Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 241 Prince Ning Rebelled
Cong Lan, who was a Jinshi graduate, was also a knowledgeable man. He was sure that these three words had never appeared in ancient Chinese literature.

At this moment, Cong Lan really wanted to stand up and ask Zhang Cong, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, what these three words meant, but he still restrained the impulse.

Because the official rules of the Ming Dynasty told him that this was the capital, and he was ordered to come to Beijing to study how to govern the country. The first thing he had to do was to abide by the rules, including the class rules explained in advance by Zhang Cong, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel, which was that he had to raise his hand and get the lecturer's permission before speaking.

Cong Lan raised his hand. To be honest, he was also shocked by this way of teaching. He had also attended a private school when he was a child, but it was basically a room with a few desks. The teacher read while shaking his head, and the students followed him while shaking their heads. There was a portrait of the great sage hanging in the middle.

But it is nothing like the classroom now, with one side higher and the other lower and stairs. On each step is a long row of wooden tables and benches, which can accommodate dozens or even hundreds of students at a time. Because the teacher who gives lectures is at the lowest part of the stairs, Cong Lan always feels that she, the student, is looking down on the teacher, which makes Cong Lan very uncomfortable.

But no matter what, this was the arrangement of the court, and Cong Lan could only listen to the class seriously.

When Zhang Cong saw Cong Lan raise her hand, he also motioned for Cong Lan to stand up and speak.

Cong Lan stood up and bowed to Zhang Cong first: "May I ask, sir, where do the three words human rights, nation, and decentralization come from, and what do they mean?"

Zhang Cong is now responsible for teaching political science to officials studying at the National School of Administration, so Cong Lan naturally calls him "Mr."

However, Zhang Cong did not become arrogant because he was a teacher at the National School of Administration. After all, Cong Lan was one rank higher than him, so he smiled and said:
"Mr. Cong, please take a seat. These three words came from the emperor's mouth and there is no source to check. As for their meaning, I will explain them in detail later. I hope you will listen carefully. But you can only raise your hands to speak after I finish speaking, otherwise you will not be able to finish speaking. After I finish speaking, I will give you time to ask questions and make comments."

As Zhang Cong spoke, he began to explain.

Cong Lan had already begun to have doubts in her heart: "There is no classic to check, and it came from your Majesty's mouth? Can your Majesty's words be regarded as the words of a saint and taught?"

Cong Lan was not the only one who was shocked. Other officials who came to the National School of Administration were also shocked. They only knew that when studying, they should learn the words of sages, but they never knew that the sage was His Majesty the Emperor and they should listen to His Majesty's words.

However, due to the majesty of the imperial power and the order of ethics, they did not dare to despise it and had to listen carefully.

But the more Cong Lan and other civil servants listened, the more shocked they became. They were shocked that His Majesty would actually make such remarks. They couldn't help but wonder, why did His Majesty emphasize human rights? Did His Majesty want us, the ministers, to realize that we also have rights? What about the words of the saints that the ruler is the guide for the ministers, the father is the guide for the sons, and the husband is the guide for the wife? If the ruler wants the minister to die, the minister has to die. If you really want to pay attention to human rights, then don't you want us to disobey the order and die? Is His Majesty asking us to rebel against him?
Cong Lan thought this theory was ridiculous, but he also felt it made some sense. However, this was the capital, and the person teaching him was Zhang Cong, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel and a favorite of the emperor. He did not dare to refuse, and could only patiently continue to study.

In fact, it is no wonder that civil servants such as Cong Lan were surprised.

After all, this enlightenment thought that opened up modern civilization took a long time to build and mature from the 17th to the 18th century in history.

In this era when people believe that the king's power is granted by God, no one would think of the concept that the king's power is granted by the people, or even the concept of the country, or even the concept that the country is composed of the people.

Cong Lan and other civil servants had many questions, and they seemed to have gained a lot all of a sudden. For the first time, they discovered that there was a concept of country outside of the dynasty.

"The dynasty belongs to the royal family, but the country belongs to everyone! The affairs of the dynasty are planned by the emperor and his ministers, but the affairs of the country are planned by the people of the world, and every man has a responsibility!"

Zhang Cong's words shocked Cong Lan and other civil servants who were studying there. All they had learned since they received their education was to cultivate themselves, manage their families, govern the country and bring peace to the world, but to be honest, they had never thought about the relationship between the dynasty and the country.

In their view, being loyal to the Ming Dynasty was their duty as a minister of the Ming Dynasty. However, if they were a minister of the former Yuan Dynasty, being loyal to the emperor of the former Yuan Dynasty was also their duty. However, they did not expect that they would find out today that there was a country above the dynasty, and the name of this country was China!
Zhu Houzhao was also standing outside the window at this time, looking at the shocked expressions of these civil servants. Instilling national consciousness and ethnic consciousness in the people of this era was the fundamental purpose of his establishment of the National School of Administration, and even the fundamental purpose of his founding the Imperial University of Peking. He did not want that if China encountered foreign invasion again hundreds of years later, the Han people would still think that it was just a change of dynasty, or even regard being a traitor as obeying the will of heaven, making the national heroes who fought against the invasion become sinners who hindered unification.

However, when Zhu Houzhao saw that civil servants such as Cong Lan were as shocked as when he had preached ideas about human rights and the country to Zhang Cong and Xia Yan, he did not feel as excited as he had been at the beginning.

Because now Zhu Houzhao has understood that simply changing the thoughts of a few civil servants actually has no significant effect on the overall environment. For example, after Zhang Cong and Xia Yan accepted his own thoughts, they still had to follow the rules of this era, serve as county magistrates and governors, and handle issues according to the ethical rules of this society. If they did not handle issues according to the ethical rules of this society, they would be resisted by the whole society.

For example, parents who kill their children do not have to be sentenced to death, and the people can accept it.

However, if descendants killed their parents, they would be tortured to death. If they were not punished in this way, the people would not accept it because the idea that filial piety is above all else was deeply rooted in that era and parents killing their children could be forgiven.

Zhang Cong did not feel very happy to see these civil servants who were studying in front of him so shocked. He could understand that it was normal for these people to be shocked at this moment, but he had to admit that, as Your Majesty said, even if they knew this truth, it would not change anything, because the people did not have this awareness and did not need to have this awareness at present.

Zhang Cong still clearly remembered that in the seventh year of Zhengde, there was a snowstorm in Dongsheng City in Hetao. After he allocated 30,000 shi of grain to relieve the military and civilians, the military and civilians were just grateful to him and felt that he was a good official. Although Zhang Cong himself said that this was what he should do, the people still thanked him as if they were thanking Bodhisattva, without the awareness that they were also the masters of this country and that they had the right to receive national service.

But in fact, only Zhang Cong himself knew that he only used a small part of the taxes collected from these soldiers and civilians to buy food to relieve them.

Zhu Houzhao also knew that enlightening the people was a long process. It would take a lot of time to make the people understand that they were giving up power to the country and letting the country manage them so that they could serve the country, safeguard the public interests of the nation, safeguard their own property and life safety, and guarantee their own freedom.

But Zhu Houzhao had to let the rulers of this country know where their power came from, and let them know that after they had state power, they would serve the entire nation and the people.

Because in essence, it is the people of this nation who accept your rule and give you the power to manage the people through paying taxes. Now that you have the power of the country and have taken the people's money, you have to work for the people and for this nation.

Zhu Houzhao admitted that it would be a long process to make the people understand this truth. Based on his historical experience, it would be impossible within a hundred years. In other words, within a hundred years, no matter what he did, he could not change the fact that he would still be a dictatorial monarch.

There is no way around it. The people of the Ming Dynasty can only accept the rule of a dictatorial monarch. They are now only accustomed to the rule of a good emperor and good officials. If you ask them to elect and decide who will rule them, they do not have this awareness and even feel that it is unnecessary. Moreover, the empire is so huge that they do not have the energy to choose a ruler they are satisfied with from tens of millions of people.

The same is true for civil servants such as Zhang Cong. Although they have now accepted the so-called idea of ​​the monarchy being granted by the people and have begun to believe that it was the Chinese people at the end of the Yuan Dynasty who chose the Zhu family to be the emperor and the king of themselves and countless Chinese people, he still has no reason not to obey the rule of the current Emperor Zhengde. He also knows that if he does not obey, he will be regarded as a traitor by people all over the world!
Therefore, even though Zhu Houzhao had killed civil servants, Zhang Cong and other civil servants had already understood this truth after accepting the idea that the king's power was granted by man. Civil servants all over the world did not really believe that the king's power was granted by God, but they still would not rebel because they knew that the people's hearts in the Ming Dynasty were still there. Now that they had accepted Zhu Houzhao's ideas, they were more aware that the people of the empire were still willing to hand over the power to rule them to the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao. This power was granted by the people, and they, the civil servants, could not deny it at all.

Civil servants such as Zhang Cong knew that the only time they could deny the illegality of the emperor's rule was when the emperor abandoned the people, when the emperor ignored the interests of the people and only cared about his own enjoyment, and when the emperor did not use the power granted by the people to serve the people and the nation of this country.

But the current emperor has not ignored the interests of the people. He has even been working for the welfare of the people. Naturally, they, the civil servants, cannot deny the emperor.

Because of this, Zhu Houzhao was not worried that spreading these so-called advanced ideas would affect his rule, because he knew that even if the people of the Ming Dynasty had these ideas, they would not overthrow him, because he had been fulfilling his duties as the emperor.

Of course, if he wanted to enslave the people of the world and failed to fulfill his duty as the emperor to seek welfare for the people as the supreme ruler, he would be abandoned by the people. The kings who lost their country in all dynasties have proved this truth.

On the contrary, if there is an ambitious person who attempts to overthrow the emperor through violence and enslave the people of the world, he will encounter stronger opposition from more people.

At this time, Liu Jin from the Imperial Household Department came running over in a hurry: "Your Majesty, Prince Ning has rebelled!"

Zhu Houzhao was not too shocked. In his opinion, he was just an ambitious person who only wanted to overthrow him and become the master of the world. It was impossible for him to get the support of the people of this era. Therefore, he just replied calmly: "I know!"

Readers who have read this chapter should know that the author is just writing a real protagonist. He went to ancient times to overthrow Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, which led to the closed and backward ideas of China. He had to promote the enlightenment ideas that opened up modern civilization. But in fact, even if the protagonist spread it in the Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible to realize it politically in the current Ming Dynasty. It is always just a kind of ideological theory, because productivity has not kept up, and the people's consciousness has not kept up. Therefore, the author reasoned and explained it through the perspective of the protagonist and Zhang Cong in this chapter. This can be more reasonable. Otherwise, I always feel a little missing. After all, why is the protagonist still a dictatorial emperor when he goes to ancient times as a modern person? The reason is not because the protagonist is selfish, but because the reality requires him to be a great emperor! Great emperor! This is why the book is named like this. In addition, the protagonist is not a selfish egoist. He will not only care about his own interests and kill and take women for pleasure. He is a patriot. He traveled through time to do something he thinks is right for China. Of course, he also understands that being a tyrant will definitely not end well. Although this is a cool story, the values ​​are still correct. There will be no such ideological content next. Let's start the plot of Prince Ning's rebellion. It's time for this guy to appear.

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(End of this chapter)