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The Qinhuai River has been flowing for thousands of years. It has carried the wind and rain of six dynasties, but it remains calm.
In the pleasure boat on the river, Fang Yizhi drank one cup of strong wine after another, chanting with emotion while being a little drunk: "The heavy frost is like snow, I am alone on the southern expedition, don't say I have no feelings for my homeland. I only laughed when I was scolded and ridiculed, it is all in vain to lead the cow and carry the yoke. Lingyun has been stirring up the spirit of the rivers and lakes for a long time, and the sword makes the sound of wind and rain. There is only a sparse letter in the country now, and there is a madman at the foot of Longmian Mountain."
Especially when he recited the last two lines, the expression on his face was full of loneliness. Huang Zongxi, who was sitting opposite him, couldn't help but sigh after hearing it.
Among the Four Young Masters of Fushe, the other three have a strong sense of rouge. Only Fang Yizhi is strong and upright with a firm will. He is wholeheartedly thinking about realizing his ambitions and taking it as his responsibility to support the country and rectify the government.
Now the general trend of the world is clear. If nothing unexpected happens, the unification of the world by the Qin Dynasty is a foregone conclusion. Fang Yizhi rushed to Wuchang early in the morning and argued with many people in the eight-part forum. His reputation is not small.
Judging from the fact that the King of Qin welcomed some famous scholars and recruited talents without any restrictions, he should be an emperor who respected the wise and valued talents.
But what is strange is that the King of Qin not only did not promote or employ a talent like Fang Yizhi, but instead punished him severely. There must be another hidden story behind this.
The pleasure boat slowly sailed into Mochou Lake. Looking ahead, the clear light was vast and boundless, the towering shadow of the majestic city was reflected in the waves, the pink mountains and rivers, and half of the lake was covered with mist and rain.
Huang Zongxi poured a glass of wine for Fang Yizhi and said slowly, "Brother Mizhi is full of knowledge and is determined to serve the country and benefit the people. I'm afraid there are other reasons why he is not appreciated for his talent."
Fang Yizhi replied indignantly: "I know. I think it must be because Qian Qianyi and a large number of others were servile and servile, and regarded the enemy as their father, which made the King of Qin prejudiced against Donglin and dismissed it as a worn-out clog."
In the past, everyone respectfully addressed Qian Qianyi as Mr. Mu Zhai, but now Fang Yizhi calls Qian Qianyi by his name, which shows that he despises his actions.
Huang Zongxi was silent for a long time. He said solemnly, "Brother Mizhi probably only knows one side of the story. The fact that half of the people in Donglin surrendered to the Qing Dynasty is only one of the reasons why the King of Qin rejected Donglin. A few days ago, I had a long talk with Gu Ningren. I heard from him what the King of Qin said when he was discussing current affairs with him. After listening to it, Brother Mizhi knew the deep reason why the King of Qin rejected Donglin."
"King Qin's words? Brother Taichong, please enlighten me."
"According to Gu Ningren, when he discussed the late Ming Dynasty with the King of Qin, the King of Qin once said: Since Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty wrote the preface and promulgated the "Complete Collection of the Five Classics", "Complete Collection of the Four Books", and "Complete Collection of Nature and Principle", the Ming Dynasty began to teach Confucius and Mencius and Cheng and Zhu, the eight-legged essay was adopted and the ancient learning was abandoned, and the "Complete Collection" was published and the classics died.
After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a group of corrupt scholars went astray and continued to add fuel to the flames, almost completely abandoning the way of governing the country and pacifying the world since the Qin and Han Dynasties, "inner sage and outer king", and failing to distinguish between substance and function;
The world used morality and writing as the only criteria, valuing integrity rather than talent, which created a large number of moral defenders who could only draw a clear line with "dissidents" and engage in moral criticism every day. The rest were moral defenders who knew nothing at all, and the situation of the Ming Dynasty went from bad to worse. Emperor Chongzhen was hanged on Coal Hill because of this word "righteousness".
After hearing this, Fang Yizhi's brain buzzed. It almost exploded. Such a heavy criticism completely overturned his original thought framework. He could not accept it. He was about to refute it. Huang Zongxi shook his head and said: "Mizhi, please listen to me. The King of Qin has another sentence to say. If I were you, I would be even more unbearable after hearing this. The King of Qin said this about my mentor."
"The King of Qin actually brought up Mr. Nian Tai. This is too much. What exactly did he say? Brother Taichong, please tell me." The Mr. Nian Tai that Fang Yizhi mentioned was Liu Zongzhou, who had extremely high prestige in the reading world.
"To this day, I still have nothing to say. The original words of the King of Qin are as follows: Mr. Nian Tai was a gentleman with profound knowledge and good conduct during the Tianqi and Chongzhen periods of the late Ming Dynasty. He and Mr. Shi Zhai of Tongshan, Fujian, were highly respected by Donglin and Fushe people.
As the trend spread, people often had an illusion that as long as Mr. Nian Tai and Mr. Shi Zhai and other gentlemen were in charge of government, the Ming Dynasty would have a chance of revival.
In fact, neither of them is a good candidate for governing a country. They are upright but unable to adapt to change; they dare to speak out against the emperor but are too lenient to the truth; they are strict with themselves but do not help the world.
What they pursued throughout their lives was a kind of self-perfection. Because this kind of perfection is self-centered, it often appears to be pretentious and artificial. Emperor Chongzhen once issued an order to summon Mr. Shizhai to Beijing to make a report, which was a time of great turmoil;
However, in order to show that he had "shame" in his actions, Mr. Shizhai even threw behind his mind the Confucian creed of "one does not need to wait for the emperor's order". From the moment he was appointed as the Shaoqing of the Imperial Household Department, a fourth-rank official, he declined the position three or four times before accepting the position.
Considering the inconvenience of transportation, the envoys traveled back and forth on the road, and it took him many years to arrive in Beijing to take up his post. This is just like the saying goes, "An anxious wind meets a slow doctor. It is like looking for fish in a tree to save the crisis by relying on such a person."
Mr. Nian Tai refers to Liu Zongzhou, and Mr. Shi Zhai refers to Huang Daozhou. Indeed, these two men can definitely be called moral gentlemen, but even now, even Fang Yizhi himself does not think that these two gentlemen are the pillars of governing the country.
Because the facts have proved everything.
During the Hongguang reign, Liu Zongzhou was appointed as the Left Censor-in-Chief. He submitted a memorial saying that Huaifu Lu Zhenfei sent his family out of the city and encouraged escape, and should be executed; Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing led the army to flee south, and should be executed.
Among the officials in Jianghuai at that time, only Lu Zhenfei dared to fight against the Dashun Army heading south, and he was loyal to the Ming Dynasty. However, Liu Zongzhou, in the name of the chief censor, submitted a memorial suggesting that they be executed; Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing held a large number of troops, and were newly awarded titles for their "merits" in formulating strategies and supporting the Ming Dynasty. They were inconsistent and did not seem to be worthy of being killed.
In Fang Yizhi's opinion, Liu Zongzhou said that Liu Zeqing and others should be beheaded. Yes, Liu Zeqing should be beheaded; but at that time, Nanjing had no soldiers or generals, and the situation was fragile. Liu Zongzhou's dangerous words were not only ineffective in strengthening the country's prestige, but also a way to bring disaster.
As for Huang Daozhou, needless to say, he served as the prime minister during the Longwu Dynasty in Fujian, but the result was that he did nothing during the Longwu Dynasty. The two or three thousand shoulder-pole troops he organized were defeated at the first blow. Not only could they not save Longwu, but they also plunged the entire Longwu Dynasty into the abyss. Admittedly, these were not entirely Huang Daozhou's fault, but as the prime minister, he was deeply relied upon by Longwu. Doesn't he have any responsibility at all
As a student of Liu Zongzhou, Huang Zongxi said this in front of him, obviously thinking that Qin Mu was not wrong.
The Donglin Party members admired Liu and Huang very much. They also advocated governing the country with morality and valued the character of ministers. No matter how talented you were, as long as your personal morality was compromised, they would immediately criticize you and want to get rid of you as soon as possible.
Fang Yizhi, who was originally filled with anger, fell silent. Wasn't that what he did in the beginning? When dividing the ministers, didn't he first use the sharp knife of morality to make a clear distinction, and then form cliques and factions to expel the dissidents
Hearing Qin Mu's words today, it was like a blow to his intelligence. He was well-read in history and when he thought about it carefully, he realized that there were indeed many people in history who had poor personal morals but became capable ministers.
After experiencing the great historical changes of the country's destruction and the family's ruin, Fang Yizhi's thoughts also changed a lot. In the precarious situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, people should select people based on their talents. Using morality as the only criterion for selecting ministers is indeed a way to destruction.
The Donglin Party was best at using morality to attack others, but at a critical juncture, more than half of the Donglin Party surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
Looking back at their behavior of using morality to attack others time and time again, one can't help but think of the word "despicable and shameless".
This may be the deep reason why the King of Qin rejected the Donglin Party so much. After thinking this through, Fang Yizhi suddenly felt discouraged.
The cold rain was drizzling on Mochou Lake, and the air was quiet and solemn. From the nearby pleasure boat came the sound of zither and flute, which was distant and empty. A Qinhuai courtesan sang tenderly while playing the zither and flute:
The phoenix was flying on the Phoenix Tower; when it left, the tower was empty and the river was flowing on.
The flowers and plants of the Wu Palace buried the secluded paths, and the clothes and hats of the Jin Dynasty became an ancient hill.
Three mountains are half-hidden in the blue sky, and Bailuzhou is divided by two rivers.
The floating clouds always block the sun, and I feel sad when I can’t see Chang’an.
After hearing the song, Fang Yizhi became even more depressed. He drank from his glass repeatedly, as if he was drinking to drown his sorrows.
Huang Zongxi drank two cups with him and advised him: "It is unnecessary to be so secretive. Perhaps we should all calm down and think carefully about what we should do in the future. The Qin King's civil and military achievements are obvious to all. Now he has opened up the channels for speech and issued an edict that no one should be punished for speech. He is indeed a wise ruler.
More importantly, the trend of thought he was promoting had the potential to cleanse the previous dynasty's corruption. Although I do not completely agree with the King of Qin's ideas, the demise of the Ming Dynasty proves that it is time for all changes. If we can create a new situation in this regard, it does not matter whether we are at the top of the government or not."
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ps: I finally managed to write three chapters, please vote for me, please give me some encouragement! Brothers, please vote for me. (To be continued..)
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