Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 381: The Saint King preaches at the turn of the century
People do not share the same joys and sorrows; Kong Shangxian only felt pain.

The Kong family’s greatest reliance is actually their face.

The Master's reputation must be continuously consolidated by future generations who try their best to adhere to the moral principles he advocated.

Kong Shangxian himself is a product of this kind of face.

His biological mother was the daughter of Zhang Yanling, the famous Marquis of Jianchang. During the Hongzhi and Xiaozong Emperors, Empress Zhang was "deeply in love", so how domineering were the Zhang brothers? During the entire Zhengde Dynasty, Empress Zhang was still in power, and even if Zhu Houzhao didn't like his two uncles, he couldn't do anything about them. When Emperor Jiajing came to power, he didn't care so much. Although he was not in a hurry because Empress Zhang was still in power, the Zhang brothers were still questioned.

Kong Shangxian was born in the 23rd year of the Jiajing reign. At that time, his grandfather Zhang Yanling had been imprisoned for more than ten years. Two years later, Zhang Yanling was beheaded.

The Kong family knew that Emperor Jiajing disliked the Zhang brothers and Zhang Yanling was already in prison, so why did they let Kong Zhengan marry Zhang Yanling's daughter?

face.

The Kong family had long been engaged in marriages with important officials and relatives of the emperor. Kong Zhengan's marriage was a childhood marriage that had been arranged long ago. At that time, the Zhang brothers were still very important.

You can't just cancel the engagement now that you see that the other person's power is declining, right?
So even though the Emperor Wanshou's cold gaze made the Kong family's scalp numb, they still went ahead with the wedding.

The harvest is: praise from the government and the public!
Another gain was: Kong Zhengan went to Beijing to celebrate Emperor Jiajing’s birthday when he was 38 years old, but died suddenly.

Then, "Kong Shangxian shall inherit the title of Duke of Yansheng. If any of his clansmen dare to bully him, Kong Shangxian shall be allowed to report him and punish him. Your ministry shall also inform the governor."

Zhu Houcong let the twelve-year-old Kong Shangxian inherit the title and stay in the capital to study. Later, he also married Yan Song's granddaughter and Yan Shifan's daughter.

In the 44th year of Jiajing's reign, the Yan family fell, and the fathers of the two generations of Yanshenggong's original wives were beheaded.

It is said that Yan Song once went to Qufu to ask Kong Shangxian to plead with the emperor to spare Yan Shifan's life, but Kong Shangxian avoided him and made Yan Song sit on a bench outside the hall for a long time, hence the term "cold bench".

"You elders, you are taking advantage of your age and are so stupid!" Kong Shangxian no longer cared about his face and started to curse. Then he pointed at Kong Hongfu and said, "And you! Even though the magistrate of Qufu has always been from the Kong family, do you think you are a local emperor?"

He pointed his finger back at the old men who looked ugly and angry: "You always stay in Qufu, seeing the scholars pay respects with piety and the people who come and go are all respectful, do you think you can do whatever you want in Qufu?"

Kong Shangxian was even more sad and angry than them: "Did I not explain it clearly enough in my letter, or are you all so stupid that you can't see the situation outside?"

Finally, he slammed the table and stood up: "Zhen Jiao! Is it because you lost your position as the prefect of Jining that you did good things behind the scenes?"

Kong Zhenjiao wanted to refute, but Kong Shangxian waved his sleeves fiercely: "Even if it's not you now, I'm afraid you can't escape the crime! Think carefully before you speak!"

Kong Zhenjiao's face turned pale at these words: "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" Kong Shangxian sneered, and then turned into a miserable smile, "Do you know what news I received before entering the city? The prime minister and the prime minister jointly accused me of being successful in academics but in managing my family! At this moment, I don't know how many court officials in the court are impeaching the Kong family and showing loyalty to Your Majesty in order to seek a high position! Have you always been clean in Jining?"

After he smiled miserably, tears slowly flowed out.

Finally, he walked to the table, kowtowed to the north and cried, "Ancestors, I am an unfilial descendant who wants to protect my family, but there are so many fools and stubborn people. I am afraid that disaster is approaching."

Kong Shangxian's words and his appearance did shock many people, but some people also said: "Xiangzhi, those who are lucky enough to get promoted want to gain fame by selling their integrity, but the scholars have their own..."

"Come on! Ask for family discipline!"

Kong Shangxian stood up and glared at him, his face livid.

He walked over step by step, forcing the elder's face to suddenly change and he took two steps back. Kong Shangxian actually put his palm beside his neck and gritted his teeth and said, "Do you have to wait until the knife is on your neck before you know that things are different now?"

"Shilin? What Shilin?" Veins popped out on Kong Shangxian's forehead. "When the Yan family met with disaster and my father-in-law was imprisoned, why didn't I say a word to plead for mercy? The Shilin at that time was against Yan! When the Marquis of Jianchang was imprisoned, why did my father still want to marry the daughter of the Zhang family? The Shilin at that time was discussing etiquette with the Temple of Heaven! Today, the Shilin is worried about the new policy and is in a dilemma in front of the new school, but have you forgotten how the title of Changsheng Tianhan came about?"

"In the face of great adversity, you are stubborn and refuse to change!" Kong Shangxian retracted his palm, "No matter if you are from this branch or a branch, if you are reported to the government office, you will be questioned according to the family rules first, and then sent to the government office to surrender!"

"No!" Kong Hongfu was immediately shocked, "Now the clan already has..."

"You can't escape!" Kong Shangxian just looked at him coldly, "Since you were able to keep your position as county lord last year, you should be afraid and cautious. Do you believe that Xie Nietai will come back soon and all the governors of Shandong will gather in Qufu?"

After he returned to the Confucius Mansion, he seemed to be extremely majestic for a while.

After all, he seemed a little crazy.

"I'll say it again!" Kong Shangxian said word by word, "The danger of exterminating the clan! If you think the court will be concerned about the opinions of scholars, then you are totally wrong! I also advocate new learning, that is, scholars in the world don't have to only respect Confucius and ancient sages. The Holy Emperor has the theory of investigating things and seeking knowledge, which is the academic leader of the world! If the Kong family can still enjoy wealth and honor, there are only four words: obey! Justice! and abide! Law!"

His face was pale. "I admit defeat. Some of you have read books, don't you know about the struggle for succession? What is the lucky promotion? Now the whole officialdom wants to be lucky! The reputation of the Kong family is tarnished, and the true meaning of promoting the new learning is to flourish. You are so good, I can't come back from Beijing, and I can only come back after admitting defeat, but you are fighting with each other at home. You refused to pay for the purchase of national bonds, so I paid for it. After buying it, you thought it was profitable and asked me to share some..."

"It's all right now." Kong Shangxian looked at them one by one. "If we can avoid this disaster, at least we will lose a lot of money and lives. Are you still reluctant to give up and are you ready to rebel?"

Of course, no one dared to rebel against the Kong family, and in fact, their surrender was always very straightforward.

But when it comes to losing money, many people finally panic.

"Isn't it enough to move to a new place and sell some fields?"

"Who moved to the border? The side branch! Whose land was sold? It was given to the side branch!" Kong Shangxian was furious. "I repeatedly told this branch to share more, but in the end it still ended up like this!"

"Then I have something to say. Xiangzhi, you haven't sold even a single acre of the land under your name!"

Kong Shangxian's expression froze.

"And the Qin brothers, they control the business in Jining and Linqing, and the land has simply been transferred to their hands..."

"Yes, the candidates in Jining are causing trouble, and they are taking the opportunity to raise the price..."

So Kong Shangxian wanted to apply the family rules to deal with the matter seriously, but the main hall of the Kong Mansion quickly became noisy and noisy again.

Kong Shangxian sat down dejectedly.

Ten years after leaving Qufu, it was not just a matter of the various branches of the clan becoming more unscrupulous, but also about his own control over his subordinates and outsiders.

In fact, Kong Shangxian's understanding of the general situation was limited, or in other words, the Kong family was destined to face the current situation since Zhu Changluo ascended the throne.

After enjoying the wealth and prosperity of so many dynasties, it’s time to pay it back.

Their pride is passed down from generation to generation.

They are not Kong Shangxian, and do not have the burden of the title of Yanshenggong. They have not experienced the stormy waves and undercurrents up close in the capital like him, and have never faced the emperor directly. All they see is the sky of Qufu.

As for the sky in Qufu, they believed that it was protected by the Master.

To some extent, they believed that the Master was greater than the Emperor.

There are many Emperors, but there is only one Master.

It’s just that the emperor today has already begun to try to be a master of the world.

Zhu Changluo did not give any opinion on the many memorials impeaching Kong. He just participated in an academic discussion in the Taichang Temple, gave a lecture on "Investigating Things and Extending Knowledge" to the students who were about to graduate from the University Garden and the Middle School Garden of the Imperial College, personally attended the prince's first lecture, and gave a class at the Tongzheng Academy to the officials who were about to take office in Liaoning Province.

Then, at the first court meeting in the twelfth lunar month, an imperial decree was issued to the world: Ye Xianggao, the Minister in charge of the Secretariat, was promoted to the position of Prime Minister of the Executive Yuan, and was given the titles of Prince Taifu, Zuo Zhuguo, and was granted the right to carry a sedan chair in the outer court.

In the first month of the tenth year of Taichang, a date was chosen to appoint a prime minister. The prime minister and other ministers offered sacrifices to heaven, earth and the country, and the emperor led his ministers to pay homage to the Taimiao.

Ye Xianggao was naturally ecstatic, and at the same time he understood even more clearly: he must use the Kong family as the battle drum of the new policy and beat it hard!
Beat until the emperor calls a stop!

The prime minister was determined, and the people of some prefectures and counties in Shandong sued the Kong family, which was a matter of daily government affairs, so Zhu Changluo could keep silent. He continued to focus on his studies.

In the Taichang Temple, in addition to Zhu Changluo, Galileo, Kepler, Wang Zheng, and Liu Ruoyu were also present today.

Now Liu Ruoyu was holding a rope in his hand and spinning the wooden ball tied to the end of the rope.

"Since the astronomical telescope was built, the two Western priests have been observing it for a long time. The Imperial Astronomical Observatory has also been involved in the research." Zhu Changluo pointed at Liu Ruoyu, "I went to Tongliao, and I have been thinking about the reason when I went there and after I came back. A few days ago, I talked about tides with Galileo again, and finally I made some guesses."

He looked at the group of Taichang scholars and said, "All scholars have the ambition to explore the great way and get closer to the principles of heaven. If there is anything that is the most elusive, it is probably the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, and the formation of the stars. I think there is probably an invisible force between heaven and earth, which I call gravity. It is because of this gravity that the sun, moon, and stars have a regular pattern..."

After saying that, he naturally began to slowly explain his "guesses" about the laws governing the movement of celestial bodies.

Because of the existence of gravity, no matter what is not supported, it will fall from the sky. As big as the sun, moon and stars, because of the existence of gravity, the sun rises and the moon sets, and the tides rise and fall due to their revolution and rotation.

Most of the Taichang scholars studied classics, history and humanities, so they were naturally dumbfounded when they heard what they heard.

"...Your Majesty, are you saying that the earth...is also constantly rotating?" They found it hard to accept.

"This proves what I said in my theory of knowing through investigation of things, that everything is constantly moving." Zhu Changluo actually came to this point. "The reason why we can't notice it is that humans are too small and the earth is too vast. But now there is evidence that the earth is a sphere. If it is a sailor, he has another set of rules to measure distance. When they look into the distance, if there is a ship approaching, they will see the mast first and then the hull."

"The tides rise and fall, the winds blow and stop. There is a lot of evidence that proves that the earth is rotating. The Institute of Research will verify these evidences later. But now, these speculations of mine can be explained clearly..."

It has to be clear.

No matter what questions they had, Zhu Changluo spoke eloquently and, in their opinion, always made sense.

Not only is the earth rotating, but it is also rotating at an angle while revolving around the sun, or revolving around an ellipse, sometimes closer and sometimes farther away. So there are spring, summer, autumn and winter in a year, and the sun rises earlier in summer... From time to time, a leap month is added because the calculations are not correct.

As for the wind, it is not just about this. Zhu Changluo also talked about how water turns into gas, how hot and cold air move, and how it rains...

"The lightning and thunder..." Zhang Jian was more receptive to it, so he raised a new question.

"That's easy." Zhu Changluo was also prepared. "Ruoyu, bring a handkerchief. Galileo, you have a lot of hair and are not polite. Come here?"

Galileo was very happy. In fact, they had discussed this issue a few days ago, and Galileo was also very surprised.

What needs to be done is naturally to generate electricity through friction.

Looking at the Western man's hair standing up as if it was about to explode, Xu Guangqi opened his mouth wide.

"Perhaps you have had such experiences. Sometimes, especially in the dry autumn and winter, you will feel a numbness when you touch something, and there will be a slight crisp sound." Zhu Changluo said seriously, "I think that is the weakest lightning. The hidden mystery of this lightning may be even more precious, but I believe that one day we can understand and tame it. Now the Institute of Research and the master craftsmen are trying to tame the power of water, heat and vapor. If they can tame lightning in the future, it should be of endless use."

Chen Jiru and others stared at the emperor in amazement.

You may think he is talking nonsense, but it does sound true. Many natural phenomena seem to make people suddenly understand what is going on.

But if I believe him, I always feel that this invisible gravity is... too illusory.

But Zhu Changluo has his own explanation: "In the past, the Qi, Principle and Dao mentioned in academic research were equally elusive. In my academic research, I wish to explore the invisible with the visible. From this perspective, from the ancient pre-Qin period to the present, there is a thread for the reproduction and survival of all living things. All of this involves the knowledge gained through the study of things. Let's talk about the ancient times first. In fact, there is an example around us today, and that is the Jurchens..."

This brings us to a topic that everyone is familiar with.

However, this time the emperor also combined the content of the natural sciences with it, and mentioned the impact of production technology and production capacity on social system changes.

The Jurchens are indeed a very good example because they were primitive enough. They included the rather primitive Wild Jurchens and Beishan Jurchens, as well as the more advanced Haixi Jurchens and Jianzhou Jurchens.

From gathering, fishing and hunting to farming and animal husbandry, the productivity improvement brought about by the progress of agricultural technology has had a great impact; from stone hammers and wooden sticks, to bronze, to iron, to today's gunpowder, the technology of war has also been constantly improving.

People have always been like this, with selfishness and public spirit coexisting. Selfishness is human nature, so the earliest people enslaved slaves to gain more benefits; public spirit is because people fight against nature to reproduce, so they should naturally stick together, so they have to organize. The more free people are, the better it is to inspire them to work hard for themselves, so the overall more civilized Ming Dynasty will not be like the Jurchens who still have pure slaves and baoyi aha.

From fiefdoms to counties, due to various technical reasons such as transportation, the areas that the central government could effectively control became larger and larger, so there was naturally no need to adopt a "free-range" approach.

"This also proves what I said, change is absolute. There has never been a law that lasts forever. Knowledge has increased, and there are more methods. Sometimes the rulers themselves seek change, and sometimes they are forced to change. The wise should follow the trend, and since we know that the road of knowledge is actually moving forward, we should take the initiative to study knowledge and create opportunities. For example, when I went to Tongliao to meet with the various tribes, why were they so frightened? Because think about how much knowledge they cannot overcome between the Nine Thunder Gun and their horses, bows and arrows..."

This is a real example. The emperor actually explained his achievements from this perspective.

There is no other reason, just great power.

Did they accept Changsheng Tianhan from the perspective of morality and emotion? No, the basis was still force.

And they were smart enough to see the progress of Ming Dynasty's firearms, and to look at their own progress in iron smelting, casting, gunpowder, and the most basic agriculture to feed more people and integrate human and material resources in a more efficient way of governance... There was still a lot of natural science and humanities knowledge that they needed to overcome.

To their despair.

So, since the other person could obviously keep hitting you, but instead reaches out his hand to just touch you, are they just such a mean person that they wag their tail and put their face close to you?
"Therefore, I think what Duke Yansheng said is very good. Only by mastering the method can one get closer to the truth." Zhu Changluo concluded, "Even if one can master the classics, history, and humanities, one's understanding will definitely be very different. In history, the words and deeds of every character are first of all based on the fact that he is a person, with his own selfishness and his own justice, and he makes choices in the current situation. In today's world, whether it is officials in the court or the people in all walks of life, it is the same."

"I think that officials and gentry are not able to see the long term because they do not know the right way to study and govern. They are easily obsessed with short-term gains and losses. The government's policies are not based on academic principles and are often temporary expedients. Local government affairs are even more dependent on the chief officials, as evidenced by water conservancy and roads and bridges. This time, Prime Minister Ye said well. In the future, we should follow the method of planning water conservancy and roads and bridges for the whole country from the central government. I think this is seeing the long term."

It seems that the reason why Ye Xianggao was chosen is explained here.

When did Ye Xianggao say this?
Zhu Changluo did not explain, but said to the Taichang scholars: "My theory of investigating things and seeking knowledge does not have to be the ultimate theory, but if we can take one step at a time and the emperor and his ministers can make further progress in learning, then the culture and education of the Taichang Dynasty can be said to have made achievements in the great cause of learning. Do you agree with this?"

Today is the home court of the Holy Emperor.

Regardless of their original thoughts, the scholars of Taichang had been bombarded with intensive knowledge ranging from natural philosophy to humanistic philosophy. Now their heads were buzzing, and looking at the emperor's earnest expression they only felt that he was dazzling.

No matter what, it is extremely rare to listen to the emperor's lectures, and the emperor can say things that shake them to the depths of their souls.

Who else is there in history?

It was difficult for others to say anything, so Li Tingji took the lead and bowed: "I will accept your instruction!"

So naturally, everyone else said the same thing.

That's the truth.

They didn't know that Galileo and Kepler were the most shocked.

They originally only knew that the Eastern Emperor was erudite, but now they discovered that... the Eastern Emperor was like the omniscient Emperor of Heaven!
From the most magnificent sun, moon and stars to the smallest changes in physical objects, he can answer questions and preach!

This is the holy land of science!

Zhu Changluo was devoted to guiding the changes in academic thought, while Kong Shangxian was devoted to restraining the Kong family from falling into disaster.

Ye Xianggao was preparing to become the prime minister of the empire, and Xie Tingzan went to Qufu again with murderous intent.

As the ninth year of Taichang gradually drew to an end, most of the scholars taking the imperial examinations gathered in the capital.

The tenth year of Taichang is about to come. Some people are not yet ready to welcome the new era, while some people have already been enlightened.

On the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month, Xu Xiake looked up at the gate of the Forbidden City.

His name is also Xu Hongzu.

(End of this chapter)