I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 593 Confucius' Title

In real history, Confucius could not even keep his title as a king. In the ninth year of the Jiajing reign, Emperor Jiajing removed Confucius’ title as a king and conferred him the title of “The Great Sage and Teacher”.

The reason was that the emperor had to attend the annual Confucius sacrifice ceremony and kneel down to pay respects to Confucius' tablet, which made Jiajing very dissatisfied. He believed that the emperor kneeling down to pay respects to the king undermined his dignity as an emperor. His subordinates saw his thoughts and wrote a memorial saying that Confucius was the teacher of all scholars, so his status as a teacher should be highlighted, and he should not be a king. Therefore, Confucius' title of king was removed and he was named "the most holy teacher". Then the process of Confucius sacrifice was changed, and from then on the emperor did not have to attend the Confucius sacrifice ceremony.

The Qing Dynasty did not make any changes in this regard afterwards.

There is actually no saying that one of these two titles is better or worse, they just have different emphases. Zhu Houchun did not intentionally insult Confucius by doing this, and any discerning person can see that. After all, Confucius also has a high reputation in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty. But Zhu Houchun deliberately wanted to do this at this sensitive time.

At this sensitive time, the scholars in the south thought that this matter could be exploited, and immediately made a very biased interpretation, believing that Zhu Houxuan was insulting Confucius.

Kong Wenshao, the Duke of Yansheng who fled to the south, fiercely rebuked Zhu Houxuan for this incident. As a descendant of Confucius, he cared a lot about the title of "King Wenxuan". In fact, if they could choose, they would rather have the title of "Emperor Wenxuan"...

Yes, Confucius was given the title "Emperor Wenxuan", which was conferred by the King of Western Xia. It was the highest-level title conferred on Confucius.

In real history, the change of Confucius' title did not cause any disturbance. It was just that the Kong family was very dissatisfied with it privately. For this reason, when they publicly worshiped Confucius, they worshipped the tablet of "Great Sage and Teacher", while inside the Kong family they secretly kept the tablet of "Great Sage and King of Literature and Propaganda", and worshipped this tablet in private, which shows how much they care about this matter...

No matter what teacher of scholars in the world, what role model, what sage, none of them is as good as a king.

With Duke Yansheng personally taking the lead in this matter, and with many people fanning the flames, a larger wave of verbal criticism against Zhu Houxun was set off.

Moreover, this wave was getting bigger and bigger. Many people who were still on the sidelines saw that Zhu Houxuan had made many stupid moves and lost a lot of people's support, so they made a decision and joined this wave...

For a while, the momentum of the South was so great that it looked like a dark cloud was looming over the city, and the southern provinces were all critical of the Beijing court... Even some scholars in the north jumped out to express their support for the southern scholars. Zhu Houxuan would naturally not indulge them, nor would he be lenient, and he dealt with them all.
This led to more northern gentry quietly packing up their gold and silver and moving south, and the Beijing court turned a blind eye to this and did not stop them.
Facing the various public opinion offensives from the south, Zhu Houxuan issued a series of decrees to abolish the status of slaves, the road permit system, and slavery throughout the country, reaffirming the basic rights of Ming citizens, that no citizen of the Ming Dynasty could be a slave, and denying the personal dependence brought about by the so-called indenture.
This series of measures was incomprehensible, but it further intensified the conflict between the north and the south, because domestic slaves were most prevalent in the south, and many of the aristocratic families in the south had more than a thousand domestic slaves.
Anlu Prefecture, Prince Xing’s Palace.

Yan Song and Xia Yan came to the side of Prince Xing Zhu Houcong a year ago. They took the initiative to fight for this opportunity. There were more than 40 people who came with them, all of whom were representatives of big families from all over the country, and many of them were capable officials who had served in office for many years.
The imperial court's ban on the vassal states was now in name only. Local officials turned a blind eye to their behavior in and out of Prince Xing's mansion, and the officials in Prince Xing's mansion had lost their function.
These people came to Zhu Houcong in order to get to know each other in advance, build mutual trust, and on this basis form a team for Zhu Houcong.

In this time and space, because Zhu Houcong did not succeed to the throne, Xia Yan and Yan Song's official careers were not smooth (because there was no Great Ceremony Controversy). They were still serving as officials in the six ministries in Nanjing when they were in their fifties, and only managed to get the rank of vice minister.

However, it was God's will that they seized the opportunity and came to Zhu Houcong's side. In the past year or so, they stood out from the crowd, won Zhu Houcong's trust, and became famous in front of Zhu Houcong.

At this time, the two were waiting outside the door, waiting for Zhu Houcong to finish his training.
The two men now have a very good relationship, because they are both from Jiangxi, and they are from the same hometown. They are each other's supporters around Zhu Houcong.
After a while, Huang Jin quietly walked out of the abode, and the two knew that Zhu Houcong had completed his training.
Led by Huang Jin, the two entered the temple and saw Zhu Houcong lying on a recliner with his eyes closed.

After the two men met Zhu Houcong, they began to report to him the various news they had received.
After listening to the report, Zhu Houcong slowly opened his eyes, took a deep breath and said, "The King of Jing has made a lot of stupid moves recently!"

"This is God's blessing on Your Highness and our Ming Dynasty." Yan Song said quickly.

Zhu Houcong glanced at Yan Song calmly and continued, "When I was young, I went to Qizhou to meet the King of Jing. I was deeply impressed by him. He is a dragon among men. In the past twenty years, I have often paid attention to the government. I have to say that my cousin has a great talent. But such a person has made so many stupid moves at this time. It is really puzzling and worrying!"

Zhu Houcong's words made Yan Song at a loss for words.
After more than a year of getting along, they all knew that Zhu Houcong was not someone who could be easily fooled. Although he was trapped in the palace, he was very shrewd.
"Perhaps King Jing looks down on us because he is too proud. But no matter what, these tricks of King Jing are strengthening our strength and allowing more people to join us and support Your Highness. Maybe King Jing has some conspiracy, but no matter what the conspiracy is, it will be useless in the face of absolute power. And our current strength is far greater than that of the Northern Dynasty." Xia Yan said.

Zhu Houcong nodded slowly. He was 29 years old this year. He had a good appearance and noble air. He had practiced Taoism for many years, which gave him a more immortal temperament. With his shrewd and deep eyes, he really had the bearing of an emperor.
"You keep saying that our strength is far greater than that of the north, but I have never seen it, and I don't know whether the million-strong army you mentioned is real or fake?" Zhu Houcong said lightly.

(End of this chapter)