"Since you know a lot about the Ming Dynasty, let's continue talking." Theodora said: "Why do you think they will change their habits immediately?"
"Because you are not Central Plains enough." Guo Kang said with a smile: "People like me who think very Central Plains can understand the reason without thinking carefully."
"Central Plains people have no consistent 'traditional thinking habits' at all. In other words, their traditional habits are pragmatism."
"To sum up, they focus on practicality and ignore unpractical 'skills and tricks'. It can be said that their advantages and disadvantages are actually based on this trait."
"Exquisite skills..." Theodora began to think about this word.
"Yes." Guo Kang explained: "This word comes from "Shang Shu·Tai Shi". The original text is that King Wu of Zhou condemned King Zhou of Shang, saying that he used strange skills and excessive skills to please women. This is a word In fact, it is a very good summary and can describe the common thoughts of the Central Plains people."
"Is this considered a strange skill?" Theodora pointed to the scaffolding-like bra: "I think this skill is quite strange..."
"The key to tricks and tricks is 'excess'." Guo Kang didn't care at all: "They are all technical skills. The ancients often thought that the technology used for entertainment was tricks, but no one ever talked about improving farm tools or studying water conservancy equipment. It’s a miraculous trick. Because there is only such thing as ‘overdoing it’. When it comes to improving agricultural technology, no one has ever thought it was ‘overdoing it’.”
Guo Kang is very convinced of this. Agriculture in the Central Plains is an industry that has never stopped developing and progressing for thousands of years. Even in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, tools and technology continued to be upgraded, and it was probably only during the Republic of China that a large-scale regression occurred. It can be seen that it is never the technology and innovation itself that are excluded, but the part that is considered meaningless or even harmful.
"The thing I made for you is not to provide excessive entertainment to please women, but to solve problems and alleviate the inconveniences in life. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as a miraculous skill." He said to himself Conclusion.
"So that's what it means." Theodora probably understood.
"To be honest, this way of thinking is really not conducive to encouraging people to think about natural philosophy. Because for a long time, this subject will not provide much practical value." Guo Kang said.
"In many aspects of life, production and even military affairs, it is enough to rely on ancient scientific levels. New inventions, including steam, are basically breakthroughs in the fields of technology and craftsmanship and have nothing to do with natural philosophy itself."
"That's it..." Theodora suddenly realized: "No wonder you said that the church is the most suitable to study these things."
"Hey, the people of the Central Plains are so down-to-earth." Guo Kang shook his head: "Only religious organizations can persist in research and investment in such a 'virtual' matter."
"But on the other hand, once they discover the value, they will immediately adjust. Although this process also takes time, for a civilization, especially one of such a large scale, it is already a big step to make major adjustments. This is a very difficult thing. Even compared with those civilizations with shorter histories and smaller sizes, this reaction speed is amazing."
According to the experience of previous lives, it may only take one generation, or even less, for the Central Plains people to make overall adjustments. Changes in the late Qing Dynasty seemed "slow". It was not so much that they did not want to change, but that they were not aware of the crisis for a long time.
Before the Sino-Japanese War, the entire Seris actually had a rather "classical" atmosphere. Although there are foreign guns, cannons and even foreign religions, and many people have understood Western ideas, the practical need in this area is not very urgent.
Beginning in the 1870s, the Qing army first performed remarkably well in the process of recovering XJ. Although the subsequent Sino-French war suffered a lot, the French army suffered a strategic defeat in Beiqi. Facing the top powers at the time, this performance was already good. So at that time, many people did not realize that there were still problems, but felt that the Qing Dynasty was okay again...
It was not until the defeat to Japan in 1895 that it brought a huge psychological impact to people, which triggered a sudden change in thinking. In the next thirty or forty years, various trends of thought surged, and almost everything that could be tried was tried. Compared to most civilizations, this speed is already astonishing - at this time, basically no one else can even try.
Looking at this period of history from later generations will certainly leave a very deep impression on Guo Kang.
"The Seris will tell you that there are 'business' and 'fancy tricks' in the world, but they will not tell you that these two can change at any time." He told Theodora with emotion: "I I didn’t even notice it at first, but later I gradually discovered the pattern here.”
"For example, natural philosophy. In ancient times, this kind of knowledge was really not of much use, so the Seris people were not very interested in it, and denounced some of it as strange skills and tricks, thinking that it was a waste of time and energy and a delay in business."
"If you only look at this time, then the judgment of the ancients is actually correct. As we said before, Seris has been a very competitive place since ancient times. A waste of money and energy is undoubtedly a disservice to one's own camp. vandalism, so others are motivated to stop it.”
"On the contrary, in that era, the most important thing was the knowledge of society and management. The Seris people were quite mature and advanced in this aspect, and the Four Books and Five Classics taught a lot of relevant content."
"Using this advantage, they successfully established a country that was very large, efficient and stable at the time. In other civilizations, it is almost impossible for a state machine of this level to exist. With the help of this powerful order, Seris Civilization can crush almost everyone around it. For them, this is the key to settling down, and of course it is 'business'."
"That's why some people think that reading the Four Books and Five Classics is a serious matter, while studying natural philosophy is an indulging in fancy skills."
"Then if the 'useful' things change, they will also change." Theodora said: "After all, their true belief is pragmatism."
"Yes. On the surface, the Seris people believed in the Four Books and Five Classics before, but in fact they only believed in practical value." Guo Kang nodded: "Once they discover that natural philosophy can bring huge benefits, they will immediately abandon it. The Four Books and Five Classics treat natural philosophy as 'business'."
"This is not because they believe in science or desire the truth. For most people, it is just because 'science' is more useful and more effective. Their belief is still the supremacy of practicality."
"Although I have 'converted' on the surface, from reading the Four Books and Five Classics to reading scientific works, in fact nothing has changed. Even the position of 'wonderful skills and obscene skills' has not disappeared, but the original Four Books and Five Classics are now strange Very skillful."
"If it comes to this, you can rest assured that they will not even change the way of criticizing 'fantastic skills and obscene skills.'" Guo Kang said: "But at this time, they will become condemning the Four Books and Five Classics as having no practical value and purely It’s a waste of time and energy and delays the business.”
"The people who are criticizing Confucius at this time are essentially the same kind of people as the Confucian scholars who were chasing after Confucius and criticizing craftsmen, but their positions are just reversed. You can even regard them as the ninth sect of Confucianism, anyway, the basic thinking The method is the same." He smiled and said: "Actually, everyone has a Confucian scholar in his heart."
"That makes sense to me." Theodora nodded: "This is just like the various heresies in Europe. Some heretics even deny the existence of God, but they still make arguments within the theoretical system of philosophy and theology. . Views may change, or even be contrary to before, but the core way of thinking of civilization will not change."
"Yes, that's what I think." Guo Kang said.
In other words, there is no magic in this world. Otherwise, if the Seris people one day discover that reciting the Four Books and Five Classics can summon the great demon Kong Yao to help them kill their enemies, then everyone will probably recite the Four Books and Five Classics as "business" every day. In the final analysis, for them, these are nothing more than tools, whether they are beliefs or not.
(End of chapter)
