai's voice suddenly became much louder, and the whole hall was echoing with his voice.

(End of this chapter)