New Shun 1730

It's just that the authorities are confused, while the bystanders are clear. Many things are easier said than done.

The attempt of the village covenant by Meng Songlu and others was within the scope of the Taizhou School of the previous dynasty. In addition, those who were really willing to contact the grassroots when doing this were mostly Confucian scholars who inherited the essence of the Taizhou School of thought.

Although the Taizhou School said that King Wu should return to Shaanxi after defeating King Zhou and let Wei Zi be the emperor, there was no one who really carried the banner of the Taizhou School at that time.

But the person is still the same person after changing clothes.

In front of Quan Zhe, Meng Songlu, from the perspective of an bystander, can think that their school is influenced by Western religion.

However, when it comes to them, they are also troubled by some religious ideas.

Huang Zongxi said that Mr. Yangming's learning became popular all over the world because of Longxi in Taizhou, and it was also gradually lost because of Longxi in Taizhou.

The Confucianism of the Taizhou School takes the route of popularization and religiousization.

He used qigong to treat diseases, chanted poems, and told stories, turning the complex and systematic Confucianism into a religion-like way, spreading Confucian morality in a way that "fools and fools" could understand.

The founder of the school wrote "Ode to Loach and Eel", and also said "When entering, he is a national teacher, and when leaving, he is a teacher for all ages", which roughly shows what direction he was thinking about in the reform of Confucianism.

In short, a group of loaches and eels were trapped in a water tank, dying. At this time, he, the foresighted person, jumped into the Tianhe River, turned into a dragon, dropped jade dew, and carried these dying loaches into the sea.

There is a poem praising: Once spring comes, it is not free, and it travels all over the world to strengthen the imperial state. There will be a day when things will be harmonious with heaven and man, and the unicorn and phoenix will return in the autumn of Yao and Shun!

Foolish men and women simply cannot understand the systematic and almost philosophical Confucianism.

Then, simplify Confucianism into something that ordinary people can understand, and use similar religious means and religious morality to make Confucian morality penetrate into the grassroots.

In fact, it is an attempt to change Confucianism into a religion for ordinary people, and then use religion to improve the morality of ordinary people, and finally achieve a kingly world where "everyone is a gentleman, and every house can be enfeoffed."

And this morality, or the construction of the morality of everyone being a gentleman, is based on "father and son have affection, monarch and minister have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and juniors have order, and ethics are in order, and there is no violation."

To put it simply, we want to set up a "Confucian Church" and revive morality through folk preaching.

Ordinary people... ordinary people are more likely to accept mystical things such as qigong treatment, dream salvation, and Dazhong Chuixiang?

Or will these ordinary people who are illiterate be more likely to accept those large Confucian theories?

This school was criticized by many people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, saying that it is not Confucianism at all, and it contains too much teaching. If it is done this way, it will definitely end up like the Yellow Turbans and the White Lotus.

Besides, is Confucianism so easy to understand? Can ordinary people explain it with a few poems, morality, village covenants and other things related to daily use?

If so, is this still Confucianism?

In fact, to a certain extent, many things in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Shun period can be regarded as a reproduction of Zhu Xi's predictions.

After all, Zhu Xi's academic foundation is there. He is the kind of person who knows that some things are false, but pretends not to know in order to confront.

Zhu Xi said long ago that the Lu-Wang School of Mind, which was influenced by Buddhism and Zen, would sooner or later find a way out, and would naturally turn back after going around and around and finding that it was impossible to go.

And things like the theory of practical achievements and utilitarianism are the real major concerns and may shake the foundation. It is not to shake his foundation, but it may eventually dig up the foundation of Confucius and Mencius after it is unfolded. Even if Ye Shi and Chen Liang are Confucian scholars, it will be very dangerous and difficult to control if they continue on this path.

Everything from the middle Ming Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty and the early Shun period basically follows this routine.

Empty talk about the nature of the mind led to the return of the moral Zhu-respecting school of the Donglin Party. Yangming's school of thought declined after its peak, and naturally turned back. The road of the moral Zhu-respecting school was also blocked, and the practical school rose. The rise of the practical school, textual research, and utilitarianism directly dug up the roots of Zhu Xi's school of thought, and also led to a gap, so that there was a risk of [attacking Zhou and Confucius], because the original Bible of Zhou and Confucius could not support the whole world.

As for now, when Cheng Tingzuo, Meng Songlu and others tried to restore the Confucianism of the village, their position inevitably led to a large number of Confucian scholars of the Taizhou school to join in.

Because the Taizhou school felt that it was not shameful to get close to the people and engage in popularization.

Only they were willing to really take root in the village, contact those mud-legged people, and teach Confucian morality.

The Yanli school, after all, still followed elitism.

Yan Yuan's idea was that the Confucian scholars had gone astray, so he wanted to carry out separate education, turning each Confucian scholar into a hexagonal warrior - knowledgeable in learning, water conservancy, martial arts, military tactics, astronomy, and geography - and let them lead the people, develop the economy, and carry out education.

This is directly related to the chaotic era at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

According to Yan Yuan's idea, if the 600,000 students mentioned by Gu Yanwu were all the kind of image that the Yan-Li school tried to establish.

That is, not 600,000 useless termites, but 600,000 students who knew martial arts, military tactics, water conservancy, astronomy, arithmetic, farming, obeyed orders, and absolutely obeyed their teachers, so that [everyone is a soldier, and all officials are generals], and "the teacher has an order, and the disciples follow it through fire and water", every Confucian scholar is a qualified gentleman, and what happened at the end of the Ming Dynasty is still a matter?

The goal is to train hundreds of thousands of Confucian elites who are capable, skilled, moral, knowledgeable, able to fight, and able to farm, who can attack Huanglong on horseback and control water and equalize land on foot.

Then, they believe that if they really succeed, and solve the land problem and complete the theoretical construction, the world will never see the situation that almost sank the land of China in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the era when Wang Gen, the founder of the Taizhou School, lived, the Eastern Tartars were still loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and there was no major external threat at all.

On the contrary, the internal situation was dead.

What did Wang Gen do before he became Wang Yangming's apprentice... He was born as a salt trader, and he became "prosperous" after "doing business for a few years". There is no need to say what business he did.

Born as a private salt dealer, he must have been quite dissatisfied with the decadent atmosphere, feudal shackles, and hierarchy in the internal situation.

What did he say about the "Huainan Theory of Investigating Things" derived from the School of Mind?

It means that if the Way of Heaven exists, then the food, clothing, and desires of ordinary people, fools, and women are the Way of Heaven.

The Way of the Sage is no different from the daily life of ordinary people. The key is [anything different is heresy].

The people do not know or do those mysterious things, which shows that these mysterious and profound theories are heresy.

The same as the fools, is called the same virtue; the different from the fools, is called heresy.

It even directly says "the six classics are all my footnotes".

There is also "the common people are not inferior, and the princes and kings are not superior".

This is a standard ideological theory that serves small producers, industrialists and businessmen, small merchants and petty bourgeoisie.

It originated from the increasingly developed commodity economy, the relaxation of feudal personal control in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the gradual development of small producers' private handicrafts.

He was born as a salt merchant, and his theoretical foundation was not solid enough, so there were too many loopholes. He was soon criticized by the great Confucian scholars, who believed that this set of things was simply a horrifying heresy.

It was precisely because he was born as a salt merchant and his theoretical foundation was not solid enough that he was good at using some propaganda methods that ordinary people could understand during his preaching, such as songs, poems, storytelling, and occasionally telling a "miracle", saving the world in a dream, etc., which had a great influence.

Another member of the Taizhou School, He Xinyin, organized the Juhe Society. This was not a loose regional or party-fighting party like the Donglin Party, but a party with real political ideas.

Although it was utopian, it also had political ideas and tried to engage in rural autonomy, and even prepared to fight against exorbitant taxes with armed forces.

When it came to Li Zhi, his thoughts were even more directly released, and he was evaluated by the mainstream of Confucianism as "human demon", "the most heretical", and "monster".

The Taizhou School was famous for being "famous for being crazy".

But in fact, the people of the Yanli School were also crazy. For example, Wang Yuan was an angry young man when he was young, and he would criticize anyone he wanted. Li Xian directly said: "People like you and me should compare their strengths and weaknesses with Yao, Shun, Zhou, and Confucius. Why do we teach and discuss our contemporaries?" We should be on par with Yao, Shun, Zhou, and Confucius. It is meaningless to talk nonsense with this group of mediocre people.

Nowadays, when these two groups get together, it is inevitable that some extremely wonderful chemical reactions will occur.

One group is crazy, and is recognized as a heretic, the worst of heresies, and the heresy that has brought chaos to the world. They even have to take the blame for the ideological confusion in the late Ming Dynasty.

The other group is also crazy, saying that they are real Confucian scholars, at least they think they are. Then they say that those who only read scriptures are not Confucian scholars, but literati; and astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics, music, horse riding, archery, military tactics, and agriculture, one point of learning and nine points of practice, and those who can master one art are considered entry-level Confucian scholars. Literati are not worthy of being called Confucian scholars at all.

One group takes the path of spiritual needs for everyone to become a saint.

One faction went against the landlord land ownership. From the beginning, they believed that equal land distribution was the most benevolent and righteous thing in the world. Although they fantasized about things like redemption and voluntary land return, the core idea was to eliminate the landlord land ownership. They just thought that there was no need for violence and that it could be solved through gentle means, and perhaps even by the kindness of the landlords to voluntarily return the land to the tenants.

Basically, Wang Yuan of the Yanli School's "Only farmers can have land", "Urban land and house tax", and "Merchants can be awarded honors and promoted to honorary scholar-officials based on their tax payment amount" are the final versions of the land equalization thought and the status of industry and commerce in the old era.

Under the limitations of the old era, it is impossible to propose a more advanced version than this.

The later Taizhou School's popularization of Confucianism, the theory of everyone becoming a saint, and the method of preaching by singing songs and poems can also be regarded as reaching the edge of the religiousization of Confucianism.

In theory, these two factions should be considered two opposite extremes, and it is impossible for them to sit together and chat.

But there are two situations in which the two factions may get together and make something happen.

One is that social contradictions have intensified to an extreme degree, and the two families came together to "save the world".

The systematic equal land system of the Celestial Empire matches the miracle of asking the heaven to save the people in a dream.

The "true" Confucian scholars who are proficient in the six arts, can fight, farm, understand water conservancy and military tactics, and recognize equal land as the most benevolent government in the world match the popular Confucianism magic reform that spreads the orthodox teachings through songs and preaching.

The Xidong concept that if one family moves, the family will prosper, and if the whole world moves, the whole world will prosper, matches the organizational model of the Taizhou Juhehui that transcends the clan.

...It is certain that something big can be done.

It is even basically the peak configuration of the peasant uprising in feudal society, with all the elements.

Another situation that can bring the two families together.

That is the "prosperous age" crisis unique to Dashun at this time.