Chapter 333 The magnanimity of the Ming Dynasty
The reason why Emperor Jiajing became interested in the Annan Governor's Office was not only Hai Rui's essay describing the scenery and products of his hometown, but also the fact that the emperor was originally Some people have a heart for civilized and martial arts.
The reason why this thought was aroused is also due to Zhu Zaijing's words after the incident.
After Zhu Zaijing wrote this essay describing his hometown in Hai Rui, he also smiled and said: "Hai Rui, Hai Rui, your hometown is really a treasure! In addition to the rich products, that The climate that is like summer all year round is also very suitable for the experimental cultivation of improved seeds. If possible, I would also like to ask your Majesty to find a piece of land in Qiongzhou to test some new grain seeds."
That's it. It was recorded by the spies in the palace, and then reported to Huang Jin. Huang Jin also read it briefly and felt that there were no sensitive sentences, so he treated it as a secret report from the palace that day and gave it to Emperor Jiajing.
Emperor Jiajing originally thought it was nothing, but after seeing this sentence, his sensitive reaction was much stronger than that of ordinary people.
As an emperor, Emperor Jiajing really understood the importance of food.
The current imperial court is not so much short of money, but actually more short of food.
Especially in the northern region, which is already densely populated, it has been difficult to make major breakthroughs in food production.
There is also the capital, with a permanent population of 700,000 or 800,000. These people need to eat as soon as they open their eyes. Every day, they rely on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to continuously transport food from the south. They are extremely fragile. balance.
Once the Yellow River floods and the canal is suspended for a period of time, the price of food in the capital will rise accordingly.
If the climate in Qiongzhou can really test some potentially high-yielding grain seeds, and can really achieve three-crop rotation a year, then wouldn't the same be true for the Annan Governor's Office?
After thinking about it like this, Emperor Jiajing felt that something was wrong.
So, last year, Emperor Jiajing asked Huang Jin to find someone to go to Qiongzhou to check the local agricultural situation on the spot. Now one year has passed, and there is very accurate feedback on the situation there.
The Qiongzhou area is indeed like summer all year round, and rice, a common staple food in the south, can be harvested three times a year.
Although the output is just that, it at least shows that the climate there is capable of cultivating three crops a year.
So, once he got this accurate and actual information, it was difficult for Emperor Jiajing not to be excited.
But it is a pity that Qiongzhou is too far away. According to Dongchang Jinyiwei's expedited speed of 600 miles, it took twenty-six or seven days to get from the capital to Qiongzhou, nearly a month. .
Thinking about other ways of traveling that normally travel fifty or sixty miles a day, it would take more than half a year to go back and forth from the capital to Qiongzhou.
So, the heat in Emperor Jiajing's heart was extinguished by distance just as it was ignited.
It is really too far. Even if the food there can be harvested three times a year, the consumption and cost of transporting food from there to the north is already beyond our means.
Therefore, even if Qiongzhou is a treasure island and Annan is a treasure land, it is also a treasure land far away and has no benefit to the imperial government.
Of course, if Emperor Jiajing could think outside the box and look at problems from the perspective of shipping, he might have discovered a new world.
But this is just wishful thinking.
Originally, the Ming Dynasty did not pay much attention to maritime borders. In addition, Japanese pirates and bandits were so rampant at sea. Even if Emperor Jiajing thought of 10,000 ways, he would not think of shipping.
After all, land transportation and canal transportation are the old and experienced methods of the Ming Dynasty that have lasted for hundreds of years. Emperor Jiajing would be unsure if he really wanted to switch to a sea transportation method that did not know the risks and costs.
Because in order to realize maritime transportation, in addition to ground-breaking new thinking, it also requires heavy investment. First of all, large ships that can travel far are indispensable. Secondly, there must be a powerful navy to protect thousands of miles of sea territory. .
Otherwise, everything will be a mirror image.
But whether it is a large ship that can sail long distances or a powerful navy that can protect thousands of miles of sea territory, it requires an astronomical amount of capital investment. What the Ming Dynasty lacked was silver and money.
Therefore, this road was a dead end from the beginning.
Of course, this road was a dead end for the court, but it was a different story for the people.
When people today look at the history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, their first reaction is that the Ming and Qing Dynasties were a decadent era that was closed to the country.
In fact, this is also a historical illusion.
Especially in the last few decades of the Ming Dynasty after the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was not an era of isolation at all.
After the Jiajing period, it can be said that the Ming Dynasty had the least taboo in contact with European civilizations from the sea.
Businessmen from Europe can land in Macau to do business, and religious missionaries from Europe can also move freely within the Ming Dynasty.
For example, Matteo Ricci, a famous missionary in later generations, could not only make friends with cabinet bachelors like Xu Guangqi and Ye Xianggao, but also baptize Xu Guangqi into a Christian.
And the cultural exchanges between the two sides are not limited to this religion, but also involve natural science.
Matteo Ricci not only brought a map of the world, but also translated "Elements of Geometry" with Xu Guangqi.
During the reign of Emperor Wanli, when Matteo Ricci and other European missionaries visited Emperor Wanli, Emperor Wanli did not regard them as savage beasts. Even after Matteo Ricci's death, he rewarded these missionaries in China with a wave of his hand. An exclusive cemetery allows them to bury missionaries who died in China in accordance with their own customs and etiquette at Tenggongshilan in the western suburbs of Beijing.
So later generations will say that the Ming Dynasty was a closed country, which is actually an inaccurate historical conclusion.
The Ming Dynasty just lasted for a long time, and its internal problems were difficult to recover from, and it was unable to achieve effective reforms, so it looked like a backward and decadent era.
But in terms of the cultural and social atmosphere at the time, the Ming Dynasty was still a positive, tolerant, and tolerant country. It still had extremely proud cultural self-confidence, absorbing and Integrate foreign cultural characteristics.
It’s not that some eras talk about self-confidence, but in fact they shout against other people’s culture, but they don’t wear other people’s clothes.
As everyone knows, after the New Culture Movement, whether it is daily etiquette or daily changes in clothing, it is actually a new form of change to welcome the new era.
Moreover, in some of our countries where people shout about fighting and killing, people don’t mind setting our festivals as legal holidays to celebrate.
It can be seen that the cultural self-confidence of some of us is actually false self-confidence and really inferiority!
There is not even a bit of positive and tolerant cultural atmosphere.
We must know that the reason why Chinese civilization has a long history and its strong vitality lies in its continuous tolerance and continuous learning and evolution, which led to the later flourishing ages of Han and Tang Dynasties.
Otherwise, if we were really conservative and unchanged, we might not even have a chair to sit on now.
So, for the development of civilization and culture, we must adopt a positive attitude, a broad mind, and an open mind to embrace all rivers, just like the times since the Han and Tang Dynasties, so that our civilization can be more dynamic. , has unlimited potential!
(End of this chapter)