Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 586 Ming Dynasty Begins to Establish Constitution
"Plastic?" Fu Shan frowned. "Your Majesty, I have come across celluloid in my hometown. As for the formula, although I am only Mr. Wu's assistant and have no right to view it, I can guess that it is a combination of two or more substances, which involves quite complex physical and chemical knowledge."
"Yes." It's so easy to talk to a genius. Zhu Youdong said happily: "Celluloid is the simplest plastic. There are many plastics that are lighter, stronger, more insulating, and more heat-resistant. You see, celluloid is now very popular in my Ming Dynasty, right? What if a better plastic comes out? This is an endless road."
"...It's quite interesting." After muttering quietly, Fu Shan bowed solemnly and said, "I will accept the matter that the emperor mentioned. Uh, in terms of equipment and funds, I think the emperor will not be stingy, so I won't say much. But, in terms of assistants?"
This guy actually used words to bully me?
"Haha, Fu Shan, as for your assistant, you can go to Fangshan Middle School to find one yourself. But I have already prepared one for you as your colleague."
After saying this, following Zhu Youdong's finger, everyone noticed that since the emperor entered Fangshan, in addition to Fang Zhenghua, there was also a middle-aged man in his fifties or sixties, wearing the green uniform of a low-level official, beside him.
Although the emperor had always been friendly to the scientists at Fangshan, he was the emperor of a country after all, so although he tried to simplify it, the ceremony was still quite grand. Every time the emperor came to Fangshan, there were always dozens of people - if the emperor didn't introduce such low-level officials, everyone would have thought they were attendants.
"Everyone, let me introduce him to you. This man is Wang Zheng, with the courtesy name Liangfu. He is from Xi'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province. Liangfu was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Tianqi, and has been working as a prosecutor in various places over the years. Two years ago, he was transferred to Yangzhou, Nanzhili, to serve as a prosecutor. During this time, His Royal Highness Prince Xin was investigating the stolen money and found Yangzhou Prefecture, where he received his strong support. Therefore, His Royal Highness Prince Xin recommended him to me. During my tour of the country this time, I met Liangfu in Yangzhou Prefecture. After a deep conversation, I realized that Liangfu was a great talent in science and technology. Therefore, I asked him to follow me to travel all over the Ming Dynasty, and then I planned to let him directly enter Fangshan as a professor."
Wang Zheng was not as famous as Xu Guangqi in history books, and he was only admitted as a Jinshi at the age of 52. Therefore, Zhu Youdong did not take advantage of his time travel and directly dragged him out.
But after Zhu Youjian recommended him to his side, after a deep discussion, he slapped his forehead and said: Isn't this the great scientist known as the Southern Xu (Guangqi) Northern King in the 17th century? How could I have missed him?
So he happily asked Wang Zheng to roll up his bedding and follow him.
As a great mathematician of this era, Wang Zheng was extremely gifted in mathematics. According to Zhu Youdong's idea, Wang Zheng was supposed to be in charge of the mathematics department after he went to Fangshan: after Matteo Ricci, Li Guojun, a top mathematician trained by Fangshan, became the director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. At present, Fangshan's mathematical research seems to be lacking in momentum.
But after a deep discussion with Richelieu in Jiange, he keenly discovered the crisis: the technology tree of the Ming Dynasty was a little behind. And once the material scholars started to work hard, they would probably make money from plastics first, right? Now, due to the cessation of the EU's attacks, the alliance between the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire has in fact stopped. It is almost impossible to get a new plastic formula from Ibrahim - besides, what you get from others is backward after all, and you will be controlled by others. How can you be as strong as developing it yourself?
Therefore, he had long thought of setting up a special plastic laboratory in Fangshan: the original professors in Fangshan were all specialized in different things. After they went deep into various fields, they were unwilling to change direction, and it was not easy to change direction. Fangshan, in order to develop new projects, must add new blood.
Therefore, Wang Zhengcai was the person he had originally scheduled to be the head of the plastic laboratory.
Of course, Fu Shan was a surprise: Wang Zheng was too old after all, although if it weren't for Li Zicheng's coercion, this old man would have lived a long life in history. But after all, he was almost sixty years old, and his divergent thinking was still a little lacking.
Well, that's it, the combination of young and old, I hope you can achieve the effect of one plus one being greater than two.
…
The emperor returned to Beijing 40 months later, and went directly to Fangshan without even going home. This actually sent a strong signal: the Ming Dynasty's scientific and technological research and development must be accelerated.
Therefore, before the State Council meeting the next day, the current Minister of Revenue, Wang Shaozheng, convened relevant personnel from the Ministry of Revenue overnight and prepared a memorial requesting an increase in the research and development funds for Fangshan Research Institute, in preparation for flattering the emperor at tomorrow's meeting - this Grand Tutor's attitude towards the emperor was much softer than his predecessors.
As a result, when the formal meeting started, he and several of his colleagues were shocked by what Xiong Manzi took out.
"Your Majesty, in the past three years, I have followed your orders and summoned colleagues with expertise in criminal law from across the country. I have also consulted Qin documents, Legalist works, and legal texts from Western countries, especially ancient Rome. Combining them with the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty, I have repeatedly written and revised them. As of today, the first drafts of the four codes, the Imperial Ming Constitution, the Commercial Code, the Civil Code, and the Criminal Code, have been completed. Please review them, Your Majesty and all the superiors."
"Very good, thank you Mr. Xiong for your hard work, and thank you to everyone who participated in compiling the code."
The legal system of the Chinese Empire has an orderly inheritance and a very clear development trajectory.
The laws of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were mainly based on customary laws, and judgments were based more on past cases. However, that period was a time of ignorance, so the laws of these three dynasties were full of theocracy.
Needless to say, among the many dynasties of the Chinese Empire, the Qin Dynasty was the most outstanding in terms of legal system.
The legal system of the Han Dynasty was generally quite good, and it basically reflected Xunzi's thought: "Respecting rituals and emphasizing laws, Confucianism in appearance and law in essence." That is, cruel punishments were still used to rule the people, but they were not as straightforward as the Qin law, and they had to be wrapped in a layer of Confucian morality. In the words of Emperor Xuan of Han, "The Han family has its own system, which is originally a mixture of hegemony and kingly way."
In general, apart from the explicit provisions in the Han Dynasty that people could pay money to cover their crimes or use their younger brothers to pay for their crimes, the other provisions were quite reasonable, at least in the era around BC.
During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the golden age of aristocratic families, China almost slipped into the abyss of the caste system. The law clearly stipulates that people are not equal to each other, and also clearly stipulates that if an official commits a crime, he can use his official position to atone for his crime. If the official position is not enough, he can use money to continue to atone for it. After atonement, because the family background is still there, after returning home to rest for a while, he may be reinstated as a high-ranking official, and then he can continue to commit crimes freely...
The laws of the Sui and Tang dynasties were the most comprehensive and comprehensive in ancient China. However, what was most criticized by later generations was that they defined different social classes, and each class had its own rights and obligations before the law.
However, from the perspective of Zhu Youdong, the biggest criticism is the good intentions of the rulers of the Sui and Tang dynasties: this is the last struggle of the aristocratic families before their death, and their performance is extremely crazy. In order to effectively protect ordinary people and further restrict the aristocratic families, it is better for our royal family to directly state their respective rights and obligations in the law. In this way, although the rights of the common people are few, they can be protected. Although the aristocratic families have many rights, they cannot exceed the scope of the law - this is a subtle setting based on reality.
There is nothing much to say about Dasong. His contribution to the law was mainly reflected in economic legislation. The rest were all negative effects. The emperor could add or delete legal provisions at will and convict people at will. In order to limit the emperor's power, the ministers introduced moral legislation - the laws of the Chinese Empire went astray from then on.
The laws of the Yuan Dynasty were full of ethnic discrimination and oppression, and were extremely rough and there is nothing much to say.
As for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty fell deeper into the evil path of governing the country with morality than the Great Song Dynasty.
In short, when we summarize the laws of past dynasties, although there are many desirable aspects, there are more fatal flaws.
As a modern person, especially a loyal supporter of evidence-based medicine, Zhu Youdong likes norms, likes to have laws to follow for everything, and likes equal rights and obligations. Therefore, he has long wanted to take action against the Ming Dynasty legal system that forces people all over the country to be hypocrites.
However, just as the emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties could only use public inequality to protect equality in a small area when faced with reality, changing a country's legal system is a huge project and it is definitely not something he can do as he pleases.
For this reason, he endured for nearly thirty years. Since he became the regent, he has continued to influence the Ming Dynasty through newspaper opinions, archaeological objects and his own ideas for doing things for more than ten years. The most important thing is that by now, the Ming Dynasty has launched the industrial revolution for more than ten years, and the real bourgeoisie has been formed. Therefore, only now did he dare to truly make a thorough reform of the Ming Dynasty's legal system.
"Your Majesty, everyone." Xiong Tingbi's powerful baritone rang out in the meeting hall: "The draft of the Imperial Ming Constitution is divided into six chapters: preamble, general principles, the emperor's powers and responsibilities, succession to the throne, the rights and obligations of Ming citizens, Ming state institutions, and the Ming national flag, national emblem, national anthem, and capital. Now, I will read them one by one, and please Your Majesty and colleagues review them!"
