Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 295 Old Zhu arranges his final arrangements!

boom!
The wheels of the carriage seemed to hit something, and the body of the carriage shook slightly.

Yang Rong only felt a loud thunder in his ears.

He looked at the old emperor in front of him with disbelief.

For a moment, I was stunned and at a loss.

“Your Majesty!”

Yang Rong was dumbfounded. He, who had been calm and composed just now, began to stutter even when speaking.

In fact, although Yang Rong was nervous, he never lost his composure.

Even the trembling that was shown was intentional.

This is to show respect for Your Majesty and one's inner fear and trepidation.

But at this moment, Yang Rong really lost his composure.

What does His Majesty the Emperor mean by this?
"We are old!" Old Zhu sighed softly.

He drew aside the curtains and looked out through the glass windows surrounding the car.

Yoshigaki did as he instructed and placed the guards far away.

There was no one to drive the horses in the carriage, but instead someone was leading the horses in front.

"Your Majesty, the sound insulation performance of this car is very good. People outside cannot hear the conversation inside." Yang Rong knew the doubts in Lao Zhu's mind and spoke up.

In the past, the windows of horse-drawn carriages were simply covered with curtains, without any sound insulation, so there was no difference between talking inside and outside.

However, the new carriages launched by the manufacturing bureau have thick glass windows on all four sides. When the doors are closed, the inside and outside are isolated and naturally soundproofed.

What's more, the carriage that Lao Zhu was riding in was specially made.

It has anti-stabbing function, thick doors and windows, and stronger sound insulation performance.

"Yes!" Old Zhu nodded gently, looked at Yang Rong, and asked, "What do you think is more important, the emperor or the country?"

Yang Rong stood there in a daze, speechless.

Old Zhu snorted coldly: "You don't have to answer, I know what you are thinking."

"Mencius said: The people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least important."

"Mencius is the second sage of Confucianism and is highly respected by millions of scholars. His words are naturally regarded as truth by you scholars."

Yang Rong looked at his nose with his eyes, looked at his heart with his nose, and listened with his ears pricked up.

The carriage continued to roll forward.

The distance from Daming Academy of Sciences to the Eastern Palace is not short.

The carriage was escorted by guards and moved very slowly.

It takes quite a while to get to the East Palace.

Too much talk will lead to mistakes. Yang Rong knew very well that the old emperor wanted to tell him something, but there was no need for him to say much.

Old Zhu said slowly, "When I read Mencius's book, I disagreed with many of the contents in his book, and ordered to move his tablet out of the Confucian Temple. I believe you also know this."

Yang Rong still said nothing.

In fact, nothing he said was appropriate on this issue.

To please His Majesty would be too hypocritical and would be seen through by His Majesty.

But it is also inappropriate to refute what Your Majesty said at this time.

I can only sculpt Buddha statues.

Zhu Yuanzhang's relocation of Mencius's tablet and his ban on the publication and circulation of the book Mencius caused a huge uproar at the time.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had issued a clear order, anyone who dared to write a letter to oppose this matter would be charged with disrespect and would be ordered to be shot to death by the Imperial Guards.

However, there were still countless scholars who rushed to tell others and carried coffins to make suggestions.

Many court ministers wrote letters of opposition, arguing that Mencius was a Confucian saint, and moving his tablet and banning his books was a great disrespect to the saint, and that the emperor should never do this.

Only a few close attendants around Zhu Yuanzhang believed that the emperor's move was that of a wise ruler and would ensure the peace of the country.

The two sides exchanged sharp words.

Until later, people including Li Shanchang, whom Zhu Yuanzhang trusted very much at that time, also wrote to the emperor to argue that Mencius's thoughts were the great way of heaven and earth, and that Your Majesty would be punished by heaven if he rashly banned the book.

The voices of opposition in the court reached an extremely high level.

This put Lao Zhu in a dilemma.

Finally, they had to agree to move Mencius' tablet back to the Confucian Temple and resume the publication of the book "Mencius", but many of its contents were still deleted.

Later, the "Mencius" officially published by the Ming Dynasty court had much less content.

However, this didn't have much effect.

Because "Mencius" is a Confucian classic, it is almost a must-read for all readers in the world.

It has been spread too widely and too many people know about it.

All the scholars in the world knew exactly what had been changed in the newly published version of Mencius and they rushed to spread it.

It can be said that this farce ended with Zhu's retreat and defeat.

It also marked the beginning of the Ming Dynasty literati using "sages" to suppress "imperial power".

Yang Rong was a scholar. After entering the Eastern Palace, he was in charge of secretarial work. He also often went in and out of the library to read old documents.

I know everything about what happened back then.

This is a matter that brings shame to Your Majesty. As he is a scholar and considers himself a disciple of the sage, it is really inconvenient for him to say anything.

He didn't say anything, but Lao Zhu was unwilling to let him go.

"Why do you think we did that in the first place?" Old Zhu asked calmly.

But his eyes fell on Yang Rong's face.

This time, Yang Rong had no way to avoid it.

"Your Majesty wants to use this to test the reaction of officials in the court." He said concisely.

Many later generations believed that Zhu Yuanzhang did not like Mencius's thoughts, such as "If the ruler regards his subjects as dirt, then the subjects will regard the ruler as an enemy", "People are the most important, the country is second, and the ruler is the least important", "Only those who are not bloodthirsty can seize the world", "The benevolent are invincible" and so on.

Because they didn't like it, they ordered it to be banned.

This is in line with the common people's fantasy of a capricious emperor.

The emperor is high and mighty, he can do whatever he wants, he is so willful.

Because he did not like Mencius's teachings, he banned them.

But as a minister in the court and a talented prime minister, Yang Rong certainly would not look at the problem in such a naive way.

Banning the book "Mencius" and moving Mencius's tablet are by no means trivial matters.

How could an emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang act arbitrarily on such an important matter?

"Moody" and "capricious" are just the "personalities" created for the outside world.

In fact, His Majesty the Emperor must have his own considerations behind this matter.

Before banning Mencius, Zhu Yuanzhang had also considered taking action against the Confucius Mansion.

First of all, he ordered that the descendants of Confucius would not have to serve as officials in the court in the future, but only need to enjoy the honorific title of "Duke Yansheng".

You know, before this, many descendants of the Kong family served as officials in the court.

Secondly, he ordered that the Spring and Autumn sacrifices to Confucius only need to be held in Qufu, Confucius' hometown, and no action is required in other parts of the world.

The first one is not so bad, but the descendants of Confucius who entered the court as officials also made many scholars find it difficult to get along with them.

But the second article, which stipulated that no one in the country could offer sacrifices to Confucius, caused a huge storm. Scholars protested, officials advised him, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to revoke his order in the end.

It was only after this that the ban on Mencius occurred.

Lao Zhu is not an orthodox Confucian scholar.

He learned to read when he was a monk in a temple. Unlike other scholars of the time, he did not read Confucian classics right from the beginning and was deeply impressed by their thoughts.

The first thing Lao Zhu read was Buddhist scriptures, and then he read all kinds of random books.

Only later did I gradually understand Confucian classics.

Because he had no preconceived ideas, Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed with many of the Confucianists' statements.

What about “half of the Analects can rule the world”? Old Zhu thinks this is nonsense.

If we don’t understand The Analects, how can we conquer the world in a different way?

Did Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, rely on The Analects to conquer the world?
Which one of Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Taizu of Song relied on "The Analects of Confucius" to conquer the world and rule the world?
However, even though he disliked it, if Zhu Yuanzhang had not seen that the scholars intended to use the name of the saints to limit the power of the king, he would not have cared about it and brought trouble to himself.

Zhu did not comment on Yang Rong's answer, but smiled and said: "When we banned Mencius, many people advised us that Confucianism is beneficial to the emperor's rule. As long as we make good use of it, we can use it to rule the world."

"To be honest, I am skeptical about this."

"But there is nothing we can do about it. All the scholars in the world are Confucian scholars."

"It's okay to let the Huaixi brothers who fought with us to conquer the world go to the front line."

"But letting them serve as officials and govern an area is even more difficult than killing them."

"If we want to govern the world, we really cannot do without scholars like you."

He spoke slowly with a slightly self-deprecating tone.

Then, staring at Yang Rong's face, he slowly said, "The letter Zhu Sun sent to us before said that he wanted to use Confucianism to establish a new saint in Confucianism. Is this your idea or our grandson's opinion?"

Yang Rong hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, you think too highly of me. I don't have such a strategy. This is all what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince thought of."

After a slight pause, he quickly added: "All the letters written in the name of Zhu Sun were dictated by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I am just writing for him. What they said are all what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince thinks, and have nothing to do with my opinion."

Old Zhu looked up, a smile appeared on his face, and then he looked at Yang Rong and said, "So what do you think about this?"

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince has foresight and I admire you greatly." Yang Rong said, "But if this is accomplished, the court will be divided into two factions, and they will argue endlessly and become enemies."

"Hahaha!" Old Zhu laughed, "Well, our grandson is still smart!"

He changed the subject and said, "We banned Mencius not because he said something wrong."

"You said we were testing the officials in the court, but that's not entirely true."

A smile appeared on Old Zhu's face: "We banned Mencius precisely because he was so right!"

Yang Rong's face was filled with astonishment.

"The people are the most important, the country is second, and the emperor is the least important. Well said! Wonderful!"

"If the ruler regards his subjects as dirt, then the subjects will regard the ruler as an enemy. Well said! Wonderfully said!"

Old Zhu exclaimed in praise.

"I started out as a rebel, so I know what he said is very accurate."

"But, just like a sword that is too sharp, it can only be held in the hands of the court and cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the people."

"Otherwise, this precious sword will most likely not become a precious sword to punish evil and promote good, but will become a thing that brings disaster to the world."

"Mencius' words are so true, I don't want the world to hear them."

Lao Zhu's voice was sonorous and powerful.

"Right now, isn't our grandson suppressing all the martial arts sects in the world?"

"why?"

"These people basically all believe that they are heroes."

"But, I was once a wanderer, and I know all the ways of those people very well."

"'Confucians use literature to disrupt the law, and knights use force to violate the law'. Eliminating the so-called martial arts sects is to fundamentally cut off the so-called chivalrous knights."

"The court has laws, and the country has institutions."

“People all over the world should obey.”

"If everyone stands up and acts as their own judge, deciding right and wrong, and those who agree with me are chivalrous and righteous, and those who disagree with me are bandits, then it will only cause chaos in the world."

"You all understand this principle."

"Clearing out the martial arts sects in the world, you scholars should applaud."

"But what about you literati yourselves?"

Two rays of light suddenly shot out from Lao Zhu's eyes.

"If we ask you scholars to put down your swords like the great heroes and obey the laws of the court, you will stand up and curse the tyrant."

"You keep saying the words of saints, but in reality, how to explain those words of saints is just a matter of opening your mouth and moving your pen."

"To put it bluntly, don't you just want to have the power to make laws and the power to judge right and wrong?"

"The words of the saints are just a cover."

"In fact, it is just a 'sharp sword' held in the hands of you scholars."

"When I'm unhappy, I'll use this sword to fight against the court."

Old Zhu sneered mercilessly.

Yang Rong's face suddenly showed embarrassment, as if he was a little ashamed and fidgeted.

This is not how he really feels inside.

Ordinary people may be deeply moved and their minds shaken by these words.

Just like in later generations, there will always be people who say that they watched a certain story on TV, were deeply touched, and then changed their ideas...

Most ordinary people are like this.

They don't actually have their own ideas.

Most ordinary people's thoughts are learned from books and seen in TV dramas...they have never thought deeply about them themselves.

He seems to understand a lot of principles and concepts, and he can explain them clearly and profoundly... But in fact, he does not have even a single thought that belongs to him.

All his thoughts come from books, television, the Internet, forums... but he has never integrated this knowledge, refined it, eliminated the dross and retained the essence, and truly made it his own.

So, he would swing back and forth.

This is what ordinary people are like.

But Yang Rong was, after all, a man of talent who could become a prime minister. He had his own views and understandings of people and things in the world, and had long since broken away from the books and the words of others.

It is impossible to change anything because of what others say.

He made such an expression just to show the courtesy of a subject in front of the emperor.

Of course, it would not be right to say that Yang Rong has not changed at all.

Since he started working for Zhu Yunhuan, his thoughts have been greatly impacted and have undergone considerable changes.

Old Zhu did not say more, but said: "When we banned Mencius, we were banning scholars from using Mencius's words to oppose the court and create chaos."

"This world belongs to everyone in the world. We are the masters of the world, but our purpose as masters is to govern the world."

"The world is too big. If there is no one to rule, and everyone acts on their own, there will be chaos."

"Mencius' words are certainly well said. But they can easily be used by others to deal with us, the ruler of the world, and thus cause unrest."

"We gave in in the end, not because we were afraid of them, but because we didn't want to cause chaos in the government and the country, and in the world."

"We are the emperor, and we are in charge of the world and make sure that all people live in peace and well-being."

"Huer is now using Fang Xiaoru, which has caused internal disputes within the Confucian school. The emperor only needs to check and balance in the middle. This is also a solution."

"The country has been given to him, so let him go."

"We asked you to get in the car today so that we can take care of your funeral arrangements!"

……

(End of this chapter)