Chapter 182: When did we become a landlord? (First update)
"Bourgeoisie and proletariat?" Zhu Yuanzhang moved his body and muttered a few words in a low voice.
He was still a little sleepy at first, but under Xia Zhibai's penetrating memorial, he was completely awake. His eyes were bright and his expression was extremely serious. He had realized that Xia Zhibai This memorial is unusual.
This is not a simple memorial.
This is a memorial that reorganizes the world.
Before, he would have simply dismissed such memorials.
No one knows the world better than myself.
But now.
He was already a little unsure.
Because Xia Zhibai's memorial gave a new idea and a new direction.
Xia Zhibai doesn't care about 'morality and shame', nor does he care about 'benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust', 'gentleness, respect, thrift and concession', 'loyalty, filial piety, courage, respect and integrity'.
He only cares about justice and gain!
Starting from the concept of justice and benefit, reanalyze the world.
This is a brand new perspective, a direction that Zhu Yuanzhang has never thought of in the past, or even thought of at all. Just the three words "righteousness and benefit" gave Zhu Yuanzhang a kind of enlightenment. feel.
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyes.
He looked at Zhu Biao and urged: "Biao'er, go and look at the magnifying glass for us."
"We have to read this memorial carefully and slowly."
Zhu Nod.
He went to Zhu Yuanzhang, rummaged through the big case on the side, and handed a magnifying glass in a brocade box to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang reached out to take it, asked Zhu Biao to hold the candle, and looked at it carefully.
"Looking at the world, in every historical period in the past, we can almost see that society is completely divided into different levels, and we can see a multi-level ladder composed of various social statuses."
"Only based on the possession of assets. It is too general to divide them.”
“Therefore, we need to have a further general understanding of the various social classes in the Ming Dynasty before we can make a specific division.”
“The first month of the first year of Hongwu. On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, His Majesty proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing. "
"Eight months later, the Ming Dynasty invaded Dadu, and Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty went north, and an earth-shaking change of dynasties officially began. "
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"The new dynasty was also completely established in the turmoil."
"The Ming Dynasty was an empire established by the Han landlord class."
"At the beginning of its establishment, it has revealed the history of the Chinese dynasties "
Seeing Xia Zhibai's evaluation of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and snorted coldly: "When did we become landlords? , We didn’t even have proper clothes when we started our family, and when our parents were buried, we didn’t even have straw mats to wrap ourselves around. How can we be called a landlord?”
“Is there anyone in the world who is so miserable? Landlord? ”
"What nonsense!"
Zhu Yuanzhang also laughed angrily.
For so many years, he had been slandered and abused in various ways, but he didn't take it to heart. Only Xia Zhibai, the 'landlord', made him a little annoyed. This was simply nonsense. When he was at his lowest, , there is only a broken bowl around, when did you become a landlord?
Zhu Biao glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang nervously and did not dare to open his mouth to say anything.
Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his anger and continued to read.
"The essence of the establishment of the new dynasty is that His Majesty and a group of new nobles around him replaced the old nobles of the Yuan Dynasty."
"However, there are not many substantial changes between the new dynasty and the old dynasty. It is still a country headed by the emperor. The royal family as the core, the aristocratic group composed of relatives and meritorious officials are still the supreme rulers of the new dynasty."
"The second is a large number of hierarchical bureaucrats who represent the emperor and embody this imperial rule. "
"Bureaucratic rule has penetrated into local governments, states, counties and military guards;"
"And in the grassroots society below local states and counties and outside the military guards, The main body of society is composed of gentry landlords (that is, status landowners), non-status landowners, farmers, merchants, craftsmen, urban residents, sergeants, military surplus, etc. ”
"This is a hierarchical division that has always existed in China."
"After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, a clear distinction was made between the household registrations of the world, and the households in the Ming Dynasty were divided into military, civilian, craftsman, stove and commercial households. Household registration. "
"But this distinction in household registration is not to distinguish classes."
"It is more to facilitate the court's management of various households, such as the distribution of taxes and services. , This is just a manifestation of personal dependence, and it does not reflect the true hierarchical structure of society.” Category.”
"If we really analyze it in detail, there are actually five categories in the Ming Dynasty."
"Scholars, peasants, industry, merchants, and soldiers."
"However, more than nine months of running around in northern Xinjiang, as well as the military household system The detailed understanding makes people have to give up the "military". The real status and social class of military households in the Ming Dynasty are actually similar to those of ordinary civilian households, and even slightly lower in status. "
< br>“Military households are essentially engaged in production under the management of military guards.”
“They are no different from farmers!”
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned.
He did not expect that Xia Zhibai had such a low opinion of Junhu.
However, after thinking about it for a while, he agreed that the biggest difference between military households and farmers was indeed that they were managed by different government offices.
He continued to look down. "If we use assets to reclassify classes."
"This must examine a very important part."
"Land!"
"Today, the upper class of society is composed of the royal family, relatives and meritorious officials, and they control a large amount of local resources. The bureaucratic class constitutes the middle class of society, followed by the gentry landlords, non-status landowners, farmers, businessmen, craftsmen, urban residents, sergeants, military surplus, etc. who constitute the lower class of society."
"Whether it is the upper class or the lower class. The middle class, or the lower class, must be attached to the land. "
"Compared with the political changes of dynasties, the real reason for the Ming Dynasty to stabilize the world is the redistribution of land."
"The political changes caused by the change of dynasties are just a group of new nobles replacing the original rulers, while the redistribution of land creates a large number of new farmers who own a piece of land for their own cultivation, that is, a large number of self-cultivating farmers."
“However, farmers are also different.”
“In His Majesty’s mind today, whether it is those landlords who occupy a lot of land, or farmers who do not hire workers or rent out, and engage in scattered and sporadic self-employment. , or they are state tenants who cultivate official land, or homesteaders who cultivate wasteland as their own land. They are all farmers."
"They are also regarded as non-status by the court."
“The real privileged class in the Ming Dynasty was and only was ‘officials’.”
"The world your Majesty wants to create today is a stratified society composed of a large number of state tenants and self-cultivated farmers."
"Officials are officials, and people are people."
"Only "Both poles."
"This simple and crude class division is obviously wrong and very ridiculous. However, your Majesty does not feel dissatisfied, but is proud of it. In order to prevent local landlords from enjoying privileges, Ming Dynasty implemented various methods in the world. Due to the harsh policies, many families were classified as "treacherous wealthy families" and went bankrupt within a few years."
"Northern Xinjiang was desolate and was not spared."
"When traveling in northern Xinjiang, many local people said: The local giants enjoyed the benefits of farming without touching their labor. Within a few years, they were full and overturned, either died or moved away, and no one survived."
“These wealthy households who were deliberately targeted and suppressed by the imperial court, under a series of attacks by the government, all went bankrupt and became state tenants cultivating official land, or were directly targeted to death. There were few other situations.”
"If you dissect carefully, you will find that all this was done intentionally by Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty started from a young age and is well aware of the disgust of local brats. Therefore, after the founding of the country, he used 'Small government', under this management model, the situation of 'the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and the people are few and the ministers are many' in the Jiangnan area of the Yuan Dynasty is indeed gone forever."
"Your Majesty intends to use power. , compress the world’s hierarchy, and then reduce the drift in the middle. ”
"Use all the 'farmers' in the world to support the 'official' level."
"It's just that the system designed by Your Majesty has a huge problem when it is actually running."
" It’s just scholars!”
“The fundamental reason why your Majesty dislikes scholars and dislikes scholars is that scholars are constantly destroying the system designed by your Majesty.”
“But the Ming Dynasty governs the world. But they had to use military officers. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty tried to "waste soldiers", that is, in the northwest, he directly used military attachés who were "illiterate" to govern the local area. However, in the end, the local people became resentful and had to withdraw the military attachés. , this attempt also failed.”
"Then His Majesty tried to suppress the use of 'shis' through the recommendation system and many other methods."
"They failed without exception."
"His Majesty subsequently issued the "Great Edict" ", intending to educate the people of the world."
"What your Majesty wants is"
"Recommend the gentry to write about political affairs and conduct friendship with integrity."
"There are few people asking for land and asking for houses, but there are hundreds of people who make good noises in the business, play livestock, and have fun." There are few things to do with fame, but those who promote excellence, indulge in gambling, and talk about right and wrong with the officials will be ignored.” In the later period, there were few people who wore imperial clothes, but those who bought official positions, gave up their service and died, etc., rarely competed with the scholar-bureaucrats. "
"Women lived in seclusion and did not show up, and drank wine. It is common to work and weave, and there are few things about pearls, greenery, and silk, but those who pretend to be prostitutes, befriend concubines, and go out to do alms are no different from men."
"But the real thing in the Ming Dynasty. The reality is: 'Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the rules and regulations have only changed day by day. ... Therefore, there are many perversions among the people, such as bullying the superiors, young people insulting the elders, and slaves rebelling against their parents, which has a long history.' ”
"Perhaps Your Majesty can't understand why the world is like this?"
"The world is declining and people's hearts are not as old as before. Why did it fall so fast."
"Your Majesty seems to have thought of something later. , thinking that it was merchants and the commodity economy that had deceived people, so they began to crack down hard."
"But the root cause is not 'business'."
"It lies in the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty. His identity was not 'pure', and His Majesty believed in all corners of the country. Suddenly, a large number of people from three religions and nine streams were mixed into the originally pure bureaucratic team. They took advantage of the troubled times to quickly occupy high positions and control considerable power in the court. ”
"These bureaucrats are not 'scholars' at all."
"His Majesty used the views of justice and benefit of the past 'scholars' to try to get these heroes to accept changes."
"So what? Can it be done?"
"If your Majesty's views do not change, this torrent of social collapse will only become more and more unstoppable."
"The bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty. In essence, it is not composed of scholars.”
"But the landlord!"
(End of this chapter)