New Shun 1730

Because they must have a large number of "illegal" weeds in their hands.

However, they did not ask too directly, but asked a seemingly irrelevant question in a roundabout way to hint at the problem.

"Duke, we have said before that the emperor is wise and the Duke has a far-sighted vision, and has solved many floods. But in addition, there are two other problems with the floods here."

"One is that the court built dams and patrolled at some river mouths to prevent private salt smuggling."

"Another is that when rivers flow into the sea, there are always people blocking the river mouths and enclosing polder fields."

"These two, if the autumn water comes, the polder fields are blocked, the river dams are blocked, and the water cannot flow out, there will always be floods."

"In the future, if those reclamation companies develop water conservancy, they must also set up a charter to avoid blocking the river. The Duke should also set a rule that if there is a flood upstream, they cannot use it to irrigate the fields."

The local big family surnamed Jiang hinted at it, and what he said made sense.

They have also read the pamphlet on how to reclaim wasteland and remove salt and alkali. For some lands with serious salinization, dams should be built below and solved by soaking with fresh water.

But asking this question is not because I really want to discuss technical issues with Liu Yu, or the deadlock of water disputes or flood discharge that the people have never been able to solve, but to see how determined Liu Yu is about the issue of abandoning reclamation.

Liu Yu didn't care and said casually: "Don't worry about this. The reclamation company and the upstream will set the rules at that time. There will also be a system here. If you force people to release water when they shouldn't, you will be arrested, and if you don't release water for your own selfish interests when you should, you will also be arrested."

"Today I came to pay tribute to Mr. Fan Wencheng, and I was thinking about the matter of Mr. Fan's dike. Now it needs to be repaired. If the reclamation company is willing to pay, it will also reduce a lot of people's labor, which is also a good thing for you."

The accompanying gentry hurriedly said: "Yes, yes. Because of this, this county has established a temple, and I dare not forget Mr. Fan Wencheng's virtue."

After speaking, several gentry looked at each other. Obviously, Liu Yu meant that reclamation was set, and they were already considering building a new seawall.

"Duke, you must have known about the fight in this county a few days ago. But... I wonder what you think about the grass ditch?"

Liu Yu smiled and did not speak immediately.

Instead, he read the couplets in the temple for a while, deliberately left these people alone for a while before saying: "What do you think... It's hard to say. Although the country has its own laws, sometimes it really doesn't work."

"Didn't many salt households say that those reclamation companies were wronged a few days ago?"

The gentry hurriedly said: "The governor thinks this matter is not a small matter, and it involves the issue of controlling the people's permanent property and competing with the people for profits. Moreover, you don't know that there are many unruly people in this place."

"To prevent accidents, you should let the army prepare in advance."

This time Liu Yu came with soldiers. Although Jiangsu Province has a 20,000-man field army stationed, the emperor still transferred troops from the north to prevent accidents, and it is impossible to give Liu Yu a chance to mobilize even a small-scale army.

The emperor knew very well that this reform not only involved salt merchants and gentry, but also many lower-class people. Most likely something was going to happen, and if something really happened, it would definitely not work without the army.

Generally speaking, gentry opposed soldiers entering the city, and it was even more impossible for them to actively invite the army to enter.

Liu Yu knew very well that these big families might not have direct control over the grass and ponds, but their families, branches, and subordinates must have occupied a lot of grass and ponds.

Obviously, these people hoped that the grass and pond problem would be solved in a way that was beneficial to them.

Seeing that Liu Yu did not express anything, these gentry said, "Do you know that in the previous dynasty, Yangming's school was prosperous, and Wang Xinzhai founded a school here. Although Yangming's knowledge has declined, and Taizhou's school seems to have disappeared, it is actually very popular among the people."

"Especially his great knowledge, which is widely circulated among the rural villagers. Later generations do not have their talents, so they gradually become stupid and evil. I am afraid that many incidents will arise at that time."

Liu Yu also understood the situation here.

What these gentry said cannot be simply said to be good or bad, it can only be regarded as an attempt of Confucianism.

What is involved here is the idea of ​​"equalizing the grass" that emerged when the Taizhou School was prosperous.

The situation here is a little complicated.

The Taizhou School in history had basically no influence in the late Ming Dynasty, because the few famous and theoretical ones in the school were basically gone during the Wanli period.

And later, under the background of the near demise of the world in the late Ming Dynasty, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi and even Yan Yuan and Li Xian after them fully criticized and reflected on the spontaneous behavior of new learning and Neo-Confucianism. The Taizhou School itself was quite out of line, and the overall public opinion was severely criticized.

And some of Wang Gen's words at that time eventually made the Taizhou School a thorough historical term.

That is, Wang Gen discussed the "King Wu's attack on King Zhou" at that time.

What does it mean?

That is, King Wu attacked King Zhou, right? Yes and no.

The benevolence of saving the world is of course right.

However, after King Wu defeated King Zhou, Wei Zi was still alive. You should not replace Shang with Zhou, but should support Wei Zi as the emperor. You guys should retreat to Shaanxi.

Support the benevolence of saving the world and oppose King Wu of Zhou's change of destiny.

After Dashun conquered the world, Wang Gen has been dead for many years. But there are survivors of the previous dynasty who have dug up these remarks.

These theories are very useful, and they are simply "tailor-made" for the relationship between Dashun and Daming.

Geographical customization, return to Shaanxi; behavioral customization, saving the world can be done, but Shun Dai Ming Xing is not advisable, when the Zhu family still has descendants.

After the Dashun world, the sense of déjà vu is too strong, and it is really itchy all over. But it is not easy to say that a person who has been dead for decades at that time has the idea of ​​missing the previous dynasty and alluding to the current dynasty.

But some of the former dynasty’s survivors took this statement and concealed the evil politics.

Dashun is still smart, because this thing is just a horse liver theory, which was played out more than a thousand years ago.

The issue of political legitimacy is not something that should be discussed. Once debated, once discussed, it will only make more and more problems. The best way is not to argue and not to care.

Even if you find a great scholar to debate the scriptures and get the result, it is only a victory in writing, and it is actually promoting the spread of these statements.

However, after this incident was brought up, along with the gradual stabilization of the Dashun regime, the Taizhou School really died out in name, because no silly gentry or scholar-official publicly said that they were from the Taizhou School.

However, people can die, names can be destroyed, but ideas will not die.

The Taizhou School died out in name, but with the Dashun regime settling the world, many people were still influenced by the Taizhou School under many historical issues.

It should be said that the influence was very profound.

However, it is hard to say whether it was positive.

On the one hand, it was the first to bear the blame for the Ming Dynasty's near-death. Gu Yanwu directly compared Wang Yangming with Wang Anshi, hoping to "restore the chaos and return to the right"; Huang Zongxi even said, "Yi Kaiqu Tan's secrets and return to his teacher, and he should have been as good as Yangming and became a Zen."

On the other hand, it was also because of the saying that "King Wu defeated Zhou, he should have protected Weizi and ruled the world, and he should have retreated to Shaanxi."

These two reasons made this school no longer discuss politics and principles, but degenerated into something a bit like a religion.

Perhaps, this can also be regarded as an attempt at a desperate situation?

Wang Gen had made up a story before, saying that he dreamed that the sky collapsed, the people cried out, and he stretched out his hand to split the collapsed sky and saved the people.

Yan Jun even went straight to deifying Confucius, carrying out activities such as the Dazhong Chuixiang and setting up altars to perform rituals.

It should be said that when it came to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, all the wise people felt that they really could not rule according to the old methods of the past, and tried all kinds of strange and wonderful means to improve Confucianism.

This kind of superstitious religiousization of Confucianism, whether good or bad, is an attempt.

Originally, Wang Gen felt that how could ordinary people understand things like Zhihuzheya, Renyi, and Taiji?

Since everyone can become a saint, why not take this approach that is closer to the people and spread the essence of morality?

After Wanli, along with the death of several masters of the Taizhou School, the remaining remnants of the Taizhou School turned to heresy and radical, and believed that the system at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty was the appropriate system, and preached everywhere that everyone should live in peace and do nothing wrong.

On the one hand, the entire system established at the beginning of the founding of the previous dynasty was really completely unsuitable for the development of the commodity economy in the south.

On the other hand, social contradictions began to be stimulated and began to erupt after Wanli.

Under this reality, these old scholars could not put forward a new and appropriate theory for the fundamental development of society; on the other hand, some people who founded the school died one after another.

The remaining people naturally turned to reaction and tried to stabilize the society by means of reactionary reform.

This is not inconsistent with the later saying that the Taizhou School was ideological enlightenment.

Reactionary regression is originally a companion product of ideological enlightenment.

By the time of Dashun, because of those two reasons, the Taizhou School as a school was actually dead.

But this idea of ​​penetrating into the people and spreading morality has been passed down. And because they no longer talk about those principles and debates, they gradually have a second spring.

Relying on easy-to-understand poems such as "Dacheng Song".

"If you get this person and this way, there will be more peace and prosperity in the world; I say that the heart is harmonious, and it turns out that everyone is harmonious; I say that the heart is upright, and it turns out that everyone's heart is upright..."

In this way of poetry, doggerel, and preaching, it quickly spread among the people. Or try to establish a village agreement for villagers' self-government; or spread some moral filial piety and other things everywhere.

To say that the beautiful society they imagine is actually the kind of perfect society at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, with a hint of idealization.

Basically, it is a bit like the village self-government and moral construction school.

These successors who took the "dregs" of the Taizhou School still have a great influence among the people. Especially after taking the feudal superstitious people-friendly route, they have been widely recognized by the grassroots.

For example, in the matter of salt administration, they still have a great influence on salt households.

The idea they hold is still the same idea of ​​dividing the marshes equally and keeping the land in peace for thousands of years. They set up village agreements, and the gentry are responsible for educating morality, creating a perfect semi-closed society.

Of course, the gentry who talked to Liu Yu about this issue, all of them have marshes in their hands, and they definitely don't want to divide them equally.

The reason why they hope Liu Yu will prepare early and prepare the army is mainly because they are worried that if the judgment is really forced, it will lead to large-scale resistance from the lower classes.

This is not just about the salt households, but also the vast majority of people who are influenced by the remnants of those schools. They really hate these gentry and wealthy merchants and are eager for equality.

How can the general public, as well as a large number of small producers such as the textile industry in its golden age, be considered the real bottom of society?

Compared with the reality of the gentry and merchants who plunder and rob, and the future Liu Yu who wants to make capital bleed, for the lowest-level people, indeed, the idealized Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the founding of the country, coupled with these attempts at religiousization of perfect village agreements and Confucian scholars, seems to be the most beneficial to them.

For those small producers, the salt households are a totem pole, and it is even more important that the contract must be observed. But for those lowest-level people, isn’t the idealized salt households in Juncaodang also a totem pole?