Jiajing Chengming

Zhu Houcong glanced at the book of quotations from former ministers presented to him by Xu Jie.

After reading it, Zhu Houcong's mouth corners slightly raised.

He was not surprised that Yang Yiqing, Wang Shizhong and other former veterans of the two dynasties did not want the people to live too well.

Even Zhu Houcong didn't feel angry.

because……

Not to mention these veteran ministers who have been accustomed to being superior to others since childhood, they will enjoy the particularly comfortable feeling of being superior to others because there are too many poor people.

Even Zhu Houcong himself.

He also had to admit that in this world of strict hierarchy, because there were too many poor people, many eunuchs around him developed a sense of superiority when compared with the large number of poor people around the capital, and became more respectful and submissive to him as the emperor. Naturally, he also enjoyed the feeling of being the master of tens of thousands of palace servants.

Not to mention the big things, just say that there are many people serving you in your daily life, such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, and many people caring about your warmth and coldness, joy and anger. As a result, Zhu Houcong himself had to admit that if he wanted to live a peaceful life, it seemed that someone really had to carry the burden and move forward.

But then again, this nation has long had the cry of "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers born of different species?" and most Chinese people are not really willing to be inferior to others for a long time just because they were not reborn into the right family.

Therefore, although the extremely intelligent rulers of successive dynasties have tamed this nation for nearly a thousand years, they have not yet made the majority of this nation willing to be humble. Instead, based on the perspective of making their own rule more convenient, the rulers have proactively established the imperial examination system to provide the people below with a channel to rise to nobility in peacetime.

Although this channel will become narrower as peace lasts too long, it does exist.

Zhu Houcong therefore knew that if he tried to forcibly implement the caste model on this land, or forcibly divide people into several equal parts, it would eventually collapse.

After all, although the civilization here is ancient, its endless vitality cannot be stifled even if you want to.

Zhu Houcong asked himself whether he was really an emperor who was better at ruling than those wise and holy rulers in history.

Therefore, he knew that all he could do was to absorb the essence of thought from five thousand years ago and try to bring a system, or order, that was more suitable for him to the world today.

One is to let nature take its course. Since traditional Confucianism has its own flaws, why not learn from the experience of the Han Dynasty and use some Taoist techniques appropriately?

The second is to comply with the demands of the broadest masses. After all, it is these people who truly live long in glory here.

However, their thoughts have always been ignored by most scholars and rulers. Even when summarizing the evolution of thoughts in history, they tend to summarize the evolution of thoughts of kings, princes, generals and ministers, but often ignore whether the demands of the general public have changed after the Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties.

For the latter, Zhu Houcong also needs to think about:
Why did Chen Sheng and Wu Guang shout slogans such as "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?" when they rebelled, expressing their dissatisfaction with class stratification instead of slogans against harsh laws, which seemed different from the motives for rebellion conveyed by the elites?
Why did the common people shout slogans expressing dissatisfaction with excessive class oppression such as "There are few people but many officials, we are beaten three times a day, what should we do if we don't rebel" when they rebelled in large numbers at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, rather than excessive national oppression? As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang, who experienced the chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and came from a lower class background, said "The Yuan lost the world because of its leniency" instead of "The Yuan did not treat the Han people as human beings" when summarizing the lessons of the Yuan Dynasty's demise?
"You did a great job, but as the saying goes, we should listen to what they say as well as watch what they do. It's not enough to just write down their quotes."

"I'm telling you this because I want you to understand that I'm not the kind of person who will be promoted just because of his sweet talk. I want to see if this person can put his knowledge into practice."

"Now that you have returned to the capital and are serving as the master of the Eastern Palace, you must do more practical things for the Eastern Palace and take Lu Shen as a warning."

Zhu Houcong then gave Xu Jie some advice.

After hearing this, Xu Jie bowed his head and agreed.

Then Xu Jie also took the initiative to speak: "I am a humble scholar, but Your Majesty has valued me and promoted me to the position of tutor of the Eastern Palace. I wanted to resign, but I was worried that this would make me look arrogant and disloyal, so I tried my best to accept the order. Now that Your Majesty has come to see the Emperor, I will boldly ask for your instructions so that I know how to teach the Crown Prince."

"It's not difficult to teach the prince. It's nothing more than letting him know that as a ruler, one should obey the will of heaven and the will of the people."

Zhu Houcong said with a smile at this time.

Xu Jie thanked him.

Zhu Houcong waved his hand and asked Xu Jie to go to the main hall to meet the prince and his colleagues in the East Palace. Xu Jie bid farewell to Zhu Houcong and went to the main hall.

After Xu Jie arrived at the main hall, he met Zhu Zaigui and two other princes as well as Zhai Luan, Gao Gong, and Zhao Zhenji.

Generally speaking, the close ministers of the Eastern Palace represent the ruling team of the next dynasty.

But the Jiajing period was an exception.

After all, Jiajing was a foreign prince who came to the capital, and most of the Confucian officials in his princely residences were not Jinshi or even Hanlin ministers, and they were not famous or capable enough to govern.

Therefore, Jiajing needed to find his own team after ascending the throne.

As the crown prince, Zhu Zaigui had his own team while studying.

Although Xu Jie said that he was not worthy of being a close minister of the Eastern Palace, he was still very excited about becoming one, because it meant that he would have a greater future.

Of course, Xu Jie also knew that the civil servants who were close to the Eastern Palace like him would most likely become rulers in the future like him, either before him or after him.

But no matter before or after, he knew he couldn't offend anyone.

Therefore, even when meeting new Hanlin scholars like Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji, Xu Jie had a friendly expression on his face.

And now, Crown Prince Zhu Zaigui’s favorite master in the Eastern Palace is Zhai Luan.

After all, Zhai Luan had gone too far for him.

Zhai Luan was a member of the Jinyiwei of Shuntian Prefecture. He never pretended to be noble and was willing to humble himself. He did not have much hostility towards Xu Jie, a colleague of the same rank as himself in the Eastern Palace. Now that he saw that Xu Jie was very friendly to people like him, he became even more easy-going and said to Xu Jie with a smile:

"Mr. Xu is a top scholar, so it is perfect for him to teach the crown prince."

"Mr. Zhai is joking."

Xu Jie also humbly bowed his hands in reply, and then said: "Zhai Gong is the head of the close ministers of the Eastern Palace. He has taught the prince for the longest time and has the merit of protecting the Eastern Palace. He can be said to be loyal and virtuous. I will need Zhai Gong's guidance in the future."

"Okay, okay. How to teach the prince is not up to me, but the cabinet. All lectures must be sent to the cabinet and revised by the cabinet officials before they can be delivered."

Zhai Luan smiled and then revealed more crucial information, that is, the cabinet controlled the content of the prince's education. The implication was that the power of the cabinet was increasing. At the same time, it also meant that Xu Jie personally should give up his attempt to influence the prince.

"Has it always been like this?"

Gao Gong asked this question at this time.

Zhai Luan smiled and said, "Of course, after Lu Shen confessed his guilt, the cabinet took the initiative to ask for an imperial decree, saying that in order to prevent another upright Confucian official like Lu Shen from harboring evil intentions, the Confucian officials of the Eastern Palace were required to submit their lectures to the cabinet for review before deciding whether to allow the lecture to be given or not."

"In this case, what if the cabinet ministers also have evil intentions?"

Zhao Zhenji then asked a question.

Zhai Luan and Xu Jie were both speechless.

They both realized at the same time that these two new Hanlin scholars, either because of their youth and simplicity or their straightforward character, actually directly questioned the cabinet.

After a while, Xu Jie finally spoke up: "The cabinet is only reviewing and revising, but the ones giving lectures are the Confucian officials of the Eastern Palace. As long as we are upright here, why should we be afraid of the cabinet harboring evil intentions?" (End of this chapter)