Guo Kang thought for a moment and quickly decided to ignore Zhu Wenkui.
Little Jeanne seemed to have the same idea. After she stopped Zhu Wenkui, she skipped the topic and asked about other things.
"If we follow this idea, we will declare to the court in the future that we are not part of Seris' legal system, so there will be no competition, right?" She thought for a while and said.
"Yes." Guo Kang nodded: "But on the other hand, we are people who can communicate."
"We have been here for a long time and have dealt with many people. We are considered experts on barbarian issues. How can I put it... most barbarians are actually unreasonable."
"It's not that these people are inherently morally inferior - in fact, the moral quality of the Greeks is just that. The main problem is that they really don't understand."
"When we communicate, especially at the level of trade between countries, the first thing to consider is no longer good and evil. Ah, no, it's good and evil." Guo Kang said halfway before suddenly changing his words: "Exactly In other words, it should be a different kind of good and evil - it is different from the good and evil of personal relationships."
"I understand this. Different social classes have different morals." Little Jeanne nodded: "This is common sense in politics, so it doesn't matter if you just say it directly."
"This cannot be said directly. After all, we have to deal with the civilization of the Central Plains." Guo Kang said: "I plan to explain it this way: Unlike the evaluation of good and evil between individuals, the main thing between countries is whether they follow the rules. If Abide by the rules and pay attention to order, which is good; if you follow one's own will and destroy order, it is evil."
"Central Plains people like to spread moral evaluation to all aspects. It is best for us to propose a set of moral standards and use this as a banner to explain. In this way, it will be easier to be accepted and less likely to be attacked."
"Why is this?" Zhu Wenkui couldn't help but ask.
"Because the Central Plains civilization has a very large middle and lower class group." Guo Kang replied: "The development of other civilizations is the expansion of the lower class, but the Chinese civilization is the downward expansion of the upper class."
"For example, in Europe, with the recovery of economy and culture, the civil class gradually emerged, and they belong to the common people. Their civilian culture emerged from the market and formed its own system."
"But this is not the case in the Central Plains. Ever since Confucius opened his private school, these newly emerged lower-class intellectuals are all from the 'scholar' class. They are positioned as lower-class nobles. Confucius was very insistent on this, even though many of his students Even though he is just a commoner, he still teaches everyone about the requirements of 'gentleman', 'scholar' and the like, which are obviously aristocratic status, every day."
"Others may not support the idea of Confucianism, but their education system and even the teaching materials they use are what everyone is imitating. Therefore, this ethos has also been fixed and has become an important part of education in the Central Plains. "
"Of course, with the rapid expansion of education and the increase in the number of people, the social class of the new 'shi' has moved downwards, and has actually changed from aristocrats to commoners. But these educated commoners still learn and learn from the previous The same books, the same education. And this Confucian education system is so open that people who have enough money to go to school start to consider themselves nobles."
"Really?" Zhu Wenkui was a little surprised: "Why can't I feel it?"
"Because Confucius and his colleagues blurred the boundaries between nobles and citizens; frequent wars also blurred the boundaries between citizens and free people." Guo Kang replied: "So in the end, educated editors There is no clear boundary between householders and nobles. People with low-income families like Chen Ping can call themselves "wanderers" as long as they have gone to school, and they can indeed get channels for advancement. Even if there are various back and forths in the process, this trend cannot be stopped. "
"Furthermore, nobles are also a large group. They don't necessarily have to live luxuriously to be considered nobles. But there is the simplest criterion - you just need to see if they are very keen on discussing national affairs."
"Ordinary people don't need to think about these things, because state management has nothing to do with them. If any group habitually cares about these things, it means that they subconsciously believe that this is something related to them. The current scholars in the Central Plains are a typical example ”
"So that's what it means, and it seems to be true..." Zhu Wenkui thought for a while, and then said: "Then what impact does this have on morality?"
"Originally, morality was stratified, but if it continues like this, it can no longer be stratified." Guo Kang explained: "Originally, there are the morals of nobles, the morality of citizens, and the morality of free people. Everyone's requirements are different. But. But If you mix it up like this, you won’t be able to tell the difference, and in the end there will only be one kind of morality left.”
"At the same time, the 'shi' who originally dominated the culture were lower-class nobles, but later a large number of civilians were added, which will inevitably lead to changes in the overall atmosphere."
"After these changes are completed, this is what we see now: the lower class has its own morality, and they will think that this morality should be universal, thus forcing their own morality on the upper class. This may be beyond Ordinary morality has been kidnapped, because behind it are the yeoman farmers and small landowners, and the real threat of force is a rare phenomenon in many civilizations."
"Although the upper class does not want to accept it, the large number of lower class people is the cornerstone of the dynasty. Making them dissatisfied will directly threaten the stability of the rule. So even if they pretend, the upper class must pretend to be humble, filial, honest, kind, etc. Morality."
"Comparing it to Europe, it is obvious. Many of these morals are unnecessary or even harmful to the upper class. But there is no way, compared to the dissatisfaction of the lower class, this little pain is nothing..."
"That seems to be the case." Zhu Wenkui nodded: "Serris is probably the place with the most stringent requirements on the morality of the upper class. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing."
"It depends on the situation." Guo Kang said: "The demands of Seris civilians only appeared in their environment. And their environment is a serious surplus of talents."
"If you look at the founding of the country in the past dynasties, it was often just the talents of one state, one county, or even two or three counties, which were enough to build the framework for a court that ruled the country. There was no shortage of people with management talents there, and most of them People just don’t have this opportunity.”
"So, they also have the confidence to select people with excellent moral standards."
"Other places may not have this condition - only those at the top who are capable are more or less competent. Even if there are moral flaws, everyone can only hold their noses and admit it. But in Seris, there are so many people who are capable of being officials that they can't even be counted. Then why not ask a more moral person to come on?”
"So, although the actual candidates are still difficult to control, this requirement has persisted until now. I'm afraid it will continue in the future." Guo Kang commented.
"Of course, any phenomenon must have side effects. The disorderly proliferation of moral requirements may be the other side of this custom."
(End of chapter)
