My father is Jiajing

Chapter 287 The Temptation of a Grandmaster
Speaking of the history of Hongwenguan, it is actually quite long. The earliest appearance was during the Wude period in the early Tang Dynasty.

At that time, the original purpose of setting up the Hongwenguan was to proofread books and maps and teach students; when there were institutional changes and etiquette issues in the court, they had to discuss them with the councilors.

However, with the development of Hongwenguan, it gradually became a place dedicated to recruiting royal relatives and children of high-ranking officials. After entering Hongwenguan, these people no longer had the perseverance to concentrate on studying. They all wanted to gild their resumes here and then get a more powerful official position.

Therefore, in the end, Hongwenguan naturally became abandoned and became a third-rate place. Although subsequent dynasties also re-established it, they were ultimately unable to give Hongwenguan a clear and definite development direction.

Therefore, during the four dynasties of Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming, the fate of Hongwenguan was extremely turbulent, always abandoned and re-established, and never taken seriously again.

This time, Emperor Jiajing once again issued an order to re-establish the Hongwen Academy. To be honest, when this order first came out, whether it was the cabinet, the Hanlin Academy, the Imperial College, etc., they were actually not optimistic about the re-established Hongwen Academy.

If the edict had not added a sentence that Prince Yu would concurrently hold the position, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang would probably never have been willing to come to such a lowly government office where they were destined to sit on the bench.

Now the two of them came to Prince Yu's Mansion to pay a visit to the leader. They originally thought that it would be a formality and at the same time transform themselves into officials of Prince Yu's Mansion and future direct descendants of Prince Yu.

But they never expected that Prince Yu actually took Hongwenguan seriously, so their moods and attitudes were really awkward at this moment.

Zhu Zaigui looked at Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang, who were already under his control, and said gently: "You two were arranged by His Majesty to come to Hongwenguan. I believe you were a little confused and excited at first. You were confused about the significance of re-establishing Hongwenguan? You were excited to think that you could be lucky enough to become my teacher or subject."

"In fact, these two points are both right and wrong. I have been appointed by Your Majesty to lead the Hongwenguan by Your Majesty's grace. Naturally, I must make some new moves and achievements to be worthy of Your Majesty's grace. Otherwise, this Hongwenguan is destined to be a government office that will not last long."

"So, what I hope is that you two can be clear-minded and obey my orders and instructions. Together, we will build this newly re-established Hongwenguan and let the court and scholars all over the world see your abilities."

"If you two can do this well, I believe that whether you work under my command or not, your future will be bright. You will be appreciated by His Majesty and admired by scholars all over the world."

When Zhu Zaigui said this, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang were both shocked. They looked at each other in surprise. It turned out that Prince Yu had such great ambitions?

Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang bowed to Zhu Zaigui again and said, "I am ashamed. I cannot understand your intention. Please punish me."

Zhu Zaigui said, "What are you punishing? We haven't done anything yet. After we have established the Hongwen Academy, it won't be too late for me to punish you if you have any problems. Now let's have a good talk about the new responsibilities and new ways out for the Hongwen Academy, and set a clear and definite goal for the future development of the Hongwen Academy."

Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang looked at each other awkwardly again. Meeting Prince Yu for the first time today really surprised them a lot.

At the same time, they couldn't help but imagine whether Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were also in such an awkward situation when they were teaching Prince Yu.
Fortunately, although Prince Yu was ruthless, he at least stuck to the facts and did not make a fuss. This made the two of them feel relieved. After Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang sorted out their thoughts, they bowed to Zhu Zaigui again and said, "Please give me your instructions, Your Majesty."

Zhu Zaigui took a sip of tea and said, "When you two received the imperial edict, did you notice the difference in the re-establishment of Hongwenguan this time?"

Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang thought for a moment and replied, "We have discovered that after your majesty re-established the Hongwen Academy, he also set up a Daming Book Bureau under the Hongwen Academy. However, the decree did not specify the specific powers and responsibilities of this bureau. Therefore, we two think that the focus this time should be on the Daming Book Bureau."

Zhu Zaigui nodded and said, "That's right. The focus of this re-establishment of Hongwenguan is on Daming Bookstore. Daming Bookstore is the core of this re-establishment of Hongwenguan."

"The Chinese literary tradition has been passed down from the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty had Han Fu, the Tang Dynasty had Tang poetry, the Song Dynasty had Song Ci, and even the pre-Yuan Dynasty had Yuan opera. This proves that the evolution of literature in different dynasties is not a static discipline. It will undergo new changes according to the changes of its times."

"It has been two hundred years since Emperor Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty. Although there are countless famous people, in terms of poetry, lyrics, and prose, except for a few sporadic works, no one can catch up with the talents of the predecessors? Could it be that the literati of the Ming Dynasty are not as good as those of the ancients?"

As soon as Zhu Zaigui asked this question, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang's faces suddenly became serious. When it came to reading and writing, both of them were outstanding, especially Li Chunfang, who was the top scholar. Anyone who said that his writing was not good would definitely be laughed at.

However, even though his articles are very beautiful, there is not a single one that has reached the standard of being passed down through the ages.

Therefore, after Zhu Zaigui asked this rhetorical question, they could not help but ask themselves, are people today really inferior to those in ancient times?
Although some schools of Confucianism revere the ancients, people are proud. Apart from some old pedants who have become stupid due to reading too much, who with a little bit of ambition and determination would really worship the practices of the ancients as an unchangeable standard?

Most people still want to base themselves in the present, then draw some wisdom from the ancients, and then integrate their own thoughts and learning to develop new ideas and heights.

Otherwise, after Confucius, there would be Dong Zi, and after Dong Zi there would be Cheng Zhu?

Also very close to them was a great Confucian scholar named Wang Yangming, who, based on the study of principles, also developed the power of the study of the mind.

Therefore, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang would never be able to accept or admit the fact that people today are not as good as those in the ancient times.

However, if Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang were asked to say how modern people can compare with the ancients, they would be speechless. For a moment, they really could not think of a literary style with the Ming Dynasty as the characteristic of the era, which could be compared with the literary characteristics of the Han Dynasty, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan opera, etc.

But precisely because of this question, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang's eyes became brighter than ever before. If the two could really find the literary characteristics of the Ming Dynasty in the Hongwenguan, then they would very likely become masters of their generation, as Prince Yu had just said, and be admired by scholars and people all over the world.

(End of this chapter)