"Dang, dong, dong...dong, dong, dong..." At five o'clock in the morning, when the sky just turned white, the golden drums on the Guangyang Gate tower at the main entrance of Daxing Palace began to announce the dawn to the people in the city.
As soon as the bells and drums on Guangyang Gate rang, the drum towers on various streets in the city rang in sequence. The sound of bells and drums was divided into five waves, with a total of eight hundred beats. The city gate, inner gate, square gate, and city gate opened in sequence.
Temples large and small in Daxing City also join in the fun every day. Monks rang the morning bells one after another. The exciting and beating drums intertwined with the deep and distant bells, awakening the imperial capital of Daxing. Hundreds of thousands of people came together to welcome the rising sky from the east. The rising sun bursts forth.
This moment also indicates that hundreds of thousands of people in the city are about to start a new day. Unlike ordinary people who are either lazy or working hard to set up stalls, officials are all preparing to go to court at this time every day.
There were three types of gatherings during the Sui Dynasty. One was the most solemn Yuan Dynasty gathering, in which in addition to the nine civil and military officials in Beijing, chief officials or deputy ministers from various places also participated; , all civil and military officials above the ninth grade must participate. On this day, the incense table and incense burner will be set up in the Daxing Palace. All civil and military officials, led by the supervisory censor, first enter the palace and take their places according to their grade, and then the emperor will appear. The third type is the daily court attendance, which must be attended by all five-rank officials. However, since they are mainly about government affairs, military attachés do not have to go.
Today is the first day of June. It is the first day of the lunar calendar in the imperial gathering, and the number of people is particularly large.
When Yang Ji came to Daxing Hall, the officials had already arrived. As time went by, more and more officials came to attend the court meeting. The arriving officials gathered in groups and whispered in front of the door. The atmosphere was a little more solemn than before.
After taking off their shoes and entering the main hall, officials at all levels found their seats and took their seats. After waiting for about a moment, Yang Jian took his seat with his crown complete and the Emperor's Sword hanging from his waist.
Yang Ji was sitting on the clan platform, which was relatively close to Yang Jian. With his good eyesight, he could feel that Yang Jian's mental state was worse than yesterday, and his whole person was getting weaker. It was said that the imperial doctor was not Dare to take Taibu medicine to Yang Jian.
In fact, Yang Ji knew that Yang Jian did not start to indulge in alcohol and sex after the death of Queen Dugu, but that Yang Jian had a head disease similar to Cao Cao's. This disease had been tormenting him for decades. Once the disease started, he would be in trouble all night. He sleeps and rolls around with his head in his hands. It is also because of this disease that his temper becomes more and more irritable.
Empress Dugu used to accompany him to court, mainly to correct mistakes on the side, so as to prevent Yang Jian from accidentally killing good ministers when he was ill. In fact, she herself had not publicly expressed her opinions or political opinions in the court. Over the years, many ministers had been harassing Yang Jian When he was suffering from illness and objected, he was almost beaten by Yang Jian, who was in pain and irritable. If Empress Dugu hadn't warned and stopped him in time, I don't know how many good ministers would have been beaten by Yang Jian.
After the death of Queen Dugu, Yang Jian's ambitions seemed to be reduced to ashes. He now lived in seclusion and lived in Yong'an Palace during the lifetime of Queen Dugu. It seemed that only there could he find the slightest peace of mind. But he was an old man in his sixties after all. , the body function is declining day by day, and the symptoms reflected by the headache are becoming more and more serious.
Last year, he also participated in the morning court. It is said that this year, except for the huge Yuan Day court meeting, he will not participate in any court meetings after that. He is in a state of retreat and leaves all affairs to Yang Guang.
Today, when he appeared at the Shuowang court meeting, he was actually invited out by hundreds of officials. With Yang Guang's reminder, Yang Ji knew that the popularity of movable type printing, ink, and cheap books had harmed the interests of the Manchu ministers. This matter The influence was so great that even Yang Guang, the prince of the prison state, could not suppress it.
Yang Jian glanced at the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty below, and asked pretending to be puzzled: "I have spoken beforehand, and I will leave everything to the prince. I wonder why you invited me to visit the court?"
Zheng Shanyuan, a doctor of Taixue, stepped forward, took a few steps forward, and bowed to Yang Jian: "To the saint, movable type printing and ink have been introduced to the public recently. The problem caused by this is that unscrupulous traders print books of sages and sell them to the people. To make huge profits from it. As far as Wei Chen knows, people are flocking to it."
This Zheng Shanyuan came from the Zheng family in Xingyang, and was the second son of Xinda Gong Zheng Yi. With his father's merit, he became the Duke of Guichang County and a doctor of Taixue. Liu Xuan and Liu Zhuo were squeezed out of the capital and could not gain a foothold in the scholarly circles. This person should be Take the lead.
"This is a good thing. If everyone in the world can read, wouldn't it be wonderful if there would be more talented people in the Sui Dynasty ten or twenty years later?" Yang Jian sneered in his heart. After listening to Yang Ji's plan, he turned the movable type into The techniques of printing and ink were widely advertised, allowed to develop naturally, and then waited to see how the situation developed. It seemed that these people had underestimated the businessmen's pursuit of profit before, and the influence in the past two months had obviously made them panic.
"The words of the saint are wrong!" The person who spoke was Cui Zhongfang, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who was a descendant of the Boling Cui family. "In order to make huge profits, these vendors who printed books not only altered the books of the saints without authorization, but also made typos and omissions everywhere. All. This is simply to taint the words of the sages and mislead the world's scholars. In addition, have the saints ever thought that if everyone in the world goes to study, who will farm? If everyone in the world is bent on pursuing an official career, where will the court go? Collect taxes?”
"This..." Yang Jian was speechless for a moment. He, Yang Guang, and Yang Ji only thought of publicizing the two major industrial skills so that books would spread quickly among the people. However, they did not expect that merchants would make typos and omissions when printing books. Word problems. As for no one farming, that's nonsense. After all, there are only so many jobs in the world, so how can there be more than 50 million jobs?
He could see that today's court meeting was dominated by Shandong nobles, but this was understandable. After all, the reason why the Shandong gentry were able to stand high was because they monopolized educational resources. The collection of books at home not only enabled them to cultivate many talents and control the local officialdom for generations, but also cultivated humble scholars who were loyal to them. If they could have been Heirloom books have been sold off the street, and their advantage has been reduced by at least 60 to 70%.
Can you object without irritation?
"Shilang Cui's words are wrong!" At this moment, Yang Ji stood up from his seat.
Zheng Shanyuan frowned and saluted: "King Wei, our discussion of national affairs has nothing to do with you."
He called Yang Ji King Wei, which was not a sign of respect, but a disguised rejection of Yang Ji's other official positions, and implicitly reminded Yang Ji, "You are just a young boy, just a lucky man who was born in the royal family. What qualifications do you have?" Participate in national affairs?”
"King Wei?" Yang Ji smiled: "I have to remind Dr. Zheng that in addition to the title of prince, I am also the right guard general who is also the governor of Liangzhou and the general manager. If you choose from the second-rank right guard General Wei is not qualified to discuss state affairs, so what qualifications do you, a seventh-grade doctor of Taixue, have to discuss matters with the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty?"
There was laughter in the hall.
Yang Ji continued: "Now that the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty don't speak first, you, a little official with sesame seeds and mung beans, are here chattering. You are indifferent to the superior and the ministers. I even suspect that you have made typos and omissions. You print the books. On the one hand, you are making huge profits, and on the other hand, you are ruining the reputation of good booksellers. It can be said that you kill two birds with one stone."
The laughter in the hall suddenly stopped, and everyone looked at Yang Ji in disbelief.
Books were treasures in this era. If some poor families had one or two volumes of manuscripts with annotations by great Confucians, their concubines would not even be able to touch them. Therefore, people did not think about deliberately printing errors. But now that Yang Ji reminded them, the princes and ministers all felt that the evil-minded Shandong gentry could do such a thing, and that they also had the ability and financial resources to spread books with typos and omissions all over the world in just two months.
Then they made money, booksellers suppressed them, and finally achieved the goal of banning books.
Amazing!
Zheng Shanyuan's eyelids twitched, and he quickly raised his hands and said: "King Wei's eloquence is unparalleled, and I admire him for it. But justice is in the heart of the people. Although I can't argue with you, I can't prove that I didn't do such despicable things, but the typos and omissions are indeed true. .”
Yang Ji smiled slightly: "The Shandong nobles passed down their poems and books to their families, and even the slaves can write a good poem. I believe that the books you print will not make mistakes. From now on, you only need to note on the back cover that "Printed by Zheng Family, Printed by Cui Family" Printing, Zhan's printing; when the time comes, the scholars will naturally buy the complete good books, and naturally everyone will praise them, which will be a high righteousness. And once your books become the objects of the scholars, they will naturally gain both fame and fortune."
Zheng Shanyuan was speechless. In their eyes, as long as they could keep the privileges of a wealthy family and not be destroyed bit by bit, they would not hesitate to be broken into pieces! On the contrary, if the family that has been inherited for thousands of years declines and collapses in their hands, and everyone is wiped out, they will become the eternal sinners of the entire family. Besides, they are not short of fame and fortune, so how can they give up long-term and great privileges just for temporary gain?
However, movable type printing and ink are now popular all over the world. If we don't print, Zheng's image will plummet. If we say printing, it will definitely not work.
For a time, I was in a dilemma.
He said with dismay, "How can I, the Zheng family, carry on poetry and calligraphy to my family, engage in such a lowly business? King Wei compared me, the Zheng family, to a merchant, which is too much."
This puppy is just swearing!
Yang Ji sneered: "The Zheng family has been mainly engaged in southern silk since ancient times, and the profits earned every year are several times higher than the total merchants in Guanzhong! The Zheng family is not a merchant, who is a merchant? Your Zheng family is actually the Great Sui Dynasty Great businessman! Now he is belittling businessmen and classifying himself as a high-level, unconventional model of masters... I have lived for so long, and I have seen too many shameless people, but such a shameless person, It’s truly the only one I’ve ever seen in my life!”
Yang Jian was very happy, he was indeed my Vajra slave, his ability to curse was unparalleled in the world!
I almost applauded Yang Ji's words!
Although he had to reuse the gentry, he was very disgusted with the gentry's shameless behavior of "making a bitch and building an archway"! While they flaunt their pure gentry bloodline and are proud of it, how can there be any gentry who truly "farms, studies and inherits the family"?
Everyone keeps belittling merchants, but every noble clan has accumulated a large amount of family property through business. While living a luxurious life of bells and whistles, they can also use a lot of money to make alliances and win over various forces.
A Vajra slave is a Vajra slave, and the slap in the face makes a "slap, slap, slap" sound!
Zheng Shanyuan was furious and said: "King Wei, how can you insult me like this?"
Facing the furious Zheng Shanyuan, Yang Ji remained unmoved and just said with a sneer: "The more we argue, the clearer the principles become, and the clearer the Tao becomes. Without intense ideological confrontation, there is no way to have a deep understanding of oneself. Dr. Zheng, you Listen, what did this king say that insulted you? It makes sense, I will kneel down and kowtow to you to apologize."
"You..." Zheng Shanyuan's face turned red with anger, and he glared at Yang Ji's sneer-filled face, wishing he could pounce on him and bite this kid to death!
In fact, from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the present, commerce has become a huge industry not much worse than agriculture, but the huge profits are all in the treasury of the aristocratic families. The reason why the aristocratic families strive to promote "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" in policy is nothing more than to continue to monopolize commerce, Eat alone.
Compared with the annoyed Shandong noble ministers, the Guanlong noble ministers acted like they were watching a good show. Their foundation is the army. Although they are deeply affected by the proliferation of books, the interests they suffer are far less than that of the Shandong gentry. They also know that the Shandong gentry are more anxious than they are, so these shrewd old foxes are hiding behind, waiting for Shandong The gentry jumped out to object.
Naturally, every household of the Guanlong nobles was engaged in business, but they did not spread the word that merchants were inferior, nor were they ashamed of doing business. However, the Shandong gentry who have been doing business for generations have tried hard to maintain their superior status on the grounds of the social structure of "gentlemen, farmers, industry and commerce"; "Insignificant" and "Businessmen value profits". After all, everyone has the same interests, so the Guanlong nobles sometimes follow suit.
However, the Shandong nobles voted for the wrong Northern Qi in the struggle between the two heroes in the north, and were severely suppressed by the Guanlong nobles who successfully seized power. However, while they were envious, jealous, and resentful of the Guanlong nobles, they also despised the Guanlong nobles. , saying that the Guanlong nobles were upstarts who were not worthy of being on the stage.
They have had verbal disputes with each other more than once or twice, but when it comes to verbal disputes, the Guanlong nobles are indeed no match for them and have suffered a lot. If you see the representative of the Zheng family among the seven sects and five surnames scolding Yang Ji, Minister Guan Long was speechless, and his heart felt happy.
"Previously, King Wei said that what the old minister said was wrong. I wonder if King Wei has any advice?" Although Cui Zhongfang did not want to confront Yang Ji, Zheng Shanyuan was led astray at this moment. If he does not correct the direction, he will force Yang Jian to issue a ban on books today. It became empty talk.
"Cui Shilang is a famous scholar all over the world. I am just a late scholar. How can I dare to say the word 'teaching'? It was just Cui Shilang who said, 'There are typos and omissions everywhere'; he also said, 'Everyone in the world will go there. If you study, there will be no one to farm and the court will be unable to collect taxes. This is a bit alarmist." Yang Ji smiled and saluted Cui Zhongfang.
"Oh?" Cui Zhongfang returned the courtesy: "I would like to hear the details."
"The popularity of movable type printing and ink, and the spread of books all over the world, are public opinions and a general trend that cannot be stopped. And what is a trend? The trend is actually the people's hearts, and the general trend is the people's hearts. When something can make most people If people benefit, these people will support this approach. When something causes most people to lose their interests, everyone will naturally resist in a group. Whoever harms everyone's interests will lose their support and be abandoned by everyone. I think Faced with the current general trend, what the court needs to do is to correct it, rather than crudely ban books."
Yang Ji talked eloquently: "The so-called support means that the government prints accurate books without typos or omissions. As long as they are labeled with the words 'imperial', 'official', etc. and sold at the same price, then the bad books will naturally be punished." The abandonment of scholars. Merchants and merchants can print books, but they must bear the names of their own workshops and family owners, so that the court can supervise and hold them accountable. After such a decree is announced to the world, after scholars know about it, they will not do it again. Buying books with "missed words and typos"; unscrupulous traders have no profit or even lose money. If they want to make a profit, they can only print according to the accurate books, otherwise they cannot sell them; in this case, isn't it The best of both worlds?”
"As for Cui Shilang's second worry, it is completely unfounded." Yang Ji continued: "For the common people, food, clothing, housing, transportation, and tax collection are the top priorities. They have not solved the problem of food and clothing. How can they have time and energy to study under such circumstances? How can they make a living if studying is abandoned for farming? Even if all the people study, don't they need to eat or wear clothes? I don't know what Cui Shilang thinks, but I believe that when the people are hungry, cold, and dizzy with hunger, they will definitely have no intention of studying."
"What King Wei said makes sense." Yang Jian coughed twice, looked at the ministers with a smile, and said, "What do you think?"
Cui Zhongfang was speechless for a moment. He never expected that the two alarmist views that were thrown out could be thoroughly analyzed by Yang Ji in just a few words, making both views untenable. If he continued to be stubborn If the dispute continues, then it is purely for the sake of opposition.
Wang Long, another doctor of Taixue, saw this and hurriedly said: "Even if what King Wei said is true, the traders, in order to make huge profits, not only made the book full of errors and omissions, but also misinterpreted the words of the sages without authorization and tarnished the books of the sages. What’s the explanation for this?”
The proposition of "distorting the words of sages and tarnishing the books of sages" is a big problem that cannot be underestimated, let alone in the Sui Dynasty. Even if it is postponed for a thousand years, it is a big problem that cannot be underestimated.
Wang Long's fateful question is very similar to modern people's debate about Li Shimin's merits and demerits. As long as the supporters point out that "since ancient times, there is no one who can fight with Li Shimin's right"; Is it wrong?" This often makes the opponent unable to refute or dare not refute.
And Yang Ji is obviously facing a dilemma now. Even though he has always been very articulate, he was unable to answer or decipher the question for the moment.
7017k
