Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 389 Preserving Confucius and Mencius Denouncing Confucianism

From the Ming Dynasty to the present, changes are definitely needed, but governing the country is like treating a disease, you must first understand the pathology, investigate the truth, and then prescribe the right medicine.

The current state of the Ming Dynasty is inseparable from the original national policy of Emperor Taizu, such as the problem of clan population, eunuchs, business, and the confrontation between the emperor and the gentry class, etc.

When there is a problem with a system, other problems will follow. The emperor centralizes power, and the checks and balances among the bureaucrats turn into a confrontation between the emperor and the civil officials. The emperor had to recruit eunuchs in order to recruit. This is a logical line , forming the unique political characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, Wang Yan continued: "The Song Dynasty has almost perfected the balance between the monarch and the ministers, but in military affairs, the strong and weak branches, and the suppression of generals also caused the defeat of the Song Dynasty. Yan's idea is to learn from the Song Dynasty. The way is to reform the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty, and appropriately promote the status of generals. Transform the Ming Dynasty into a great empire that is richer than Zhao and Song, stronger than Han and Tang, and will be passed down forever."

"The monarch and ministers of the Zhao Song Dynasty ruled together, and the ministers and the emperor are both teachers and friends. It is indeed desirable." Chaopin said: "I checked the history books a few days ago, and I saw the records in the "Tui Zhai Transcript" written by Hou Yanqing of the Song Dynasty. During Shenzong's time, he planned to execute a transshipment envoy who had committed a crime, but the prime minister opposed it on the grounds that "since our ancestors, we have never killed scholars, and I don't want to start with your majesty." far from evil. Dun, the servant of the door, objected on the grounds that "scholars can be killed, not humiliated". In the end, Shenzong had to give up. The emperor sighed: "You can't do one thing that pleases you." "The ministers said, "It's good if you can't do such a happy thing." If we can do this among the emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, it will be the blessing of our scholars and the luck of our Wang family."

Wang Fuzhi looked at Wang Yan but reminded: "The battle between the monarch and his ministers has lasted for thousands of years. The current system is dominated by the imperial power. Shi Heng wants to check and balance the imperial power and carry out reforms. I am afraid it will not be so easy. At that time, not only the emperor, but also a large number of people Scholars of science will also come out to oppose, but any innovation needs ideas and ideas to attract like-minded people, what is Shi Heng's innovative thinking?"

Thought is the source of everything. Since the collapse of rites and the destruction of music, during the Spring and Autumn Period, a hundred schools of thought contended, and that was the most glorious era of the Chinese nation's ideology.

Countless ancestors, for the way out of the entire civilization, sent out countless brilliance of thought, but generally speaking, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the four schools of Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, and Taoism were still competing for supremacy.

At that time, Confucianism advocated that the benevolent man loves others, the people are more important than the ruler, and let the monarch implement benevolent government. The sage Confucius also said that he was "fearful like a bereaved dog."

Mohist thought advocates "superior sages" and "both love and non-aggression". It can be said that Mohist thought represents the bottom of society. When I come to be an official, I wish that the monarch would be elected by everyone. This is a bit like today's democratic elections. "Love without attack" means that everyone should love each other and not start unjust wars.

Although such thinking is most in line with the interests of ordinary people, it is obviously the most disgusted by the rulers, and has been suppressed and attacked in all dynasties.

In Taoism, inaction is governing. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, what is inaction and what is action, you have to be annexed by the promising Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, and King Zhuang of Chu. What the princes hope is like the Five Hegemons promising.

After a century of evolution, Confucianism, Law, Taoism, and Mohism, Qin Xing's Legalists finally swept away the Liuhe, and ended the disputes in the world. It seems that the Legalists have become the winners of the disputes among the four schools.

Qin ruled the world with Legalism, but it also died because of Legalism II. The only thing to say is that Legalism "ruled" the country and "ruled" the people by law, which is completely different from today's emphasis on the rule of law. Now it is "government", Qin law is "system", it is to control you.

The demise of Qin proved that legalism alone cannot rule the world, so the early Han Dynasty chose Taoism to rule by doing nothing, so that the world can cultivate and thrive, and there will be a rule of Wen Jing.

At this time, the world has been cultivated for decades, and the local area has recovered, and a new problem has emerged. The fact proves that Taoism cannot maintain the long-term operation of a country.

With the recovery of the world's economy and people's livelihood, the strength of the localities is gradually increasing. If the central government continues to adopt the Taoist attitude of governing by doing nothing, the local princes and vassals will start to make a difference.

The chaos of the Seven Kingdoms caused Taoism to fail just like Legalism.

When the time came to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, what kind of thought should the country choose? Except for Mohism, which was not considered by the ruler at all, only Confucianism remained to be on the stage of history.

At this time, a man named Dong Zhongshu appeared and proposed to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty his improved Confucianism, so that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "removed all schools of thought and only respected Confucianism", and catered to the rulers , making Confucianism the orthodox thought of Chinese society.

At this time, the dispute between the four schools of Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism and Mohism ended with the victory of Confucianism, but this Confucianism was not the other Confucianism. When it developed to the Song and Ming Dynasties, the Confucian ideas such as the benevolent love others, and the people are more important than the monarch, were all suppressed.

From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, to Dong Zhongshu’s divergence, and then to Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty, Confucianism also changed from a theory to a ruling technique, and finally became a religion. The process is Confucianism-Confucianism-Confucianism.

Hearing Wang Fuzhi's question, Wang Yan pondered for a while. After a while, he stood up and said resolutely: "Clean up the roots, keep Confucius and Mencius, reject Confucianism, destroy Lijiao, the benevolent love others."

Wang Fuzhi was not surprised by Wang Yan's words. He himself was one of the pioneers against Neo-Confucianism. In addition, Huang Zongxi in eastern Zhejiang also said that "the world is the master, and the emperor is the guest. Replace the laws of the family with the laws of the world."

"Is Shi Heng going to revive the ancient Confucianism and use the Confucianism of the Spring and Autumn Period to limit the imperial power?" Wang Fuzhi smiled.

Wang Yan nodded, "I have this idea, but since ancient times, the reform took a long time and repeated a lot, and it is even more difficult to revive the ancient Confucianism and spread ideas. Right now, I still take the anti-Qing Qing as the first priority. The most important thing is to spread ideas and carry out reforms, and we can only lay out slowly."

After listening to Wang Dynasty for so long, he has fully understood, "It is not easy to attack Confucianism. Since Wang Shouren founded Xinxue, my Wangmen's children, Zhezhong, Jiangyou, Nanzhong, Chuzhong, Beibei, Guangdong and Fujian, Seven schools of thought, including Taizhou, competed against Neo-Confucianism one after another. After Li Zhi of the Taizhou school died in prison by committing suicide, my Xinxue became more and more dangerous. Now Yangming Xinxue has been in existence for more than a hundred years, and I, Jiangyou Wangmen The science of mind has never been developed, which shows that Neo Confucianism is deeply rooted."

Wang Fuzhi nodded and said: "Father is right. Confucianism has the support of the imperial court, and other theories are difficult to develop. It is very necessary for Shiheng to start planning now. Now that Shiheng is in the court, if he wants to spread new theories, it will take more than It was much easier to spread the teaching of mind before, so where does Shi Heng plan to start?"

Wang Yan sat down and looked at Wang Jiezhi and said, "I wrote to my brother before, in fact, I wanted him to come to Guozijian to teach the learning of mind. My Wang family learned from Jiangyou Wangmen, and it is a branch of learning of mind, and learning of mind comes from Mencius. , It is in line with my intention to revive ancient Confucianism. Now that there is a serious shortage of officials in the imperial court, the supervisors of Guozijian will definitely be reused by the imperial court. If they are all influenced by Xinxue and ancient Confucianism, it will be very difficult for future reforms."

(These two chapters are more labor-intensive. Chapter 3 will definitely not come out, and I have to break my promise. I will only update it tomorrow. Thank you Ziye Saburo for the reward and Jinyiwei Tongzhi’s monthly pass.)
(End of this chapter)