This article by Chen Jingke talks about the formation of the gentry and affirms the positive role of their existence.
For example, when the people form alliances to protect themselves, the gentry is powerful and can often influence one or several states.
After the imperial court system was broken, the noble clans could use their local power to mobilize the power of states and counties to form a group to resist.
The Yellow Turban Uprising was so powerful that it once had the momentum to change the dynasty. However, when the emperor gave the order to allow local nobles to recruit their own troops to form regiments and training forces, they were quickly wiped out.
The reason is that after these local lords had troops in their hands, they actually divided the Yellow Turban Army and then defeated them one by one.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sun En's Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion was also very powerful at the beginning. Then, the gentry mobilized family forces to trap them in the local area, and was finally annihilated by the assembled imperial army.
Including Zu Ti, whom everyone is familiar with, he also used his family's influence to recruit an army to go north to fight against Hu.
After the gentry was exterminated, the gentry class controlled the local areas due to the rise of the imperial examination, so there was a saying that the imperial power did not extend to the counties.
But on the other hand, the influence of the emerging gentry class is limited to a corner of their hometown. There are no longer large families in society that can influence a state or a prefecture.
When the imperial system was broken, there was a lack of influential people or organizations to mobilize local people. It would be great if the gentry could organize the people to protect themselves in the face of rogue bandits, but they were simply powerless to stop them.
Things like exterminating rebels and resisting foreign aggression can only be left to the state.
In ancient times when information exchange was poor, the country's response speed was extremely slow. By the time the court reacted, the bandits had already snowballed in strength.
When the force sent by the imperial court to suppress the bandits was weak, they would dare to fight head-on with the army. When the force sent by the imperial court to suppress the bandits was strong, they would move around and play hide-and-seek with the army.
Therefore, a bandit can throw the entire country into turmoil. The most famous one is undoubtedly King Chuang Li Zicheng.
So when reading history books, everyone is always confused as to why there was such a big difference in the way people resisted foreign invasions before the Tang Dynasty and after the Tang Dynasty.
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In addition, the positive role of the gentry in cultural inheritance was also discussed.
There is a saying that the gentry did make great contributions to cultural protection in the turbulent years. Without them, there would be even more lost ancient books.
This is also one of the main reasons why the gentry can monopolize the right to interpret knowledge.
Although Chen Jingke hates the gentry, he will not completely deny their achievements. In this article, he fully affirms the achievements of the gentry in this regard.
These are also the two biggest arguments of his article. It can be said that the entire article is centered around these two points.
When the latest issue of Wang Yue Tan was released, Li Shimin immediately summoned him into the palace, pointed to this article and asked, "What do you mean?"
Chen Jingke had already made preparations, and without saying much, he took out a few pages of paper from his sleeve and said, "You will understand after reading it."
Li Shimin took it and looked through it, then turned from anger to joy and said: "I see, this is a good move."
Chen Jingke said leisurely: "The influence of the noble clan is really huge. Blindly belittling them will make people think that we are jealous of them."
"Think about it from another angle, and praise them so much that they make people feel envious, jealous, and hateful. Maybe the effect will be better."
Li Shimin said: "Yes, sometimes it is better to kill with a stick than to kill with a stick. Maybe they are looking at the moon and talking happily at the moment. I wonder what they will think when they see the new chapter next month."
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The gentry really liked this article, and someone immediately said: "This is an article written by Sun Zhenren in the name of a disciple. It is an endorsement of the gentry and the dissatisfaction with the imperial court against the gentry."
Others said: "It was the letters written by us old friends to Sun Zhenren that had the effect. He still values the relationship between old friends."
In short, as soon as this article came out, it really made the nobles and their supporters proud. Many people took this article to visit the officials to inquire about the situation.
For example, Wei Zheng photographed Wang Yuetan in front of Fang Xuanling and said: "Prime Minister, Sun Zhenren's article has clearly stated the merits of the noble clan, do you still insist on it?"
"What did the saint say when he summoned you that day, and what are you going to do next? Is it really necessary to destroy the noble clan?"
"Not to mention whether doing this will cause chaos in the world. Without the nobles to guard the place, who will take the responsibility if an accident occurs?"
"Besides, you are also a descendant of the noble family, and your wife is also from the Fanyang Lu family. You should not support the saint in this act of cutting off his foundation."
Fang Xuanling said calmly: "It's okay to tell you that the population census last year turned out to be exactly the same as ten years ago."
"In the past ten years, the world's population has not grown at all. Do you believe it? Everyone knows exactly why. Some people don't take saints seriously."
"Early this year, the clan annals compiled by Xu Guogong and others listed the Cui family as number one, which completely angered the saint..."
"So the saint issued a death order. The census must be completed this year. He wants to get real data."
"If not, he will call back all the border troops and ask the army to assist in the population census."
Although Wei Zheng felt that Li Shimin was a little emotional, he was relieved instead.
Counting the population will cause the nobles to lose part of their strength, but in his opinion, the nobles passed down their family knowledge through knowledge, so this loss is not a big problem.
So he left with satisfaction.
It's not that he completely believed Fang Xuanling's words. Next, he would visit other parties and ask a few more people to find out the truth.
After sending him away, Fang Xuanling returned to the lobby and sat down, then let out a long sigh.
At this time, a middle-aged woman came in from the outside and said, "Mr. Lang, why did you lie to Prime Minister Wei?"
Fang Xuanling said: "I didn't lie to him. When these newly appointed officials take office, His Majesty will order a thorough population survey across the country."
Fang Lu said: "You know what I mean. This population census must not only target the gentry. Which family of meritorious and powerful people does not have Tibetan people?"
"What benefits did His Majesty promise that made them willingly hand over these people? Even you can give up everything to support him?"
"Also, His Majesty cannot be so laborious and mobilized just to conduct a population census. What does he want to do with the nobles?"
Husband and wife know each other best. Fang Xuanling knew that he couldn't deceive her, but he couldn't tell the truth, so he could only ask:
"If Fang Lu could only choose one, which one would you choose?"
Hearing this, Mrs. Fang Lu emotionally tore off the cloth wrapped around her eyes, pointed at the blind eye, and cried:
