Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1087

In addition to this kind of political metaphor, Liu Yu's attitude towards this Confucianism debate is completely out of the way.

First of all, his level is limited, so he is not qualified to get involved in this matter.

Second, even if he had it, he wouldn't dare.

The imperial power of Dashun does not allow a person who is an extremely human minister to have "orthodoxy".

Because Dashun Imperial Power is afraid of three things.

The rebellious Li Zicheng.

Wang Mang who interpreted the scriptures.

Zhao Kuangyin of military power.

And Liu Yu's own understanding of Confucianism is far from enough, and the level is extremely low.

He pinned his hopes on changes in the economic foundation, and that great Confucians would come forward to explain the scriptures.

As for himself, he used a very standard deconstruction method.

Dismantle the Confucianism system, or he did not understand the Confucianism system.

Find chapters and excerpts.

Taken out of context.

Take out a sentence to interpret the legality of the policy.

As for Confucian orthodoxy, schools of thought, Confucius and Mencius, and Confucianism of the Song Dynasty, he said, "If their words are beneficial to me, I will use them."

It belongs to turning a complete and systematic Confucianism into a "famous saying".

Therefore, regarding Mencius' debate, he basically interpreted it from the perspective of Confucius and Mencius.

For example, the issue of land tax reform.

Those who opposed his reform thought that Liu Yu's tax rate was too high, which was not benevolent at all.Calculated, in fact, the average tax rate is close to 10%.Compared with the thirty one tax in the previous dynasty, this is simply a tyranny.

And Liu Yu quoted Mencius' famous quotes.

Bai Gui said: "I want to take one out of twenty, how about that?"

Mencius said: "The way of the son is the way of the raccoon dog. In a country of ten thousand households, can one person pottery, is it okay?" Said: "No, the utensils are not enough."

Said: "Husband raccoon dogs do not grow five grains, but millet grows them; there are no city walls, palaces, ancestral temples, rituals for sacrifices, no princes' coins, silk, and food, and there are no officials in a hundred officials, so one of twenty is enough. Now living in China, How can we get rid of human relations and have no gentleman? Tao Yi is a widow, and he cannot be a country, how can there be no gentleman? Those who want to be less important than the way of Yao and Shun are big and small raccoons; those who want to be more important than the way of Yao and Shun, Big Jie and Xiao Jie."

Liu Yu directly mentioned Mencius to talk about the matter.

It is the standard barbarian style to say that the thirty tax is one, and it is the barbarian ethos of the barbarians who have almost no administrative management, no complete control, and the central government hardly cares about people's livelihood bureaucrats.

In Yidi, there is no grain to grow, no city walls to build, no palaces to maintain, and no ancestral temples to worship.There are no officials or divisions.

They almost don't care about the locality, they don't provide relief when there is a famine, and they don't manage when there is a problem.

Therefore, Mencius said that if the tax rate is too low, it can be counted as barbarians.It's just that the degree of Yi Di is deep or shallow.

Gu Yanwu said: Yuan entered China, and the land tax was set for the whole world, three liters per mu for upper fields, two and a half liters for middle fields, two liters for lower fields, and five liters for paddy fields.

Could it be that Meng Yuan was not Yidi?Therefore, the low tax rate is a bad habit of the barbarians.

Because the barbarians don't know how to manage a country effectively. They don't know that the government should manage the grassroots, don't know how to support the people, don't know how to repair the Yellow River, don't know how to provide relief to the people, and don't know how to have a whole set of administrative system to ensure the normality of the country. run.

In this time of great controversy, Westerners, like British Guilians, have jumped out of the category of barbarians, and the tax rate is basically 14% of the gross national product. Even in land tax, the income is one pound and the tax is four shillings. , the May 7st tax; the French country can only tax [-]% of the gross national product, so the French country has several times the population and several times the land, but it cannot occupy the overall advantage.

If this dynasty does not want to be a barbarian and a di, it will increase taxes.

Only when the imperial court has money can it repair water conservancy, relieve famines, maintain the army, balance wealth, open schools, and protect the common people.

Only by raising taxes can we get rid of the bad habits of Yi and Di that have remained since the Yuan Dynasty.

Are Mencius' words unreasonable?

Calculated on the basis of one billion mu of land, and based on the harvest of 200 catties per mu of land, if the imperial court wants to get rid of the bad habits of barbarians and Didi, the fiscal revenue on the land must reach 200 billion catties, which is about 1 million taels of silver, to be counted as Really get rid of Yi Di's bad habits.

Now we can only earn such a little money, and we can neither control the grassroots, nor support the common people, nor build schools to develop education, nor give some financial subsidies to widows, widows, and lonely people.

Liu Yu did not argue from the perspective that the imperial court cannot collect taxes, the grassroots can only engage in apportionment, and gentry avoid taxes.

Instead, it directly carried out the words of Mencius, saying that the thirty-one tax is the habit of barbarians, and the practice of giving up grassroots control and making grassroots semi-autonomous at low tax rates is the remnant of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.

His practice of "I will quote it if it is beneficial to me, regardless of its system" also makes this "Rugao meeting" very difficult to handle.

Whether to collect taxes, how much to collect, how to maintain the operation of a court, and how to achieve regional balance are originally scientific issues.

What happened?

Made it into reading the Bible.

The scriptures say that if you need eleven taxes, you cannot pay one for twenty, so a tax of eleven is good.

But it cannot be said that this approach is completely bad. The controversy over tax rates has indeed led some great Confucians to think about issues such as tax collection, state governance, grassroots control, and the responsibilities and obligations of the imperial court.

However, it is true that Mencius cannot be avoided here.

Good governance by the government is benevolent governance.

And on the basis of absolute imperial power, what is the basis for good governance?
Without a heart of compassion, you are not a human; without a heart of shame, you are not a human; without a heart of concession, you are not a human; without a heart of right and wrong, you are not a human.The heart of compassion is the essence of benevolence; the heart of shame is the essence of righteousness; the heart of courtesy is the essence of propriety; the heart of right and wrong is the essence of wisdom.Human beings have four ends, just as they have four bodies.

So cultivate your mind.

And after cultivating the mind.

Everyone has a heart that can't bear others.The former kings had a heart that could not bear others, and now there is a government that cannot bear others.With an unbearable heart, conduct unbearable politics, and rule the world in the palm of your hand.

Based on the intolerance of the superiors, the government of intolerance can be regarded as the basis of benevolent government.

This is why the Xinxing faction is strong, otherwise, how can the court be restrained to conduct good governance?
This is not to say that Mencius' theory cannot be avoided in this reform. It cannot be said that this thing is useful, but in reality, it is quite limited.

A bunch of gentry who have studied Confucianism all their lives and cultivated their minds all their lives may not really be doing good on their own.

What really cannot be avoided lies in some specific examples mentioned by Mencius.

For example, these words: At the time of Yao, the world was still not peaceful; floods flooded the world; vegetation was luxuriant, animals proliferated, and grains were not harvested; animals were oppressive, and the way of beasts’ hoofs and birds’ tracks was handed over to China.Yao was worried about it alone, and he raised Shun to rule him.Shun sent Yi to control the fire, and Yi ignited the mountains and burned them, and the animals fled and hid.Yu dredged the Jiuhe River, drained Ji and Luo, and poured into the seas; decided Ru and Han, drained Huai, Si, and poured into the river.Then China can get it and eat it.At that time, Yu was away for eight years and passed through the gate three times without entering. Although he wanted to farm, did he get it?Hou Ji taught the people how to harvest crops, arboriculture and five grains, and when the five grains are ripe, the people are educated.People have the way; if they are full of warm clothes and live in seclusion without teaching, they are close to animals; saints worry about it, so they make Qi a Situ and teach human relations...

The origin of these remarks is to oppose the absolute egalitarianism of the peasant family and the theory of fair exchange for small producers of the peasant family.

But because of the changes of the times, the focus of later generations has been placed on the difference between "humans and beasts".

However, if you want to explain crooked scriptures, it is not impossible, and it is even very simple.

That is to say, can the process from Dayu, to Houji, and then to Qie mentioned by Mencius be understood as having a "sequence"?

Or, is there a primary and secondary order?

Water control, that is, the people's right to life, security, and survival are the top priority.

Then, go to production.

And then engage in human ethics education?
If there is a priority or sequence, then can it be said that Liu Yu's current industrial and commercial development, salt administration reform, land policy, and productivity development are also of great significance in the Confucian concept.

Or from another perspective, can Mencius’ words be understood as saying that the government must undertake obligations such as water control, protection of the people, development of production, and education of the people?
If so, where will the money come from?Is it taxable?Is it necessary to reform?Is it to strengthen the fiscal revenue of the imperial court?

In short, if these words are taken apart, they can be understood from different angles.

Of course, if we want to integrate into a complete system, resolve the disputes between Confucius and Mencius, Confucian schools, etc., and interpret the words of these sages from a new perspective, that is what great Confucians have to do.

Liu Yu must not have this ability.

However, his angle of interpreting the scriptures has indeed won the support of some great scholars, and he really understands the many reforms carried out by Liu Yu from the perspective expected by Liu Yu.

Even, there are not many people.

but……

However, during the Jiangsu reforms that lasted from the first year of Weixin to the fifth year of Weixin, some great Confucians who initially supported Liu Yu's approach and even approached Liu Yu's interpretation of scriptures finally had differences with Liu Yu.

At the beginning of the reform in the first year of the new year, after solving the basic rules of waste salt reclamation, Liu Yu invited some great Confucian scholars to visit the Haizhou sun-dried salt factory.

These great Confucians who were originally inclined to Liu Yu's reform were very supportive and very happy.

I think there are many benefits to this.

The imperial court can control the salt tax, which can have more money for disaster relief, flood control, etc.

Moreover, the cost is reduced, while the merchants benefit and the court also benefits, it can also reduce the cost, which is indeed beneficial to the people.At the very least, it is cheaper for common people to eat salt than before.

However, with the deepening of the reform, the problem finally broke out.

But at the beginning of the new year, about [-] salt workers in Huai'an and Yangzhou broke out in a rally against the imperial court's change of salt production areas, or an uprising.

With the change of the salt production area, the change of the salt industry logistics center, and the overly drastic reform speed, it is indeed impossible to accommodate so many salt workers who used to be salt.

This uprising received widespread sympathy, especially the sympathy and support of the natives of Yangzhou and Huai'an.

Because it's not just them, in fact, during the reform process, life in Huai'an and Yangzhou as a whole is not easy.

And because the changes were too drastic, Yangzhou and Huai'an declined rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The canal plus Huainan salt is the root of Yangzhou and Huai'an.

Liu Yu dug the roots straight away.

Let's put it this way, even the prostitutes in Yangzhou City are against Liu Yu.There were even at least forty dramas that humiliated Liu Yu.

The uprising led by salt workers received general sympathy and support from Yangzhou, and a lot of funding was also given.Some Confucian scholars even threw themselves into the uprising.

The slogan of these people's uprising is not rebellion, but anti-treacherous ministers.Go straight to Haizhou, to destroy the salt factory in Haizhou, and leave a way for millions of people in Yangzhou and Huai'an to survive.

Then...he was brutally suppressed by Liu Yu, the executioner.

More than 4000 people were killed, and [-] people were sentenced to exile in Nanyang Plantation, Whale Sea, Ceylon and other places.The rest of the people were given some way of life and asked them to go to Songjiang Mansion to work, but all the houses were gone. Even if they went there to do the same job, their standard of living would plummet compared to when they were in Yangzhou.

What is really disgusting is not the suppression itself, but Liu Yu deliberately conniving at some people to become bandits after defeating the uprising team.

Originally, the rebels who had appeals and were led by Confucian scholars, after being dispersed, quickly turned into bandits in cooperation with the extremely impoverished Yanhu and Yanding left by the reform of Jiangsu that could not be fully covered.

Liu Yu deliberately connived, and the chaos caused a few years. A large number of wealthy households, merchants, or capital, migrated to Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture south of the Yangtze River.

In just a few years, a large amount of capital from Huai'an and Yangzhou moved southward.

Afterwards, the continued decline, the resistance caused by the inability of the bottom to survive again and again, and the chaos again and again.

Then there is capital southward migration again and again.

In the Tang Dynasty, countless literati fantasized about riding a crane to Yangzhou; in the Ming Dynasty, Huai'an was almost as prosperous as the capital city.

1000 years of prosperity, within a few years, those who were tossed by Liu Yu were half dead.

Everything happened within a few years from the abolition of the canal in Dashun, the promotion of sea transportation, and the reform of the salt policy. There is a huge contrast, and many people have witnessed the prosperity of Yangzhou and Huai'an before the abolition of the canal in Dashun.

The towers collapsed, the flowers and trees withered, the snails and cobwebs, the decayed grass and the ruined walls, the scenery of the old city sighed and withered.

The barren city was besieged and defeated, and the poor were left empty.

The prosperity of the past is declining today, and those who do not shed tears are inhumane.

(End of this chapter)