Chapter 22 The Terror Dynasty

Jiang Xinghuo coughed twice and spoke slowly and clearly.

"The great affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and military affairs. You should have heard of these eight words."

"Of course, I'm not a fool." Zhu Gaoxu replied matter-of-factly.

Jiang Xinghuo nodded happily, it's good that he's not a fool.

Jiang Xinghuo continued to ask: "Then do you know why 'sacrifice' and 'rong' are the only two major national events?"

The only one? Zhu Gaoxu felt that this wording was extremely inappropriate, but he was embarrassed to point it out, so he ignored the past and thought about the question raised by Jiang Xinghuo.

After thinking about it this time, I really gave him the complete answer.

Zhu Gaoxu said matter-of-factly.

"Because if you chop off the heads of the enemy's envoys or captured generals and offer them to heaven, you can send troops to fight!"

In Zhu Gaoxu's understanding, Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were very cruel. Xia Jie released wild beasts to hunt and kill people for fun, while Shang Zhou invented the punishment of burning with cannon.

"The essence of the dynasty comes from these eight characters and its various changes in form with the development of productive forces."

"You should know that the first dynasties were the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty. So, what is the first impression in your mind of these two dynasties? What is the thing that comes out of your mouth when you think of them?"

"This kind of top-down cruelty is even called the Terror Dynasty. The root cause is that they are a slave dynasty and they do not regard slaves as human beings at all."

What Zhu Di can be sure of is that, based on what he knows about Jiang Xinghuo's habits, a bigger shock is definitely yet to come.

Outside the wall, the rosary beads spinning in Daoyan's hand stopped.

"Is it because King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, and Duke Zhou are all kind by nature? Why did Duke Zhou establish the "Rites of Zhou" that protected slaves to a certain extent?"

"Book of Rites: Mingtang Wei" once recorded: In the past, the Yin Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty brought chaos to the world, and the ghost princes were eaten by the princes. Therefore, the Duke of Zhou served as King Wu to defeat Zhou. King Wu died and the king was young and weak. The Duke of Zhou assumed the position of emperor to rule the world;

In the sixth year, the princes came to the Mingtang, made rites and music, and issued measures, and the world was in great service."

Are you shocked?

Zhu Di was looking forward to seeing how Dao Yan, who had always prided himself on his resourcefulness, would be shocked today.

"So, why did the Zhou Dynasty become the first feudal dynasty after the demise of the Shang Dynasty, which did not treat slaves as human beings, instead of continuing the brutal slavery dynasty?"

"Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were the tyrants of ancient times."

"How cruel were the Xia and Shang dynasties? It was commonplace to select babies and virgins as 'human animals' for human sacrifice. Not to mention the large-scale massacre of slaves and even cannibalism, as was the case with Zhou

The king made Jichang’s son Boyikao into meatballs.”

Zhu Gaoxu replied without thinking: "I think they are cruel people by nature, and there is no reason why they are cruel."

"No."

Dao Yan murmured to himself: "It's interesting that this Jiang Xinghuo has such a novel perspective and a way of interpretation that directly points to the essence of the problem."

So he threw out all his knowledge without thinking.

"When Emperor Zhongkang was in power, Xi was engaged in lewdness, and the time was in chaos; Emperor Kongjia was established, and he treated ghosts and gods, and engaged in promiscuity; Emperor Taijia had been in power for three years, but he was unclear, tyrannical, disobedient to the laws of soup, and disordered morality; Emperor Geng was

After the collapse, his younger brother Zu Jia Li became Emperor Jia. Emperor Jia was promiscuous and the Yin Dynasty continued to decline. Emperor Wu Yi was unprincipled and acted as a puppet. He called him a god and used it to win over him.

Since the time of Zhong Ding, disciples have been replaced and replaced by others. The disciples may compete with each other to replace him, which is more chaotic than the ninth generation, so the princes have no court."

"It seems that the rule of Shang Zhou was too cruel, which led to the resentment of the people, the rebellion of the princes, and the people of the world doubted the legitimacy of the 'Emperor'. Therefore, it is necessary to use rituals and music to clarify the order and to govern the world with mercy. Therefore, Duke Zhou formulated

"The Rites of Zhou" was adopted, thus bringing order back on track."

Jiang Xinghuo looked up at the bearded man.

"First of all, we have to talk about the early form of the dynasty - the slavery dynasty."

Dao Yan's fingers hidden in the sleeves of his black cassock held the rosary and pondered for a moment before answering uncertainly.

Jiang Xinghuo has an excellent memory. When he was a lecturer at the university, he almost blurted out the content he prepared for the lectures, and every word was correct.

Zhu Di nodded, what Dao Yan said made sense, just like after the Jingnan Rebellion, he wanted to compile the "Yongle Dadian" to show his intention of civil governance and calm the hearts of the people in the world.

"."

Next door, Zhu Di turned to Dao Yan curiously and asked.

"Master, why is this?"

Jiang Xinghuo closed the folding fan and explained seriously: "The essence is that the army and wizards, these two professional social divisions of labor, are the ruling class necessary for the formation of a dynasty, one rules the body, and the other rules the soul, so

That’s all. In fact, nobility is not necessary. The army and wizards can also assume the ruling function and form a military state or a religious state."

"Then why are they so cruel?"

Zhu Di looked at Dao Yan's reaction and chuckled, feeling a little inexplicable sense of superiority.

"Is this what it means that the most important affairs of the country are sacrifices and military affairs?"

Seeing that Jiang Xinghuo did not continue to ask, Zhu Gaoxu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If he continued to ask, he would not know anything.

"You answered very well."

"But I want to ask a question."

Jiang Xinghuo shook his folding fan: "If you read historical records carefully, you will find that the cruelty of the Xia and Shang dynasties was not the cruelty of the last king, but the cruelty of the entire ruling class."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know anything about the two dynasties, how many generations they lasted, where their capitals were, and what their history was.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't ask these questions, but asked a question that sounded strange.

Jiang Xinghuo was silenced for a few breaths by such a straightforward but reasonable answer, and then he spoke.

"What you said makes sense, but that's not what it actually means. It's just a representation."

But Jiang Xinghuo, who lives next door, gave an obviously different answer.

"The transition from a slave dynasty to a feudal dynasty is a gradual evolution process. Judging from the socio-economic system reflected in "Zhou Rites", it has the characteristics of a feudal society, which is obviously in the early stage of feudal society, and also has the characteristics of primitive social systems.

There are remnants, as well as some remnants of the slavery system, but generally speaking, the production relations of feudal ownership are dominated."

"Production relations can be understood as three aspects, that is, who owns all the materials for producing food; what is the status of the people who produce the food and those who own it; and who ultimately distributes the food."

"As for the ruler's transition from being cruel to slaves to not being cruel, and the transition of the nature of the dynasty from a slave dynasty to a feudal dynasty, these two issues must be discussed from this point of view."
Chapter completed!