The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 511: Mencius: King Hui of Liang (Part )

The 26th year of Wanli arrived quietly.

On the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, when everyone was still enjoying the joy of the New Year, the official bulletin had already been delivered to the prefectures, counties, and cities in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, the entire Ming Dynasty boiled like boiling water.

However, Wanli never boasted about his achievements in expanding territory.

After every great victory, he would lavishly reward meritorious soldiers and never show off his own achievements.

Even after he destroyed Japan, he did not say a word to the officials in the court.

Civil officials hardly participated in these affairs, so naturally they would not publicize them for him. As for the military generals, they were basically busy fighting wars and expanding territory, so they had no time to publicize them for him.

Now most people in the entire Ming Dynasty still think that the Ming Dynasty only has two capitals and thirteen provinces covering millions of square kilometers.

As soon as this new world map came out, the entire Ming Dynasty was in an uproar.

It turns out that Japan was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty!
Now it has been changed to Toyodoshi.

In addition, Jizhou Town, Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Pianguan Town, Yansui Town, Guyuan Town, Ningxia Town, and Gansu Town are all several times larger than before.

At this moment, there is no trace of the Northern Tartars in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, and the Northern Tartar invasion is already quite far away from everyone.

Although Liaodong Town has not grown larger, the number of garrisons on it is so dense that it is impossible to count them, and no one knows how many garrisons there are.

And in the southern part of Nurgandusi, there are even more densely packed garrisons than in Liaodong Town!

How many garrisons does the Ming Dynasty have now?

Some curious people even counted them.

There are actually thousands of garrisons in the Ming Dynasty now!
Also, most people are hearing about the North American East Metropolitan Administration and the North American West Metropolitan Administration for the first time.

The Ming Dynasty actually has two such powerful dusi thousands of miles away!
And there are so many densely packed vassal states in North America!

This is not a big deal.

What is even more shocking is that the number of candidates for the imperial examination more than doubled as the territory expanded.

There are thousands of Jinshi to be selected in this Wuxu Imperial Examination, and the number of Xiucai and Juren will be more than doubled in the future!

The common people were all very excited.

Originally, they all thought that their children had no chance of passing the imperial examinations.

There is no way. There are too many scholars, and only a few can pass the imperial examinations every year.

Moreover, most of the gentry have been studying for several generations or even generations. Taking the imperial examination is just like farming or doing their own business. The gentry specializes in this.

Comparing their studies with the gentry is like the gentry comparing their farming with them.

The gentry can definitely learn to farm after studying for a few years or even more than ten years. The problem is, even if the gentry learns to farm, can they farm as well as they do?

The same is true in reverse. Their children will definitely be able to learn the Four Books and Five Classics after studying for a few years, or even more than ten years, and will have no problem taking the imperial examinations. The question is, can their children perform better than the children of the gentry?

If the children of the gentry failed to pass the examination to become a scholar, they would be useless. If they failed to pass the examination to become a juren, they would be embarrassed to go out. But every generation of the gentry could produce one or even several jinshi.

For them, passing the examination to become a scholar was a big deal, and passing the examination to become a juren was a great achievement. As for passing the examination to become a jinshi, that was just a dream.

The imperial examination seemed to be a fair way for children from poor families to advance into officialdom and even achieve glory and success.

In fact, that is deceiving.

It is very difficult for children from poor families to advance into officialdom or even achieve great success, unless they are geniuses.

The three major powerful families in Puzhou are obvious examples.

Did Wang Chonggu and Yang Bo come from poor families?

They came from such a poor family that they only got their names on the imperial examination when their families had at least a million taels of silver.

Not to mention Zhang Siwei. When this guy passed the imperial examination, the Zhang family had at least millions of taels of assets.

After they all pass the imperial examination, they will be promoted to the gentry.

If Wanli had not suppressed them and allowed them to develop as they did in history, there would have been more than ten Jinshi (Jinshi) from their three families, including their in-laws' families, and dozens of Juren (Juren).

This is the terrifying thing about the gentry, especially those who try every possible means to control the officialdom.

If every prefecture in the Ming Dynasty had a few such aristocratic families, it would be a big deal. Children from poor families could at most pass the examination to become a scholar, and it would be a dream for them to pass the examination to become a juren.

It’s different now. The number of places for scholars, juren and jinshi has more than doubled.

No matter how powerful the gentry is, it is impossible for them to monopolize all these honors.

Now, children from poor families can finally have a chance to make a name for themselves.

The common people were naturally very excited.

As for the gentry, it naturally doesn't matter to them as they truly serve the country and the people.

It’s different for those with ulterior motives.

Wanli is really stealing their jobs.

There are many Jinshi, but not many positions in the court. It is impossible for the number of six ministers to become twenty, and it is impossible for the number of cabinet ministers to become more than ten.

There are not many officials in the court, and there are still more than a thousand officials in the capital, so the center of power is so big.

This means twice as many Jinshi candidates as they do competitors.

There are also Juren. Originally, they could use their connections to get the Juren in their family to become county magistrates or even prefects.

Now the number of juren is going to be more than doubled, so the number of juren will be more than 10,000 or even 20,000.

Could the Ming Dynasty have more than 10,000 or even 20,000 prefectures and counties? This is impossible. The Dongyang Dusi, the Meiya Dongdusi, the Meiya Xidusi, and even the Nurgan Dusi were all Dusi, governed by military commanders, not civil officials.

Wanli deliberately created twice as many Jinshi and Juren to steal their jobs!

If it were fair competition, they would be able to grab most of the positions in the court by relying on the network of relationships they have woven for personal gain.

The problem is that the rebellious emperor Wanli is their enemy, and there is no way he will give them a fair chance to compete.

This guy just wants to recruit more scholars from poor families to compete with them and slowly drive them out of the court!

They were so angry that they even wanted to kill the king.

The entire Ming Dynasty was bustling with activity for a few days, and then the New Year festival was over.

Early in the morning on the 16th day of the first lunar month, when the capital was still covered in snow, all the major government offices opened for business.

Wanli also came to the imperial study with little Zhu Changxun in his arms.

He directly pulled out a copy of Mencius from the bookshelf and expertly flipped to the chapter "King Hui of Liang, Part One." He then said solemnly, "Xun'er, take a good look at this chapter, especially this paragraph."

Uh, why are you still learning by skipping?

Little Zhu Changxun looked down at the article and was somewhat confused.

He began to study the Four Books and Five Classics.

However, he has just started to study "The Analects of Confucius".

The Analects mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples. Each chapter is not very long and the content is relatively easy to understand.

The "Mencius" is different. It is a long article and it mainly talks about moral principles. Many parts are obscure and difficult to understand.

For example, this article "The King Hui of Liang, Part One" has more than a thousand words, comparable to several eight-legged essays. The paragraph that his father asked him to read alone has several hundred words.

Only a gentleman can have perseverance without permanent property.

If the people are like this, they will have no permanent property and therefore no permanent heart.

.

Therefore, a wise ruler regulates the people’s production so that they have enough to support their parents and their wives and children. In good years, they can have enough to eat throughout their lives, and in bad years, they can avoid death.

.

If you plant mulberry trees in a house of five mu, people of fifty can wear silk clothes; if you raise chickens, pigs, dogs and pigs at the right time, people of seventy can eat meat; if you don’t deprive people of the land of one hundred mu during the right time, a family of eight will not be hungry.

What does this mean?

Little Zhu Changxun struggled to finish reading it, then said in bewilderment, "Father, are we going to learn this today? I don't understand it."

You don't understand normal.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained: "Father didn't ask you to understand this article today.

This is the palace examination question prepared by your father. You will also have to set palace examination questions in the future, so you still need to understand the general meaning of this paragraph.

Moreover, you have to figure out why your father chose this passage as the question for the palace examination.

You should also pay attention to the questions you set for the palace examinations in the future. Palace examination questions are not randomly set. You want talents in certain areas, so you should set relevant examination questions to test them. "

what?
Is this how the palace examination questions are set?

Little Zhu Changxun was still a little confused and asked, "Father, what exactly does this mean?"

An ordinary emperor might not be able to understand the profound meaning of this article.

However, Wanli was different. He was forced by Empress Dowager Li and Zhang Juzheng to read the Four Books and Five Classics for more than ten years, and these contents were as if engraved in his mind.

He picked up the book and explained carefully: "This article is actually Mencius's teachings on how to govern a country.

The general meaning of this paragraph is that officials do not need to have permanent property such as land, because officials have salaries and power, they can live a stable life and generally will not cause chaos.

Ordinary people are different. Without land and other sources of livelihood, they cannot survive. When they are forced into a corner, they will commit crimes or even rebel.

If an emperor does not care about the lives of the people and does not provide them with the permanent property they need to survive, there will be chaos in the world. Then the emperor will catch the rebellious people and kill them. This is a tyrant.

A truly wise ruler must ensure that the people have stable property on which they depend for survival, so that the people can live and work in peace and contentment.

If we teach the common people some basic moral etiquette, the world will be peaceful. Do you understand?"

Oh, so that’s what you mean.

Little Zhu Changxun nodded slowly, then thought about it carefully, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "Father, all the scholars who can pass the imperial examination should have read Mencius, right?

They should all understand this, right? Why do so many officials seem unaware of this, and continue to exploit the people and even try every possible means to seize their land?

What do you think of today's civil servants?

Many of them are nothing!
Wanli sighed slightly and said, "They have been blinded by interests and are pretending not to understand. They just can't control their greed and want to embezzle and abuse power, enjoy wealth and luxury, and indulge in extravagance.

To put it bluntly, the purpose of these scholars studying is to make money and live a life of luxury. They are destined to become corrupt officials.

What I want are officials who truly serve the country and the people.

There are very few such officials now, but it doesn't matter. We can expand the number of Jinshi and Juren, and slowly screen out those who are truly dedicated to the country and the people."

Oh, using this as a question in the palace examination is to test whether these officials want to be corrupt officials or truly want to serve the country and the people.

Little Zhu Changxun nodded slowly, thought about it carefully, and then asked, "Father, how do we screen officials? How can we tell which officials are truly dedicated to the country and the people, and which are simply corrupt and pervert the law?"

This is not that simple.

Wanli was just thinking about how to explain this to little Zhu Changxun when Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Shen Li wants to see you."

(End of this chapter)