There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 377 Nan Kong
Gan Fu and other prominent families in Nanjing had already decided to plot their efforts to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne.

Nie Yu was unaware of this, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared; he never intended to wreak havoc in Nanjing.

Killing those Manchus was just a side effect; he killed any Manchu, regardless of whether it was Nanjing or Hangzhou.

As for powerful clans like Wang Yu who had made contributions, Nie Yu did not intend to exterminate them. As long as they were willing to obey and cooperate with the Han Dynasty's policy of dividing families, distributing land, and freeing slaves, the Han Dynasty could let bygones be bygones.

In any case, large clans that have divided their property and land will naturally decline rapidly.

Unlike Guangdong and Guangxi, the Jiangnan region has many plains and a more mobile population, so clan relationships are not as close as in Guangdong and Guangxi.

When fundamental differences of interest arise, even brothers can turn against each other, let alone brothers who have separated from their families.

The Han Prince's Mansion in Nanjing.

Nie Yu was receiving Kong Guangbiao, who had traveled a long way from Quzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province, to pay his respects.

"This humble commoner, Kong Guangbiao, pays his respects to the King of Han!"

"Haha, no need for formalities."

With a smile, Nie Yu raised his hand and said to his secretary, "Have someone bring Mr. Kong another chair immediately."

"Yes."

The secretary responded respectfully.

Kong Guangbiao rose to express his gratitude: "Thank you, King of Han."

As the head of the Southern Branch of the Kong Clan in Quzhou, Kong Guangbiao adopted a very humble attitude as soon as he arrived in Nanjing.

When facing Nie Yu, he only dared to refer to himself as a commoner, and dared not mention his official position granted by the Ming and Qing dynasties or his identity as a descendant of Confucius.

Even when the servants brought him a chair, he didn't dare to sit down completely, only sitting on half of his buttocks, ready to get up and deal with the situation at any time.

There was no way around it. Regardless of their previous dignity and arrogance, once the Han army arrived in Quzhou Prefecture, they had absolutely no scruples. All the major clans in Quzhou, including the Southern Kong Clan, were arrested, and their slaves were released and their land was distributed to the people. They showed no mercy to Kong Guangbiao whatsoever.

In fact, if it weren't for Kong Guangbiao, as the patriarch of the Southern Kong clan, taking the initiative to surrender to the Han army on behalf of Quzhou Prefecture, thus making a contribution by surrendering the city, he would probably have been arrested as well.

Although he was released soon after being arrested, this "warning" made Kong Guangbiao suppress all his thoughts, whether he should or shouldn't have, and he dared not have any more ideas about the Han Dynasty.

Nie Yu was unaware that he had only just met Kong Guangbiao, a descendant of the Southern Kong family, and had barely exchanged a few words with him when Kong Guangbiao misunderstood him.

To be honest, the Han soldiers who were arresting people and dividing land in Quzhou Prefecture were not deliberately targeting Nan Kong. They simply saw that Nan Kong had a lot of land and treated Nan Kong as a powerful clan, arresting people and dividing land there as well.

This is how uneducated, rough-and-tumble soldiers are. This is not a problem with the Han army. Under the pseudo-Qing rule, the illiteracy rate among the people reached over 90%. Even though the Han dynasty had been in power for five years, the semi-literate rate in the army was still very high.

Rapid literacy campaigns come at a cost and have significant side effects.

The island nation did this later, and the result was that the army became soldiers wearing glasses, and the national myopia rate was extremely high. On the battlefield, these soldiers wearing glasses basically didn't need to think about concealment; they could be seen as soon as light reflected off them.

The Han army's current literacy policy only involves having generals and officers learn to read first, and then using the military academy to train a large number of grassroots instructors. These instructors then spend their free time telling stories to the soldiers and teaching them some basic and commonly used characters, thus achieving literacy among the soldiers at a low cost.

The military academy education that the civil instructors received did not instill any reverence for Confucius. If the civil instructors did not revere Confucius, how much less would the soldiers and officers under their command?

Nie Yu and Kong Guangbiao sat facing each other and began to chat.

Most of the questions were asked by Nie Yu, the King of Han, while Kong Guangbiao was responsible for answering them.

The questions and answers weren't anything too profound; they were just stories about the Nan Kong family's traditions and how many clansmen they had, etc.

After a conversation, Nie Yu basically figured out the situation of Nan Kong, which was similar to the records of later generations.

Compared to the North Confucius Temple, the South Confucius Temple is truly pitiful.

Using Jiangxi as an example, Bei Kong can be regarded as Longhu Mountain, the leader of all Taoist sects in the world, holding the power of spreading the religion, with vast lands and managing countless Taoist properties.

The South Confucian Temple is different; the South Confucian Temple is located at Gezao Mountain.

With only a handful of followers, they couldn't even afford to repair their Taoist temple. They had to go out and practice medicine to earn money, and they relied on this to recruit disciples. Several times, their lineage almost died out. Longhu Mountain, Gezao Mountain, and Maoshan Mountain are collectively known as the Three Mountains of Taoism.

Gezaoshan suffered the worst fate, so it's truly remarkable that he was able to pass on his legacy to future generations.

The Southern Confucian School didn't fare as badly as the Gezaoshan School, but it was worlds apart from the Northern Confucian School.

As is well known, Bei Kong Shixiu surrendered, and the title of Duke Yansheng was even passed down until the fall of the pseudo-Qing dynasty, when it was still being inherited (the Republic of China took the initiative to request its abolition and fled to Taiwan).

The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties all treated the Duke Yansheng's family very well.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Duke Yansheng surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, leaving only one branch to go south as a strategy to divide the spoils. The Southern Song Dynasty still reluctantly conferred upon him the title of Duke Yansheng, thus making him a rival to the Duke Yansheng of the Jin Dynasty.

When the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Jin and Song Dynasties, the Southern Duke of Yansheng was forced to relinquish his title, and the Northern and Southern Dukes of Yansheng were merged into one. The Yuan Dynasty also posthumously conferred the title of Great Sage and King of Literature upon Confucius, further strengthening the Northern Confucius.

It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty that the Northern Confucian tradition finally faced a challenge. First, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the universal worship of Confucius at the Confucian Temple.

Then, during the late Ming Dynasty, the Jiajing Emperor launched the Great Rites Controversy, which removed Confucius from his royal position and replaced him with the Supreme Sage and Teacher.

Then, the abstract came: Bei Kong didn't approve, feeling that the title of "King" was too low, so he deliberately didn't use it and continued to worship the original title of "King".

This matter almost caused a major uproar in the Qing Dynasty, because when Kang Youwei went to worship at the Temple of Confucius, he saw the inscription "Great Accomplished Sage and Teacher of Literature".

Kang Mazi was momentarily at a loss as to whether he should kneel or not. How could he, the dignified emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty, kneel before a mere king?
Someone noticed the problem and stepped forward to cover the king's name with a cloth, allowing Kang Mazi to complete the worship.

In comparison, what is the situation with the Southern Confucian School?

The Southern Confucian family had nothing. After the Southern Confucian family relinquished their title, the Northern Confucian family, led by the Duke Yansheng, became the legitimate successor, and the Southern Confucian family became an outsider.

Although the Yuan Dynasty recognized the status of the Southern Confucian Temple and even granted Kong Zhu, who had renounced his title, an official position, allowing him to preside over the Southern Confucian Temple.

However, this official position was not hereditary. It wasn't until the late Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty that the prefect of Quzhou couldn't stand it anymore and managed to secure a hereditary position as a Doctor of the Five Classics in the Hanlin Academy for the Southern Confucian Academy, in charge of the sacrifices at the Southern Confucian Ancestral Temple, with an official rank of the eighth grade.

A county magistrate is a seventh-rank official!

In terms of official rank, Nan Kong was not even as high as a county magistrate, and in terms of social status... he was even lower.

Because the Qing army marched south, the Southern Kong family refused to surrender to the Qing, which displeased the Qing court. The Qing court then appointed members of the Kong family who had voluntarily surrendered to the Qing as the prefect of Quzhou, forcing and suppressing the Southern Kong family and making them surrender to the Qing.

Therefore, Kong Guangbiao's initial self-designation wasn't really a big problem; in the eyes of the Qing court, he was indeed no different from a commoner.

In the fourth year of the Jiaqing Emperor's reign, he requested that the Jiaqing Emperor grant him salt because the family temple sacrifices had been in short supply for a long time.

At that time, Emperor Jiaqing was already overwhelmed by the mess caused by the Han army and the various regions across the country, and the Qing court's finances were also in dire need of funds. Therefore, he rejected Kong Guangbiao's request and asked Kong Guangbiao to persevere.

This was nothing short of a disgrace to Kong Guangbiao and Nan Kong. He had no other requests but that Nan Kong be able to perform ancestral sacrifices normally, and even that request was denied.

Just as the Han army marched into Zhejiang this year, Kong Guangbiao, almost before the Han army even arrived, had already taken the initiative to persuade the prefect of Quzhou to surrender to the Han army as soon as possible.

Kong Guangbiao did this both as revenge against the puppet Qing dynasty and because he felt that the puppet Qing dynasty was no longer viable. Therefore, he planned to use this opportunity to gain merit and demonstrate the role of the Southern Kong family to the Han dynasty.

Unexpectedly, after the Han army captured Quzhou, they arrested many prominent families and members of the Southern Confucian clan on the spot.

Although many of the Nan Kong clansmen were quickly released afterward, Kong Guangbiao still mistakenly believed that the King of Han was deliberately trying to put him in a bad light.

Not only did he completely abandon his previous thoughts, but he also took the initiative to take on the task of persuading the Han army to surrender in Zhejiang.

Kong Guangbiao came to Nanjing to meet Nie Yu. The reason he arrived so late was that he had been traveling around Zhejiang trying to persuade Nie Yu to surrender.

Regardless of whether it has any effect or not, the people of Zhejiang already know that the descendants of Confucius have all submitted to the Han Dynasty.

Could this big man be a rebel?

The Han Dynasty is the legitimate dynasty, and the King of Han is the legitimate ruler!

(End of this chapter)