Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 440: Science is shaky
In July of 1620, the temperature in the whole country of Ming Dynasty was obviously rising. However, Wang Zaijin, the Right Deputy Censor of the Ming Dynasty Censorate, the Governor of Shandong and other places, who was in charge of military affairs, was in the governor's office in Jinan. He did not feel the heat of more than 30 degrees outside at all. On the contrary, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and his whole body was shaking.
This one is also quite famous: in terms of history, in 1622, he was appointed as the governor of Liaodong. At that time, Yuan Yingtai, a water conservancy expert, had just defeated all the elite Liaodong troops who had been reorganized by Xiong Tingbi and finally recovered from the defeat at Sarhu. People in the court and the public were in panic, and the mood of failure and fear of war once again enveloped the entire Liaodong land. So after he went to Liaodong, he simply proposed: Let's not take over all the places in Liaodong, we will just defend Shanhaiguan. Of course, Shanhaiguan is still not safe. If it is broken through, the capital will be in danger. Therefore, we will build a castle eight miles outside Shanhaiguan to form a double insurance. Then, that's it!
This plan was directly rejected by Sun Chengzong. Although some people in later generations believed that if Wang Zaijin's strategy had been implemented, the Later Jin regime would have had no place to plunder and would have starved to death in Liaodong during the Little Ice Age. The Ming Dynasty would not have to bear the military expenses of millions or even tens of millions of taels of silver per year for Liaodong Town, and it is possible that its demise would have been delayed... However, this cannot be proven after all.
In short, this person still has some vision and ability. However, this is why he has been feeling more and more anxious and uneasy in his recent post as the governor of Shandong.
Starting in late April, the six major newspapers began to report in a series of articles on the resettlement of a large number of Han people who were rescued by the imperial court during the northern expedition to Mongolia. During this process, Liu Jingzhang, the former prefect of Datong, suffered the most. He shirked the responsibility of resettling the Han people who returned from the north, forcing Zhu You (Muxue) to do things in each village and hamlet as a prince. After this matter was reported by the six major newspapers, Liu Jingzhang's reputation immediately became a bad name - he quickly received tons of impeachment letters and then resigned on his own.
However, even if he resigned, it was not the end of the matter: on his way home, this senior official was abused by people from all over the country. Some postmen at the post stations, after hearing too many newspapers or rumors, felt so empathetic that they openly refused to receive this "heartless" person. What's worse, even when he returned to his hometown, the villagers all showed contempt!
All these things led to different voices within the Liu family: Should we expel this guy from the family tree?
Some of this news was reported by the six major newspapers, while some came from Wang Zaijin’s own sources: Liu Jingzhang and he were both from Henan.
However, the more they knew, the more scared many officials, such as Wang Zaijin, became: the Ming Dynasty's moral governance had long been evil, and if an official went bankrupt morally, it would be worse than death. And now the royal family has completely controlled public opinion. Therefore, as long as the royal family is dissatisfied with an official, they can completely ruin his reputation, make his life worse than death, and make him infamous forever...
In short, because of Zhu You (Mu Xue)'s incident, with the rapid northward advance of Cao Wenzhao and other generals, the number of Han people sent back increased, but the speed of resettlement of these Han people by the military garrisons and local government offices in the nine frontiers was getting faster and faster, and there was almost no case of shirking responsibility. This high efficiency was unprecedented for Wang Zaijin, who had been in the political arena for decades.
Along with the praise for Zhu You (Mu Xue) and the criticism of Liu Jingzhang, there was also a great discussion on the equality of rights and obligations. The royal family is supported by the people and should protect the people - well, this concept is extended to what officials should do, is there any need to say more?
Wang Zai Jin was horrified to see that in a reader's letter in a certain issue of the Yenching Daily, someone actually mentioned the word "public servant"!
This, this is simply the worst! I studied hard for more than ten years, and after entering the government, I had to dodge the attacks of my colleagues, serve my superiors, and appease the ignorant people under my rule so that they would not cause trouble. Is it easy for me? How did I become a "servant"?
Although the article proposing the concept of "public servant" was soon drowned out by countless articles refuting it, Wang Zaijin knew that after the concept of equal rights and obligations was proposed, it was really not as easy to be an official as before.
Of course, this is just a concept. It is reported that the total circulation of the six major newspapers is only 700,000 to 800,000 copies. Even if each newspaper influences more people through restaurants, family members, etc., the audience of the six major newspapers will not exceed 10 million. Therefore, it will take a long time for the concept of equal rights and obligations to become a concept that everyone in the Ming Dynasty agrees on. At least, Mr. Wang can still be an official for a decade or so in a relatively stable manner, without having to worry about the awakening of the unruly people and the difficulty of being an official.
However, what shocked Mr. Wang was that starting from May of that year, the other five major newspapers, led by the Yanjing Daily, quickly followed suit and began to announce new cultural relics discoveries.
Heavy rains in Yinque Mountain caused things to come out of the ancient tombs. The unearthed cultural relics caused a sensation among the scholar-officials of the entire Ming Dynasty.
Apart from anything else, the fact that "The Art of War" and " The Art of War by Sun Bin" were published at the same time alone has shocked many people: On the historical plane, the Yinqueshan Han Tomb was discovered in 1964, and before that, the historical community had not even reached a conclusion as to whether there was a person named "Sun Bin" in history.
It is easy to imagine how surprised the scholar-official class of the Ming Dynasty were when such archaeological findings appeared in the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to these two military books, there are also ancient books from the pre-Qin period such as "Six Strategies", "Wei Liaozi", "Mozi", "Guan Zi", "Yanzi Chunqiu", "Dog Physiognomy", "Cao's Yin Yang" and so on. There is also the earliest and most complete ancient calendar in China, such as "The Calendar of the First Year of Yuanguang of Emperor Wu of Han". These things were sorted out one after another, and some of their contents were published in the six major newspapers. Not to mention the entire Ming Dynasty's scholar class, even those illiterate peddlers and hawkers also heard from hearsay, more or less accepted something completely different from before, and began to think deeply or shallowly.
Afterwards, Zhang Shize, the editor-in-chief of the six major newspapers, wrote an article himself, in which he said:
Since the 33rd year of the Wanli reign, when the present emperor first founded the Jinling Daily in Nanjing, the six major newspapers have been introducing the origins and developments of the contemporary countries to the military and civilians of the whole country for 15 years. Therefore, you should know that in today's world, the only countries that can compete with the Ming Dynasty in terms of national power are Spain, the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and the Mughal Empire. Among them, the most powerful country is Spain.
However, the roots of Spanish civilization can be traced back to the legacy of Greek and Roman civilizations. This civilization is contemporary with the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of China. Looking at the history of countries around the world, the characteristics of today's civilizations were all set more than 2,000 years ago. Therefore, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of China should be the roots of Chinese civilization.
When I was young, I studied history and heard that there were hundreds of schools of thought during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, I don't know what they were talking about or what they were fighting for. Now, looking at the cultural relics unearthed from the Han Tomb at Yinqueshan, the works of the military strategists, the Mohists, and the Yin-Yangists are gathered together. After a detailed reading, I suddenly feel that each has its merits. Recalling the detailed and meticulous legalist regulations in the Qin bamboo slips found at Shuihudi in Yunmeng a few years ago, I feel more proud: the Chinese philosophers of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are not inferior to the sages of Greece and Rome!
…
In short, this passage does not directly belittle Confucianism. But in fact, the effect it has is that all people who read or hear this article have an idea in their hearts: the things of the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are still very desirable. Why didn't we hear or see these things before? Why is it that among so many schools of thought, today, except for Taoism, which is lingering in the form of religion, we can only see Buddhism, an alien religion, and Confucianism, which occupies a dominant position?
Once this idea comes into being, the desire to find and read the works of the various schools of thought in the pre-Qin period is irresistible. If you really have the conditions to find such a book to read, in addition to broadening your horizons and experiencing brainstorming, people almost all want to write down their thoughts after reading to share and discuss with others.
At this time, the readers' letters column of the six major newspapers has become almost the best channel.
Since the contents of the Yinqueshan Han Tomb were published in the six major newspapers in early May, various discussions have quickly been launched in various places. This discussion is not limited to the scholar-official class, nor is it limited to the scholar class: after so many years of accumulation, the audience of the six major newspapers is actually very wide. Often, a newspaper will be circulated by three or five people, and more than ten or even more people will listen to the newspaper. In addition, the unearthed Qin bamboo slips in Yunmeng Shuihudi promoted the reform of the Ming Dynasty law. Therefore, people all over the country are very interested in the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Now that there are so many original works from that year, this has almost formed a nationwide discussion that includes at least more than 90% of the scholars in the country, more than 70% of the citizens and a small number of farmers!
There is no doubt that this is shaking the foundation of Confucianism's supremacy!
Moreover, senior officials like Wang Zaijin were very clear in their minds: Although Confucianism is the only one that is in power now, in fact, there are also factions within Confucianism. Strictly speaking, only Confucianism, or the Cheng-Zhu school of Confucianism, is in a dominant position now. This school has been strongly challenged by the School of Mind since the Jiajing period. Now, it seems that not only Confucianism, but all other schools of thought are reviving!
In July of that year, something happened that made the already panic-stricken Ming Confucian masters even more desperate: six major newspapers simultaneously announced that another large tomb from the pre-Han Dynasty in Bajiaokuo Village, Ding County, Beizhili, had been excavated by tomb robbers, resulting in the excavation of some bamboo slips used as burial objects. When the local government caught the tomb robbers, they conducted a protective excavation of the tomb and found at least three versions of the Analects!
Now, not only are other schools of thought trying to revive and seize power from Confucianism, but even within Confucianism, divisions and infighting are inevitable. The dominance of Neo-Confucianism is already shaky.
