Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Master's statement of 'Don't speak without investigating' is quite new. But if you really want to do something, just give the order directly. Why make it so complicated? You can't investigate everything before making a decision, right? It's because the day lilies are cold." Zhu Gaoxu said dumbly.

Hearing this, some of the petty officials and clerks in the yard who had also been turned into black bread bakers by Jiang Xinghuo also looked at Jiang Xinghuo.

This is what they have been puzzled by these days. It stands to reason that with the overwhelming power of the Imperial Master and the prestige of defeating the White Lotus Sect, what they want to do in the south of the Yangtze River, they need to take advantage of the opportunity to control the floods and assign them to these People, even myself, traveled from town to town in person. All of them traveled to more than 100 towns in total to come up with such a decisive investigation report?

Isn’t it just a slap on the head? Everyone used to do this!

However, of course they did not dare to say these words to Jiang Xinghuo, so they could only keep it silently in their hearts and work honestly. Jiang Xinghuo did not treat them badly. When he went to the countryside to do research, he was given extra meal subsidies. It was said that it was meals. Subsidy, but the amount is obviously not just the standard of two or even three meals a day, so no one said anything.

But since the second prince asked about the long-buried confusion in their hearts, they were naturally happy to hear the answer.

Ye Xiucai, who was immersed in studying the water conservancy project design drawings, also raised his head at this time. Recently, he and Sun Kun have almost evolved into blasting geniuses. The dregs of dams built by the black-hearted gentry in the south of the Yangtze River have been blown up and rebuilt all over.

"Of course, this does not mean that everything we do is like this. Wouldn't it be a desperate situation? If there are some things that are too late to investigate, or if some things are indeed common sense (not equivalent to empiricism), that is another statement."

"But." Jiang Xinghuo picked up the cattail leaf fan and continued to say, "For important administrative decisions that are difficult to change once a decision is made, or that change will cause serious consequences, of course, it must be investigated. If circumstances permit, small issues, issues that are tailored to local conditions and the times, must also be investigated, and we cannot take it for granted that all policies can be 'one size fits all'."

Seeing that everyone was still a little confused, Jiang Xinghuo simply gave an example. The short story "Hunranzi" was written by Zhang Chong, a Jinshi in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, he was still far away from birth, so it was suitable to use it directly. , unexpectedly there is the embarrassment of having any copy of the document leaked.

“A farmer plows his fields, counts his breaths, and then starts hoeing.

When the traveler saw it, he looked at it and said, "That's so bad! Farmers are lazy!" After counting the breaths and then hoeing, the field would not be able to grow even for a month!

The farmer said, "I don't know how to plow. Can you show me how to plow?"

The traveler took off his clothes and went to the field, hoeing several times in one breath, using all his strength in one hoe. Before he could move in time, he was exhausted from sweat and panting, unable to make a sound, and he fell to the field.

He said to the farmer: From now on, we will know how difficult it is to plow the fields. "

At this moment, Wang Bin came to report, but he said that there were some local Songjiang scholars who asked to see them, and they were not strangers. The leaders were the same people who rode the donkey. They heard that the national master was back, and these people didn't know who they were. For some reason, people came to see him one after another.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't seem surprised, and said directly: "You can guess why they are here, so let them come in, but if you have anything else, we have to wait until later."

A dozen well-dressed scholars poured in, obviously all the "opinion leaders" of the local students in Songjiang Prefecture.

Since the Imperial Master planned to listen to their demands, but also asked them not to speak now, these people were well-behaved and stood quietly where they had just entered the courtyard, looking at the officials who were badly exposed to the sun. Some of them subconsciously despised him out of dignity, but some of them immediately admired and even felt ashamed of themselves.

Song Li did not have the pomp of a third-grade official. He stood up and took out the iced melon from the well with his own hands, and then cut it into pieces for everyone.

Song Li divided them and continued with a smile: "That is to say, it is easier said than done!"

All the officials and scholars were really restless at this time, but Jiang Xinghuo signaled that everyone was fine and had no choice but to watch and let the waiter cut the melon.

However, others could watch, but not Magistrate Huang, so he quickly grabbed the job.

Huang Ziwei, the prefect of Songjiang, has become more and more dignified recently with the Imperial Master. It is not just his appearance, he is also tanned, but it is the fear of others towards him, which he has never experienced before when he was ignored.

He cut a piece of watermelon for Jiang Xinghuo and cut a piece for himself. He gnawed on the melon and said vaguely: "It's easier said than done. This official knows this very well. I always felt like sitting in the corridor of the government office listening to the rain. A government can be managed in an orderly manner just by relying on documents, but now that I have traveled all over the countryside with the Imperial Master, I feel very ashamed, just like a frog sitting in a well looking at the sky."

A group of scholars were listening beside them like the spectators, while Jiang Xinghuo talked eloquently.

"Why do you say, 'Those who are not investigating should not speak'? Let's talk about two things that we have experienced recently."

Jiang Xinghuo pinched the melon with his thumb, index finger, and middle finger, exposing two fingers.

"First, Jiangnan is going to open a mine. After the fifteenth killing, there are still a few thousand White Lotus Sect soldiers left, so coal mines, iron mines, silver mines, no matter what kind of mines they are, they must be opened. Resources cannot be wasted. We must open them. Make use of it. The local government said that the four silver mines of Xiaosu Shiziyan, Heyan, Guanshan and Qiancha were completed during the Hongwu period and were now to be scrapped. If Cao Song had not been sent to make an unannounced visit, would we have been fooled? ?”

That is to say, Li Jinglong mentioned it in prison before. During the Hongwu Dynasty, he supervised silver courses in Jiangxi and other places. The Ming Dynasty's silver production declined year by year. As a result, Zhu Gaoxu ruthlessly exposed the difference, and the difference went to his Cao Guogong Mansion. Although Li Jinglong donated the tens of thousands of taels of silver in his pocket to the Ming Dynasty's great navigation during last year's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, which can be regarded as spending money to buy peace, the inside story of the silver class can be seen from this.

It was the same this time. In the name of reporting the silver mines to be scrapped, the local officials wanted to subcontract the remaining silver in the silver pits to powerful local mining tyrants for mining and make a fortune from it.

On the surface, Jiang Xinghuo sent a group of people to investigate. Of course, these people were taken to eat, drink, have fun and give away souvenirs, but secretly, Cao Song led people to find evidence, which directly led to a major earthquake in the local officialdom.

Everyone nodded. If they just talked about it, it would be difficult for them to understand the subtle meaning. But with an example, they all understood that the words of the National Master were not some big principles, but principles that could truly guide them in doing things. .

Jiang Xinghuo gnawed two pieces of melon in one breath, then stretched out his little finger and said:

“The second thing is, when we checked the income of the laborers, did we clearly stipulate that there cannot be any ‘new types of corvee’ and that we can no longer engage in unpaid labor?”

"Your Majesty is afraid that we will not be able to control the soldiers in the guard station, so he also issued an imperial edict: After several years of military use, the soldiers and civilians have been trapped, and now they are sent to rest in their acres. There are several orders, and those who are good at serving one army and one civilian will The government attaches great importance to the law, but even the prefectures and counties of Wenwei Province do not follow it. They still carry on the old disadvantages. They are good at serving people for private purposes, like driving dogs and sheep. There is no sense of mercy. This is disrespectful to the emperor and the subordinates, and does not care about the rest of the poor. Why? When will it be done? Officers of the guards, please wait until they affirm the previous order. If anyone violates it again from now on, he will not be punished. Is the tone harsh enough? Is the punishment of beheading severe enough? "

After hearing this, even Song Li showed a wry smile. This incident really opened their eyes. Even if they were beaten to death, they would not have thought that those insects in the place could still do it when the red line was clearly drawn. Have fun.

"What happened? Later, because of a small incident, His Majesty issued an imperial edict to the Ministry of Rites and the Governor-General of the Fifth Army. What he said was: Since the army was raised in Jingnan, people from the Jianghuai and Central Plains have transported the people who died in the battle, and left the bones in the wilderness. , many of them were not buried, so the Ministry of Rites and the Dudu Mansion were ordered to send people to inspect and sue the governor. It was nothing more than a matter of burying corpses in the wilderness. According to the current regulations, local governments and health offices can just spend some money to hire people to do it. , this money has been collected from the people’s taxes.”

"Well, how do they play? In the past, anyone who didn't want to do corvee had to pay to be exempted from the service. Now, whoever wants to collect the body has to pay the money privately to the officials! Then the officials will use the money that should be used for that expense according to regulations. Withhold part of the money, resend it, and make two money inside and outside!"

The more Jiang Xinghuo talked, the angrier he got. He stuffed the watermelon directly into Zhu Gaoxu's hand, pointed at the air and cursed: "You earn money to do things for the court, and you are so damn good at subcontracting them to others." I endured it, this kind of thing is inevitable, but these gangsters who took over the mission couldn't find many corpses in the wilderness. Because they spent the corresponding budget and had corpse collection quotas, they finally secretly dug up the ancestral graves of other villagers in the middle of the night. Make up the numbers! If the villagers hadn’t complained to Magistrate Huang, no one here would have known about it. Isn’t this ridiculous?!”

This is indeed outrageous, and all the officials and scholars present here couldn't help but laugh.

The matter of digging up graves to make up the numbers was so embarrassing that the whole Songjiang Mansion was treated as a joke.

Jiang Xinghuo sighed and said: "So, a silver mine was reported as scrapped, and a body was collected and buried. It can be seen from just two small things. If you don't investigate, you just give orders and deliver official documents to the subordinates. , I’ll tell you the truth, our reform will have to be second to Wang Anshi’s Qingmiao Method, and it won’t work!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the melon in the official's hand suddenly lost its sweetness.

The Imperial Preceptor spoke harshly, even elevating "investigation practice" to a level related to the "success or failure of the reform", but it did not seem like a joke, and there was no room for them to ignore it. After all, it was a matter related to their vital interests, future and destiny.

The main reason why Wang Anshi's Young Crops Law failed was that the officials below him violated the law in both positive and negative ways, so that it was seriously distorted in the actual implementation process, which can be said to be full of ugliness.

Some of the policies used in the Yongle Reform may be relatively radical, but from the original intention of Jiang Xinghuo's policy makers, they are all aimed at strengthening the country and enriching the people. The key issue is whether the implementation process can be carried out as it is.

If not, then it will really be all in vain. After all, any good policy must be implemented on people in the end.

But now the Imperial Master seems to have found a way out of the shadow of Wang Anshi's reform.

——That is this "Those who have not investigated should not speak."

Policies, big and small, should at least be investigated before they are implemented, so as to ensure that they are not out of shape and deceived by the bugs at the bottom.

"The more clearly you know, the more earnestly you act; the more earnestly you act, the more clearly you know. The Imperial Master's principle of 'No one should speak without investigating' is the same as what is said in "Zhu Xi Yulei"." There is a scholar. Zi opened his mouth and said.

With this opening, the remaining scholars also started talking, but the atmosphere at the scene turned in another direction.

As a local parent official, Huang Ziwei also knew the recent trends in the temple. Instead of using Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, he came up with a sentence from Xunzi's "Encouragement to Learning": "If you don't climb the mountain, you don't know how high the sky is; if you don't visit the depths, The creek, I don’t know how thick the land is.”

Well, this is the result of the recent imperial court's efforts to promote Xunzi's return to the status of a saint among the people.

Recently, various classics of Xunzi have been reprinted by the Imperial College Printing Office overtime. Under the guidance of the mainstream voice of the imperial court, schools at all levels including Fuzhou, County, etc. have begun an upsurge in learning from Xunzi, and officials are more or less free to talk about him. The words of the old people are used as trends.

Of course, this also triggered considerable controversy and backlash. This kind of backlash in public opinion was not so obvious to Jiang Xinghuo in Jiangnan for the time being, but once he finished handling the implementation of the Jiangnan Reform and returned to Nanjing, this kind of backlash would A large-scale public backlash is inevitable.

If we were still talking about official business in a serious way just now, the atmosphere after that became a bit more academic.

Jiang Xinghuo did not stop them from ruining the meeting. After all, on the one hand, these scholars were here, so it was difficult to talk about some official matters; on the other hand, he also felt that what he just emphasized was a bit too serious.

Instead, Jiang Xinghuo took the melon from Zhu Gaoxu's hand again and watched their discussion happily, which was also a way to observe how the scholars viewed his respect for Xunzi and his attempt to replace Neo-Confucianism with science.

"Would you like the Imperial Master to speak?"

"Yes, the national master can understand 'Tai Chi', but it is enough to become a great master of Confucianism."

"I don't know what the Imperial Master means, but what kind of explanation does it have? If so, we can be considered serious listeners to the Imperial Master's sermons!"

The scholars booed one after another.

After a night on Taiping Street, Jiang Xinghuo was labeled as having "extraordinary attainments in Confucianism". This was no exaggeration. He was able to use "contradictions" to explain "Tai Chi" and broke through one of the last theoretical peaks of Neo-Confucianism. Yes, it fits so well, and the response from Shilin is also very good. Others naturally recognize it.

Therefore, a group of believers who used Jiang Xinghuo's ideas to conduct experiments to verify the 'contradiction' also appeared in the Nanjing Imperial College. This trend has further affected a wider range of the country, and some people even sent posts wanting to become Jiang Xinghuo's disciples. , I came to claim the title of disciple to help my career.

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism, the academic circle and the officialdom have been inseparable. In the four words "disciples and former officials", the status of disciples is even higher than that of old subordinates. This can be seen from this.

In this way, the thoughts of these scholars who came to see him are self-evident.

However, Jiang Xinghuo did not refuse.

It is his goal to follow the king's path with benevolence and righteousness, gather people who are on the same path, and reverse the overwhelming trend.

If you want to do something, how can you do it without supporters? It can be said to be tacky. In this era, most people are just exchanging fame and fortune. Only a handful of people, such as Yao Guangxiao and Xia Yuanji, really work with him to reform for some inner ideals. .

After thinking about this, Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "Since you all want to hear it, you can slow down the report first. Jiang can talk about it casually. There is indeed some truth in it."

Recently, the Imperial Master has been busy doing things and less than talking. However, the Imperial Master's empty talk has always been more interesting. Even if the people around him have listened less recently, they know how precious it is, so they all immediately sat upright.

"The first thing I want to emphasize is that today we are talking about Taoism, investigation, and practice, but we are not talking about ontology. Since the creation, establishment, development, and improvement of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, we have not been able to argue clearly. We may not argue at all. You think how?"

The scholars began to whisper.

The so-called "ontology" of Neo-Confucianism is the "Tai Chi" mentioned before. However, according to the principle of "one principle is different", we can know that in everyone's heart, they have their own "Tai Chi", which is their own The sages use the principles of heaven to teach the extreme, so "Tai Chi" is also called the mean. The average one refers to the heart; the mediocre one refers to the use. From this we can see that ‘Tai Chi’ is not outside the heart? It is equivalent to one’s own ‘heart’.

"Collected Works of Zhu Wengong, Volume 77" states: The reason why human beings are in heaven and earth and are the spirits of all things is the heart! However, the heart is a body that cannot be heard or seen, nor can it be thought or sought. If it is said that there is something, it cannot be expressed in words. If it is said that there is nothing, it will not be comfortable in daily use.

Zhu Xi felt that although "heart" cannot be touched or expressed, it is all-encompassing, so he said in "Zhu Zi Yu Lei·Volume 98": Everything has a heart but it must be empty. Just these empty places contain many truths, which encompass the heaven and earth, including ancient and modern times. They can be generalized and cover the sky and the earth. This is why it is the wonder of people's hearts!

In the final analysis, it is a relatively idealistic thing. Jiang Xinghuo has always been cold-blooded about it, and there is indeed no objective standard for judging who is right and who is wrong. Once a debate begins, it will soon fall into "the happiness of knowing that fish is not a fish". , in the cycle of "If I am not a child, I know I am safe, but I don't know the joy of fish."

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo simply emphasized in advance that we will not involve ontology, but will only discuss objective investigation and practice, and you should not confront things such as ‘ontology’ and ‘mind’.

But in the eyes of scholars of this era, ontology is the core thing. In the end, everything depends on one's own heart. If you want to bypass ontology and talk about other things, it means taking a wrong path.

Well, anyway, the mainstream philosophical concepts in different eras are completely different, but if the national teachers have to have this premise, they can't say anything, they can only default to not considering the impact of ontology on everything.

But speaking of this, these scholars became a little curious about the angle from which the Imperial Master wanted to explain his own things.

"You all know that Neo-Confucianism has many categories, including Li-Qi theory, ontology, mind-nature theory, and Gong-fu theory. In addition, there are also principles such as Li-Yifenshu. So before, I talked about the 'Tai Chi' and 'Contradiction' in Li-Qi theory. , today I want to combine it with reality and talk about the epistemology of understanding the ‘why’ in Gongfu Theory.”

For Jiang Xinghuo, change has never been about slogans.

Jiang Xinghuo clearly realized that in order to truly and completely change the world, there are two parallel main lines to be done. One main line is to enlighten manufacturing power, and the other main line is to unblock thoughts.

In the past, what Jiang Xinghuo did in prison was to unblock the thoughts of the highest-level decision-makers of the Ming Dynasty. After he was released from prison, Taiping Street and Qiyu were to unblock the thoughts of scholars in the capital. Later, Jiang Xinghuo worked in Jiangnan to suppress rebellions, provide disaster relief, A series of things at hand such as flood control and factory building, including the future conquest of Annan and Japan, are truly enlightening and changing manufacturing capabilities.

But at the same time, the idea of ​​liberation cannot be left behind.

I was so busy before that I was so busy that there were sparks on the soles of my feet. Now that I have a little free time, I naturally have to put it on my agenda.

Unleashing thoughts also has two aspects. The first is the promotion of science. Needless to say, this is also the main task after returning to Beijing. The second is the transformation of philosophical concepts. This is more difficult and generally travels through time. I really can't do it.

Why can't you do it?

The answer is also very simple. Philosophy also has its own limitations of the times. This limitation not only means that the previous philosophy will not be applicable in some places later (of course, most of the original philosophical concepts are timeless), but also the advancement of later generations. If a philosophical thought does not have the corresponding era conditions and is directly thrown into the previous era, then its universality will be subject to certain limitations.

To put it bluntly, if you copy it directly, you will be regarded as a fool or madman by people of this era.

Therefore, the correct way to solve the problem is to express the advanced philosophical thoughts of later generations through the mainstream philosophical concepts of this era in a way that people of this era can understand.

This requires that the time traveler not only understands most of the philosophical views of later generations (from the early 19th century to the 1980s, but does not need to understand postmodernist philosophy), and also has above-average academic understanding and subjective creation ( Or suturing is more appropriate) ability.

But the fact is that being able to understand the basic principles and schools of philosophy is already a screening option for most time travellers.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo's approach of "inspiring creativity" and "liberating ideas" to transform the world at the same time is relatively rare.

Previously, Jiang Xinghuo believed that the previous "contradiction" solution to "Tai Chi" was a good theoretical breakthrough through trial and follow-up observation. On the surface, it was an important theoretical breakthrough for Neo-Confucianism in the Theory of Li and Qi, but in fact, it was not It promoted the promotion of early scientific experimental thinking. This promotion effect can be seen by looking at the hot air balloons that the sergeants in Beijing rushed to release.

And if Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is regarded as a discipline, then there are only four main categories: Li-Qi theory, ontology, mind-nature theory, and Gongfu theory, mixed with more than a dozen branches. Li-Qi theory has been solved with "contradiction" One part; the ontology, let’s ignore it for now; the mind-nature theory, which has already been discussed in the previous “Metaphysical Critique of ‘Transcendental Human Nature Theory’”; the rest is the theory of gongfu.