As a time traveler, Gao Pragmatic has a deep understanding of the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty. Since Taizu Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing in 1368 and proclaimed himself emperor, the Ming Dynasty has been in its 200th year, and its entire rule is becoming decadent.
In terms of the administration of officials, the government is still tolerant, and there are too many things to do. The ministers and workers, big and small, are tolerant and indulgent, and bribes are given. As a result, the law is gradually weakened and the discipline is weak. As an important ruling machine of the country, the army will not be able to win people if its soldiers are not trained regularly. Although there are constant attempts to seize the Qing army and hook up with the army, in fact it is still a common practice to flee, or to hide for powerful people. Many of the people in the camp are old, weak, sick and disabled. With lax laws and unclear rewards and punishments, the combat effectiveness has been extremely low. Even mutinies in the army occurred from time to time; and corresponding to the unprecedented and crazy plundering of land and wealth by the powerful gentry during the civil engineering and prayer battles of the imperial court, the Chinese and foreign government treasuries were exhausted, and the people had no food to eat. The army was short of money, wages, horses and grass, and a large number of homesteaders went bankrupt. The number of slave tenants continued to increase. Peasants resisted rent, resisted taxes, grabbed grain, and fought for Chi.
On the other hand, due to the long-term continuous progress of social productivity and the development of the commodity economy, the germination of capitalist production relations has appeared in some industries and regions; with the development of urban economy, citizen movements are also quietly rising, with secular The citizen culture characterized by taste and folk style, the literary and artistic trend with Yanzhi literature and romanticism as the main body, and the social fashion oriented by the admiration for novelty and the pursuit of beauty, constitute a new melody in social development , the general public's anti-plundering and anti-persecution struggles were surging and continued; with the increasing decay of Yangming's thoughts, especially the continuous exposure of the nihilistic thoughts and the harm of the Qingtan style of the Wangmen School, Yan Jun, He Xinyin, and Li Zhi Heretical thinkers represented by others advocated the recognition of selfish desires and personality independence, and humanistic thoughts surged in the ideological world. The pragmatic thought trend was marked by anti-empty and pragmatic, saving the world and the people, focusing on production, encouraging industry and commerce, and revitalizing natural sciences. Rapid expansion, all of which are impacting the barriers of the old feudal rule.
At the same time, the world structure is also undergoing drastic changes. In 1566 AD, the forty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yijun was four years old, the bourgeois revolution broke out in the Netherlands, spearheaded by the iconoclasm movement. In 1588, which was the sixteenth year after Zhu Yijun ascended the throne in history, Spain would send the "Invincible Fleet" to an expedition to Britain. The fleets of both sides met in the English Channel. After about two weeks of naval battles, almost all of the Spanish fleet was defeated. After being destroyed, Britain gradually became stronger and established maritime hegemony. In France, the rule of the Bourbon dynasty will be established starting in 1589, and the events of the "Clochan" uprising and the promulgation of the "Edict of Nantes" occurred successively. In Russia, the Tsar will issue a "special edict" that Kazakhstan belongs to Russian subjects in 1595, and in 1598, the Shibil Khanate will be annexed...
Although Yangming's theory of mind has countless fans in later generations, and Gao Pragmatic also "longed for it" in Wang Yangming himself, but from the perspective of saving the world and the current crisis, he believed that the descendants of Wang Yangming had completely lost their way at this time. Misguided. These people are just pragmatic and have no benefit to the country or the people. What these people value is "normally keeping silent and talking about one's feelings, and dying to repay the kindness of the king in times of crisis" - what a joke!
Not to mention how many people of this generation actually died to repay the kindness of the emperor after the death of Ming Dynasty. Should this approach be promoted? You, the high-ranking officials, have to work hard and enjoy the benefits, but you don't do any serious work. They only know how to talk about your character - no matter how good your character is, what good will it do to the world and what good will it do to the people? According to a highly pragmatic view, it would be better for such a person to "die", and it would be better to die early!
Therefore, from a high pragmatic point of view, if we want to save the late Ming Dynasty, we must promote practical learning!
The Gao family, where Gao Pangshi came from, was one of the great masters of practical learning in the country, and Gao Gong himself practiced practical learning and tried his best to promote it throughout the country. Later generations of historians generally believed that Zhang Juzheng was a representative of the "Wangba and concurrent use school" of practical learning in the Ming Dynasty. Although this is not wrong, they intentionally or unintentionally ignored one point: Gao Gong was the first to truly implement practical learning! The so-called Zhang Juzheng's reforms in history were nothing more than a continuation and expansion of Gao Gong's "established policies."
The winner is the king and the loser is the enemy.
If history can be assumed, Gao Gong may not have done as well as Zhang Juzheng; if history can be assumed, Gao Gong may have done more justice than Zhang Juzheng!
This is not because Gao Pragmatic was born in a Gao family and spoke from a Gao Gong standpoint, but it is indeed evidenced by history.
In later generations, due to the popularity of a certain book, the Ming history craze continued to rise in the historians. During this craze, in order to create the heroic image of Zhang Juzheng as "Gao Daquan", some scholars tried their best to disparage, even vilify and accuse Gao Gong, and repeatedly emphasized that "what Gao Gong left behind was a mess caused by internal and external troubles." This so-called The "mess" theory not only obliterates Gao Gong's achievements in border control, but also contradicts historical facts. Therefore, some serious scholars immediately refuted it.
In fact, at the beginning of Gao Gong's rule, he was faced with the situation of massive intrusion by southern Japanese and northern pirates since Jiajing, and the border situation was precarious. In order to reverse this situation, on the one hand, he vigorously promoted military reforms, such as the creation of a reserve and special relocation system for military officials, a leave and inward relocation system for border generals, and a system of punishment for military personnel who failed to perform their duties, etc., in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the Ming army; On the other hand, the Jingbian strategy of "suppressing the south and fudging the north" was used to vigorously rectify border affairs, creating a new situation of "border peace" in the northeast, southwest, northwest and south.
As for the flexible and pragmatic methods he has adopted, Gao pragmatically knows that they will be revealed one by one in the next two to three years.
However, Zhu Yijun was only an eight-year-old prince at this time. Emperor Longqing was very concerned about whether Zhu Yijun's childhood was happy because of his tragic childhood. Until this time, he had only allowed him to read and read a little bit, without formally enrolling in school. Therefore, he expected Zhu Yijun to follow him. The emperor's words can play a key role in such a major event. High pragmatism is not very optimistic, so if this matter is to be successful, it is obviously necessary to increase the number, and it is to increase the number.
So Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "If the prince goes to talk to the Holy Spirit like this, I'm afraid the Holy Spirit will still be a little hesitant - just as Factory Governor Feng just said, the ministers in the outer court may object together, so there must be an important minister outside in this matter." Only when the court agrees can the Holy One make up his mind."
Zhu Yijun was a little stunned at first. After thinking about it, he suddenly became discouraged: "But I don't recognize the ministers from the foreign court, let alone the important ministers."
Feng Bao was shocked and hesitated: "Mr. Xiao Gao means... Mr. Gao Ge? This, I'm afraid it's..." What he said later was not spoken, but it must have been nothing more than "I'm afraid it's unlikely?"
Gao pragmatic smiled and said to Feng Bao: "In the past two years, when I was in my hometown in Xinzheng, I was fortunate enough to have my third uncle personally teach me how to read. In my spare time, my third uncle also showed me some of his manuscripts. One of them has not been published for various reasons. The memorial submitted is called "Reversing the Declined Habits and Advocating the Saints to Cure the Essays", also known as "Eliminating the Eight Abnormalities"..."
