Chapter 63: The Suffering of the People Is the Greatest Evil in the World!

Zhu Yijun was restricted by Empress Dowager Li for playing with a slingshot, and he was unhappy, so naturally, he had to argue.

But arguing with Empress Dowager Li requires methods. You can't just say, "I want to play," or you'll just get a slap in the face.

That would sharpen the contradiction, not only failing to solve the problem but also making it more complex and expanded, from playing or not playing with a slingshot to the major issue of filial piety, making it a mess.

Empress Dowager Li looked at Empress Dowager Chen helplessly and said, "Sister, look. I told you before not to restrain the Emperor. That pile of principles came crashing down, making it seem like I was shielding the Emperor, as if I had made a mistake."

Empress Dowager Chen smiled and said, "Then why not listen to the Emperor's explanation?"

Zhu Yijun said quite seriously, "The Master said: 'People cannot not know others, and knowing others is very difficult.' Especially for a ruler, one must know people and use them well. So how to know people? The Master said: 'Observe his motives, examine his path, and observe what he finds peace in.'"

"'Observe his motives' means to see whether his actions are good or evil. If he does good, he is a gentleman; if he does evil, he is a petty man."

"'Examine his path' means to see the reasons for his actions. If it is sincere, it is good; if it is fake, it is evil."

"'Observe what he finds peace in' means to see what his actions find peace in. If he finds peace in what he knows, it is good; if he fears power and cherishes profit, it is evil."

"When the Senior Grand Secretary talked about this, he said with emotion: 'If it comes from the heart's peace, then it is good; otherwise, it is only temporary. How can it last without changing!'"

"Lu Shusheng has a great reputation, and everyone says he is upright. Looking at his usual actions, they are all good deeds, and the reasons for his actions are sincere and from his heart. But he does these things, and the reasons for doing them, are not because he finds peace in the righteousness in his heart, so it is only temporary and cannot last."

"Therefore, Lu Shusheng became a supporter of the clan-based clique, because his actions were not out of the righteousness in his heart. This is 'fearing power and cherishing profit, so it is temporary'."

"Li Le is different. Zhang Siwei's methods were exhausted and extremely low-down, but Li Le's actions came from the righteousness in his heart. This is 'finding peace in the heart, so it lasts'."

"Of course, compared to the clan-based clique, perhaps the Senior Grand Secretary is more frightening."

Zhang Juzheng's emotion didn't name names, but Zhu Yijun understood very well what Zhang Juzheng was talking about. This Confucius was right—fearing power and cherishing profit is temporary, while finding peace in the heart lasts.

But the human heart is separated by skin, and Zhang Juzheng, a pragmatic official for many years, couldn't fully know people. How exactly can one know people?

Is it possible to dig out a person's heart, dry it, and air it to know?

Zhu Yijun could understand what Zhang Juzheng was lamenting. He directly named names—Zhang Juzheng was talking about the comparison between Lu Shusheng and Li Le. Zhu Yijun was afraid that the two Empress Dowagers wouldn't understand what Zhang Juzheng was talking about, so he pointed it out directly.

Zhu Yijun held his hands and continued, "I asked the Senior Grand Secretary: What is loyalty and treachery, what is clear and turbid, what is wise and foolish? The Senior Grand Secretary deliberated."

"I thought about it, and talking like this is somewhat empty. The Senior Grand Secretary couldn't answer. If he spoke like those corrupt scholars, saying big principles, the Senior Grand Secretary wouldn't be willing. I thought for a moment and asked again."

"Everyone says Yan Song is a traitor. When Yan Song was in charge, the court had no military funds to fight, officials couldn't receive their salaries, disaster victims had no food to relieve the disaster, and the people suffered from annexation and private demands, wandering in displacement."

"Everyone says Yan Song is a sycophant. Yan Song's son, Yan Shifan, went to the Ministry of Works as a Vice Minister, supervising the construction of the Emperor's private residence. Didn't Xu Jie's son, Xu Fan, also supervise the construction of the Emperor's private residence, building the Yongshou Palace, completed in three months, and the money he embezzled could buy half of the Songjiang Prefecture?"

"After Yan Song was defeated, were there military funds, salaries, and disaster relief funds? Were the people living in peace and working happily? Was the sycophant executed?"

"The Senior Grand Secretary was dejected and replied: 'Not yet.'"

Xu Jie was Zhang Juzheng's teacher. The Xu Party of those years had long since disappeared. Some joined the Jin Party, and some became the Zhang Party.

Zhang Juzheng refused to let Hence Hai Rui return to the capital. In the eyes of the officials, it was entirely because Hence Hai Rui, Hai Gangfeng, had investigated the corruption of Xu Jie clearly and thoroughly while in Songjiang Prefecture.

Yan Song was a big corrupt official, a sycophant who fawned over the ruler, a traitor who formed cliques for private interests, and a treacherous minister who used clever words to deceive the ruler and hide the truth, making the ruler's rewards and punishments and awe and favor absent.

What about Xu Jie? Wasn't he the same?

Zhu Yijun said with a serious face, "I asked the Senior Grand Secretary again: What is loyalty and treachery, what is clear and turbid, what is wise and foolish? What is the greatest evil in the world? The Senior Grand Secretary was silent for a long time."

"What is the greatest evil in the world?" Empress Dowager Chen also asked with confusion.

"The Senior Grand Secretary didn't say, and I don't know either." Zhu Yijun showed his iconic smile.

He was just a ten-year-old Son of Heaven!

Such a profound question should be asked of the Senior Grand Secretary!

The Great Ming was rotten, rotten to the core, rotten to the point of being shocking. And Zhang Juzheng, as the Senior Grand Secretary of the Great Ming, clearly knew where the greatest evil in the world lay.

Is the greatest evil in the world in the ruler?

Hence Hai Rui carried a coffin to remonstrate, saying that the greatest evil in the world was the Jiajing Emperor—Jiajing, Jiajing, everyone is clean.

But if the greatest evil in the world were truly in the Jiajing Emperor, if it were truly because of a single man, then during the Longqing years, the Emperor was hidden, and the ministers ruled the world together. Wasn't the world still exhausted and the people suffering?

Is the greatest evil in the world in the court?

Yan Song was defeated, Yan Shifan died, Xu Jie came, Xu Jie was defeated, Gao Gong came, Gao Gong was defeated, and now Zhang Juzheng has come. The Great Ming Dynasty under Zhang Juzheng's presiding for ten years has recovered some vitality, but what about after Zhang Juzheng is defeated?

The greatest evil in the world is in the rituals and laws. The ministers of the Great Ming have always hoped that the Great Ming Emperor could live within the frameworks they set, being a ruler who rules by doing nothing. And this framework they set has also trapped them tightly. The Great Ming, from the ruler down to the common people, is struggling in this quagmire, unable to extricate itself.

More accurately, the distribution and production mechanism established on the basis of Confucian rituals and laws can no longer be applied to the current development status of the Great Ming's social productive forces, and cannot reconcile the interest conflicts and contradictions between various classes.

The greatest evil in the world is in the ruler; if the ruler is lazy, the discipline will be slack.

The greatest evil in the world is in the court; if the court is dark, the world will be sick.

The greatest evil in the world is in the rituals and laws; if the rituals and laws are rotten, the ruler will be lazy and the people will be tired.

Zhang Juzheng's reform is still not thorough enough, not fundamental enough.

The greatest evil in the world truly lies in the Great Ming, north and south of the Great River, inside and outside the Great Wall, in every inch of land, with thousands of people struggling to survive in the mountains and fields;

The greatest evil in the world truly lies in the Great Ming's vast fertile fields, with no one to farm them, and the people suffering from annexation, struggling bitterly;

The greatest evil in the world truly lies in the people who can no longer bear the suffering, and can no longer bear the court's taxes, the grain rent of the fields, and the private demands of the local officials.

The suffering of the people is the greatest evil in the world!

What exactly are the dynasty's fate and the Emperor's mandate?

In the extremely simple political concept of Zhu Yijun, a ten-year-old ruler, fate and mandate are the people living and working in peace! If the people are peaceful, the world is peaceful; if the people are not peaceful, the world is not peaceful.

Zhang Juzheng clearly knew the greatest evil in the world. In the 33rd year of Jiajing, he expressed his feelings in the mountains and rivers. In fact, he was also disgusted by the court's deceit and human ghosts, but he still said that the land tax was uneven, the poor were unemployed, the people suffered from annexation, and then returned to the court, wanting to change this rotten world.

The reason Zhang Juzheng didn't answer was just because the young Emperor was still young, and these things needed the Emperor to preside over them personally.

Zhu Yijun continued, "The Senior Grand Secretary later lectured on 'A gentleman is not a vessel'."

"What does 'a gentleman is not a vessel' mean?" Empress Dowager Chen asked with great interest.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "The Senior Grand Secretary said that 'vessel' means utensil, referring to various containers. 'Vessel' is also the process of becoming a vessel—the process of kneading clay, throwing, printing, trimming, drying, carving, glazing, and firing."

'Vessel' is a noun and also a verb. 'Not a vessel' means not being restricted by form. 'Not a vessel' also means not being restricted to one style in promoting talents. Being rigid and following the rules can only make one a talent, with size and shape, and with limitations.

"'A gentleman is not a vessel' does not mean a gentleman cannot become a talent. This sentence must be understood in connection with the previous chapter, where the Master discusses knowing people: those who do good are gentlemen, those who do evil are petty men."

"'A gentleman is not a vessel' discusses gentlemen, not petty men. People have one talent or one art, like a vessel. Although each has its use, they are not interchangeable. Being able to do this but not that means they are not all-around talents."

"And a gentleman is not a vessel; he can take on the great task of managing the state and saving the world, and he can handle the small matters of money, grain, and soldiers. He is not like a vessel, which can only have one use because of its style and size."

"A gentleman should not be restricted by the world's discussions, nor by the redundant and rotten old rules, so a gentleman is not a vessel, a great talent of the world."

"Mother, the slingshot is for aim. This is preparation for the thirty-catty bamboo bow. This is the process of becoming a vessel. If the clay is not kneaded, how can it become porcelain in the kiln? I am not 'using a precious pearl to shoot a bird', nor am I playing ball in the side hall. I ask Mother to investigate."

"Forget about the slingshot." Empress Dowager Li waved her hand and said, "Play! I didn't say that sentence. Let's not talk about principles in the future. Play, Emperor, play."

Slingshot, play! Cuju, kick! What's the big deal?

Play! Play to your heart's content!

Empress Dowager Li was originally thinking about what the greatest evil in the world was, but hearing the Emperor talk about 'a gentleman is not a vessel', she relaxed and stopped interfering. Her mood was slightly complex, slightly helpless, but also a bit gratified.

What was helpless was that she could no longer argue with the young Emperor. If parents educating children weren't as good as children at reasoning, then there was no way to teach.

What was gratifying was that the child was studying seriously and understood many principles. The child becoming a vessel was the most important thing. As long as the young Emperor could be recognized by the ministers, her living in the Qianqing Palace was not in vain.

Zhu Yijun didn't finish the words. He later asked if there were always 'not a vessel' gentlemen in the world.

Zhang Juzheng said: 'Not a vessel' gentlemen are not always in the world.

Zhu Yijun said with great emotion: Observe his motives, examine his path, observe his heart's peace. As a vessel, one with one talent or one art, one must use people according to their abilities and cannot demand perfection. As a 'not a vessel' all-around talent, if one seeks the extraordinary merit of managing the state, one should not worry about protecting oneself. If the ruler gets one, he should be given a great task.

Xu Zhenming is clearly a vessel talent. He knows how to farm and manage water, and is proficient in agricultural and water management affairs, so one cannot demand too much of him. Any more, Xu Zhenming couldn't do. In front of the court officials, making a report, Xu Zhenming stuttered and didn't know what to say.

In this world, is there truly an all-around talent who seeks the great governance of the world without any plan to protect himself?

Yes.

The Han Dynasty's mountains and rivers have had loyal ministers for generations.

"Li Le submitted two memorials from Datong, saying the Great Wall construction in Xuan-Da is rotten to the extreme." Empress Dowager Li mentioned this because she was asking about the Emperor's thoughts. ===== CHAPTER 64 =====