Practice brings true knowledge.
Practice is the only criterion for testing truth.
Empty talk will harm the country, but hard work will make it prosperous.
Our people are well-off and the world is prosperous.
…
Each fresh formulation was like a red iron, burning into the hearts of everyone present. Whether they understood it or not, they all remembered these epoch-making words.
Meaningless arguments, worthless internal friction, and opposition of opinions are no longer important. What is important is the pursuit of evidence, hard work, and practice. It is to conduct investigations and provide evidence, not empty talk or boasting.
People must have an opinion, and this opinion is not a stubborn or paranoid cognition, but the ability to give a judgment that can withstand the test of practice with a practical vision, an investigative perspective, and extensive knowledge in the face of right and wrong. , instead of following what others say and pretending to understand.
Zhu Yunwen's speech in the Imperial College completely shattered the "left (supporting views)" and "right (opposing views)" that had always existed in the Imperial College, allowing the fragmented prison student group to be bridged again, and giving the prison students a tool for physiological exploration:
Investigation and practice.
This speech allowed the Imperial College to eliminate its impetuosity and become more restrained and serious. It also gave the imperial court, which had lost foreign enemies and tended to fight within itself, a blow and began to work towards the strategy of "a moderately prosperous age".
Although internal strife is inevitable, affecting some officials will bring about some hard-working officials, and they will surely become the mainstay of the Ming Dynasty in the future...
This speech had epoch-making significance for the Ming Dynasty. It clarified the strategy and concept of "a moderately prosperous and prosperous age" for the first time. It advocated for the first time that "practice produces true knowledge" rather than "Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism produces true knowledge." The slogan "Empty talk will harm the country, but hard work will prosper the country" has come out, and this has affected almost all industries...
Less than three days after Zhu Yunwen completed his speech "Practice is the Only Criterion for Testing Truth", Jianwen Newspaper, which published the text of Zhu Yunwen's speech, became popular in the capital. Within seven days, it spread throughout Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangxi, Fengyang, Huai'an and other places, and spread to the north and south of the Yangtze River at an extremely fast speed.
The Jianwen Newspaper was out of stock for a while, and the bookstores were still crazy about engraving and printing. The supply was still in short supply, which made paper in the capital expensive, so hand-copied editions were made up and circulated continuously.
The scholars saw this and strengthened their belief in entering the Imperial College, and studying hard became their practice.
The merchants saw this and saw that the imperial court affirmed the role of merchants in commerce. They howled loudly and decided to reduce the prices of daily necessities and raise the prices of luxury goods.
When the farmers heard this, they couldn't help but grin. The imperial court wanted to increase the yield per mu, improve people's livelihood, and create a prosperous and prosperous world. We don't know what a well-off society is, but it is probably the kind of people who can't starve to death even if they don't maintain it for a year. Bar.
No matter what, a prosperous and prosperous world is our goal. The emperor has not forgotten the suffering people and is thinking about them.
Farm well, and we will also participate in "practice".
Household Department.
Zhu Gaochi entered the Household Department and acted as the chief. Although the chief was the top leader of the Household Department, there was not only one head of the Household Department. In addition to Zhu Gaochi, there were Chai Guangjing, Zhang Ying, and Zeng Yuxian.
Xia Yuanji welcomed the joining of Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Yunxi, arranged for Zhang Ying to receive them, and then went to work.
Zhang Ying had received a warning to treat Zhu Gaochi as an ordinary official and not to be clingy or too close. Zhang Ying understood the meaning and arranged the rooms of Zhu Gaochi, Zeng Shen, Zhou You, Yan Guangzu, Shao Yi and others, and made basic arrangements. After the introduction, after being given the badge, he made an excuse to leave.
Zeng Shen wiped the table and said to Zhu Gaochi: "The people in the Ministry of Finance are a little indifferent to us."
Zhu Gaochi smiled, sat down, and moved his chair: "Indifference is enough. If it is enthusiasm, we may need to be careful. A charge of clinging to the prince's prince is enough to make them take off their official uniforms."
Zhou You took down a stack of books from the bookshelf and interjected: "No, keeping a distance is good for both them and us. Here, these are yellow books from the southern Zhili area."
Both Android and Apple are available. 】
Yan Guangzu also helped find pornographic books and placed them on different desks.
Zhu Gaochi casually opened a booklet and said breathlessly: "We have just joined the Ministry of Household Affairs and need to make some political achievements. Only in this way can we gain a foothold in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Since the end of the fourth year of Jianwen, the imperial court began to rebuild the Yellow Book and launched It has been two and a half years since I received the photo-taking notices. The yellow books from various places have been sent out, and the required photo-taking notices have also been issued. It is time to clarify how many households, people, and land there were in the Ming Dynasty."
Shao Yi looked at the piles of documents, frowned and said: "There are too many yellow books and it cannot be clarified in a short time. There may also be errors in the data from various places. If we want to calculate the final results, it will probably take a lot of time." .”
Zhu Gaochi nodded solemnly. The yellow book in this room was only part of the yellow book in Nanzhili. The number of yellow books in the country and the complexity of the data were definitely not something that could be processed in a short time.
Some people may be confused. It is not easy to survey the population of the Ming Dynasty. It is not simple to have yellow records of various regions. How many prefectures, states, and counties are there in a province? It is just a simple sum. Then superimpose all the provincial data with the data of the North and South Zhili. Can you tell how many households, population, and fields there were in the Ming Dynasty?
If data stacking was so easy, there would be no need to conduct a census every ten years.
In the case of Zhejiang Province, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development cannot directly use the summary data sent by the Chief Minister of Zhejiang Province. It must use the original village-level data as the basis for recalculation. After counting villages, counties must be counted, and then the government. , if data deviation occurs during this process, it must be started all over again.
If there is no error in the calculation, but there is a problem when the local government does the calculation, an official document must be sent to the local government and asked to do the calculation again to find out the problem and see whether any data is missing or overcalculated. , or give a few less brochures to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Even if there is no problem here, there may be problems with the Chief Envoy. If the data does not match up, you have to find out the reason. This is not bad for the capital. It is not too time-consuming to go back and forth to check the paperwork, but What if it is in Guangdong, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan...
Zhu Yunwen attached great importance to the population of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that this time the population census has invested far more efforts than the Hongwu period. In order to ensure the authenticity of the census results, he did not hesitate to spend time, energy and money to launch a photo album!
However, because of the existence of photo ID cards, the census has caused one problem after another. The biggest problem is that the number of photo ID cards issued in various places is seriously inconsistent with the reported population number.
Zhu Gaochi got the brochure of Songjiang Prefecture, Shaanxi and Shanghai County, Nanzhili. After flipping through it, he immediately discovered the problem. He called Zeng Shen, Zhou You, Yan Guangzu, Shao Yi and others, pointed to the brochure and said: "You guys Look, Shanghai County has a huge data problem.”
Zeng Shen and others looked at the summary page and filled in the population information of Shanghai:
Residential households: 121,345 households;
Population: 565,142 people.
Male: 339,308 people.
Women: 225,834.
Zhou You squinted his eyes, looked at it, and said, "There aren't many problems with this data, right?"
Yan Guangzu and Zeng Shen shook their heads repeatedly, and Shao Yi also frowned and said, "The data problem is not small."
Zhou You lowered his head and pondered, and suddenly said: "There must be a problem! This data is obviously not in line with common sense."
Zhu Gaochi nodded solemnly and said, "Yes, this data is not in line with common sense."
Zeng Shen directly pointed out: "There is not much problem simply looking at the total households and total population in Shanghai County, but the ratio of men to women is seriously wrong. According to the relevant statistics and surveys of the Imperial College, in our Ming Dynasty, there are generally more boys and girls. In some places it’s 90 to 100, in some places it’s even 60 to 100.”
"Although in some places girls are not popular among the people, and there have even been incidents of drowning of female infants, resulting in the ratio of men exceeding women in the local area, reaching 150 to 100, this phenomenon is not universal, and it is not suitable for Shanghai County. "
The wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the Hongwu War led to the emergence of a situation where there were more boys and girls. Although it took decades to recover, this basic pattern has not changed.
Shanghai County is located in Songjiang Prefecture. Since Zhu Yunwen reduced the taxes there, the pressure on the people of Shanghai County has been greatly reduced. Many wealthy households have appeared. It is a bit ridiculous to say that they cannot even afford to raise their daughters, let alone Songjiang. The government, Suzhou and Hangzhou and other places do not discriminate against female infants, and there have not been a few incidents of drowning of female infants. Why is it that women account for 40% of the total population?
Of ten people in Shanghai, six are men and four are women?
This is inconsistent with the basic national conditions and does not fit well with the local situation.
Zhu Gaochi took out another brochure, pointed at it and said: "Look, the population of Shanghai is 565,142, but the number of photo albums issued is 673,412. An extra 100,000 photo albums were created out of thin air. This is Why?"
Zeng Shen and others frowned. This data was surprisingly strange and did not match up at all.
Yan Guangzu found another document, pointed at it and said: "Look, here is the data from the 24th year of Hongwu. The census of that year showed that Shanghai County had a population of 114,326 households and 532,803 people. More than ten years have passed. The population of Shanghai County only increased by 7,019 households and 32,339 people? In fourteen years, there were only more than 100,000 households, and only more than 30,000 people were added. Isn't this strange?"
Even at a very low population growth rate of one percent per year, the population of 500,000 should increase by 5,000 people a year. Without adding up, the population should increase by 70,000 people in ten years!
What's more, the population growth rate in South Zhili has been maintained at about 3%. According to this standard, Shanghai County should have increased its population by at least hundreds of thousands or more than 200,000 in more than ten years. But the data given now, It turned out to be only an increase of 30,000!
Zhu Gaochi knocked on the table and asked: "In the past ten years, there have been no major famines or wars in Shanghai. I have never heard of large-scale emigration of people in Shanghai County. Have you heard about it?"
Zeng Shen and others shook their heads, absolutely not.
