The Wansui Hall is more imposing, but the Zide Hall is more exquisitely decorated. However, Guo Shao did not understand much, and had no time to study these things carefully. The Tokyo Imperial City belonged to him, but he had not observed it carefully in the past few years after he ascended the throne. This feeling is like a person who has become rich overnight, with all expensive things in his house, but he has never paid attention to why those things are so expensive.
Guo Shao walked into the Zide Hall and felt that it looked good. He hurried to see Fu Jinzhan. There seemed to be a lot of rumors in the imperial city now. Guo Shao came to greet Empress Duanci, which was also a kind of attitude.
As they entered a palace, several women and attendants came to greet His Majesty.
Guo Shao saw that among the people in Jinxiang Palace was Concubine Du. It was not surprising at first, because Concubine Du was the sister of Du Chenggui, the commander of the inner palace, and had long since joined Jinzhan. They were usually very close. But the Grand Concubine Zhang was also present, which surprised Guo Shao a little. Zhang originally lived in Wanfu Palace, and later lived in Sanqing Palace. She had been marginalized as a court lady earlier; but now her nephew was more powerful, the Grand Commander of the Five Military Commands, Cao Bin.
Guo Shao bowed to Zhang in return, because she was of higher status, and then exchanged greetings with Fu Jinzhan.
At this moment, Concubine Du tactfully said in a soft voice: I have been bothering Queen Duanci for a long time, please allow me to take my leave.
Unexpectedly, Jinzhan's beautiful face had a smile in her eyes and she said, "Your Majesty has just arrived, you two can stay and talk."
Du Fei and others were suddenly embarrassed and said quickly: Yes.
Guo Shao didn't understand what was going on, so he sat down on a soft couch. There was a coffee table next to him and Jinzhan was sitting on it. The two were of the same generation and were sitting on equal terms.
A young woman wearing a purple round-necked hat and a turban came over, knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, there is charcoal burning in the room. I will help you take off your coat first, as it will be hot in a while."
Okay. Guo Shao then asked her to take off the sweater and coat he brought back from the front line in Hebei.
Zhang whispered: Your Majesty is diligent in his work and loves the people, yet he himself is very frugal. This is truly a blessing to the people.
Heh, Guo Shao didn't know what to say to Zhang in front of Jinzhan. But none of the women present were simple. After hearing what Zhang said, they could tell at a glance that the fur coat Guo Shao was wearing was a cheap one.
However, he has no interest in the costliness of his clothes. Does Guo Shao still need any material possessions to highlight his own value
It was really strange. Guo Shao thought that he was the emperor and had great power, but he felt a little restrained in front of these women. He deliberately avoided Jinzhan's plump and round upper body and beautiful body lines, fearing that these women would notice something.
At this time, Jinzhan said in a slow voice: "And your majesty is kind-hearted." Fu Zhaoxu was in Xiongzhou and wrote to the palace saying that the Liao people burned, killed and looted the people of Hebei, and now your majesty has captured the Liao people of Youzhou. It was thought that you would slaughter them in revenge, but unexpectedly your majesty did not kill them.
Guo Shaodao: Benevolent governance refers to domestic affairs, but not massacring foreign civilians has nothing to do with benevolent governance.
Oh Fu Jinzhan looked at him with interest.
Guo Shao pondered for a moment and said: "I am an enemy of the Liao Kingdom, so I am not afraid of blood feuding with the Liao people. But my dynasty and the Han Dynasty have not only interacted with the Khitan people."
Our country's attack is bound to involve killing, and it is for the benefit of our own people, which is understandable; but if we advocate massacre and genocide, not only will we be feared by the surrounding ethnic groups, but the Han people will also be demonized and difficult to clear; while if we show ourselves to be kind, we will be more likely to be friendly to other countries, and be worshipped and invaded by our culture. Strength does not lie in shouting, but in strength.
Jinzhan's eyes were bright, and she nodded thoughtfully, and then asked: "Your Majesty, what important things are you busy with recently?"
This sentence made the women around him pay more attention and listen attentively.
Guo Shao certainly wouldn't say: I'm busy changing the dynasty. He pondered for a moment and said: Queen Duanci came to power a few months ago and sent people to get ships from the Arabs. I was trying to formulate a strategy to allow the Arabs to trade with me, but also to prohibit them from leaving the port and contacting officials and civilians.
This time we not only obtained shipbuilding technology and nautical charts, but also a very interesting work by Aristotle. This man was a Greek who lived thousands of years ago. It is said that Greece was far west of the Arab Empire and was the birthplace of civilization in the Far West.
Jinzhan said: So there are countries far away. They wrote books thousands of years ago. Aren't they ancient sages like Confucius and Mencius
Guo Shaodao: To Westerners, he is indeed a sage. I will ask someone to translate it carefully and have a look at it first. For the time being, hand-copying and printing are prohibited and cannot be published. It must be revised before printing.
Jinzhan couldn't help laughing and said: Could it be that Your Majesty has become a great scholar and thinks that the books of the ancient sages are also wrong
Guo Shao shook his head and said: "How can the things in the world be distinguished as right or wrong, black or white? If this book records the spontaneous thoughts of the Han people, whether they are right or wrong, there is no need to control them too much. I cannot burn books and bury scholars, nor can I do such things."
But it is a completely different foreign product. If we are not careful, it may cause confusion in the beliefs of scholars in the long run. In the end, they will not know what to believe in. It will be difficult for people to believe in nothing.
Guo Shao fully believed in the world's ability to understand. He was able to write about things like the Book of Changes, which even he could hardly understand. We should not underestimate the abilities of the ancient wise men.
Jinzhan asked curiously: If a book with such great power is translated, I must see it.
Guo Shao said in a deep voice: Yes, it is indeed not simple. Because he wrote too much about the philosophy of the origin of things, and our dynasty has its own perfect understanding. According to my observation, his remarks are contrary to the understanding of the ancient sages of the Han Dynasty.
If it is just crazy nonsense, it will be fine, it will not convince people anyway, but the words of such wise men are complete and systematic, and there will always be people who believe them. If we rush to swallow them whole, it will cause chaos, and there will be no perfect theoretical system to replace it. How can we govern the country
When we are not familiar with foreign things, we must be on guard. Therefore, I strictly forbid the Arabs to leave the harbor, out of this concern. The Arabs have different fundamental ideas from the Han people. If we don't understand, how can we know whether it will bring serious consequences
When Guo Shao said these words, the women around him could not understand him at all. Although he spoke Mandarin, they could only listen in awe.
Among all the women in this world, Jinzhan was probably the only one who could understand what Guo Shao was saying.
Although Guo Shao ascended the throne, he found that governing the country was not an easy task. Perhaps ordinary emperors only needed to follow traditional experience. However, his independent thinking method was very complicated, and he even had to find a way to understand ancient philosophy. At least he had to know what various theories said, otherwise he would probably be fooled by the literati, because the emperor himself didn't understand anyway.