Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 241 Southerners migrate north, God bless Jiajing!
"Your Majesty, there are 400,000 people in the Ryukyu Kingdom. If they were to move into the country, it would be difficult to accommodate them." Gao Gong stood in the center of the hall and said in embarrassment.

After the Eastern Tartars surrendered, the imperial court planned to first move the children from the left wing of the grassland into the country to live and eat with the children of the common people in the country in order to strengthen the concept of one country and cultural identity.

King Shun'an called Lai Sun without hesitation and handed over a roster of all children ten years old and under on the left wing of the grassland. It was planned that after the ice and snow on the grassland melted this year, the children would be gradually transferred to the territory of the Ming Dynasty to live, study and grow up.

There are a total of 300,000 children of school age.

In order to encourage Sun Jun's cavalry to fight bravely with the Ming army during the northern expedition, the court also allowed 100,000 women and the elderly from the left wing of the grassland to enter the Ming Dynasty along with their children.

This move is also to comfort and take care of the children from the grasslands, so that they can adapt to life in the Central Plains better and faster.

In order to accommodate the upcoming 400,000 women, the elderly and children from the left wing of the grassland, the cabinet sent many letters to the government offices in the two capitals and 13 provinces, inquiring about the local acceptance capacity.

But the local provincial government is not stupid. Allowing these grassland women, the elderly and children to enter the territory will inevitably cause a lot of trouble. After all, the hundreds of years of hatred between the two tribes are there.

It is the policy of the imperial court to resolve hatred starting from the younger generation, but there are various difficulties in its implementation.

The government offices in the two capitals and thirteen provinces complained about local financial difficulties while passing the buck to other places, and were unwilling to take on anyone.

In the end, it was Zhang Juzheng who got angry and, in the name of the chief minister of the cabinet, "levied levies" on the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

The two capitals of the south and north were the economic and power centers, each with a population of 70,000.

The remaining thirteen provinces each claimed 20,000 people.

Relying on power.

The cabinet was barely able to accommodate 400,000 women, the elderly and children on the grassland.

This will bring another 400,000 Ryukyu people.

The level of poverty is so high that even above the grasslands, it is no exaggeration to say that they are refugees.

If this is forced upon us, not only will the provincial governments not be able to accept it, but even the two capitals in the north and south will not be able to accept it.

Seventy thousand "refugees" poured into the capital. Not only did they need to be resettled, but they also needed to be taught living skills and their land needed to be distributed. Even if the court was rich, it could not treat them so badly.

Then there is.

The Ryukyu people are different from the grassland people.

Over the past several thousand years, the Central Plains and the grasslands have always been hostile to each other and lacked a sense of identity with each other. It is necessary to transform the grassland children in order to subtly change the relationship between the two ethnic groups and complete "integration."

Ryukyu is different.

Ryukyu folk customs were influenced by Fujian during the Ming Dynasty, especially Quanzhou. For example, the worship of phoenixes and lions, stone talismans, the Dragon Boat Festival, worshiping the Kitchen God, and welcoming the gods on the fourth day of the first lunar month are many of the customs similar to those in Fujian.

The tombs of the Ryukyu people are shaped like tortoise shells, and this type of tomb was introduced from southern Fujian.

The traditional national costume of the Ryukyu people is Ryukyu clothing, which looks similar to the Chinese Hanfu.

In terms of diet, Fujian cuisine cooking techniques were popular in the Ryukyu court and upper class society, and the Ryukyu people used alkali in their pasta just like the Quanzhou people.

The Ryukyu folk foods such as tangerine cakes, yellow rice cakes, thousand-layer cakes, Shandong noodles, and dishes such as fried bean sprouts and tofu are also made in the same way as those in Fuzhou.

The only difference is that the Ryukyu people like to use kelp produced in Japan, which is influenced by Japanese culture.

The Ryukyu people like to drink a wine called Awamori, which is a rice wine introduced from Annan.

Drinking tea is an indispensable part of Ryukyu people's life.

When tea was introduced to Ryukyu, the tea culture and tea drinking etiquette were also deeply influenced by Fujian, becoming more and more sophisticated. Especially among the Ryukyu literati, they attached great importance to making friends and entertaining guests with tea.

Wine is also one of the main drinks in the lives of Ryukyu people, and wine culture occupies an important position just like tea culture.

The Ryukyu people love to drink, and wine is indispensable whether it is daily meetings, weddings and funerals, or seasonal festivals and sacrificial ceremonies.

The Ryukyu people mainly drink "rice wine", "fukujushu", "local shochu" and "awamori".

Among them, "local liquor" is brewed from rice, and its production method is similar to that of Fujian Hakka rice wine.

During the drinking process, the Ryukyu people often like to play "thumb wars", which is similar to the Ming Dynasty's rock-paper-scissors drinking game, to increase the drinking atmosphere.

In short, every aspect of the Ryukyu Kingdom was deeply influenced by China, and there was no need for much transformation or cultural identification to become true citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

There was no place in the capitals and provinces of the Ming Dynasty that could accommodate 400,000 Ryukyu people.

"If there is none in China, is there none abroad?" Zhu Houcong said calmly.

"What does Your Majesty mean?"

"grassland."

A huge grassland.

Not to mention 400,000 people, even if 40 or 40 million people were scattered, it would be bearable.

Since the Ryukyu people want to "go ashore", the Ming Dynasty will give them a big place to have fun.

"Your Majesty, it's bitterly cold on the frontier, I'm afraid the Ryukyu people won't be willing." Gao Gong said in confusion.

In the past two hundred years, the grassland has been getting colder every year, and the people who grew up on the grassland could not stand the cold. This can be seen from the fact that after Sun returned to Ming, the first thing he wanted to do was to send people to the Great Wall.

In an official document to the cabinet, Dalai Sun suggested that the court could use the grassland as a place for exile and exile of prisoners in the future.

The Ryukyu people came ashore to live a life of luxury, not to "self-exile".

The cold on the frontier, the cold in the Central Plains, and the cold on the islands are two different things. If the Ryukyu people were really asked to move to the grassland, they would probably freeze to death.

As long as the Ryukyu people still have attachment to the human world, they will definitely not be willing to migrate to the grassland.

"The weather is getting warmer and warmer. In the present Ming Dynasty, it is Jiangnan all year round. I think the frontier will also become Jiangnan. In the future, the grassland will become a place that everyone will scramble to visit." Zhu Houcong stood up from the mat and stated the facts.

The Little Ice Age has not yet ended.

However, supernatural powers can change the destiny of the world, which is difficult for humans to change, but for him, changing the celestial phenomena is as easy as pie.

In a trance, the five cabinet elders seemed to see a divine light. The emperor's words actually had some meaning of the will of heaven and earth.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang looked at each other.

Chen Yiqin seemed to be thinking, could it be that the weather is going to get warmer again?
It is common sense that the world has its cold and warm periods.

But the Chen Family Records record in more detail. A few hundred years ago, especially in the early and middle Tang Dynasty, the whole of China was warm and humid, and even cold days were rarely seen.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, the capital Chang'an had no ice or snow for three years. During the reigns of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Emperor Wuzong of Tang, citrus fruits were planted in large quantities in the imperial palace and the southern suburbs, and a good harvest was obtained.

Citrus is a thermophilic crop.

Moreover, in the poems of some Tang Dynasty poets, the hot heaven and earth are mentioned many times, such as Bai Juyi's "feet steaming with the hot earth, back burning with the scorching sun" and Wang Wei's "the Chang'an guest house is as hot as boiling water". It can be confirmed that the summer in Chang'an area was very hot at that time.

The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was all in the early and middle periods, which vaguely corresponded to the astronomical phenomena. With so many coincidences, it no longer seemed like a coincidence.

Nearly a thousand years ago, God bless the Tang Dynasty, God bless the Zhenguan period, and God bless the Kaiyuan period.

Chen Yiqin knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, "God bless the Ming Dynasty, God bless Your Majesty, God bless the Jiajing Dynasty, Your Majesty, you are virtuous!"

This sentence is virtuous.

It contained the power of the Chen family's hundreds of years of inheritance. It "beat" the four elders Zhang, Gao, Hu, and Li without any chance to fight back.

If you don't have enough knowledge, you may not understand how Chen Yiqin sings praises to the emperor.

As a university scholar of the current dynasty, his knowledge is unquestionable. Even if he did not react at first, he would understand after thinking about it that "a wise ruler is in power and heaven blesses him."

Zhang Juzheng and the other three immediately knelt down on the embroidered cushion and sang praises to the emperor: "God bless China, God bless the Ming Dynasty, God bless the emperor, and God bless the Jiajing Dynasty."

Huang Jin, who was standing beside the throne, had less knowledge than the other ministers, but he was one of the few people with outstanding performance in the Inner Study Hall back then. He knelt down after realizing what was happening.

There is no need to praise the saint. Here, he is not qualified to be praised.

The kneeling body and the lowered head were full of admiration for the elder Chen Yiqun.

In the past, Lord Chen mostly showed himself to be selfless. Apart from the people's affairs, he believed in getting by in the court. Therefore, many people in the outer and inner courts had the impression that he did not flatter or curry favor with others.

But this time, praise the saint.

Huang Jin saw the difference in Chen Ge Lao and gained new insights. If people with a long family heritage really start to sing praises to others, then no one else will care.

Reading a lot of books really brings a lot of benefits.

I just regret that I haven’t read enough.

Everyone in the hall had different thoughts. Zhu Houcong looked at Chen Yiqin for a long time. This sudden praise of the emperor really surprised him.

After talking about the Chen family inheritance for so long, Zhu Houcong finally became curious and said, "Chen Yiqin."

"The minister is here."

“How many books have you read?”

"Your Majesty, I have not counted carefully. I was born stupid. I could only recognize a thousand words at the age of three, and began to read Tang poetry at the age of five. It was not until I was seven that I could barely read the Four Books and Five Classics. I am now forty-eight years old, and I think there are only a few tens of thousands of volumes of articles by saints, books by ancient sages, and classics by modern people." Chen Yiqin said ashamedly.

When they heard that Chen Yiqin had memorized the Four Books and Five Classics at the age of seven, Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang were somewhat disapproving.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Chen Yiqin is one of the very few geniuses in the world. But who among the people in the cabinet was not a child prodigy in his childhood?

Zhang Juzheng, in particular, was extremely intelligent since childhood and was known as a child prodigy, his reputation spread throughout the south of the Yangtze River.

In the 16th year of Jiajing's reign, Zhang Juzheng took part in the provincial examination, but failed due to the obstruction of Gu Lin, the governor of Huguang.

The reason is that he hopes to hone Zhang Juzheng more to become a great person.

Otherwise, Zhang Juzheng would have become a juren at the age of twelve.

Even though he was deliberately obstructed once, Zhang Juzheng still passed the second provincial examination and became a juren at the age of fifteen.

Chen Yiqin's genius was not worth mentioning in Zhang Juzheng's eyes.

But what Chen Yiqin said next made Zhang Juzheng and the other three feel more and more that something was wrong. He had finished reading the Four Books and Five Classics at the age of seven, and had finished reading ten thousand volumes of books at the age of forty-eight. In other words, in forty years, Chen Yiqin had read ten thousand volumes of books.

It corresponds exactly to the years of the Jiajing period.

Reading 250 volumes of books in a year was not a difficult task for Zhang Juzheng. With his talent for multitasking, Zhang Juzheng could read even more.

But the Zhang family, or most families, do not have ten thousand books at home, let alone articles, classics, and texts.

Needless to say, given the Chen family's financial situation, some of these tens of thousands of books must be authentic works or handwritten manuscripts from saints, ancient sages, and contemporary people.

The saying "there are so many books in the house" may be an exaggeration for others, but for the Chen family, it may be true.

Zhu Houcong seemed to have heard the elders' thoughts and asked, "How many volumes of books are there in the Chen family?"

Chen Yiqin fell silent.

It’s not that I don’t want to answer, but I haven’t thought about this question. If I try to calculate it suddenly, I can’t answer it for the time being.

"Ten thousand volumes."

"Twenty thousand volumes."

"..."

Chen Yiqin was immersed in calculations and did not notice that he uttered the numbers. Although the sound was very small, it could still be heard clearly in the silent hall.

When the scrolls were beating in tens of thousands, everyone's expressions became very complicated. The envy in their hearts gradually disappeared, and was replaced by admiration.

Today, Wenyuan Pavilion serves as the royal library, and its collection of books is extremely impressive in both quantity and quality.

According to the general records of the Cabinet, the total number of books in Wenyuan Pavilion is about 5,500 kinds, more than 43,200 volumes, and nearly one million volumes.

Among these books, there are many old royal collections from the Song and Yuan dynasties, many of which are rare and secret books.

"Your Majesty, it is about 200,000 volumes." Chen Yiqin gave the answer.

The Chen family's collection of books is divided into four parts: classics, history, philosophy, and collections, as well as archives such as the Veritable Records of the Past Dynasties and Treasured Instructions.

The family has a large collection of books of extremely high quality. The Chen family got its start in the Song Dynasty, so most of their books are precious Song editions.

Two hundred thousand books.

There are not as many books as in Wenyuan Pavilion, but it is still as much as 20%.

"The Yongle Encyclopedia compiled by Emperor Chengzu Wen?"

"Your Majesty, some of the content was taken from the Chen family's letters." Chen Yiqin answered truthfully.

The Chen family had good relations with successive emperors. After Emperor Yongle ascended the throne after Jingnan Rebellion, he wanted to compile the greatest book in ancient and modern times, and the Chen family gave strong support.

The entire book consists of 22,877 volumes and 11,095 books. The Chen family contributed 2,287 volumes and 109 books for copying and engraving.

It can be said that it is because of the Chen family that the Yongle Encyclopedia, the greatest book in ancient and modern times, has become so large in scale.

At this time, even Zhu Houcong, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, didn't know what to say.

Chen Yiqin took the initiative to say: "If Your Majesty wants to revise the Jiajing Grand Canon, I am willing to do my best to help."

Based on what Chen Yiqin said about his family's collection of books and the number of books he provided to the Yongle Encyclopedia, we can know that the Chen family "still has some spare capacity."

It is not difficult to take out another two thousand volumes or a hundred books.

As soon as these words came out.

Zhu Houcong was still thinking.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong and Li Chunfang's expressions began to look strange, and in an instant they recalled the collapse they experienced when they were revising and re-recording the Yongle Encyclopedia while still in the Hanlin Academy.

The most amazing book in ancient and modern times is not just a saying. Since the beginning of writing, the books of classics, history, and hundreds of schools of thought have covered everything, including astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medicine, divination, Buddhism, Taoism, and skills.

The Yongle Encyclopedia alone drove Yongle and the ten generations of Ming Dynasty scholars crazy. If they were to revise the Jiajing Encyclopedia, would the scholars of today and the future still be able to survive?
Amid the nervous expressions of the elders, Zhu Houcong suppressed the idea of ​​revising the book, shook his head, and said, "The Grand Canon will not be revised for the time being. Chen Yiqin, when you have time, revise the collection of Wenyuan Pavilion. For those that the Chen family has but Wenyuan Pavilion does not have, copy and print a copy and send it to Wenyuan Pavilion."

"Wei Chen obeys!"

(End of this chapter)