Chapter 137 Six Nanyang Articles
A lot of red tape, singing and dancing to celebrate, not to mention that the enchanting girls from South Asia are not inferior to the girls from India, but their skin is a little dark, which is not beautiful. However, some merchants brought back Western female slaves, who were blond and blue-eyed, and had a unique flavor. The taste is not mentioned here.
The most important thing about this conference is nothing else. It was He Xi's speech.
In fact, He Xi's speech at this moment was just a formality. After all, He Xi has already communicated privately with various countries in Southeast Asia. Most powerful countries know in advance what He Xi is going to say. What, you don’t know. It can only be said that your country has little influence in Nanyang, let alone strength. Whether I tell you or not, it's the same thing.
He Xi stood on the high platform and said in Chinese: "Nanyang is as warm as spring and summer all year round, without the pain of wind, frost, bitter cold. You can count the number of crops in a year. It is a land under the wind, a country given by God. However, for many years, They all fought. Blood flowed like a river, and the Ming Dynasty went south just to end all of this."
Then He Xi proposed the Six Nanyang Articles.
The first one is to pay homage to the emperor.
This article is the premise of all clauses. It determines the vassal relationship between the Nanyang countries and the Ming Dynasty, that is, the Ming Dynasty protects the Nanyang countries, and the Nanyang countries have to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. The big countries can go directly to Nanjing, and some small countries can go to the old port.
They also stipulate the method of paying tribute and the amount of tribute each year.
He Xi obviously did not show mercy to the thick and thin approach. He did not even mention it and directly confirmed the tribute model of Nanyang.
Tributes must be in place before the end of each year. Determine according to the size of each country. It’s about 10% of each country’s tax revenue. Even if you are really too poor, you can negotiate. In fact, this is considered lenient. Majapahit had repeatedly fought counterinsurgency wars before. Why?
It comes down to money.
The second item is to determine the borders. Once the frontier is determined, neither party shall invade it.
Of course, He Xi played a trick here. The frontiers he identified were those over which states could control. But overall, Nanyang is vast and sparsely populated. As a result, there is a lot of unclaimed land.
Although, these are unclaimed lands. Not a great place. But it is only now, not in the future. As the overlord of Nanyang, these unclaimed lands were directly assigned to the Ming Dynasty.
Article 3: Protect the royal family.
That is, Ming Dynasty respects the royal families of various countries and guarantees the inheritance rights of the royal families of various countries. The heirs of the royal families of various countries must be reported to Ming Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty will not interfere in principle. But once there is a problem of inheritance in the country, or a powerful official usurps power. Ming Dynasty will uphold justice for the royal families of various countries.
Because of these two points, it has received support from almost all small countries in Southeast Asia.
It is precisely because of these two points of support that He Xi mixed in private goods.
Article 4, Handling Commerce and Trade
All countries must support maritime trade. There is no need to emphasize this. Countries in Southeast Asia depend on the sea, and many island countries cannot survive without sea trade. The most important detail here is the anti-piracy agreement. Countries must cooperate with each other to combat piracy. Ming merchants cannot be rejected for any reason.
Although it is not stated explicitly. But Ming businessmen will be privileged people in various countries from now on, and ordinary countries will not dare to mess around.
Article 5, same text
Almost every country in Southeast Asia has its own written language. Not to mention, now and in future generations, the variety of languages in Indonesia is astonishing. He Xi proposed that for the convenience of communication, all documents should be written in Chinese, and all written documents must also be in Chinese.
Otherwise, if something goes wrong, Daming will not uphold justice.
In order to make it easier for everyone to learn Chinese, He Xi decided to set up schools in Old Port, Xinzhou and Sanbao to allow children from all over the world to learn Chinese.
These are also the three strongholds in He Xi's heart for the spread of Confucianism and Taoism to the south. However, this is only in the planning stages. To be sure, He Xi must go to the capital for a walk. But that didn't stop him from telling these people.
Of course, there is an implicit non-enforcement clause here, and that is protons.
People from all over the world who come to learn Chinese should preferably be heirs determined by each country. Of course, it’s okay if it’s not. However, these countries have different practices, and the Ming court will also divide them into three, six, and nine.
Of course, it is impossible for Ming Dynasty to take hostages. When Zhu Yuanzhang was dealing with Fang Guozhen, Fang Guozhen sent Fang Guan to Nanjing as a hostage. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Fang Guan back, saying that if both parties kept their faith, what could the proton do? If both parties did not keep their faith, what could the proton do?
It was Zhu Yuanzhang's lenient attitude that made Fang Guozhen finally decide to surrender.
This term is implied. He Xi is more for the spread of Confucianism and the influence of the Ming Dynasty on future rulers of Nanyang.
Article 6: Measure quantity.
For the convenience of trade, He Xi proposed that all measurements should be measured in Ming Dynasty. He also announced that the Daming port will only be measured in Daming terms from now on.
Now the three strongholds of the Ming Dynasty are all important places on the trade routes, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty has a large amount of Chinese goods, which they need. The Ming Dynasty used the Ming Dynasty to measure. For a long time to come, Nanyang may still be in a state of chaos in various measures, but the Ming Dynasty weights and measures must be a very important force in it.
He Xi did a lot of preliminary work. Not to mention, the Ming Dynasty had just retired the Majapahit dynasty from the altar of military power. This conference was naturally a successful conference and a victorious conference.
All the countries in Nanyang signed and sealed this covenant.
After doing all this, He Xi dug out the oath ceremony of the Spring and Autumn Period from the pile of old papers, and built a high platform. He Xi took the lead as the leader of the alliance. Everyone else is waiting.
This set of etiquette was created by Yao Guangxiao.
If some of the country's great scholars looked at it, they would definitely say that there are too many distortions in this etiquette. First of all, Yao Guangxiao's knowledge cannot be said to be pure Confucianism. He has a wide range of knowledge. But when it comes to etiquette, I haven’t studied it deeply. It’s normal to have some confusion.
Secondly, Yao Guangxiao himself is a person who despises etiquette and law. He felt that it was almost enough, and letting him focus on the details was Yao Guangxiao's style of doing things. Furthermore, who among these country bumpkins from Nanyang knows what the Spring and Autumn Alliance Oath etiquette is like. It’s not just that he, Yao, says whatever he says.
However, the impact of this ceremony is very good.
Although Yao Guangxiao had some intentions of deceiving people, he was not knowledgeable enough to see the deception, and there was nothing wrong with taking big steps. Three animals were sacrificed to heaven, blood was taken as an alliance, books were buried as sacrifices to the earth, etc. In the eyes of Nanyang country bumpkins, they are sacred and mysterious.
This set of etiquette has even spread in Southeast Asia since then. It was very popular for a while.
Etiquette must also be consistent with social reality. The most obvious is the ritual of seppuku. In ancient China, this was the etiquette of a vassal towards his lord. He would reveal his true feelings to the sky to show his loyalty or to express his grievances.
But after the Han Dynasty in China, there was no such thing as feudal kings and vassals. This etiquette is not spread in China. But in modern times, Japan was still governed by feudal lords, so this etiquette naturally became popular.
The same is true today.
This oath system is a ritual between the king and the king, and between the vassals and the king. It is suitable for the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Even by the Warring States Period, it was not very popular. But the civilization level of Nanyang in this era is roughly the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in China.
Perhaps it was better than China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in many aspects, but in terms of political systems, they were very similar.
Therefore, this set of etiquette is also easy to imitate. Because they need this.
This etiquette system also became the forerunner of the spread of Confucianism to the south.
The last resolution of the entire alliance was that all countries send envoys to Nanjing to worship the Emperor of Heaven. The alliance letter also needs to be confirmed by the Emperor of Heaven.
Although He Xi did a lot of things that were dealt with first and later. But he also knows where the boundaries of his own power lie. When you do so many things, you always have to give an explanation to the court. In addition, He Xi also has a little selfishness of his own.
That is, he was worried about changes in the situation in the court. He should go back to confirm his departure from Nanyang. This time so many countries paid tribute together, it was reasonable for He Xi to accompany them.
