Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Winter has gone and spring has come, and it is the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan.

Zhu Guoxiang bid farewell to Hangzhou, where he had lived for half a year, in the breeze of early spring, and went upstream along Zhejiang (a general term for Xin'an River and Fuchun River).

Although the Changsheng Garden where he lived was cleaned of evil spirits, no one is interested in it for the time being.

Because the corruption cases in Zhejiang officialdom are getting bigger and bigger, not only are officials in danger, but even businessmen are trembling with fear. Who would be in the mood to buy a garden at this time?

What's more, it is not certain whether the evil spirits have been completely eliminated.

Didn't you see that the emperor lived in it for only a month, and a grandson was exiled?

The evil spirit of Changsheng Garden is too heavy, even the emperor can't stand it. However, the emperor is Yao and Shun in the world after all, and he has his own destiny. The evil spirit randomly transfers to a grandson to deal with the disaster.

If the emperor didn't live in Changsheng Garden, Cai Wang Zhu Zhi would definitely be fine!

Such statements are quite popular in Hangzhou, and even some officials believe them.

The fleet passed through Fuyang, Tonglu, Yanzhou... and stopped and stopped along the way. When they arrived at Huizhou, they rested. Zhu Guoxiang lived in Huizhou for more than half a month.

By the way, he went to climb Huangshan to watch the sunrise.

Next, instead of taking the Huirao Waterway to Jiangxi, he took the Huixuan Waterway to Xuancheng. Occasionally, some people abandoned their boats and walked on the way. The boats had been prepared by the local government.

It did not disturb the people, and the officials in the passing areas were all happy.

Even the owners of the requisitioned boats seemed to have won the lottery jackpot, providing the boats to the emperor for free, and by the way, they had the opportunity to be received by the emperor.

It only took a few days to use their boats, which would not delay anything, but they could brag about it for a lifetime!

From Hangzhou, Zhu Guoxiang made a big circle, traveled along the way, met with officials and civilians, and finally arrived in Nanjing.

This was the capital of Jiangnan East Road in the Song Dynasty, and the economy was still very developed.

After being designated as Nanjing by the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing took over many prefectures and counties in Zhejiang and stationed heavy troops there, and Nanjing's prosperity reached a new level.

The prefect of Jinling, or the prefect of Jinling, was the famous Zhang Zeduan.

This painter initially served in the Hanlin Academy of Painting of the Ming Dynasty, and later repeatedly applied to be a civil official, and was demoted five levels to become a county magistrate.

He actually had remarkable political achievements.

In fact, it can be seen from "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" that Zhang Zeduan was proficient in architecture, shipbuilding and various industries. Take the various ships in the painting, for example, every part of the ship is so detailed that it is impossible to draw without understanding the structure of various ships.

Zhang Zeduan in history should have been dead for five or six years, but he is still alive and kicking as an official.

Zhu Guoxiang met with officials, gentry, celebrities, and common people, and then went to Xuanwu Lake for boating, and then visited Qinhuai Fengyue.

At this time, the Qinhuai River was not a red-light district.

There are also Qinlou, Chuguan, and Goulanwashe, but they are not mainstream, more like a prosperous riverside commercial district.

I also checked in at Changganli, which is the core commercial area of ​​Nanjing. I don’t know how many childhood sweethearts are hidden there, I can only say that the phoenix has left the stage and the river flows by itself.

Before leaving Nanjing, Zhu Guoxiang went to pay homage to Wang Anshi’s tomb and met with Wang Anshi’s descendants.

Wang Anshi spent one-third of his life in Nanjing, and finally chose to bury himself in Nanjing - Wang Anshi’s tomb was moved to Linchuan, Jiangxi when Zhu Yuanzhang built the Xiaoling Mausoleum.

This time, the emperor paid homage to Wang Anshi’s tomb, which caused a huge sensation in the academic circles of Nanjing. There are a large number of new school descendants here. Although they have long been integrated into the Ming Dynasty academic system, they still retain the concept of sects.

Zhu Guoxiang’s homage to Wang Anshi is equivalent to a comprehensive affirmation of Wang Anshi.

Why are the new school descendants so excited?

Because of the successive emergence of new school disciples such as Cai Jing and Qin Hui, and the failure of the reform in the Northern Song Dynasty, the new school and Wang Anshi have been repeatedly attacked in recent years.

Especially Qin Hui, who grew up in Nanjing, the holy land of new school, and is a legitimate descendant of new school.

The descendants of new school in the jurisdiction of Jinling Prefecture heard the news and asked the emperor to visit Maoshan.

Of course, they did not go to Maoshan to learn Taoism.

There is Maoshan Academy, one of the four major academies in the early Song Dynasty and one of the six major academies in the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the early and middle Northern Song Dynasty, private academies were quite popular.

In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the prosperity of official schools, many great Confucian scholars from the public were summoned to teach in official schools. Due to insufficient teaching staff, private academies gradually went downhill.

The same is true for Maoshan Academy. Even the 300 acres of school land granted by the emperor were seized by the Maoshan Taoist priests next door.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, many former Song officials who were not hired or unwilling to serve in the new dynasty returned to their hometowns to set up academies and give lectures.

As a result, private academies across the country flourished again.

Even the school land of Maoshan Academy was taken back from the Taoist priests of Maoshan by the court's ban on temples.

"Chen Gongfu, a commoner from Jiangzuo, pays homage to the emperor!"

At the foot of Sanmao Mountain, an old man in his seventies, leaning on a cane, led the students to greet him.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, there is no need to be polite."

They knew each other before.

Chen Gongfu was a graduate of the Imperial College in the third year of Zhenghe. When Kaifeng was besieged by Zhu Ming and Jin Bing from north to south, Chen Gongfu was a staunch advocate of war under Li Gang.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Gongfu refused to accept the official position and went to Hangzhou to join Song Huizong. He only worked for half a year before he was framed and dismissed by Zhu Jie, and he has been teaching since then.

He has an old grudge against Zhu Jie.

He had been an official in Zhu Jie's hometown. When Zhu Jie's brother celebrated his birthday, all the local officials went to congratulate him. But Chen Gongfu not only did not go himself, but also did not allow his students to go.

This man not only had a grudge against Zhu Jie, but also against Li Bangyan.

Zhu Guoxiang climbed the mountain with a cane, and Chen Gongfu followed him with a cane.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Mr. Chen once criticized the new learning, why is he the president of the academy in this place where the new learning is flourishing?"

Chen Gongfu said: "Now there is no new learning, only the Ming Dynasty national learning. When I criticized the new learning, it was not to completely deny Wang Linchuan, but to impeach Li Bangyan and other people who sold out the country for glory."

The selling out here means selling the Song Dynasty to Zhu the thief.

Tired of climbing the mountain, sit down to rest.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "What kind of knowledge is taught in Maoshan Academy now?"

Chen Gongfu said: "It extends and expounds the Ming Dynasty national learning, forming its own school, and named it Jinling learning."

Zhu Guoxiang laughed when he heard it.

Wang Anshi's new learning is also called "Jinling learning".

Chen Gongfu is a very interesting person. Historically, he criticized the new learning in the late Northern Song Dynasty and banned the study of principles in the early Southern Song Dynasty.

This person actually has the talent of a prime minister, but unfortunately his temper is too hard.

He would rather teach in the countryside than be an official in the Ming Dynasty, and he always regarded Zhu's father and son as bandits.

But he has let it go over the years.

First, Emperor Zhu treated the Zhao Song clan well, and second, Emperor Zhu was indeed better at governing the country than Zhao Ji.

Whenever there was news of the court's crackdown on corruption and victory in foreign wars, Chen Gongfu would be happy to have a few drinks. He even began to study Zhu Ming's knowledge. After Zhu Ming promoted "Xunzi" to the classics, he still studied "Xunzi" seriously.

At an old age, he still asked young people about astronomy and physics.

Zhu Guoxiang continued to climb the mountain and came to Maoshan Academy, where Chen Gongfu presented his own book "Qi Lun".

This was written by him combining Wang Anshi's new learning and the current Ming Dynasty official learning, including knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, physics, etc.

It took twenty years.

That night, Zhu Guoxiang lit a candle to read.

The first chapter talks about philosophical thoughts, and the beginning says that the universe is composed of "original qi".

Yuan Qi is a chaotic substance, which then evolves into Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and all things. All the evolution processes must follow physical rules, which can be explored, discovered, and summarized.

He also believed that mathematics is extremely mysterious, and physical rules can be expressed in mathematics.

He also strengthened Wang Anshi's idea that "heaven and man are irrelevant", believing that heaven and earth have their own operating rules, which cannot be interfered with by ghosts, gods, or humans.

But people can use physical rules to do things, such as Zhu Guoxiang's agronomy, and the use of firearms.

The second chapter talks about economy.

It is also based on Wang Anshi's thoughts, and studies the national policies of the Ming Dynasty in recent years, combining the two to discuss.

He believes that the natural resources between heaven and earth are fixed, and the big landlords and big businessmen occupy one more point, and the ordinary people occupy one less point. Therefore, the court should intervene and suppress mergers and monopolies through various means.

At the same time, he believes that although natural resources are fixed, people can create wealth through labor. He also believes that the circulation of goods needs to be strengthened to make the country and the market smoother.

The third chapter talks about education.

Advocate for practical application, emphasize thinking and practice, and don't just pick out sentences from the classics.

Chapter 4 talks about ethics and morality...

The number of words in the whole book is not large, just more than 30,000 words.

The academic works of the great Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty have long been written in semi-vernacular and semi-classical Chinese, so the information content of these more than 30,000 words cannot be compared with classical Chinese.

This book "Qi Lun" is more like a summary of Wang Anshi's new learning, Ming official learning, Northern Song Dynasty policies, and Ming Dynasty policies.

It also analyzes why Wang Anshi's reform failed, and explains why a series of Ming Dynasty policies were successful. And when discussing, it mainly quotes the thoughts of "Xunzi" that he hated the most when he was young.

By the way, Chen Gongfu hated Neo-Confucianism very much. He was the first person in the Southern Song Dynasty to propose to ban Neo-Confucianism.

"This person has great talent!" Zhu Guoxiang sighed after reading it.

Although the content of the first chapter is a bit nonsense, it is already very progressive at this time. That is, completely abandon the theory of ghosts and gods, and completely use materialism to explain the universe and everything.

It's just that his materialism is still about primordial energy, yin and yang, the five elements, and all things.

He materialized yin and yang, and the five elements, and believed that they were invisible and intangible substances.

The next day, Zhu Guoxiang carefully annotated the book in the academy.

For example, in the chapter on the composition of the universe, Zhu Guoxiang annotated: This theory is very wonderful, but it needs to be verified. Unverified theories can be regarded as a hypothesis for research. Whether correct or wrong, or with omissions, readers should redouble their efforts to eliminate the false and retain the true.

There is another most important annotation: I have mentioned this theory with the emperor a long time ago, and the principles of all things can indeed be expressed in mathematics. Those who cannot express it in mathematics are not unable to do so, but are actually due to the lack of current academic knowledge. Future generations should encourage it.

For the rest of the chapters, Zhu Guoxiang supplemented them in the form of annotations, for example, he racked his brains to write down the common sense of economics he knew.

Moreover, in the education chapter, Zhu Guoxiang publicly wrote out views such as epistemology, methodology, and contradiction for the first time.

"Make two copies with your comments, one for the emperor and one for Chen Gongfu." Zhu Guoxiang put down his pen and said.

A few days later, Zhu Guoxiang visited the scenery of Maoshan and went to Nanjing to take a boat up the Yangtze River.

Chen Gongfu got the copy and read it carefully and thought about Zhu Guoxiang's comments.

He was amazed and said with emotion: "Everyone says that the emperor is the Yao and Shun of the modern world. Today I finally believe it. It's a pity that I didn't know a wise emperor at the beginning and didn't stay in the new dynasty to serve as an official!"