In fact, Zhao Guanjia's writing of "Dialectics" was both shocking and reasonable to the elites of the Song Dynasty.

Why?

Because there was dialectics in ancient China, but it was not called dialectics, but Taoism.

For example, Zhuangzi's "Equality of Things" says: Nothing is other than what it is, and nothing is nothing other than what it is. If you don't see it from that, you will know it if you know yourself. Therefore, it is said that what is comes from what is, and what is is also caused by that.

For another example, it is said in Laozi's "Tao Te Ching": existence and non-being complement each other, difficulty and ease complement each other, long and short complement each other, high and low lean towards each other, sounds and voices harmonize each other, and front and rear follow each other.

Everything is relative.

There is another saying in the "Tao Te Ching": When misfortunes come, blessings depend on them; when blessings come, misfortunes fall upon them.

This means that contradictions are developing and opposing, and things are tortuous and changing.

The "Tao Te Ching" also has this saying: Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.

This statement has been used by many magicians to deceive the public.

But in fact Taoism is not Taoism, it is a philosophy.

What it really means is that there are objective laws in the world, and Tao is the objective laws.

Objective Laws There is the contradictory opposition of yin and yang in the objective laws, that is, the contradictory opposition of one life and two.

Three things evolved out of contradictions and oppositions.

The three here means that the contradiction is moving forward.

The so-called "three births and all things" means that as contradictions advance, countless new contradictions are born, and contradictions evolve themselves to form new oppositions and unity.

This contains the core ideas of the grassroots: objective laws, the unity of contradictions and opposites, and the progress of things.

The Taoist emphasis on inaction does not mean inaction, but rather the avoidance of excessive human intervention, because objective laws do not change with human will.

That is what the legend says: The way of heaven cannot be violated!

Contradictions are the unity of opposites, things are moving forward, and we cannot forcefully go against nature.

This is one of the core ideas of Taoism.

So what is its connection with "The Wealth of Nations"?

have!

There is a core idea in "The Wealth of Nations": There is an invisible hand in the market that can self-regulate demand and supply.

This invisible hand is what is called Tao in Taoist philosophy, which is also the objective law.

Of course, Zhao Ning did not directly copy Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations". After all, he could not have written it down word for word.

He wrote the Song Dynasty version of "The Wealth of Nations" based on market theory and division of labor theory, combined with Taoist ideas.

Historically, Adam Smith, the author of "The Wealth of Nations", was one of the masters of classical liberal economics and politics.

When people in the 21st century talk about freedom, they always ridicule that it is a Western thing.

It is true that there was no concept of freedom in ancient China, but there was rule by inaction. Those who are proud of life must enjoy themselves to the fullest, and do not let the golden bottle stand empty against the moon.

Confucianism is only a part of Chinese civilization, it is not the whole.

So what is the connection between "Dialectics" and "The Wealth of Nations" and science?

Yes!

The most important part is objective laws!

We must admit that there are objective laws in this world, which is what Laozi calls Tao.

Only by admitting this can we start to think about the nature of the operation of all things and find the Tao mentioned by Laozi.

Ancient China experienced a major reform at the ideological level.

This reform was the beginning of ideological change.

It is very famous, it is called: Depose all schools of thought and respect only Confucianism.

Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty proposed this epoch-making ideological reform, the Western Han Dynasty was governed by Huang Lao.

When Huang Lao governed the country, he emphasized tranquility and inaction, which is Taoist thought.

Empress Dowager Dou knew that one should not go against the grain.

So she is a loyal believer in Taoism.

However, Liu Che hoped to unite the country's power with one hand to defeat the Xiongnu, so the so-called Taoist governance was out of date.

In the next thousand years, the nomadic people outside the Great Wall thought about going south all the time.

This forced the Central Plains dynasty to continuously centralize power to deal with the steppe barbarians. In order to maintain stability, imperial power was also constantly concentrated, which provided natural fertile ground for Confucianism.

However, Confucianism focuses on the relationship between people, which is a sociological aspect.

It does not recognize objective laws and does not face the weaknesses of human nature, so it naturally perfectly avoids the development of science.

The so-called scientific and technological development in the Song Dynasty was mostly based on empirical studies rather than discovering objective laws.

How to establish a systematic scientific theory without exploring objective laws?

Without a systematic scientific theory, how to iterate technology step by step?

Therefore, in fact, China's science and technology almost stopped moving forward by the Ming Dynasty.

Because there is no systematic scientific theory established.

In the final analysis, it is because there is no awareness of pursuing objective laws.

All scientific and technological progress is just a patchwork on the original basis, a new layer of skin, or a new pattern, without any qualitative changes at all.

But Chinese people are not inherently unwilling to pursue objective laws.

It's just that the economic base determines the superstructure, and the empire chose Confucianism instead of Taoism.

As a time traveler, you should clearly realize that ancient China had very good philosophical thoughts.

It’s not like some people say on the Internet every day that these are all Western things and we can’t have them.

Those are not just Western ones, they existed in China more than 2,000 years ago, but the trajectory of development has deviated due to objective circumstances.

Zhao Ding interrupted Chen Gui's words and asked about the doubts in his heart. He said: "Officials, I have doubts in my mind about Dialectics and The Wealth of Nations."

"My lord, it's okay to say so."

"If we govern the country based on theories such as Dialectics and The Wealth of Nations, there will be fatal weaknesses."

Zhao Ning did not express his position first, but asked: "What is the fatal weakness?"

"Confucianism can regulate people's hearts and unite the people. If the people all believe in Lao and Zhuang, and the people are free, if the court wants to mobilize troops, it will probably be much more difficult." Zhao Ding said, "This is not the case in "Dialectics", and "The Wealth of Nations"

But it illustrates that there is an invisible hand in private commerce, and we must respect it and let it play a role in private commercial societies. This is equivalent to weakening part of the authority of the imperial court in disguise."

"I also agree with what the Prime Minister said." Chen Gui said, "The imperial court has introduced a new policy for trading companies. If business is really handled in accordance with The Wealth of Nations, it may lead to businessmen becoming bigger. Businessmen are greedy for money. Once they become big, it may affect the bureaucrats."

Zhao Ning sighed in his heart, the ancients were really not stupid at all. Not only were they not stupid, their thinking was also very clear.

"The Wealth of Nations" is the elixir that the Zhao Guan family injected into the "New Deal for Business and Society" that Wang Zonglio was implementing.

"What the two ministers said is not unreasonable." Zhao Guanjia said, "As early as the tea ban, the imperial court also faced this problem. In the end, Cai Jing used tea introduction to solve the problem of the tea ban for hundreds of years. So what?

Cha Yin?”

Chen Gui said: "Chayin is when the government issues licenses to private merchants to operate tea according to the amount."

"Then why did tea introduction become the method accepted by everyone in the end?"
Chapter completed!