"The above mentioned are all commonalities, and more importantly, are everyone's differences and personalities." Guo Kang continued when he saw that no one expressed objections.
"Personality? Is it like the government part-time church?" asked little Jeanne.
"This is a performance. Of course, the actual situation is much more complicated than this." Guo Kang said with a smile: "If we have to talk about the difference, we may have to start from five thousand years ago. But time is limited, I will keep it simple. "
"Everyone starts from the 'Heaven', 'God' and the like, and the supreme being grants authority to the supreme ruler. Then, the supreme ruler then delegates the authority to the next level, establishing order in this way. In the East, This situation is very obvious. Since the gradual disintegration of Roman rule in Europe, it is rarely seen here."
"For example, everyone knows about the vassal towns in the middle and late Tang Dynasty." He thought for a while and said.
"I know." Little Jeanne also nodded: "This seems to be a very influential historical period. I heard the teacher talk about it when I was just starting out."
"Yes, everyone thinks that the separatist regime of vassal towns is an important feature of the second half of the Tang Dynasty. But in fact, this 'separated regime' is often not worthy of its name, and vassal towns are not always in a state of division and war." Guo Kang said.
"A considerable number of vassal towns are economical. They do not have strong military strength and do not have much independent tendencies. Instead, they are the main force providing money and food to the court. Border vassal towns and other powerful military towns do not necessarily disobey the court's orders. On the contrary, Many people are willing to obey the court - or at least superficially obey, and will pay tribute and receive official titles, and do not want to cause a stalemate in the open."
"In this way, after the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty continued to maintain itself for more than a hundred years even though the local areas seemed to have been separated. Although there were rebellions from time to time, the overall unity was maintained. Until the rise of Huang Chao, the situation was completely broken. .”
"The reasons here are not complicated." Guo Kang explained: "Because at that time, not only the court was worried about whether the feudal town would rebel, but there were also a lot of problems within the feudal town. Jiedushi had to worry about whether Ya would rebel. We will worry about whether the tooth soldiers will rebel. If this goes on, everyone will be suspicious of each other."
"And the reason is, as mentioned just now: In the dynasties of this era, authority is delegated step by step. Everyone pursues the same set of ideas and believes in the same source of sacredness. Therefore, the collapse of authority It won’t stop at a certain point, it will just collapse to the end.”
"So, if the Jiedu envoy thinks that he can be the emperor if he has strong soldiers and horses, then the Ya soldiers will think that he can be the Jiedushi envoy if he has strong soldiers and horses. Arrogant soldiers and strong generals appear together. Only a small number of people have enough ability. Control your own group of soldiers. For most people, the risk of this matter is too great."
"In order to protect themselves, the upper echelons of the feudal town often need to rely on the moral support of the court, because this moral support can provide organizational capabilities and form a deterrent to the subordinates. Therefore, only those with high prestige and strong control over their subordinates can Motives to rebel. Not only do others have weak motives, sometimes they even need to take the initiative to leave Chang'an and join the emperor to escape the chaos within the feudal town."
"And these people are often besieged - because the imperial court has a larger organization. As a result, no one dares to break the existing order."
"According to your statement, this order was not broken by the feudal lord in the end, but by Huang Chao." Little Jeanna thought for a while and said, "Does this mean that actually, not many people internally have the motivation to break through it?"
"Of course. If not forced by the situation, not many people would be willing to change the status quo." Guo Kang replied in a matter-of-fact tone: "It's not just the people, but the officials too. Just because the original order can exist, doesn't mean it can be maintained in troubled times. .”
"The cycle of fighting chaos is a very luxurious thing. Restoring order after chaos is not an 'inevitable' thing. How many civilizations in the entire world can do this?" Guo Kang shook his head:
"Even in Seris, no one knows how long the troubled times will last and how it will end. Likewise, no one knows whether he will be the winner or the stepping stone."
"Moreover, many things that are taken for granted in peaceful times exist only because they are protected by order. Once faced with real competition that affects life and death, they will be ruthlessly eliminated. People who have advantages under the original order may not necessarily Just adapt to the new environment. So of course everyone feels guilty."
"That's right." Theodora felt a little emotional for some reason and nodded in agreement.
Monk Daoyan looked at Guo Kang with interest, while Jeanna and her daughter began to pay attention to Theodora, who had not spoken much before.
"But in Rome, once the country collapsed, it really collapsed." Guo Kang continued: "The empire did not establish a top-down, systematic religious system, let alone popularize more advanced concepts. The major patriarchates have always been dissatisfied with each other, which is slightly better than the polytheistic era."
“Even until the great schism in the church, it was nothing more than the result, not the cause, of this long-term lack of management ability.”
"Then why is there such a big gap between the two? I don't think there is anything wrong with the church's theological system." Princess Jeanne said doubtfully.
"Of course there is no problem. When it comes to the perfection of doctrine, European countries are definitely far ahead of the Central Plains. Various theories and logic in theology and philosophy are also much more sophisticated than those of the Central Plains people." Guo Kang said bluntly: "It is better to say that since ancient times, Starting from the third generation, people in the Central Plains have made almost no progress in this aspect. Even the completion of the world view and the concept of soul in philosophy are all brought by Buddhism. If it were not taught by people from Tianzhu, everyone might not even understand this."
"I heard it's because since the time of Confucius, they have made it clear that they don't like to talk about the other world and gods." Little Jeanne also told her mother: "He is equivalent to Socrates here, but his disciples His disciples all thought that theology was a crooked path and only emphasized secular aspects of education. At the same time, some very important areas in philosophy may have been ignored."
"There is such a saying." Guo Kang said.
Many people believe that the philosophy of the Central Plains, including natural philosophy, is relatively backward. The reason may be that it rejects theological research and emphasizes secularization. The representative figure in this regard is Confucius.
Of course, as the saying goes, those in authority are confused, but onlookers know clearly. The Central Plains people themselves may not be able to recognize the true nature of Kong Laoer, but those around them do.
For example, in Tibetan mythology, Confucius is called "Gongze Chuji Jiebu". It is said that when he was born, there were thirty ring-shaped "Gongze phantom letters" on his palms, so he was called "Kong Ze, the phantom king of the Han people." Some scholars also translate it as "Confucius transformed into a divine king".
Legend has it that "Gonze Chuji Jiebu" can observe these phantom letters to predict the future. He is also good at reciting incantations and is the creator of mysterious cultures such as divination, incantations, arithmetic, and rituals. Therefore, he has become one of the four protectors of Bon religion.
It can be seen that Kong Laoer is actually the evil god known as the "King of Transformations". The promotion of secular education was actually his conspiracy, which ultimately locked up the empire's technology.
Many people believe that the civilization of the Central Plains has always been in cycles and stagnation and has never made progress. It is said that this is not a conclusion thrown out casually, but a consensus among authorities.
According to his archaeological conclusions at that time, the civilization of the Central Plains was estimated to be eight thousand years old—rounding off, that means technology had stagnated for ten thousand years. The last time science and technology developed was probably the era of the primitive people's great expedition, from Africa all the way into the Central Plains. After all, they will be regarded as Central Plains people after that, and Central Plains people will not make progress.
Although Kong Laoer only appeared two thousand years ago, it is known that once the evil god appears, it will spread to all timelines, including before this moment. Therefore, even if someone accuses "Kong Laoer of causing harm to China for five thousand years", they are just stating the facts, and the actual situation is probably even worse.
Therefore, as long as these are imported, it will all be explained.
(End of chapter)
