"Yang Jisheng's "Ten Don'ts and Five Mistakes" gave him a glorious image of being fearless and patriotic. However, if you read it carefully, you will find that it is a typical memorial of a patriotic thief, a typical negative example, and a typical memorial of a person who claims to be patriotic but actually harms the country and the people!"
When Yan Shifan mentioned Yang Jisheng's memorial "Ten Don'ts and Five Fallacies", he couldn't help but sneer.
"oh?"
Zhao Wenhua leaned forward, pricked up his ears, and waited attentively for Yan Shifan to continue.
"Yang Jisheng's "Ten Don'ts and Five Fallacies" sound reasonable at first glance, but if you read them carefully, each one is more absurd and ridiculous than the other, which shows that Yang Jisheng is a stupid patriotic traitor. I will just cite a few of his "Ten Don'ts". For example, Yang Jisheng said that mutual trade is another name for marriage alliance. The traitor Altan Khan trampled on the tombs of our emperors and killed our people. This is a huge hatred, so how can we trade with him... This idiot didn't even understand the concepts of "mutual trade" and "marriage alliance". He was talking nonsense. Marriage alliance is to consolidate relations through in-laws and blood ties, while mutual trade is just trade based on political mutual trust."
"And there are two more things that we cannot do. For a great country like China to trade with them is putting the cart before the horse... What does this mean? Can't a great country like China trade with a small tribe? Can we only do business with people of equal status? Nonsense. Just because I have a lot of money, can I not do business with people who have less money?! The tribute trade between our dynasty and the surrounding small vassal states has been going on since the time of Taizu, so why should the Tatars be left out? Only a self-righteous idiot like Yang Jisheng would have such an idea!"
"And his nine don'ts, or Altan's horse-snapping... Yang Jisheng must have been stupid because of all his studies. He knows nothing about trade, but he still thinks he is right. Trade does not mean forced buying or selling. The price of horses is linked to their quality. If the horses are not good, you can choose not to buy them or pay less. As long as you have experienced merchants to assist you, you will never see inferior horses being sold at the price of superior horses."
"Hahaha... As for his ten things that we shouldn't do, they're enough to make the eight of us die of laughter. Ten things that we shouldn't do: hundreds of thousands of silks a year, tens of thousands of horses. Ten years later, we have no silk to wear, what should we do?... Has Yang Jisheng ever been to Jiangnan? The amount of cloth produced in Songjiang alone can reach tens of thousands a day. Songjiang alone is enough to exchange for all the horses of the traitor Altan Khan. And we have no silk to wear ten years later? It's completely ridiculous!"
"His courage is commendable, but he has no merits. He has no vision for governing a country and does not understand the value of trade. If a small trade can eliminate border troubles, why not do it? His memorial is full of loopholes. He can't get anyone else, but himself."
Yan Shifan sneered at Yang Jisheng's famous memorial, commenting on it while shaking his head and laughing.
"Well, Brother Donglou's words make sense. It seems that this Yang is indeed a fake."
After listening to Yan Shifan's comments, Zhao Wenhua couldn't help but nodded. He hadn't paid much attention to it before, but after hearing what Yan Shifan said, he thought about it again and it seemed to be true. Yang Jisheng's memorial was indeed exaggerated. His suggestions and ideas were too extreme and unrealistic.
"Lord Yan's views are insightful, and Fangzheng agrees with them. Yang Jisheng does not live up to his reputation. He is too self-righteous and always thinks he is the only one who is right in the world. He has no self-awareness at all. In fact, he is the one who is most wrong." Zhou Fangzheng immediately flattered Yan Shifan and trampled Yang Jisheng into the dust.
After listening to Yan Shifan's comments, Yan Song's frown relaxed slightly. He picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and moistened his throat.
"Yang Jisheng also wrote a memorial when he was the magistrate of Zhucheng County in Shandong Province, impeaching the local prefect Zhang Danian. One of his arguments was, 'This year's drought has resulted in a total crop failure, which is a punishment from heaven for the prefect's mismanagement.' ... He put the blame on someone who is as good as the emperor, which is simply laughable."
Yan Shifan then mentioned another memorial of Yang Jisheng, which he also sneered at and ridiculed Yang Jisheng for misusing the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man.
The theory of the correspondence between heaven and man originated from the Book of Documents: Hong Fan. It is an ancient Chinese thought. After the Han Dynasty, it gradually became a theological term of Confucianism. The theory of the correspondence between heaven and man believes that heaven and man are connected and mutually inductive. Heaven can intervene in human affairs, and man can also sense heaven. The ancients believed that if the emperor was unkind and unjust and violated the will of heaven, then heaven would send down disasters to condemn and warn the emperor; and if the government was in order and the people were harmonious, heaven would send down auspicious signs to encourage, such as unicorns, phoenixes, and many ears of rice.
For example, historical records show that in the 12th year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, envoys from Bengal came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and presented a rare animal. It was recorded that the animal was "nine feet high in front and six feet high in the back, with a neck of 16 feet and two feet long, short horns, an ox tail, and a deer body." As soon as the animal landed, someone shouted, "Isn't this a Qilin?" The officials were so excited that Shen Du, a compiler of the Hanlin Academy, was so inspired that he wrote an article "Ode to the Auspicious Qilin" on the spot, saying, "I have heard that when a saint has benevolence and is connected to the living and the dead, a Qilin will appear." Emperor Yongle read the article and was very pleased. He ordered the painter to draw this Qilin and named it "Ode to the Qilin Painted by Shen Du, a Ming Dynasty Artist". Well, if you see this painting in the museum, you will find that Qilin = giraffe.
In short, the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man generally refers to the emperor.
Therefore, Yan Shifan ridiculed Yang Jisheng's second memorial, mocking Yang Jisheng for using the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man to impeach a prefect.
"Donglou! Stop talking nonsense! His Majesty is the supreme ruler and the best among men. How can you be used as an example?" Yan Song glared at Yan Shifan, disliking him for using Emperor Jiajing as an example when sneering at Yang Jisheng.
"Dad, you are absolutely right. I know I was wrong."
Yan Shifan admitted his mistake with a laugh, then bowed solemnly in the direction of the West Garden.
Yan Song nodded in satisfaction, then turned his head and glanced at Zhao Wenhua and Zhou Fangzheng, and taught: "You all remember that we are where we are today because of the grace of the emperor. Eat the emperor's salary and do things loyal to the emperor."
"Thank you for your teachings, godfather (Lord), we will always remember them." Zhao Wenhua and Zhou Fangzheng stood up and responded.
"Haha, so, you don't have to worry about Yang Jisheng's impeachment at all. Every time he impeached someone, that person was fine, but he himself got himself into trouble because of what he wrote in the memorial. He impeached Qiu Luan, and got himself sent to prison and demoted to Didao; he impeached the prefect of Shangfeng, and if it weren't for my secret protection, he would have been in jail again; this time he impeached your father, although I haven't seen his memorial, but I believe that he will definitely get himself killed in the memorial again."
After Yan Shifan stood up, he continued to summarize with a smile.