The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 74 The Jesuits’ Surprise

Wang Wenlong still doesn't understand the popularity of Portuguese history, simply because he didn't realize the difference between "History of Portugal" and other history books of this era.

From the research method to the writing method, this book is hundreds of years ahead of the times. It is impossible for people who are involved in the history to peel off the cocoons of history. There is a qualitative gap with the history books of this era.

Every sentence of the historical comments in "The History of Portugal" is the culmination of hundreds of years of research on Portuguese history. Each sentence transcends the people's own perspective of observing history. It is natural that the shock caused by it in front of people at this time is beyond words. surface.

Xiangshanao.

Jesuit Ponti, I am reading crazily with a copy of "History of Portugal".

Pondy is 28 years old this year. He grew up in a devout Catholic family and experienced the prosperous period of Spain. For Pondy, all this glory was given by the Lord.

It was Spain's victory that strengthened his faith in religion.

Ten years ago, he entered the Jesuit junior college. After completing all his studies, he made a great ambition to preach in foreign countries.

Pang Di came to Luzon three years ago. He was originally going to Japan to preach, but it happened that Toyotomi Hideyoshi happened to ban Catholicism on a large scale and was brought to Macau. , all the Japanese I learned was useless.

The Macau Jesuits told him that Japan was now very wary of Catholicism and they didn’t know when they would have the opportunity to missionary in Japan again. So Pang Di turned to learn Chinese and changed Ming Dynasty to his missionary destination.

Pondy was born in Bad Mora, Spain. He knows a lot about the history between Spain and Portugal, so he was dumbfounded when he first saw "History of Portugal".

He has only been learning Chinese for two years now, and his conversations are stumbling. It is even more difficult to read through Chinese books, but even reading intermittently has already made him nervous.

Now he only regrets that his Chinese learning is too poor and he cannot easily read through "History of Portugal".

At this time, the Spaniards themselves actually didn't quite understand the significance of the Age of Discovery before them.

Looking back at the course of the Age of Discovery from an outsider's perspective, the first feeling for Europeans who were personally involved in it was shock.

If people in the Ming Dynasty can only understand many of the contents of "History of Portugal" through Wang Wenlong's writing, then Pondy, who grew up in Spain, felt that this book's commentary on history is really good after just a glance. So apt.

He simply felt that one of the greatest wise men in Europe was sitting in front of him talking.

Pondy looked back at the history of the rise of Portugal and Spain from an outsider's perspective, and suddenly realized that Wang Wenlong's explanation seemed to be more convincing than simply saying that the Lord brought glory and wealth to Spain.

As surprised as Ponti was the Jesuit priest Long Huamin who brought Ponti to Macau. He was almost 40 years old this year. He was born into a noble family in Sicily, Italy, and had considerable missionary experience.

After reading "History of Portugal", Long Huamin couldn't sit still at all. He had a higher level of education than Ponti and I. Long Huamin could say that even the best historians in Europe could not write such a book about Portuguese history. come out.

If someone wants to know the history of Portugal, instead of asking a Portuguese, it is better to read "History of Portugal" written by Wang Wenlong.

The writing was so good that Long Huamin even felt a little troubled.

Because now the Jesuits are planning to compile a "Ji Fang Wai Ji" to introduce world geographical knowledge.

Most of the content in the book is extremely novel to the people of the Ming Dynasty, and there will also be a lot of beautification in it.

For example, in their manuscripts, they described France as an ideal country with no war, no hunger, and peace and prosperity.

Anyway, we are thousands of miles away, who can expose it?

During the missionary process, the Jesuits had discovered that the people of the Ming Dynasty had no understanding of overseas countries. They found that just like when Buddhism spread eastward thousands of years ago, Tianzhu was described as the Paradise of Paradise, they could also use a large number of true and false content from Europe to attract the Ming Dynasty people. Scholars become religious.

But at this time, "History of Portugal" came out!

The "History of Portugal" has written very clearly that Portugal and Spain in Europe are just ordinary countries. They rose to power after bloody struggles, and even used many dirty methods in the process of rising.With this as a background, it became much more difficult for the Jesuits to describe other European countries as the kingdom of heaven on earth.

As a senior member of the Jesuits in China, Long Huamin found this very troublesome, and he was very confused.

According to the Ming Dynasty information he saw, people in the Ming Dynasty should know nothing about European affairs, but now someone actually wrote these things into Chinese books, and they are still selling well in the Ming Dynasty?

"Where did this Wang Wenlong come from!"

There is news that Wang Wenlong is a descendant of Chinese maritime merchants from Luzon, but Long Huamin finds it hard to believe it.

How could those stupid and stupid Chinese who deceived an accurate person produce historians who are so familiar with the history of great navigation?

In any case, the missionary work of the Jesuits to China has been disrupted, and they must carefully consider whether to continue writing the "Ji Fang Wai Ji" mixed with personal information.

What Long Huamin is even more afraid of is: because of Ming Dynasty’s cultural influence in East Asia, this book will definitely spread to other East Asian countries.

This will even affect their missionary activities in Luzon, Korea, and Japan.

The matter has risen to the point of affecting the entire Eastern missionary enterprise. The Macau Jesuits have begun to translate the "History of Portugal" into European languages ​​and plan to send the news back to the Jesuit headquarters in Paris as soon as possible.

In addition to the Jesuits, with the popularity of "History of Portugal", this book gradually spread beyond the borders of the Ming Dynasty.

The impact on the surrounding countries in the Confucian civilization circle is even more direct. The Japanese in Luzon, the Korean merchants who came to Shandong to trade, the Vietnamese officials who confiscated books in Champa, and even the native nobles who interacted with Han merchants on the Western islands. , have seen "History of Portugal" from various channels.

The readers were shocked to learn that the Hongyi who came across the sea had such a background, and then discovered that they were not gods, but just a group of businessmen who benefited from opening up a new sea route.

Europeans can do it, can we do it ourselves?
In order to unite comrades, more "History of Portugal" was circulated overseas and was even translated into different languages.

Machiavellianism, ambition, greed, and resistance, in an area that was stirred like a frying pan by the new influences brought about by the Age of Discovery, the appearance of "History of Portugal" is like a drop of water dropped into boiling oil, destined to cause a turmoil.

At this time, Wang Wenlong, the instigator, did not know this yet. He was still living his own life in Fujian.

In the twelfth lunar month of the 27th year of Wanli, the aftermath of the Huguang civil uprising was still continuing.

The results of the drought in Henan and Hebei in autumn also appeared. Even if many official warehouses were opened, they could not help all the people. The refugees in Hebei begged for food and broke into the capital.

In the twelfth lunar month, Wanli ordered a porridge restaurant to be opened in the capital to provide relief to the homeless people.

Because of Wang Wenlong's method of replacing vegetables with vegetables, the situation in Fujian is relatively better.

But as time went to the 28th year of Wanli, many people still began to flee.

Xu Xueju can only hope that the potatoes that Wang Wenlong promised will be mature in early February can really alleviate the disaster.

Fortunately, Xu Xueju and Wang Wenlong often dug out potatoes in the experimental fields to check their growth. Seeing those potatoes growing vigorously and the potato eggs gradually approaching the size of chicken eggs, Xu Xueju felt a little comforted.

At the same time, news came from Bozhou that Yang Yinglong, the chieftain of Bozhou, divided into five groups and attacked Longquan City, the front line of the imperial war against Bozhou. The local chieftain An Minzhi and the official Liu Yuluan led [-] infantry to resist desperately. The city was defeated and An Minzhi was killed. Liu Yuluan and his wife also died for their country.

Last year, Wanli transferred Li Hualong from North Korea back to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan to fight the fire. Li Huaren was the governor of Sichuan, Huguang, Guizhou and the military affairs. After that, the situation in Bozhou saw an improvement. However, he did not expect that his home was suddenly stolen before the New Year. The whole country was shocked for a while.

However, this was also Yang Yinglong's fatal blow, and it wouldn't be long before the major counterattack prepared by Li Hualong would begin.

The world entered the 28th year of Wanli in this chaos.

(End of this chapter)