Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 115: Family Shame
After this incident, Fang Xiaoru, Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng left the East Palace classroom in despair.

They didn't expect that Yang Chen could crush their former beliefs to the ground with just his mouth.

You know, the teachings of Confucius have always been the sage's doctrine that many students have been pursuing all their lives. For this reason, almost all dynasties have granted certain special powers to his family descendants, even the Ming Dynasty was no exception.

Old Zhu stood out from the crowd of heroes. In order to stabilize the students all over the world, he renovated and rebuilt the Confucius Temple at all costs.

This allowed the descendants of Confucius to completely stand on the side of the Ming Dynasty.

What no one expected was that his descendants completely violated the rules he set.

Whichever way the wind blows, they fall.

Not far from the classroom door, after the three people left, Zhu Biao said helplessly:

"Brother Yang, you are still as unforgiving as ever. But I really didn't expect other people to be so obsessed with Confucius' teachings. Why do you seem to be a little bit obsessed with Confucius' teachings?"

"You're just like the grass in the corner here, right?"

Yang Chen directly added a sentence for him.

Zhu Biao said nothing, but just nodded silently, acknowledging what the other party said.

"Ah~ You don't understand." Yang Chen looked at the clouds in the sky and said with regret:

“Back then, Confucius led 3,000 disciples and was so glorious. He traveled around the countries to spread his knowledge and won the recognition of many people.

But it is hard to describe his descendants. Let me tell you this: some of his knowledge is worth learning, but not all of it is good. As thoughtful and far-sighted young people, we should take the attitude of taking the essence and discarding the dross when dealing with any knowledge. "

"Thoughtful and far-sighted." Zhu Biao thought that this sentence sounded very nice no matter how he heard it, so he couldn't help but ask further questions.

“Brother Yang, please teach me. You should know my teacher Song Lian. When I was still a prince, he was the one who taught me. As a great scholar, I have studied almost all the Confucian classics since ancient times.

As the saying goes, those involved are often confused, but those who are not involved can see things more clearly. Perhaps if Brother Yang could give me some pointers, I would be able to see things more clearly. "

Yang Chen looked at Zhu Biao and said jokingly, "Hey, not only am I my son's teacher, I also have to be your half-teacher part-time. But since you want to know, if I don't tell you, I'm being immature."

Before Zhu Biao could smile bitterly, Yang Chen said calmly: “We all know that Confucius’s teachings emphasize morality, ethics, etiquette and education.

These ideas have played a positive role in shaping people's character and maintaining social stability.

But as a person from a distant era, his self also has some limitations. Not only him, but every great scholar has his own limitations.

It's like Mencius said that human nature is good, but Xunzi said that human nature is evil. Both of them are great Confucian scholars. Who do you think is right and who is wrong? "

At this point, Zhu Biao fell into deep thought. It was like asking himself who was right and who was wrong between his father and his mother. It seemed that both of them were right, but it also seemed that neither of them was wrong.

"We've strayed off topic. Let's talk about Zhong Ni."

Yang Chen discovered that Zhu Biao was really thinking deeply, so he quickly changed the subject.

“Let me first talk about the dregs of his learning.

The first is that his scholarship has a clear sense of hierarchy. He emphasized that the emperor, his subjects, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives each have their own duties, and that the hierarchy is strict and no transgression is allowed.

Starting from him, the idea of ​​'the ruler is the ruler, the minister is the minister, the father is the father, and the son is the son' has persecuted countless people. Everyone must act according to their own status and position and follow the proper moral norms. The constraints of this idea have prevented many people from developing their own creative ideas.

Let's talk about the relationship between father and son. Because of this sentence, how many far-sighted sons have had their chances to change their destiny destroyed by their short-sighted fathers who said, "I'm your father! You should listen to me."

Zhu Biao felt deeply about this statement, and he had even experienced such a thing not long ago.

At the beginning, he told his father clearly that the salaries of officials were too low, which led to a lot of corruption. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that this meant that his son blamed him for the serious corruption in the Ming Dynasty.

When Zhu Yuanzhang learned that his son wanted to increase the salaries of all officials, he said directly, "This is not something you as the crown prince should think about. If you want to do it, wait until you become the emperor."

The moment these words entered Zhu Biao's mind, he felt as if the sky had fallen.

At that time, Yang Chen had already told him that the cause of his death might be somewhat related to his father, but he didn't believe it at first.

Old Zhu's words directly confirmed Zhu Biao's doubts.

Yang Chen ignored Zhu Biao's self-reflection.

"Besides the one in front, there are several more in the back.

In "The Analects of Confucius: Taibo", it is mentioned that "the people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to understand it." Many people have interpreted this sentence as the rulers of the dynasty should implement a policy of keeping the people ignorant.

Confucius did not mean this, but people in later generations interpreted it as having another meaning.

If Confucius were still alive, he would probably raise his hands and cry out that it was injustice.

It's exactly the same as what your second brother originally proposed.

His way of thinking is very simple. He believes that a gentleman should have noble moral character and behavioral norms, while a villain should be the opposite.

He really underestimated the complexity of human nature. Is a gentleman necessarily noble? If so, why is there the word hypocrite?
Sima Yi was smart, wasn't he? He was also very capable, wasn't he? But in the end, he was agonizing over why the Wei Dynasty had become like this, while he was breaking his promise to Cao Cao.

He was also fascinated by the ancients, and therefore emphasized "narrating but not creating", which roughly means focusing on explaining the ideas of the ancients rather than advocating originality.

Tell me, what will the world become if a large number of intellectuals or dynasty rulers adopt such ideas?
In fact, I am also very curious. Since they like to worship the ancients so much, why don’t they directly worship the traditions of the Yan and Huang Emperors and Chi You?

For example, wearing clothes made of animal fur that had not been cleaned properly, or cutting off human heads for sacrifice? They even ate food that was only roasted over fire without any seasoning, and instead of looking at the prostitutes in colorful clothes, they looked at women covered in mud and with unkempt hair and dirty faces.

These are the traditions of the ancients. Why don't people like Fang Xiaoru take the initiative to mention them, but instead talk about the saints' teachings that are beneficial to them all day long? "

Yang Chen laughed contemptuously:

“So, people always seek good fortune and avoid disaster. As long as they are not stupid, they know to fight for their own interests. Otherwise, why would they do these things for no reason?
Even though I'm here to tell you all these things."

The moment these words came out of his mouth, Zhu Biao didn't even react, but he soon smiled with relief.

Rather than sounding mysterious, it is more admirable to be straightforward.

Yang Chen put his hands behind his back and said:
“As for the last one, I think it should be discrimination against women.

In his "The Analects of Confucius: Yang Hu" he said, "Only women and villains are difficult to raise. If you are close to them, they will be disrespectful. If you are far away from them, they will complain."

This sentence has led to the misunderstanding of later generations that women are just like villains. So, may I ask, Prince, what is the character of your mother? What about Qin Liangyu, who sacrificed her life for the country in later generations?

Are these women the same as villains?

Maybe he didn't mean it that way, but later generations just quoted his words and combined them with the context, so no one dared to refute them, which led to more and more mistakes, and in the end, it became a disease!"

Zhu Biao was silent. After listening to Yang Chen's words, he realized that all the knowledge he had learned actually contained so much dross.

Just as Yang Chen said, Confucius's teachings may not have meant this, but he could not explain it clearly, and there were many contradictions, which led to later generations believing in him in everything they did.

This eventually led to the current situation.

When Zhu Biao thought of Fang Xiaoru's appearance just now, he had a feeling about all the literati of this era.

If this continues for a long time, can the Ming Dynasty develop quickly to the era that he and Yang Chen have agreed upon?
difficult!
This was the only word that came to his mind.

“It seems that the teachings of the great Confucianists are not suitable for everyone. If we do not take their essence and discard their dross, they will inevitably bring disaster to students all over the world in the future.

Students and young people are the future, and people will eventually grow old. These poisonous knowledge must be changed! Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed!"

Zhu Biao knew clearly that his decision today meant that he would become the enemy of all students in the world!
"Brother Yang, are you willing to help me?" Zhu Biao turned his head to look at the person next to him and asked sincerely.

Yang Chen: “?”

"A Biao, you think too simply. You can't easily change the thinking of students all over the world.

These people have long been willing to believe that Confucius is right, and even if you are the emperor, you cannot interfere with what they think.

Not to mention, how could ordinary people be willing to give up something they have worked hard for half their lives to obtain?
The teachings of Confucius and Mencius are all the knowledge that students in this world learn, and they cannot be changed by just one sentence from you. "

"What should we do? We can't just sit there and watch these bad ideas poison the future of Ming Dynasty!

There are thousands of children like Xiang Xiongying in the Ming Dynasty. If I don't do something, it will be because of you and I. What will happen?"

An anxious Zhu Biao began to think about the next few decades. Yang Chen noticed his move and immediately made a suggestion.

Do you remember what I said just now, that the Song Dynasty made the descendants of Confucius surrender to the Jin Dynasty in advance, and then surrendered to the Mongols in a shameful way? "

"Of course I remember." Zhu Biao nodded in response very naturally.

"What this family did is already a well-known fact. I believe that many of the millions of people in the Ming Dynasty know about it, but few people discuss it.

We can set up a newspaper that specializes in printing major events that happened in the Ming Dynasty, circulate them widely, and let storytellers in teahouses and during riots read them out to the people.

At that time, if you were a commoner, would you still let your children learn Confucianism and Taoism?

But some things still need to be learned, this move is mainly to prevent the people from learning everything. Not to mention the Ming Dynasty used this method, as long as the human form is still complex, this method will still work, just like the Golden Knife Scheme.

History has clearly recorded it, but people will doubt you whether you go or not.

No one cares what the truth of the matter is anymore. The situation has been determined and nothing can be changed by human efforts.

"Isn't this move a little too cruel?"

After all, Zhu Biao graduated from Confucianism, so naturally he was unwilling to be slandered by this family.

Hearing this, Yang Chen sneered.

"Vicious? What a joke!

You have no idea what they did every time a dynasty fell and changed in the hundreds of years after the Ming Dynasty."

Yang Chen listed out one crime after another, and Zhu Biao was so angry after listening to them!
If they are not dealt with, it is hard to imagine what shocking things they will do in the future.”

This made Zhu Biao make a complete decision in his heart. He would not allow a big family in the Ming Dynasty to be spineless!
If we talk about the Han people's inheritance since ancient times, it was not based on elegance and respect, but on the weapons in their hands and the courage to face life and death.

Now some people want to become withered escapees among the Han people, but Zhu Biao will never allow this to happen.

"Eh? That's not right! What newspaper were you talking about?"

Zhu Biao came back to his senses and realized that Yang Chen seemed to have said something extraordinary again.

Yang Chen's eyes rolled around in his eye sockets.

"How should I explain this to you?
The full name of the newspaper in later generations was Daxia Daily, which means that everything that happened in the entire Ming Dynasty was printed on one or even several pieces of paper every day.

Then distribute it and let the people buy it with money, so that they can find out what happened in the Ming Dynasty.

For example, if the Ming Dynasty is going to march north, who will it execute and what crime will it charge them with? Another example is what decision the Ming Dynasty court will make to benefit the people and how it will implement it.

Besides these serious matters, there is also the entertainment aspect.

A singing and dancing hall full of exotic atmosphere opened in the capital.

Anyway, anything can be written on it, and then there is a newspaper office in every place. The place where newspapers are sold is called a newspaper office. You can think of it as another kind of post station."

"I see." Zhu Biao nodded repeatedly. He already understood what the newspaper Yang Chen was talking about was.

"But if we want to have newspapers all over the Ming Dynasty, this is probably not an easy task. Not only do we need to set up another department, but we also need to recruit more people. It takes three hundred taels of silver to build a post station. I wonder how much it would cost to build a newspaper?"

Seeing Zhu Biao worried about money, Yang Chen said frankly:
"You don't need to worry about this. In the future, only one person will be needed to look after a newspaper office. It would be best if a shop with a wide entrance was built in a crowded place. Even an old man could sell newspapers there.

The only troublesome thing is the transmission of information. I don’t care how you do it.

Besides, there is so much silver in Japan, as long as you conquer it, will you still be short of money?"

"Hey! That makes sense! I almost forgot about this important thing. Luckily you reminded me."

"By the way, Ah Biao, there is something I need to tell you."

"what's up?"

"Now that your son has accepted me as his teacher, and I like this child very much, if possible, can you please not let your father choose other teachers for him? I'm worried that the other old guys will teach him bad things.

I really don't want such a genius to die in front of me.

Your father's vision in selecting people.
I won't say any more nonsense, this is a matter of losing your head."

"Ah? This matter can be considered, but my father's vision is limited."

The two were walking on the spacious palace road. When Zhu Biao talked about his father's shortcomings, he didn't dare to refute him.

There was no way. Based on the great deeds of the three people just now, Zhu Biao really didn't know how to praise these guys.

I could only nod repeatedly.

As night fell, the palace fell into silence.

Regarding the position of the harem, Old Zhu got a detailed record of the communication process between Yang Chen, Zhu Biao and Fang Xiaoru today.

It looked like he was totally furious.

"What bastards! No wonder we were wondering why Zhu Yunwen was innocent in reducing the power of the feudal lords. It turns out that these three nerds were behind the scenes fanning the flames. How stupid! How stupid!
We value their youth so much that we want to let them gain some experience in the future so that they can teach our grandchildren.

I didn't expect that as soon as I left, they would persuade the young emperor to reduce the power of the vassal states! They have damaged the imperial power of our Zhu family. We should really catch these three guys and chop them up!"

"what happened?"

Just after Queen Ma finished coaxing Zhu Xiongying, she saw her husband looking at a palm-sized book in front of a candle with a rage on his face.

It was as if someone had challenged his bottom line. Based on her understanding of her husband, unless it was a very serious matter, it would be rare for him to be so angry.

Seeing Empress Ma walking towards him, Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to slap the table hard to vent his emotions, but when he thought that his grandson had just fallen asleep, his anger was reduced by more than half.

However, he was still angry and waited until Queen Ma came to his side before he said in a deep voice:

"Sister! Let me tell you, today Yang Chen taught Xiong Ying, and then Biaoer took Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, and Qi Tai to discuss translating all the teaching materials of his bachelor's degree into plain language according to the 'simplified Chinese'.

As a result, Yang Chen told Biaoer that these three guys were actually corrupt scholars who had great ambitions but lacked the corresponding talents.

In another Ming Dynasty, after I left this world, the three of them were appointed by me as regents for Zhu Yunwen, but I didn't expect that Yunwen had just ascended the throne.

Fang Xiaoru and the other two guys colluded with each other and persuaded him to reduce the power of the princes.

This led to fratricide between uncles and nephews, and ultimately shortened the life of our Zhu family in history by half!"

"Is there still this?"

Queen Ma was slightly surprised, but she did not think the matter was serious. After all, there were things more serious than this.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not realize that Empress Ma did not care about this and just clenched her fists.

"What's even more hateful is!"

"What is it?" Looking at the other party's deflated look, Queen Ma knew that the matter was far from simple.

Zhu Yuanzhang complained to his wife angrily.

"It's Yang Chen! This little bastard actually told Biao'er that there's something wrong with our selection process!"

"Hahahaha" Queen Ma covered her mouth and giggled.

"Sister, what are you laughing at! This little bastard said that if he angered me, he would be beheaded, but at the same time he said bad things to me. I think this bastard knew that I didn't dare to do anything to him, so he was so rude!"

After a moment, Queen Ma glanced up and down.

"What he said was indeed unpleasant to the ear, but it was the truth. Think about it, Xiong Ying himself now said that Yang Chen, as his teacher, could teach him many things he had never seen before, as well as knowledge about the power of the universe and stars.

He often praised Zhu Xiongying in class as a genius.

Every year, I see Xiongying go to study with great enthusiasm, and come back happily to tell me these interesting stories. As a grandmother, I am so happy. "

The originally angry Zhu Yuanzhang's anger was suddenly reduced by Empress Ma's indifferent attitude.

"This bastard is really lucky. He is valued by you and relied on by Xiong Ying. Both of you are my weaknesses, but he still holds you in his hands. What do you think of me as the emperor?"

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang beginning to feel lost again, Empress Ma immediately spoke up:

“In fact, I think what he said about your vision is not entirely right. Think about it, when you were still the commander-in-chief, you had a unique eye for selecting people.

Brother Chang, Tiande, and Ma Sandao, these brothers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for you, which one of them was not promoted by you personally?"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Empress Ma praising him, he felt warm inside, but when he thought of Xu Da, he felt disappointed again.

The sharp-eyed Queen Ma realized something was wrong and asked questions immediately.

"From your appearance, you seem to be in a bad mood, very depressed. Are you hiding something from me?"

It would have been fine if he hadn't asked, but once he asked, Lao Zhu could no longer hide the truth.

For a moment he really didn't know how to answer. After all, Xu Da was not only his brother. To Empress Ma, these brothers who had once fought for the Ming Dynasty were all her relatives.

Not to mention that Xu Da once told Queen Ma that as long as she was there, she would be the only queen of the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of family affection is far stronger than blood ties.

(End of this chapter)