The struggle of the eight blessings of rebirth

Chapter 98 Nian Xiyao and Castiglione

The first imperial decree promulgated by Kangxi's return to the palace caused an uproar among the officials, completely prohibiting Western missionaries from conducting missionary activities in the country. Officials, although they are also second-rank, but Beijing officials and foreign officials are not the same concept at all, and the allowances enjoyed by Beijing officials are not comparable to foreign officials.In short, Nian Xiyao returned to the political base as scheduled.Nian Xiyao's callback, the person who was most upset was Brother Nine Yinzhen, you know, when Kangxi issued a decree banning religion, Brother Nine suddenly cut off a source of income.

Western missionaries have been preaching in China for many years. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, it has blossomed everywhere. Many people and even officials in China have joined Catholicism, such as Xu Guangqi.After the Ming Dynasty fell, there were many missionaries respected by Emperor Shunzhi. Tang Ruowang and Nan Huairen were all outstanding. However, in the early years of Kangxi, when the four assistant ministers were in power, there was a time when they joined the political Tang Ruowang, Nan Huairen, etc. were all tortured and tortured in the religious persecution caused by the factors. All the missionaries in the mainland were exiled to Guangzhou, and Tang Ruowang was killed in a foreign land because of this.However, when the San Francisco Rebellion was at a stalemate, the young Kangxi remembered the artillery built by foreign missionaries, and Nan Huairen came out again to help the emperor settle the frontier war with the artillery.And use this to let the Western missionaries see the light of day again.

Emperors are always fickle lovers, and you throw them out when you run out. Now there is no tough battle to fight, and there are regulations for astronomy and calendar, and you can design cannons by yourself, and there is no shortage of people in the painting academy.Immediately afterwards, the second religious persecution quietly kicked off. The reason was still cultural differences. Chinese people use mugwort leaves to bathe and clean the courtyard with mugwort water during the Dragon Boat Festival, so as to drive away insects and evil spirits and spend the summer safely.From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the juice boiled from wormwood does have a bactericidal effect.It has more scientific basis than the holy water that Catholics believe in.However, when these two kinds of water are used together, conflicts arise.

Niubi banned Chinese believers from participating in the Dragon Boat Festival rituals, eating rice dumplings, rowing dragon boats, and especially not using wormwood leaves to bathe, which triggered a series of small-scale conflicts, so the church issued a clear rule that believers are not allowed to participate in any sacrificial activities. The scope has expanded to offering sacrifices to Confucius, celebrating the winter solstice, and even offering sacrifices to ancestors during the Qingming Festival. This has aroused strong dissatisfaction from local governments. They think it is a matter of interfering in China's internal affairs.So the level of the original skirmish was raised.The two factions even formed a confrontation, and various discordant voices came and went.

Due to the hard work of the missionaries in the early stage, churches and places of worship have spread all over the country, and there are prayer activities every seven days in the suburbs of Beijing.That is to say, this day is fixed and does not work.In this way, many shopkeepers are dissatisfied. In the feudal society, there is no labor contract. The boss and the staff all sign the contract of sale. You come to work in my store, you eat, drink, sleep, and even weddings and funerals. What? I have the final say on when to have a holiday. When is it your turn to have a fixed holiday?

In the past few times, the conflicts between the church and all social classes have become more and more serious, and finally angered the imperial power. However, Kangxi was still polite. He did not expel missionaries, but explicitly prohibited missionaries, and stipulated that all Foreigners in the Qing Dynasty, unless they are willing to stay in the Qing Dynasty for life and never return to their hometowns, they will be repatriated immediately.As soon as this decree came out, it cut off the escape route of a celebrity, and this person is the 20-year-old Castiglione.

Originally, Minzhi didn't know about these things, but Xiaojiu often brought some Western gadgets to the house to show off, such as cuckoo clocks that tell the time automatically, pocket watches, pipes, crystal balls and so on.Minzhi expressed her disdain for this. In her opinion, these things are nothing more than ordinary things, because she asked Yinhu to understand the details of the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Tsar, and Minzhi's arrogance to the Qing government has reached the limit. It is incomprehensible that the land can be ceded because Kangxi didn't know about it, and Suo'etu and others had no sense of sovereignty, but Tong Guogang died of a gunshot wound. No one paid attention to this. Everyone still lives in the era of cold weapons. Soldier and soldier fight hand to hand, stupid to the extreme.Ke An and the others had never even seen a musket.

Today Xiaojiu came to the door again, bringing a winding and singing nightingale, which she said was a gift for her two nephews.Minzhi just glanced at it, stretched out his hand, crunched it, wound it up and put it on the table. He thought that there would be a section of "To Alice" on a bad street, but what he didn't expect was the chaotic percussion music, which made Minzhi Very dissatisfied, what a crap, but after thinking about it, Beethoven was not born at about this time.Seeing Minzhi ignoring the gifts he gave, Yinzhen felt a little embarrassed: "Sister-in-law Ba, have you seen this thing before? I spent a lot of effort to get it. Recently, many barbarians have come back. I’m home, this thing cost me a lot of money!” Minzhi didn’t look at him directly: “I don’t like this thing, I heard that you are familiar with Castiglione, please ask for a painting for me tomorrow Come on..." Minzhi said half-truthfully.

Yinzhen was dumbfounded: "Sister-in-law, you said Castiglione is a court painter?" Minzhi nodded: "It should be..." Yinzhen slapped his head: "Who did I think that Castiglione was a painter enshrined in the inner court?" , I was supposed to be painting for the royal family, what can I ask for, but my eighth sister-in-law, this person came to Daqing last year, how did my eighth sister-in-law know each other?" Minzhi was taken aback: I can't say that I am a prophet..." "I heard from the imperial concubine that his flower-and-bird paintings are amazing..." Minzhi lied casually. Everyone knows that Castiglione is most famous for his portraits of Qianlong's concubines in his later years.

Yinzhen originally thought that this matter would be easy to do, but it happened that Castiglione was extremely depressed and asked for leave to skip work, so she couldn't find it anywhere.He was quite depressed because of this, so he found Nian Xiyao who had returned to Beijing to work.When the old man heard that Fujin loves Western paintings, he was immediately happy. He was worried that he could not make a relationship with the wife of the No. 1 assistant in the Qing Dynasty. As soon as he got the news, he immediately sent him a landscape from his family Castiglione. The oil painting was sent out.

If you want to ask why he is so active, it is all because Yinhu is now the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and his younger brother Nian Gengyao is still copying books in the Imperial Academy with the title of a scholar.If there is an opportunity to build a good relationship with the hidden minister of the personnel department, why not do it? So Yinzhen, who has settled Minzhi's request, came to present the treasure excitedly. The small tile-roofed house and the woman dressed like a hen (imagine the Italian tutu skirt and white bib) couldn't put it down, and I sighed in my heart, the hobbies of the eighth sister-in-law are really different from others...

In this way, Minzhi somehow got involved with Nian Xiyao. For the sake of his younger brother, he put Castiglione at home at all costs (of course, no actual blood loss) for the sake of his younger brother. He specialized in painting landscapes, one piece a day.And Lang Shining also knew that Fujin likes the landscape paintings of small towns in Italy. I didn’t believe this kind of strange thing at first. The women in the inner court all like things with strong colors and Chinese characteristics. How could it be possible that they like things that are thousands of miles away and never touched What about the exotic style?
But one day, he received a sketch version of The Thinker drawn by Minzhi, and he was excited.This is a pure western painting method, with three-dimensional perspective, blanket strips, simple lines, and cleverly designed shadows. The young man is crazy, touching the man in the portrait and muttering: "Oh, God, I can Seeing this here... oh, this is God's will..." Nian Xiyao was dumbfounded, could this barbarian be a broken sleeve?Drooling looking at the portrait of the man...

Min Zhi didn't know that Castiglione had become her fan, she just randomly picked one of the plaster statues that had been drawn hundreds of times in the high school art classroom in her memory, who knew that Castiglione broke her back instantly, she was so innocent!But when she knew about the complex "triangular relationship" between Castiglione, Nian Xiyao and Yinzhen, all kinds of thoughts popped up in her mind, Nian Xiyao intends to board Yinhu's boat, she has no reason not to give it a try, right? But the servant of the official department is Yinhu, not her, and she can't run into the office, knock on the table and say to him: "That so-and-so Nian Xiyao, Nian Gengyao, Nian Xiaomei, you want to take it down in one fell swoop, that one from the household department Little gangster Li Wei, and that Tian Wenjing and that-so-and-so, you have to get rid of them all..."

But it's impossible, she can't say anything, she can't do anything, she suffers because of her status as a housewife, if she has nothing to recommend other men to your husband, what do you want?Fortunately, there is still Yinzhen, right?Nine Gods of Wealth are short-handed.I will speak good words for the old man in front of Yinhu, maybe she doesn't need any hints at all, he can get on the boat of the old man, besides, Nian Xiyao is a fan of Western academics, so he can draw a straight line with different planes at will. If you do it, you can let him fall into the pit, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, right? He is in charge of building the house, right?I don't know if he has a share in building the Old Summer Palace?Minzhi had various thoughts swirling in his mind.

That night, Yinhu got off work, teased the child for a while as usual, and sighed.Minzhi leaned forward: "What's the matter?" Yinhu sighed, "I just finished working on the drought in Shandong, and there was another flood in the south of the Yangtze River. In the middle of last night, some officials went to Dengwenlou." Minzhi was stunned: " What ascending Wenlou?" Yinhu glanced at her: "You don't understand even if I say it, but I know Xiao Jiu will run errands for you all day long... Do you know what the prince's crime is for making friends with important officials..." Minzhi I was taken aback by him: "Ninth Brother and Nian Xiyao have always had business contacts, Huang Ama won't misunderstand..."

"Misunderstanding? You have read the list of the Imperial Academy, and you don't know why he is willing to help you ask Painter Lang for a painting? Painter Lang is an enshrined painter in the inner court, but he is also a missionary. Are you really stupid or pretending to be stupid? This is critical Do you want Xiao Jiu to go to this muddy water?" Yinhu's words were suddenly sharp, piercing Minzhi's dead corner of thinking.

(End of this chapter)