Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 333 What the world needs is pragmatism!
The snow was falling harder and harder.

Fang Xiaoru's heart had originally relaxed a little, but after hesitating for a while, he hesitated again.

Today, every aspect of the world is influenced by Confucianism.

Changing course is not an option.

If they insist on pushing it through, the turmoil caused will be too great, which they cannot control at all, and they have no way of predicting how it will eventually turn out. The risks are too high and the benefits are very small.

Fang Xiaoru's heart gradually calmed down.

The passion aroused by Xia Zhibai's heroic words gradually cooled down.

He looked at Xia Zhibai and said, "May I ask, Mr. Xia, where do you place Confucianism in your heart?"

Xia Zhibai smiled faintly and said, "It will remain the same as it is now. Academics are academics, and the secular world is the secular world. There is a clear difference between the two. The secular world has been influenced by Confucianism for thousands of years, so how can it change overnight? And I have never thought of making a big change."

"Confucianism today has long been secularized."

"It has long been accepted by the world."

"Any rash action will only cause panic among the world. Although I, Xia Zhibai, am bold, I am not so arrogant as to try to change the world's perception with my own strength. I only want to change the academic aspect."

"The development of Confucianism had already reached a bottleneck during the Song Dynasty."

“I ended up falling into science.”

"In my opinion, Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism is to alienate the social political and ethical principles into the principles of heaven, and to make the principles of heaven appear in people as human nature, and to make the heart and the principles of heaven in people become one as the effort of moral cultivation. Its purpose is to make the people consciously act according to the social and political ethical standards."

"This kind of philosophy mainly emphasizes morality."

“But society cannot be just about morality.”

"Because people need to eat, wear clothes, and travel, but these are not solved by Neo-Confucianism. What can be solved is only the actual productivity and production technology. However, Confucianism cannot give an answer to how to improve productivity and production technology. In the Han Dynasty, when there was a severe drought, the people were not allowed to dig wells for water. They could only offer sacrifices to pray for rain. Now, after thousands of years of development, it is not as bad as before, but there are still not many practical solutions."

"The establishment of the Ming Dynasty was largely due to natural disasters."

"As a minister of the Ming Dynasty, preventing natural disasters is destined to be a very important political mission. Relying on Confucian classics obviously cannot solve the problem, so we can only think of ways from other places. I am also a scholar and do not have such great magical powers. I can only do my best to let the people have extra food in their homes so that they can survive the disaster."

"The other is to develop water conservancy."

"The water conservancy I want to develop is not a local waterway dam, but a large reservoir. To build such a reservoir, a lot of manpower needs to be mobilized and a lot of resources and financial resources need to be invested, which are not available in the Ming Dynasty at present."

“But in my opinion, it is necessary.”

“So we have to find another way.”

"By improving production technology and mobilizing manpower to a greater extent, we can use fewer human resources to play a greater role, so that the Ming Dynasty can achieve drought and flood-proof harvests as much as possible and reduce the impact of natural disasters. However, the current Confucian philosophy has seriously failed to keep up with the pace of social development."

“So it must be abandoned.”

"in short."

"Yu Shu still promotes the Confucian spirit, but when it comes to social practice, it should be inclusive, whether it is Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, or other doctrines, as long as they can be used, they can be used."

"Use Confucianism to deal with human relationships and practical learning to solve practical problems."

“The world needs to be pragmatic!”

When Fang Xiaoru heard Xia Zhibai's words, his expression looked somewhat unnatural.

Since Xia Zhibai had almost openly mocked Confucianism's "empty talk", it was not easy for him to refute it, because in his opinion, Confucianism was indeed a bit unprofessional and spent all day reading the books of sages.

He also understood.

Confucianism is still Confucianism, and most people still focus on Confucianism. But in terms of academic research, we should gradually abandon the existing Confucianism and turn to the "extreme" of other doctrines. To put it bluntly, it is just a layer of Confucianism, just like the Han Dynasty, which was Confucianism on the outside and Legalism on the inside. Confucianism is just that layer of skin.

Huang Zhang and others remained silent.

Naturally they were opposed to it. Some of them said nice things but might not necessarily be put into practice. Once the door was opened, no one could predict what would happen. Especially since Xia Zhibai had already criticized many Confucian viewpoints before, wouldn't other literati who had learned Mohist and Taoist thoughts follow suit?
Will Confucianism's ruling status continue at that time?
They are doubtful.

But they didn't object.

Xia Zhibai is now obviously insane and is determined to go all the way. Even if they speak out to oppose, it will not achieve any results and they may even be fiercely attacked by Xia Zhibai. They will not bother to do this.

even.

They also wanted to report what Xia Zhibai had said to His Majesty.

After all, Your Majesty fully recognizes Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

By doing this, Xia Zhibai was shaking the status of Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism and was intentionally creating divisions, making the originally unified thoughts become scattered and even loosening the control over thoughts. How could the emperor tolerate this?

Xia Zhibai has violated a taboo.

Xia Zhibai didn't care what the scholars below thought.

It is inevitable to liberate the mind.

If we do not liberate our minds and remain stuck in the Confucian circle, we will only lose our ability to innovate more and more.

Moreover, Confucianism in the Han and Tang dynasties had already widely absorbed the cultures of Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Yin and Yang, etc. in the local culture. However, it was later added with the addition of foreign Buddhism, which eventually led to ideological confusion and gradual decline. The Confucian revival started by Han Yu in the middle of the Tang Dynasty had already intentionally made distinctions.

It’s just that Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty went one step further in theory.

However, unlike the Ming Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism was not the only dominant school in the Song Dynasty. There were also non-Neo-Confucianism schools, such as the New School, Shu School, Yongjia and Yongkang utilitarian schools. On the other hand, Lian School, Guan School, Luo School, Fujian School, Wu School and Lu's School of Mind belonged to Neo-Confucianism.

However, after Zhu Yuanzhang came to power, his integration of ideas was too simple and crude.

Directly established Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

The Cheng-Zhu school of thought gradually became a tool for the official unified ideology.

However, Xia Zhibai also discovered that there are still many scholars in various places who are dissatisfied with this phenomenon. The Guanzhong region introduced Zhang Zai of the Song Dynasty. The Guanxue, Sanyuanxue and Hedongxue that are popular in the Guanzhong region today still have obvious differences from Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

This is actually the reason why the North cannot perform as well as the South in exams.

The North doesn't like Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism very much.

It was just that Zhu Yuanzhang was too powerful. Relying on the imperial examination system and government-run schools, he was constantly squeezing and depriving Guanxue of its place to survive, intending to unify the entire Ming Dynasty's thoughts into Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

In Xia Zhibai's opinion, if this situation is allowed to spread, it will not be long before all the literati in the world are descendants of Zhu Xi's disciples, with their own teachers and proper rules and regulations.

He did not have such a great aversion to Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, but it was obvious that Neo-Confucianism would deteriorate under the influence of politics. The originally vibrant Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism would gradually become a dogmatic text under the influence of politics.

This was also what Xia Zhibai intended to prevent.

Only a competitive and dynamic Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism can be considered a qualified ideological discipline.

Rather than a political dogmatic text.

Moreover, from a historical perspective, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was unable to break away from the trend of being associated with profit and fame, and eventually became completely hypocritical.

It has since become unrecognizable.

(End of this chapter)