The Confucius Mansion has always been a unique existence in the Ming Dynasty, or in Chinese history.
Even if there is a change of dynasty, as long as the new ruler is supported, the Confucius Mansion will still be prosperous and wealthy.
Not to mention, in other time periods, prosperity and wealth are even more stable.
In the court, even the most powerful ministers, whether it was Zhang Juzheng back then or Jiu Qiansui later, after the glory comes the time of reckoning.
But in the Confucius Mansion, besides enjoying the glory and wealth, sitting and watching the battles in the court was the most comfortable thing.
In the past, not only Kong Yinzhi, but also the people in the Kong family believed that as long as there were civil servants and emperors, the status of the Kong family would not change.
However, what Kong Yinzhi never expected was that a powerful official who was more powerful than Zhang Juzheng and Jiu Qiansui appeared in the court and started to take action against the Kong family!
This Duke Xingguo is really special! As a result, Kong Yinzhi felt a little helpless.
If you are an ordinary powerful minister who has studied the books of sages and sages, if you dare to deal with the Confucius family, you will be deceiving your master and destroying your ancestors, and will be denounced by scholars all over the world.
However, this Duke Xingguo suddenly appeared, and no one knew which great Confucian he was studying under. Otherwise, just one letter can solve many problems, and at least allow Xingguo to have a public discussion.
In addition, this Duke Xingguo really didn't know what he did. He said that he was studying things to gain knowledge, but he actually discovered so many crooked ways. What’s even more frightening is that this crooked way seems to have its own system, showing signs of threatening the status of Confucianism!
Under other circumstances, the Kong family could just sit back and do nothing, but what Xingguo Gong did was shaking the foundation of the Kong family.
So? The Kong family participated in the affairs of the court for the first time.
Kong Yinzhi first instigated Kong Dazheng in the capital to encourage those who were dissatisfied with Duke Xingguo to submit petitions one after another to be crowned kings, and to roast Duke Xingguo on the fire.
We don't expect to overthrow the Duke of Xingguo in one go, but it's too cold at a high place. The principle that a tree that is as beautiful as the forest will be destroyed by the wind can be used. When he turns back and falls? Duke Xing Guo will definitely fall miserably.
However, he didn't expect that this matter would never happen. And we can also see from this incident that the current emperor's favor for Duke Xingguo has continued unabated.
With no other choice, Kong Yinzhi had no choice but to settle for the next best thing. He no longer thought about dealing with Duke Xingguo, but thought about whether he could attack Duke Xingguo's new learning. As long as it does not pose a threat to the Kong family, they will not care about the ebb and flow of the court.
It just so happened that the steam engine that Mr. Xingguo was touting exploded and killed someone? This was an opportunity.
However, Kong Yinzhi never expected that just a trivial matter such as instigating people to oppose the steam engine would cause Duke Xingguo to give up such a major matter as suppressing thieves and immediately rush back to the capital.
From this point of view, Duke Xingguo valued his new learning far more than others.
This matter? It is even more threatening to the interests of the Kong family.
For this reason? After Kong Yinzhi received Kong Dazheng's letter, he was still considering his next move when the news came again: Kong Dazheng was arrested by the prefect Yamen for questioning and imprisoned.
On the surface, this was Kong Dazheng's own business, but Kong Yinzhi knew very well that Duke Xingguo had taken action against him. Otherwise, not only a mere prefect, but also the chief minister of the cabinet would think twice before taking action against the Kong family.
"Well, that's probably the situation!" Kong Yinzhi said, sighing to the clan elders who were sitting in the hall, "This Duke Xingguo is the devil's obstacle to our Kong family. Who do you think has any good ideas?"
The situation is a bit serious!
In the lobby, these clan elders were relatively quiet, pulling on their beards and thinking of solutions.
After a while, a clan elder said: "If we don't care about him, what else can we do? With the blessing of our ancestors, who dares to do harm to our Kong family?"
"What you said doesn't mean anything about Kong Dazheng's matter?" After hearing this, the other person immediately replied.
"Yes, my son is the scapegoat. He is in jail for the Kong family. How can he just sit back and ignore it?" The person who said this was obviously Kong Dazheng's father.
"If Kong Dazheng acted upright and sat upright, how could he end up in jail? Don't use the Kong family as a shield for everything!"
Kong Dazheng's father became angry when he heard this, and immediately shouted: "You don't know why you can't blame me? As for the things my son did, the people in your room didn't do it?"
"..."
The discussion had just begun when it fell into a quarrel. Others also joined the two sides and started to quarrel depending on the quality of the relationship.
Kong Yinzhi, who was sitting in the main seat, was shocked when he heard it!
Things were already annoying, but they started quarreling again at home. Isn’t it chaotic enough?
In the end, Kong Dazheng slammed the table and scolded them: "When are you still arguing about trivial matters? Then Xing Guogong is determined to promote his crooked ideas. If he really wants to If it were to be practiced in the world, how many people would still study the teachings of Confucius and Saints? The foundation of our Confucian family is not strong. This is a change that has not happened in a thousand years, and a crisis that has not happened in a thousand years!"
At this point, he pointed at the people in the lobby and said bitterly: "Such a crisis will affect our descendants of the Kong family. It will even have a greater impact on our Kong family than the change of dynasty. Do you understand?"
After he said this, the group of people fell silent again.
Kong Yinzhi saw that they were actively quarreling and seemed dumb when they really gave up their ideas. He couldn't help but feel angry. When he was about to lecture them a few more words, suddenly Qufu County Magistrate Kong Dazhao hurried over, holding a stack of paper in his hand, regardless of other things. He said to Kong Yinzhi who was on the throne: "This is the latest "Ming Pao" from the capital. It says that Duke Xingguo is going to open the Ming Dynasty Capital Academy and officially establish a sect!"
Whatever you are afraid of will come to you.
Although he had foreseen this, when he heard the news, Kong Yinzhi sighed in his heart again.
After handing the copy of "Ming Pao" to Kong Yinzhi to read, Kong Yinzhi looked at the elders in the lobby and said with a heavy face: "This Duke Xingguo has given up his military power to engage in learning. The current emperor will definitely support it. And with the power of Duke Xingguo , and it is conceivable that there will definitely be many followers who want to curry favor with him. If this new teaching of Duke Xingguo is not stopped, it will definitely become popular all over the world."
"Everyone!" At this point, he raised his voice and said loudly, "As long as Duke Xingguo is in power, New Learning will be able to overtake Confucianism. If my guess is correct, believe it or not, one day in the future, the imperial examination will be changed To take this new study, then it will be the end of my Kong family!"
As soon as I heard this, the whole lobby immediately exploded.
"What, those crooked ways of taking the imperial examination? This is impossible!"
"Yes, the imperial examination has always been based on the Four Books and Five Classics. No matter how powerful Duke Xingguo is, can he change this?"
"Even the current emperor can't change it, right?"
"Yes, if this is really the case, scholars all over the world will definitely attack him!"
"..."
Hearing their short-sighted words, Kong Daqi said loudly, almost in a roaring voice: "Do you think Duke Xingguo is stupid? How could he abandon the content of the imperial examination and not test the Four Books and Five Classics at once? Wait until his new knowledge spreads. After that, he stuffed it into the imperial examination, giving equal emphasis to both, and finally squeezed out the Four Books and Five Classics. As long as scholars all over the world learn his new knowledge, this kind of thing will be a matter of course!"
Before they could react, he added: "Don't you forget, as long as you curry favor with Duke Xingguo, not to mention everyone can become a frontier official, even scholars can become third-rank officials. How many of those scholars are there? Do people have integrity? It would be strange not to curry favor with Duke Xingguo!"
After hearing this, the Kong family elders in the lobby thought about it and were a little stunned.
Han Chuang studied hard, reading the Four Books and Five Classics, for what purpose, other than to be an official one day!
But now, if you go to curry favor with Duke Xingguo, you can become an official, and you can even become a feudal official. It would be weird if you don't go and curry favor with him!
Thinking like this, these clan elders became anxious and began to curse.
"All the words of the sages have been read into their stomachs!"
"Where is the character of a scholar?"
"They are not worthy to be disciples of Saint Confucius. They are all ungrateful people who have forgotten their ancestors! Without our ancestors of the Confucius family, they would be a group of uncivilized barbarians!"
"Heaven, earth, today's scholars, where has their backbone gone?"
"..."
Amidst their shouts and curses, Kong Yinzhi had already read the contents of the "Ming Pao" in his hand about the new study, and he became even more irritable.
He could imagine that at this time, the capital was probably all filled with this newly learned topic.
can not be like this! Absolutely not!
With this in mind, Kong Yinzhi pounded the table again, shouted for them to quiet down, and then told them about the situation reported in Ming Pao. Finally, he said to them seriously: "The current plan must not let this crooked situation happen. The heretical theory has become a trend! If Duke Xingguo does this to win people's hearts, we must also respond tit for tat and attract the capital's attraction to Confucianism again!"
At this point, he sternly confessed: "From now on, we are all discussing this matter, and we must not change the topic. It concerns the future of my Kong family, so there is no need to argue about anything else!"
These elders of the Kong family certainly know the seriousness of the matter, and they are about to start a sect!
So, they began to discuss it seriously.
After much discussion, they finally came up with a solution.
I heard Kong Yinzhi conclude: "In this case, I personally wrote to the leaders of the scholarly circles and invited them to go to the capital to open a literary society and explain Confucianism. We, the Kong family, will pay for all the expenses."
After a pause, he specifically named him and said: "Especially Mr. Yushan from Jiangnan, we must invite him. With his reputation, I believe he can attract many scholars!"
"I heard that Mr. Yushan has nothing to do with Duke Xing Guo. I believe he will be very happy with this matter. This is a wonderful strategy!" Kong Daqi also agreed after hearing this.
Little did they know that Qian Qianyi had already been beaten by Zhang Mingwei.
