Ming Dynasty: My Brother-in-law is Zhu Youxiao - Chapter 420

  Chapter 420 Teach Donggong knowledge and drive Confucian officials to lead!

  Fan Jingwen saw that Zhang Gui refuted it, and it was not easy to argue with Zhang Gui. After all, Zhang Gui recommended him as the benefactor of the East Palace staff, so he cupped his hands and said, “I would like to ask the grand master for advice.”

The prince also looked towards Zhang Gui and said, “What uncle asked, I actually want to ask too. Although Song Renzong is lenient and benevolent as a king, he can only maintain peace by negotiating peace and increasing taxes on the people. The so-called prosperous age can only be regarded as a prosperous age that increased the burden of the people. Even if the burden of the people was greatly increased due to the inability to fight, it still caused the loss of the dignity of the country and the lives of the people. This can be regarded as a promising example worth emulating Lord?”

   “It doesn’t count!”

  Zhang Gui replied directly, and said: “It’s not good to keep Chengdu.”

   “Even if His Highness cannot maintain the country’s strength in the future, at least he must ensure that the people will not be rewarded.”

   “Because the Department of Policy and Policy has already learned from summarizing the tax laws of the past dynasties that once a dynasty has experienced an increase in taxation, it will not be reduced again, and there will only be a tendency to continue to increase. This can already be said to be a law.”

“Unless he is a truly promising king, such as today’s emperor, he is not the founding king of the country. Even at the beginning of his ascension, there were internal and external troubles, but did he not preserve the dignity of the country? Moreover, he did not add gifts to the people because of this, and even exempted him in the end. Liao pay, a large amount of small tax burdens are exempted.”

   “So, it is not difficult for a successful king to realize that the people do not add gifts and the country uses enough. However, Song Renzong failed to do it. How is it worth emulating?”

  The prince nodded.

  He still trusts his uncle very much now. After all, his uncle helped him to remonstrate, protect his reserve position, and let him understand the real situation of Daming better.

  So, the crown prince listened to Zhang Gui’s words very seriously.

  Fan Jingwen then said: “Song Renzong is indeed not a promising king, but I think that Song Renzong has no virtue at least, so I let your highness learn from it.”

  Zhang Gui continued to retort: ​​”Fan Gong’s words are wrong. Your Highness will be the king in the future, not just having no virtue!”

   “There is no system that is suitable for a hundred years, and the internal and external situation is not the same for a hundred years. The government that His Highness will face in the future may not be simpler than that of His Majesty today. You can’t just let him be virtuous, but also have achievements.”

After hearing this, the crown prince couldn’t help looking at Fan Jingwen: “Mr. Fan, I think my uncle is right. Many of the systems created by the Taizu have been reformed in the country. It’s not because the Taizu was unwise when he created these systems, but because they are out of date. , so it needs to be reformed.”

   “Father, because of the restructuring, the Ming Dynasty is now revitalized. There are no hungry roads and no barren fields in the countryside. Sir, what do you think?”

  Fan Jingwen didn’t want to be an official of the East Palace anymore.

  Because Zhang Gui taught in this way, he really couldn’t teach.

  As a bureaucrat, Fan Jingwen also naturally likes comfort.

  He would rather die than to toss and make himself uncomfortable, so he instinctively hoped that the prince would stop tossing after he became emperor in the future.

  After all, it is foreseeable that the current Daming, after the crown prince becomes emperor in the future, will definitely have nothing to do with the world!

The world must be Xianping, even better than the Song Renzong period. After all, Song Renzong’s period still had Xixia and Liao watching over him. In the future, when the prince becomes emperor, it can be said that there is no threat at all, which is similar to the early years of Zhengtong. Without tossing about, it will definitely be peaceful for many years, ushering in the Great Ming version of Wenjingzhizhi.

   And that is certainly enough!

   After all, if the people are neither hungry nor cold, they can be called well-off.

  But Fan Jingwen couldn’t deny Zhang Gui’s point of view, because he couldn’t say against his will that the current better system won’t have problems in the future, nor could he say against his will that as long as the emperor has virtue, he can do it and won’t give more to the people.

“Mr. Fan had better not say that he is not talented and learning at this time and wants to resign. When I recommend you to be a lecturer for Your Highness, the first thing you value is your integrity, and the second is that you have a different philosophy from mine, so I let you speak for Your Highness. , the purpose is to allow His Highness to listen to different voices at the same time, so that it is easier to think and distinguish. How can you distinguish between reading and analyzing?”

   “What’s more, once His Highness becomes a king in the future, he will hear more opinions of different kinds. At that time, he needs to make his own judgment and have the ability to think independently. Only being able to think independently is the prerequisite for becoming a wise king.”

  Zhang Gui seemed to have seen what Fan Jingwen was thinking, so he mentioned it first at this time.

After hearing this, Fan Jingwen naturally didn’t dare to talk about resigning and resigning. He just said: “What Uncle Guo said is that the heart of a king is like a mirror. If you can tell right from wrong, your highness, as the heir, is now trained to be able to listen to all kinds of voices.” Have the ability to make a decision.”

   But also because of this, Fan Jingwen realized that this uncle of the country who taught the prince had no intention of teaching the prince according to the model of a wise emperor required by the saints since ancient times.

   To be precise, it is not teaching!

   Instead, he is guiding the prince to think. He is Teacher Donggong in name, but in fact, he is just used by Uncle Guo as an introduction to guide the prince to think actively!

  Fan Jingwen was a little uncomfortable with this teaching mode, but he found that the prince seemed to enjoy this mode, so he took the initiative to ask himself.

“Your Highness, although Song Renzong is not very promising, I think that Song history is not without learning. Your Highness should know the four sentences of Zhang Zi in the Song Dynasty, the three inadequacies of Wang Shu and Wang Shu, and Mr. Fan Wenzheng’s saying is to worry about the world’s worries first, and to enjoy the world’s joys later.”

  As Zhang Gui spoke, he asked Fan Jingwen and the others: “I wonder what Mr. Zhu thinks?”

  The crown prince also looked at Fan Jingwen and the others with great interest.

  As an eleven-year-old boy, the prince is more curious than thirsty for knowledge.

  So, as in the past, the Confucian officials of the Eastern Palace directly instilled in him what is the holy words of monarchy, but he felt boring and easily fell asleep.

But now, sitting on the sidelines and listening to Fan Jingwen and others express their opinions on his uncle’s remarks, he is very willing to listen, and he is not at all sleepy. He even starts to think about it himself, wondering how he thinks ?

  Fan Jingwen and others couldn’t answer for a while, especially Wang Anshi’s three shortcomings, they were unwilling to admit that this was the correct statement that should be taught to the prince!

  But he can’t say against his will that this is wrong. After all, the reform of Daming is based on these “three shortcomings” to get to the present, not to mention the effect is not bad, and the ideological circle of Daming is also supporting this view.

  Therefore, Zhang Gui saw this and could only say: “You must not know how to explain your thoughts in front of His Highness for a while, so it is better to put it aside for the time being. Next, Mr. Zuo Zhong will allow Mr. Jiang to talk about the way to make the country rich.”

  The crown prince was a little disappointed. He didn’t expect Fan Jingwen and the lecturers to answer, so he could only temporarily suppress this curiosity in his heart and listen to Jiang Dejing explain the knowledge of the country’s prosperity.

“If you want to make the country rich, you must first make the people rich, and the people’s wealth must increase the wealth of the people who produce more, that is, the wealth of the world should be distributed more to the people who produce, so that the country can be peaceful and the people are safe. Otherwise, the so-called prosperity is nothing more than It is the prosperity of the meat-eaters, not the prosperity of the people of the world, nor the prosperity of the country! There are three chariots to increase the wealth of the world, one is consumption, the other is export…”

  Jiang Dejing began to tell the story seriously based on what he had learned in Xilin Academy.

The prince listened carefully, because he found that these were not boring classics that taught him how to be virtuous and polite, but were all about objective knowledge. While listening carefully, he would also unconsciously think about it because of himself Doubts arise from the awareness of the problem, and interest in inquiry arises.

  (end of this chapter)