The influence of Confucianism on ancient Chinese people is by no means limited to taking exams and becoming an official. Because Confucianism is not just a set of political ideals, it also includes thinking and understanding of the universe, nature, and all things.
The reason why Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, which was criticized in later generations, flourished in the Song Dynasty was ultimately because he perfected the traditional Chinese idea of "the unity of nature and man". After absorbing the nutrients of Buddhism and Taoism, he developed what Confucianism lacked. The cosmology and world view make up for it. It formed an ideological system that regards heaven as the source of all things in the universe and as the source of ethical principles. It gave Confucian political philosophy the sacred cloak of heaven and turned "preserving heaven's principles and eliminating human desires" into the unity of heaven and man and becoming a saint. Methods.
In the Song Dynasty, this approach of sanctifying political philosophy and converting Confucianism into a famous religion based on the unity of nature and man allowed Confucianism to gain the upper hand in the struggle with Buddhism and Taoism.
However, in the process of its development, because it has never been able to achieve the purpose of further understanding the truth (knowledge) through inferring the principles of things (Gewu), Neo-Confucianism was unable to develop its own natural philosophy, and gradually fell into rigidity and conservatism, becoming A "study of etiquette" that imprisons thoughts and restricts the behavior of monarchs and scholar-bureaucrats.
Those who were bound by this "study of etiquette and law" were not only monarchs and scholar-bureaucrats, but also the broad masses of working people. The working people, who are bound by feudal ethics and ethics, are obsessed with eliminating human desires. Naturally, they no longer have the spirit of innovation. Even copying Western tricks and tricks seems too human.
Of course, even if the working people have an innovative spirit, it will not be of much use, because Neo-Confucianism has no way to form its own natural philosophy system. Although the goal of "investigating things to gain knowledge" has been put forward very early, we have always been in the dilemma of "unable to understand things, not knowing" - it is easy to propose "investigating things to gain knowledge", but it is difficult to come up with the method of "investigating things to gain knowledge"... ...Anyway, it has been more than five hundred years since the Song Dynasty and now, and there has been no breakthrough.
This is no real introduction!
When Neo-Confucianism fell into a dead end, Yangming's Theory of Mind came into being. Yangming's theory of mind actually didn't know how to "investigate things". It was precisely because he didn't know how to "investigate things" that he found the entry point for criticizing Zhu Xi's studies. Therefore, Yangming’s Psychology developed and expanded by destroying Neo-Confucianism, which fell into a conservative and rigid system. But after the destruction, we can only come up with such things as "leading to conscience", "mind is reason", "mind-based theory", and "knowing oneness". In the final analysis, it is how to become a sage, rather than how to establish a system for pursuing the truth. .
If "Xinxue" has any improvement over "Neo-Confucianism", it is that there are fewer rules and regulations, making it easier for people with "conscientious minds" to copy Western natural philosophical thoughts.
However, the influence of "Neo-Confucianism" always exists, and "Xinxue" can easily fall into nothingness, talk about empty talk, and introduce Confucianism into Zen. After smashing the frame of "Neo-Confucianism", nothing can be controlled by Xinxue. ! The mind is the reason, just copy whatever comes to mind.
Therefore, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the study of mind had actually declined. Some people entered Zen and Mysticism; some people studied the West and entered Christianity; and some people proposed that "being careful and independent" is also a way of moral cultivation... Call it chaos. Under such circumstances, Neo-Confucianism has shown signs of revival!
If Zhu Cixiang wants to use his golden fingers to build a steam engine or something, does he need to use logical thinking, empirical trial and error, and scientific methods, which are rigorous Western natural philosophical ideas?
If not, can these routines of relying on the unity of heaven and man, relying on heaven's principles and human desires, relying on conscience, and relying on people to be cautious and independent to achieve perfection for heaven and earth work?
Or, simply not involve philosophy or science, and just rely on craftsmen to forcibly develop? So what kind of coercive law is needed?
Zhu Cixiang has a lot of knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, but most of this knowledge is theoretical, and much of it has been blurred due to years of disuse. Even if it is taken out, it is piecemeal. How can a group of illiterate craftsmen digest it without any natural philosophy system? How to absorb? How to force it?
Give the principle of a steam engine, smash tens of thousands of taels of silver, and give the craftsmen below a deadline to be beheaded. Oh, by the way, they have to be circled to prevent them from asking for help from Western missionaries... ..Can such a reckless move succeed? Or, if you don’t behead, you’ll be slapped with a brick wall if you can’t finish it?
Zhu Cixiang didn’t believe it anyway, so he opened the golden finger and climbed the scientific and technological tree in a very stupid way. He started from the basics and introduced things like logic, dialectics, positivism, and scientific methods, and introduced them into Confucianism. Tools and methods for studying things to gain knowledge. In his opinion, step-by-step development is the real shortcut, and if you want to take shortcuts and shortcuts, you will often take a long detour without realizing it!
However, it is not easy to perfectly integrate this set of things into Confucianism. On the one hand, Zhu Cihong's own Confucian foundation is not deep enough; on the other hand, there is no perfect entry point...until Dorgon "Qufu fell." "Struggle" gave Zhu Cihong an opportunity to reform the system.
It is much easier to reform Confucianism in the name of Confucius than it is for Zhu Cixiang to jump out and argue with various Confucian scholars!
So in the past two years, in addition to being busy with military and government affairs, Zhu Cihong has also been tinkering with natural philosophy. Part of it was made from memory; part of it was translated from Western academic classics and copied from them.
Just copying it wasn't enough, you had to imitate Confucius' tone and carve these principles on the bamboo slips, and you also had to make the bamboo slips old - this was a very troublesome thing for Zhu Chunjie! Confucius has been dead for 2000 years. What should the bamboo slips that have been buried underground for 2000 years look like? And what method can be used to preserve the bamboo slips for so long?
Zhu Chunjie doesn’t know how to do it at all!
Fortunately, he found two knowledgeable people. One was Feng Sizhong, who had been Zhu Cixi's foreman guard and later changed his profession to study artillery. Feng Sizhong was from the Tianshou Mountain system. His family has been in charge of the imperial mausoleum project for generations, and they have a lot of research on funerary objects. They also know how to forge antiques.
There is also a man named Li Shaoyou, also known as Wanghu, who is Li Ruolian's nephew. He was also a playboy when he was in Beijing. Several generations of his family have loved tinkering with antiques. After he was in trouble and arrived in Nanjing, he first joined the Jin Yiwei and later joined the Gezhijing Academy. At first, he was responsible for monitoring the Jing Xuetang. Later, he became interested in Western learning. He learned well and is now a teacher of the Jing Xuetang.
After Zhu Chunjie found these two people, and with their introduction, he found several experts from the Nanjing antique shop, and finally put together a team that could create fakes for Zhu Cihong.
Zhu Cixiang also brought Hanlin bachelors Bi Jiucheng and Su Ziwen into the gang-both of them were Jinshi and Zhu Cixiang's confidants, so they could write the "posthumous chapter" on behalf of Confucius.
Now the old "The Holy Relics" have been placed one by one in front of Zhu Cihong. They look like unearthed cultural relics, but it is hard to say whether they are dated 2000 or not.
After all, no one has seen bamboo slips from the year 2000!
"Is it possible?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
"Maybe...it's okay!" The person who answered him was Li Shaoyou. He was in his mid-twenties, about 24 years old, and looked a bit oily. He looked unreliable!
Zhu Cixiang glanced at Feng Sizhong again. Feng Sizhong, who had already been appointed as the artillery commander of the Grand Marshal's Palace, shook his head: "Your Majesty, a true expert cannot be deceived!"
"What should we do?" Emperor Zhu asked.
"There is a way," Zhu Chunjie said. "I heard that Qian Qianyi is planning to take Ji Kun north. Ji Kun is an expert and he also knows several experts in the antique business in Yangzhou."
"Oh," Zhu Cixi nodded, "Do you have any idea?"
Zhu Chunjie said: "Your Majesty, I can ask someone to talk to the people at Yangzhou Antique Shop, but Ji Kun...he is not very easy to talk to."
"He is Qian Qianyi's student. If he is willing to help us, it will be easy to deceive..." Zhu Cihong paused, "I know what he wants? I will go and tell him, and we will definitely succeed." of!"
