New Shun 1730

Whether Niu Congyun has read "The Biography of Xin Ang" is of course not the same as the emperor asking him to read "The Biography of Xin Ang".

Since Niu Congyun was asked to read "The Biography of Xin Ang", it was actually equivalent to the emperor hinting to Niu Congyun: Go ahead and do it, I will cover it for you if there is any problem.

In the matter of taking the blame, Emperor Li Gan was still very conscious.

At least he was brave enough to take the blame for doing things according to his wishes, because Dashun had a deep memory of the last few years of the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the two people in front of him, the emperor was still very satisfied with their performance.

Although he was full of new knowledge, the emperor was not very worried, but felt that it was natural.

In fact, when Dashun came to this day, Li Gan had experienced Liu Yu's innocent heart and the sorrow of the universe. Although he didn't want to admit many things, he had to admit that the past road had come to an end.

The capable officials who emerged in recent years are all related to the new learning, at least basically all of them are infected by the new learning.

This is not accidental, because with the development of Ezo, Whale Sea, Nanyang and other places, the active private capital, only those places can perform well enough.

Just like being a county magistrate in Henan, even if you are talented, how much can you do?

But if you are a county magistrate in places where private capital is invested, it is difficult to achieve results if you are conservative and conservative, while those who are slightly more active in thinking and can learn and apply new knowledge can perform very well.

In just ten years, Taiwan Prefecture has received at least 1 million taels of silver in investment.

Land reclamation, rice plantations, shipbuilding cypress business offices, gold mines, naval base investments, military camps prepared in advance for the future recovery of Luzon... Private and official investments continue to pour in.

The canal was abandoned and shipping rose, which was the basis for capital to invest in rice plantations and reclaimed land.

And capital can make the population there surge. Dashun lacks gold, silver and copper, but it does not lack labor.

With money, there are political achievements: the population surged, taxes soared, the supply of grain for part of the business after the canal was abandoned, and the cypress wood for the construction of warships were guaranteed to be sufficient. These are of course political achievements.

If you are a county magistrate in a place like Henan, no matter how great your ability is, you can't get an investment of millions of taels, so how can you have outstanding political achievements?

Dashun was also a dynasty that destroyed the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties but did not establish it. Culturally, it conducted a comprehensive reflection on the previous dynasty that almost lost the world. The mainstream of the reflection is: there are too many nonsense and too few practical things. Righteousness should be reflected in benefits, not just empty talk about righteousness and reason.

And to make political achievements in this place where private capital begins to be active, you can't just stick to the Thirteen Classics, you have to get in touch with new knowledge.

It has nothing to do with hobbies.

It has nothing to do with beliefs.

It has to do with promotion.

Not to mention the military, which is the hardest hit area for the spread of new learning.

Li Gan is very confident that he can control it, but such emperors generally think they are very awesome and their sons are definitely not as good as themselves.

So Li Gan also has a plan for the future succession.

Is the new learning useful? It is useful and cannot be abandoned.

Because there are a lot of powerful countries outside whose annual treasury income is not much different from that of Dashun.

If it was in the past, it would be fine, but now Dashun has just used naval strategic mobilization to defeat Japan, and is afraid that such a thing will happen to him in the future.

In addition, the canal was abandoned, and the connection between the north and the south depends entirely on the navy, and the safety of the canal transportation is all in India and Southeast Asia, not in his hands, so he had to acquiesce to the spread of the new learning.

However, is there a crisis for the new learning?

Yes, and in Li Gan's view, this crisis is very conspicuous.

That is, Dashun originally had few official vacancies, and with the rapid increase in population, many people were scrambling to take the exam and seek a promotion channel.

Originally, it was just the internal roll of the Confucian imperial examination.

Dashun also has the unique Wude Palace and the practical learning system of good families, and it can also roll as much as possible.

Now with this wave of new learning students, rolls are added to rolls.

A group of people with learning and knowledge, and some of them are not just those who talk about the mind and nature, but those who talk about class, rent, latitude and triangle, are excluded from the system. There is no upward channel for officials in the orthodox imperial examination. What will these people do?

Now Dashun has been kidnapped by special traditions and systems and has to expand outward.

This is different from the external expansion of the market required for the development of capital.

Rather, the internal imperial examination has occupied all the upward channels. Only the outside and border areas can use these people with practical backgrounds and give them some upward channels.

It depends on the navy, engineers, artillery, industry and commerce, and colonies to accommodate these people and absorb them into the system, even if they are on the edge of the system.

Li Gan dared not touch the imperial examination itself, and he could not touch it.

Not to mention that abolishing the imperial examination would require a big event.

How many magical things have happened in the imperial examination reform alone?

The previous reform of the imperial examination, which was to "use the name of the imperial examination to practice filial piety and integrity", had good intentions. Emperor Taizong felt that the eight-part essay constrained people's thinking and wanted to change it.

Then what?

The most classic example is the examination in Shanxi that year.

At first glance, the topic of the question is absolutely fine.

Said: Those who have beans and millet may not have enough poultry and fish, and those who have poultry and fish may not have enough beans and millet. If they are exhausted, there is nothing to take, and if they are accumulated, there is no place to distribute, then the benefits will not be distributed and the support will not be evenly distributed, so there is a market.

Yi said: The market is set up at noon, and the people of the world are attracted. Gather the goods of the world, trade and leave, and everyone gets what they want. It is taken from the Shi Ke.

In the previous dynasty, the Western barbarians, the Portuguese, occupied Macau as a market, and imported...

The general idea is that "Yi" says that the emergence of social division of labor has led to exchange, and the exchange has given rise to a market, so that those who have Shu millet may not be enough for poultry and fish, and those who have poultry and fish may not be enough for Shu millet. After exchange, everyone gets what he deserves. profit.

So, let’s try to analyze the Portuguese trade in Macau and its impact on this dynasty.

It seems that there is nothing wrong with this question, and it highlights Dashun's openness.

Then, a group of scholars from small villages and small counties know where Macau is? Do you know what kind of trade Macau and Dashun do?

On the other hand, the wealthy families, gentry, and officials in big cities have money to socialize with each other, and matters thousands of miles away are discussed every day in their circles. Some grandfathers are officials in the capital, some biological fathers are governors, and some do business all over the world.

How can a group of poor kids who have to borrow books to study get into this circle? How do you know these things? It’s not taught in official schools either.

After this incident broke out, officials in the DPRK and Central Government who were originally opposed to the imperial examinations being promoted as filial piety and integrity wrote an insulting article: It’s so troublesome for you to select candidates like this. Why don’t you just draw coconuts, lychees and longans on the paper and ask these questions? A child in a Shanxi village wonders which one is coconut and which one is lychee.

This incident also triggered the most powerful public petition from the Northern Confucian School and the Yan-Li School, hoping to restore the ancient school system.

The ancient Confucian school publicly declared: The court is the foundation of politics; the school is the foundation of talents. Without talents, there will be no politics! Talent is the foundation of political affairs, and schools are especially the foundation of talent.

The imperial court was required to establish official schools widely, borrowing Wang Jinggong's three-part method. Anyway, there was a precedent for good family members in this dynasty, and they could be selected through school education.

Finally, "separate fasting teaching" was carried out.

Wenshizhai: teaches etiquette, music, calligraphy, mathematics, astronomy, geography and other subjects; Wubeizhai: teaches the art of war of Huangdi, Taigong, Sun and Wu, as well as offensive and defensive, camp formation, land and water warfare, archery, martial arts, etc. Subjects; Yi Neng Zhai: subjects such as hydrology, fire science, engineering, and mathematics; Jing Shi Zhai: subjects such as the Thirteen Classics, History of the Past Dynasties, imperial edicts, Zhang Zou, poetry, and other subjects.

The idea is wonderful.

The reality is cruel.

The Li family thought for a while and said to themselves that if we engage in this kind of school education, support the basic brothers and good family members of the fifth battalion, and implement the three-part selection system of the Wude Palace, the finances have already been exhausted.

Just collect 30 million taels of fucking silver a year, throw away one-third of the military expenditure, throw away one-third of the canal and Yellow River, and ensure the basic base to engage in variant three-shelf method and school-based selection. It is almost unsustainable.

You asked me to implement nationwide school education and also implement separate fasts...

Where's the money? Are you out? Do you know how much money the imperial court can collect per year now?

The emperor responded directly, and the Yan and Li school also responded directly.

No money, land reform!

If you can do well, you will be well; if you can't, you will be well.

Not only the rural areas were well-equipped, but even the urban land was also taken over by the government.

Wang Kunsheng, a close disciple of Yan Xizhai, was so radical that he proposed three plans.

One is: mine fields and equal fields, the land is returned to the government, taxes are paid per mu, and middlemen are not allowed to make the difference. Farms are granted at the age of fifteen and harvested at the age of sixty.

The second is: urban land is taken back to the government, and the court collects housing taxes and rents.

The third is: businessmen pay taxes based on their capital. If the tax amount is 2,400 taels, you can be granted the title of Shilang and be given a ninth-grade crown and belt to honor him and repay his merits. The tax of 2,400 taels gradually increases upwards, from Dengshilang all the way to Tongzhilang and Chengyilang of the sixth and fifth grades.

The Dashun court looked at the suggestions of the Yan-Li School and thought, I still want to live a few more years, forget it... isn't this nonsense?

Who can achieve such a top-down reform? Can this be changed?

Under the reform, many magics can be changed in the imperial examination, but also the land?

If you have the ability, you can pull the lever and start a team to do it yourself. The imperial court can't do it anyway.

Originally, the Yan-Li School had a good reputation, but as soon as this radical idea came out, it immediately fell into a crisis of public opinion.

Someone carefully read the articles of the Yan-Li school and said that the Yan-Li school understood ghosts and valued profits, and also clearly talked about fraternity and universal love. This is not Confucianism.

Our Confucian criticism of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism is our own internal matter, and it is not the turn of outsiders to interfere.

In addition, Yan Xizhai's mouth is indeed... smelly.

It is said that Confucian scholars are now a bunch of sissies. Since the Song Dynasty, Confucianism has been de-masculine and all have learned to be effeminate. Those who can "stand up and talk about their feelings when nothing happens, and die to repay the king in the face of danger" are the top and best among sissies. How can we expect them to do serious things?

The white-faced scholar, the white-faced scholar, regards white face as his beauty, but he has no knowledge of the strategy of the world and the talent of soldiers, peasants, etiquette and music. He is as frank and fragile as a woman, has no bold and suave spirit, and has eunuch ears...

It is conceivable that it would be damned if this was not criticized.

After this incident, the main focus of the Yan-Li school was on one thing: to prove that we are also Confucianists. We are by no means some pre-Qin scholar who took advantage of the criticism of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism to counterattack. We are really Confucianists.

The main focus of his subsequent disciples was to complete the school's worldview and eliminate elements such as ghosts and profit-seeking.

For example, Cheng Tingzuo and others are busy transforming universal love into universal love and complementing the world view.

A similar story is that Newton did not dare to publicly declare his opposition to the Trinity throughout his life, and it was not until after his death that some manuscripts were published.

Generally speaking, the ideas of these Confucians are utopian, and they are the most standard utopian petty bourgeoisie, because the policies that sound beautiful in their assumptions are completely reactionary.

Many things sound good, but if you look closely, they are attempts to restore the old means of production and exchange, thereby restoring the old ownership relations and the old society, or to force modern means of production and exchange into the framework of the old ownership relations that have been broken through and will inevitably be broken. In short, the patriarchal economy in agriculture and the guild system in industry.

The Dashun court could not have such a theoretical basis to deny the suggestions of this school.

It is just from an administrative perspective that this idea is pure nonsense.

It is impossible to change the top-down reform to this point. Such a change will inevitably cause chaos in the world.

This is because they are afraid that they will not be able to become Wang Mang.

After this storm, the imperial examination reform in Dashun became a scar that dare not be easily touched.

In the past twenty years, practical learning has risen. The emperor now believes that he can completely suppress and control it, but he has to consider what the next generation of sons should do after his death.

Dashun had no money to carry out nationwide school system reform, because it was not the lack of education that was worrying, but the inequality. Either it was a comprehensive reform or no reform.

Liu Yu, a civilian force, promoted practical learning without this shackle, because it was clearly stated that learning this thing could not be accepted by the imperial examination, and the court did not recognize it as knowledge.

Either join the navy or go to the colonies, after all, the cake that already exists cannot be cut, and the people who got on the car before have welded the door shut.

If you have the ability, go outside and make the cake bigger.

The only choice before the emperor is to expand externally and provide more promotion channels that are not the original cake, otherwise something will definitely happen.

Dashun admired Li Tang all day long.

Admire him and you will get everything from him.

The promotion channel in the army was monopolized by the good family sons of the old fifth camp who were not considered Guanlong nobles.

The promotion channel of the imperial examination was basically monopolized by the big families, especially the previous imperial examination reform, which made it too difficult for poor families to produce noble sons.

There were already single-plank bridges everywhere, and more and more people were crossing the bridge. Now there was another discipline, and this discipline emphasized practical learning, which was really lethal.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there was no upward channel for the lower class. How many talents gathered to run to the rebel side during the An-Shi Rebellion?

In the end, the Tang Dynasty was buried by a scholar who had no hope in this life.

Now many policies of Dashun are completely drinking poison to quench thirst.

For example, there is no age limit for the imperial examination. A group of people in their thirties and forties who have taken the exam for so long can only be given some "degrees" appropriately to give them some hope.

But this is basically drinking poison to quench thirst. There are more and more people with academic qualifications, so how can there be so many official vacancies?

And the external expansion in recent years seems to be drinking poison to quench thirst, but it has indeed solved many problems.

First-class talents go to the Academy of Sciences; second-class talents go to the navy, artillery, and engineers; third-class talents go to industry and commerce, and colonies; fourth- and fifth-class talents can also get cowpox, learn agronomy, and measure land acres, so there is always something to do.

Just like the two people lying in front of me, those who have risen in recent years are basically people who have studied new knowledge.

They are easy to say, they all come from the original old cake system, but they have studied some new knowledge.

Liu Yu used to be humble to the emperor, saying that he was just an average person, just because he was close to the water and got the moon first, and the third-rate level also crushed the old second-rate talents in the past. The emperor originally thought it was just humble.

But from the situation in recent years, it is found that this is not humble at all, but a fact.

Although this fact is essentially the power of capital:

All those who have risen in recent years are all in places where capital has already flowed. And to make political achievements, you have to get in touch with some new knowledge to understand how to maximize your political achievements.

However, it is a difficult skill to see the essence through the phenomenon, at least for now, it is difficult.

The phenomenon that the emperor sees is that the capable officials who have risen in recent years and have outstanding political achievements are all proficient in practical studies and understand the various statements and logics in new knowledge, including capital, land rent, and interest.

These phenomena made the emperor sensitively feel the crisis.

But besides the crisis, there are opportunities.

The emperor seized the opportunity and thought about how to balance, control, and take advantage of the situation to strengthen the imperial power.

He wanted to rely on the constraints of the imperial power to create two governments.

Through the imperial power, the two governments were integrated.

He wanted to extend the inner court.

One government is the traditional six-government cabinet, which is also responsible for traditional affairs in the capital.

The other government was gradually built up, which does not occupy the quota in the capital, is not under the jurisdiction of the six-government cabinet, and is controlled by the emperor.

Including southern Jiangsu, Nanyang, Ezo, Whale Sea, trade with Japan, Western trade, Western Regions, northern Jiangsu after the Huaihe River was repaired, banks, navy, Privy Council, reformed salt administration, mining, and the southwest region to be dealt with now.

Through the supreme imperial power, he served as the head of the two governments, regulated the funds and power of the two governments, and achieved a balance.

This is the solution Li Gan left for his son, and he has been trying to change in this direction over the years.

Use Confucian bureaucrats to scare capital; use capital to scare gentry. The imperial power is the transcendent mediator and the entity of abstract state power.

The reform of the capital area ends at northern Jiangsu and the salt administration. The reforms below cannot be moved and should be kept as they are.

Externally, we should continue to expand outward without using the funds and power of the six government cabinets as much as possible, and ensure that there are enough carrots for those new carrots.

However, the emperor understood that such a change required him to teach his son an important thing.

That is, how to ensure the absolute centralization and rule of the second government. Let the people of the six governments continue to talk nonsense. As long as they grasp the benefits of industry, commerce, navy, South Sea, West Sea and East Sea, they will have money, people and power.

And how can we firmly grasp and hold all the power of the second government in our hands? Instead of being fooled and giving up all these powers and wealth?

Of course, some people must "go with me" when they leave in the future.

But this is not the key.

The key is whether the prince can learn all this now?

Can he hold the power of the second government, or the power of the inner court that has been stretched out with great difficulty, firmly in his hands and control it like himself?

Can he understand that only when he always has money, soldiers and food in his hands can he stand up straight in the cabinet of the six governments?

Can you understand that the current Dashun is following the Han model, Liu Yu, the navy, industrial and commercial monopoly, etc., are all extensions of the inner court, and do not belong to the outer court government at all, nor should they belong to the outer court government. Even if the sky is broken, the power must not be handed over?

Can you understand that the selection of good family children and practical students is the Langguan system, which is used to restrict the imperial examination. It is necessary to use the official vacancy as a pie, and to create their completely different economic foundations, one is rent, and the other is overseas industry and commerce to create their contradictions for the arbitration of imperial power?

The prince reads history books and understands that the inner court officials continue to become outer court officials, and new inner court officials have to be set up to restrict the outer court and thus ensure the imperial power?

The prince studies practical studies and understands that Liu Yu and others who have risen in the past 20 years are actually new inner court officials? Can you understand that these official positions must not be held by imperial examination officials?

Or because of the eunuch problem of the previous dynasty and the idea of ​​female officials in the founding of Dashun, special marginal people have to be used.

Cutting is a marginal person.

Not studying Confucianism is also a marginal person.

In the past 20 years, the emperor has taken back the most important financial power - land tax belongs to the government, industrial and commercial tax and monopoly fee belong to the Shaofu, which really got the essence of the "driving Han".

To be an emperor, you need to understand that the affairs of the outer court can be handled by the prime minister, and even after taking over the land tax in India in the future, the affairs of the outer court can be handled by the prime minister at will.

The prime minister should not be involved in the affairs of Nanyang, commerce, southern Jiangsu, northern Jiangsu, the West, and India. The internal affairs can be handled according to the old ways. Anyway, the old system can still operate even without the emperor. The emperor can focus on grasping the inner court.

You must hold the affairs of the inner court tightly in your hands and cannot let go. If you are really fooled and the new inner court that has been built with great difficulty in the past 20 years is taken away by the outer court, what will you rely on then?

It must be controlled, but it must not be abandoned. Li Gan thinks it is simple.

But I am afraid that the prince will either abandon it completely or lose control.

Dashun cannot use eunuchs, so it is destined that the prince must cultivate a team around him from a young age, if the prince does not want to be alone after he succeeds to the throne.

Therefore, the emperor had to send the prince's people to follow Liu Yu to southern Jiangsu for training and learn this method.

And now, the prince's people are also needed to go to southern Sichuan.

He wants to hear what the prince thinks of this matter after witnessing all this.

To determine whether this son understands, whether he knows, and whether he can control it in the future.

Just listen to the prince's attitude towards this matter, and you will understand.