There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 378 Down with the Confucian Shop, Rescue Confucius
After listening attentively to the situation of the Southern Confucian School, especially the suppression it had suffered since the establishment of the puppet Qing dynasty, Nie Yu sighed and said, "Since the Yuan court relinquished its title, the Northern Confucian School has flourished while the Southern School has declined day by day. Now it is being bullied and suppressed by the puppet Qing Tartars, which makes me feel truly sorry for it."

"Pass down the order: from now on, all salt for the Southern Sect's sacrificial rites will be supplied by the Quzhou government!"

The attending secretary hurriedly reminded him: "Your Majesty, the salt used for sacrifices at the Confucius Temple is all taken from the Yongfu Saltworks in Shandong."

Nie Yu frowned and said, "So what if it's from the salt fields in Shandong? Shandong is also part of our Han territory. Even if I were to launch a northern expedition to recover Shandong, the salt from those Shandong salt fields would be shared with the Southern Sect."

Having said all that, Kong Guangbiao, standing below, naturally understood the situation and rose to reply, "On behalf of the Southern Kong clan and the ancestors of the Lin Temple, this humble subject thanks the King of Han for his grace!"

While expressing their gratitude, both sides deliberately ignored the current shortage of salt, and Nie Yu also failed to mention how much salt would be allocated to the Southern Kong family.

This is to be expected. Currently, the annual salt quota of the Shenggong Mansion on Beikong Street is "forty taels of silver per year".

One "yin" contains approximately 300 jin (150 catties), and the annual tribute of forty "yin" is equivalent to 12000 jin (6,000 catties) of salt per year.

This is a bit outrageous. It's not that Nie Yu can't afford to give them the salt, he just feels it's unnecessary.

Xingyan was considered top-grade refined salt during the Qing Dynasty. With 12000 jin of top-grade refined salt produced annually, its status was comparable to that of an emperor.

Historically, the Southern Confucian school was eventually granted permission to enjoy the same annual tribute of forty salt samples as the Northern Confucian school, but instead of receiving salt from the Northern Confucian school, it was supplied by the Zhejiang salt fields.

The Confucianism of the South and the Confucianism of the North are ultimately different.

How could the Northern Confucian Temple really allow the Southern Confucian Temple to use guanyan (a type of salt)?

After Kong Guangbiao respectfully expressed his gratitude, Nie Yu seemed to stop there, only asking about the Southern Kong Clan's affairs intermittently.

"Speaking of which, since I recovered Zhejiang, I have never been to the Nan Zong Lin Temple. I will definitely go there to offer sacrifices when I have time in the future."

"It is a great honor for the Southern School of Confucius that Your Majesty has personally visited the Southern School of Confucius Temple!"

"The Southern Clan's seven clan rules are excellent, especially the fourth and fifth, which prohibit impersonation and fraudulent use of names. The Southern Clan truly are descendants of Confucius, possessing noble character and integrity!"

"Your Majesty is too kind!"

"Does the Southern School of Confucianism only have the Five Classics Doctors in the Hanlin Academy? That official position seems a bit low..."

"..."

The two sat facing each other and chatted idly, from the Southern Sect's temple to the hereditary official positions of the Southern Sect, truly talking about everything.

In this situation, the main topic is usually over, and you should find an excuse to subtly suggest that they leave.

They chatted for quite a while, and even though the King of Han was thirsty and wanted to drink some tea, he still didn't hint to Kong Guangbiao that it was time to leave. Instead, he became more and more engrossed in the conversation.

While the King of Han was drinking water, Kong Guangbiao hurriedly thought about whether he had overlooked anything. The King of Han was busy with many affairs of state and had just conquered Jiangnan, so he certainly didn't have much free time to chat with him, a member of the Southern Kong clan.

So after talking for so long, there must still be things to say, and it's something that the King of Han can't say, so he has to bring it up himself.

Kong Guangbiao is only thirty-five years old this year. In the first year of Jiaqing's reign, his father Kong Jitao died of illness before he could inherit the Southern Branch, so it was his turn to succeed him as the eldest son and take charge of the Kong family's Southern Branch.

This did not cause him any inconvenience in managing the affairs of the Southern Sect; it was simply that the Southern Sect was too shabby and miserable.

With seven clan rules binding it internally, the Southern Clan could not "grow wildly" like the Yansheng Duke's Mansion of the Northern Clan. Externally, it was constantly suppressed by the Qing court and the Yansheng Duke's Mansion, so the Southern Clan had no way to turn around and expand.

The reason why the Han army first arrested members of the Southern Kong clan and then released many others was not because Nie Yu gave the order, but because the Southern Kong clan had not actually done much wrong.

The Southern Sect didn't have the ability to do evil. Due to long-term suppression, the Southern Sect actually possessed very little land, even less than an ordinary large landowner.

Nie Yu mentioned the seven clan rules of the Southern Kong Clan to Kong Guangbiao. Among them, the fourth and fifth rules clearly stipulate that people with different surnames are prohibited from impersonating members of the Kong clan and that outsiders are prohibited from falsely registering land under the name of the Southern Kong Clan.

Even if the Southern School weakens, the Kong family still has the right to exempt or reduce corvée labor.

Prohibiting impersonation and fraudulent practices effectively eliminated any possibility of the Southern School becoming too powerful.

These clan rules came from Shen Jie, the prefect of Quzhou during the Ming Dynasty. It is very likely that the Ming Dynasty had realized that the Northern Confucianism was corrupt and did not want the Southern Confucianism to be as corrupt as the Northern Confucianism, so it strictly regulated the speech, conduct and family learning of the Southern Confucianism.

The Nan Kong clan rules also prohibit clan members from committing evil deeds. Those who commit evil deeds will be removed from the clan genealogy and will lose their privileges of exemption from corvée labor and reduced service.

It can be said that with just these few clan rules, not to mention compared to the Northern Confucian Clan, even compared to ordinary large landowners and gentry, the Southern Confucian Clan is unbelievably clean.

Since it's so clean, Nie Yu certainly wouldn't mind using Nan Kong.

After a period of quick thinking, Kong Guangbiao finally realized the political signals that Nie Yu had almost explicitly indicated. First, he mentioned the Southern Kong relinquishing his title, then the Shandong Xing salt, and then he mentioned personally offering sacrifices at the Southern Sect's Lin Temple, as well as the fact that the Five Classics Doctor of the Southern Sect had too low an official position.

The King of Han is going to support their Southern Sect!

Upon realizing this, Kong Guangbiao's breathing became rapid, and even his gaze became somewhat unfocused and dreamy.

Seeing that this guy finally understood his hint, Nie Yu smiled and asked, "Although I have never been to the Confucius Temple in the Southern School, I have heard that there are many statues of Confucius as a king in Quzhou Prefecture. However, since Confucius is a sage and a virtuous man, is it not a bit against the rules to erect a king-like statue in the Confucius Temple?"

It's more than just non-compliant with regulations. Nie Yu was being very subtle in his words, referring only to the statue of a king. In reality, the statue of Confucius from that period was adorned with a crown with nine tassels and twelve symbols.

Good heavens, Nie Yu has never worn a proper twelve-chapter imperial robe since the day he raised his army, but the statue of Confucius in the Confucius Temple has already put it on.

The issue of Confucius's imperial image had already surfaced by the Song Dynasty, when the Song Dynasty held several debates on whether Confucius should be considered an "emperor" or a "king".

If we consider him a "king," then the statue of Confucius is a bit too large; if we consider him an "emperor," then there can't be two suns in the sky, wouldn't that disrupt the country's rituals and order?
Anyway, they argued until the Song Dynasty was over, and they still didn't get to the bottom of it.

During the Jin-Song confrontation, and the Yuan dynasty's conquest of the Jin and Song dynasties, the royal regulations for the statue of Confucius were continued until the "Great Rites Controversy" during the Jiajing era of the late Ming dynasty, when it was brought up again.

The Jiajing Emperor's "Great Rites Controversy" finally came to a conclusion: the statue of Confucius as a king was indeed beyond the prescribed limits. Not only the statue, but also the titles bestowed upon Confucius were beyond the prescribed limits.

If Confucius were a king, then the Ming emperor's worship of Confucius would be equivalent to the emperor paying homage to a feudal lord, which would violate the laws of the state.

Even if Confucius is the sage and ancestor of Confucianism, one cannot disregard national laws and the etiquette between ruler and subject in order to show respect to Confucius.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing ordered the destruction of all statues of Confucius throughout the country, replacing them with wooden tablets and ancestral tablets. He also lowered the standards of worship at the Confucius Temple, changing the rituals from those performed by a king to those more appropriate for teachers and students.

However, during the Qing Dynasty, the rituals of emperor-minister sacrifices and the statue of Confucius as a king, which had been abolished by the Ming Dynasty, were revived.

There aren't that many twists and turns here. It's just that the Qing dynasty was a foreign regime, so it had to nominally recognize and elevate the status of the Confucian Temple to legitimize its own rule.

The Jin and Yuan dynasties were the same; otherwise, the Yuan dynasty wouldn't have been so foolish as to not realize the serious consequences of granting Confucius the title of king.
Kong Guangbiao understood Nie Yu's meaning. In the prime of his life, he gritted his teeth and stood up, replying, "What Your Majesty says is true. Confucius is a sage and a wise man, not a king. How can he be worshipped with a statue of a king? The Southern Kong family hereby petitions the King of Han to remove the statue of Confucius as a king in Quzhou and replace it with a wooden tablet for worship in the future!"

The speed at which they took sides was truly astounding. Nie Yu hadn't even made any demands, yet Kong Guangbiao had already gone all out.

Upon hearing this, Nie Yu was overjoyed. He stood up, stepped forward, and took Kong Guangbiao's hand, saying, "Excellent! The Southern Kong family truly lives up to their noble character and serves as a model for the Confucian school. I hereby declare that the Southern Kong family's position as Doctor of the Five Classics in the Hanlin Academy remains valid in our Great Han Dynasty, and may be inherited by the Southern Kong family without fail."

The position of Doctor of the Five Classics in the Hanlin Academy was originally a pitiful official post held by the Southern School of Confucius, so the King of Han's reward for this was indeed rather stingy.

But it doesn't matter, this is just a political signal being released.

Upon hearing that Nie Yu had recognized the Five Classics Doctor of the Southern School, Kong Guangbiao immediately understood the situation and went further, saying, "Your Majesty, the Kong family mansion of the Northern School not only enshrines a statue of Confucius, but also uses a palace instead of a temple for sacrifices, and even bestows upon him the title of a king. This is truly a disregard for the etiquette between ruler and subject!"

Upon hearing Kong Guangbiao's understanding, Nie Yu instantly flew into a rage, exclaiming, "Is that so? It seems that the Northern Kong Clan's mansion is indeed, as rumored, a den of iniquity and filth. How can such a person be worthy of being called a descendant of Confucius, and yet enjoy the hereditary title of Duke Yansheng?"

"If I were emperor, I would certainly appoint the Southern School of Confucius as the Duke Yansheng, and the Northern School of Confucius... is better off without!"

With the political promise made, the Southern Kong clan, after more than 600 years, finally has a chance to reclaim the title of Duke Yansheng.

Suppressing his overwhelming joy, Kong Guangbiao said, "Your Majesty possesses both literary and martial virtues. Raising an army under the banner of restoring the Han dynasty is truly in accordance with the will of Heaven and the hearts of the people. In the future, we will surely be able to eradicate the Qing and destroy the barbarians, restoring our Han dynasty to its former glory!"

That's a clever way of putting it; it's both a veiled compliment and a subtle statement.

When Kong Guangbiao arrived in Nanjing, he had heard rumors that the Han Dynasty had almost completely taken over Jiangnan (except for Fujian, which it had not yet occupied). It was only a matter of time before the King of Han ascended the throne.

Nie Yu naturally understood Kong Guangbiao's stance and smiled, "In that case, the removal of the Confucius statue in the Southern Confucius Temple will be entirely entrusted to Dr. Kong."

"Your Majesty, I will certainly not fail your trust!"

Kong Guangbiao solemnly bowed and replied.

This was considered a successful exchange of benefits. The Southern Sect had to set an example by cooperating with the land distribution, and also had to demolish the statue of Confucius in the Southern Sect Temple. Then, Kong Guangbiao, the head of the Southern Sect, was to be responsible for cleaning up and replacing the Confucius tablet.

All of these costs combined are considerable, but it was all worthwhile.

It's just land. The Southern Sect didn't have much to begin with, so even if the land was divided up, they would only lose a few thousand acres at most.

The statue of Confucius is against regulations, so knocking it down wouldn't make a difference.

As long as the Southern Sect can reclaim the title of Duke Yansheng, everything will be worthwhile!
Kong Guangbiao was in his prime, his heart was still warm, and he was still thinking about leading the Southern School to rise and accomplish great things.

(End of this chapter)