Chapter 30: Keep your strength and keep your time (2)

From ancient times to the present, merchants have always been at the end of the four peoples, although no dynasty or emperor has clearly stated that merchants have a low status.

But in fact, since Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the foundation of agriculture, the national policies have been tilted towards agriculture, and the status of merchants has naturally fallen to the lowest level, and even silk clothes cannot be worn.

Liaodong has vigorously supported industry and commerce over the years. Businessmen have made great contributions to society and made more money, but their social status remains the same. Everyone can only enjoy it secretly, and no one dares to make a big fuss.

In the past, private schools set up two types of private schools, and businessmen's children had to gather together to study, but could not study with gentry. This kind of inferiority deeply touched people's inner sense of inferiority, so many merchants vowed to let their children pass the exam and glorify their ancestors.

Nowadays, the children of businessmen no longer go to private schools, so it is better to go to Liaodong School.

Liaodong Academy has become a test field for the equality of the four people, to be precise, the three people of agriculture, industry, commerce and the people of agriculture, industry and commerce.

At first, the children of gentry never went to school, which was called a disgraceful person. Later, officials at all levels of the Liao Dynasty shogunate sent their children to school, and some lower-level officials only followed suit. However, the inherent thoughts of the Confucian scholars still could not accept the ideas of the Liaodong School.

Because the Liaodong Academy teaches not only Confucianism, but also other Dharmas, Monks and Taoism, and all astronomy and geography are included.

Zhu Zhi put a lot of effort into the school, and he collected 3,000 taels of subsidies from Wangzhuang's income every year, and Wang Zhengfei Guo Xiu personally involved in the school affairs. Now the school has become a base for the dissemination of new schools.

Although corrupt scholars often attacked the school, Zhu Zhi tried his best to maintain its development with his influence in Liaodong.

Mr. Mihumi, who dares to post "big-character posters", has some background. He was the great scholar Mi Fu, a former Song Dynasty calligrapher, but his life experience is extremely bizarre.

The Mi family went to the Yuan Dynasty and fell into the middle of the family. As a side branch, he left Zhongtu and went to the Western Regions with his father when he was young. With the military advance of the Mongolian cavalry, his father kept doing business to the Byzantine generation. When Mihu was sixteen years old, his father died.

When his father told the fallen leaves to return to their roots, Mihu sold his family property and returned to the east with his father's coffin. Who knew that he was robbed and captured and sold to Florence as a slave.

In Florence, Mihu happened to become a servant of Giotto's family. Because of his intelligence and learning, Mihu was proficient in several languages ​​such as Latin, Gaul, and Britain within a few years, and read all the literary and artistic works of the Italian Renaissance.

Soon he got out of his slavery and began to write books to introduce the ancient history and Confucianism to the West. By the age of thirty-five, Mihu had become a subsidy scholar for the Republic of Florence.

Due to his study at Giotto and his experience in learning from China and the West, and his miserable life since childhood, Mihu was good at accepting the academic thoughts of the Renaissance and gradually stood opposite the Holy See. Although he was well maintained by the Florence Municipal Government, his life was gradually difficult to survive.

Two years ago, the Gaul Huguenots wanted to send monks to the mysterious East to preach, and sent people to contact Mihu, thinking that he, an Easterner, would definitely know the itinerary of the East.

Who knew that when Mihu left Middle-earth, he didn't remember this journey when he was only ten years old. But this incident aroused Mihu's nostalgia for his hometown, so he sold his property. He embarked on the road home for the second time, and this time he left, he brought more than 200 Western works.

This time I got home smoothly. After a year, Mihu's ship finally arrived at the ocean surface of his motherland Guangzhou.

The enthusiastic local officials of the local officials who reported their own family from overseas were naturally very welcomed. However, everyone dared not make a decision about missionary matters, and sent several of them to Yingtian.

Mihu, who was full of knowledge, originally hoped to serve his entire knowledge in the country, but who knew that the encounter in the capital made him feel like he was drizzled with cold rain.

The Ming Dynasty court only sent a member of the Ministry of Rites to receive it for a perfunctory matter. After learning about Mihu's experience, the court attached great importance to it and immediately sent people to investigate in Mi's hometown.

Sure enough, the name of Mihu was found on the genealogy. As a great scholar, Mihu was treated with courtesy. But just as he was ambitious to preach his knowledge to the Ministry of Rites, the other party was absent-minded.

After the incident, Mihu found that his thoughts were not compatible in the West or the motherland. He felt depressed and had to bring three missionaries to the mountains and rivers of the capital every day.

On this day, I met Zhu Zhi, the King of Liao, who was also depressed in the capital, from astronomy and geography to the Renaissance. From the earth is round to Dante's divine song. The two of them actually hit it off at first sight.

Zhu Zhi even suspected that this lord must be a time traveler in later generations, and had never heard of any record of such a person in history. But no matter how Zhu Zhi tried it.

There was no sign of Mihu's time traveler, and such a person was a stranger in the long river of history.

Mihu was also very surprised that this Liaodong vassal king had such extensive knowledge, especially Zhu Zhi's experience in governing in Liaodong, which surprised Mihu even more.

Mihu asked Zhu Zhi very generously why he knew this, but Zhu Zhi's answer was hesitant, saying that in the past, he encountered a Western missionary who was influenced by him.

Although each of them has some doubts, it does not prevent the two from becoming more and more speculative as they talk. The more they talk, the more they lead the other to be their confidants.

How could Zhu Zhi let go of such a talent? After learning that they were currently out of concern in the court, Zhu Zhi asked the Ministry of Rites that since the court could not deal with them, it would be better to send these four people to Liaodong and let them teach astronomy and geography in the school, so as to avoid the lack of people outside the world's dislike the Celestial Empire.

These four people were neither envoys from all directions, nor had any malice. Old Zhu never asked about this matter at all. The Ministry of Rites was worried about how to exile. Since Zhu Zhi wanted it, everyone knew that the King of Liao had always had a novel idea, so it would be better to send it away with a favor.

Zhu Zhi personally sent the four people to the Liaodong merchant ship, instructing Mihu and the others not to teach, and the royal palace would give each person a hundred taels of silver as salary each month, and asked him to translate the books he brought into Chinese.

Secretly, he ordered Wujian Liaodong to carefully monitor Mihu's actions. Will he be a time traveler?

When the four people arrived in Liaodong, the three missionaries heard that they were asked to come to Liaodong to translate books, so they immediately stopped doing it. Fortunately, Guo Xiu was flexible and opened a subject for the three missionaries to teach God's "gods" for the three missionaries.

Mihu was trusted by Zhu Zhi's translation of books, and naturally, the scholars died as confidants.

But if he wanted to translate these hundreds of books into Chinese, he would not be able to do it even if he was exhausted for a lifetime. So he had an idea to teach Latin, hoping to teach some apprentices and translate them separately.

At the beginning, no one was interested in this course, and Mihu had no choice but to discuss it with Guo Xiu. Guo Xiu knew that her husband had ordered this matter to be taken seriously, so he naturally did not dare to neglect it.

All of a sudden, thirty well-behaved students were selected from the students who had graduated from elementary school after they were fifteen years old to become students from other places.

Mihu's usual job is to teach thirty people Latin and three missionaries Chinese. At the same time, he began to help them translate Western classics by Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas and others.

In addition to teaching, Mihu traveled around Liaodong and had a preliminary feeling of the customs and culture of Liaodong. He only felt that the taste of Liaodong was very different from other places, and the commercial atmosphere was very strong, even similar to Florence.

However, what remains unchanged in Liaodong is that the status of merchants in society has not changed from that of other parts of this ancient empire.

This is the only difference from Florence, a republic controlled by seven commercial guilds, where merchants are actually the masters of the country.

Mihu, who has walked through the mountains and rivers of Liaodong and seen all kinds of people in Liaodong, finally wrote this shocking work - "The Equality of the Four People".

"In ancient times, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce were different and the same people, and they were all in their hearts. The same was true. Scholars used their cultivation, farming, craftsmen, and sharp tools, and merchants used goods to communicate with goods. They all went to where their resources were close, and those who could reach their strengths were used to work to achieve their hearts.

The key is to benefit the life, that is all.

Scholars and farmers are dedicated to repairing tools and nourishing tools, but the sharp tools are just like scholars and farmers. Industry and Commerce are dedicated to repairing tools and nourishing tools and nourishing tools are just like crafts and merchants. Therefore, it is said that the four people have different businesses but have the same path.

...

Since the kingly way of extinguishing academic knowledge, people lose their hearts and get along with each other, they will drive them away with profits. So there are important scholars who are humble in farming, and honoring officials and traveling, and shame on businessmen. In fact, the Yi test is that there are so many things that are not profitable when shooting, and it is particularly famous. Alas! This righteousness has been destroyed for a long time!

In ancient times, people who were dirty businessmen were simply because merchants value profit but neglected righteousness, but did not mention Zheng Shang Xiangao's affairs. I personally think that the world is not businessmen, and they must be traitors and righteousness to correct their words and deeds. Who dares to assert that there is no Xiangao?

I heard that there is a "Fair Trade Order" in Liaodong, which regulates the responsibilities of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, and divides the responsibilities of officials and people, and the responsibilities of the people. The responsibilities of each person are fully subject to the word "contract".

After several years of execution, all things in Liaodong were born from this. The so-called Tao gave birth to one, one gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, and three gave birth to all things. Those who have promises followed it, orders were prohibited, and officials and people were harmonious.

Confucius said: Those who are propriety, righteousness, benevolence, trustworthiness and fraternity, and those who are 'contract' that are very important to trust are actually to preach the words of the sage. The sage also said that etiquette and music are broken, and now those who have ordered them to rebuild it, which is of great benefit."

As soon as Mihu's theory of equality between scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, the four civilians were released, the Liaodong scholars were in an uproar. Zhu Qianlong, the veteran of Liaodong Confucians, and Zhu Xi of the former Song Dynasty, was the first to jump out to bombard Mihu: "Mi followed the remnants of the great scholars, but he abolished the words of the sages and disrupted the way of normalcy.

I forgot my ancestors in several books and didn’t know what it is possible. “Some people lead the way, and there are naturally many successors, and almost all the scholars rose up to attack them in unison.

As the businessmen, they cheered. To them, it seemed like the layer of window paper that was finally broken. The businessmen just felt that they said what they were saying.

Of course, everyone would not let Mihu be alone and each hired gunmen to fight back against Rulin's attack.

For a time, the restaurants and teahouses in Liaodong or the notice boards before the Liaodong Academy became places for competition between the two sides. Once new articles came out, the people competed to copy them, and Luoyang paper was expensive.
Chapter completed!