This highly pragmatic memorial really shocked several cabinet ministers. They looked at each other in the meeting hall for a long time before hearing Shen Shixing cough lightly and said: "What do you think my cabinet should do with this memorial?"
Draft a vote?"
Xu Guo hesitated for a moment and said nothing. Zhang Xueyan couldn't help but frown secretly when he saw it, and then said: "How can the cabinet be so good at drafting such a succinct document? It must be left to the emperor to decide. However, regulating the world is the responsibility of the cabinet ministers.
, if you have no opinion at all when something big happens, it’s not right, you must always have an attitude.”
Shen Shixing finally met someone who dared to talk to him, and he was willing to let it go. He immediately asked: "What Xinzhaigong said is absolutely true. Such an article is related to the overall situation of the world. The cabinet has to adopt an attitude - Ignorance
How does Duke Zhai view Gao Qiuzhen's remarks?"
He originally thought that Zhang Xueyan was just using "the cabinet must have an attitude" to force him, the first assistant, to express his position first, so he seized the opportunity to quickly rebel against the general. However, unexpectedly, Zhang Xueyan was not afraid to express his position.
I saw Zhang Xueyan suddenly arched his hands in the direction of the Ministry of War and said: "Although Gao Qiuzhen is a junior scholar, from today on, I will not dare to respect him in person."
Shen Shixing was stunned for a moment. Before he could figure out what Zhang Xueyan meant by his sudden praising and pragmatic words, he saw Zhang Xueyan's deep voice and concentration, and said slowly: "As expected of the number one scholar in six titles, he is indeed the most courageous scholar in the world."
Shen Shixing was shocked when he heard that it was just the top prize in six poems. It was originally a high and pragmatic honor, but this world's bold scholars...can this be concluded casually?
The word "literary bold" originally has several meanings with different uses and usages. However, once it is prefixed with the prefix "天下", there are usually only two situations: one is a scholar leader, and the other is the head of the imperial court.
auxiliary.
Which one of them is Gao pragmatism?
Although Shen Shixing still had a smile on his face, his smile looked stiff.
However, he did not object in the end, because he also knew that it was really courageous to say these words with a high and pragmatic status.
What did Gao Yongshi say in this essay that made Shen Shixing think so?
In this essay, Gao Pragmatic discusses one thing with an example at the beginning: ancestral rules are not inviolable. As times change, no ancestral rules must be violated. Everything must be determined according to the situation at that time.
.Furthermore, the ancestors did not abide by the ancestral system unconditionally. Even Emperor Taizu Gao himself made relevant adjustments many times after confirming the "ancestral precepts".
Since Taizu himself made adjustments, and later Chengzu and other "sages" also made many adjustments based on the national conditions at that time, why can't we make adjustments now?
After explaining the reasons why the ancestral system can also be adjusted, Gao Pragmatic began to "prescribe prescriptions and medicines." He had five "adjustment" methods in total.
The first priority is the issue of knighthood. Gao Pragmatic proposed that the number of knights should be strictly limited. For example, the eldest son of a prince can be crowned as a prince as usual, while the second son of a legitimate concubine can only be crowned with four of them at most. A total of five people can be knighted.
As usual, the eldest son of the prince of the county can confer title to the prince, while the second son of the legitimate concubine can only be granted nobility at most two of them. A total of three can be knighted. If the generals of Zhen, Fu, and Fengguo have legitimate sons, they are allowed to grant the title of two, and those who have no legitimate sons can only be crowned.
It is allowed that only a concubine can be granted the title. As for Zhen, Fu, and Fengguo Lieutenant, it is embarrassing. No matter the concubine, only one son is allowed to be granted the title.
However, as the most critical issue, the issue of knighthood has not been finished yet. Gao Pragmatic continued to make requests.
Since the clan members other than the above clan clans are not allowed to be canonized, the arrangement is as follows: among them, those who are willing to study will be admitted to school together with the outstanding children of the people. And among them, those who should be admitted to the first class will be awarded the official title. However, there are some
The only requirement is that they can only serve as officials abroad - in other words, they cannot be officials in the capital or go to the central government.
Other clans who are unable to study and choose to farm or work can just let them do what they want without the court having to take care of them. If you consider that some of these clans may not have the means to make a living, then you may wish to consider having the court give them an "initial capital".
For example, if the son of a prince is not granted the title, when he reaches the age of sixteen, the court will give him a crown and belt, and an additional six hundred taels of silver will be given; if the son of a prince is not granted the title, when he reaches the age of twenty, he will be given a crown and belt, and will be given four hundred taels of silver;
If the son of a lieutenant is not granted a title and is determined to enter school, he will be given clothes and scarves, and each son will be given two hundred taels of silver. In this way, whether he is studying to become an official or doing other things to make a living, he will not have to worry about making mistakes without care.
And if there are some of them that are completely worthless... Gao Pragmatic said that every family in the world has unworthy sons, which is helpless - in other words: the court does not raise waste, you can die wherever you like, I am here
I didn't give you wastes any consideration.
After that, he solved two other related problems by the way: First, the clan could not leave the city. Gao Pragmatic believed that it would not be a problem for the clan to leave the city, and there was actually no such clause in the "ancestral precepts". As for why this statement was formed later
, Gao pragmatism doesn't care - in fact, it happened after the Jingnan crisis, and it's just an unspoken rule, so Gao pragmatism simply doesn't admit it here.
The other point is that he and Zhu Yijun talked about "the punishment is not to go to the clan". Here Gao Pragmatic gave his opinion: all the clans that have not been canonized will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the law, no different from the people. By the way, he also discussed that doing so is "
The most righteous way.”
After the title issue is resolved, the second thing is the issue of heirs. This is relatively simple. Gao Pragmatic does not agree with the succession of various brothers. He believes that only the prince level can be used - this is considering the fact that the prince
It is considered "one country", and it is not easy to "exterminate the country". Of course, if there is no one to inherit the brother or brother, or even nephews, then the heirs are extinct, and the one who should be "exterminated" is
"Eliminate the country".
The third article is very powerful. Gao Pragmatic directly abolished the "minimum guarantee" of clan titles - the original clan will not be demoted after reaching the lowest level of Fengguo Lieutenant, because that is the lowest level of the clan.
When Lieutenant Feng Guo gave birth to a son, he was still Lieutenant Feng Guo. The same goes for his grandson. In short, the reasoning is endless.
The population explosion of the clan was actually mainly due to this, so Gao Pragmatic asked that no one below the rank of Lieutenant of Fengguo should be granted any more title, and his eldest son should be given one hundred taels of silver as capital, and the subsequent imperial court would ignore it. Moreover, this policy only lasted for five generations.
People, after the Five Dynasties, the court didn't care at all.
According to Gao's pragmatic point of view: I will give you one hundred taels each for the five eldest sons. If you still fail, it means that your family is too incompetent. Anyway, my court has done its best to be benevolent. If you should starve to death, just starve to death.
The fourth article is not very important. The main thing is that now that the ennoblement has been dealt with, the relevant treatment of the princesses, county owners and their families must of course be adjusted accordingly. Basically, they are relative to the adjustment of the title.
No need to elaborate.
The fifth article is a proposal related to serious laws and disciplines. High pragmatism requires a thorough investigation of children of concubines, children of unauthorized marriages, children of denominations, etc. In any case, they are so-called clans with unqualified status. All of them must be found and eliminated.
Of course, considering that most of them were "children of unauthorized marriages", Gao Pragmatic was very kind and gave them a certain amount of food rations first, and then allowed them to choose their own path.
Gao Pragmatic is actually quite familiar with the above-mentioned handling methods, because he was deeply exposed to similar matters in his previous life - the bankruptcy buyout of state-owned enterprises.
At that time, he came into contact with these things when he was secretary of the county party committee. He attended nearly a hundred meetings with his leaders, visited more than 20 companies that were about to go bankrupt in the county, and discussed or argued with people in the companies. In short,
Experience.
Gao Jingshi feels that the current clan problem in Ming Dynasty is similar to that of those state-owned enterprises that suffered losses in the past. It cannot be saved by bailouts alone. Those who should engage in bankruptcy buyout must be ruthless in doing so. If not, everyone will have to rest together.
Moreover, the clan problem is actually more serious than the loss problem of state-owned enterprises, because no matter how much the state-owned enterprises suffer losses, at least they still have products. They are just insolvent and have unsalable products, which are very troublesome.
The problem with the clan is simply that the court is in a pure loss, and the more it loses, the more it will suffer. If you can afford it this year, next year, there will always be a day when you can't afford it. By then, the court will be in such a loss that it has no money to do anything, and the clan itself will also be unable to afford it.
If you don't have enough money, you'll starve to death, so why bother?
It is better to change it early.
However, the reason why Shen Shixing did not object to Zhang Xueyan's boasting of Gao Pragmatic as the "world's most literate" in the end was not just because Gao Pragmatic proposed these, because although the methods proposed by Gao Pragmatic were relatively concentrated and comprehensive, they were not actually used before him.
Some officials have also mentioned some of them, such as strict scrutiny and clan crimes should be handed over to the judicial department. These have been mentioned before.
The great thing about Gao Pragmatic is that he not only talked about it all at once, but most importantly, he was the first person to propose these reforms as a "non-technical official" and the first court official to raise these issues.
member.
This is amazing, because speaking officials "do not use words to punish crimes", but court officials do not have such "preferential treatment".
In other words, speaking these words in a highly pragmatic capacity requires taking huge political risks. If you fail to do so, you may anger the emperor, and you will be doomed.
Although Gao Pragmatic had a special relationship with the emperor, Shen Shixing's attitude on this matter was very conservative. He believed that no matter how close the relationship between monarch and minister was, it could not change the fact that "the emperor, the minister, the minister" could not change.
As long as the emperor is still the emperor and Gao Pragmatism is still his minister, the emperor's evil will remain untouchable.
Is the issue of vassalage the emperor's rebellion? No one can guarantee, but it is very likely, because the emperor himself must also show an attitude of caring about his clan. This is what Confucianism has always advocated, and no one can put it into perspective.
It doesn't take it seriously.
Therefore, when Gao Pragmatic proposes these restructuring measures, he is taking huge political risks.
In particular, if you do this, you won't be afraid of angering the sects all over the world and causing some kind of "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" in the end?
Aren't you afraid that you will end up becoming Chao Cuo?
For these reasons, after Shen Shixing was silent for a long time, he finally nodded reluctantly and said: "I am so courageous and courageous that I am not as good as him."
Zhang Xueyan twisted his beard and said nothing.
Wu Duize immediately said: "Since Yuan Fu also thinks so, then the cabinet might as well vote in favor."
Shen Shixing hesitated a little and pondered without saying anything. In fact, from his point of view, it was indeed more difficult for him to handle.
First of all, the issue of vassal salary has indeed become a big trouble. As the chief minister, he should support such a restructuring. After all, once this restructuring is successful, the burden on the court will suddenly be much lighter.
But secondly, this matter was proposed by Gao Jingjing. If it is done, the first credit will definitely be attributed to Gao Jingjing. There are not many achievements of the Hexin School. However, if he expresses support as the first assistant, he will definitely attract a lot of firepower for Gao Jingjing.
In the past, it was equivalent to helping Gao pragmatically in vain.
It's pragmatic and pragmatic, but you can't get much benefit yourself. If this is a business, you will lose money no matter how you look at it.
The other thing is that if something goes wrong, just like the reason why he thought he was pragmatic and bold just now, if this thing is done carelessly and a few feudal princes rebel, it will be troublesome.
Although judging from the military power of the Ming Dynasty in recent years, it should not be afraid of the rebellion of a few vassal kings, but who knows whether the young emperor today is courageous enough? What if he is like Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, and thinks that he can be relied on?
"Execute Chao Cuo" to make the princes stop their troops, who will he choose to kill when the time comes?
Should he kill Gao Pingshi, the instigator, or should he kill himself, the chief assistant?
This is not true.
Shen Shixing was feeling extremely embarrassed. Suddenly he glanced at Xu Guo who was silent and felt blessed. He immediately asked: "Brother Yingyang, what do you think?"
He originally thought that since Xu Guosheng, the nominal leader of the Practical School, didn't speak just now, it was probably because Gao Pragmatic didn't even discuss such a big matter with him. He was probably very unhappy in his heart, so he didn't express his position. Therefore,
After he asked this question, Xu Guo would probably say something that he, Shen Yuanfu, would like to hear.
Unexpectedly, Xu Guo's performance was beyond his expectation. Xu Cifu just said calmly: "The harm caused by Zongfan and Zonglu has been done for a long time. As a cabinet minister, I have neglected my duty for not sharing your worries earlier. Now. Now
Since there is a truth-seeking initiative, I am naturally willing to join Jiwei and participate in this grand event."
Shen Shixing was shocked in his heart, but he couldn't show it on his face. He could only force a smile: "Brother Yingyang blames himself, but he blames me. If anyone is to blame for this, he must act accordingly."
This was actually a polite remark, or something that was said under duress, but once it was said, it could not be taken back.
Zhang Xueyan and Wu Dui looked at each other and were about to express their agreement, but unexpectedly, another person took the lead.
Wang Jiaping, the bachelor of Dongge University and the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, gently patted the armrest of the Taishi chair and said loudly: "The words of the second assistant are very true. It should not have been initiated by my cabinet for such a major event. Now that an important minister of the imperial court has solemnly proposed it,
, how can we, who are willing to accept the emperor's salary and be loyal to the emperor, not say a word until now? In order to relieve the people's poverty, enrich the country, and support the clan, I would like to second the proposal: please open the vassal ban! "
When Shen Shixing heard this, he immediately looked towards Wangjiaping. At the same time, his heart tightened and he secretly said: It's broken.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
PS: After publishing a chapter yesterday, some readers said that they didn’t understand a few sentences of the classical Chinese text and felt that they were at a loss, so today’s chapter specifically uses Shen Shixing’s thinking and narration to sort out the main ideas of “Please open the feudal ban”
After a while, there should be no reading difficulty now.
