Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 304: What does Your Majesty want to leave for the world!
"What nonsense." Zhu Yuanzhang glared at him.

Although what Xia Zhibai said before was unpleasant to Zhu Yuanzhang's ears, he knew it was the truth. However, Zhu Yuanzhang could not accept the accusation that he did not teach Zhu Biao well. Zhu Biao was the one he personally guided and educated, and he was the only crown prince in his mind.

How can we allow outsiders to judge our status? !
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, also getting angry, and said coldly: "I don't need you to tell me how to teach my son."

"And we're not good at matching up?"

"When I first became emperor, I appointed Jiang Biaoer as the crown prince, and personally selected a man of merit and moral integrity to lead the East Palace and tutor the crown prince. Throughout the dynasties, which crown prince has ever been so respected and trusted?"

"I have set up a special hall in the palace to store various ancient and modern books, and let famous scholars take turns to give lectures to the prince. I have also selected more than a dozen talented young men from the Imperial College, such as Guo Qi, Wang Pu, and Zhang Jie, to accompany the prince in his studies. I came from a poor family and didn't read much when I was young, so I told the boss about it early on."

"He will be in charge of the country in the future."

"And the most important thing we require from him in his education is a righteous heart."

"If your heart is right, then everything can be accomplished."

"If the mind is not right, all desires will come together and attack each other, and that is undesirable."

"I don't like the Confucianists' quibbling over words, and I repeatedly told him to learn and teach, and not to learn those memorized words, because they are useless."

"Did we harm him in any way?"

"In addition to having the prince recite Confucian classics every day, we have also specially selected a group of upright and virtuous people, such as Liang Zhen, Wang Yi and others as the prince's guests, and Qin Yong, Lu Deming, Zhang Chang and others as the prince's moral tutors. What are we doing?"

"That is, let them teach the prince the 'way of the emperor, the teachings of rites and music, the records of success and failure in the past, and the farming affairs of the people' day and night."

"In addition to these, I often teach the prince with my own experience. I want him to understand that it is not easy to establish the Ming Dynasty and start a business. I want him to understand the hardships of maintaining success. What did I do wrong?"

"If we hadn't taught him so diligently, my eldest son would have become a playboy long ago."

"You have traveled a lot in the world and seen a lot."

"Then you should have seen how many people, once they have gained power and wealth, their children become ridiculous. Not to mention the distant past, Xu Da's sons, Chang Yuchun's sons, which family doesn't have dandy children? But I didn't let the eldest brother have even a little bit of dandy habits."

"In order for the Crown Prince to govern the country sooner, in the tenth year of Hongwu, we will let the Crown Prince meet with the ministers every day and listen to the reports of various departments so that he can practice state affairs."

"And we only have a few requests for the prince."

"The first is benevolence. Only by being benevolent can one avoid being careless and violent. The second is wisdom. Only by being wise can one avoid being deceived by treacherous people. The third is diligence. Only by being diligent can one avoid being drowned in comfort. The fourth is decisiveness. With decisiveness, one will not be bound by grammar."

"Since I became the emperor, I have never been lazy. I am afraid that I will not handle any affairs properly and fail to live up to the trust of God. I get up before dawn every day and go to bed late at night. I sleep less than two or three hours a day. I don't want the prince to learn from me."

"All we want is for the prince to learn how to govern the country from us."

"We are right!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice is like a loud bell.

The whole hall was buzzing with the vibration.

He could ignore everything else, but when it came to Zhu Biao, he would never give in.

He is right.

No matter what anyone says, it's useless.

He attached the most importance to Zhu Biao in all dynasties and gave him the best education. It was under his wise and brave guidance that Zhu Biao was able to avoid any bad habits and was also well-known in the whole court.

Xia Zhibai shook his head.

He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang neither servile nor arrogant, not giving in, and said, "Your Majesty believes that only by letting the prince learn from your Majesty and act according to your Majesty's ideas can the world be preserved."

"But I heard this saying in my early years." "Learn from me, but don't be exactly like me. Those who can transform me will live, those who can break me will advance, and those who imitate me will die!"

"Over the years, the Crown Prince has been learning and assisting Your Majesty in handling daily government affairs. He has often proposed the implementation of a 'lenient and easy-going policy', but what was the final result? Your Majesty rejected all of them. Your Majesty has planned everything for Your Highness, except for Your Highness's origin."

"Your Highness is not from a poor family like Your Majesty."

"He is not the son of a farmer in the past, but the son of Marshal Zhu since birth."

"Everything your majesty instructs you on is not for the prince, but for my own childhood, when I was poor and in hardship."

"In your majesty's eyes, he is not the crown prince, but his former self."

"Your Majesty has often said that he was poor and destitute when he was young and had no chance to study. He even hoped that he could receive the same preferential treatment as he does now. In that state, Your Majesty believed that he could do much more than he does now. Therefore, Your Majesty imposed his own ideas on the Crown Prince."

"But the prince is not your majesty."

"Even if I continue to follow the path of study that Your Majesty longs for."

"But on the road of interest, it is difficult to walk with Your Majesty."

"I do not deny that many of your actions are correct and have their own reasons, but if a person has not been through the test of wind and rain, has not experienced the education of setbacks, and has established his own ambitions based on just a few books he has read and a few words from you, then such a person is undoubtedly a sad person."

“Can you really continue to persevere when you encounter new problems and troubles?”

"I do not know."

"I only know that if we allow this to continue, maybe one day the prince will no longer object to the decisions made by your majesty. That's not what the prince understands."

"But the prince is 'dead'!"

"And Your Majesty should bear most of the responsibility for the Crown Prince's 'death'."

Xia Zhibai sighed.

He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang meaningfully and said quietly, "The Great Edict, which Your Majesty had high hopes for, is becoming less and less popular among the people. The Crown Prince, who Your Majesty had high hopes for, is also becoming more and more silent. Perhaps Your Majesty will be the winner."

"But I dare to conclude that there will be no smile on your Majesty's face."

“The political path is always a lonely one.”

"A long-term struggle will exhaust your energy. Along the way, you will lose your enemies, your brothers, your respected teachers and counselors, and of course, your youth, vitality, and the sincerity of a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger."

"In the end, all that's left is a tired body."

"When victory really comes, Your Majesty may just want to lie on the bench and close his eyes quietly for a while."

“This may be an unavoidable phenomenon.”

"only."

"I have always been curious about one thing."

"Your Majesty, have you ever thought about what you can leave behind for the world in the end?"

"Is it the state system of the ancestors' laws that cannot be changed, or the Great Edict that is intended to educate the world, or the 'emperor-like' crown prince that I taught with great care, or the evaluation that Taizu was suspicious, short-sighted, obsessed with power, and had to do everything himself, or..."

"other."

(End of this chapter)