Listening to Sima Qian's words, Liu Che half-closed his eyes and said with a leisurely smile: "Since you have doubts, you might as well speak out..."
Hearing this, Sima Qian hurriedly bowed and said: "I once heard that a common proverb says: The prosperity in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit. In the past, the Taigong granted the title to Yingqiu, and the earth was flooded with bittern. The people
The widow and Taigong taught the people the skills of mastering fish and salt, so the people all returned and became strong and converged. They wore the same crown and clothes and walked all over the world. Hai and Dai joined hands to go to the dynasty. Later, the state of Qi declined, until Guan Zhong
With the power of light and heavy, the profit of fish and salt, and the dominance of Duke Heng, the nine princes united to rule the world. Confucius praised: "Mi Guan Zhong, I am sent to the left!"
"But to this day, it is not the case. In this world, merchants are all based on low industry and commerce, and the industry of villains. Li Kui promoted the teaching of land power, and the strategies of the merchants in farming and war are all based on low industry and commerce and heavy agriculture..."
"I feel a little strange..."
"If Jia people are really worthless, why should Taigong and Guan Zhong value him?"
"Come on, if you are really a villain, how can you be so rich today?"
Sima Qian paused as he spoke: "I once met Li You, a native of Guanzhong, and Liu Hui, the son of Liu Shezi, the minister of the Shaofu Prefecture of Liangqianshi. Following the teachings of the late king, he traveled to various counties in Guanzhong to pick up the people's customs. When passing through the counties and villages, he saw gurgling waterwheels.
, the channels are all over the place, and the people live in peace and contentment; except when they are farming, people in all places like to engage in industry and commerce, and work in workshops, and they can earn more than 5,500 yuan a year..."
"This is where I am concerned..."
"All the sages said: The business of industry and commerce is cheap, and merchants seek the interests of farmers. But this is not the case today. The workshops of merchants are used by the people every year, so that the common people can live in peace, raise their parents, and raise children..."
After hearing this, Liu Che smiled slightly.
This is why today, although Confucianism and Legalism have developed to a point where they themselves do not believe it, they still have no choice but to follow the Huang-Lao sect.
the reason is simple.
Both Confucianism and Legalism have encountered an embarrassing problem, where theory and practice have derailed...
In the past, most problems in the world could be explained by either Confucian theory or Legalist theory.
Let’s take this business matter as an example.
Confucianism rejects "strange skills and obscene skills", and Lu Ru advocates the elimination of "mechanical heart" to prevent these things from polluting the simple people.
Legalism aims at enriching the country and strengthening its military, and its mission is to educate people to the best of their ability.
They both took different paths but ended up with the same goal. They both wanted to favor agriculture and despise businessmen.
The only difference is that Confucianism emphasizes agriculture, which focuses on large landowners and nobles.
Legalists, on the other hand, prefer and tend to support the small and medium-sized landlord class.
But today, Confucian and Legalist theories have encountered strong challenges.
Especially in the land of Guanzhong, with the implementation of Pingliu and the strong implementation of the food price protection policy.
In fact, it has greatly alleviated the gap between the rich and the poor among the people.
At least, it gives the people some breathing space.
People no longer need to eat high-priced grain in winter and spring, but sell it cheaply in summer and autumn.
In recent years, the explosion and promotion of new agricultural technologies have also led to a significant increase in food production.
Today, when food prices are relatively constant and stable, the increase in food production allows people to finally free up time. They no longer have to stare at the land and live a precarious life as in the past.
With the construction of Baoxie Road Project, Longshou Canal Project, Kunming Pond Project and various other water conservancy channels and water transportation projects.
In particular, the construction of the Baoxie Road project allowed a large number of people to taste the benefits of selling their labor force for the first time.
Later, with the promulgation of Ping Lv, industry and commerce took off, especially in Guanzhong, the annual examination economy and Maoling business district were enough to form a huge consumer group.
As a result, the factory industry flourished.
A large number of people have transformed from farmers into a working class and a half-peasant class.
There are even groups of full-time workers.
Originally, according to the theories of Legalism and Confucianism, such a situation and such a world would definitely lead to chaos.
But unfortunately, nothing happened.
On the contrary, the lives of the people in Guanzhong are getting better year by year. Countless poor people who used to live in poverty now have savings and deposits.
The middle-class and well-off families in Guanzhong are even more exaggerated.
Almost everyone's warehouses are filled with corn and wheat flour, and the walls are covered with bacon and dried fish.
For the first time in history, the landlord class in Guanzhong can eat meat every meal...
Of course, this is based on the Andong region's continuous supply of dried fish to Chang'an and the large number of cattle and sheep brought by victory in foreign wars.
But in any case, both Confucianism and Legalism faced this embarrassment.
They must solve this problem before they have a chance to replace the old Huang faction.
Fortunately, they still have time now. After all, such a situation only occurs in a short time, only three years at most!
Moreover, it currently only exists in Guanzhong.
But as time went by, similar signs began to appear in the Sanhe area.
At least in Luoyang, the number of middle-class families (from one to one hundred thousand people) has been growing for three consecutive years.
Of course, new era intellectuals and young people like Sima Qian also face this problem together.
They found that the things in the book seemed to be difficult to explain these new changes.
This situation is somewhat similar to the late Spring and Autumn Period. The thinking of young people in the early Warring States Period when they discovered the new thing of the landlord class seems quite interesting!
Although, just like the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period, no one understands what kind of world this new change will bring.
However, everyone is cautiously testing and trying to contact and study such changes.
Only Liu Che himself was excited and fearful.
Because he knows what will appear in the future!
At this moment, he looked at Sima Qian's young and tender face and asked, "Do you know when China began to dislike merchants?"
Liu Che stood up, looked at the gurgling water in the channel of Shiqu Pavilion in front of him, and sighed to himself: "In the Spring and Autumn Period, Jia people traveled to various countries and went in and out of the palace, so that there were stories of Xian Gao and allusions to Tao Zhu Gong.
Confucius had a virtuous disciple, Duanmu Ci, who was also a merchant, but Confucius didn't take it seriously..."
In fact, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the status of merchants was quite high.
Even during the Warring States Period, merchants still had status.
Some big businessmen can even influence a country's domestic and foreign affairs.
For example, the famous Lu Buwei is such a wealthy businessman.
Even in the Qin State ruled by the Legalists and the Great Qin Empire under the rule of Qin Shihuang, there were also big businessmen like Widow Qing and Wu Shiluo who were named feudal lords.
So, since when did businessmen become a lowly business where everyone yelled and killed, and became a lowly business?
The answer is that after Qin unified the world, Qin Shihuang and the Legalist politicians could not tolerate the existence of merchants.
For Qin Shihuang, businessmen were highly mobile, and as long as they gave them money, there was nothing they dared not do.
Therefore, the businessman must die!
For Legalists, the existence of businessmen is even more disgusting.
Since Li Kui, Legalists have been hostile to merchants.
Moreover, unlike Confucianism, which is all talk but no practice, Legalism is an action school, and its ability to take action is incredible.
In just a dozen years, Legalism has profoundly changed the entire society through laws, systems, and swords.
As the son of Tai Shiling, Sima Qian certainly knew these historical developments.
But in his heart, he still didn't understand why it was like this?
If the hatred against merchants was the work of the Legalists and the Qin Dynasty, then why did the Han Dynasty inherit this system? Why did everyone in the world dislike merchants?
But he didn't dare to ask after all.
Liu Che knew why, but he wouldn't say it.
Looking at Sima Qian, Liu Che waved his hand and said: "You should go to Dragon City once... Before the Dragon City meeting in May, if you arrive at Dragon City, Dragon City will tell Aiqing the answer..."
Sima Qian nodded when he heard this and bowed again: "No!"
"By the way..." Liu Che suddenly turned around and said to him: "Ai Qing, can you do me a favor during this trip?"
Sima Qian quickly knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please give me your orders..."
"I want to compile a "Shui Jing Zhu" to record the mountains and rivers of the world, and describe the geographical changes of ancient and modern times. Since you want to travel around the world, why not start this for me... All the counties and counties that I pass will survey the rivers and the direction of the mountains and rivers.
, how about recording the story of the search into a book?"
Liu Che had long wanted to take action, organize the power of the country, and conduct a large-scale survey and mapping of the world.
But the problem is that such a project is too huge.
It might cost a lot, so I haven't made up my mind yet.
But now, since Sima Qian plans to travel around the world, let's use his hands to see how much time and work this will require.
When Sima Qian heard this, he was very happy and said: "I will obey your Majesty's order!"
"Shui Jing Zhu"? Such work immediately aroused Sima Qian's deep ambition and pride.
"Okay, please go and get ready..." Liu Che smiled and patted Sima Qian on the shoulder, then left the place surrounded by the guards.
Sima Qian bowed respectfully, watched the emperor leave, and then scratched his head.
Today's incident really left him a little confused.
Moreover, there are too many unanswered questions.
Fortunately, although Sima Qian was young, he had a good father and a good teacher.
In particular, his teacher Sima Jizhu had traveled all over the world and was used to seeing the good and evil in the world. He was also very knowledgeable and knew almost everything.
With doubts in his heart, Sima Qian returned to Shiqu Pavilion and immediately paid homage to his teacher.
As usual, Lord Sima Ji was taking a nap at this time.
He is old, and he has been busy with astronomical surveying and star maps in the past two years. Therefore, Lord Sima Ji is already very old at this time and is no longer as healthy as before.
However, he is satisfied.
Because before he died, he finally fulfilled his wish.
"Book of Heavenly Officials" has sixteen volumes, with a total of more than 300,000 words, and more than 200 pairs of star maps, listing the three buildings and twenty-eight constellations, and recording the positions of thousands of stars visible to the naked eye.
More importantly, through his efforts, twenty-one astronomical schools, including the Xingchen Family, the Jianchu Family, and the Yin-Yang Family, all provided their treasured secret scrolls to Sima Jizhu, so that he could completely list and annotate these.
The opinions and understandings of astronomy by people of different factions.
Of course, in this process, it is inevitable to learn from Mr.
However, no matter what, this is still an unprecedented feat.
From then on, both the alchemists and astronomers of later generations had to call him Patriarch.
The arrival of Sima Qian made Master Sima Ji quite happy. He loved this disciple very much.
After accepting Sima Qian as his disciple, Lord Sima Ji announced that he would no longer accept disciples.
This means that he recognized and decided to let Sima Qian be his successor, the so-called closed disciple.
"Teacher..." Sima Qian bowed to his master and said, "Your Majesty came to Shiqu Pavilion just now... I went to see Your Majesty..."
"Well..." Lord Sima Ji opened his eyes and asked, "What did your Majesty tell you?"
Sima Qian then told his teacher everything that happened just now.
It's very taboo for others to do this kind of thing, and it might even cost you your head.
But Sima Qian had a special status because he was a historian, and Sima Ji was also considered a historian.
Therefore, the two of them can talk about these things.
After all, this is the prerogative of the historian.
After hearing this, Lord Sima Ji let out a long sigh and said, "I understand what your Majesty means..."
As someone who has been active since the early Han Dynasty to this day, Sima Jizhu certainly knows the inside story and reasons for some things.
But he also knows that there are some things that cannot be said.
Moreover, it is useless to say so.
Because without personal experience and seeing it with your own eyes, it is difficult to understand it clearly.
Take this merchant thing for example.
The world's scholars, famous wise officials, and nobles all hate and reject merchants.
Even his master, Sima Ji, did not like merchants.
This naturally makes sense.
Moreover, it's not just businessmen who do bad things.
In fact, Lord Sima Jizhu traveled all over the country in his life and met the most despicable scholar-officials as well as businessmen with high moral standards.
He has long understood that a true person can be good or bad, and a gentleman can also be distinguished from a hypocrite and a true gentleman.
But nowadays, both true gentlemen and hypocrites are rejecting and hating businessmen.
How could the reason for this be so simple?
"Since His Majesty has ordered you to go to Dragon City, then you should go to Dragon City to find the answer!" Lord Sima Ji said with a smile: "However, I have a message for you: when you go to Dragon City, don't go and see what happened in Dragon City.
Things, just think about what changes these things will bring..."
"Hmm..." Sima Qian's eyes were full of confusion.
"Idiot!" Lord Sima Ji chuckled. What he liked most about Sima Qian was that he had an innocent heart and a thirst for knowledge.
This is something that most people in this world don't have.
Even Jia Yi and Jia Changsha did not have such characteristics in the eyes of Lord Sima Ji.
Master Sima Ji is convinced that as long as his disciple maintains this mentality, his achievements will definitely be higher than his own in the future.
"Go! Go!" Lord Sima Ji smiled and encouraged his disciples: "The meeting in Dragon City will start soon, so hurry up and prepare to set off!"
