Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 284 A Saint Was Born in the Ming Dynasty?! [Subscription Request]

After the video of Li Dingguo was finished, Zhu Yuanzhang paused the video again and said, "Tell us more about Li Dingguo's deeds."

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, when talking about Li Dingguo, we have to mention Zhang Xianzhong. In history, there were many factions of peasant-Ming armies in the late Ming Dynasty, and there are more than a dozen of them whose names are recorded in history books. However, in the end, only Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong managed to succeed."

"Li Zicheng captured Beijing and established the Dashun Kingdom. To avoid his downfall, Zhang Xianzhong first went to Huguang and then to Sichuan, where he ascended the throne in Chengdu and established the Dashi Kingdom."

"But both Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had some military capabilities but were weak in politics and people's livelihoods. Therefore, Dashun and Dashi were successively destroyed by the Qing army that entered the pass."

"Li Zicheng was pursued south by the Qing army. After crossing the Yangtze River, he was scouting the terrain at Jiugong Mountain in Huguang when he was mistaken for a bandit and killed by local landlords. Zhang Xianzhong was personally scouting the enemy during a battle with the Qing army and was shot dead by them."

"Zhang Xianzhong was quite good at judging people. He adopted four sons, whose original names were Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi. They all later became famous generals in the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty."

"Although Sun Kewang was the oldest of the four, Li Dingguo was the most skilled fighter. After Zhang Xianzhong was shot dead by the Qing army, the four men each restored their original surnames and led the Dashi Army to prepare to enter Yunnan and Guizhou."

"After they invaded Guizhou, the Yunnan chieftains revolted, forcing the Duke of Qian, Mu Tianbo, to flee Kunming. So, the Dashi Army marched into Kunming under the pretext of revenge for the Duke of Qian. After occupying Kunming, all four of them proclaimed themselves kings, with Sun Kewang being implicitly considered their most respected."

"Later, the Dashi Army managed Yunnan while negotiating with the Southern Ming, hoping to unite against the Qing. Although the two sides had many conflicts, they reluctantly united under pressure from the Qing army."

"After the Yongli court successively accepted the remnants of the Dashi Army and the Dashun Army, its strength was still quite good, and it began to recover the lost territory of the Ming Dynasty. Li Dingguo and others won victory after victory in Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi and other places."

"However, at this time, Sun Kewang had a conflict with the powerful faction of the Southern Ming court. He took the Yongli Emperor hostage and established a new court in Guizhou. This also caused a conflict and split between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo."

"Sun Kewang attempted to assassinate Li Dingguo, but was defeated by him. He fled north in panic and joined the Qing army. After Li Dingguo seized power, he disagreed with Liu Wenxiu's political views and became suspicious of him, so he stripped Liu Wenxiu of his military power."

"As for Ai Nengqi, he was ambushed and killed several years ago during the suppression of the Tusi rebels shortly after the Dashi Army entered Kunming."

"In the end, of Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons, only Li Dingguo remained on the Southern Ming side. With Yunnan and Beibei as his base, he launched several northern and eastern expeditions, winning many victories. Unfortunately, for various reasons, he ultimately failed."

"Until the Qing army captured Kunming, Emperor Yongli fled to Burma and sought refuge with the Burmese king. However, he was betrayed by the king and handed over to Wu Sangui, who strangled him with a bowstring. Li Dingguo also died of illness shortly afterwards."

Upon hearing this, the Zhu family thought Liu Kuan had finished speaking, but they heard him pause and say, "Your Majesty, do you know how future generations will describe the Southern Ming's Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo and others who supported the Ming Dynasty in resisting the Qing?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Don't keep me in suspense, just tell me."

"Pirates guard the country's borders, while bandits die for the country."

Pirates guard the country's borders, and bandits die for the country?
Doesn’t this correspond to what Liu Kuan said in his early years: “The emperor guards the national gate, and the king dies for the country”?

Zhu Ying knew little about Ming history and was slow to react, so he couldn't help but ask, "Why do you say that?"

Liu Kuan said, "Because the main force of the Southern Ming's resistance against the Qing was indeed the Dashun Army, the Dashi Army, and the Zheng family, who started out as pirates. As for the original Ming official army, the loyal and brave ones were killed long ago, and the rest surrendered to the Qing and became the vanguard of the Qing army's unification of the world."

For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Di pondered over Liu Kuan's words, feeling extremely complicated, especially Zhu Di.

After all, it was his lineage that brought the Ming Dynasty to this state.

After coming to his senses, Zhu Biao asked, "Could it be that the third of the Southern Ming's Three Pillars also came from a bandit background?"

Liu Kuan said, "That's not the case. Strictly speaking, this third figure's influence on the Southern Ming Dynasty was not as significant as that of Zheng Chenggong and Li Dingguo. He was considered a representative of a small group of scholars and gentry who remained loyal to the Ming Dynasty during the late Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di only felt that the "small part" in Liu Kuan's words was particularly harsh, but they knew that what Liu Kuan said must be the truth.

Old Zhu stopped sighing and said, "Then let's take a look at the deeds of this representative scholar."

The video starts and the subtitle changes.

"Living as a feather is a betrayal of the country; dying, leaving behind a legacy of blood, I will support the heavens. Loyalty is the duty of a loyal minister, and I dare to hope that this legacy will be remembered for generations to come." [Three Heroes of West Lake - Zhang Huangyan!]

In the video, a female voice, accompanied by a series of cut shots and a familiar soundtrack (Xuan Ni), begins to narrate Zhang Huangyan's life.

"In February of the 48th year of the Wanli reign, Zhang Huangyan was born in Yin County, Ningbo, Zhejiang. He lost his mother at the age of twelve. Under the guidance of his father, Zhang Huangyan had great ambitions since he was young..."

Through the woman's narration, the image of an outstanding scholar in the late Ming Dynasty appeared before the Zhu family.

He had great ambitions since he was young, passed the imperial examination and was good at riding and shooting, and had a strategic mind.

When Beijing fell and the Qing army marched south, he sold his property to help the people and started an army to resist the Qing.

He joined forces with Zheng to fight against the Qing Dynasty, entered the Yangtze River three times, fell into danger many times, and escaped death, but he did not change his determination to fight against the Qing Dynasty!

"When Zhang Huangyan recaptured Huizhou, Zheng Chenggong failed in his attack on Nanjing and retreated to the sea. He was caught in a dangerous dilemma and his army was quickly defeated."

"Zhang Huangyan once again refused the Qing army's offer to surrender. In desperation, he led hundreds of his remaining soldiers, burned his boats and landed. When he reached Dongxi Ridge, he was pursued by Qing cavalry."

"After a fierce battle, Zhang Huangyan was rescued by local villagers and barely escaped. He then suffered a malaria attack, but despite his illness, he returned to the Zhejiang coast, gathered his old troops, and planned to restore the country."

"But the situation was hopeless. Zheng Chenggong led his army to retreat to Dongfan Island, where he soon died of illness. The Yongli Dynasty of the Southern Ming Dynasty collapsed, and Li Dingguo also died of a sudden illness."

"Zhang Huangyan fell into despair. He disbanded his rebel army and lived in seclusion on an island, refusing to see visitors. However, in July of that year, he was betrayed by a traitor and captured by the Qing army. He was executed in Hangzhou in September."

Before his death, he looked up at Mount Wu and sighed, "Such a beautiful mountain, yet it has become so stinking!" He then left a suicide poem and died bravely at the age of forty-five.

Then, Zhang Huangyan's suicide poem appeared on the screen:

"I am fifty-nine, and it happens to be the seventh day of the ninth lunar month. The building is failing, and I will die for it."

Then another text appeared.

Zhang Huangyan, also known by his courtesy name Xuanzhu and pseudonym Cangshui, was a Southern Ming Confucian general, poet, and national hero. He was buried at the foot of Nanping Mountain on the shores of West Lake. He was known as one of the 'Three Heroes of West Lake' along with Yue Fei and Yu Qian.

The video ends here.

The Zhu family was filled with emotion and remained silent for a long time. After about a minute or two, Zhu Yuanzhang finally asked, "How many scholars in the late Ming Dynasty were as loyal to the Ming as Zhang Huangyan, who refused to surrender to the Qing Dynasty?"

Liu Kuan said, "There were many scholars in the late Ming Dynasty. Even if only a small number of them refused to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, there were still many who left their names in history books. However, I only remember the relatively famous ones."

"For example, Du Yinxi, who advocated 'uniting with the invaders to resist the invaders' and single-handedly entered the Zhongzheng Camp, convincing 100,000 Shun troops to submit to the Ming; and Zhang Kuang, who died of depression from overwork while fighting the Qing in Hunan."

"Another example is Chen Zilong, who failed in his uprising against the Qing and drowned himself after being captured; another example is Xia Yunyi and his son Xia Wanchun, who both died fighting the Qing; and Zhang Tongchang, the great-grandson of Zhang Juzheng, and so on."

"Of course, if we don't count those scholars with official titles, there would be even more."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao could not help but sigh: "It seems that the two or three hundred years of nurturing scholars in the Ming Dynasty have not been in vain."

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Zhu Biao and knew that Zhu Biao was reminding him that not all scholars were bad and the court should still treat scholars well, but he did not refute.

He looked at Liu Kuan again and asked, "The Southern Ming Dynasty had so many talented and ambitious people, why did they fail to stop the Qing army in the end?"

Liu Kuan smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, this question is too big, and the answer is very complicated. I can only briefly say that although there are many talented and ambitious people who resisted the Qing Dynasty, there are even more incompetent and deceitful teammates, and many of them surrendered to the Qing Dynasty."

"The most important thing is that there is no one person who can unite all the anti-Qing forces and unite them into one."

"History enthusiasts in later generations often say that reading the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty is most likely to raise one's blood pressure because it is so infuriating, lamentable, tragic, and regrettable."

"Even those who believe in science in later generations, after learning about the history of the late Ming Dynasty, could not help but sigh: It's time, it's luck, it's fate."

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao had heard Liu Kuan mention the concept of blood pressure and knew what high blood pressure meant.

When they thought about the glimpse of the Southern Ming Dynasty's history through the video, they felt really angry.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get.

Lao Zhu simply stopped thinking about it and waved his hand, saying, "Put down a video."

"Yes," Liu Kuan responded and called up the second video he had prepared.

Soon, the main title of the second video caught the eyes of Lao Zhu's family.

The Splendor of the Ming Dynasty

Then the subtitle appeared.

"The unity of knowledge and action leads to the realization of conscience. The sage of the School of Mind, Wang Yangming!"

A sage of the School of Mind?

A saint was born in the Ming Dynasty?
For a moment, the Zhu family were all shocked when they understood the meaning of the word "sage" - you know, even Zhu Xi, the master of Neo-Confucianism, was only named a half-sage, not a saint.

Moreover, Zhu Xi's status as a semi-saint needed to be consolidated in the early Ming Dynasty. In other words, Zhu Xi's title as a semi-saint was not so stable yet.

The video begins with the familiar soundtrack (Drowning).

At the same time, a middle-aged man dressed as a Confucian scholar sat in the cave, closing his eyes in deep thought, with a peaceful expression, like a sage.

"This heart is bright, so what can I say!"

"Wang Yangming was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in 1472. His grandfather named him Yun because his grandmother dreamt that an immortal came on a cloud and gave him a child."

"Wang Yun was speechless at the age of five. Later, he was taught by a wandering monk and changed his name to Shouren. Only then did he begin to speak."

Wang Yangming, who admired heroes, began learning archery and horsemanship at the age of 14, hoping to establish himself in the world as a versatile talent in both civil and military affairs...

With the commentary and video shots, Wang Yangming's life unfolded before the Zhu family like a picture scroll.

Born extraordinary, young and promising.

After entering the official career, he was involved in court struggles and was exiled to Guizhou as the postmaster of Longchang Post Station.

On the way, he was assassinated by people sent by the eunuch Liu Jin, but he escaped by faking his own death by jumping into the water.

After that, he attained enlightenment in Longchang and laid the foundation for the School of Mind.

"Confucius said to strive for the Tao. What is the Tao? Where is the Tao?"

"The Way of the Sage—My nature is self-sufficient, seeking nothing from outside! Studying things to gain knowledge, integrating knowledge and action!"

Seeing the video of Wang Yangming's enlightenment in Longchang, although many people did not understand it, they inexplicably felt it was very impressive.

Zhu Biao, who had the deepest understanding of Confucianism, was even more excited, repeating in a low voice: "My nature is self-sufficient, and I do not need to seek help from outside."

After Liu Jin lost power, Wang Yangming was recalled to the capital and gradually gained important positions.

He quelled the years of civil unrest in Jiangxi and suppressed the Ning Wang Rebellion. In the process, he also established the path of "investigating things to acquire knowledge, and integrating knowledge and action" for the School of Mind.

Two years after suppressing the Ning Wang Rebellion, the fifty-year-old Wang Yangming was rewarded by Emperor Jiajing and was granted the title of Xinjian Earl as a civil servant.

In the last seven years of his life, Wang Yangming served as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and spread the philosophy of mind in his hometown. Finally, he went to the battlefield to quell the rebellion of the chieftains and civil unrest in Guangxi while ill.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)