Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 495 Do you want to start a school

But after so many years, some of the sayings of Emperor Taizu have been completely destroyed by them. The literati relied on Mencius' theories to erode the imperial power step by step.

If they really practice the morality of Mencius, that's all.Under the banner of Mencius, all they did was bullshit, and even monsters like the Donglin Party appeared later.

What looks like a progressive capitalist budding party is actually a kind of partisanship against dissent.

As for Xunzi, no one likes him anymore.

In Zhu Houzhao's memory, when he arrived in Jiajing, Xunzi was even invited out of the Confucian Temple, and his thoughts were completely denounced as heresy.

Zhu Houzhao did not expect that Wang Shouren would go to Xunzi's side, which made him hesitate, but also aroused great interest.

You must know that Xunzi's thinking is different from the current mainstream thinking, and even the opposite in many places.

So Zhu Houzhao asked curiously: "You have any ideas, but it's okay to say it. Hearing what you said, I am more interested in it."

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Wang Shouren also showed a smile on his face, and then said: "I have traveled all over the world these years, and I feel more and more that the things in this world are like what Xunzi said at the beginning:
"There is permanence in the way of heaven. It does not survive for Yao, and does not perish for Jie. If it should be governed, it will be auspicious, and if it should be disordered, it will be evil."

Zhu Houzhao knows that this is Xunzi's theory of the permanence of the heavens, which means that the sky is not mysterious and unpredictable, but has its own unchanging laws.

This law is not a mysterious way of heaven, but a natural necessity.It does not depend on the likes and dislikes of the world and changes. People cannot violate this law, but can only strictly abide by it.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the law of nature, the objective law of nature of materialism.

This point is different from many Confucian ideas, especially Dong Zhongshu's theory of interaction between heaven and man.

Whether in the past or now, civil servants will associate natural phenomena with the emperor. As long as there are some ominous celestial phenomena, it must be that the emperor did not do something good.Civil officials use this to limit imperial power, but also use it to gain benefits.

Under such circumstances, Xunzi's idea is naturally not accepted by others, and will even be rejected and rejected by others.

On this basis, Xunzi also derived the saying that heaven and man are separated.

Xunzi believes that nature and human beings have their own laws and responsibilities, and the way of heaven cannot interfere with the way of humanity. Heaven belongs to heaven, and people belong to people.

The good and bad luck of ordering chaos depends on people, not on heaven.And heaven and man have different functions, "Heaven can live, but can't distinguish things, and earth can carry people, but can't rule people." ("Li Lun")
"Heaven has its time, the earth has its talents, and people have their governance." ("Tian Lun")
On the basis of these two statements, Xunzi derived his own policy strategy, which is to control the destiny and use it.

In Xunzi's view, instead of superstitiously believing in the authority of heaven, thinking about it, praising it, and waiting for the gift of "heaven", it is better to use the laws of nature to serve people.

Xun Kuang emphasized "respecting those who belong to oneself" rather than "admiring those who belong to heaven", and even used the attitude towards heaven as the criterion for distinguishing a gentleman from a villain.

Emphasizes the subjective initiative of human beings in front of nature, and advocates the ideas of "governing the destiny", "cutting all things", and "using energy to transform them".

To put it bluntly, don't be superstitious, roll up your sleeves and work hard.

Zhu Hou took care of Wang Shouren, and then asked with a smile, "Then do you think Xunzi's theory of separating heaven and man and using it to control the destiny of heaven makes sense?"

In fact, the first one is not important, these two are the most important of Xunzi's thought, especially the last one.

If one believes in Xunzi, it will completely subvert the current Confucian system.

Wang Shouren thought for a while, looked up at Zhu Houzhao and said, "I think it makes sense."

Zhu Houzhao nodded, and then asked again: "Do you also think that human nature is inherently evil?"

After saying this, Zhu Houzhao stared at Wang Shouren, waiting for him to give himself an answer.

In fact, this one is also a very important thought of Xunzi, and it runs counter to Mencius and the current Confucian thought.

Starting from the standpoint of the separation of man and nature, Xunzi denied the transcendental moral basis in human nature.

In his view, the so-called human nature is the natural nature of human beings, which is the so-called "natural nature of life".

Its natural manifestations are "hungry and want to be full, cold and want to be warm, tired and want to rest".

Its essence is the abstract natural biological instinct and psychological instinct that people naturally have. It is believed that this natural human desire for material life is in conflict with moral etiquette norms.

Xunzi believes that human nature is "born with good interests", "born with sickness and evil", "born with desire for ears and eyes, and lustful", if "following human nature and sympathy, it must be out of competition , in line with the principle of committing chaos and returning to violence."

Therefore, human nature is "evil", not "good".

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's question, Wang Shouren's face was covered with sweat.It is really a terrible problem.

Because once you agree with Xunzi's theory, then Mencius will be overthrown, and Neo Confucianism will also be overthrown, which means that all the Taoism believed by all scholars in the world is wrong.

This is not a problem with the ideological world itself. There are too many things behind it, and they are too big.

However, Wang Shouren put his mind to one side, and said decisively: "I think that's exactly the case. Human nature is inherently evil. When you are hungry, you want to be full, when you are cold, you want to be warm, and when you are tired, you want to rest. This is human nature."

Zhu Houzhao nodded.

When many people in later generations heard that human nature is inherently evil, they arbitrarily judged that there is evil in it, referring to evil and viciousness.Actually no, the evil here refers to human desires.

It's like eating when you're hungry, looking for the opposite sex if you want to reproduce, and wanting to live a better life naturally requires more money.

This is the core of Xunzi's proposition, so with this, there will be Xunzi's governance proposition.

He advocated enlightening people, using enlightenment to change people's hearts, make people restrain their desires; let people understand reason, let people know what benevolence and righteousness are.

On this basis, Xunzi felt that this kind of thing cannot all rely on enlightenment. Some people are naturally stubborn and uneducated, so what should we do?

Then the law is to be adopted, and strict legislation is used to limit them.

To put it bluntly, education is the upper limit, and legislation is the lower limit.

Enlightenment is to teach people in a more positive and better direction, while legislation is to keep people from crossing the bottom line, so Xunzi's theory is here, and this is his core thought.

Only after Xunzi.Many of his disciples went straight to the legalist path.

For example, his three famous students, Li Si, Han Fei and Zhang Cang, are all masters of legal studies, and they all admire legalists.

Therefore, many people dislike Xunzi's theories, do not regard him as a Confucian disciple, and reject his students very much.

Especially Confucianism doesn't like his idea of ​​the rule of law.

After all, relatives hide from each other, hello, hello, hello everyone.Even if I commit a crime, my whole family will not be killed. The emperor should be merciful, how good is that?

Why use Xunzi's thinking to kill the whole family?

Therefore, Xunzi's thoughts fell, but Mencius's thoughts were respected by everyone.

We are all good people, we are inherently kind, we are all gentlemen, how can reading or something be called stealing?

Under the leadership of this kind of thinking, Confucianism became what it is now, and the literati in the world became what they are now.

They kidnap the emperor upwards and use their ideas to make the emperor think that you are a good emperor if you do what they say; they brainwash the whole people downwards so that the people of the world think that what they say is correct.

They sit on the upper, middle and lower floors by themselves, constantly reaping benefits for themselves.

So in the end there will be the Donglin Party, full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, behind the scenes are male thieves and female prostitutes, they don't pay taxes, they embezzle the profits of the country's mountains and rivers, and they even smuggle.

Overseas and grasslands, as long as they give money, they will sell everything, and it has nothing to do with the shame they shout about.

By exploiting the common people, embezzling land, and not paying taxes, they completed the primitive accumulation of capital, and then formed the germ of capitalism.

Because it is a capital formed by not paying attention to the law, it will ignore the law even more after it grows.They can't see the Ming Dynasty, they can't see the country, and they can't see the people living in poverty.

They only have themselves in their eyes, and the poor people are just the objects of their exploitation.

After holding soldiers and power in his hands, Zhu Houzhao is about to attack the ideological world.

If the Ming Dynasty continues to operate according to the current thinking, even if these things they created, they will decline sooner or later after their death, because people's thinking is wrong.

If the problem of thinking is not resolved, then the system will never keep up, and the system established by oneself will eventually be abolished.

At that time, everything will go back to the original path, so we must use our thoughts.

Zhu Houzhao asked Wang Shouren for this purpose.

If his thoughts are different from his own, then he will not say anything.

From now on, I will regard him as a capable minister of my subordinates, arrange a position for him in the military, and prevent him from becoming a leader in the ideological world.In this way, it is more appropriate, and it can be regarded as fulfilling the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers.

If his thoughts are the same as yours, then let him do it.

Now he is touting Xunzi, which happens to be exactly what he thinks, and at the same time he can put a lot of his own ideas into it.

Many thoughts of later generations can be found in the veins and traces of Xunzi's thoughts.As long as this matter can be promoted, then things will be much easier to handle.

As for Wang Shouren, he has a high reputation now and is placed high hopes by many people.If he is really pushed to the front of this matter, his reputation will be greatly reduced, and he may be scolded.

From the court to the countryside, everyone will scold him.

It's not easy to reverse the bad reputation, it may have to wait until later generations.

This can be regarded as self-defilement to a certain extent. If you want to compare it, it is with Wang Mang.

Wang Shouren probably doesn't have such a good reputation as Wang Mang, maybe everyone in the world wants him dead, even better than Zhang Juzheng.

Because Wang Shouren is not only moving the actual power, but also their roots.

The reason why Zhang Juzheng's reform was supported by some people is because it did not touch the depths of the soul, but only superficially, whether it was a field check or a whip.

Clearing the land is just for those who hide the land to take out the land.

As for the whipping method, it will benefit the landlords and rich people, allowing them to squeeze the people better.

So the opposition Zhang Juzheng encountered was not that strong, but this time it was different.

I have used the money to support the officials and gentry to pay taxes together, which has caused deep resentment among the people.

If he hadn't mobilized an army in the south of the Yangtze River and killed a large number of people, it would have been a riot by now.

Even so, there are a lot of criticisms against myself now, but no one dares to say it blatantly.

For me now, these criticisms are no longer important.

Now I have people in my hands, money and money, and an army and an army.Whoever is unconvinced and kills directly, he already has the strength to learn from the Taizu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

So under such circumstances, Zhu Houzhao's view of himself is that I can do whatever I want, as long as the interests of the people at the bottom are not harmed and they can survive, then I can start to deal with them.

Why did Zhu Yuanzhang kill so many civil servants, but did not cause a civil uprising?Some people rebelled, but it wasn't because of killing civil servants?

The reason is also very simple. It is not because of how many troops Zhu Yuanzhang has in his hands and how capable his troops are, but because the people at the bottom do not support them. A rebellion without the support of the people at the bottom is not even a civil disorder.

Wang Shouren looked at Zhu Houzhao anxiously, he didn't know what His Highness the Crown Prince was thinking.

If His Highness the Crown Prince thinks differently from him, or feels that what he said is inappropriate, then he is probably doomed.

However, Wang Shouren felt that what he said should be in line with His Highness the Crown Prince's thoughts.Having been with His Highness the Crown Prince for so long, he also knows that His Highness the Crown Prince is well-read and has his own unique views on many things.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince seems to dislike the theory of Confucius and Mencius, and seems to be more in favor of Xunzi's theory.

He is sitting there quietly now, waiting for an answer to him.

Glancing at Wang Shouren, Zhu Houzhao stood up and walked out.

Wang Shouren didn't dare to neglect, so he quickly followed.

The two came to the railing outside the palace.

Zhu Houzhao leaned on the railing, looked into the distance, and then said slowly, "Are you interested in starting an academy?"

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao looked at Wang Shouren with a smile, his face full of anticipation.

"Open an academy?" Wang Shouren was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood what His Highness the Crown Prince meant.

It is naturally impossible to run an academy to teach. If it is common, there is no need for His Royal Highness to discuss it with himself.Is it to teach Xunzi?
Wang Shouren was a little excited immediately.

"Can you?" Wang Shouren asked hesitantly.

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said, "Why not?"

"We have money, so it's not easy to build an academy? As for students, I don't think there will be any shortage of students."

(End of this chapter)