The Song Dynasty had a characteristic that was different from the previous Han and Tang dynasties and the subsequent Ming and Qing dynasties, that is, the literati and officials had a broad understanding of the public world. The world is not a world for one person, but a world for everyone. This sentence, or a similar meaning, has been said by more than one person.
Wang Yucheng of the Northern Song Dynasty said that the world is not the world of one person, but the world of all the people in the world. If the principles are followed properly, the people will support them; if they are lost, the people will leave. Once the people leave, who will be able to share the world with them?
Zhu Xi made an annotation for Mencius and said, "The world is the world, and the world belongs to all the people in the world. It is not the private property of one person."
Historically, in this era, when the Song and Jin Dynasties were negotiating for peace and Zhao Gou had the intention to bend his knees and accept the Jin Dynasty's imperial edict, the imperial censor Fang Ting actually went to court. What we are talking about is the world, the world of China, the world of our ancestors, the world of ministers, all surnames, and the three armies, not the world of His Majesty.
In other words, among the literati and officials of the Song Dynasty, it was a widely accepted understanding that the public world was public rather than the emperor's private world. This is because intellectuals developed this concept after experiencing the troubled times of the Five Dynasties, and their understanding of history, as well as the Song Dynasty's awareness of reality that was unfavorable to foreign wars.
The throne of the Song Dynasty was different from other dynasties. When the dynasty was established, it was Zhao Kuangyin who usurped the throne from the Later Zhou Dynasty and gained the country. Most emperors knew this, and no matter what they said or did, they were not as confident as emperors of other dynasties.
Even Zhao Gou, when prices soared and lower-level officials struggled to survive, as soon as the government stabilized, he immediately increased the salary of lower-level officials by ten guan of tea money per month. If you want officials to do their jobs well, how can you do it without paying them?
To say that Zhu Yuanzhang was strict in governing officials, we must first understand that Zhu Yuanzhang set very low salaries for officials, so he was called mean and unkind.
As a leader, you must learn self-discipline. The stricter the self-discipline, the easier it will be to manage subordinates. Thinking that I am the one in power, I want to be free from restrictions and do whatever I want, and everyone else will obey, how is that possible? How can there be so many fools in this world? What if there are not enough fools? The only alternative is to use treacherous ministers. Therefore, some people particularly like treacherous ministers and scoundrels, thinking that this is a good minister. Are you stupid, or is the world stupid?
Corruption cannot be controlled by strict punishments, but by the self-discipline of those in power. This issue has been summed up well in history, the world is for the common good. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang cannot control corruption no matter how severe the punishment is.
Over the years, Wang Xiaolie understood a truth. It is impossible for a political power to be unable to pay officials' salaries. Moreover, the official salaries that can be supported will never be low. If it cannot be distributed, it means that the money has not gone into the pockets of the regime, but into the pockets of others.
It is precisely because Wang Xiaolie has always been self-disciplined that he can require officials to be self-disciplined and have enough money to give officials relatively high salaries.
Looking at everyone's appearance, Wang Xiaolie smiled. Said: "I want to make it clear that giving you a relatively generous salary is not to let you become an official for the sake of salary. This is the responsibility of a political power. If we don't give you money and let you do things, are we talking about ideals with you? We must have ideals, but those in higher positions cannot ask those in lower positions to have ideals. The government makes money, and if it is not given to officials, then who should it be given to?"
"As an official in the government, salary should not be your concern. What you have to consider is how to get things done, how to carry out the orders from above, how to make the people's lives better and better, and how to make the country better and better. Be strong. Believe that if you do a good job, you will be promoted when you should be promoted, and you will get more salary when you should get it. Believe that this kind of thing comes naturally, and there is no need to argue with others."
"Qi Jinggong asked Confucius about politics. Confucius said to him: Lord, minister, father, son, son. When we step on this stage and play a role, we must do our best to play the role well. As a king, play it well. A king should work hard to do what he should do. A minister should work hard to do what he should do. Only when both parties do a good job can the play continue. If you don't do what you should do while wearing a costume, your No matter how good the costumes are, the play is no longer a play. You work as officials under me and work hard, but I don’t pay you. Put the money in your own pockets and put it in my seven aunts and eight aunts. In my uncle’s pocket, what I said before is all nonsense!”
"Master said, My Tao is consistent. Zengzi said "Wei". When others asked Zengzi what he meant, Zengzi said it was just loyalty and forgiveness. One loyalty and one forgiveness, one without the other, is the Tao. These two words cannot be said separately. Once separated, loyalty It is not loyalty, and forgiveness is not forgiveness. It does not mean that you are a king and I am a minister, and I must be loyal to you. It also does not mean that I am a king and you are a minister, so I must forgive you. But in one thing, promise Loyalty is to be loyal to others. Even if things are not ideal, others will know that you tried your best and will not blame you. This is forgiveness. Loyalty and forgiveness must be together, and they are not Tao if they are separated. If you are purely loyal, you will treat others as fools. ? When we talk about filial piety, we still have the kindness of my parents who gave me birth and raised me. Why do we talk about loyalty? The basis is that the king is the king, not just in name, but in fact, and the appearance and appearance are the same. If the king is only in name , It’s like wearing a costume when singing in an opera, but you don’t say what the character should say or do what the character should do, so why should you be loyal?”
Seeing the silence below, Wang Xiaolie did not dwell on this topic.
"I have sent you around during this period to make you understand. Where I rule, the people's lives are better than elsewhere. The combat effectiveness of the army I command is stronger than other armies. The people are prosperous and the country is strong. That’s why I am qualified to say such things here.”
"This school is going to teach you some basic knowledge. You haven't learned this knowledge before, so you have to come to school to learn it. What matters is what you learned from school. Not that you entered this school. , after you come out, you will have an extra identity and be more noble. It doesn’t make sense. What is taught here is some knowledge that is necessary for politics. For example, many people are not familiar with arithmetic before, which is not good. An official must understand arithmetic. Know some statistics.”
"Our world is very strange. There are the sun, moon and stars in the sky, and there are rivers and lakes on the ground. Everything is clear. But when we study carefully and look for their boundaries, we find that we cannot find them. We must set a boundary artificially. . This is what I call the existence of degrees and no boundaries. The sun, the moon, mountains and rivers, and degrees exist naturally, and everything is so clear. But there is no boundary, it is set by man. How could this be? I don’t know.”
"The real world is not so clear-cut. Especially in a complex society composed of people, it is even more difficult to find boundaries. The simplest thing is that there are men and women in the world. It seems that the boundaries are clear enough, right? But there are not men. People who are not women, or people who are both men and women, they are born that way. Therefore, an official must understand statistics in order to understand society and govern it better."
Having said this, Wang Xiaolie took a sip of water to moisten his throat. Caidao: "Finally, let's talk about the teaching methods. The basic knowledge just mentioned is of course taught in class. But in this school, the most important content is not in class, but to learn to be an official. How to learn? According to our experience, it is with Examples. In practice, we will tell everyone how officials handle some good and bad things. Together with teachers’ comments, we can let everyone know how officials do it.”
"Mastering a large number of cases, conducting analysis, and making comments will not only be used in schools, but will also be used a lot in the future. This is a very big feature of our officials here. When you handle official business, it must be recorded and cannot be changed privately. . These official duties may be selected as examples at any time. Where you succeed, let everyone learn from it. Where you fail, let everyone try to avoid it. The more you learn in this way, the easier it will be to handle official duties naturally. Don’t let others worry about being taken as a If the case becomes widely known, it will be secretly modified to make it look better. If it is discovered, it will be abolished for the sake of the people, which makes no sense."
"The roles in the government include officials, clerks, errands, servants, and so on. Officials' salaries are much higher than others because they have heavy responsibilities and high requirements. Therefore, the number of officials cannot be very large. Since there are not many, we can check it out It’s easy. When you are an official under me, you must be prepared to be investigated at any time. Being investigated is not because you have done a bad job or there are problems that need to be dealt with, but because this is the daily responsibility of the supervisors. They don’t investigate you, they ask them What to do?"
"I have said so much, you should understand what my officials are like. Finally, I wish you can learn this knowledge in school, manage politics well and make your own achievements at work."
