Chapter 36: Ruling by Virtue, Governing by Virtue

The Emperor asked: with factional strife excluding others and not stopping until victory, and factional strife filling the sky in the court, by what does the Emperor govern the world?

Yang Bo stood up and bowed: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this minister is ashamed."

The Jin Party saw that he was old and had long since stopped listening to him. He actually didn't know much about this impeachment today. Zhang Juzheng looked at him with disappointment, and Yang Bo himself was also very disappointed.

He had lived his whole life upright and honest, walked into the Wenhua Hall, and became a court minister, yet he spent his whole day doing these things. Now, he was even being looked at by the younger generation with strange eyes.

But as the leader of the Jin Party, Yang Bo could only say this and do this. This helplessness was the same as Gao Gong's back then; the faction behind Yang Bo would not allow him to stop.

So Yang Bo intended to retire, intending to retreat while the going was good. If he continued like this, the only outcome would be a ruined reputation.

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said: "Minister of War Tan Lun and Minister of Rites Lu Shusheng lost decorum at the Sun Altar; fine them one month's salary. The supervising secretary of the Ministry of Personnel Luo Zun and censors Jing Song and Han Bixian are to be stripped of their official status and sent back to their hometowns for leisure. I wonder what the Senior Grand Secretary thinks?"

"Your Majesty's decision—this minister dares not discuss." As the Senior Grand Secretary, Zhang Juzheng could not discuss the appointment and removal of capital officials. Under the gaze of everyone, he naturally wouldn't say anything. The little Emperor didn't send the three guys who almost provoked factional strife to the dissection institute; that was His Majesty's benevolence.

Zhang Juzheng also breathed a sigh of relief. The Emperor was extremely cautious about sending people to the dissection institute.

"What does the Minister of Personnel think?" Zhu Yijun looked at Yang Bo and asked.

"Your Majesty is wise." Yang Bo thought for a moment and did not plead for the three Jin Party censorate officials.

"Then that's it. You continue the court discussion; I will continue to study." Zhu Yijun revealed his sunny, cheerful smile, took the pencil handed over by Zhang Hong, and continued writing and drawing.

Regarding matters involving the Emperor, Zhu Yijun naturally had to speak. Since Zhang Juzheng wanted to report to the Emperor, Zhu Yijun didn't wait until after the lecture and directly made the disposition, saving the rumors of Zhang Juzheng deceiving the little Emperor.

Who was deceiving whom?

The punishment for the three censorate officials was to be stripped of their official status and sent back to their hometowns for leisure. Without official status, they weren't even gentry in the countryside, couldn't avoid taxes, and couldn't rise again.

Since the three of them wanted to be knives, they had to be prepared to be broken.

The charge against the three of them was forming factions to exclude others, not stopping until victory, and manipulating appointments and removals without discipline. Zhu Yijun had already broken three knives; this was killing the chicken to warn the monkey, to stop the wind of factional strife.

If they caused trouble again, they would only have a seat in the dissection institute.

The court discussion ended quickly, and Zhang Juzheng stood up to lecture the Emperor.

Zhang Juzheng's expression was quite strange. He was savoring what the Emperor said, mainly that word: "faction."

This word was very interesting, concise and comprehensive.

"Senior Grand Secretary?" Zhu Yijun looked at Zhang Juzheng and asked with confusion.

"Your Majesty, the stripping of official status and sending back to leisure for Luo Zun, Jing Song, and Han Bixian—is it worth reconsidering?" Zhang Juzheng regained his senses, his expression somewhat unbearable.

Studying for the xiucai, the juren, and the jinshi—step by step, how much effort did it take to reach this step? To be directly stripped of official status and sent back to leisure—Zhang Juzheng felt somewhat unbearable.

Zhu Yijun seemed not to understand the meaning in Zhang Juzheng's words, his eyes brightened, and he asked: "The Senior Grand Secretary's meaning is that sending them to the dissection institute is unnecessary, right? It's not an unforgivable crime like colluding with the barbarians."

"Then let it be stripped of official status and sent back to leisure." Zhang Juzheng, upon hearing this, immediately chose the compromise.

Educating the little Emperor into an out-and-out tyrant—he, this imperial teacher, had direct responsibility. The child was still young; he couldn't teach the Emperor to be a tyrant. Protecting the Three Bonds and Five Constants in the Emperor's heart was Zhang Juzheng's bounden duty.

Zhu Yijun knew what Zhang Juzheng meant.

These three censorate officials, after passing the jinshi examination and observing government for three years, took up their posts as censorate officials. Without discipline, not to mention whether they had a sense of submission to the Great Ming, the Emperor, the court, and the laws—even if they had a little respect for the books they read, they wouldn't have done such a thing.

Making a mountain out of a molehill, forming cliques for private interests—did the sage's teachings teach them these principles?

Zhu Yijun also read the sage books; how come he didn't feel that the sage's teachings were about these petty, dog-eat-dog things?

"He Yi hasn't General Qi entered the capital to receive rewards yet?" Zhu Yijun asked with some curiosity.

The matter of opening the Fengtian Hall to reward Qi Jiguang had already been decided, but Qi Jiguang had been slow to enter the capital, and there was no movement at all, so Zhu Yijun asked specifically.

Zhang Juzheng said with slight helplessness: "General Qi is outside the pass. Dong Huli's entire army was wiped out, and Dong Huli's nephew was captured. General Qi feared the Northern Barbarians would use this as a pretext to move south, so he went to the border to patrol."

Zhu Yijun felt it was a pity. He had seen Qi Jiguang's portrait but hadn't seen Qi Jiguang himself. He took a memorial and said: "I see this memorial from the censorate officials saying that General Qi lightly started a war. Since Dong Huli asked for rewards, giving some silver would have been enough to send him away. He Yi set an ambush to kill him, causing the barbarians to fear and be startled?"

"General Qi has courage and strategy, his soldiers are brave and not afraid of death, the enemy's entire army was wiped out, and the chieftain was captured alive—how did this become 'holding the barbarians to demand self-importance'?"

Zhang Juzheng flicked his sleeves quite solemnly and said: "Since ancient times, barbarians fear power, not virtue. If you give them silver to send them away, they will only push forward step by step and demand more. The Great Ming might get one night of peace, but looking at the four borders, the barbarians will come again. The other chieftain thieves will surely imitate them, and the border will never have peace."

"Wiping out the entire army and capturing the chieftain alive is to achieve the effect of deterrence and punishment."

Zhang Juzheng's governance was just four words: enrich the country, strengthen the army. Had Zhang Juzheng achieved it? He had.

Where did the strong army of the Great Ming go in the Battle of Sarhu?

In the winter of the 23rd year of Wanli, at Shimenzhai in Jizhou Town, the Jizhou Regional Commander Wang Bao said, "Distribute pay today, don't bring armored soldiers," and had the Zhejiang soldiers who had just won a victory in Korea all buried alive. The Qi Family Army went from glory to humiliation, becoming a footnote to the Great Ming's decline.

"General Qi has worked hard." Zhu Yijun stopped asking about Qi Jiguang's movements. As the Regional Commander of the Three Towns, Qi Jiguang was truly very busy. Although he was very close to the capital, he was still a border army and had to prepare to patrol the border.

Regarding the content of the "Memorial on Five Matters," Zhu Yijun did not ask much more. The "Evaluation Method" in the capital had just begun trial implementation and should not be rushed.

The lecture began. Zhang Juzheng felt a sense of genuine confusion about the lectures. This kind of confusion had never existed since he passed the jinshi examination. The annotations of the Analects were becoming increasingly strange, and those familiar classics were becoming increasingly unfamiliar.

Zhang Juzheng said: "The Master said: 'Guide them with government, regulate them with punishment, and the people will avoid it but have no sense of shame. Guide them with virtue, regulate them with ritual, and they will have a sense of shame and become upright.'"

"'Guide' means to lead; 'government' means the laws and decrees that correct people; 'regulate' means to unify; 'punishment' means penalties."

"'Virtue' means walking the path and having gains; 'ritual' means the system and standards. 'Shame' means shame and embarrassment."

"Confucius said: The ruler's governance of the world is nothing more than wanting people to do good and forbidding people from doing evil."

"The explanation says: Using laws to guide the people and using punishment to regulate them, the people will avoid punishment but lose their sense of shame; using moral education to guide the people and using ritual to regulate them, the people will not only have a sense of shame but also make their hearts upright, and the world will move toward governance."

"The 'Book of Rites: Ziyi Chapter' says: If the people are taught with virtue and regulated with ritual, they will have a sense of shame; if they are taught with government and regulated with punishment, they will have a sense of evasion."

"The 'Mencius: Jinxin Part 1' says: Good government, the people fear it; good education, the people love it."

"These all speak of the same principle: using morality to guide and ritual to regulate the people, making the people of the world able to move toward goodness, know their mistakes and correct them, cultivate their character, and practice virtue."

Zhang Juzheng was talking about the Analects, citing the words of Confucius, and also citing the "Book of Rites" and "Mencius." It seemed that citing classics like this was enough to solidify his ideological imprint and prove that he was right.

Zhu Yijun sat up straight and asked: "Ruling by virtue, governing by virtue?"

"Indeed." Zhang Juzheng breathed a sigh of relief. The Emperor was indeed very understanding, extracting the key and essence from it. The core proposition of these words was governing by virtue.

Zhu Yijun wrote four characters on the paper: "Gentleman," "Small Man," and then wrote Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang under "Gentleman," and Yang Bo, Wang Chonggu, Zhang Siwei, Ge Shouli, Luo Zun, Jing Song, and Han Bixian under "Small Man."

After thinking for a while, the little Emperor crossed out Ge Shouli; this guy didn't deserve to be a small man.

After writing, the little Emperor looked for a long time before asking: "Senior Grand Secretary, I have a question."

"This minister will answer the question for Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng now felt his scalp go numb whenever he heard "I have a question." Your Majesty, can you please stop having questions?!

Zhang Juzheng said very sincerely: "Your Majesty, this minister... will answer the question for Your Majesty."

Zhang Juzheng actually wanted to say that he couldn't answer the question. Your Majesty, can you change to a question that fits your age?! These questions are all paradoxes of ideals and reality, theory and practice. This made Zhang Juzheng feel a little less confident.

Zhu Yijun stared with wide eyes and asked calmly: "I once heard that 'bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a fine-toothed comb.' Bandits are like a comb, looting; but when soldiers march through, they are like a fine-toothed comb, scraping everything clean."

"General Qi pacified the Japanese pirates in the south and resisted the Northern Barbarians in the north. He restrained his soldiers strictly, not daring to disturb the people in the slightest. He would execute anyone who trampled on a single grain of the people's rice. The Southern Army is the strongest army of the current age."

"Japanese pirates ran rampant in the southeast, smoke and fire spread for a thousand miles, and the people could not live."

"The Northern Barbarians plundered the northwest, and for fifteen years of warfare, soldiers and civilians were displaced."

"General Qi holds the Southern Army and fights north and south, but in the court discussions, there is endless debate, treating him as a 'wart'—a redundant and useless thing. Is General Qi and the Southern Army he leads really a wart?"

"Although the country is large, those who love war will perish; although the world is peaceful, those who forget war will be in danger," Zhang Juzheng answered extremely solemnly, meaning Qi Jiguang was not a wart. If he were, he wouldn't have let Qi Jiguang enter the capital to receive rewards.

Zhu Yijun immediately asked: "Senior Grand Secretary, how to govern the country by virtue?"

According to the saying of the Nine Classics of the world, "cultivating culture to soothe those from afar," just cultivating virtue should be enough to quell the Japanese pirates and the Northern Barbarians moving south.

The Longqing Peace and the Altan Khan Tribute were seemingly a great victory for "cultivating culture to soothe those from afar," but if it weren't for the twelve years of fighting with the Northern Barbarians led by Altan Khan in Xuanfu and Datong, which hard-pressed the Northern Barbarians into exhaustion, and if it weren't for Qi Jiguang leading ten thousand strong troops in Jizhou at this time, would the Northern Barbarians have moved south again to plunder the interior?

They definitely would have.

So, the little Emperor asked, how to govern the country by virtue.