Chapter 211 The prince goes out to study (two in one)
Xia Yan's trip to the West did not attract many people's attention in the Ming Empire at this time.
Even the fact that the Imperial Navy defeated the Folanji Fleet in Manchuria and obtained Haicheng as a military base in Manchuria did not attract the attention of many officials within the empire.
Within the Ming Empire, most officials of the empire were more concerned about the succession of the emperor's position.
According to the Confucian inheritance system, Zhu Zailei, the son of the queen, should be the best candidate for the crown prince. After all, Zhu Zailei is the eldest son of the emperor Zhu Houzhao.
Because of this, the officials of the empire were more concerned about the issue of the prince going out to study.
Since Zhu En, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, invited Zhu Zailei, the eldest son of the emperor, to come out to study in the cabinet and select a good Confucian teacher to teach him the correct way of studying Confucian classics, many officials successively came to the bookstore to invite the crown prince and the prince to study in the cabinet.
Zhu Houzhao had to admit that in this centralized country, most officials in the empire were still mainly concerned about who would occupy the position of emperor in the future, and whether they could expand their political rights through the successor of the emperor.
"A country cannot live without a king for a day. If the prince is unknown, the country will be unstable."
This is the most consistent reason why civil servants gave Zhu Houzhao.
But Zhu Houzhao wanted to tell these people that even the emperor, not to mention the prince, could live without the country.
But Zhu Houzhao knew that even if he said this, many people would not believe it, even the majority of the people would not believe it, because the current political system of the Ming Dynasty determined that the emperor was not only the head of state, but also the real head of the imperial government, controlling everything in the empire. power.
From a person's life and death to the appointment of an official, it is the emperor's own power, and even only the emperor has it.
The power of court officials and clan heads was only granted by the emperor.
In other words, everything in the world belongs to the emperor, and this is the family world!
And once the emperor is to be changed or the emperor is gone, the world will fall into chaos, the ruling system will collapse, and half of the population will disappear through war and massacre until a new emperor appears.
And controlling this emperor or becoming the emperor yourself is equivalent to having everything.
Therefore, officials of any dynasty are very concerned about the position of the emperor, whether they are officials with malicious intentions or officials who really want peace in the world.
Therefore, King Anhua, King Ning, etc. all wanted to rebel and become emperors.
If Zhu Houzhao had not been a time traveler, if he had been a sensible emperor, he would have followed the example of the imperial officials and made his eldest son the prince. At the invitation of the civil servants, he would have issued an edict to the prince to go out to study in the hope of cultivating a qualified person. The crown prince laid the foundation for the long-term stability of the Ming Empire.
If Zhu Houzhao is an unreasonable emperor, he can drag it on first and choose a son he likes to be the emperor in the future. He can even imitate Wanli who dragged him around and was deceived by the civil servants through various conspiracies. The civil servants still like him. The prince is the crown prince.
But Zhu Houzhao happens to be a time traveler!
Although, due to political pressure, Zhu Houzhao admitted that he was not a benevolent emperor and had never been merciful to his political opponents, in fact, only he knew that he did not regard himself as a real emperor in his heart. He treated Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian The cruelty of waiting is more like a proletarian's resistance to the rulers.
Zhu Houzhao is now very entangled, struggling with how to continue the changes in the Ming Empire, especially after a hundred years.
Although Zhu Houzhao didn't know why he could travel to this world and possess Zhu Houzhao.
But he has to admit the fact that it is impossible for people to live forever, even if he is a time traveler. His body functions and cells have still changed with the changes of his body in the past ten years, which means that he will age or die. of.
Death is not scary.
What's more, Zhu Houzhao himself has already experienced it once.
Even though he was nostalgic for the living world during his lifetime, Zhu Houzhao felt that he did not need to be afraid of death and did not dare to face it. He now had to seriously think about the inheritance of his empire a hundred years later.
Zhu Houzhao wondered whether, a hundred years from now, he should still assign a dictator to the vast country of China who would dominate countless Han people and disrespect the lives of others, and let hundreds of millions of Han people in China continue to be this man's slaves.
Zhu Houzhao did not want this phenomenon to continue to exist. He hoped that the Ming Dynasty would be a society where everyone was equal. He hoped that those in power in the Ming Dynasty would respect the lives and legal property of others. He hoped that the Ming Dynasty government would not be a tool for the elite to enslave the common people, but It is an institution elected by the people themselves and provides public services and organizes public services to the people by collecting taxes from the people.
But this is easier said than done.
Not to mention the current Ming Dynasty, even in the 21st century, it has not been truly realized. Although the natural law of the jungle is cruel, it does seem to be the truth that all living things follow.
But Zhu Houzhao still wants to work hard again so that those at the bottom can have a more equal and free society.
Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, whether you are in a high position or a humble position, in the future, at least under the expressly stipulated laws, you will be equal. When you meet each other, the lower-ranking person will not kneel down to the higher-ranking person, and the hard-working person will get the material things he deserves. rewards, and the lazy will have to pay the price.
Zhu Houzhao felt that he had to at least try hard to bring Ming Dynasty close to the level of civilization of later generations.
Zhu Houzhao had to admit that the current Ming Dynasty is still far behind in terms of civilization compared with later generations. The phenomenon of implicated and private executions still exists. Even the emperor himself has done so, turning back history;
In addition, the phenomenon of women being forced to have their feet bound still exists, and even the phenomenon of widows being forced to hang themselves by their clans also exists. This was repeatedly regarded as a matter of loyalty worthy of commendation and was written into official memorials and submitted to the emperor. before. Whenever Zhu Houzhao saw such a chastity and loyalty, Zhu Houzhao didn't know how to deal with it.
In his heart, Zhu Houzhao knew that this ethical society was cannibalizing people, but he could not stop it because the widow hanged herself. It would even be unreasonable for him, the emperor, not to grant her a chastity memorial.
Turning back, Zhu Houzhao led a series of implicated matters. Now that he thought about it, what he did seemed to be very logical. No one in this empire could legally say that what he did was wrong, but he was always asking in his heart. Looking at yourself, are you still a modern person who respects the lives of others and never sees himself as superior or consciously inferior to others?
Zhu Houzhao was very upset. Although this society gave him everything he could not have in later generations, such as palace gardens that he could never imagine in later generations, many stunning beauties, and endless delicacies from the mountains and seas to eat every day, he found that he still Somewhat out of tune with this world.
Zhu Houzhao hated the civil servants who constrained themselves by Confucian etiquette, so he chose to resist, but he also hated the way the civil servants behaved like slaves facing their masters, only begging for mercy without showing any mercy.
Zhu Houzhao did not want to become the people he hated in later generations, those who liked to be flattered, bossed around, bullied and disrespectful to others.
Zhu Houzhao knew that those who were arrogant would not end well in the end, and those who treated others as human beings would also perish in the end. He might have died a good death by relying on the strong national power he had established and the support he had won from a large number of people, but his future Descendants, Zhu If a noble family never treats others as tools of slavery, they will only be overthrown in the future. Even if they have the guts to hang themselves from a tree, it will only look better than the Zhao family who surrendered to the Jin Kingdom. In the end, it will not change. The fate of being abandoned by the people.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao hopes that his children and grandchildren can understand this truth. Not only his children and grandchildren, but all rulers of the empire must understand that as a ruler, he is not a strong person who wants to exploit a weak person, but a person who has the power to rule. Sometimes we also have the obligation to safeguard the interests of this country and complete public works.
Regardless of whether the people passively accept the rule of this government or take the initiative to elect them through elections, those in charge of public power should understand that their power is given by the people. Once the government does not benefit the people, it will only be abandoned by the people.
In fact, these truths are not absent from the words of saints. Otherwise, there would be no words such as the people are noble, the king is despised, the country is second, and the ancient saying that water can carry a boat can also capsize it. .
But it’s just that many people recite the wrong sutras and only care about safeguarding their own privileges but forget their obligations.
Later generations of Confucian scholars emphasized the power of the father, the husband, and the king, emphasizing that the son should obey the father, the wife should obey the husband, and the minister should obey the king. However, they forgot to stipulate the obligations of the father to be the husband and the king, and perhaps they were deliberately downplayed and ignored.
However, sometimes in the court, sometimes the civil servants did not know how to limit the monarch's power, and even knew to ask the emperor to fulfill his obligations. However, many times the civil servants did not limit their own rights as a father and husband, so that in the family Isn't it contradictory to have a one-man hall in the court and demand the emperor to obey his advice in the court?
Zhu Houzhao knew that he still had a long way to go to turn Ming Dynasty into his ideal country, but he would not give up because of the long and difficult times.
But he had to admit that in order to turn the empire into his ideal country, the first thing he had to do was to limit his own power. First, he had to abide by the rules and respect the lives of others. Second, he had to try his best to establish a more reasonable A political system is a system that can protect people's most basic rights and restrict people's greed.
Of course, the most critical thing is to allow social development and productivity to develop, so that people have more knowledge and production materials.
Only in this way can the people have more power to compete with the rulers, and the rulers can also consider the feelings of the people. Only by balancing the power of each other can they respect each other and be equal to each other.
Zhu Houzhao is not worried that powerful people will still dominate others and enslave the people for a long time. What he is worried about is that the people feel that they should be enslaved.
If this continues, the Han people will remain numb and remain in the two states of being complacent about enslaving others and being unwilling to be slave masters. They will not care who is riding on their heads and only hope that they can also ride on them. On other people's heads, if this is the case, how can we talk about national consciousness and national consciousness.
Zhu Hou agreed to the request of Zhu En, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and decided to let the prince go out to study.
However, he did not allow only the eldest son of the emperor to go out to study in accordance with the wishes of Zhu En and other civil servants. Instead, he allowed four four-year-old princes to go out to study at the same time, and he had no intention of letting these four princes receive only Confucian education.
Zhu Houzhao decided to cultivate the literacy skills of the four princes first like local social studies, and the method of training was no longer the traditional Confucian enlightenment method of teaching the Three Character Classic, but using newly compiled pinyin to supplement various catchy poems and articles. The "Da Ming Dictionary" compiled by Zhu Houzhao at the Hanlin Academy, which is similar to the Xinhua Dictionary of later generations, was also used as the main reference book for the fourth princes during their primary compulsory education.
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao did not follow the wishes of the civil servants and select good teachers to serve as Zhan Shiguan and teach them. Instead, he issued an edict to establish the Palace Social Studies (hereinafter referred to as the Palace Studies) in accordance with the social studies regulations to specially train the children of the royal family and nobles for primary education. , the sociology teachers are not just court officials who only know how to explain Confucian classics by dropping their books, but experienced sociology teachers specially selected from local sociology and recruited into the palace as teachers, and the subjects of study have also become Chinese studies, arithmetic, Three subjects of common sense.
Zhu Houzhao ordered the families of the royal family to select school-age children to study in the palace. In addition to the four princes, some sons of vassal princes, sons of princesses and sons of relatives were also recruited to study in the palace.
Among them, it is worth mentioning that Zhu Houcong, the son of King Xing Zhu Youqi and the cousin of Zhu Houzhao, was also ordered to study in the palace.
Zhu Houzhao's purpose of doing this is very simple, so that the princes like him can learn how to get along with others, how to observe people's hearts, how to make friends and resolve conflicts that occur when getting along with others, instead of Let them grow up in the palace or only obey the teacher's instructions, or even take the teacher's words as a guideline and lose the ability to think for themselves.
Zhu Houzhao's actions naturally disgusted most civil servants, because in this way, they would not be able to influence the future government through the opportunity of educating the prince.
However, these civil servants did not dare to openly oppose Zhu Houzhao. After all, Zhu Houzhao was the emperor and had the highest decision-making power in the empire.
Therefore, these civil servants only advised Emperor Zhu Houzhao to establish the prince first, and stated that they asked the emperor to establish the prince for the sake of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the position of the prince was uncertain, which would cause the courtiers to fall into party disputes and cause political instability.
Zhu Houzhao knew that if the crown prince was not established, it would indeed lead to party strife. In the history, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's struggle for the right to inherit the throne was an example. Wanli's long-term failure to establish a crown prince was also an example, which caused serious internal strife in the country and even gave birth to the Donglin Party. However, it was not possible to establish the crown prince early. Well, once the princelings appear, many officials will only know how to curry favor with the prince and follow him to embezzle and bend the law.
But Zhu Houzhao would rather not establish a prince now than spend a lot of time deposing an unqualified prince in the future. Who will rule the billions of people in the empire in the future should not be decided by Confucian ethics, nor should it be him. It is the hundreds of millions of people who have the final say.
However, Zhu Houzhao still doesn't know how to let the people choose the head of the empire they want, but he is not in a hurry. He must first train many qualified imperial rulers and train many people with their own thinking. Only then will the people Only then will we know how to choose.
Thank you book friend his old grandfather for the 100 starting coin reward. Thank you book friend Doudou Zhe for the 100 starting coin reward
(End of chapter)