Chapter 1053: Transcending the Cycle

In Great Ming, Li Yashi often used the astonishment of friendly nations to correct errors for Great Ming. In addition to the widely known jokes, high moral disadvantage, and Western feudalism theory, Li Yashi also often wrote memorials, providing some referenceable suggestions from the perspective of a Western barbarian.

Li Yougong felt that Great Ming should not lose such error correction ability, but it was really difficult for Li Yashi to leave. Changing to someone else to come to Great Ming would not achieve the effect.

For example, Shah Mamaiti, who had lived in Great Ming for so many years, his style and behavior were still that of a noble, not Li Yashi who had completely become a scholar-official of Great Ming.

And people like Galileo and Kepler were not very good at politics. They were devoted to studying the boundaries of human cognition and the infinite principles of all things. They had an indifferent attitude toward politics, as if it had nothing to do with them, and were unwilling to have too much contact, which was very similar to the style of the Dean, Zhu Zaiyu.

Before the Dinghai School System, Great Ming had a dilemma, that is, the identity of scholars and officials was a whole.

The establishment of the Academy of Physical Sciences allowed scholars to choose to be a scholar purely, but there was still no clear boundary. It was not until after the Dinghai School System that the boundary between scholars and officials truly became clear.

Obviously, Galileo, Kepler, Kepler's mentor Michael, etc., were all pure scholars. They were deeply taboo about Great Ming politics and dared not participate in it.

"If I force him to stay, he will only become a madman, won't he?" Zhu Yijun shook his head. Li Yougong wanted to keep Li Yashi. Zhu Yijun had also thought about this idea, but it was useless.

Li Yashi's heart had already flown back to the West, wanting to bring the light and holy fire back to the West. Li Yashi also wanted to have an extreme ending, not wanting to regret it when he died. This had become an obsession that could make him go crazy.

"Then let's think of another way." Li Yougong could only say helplessly after thinking about it.

His Majesty was unwilling to keep him because keeping him was useless. Such people could only be found slowly. As for that Matteo Ricci who read the *Daoist Canon*, Li Yougong felt that this person was not very good.

Matteo Ricci came to Great Ming to preach, and he wanted to preach Catholicism, not the Great Brightness Sect. It would be better to let him continue to read the *Daoist Canon*.

When the Emperor approved the memorial, Li Yashi was completing his last Great Ming work, *On China*.

This was his last book in Great Ming. He didn't want to limit himself to discussing Great Ming's dynasty anymore. That was a bit narrow.

He stood from the perspective of a Westerner and wrote this article, discussing China. This was the last gift he left for Great Ming, hoping to bring some help to Great Ming.

The danger of returning this time, Li Yashi knew very well. He might die in the towering waves, die in the storm, die in the plague, die in loneliness, or arrive in Falanxi smoothly, and then die under the sword of Henry IV, that lion-like monarch.

But Li Yashi did not regret it. A person's death might be heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather. Death is an extreme ending, and it might not be the best farewell to the world.

Li Yashi's work was already in the final stages of completion. In the last part, he hesitated for a long time before writing:

【The incomparably wise Emperor of Great Ming has led Great Ming to become great again. He is so concerned about the world, and he is as firm as a rock. Even if it is tempered a hundred times, it cannot hurt his will in the slightest, so that the most commonly used means of the cheap scholars—letting disappointment accumulate into despair, and finally becoming lazy because of despair—have completely failed.

This is a trick used by cheap scholars, but tricks are tricks after all, and they are useless to a holy monarch.

But before I leave, I must say: The Great Ming Emperor's unreserved favoritism toward the poor and suffering people may trigger a terrifying storm that will affect the entire Great Ming.

The division is intensifying. The Great Ming Emperor, immersed in the narrative of being the master for the people, will naturally take the opinions of the meat-eaters as a kind of noise in the governing process. This kind of disregard, indifference, and ignoring will eventually make the division continue to intensify.

The poor and suffering people are very powerless in the face of the exploitation by meat-eaters such as local worthies, gentry, powerful and influential families, rich merchants, and corrupt officials. They always hope that there will be a blue-sky official to be the master for them. When there really is a blue-sky official, the poor and suffering people will naturally surround His Majesty and launch an attack on these meat-eaters.

Just like the choice made by the poor and suffering people after they were driven to a dead end for thousands of years.

The division intensified the tearing, the tearing intensified the intensity of the struggle and conflict, and the fierce struggle made the division more distinct, eventually splitting into two factions that would not stop until one died, eventually letting the entire Great Ming fall into a kind of chaos until the other side was completely eliminated.

Humans are not smart. This is a fact that must be admitted. Those who are favored are always fearless. Humans cannot even forgive the sacrifices and contributions made by others for them.

This kind of favoritism by the holy monarch will make them, the poor and suffering people, more and more unscrupulous, and will also make the meat-eaters more and more fearful. The great turmoil brought about by the tearing is definitely not a situation that everyone wants to see, but this situation always happens over and over again.

If turmoil is the final ending of the Wanli Reform, I am afraid the holy monarch would not choose to start it.

Humans are so stupid, always repeating the same mistakes in a cycle.】

Li Yashi finished his last suggestion, and then after he finished writing, he was locked into the Fusi Southern Yamen by the Huangpujiang again.

This time he was locked up for a full two months. Obviously, His Majesty was very dissatisfied with his words, and even deleted the last paragraph in *On China* before allowing it to be printed and distributed.

These words of Li Yashi stung the Great Ming Emperor.

"He, Li Yashi, a barbarian from the West, dares to point fingers at me! It's rebellious! A stray dog abandoned by his monarch, barking wildly here! He is a barbarian, no one will take him seriously! Even if he wants to be Bi Gan, he can't!"

"Tishuai!" Zhu Yijun looked at the last paragraph, the more he looked, the angrier he became, slapped the table, and said sternly.

"I am here." Zhao Mengyou and Luo Bingliang came out of the class and bowed their heads.

At this time, the Great Eunuch should come out to pull and persuade, but Li Yougong's business was not very skilled, and his acting was not as good as Feng Bao's. Li Yougong was also scared at this moment, guessing the real reason for His Majesty's anger.

"Forget it." Zhu Yijun looked at the two Tishuai and finally resisted the urge to kill this guy.

Li Yashi was a barbarian after all. If the Emperor said he wanted to kill, no one would stop him, not even the Ministry of Justice's arrest warrant.

Any decision made in anger would be regretted for a lifetime. The Emperor repeated this sentence dozens of times before finally calming his anger completely.

"Li Yashi has guts! I admire him!" Zhu Yijun slapped the thick *On China* on the table again, sighed, and leaned back in his chair.

Li Yougong poured a cup of tea for His Majesty and whispered: "Your Majesty, anger hurts the body, anger hurts the body. It's not worth getting angry with a barbarian, and it's not worth getting angry with cheap scholars."

Li Yougong grew up with His Majesty. Li Yashi's words were not the reason for His Majesty's violent anger at all. The scholar-officials of Great Ming said worse things.

Li Yougong analyzed that the root cause of His Majesty's violent anger was because His Majesty saw the two words "bone-stiff" in Li Yashi, which was the place where the Emperor was a bit broken.

The scholar-officials of Great Ming read books for a lifetime and recited benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith for a lifetime, but when they did things, they were greedy, angry, ignorant, arrogant, and suspicious—all five poisons were complete.

Moralities like bone-stiff, upright spirit, and benevolence and righteousness, even a barbarian could learn! But most of the scholar-officials of Great Ming couldn't learn them! The Emperor was angry at the scholar-officials of Great Ming and angry at their lack of struggle.

"Lock him up for two months! Give him simple meals, let him adapt to life at sea in advance, don't let him die at sea!" Zhu Yijun gave a strange order to the two Tishuai. Although he wouldn't kill Li Yashi, letting him eat something eaten at sea, the black bread he took out himself was the most suitable.

Changing to another monarch, Li Yashi would not say these words. In fact, Li Yashi had long grasped the Emperor's pulse. As long as what he said was the truth and beneficial to Great Ming, no matter how angry His Majesty was, he would think calmly and seriously after the violent anger whether these words were right and whether they should be adopted.

Accepting good words is the character of a holy monarch.

The Emperor was very simple, loving Great Ming more than loving himself, truly achieving the four words "I am the world."

The two ends of the seesaw cannot be too high on one end and too low on the other, otherwise the feet will be sprained. This is historical experience and lessons.

Li Yashi's meaning was very clear: if His Majesty continued to favor like this, he would change from a holy monarch to a muddled monarch and lead Great Ming into the ditch.

Li Yashi told the truth, and Zhu Yijun had long noticed this phenomenon. Many ministers actually saw this phenomenon, but under the political correctness of the people as the foundation of the country and the foundation being solid and the country peaceful, no one dared to say it. Zhu Yijun saw that no one said it, so he pretended not to know.

What Li Yashi talked about was an unsolvable choice problem.

Zhu Yijun certainly knew clearly the tearing and problems caused by this kind of favoritism, but he had no way. This was a struggle of lines, and he had no other choice.

If he gave up favoring the poor and suffering people, these meat-eaters would only do their best to exploit the people. If the reins in his hands were loosened a little, for the poor and suffering people, it would be the collapse of the sky.

If there really was a great turmoil, and even the Wanli Reform ended in turmoil, Zhu Yijun would admit it. He would use the power he had accumulated to wipe out everything as quickly as possible and reduce the harm caused by the turmoil.

Li Yashi's *On China* was viewed from the perspective of a Western barbarian looking at China. His perspective was very interesting.

For example, in his view, China had no starting point, and because there was no starting point, there was no ending point.

From ancient times to the present, China had existed in the long river of time as an eternal natural phenomenon.

Any civilization should experience a process: origin, development, growth, decline, and then slowly decay in decline until there is no bone left.

Li Yashi knew many civilizations that had similar experiences, such as Rome; such as the legendary Mesopotamia, i. e., Babylon; such as Egypt; such as the Inca civilization; such as the ocean hegemon, the Spanish Empire on which the sun never sets.

Even if Li Yashi was a Spaniard, he had to admit a fact, that is, Spain was losing the crown of the empire on which the sun never sets. No matter who this crown belonged to in the future, it no longer belonged to Spain, which had become an established fact.

Felipe's old age and muddledness, insisting on an expedition, was making Spain lose the ocean.

Li Yashi was very sure that after Spain lost the ocean, it would never be able to take it back.

But China had broken away from the established cycle of origin, development, growth, and decline, and had become another cycle of order, disorder, and restoration of order.

The Whip of God whipped the world. The iron hooves of the Mongols destroyed too many countries and civilizations. These countries and civilizations disappeared forever in the long river of history, or turned into other appearances.

But after the Mongols came to the Central Plains, they became the Yuan Dynasty and became a part of China.

Finally, after the Yuan Dynasty collapsed, order came to the world again, and two hundred years passed. Although there were fine cracks, it was still solid and stable.

This kind of transcending the cycle is just like the first sentence of *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*: "The general trend of the world is that it will divide after a long time, and it will unite after a long time."

Order, disorder, re-establishment of order—this kind of cycle that looks absurd, impossible to happen, and has a transcending nature, the Chinese people, however, regard it as a matter of course.

This is a completely different cycle. If China loses the crown of the Celestial Empire, even if someone can snatch it away for a short time, they will eventually have to return to this land, because China's cycle is completely different from other civilizations' cycles.

"On the matter of why Great Ming is a Celestial Empire, why do I feel that Li Yashi understands it better than those Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy?" Zhu Yijun felt that those Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy were really a group of people who ate for nothing!

A barbarian, in Great Ming for no more than twenty years, could prove why Great Ming is a Celestial Empire so clearly. This set of talk was reasonable and well-founded.

The *Civilization* series written by those people in the Hanlin Academy couldn't be said to be bad, but there was always a feeling of not enough effort.

It sounded a bit shameful, but it was indeed a shameful fact: the Hanlin of the Hanlin Academy were not even as good as barbarians in the power of flattery.

"After all, Li Yashi has always been a believer. In terms of religion, he is indeed more professional than the Hanlin." Li Yougong said one, two, three. It was not that the Hanlin were not good, but that there was a specialty in the art, and this ability to interpret scriptures was indeed more professional for Westerners.

Interpreting why Great Ming is a Celestial Empire is interpreting scriptures. The scholar-officials of Great Ming always tended to find some practical and concrete examples to prove it.

And Li Yashi completely jumped out of this thinking. Nothing else needed to be discussed. Just this one transcending cycle, didn't it compare the Hanlin?

And there was another reason. The Hanlin themselves were people of Great Ming. They saw more problems than brilliant achievements. When looking for angles to explain, they often fell into the trap of self-proof. The articles written were indeed very solid, but the flattery was a bit not enough effort.

Li Yashi was not deliberately pleasing, but gave a summary of these twenty years. He threw out another important theory after the high moral disadvantage: transcending the cycle.

Transcending the cycle: different from the established destiny of origin, development, growth, and extinction of other civilizations, it is a cycle of transcending nature of division and unity, disorder and order, which is beyond destiny, repeating itself and rolling forward.

Then the most fundamental cornerstone of this transcending cycle is only one, and that is "punishing the unrighteous."

The earliest record of "punishing the unrighteous" that Li Yashi could find was the sentence in Tang of Shang punishing Jie of Xia, which ran through thousands of years and was deafening: "When will this sun perish? I will perish with you!"

"Punishing the unrighteous" gave birth to the transcending cycle, and "punishing the unrighteous" was born thousands of years ago.

"He really understands." Zhu Yijun felt that giving Li Yashi the title of Great Brightness Envoy was not excessive. He really understood very, very well, even better than Maria.

Maria's actions were higher than Li Yashi's, but Li Yashi's understanding of the four words "Great Ming Wisdom" was really more thorough.

These twenty years, he really didn't live in vain and really learned things.

Of course, Li Yashi also believed that this transcending cycle was not all benefits. It was precisely because of this transcendence that the Chinese people always looked at everyone else with a condescending attitude.

The biggest manifestation of this arrogant attitude is: everyone in Great Ming, when judging anything, will apply China's traditional concepts to interpret and understand.

This caused some difficulties for Great Ming to understand the world.

For example: the Great Ming imperial court really underestimated the influence caused by the Great Brightness Sect.

From the Emperor to the people, there was no support for the Great Brightness Sect, because Great Ming, from the Son of Heaven to the people, did not need religion to maintain the existence of order.

And the world outside Great Ming, not limited to the West, needed religion too much to establish order, maintain the existence of order, relieve the suffering in the heart, and find a sustenance.

The people of Great Ming naturally didn't need religion, because there were too many sages worth remembering. On the road ahead, there were too many sages as dazzling as the scorching sun, illuminating all darkness and penetrating all confusion.

Outside Great Ming, including Westerners, why did they need religion, why did they need a god to believe in? Because there were not enough sages worth remembering.

For example, Falanxi, after the appearance of Joan of Arc, immediately became a saint, becoming the sustenance of almost everyone; and now with the appearance of Maria, there was another sustenance.

In the book, Li Yashi emphasized: Maria's identity as the Saint of Light was bought by herself from the supreme Emperor for a full one million silver.

"He is right. Those fanatics who called themselves saints, twenty people in total, including Maria, each paid 50,000 silver for pilgrimage, and I allowed them to enter Great Ming and have an audience." Zhu Yijun made a note here. This was not Li Yashi's slander, but a fact.

Zhu Yijun liked silver, essentially because he liked power. For the sake of one million silver, he pinched his nose and approved the pilgrimage of the Great Brightness Sect.

If it weren't for this one million taels of silver, Great Ming's attitude toward the Great Brightness Sect would only be one, and that was to watch coldly from the sidelines.

Li Yashi believed: The people of Great Ming could naturally be arrogant, because of the existence of the transcending cycle, but this arrogance had become arrogance in the Wanli period, two hundred years after the opening of Great Ming.

In fact, this arrogance blinded everyone's eyes, making people unable to see the existence of problems. My Great Ming is invincible in the world, what is there to fear!

This arrogance was making Great Ming move from order to disorder.

Everyone thought that Great Ming was so prosperous, a few small problems were harmless, and small illnesses dragged into big illnesses, which would inevitably overturn the world.

Li Yashi wrote too much. Zhu Yijun only read two chapters. He prepared to keep this book by his side and read it often. Li Yashi was gone, but this book could still help Great Ming continue to correct errors from the perspective of friendly nation astonishment.

At the end of the fifth month of the 22nd year of Wanli, Li Yashi walked out of the Fusi Southern Yamen. His slightly fat figure had completely thinned down, becoming much leaner. He was now used to cold meals.

"His Majesty asked me to ask you, the Western great sailing ships are coming, do you regret it? Do you still want to return to that hell in the West? It's not too late to regret now. His Majesty said he can pretend you didn't ask to return to the West." Zhao Mengyou was curious about Li Yashi's answer.

Li Yashi had eaten black bread for two full months, the kind of black bread that could be used as a hammer, which had to be sawed open and soaked in cold water for a night before it could be swallowed.

"Thank you, Director Zhao, for your care, for not mixing dirt into the black bread." Li Yashi thanked him sincerely.

"No, your Western black bread, you still have to mix dirt into it?!" Zhao Mengyou frowned. He had already followed the recipe to make black bread and never expected that he had to mix dirt into it.

He felt that the West in Li Yashi's mouth was already hellish enough, but he didn't expect it was not hellish enough.

Li Yashi said with a bitter face: "I always say that Great Ming knows very little about feudalism. When China was in great turmoil, people were not as good as dogs, and they exchanged children to eat, and even ate Guanyin soil, but on the whole, the stable time was longer. Now the people of Great Ming don't understand the bitterness of feudalism at all."

"You can understand the world outside Great Ming as a long-term turbulent era where people are not even grass."

Zhao Mengyou had firmly executed His Majesty's order and let Li Yashi eat black bread for two months. This might have been the two most uncomfortable months he had eaten in these twenty years.

"His Majesty asked me if I changed my mind. I don't intend to change my mind. I will return to the West with the ship, go to Falanxi, go to Paris, and let the serfs of the West become free people." Li Yashi said sincerely. These two months, he thought very clearly, he still had to go back.

"Then you can only go." Zhao Mengyou pondered and said: "Live well. I can't go to the West to catch you and put you in the heavenly prison."

"Hahaha!" Li Yashi was stunned when he heard it, and then laughed loudly. Who said the people of Great Ming were rigid and didn't understand humor? Zhao Mengyou, a cold-faced Tishuai, was very humorous.

Li Yashi in Great Ming, being in the heavenly prison was also a famous humanistic landscape, but this humanistic landscape also disappeared.

This trip, the future was uncertain, and life and death were unpredictable.

"Knowing that the road ahead is hell, if I don't enter hell, who will enter hell?" Li Yashi clearly gave his reason: "Even if there are thousands of people, I will go!"

On the 2nd day of the sixth month, the Western great sailing ships successfully arrived in Great Ming. Three things attracted attention.

The first thing was Maria's ashes, soul returning to the light. The Lu Song Viceroy's Office had already passed the news to Great Ming, which caused widespread discussion;

The second thing was about the establishment of the Western Commercial Alliance. The envoys who came to Great Ming this time were numerous, all for this matter;

The third thing, Lou Hu Luo Shangzhi would arrive at the Songjiang Prefecture Huangpujiang Palace on the 7th day of the sixth month, and after meeting the Holy One, would go to the Nanyang Navy to serve as the Regional Commander;

The horn of war had already sounded. The four major families of Annan did not arrive at Guangzhou Prefecture for investigation as scheduled, which had already spread throughout Great Ming. Great Ming once again opened the prelude to the war.

"Maria is not a meritorious minister of Great Ming. How could I approve her burial in the Jinshan Mausoleum? These censor officials are shooting arrows before drawing targets, right!" Zhu Yijun was angered to laughter by the dozens of memorials in front of him. These censor officials assumed the Emperor's position, thinking that the Emperor would bury Maria as a meritorious minister of the reform.

Li Yougong frowned and asked: "Uh... then where to bury her?"

Actually, Li Yougong also thought so. He thought that Maria led the Great Brightness Sect, no matter what, it could be considered a major achievement of Great Ming's Wanli Reform. Ideological colonization was also colonization, and it was even more terrible and deeply rooted than military colonization.

The Great Brightness Sect was one of the important means of ideological colonization led by the Ministry of Rites.

The conservative ministers of Great Ming felt that it was really inappropriate for a barbarian to be buried in the solemn Jinshan Mausoleum.

Li Yougong felt that the ministers' opposition was a bit too conservative.

"Bury her in the same place as that martyr, Rui De." Zhu Yijun gave Maria a place. Rui De was in Great Ming and died for the Malacca City. Zhu Yijun felt that arranging Maria there was a very appropriate choice.

Li Yougong whispered: "Your Majesty, this is not very good."

Li Yougong was sure that the biggest conservative leader in Great Ming was the Emperor himself.

"Why is it not good? She is just a barbarian. What else do you want? I approved her official burial because she died as a martyr." Zhu Yijun felt that his arrangement was not inappropriate. Giving a barbarian an official burial was already a great respect.

Li Yougong deliberated carefully before saying: "Your Majesty, Maria is the Great Pastor of the Great Brightness Sect conferred by our Great Ming. A hasty burial, isn't this cutting off one's own arm in the matter of colonization?"

The leader of the conservative faction was the most stubborn and difficult to persuade.

"It makes sense. Let the Ministry of Rites discuss it and see what the officials of the Ministry of Rites think." Zhu Yijun felt that what Li Yougong said made sense. Military colonization had to be done, and ideological colonization also had to be done.

Giving Maria a thick burial could be considered giving her the last bit of decency. Great Ming letting Maria's soul return to the light could be considered holding the Great Brightness Sect firmly in his hands.

"The Saint of Light also has holy objects." Zhu Yijun affirmed Antonio's leaving of the linen cloth of the Saint of Light.

Just this piece of cloth was enough for Lisbon to become the nest of the Great Brightness Sect.

Zhu Yijun had never paid much attention to conferring the King of Portugal and Portugal becoming a vassal state of Great Ming, because it was too far away and the whip was not long enough, so they were all treated as friendly nations. Now with the connection of the Great Brightness Sect, it could be considered as increasing the restraint on Portugal.

He had always been like this. What he ate into his mouth was his own. Asking him to pay attention to things he couldn't completely eat into his mouth, he couldn't convince the ministers, and he couldn't convince himself. ===== CHAPTER 1054 =====