Chapter 1046 1041 [China in the Eyes of the Eastern Romans]
"The official name of Peach Blossom Stone at this time is the Ming Dynasty (Daeming in Latin). The dynasty was established not long ago, and it was less than twenty years before I was ordered to go on a mission."
"Even the Venetians who sailed the Mediterranean are familiar with various rumors about the two founders of the dynasty. But I traveled on the sea and rivers with six descendants of the Ming Dynasty nobles for several months, and learned many rumors from their mouths
The fallacy.”
"Some people say that the founding monarch of the Ming Dynasty was an Eastern pagan cleric. This rumor came from Fatimid (Egyptian green-clad food) scholars. They had exchanged in the capital of the Ming Dynasty for a year. But they were obviously spreading lies. That person
The founding monarch was only appointed as the manager of an Eastern church by the Song Emperor in the previous dynasty of Song Dynasty. He was also regarded as a saint by his own people - a saint from Confucianism."
"Religion is not what I'm good at."
"But I need to give a brief introduction. There are three polytheistic religions in the Peach Blossom Stone Land, namely Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism."
"Confucianism is their state religion, and Confucius is recognized as the prophet of Confucianism. There are many such prophets, such as Mencius, Xunzi, etc. The emperor of Taohuashi is the son of the supreme god here - the emperor. And every emperor automatically
He also serves as the Patriarch of Confucianism."
"Taoism is another religion of Peach Blossom Stone. Lao Tzu is recognized as a prophet and a god in Taoism."
"Buddhism originated in India. It is said that it has been spread to Peach Blossom Stone for thousands of years."
"The three major religions are dominated by Confucianism, with Taoism and Buddhism as supplements. They sometimes exclude each other, but more often they cooperate. A descendant of a nobleman named Fan Chengda told me that there is a practice here called the integration of three religions.
.That is, a believer can believe in three religions at the same time, and their attitude towards this is very tolerant."
"Let's talk about the Ming Dynasty. Let's call the father and son who founded the Ming Dynasty Lao Zhu and Xiao Zhu."
"Lao Zhu is known as a Confucian saint because he became emperor, but took the initiative to give up the throne to his son Xiao Zhu. This is in line with the principles of those Confucian saint emperors thousands of years ago, that is, to make the emperor more capable and moral.
Someone will be the emperor."
"There is no conspiracy theory involved in this change of imperial power. The abdicated emperor can walk freely anywhere, and often returns to the capital to celebrate festivals with his son. There was even a time when Emperor Xiao Zhu led troops to an expedition, and Emperor Zhu who had abdicated the throne was
He was also entrusted with serving as regent."
"Yes, this is Confucianism. Compared with the gods of Confucianism, Confucian believers believe in virtue, wisdom and order more, and summarize them as 'Li' (direct transliteration as Li). Whether it is the emperor, officials or the people, if
Failure to comply with the 'etiquette' is tantamount to violating the teachings of Confucianism and will be spurned by believers in the land of peach blossoms and stones."
"Therefore, Confucianism can be regarded as a teaching of virtue, a teaching of wisdom, and a teaching of order."
"Emperor Peach Blossom Stone, son of the gods and patriarch of the world, encourages all Confucian believers to learn knowledge. And every Confucian believer, even a commoner or a slave, can become an official through knowledge. Every official here, including the generals who fight in battle
, all are Confucianists. But they may also believe in Taoism and Buddhism, which is openly allowed."
"There is an examination system called the imperial examination here, which is used to select Confucian officials. Any officials or scholars who cheat in the imperial examination will be executed by the emperor's order. This is because it blasphemes the Confucian gods, violates the teachings of Confucianism, and is inconsistent with Confucianism.
'present'."
"..."
"The Ming Dynasty has a vast territory. I changed ships from a large island in southern India called Ceylon and sailed to the southern provinces of the empire thousands of miles (Roman miles) away. There were vassals of the Ming Dynasty everywhere along the way. Such vassals included
There are dozens of them, large and small, some are Buddhist countries, some are Hindu countries, and of course there are also Confucian countries.”
"Xia (Yu Qing), the governor of Ceylon appointed by the Ming Emperor, was a very enthusiastic and generous general. He helped the prince of Ceylon restore his country and recently killed the regicide. Therefore, he was retained by the restored prince of Ceylon.
And granted him territory to become a noble. The wise and generous Emperor of the Ming Dynasty allowed this behavior and asked Xia Liu to become the governor of Ceylon and protect Ceylon, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, forever."
"Such a thing also happened when Srivijaya died (Srivijaya). The king's cunning nephew committed regicide and established himself. The Ming Emperor immediately sent troops to conquer and seek justice for the dead king of his vassal country. It is a pity that Srivijaya died.
The royal bloodline was severed, and the entire country was divided into more than a dozen states. However, due to the kindness and justice of the Ming Emperor, all these separated states were still willing to abide by the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain."
"Perhaps this is the benefit of Confucianism. Virtue can always make people surrender from the bottom of their hearts."
"Of course, we cannot do without a strong army."
"The navy of the Ming Dynasty is very powerful. In last year's Malacca naval battle, more than ten Ming warships defeated hundreds of Srivijaya rebel fleets. Such a powerful combat power made all the countries along the coast tremble."
"But the descendants of the nobles of the Ming Dynasty told me that every warrior was a devout Confucian. They advocated virtue and order, so they never relied on force to plunder coastal countries. I think the teachings of Confucianism are only one of the factors, and more important
What’s wrong is that the Ming Dynasty was too rich, relying on farming and trade to become as rich as the East.”
"If you were a rich man, would you rob beggars on the street? If you were kind-hearted, not only would you not rob, but you would give alms to beggars. The Ming Navy never robbed, maybe it has the mentality of a rich man."
"This is definitely not an exaggeration. We came to the Ming Dynasty's embassy in Tokyo. The toilets here are actually made of porcelain. There is a white porcelain potty for urine and feces, and there is also a porcelain water tank that flushes automatically. They are all made of exquisite white porcelain.
, so smooth and shiny that it can reflect human figures."
"If this kind of porcelain is shipped to the West, it can easily be sold for hundreds of gold coins, but the porcelain stoneware is only used to make toilet items. I say it can be sold for hundreds of gold coins because these porcelain toilet bowls and water tanks are special.
Large, unusual small porcelain can be compared.”
"I asked the officials of the Ming Dynasty and found out that this kind of porcelain toilet is now popular in the capital and deputy capitals of Taohuashi. And it is spreading to other cities. Because there are too many porcelains here to sell, we have to find new uses for them.
"
"The clocks, which were regarded as treasures by the King of Fatimid (Egypt), are actually very common in Maohua Stone. Every city has a clock tower, and those clocks can automatically tell the time. I heard that wealthy people inside and outside the city also have small clocks in their homes.
.”
"Peach Blossom Stone people divide their day into twelve major hours, twenty-four hours, allocate all their time carefully, and complete their daily work according to the plan."
"They were very diligent and even dug thousands of miles of canals. When I went to Imperial Tokyo from the sea, I took a boat all the way, and most of them followed the canals. I heard that there were dozens of such canals in the Ming Dynasty. I
When I was more than ten years old, I followed the late emperor to fight in the war, and I knew the importance of canals. With these canals, the Ming Emperor could quickly deploy troops to any corner of the empire."
"An official took us to visit Tokyo. This city is called Kaifeng, which was the capital of a dynasty on the Peach Blossom Stone. I walked along the city wall for half a day and only completed half of it, maybe a small half. I heard that this city has nearly
With a population of one million, it was too crowded and the palace seemed small, so the Ming Emperor moved the capital further west to Luoyang."
"Kaifeng has many legends about the Ming Emperor. The barbarians who destroyed the Zhong Taohua Stone once came to Kaifeng City. Emperor Xiao Zhu of the Ming Dynasty led his army to eliminate the barbarians, and recovered the Zhong Taohua Stone, reunifying the Shangzhong Peach Blossom Stone."
"As a soldier, I am very interested in the emperor's wars. Unfortunately, the descendants of the nobles cannot tell clearly, and they have never actually been on the battlefield. Judging from the defenders of the cities along the way, they are indeed very confident, perhaps because they have no enemies.
, those defenders were even so confident that they were lazy.”
"There is only one thing that can be confirmed at the moment. The Ming Dynasty's navy is the most powerful in the world. Any fleet can sweep across the Mediterranean."
"Today I set off from Kaifeng and continued westward. In a small town halfway, I saw a large number of soldiers and farmers resting. I asked the accompanying Ming officials and he said that the troops in front of me came from Shandong - Shandong may be a governor-general."
"Not only the Shandong Governor-General, but also several Governor-Generals of the Ming Dynasty are currently gathering troops. The war is about to break out, and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has decided to regain the land of the Peach Blossom. The goal of their expedition this time is to defeat the Seljuq army.
Julhan."
"Countless ships transporting military supplies almost blocked the wide river. Those troops marching within the territory did not wear armor or even carry main battle weapons. But they were very disciplined and had a set of rules for walking, sitting and lying, and even wore
Uniform everyday clothing.”
"This will be an unprecedented war. I heard that the Ming Dynasty will send 500,000 troops to battlefields more than a thousand miles away from Rome. The Ming Dynasty is extremely wealthy, enough to support the 500,000-mile army on a thousand-mile expedition. God
, so terrible!”
"After I have an audience with the emperor, I will ask the Ming Emperor to allow me to accompany the army to watch the battle and witness this great war with my own eyes."
"I finally arrived in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. This city is called Luoyang. The embassy is located in the newly built Xicheng District. It is larger than Kaifeng and the imperial city is more magnificent."
"This great city is comparable to Constantinople and demonstrates the infinite glory of the Eastern Emperor."
"It's a pity that they don't allow me to climb the city wall, otherwise I would have carefully inspected Luoyang's city defense system."
"There are so many people wearing silk in Kaifeng and Luoyang, as if silk is like worthless linen!"
"The only pity is that I have not found any public baths in any city in the Ming Dynasty. People here bathe at home, and socialize in teahouses or taverns. Drinking tea is very interesting, and tea is a peculiar oriental drink...
…”
——"The Peach Blossom Stone"·Eastern Roman Empire·Aksukh.