Chapter 8 Big Article
Zhu Xiongying naturally knew who the chairman and deputy speaker were prepared for. He said, "That's fine." Then he dropped the topic and said, "The news about this parliament has spread for so many days. Can it be convened?"
He Xi said: "There is one last thing left."
Zhu Xiongying said: "What happened?"
He Xi said: "An article." He Xi then took out an article from his arms and handed it to Zhu Xiongying respectfully.
Zhu Xiongying took it over and looked at it, but it was the Theory of Holy Virtue.
This article can be said to be a demonstration of He Xi's Confucian skills, and he has discussed it with many people in private. As a very important political article. Many people think that he can be compared with Dong Zhongshu's telepathy.
Dong Zhongshu's telepathy established the ideology of ancient Chinese dynasties since the Han Dynasty. After that, although there were additions in every dynasty, they were all just tinkering with the telepathy.
And He Xi's article is really discussing where the so-called holy virtue of the monarch lies?
The first half of the article is actually a summary, which specifically elaborates on many Confucian thoughts on the importance of the people, and describes the holy virtues of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors in detail. It is derived that the Three Emperors and Five Emperors served the people and solved their problems. The so-called rulers of Jie and Zhou were called Jie and Zhou because they harmed the people.
That is to say, the emperor has no relatives, but virtue is his assistant.
A virtuous monarch who can bring peace to the people is a sage. Otherwise it is not.
These are still based on traditional Confucianism, and He Xi did not propose anything new.
But it's different down there.
First, he talked about the deeds of many foolish kings in later generations, such as the famous He Bu eating minced meat. This explains why these emperors are like this, because they are too far away from below and cannot hear the voices below.
Therefore, it is so important to communicate up and down, and to make people's feelings reach up.
Only when we got here did we explain the setup of the parliament.
Let the elders of the world come to the capital to discuss world affairs. Let the world know about it, and the imperial court will choose the good and follow it. So much.
He Xi's article was written in a subtle way.
But everyone who can understand understands it, and those who can’t understand don’t need to understand.
This article by He Xi is essentially the political voice of the He Xi school. He Xi has always avoided the political field before. Now it's time to explain. It seems like a simple statement, but it actually says something.
Why is the emperor an emperor?
In traditional Confucianism, the emperor is the Son of Heaven, the constellation, and a demigod. So he is the emperor. He is the head of the clan. And the clans below them can also manage the people in their own clans in the same way that the emperor manages the people.
However, He Xi's previous support for equality for all actually denied the emperor's sanctity.
This is the reason why many Confucian scholars have opposed it one after another. The emperor is no longer holy. Then anyone can be the emperor. In this case, countless people in the world will have their thoughts, and the world will be in chaos.
In his article, He Xi did not say how unholy the emperor was, he only said how holy the emperor was. That is to benefit the people. Adhere to the attitude that the people value the king over others.
When the emperor was the Son of Heaven, Confucian scholars used the telepathy between heaven and humans to check and balance the emperor. Now that the emperor's sanctity rests on the people's support, public opinion is the one used to check and balance the emperor.
There's so much that can be done here.
The importance of this parliament suddenly increased.
And there are some things that don’t need to be explained too clearly. Many people can understand it.
Naturally including Zhu Xiongying.
Zhu Xiongying's breathing became rapid as he read this article.
At this moment, he really couldn't help it.
He knew that such an article was coming soon. The Middle Ages broke the sanctity of religion, and only then did the rest happen. When Confucian scholars defend the sanctity of the emperor, they are actually not defending the emperor, but the country.
After all, it is too difficult to maintain a unified country. Without a unified idea, the court would have fallen apart long ago.
But generally speaking,
The emperor could accept the use of providence to check and balance the emperor, but some people understood that the so-called providence did not exist, but was just a pretense. But there are many people who actually think there is some kind of providence.
Generally speaking, God doesn't really have a say. God’s will is also hard to borrow.
But public opinion is too complicated.
Who are the people? Whose intention?
Moreover, public opinion can be manipulated. If you use public opinion to check and balance the monarchy, you only need to create a public opinion. It was too bad for the emperor. The underlying logic weakened the emperor's power.
But can Zhu Xiongying refuse to agree?
Zhu Xiongying knew very well that He Xi could compromise on many things. For example, it was stated very early on that he would serve as chief assistant for at most two terms before he stepped down and was willing to hand over power to Zhu Xiongying.
But the premise of all this is that He Xi must complete his own reforms. The power Zhu Xiongying took over was not the power of a feudal king, but the power of a capitalist royal family.
The power gap between the two is too great.
Zhu Xiongying had expectations for today, but even if he had expectations, he could hardly bear it when faced with such a situation. Zhu Xiongying said: "The chief assistant will take care of it."
He Xi naturally heard that Zhu Xiongying was dissatisfied.
He Xi also thought about using a gentler approach, but after much thought, it was impossible.
The emperor can take everything from the world, which itself is not in line with social development.
The so-called social development is a process of continuous liberation of productive forces, and the so-called liberation of productive forces is the liberation of human nature. Let people live like a human being.
How to make people live like a human being. That is, people's most basic right to survival is guaranteed.
People cannot be violated at will by privileges. So everyone should be equal.
But the existence of the emperor itself is the greatest inequality.
The so-called power of the emperor means power without any restrictions. This is the greatest characteristic of imperial power: punishment is unpredictable and power is unpredictable. This is the reason why the emperor cannot allow others to guess his thoughts.
But this power is not limited, and all reforms before He Xi are useless.
This is not a problem of the emperor. The emperor himself may be good. But what does the crowd that clings to the emperor look like?
As long as the emperor exists, there will be relatives and eunuchs. A group was formed around the emperor, and they acted without scruple with the help of imperial power.
The mining tax in the Ming Dynasty was the most typical thing. Emperor Wanli wanted to make money because of the financial crisis. This starting point cannot be wrong. But what happened to the eunuchs he released?
He did all kinds of evil and made the whole world angry, but he didn't make much money. Because of the imperial power, there is no need to reason with people, but times have changed. Only by being reasonable can you get more money, not the other way around.
He Xi also doesn’t know what the so-called democracy will look like in the future. But He Xi knew that the emperor's power must be limited. If there was a problem in the future, he could just correct it. ap.
Moreover, He Xi felt that now was also the best time.
Without him, Beijing survived Nanjing's attack, and it was time to switch from defense to offense.
He Xi's own power has also reached its maximum. Even to the top.
Once the offensive against Nanjing is launched, surrender and rebellion are inevitable. After all, the North and the South are fighting a civil war, and even if dynasties change, it is impossible not to surrender. Once a large number of surrendered troops enter the Northern Army, Zhu Xiongying will definitely use the surrender to check and balance He Xi.
And He Xi couldn't stop this situation.
You will have a lot of worries when doing things in the future.
It's better to set down the principles now. As for the future, let’s talk about it in the future.
Anyway, He Xi just wanted to save some trouble, not that there would be any problems in the future.
And this is only the first step. There will be a series of articles in the future that will comprehensively discuss political aspects. Within the framework of Confucianism, a set of public opinion systems corresponding to Dong Zhongshu’s theory of destiny will be established, so as to lay the foundation for the new Ming Dynasty in the future. The system opens its eyes.
So there are still many things to do in the future, and Zhu Xiongying must also adapt slowly.
As Zhu Xiongying knows, many things can be compromised. But this matter must not be compromised. Although he missed Zhu Yuanzhang's care, he did not want to break up with Zhu Xiongying. But I'm not afraid if I really fall out.
Zhu Xiongying is not the only one with the surname Zhu in the world. Several feudal princes in Japan were all named Zhu, but He Xi didn't think that only Zhu Yingxiong could be the emperor.
If you do this, you will encounter many problems, and He Xi is not willing to go to this step.
