I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 104: On the National Disease! Shen Nian shows his true patriotism
September 13th.

Before daybreak, all the tabloids on the streets of the capital had already been sold out.

Yesterday was a day that will go down in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Hundreds of schools of thought discussed politics until dawn, with those who advocated Neo-Confucianism and those who followed the School of Mind expressing their own views, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses, and making compromises with each other.

The emperor gave a banquet, and all the political officials gathered together with those who came to the palace. Those with different academic and political views also had a pleasant conversation with each other.

Among them, the most heated discussion among the people.

It was the literary leader Wang Shizhen who attacked the prime minister of the time for handling official affairs with private letters, and the young Wanli who shed tears in the Council of State to protect Zhang Juzheng.

Many people once thought that Zhang Juzheng took advantage of the young Wanli and controlled the government.

They wanted to support the young emperor.

Now I understand that Zhang Juzheng had such power entirely at the emperor's behest, and Zhang Juzheng's biggest backer was the young Wanli.

At present, it can be said that: It is easy to shake Mount Tai, but difficult to shake Zhang Taiyue.

Especially what the young Wanli said, "The Yuanfu is the head of all officials. I know everything he does. The current court cannot do without the Yuanfu, the current cabinet cannot do without the Yuanfu, and I cannot do without the Yuanfu!"

This implies that Zhang Juzheng's position could not be shaken before the young Wanli took power.

Zhang Juzheng was deeply moved and wrote a memorial overnight, expressing his willingness to devote his life to the Ming Dynasty and to serve it until his death.

The clown turned out to be his own Wang Shizhen, who made the young Wanli and Zhang Juzheng perform such a beautiful story of monarch and minister in the discussion of hundreds of political schools.

……

noon.

Thousands of people gathered in front of the Meridian Gate.

This was the fifth day of the Hundred Schools of Thought and the last day for presenting various theories and political views.

In the last two days, the politicians will discuss the new policies and ways to help the country and enrich the country.

now.

There were also two famous "heretic" scholars, He Xinyin and Li Zhi, who did not speak.

These two people can be said to be typical anti-court figures who "never cared about life and death and always went against the court."

Some people think Hai Rui is here.

In addition, the court's performance in recent days has greatly changed the views of countless scholars, and the two may no longer dare to go on stage and make heretical remarks.

Some people also think that if the two do not speak out today, according to the attitude shown by the current council officials, their anti-court theories will definitely be banned after the Hundred Schools of Thought is over.

After the presiding official Shen Shixing finished his brief opening remarks, the sixty-year-old He Xinyin slowly stood up and strode onto the platform.

He was thin and his hair and beard were all gray.

After taking the stage.

He Xinyin first looked around, then bowed from afar towards the Meridian Gate, and then said: "Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you for the discussion! Thank you all!"

His bow surprised countless people.

Because in He Xinyin's heart, he has no father and no king, and apart from the relationship with friends, he doesn't care about ethics and morals at all.

They have never followed the court etiquette.

Just when everyone thought He Xinyin might have been changed by the debates of the past few days, he looked up to the sky and shouted: "The desire for life, the desire for righteousness, are all desires!"

This statement is a rebuttal to Mencius's theory of "sacrifice one's life for righteousness".

He is still the same person that everyone knows him to be, wild and flamboyant, without any change.

I just wanted to thank the court for giving me this opportunity to share my theories and political views.

He Xinyin paused and said, "My views are about having few desires, about friendship, about a harmonious family and a peaceful world, and about resisting oppressive politics and exploitation. Everyone in the world knows this, so I won't elaborate on it."

"Today, I will talk about the Cuihe Hall in my hometown. This hall includes scholars, farmers, workers, merchants, Taoists, doctors, and fortune tellers. There are nearly a thousand men and women, young and old. They work at dawn and stay in the hall at night. There is no worry about hunger, no bureaucracy to exploit. Weddings, funerals, and sacrifices are all handled with righteousness. Friends and family love each other. What a joy..."

"Cheng and Zhu suppressed desires, not bullying the powerful but bullying the common people. They perpetually oppressed innocent people in the name of governing chaos. Cuihetang manages its own taxes, allowing everyone to live and work in peace and contentment. This is the fundamental solution. Some say Cuihetang is a minority, but this method of governing the people is oriented towards the people of the world. Cheng and Zhu's Neo-Confucianism is oriented towards imperial power. Who is greater, the people of the world or imperial power?"

……

These words, in simple terms, are—

The current imperial court is an oppressor and exploiter, while Cuixintang's self-governance based on friendship is the way to govern the world. The imperial court's laws and policies only serve the emperor but not the people, which leads to chaotic, harsh and useless politics.

After He Xinyin finished speaking.

Many scholars below were frightened and broke out in cold sweats. No wonder local authorities wanted to arrest him.

This is clearly anti-court speech.

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at the councilors with an expression of being ready to die.

For more than ten years, he lectured in various places, and always advocated that the ideal way to govern the world is to establish friendships and let the people govern themselves.

After the councilors listened to the theory of "people's self-governance".

Most of them curled their lips and didn't want to debate with him.

Instead, I want to ask: Is it that he has no father, no mother, no teacher, and no relatives, yet he imagines that he can rule the world by relying on the opinions of his friends? That is simply ridiculous.

People with such political views should not be argued with, but should be thrown into jail directly.

At this moment, the audience in the parliament suddenly fell silent, and not a single parliamentary official came on stage.

The councilors were not afraid of him, but they did not want to debate with a madman about why the people should not govern themselves.

If the people of the world can govern themselves, what is the use of the court and officials?

at this time.

Hai Rui stood up and walked quickly to the platform.

Shen Nian straightened up subconsciously.

It felt like I was back in my private school days, when the teacher walked in with a ruler in hand.

The moment Shen Nian looked forward, all the council officials straightened their backs, and some even quickly straightened their clothes, including the three elders sitting in the front row.

This is Hai Rui's deterrent power!
He is the walking moral code, the walking etiquette, and the walking Ming Dynasty law.

Once he impeaches you, it must be because there is solid evidence and you have no choice but to admit your mistake.

Even the scholars sitting opposite the council platform straightened their backs.

They knew that Hai Rui was a traditional scholar-official.

But Hai Rui's life creed of unity of knowledge and action and his impressive career experience made them stand in awe.

He respected the imperial power, but he cursed the emperor more harshly than anyone else.

He is an official, but he is different from almost all other officials in the world.

This person has absolutely no moral flaws. Even Confucius may not have practiced Confucian morality as perfectly as he did.

Hai Rui looked at He Xinyin, who was five steps away, and shook his head slightly.

“You appear to have few desires, but in reality you have only selfish desires; you appear to care about the world, but in reality you only care about yourself.”

"If there is no Heavenly Principle and the Moral Order, human desires will run rampant, and the people will not know the laws of propriety. Fathers and sons may kill each other, or rulers and ministers may rebel, or husbands and wives may turn against each other. The country will no longer be a country, and the world will be in chaos."

"The Cuihe Hall's act of gathering people to govern themselves is the root cause of lawlessness, the beginning of the collapse of rituals and music, and the beginning of the implementation of government orders."

"Just imagine, if every organization in the world were like Cuihetang."

"Internally, the Ming Dynasty is falling apart. Local clans and factions are ruling on their own, acting with impunity. I'm afraid they will either become the wolves that devour the sheep, or the sheep that are devoured by the wolves. How can the people live in peace?"

"Externally, what should we do about the invasion of Japanese pirates at sea? What should we do about the Mongolian cavalry advancing south? The Ming Dynasty, a loose sand, can only be swallowed up by foreign invaders..."

"Your ideal of self-government by the people, of governing the world, can only exist under the protection of the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the supervision of the principles of morality and propriety. Otherwise, it will be nothing more than a flash in the pan!"

"You claim that Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is directed towards imperial power, while your philosophy of governing the world is directed towards the people of the world. This is truly absurd!"

"In your eyes, in your way of governing the world, there are no people under heaven, only the people of one corner of the world. When you have the people of the world in your heart, you don't believe that self-government by the people can bring peace to the world. Without the order of imperial power, there will be no courtesy, no rules, no education, how can we expect people to live and work in peace and contentment?"

……

"Well said!" Suddenly a young scholar among those who came to the palace couldn't help but shout loudly.

Self-governance by the people is equivalent to ruling by inaction.

If they had been able to govern themselves, there wouldn't have been so many rules, ancestral systems, rituals, and the teachings of sages passed down for thousands of years. In Hai Rui's eyes, He Xinyin was like a frog in a well, full of beautiful yearning for the vast sky, but he only saw the palm-sized area and never saw the world.

If his theory of "people's self-governance" could be implemented, the Ming Dynasty would become a disorderly and barbaric land.

Local clan associations like Cuihetang have either become flocks of sheep to be slaughtered or packs of bloodthirsty wolves.

The result of people's self-governance.

There must be robbery and fighting, and eventually the world will return to desolation, and then clans will be formed, and then it will fall into robbery and fighting again, and the cycle will repeat.

He Xinyin frowned slightly.

If these words came from someone else, he could refute them and say that the existence of the court was a moral kidnapping in the name of justice, suppressing human desires with moral swords and axes, and harming the people with harsh laws and punishments.

Cuihetang is the place that upholds justice for the people and allows them to live and work in peace and contentment.

But Hai Rui was the Justice Hai, who was held high by the people of the world. When he said he was doing it for the people of the world, the people of the world believed that he was doing it for the people of the world.

Just as He Xinyin was thinking about how to defend himself, the fifty-year-old Li Zhi strode towards the parliamentary platform.

As a rule, there are only two people at most on the platform.

However, Shen Shixing also knew that Li Zhi and He Xinyin had similar political views, so he did not stop him.

Compared with He Xinyin's theory of "people's self-governance", Li Zhi took another step and advocated the liberation of personality of people all over the world.

In his eyes, the people didn't even need to govern themselves. Confucian classics and Neo-Confucian dogmas were suppressing human nature and should be abolished.

Li Zhi looked at Hai Rui.

"I know that Hai Lao enforces the law like thunder and has always used cruel punishments to curb corruption. But among the scholars and officials in the world, how many are like Hai Lao?"

"The current imperial court exploits the people in the name of justice. All the civil and military officials in the court pay lip service to morality, while many engage in corruption, bribery, selling official positions, and forming cliques for personal gain. Land annexation is rampant, and taxes and corvée labor are heavy. Furthermore, local tyrants exploit the people's wealth, laws are unfair, and the people at the bottom are increasingly suffering. May I ask, Hai Lao, is this the truth?"

Although Li Zhi submitted his resignation, it had not yet been approved. At present, he was still an official, and he was very familiar with the current court bureaucracy.

"But what is the truth?" Li Zhi raised his voice and asked again.

Hai Rui was speechless.

The current officialdom and public morals are indeed very bad, and all he can do is to keep himself out of it.

Li Zhi added, "There is only one Hai Rui in the court, and there is only one Hai Rui in the world. Today, Hai Rui, under the guise of an upright official, is whitewashing the court's prosperity. His loyalty is, in fact, foolish!"

"I advise Mr. Hai, it would be better for you to return to Qiongzhou and teach instead of serving as an official. The current world has collapsed, and the court is full of flaws and ills. It treats the people like grass and has no faith in them. Things can't be any worse. Why can't we try a different way of governing the world, allowing the people of the world to liberate their nature and grow naturally..."

Li Zhi's words were not only sharp but also brilliant.

He first separated Hai Rui from the group of scholar-officials, and then used the corruption, incompetence, and flaws of the court to establish the view that the people should oppose oppression and liberate their individuality.

Hai Rui opened his mouth to speak, but held back.

Deep down in his heart, he believed that the current imperial court was indeed worthy of criticism from the people of the world, and that the people at the bottom were indeed being severely oppressed.

this moment.

Zhang Juzheng, Lu Diaoyang, Ma Ziqiang and others all had gloomy expressions.

Li Zhi grasped the weaknesses of the current imperial court and used the court's shortcomings to promote his theories and ideas.

They didn't know how to answer for a moment.

The imperial court has its own difficulties.

They knew the court's flaws better than anyone else.

The decline of the Ming Dynasty and the chaos of social morals began in the Zhengde period and became increasingly decadent in the late Jiajing period.

It was at that time that various doctrines and political views emerged like mushrooms after rain, giving rise to countless "anti-court" heretics.

Although the government showed some improvement during the Longqing period.

But it was much worse than the reigns of Hongwu and Yongle, not to mention the reigns of Yao and Shun, which were always revered by scholars.

This kind of decline cannot be caused in three or two years, nor can it be changed in three or two years. It requires the joint efforts of the whole world.

This is also the reason why the new policy must be implemented now.

The audience below the political platform became quiet again.

Just when Zhang Juzheng and Lu Diaoyang were about to stand up to explain at the same time, Shen Nian stood up.

When the two saw Shen Nian stand up, they couldn't help but be overjoyed. Almost at the same time, they stroked their beards and showed a faint smile on their faces.

Shen Nian strode onto the platform.

He first bowed towards the Meridian Gate, and then bowed to Hai Rui and Li Zhi.

Then, Shen Nian looked down and said loudly, "Brother Zhuo is right. The current Ming Dynasty does have many problems, including the problems everyone has been discussing recently: the problems of the imperial examination system, taxes, privileges, corruption, factionalism, corrupt officials, and so on. If I really want to talk about it in detail, I'm afraid it will take until dawn tomorrow!"

"I'm wondering what went wrong. Is the Ming Dynasty about to fall?"

Shen Nian shook his head slightly.

"It has been 248 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Most dynasties seem to be on the decline during this time. The gentry and powerful annex lands, privileges run rampant, the lower classes struggle to make ends meet, and countless refugees and rebels become destitute."

"We must admit that the current Ming Dynasty does have various problems, but it is not yet to the point of being terminally ill and beyond cure!"

"After becoming disappointed with the imperial court, some wanted to govern the country through teaching, some wanted people to govern themselves, some advocated a combination of Confucianism and Buddhism, some advocated governing by respecting the ancients, and so on. Many people didn't care what the imperial court did; they just wanted to promote their own doctrines."

"Are these policies for governing the world useful? Yes, because they do benefit some local people and give hope to those who believe in them."

"However, what I want to say is that the great Confucian scholars and famous scholars who uphold these doctrines are guilty of crimes against the court and the people of the world!"

Hearing this, many scholars frowned slightly.

They acknowledged that they might be disrespectful to the imperial court, but they would never admit that they were guilty of any crime against the people of the world, because they believed that they represented the people's livelihood and public opinion.

Shen Nian looked at the people coming to the palace below.

"Because most of these people are hoping for the swift demise of this corrupt Ming Dynasty."

"They believed that only the demise of the Ming Dynasty could bring about a new life for the empire; only the demise of the Ming Dynasty could bring about a new way of governing the empire."

"Another most important reason is that they believe that after the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the change of dynasties, they will not lose anything. Instead, they may be revered as the mainstream of academia, just like the portrait of Confucius is hung in the Temple of Literature throughout the dynasties, and the descendants of the Kong family will always be the Duke of Yansheng!"

These words left countless scholars stunned.

Many people do think so.

They were hostile to the Ming Dynasty and had no sense of belonging. They believed that the Ming Dynasty was not as powerful as the Han and Tang Dynasties, and did not have the academic freedom of the Song Dynasty.

Only when the Ming Dynasty falls can they have a chance to come to the fore.

They never regarded the imperial court as their support, nor were they willing to sacrifice their lives for the imperial court, so they were rebellious, they won the hearts of the people, and they opposed the imperial court in every way.

Hear this.

Zhang Juzheng, Lu Diaoyang, Ma Ziqiang, Wang Xijue and others also fell into deep thought.

Shen Nian continued, "But, every change of dynasties has resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Every change of dynasties has resulted in houses being burned, farmland being trampled, plagues being spread, and countless people being forced to leave their homes!"

"If the Ming Dynasty falls, it will not only destroy the imperial court, but also us officials. It is possible that our customs and festivals, ethics and morals, our clothing habits, our books, our eating habits, and so on will be destroyed along with them!"

"Think about the corvée labor and harsh policies of the Qin Dynasty, the massive construction projects of the Sui Dynasty, the frequent wars of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and the ethnic discrimination of the Yuan Dynasty..."

"It may not be difficult for you to knock down the towering tree of the Ming Dynasty, which is leaning a little, but the difficulty lies in finding another towering tree that can shelter the people of the world from the wind and rain. If it is still difficult to find one now, I hope that we can still unite and make this towering tree flourish again!"

"The Ming Dynasty is ill, our common Ming Dynasty is ill. We are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty. We share the same destiny with the Ming Dynasty. Only when we cure its illness can we become the masters of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Many Confucian scholars have the world and the people in their hearts, but they don't care about the imperial court. Little do they know that the imperial court is the greatest support for the people of the Ming Dynasty!"

……

"Well said! This is the true heart of a patriot!" Hai Rui couldn't help but say.

If the Ming Dynasty falls, all people will suffer.

Shen Nian's theory of national disease was not in line with the imperial power or the people, but empowered both sides and gave the people of the world a reason to support the court.

At this moment, He Xinyin and Li Zhi were both a little confused.

They thought they had the world in their hearts and were doing it for the people of the world, but they didn't expect that after Shen Nian's remarks, they became sinners of the people of the Ming Dynasty, but they could not refute it.

At this moment, the visitors and the council officials were all a little stunned. They still needed some time to digest Shen Nian's remarks.

(End of this chapter)