New Shun 1730

In fact, he had been persuaded by Dazai Shundai.

Indeed, Liu Yu said it very straightforwardly. Japan has a lot of gold and silver, so it is a crime to possess a treasure. Sooner or later, it will open the port.

It is indeed as Dazai Shundai said. Fortunately, it was Dashun who asked for the opening of the port.

What if it was the southern barbarians?

I am afraid that Japanese Confucian scholars will definitely be dissatisfied, and the argument of expelling the barbarians will certainly arise. It is necessary to find a way to demand seclusion, expel the barbarians, and continue to isolate the country.

This is almost inevitable.

This is not a simple technical issue, but an issue involving the cultural system, the way of thinking for more than a thousand years, and cultural pride.

If they were not proud of the derivative culture of China, Arai Hakuseki and others would not have cultural inferiority in front of the Korean communication envoys and think that Korea was humiliated everywhere.

On the contrary, if Dashun forced Japan to open ports for trade, at least in terms of learning practical technology, the resistance would be much smaller.

Yamaga Sokyo's theory of the spontaneous generation of Japanese culture was not mainstream at this time. And because the country was forced to open by the Dashun and the emperor of the world was not an Anglo-Saxon, this trend of thought that wanted to break away from the system would inevitably disappear.

If the southern barbarians invaded and forced the country to open, the intensity of the debate on whether to continue to close the country and expel the barbarians or open the country to learn would definitely last for more than ten or twenty years, even if it was lower than the situation encountered by the Celestial Empire and Korea.

"Brother Chuntai is indeed far-sighted, and it is true. Blessings and disasters lie where there is misfortune, and misfortunes and blessings depend on each other. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But brother, you said that the system of emulating the Tang Dynasty envoys should be different. Why do you want to understand it?"

Dazai Chuntai smiled and said, "The Thirteen Classics are not lacking in our country. The Tang people can understand it, and our country can also understand it. Since there are holy ways in them, they will eventually reach the same destination. The Tang Dynasty has counties and our country is feudal, and some systems are not easy to copy. Therefore, this time when we go to Tang, we should not learn the classics, but learn the tools."

"You and I are both ancient scholars, and we should block the interference of random interpretations by later generations, so that we can read the original meaning of Confucius and Mencius. If we go to Tang to learn the classics, it will mess up the knowledge."

"Tools are different. Various practical knowledge cannot be understood by relying on the Thirteen Classics. This is what we need to learn."

Since its inception, the Ogyū Sorai school has always valued talent over virtue. What is talent? This is the so-called tool.

Dazai Shundai felt that since the ancient school had to study the pre-Qin classics anyway, there was no need to communicate too much with Dashun in Confucianism.

We are all human beings, and we all study the pre-Qin classics. The people on the Dashun side may not necessarily be better than ourselves. However, in terms of practical learning, after this battle, we can clearly see the huge gap.

And this thing is indeed not something that can be understood from the Thirteen Classics, and we still need to communicate.

Yamagata Shunan agreed in his heart and said, "In fact, this matter has been found. His Highness Munetake of the shogunate is about to go to Tang to make peace. The shogunate is also summoning Confucian scholars and asking for the recommendation of some learned Confucian scholars to follow him to Tang."

"You and I have many disciples, and we can recommend them to go. During this period, we can ask them to learn and see more."

The news that Tokugawa Munetake was going to Dashun to make peace was no secret. There were also quite a few people following him to Dashun. In addition to the due ceremonial guards, medical students and Confucian scholars were all going.

In this era, the ancient school of thought overwhelmed Zhu Xi's school. Although Zhu Xi's school of thought was the official knowledge of Japan, the influence among the people was still dominated by various ancient schools of thought.

Especially with the death of Kinoshita Jun'an and his last disciple Amemori Yoshisu, Zhu Xi's school of thought now has no one who can carry the banner. On the contrary, the ancient school of thought is full of talents.

Although the ancient school of thought can be divided infinitely, Yamaga Sogyo, Ogyū Sorai, Ito Jinsai, Dazai Shundai, Hattori Nanguo and others have different ideas, but they are all in the name of the ancient school of thought.

Zhu Xi's school of thought is a set of fixed knowledge, and whether it is heresy can be seen at a glance.

The ancient school of thought is to re-study the ancient books of the pre-Qin period, and naturally there will be many different interpretations. It is something that expresses one's aspirations through the ancient times, and there are many schools.

Therefore, this time Tokugawa Munetake is going to Dashun, and he still has to select some talents from the ancient school of thought that is gaining popularity. In addition, it was also heard that Zhu Xi's school was not popular in Dashun, so sending more Zhu Xi Confucian scholars there might cause quarrels, and practical learning was indeed something that Zhu Xi Confucian scholars were not very good at.

Yamagata Shunan's generation was old, and even if the ancient school Confucian scholars were allowed to follow, the official representative would definitely be the Zhu Xi school. In terms of seniority and reputation, the Zhu Xi school and the old men like Yamagata Shunan were one generation behind in academic continuity, so they could not go, and could only select disciples to go.

As for disciples, the ancient school learned everything, and there were talents in agriculture and military science, so it was indeed more suitable.

However, Dazai Shundai said, "This visit to make peace is only a temporary measure. If you want to truly learn the knowledge of the Tang Dynasty, you still have to do what I said and resume the policy of sending envoys to the Tang Dynasty."

Yamagata Shunan smiled bitterly and said, "This needs to be written to the general. But how to write?"

He has power in the Choshu domain. Many of his disciples are the pillars of the Choshu domain. He himself is the head of the Meirin Hall. If it is just through official channels, he is the most suitable.

The problem is that the Choshu domain performed too poorly in this battle. The shogunate has always been wary of the Choshu domain. It is afraid that the lord of the Choshu domain will not be able to ask the general to restart the Tang envoy system at such a critical juncture.

Even if it is a good idea, if the Choshu domain requests it, the shogunate will probably think carefully and suspect that the Choshu domain is taking advantage of the large number of ancient schools in Kansai to make trouble.

After thinking for a while, Yamagata Shunan suddenly thought of a suitable candidate. Their teacher's younger brother Ogiu Kitakei is now in Edo and is a staff member of the general.

When the general came to power, he was worried that the old people were too powerful, so he dismissed Arai Hakuseki, but he still needed some Confucian scholars as staff members. In addition, Ogiu Kamoto was a doctor, so he chose Muro Kusunobu and Ogiu Kitakei recommended by Arai Hakuseki. Now Muro Kusunobu is dead, and Ogiu Kitakei is already the most influential Confucian scholar around the general.

Although the two brothers are heretics, one is the founder of the ancient school and the other is a loyal believer of Zhu Xi's school, and they rarely communicated before, but it seems that it is most appropriate to ask him to speak for this matter.

As soon as he said the idea, Dazai Shundai immediately rejected Yamagata Shunan's idea and lowered his voice to say: "Today is the time for our ancient school to suppress all heresies."

"Han has a public car order. All the officials and civilians' memorials, tributes from all directions, and those who are summoned are conveyed by it. Those who get the good ones will be appointed as officials and their words will be adopted."

"Our ancient school has been attacked and is not an official orthodox knowledge. Why don't we follow the example of the Han Shu Gongche, contact disciples, friends, and knowledgeable people in Japan, and write to the shogunate to request the resumption of the policy of sending envoys to Tang Dynasty?"

"This is not for personal gain, but for the public."

"Resuming the policy of sending envoys to Tang Dynasty is for the public."

"Correcting the true meaning of Confucianism and eliminating the false learning of Song Confucianism is also for the public."

"Besides, the knowledgeable people and talented people in the Three Mountains and Five Peaks are not only in one vassal, and the general will not think that these vassal states have different intentions."

Once the bold idea was proposed, Yamagata Shunan took a breath of cold air.

This... this is not a small matter, but a major event that may be comparable to the Ako Incident and the Great King's Crown Incident.

If we talk about power, there is definitely some.

The ancient school has many disciples and a wide range of friends. There are acquaintances in various feudal domains. There are also many acquaintances in Edo. There are many famous doctors that Yamagata Shunan knows alone.

At this time, the theory of the five internal organs and six bowels is still the mainstream. Although there are doubters, it is still more than ten years away from the dissection of corpses in history to prove that the five internal organs and six bowels are not right, which started the introduction of Dutch medicine. At this time, all the famous doctors are Chinese doctors. They must hope that the shogunate will allow them to study.

Confucian scholars and doctors are almost close relatives in Japan. Confucian scholars have many disciples, doctors have many disciples, and patients are also many. If they make contact, they can indeed be very powerful.

There are risks in doing this, but if it is done, the rewards are also great.

At their age, they don't expect to become officials or anything like that. Anyway, they don't have many years to live. Moreover, Ogyū Sorai had a bad reputation and could not be a staff officer of the shogunate; Yamagata Shunan was from the Choshu domain, and I had never heard of anyone from the Choshu domain being a staff officer of the shogunate.

But if it was done, on the one hand, the Tang envoy system could be restored, and on the other hand, the influence of the ancient school could be greatly expanded.

In recent years, the ancient school has been criticized. The Lin family and Zhu Xi's disciples seized on the ancient school's idea of ​​"valuing talent over morality", especially the words in Ogyū Sorai's book Zhengtan about selecting talents and separating morality from talent, and attacked them.

In recent years, the finances of the shogunate have improved again. Many previous policies that were made on the spur of the moment have been abandoned, and many reforms that tried to maintain the small peasant economy and reactionary reforms have almost all failed. The commodity economy has continued to develop, and this has led to a common problem.

That is, the moral corruption of the Italian city-states during the Renaissance and the "corruption" of the market morality brought about by the development of the commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty, and now it is Japan's turn.

Zhu Xi's school of thought put this big hat on the head of the ancient school of thought, believing that it was the rise of the ancient school of thought that led to the moral corruption of the people.

In history, the "Kan Sei Heresy Ban" several decades later actually used this big hat to officially abolish the ancient school of thought.

In addition, the ancient school of thought did "excessively".

There were those who insulted the shogunate, those who rebuked the shogunate, and even the disciples of Dazai Shundai who had come up with the "respect the king and overthrow the shogunate" doctrine early on and lost their heads, and there were also those in the next generation of this group of old men who called for economic reform, the founding of the country, the relocation of the capital, and the unification... In short, it was not unfair for the shogunate to ban them.

As long as it reaches the step of "restoring the true meaning of pre-Qin Confucianism", there must be confusion in thought. It is easy to tell whether Zhu Xi's school of thought is heresy. The ancient school of thought claims that it is the true Confucianism, and the thoughts can be said to be a hundred flowers blooming. It would be strange if it is not chaotic. Various Confucian schools were promoted, such as Legalism, Mohism, Taoism, Logic, and Agriculture. However, no matter how well they were disguised, they would always be exposed. The shogunate had already noticed this, and the people on the official Zhu Xi school had already taken advantage of the situation to fight back.

Under such circumstances, even the Meirin-do of the Choshu Domain was under the name of Zhu Xi school, but in fact, it secretly taught the knowledge of the ancient school.

Dazai Shundai wanted to write a petition on the public bus, and he was trying to use this opportunity to fight back, to hold the dominant power of orthodox thought after the founding of the country in his hands, and thus completely kill Zhu Xi school.

Historically, the ancient school almost succeeded, so that there was a discussion within the shogunate about "demolishing the temple", but the result was a full-scale counterattack by Zhu Xi school, and the Kansei ban on learning.

Since heretics have to fight each other, why can't they just wait for others to kill themselves instead of killing others first?

Looking at Dazai Shundai's eager eyes, Yamagata Shunan recalled the shock of the battle at Hagi Castle and the shock of what he saw after being captured. He gritted his teeth and said, "This is feasible! This is for the public, not for personal gain!"