New Shun 1730

No one expected that things would develop to this point. In such a formal occasion, the emperor did such a thing directly. He really had no shame at all.

The guards standing by rushed out immediately and dragged the man out.

The people outside also hurriedly brought soup. No one expected that someone would wash their hair in such an occasion, but there was no shortage of hot water for the grand banquet in the court.

The minister was carried out by the guards, but he still tried to stiffen his neck and shouted: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

"The Master wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals not because he was worried about the real barbarians, but because he was worried about the princes falling into the barbarians! He was talking about our dynasty, which is slowly sliding towards the barbarians!"

"Since our dynasty regards protecting the world as the great righteousness, we must not fall into the barbarians!"

"Forced education and export of morality, what is the difference between this and the Western countries forcing people to believe in Catholicism? If the Celestial Empire and the Westerners do the same, how is it different from the barbarians? This is really the end of the world!"

"Foreign envoys are no longer the king's land, isn't the world already gone?"

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

The loyal shouts echoed in the hall, and Liu Yu couldn't help but be moved.

This man is really a backbone!

But what kind of backbone is it, I don't know.

Liu Yu himself didn't figure it out.

If this kind of person were in the late Ming Dynasty, Liu Yu would definitely believe that this person would die a tragic death, at least he would starve to death, refusing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty or surrender.

If there was no interference and change of history by the Dashun, he would probably be similar to Liu Zongzhou, worshipped in the Confucius Temple during the Qing Dynasty.

Liu Yu himself didn't know how to face this kind of person.

He has a backbone and knowledge. It's not wrong to say that he is wrong. From the traditional perspective, it's not wrong. The emperor's step is indeed a bit big. His thoughts are reactionary to the Han and Tang Dynasties. It's really hard to accept the theoretical infiltration formed over hundreds of years.

In fact, from the perspective of today's great Confucian scholars, if there is no hierarchy and no strict etiquette, it can also be regarded as a kind of world destruction. If the learning of Yang Zhu and Mo Di flourishes, it will also be the world destruction. Now the Celestial Empire has to lower its status and talk to Western barbarians on an equal footing, and even actively export culture, educate barbarians and define spheres of influence. This is also a kind of world destruction.

The Dashun side only has the ancient Confucian school, which adopts the originalism and fundamentalism, and requires reading the ancient books of the pre-Qin period directly, and not listening to the annotations of later generations. But apart from the ancient Confucian school that is particularly nitpicking, it is still necessary to read the annotations of later generations. The saying that the emperor does not rule the barbarians is still popular; the worry about the barbarians in the "Spring and Autumn Annals" is not about the real barbarians, but about the worry that the Chinese people themselves will not practice benevolence and righteousness and take the wrong path to become barbarians, which is also believed by many people.

Is Dashun now taking the wrong path?

Liu Yu can certainly understand. In the eyes of these people, it must have taken the wrong path, and it is as crooked as it can be. It is about to become a barbarian who "uses military force to suppress others, cheats shamelessly, and abandons etiquette and law".

Building a large navy is for military force.

Liu Yu led his troops to carry out a large-scale purge in Ryukyu, which is similar to what Ban Chao did. It is a standard bullying of the weak and the few, and using force to show extraordinary achievements. This is using force to suppress others.

Taking advantage of the Ryukyu incident, attacking Japan was actually not for Ryukyu or etiquette, but for wealth and trade. This was shameless fraud.

Abandoning the world view that the whole world belongs to the king and forcibly exporting ideology like the Westerners spreading Christianity was a violation of etiquette.

In short, not to mention the "half-barbarians" such as Qin and Chu who were about to become "greedy and shameless and reckless", they were almost the same as Qi and Jin, which were not pure China and "were based on fraud and force, but combined with benevolence and righteousness".

Liu Yu could understand, and even understood that today's incident was just an outbreak of the contradictions accumulated within Dashun over the years.

Originally, Dashun relied on good families who studied marginal knowledge and geometry and surveying to achieve a balance with Confucian officials in the imperial examination. Under this backlog of balance, the contradictions were huge, but the emperor's balancing skills were still good and he could always suppress it.

As a result, Dashun banned religion a few years ago. Under the ban on religion, even though the emperor had distinguished between "practical learning" and "Western learning" early on in order to prevent the situation of "opposing practical learning in the name of banning religion", the effect was not very obvious.

After the ban on religion, conservative forces quickly rose, became rampant, and launched a full-scale counterattack.

As a result, judging from the current situation, the emperor is not prepared to continue to be conservative, but is trying to move forward, even more radical than before.

The contradictions that have long been accumulated, taking advantage of today's incident, finally someone couldn't hold it anymore and completely tore their faces apart. Using the past to satirize the present, saying that Tang Taizong's four mistakes are actually criticizing Dashun's current policies.

But obviously, the emperor was not ready. As the actual leader of the practical learning school, Liu Yu knew too well that the practical learning school was completely insufficient now.

However, the conservatives also saw the danger.

After this indemnity, practical learning will be carried out in some places, and even separate education will be carried out. Ten or twenty years later, this will be a force that can completely compete with Confucian classics, not that small group of good family children.

That’s why Liu Yu couldn’t understand this matter. He felt that it was weird from the beginning.

If the emperor wanted to reform, he should learn from Emperor Wen of Han, who didn’t argue or debate, but quietly developed and accumulated social changes to a certain threshold.

If the emperor didn’t want to reform, he shouldn’t make such a big fuss in this occasion.

Or, was the emperor arrogant? He thought he could be both an emperor and a Confucian theorist, and reform Confucianism, or at least the world view?

This is a bit unsatisfactory. Liu Yu thought that his level was a bit low, but Emperor, don't you know your level?

He felt that what happened today was strange, so he made up his mind not to say a word unless the emperor insisted.

He was thinking about how he would treat the loyal ministers who had just spoken out bluntly if he were the emperor. He tried his best to hold back his heart and not listen to the howls of advice outside the hall.

It’s just that today’s upright and loyal minister will most likely die. He may commit suicide after returning home.

The emperor is beyond redemption. If he forces a loyal minister to death, his reputation will not be good. Liu Yu was so excited that he thought he was going to break the jar, right?

The other ministers also saw that something was wrong with today's situation and that the situation was a bit uncontrollable, so they hurriedly spoke out.

"Your Majesty, calm down. Although many of his words are extreme and pedantic, they are also sincere. Your Majesty's words are really heart-breaking."

"Yes, Your Majesty. After this dynasty took over the world, a lot of jokes were spread. How is this itchy joke different from giving people the name of juniper? Your Majesty, please calm down!"

"His Majesty!"

All the courtiers knelt down one after another, and those who had somewhat similar views on the matter to Liu Yu also knelt down to beg for mercy.

At this time, kneeling down to beg for mercy is not to support the other party's ideas, but to focus on the overall situation. He does not want to create party disputes in the government, but at least creates a harmonious situation on the surface.

Liu Yu thought about it for a moment, cursed again in his mind, and then knelt down.

In this situation, once the hot water arrives, if the minister who just admonished him is put his head into the basin to wash his hair, even if it just wets his head, the minister will not be able to survive. As long as he has the face to suffer such great humiliation, in an environment like Dashun with severe PTSD stress disorder in the late Ming Dynasty, he has no choice but to die.

Seeing that all the officials present knelt down to plead for mercy, including the ministers headed by Liu Yu who could not support the minister's views, Li Gan snorted and said: "His argument is absurd, but his loyalty may be exaggerated." . That's all. Dear friends, please get up."

Only then did all the ministers stand up, and the official who almost had his hair washed was invited back, but the atmosphere in the banquet room was completely different.

Originally, today's banquet was a very happy event. The conquest of Japan was successful and so easy. Dashun finally became a bit like the Tang Dynasty, forcing Japan to become a vassal again after a thousand years. The result is like this.

Li Gan asked someone to clean up the mess caused by Xunwei's dragging people just now. After cleaning up, he said: "The Qing family just mentioned Tang Taizong's fault, and also said that Tang Taizong civilized the barbarians, which led to the prosperity of the barbarians in the Song Dynasty. They are all the fault of Taizong."

"During the Qi period of the previous day, the Netherlands attacked Ryukyu and occupied Taiwan; the British and the Dutch attacked Macau and robbed Zhoushan; the Rakshasa Kingdom went out to the Whale Sea and looted settlements. Could they also be the root of the disaster planted by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty?"

"This dynasty used to use heavy matchlocks from Persia, and also used Roman Rumi guns, but now it uses French muskets. How can this be calculated? Who planted the seeds of this disaster?"

The names of several Western countries or Türkiye, which was not present, were named in succession, and the faces of the Western envoys varied. Britain and the Netherlands thought to themselves that after all, China still remembered the past events of the first year of Apocalypse. But the Netherlands is a dead pig and is not afraid of boiling water. The United Kingdom feels that it is purely affected by the Netherlands. Most of the warships that attacked Macau and looted Chinese merchant ships were Dutch. In the end, the British hair was not fished out and was squeezed out by the Dutch. East and Southeast Asia.

As for the French envoys, they were secretly happy. Liu Yu had already discussed with them the trade route for pearl mining and ice transportation. France could increase its income by at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year. Now that they have taken the initiative to uncover the old accounts of the British and Dutch attacks on the Chinese coast, the French are undoubtedly happy and wish that both the British and the Dutch were driven out by Dashun.

After Li Gan finished explaining what happened in the late Ming Dynasty, he added: "Although there are many omissions in Qi Guogong's theory, there are some truths that I deeply believe."

"The toes of mountain birds are sparse, and the toes of swamp birds are powerful. The strength of riding birds is horizontal, and the strength of plowing birds is coniferous. Water plowing is suitable for the south, and frost plowing is suitable for the north. It is wrong to tolerate the scattering of them and analyze the large ones. It is also impossible to save each other due to the situation. And eliminate the disaster."

"The moral, sacred, ceremonial, and legal system of the Celestial Empire has its own reasons and is consistent with the way of heaven and earth. But it is only suitable for those suitable places."

"The West also has its saints and its moral etiquette, which are very different from those in China, but they have been passed down for thousands of years. It can be seen that the holy words of China may not be applicable to the West."

"But the same applies to Western ethics and etiquette."

"The words of Zhou Gong and Confucius and Mencius are all true when applied to the heavens, but not necessarily true to the earth. Isn't their teaching the same? They are all true to the Western world, but not necessarily true to the earth."

"This is the cornerstone of diplomacy and trade. I am proud of my virtue, and you praise yourself for your righteousness, and we do not interfere with each other. Otherwise, there is no diplomacy or trade."

"If this cornerstone is still not recognized, the Celestial Empire will have no choice but to break off diplomatic relations, go to war, cut off trade, close commercial establishments, and drive away merchants."

"Now that all the envoys from the West are here, you can come to me. I want to ask you, do you agree with this statement?"

When Liu Yu heard this, he suddenly realized what a wonderful idea he had. This is to completely separate practical learning from Western learning, and at the same time to dismantle the Western idea that the Bible shines everywhere.

This can be regarded as hurting the enemy by a thousand and hurting oneself by eight hundred. It gave up the unrealistic fantasy of being the emperor at this time, either this or that, life and death, and only one universal truth. It can also be regarded as completely breaking the entanglement between practical learning and Western learning, allowing people to focus on practical learning, rather than the endless disputes between Christianity and Confucianism before and after the ban on religion, empty output, and discussing theological issues such as the heavenly principle and qi before and after the creation of the world.

But in fact, Dashun still won. Because the cornerstone of this set of theories is the way of heaven and earth. It is the way of heaven and earth that divides ethnic groups and makes each ethnic group have its own adaptive morality. However, this kind of victory is a self-congratulatory victory and has no meaning.

It maintains exchanges, interactions, and introduces practical learning; and does not let the top talents in society ponder those empty things.

There is no debate winner between religions, only fight winners, and Li Gan is still clear about this.

Moreover... judging from the results of the current debate, Confucianism is losing ground. The ban on religion has already caused major disturbances and martyrdom in Fujian, Guangdong and other places. It is better to cut ties as soon as possible.

This matter must be signed in a treaty and in written documents.

In fact, this treaty is a treaty that is forced to admit that the Bible is not universally adaptable. The signatories include representatives from Catholicism, Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

As for Dashun... Confucianism has never been promoted. One is attacking and the other is defending. If no one is universally adaptable, the defender will win.