The sky is a little cloudy.
The thin drizzle has begun to fall gently, and the residual heat of the "Jade Dragon Flag" competition has not faded away, but in this seemingly depressing weather, more and more people don't want to go out. After all, no one can say It might rain suddenly.
In this regard, the local government of Fukuoka City has repeatedly cursed the bad luck, and tourists are holding back and not going out. The losses are all money, which is the GDP of Fukuoka City and the tax revenue of their local government!
Some people don't want to go out because of the uncertain weather, but some people go to the knife to go to an appointment that may be life-threatening, because they have been looking forward to this appointment for many years.
In the hotel room, Kitayama Koichi made tea in a skillful, smooth, natural and calm way.
Japanese tea art is very complicated. Generally speaking, it must be carried out in a special tea room. The decoration of the tea room also has specific requirements, such as the layout and design of the tea room, the placement of tea sets in the tea room, etc., and even which foot to step into the tea room. There are very strict requirements, and there can be no deviation in any step. It is very much the "craftsman spirit" that Japan has always emphasized.
Kitayama Koichi was born into a prominent family in Japan. During the shogunate period, the Kitayama family was an upper-class samurai family with a very high status. It was also the guest of several generations of shoguns. It has been passed down to this day, which can be said to have a long history and a rich family tradition.
He should have learned the Japanese tea ceremony, but somehow, compared to the Japanese tea ceremony, which restricted every step, Kitayama Koichi preferred the less restrictive Central Plains tea ceremony.
The Japanese tea art is also called the tea ceremony by the Japanese, but Kitayama Koichi believes that the Japanese tea art is too craftsmanship and cannot be called "Tao". Only the Chinese tea ceremony is inseparable from Taoist thought, which is quite true to the Taoist true meaning of "Tao follows nature and returns to nature." .
The reason why the tea ceremony introduced from the Central Plains to Japan has developed into what it is now is actually closely related to Japan's special national conditions.
Japan is an island country. Due to the geographical environment, it has formed a maritime martial culture. However, because it is within the influence circle of the Central Plains culture and is deeply influenced by the Central Plains culture, it has not become a pirate civilization similar to Western civilization at the same time. Moreover, because the island country The natural environment was extremely unstable, so feudal ethics, especially the ideological hierarchy, were fully implemented by Japan.
Although according to two famous historical books of Japan, "Kojiki" and "Japanese Shoki", the first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu, established the country in 660 BC and ascended the throne. Later generations also designated this day as the "Foundation Day" of Japan. , but in fact, the eight generations of emperors since Emperor Yasushi seem to not exist (i.e., the "Eight Generations of Queshi"). The first emperor to change the title of the supreme ruler from "King" to "Emperor" was Emperor Tenmu of Japan.
Of course, this kind of beautification of one's own country's civilization is completely understandable. What is really puzzling is that the Goryeo next door blindly recognizes its ancestors, builds the Goryeo historical system with Goguryeo as the center, and includes the ancient Central Plains including the empire. The five ancient emperors, including Ku, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun, recognized them as the leaders of the ancient Goryeo tribes. In modern times, they shamelessly took the names of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla from an unofficial history called "The Legacy of the Three Kingdoms" (compiled by a monk from the Goryeo Dynasty, Yi Ran). The unofficial history of the Three Kingdoms (which has nothing to do with the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains) found a myth and legend in the excerpts of the chapter, and regarded this myth and legend as the origin of its own civilization, trying to get rid of the influence of the Central Plains from the origin of civilization.
At the beginning, although this myth and legend was included in the textbooks, it was stated as "rumored", which means they did not think it was true. However, after 2007, Goryeo launched a new version of its history textbooks, which included "rumored". "Both words were deleted, and the myth and legend suddenly became unquestionable true history!
Not only is this not an operation in the human world, it is simply not an operation in the underworld!
After seeing Goryeo's operation of breaking through the lower limit, this point of Japan's beautification of the origin of civilization seems to be very insignificant.
This is not a world that is better than anyone else, but a world that is less bad than anyone else.
Talking back to Japan, before Emperor Tenmu, although the Yamato Kingdom unified Japan in the fourth century AD and formed the prototype of the current Japanese royal family and system, because Japan had always been a clan and tribal system, the actual ruler of Japan was Soga. There are several major clans headed by the Japanese clan, and the power of the Japanese royal family is restricted by those major clans.
In the seventh century AD, the Japanese royal family launched a coup, eliminated the Soga family and other major clan leaders, successfully seized power, and became the undisputed de facto ruler of Japan. Emperor Tenmu officially changed the "king" to "emperor", and at the same time reformed the Japanese system. According to the Central Plains The political and economic system of the Tang Dynasty implemented the "Great Reform" and sent more than a dozen large-scale envoys to the Tang Dynasty to study in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. Only then did Japan complete the transition from a slave society to a feudal society. The "Cultural Revolution" and the "Meiji Restoration" that pushed Japan from feudal society to capitalist society in modern times are called two important changes in Japan's history.
After the "Dahua Reform", Japan almost copied the political system of the Tang Dynasty at that time. Not to mention the construction of Nara Castle in imitation of Chang'an, many official positions were used by Japan without even changing their names. God restored, considering that there was no copyright at the time There is nothing to say about Japan's behavior. Maybe the Tang Dynasty would smile knowingly if they knew about it.
At that time, Japan fully studied the Tang Dynasty and could basically be regarded as a "Little Tang Dynasty". However, there was only one very fatal thing that Japan did not learn from the Tang Dynasty, and that was the "imperial examination" system.
This is mainly because natural disasters occur frequently in Japan. Under such natural environmental threats, the Japanese people have an extreme yearning for stability.
The extreme pursuit of stability has led Japan to extremely recognize a stable or even rigid social hierarchy. The instability caused by any natural disasters and man-made disasters is incomparable to the instability caused by the collapse of the social hierarchy.
The idea of social hierarchy from the Central Plains was regarded by the Japanese as an iron law to maintain social stability, so the "imperial examination" was not allowed to exist as a channel for the people at the bottom to rise. To put it bluntly, the Japanese ruling class wanted to stabilize their position. , deliberately did not study the "imperial examination". Anyway, the ruling class of Japan was very clear about the urinal nature of the people under its command, and even if they had the courage to do so, they would not dare to rebel. Therefore, the "imperial examination" not only did not play a role in maintaining stability in Japan, but it was a major unstable factors.
As for how submissive the people of ancient Japan were, in most of the ancient Central Plains, farmers' agricultural taxes generally did not exceed 10%. In ancient Japan, farmers' agricultural taxes generally were more than 60%, which is equivalent to people without land in the Central Plains. Sharecropper income.
The fundamental reason for the change of dynasties in the Central Plains was that land annexation created a large number of tenant farmers. As a result, wars broke out all over the country and rebellions occurred frequently. To put it simply, if the agricultural tax increased by 60%, I would dare to rebel!
In ancient Japan, 60% of the agricultural tax was already a favor of the nobles. In many cases, the proportion of agricultural tax was still more than 60%. In extreme cases, even the famous people dared to collect 90% of the agricultural tax. , but in this way, ancient Japan has never changed its dynasties. The obedience of the ancient Japanese people can be imagined.
In fact, it is similar now. Social animals would rather commit suicide when they are unemployed, but they do not dare to launch a self-sacrifice attack on the capitalists who exploit them. Thinking about it this way, there is no essential difference between the people of modern Japan and the people of ancient Japan.
The reason for all the above lies in Japan's deep-rooted social class system, which is the cornerstone of the Japanese system's maintenance of social stability. In order to strengthen the social class system, Japanese society has popularized an idea from top to bottom, that is, people are human beings. No, upper class people and lower class people are fundamentally different.
If Japan really introduced the "imperial examination" system at that time, allowing those miserable mud-legged people to enter the court and be promoted to the upper class, wouldn't this tell other mud-legged people that they are actually no different from those noble lords?
They are all the same people, so will they still be willing to unconditionally allow themselves to be exploited and enslaved by the aristocratic men in power? Will you?
In the Central Plains, the "imperial examination" system was regarded as a promotion channel for the people at the bottom and became a link in maintaining social stability. In the past dynasties, when the "imperial examination" was completely monopolized by the upper class and lost its role as a promotion channel for the people at the bottom, it was generally When rebellions occur frequently in a dynasty, the leader of the rebellion or the staff around the leader are often those accomplished scholars who failed in scientific examinations.
The original intention of the "imperial examination" is to find out these unstable factors hidden among the people and use them for one's own purposes. On the one hand, it strengthens the strength of the ruling class, and on the other hand, it weakens the cohesion of the lower class people. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
And when the "imperial examination" was no longer fair and the channels to the upper class were blocked, those bold and strategic scholars really dared to rebel!
It is true that the demise of every dynasty in the Central Plains mostly resulted from land annexation. This was the root of all problems. Why would the people not rebel if they had no food to eat? But to unite the scattered people and fight for the promising cause of "rebellion", it still needs to be inspired and led by those with bright minds.
The dire straits of the people at the bottom are like withered grasslands, while those who are brave and resourceful are like Mars. Regardless of whether grasslands or Mars exist alone, they will not make much difference, but once they meet together, they will become a prairie fire.
A single spark can start a prairie fire!
Those "sparks" should have stood out in the "imperial examination" system and become one of the pillars of the country. Of course, they may also be another worm in the country. In short, they will all be members of the country's ruling class.
But unfortunately, the upper-level promotion channels are blocked, so they can only choose to rebel.
If you don't give me an official position, then I will get it myself. Once the rebellion is done, maybe it can be called an "uprising". Don't talk about being an official then, maybe I can even be an emperor!
The thoughts of the people of the Central Plains are always so simple and bold.
But this is not possible in Japan. Japan has restricted the classes between people since ancient times. The upper class is the upper class and the lower class is the lower class. There can be communication between the upper and lower classes, but there cannot be circulation. There cannot be any transcendence between each other. This is a thunder pool.
Therefore, the "imperial examination" in the Central Plains was an important tool for the ruling class to recruit talents and maintain national stability, but in Japan, it was a no-brainer.
It is precisely because of its extreme emphasis on and emphasis on class that Japan has produced many things that can be said to be anti-human.
Take tea art for example. With so many steps involved in tea art, will the tea brewed be better? Not necessarily, because for things like tea, to put it bluntly, people have to adapt to the tea leaves. The skills should be adjusted according to the tea leaves and the spring water for making tea. Blindly pursuing standards and blindly pursuing a sense of ritual is a stupid thing in tea art.
But! I can't help but do this, I'm so high-spirited!
Compared with making a pot of tea casually, the cumbersome steps, the standards of measuring with rulers, and the deliberately created sense of ritual when making and drinking tea, all tell those lower class people that we are not the same as you! one! Sample!
The more complicated something is, in many cases it does not mean that it is good, but it means that the person who uses it is free!
People who are not full and do not have to work will not find such discomfort at all. The lower class people are all people who are not full and are exhausted to death. They cannot understand why the upper class nobles drink tea like this. They We can only think that there must be some mystery in this, and if they don't understand this mystery, it must be because their wisdom is far inferior to that of the upper-class nobles, so the people at the bottom are more and more submissive to the upper-class nobles and dare not disobey.
This is the threshold, which is used to restrict the lower class people to the lower class and prevent them from entering the upper class. There are countless such thresholds in Japan, so much so that many new rich people who have sprung up because of emerging industries and have a lot of wealth are blocked from really being able to make decisions. Outside the decision-making circles of Japan, they are members of the upper class in the eyes of outsiders, but they are not really upper class people. They are squeezed and exploited by the real upper class and eventually come to an end.
Japan does not allow "lower to overcome superior". The "upper" and "lower" here should really refer to the upper class nobles and the lower class people.
Etiquette has always been a tool of governance, and it is the most useful one. It clearly distinguishes the boundaries between the upper class nobles and the lower class people, and then tells the lower class people not to touch it. This is not something you can get involved in!
To this day, in a modern society where the mainstream of society shouts "human rights", "freedom" and "equality", Japan's class system is still unbreakable. The children of bureaucrats are bureaucrats, and the children of politicians are politicians. The circulation of the upper and lower classes mainly depends on Kitayama Koichi doesn't like this kind of Japaneseness, but as the eldest son and grandson of the Kitayama family, he can resist many things if he doesn't like them. He abandons the Japanese tea art and uses the most casual and free-spirited Central Plains tea ceremony. Making tea for himself in this way may be the only resistance Kitayama Koichi can make.
In terms of performance, the gentle and gentlemanly Kitayama Koichi is very similar to his father, but in essence, Kitayama Koichi is closer to his lawless aunt.
It's a pity that he is the eldest son and grandson of the Beishan family, and he is the only son. He has an unshirkable responsibility on his shoulders. He cannot betray his own class, let alone his family. Between responsibility and nature, he can only choose the latter.
In this regard, he actually envied his aunt very much. She would always have a bunch of people to pamper her, pamper her, indulge her, and protect her. She could always act according to her own ideas. In Japan, everyone has a hierarchy. In a country where there are layers of constraints, such people are worthy of everyone’s envy.
Today, Kitayama Koichi also decided to do something according to his own ideas and never change it!
