Chapter five hundred and eighty seventh governing a big country is like cooking a small fish
"You are the prince and the eldest brother. As the saying goes, an eldest brother is like a father. I let you go so that you can establish the majesty of the eldest brother." Li Shimin said.
After the Xuanwu Gate Incident, most of Li Jiancheng's people were liquidated.
With this lesson in mind, no one dares to stand right now.
As a prince, Li Chengqian is very unworthy of his name.
Of course, this is also related to Li Shimin's deliberate suppression.
But now that Li Shimin has figured it out, he will naturally strengthen Li Chengqian's power.
"My son, I understand." Li Chengqian said.
Li Shimin didn't say much about this. After all, Li You was also his son, and he still had great feelings in his heart.
"The teachers in the East Palace are all carefully selected by me. If you don't understand anything when dealing with memorials, you can ask them more." Li Shimin paused and said, "You can also ask me."
Li Chengqian was slightly startled. Since he became the prince, Li Shimin had praised him a lot at first.
As he grew older, Li Shimin scolded him more and more.
There are even rumors that Li Shimin has the idea of Yi Chu.
In addition, Li Shimin loved Li Tai too much, so Li Chengqian slowly regarded Li Tai as his enemy.
This was the first time that Li Shimin talked to him so calmly.
"What's wrong?" Li Shimin asked strangely when he saw Li Chengqian was in a daze.
"Go back...back to my father. I'm fine." Li Chengqian said.
"Then let's go back first." Li Shimin didn't think much about it.
Li Chengqian hesitated for a moment and said cautiously: "Can I ask my father a question?"
Li Shimin met Li Chengqian's gaze, saw the caution in his eyes, and was a little lost in thought.
When Li Chengqian was born, he was leading troops abroad. After receiving the message, Li Shimin was overjoyed and quickly won the war and returned to Chang'an.
It is said that the people love the eldest son, and the emperor loves the youngest son.
In fact, this sentence is not correct. Most people love their first son very much.
After all, he was his first son, so you can imagine how he felt as a father for the first time.
Li Chengqian was very attached to him when he was young, but I don't know since when, Li Chengqian only had fear for him in his eyes.
Now I have to be so careful even if I ask him a question.
Li Shimin asked himself whether he was too harsh on Li Chengqian.
"Tell me, what's the problem?" Li Shimin said softly.
Li Chengqian did not notice the change in Li Shimin's tone and said: "Father, I have been dealing with memorials for more than two years, but those memorials are all trivial matters. I am very surprised. Are all officials in the world so idle? Just focus on these little things every day.”
"You think those are not important?" Li Shimin asked expressionlessly.
Li Chengqian looked at Li Shimin's face and didn't get any useful information. He said with some lack of confidence: "Back to my father, it doesn't mean that none of my sons and ministers are important, but some of them are simply unnecessary to report."
"Then tell me, what do you think is not necessary to perform and why?" Li Shimin asked.
"Father, a few days ago, there was a memorial in Tongzhou. It was about a local woman whose husband died and left no heirs. Her natal family wanted the woman to remarry, but the husband's family did not agree. The two families went to court, and the local officials In the end, it was decided that women are allowed to remarry. Does it need to be reported at such an hour?" Li Chengqian said.
"At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos and the population dropped sharply. I decreed that if a woman's husband dies and leaves no heirs, she can remarry without any obstruction. The local government's doing so proves that the court's regulations are strictly implemented and that she is a usable person." Li Shimin said.
Many people in later generations have heard of the chastity arch. If a woman does not remarry, the court will not only reward her, but also set up an arch for her. Grain lottery
Many places are proud to have chastity memorial arches.
Regarding the Chastity Arch, many people think it was created during the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, this is not the case. The chastity archway first appeared in the Qin Dynasty, but all dynasties did not pay attention to it.
As we all know, the Tang Dynasty was very open and did not exclude remarriage.
In the Tang Dynasty, there are records of more than twenty princesses remarrying, and some of them were married for the third time.
Everything must be reversed. In the middle of the Song Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, represented by Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, changed China's academic thoughts and customs, and proposed "preserving natural principles and destroying human desires" to deal with endless selfish desires. Someone asked Cheng Yi, "A widow is lonely." If you have no one to rely on, can you remarry?" Cheng Yi replied, "It's a small matter to die of starvation, but a big deal to lose one's integrity." This made women's concept of chastity intensify on the basis of worshiping ancient times.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, women's concept of chastity was further strengthened, and this period was also the period when chastity archways really flourished.
Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated a decree exempting chaste widows from service. In that environment, chastity was no longer just advocated by the rulers. If someone violated the Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Rules, they would be expelled from the family, or be imprisoned in a pig cage or even jailed. According to the "Collection of Ancient Books", there were only 51 martyrs and chaste women in the Tang Dynasty, 267 in the Song Dynasty, and more than 36,000 in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, there were as many as 2,200 in Xiuning County, Anhui Province alone.
During the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the population dropped sharply. In order to prosper the population, although Li Shimin could not issue a decree to encourage remarriage, he also stipulated that if a woman had no children and was willing to remarry, her husband's family could not stop her.
Li Chengqian opened his mouth, but in the end he said nothing.
He naturally knew the decree promulgated by Li Shimin.
But what he said is that there is no need to report such a small matter.
But just now I had exhausted all my courage to ask Li Shimin.
Li Shimin looked at Li Chengqian's look and knew what he was thinking, and said, "Do you think the Tang Dynasty is big?"
"The Tang Dynasty was naturally larger than the Qin and Han Dynasties." Li Chengqian said without thinking.
As a prince, he is naturally proud of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Shimin said: "The Tang Dynasty is very big, but I can only be in this small palace. If I want to understand the world, I can only pass memorials."
"You can see a lot of things through memorials and understand the trends of the world, so that you won't be kept in the dark."
"If the memorials in various places were all natural and man-made disasters, then the Tang Dynasty would have been in chaos long ago. Although trivial matters are boring to deal with, they can show that the Tang Dynasty is very stable."
"Governing a big country is like cooking small dishes. To govern a country, you must be patient. You cannot ignore trivial matters just because they are trivial. Do you understand?"
"My son, I understand." Li Chengqian said respectfully.
"What I say, you go back and think about it carefully." Li Shimin said.
Although Li Chengqian is still a little impetuous now, he is still young and can be shaped slowly.
In the past, if things went wrong, Li Shimin would have reprimanded him directly.
I have to say that Li Shimin has changed a lot today.
…
Ever since Li Tai went to the palace, Han Wen had been waiting anxiously in the main hall.
Once he goes to the fiefdom, the throne and Li Tai will no longer be connected, and the family's efforts on Li Tai will be in vain.
In history, there has been no successful rebellion by a vassal king so far.
Although Li Shimin was a prince, he did not become a vassal.
Li Shimin succeeded because he stayed in Chang'an.