Chapter 1522 Chinese culture is not weaker than others
Since Zhao Kai came to the throne, the three giants of North Korea and China plus the president of the Second Academy of Sciences have joined forces to cooperate for the first time.
But so far, it is limited to a few of them. Zhao Kai hopes to create a natural development phenomenon and not let the scholars know that this is secretly manipulated by the imperial court. At least in the initial stage, it is better not to lead the war to the imperial court. Therefore,
Only a few people know about this.
They can be said to be the smartest people in the world today, and the power of joining forces can be imagined.
First of all, the first step they have to do is to rationalize the expansion policy. This is Zhao Kai's most important concept. Expansion will definitely lead to war, which can also be said to rationalize the war.
After some research by Qin Hui and others, they finally decided to use Mozi's "non-attack" thought as the starting point.
As a result, Confucian Daily News took the lead in launching an attack, using the main idea of the Jin soldiers who came south to attack Mohism, that is, the argument of non-attack. War is indeed a waste of people and money, but if you don't attack others, others will still come to attack you.
The harm is even greater. Look at how good we are to Jin Guo, even better than our own subjects, but Jin Guo still wants to attack me. What should you do?
This is used to negate the idea of non-attack.
The Times Weekly of the Song Dynasty immediately gave a response, explaining that non-attack does not mean non-war, and thus refuted it with a sentence from Mozi's Universal Love---just one sentence, "Promote great benefits to the world and eliminate harm to the world!"
This sentence immediately became a focus of controversy.
Originally, Mozi's harm to the world included war, but this sentence also included an important idea, that is, the interests of the country and the people were the criterion.
This puts forward the idea of putting the interests of the country and the people first.
War is not wrong, and non-attack is not non-war. As long as the war is launched with the national interests as the original intention, it is a just war.
This does not seem to have changed much, but it is not the case. More land and more labor force. These are all national interests. According to this idea, commenting on a war has changed from the initial good and evil to profit and loss.
, if it is beneficial to the people, then it is right; if it is a loss, then it is wrong.
In addition, Li Qi also provided factual evidence, which was that the southern expedition to Jiaozhi destroyed the Li Dynasty regime.
The Li Dynasty launched an unprovoked war of aggression against the Song Dynasty and massacred 100,000 people of the Song Dynasty. If this tyranny is not eliminated, the people of our country will live in dire straits. As a person who loves everyone, he should bring great benefits to the world and eliminate it completely.
, to rescue the people under tyranny.
This case has once again redefined the term "big harm to the world". What is "big harm"? It is tyranny. People who harm the interests of others must destroy tyranny. As Mohists, we should prevent tyranny anywhere and stop bullying of the weak.
This phenomenon makes everyone in the world have love and achieve the state of universal love.
How to stop it?
Only violence can be used to combat violence and tyranny can be eliminated.
Another point is to prevent tyranny anywhere. In other words, wherever there is a war, we should intervene, hoe the strong and help the weak, help the weak, and punish the strong bandits.
This is like a thief breaking into a house and stealing things. The law will definitely punish them, so we should punish these people.
Knowledge has no borders, so universal love also has no borders. As a righteous man, we must draw our swords to help and prevent the spread of this bad phenomenon. This sentence elevated the Song Dynasty to the status of a world policeman.
There is a benchmark and a reason for whether to launch a war. The benchmark is whether it will harm national interests; the reason is whether we are opposing unjust wars and hoeing the strong and supporting the weak.
As soon as this argument came out, Confucian Daily added the "one word of praise or criticism" mentioned by Confucius in "Spring and Autumn" to distinguish the nature of war, emphasize the justice and rigor of war, and oppose the unjust war of militarism.
We still need understanding and support in the war to defend our country and resist aggression. Blind universal love is too ideal and will not work at all.
Confucius also mentioned the political basis of war, "Those who have civil affairs must have military preparations; those who have military affairs must have military preparations." This means that if you want to achieve political peace, you must have armed preparations, and if you want war, you must have military preparations.
Victory must have a political foundation.
Based on this, we can strengthen military education in order to achieve the simultaneous advancement of civil and military education. Because military and political affairs are complementary to each other and cannot be separated from each other, this will invisibly greatly improve the status of generals and increase the importance of military affairs in the hearts of the people.
status.
This first battle declared the victory of Confucianism. Confucianism's war thinking is more practical than Mohism. It advocates universal love and non-aggression is too idealistic.
Confucian scholars are overjoyed!
As everyone knows, during these rounds of debate, Confucian war thought has invisibly incorporated many new things, the most critical of which is that when commenting on war, the interests of the people come first, not morality.
In fact, in today's Confucianism, it is no longer the kind of war thought that Confucius originally proposed. Those scholar-bureaucrats are almost blindly anti-war. If you fight others, you are anti-war. If others fight you, you are also anti-war. If others fight you, you have to fight against war.
Compensation and peace, if you win, you must retreat immediately and compensate others.
This is a distorted golden mean that Confucianism has evolved to this day.
But things are different now. In fierce debates, Confucian scholars began to deny this idea and returned to the idea of war originally proposed by Confucius. They also accepted the idea of war that put national interests first, and war must be beneficial to the people.
This is human nature. In fact, human nature is very simple. The enemy of your enemy is your friend.
Originally, Confucian scholars were opposed to any war, the golden mean, and peace as the most precious, but Mohism also had similar ideas. If you want to oppose this idea of Mohism, you must deny this ideological proposition, then you must first
You have to accept an opposite ideological proposition. Now that you have refuted this idea of Mohism, the Confucian scholars are happy. This is enough. Li Qi cleverly grasps the weaknesses of human nature, creates public opinion, and manipulates it secretly to achieve his own goals.
political purpose.
This kind of war thought is in line with Zhao Kai's central policy. The imperial court immediately took advantage of the slope and issued notices supporting Confucianism, opposing tyranny, and opposing all humiliating peace requests. Both monarchs and ministers should defend the country's territory to the death, and the country's interests are high.
to everything.
In addition, Zhao Kai also took advantage of the situation and put forward several major Confucian thoughts on war preparation.
First, if there is enough food and soldiers, the people will trust you.
That is to say, adequate food and clothing, well-equipped military equipment, and the trust of the people are the foundation of politics.
Second: When the people are enough, which king is enough? When the people are not enough, which king is enough?
This is the idea that if the people are prosperous, the country will be prosperous, and the behavior of national governance and war should be understood from the perspective of comprehensive national strength.
Thirdly, those who are in danger must be safe; those who are dead must be preserved; those who are in chaos must be governed.
That is to say, although the world is safe, it will be in danger if it forgets to fight.
These three major thoughts reflect a problem: the Song Dynasty was always preparing for war.
But to paraphrase Confucianism, the scholars accepted it with great relief, and were very happy that Confucianism was always orthodox.
It can be seen that there is nothing impossible in this world, it just depends on whether you know how to adapt.
This first battle of ideological reform can be said to be a complete victory.
Li Qi and the others were relieved, because the victory in this first battle could well prove that their method was feasible.
The next step is to advocate governance by doing nothing.
What does it mean to govern by doing nothing? To put it simply, it depends on the self-realization of all people by doing nothing.
This idea is directly reflected in industry and commerce, because the concept of governing by doing nothing is very consistent with the concept of market economy brought by Li Qi from later generations.
Market economy is also called free market economy.
It means that the country lets go of its restraints and you are left to fend for yourself. No, it should be said to be free development, but when we say it is freedom, in fact there is still one hand controlling the entire economic system. It is interest. Once the economy is liberalized, interest will dominate everything.
.Where there are interests, there will be a swarm of people, and the interests will promote the progress of the entire society.
Now Li Qi's economic construction has matured and is about to reach a bottleneck. If we want to break through this bottleneck, we must liberalize the economy and use benefits to promote more benefits for mankind.
How to generate more benefits?
There is only one way to invent and create, and to use human wisdom to create more benefits. Because if you don't come up with newer tricks, you can't get more benefits than others, which can also promote industrial progress.
The freedom of the economic market can drive the progress of the entire country.
In his heart, Li Qi still very much hoped that through the idea of governing by inaction, the industrial age could come to the Song Dynasty early.
Moreover, the free economic system is also in line with Zhao Kai's strategic policy, because the free economy is not opposed to war. When the domestic wealth expands to the extreme, or when the economy is in recession, the people will naturally promote expansionary policies without the emperor having to say anything.
But then again, this is a feudal society after all, and a completely free economy is impossible. This market economy must still be based on kings, laws, and politics. You can't do business on the emperor's behalf.
For example, whoever is so stupid goes to buy the emperor's dragon chair and dragon robe. Although in a market economy, everything can be exchanged at equal value, but if anyone really wants to do this, it is not a pure market.
Not economical, but purely seeking death.
However, this is the first time since ancient times that the imperial court has clearly specified economic ideas.
Why does this phenomenon occur? In fact, this is not man-made, but an objective manifestation. You must know that commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty account for 90% of the national treasury revenue. What reason does the court have for not paying attention to business and developing it?
Business, what qualifications do ministers have to oppose business? If business is not good, you will all have to drink the northwest wind.
This is just like being a human being. If you want to be valued by others, you must first reflect your value, and then others will value you. Staying at home all day complaining about others, hating this and that, is completely a very wrong thing.
If you show value, people will naturally come to you. This is a market economy.
Xiangguo Temple.
Thousands of scholars sat on the ground in front of Xiangguo Temple. What started as a pure debate has now evolved into a discussion on how to develop the country.
Their debate led to the birth of national policies. Of course, there was some behind-the-scenes operation, but they didn't know it. But anyway, they felt that they were taken seriously, which made them very confident. However, after the imperial court's policies came out,
, and pushed them to think from a more pragmatic perspective.
Why the imperial court agreed to one of our statements and denied the other is worthy of their consideration.
On the second floor of an attic building next to the open space, Zhao Kai led the three giants and the dean of the second college to stand in front of the window, watching the scholars below.
"Bringing brains together and pooling wisdom is the way to govern a country."
Zhao Kai nodded frequently after hearing this, then turned to Li Qi and the others and said: "The house you built today is much better than the one last time. As long as you can work together, there will be nothing in this world that will trouble you."
.”
Isn't this forced by you? Li Qi murmured to himself, but said: "I just played a role in promoting it. The truly wise people are still those saints. We just borrowed their ideas and applied them to the current policy."
"Sir, we can't say anything about doing nothing."
Zhao Kai chuckled and said, "It's rare to hear you praise a saint. I remember that you used to feel disdain for it."
"That was because Wei Chen was short-sighted and overestimated his capabilities before." Li Qi said very sincerely: "But in the past few days, I have found that there are actually many problems. The saints have pointed out a clear way for us. They have seen it very thoroughly.
, they are the real geniuses, but some people take these ideas to extremes, causing the taste to change. This is just like food, it will always taste bad after being stored for a long time.”
He said this from the bottom of his heart. Although he did not study these knowledge, it was all studied by Wang Zhongling, Bai Shizhong, Cai Jing and others. He was responsible for creating public opinion, but judging from the results of the research,
For the first time, he was truly impressed by thinkers such as Confucius and Mencius. Their books contained too much future, especially some ideas that would never go out of style and could be applied to many fields.
You must know that this is an idea from a thousand years ago. Who would have thought that the rule of inaction proposed by Lao Tzu a thousand years ago would lay a foundation for today's market economy.
Chinese culture is vast and profound, and this is by no means bragging.
Li Qi discovered that in fact, many modern Western cultures had already appeared in China two thousand years ago, such as the democratic culture that the West is most proud of. However, Confucius put forward the idea of "different people have different opinions" thousands of years ago, which is the embodiment of democracy.
Electoral system? More than two thousand years ago, when Westerners had not yet evolved, Mencius shouted the slogan "The people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least. Therefore, the people of Qiu are the emperor." That is,
Only when he is recognized by the people of the world can he become the emperor. Isn't this where the idea of election lies?
But later on, these ideas completely became the tools of rulers. The humiliation in China's modern history can never erase China's five thousand years of glory.
But thinkers have a common problem, that is, they are too idealistic, but this is just their pursuit of ideals, and there is nothing wrong with it. If anyone completely applies this ideal world to reality, it is not the fault of the saint, but you are stupid.
There is no perfect person in this world. As long as it exists, it must have its flaws. If you must only look at the bad side, there is nothing you can do about it.
No matter what, today's Li Qi, even though he is in later generations, dares to tell the world loudly and loudly that Chinese culture is not inferior to others!
"It's rare for you to think so."
Zhao Kai nodded happily and said: "If you know your mistakes and you can correct them, there is no great way to do good. Similarly, you must also remember that the interests of the country are above all else. The people are the most important, the country is the second, and the king is the least. This is still the case for the king.
, not to mention you and others."
The implication of this is that you fight, but don't harm the interests of the country. This is something he will not allow.