You can't only love the Qing Dynasty when you're eating the fruits of others' labor.

Chapter 109 Wen's Analysis of the Donglin Party

The room was eerily quiet.

Ms. Wen stared quietly at her son.

“Yun’er, if I were to speak from my heart, I would also believe that Huang Zongxi is right. The people of the world are suffering too much and should be given prosperity. However, Huang Zongxi’s theory will not work. Do you remember what your mother said, that this world only judges success or failure, not right or wrong?”

"of course I remember."

"If you succeed, you are right, and everyone will say you are right. Otherwise, you are wrong."

Jiang Qingyun burst into laughter.

“Mother, life is only a few decades long, and we can only judge right and wrong by success or failure. If people live longer, say five hundred or a thousand years, they will find that there is actually right and wrong in this world.”

"Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Success and failure are temporary, but right and wrong are eternal."

Wen was shocked.

"Yun'er, do you want to be a saint?"

"No, I will never become a saint. True saints never have a good ending, and I don't want to be a false saint either."

……

"So, do you want to do the right thing? Or do you want to do something successful?"

"All!"

"is it possible?"

“Mother, if I can do something wrong, then I can definitely do something right, because the former is from easy to difficult, and becomes more and more difficult. The latter is from difficult to easy, and becomes more and more easy.”

Ms. Wen remained silent; she seemed to understand, but didn't know what to say.

The son's ideas were beyond just being unconventional; they were about deceiving and defying the heavens!

After a long while, she sighed again.

"When Huang Zongxi was teaching in eastern Zhejiang, did you ever think about discussing theories with him in person, or becoming his student?"

"Perhaps it's better not to meet."

"why?"

"He is the proposer of the theory, and I am the practitioner of his theory. He has no ability to put it into practice, and besides, if he really becomes my teacher, he will die by my sword sooner or later."

"why?"

"Mother, I can't tell."

After a long time~
"Mother, will you support me?"

"Of course. But don't say these crazy things to your father, he'll definitely think you've lost your mind."

……

Suddenly remembering something, Wen got up and went into the room, taking out a stack of letters from the box.

Jiang Qingyun accepted it.

The inscriptions include: the Qian family of Changshu, the Mao family of Rugao, the Gu family of Wuxi, the Gao family of Wuxi, the Chen family of Yixing, the Fang family of Tongcheng, the Zhang family of Taicang, the Wu family of Taicang, the Huang family of Yuyao, and so on.
"They wouldn't all want to marry their daughters to me as concubines, would they? Our house isn't big enough to live in."

Wen was so angry that she laughed.

"Yun'er, why don't you open it and take a look? They're practically calling you a toad between the lines."

Jiang Qingyun was furious and immediately opened each item to examine it.

Skip through it.

The first page is full of meaningless drivel; the second and third to last paragraphs on the last page contain the useful information.

"My daughter is neither particularly intelligent, nor beautiful, nor virtuous, and I fear she is not worthy of my nephew's bright future."

—The Gao family in Wuxi.

"~My daughter has already given birth to two sons, and has missed out on a good match. What a pity, what a pity."

—The Fang family of Tongcheng.

"The capital is far away and bitterly cold. My daughter is frail and may not be able to bear the hardship of traveling. We pity our daughter and cannot accept the suffering of being married off to a distant place."

—Zhang Family, Taicang.

He truly lived up to his reputation as a scholar; his attitude was resolute, yet his tone was tactful.

If one's own cultural knowledge were less than that, one might think these people were praising them.

...Of course, there are also some that are not so tactful.

For example, Mao Pijiang from the Mao family in Rugao actually cursed them in his letter.

"If Junshi is poor and has no mirror to look at himself, he may urinate to make a mirror so that he can see his honor and glory."

Mao Pijiang, a talented scholar from the Fushe Society, had just lost his beloved concubine Dong Xiaowan and was probably insane.

The so-called Fushe also originated from the Donglin Party, and can be simply understood as a youthful version or mini version of the Donglin Party.

Continue reading the letter.

"My granddaughter is young, and I am old; we depend on each other for survival. If she marries, I will marry her as well. Besides, my son and my daughter-in-law both died resisting the Qing. Is the Wen family not afraid?"

—Huang Zongxi.

Jiang Qingyun looked on with a sense of loss.

It's remarkable that Lao Huang managed to escape the Qing Dynasty's clutches and die a natural death. He's certainly not suited to be a party leader, but he's absolutely capable of serving as the chief architect of the party's theoretical framework.

"I am now enclosing the birth date and time of my daughter. I pray that the heavens will be kind. If it is successful, it will be an honor for the Qian family."

—Qian Qianyi.

As always, a coward and a bastard.

After reading all the letters, Jiang Qingyun felt a deep sense of loss and let out a soft sigh.

I was hit hard.

……

"Mother, what do you think?"

"I estimate there are roughly three reasons. First, a concubine's lowly status is generally considered inappropriate by scholarly families. Second, you just killed Chen Mingxia, the leader of the Southern Party and a Grand Secretary, and the Donglin Party believes you are deliberately humiliating them. Third, your influence doesn't extend to Jiangnan."

Jiang Qingyun fully agreed, especially the last point.

The members of the Donglin Party were mostly shrewd and perceptive; they could distinguish between when it was safe and when it was dangerous.

"Let's put this matter on hold for now. It's not too late to deal with them when you have enough influence in Jiangnan. But what about Qian Qianyi?"

"Mother, I don't want to get too close to this person."

"This person's character is indeed terrible."

"Not only that, I even suspect he was bait for the Qing government, specifically to lure anti-Qing people in the south."

Do you have any evidence?

"It's just suspicion. If he wasn't bait, it's hard to explain why he was so close to so many anti-Qing forces and yet wasn't beheaded by the local authorities. Is it really just because of a lack of evidence?"

“What you say makes some sense. However, if you want to use the Donglin Party as a shell to expand your influence, you can’t attack them too harshly. Otherwise, the body you gain won’t be enough to support your ideals. Speaking of which, your maternal grandfather, Wen Zhenmeng, was also a member of the Donglin Party.”

……

"Mother, I've always had a question. What exactly is this Donglin faction?"

"During the Wanli era, Gu Xiancheng, a senior official in the Ministry of Personnel, was dismissed from his post and returned to his hometown, never to be employed again. After returning home, he rebuilt the Donglin Academy in Wuxi County, lecturing and recruiting students. This was the prototype of the Donglin Party."

"Afterwards, wealthy merchants in Jiangnan believed that he was a rare commodity and thus supported him with their substantial wealth. With the alliance between officials and merchants, the Donglin Party began to grow stronger, constantly absorbing scholars from all walks of life and even officials in the court, and eventually became the most powerful force in the Ming court."

"Of course, these are all superficial."

"Your maternal grandfather once said that the Donglin Party's greatest weapon was public opinion."

“Mother, I understand. In other words, Gu Xiancheng has set up a set of evaluation standards for officialdom, and then used these standards to measure everyone, suppress opponents, and support allies. The Donglin Party Academy is the second Ministry of Personnel of the Ming Dynasty, and Gu Xiancheng is the Minister of Personnel in the common people.”

……

"Yun'er, your understanding of officialdom is too high. Your maternal grandfather once privately commented on Gu Xiancheng, saying that he was one of only two geniuses in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom."

"Who is the other one?"

"Hai Rui".

Jiang Qingyun seemed to be deep in thought.

Wen Zhenmeng was not good at officialdom, but he was very good at judging people.

Hai Rui and Gu Xiancheng were completely different people. They had different goals, methods, and ideals, but they had one thing in common: they were both highly skilled officials.

Hai Rui fought alone, leveraging external forces, displaying remarkable fortitude. He was able to protect himself and defeat his political enemies—a true miracle.

Gu Xiancheng was dismissed from his post and returned to his hometown. Although he was in Wuxi, he was doing the work of the Minister of Personnel in the capital. It was a miracle that he could wield power remotely and control the court.

(End of this chapter)