Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1175: Year of Enlightenment Leap Forward
This year is destined not to be a year of stability and peace, and the cloud of war has filled the sky above the world.

Dashun, who had completed the mobilization for war without a sound, the emperor toured Songsu in the south and paraded the fleet.

The friction between Britain and France in the North American colonies has intensified day by day.

Prussia is expanding its army.

Russia is expanding its military.

Sweden is expanding its military.

Austria began building its first formal military academies and was expanding its military.

Spain finally established foreign exchange and silver-controlled banks, the government intervened in direct control of precious metals, and the naval shipyards in Cadiz were expanded.

However, above the dense clouds of war, the most ardent sun of this era, called enlightenment, still shines brightly.

Even in this year, bursts of manic flares flashed, as if they were fetal movements before the star's expansion period, surging manic energy, hidden under the cloud of war.When the cloud fades and people look up at the sun called enlightenment, they will definitely remember several major events that happened this year.

events other than war.

Geneva.

Rousseau, who escaped and lived here, is drawing the last period of his essay for an essay contest of the Dijon Academy of Sciences of the University of Burgundy.

The title of the Dijon Academy of Sciences call for papers is very interesting.

[What is the origin of human inequality?Is human inequality sanctioned by natural law?]

The ink-stained pen slides quickly on the manuscript paper, leaving a series of characters.Meaningless gestures are endowed with meaning by human beings, and the spirit that the author wants to express is put on paper.

"...with the establishment of private property and the law, inequality at last became entrenched and legal. Furthermore, we may assert that the moral inequality sanctioned only by positive law, When it is disproportionate, it is contrary to the law of nature. This disproportion fully determines what we shall think of that inequality which prevails among all civilized peoples. For a child commands the old, and a fool commands the wise. Man, it is plainly against the law of nature, however one may define inequality, that a few have a great surplus, while a great mass lack the necessaries of life."

Rousseau, who wrote the last period, was still full of ideas and excited. He put his completed essay aside, picked up a recently published play, and wrote on the title page of this playbook: A paragraph, ready to return to the author of this drama.

The name of this play is "Chinese Orphans".

Rousseau picked up his pen, and with the spirit of excitement at this time, cast ironic words at the author of the play.

"Mr. Voltaire believes that the happiest and most respectable age that ever existed in the world was the age when the laws of Confucius were followed."

"Mr. Voltaire respected Confucius and considered himself a disciple of Confucius in Europe."

"However, it is clear that the Confucius whom M. Voltaire respects is the Confucius which he fantasizes, which exists in his head, as if fabricated by a porcelain worker to his own liking."

"Mr. Voltaire thought he understood Chinese morality and the beauty understood by the Chinese. So he wrote such a play that uses love, tolerance, morality, and the kindness of a monarch to solve all problems."

"However, as far as I know—of course, based on the report of Mr. Chen, who was exiled here 20 years ago because he offended the current Duke of China—I know that this story about orphans expresses The aesthetics of the Chinese is not the love and tolerance, morality and influence that Mr. Voltaire thinks."

"On the contrary, the beauty recognized by the Chinese, or in other words, the beauty recognized by the real Confucius respected by Mr. Voltaire, is [repaying grievances with straightness and rewarding virtue with virtue]."

"About the orphan's story, the Chinese understand the beautiful ending as justice defeats evil, and violence revenges cruelty."

"The beauty recognized by the Chinese is the revenge of [the souls of the [-] families today have their own home]; it is the loyalty of adhering to the feudal monarch-subject contract and extending this loyalty to the contract to a wider social level; It is a rebellion against the brutality of slaughtering hundreds of babies; it is the rebellion of the weak against tyranny; it is the quest for self-sacrifice and self-actualization."

"Mr. Voltaire believes in love, tolerance, morality, and the benevolence of the father, and he spares no effort to promote the system of the father. This is the most perfect, happiest, and most respectable era. Then, Mr. Voltaire The perceived China does not exist in this real world."

"Mr. Voltaire preaches that love will triumph, civilization will triumph over barbarism, and good morals and virtues will subdue the rulers-a tyrant will be spiritually subdued by the virtue of a woman because of a favorite woman."

"I think that if the Tatars had not been driven out by the Chinese 100 years ago, Mr. Voltaire would have spared no effort to prove the great achievements of the Tartars: Behold, the rough and barbaric Tartars, who were overwhelmed by good morals and virtues Conquer, influence, this is the power of virtue and love."

"Although I don't know where the Confucius that Mr. Voltaire believed in and who firmly believed in love and influence came from, I can be sure that he is not the Confucius of China."

"In this regard, I must send M. Voltaire a word, a true, unembellished, undistorted word of another philosopher in China: Saints never die, but robbers never die. "

"Here, I am not addressing M. Voltaire's The Chinese Orphan. In fact, I am addressing all existing plays."

"The theater is the reproduction of the status quo. The people are no longer the audience in it, but affirm the status quo together—to some extent, the theater at this time is teaching people to be a [good person] under the status quo."

"Just like the Catholic Church, they are leading the people to be a [good believer]."

"The so-called 'enlightenmentists' try to guide the people to be what they define as [a good person], and hope to convey their definition of a good person in the form of drama."

"Obviously, however, what is important is for the people to be a [good citizen]."

"A [good citizen] who is neither a [good believer] nor a [good person]."

This is the first time that Rousseau, a "junior", publicly fired at his predecessors. In history, he will soon usher in an "anonymous" book "The Emotions of Citizens", which morally exposes Rousseau's moral corruption, private life, etc. Chaos, abandoned babies and many other issues, and gave Rousseau's book a definition of "new works against humanity".

Now, with this book, and the public criticism of Voltaire, the already vigorous Enlightenment exploded like hot oil dropped into cold water.

The debate became more intense.

monarchy?Morality and love?Citizen riots?Monarch and father as one?New religion?Worship of reason?Encyclopedia Scientology?
When there were disputes within the Enlightenment and the fire and water were already incompatible, it proved that the foundation of the old era was crumbling, the foundation of the new era had emerged, and the pioneers had already begun to argue about the contradictions of the new era.

In the past, they traveled together, tearing up the old era together.

But now, they are one step ahead and have begun to tear apart for the new era that has not yet arrived.

Learning from the East to the West and learning from the West to the East, along with Dashun’s initiative to open foreign trade and exchanges, finally tore off the veils of the East and the West at the same time, and stepped on all the beautiful fantasies under its feet.

The imaginary scriptures that the Dutch and the British tried to construct, aimed at the freedom of commercial capital, were strangled in the bud by Dashun's massive cotton cloth before it landed.To choose eternal truth or to choose harsh reality has become a serious question like whether to eat fish on Friday.

The China that Voltaire imagined, constructed, and fabricated for the sake of enlightenment was also replaced by the real, complex China that violently resisted without fabricating.

"Orphan of Zhao" is China; "Chinese Orphan" has nothing to do with China except for the Chinese character in the title.

Learning from the east and learning from the west is like the deconstruction, fragmentation and new creation that is happening in the Songsu area at this time. ", "The Thief of Virtue in the Township", "Choose the Son of Heaven" and other fragments of sages.

To a certain extent, it is because sailing ships have brought the East and the West closer together, and Dashun took the initiative to open up trade exchanges between the East and the West.

A form of Enlightenment, or a particular state, was temporarily suppressed.

That is to say, Voltaire’s special form of accelerating enlightenment by imagining an ideal country, no matter what the facts are, through the illusory construction of a real and wealthy country.

Or imagine a real foreign country, and use the wealth of the foreign country to prove the irrationality of the country.

…………

The Enlightenment movement is not only taking place in Western Europe, but also in Eastern Europe. In particular, Russia, which was still a barren land a few decades ago, is presenting itself in a way that is completely different from Western Europe, different from Dashun, and sandwiched between Dashun and Western Europe. The very awkward form between unfolds.

If you have to give this kind of awkwardness and find a story that is more or less similar, but not very similar, it can be roughly understood as "Russia's version of the New Culture Movement".

What happened this year can be regarded as the follow-up dispute between the westernization school and the local school, and the resulting "value and necessity of Russia's existence, the self-definition of the Russian nation, who am I, am I a part of the civilized world, Europe People don’t want me, Asians don’t want me, where am I, does Russia have sociological specificity” and other issues.

And with the rise of Dashun, this problem has become more complicated.

The root of the divergence between Dashun and Russia on this issue stems from the changes in Dashun caused by Liu Yu in recent years, destroying the concept that civilization equals Western Europe, and trying to disguise the universality as national, and has been trying to crush the old age with a generalized class struggle.

At the same time, with the particularity of Dashun culture, religion, and tradition, as well as Liu Yu's systematic knowledge, he clearly differentiated practical learning and Western learning, avoiding this confusing problem that can't be solved.

But Russia obviously has no such opportunity.

Therefore, in the Rakshasa court, Queen Elizabeth Petrovna, from her new favorite Shuvalov, took over the two lives of Lomonosov, who survived playing a lightning kite a while ago. For the book.

One, titled: Standard Russian Grammar, and a Proposal to Clarify the Situations of Old Cyrillic and Vernacular Standard Russian.

Another, titled: Request for Approval of the Establishment of the Moscow University, Without a Faculty of Theology.

However, in fact, the first memorial, at the beginning, created an extremely distorted contradiction on the issue of "practical learning or Western learning" similar to Dashun.

This kind of contradiction, with an intuitive understanding, is roughly similar to the problem of "Latinization of Chinese".

That is: we are behind, there must be something wrong, maybe even cultural language is wrong from the beginning... and so on, a common situation encountered by a nation that is temporarily backward and intends to make progress.

However, Russia at this time is not too backward.

But he was caught between Dashun and Xi'ou, so he couldn't justify himself not being behind.

Because of this backward but not too backward status quo, it is naturally impossible for Lomonosov to go to extremes like "Latinization of Chinese" in his first letter.

In addition, in recent years, Western Europe and Dashun have been developing rapidly, especially after the establishment of Dashun Academy of Sciences, and the astonishing results of some duck-feeding education in the new practical learning system established by Liu Yu. A weird "rational" thinking began to spread in the world.

Whether it is the French Encyclopedia School, Scientology, or some new ideas from the Dashun Practical System.

Lomonosov had studied in Western Europe for a long time, and he was an academician from the Academy of Sciences, so he naturally came into contact with people from academies of sciences in various countries.

And because of the reality that Russia is backward, but not too backward.

This made him bury the contradiction between the radicals and conservatives in Russia early on in this "marking Russian grammar".

He took the route of reconciliation.

Because this is an era of rationality, Lomonosov created a differentiation similar to Dashun's "practical learning and Western learning" in terms of grammar.

That is: grammar, in the world, there is a universal, universal grammar that exists in every language and is a universal grammar of human language.

And: Grammar, in addition to these universal grammars, there are also special, national, different from other ethnic groups, must have national purity, and cannot be polluted by outsiders.

The standard Russian language must not only ensure the universal grammar of the world-wide language similar to mechanics and mathematics; it must also be pure in its particularity and nationality, and not be polluted by foreign national styles.

Because of its backwardness, Lomonosov worried that Russia would be abandoned by the civilized world.

Because it is not so backward, Lomonosov hopes that Russia will still be Russia.

This extremely awkward idea, it should be said, ran through the hundreds of years after Peter I began to reform.Including "War and Peace", Natasha Rostova, who speaks French and westernizes French etiquette, dances the most traditional Russian dance without a teacher, which is an extremely awkward form.

Or, it is easy to understand the mentality of the 20 years before and after the Reform Movement of [-].

It's just that it was too backward at that time, and the old era was smashed and then built, so it didn't take long for it to be awkward; while Russia was awkward from Peter's reform to later generations.

Of course, Lomonosov solemnly put this twisted and tangled thing at the forefront of the memorial; but it was also the one where the empress' eyes stayed the shortest and frowning.

She doesn't quite understand, what's the point of these things?

But the content after going beyond these awkward thoughts made the Queen's eyes shine.

The few ideas Lomonosov put forward are very practical.

One: Church Slavic, which has lost its dominance among the people.People do not speak Church Slavic, but vernacular Russian, so Church Slavic should not be used as an official language.

Lomonosov's idea originated from Russia's backwardness, and he believed that standard Russian grammar should be created to make it conducive to logical thinking.

The queen's idea is that doing so will greatly strengthen the imperial power and reduce the church's interference in secular power, which is very good.

Second: The purity of the Russian language should be maintained, and vocabulary should not be borrowed from external languages.To maintain purity, it is necessary to find words from Church Slavic on the premise of perfecting the logic of marking Russian grammar.Instead of directly inserting the Western European language after deformation.

Third: Article style and language usage should be divided into three levels.

Elegant, ordinary, low-quality.

High-quality, is a proprietary vocabulary of Church Slavic.

Common, is a shared vocabulary of Church Slavic and Russian.

The low-quality ones are the vocabulary of colloquial Russian.

For example, high-quality vocabulary should be used for carols, heroic epics, and descriptions of major themes.

For example, pastoral songs, elegy, elegy, letters, satirical political comments, government documents, etc., use common vocabulary.

For example, novels, dramas, essays, etc., use low-grade vocabulary.

Lomonosov's idea is naturally a compromise and muddy idea, or trying to use official power to divide the hierarchy and reconcile contradictions so that the traditional written language and the current vernacular can coexist.

As a result, reality will soon slap him in the face.

Contradictions are not resolved, but suppressed.

It is futile to try to solve the material backwardness on the spiritual level.

Conversely, materially advanced, so sometimes shit that is obviously wrong is also fragrant.

Historically, almost immediately after his death, reformers and conservatives got involved because of language problems.

The reformists believed that Slavic language was a low-level language and the source of backwardness, and it must be eradicated, otherwise Russia would always fall behind.

Traditionalists believe that Slavic language is a means to demonstrate national spirit and awaken national self-awareness, and it is also the basis of social unity.

The reformers believe that Russia is so backward that it is about to die, and they are still thinking about sticking to tradition?People are gone, is there still Russia?
Traditionalists believe that if Russia is completely Westernized, where is Russia?Russia is gone, who are we?Russia is gone, are there still Russians?
(End of this chapter)