Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 171: Archaeology and Cremation: The Spirit of Fighting Tyranny Lives Forever! [Two Chapters in One]

Liu Kuan said, "Didn't I say this before? The main reason for this difference is that the history and culture of these Western countries are very different from ours."

"In fact, looking at all the countries in the world today, our history and cultural ideas are very unique."

"First, our history can be traced back to the period of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. The Ming Dynasty can only trace its history through historical books and some relics. Later, with the rise of archaeology, archaeologists unearthed the Yin Ruins, which directly proved the existence of the Shang Dynasty."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao couldn't help but interrupt Liu Kuan.

"What is archaeology?"

Liu Kuan explained, "Archaeology is a humanities science that emerged in modern times and studies ancient human activities. It can be considered a branch of science."

"Today's history has some overlap with it, but archaeology emphasizes empirical evidence, so its main work is to excavate various relics, such as buried city ruins, tombs, human or animal and plant remains, and specimens."

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao were surprised again.

This time it was Old Zhu who spoke first.

He frowned and said, "Isn't this just tomb robbing? Isn't that immoral?"

Liu Kuan said, "Tomb robbers go for the gold and silver treasures buried with the deceased. They often use any means necessary to dig up the caves, causing damage to the tombs and even insulting the remains of the deceased."

"If a tomb is opened for archaeological excavation, a protective excavation will be carried out to keep everything inside the tomb as it was."

"And archaeologists aren't looking for gold and silver treasures, but to deduce historical truths through the scenes found in the tombs."

"For example, historians today can only understand the Shang Dynasty through various documents handed down over thousands of years. Moreover, it is unknown when many of these documents were compiled, making it difficult to verify their authenticity. As a result, the history of the Shang Dynasty as we know it may not be true, and it is very likely fabricated by later generations."

"But if the remains of the Shang Dynasty are excavated, we can deduce the true situation of the Shang Dynasty through the various artifacts and remains inside, and thus identify the existing relevant historical materials and distinguish the true from the false."

At this point, Liu Kuan paused, looked at Old Zhu, and said, "Your Majesty, people often say 'Learn from history to understand the rise and fall of nations.' If what you know is false history, won't you be misled?"

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned again after hearing this. "While there is some truth in what you said, I still think that digging up graves just to verify historical facts is truly immoral."

Liu Kuan asked, "Then, Your Majesty, have you ever thought that even if archaeologists don't dig up tombs, tomb robbers won't dig them either?"

"If it's a peaceful time, the imperial court will usually enact laws to deter tomb robbers. But in troubled times, tomb robbers are often rampant, and countless ancient tombs have been looted."

"When tomb robbers visit an ancient tomb, not only is the owner disturbed, but burial objects are stolen and the tomb is destroyed. Future generations will no longer be able to understand his life or the conditions of his time. Isn't that a pity?"

Zhu Yuanzhang admitted in his heart that what Liu Kuan said made sense, but he still found it difficult to accept that later generations would excavate tombs for the purpose of historical research.

His imperial mausoleum is still under construction, so he feels uncomfortable when he thinks that his imperial mausoleum will probably be excavated by some archaeologist in the future.

He then asked, "People in later generations allowed those archaeologists to excavate tombs. Aren't those in power afraid that one day their tombs will be opened by even later generations to study history?"

Liu Kuan smiled.

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao were both very puzzled.

Zhu Biao was afraid that Old Zhu would be angry, so he took the initiative to ask, "Why is my brother-in-law laughing?"

"My humble servant is being rude—I couldn't help myself." Liu Kuan explained, "The problem your majesty mentioned was completely absent from later generations of rulers, because they promoted cremation."

Promote cremation?

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao were slightly stunned after hearing this.

Speaking of which, although burial was the main method in China during the Ming Dynasty, there were also other burial methods such as cremation, water burial, and sky burial, but most of them were customs of minorities.

Unless they encountered a plague, the Han people would generally choose burial. Even when cleaning up the battlefield after a war, they would bury the enemy's bodies instead of burning them.

Therefore, the two of them had no idea that cremation would be promoted in later generations.

Could it be that the new China that Liu Kuan came to was a dynasty established by ethnic minorities like the Mongols and the Qing Dynasty?

After coming to his senses, Zhu Biao asked, "In later generations, Han people were in power in China, right? Why did they promote cremation?"

Liu Kuan felt that the topic was getting more and more off-topic.

But Old Zhu and Zhu Biao kept asking questions, so he could only let the topic go off track.

He said: "The new China in later generations will be a multi-ethnic regime dominated by Han people, and will treat all ethnic minorities equally."

"The promotion of cremation has nothing to do with the ethnicity of those in power. It is a choice made after considering many factors."

"One is to solve the problem of land resources - China's population reached 14 billion at its peak in later generations. Even in later generations with peace and excellent medical conditions, tens of millions of people still die from natural causes every year."

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, consider this: if all these people were to be buried, how much of the nation's land would be turned into cemeteries each year, unable to be used for other purposes."

"In addition, the populations of large cities in later generations, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, have reached tens of millions."

"If all these people choose to be buried in the cities where they live, how much land around those cities will be turned into cemeteries?"

When Liu Kuan said this, both Zhu and Zhu Biao opened their mouths wide with exaggerated expressions of surprise.

In fact, the father and son were more shocked than they showed.

Because of their habitual thinking, although they knew that China would have a population of 14 billion in the future, they did not consider future events based on this situation.

After coming to his senses, Old Zhu spoke with a complicated expression, "I really hadn't considered what you said. It seems that when the population reaches a certain level, many things need to change."

"However, you said that the population of a large city in the future would be tens of millions. Wouldn't that be equivalent to concentrating the entire population of the current Ming Dynasty in one place? If that were true, how would the government of that city govern?"

Liu Kuan thought to himself: This topic has gone off track again, and it has gone too far.

He felt that he could no longer answer the two people's questions, otherwise he might not be able to leave Fengxian Hall after noon.

So he said, "Your Majesty, although the population of large cities in later generations can reach tens of millions, before I came to the Ming Dynasty, the most populous city, Chongqing, had only over 30 million people, only half of the current population of the Ming Dynasty."

"There are only three cities with populations exceeding 20 million: Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. There are only a dozen or so megacities nationwide with populations exceeding 10 million."

"As for how the government governs, it naturally relies on technology. There are simply too many facts involved, and it would take too long to explain. There's nothing worth learning from it for the Ming Dynasty, so could I not discuss it today?"

Why does Chongqing’s population only exceed 30 million?
What do you mean it’s only half of the current population of Ming Dynasty?
What else can you say about there being only a dozen cities with a population of over 10 million?

Old Zhu looked at Liu Kuan's expression carefully and felt that what he just said sounded strange.

However, Liu Kuan's subsequent remarks made Lao Zhu realize that the topic was too harsh.

He then said, "Well, we can talk about it later when we have time. Let's get back to the cremation issue. Besides saving land, are there any other reasons for promoting cremation in later generations?"

Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the later generations' change from burial custom to cremation was worthy of his understanding.

He is now planning to extend the Ming Dynasty for another seven or eight hundred years like the Zhou Dynasty, and he is confident that he can maintain internal peace in the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years.

In times of peace and prosperity, the population will inevitably grow rapidly. Perhaps in two or three hundred years, the Ming Dynasty will have a population of hundreds of millions, or even over one billion like in later generations. This is not impossible.

At that time, we would have to consider some issues like the Chinese court in later generations.

Liu Kuan said: "The main reason for promoting cremation in later generations is to save land resources, and other reasons are incidental."

"For example, protecting the environment, reducing the possibility of epidemics, and guiding people to change the custom of lavish funerals and extravagant banquets for funerals, which waste money."

"In order to guide this, the Chinese court in later generations started with those in power and officials - all officials had to be cremated."

"For officials who reached high ranks like the Minister of a Ministry or the Governor of a province, their ashes would even be scattered into rivers and the sea after cremation. This not only symbolized their integration with the country and its mountains and rivers, but also demonstrated their attitude of guiding the people to hold simple funerals."

"By the time I arrived at the Ming Dynasty, cremation had already been implemented in most rural areas, and its enforcement was becoming increasingly strict. Perhaps in another twenty or thirty years, cremation will have replaced burial practices."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao knew the reason why cremation was promoted in later generations, they were still surprised when they heard Liu Kuan's subsequent words.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "No wonder in the movies and videos you show, later generations of China seem quite powerful, and your words also express a sense of pride in later generations of China."

"As you said, in order to guide the people to abandon bad customs, high-ranking officials in the later dynasties not only set an example, but even willingly had their ashes scattered. With officials like this, why worry about the country being poorly governed? Why worry about the people not being loyal?"

Liu Kuan's mouth twitched when he heard this.

I thought to myself: What do you mean by "the ashes were scattered"? That's such a harsh word.

At this time, Old Zhu said, "Since the high-ranking officials of the court in the future are willing to have their ashes scattered, supporting the excavation of graves and archaeological excavations is not a big deal."

"However, if you want to promote archaeology in the Ming Dynasty and have people dig up graves to study history, I'm afraid it would be extremely inappropriate."

Zhu Yuanzhang had made up his mind.

He doesn't care what happens in the future, as long as his grave cannot be dug up by future generations.

"Well, let's just make the imperial mausoleum we're building a showpiece. We'll then find someone to find another Feng Shui location and build a hidden mausoleum. We'll also need to set up more traps. Whether it's tomb robbers or archaeologists who come in, they'll have to stay and keep us company!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang secretly made the decision to build the Yinling Mausoleum, Zhu Biao actually raised another question.

Zhu Biao continued what Old Zhu had said, "Digging up human graves for archaeological purposes is indeed inappropriate, at least not in line with current customs."

"However, the ruins of the Shang Dynasty are not tombs. They can be excavated so that our Ming Dynasty historians can learn more about them and deduce the true history of the Shang Dynasty." "Does my brother-in-law know where the ruins of the Shang Dynasty are buried? Can they be excavated?"

Liu Kuan hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "I remember that the ruins of Yin were in Anyang, but I'm not sure where exactly they are in Anyang today."

"Also, I suggest that it's best not to excavate the Yin Ruins right now. The Ming Dynasty currently has neither archaeology nor archaeologists. If we rashly do this, I'm afraid the Yin Ruins will be destroyed."

Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "You are right."

Seeing that the topic of archaeology had finally ended, Liu breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Then, will you continue to talk about the differences between the West and our history and culture?"

Old Zhu said, "Go on, it's not even noon yet."

Liu Kuan decided to keep his words as brief as possible and not say anything else.

He thought for a moment and said, "Not only does our history stretch back five thousand years, but the idea of ​​great unification has been around since the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors."

"When Xia Qi established the Xia Dynasty, he became the king of all the states. After the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period passed. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he established prefectures and counties, marking the beginning of the central dynasty's actual rule over the various regions."

"Since then, every dynasty, whether the Han Chinese were the orthodox rulers or ethnic minorities came to rule the Central Plains, all strived to unify the country. From the Qin Dynasty to the present, China has been unified for more than half of the time."

"However, the West, that is, those countries in Europe, although their history can be traced back thousands of years, has never established a unified country, let alone standardized language, writing, weights and measures, etc."

"For the past three thousand years, the West has been divided into dozens of small countries for most of the time."

"This history has led to significant differences between their political system, culture, and ideology and ours."

"For example, they still implement a feudal system similar to that of the Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period until now."

"The king can grant titles to dukes, marquises, and earls, and dukes, marquises, and earls can grant titles to viscounts, barons, and knights."

"These Western nobles are called lords, because each person who was granted a fiefdom was almost a real fiefdom and had many rights in the territory."

"And each lord can only govern his direct vassals, and has no right to govern the vassals of the lords under him. There's even a popular saying in the West: My lord's lord is not my lord; my vassal's vassal is not my vassal."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao interjected, "If what my brother-in-law said is true, the situation in Europe is indeed similar to our Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period."

"In the Analects of Confucius, there is a saying similar to that Western proverb: The ruler of Junshan is not my ruler; the minister of the ministers is not my minister."

"This kind of thinking persisted even until the end of the Han Dynasty. Even today, officials often rely on Dong Weng as their advisor, working for him without regard for the laws of the court."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "The ruler is not a ruler, and the minister is not a minister. This kind of behavior must not be tolerated. We must find a way to eradicate it!"

Liu Kuan was afraid that the two would steer the conversation off track again, so he quickly continued, "Although this feudal system has many drawbacks, it allows lords to maintain absolute control over their subjects."

"Some lords even treated their subjects as slaves, having the power over life and death, and even taking possession of a woman's virginity."

"It has been like this for thousands of years, so the grassroots people in the West are actually used to being enslaved by the powerful."

"We are different. Ever since the Qin Dynasty wiped out the six kingdoms and truly unified the world, the great uprising started by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang has always occurred in every dynasty since then, whenever the government oppressed the people too much, uprisings would break out."

"In other words, Westerners are accustomed to division, and the grassroots are accustomed to oppression and even slavery. We are just the opposite: accustomed to unity and resistance to oppression."

"In addition to the above two points, the third major difference is the ideology of the supporting rulers. Since the Han Dynasty, here, Confucianism has always been the dominant school of thought, supplemented by Legalism and other schools of thought."

"Although Taoist and Buddhist thought has penetrated deeply into the people and has seriously influenced many people in power, they have never truly controlled state power."

"However, in the West, because they are all small countries, when they began to use religion to assist in governance, religion quickly grew to a point where it was difficult to control."

"Later, religious power even surpassed the monarchs of various countries, and the concept of 'the Pope' emerged."

"The greater the religious power, the more severe its influence on the thoughts of the grassroots. Thus, the lords and the religions colluded, one using absolute force to suppress the people, rendering them powerless to resist; the other influencing and even controlling their thoughts, making it difficult for the people to harbor thoughts of resistance even under extreme oppression."

After a pause, Liu Kuan continued, "In fact, in today's U-Tsang region, Tibetan Buddhism and the ruling methods of the local dignitaries are very similar to those in the West."

"Although Confucianism has been used by successive monarchs to aid their rule and teach the people about loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, morality, and shame, it has now profoundly influenced the people."

"But it doesn't, like Western religions, use divine authority to fool the people. Furthermore..." Liu Kuan hesitated, then said firmly, "While Confucianism teaches people to be loyal to the emperor, it never teaches them to submit to fate or accept oppression, nor does it even teach them to resist tyranny."

At the end of his speech, Liu Kuan boldly raised his head and looked straight at Lao Zhu.

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, then narrowed his eyes slightly, slashing at Liu Kuan with a sharp gaze like a knife, and said, "You are talking about Mencius, right?"

Liu Kuan was startled by Zhu Yuanzhang's sharp gaze, but he didn't bow his head. He replied, "It's not just Mencius. There are many similar sayings in the pre-Qin school of thought."

"Ever since the Qin Dynasty unified the country and imposed tyranny, there were Chen Sheng and Wu Guang saying, 'Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of any kind born of the same race?' and Xiang Yu saying, 'I can replace him.' Even Liu Bang said, 'A true man should be like this.'"

"In the late Later Han Dynasty, the imperial court allowed powerful families to oppress the people, and Zhang Jue shouted the slogan 'The Blue Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven must be established.'"

"At the end of the Tang Dynasty, people were living in poverty. Although there was an imperial examination, it was monopolized by the wealthy and powerful. After failing the imperial examination, Huang Chao also wrote the quatrain 'The fragrance of incense rises to the sky, permeating Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor.'"

"The Zhao Song oppressed the people, and uprisings broke out one after another. If the Jin Kingdom had not preemptively ended the Northern Song Dynasty with the Jingkang Incident, the Zhao Song would have been destroyed by peasant uprisings sooner or later due to its oppression of the people."

"By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, even if I don't say it, Your Majesty must know it."

After a pause, Liu Kuan continued:
"I know that Your Majesty dislikes some of the ideas in Mencius, believing that they are not conducive to guiding the people to be loyal to the emperor and even violate the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues. Promulgating them would be detrimental to the stability of the Ming Dynasty."

"However, as I have said before, the idea of ​​resisting tyranny has been ingrained in us for thousands of years."

"Your Majesty wants to protect the Ming Dynasty by weakening or even eradicating this ideology, but this cannot be achieved by simply deleting a chapter of Mencius."

"Unless Your Majesty burns all the books in the world, eradicates Chinese characters, and even eliminates all folk myths, ghosts, and legends, it will be possible to eradicate this kind of thinking that resists tyranny."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned wooden and expressionless.

Zhu Biao, however, was standing aside with his eyes full of nervousness, and his face even turned a little pale.

He was not only worried that Liu Kuan's words would make Zhu Yuanzhang furious, but he was also worried that Zhu Yuanzhang would become stubborn and really do what Liu Kuan said, banning Confucianism, writing, and even everything related to the inheritance of thought.

He felt that if Zhu Yuanzhang really did that, the Ming Dynasty would probably perish before he could become emperor.

Even though he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was unlikely to do such an irrational thing, he was still worried and afraid.

Liu Kuan's tone softened at this point, and he said, "Your Majesty, think about this again. Without this legacy of not fearing sacrifice and resisting tyranny, how could the Red Turban Rebellion have broken out at the end of the Yuan Dynasty?"

"If you hadn't thought about resisting tyranny, I'm afraid your majesty would still be under the rule of the Mongols, submissive, hungry and cold, and might not even be able to earn enough to support his family."

"Later, after the Manchus entered the Central Plains, they used a minority to rule over a majority. Although they still used Confucianism to assist in their rule, they further transformed Confucianism based on your majesty's foundation, turning it almost entirely into a tool to help those in power tame the people."

"Even after these actions, the Qing dynasty remained concerned and, intentionally or unintentionally, reduced spending on education. By the time the Qing dynasty fell, the literacy rate among the people was still lower than during the Ming dynasty."

"However, even though the Qing dynasty kept the people ignorant for nearly three hundred years, they still failed to completely eradicate the idea of ​​resisting tyranny."

"During the more than 200 years of the Qing Dynasty's rule, there were numerous popular uprisings, and in the early and middle stages they were all under the slogan of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty."

"In the later period, the Taiping Rebellion broke out, sweeping across most of China and nearly overthrowing the Qing Dynasty."

"Although the Qing Dynasty eventually colluded with Han gentry and landlords and Western powers to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, the people's desire to resist tyranny was not extinguished."

"But a few decades later, a larger national revolution broke out, overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop."

"Afterwards, warlords, compradors, and capitalists supported by Western powers usurped the fruits of the revolution."

"At that time, China had been bullied and humiliated by Western powers for nearly a hundred years, starting with the Opium War. It could be said that China had become a semi-colony of Western powers."

"Even so, the Chinese people did not surrender. Instead, an even more vigorous revolution broke out, overthrowing the warlords, landlords, and capitalists! They also completely drove the influence of the great powers out of China, and thus established the new China that I was in before I traveled through time!"

Having said this in one breath, Liu Kuan actually had some kind of emotion burst out in his bones and could not control himself.

But he did not lose his mind - he knew that once something was said, he had to make it clear. Only by explaining the truth to Lao Zhu thoroughly could he win a chance to survive from Lao Zhu.

So, he took a breath and said, "Your Majesty, please think about this again. If it weren't for this idea of ​​resisting tyranny, I and your descendants in the future might still be oppressed by Western powers, and even live a life like slavery."

"Is that what Your Majesty wants to see?"

Having said that, Liu Kuan finally stopped and prepared to wait patiently for Lao Zhu's decision.

At the same time, he was wondering, what was he betting on when he said this, besides emotional impulse?
Are you betting on Lao Zhu’s tolerance and magnanimity?

of course not.

He is betting on Lao Zhu's confidence and ambition!

As long as Zhu Yuanzhang was confident that he could not eliminate or reduce the idea of ​​resisting tyranny, he could ensure the stability of the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years or even longer; as long as Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to make the Ming Dynasty extremely powerful and even transcend the constraints of the times, he would not kill him for these words.

Zhu Biao, standing by, also looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, but was anxiously waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang's decision.

　Sorry for the late update.

　　I owed a chapter before, this chapter is a two-in-one with more than 6,000 words, so I made up for the overdue update.

　　Good night~
　　Correct typos later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)