Guo Kang couldn't answer Theodora's question. After all, there is still a big gap between ideals and reality in this regard.
However, this time they didn't think about it for long. Not long after, a monk came knocking on the door and told them that the guests had arrived.
The number of visitors this time was very large, and almost everyone from the Prince Wu's residence was present except the Prince Wu himself.
The cause of the matter was that Princess Ma said that there was a misunderstanding between Guo Kang and Princess Jeanne last time. She inquired later and discovered that it was due to a deviation in expression of her understanding of the doctrine. So, taking the opportunity to worship the Buddha, she invited Master Daoyan, Lama Wang and others to analyze the meaning of the sutra and believed that it was not a big deal.
Therefore, she specially invited Princess Jeanna to come to the temple, and also invited Guo Kang to come with her. Everyone had a fast meal, communicated well in front of Brother Tian Bodhisattva, and then invited the two masters to come to help resolve the misunderstanding.
Guo Kang did not object to this. What he was worried about was, first of all, Princess Jeanne's attitude towards religion. If she is really fanatical, it will be very painful. Secondly, we must prevent her from leading little Jeanne astray. Now Zhu Wenkui's family and the Purple Horde Khanate are taking great care of little Jeanne. If she forcibly intervenes, it will be equally troublesome.
Princess Ma's performance shows that she has been controlling the situation in the palace. With her in charge, Princess Jeanne shouldn't do anything too outrageous, at least she won't disturb little Jeanne.
In order to prevent further accidents, he specifically discussed this matter with Theodora.
Theodora also had similar thoughts about the religious belonging of little Jeanne and her daughter, so she supported his idea. Moreover, she thinks more than Guo Kang.
She said that Eastern ladies also had social activities, but the ladies of the Ming Dynasty were more reserved than their European counterparts, so the impact of such activities on society was not that great.
This time, it was obvious that Princess Ma was showing her influence. And this influence is their "strength" in palace life. So Theodora believed that this was a trial for her to expand her influence outwards after carefully adapting to the new environment.
Therefore, Theodora believed that Guo Kang should support Princess Ma's actions. Not only should he accept the invitation, but he should also prepare well and perform well. Because this not only helps the opponent step down, but also encourages and supports her to use her own strength to compete with Princess Jeanne.
Compared to Princess Jeanne, who runs around and has no taboo about showing up, Princess Ma is definitely at a disadvantage. After all, it is indeed difficult to have a more open social life than a French noblewoman... So she must have her own ideas.
However, Guo Kang really didn't understand much about this.
In history, Princess Ma did not leave much detailed information. Perhaps due to the omnipotent internal force bonus, Guo Kang was deeply impressed by the details of various materials in his previous life. But even so, records about Princess Ma are still very scarce, and not many have spread to his time.
What is certain at present is that she is the daughter of a high-ranking civil servant family. Although she also served as "Queen Ma" in history, she should not be related to Zhu Yuanzhang's Queen Ma. Historically, she threw herself into a fire and died after Nanjing was captured. Other than that, she had no other deeds.
Therefore, he knew very little about Princess Ma herself and could not speculate on her personality and behavior. In the past few years in Dadu, the other party's performance has been very low-key, and there is really nothing visible about it.
As for the strength competition between palace ladies, he really didn't understand.
Guo Kang's understanding of "palace struggle" is to report each other's filth in the harem, which is a level that cannot be punished. If in many other aspects, his understanding is at the textbook level, this aspect is at the level of ghost material. He didn't even expect that he could be of any help.
"So what am I going to say this time?" he asked Theodora again.
"Just talk about the things you usually like to talk about." Theodora said, "The bigger the topic, the better."
"It's okay to coax Zhu Wenkui with big words, but can he really bluff Princess Ma? The most critical question is that Monk Yao can't coax her." Guo Kang pointed out.
"I'm not asking you to brag." Theodora smiled helplessly: "Just talk about your strategic plans and insights."
"Monk Dao Yan is a smart man, and people will definitely not be interested in talking to him about daily chores. You have to tell him what he is interested in." She taught: "He is already so old, and he has not traveled thousands of miles to come here, or Either he has no desires at all and just wants to see the world; or he has great desires, but the current situation in the Ming Dynasty cannot satisfy him."
"You mean the latter?" Guo Kang thought about Monk Daoyan's deeds and suddenly felt that Theodora was also quite powerful.
"Isn't this common sense? These two are often the same thing." Theodora shook his head and said.
"People who want nothing often want the biggest thing. But this is beyond the scope of ordinary people's understanding. Just like Brother Tian and Buddha, they seem to have little desire because they care about saving the world." She said metaphorically .
"I'm not sure what he wants. I think you can just talk about some big principles and strategies and see if you can arouse his interest." She told Guo Kang: "You are good at these things anyway, so why not talk about them all?" Come out, maybe you can meet someone. Look, aren't the topics you just talked about very creative?"
"We can't talk about those topics directly." Guo Kang muttered.
He now has serious doubts. Many of the theoretical problems he has learned before are quite problematic, and he is really embarrassed to come up with these outrageous conclusions directly.
According to those theories, when deduced, it is often a topic such as condemning the government for inaction, or even condemning the Seris civilization for not protecting capital.
But if you analyze it more deeply, according to these conclusions, it is equivalent to saying that whether it is craftsmen or farmers, they are too powerful and have no spirit of dedication. They are unwilling to sacrifice themselves for social progress and contribute to the capital accumulation of the upper class. Life has caused the entire civilization to develop slowly and fall behind more and more.
In his day, it was certainly okay to say that. At that time, everyone admired this theory very much, and there was nothing taboo about the conclusion derived from it. Rather, this is exactly what many people hope to express.
But the problem is that it hasn't been long since the Ming Dynasty was founded, and Zhu Yuanzhang's origins are the most special even among the founding emperors of all dynasties. Everyone knows his deeds very well. According to this theory, it is tantamount to scolding Zhu Yuanzhang himself, or even questioning the legitimacy of the entire Ming Dynasty.
Because the Yuan Dynasty was indeed more open and loose than the Ming Dynasty, and it also treated wealthy businessmen more favorably, regardless of mergers and acquisitions. According to theory, it is obviously more advanced than the Ming Dynasty.
The power of the central aristocracy in the Yuan Dynasty was also greater, unlike in the Ming Dynasty which was concentrated on the emperor. Even its system is the most special since the Qin and Han Dynasties:
The ten provinces established in the early Yuan Dynasty were not local administrative units like those of later generations, but were at the same level as the Zhongshu Province. The provinces are led by the Zhongshu Provincial Governor, and their authority is no different from that of the central Zhongshu Province. They are not subordinate units of the central administration but the central administration itself. The Yuan Dynasty was composed of eleven such institutions.
Therefore, the essence of the Yuan Dynasty at that time was a co-dominant federation composed of the inner region and the ten provinces - this way, it is more advanced.
This theory is tantamount to accusing Zhu Chongba, a cunning man, who was uneasy about starving to death and insisted on rebelling. As a result, he destroyed the advanced civilization of the Yuan Dynasty and caused China to sink. When people look at this theory, they will think it is innuendo.
Unlike the previous life, the conservative and feudal Ming Dynasty people would definitely not be able to accept it! Even if we didn't fight directly, it was pretty good.
(End of chapter)
