"Ahem~~" At 9 o'clock in the morning, when Yu Deli saw everyone in the conference room, he coughed twice into the microphone to signal the meeting. Immediately, everyone present turned their attention to Zhao Xin.
"It was my idea to hold this meeting at first. After telling Lao Yu, I left because I had something to do. In the past few months, Lao Yu and Lao Chen have been preparing, and the plan was written by them. Here, I First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude. Without you two, this meeting cannot be held smoothly."
As soon as Zhao Xin finished speaking, applause broke out in the conference room. Everyone here knows that this closed-door meeting today and even in the next few days will determine the direction of China in this time and space, the fate of countless people, and their own status in the future.
Twenty-one people, twenty-one thoughts. Maybe some people are the same as Zhao Xin and currently have the same ideas in many aspects, but that is only before taking over the world. As for after conquering the world, it's really hard to say.
After Zhao Xin waited for the applause to subside, he picked up the political system plan written by Chen Qingsong and said with a smile: "To be honest, the content of this document drafted by Old Chen surprised me. According to Old Chen himself, in order to write This thing caused me to lose five kilograms of flesh after being tortured."
"Haha." Everyone present laughed out loud when they heard this. Chen Qingsong also rubbed his chin in a self-deprecating way, feeling that it was really sharp.
"Due to time constraints and modifications, the document was only finalized last night, and I only had time to read it hastily. The reason why the meeting period is set to one week is that I hope everyone can express their opinions openly and honestly after listening to it. .”
Zhao Xin glanced at everyone present, his words suddenly became serious, and continued: "Everyone here has decided to settle down in this time and space, and the political system is closely related to everyone. First of all, I want to make a statement, this No matter what you say or what opinions you have at this meeting, you will not be punished for your words. No matter what system we adopt, it must be based on the current social class situation."
As soon as this was said, everyone present nodded. Zhao Xin's words were flawless, so everyone didn't know what his attitude was.
"Now, let me read it to everyone. If you have any comments, we can discuss it after I finish reading it all."
"Article 1, Principles. The purpose of this draft is to determine the political system for a country with a territory of 1,700 square kilometers. This content is completely based on the principles of reason and justice to ensure that the people can fully enjoy their rights and exercise obligations. The various parts of this draft are combined to demonstrate the legitimacy and necessity of the existence of a political system. This is to establish an industrialized and powerful country and to subordinate individual will to the public will and allow the people to exercise sovereignty , in order to achieve equality and exercise natural freedom, this is the first issue we must solve."
"Article 2. Government system. It is true that our goal is to establish a republic without a monarchy. However, in view of the current social class structure and people's education problems, in the next twenty years, we will implement a republican system with a virtual monarch , the position of emperor will exist as the head of state and will not have any real political power. The highest authority for national governance will be responsible for a committee composed of us and representatives of this time and space."...
When Zhao Xin finished reading this, the expressions of half of the people present changed. Their eyes glanced at the expressionless Chen Qingsong. Then when they looked at Yu Deli, they found that he also had a calm expression. Everyone was thinking: Could it be that these two people were bribed by Prince Zhao? Instead of building a good republic, we are actually building a monarchy!
With Prince Zhao's "supernatural powers", no one can defeat him. I'm afraid this guy has to hang on to his head, and he also has to straddle the military and political circles to seize real power. If he wants to do something in the future, who can stop him?
But then again, if Zhao Xin wants to do something now, no one else can stop him. Without him, Beihai Town’s innate system would have determined it. Among those who attended the dinner for the French a few days ago, some could not help but start to wonder if Shen Xuan was wearing the queen's clothes. Could it be Zhao Xin making a statement?
"The committee consists of military, civil affairs, and supervisory departments. In principle, no one can serve in more than two departments. If you have relevant opinions, you can submit them to the full committee for discussion."
Well, when they saw this, everyone felt relieved and thought that Prince Zhao was still fine. He must hold the military power, but who knows what the other one will be.
At this time, Chen Qingsong was actually observing the reactions of everyone present. To be honest, he had suffered a lot of mental torture for three months in order to write this thing. In order to find a reasonable explanation for the monarchy, he confused himself by losing five pounds.
It is said that after Yu Deli finished the seaside conversation with Zhao Xin, he made a special trip to Fuldan City and talked with Chen Qingsong for two nights. Regarding the political system, the person who has the most say in Beihai Town is Fatty Chen, who has experience within the system. In the end, the two agreed that Chen Qingsong would draft the draft of the political system, and Yu Deli would be responsible for reviewing the draft and filling in the gaps.
Like Zhao Xin's troubles, Chen Qingsong first chose the republican direction when he first drafted the plan. However, when he adopted the concepts of Western political philosophy to think about political issues, a basic problem that could not be avoided was posed. The front issue is "political legitimacy" - that is, how to make the formulated political system win the trust of the people.
Why do some people have the right to rule while others can only be ruled? What is the raison d’être for a particular political model?
From ancient times to the present, from east to west, although most political societies are based on irrationality and violence, rulers of all generations have to demonstrate the legitimacy of their rule. The conviction of the ruled in the legitimacy argument of rule is a prerequisite for a political society to maintain long-term stability, especially in classical societies.
The principle of the Republic is "the world is for the public", which means that all citizens have the right to participate in national affairs. Of course, the scholar-bureaucrats like this the most, because it means that "tradition" has returned to their embrace, and even "government" can get a share of the pie. The prime minister system and the cabinet system? The era when the landlord class denounced Fang Qiu has come again.
However, if you tell the common people who have just escaped from the rule of the Qing Dynasty and cannot even read a single Chinese character that things have changed and you can express your opinions on the imperial system, they will definitely think that you are spreading hysteria. If you have that much free time, you might as well clear two more acres of land so that your family can have enough to eat and your children can read, so as to get rid of your fate. …
Daiqing in the 18th century was a farming society with 90% farmers. In this social reality, talking about republic to the common people is just playing the piano to an ox. To put it bluntly, even though Beihai Town currently has more than one million people under its rule, if we talk about the foundation for a republican system, it is estimated that there is not even half of it.
Therefore, if we want the common people in the world to accept the Republic, we have to carry out transformation through campaigns one after another, including the transformation of scholars, the transformation of stereotypes and bad habits, the liberation of women, etc. The problem is that these 21 people are determined to stay in this time and space. Land reform has not yet started. If others follow, it will easily cause political turmoil. At that time, everyone will have no choice but to pack up and run away.
Some people will say, Beihai Town has a big fist, so what if you don’t want to do anything? If the people are not enlightened, it would be better if education is popularized. The problem is that it will take some time. The basic education in Beihai Town is certainly good, especially in Beihai Navy, where the literacy rate is as high as 97%. But compared with the more than 300 million ordinary people in the entire Daiqing, they are not even a hair, let alone the 10 million scholars in the south who are familiar with the teachings of Confucius and Mencius.
Rousseau once said that even if Zhao Xin dislikes this person very much, he still admits that what the other person said makes sense.
"Even the strongest man will never be strong enough to be a master forever, unless he transforms force into rights and obedience into duties. ... Force is a physical force, and I can't see how the effects of force can be What morality.”
You must know that there is a completely different difference between obeying the rule of a certain regime and recognizing that this regime has the right to rule. Submission resulting from violence will not give the ruled political obligations recognized from the bottom of their hearts. Once the foundation of violence on which it is maintained is weakened, someone will naturally rise up and overthrow it. Material or emotional motivations may arise from customs, fear, and feelings of punishment, but human psychological conditions are often changeable and cannot constitute a reliable basis for rule.
"Mencius" says that those who use strength to be benevolent will dominate, and they will have a great country; those who practice benevolence with virtue will be kings, and kings will not be great. Tang has seventy miles, King Wen has one hundred miles. Those who convince others with strength are not convinced by their hearts; those who convince others with virtue even though their strength is not sufficient are convinced from the heart and are sincerely convinced, just like the seventy-year-old disciples who convinced Confucius. The poem goes: "From the west to the east, from the south to the north, without any thought or disobedience." This is what it means.
To put it in layman's terms, it doesn't mean that Beihai Town's weapons are powerful, and it can prove that Beihai Town has the legitimacy of its rule because it can wipe out the Manchus and defeat Tsarist Russia like Sun Tzu. This is not valued at all in Chinese culture. Otherwise, when the Mongols, Yuan and Manchus went south to fight the unification war, they would not have encountered so much resistance.
So the question before Chen Qingsong is, what kind of regime was legitimate in ancient China? The answer is obvious.
In traditional Chinese political theory, whether it is the emperor or a minister, it is just an official position in politics, and everyone only determines their duties and responsibilities based on the official position. If the emperor fails to fulfill his duties and is incompetent, the ministers can change his throne, and even the people of the country can kill him. If you don’t understand this, you won’t understand the truth of traditional Chinese politics.
Taking the Han, Tang and Song dynasties as an example, the Han Dynasty was a prime minister-head system, while the Tang and Song dynasties were a prime minister-committee system. The highest deliberation organ was called Zhengshitang, and later it was renamed Zhongshu Menxia. All government decrees that must be promulgated in the name of the emperor's edict must be decided in advance by the Zhengshitang meeting. Without the seal of the Zhengshitang, it is not an edict and has no legal status in law. …
In traditional Chinese politics except the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the emperor cannot be dictatorial, and the prime minister cannot be dictatorial. However, countless people in later generations insist that China's traditional politics is autocratic and dictatorial.
In fact, looking at Eastern and Western politics, it is very difficult to draw a precise line between a republic and a monarchy, and it cannot be said that the former is more democratic than the latter, because as long as the power of the monarch is limited to ritualization, there is actually no difference between the two. Not big. Didn’t you see that in another time and space in history, so many countries in Latin America that practiced military dictatorships claimed that they were democratic republics?
Then the third question came again. How can the virtual monarchy that Beihai Town wants to implement gain the support of the majority of people?
To be honest, Fatty Chen is not good at political philosophy issues. After all, his job in the system was a deputy position, which was pragmatic rather than pragmatic. The more he thought about it, the more complicated it became. As a result, he got himself involved and became entangled in the legitimacy of the monarchy. So he couldn't help but go to Wang Zhong and ask for advice on the legality of the rule.
Wang Zhong, who was a direct descendant of Gu Yanwu and had a deep understanding of pre-Qin laws and regulations, did not directly answer Chen Qingsong's question, but told him two allusions.
It is said that there are only two ways to change dynasties in Chinese history. One is that the local people use conspiracy and violence to change the dynasty, and the other is the invasion of foreign nations to establish political power. However, when the rulers of these two regimes face the issue of legitimacy, they will fall into a dilemma: on the one hand, their rule does not have formal legitimacy, but they must establish and even maintain formal legitimacy.
What caused this dilemma was a dialogue that originated during the period of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty and was later written by Sima Qian in "Historical Records". The first paragraph Wang Zhong talks about is this matter.
At that time, Yuan Gusheng, who represented Confucianism, and Huang Sheng, who represented Taoism, discussed in front of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty what "the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers" meant. As a result, since then, the issue of political legitimacy has become a forbidden area for feudal rulers of all generations, and scholars after the Han Dynasty did not dare to touch it again. The only thing everyone dares to criticize is that the three ancient generations are really good, and the previous generation we replaced is really scum!
The essence of the debate between the two is the conflict between "form" and "purpose" in political legitimacy. Yuan Gusheng demonstrated the legitimacy of Tang Wu's commission from the purpose, and Huang Sheng demonstrated the illegality of Tang Wu's regicide from the form. However, as the referee, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty was in a situation where "the concubine could not do it".
The early political legitimacy of the pre-Qin scholars adopted the method of "mandate of destiny", that is, they deified their ancestors. As descendants of gods, they naturally had the power to rule. The focus was on formal legitimacy. However, with the emergence of the two famous tyrants "Jie and Zhou", purpose replaced form, and Huang Laozhi's two concepts of "Tiandao" and "Tao" occupied a central position in the discussion of political legitimacy.
If it was legal for Tang and Wu to execute Jie and Zhou, although Han could prove the legitimacy of its replacement of Qin, others could also prove the legitimacy of its replacement of Han. In other words, the rebellion against the Liu family should be deserved; if it was It's illegal, so where does that leave Liu Bang? He was the chief of the pavilion of the Qin Dynasty, a proper traitor and traitor.
After Chen Qingsong listened thoughtfully, Wang Zhong immediately told the second allusion, which was the "Zeng Jing's writing case" that happened in the seventh year of Yongzheng's reign. Many Chinese people of later generations have heard of this, and Chen Qingsong also knew that in order to prove the legitimacy of the Manchu regime, Yongzheng wrote a book called "Dayi Jue Mi Lu" and published it all over the world. When he inspected Heilongjiang City the year before last, he even met the descendants of the Lu family. …
However, what surprised him was that Wang Zhong did not talk about the literary inquisition and the Huayi debate, but focused on "teleology" and "form theory".
Wang Zhong's evaluation is that Zeng Jing is both stupid and not stupid. He is said to be stupid because he is pedantic and loves the past, and thinks that he can impress Yue Zhongqi by saying that "Hua Yi is divided"; he is not stupid because some of his ideas in "Zhi Xin Lu" are correct. His point of view is essentially the same as Yuan Gusheng's theory. They both discuss the issue of the legitimacy of rule from the perspective of "formal theory."
In terms of the Confucian "Tao", the scholar class has always considered itself to be the representative of the Taoism of Chengxu. If the so-called morality exists, the people's will will be in the right direction, and if the people's will is in the right direction, the destiny of heaven will be fulfilled. From this logic, all emperors in the past dynasties did not have political legitimacy. Only "scholars" who upheld the orthodoxy were ordered by heaven.
Wang Zhong told Chen Qingsong that when Yongzheng cited the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers to refute it, he was tantamount to affirming Huang Sheng's "teleology" and had to face Yuan Gusheng's "form theory". That is to say, he fell into the same dilemma as Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. No matter how you say it, it is wrong.
At this point, Chen Qingsong suddenly realized that the "Hua-Yi distinction" that had been debated by countless descendants from beginning to end was not the focus at all, but the legitimacy of the political system based on "teleology" and "form theory" was. Qianlong probably saw the crux of the problem before he succeeded to the throne, so he immediately took back and destroyed "Dayi Jue Mi Lu" when he came to power, and killed Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi to shut up the world.
In other words, as long as Beihai Town maintains a monarchy, no one in the world will even mention the legitimacy of the political system.
The reason why ancient scholars always talk about the three ancient generations is because there is no dispute in the form and purpose of the imperial succession of Yao, Shun, and Yu. If the emperor follows the example of the three of them, no one can find fault. If it were anyone else, would you dare to say that nonsense? If you speak falsely and argue, if you act eccentrically but firmly, you will be beaten into a traitor and traitor in a matter of minutes.
Of course, Wang Zhong took the opportunity to sell a lot of Gu Yanwu's "government by the masses" ideas to Chen Qingsong. Chen Qingsong really didn't know much about this aspect. From a general perspective, it would be good to expand the selection of the intellectual class, allow people to discuss the gains and losses of national politics, and combine customs and laws to correct people's hearts.
But when he talked about it with Zhao Xin last night, the other party smiled and shook his head.
"Old Chen, have you not read Gu Yanwu's book?"
"no, what happened?"
"His 'government by the masses' does not mean that ordinary people can be the masters of the country. In fact, it is the scholar-bureaucrats who have the final say. Think about it, the power of reading and literacy is ultimately in the hands of these people, and the poor people who are busy making a living are excluded. These people What people want is to limit the power of the monarch, adjust the excessively unequal relationship between the monarch and the people, and the relationship between the government and the people, win more political benefits for the landlord class, and provide them with institutional protection."
