New Shun 1730

Although the emperor's romantic fantasy is at most at the level of the Westernization Movement and space opera. But at least, the fantasy elements here contain technological progress, which is better than those fantasies of the Three Dynasties.

At least, this is also about material things, recognizing the contradiction between people and land, the per-acre yield level, and the material reality that there is not enough food to eat if the situation continues.

Compared with relying only on the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the system of civil and military affairs, and the great way, these empty and abstract things are at least closer to reality.

Of course, it is impossible for the emperor to say all his thoughts, especially some political ideas. But Liu Yu can still guess roughly, or this is the "final" idea of ​​the feudal rulers.

If the idea of ​​balancing, leveraging the equal distribution of land, reforming the imperial examination, and then using the imperial examination of small peasant bureaucrats to suppress new forces cannot be achieved, then Liu Yu does not have to worry too much.

The emperor did not say it directly to Liu Yu, nor did he say anything in secret, and did not directly mention what to do in the future.

The contradiction between people and land seemed to be an unsolvable problem in the iron age of ox-ploughing.

Even if the development of industry and commerce in the future is enough to accommodate a large number of non-agricultural populations.

But no matter how to accommodate... how much food can be produced, this is still a fundamental problem. The industrial and commercial population is not not eating, but just using an industrial and commercial way to redistribute food.

Industry and commerce cannot produce food.

Industry and commerce only distribute food among agricultural and non-agricultural populations through circulation and exchange.

The emperor's fantasy of "fertilizer and pumps" in the future is not some closed and ignorant farmland vision of continental civilization.

On the contrary, this is precisely a true understanding of the current reality of Dashun.

And this reality, along with Dashun's reform of the land system in the southwest, gave the emperor a deeper understanding.

For example, corn and potatoes.

These things, in the plains, especially the North China Plain, the effects of these American crops are not very significant.

But in the southwest, especially in Yunnan and Guizhou, where there are almost no plains.

With the deepening of the reform of the land system, a small piece of land on the top of the mountain planted some corn, potatoes, etc., which directly triggered an explosive population growth.

Corn and potatoes have completely different meanings in plains and mountainous areas.

Now that the Ding tax has been abolished, population statistics no longer need to be falsified, but are generally used as political achievements.

After all, the political correctness of Dashun originated from Confucius' Analects.

When Confucius' disciples recorded Confucius' words, the economic and material basis was when the world's population was still insufficient and there was still a lot of arable land.

So, of course, population growth has also become part of political achievements. In the chaotic Spring and Autumn Period, population growth was indeed a political achievement. The correctness of the material and technical conditions in the Spring and Autumn Period may not be the correctness of the material and technical conditions now.

The emperor was not fooled by this correctness, especially after experiencing the population explosion after the land reform in the southwest, his understanding of population, cultivated land, grain, and per-acre yield was deepened.

So, the emperor asked: "You trained troops in Weihai and relocated people from Jinghai; you reformed the salt administration, grain transport, exports, and trade in Songsu, and relocated people from Nanyang; you managed the Yellow River waterway in Shandong, and relocated people from Fusang."

"You also know that the great Confucian scholars of this dynasty, Yan and Li, talked about equal land. Although they talked about equal land, they were called ancient, but they might not follow the ancient law in the end."

"As for Yan Xizhai and Li Gangzhu, the problem they could not get around was still "population". Even though Li Gangzhu also attached importance to industry and commerce, he saw that scholars, workers, merchants, etc. could not accommodate many people in the world."

"Because Li Gangzhu and others believed that non-agricultural industries could not accommodate many people, they also had many entanglements in the equal land law."

"I heard that Ai You are sometimes close to and sometimes refute the teachings of Yan and Li. This agriculture, and the population of scholars, workers, and merchants... Although there are differences between you, the root of this difference, in my opinion, is nothing more than a difference in the future yield per mu. Whether you believe that the yield per mu will be 500 to 600 kilograms in the future. "

"But you are training troops in Weihai, and you are carrying out the Whale Sea immigration; you are carrying out the reform in Songsu, and you are carrying out the Nanyang development; you are managing the river in Shandong, and you are carrying out the Fusang immigration... In the final analysis, even if you believe that the yield per mu will be 500 to 600 kilograms in the future, for a long time, the positions of scholars, workers, and merchants will still not be able to accommodate too many people. These issues still need to be solved by immigration. "

"So what is your attitude towards the idea of ​​Confucian scholars who are returning to the past?"

"What is your attitude towards issues such as agriculture, industry, and commerce?"

The so-called Confucian retro-style is actually the reformist faction of the Confucian cultural circle. This point is the same all over the world.

Protestantism is the fundamentalist faction of Christianity, and it is a reformist faction.

Wahabi, in this era, is actually a reformist in the Muslim religion.

Even in the Confucian cultural circle, whether it is the ancient Confucianism of Dashun, the retro-style of Japan, or the practical learning of Korea, they are all reformists in history.

The reform of the system by referring to the past is actually the same thing as the "Eastern Learning Spreads to the West" and "Using the East to criticize the West" in the European Enlightenment Movement - including the Renaissance, which is actually a kind of reform by referring to the past.

It is nothing more than creating an ideal country first, and then adding all the good things to this ideal country.

As for the reform of the system by referring to the past, or the moon is rounder outside, it is actually the same thing.

Anyway, the ancient times of the Three Dynasties and the other side of the ocean are actually as far away as each other in this era, so just make it up.

Dashun likes to rely on ancient reforms, and the Renaissance-like reforms in the late Middle Ages are essentially the same - that is, productivity has not developed rapidly, but human life span is limited, archeology is not developed enough, and historical records are thin. This allowed the reformists to place some unrealistic fantasies in ancient times.

The spread of learning from the East to the West during the Enlightenment Movement was due to the rapid development of European productivity over the past hundred years - the British agricultural yield per mu soared from 90 kilograms to 120 kilograms, an increase of 30%. This is a rapid increase in productivity visible to the naked eye. Development - the productivity that people realize is constantly improving.

Because they were aware of the continuous progress of productivity, the rhetoric of "Toogu" became somewhat deceptive, so they instead created a utopia outside their own country.

In short.

The Togu restructuring was due to the stagnation of productive forces. Social existence determines social consciousness. Even if productivity develops, it will be so slow that a person who lives to be sixty or seventy years old cannot perceive the progress of productivity. Naturally, he will pin his reform on ancient times that cannot be verified at all - insufficiencies in archeology, etc. When productivity is stagnant, people will think that the productivity in ancient times is the same as now, so they can rely on ancient times and reach the three-generation rule of "assuming that productivity is the same as now, but the living standards of the Chinese people are much higher than now."

Of course, in reality, if a person from the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties really returned to the rule of the Three Generations, his standard of living would be beyond words. The premise of Tuogu's restructuring is to assume that the productivity of the Three Generations of Three Thousand Years ago is no different from that of this time. This leads to the question "Why was the Three Generations of Rules so good and why is it so bad now?"

The spread of learning from the East to the West and from the West to the East is due to the rapid development of productivity, so much so that living people can feel the changes in productivity. Therefore, we cannot rely on ancient times, but can only rely on "an invisible, invisible person in the real timeline." A foreign country that I cannot touch, but I have heard of.”

Not to mention Dashun, Europe is actually the same. Isn’t the Dutch myth of Batavia also shattered?

Because people live in an era where the improvement in productivity is visible to the naked eye, they can't help but think, damn, it's different now when I was a child and when I grew up. How could ancient times be better than now?

To destroy the ancient myth, one can either rely on rational reasoning and launch an utopia.

Either we place our hope in a distant place in the real world, a distant place outside our own country, and create an utopia. Such as the China imagined by Voltaire.

Therefore, is the group of ancient Confucians in Dashun a reformist group? It's obvious.

Apparently, they are.

They are using the current social existence to reinterpret the scriptures of the past. Even if the development of textual criticism and Pu studies has made the authenticity of "Zhou Rites" a question, they will still interpret the social consciousness of "Zhou Rites" according to the level of productivity and social existence at this time.

In the end, we had to get stuck on the issue of "productivity".

Yan Yuan, Li Kuan, and even Cheng Tingzuo and Wang Kunsheng who followed them were all stuck on the practical issue of productivity: "How can industry and commerce accommodate a large population?"

Don't look at so many appearances.

Don't read so many explanations.

This matter is essentially a matter of social existence determining social consciousness.

What is social existence?

Social existence refers to the sum of the material living conditions of society. It includes geographical environment, population factors, productivity, production relations, etc.

Under this kind of social existence, can they be expected to develop a social consciousness that transcends the social existence of this era?

Now I am talking to those scholar-bureaucrats who are called "restoration" but are actually reformists, saying that in the future the non-agricultural population can surpass the agricultural population; it can solve the problem that Li Gangzhu has been unable to justify since the increase in population after land equalization and the agricultural population are not enough to allocate land...etc. , Unless there is a prophet, who would believe it in this society at this time?

In this kind of society, who can create the social consciousness that the non-agricultural population will surpass the agricultural population in the future?

The emperor actually knew very well the "future" advocated by Liu Yu in the Real School.

This "future" is actually a "future" that transcends the current level of productivity, that is, China's problems must be solved by industrialization and industrial and commercial development. In the end, the non-agricultural population can completely surpass the agricultural population.

The "future" advocated by Liu Yu can be justified at this time.

This kind of self-justification, under this productivity condition, the biggest loophole can be covered up with an abstract "continue to develop".

In other words, why do some people believe in the "future" advocated by Liu Yu at this time?

What is the basis of their belief?

Are the people of the Real School all fools who just believe what others say? Why do they believe in the future advocated by Liu Yu? Given the current level of productivity, what is the underlying logic of this advocacy?