Chapter 9 Su Boheng’s evaluation
Su Boheng's life has come to an end.
It's just that he is still working hard to read the historical materials of the Yuan Dynasty. Now he has mastered Mongolian, Tibetan, and even Uighur in quantity, so that he can integrate all aspects of information and fill it into his own "New History of the Yuan Dynasty". middle.
This Yuan history is the continuation of Su Boheng's life.
The reason why Su Boheng worked so hard is because in Su Boheng's opinion, this is a great work that is not inferior to the first four histories.
As far as the level of history is concerned, the later official histories have problems of one kind or another, which are not enough to rank them with the first four histories. However, in Su Boheng's view, the most important thing is that later historians did not innovate much in history.
The Zizhi Tongjian written by Sima Guang is famous in history. It is not only Sima Guang’s historical level, but more importantly, Sima Guang’s institutional innovation.
Similarly, the first four histories are of relatively high level and have formed a complete official history system. After that, all the imperial courts followed suit, let alone pioneered anything.
Now Su Boheng's film is different.
Under the ideological guidance of He Xi, Su Boheng's historiography broke through the original biography and other styles, and added a lot of content of specialized economic and political history. It even occupies more than one-third of the entire article.
Of course, this is also because the Yuan Dynasty was short, but it was different from the traditional Central Plains dynasty in many ways. Many things in the Yuan Dynasty were not actually Chinese traditions, but came from other civilizations in the Western Regions.
For example, the high-ranking officials of the Yuan Dynasty and Huihui merchants jointly engaged in maritime trade business, which was put on the table and even came up with many tricks. This was also the point where the Huihui merchant line occupied a place in the political arena of the Yuan Dynasty, and even forced the Confucian school into a life-and-death struggle.
It is not easy to write down these differences and changes in traditional China one by one, and it will naturally take a lot of space.
These changes were originally something that traditional historians did not pay attention to, or paid little attention to.
However, Su Boheng also lamented that his body was no longer strong enough for him to complete this magnificent masterpiece. Fortunately, he has his own successor. Huang Guan's abilities in all aspects are very good, especially in academics. Su Boheng seems to be very spiritual.
With Huang Guan here, it is enough to complete this history book.
In this way, he can rest in peace even under the Nine Springs.
When Su Boxheng thought of his disciple Huang Guan, Huang Guan also came to see him.
Huang Guan was thoughtful. He respected and loved Su Boxheng very much. He was indeed like a teacher and a father, but his attitude towards He Xi was not so respectful at all. Without him, any discerning person in Beijing could see that He Xi was a powerful minister.
And he is a very powerful minister.
Since ancient times, Chinese people have always kept a respectful distance from powerful officials.
After all, powerful ministers never end well? The only one who did well was Cao Cao and Sima Yi. Ordinary scholar-bureaucrats would not want to come into contact with such people. Even if you have to contact them, you are not willing to follow them to do dirty things. He ended up like Hua Xin.
At least after usurping the throne, why not become the second minister after all?
And if one of them is bad, he will follow He Xi to kill the nine tribes. So why bother.
It's just He Xi's article that made Huang Guan confused. After much thought, he decided to ask his teacher for advice.
Huang Guan asked Su Boxheng to read an article. Su Boxheng read it almost word for word. He was silent for a while and said, "Get ready. Rewrite the previous manuscript."
Huang Guan never expected Su Boheng to react like this, and said, "Teacher, why is this? Aren't the previous manuscripts all your hard work? Why did you suddenly push them down?"
How could Su Boheng not feel distressed? It can be said that every word he wrote before was the result of his painstaking efforts. But he still made up his mind and said: "Articles are written from time to time. You have to understand this. Song Lian's articles are superior to mine, and he cares very much about his own writing. But he left behind a pile of shit about the history of the Yuan Dynasty .Why is that? Because Emperor Taizu needed this history of the Yuan Dynasty at that time. The same is true now. I never thought that He Xi would dare to make such a big reform? But I am sure,
As soon as this article was published, today's world is completely different from before, and my New Yuan history has also become the Old Yuan history. Even if it were written down, it would only be the tail end of old history. Rather than the nail in the coffin that sealed the deal in the old days. "
"Why be second when you can be number one in the world?"
The most important thing in history is the historian’s thoughts. Rather than the article being fair. To put it bluntly, the history of the Ming Dynasty is the most complete and best-written in history. But the reviews were the worst. It’s because too many things have been changed in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
It took more than a hundred years to repair.
It can be said that there is no one before and no one since.
Why is the historical record the swan song of historians? It also contains the historical spirit of Tai Shigong.
Su Boheng also understood this. When he looked at this history book, he felt the difference that He Xi's new ideas brought to history, and thus he was sure that this history book would be better than the previous history books.
Now, with the keenness of a historian, Su Boxheng feels that Chinese history has reached a critical point. This specific key point, whether it is this war or this reform, but from today on, history will become completely different.
Huang Guan said: "Teacher, I am worried that He Xi will be a Wang Mang?"
He Xi and Wang Mang also have similarities. The first is the relationship between He Xi and the royal family. He Xi can be regarded as a maternal relative, and Wang Mang is also a maternal relative. And He Xi is an independent branch of Confucianism. Now those who slander He Xi cannot deny He Xi's status as a great master in Confucianism. And Wang Mang was supported by all the great scholars in the world.
At that time, it seemed that if Wang Mang did not usurp the throne, the world would be unsustainable.
This is also the dark history of Confucianism. It is also the swan song of the Confucian radicals.
And what will be the fate of Wang Mang?
Huang Guan had to worry that if He Xi ended up like Wang Mang, their master and disciple would also end up in a miserable state because of this book.
Su Boheng laughed loudly and said, "You have never gotten along with He Xi. He Xi is a very strange person. He seems to have very high requirements for life. He never drinks cold water and never tires of food. But he never tires of money. He doesn't take it seriously. He just wants to do things and doesn't want to be an official. I guess based on his thinking, even if the emperor gives it to him, he won't do it." Kan Shula
Huang Guan said: "In this case, wouldn't He Xi's fate be even worse?"
Huang Guan's implication was that He Xi had the ambition to become emperor and had the possibility of a comeback. But now, He Xi did not have this idea. When Zhu Xiongying attacked him in the future, wouldn't He Xi be dead?
Su Boxheng did not answer, but sighed and said, "Maybe, but that's not important."
"Is the world ruled by one person? No, the world is ruled by the people of the world, and the affairs of the world are managed by the people of the world. This truth cannot be simpler. It can even be said that the sages of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods have already explained it clearly. Don't you think? Do you know? No, you know. It’s just that you can’t do it, you don’t dare to do it, and you don’t even know what to do?”
"Now He Xi will show everyone what to do? He Xi may lose his reputation and lose his descendants. But will future generations be willing to do this?"
"If a person has never seen the light, he doesn't care how dark it is, but if someone has seen the light, it will be difficult for them to accept the darkness."
"I'm old. I guess I can no longer see He Xi's ending. But I hope that you can uphold the conscience of a historian and write down exactly what you saw so that future generations can know He Xi. Things to do."
"Success or failure."
Su Boxheng looked at Huang Guan and said, "Do you understand?"
Huang Guan was silent for a while, saluted Su Boheng and said, "Disciple, I understand."
Although many of He Xi's practices have been criticized by many people, people in the world are not without eyesight. After He Xi's series of reforms, has the world become better or worse? The answer is of course that it has gotten better.
The Chinese are the most practical people. As long as it can be used and is easy to use, it doesn’t matter how deviant the theory is.
This is also the reason why He Xi is respected and accepted by many people.
He Xi's reform is natural
There is a problem. But there are too many glimmers of idealism in it.
