Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 121 Enlightenment
At this time, Wang Yangming arrived with a group of people, and first came to Zhu Houzhao and bowed:

"Greetings, Your Majesty! Your Majesty, you came too early, and I was just in time to greet you. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me!"

"It's okay. Boys should start studying early."

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile, then turned around and looked at Yan Song: "Teacher Yan, please go first."

Yan Song was so frightened that he almost lost his soul. After a long while, he asked tremblingly, "You, are you His Majesty?"

Zhu Houzhao was about to imitate Xia Yan and wave his fan, but he found that he didn't have a fan with him, so he had to put his hand back: "It's genuine!"

"Your Majesty! I know my crime! I was really blind! I actually offended your Majesty's sacred authority!"

Yan Song was eager to perform a grand ceremony.

"Get up, ignorance is not a crime. I came here incognito today, it is not surprising that you don't know."

Zhu Houzhao said as he looked at Wang Yangming and ordered: "Begin the ceremony!"

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he sat down in the first seat in the middle.

At this time, Wang Yangming also began to announce the official opening of the Imperial University of Peking, and asked Zhang Cong and Xia Yan:

"Now, Imperial University has liberal arts, science, engineering, and medicine. Which one will you two choose?"

"liberal arts!"

Both of them answered without hesitation. After all, this era emphasizes literature over military. Although they don't know why there is no military science, there is no doubt that liberal arts are the most worthwhile.

Zhu Houzhao thought that there were only two students, so there was no need to choose subjects at the beginning, so he immediately said: "From now on, you will study every subject every day! After all, there are only two of you students, you can choose the subject you like most or are best at after you have mastered the basic knowledge of each subject."

"Your Majesty, what you said is very true. It can be said that it is a profound statement. People's learning should be deep and broad, not narrow and rough!"

Yan Song then hurriedly smiled and agreed.

Zhu Houzhao just smiled slightly, and then led Wang Shouren and others to the main hall of the Imperial University. When they arrived outside the screen wall at the main gate, Zhu Houzhao sat down on the ground and asked, "Do you know what is the most important thing to rule the world?"

“Decisive!”

Zhang Cong replied.

"You're not right, it's about insight!"

Xia Yan immediately denied Zhang Cong's statement.

"Strategy!" Wang Yangming replied.

Yan Song smiled and replied: "Your Majesty, is it the mind?"

Zhu Houzhao shook his head, stood up, patted his calves, and turned his waist:
"What you said is wrong. It's the physique! A healthy and strong body is the most important!"

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao ordered: "Wang Shouren, Yan Song, Zhang Cong, Xia Yan, run with me!"

Zhu Houzhao ran away after saying this.

Everyone had to obey the order, so Wang Shouren followed first.

Yan Song also hurriedly followed.

Zhang Cong and Xia Yan were no exception.

So, the emperor and his five ministers started running in the imperial gardens of the Imperial University of Peking.

The sun was rising at this time, and the thick clouds were inlaid with brilliant light, and white beads of sweat gradually appeared on the foreheads of Zhu Houzhao and others.

After running a lap, Zhu Houzhao stopped, breathing rapidly, looking at Wang Shouren, Yan Song and others who had also stopped behind him, and smiled.

Yan Song always felt that what he was best at was dealing with people. No matter whether the person was smart or stupid, he could make the person feel comfortable when interacting with him. But he didn't expect that he would stumble in front of the emperor. He first said that the emperor killed people like crazy, and then said that the emperor was very rude. So he regretted it now and wanted to improve his image in front of Zhu Houzhao.

Therefore, when Yan Song stopped in front of Zhu Houzhao, he stretched out his hand and panted, "Your Majesty is right. Physical fitness is the most important. The sage said that a gentleman should learn the six arts: etiquette, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. None of them can be lacking. Archery and charioteering are particularly important. Otherwise, how can we pacify the world!"

Wang Shouren glanced at Yan Song and just smiled slightly.

Xia Yan said with some contempt, "Flatterer!"

Zhang Cong was old and weak, and he was only gasping for breath and unable to speak.

When Zhu Houzhao heard Yan Song say this, he patted Yan Song on the shoulder and said, "In that case, let's run another lap! Make the body strong and the mind civilized!"

Zhu Houzhao often exercised and ran in the deep palace, and he was still young, so it was natural for him to have no pressure to run another lap.

Wang Yangming practiced martial arts since he was a child, and he also loved to travel to famous mountains and rivers without any pressure.

However, the three literati Yan Song, Zhang Cong and Xia Yan felt a lot of pressure.

Yan Song was particularly troubled. His wife had been demanding too much of him these past few days, and he was running out of energy. When he saw Zhu Houzhao ordering him to run another lap, he couldn't help but exclaimed, thinking that he was just trying to flatter the emperor in a more natural way, but he didn't expect to have to run another lap.

But there was no other way. Yan Song had to fill the hole he had dug himself, gritting his teeth and holding back tears. He also had to follow Zhu Houzhao and say, "Your Majesty, what you said is very good. It can be said to be good words that will be passed down through the ages!"

……

After running, Zhu Houzhao took Wang Yangming and four others to the public shower room of the Imperial University of Peking to take a shower and change into clean clothes.

After everyone had changed their clothes, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but say:

"This is just the beginning. I have ordered the deputy commander Qiu Yue to return to the capital to be responsible for the military training of the students of the Imperial University! The so-called military training is to make you both civil and military. Although you are a scholar, you must also have martial arts talent!
You will be given three months of professional archery training, and this will be the norm at the Imperial University in the future. Except for those who are truly weak or disabled, all new students will have to undergo training every year. "

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhang Cong and Xia Yan both exclaimed in surprise, and somewhat regretted enrolling to study at the Imperial University of Peking.

"Military training is good! If jade is not polished, it cannot be made into a useful tool. Your Majesty's military training is indeed a good policy. Originally, each academy had a course on archery, but most of them were abandoned. Now the Imperial University is naturally different from other schools. It should have this example, so as to cultivate talents who can command the army on horseback and govern the people on foot!"

Yan Song was the first to express his agreement and took the opportunity to flatter Zhu Houzhao.

"Although Yan Qing is young, he is not physically strong and lacks exercise. Let's join the training together. I will let you supervise the military training camp!"

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao smiled and said something.

Yan Song opened his mouth wide. He didn't expect that His Majesty would let him train. He originally thought that he was just training students, so he agreed. Now he regretted it so much. He thought that he had said so much. But even though he was not happy in his heart, he had to say that he was willing: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will train well!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly and didn't say much. He just said, "Come on, I will give you a day of lessons today, starting with the liberal arts." Because it was the emperor who was giving the lecture, these people were quite interested.

After Zhu Houzhao arrived at the liberal arts classroom of the Imperial University of Peking, he asked Wang Yangming and others to sit down, but they could not accept the way the emperor stood while they sat, and they still stood in front of Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao did not force it. After he walked up to the podium, he picked up a charcoal pencil and wrote the title of the lecture on the blackboard covered with lime:
An Invisible Hand and the Red Line of Empire Collapse

After seeing Zhu Houzhao write that topic, Wang Yangming, Yan Song, Zhang Cong and others immediately shifted their attention to Zhu Houzhao's topic.

Wang Yangming and others had never seen such a topic and such a teaching method before. They were all wondering, what Confucian classics had this sentence written in? Why were there strange symbols on the left and right of this sentence? Why was this sentence so plain? What did it mean? Did Zhu Xi comment on it?

Although everyone was confused, they didn't know what to say for the moment because Zhu Houzhao had already started speaking.

……

After the class, Zhu Houzhao finished his lecture, but Wang Yangming, Yan Song, Tang Bohu, Zhang Cong, Xia Yan and others in the audience were all stunned.

"Do you understand?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

Everyone didn't know whether to shake their heads or nod, but Yan Song spoke first: "Your Majesty's words are unique and interesting. I have a lot of insights after listening to them, but I don't quite understand them!"

Zhang Cong stood up and saluted, saying, "May I ask, Your Majesty, where did you get what you just said? Who said it? Do you have a book? I would like to read it!"

Wang Yangming also stood up at this time and said:
"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

Wang Yangming asked too many questions, and Zhu Houzhao was so scared that he ran out of the classroom: "Don't ask now, I will explain it slowly later. I will take you to learn science."

Wang Yangming and everyone else had no choice but to follow Zhu Houzhao out.

Only Xia Yan did not follow them. Instead, he picked up a pen and paper from the podium and started writing. Relying on his good memory, he wrote down everything Zhu Houzhao had just said.

In the science classroom, Zhu Houzhao had asked Qiu Ju to bring out several glass convex lenses, as well as primitive telescopes and microscopes made of glass mirrors. He said as he demonstrated them:
"The science I set up is to explore the principles of everything. I have limited time, so I will just briefly explain it. For example, if you use this convex lens to read this book "The Analects", the words will become larger, and if you use this telescope, you can see farther. If you don't believe it, you can try it."

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Wang Yangming and others curiously picked up these instruments and tried them out, and they were all dumbfounded.

"Why is this? Why can this glass make words bigger? What's so magical about it?"

“This glass, too, can actually let you see farther. The trees over there seem to be brought closer!”

"Your Majesty, may I ask what the reason is? This is truly incomprehensible!"

Seeing that everyone was like a group of elementary school students, Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to patiently pick up a beaker and fill it with some water:
"These are all based on the principles of light. Light has the principles of reflection and refraction. Look, I put this pen into the glass of water. From the outside, does the pen bend? It looks like it's broken?!"

Zhu Houzhao took out the brush again and said, "But it is actually intact and not broken."

"This is really an eye-opener! Is this the teachings of Mohism?" Yan Song asked in surprise.

Wang Yangming was in deep thought.

Zhu Houzhao only said at this time: "These are the principles of light. Whether the Mohists mentioned them or not, to be precise, they are the principles of existence. As long as there is light, there is this principle, just like people have their own principles. However, it is not an easy task to explore the principles of all things. We need to pay attention to methods.

Why didn't Wang Shouren gain enlightenment by observing bamboo before? It was because he only looked at the bamboo, but didn't know how to understand it in detail, how it grows, what it is, what it can be used for, whether it can be made into clothes, paper, or bamboo tube rice!

The same is true of light. We also need to understand it. Why can it pass through glass but not through wood for our eyes to see? Why can it break a brush when it is inserted into water? But in fact, the brush does not break. This shows that what we see with our eyes is not necessarily true.

Zhu Houzhao said, "Now let me show you engineering!"

Zhu Houzhao personally took a group of people to the soap workshop of the Royal Industrial Company. After showing everyone around, he said:

"This is where engineering comes in. Oil, lime, and water can be used in various ways to make soap that can clean clothes and even make people's skin cleaner. Why does lime burn your hands when you wash them directly, but it doesn't hurt when it is made into soap? There is a reason for this! If you use the principles of all things well, you can benefit the people."

Everyone in the group fell silent. They had never thought about it from this perspective before, and it felt as if Zhu Houzhao had opened up a new world for them.

"Next is medicine. Medicine is similar to engineering and science. It is based on the principles of all things. I will not talk about pharmacology and observation, auscultation and palpation today. I am not as good as those doctors in these areas."

Zhu Houzhao then took a sample of water from a nearby stream and asked, "Is this water clear and drinkable?"

Zhang Cong said hurriedly: "Of course you can drink it. This is the spring water from Jingshan Mountain. It can nourish the five internal organs."

"Then drink it for me to see," Zhu Houzhao handed it to Zhang Cong.

Zhang Cong drank it without hesitation and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this water is really sweet and quenches my thirst."

Zhu Houzhao asked everyone else to drink some, and Wang Yangming and others drank without hesitation to quench their thirst. At this time, Zhu Houzhao took out a piece of glass, dripped a drop of water from the glass cup on the glass, handed it to Zhang Cong, and pointed to a relatively primitive microscope: "Put it on that table and look through the hole on it."

Zhang Cong immediately did as he was told, but after a short while, his eyes widened: "There are bugs in the water!"

"No!"

Yan Song had just finished drinking at this time. He picked up the glass, looked at it, and said after confirming it again and again.

Zhu Houzhao asked Zhang Cong to take another drop and look again. After looking at it, Zhang Cong said: "Strange! It's really weird! It turns out that there are things that cannot be seen by the naked eye, and they are not dead things, but living things. I just don't know why these living things don't make people sick when they enter the human body. To be honest with your majesty, I often drink mountain spring water and have never been sick from it!"

Others came over to see what was happening and were all greatly surprised.

"This is what medicine needs to master. Although those tiny living things can enter the human body through the mouth, the human saliva and stomach acid can inhibit or kill them! Moreover, some of them will not be harmful to the human body, and may even be beneficial. You will understand it after you study and research more."

Zhu Houzhao said.

At this time, Wang Yangming came up to Zhu Houzhao again:

"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

"Your Majesty! I would like to ask...

……

Now the protagonist’s lineup consists of three assistants and one saint. This lineup is considered powerful, and there is no need to worry about reforms in the later period. Book friends who are familiar with the Ming Dynasty should know how powerful these four people were in the Ming Dynasty.

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(End of this chapter)