Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"To explain clearly why I say that changing from an agricultural country to an industrial country can fundamentally solve the contradiction between man and land, we must talk about the difference between an industrial country and an agricultural country. And the root of this difference lies in the three aspects of 'productivity' A word."

"Next, let's take a few breaths to briefly review the first volume of "On National Destiny" about 'productivity'."

Jiang Xinghuo looked at his founding disciple Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu understood and said: "When Mr. Jiang was talking about the first volume of "On National Destiny", I once asked, since the tribal alliance formed a dynasty, why was the first dynasty established by Yu who was successful in controlling floods, and not by Zhuolu? It was established by the victorious Yellow Emperor."

"Mr. Jiang told me at that time that the reason is very simple, that is, the development of 'productivity' allows me to temporarily understand 'productivity' as 'the ability to grow food.' The reason why Yu established the Xia Dynasty is because in the Xia Dynasty During this period before and after its establishment, the productivity level at that time, or the ability to grow food, reached a level that could support a large number of rentier classes who were not engaged in production."

"You studied very carefully and answered very well." Jiang Xinghuo affirmed Zhu Gaoxu's seriousness.

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he immediately stroked his beard and smiled without saying a word, with a proud look on his face.

Old Man Zhuo curled his lips, seeming a little disdainful.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "So now we focus on the topic of 'productivity'. From the perspective of an agricultural country, such as the current Ming Dynasty, what are the important production activities of an agricultural country?"

Zhu Gaoxu and Zheng He both realized that Jiang Xinghuo's questions today were mainly about Old Man Zhuo.

Although Jiang Xinghuo didn't ask Old Man Zhuo directly, he had obviously put the question to him.

Both of them turned their attention to Old Man Zhuo, waiting for his answer.

I saw Zhuo Jing stroking his beard and pondering for a moment, then slowly said: "Since it is 'important' rather than 'most important', I believe that the first is food production, followed by the production of textiles such as silk and linen. After all, having enough food and clothing is a meaningful thing for the people."

Zhu Gaoxu listened very attentively and couldn't help but interjected: "I think in today's Ming Dynasty, production activities should refer to the production of food. The production of agricultural tools, cloth, pottery, etc. is completely different from food."

Zhuo Jing was immediately angry and turned to glare at him.

Zhu Gaoxu was not deterred at all. He still stared at Old Man Zhuo, looking like a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water. He made it clear that he will fight you to the end!

Old Man Zhuo was so angry that he blew his beard and stared.

Jiang Xinghuo, who was leaning on the tree trunk, saw this and quickly smoothed things over: "Okay, Master Zhuo, please continue."

Hearing this, Zhuo Jing calmed down his anger and continued: "Again, I thought it was raising livestock, such as cows and chickens raised at home."

"You made a mistake!"

Before Zhuo Jing finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu suddenly spoke and interrupted the other party's words.

Zhuo Jing was stunned for a moment, then glared at Zhu Gaoxu angrily: "What's wrong with me?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked: "What kind of production is raising livestock?"

"Okay, stop arguing."

Jiang Xinghuo helplessly held his forehead to dissuade him.

Now that Jiang Xinghuo had spoken, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhuo Jing naturally stopped arguing and looked at Jiang Xinghuo.

"Old Master Zhuo made it comprehensive. Important production activities in an agricultural country do include textiles and animal husbandry."

Hearing this, Zhuo Jing also proudly twisted his beard and remained silent.

But Jiang Xinghuo changed the subject: "What he said is right. For an agricultural country, although it is all about production, everything else can be done without, but food production is absolutely indispensable. To exaggerate, farmers can even You don’t wear clothes and don’t need iron farm tools, but even if you do slash-and-burn farming, you still have to produce food.”

"Then what does Mr. Jiang mean?" Zheng He was also a little confused.

“What I mean is that, as I said before, ‘productivity’ can be temporarily understood as ‘the ability to grow food’. The context of this sentence is ‘the productivity of an agricultural country’.”

Jiang Xinghuo explained: "It is necessary to clarify the difference between the productivity of agricultural countries and industrial countries. I want you to understand first what the productivity of agricultural countries is."

"Isn't the productivity of an agricultural country what you just said?" Zheng He became more and more confused as he listened.

"No, no, no, it's just a facade." Jiang Xinghuo looked at Zheng He and said softly, "Don't worry about it."

"Then what is the essence of productivity in an agricultural country?" Zhuo Jing couldn't help but ask.

Zhu Gaoxu also said in an urgent tone: "Yes, Mr. Jiang, if food production is just an appearance, what is the essence?"

Jiang Xinghuo was silent for a while and finally began to explain: "This question is actually easy to answer. Let me ask you a question."

Everyone showed an attitude of listening attentively.

Jiang Xinghuo asked: "How is food produced?"

Zhuo Jing replied without hesitation: "For the production of grain, the most appropriate description is 'plant one grain of millet in spring and harvest ten thousand grains in autumn'. In addition to paying taxes and keeping it for the winter, Zhuo Jing replied It is used as seed grain for next year to continue production."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded slightly and then said.

"In other words, the production process in an agricultural country, or the food production process, is actually a repeated process, right? Farmers put the past production results of 'seed grain' into the new production process of 'sowing', and then The new production results, 'seed grain for the second year', are produced and put into the next production process again, and so on, and the cycle continues endlessly."

Hearing this, Zhuo Jing twirled his beard as if he had some enlightenment.

When Zheng He and Zhu Gaoxu saw Zhuo Jing's appearance, they started thinking subconsciously.

What Jiang Xinghuo said seemed to be no different from Zhuo Jing's.

But they always feel that there is something very important hidden in it.

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly realized: "Oh! So that's it! I understand!"

Zhuo Jing frowned and said, "What do you understand?"

Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "I won't tell you."

"It's 'circulation'."

At this time Zheng He spoke.

Hearing this, Zhuo Jing once again fell into thinking. He murmured to himself: "Cycle. Cycle."

Just as Zhuo Jing had an idea flash in his mind, Jiang Xinghuo continued.

"In addition to circulation, the production process in agricultural countries also has a part called surplus."

When Zhuo Jing heard these words, he felt as if he had touched something, and the inspiration that was about to burst out of his mind burst out in an instant.

"The remainder is the food left over for winter after deducting taxes!"

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and corrected: "To be precise, the surplus is the part of each production process that exceeds the cost and is used to maintain the current consumption of social members. In the production process of an agricultural country, the costs are taxes and seed grains. And the remaining part used to maintain consumption or to eat enough is winter food."

"Then we can come to an obvious conclusion."

"The essence of productivity in agricultural countries consists of two parts. The first part is circulation, and the second part is surplus."

After that, Jiang Xinghuo painstakingly wrote this conclusion on the hard ground with a branch.

"And now that we know the production process in agricultural countries, based on this production process, can we understand that in fact, all other production activities in agricultural countries are caused by the surplus of agricultural products?"

Zhuo Jing fell into a long exam.

After a while, Zhuo Jing came back to his senses and said, "I think this statement is quite reasonable."

Zhuo Jing expressed his understanding: "The surplus products in agricultural countries are agricultural products. Generally, the surplus products are wheat, rice and other grains, and these grains have a storage period. If they are left for too long, they will be inedible. From On the bright side, if the remaining agricultural products are not eaten by the current population and future population growth, then it will support the craftsmen who make agricultural tools, textiles, pottery and other crafts.”

Zheng He thought thoughtfully: "Going a step further, the remaining agricultural products can also give rise to calligraphy, painting, porcelain, and pavilions?"

"Hey, isn't it just that when there are more people who are full, they are more interested in doing things? Why do you make it so complicated?" Zhu Gaoxu's simple mind can always simplify complex problems in one sentence.

"What if it's from the bad side?" Zheng He had a vague feeling of something bad.

Jiang Xinghuo gave the answer directly: "On the bad side, if there are not enough remaining agricultural products and there are too many people who need to eat them, once this situation occurs, it means that the contradiction between man and land has reached its peak, and with it What often comes is the world's chaos and the collapse of dynasties. After the population drops sharply, the contradiction between man and earth is greatly alleviated, and the next cycle begins."

Old Man Zhuo keenly captured a vague clue hidden in it.

"So, because the production of agricultural countries contains two parts: cycle and surplus, the cycle remains unchanged, but the surplus is destined to disappear as the population increases."

Old Man Zhuo's eyes suddenly became sharp.

"The essential reason why the contradiction between man and land has not been resolved for two thousand years is that as time goes by, the 'surplus' part of the production process in agricultural countries is never enough!"

“In other words, in order to solve the contradiction between man and land, we had to create a new ‘surplus’!”

But the next moment, Zhuo Jingfu became distressed again.

"It's easy to say, how to create new 'surplus'?"

Jiang Xinghuo answered Old Man Zhuo's question: "It is not difficult to create new 'surplus'."

"It's not difficult?" Zhu Gaoxu and Zheng He were both a little surprised.

It stands to reason that since creating new 'surplus' can solve the conflict between man and earth, but no one has ever realized this and does not know how to create new 'surplus', it proves that this matter should be very difficult. !

But Mr. Jiang told them that this matter was not difficult!

Jiang Xinghuo didn't expect them to understand it immediately. He just said: "If we want to create new 'surplus', it is actually very simple. We only need to understand which social classes the old 'surplus' flows through. And understanding the old 'surplus' How the surplus flows and is distributed, and you will naturally understand how to create new surplus."

“I named this method of analysis—hierarchy analysis.”