"Oh my god, this must be God's country. Why is it so rich here? Why are the people here so polite and elegant?"
Kroner sighed.
Then, he saw that the official roads here were wide and neat, like spider webs, spreading among the trees. There were as many carriages as flowing water, and they were very orderly, and the people walking on the sidewalk had smiles on their faces.
Unlike their European counterparts, the streets are full of filth, and both nobles and citizens don't like to take baths, especially on rainy days, making the whole city smelly.
Therefore, he felt that Spain was really incomparable to the Ming Dynasty.
"Oh my God, do the common people here also live in brick houses like this castle? You know, our common people can only live in shacks. Beautiful brick castles only belong to the nobles."
Abu Kuei also said in surprise.
"There is no difference between nobles and common people here. The common people here also have their own houses and gorgeous clothes. They can also receive education. If they get sick, they can also get treatment. There are many medical clinics opened by the government, and doctors are government officials. They are hired because they have government subsidies, and civilians can get treatment without paying a higher price when they are sick. Even infectious and fatal diseases have to be registered. My God, they can cure diseases without bloodletting! It seems that the government here does not just serve the nobles, they have sufficient tax revenue to ensure the life of the common people."
"People here love to read. Every home has a book. It is common to see people reading with books. There are even special newspaper readers who read newspapers to the common people. Moreover, the books they read are very miscellaneous, including Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. It can take root here, and even our doctrines are discussed here. Oh my God, if this is where we are, other kinds of doctrines and books are not allowed except what is allowed by the church. How come the church here is so disrespectful to culture? Tolerant, but they don’t seem to have a religion they must believe in;”
"Their emperor was not crowned by the church. I boldly asked, saying that the emperor was appointed by God. In other words, their emperor was both a secular ruler and equivalent to their God? But based on my understanding of their history, They seem to be able to overthrow their emperor, and their emperor was promoted by themselves. The enthronement ceremony in their records records in detail the process of the people in the world supporting him as emperor. Therefore, it should be said that their emperor is their own choice. Yes, this is different from us. Our emperor is not decided by us. They also have remarks about princes, generals and Xiang Ning, and they were raised in their country more than a thousand years ago. This is really surprising. , no wonder they are so powerful, the nobles here must also have to face the pressure of being eliminated. Our nobles have always been about blood. Without noble blood, there is no way to become a noble. The gap between us is really too big."
"I finally arrived in the capital. The prosperous towns on both sides of the Grand Canal made me feel that any city is richer than our Lisbon. Therefore, I am even more looking forward to how prosperous their capital will be, and when After I saw it, even though I was mentally prepared, I was still shocked by its prosperity. Maybe this is the city of God! I felt like I was in heaven, the whole city seemed to be covered with brocade, and the rich commodities were so overwhelming I was dazzled. Everyone was smiling. They seemed not to know the horror of death and the hardship of poverty. Hunger seemed to be forever insulated from them. The nobles here seemed to have infinite wisdom. For example, their Mr. Xu Ge had known about us for a long time. They know all the knowledge and know geometry and geography better than me. I finally met their emperor, my God. Their emperor was so young, but so wise and knowledgeable that it was terrifying, because he actually knew our history. It also reminded us to be wary of the English. Not enough nobles in our own country are aware of the threat of the English! Also, I was lucky enough to see their Guards, which is really the most invincible army I have ever seen in the world. , all tall and straight, very brave, the key is not less than 50,000, equipped with a lot of firearms and artillery, mainly because they are fast in manufacturing, their Ordnance Manufacturing General Administration, I heard that there are hundreds of thousands of craftsmen working there Participating in manufacturing, many artillery equipment enter the army every day. Even if the Netherlands raises the tax rate to 80%, it will not be able to support such a large army and craftsmen! Their strength is beyond our imagination. It is no wonder that they can manage such a wide territory. , this undoubtedly proves the advancement of their ruling system! Perhaps, if we in the Netherlands want to become such an empire, we must learn from them. Their Chinese characters seem to be more conducive to expression and easier to open up people’s wisdom. I think if we in the Netherlands want to To become such a powerful super empire, the first thing to do is to popularize Chinese characters and learn their culture. I have to say that this is really a country favored by God!"
Along the way, Albuquerque began to imitate Marco Polo and write his own travel diary, and also included his experiences in the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, like Marco Polo, he did not hesitate to praise the Ming Dynasty.
Even in modern times, because China was lagging behind, many literati who had an inferiority complex because of seeing the power of the West believed that their country's backwardness was due to the different writing, and actively advocated abandoning the Chinese language. Now Albuquerque has begun to treat his own writing and Cultural self-confidence has been shaken.
Kroner naturally had the same feeling. He had already begun to take the initiative to buy books such as the Four Books and Five Classics, Tang Poems and Song Ci, as well as "Da Ming Huidian" and "Huang Ming Ancestors" published by Chongwen Temple. He was determined to find out more from Chinese literature and history. Knowing the secret of the Ming Empire's power, as governors, they naturally hired interpreters so that they could understand some of the Chinese culture.
Abu Kui and Kroner were indeed greatly shocked when they came to Ming Dynasty this time.
Because in this era, apart from the fact that the emperor was a time traveler, the scholar-officials of the Ming Dynasty were not as conservative as the scholar-officials of the Qing Dynasty, and were more proactive and open-minded than Westerners in understanding foreign cultures.
Many Han officials even took the initiative to call some Western missionaries with knowledge and moral character as Western Confucians.
The Han scholar-bureaucrats of this era also formed their own new ideas through active thinking through this proactive cultural exchange.
On the contrary, Westerners in this era were less proactive in absorbing foreign culture than the scholar-officials of the Ming Dynasty, because they are still relatively barbaric and pay attention to direct colonial plunder. In terms of cultural exchanges, they also force assimilation and regard other cultures as heretics. Even people with other cultures were directly physically exterminated, otherwise there would not have been many religious wars.
In the current Ming Dynasty, since the emergence of Xinxue in the Zhengde Dynasty, the dominance of Neo-Confucianism in the ideological world has been shaken, and many literati who do not conform to mainstream thinking have appeared, such as Li Zhi;
Advocates of Neo-Confucianism do not have the ability to suppress other intellectual thoughts like the Western church. In addition, Emperor Zhu Youxiao likes practical learning that focuses on exploring the essential laws of things and transforming them into practical social applications, as well as various new social productions. Relationships emerged, so Ming Dynasty’s current thinking is particularly diverse and open, so much so that all kinds of scholar-officials were affected by this. Although some were conservative, there were also many who took the initiative to study other cultures with the intention of creating new knowledge. group.
This also makes today's country obviously more open and civilized than Western countries.
Therefore, the two nobles from the West, Albuquerque and Kroner, could not help but be amazed and ashamed.
Although Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty is now very strict in terms of the legal system, even if the privileged classes of the empire violate the laws and regulations, they will be severely punished, and their families will be confiscated and even beheaded. However, they who are not the governor of the Ming Dynasty naturally do not know that under the Ming Dynasty, they will be severely punished. Nobles are not as comfortable as nobles in their Europe.
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