A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

Li Zhe remained silent for a long time.

Mingyin thought that his master had finished speaking.

But he spoke again, this time in a softer voice, as if he were speaking to himself.

"I know I will not have a good end in this life. I wrote 'Burning Books' and I know it will be burned sooner or later."

I wrote "The Book Collection" knowing it would be banned sooner or later.

I know that sooner or later people will say I'm promiscuous for accepting female disciples.

I have been lecturing and criticizing false moralists, and I know that sooner or later someone will arrest me.

"I accept all of this."

He stood up and walked to the window. "The female teacher on the screen that day, every word she said, I wanted to applaud and cheer. She said that people turn into porcelain. She said that rules crush people. She said that those who pass the exam are superior, and those who fail are nothing. I have said these things for decades, but no one listens. They say I am a heretic."

He turned around, and a strange smile suddenly appeared on his face.

He looked out the window at the rustling bamboo forest, then suddenly looked up as if he wanted to talk to the sky.

"Mr. Shen! You're absolutely right! But you haven't quite explained it: if people's hearts are false, all the books they read are wasted! If rules are rigid, you can't force a living person into them! Xianglin's Wife and Kong Yiji weren't waste material; they were human beings! Even crushed in a mold, they were still human beings!"

Then he stopped smiling and looked at Mingyin.

"Mr. Shen said that Xianglin's wife and Kong Yiji were eaten, but she also said that as long as there are still people who remember them, they have not been completely eaten."

So you must remember, this canopy is not just for the emperor, nor just for scholars, but for all people.

This is for everyone who hasn't been crushed by rules. If anyone finds a spark of sincerity in the darkness, that sincerity is what the female teacher on the celestial screen said.

Li Zhi sat back down in his chair.

The wind in the bamboo forest stopped, and the light from the sky shone through the window, falling on his aged face.

Yingtianfu, Forbidden City

Zhu Yuanzhang sent everyone else back, and sat alone in the Fengtian Hall.

The sky had been dark for a long time.

He did not ask anyone to light a lamp.

Shen Moyan said something in class that sent chills down his spine.

"After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the situation became even more special. The Qing emperor was a Manchu and ruled over tens of millions of Han people. When a foreign emperor sat on the dragon throne, what he feared most was not corrupt officials or incompetent ministers, but the distinction between the Han and the barbarians in the hearts of Han scholars."

Foreign race.

The Qing Dynasty was a foreign dynasty.

My Great Ming Dynasty perished at the hands of foreign tribes.

Tianmu mentioned "Qing Dynasty" when he first told the story of Xianglin's Wife, and he remembered those two words at the time.

At that time, all he knew was that such a dynasty existed in later dynasties.

Now he knew that they were a different race.

He devoted his entire life to ensuring the long-term prosperity of the Zhu family, fearing that the dynasty he had built would be taken away after his death.

Therefore, he abolished the position of prime minister and seized all power in his own hands.

Therefore, he killed Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu, and those who might threaten the Zhu family's rule.

He believed that as long as the knife was sharpened enough and the rules were set rigidly enough, and everyone was bound together in the same mold, the Zhu family's empire could last for ten thousand years.

And what happened? His worst fear came true.

He suddenly recalled another statement Shen Moyan had made: "He could not tolerate the existence of anyone who was not under his complete control. This fear was passed down to his descendants and became the underlying characteristic of the imperial power of the Ming and Qing dynasties."

His descendants.

His descendants inherited his fear, but not his abilities.

They sat on the lonely throne he had designed himself, only to have their capital breached by foreign invaders and their kingdom lost.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and paced back and forth in the hall.

He walked slowly, each step landing on the cold gold bricks.

He wanted to curse, to curse that woman surnamed Shen, to curse her sky screen, to curse every word she said.

But what's the use of cursing? She's talking about things that have already happened; she's not making predictions, she's stating history.

He hates being lied to more than anything in his life, but this time he'd rather be lied to.

He would rather someone tell him that it was all a lie, that the imperial examination system never existed, that the Qing Dynasty never existed, and that foreign tribes never entered the pass.

But no one lied to him.

So all he could do was feel angry, helpless, and pace back and forth in the empty hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped at the entrance of the palace.

Outside the palace, the afterglow of the night sky had not yet completely dissipated.

He gazed at the light and suddenly said something.

"What exactly do I want to do?"

Zhu Di sat on the throne in the Fengtian Hall and listened to Shen Moyan's entire discourse on how the Ming and Qing dynasties used the eight-legged essay and chastity to create "standardized people".

He had been listening ever since Tianmu started explaining the imperial examination system.

When he heard that the prototype of the eight-legged essay originated in his father's Hongwu era, his expression changed slightly. He recalled the "Complete Collection of the Five Classics," "Complete Collection of the Four Books," and "Complete Collection of Human Nature and Principle" that he had commissioned to be compiled, which firmly locked the answers to the imperial examinations within the framework of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

He was an emperor who rose to power through rebellion, and he had a deeper understanding of the word "rules" than others.

Rules are made by people, and people can break them.

To prevent others from breaking it, he chose to reinforce it.

His father deposed the prime minister and placed all the power in the hands of the emperor.

His father set the basic rules for the imperial examinations, and what did he do? He compiled the "Complete Collection of the Five Classics," designating the only standard textbook for scholars throughout the land.

Later, the cabinet was formally established, but the Grand Secretary of the cabinet was only a fifth-rank official, with a low rank and power entirely dependent on the emperor's trust.

They pushed the authority of the Eastern Depot, a secret service agency, to its extreme, using it to monitor officials in the outer court.

He didn't touch a single thing in the centralized power framework established by Zhu Yuanzhang; in fact, he reinforced it, believing that this would make the edifice more stable.

Regarding the imperial examination system, his father set the outline for future generations, and he provided the only standard annotation for this outline.

He knew he was an accomplice as well.

Zhu Houzhao was squatting on a chair in the Leopard Chamber, eating melon seeds.

He listened to Shen Moyan from beginning to end, never having been so attentive before.

Upon hearing the statement that "the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties became increasingly afraid of their subordinates," he spat out the sunflower seed shells on the ground and suddenly laughed.

"I see."

He thought back to his years as emperor.

He wanted to leave the palace, but the ministers stopped him.

He wanted to personally lead the expedition, but his ministers stopped him.

He wanted to go to Jiangnan, but the ministers still stopped him.

Every minister said, "Your Majesty, this is against the law."

Don't think he didn't know that these ministers were trying to cover up something shameful; they were just using the legal principles of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather as their excuse.

A bunch of old men who died countless years ago set rules that confined him to the Forbidden City.

"The emperor wants standardized ministers, and the ministers want a standardized emperor."

"An emperor who is at their mercy."

Once you become emperor, why would you fear disobedient people? Why let a foreign tribe seize your throne?

Ying Zheng, Liu Che, and Li Shimin remained silent, but these three emperors of unparalleled power simultaneously harbored the same thought.

"Why do later emperors seem to regress in their ways as they live?"