Chapter 208: Flowers in the Mirror, Moon in the Water — the Dao Heart Shatters

Xu Guangqi drew a deep breath, steadying his surging emotions, and cupped his hands. "The first is the various ingenious mechanical creations."

"Among them, the red barbarian cannon and firelocks can be used for military purposes; the methods of mineralogy can be used for mining and smelting;"

"The methods of hydraulics can be used for well-digging and irrigation; the methods of astronomy can be used to correct the calendar and supplement the farming seasons."

"All these exquisite creations can be of use to the state — this is the first benefit."

"These books you speak of — We have already found and read them." Zhu Youjian suddenly raised a hand, cutting off Xu Guangqi's exposition. "But they seem to lack specific details on mineral extraction. Which book would that be, We wonder?"

Xu Guangqi started, then smiled. "The capital has it that Your Majesty reads widely and always strikes the mark with a question — it seems that is indeed the case."

He went on: "That particular book is among the seven thousand volumes Nicolas Trigault brought with him. It is still obscure and has not yet been translated."

"Its name in the Western tongue is De Re Metallica."

"In Chinese, it would be 'On Mining and Smelting.'"

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, his lips parting as he murmured the word twice under his breath, then with perfect naturalness said:

The words fell like a thunderclap.

Xu Guangqi's eyes flew wide; for a moment he was utterly at a loss.

"Bene" meant good; "intellegi" meant understood.

This — this was standard Latin!

Zhu Youjian, watching Xu Guangqi's expression as if he had seen a ghost, could not help laughing. "What is it, Minister Xu? If you people can learn Latin, can We not learn it as well?"

"This subject — this subject simply never imagined Your Majesty was a heaven-sent genius, progressing so astonishingly fast!" Xu Guangqi was so stirred he was nearly incoherent.

What did this mean? It meant His Majesty was truly delving into Western learning, not merely professing a love he did not feel!

On the surface, Zhu Youjian was utterly composed, having just pulled off a small bit of showing off, and he gestured for Xu Guangqi to continue.

Inside, however, he was grumbling furiously.

Damned transmigration!

All those years in his last life spent studying English, reciting it from primary school all the way through university, chanting "abandon" maybe a thousand times — and then he arrives in this world, and the most formidable Western civilization turns out to be Latin-based!

It was like grinding a full set of god-tier gear, only for the closed beta to end and the server to wipe!

In the end, he still had to gnaw his way through this obscure, maddening bird-language from scratch.

And learn it from those half-baked interpreters at the Interpreters' Institute, no less —

Half-baked interpreters who didn't even know how to say "abandon" in Latin —

But there was no helping it.

In this age, the free flow of information was an emperor's lifeline.

Not only did he have to guard against being hoodwinked by the civil officials at home, it was even more so abroad.

Otherwise, when the various Western nations someday presented their state letters, if what was plainly written was an "ultimatum," and those interpreters rendered it as "yearning in admiration for the Celestial Court, coming especially to offer tribute" — the farce would be colossal.

Such absurdities were not without precedent among the officials of the Ming dynasty.

During the Wanli reign, after the end of the first Sino-Japanese war, the so-called peace negotiations were exactly Shen Weijing and his lot deceiving both sides, reading a surrender document as an imperial investiture edict — and when the farce was exposed, it directly triggered the outbreak of the second war.

The warning of that overturned cart must be heeded.

Xu Guangqi at this moment had no inkling of the little calculations running through the Emperor's mind. He simply felt his whole body brimming with drive, and continued: "Your Majesty is sagacious! Yet all these implements and contrivances can be used for a year, can be used for ten years, but cannot be used for a hundred years."

"As this subject said earlier, the various Western sciences take logic as their essence. Every kind of device they have rests upon the study of the investigation of things as its foundation."

"And among the sciences of the investigation of things, the 'Elements of Geometry' is foremost. In this book, the great Western scholars first establish the concepts of point,"

"line, plane, and so forth, then —"

"Minister Xu."

Zhu Youjian interrupted him again, his tone perfectly calm. "This 'Elements of Geometry' you speak of — We have already read it."

"The various theorems and formulas within it — We have also attempted to derive each one, and roughly understand the distinctions."

Zhu Youjian shifted into a more comfortable sitting posture and said offhandedly: "The Central Plain's past approach has been practical mathematics, focused on calculation; the Western approach is abstract mathematics, focused on principle. Is that not so?"

"Continue with what you were saying. This benefit — We also acknowledge it."

Xu Guangqi had been interrupted yet again.

But by now he was gradually adjusting to this rhythm of dialogue.

In the past, when he expounded these matters of the Catholic faith to Ming scholars, he always had to spend a great deal of time laying out concepts, exhausting his breath.

But facing this new sovereign, it was as if he were conversing with an old friend deeply versed in the subject.

His Majesty always had some prior understanding, and his reactions were sharp — he could draw inferences from a single instance!

Barely fifty days since his enthronement — where had this new sovereign found the time and energy, amid handling heavy affairs of state, to also find the leisure to finish reading the 'Elements of Geometry'?

And to further derive and master its many theorems and formulas one by one?

Unless — this new sovereign had already begun paying attention to the Western sciences back when he was the hidden dragon at the Prince Xin Residence!

What profound foresight and long-range planning!

— Of course, Zhu Youjian had lied again.

He had merely flipped through the 'Elements of Geometry' in his spare moments, broadly confirmed that it still covered those ninth-grade compulsory-education-level geometry problems, and then tossed it aside.

You must be joking.

Tortured by math before transmigrating, and now after transmigrating and becoming Emperor, he still has to study math?

Our Great Ming has a population of ten thousand times ten thousand — there are bound to be geniuses like Newton, Mutton, or Sheepton. Our responsibility is to provide the soil for them to emerge, not to become some exam-grinder Ourself.

This Eternal Prosperity Emperor completely ignored the fact that his math proficiency had plummeted in a straight line since high school graduation, and thought with full confidence: having studied it once counts as having studied it — there's no way I'm studying it all over again in this lifetime!

In any case, that the Great Ming had welcomed such an enlightened, intelligent, and politically adept Emperor was a perfect situation Xu Guangqi had never dared imagine.

His mood grew ever more buoyant; he even felt a trace of sacred sense of mission.

At last, he drew a deep breath and resolved to present the most central concept of the day, the one he valued most: "Your Majesty, this subject believes that the third benefit of the West lies precisely in the Catholic faith!"

The dagger was revealed at the map's end!

Xu Guangqi's voice grew deeply solemn: "The teachings of the Heavenly Lord differ greatly from Buddhism and Daoism. In this subject's view, their core tenet is the concept of life and death."

"From the founding of our dynasty until now, men's hearts have fallen into decay — corruption and extravagance have become the norm. Did the Buddhism and Daoism that came before not also preach the transformation of men's hearts?"

"Not so! Buddhism has the doctrine of the Six Realms of Rebirth; Daoism has the doctrines of inherited burden, karmic retribution, and the courts of the underworld."

"Then why do men's hearts still incline toward evil and shun good?"

Xu Guangqi's eyes blazed. He took half a step forward and looked straight at the Emperor: "What Daoism speaks of is eternal life without death; what the Buddhists speak of is transcending the Three Realms. When men seek the Buddha or seek the Dao, they are seeking long life and enduring vision — they are seeking real-world blessings, wealth, and official rank!"

"Who truly worries about what comes after death?"

"Thus, though there is teaching enough to punish evil, in truth there is no teaching at all! It is nothing but a transaction!"

Xu Guangqi grew more animated as he spoke, as if he could already see the hope for a moral rebirth of the Great Ming: "Yet when this subject read the teachings of the Heavenly Lord, he found they do not evade the question of life and death — they take death as the ultimate end."

"Ever mindful that death is certain, one dare not forget it; that judgment is certain, one dare not ignore it; that hell is certain, one fears only to fall into it; that heaven is certain, one forever seeks to ascend to it."

"Under such a Heavenly Lord, if every man fears evil and turns toward good, what worry is there that men's hearts cannot be governed, what worry that extravagance cannot be leveled?!"

"This is precisely what this subject considers the third great benefit of the Far West."

"It is called: supplementing Confucianism and displacing Buddhism!"

When Xu Guangqi finished, his whole face was radiant. He looked expectantly at the man he regarded in his heart as a 'sage sovereign.'

He was waiting.

Waiting for that one line: "Say no more — We think so too!"

If only those words were spoken, the Great Ming would welcome a spiritual rebirth!

Yet after only a brief moment, Zhu Youjian spoke.

His voice was no longer as mild as when they had discussed science earlier; it was utterly cold: "And what if We said that this matter absolutely cannot be done?"

"That no official of the Celestial Dynasty may ever believe in the Heavenly Lord."

"That all foreign missionaries preaching within Our borders are to be expelled."

"What would you do then?"

Zhu Youjian leaned slightly forward, his gaze like a blade thrust straight at Xu Guangqi: "Brother Xu Baolu?"

As his words fell, the whole room fell silent.

That name — 'Xu Baolu' — was like a basin of ice water poured over Xu Guangqi from head to toe, drenching him through and through.

Xu Guangqi's heart, in that instant, plummeted into the abyss.

If a man you look up to as a sage sovereign, an emperor you thought came but once in a thousand years, a sovereign in whom you placed all hope of national salvation —

If with one casual line he negates the faith you have held firm for twenty-four years, what do you do?

After an almost instantaneous moment of desolation, Xu Guangqi urgently wanted to argue back.

No — it was not even argument, but a near-instinctive plea: "Your Majesty — why does Your Majesty speak so?"

"Is there perhaps some misunderstanding of the doctrine? This subject — this subject can surely explain it all, point by point, and dispel Your Majesty's doubts!"

Watching the old man's flustered expression, Zhu Youjian sighed inwardly.

This SSR card, it seemed, was half-ruined.

This so-called Heavenly Lord faith was evidently not merely a tool for 'supplementing Confucianism and displacing Buddhism' in his mouth — it was his true spiritual refuge.

Faith, once it takes root, is very hard to pull out.

Zhu Youjian hesitated a moment, but in the end could not bear it. He decided to give this 'first man to open his eyes and look at the world' one last chance — and, in a way, to give history an accounting.

Zhu Youjian reined in the sharpness in his eyes and asked coolly: "Minister Xu, let Us ask you this: do the various arts of the Far West have a necessary connection to the Heavenly Lord faith?"

"If We wish to promote the science, waterworks, and firearms of the Far West, must We also promote the Heavenly Lord faith?"

These words struck Xu Guangqi's vital point at once.

He opened his mouth, wanting to argue, but the integrity of a scholar would not let him lie.

After a long silence, he slowly shook his head, his voice bitter: "In truth — there is no complete connection."

"The Elements of Geometry was written by the ancient Western sage Euclid, at a time when the Heavenly Lord faith did not yet exist."

Zhu Youjian raised an eyebrow and laughed scornfully: "Those Western missionaries were not so secretive after all. We had thought they would try to frame Euclid as a saint of the Heavenly Lord faith as well."

Xu Guangqi's brow furrowed deeply. With a serious expression he said: "Missionaries such as Matteo Ricci were all men of the utmost moral perfection — true sages. How could they stoop to such a sordid, self-serving act?"

"Sages?"

Zhu Youjian leaned back against his chair and let out a laugh of indeterminate meaning.

He shook his head and asked: "In the Tang dynasty, Japanese student-monks came seeking the Buddha-dharma. The assembled monks of Daming Temple kept silent and gave no response. Only the great master Jianzhen said, 'This is for the sake of the Dharma — why begrudge one's own life?' And so he crossed the eastern sea six times, nearly lost his life on several occasions, went blind, and never wavered in his purpose."

"Can such a man be called a sage?"

Xu Guangqi did not quite see where this was going, but nodded and said: "Naturally he is a sage."

Zhu Youjian asked again: "The Tang monk Xuanzang, finding that Buddhist doctrines differed from region to region, resolved to journey west. He crossed deserts, traversed high mountains, and spent sixteen years before returning, translating over a thousand scrolls of scripture. Can he be called a sage?"

Xu Guangqi nodded again: "Naturally he too is a sage."

Zhu Youjian gave a cold laugh, his gaze sharpening: "Such men of religion — their hearts are steadfast in seeking the Way, they would feed themselves to a starving tigress. To call them sages is not excessive."

"But let Us ask you —"

Zhu Youjian's tone turned abruptly icy: "If, at that time, Japan had been raiding and plundering the Great Ming as it did in the Jiajing and Wanli years — slaughtering Our people, violating Our wives and daughters —"

"Would the great master Jianzhen still have crossed the eastern sea?"

Xu Guangqi froze. After a moment of silence, he said in a strained voice: "This subject — does not know."

"Jianzhen is, after all, a man of antiquity. Neither We nor you ever met him, so naturally we cannot know."

Zhu Youjian rose to his feet and looked down at him from above: "Then let Us ask you another."

"If next year the men of the Far West were to muster fifty great ships and twenty thousand soldiers, force their way in through the Southern Metropolitan Region, bombard your old home in Huating, and demand that the Great Ming submit as a vassal and pay tribute —"

"Those 'sainted missionaries' you speak of — would they help the Far West, or would they help the Great Ming?"

"And of the Great Ming's mountains and rivers, the strengths and weaknesses of its guard stations, its customs and human ways that they know so well — can you guarantee that not one word, not one phrase, would be passed on to the men of the Far West?"

He raised a finger and pointed vaguely at Xu Guangqi's chest, asking bluntly, "Minister Xu, you have dealt with them in great detail and regard them as bosom friends — surely you can answer Us this?"

"In your opinion, whose side would they take?"

"Does the Lord of whom the Catholic faith speaks truly make no distinction among His flock? Is He truly and wholly impartial?"

A sardonic curve tugged at the corner of Zhu Youjian's mouth. "Or rather —"

"Are the lambs of the Far West a little more equal than the lambs of the Great Ming?"

Xu Guangqi remained silent.

This was a question that struck straight at the heart.

The faces of Matteo Ricci, Nicolas Trigault, and the others flashed through his mind. He searched for grounds to refute it, but reason told him that as a "man," one was first defined by one's nation.

After a long pause, he finally replied in a low voice, "These men — perhaps they would do their utmost to mediate between both sides, but if matters reached an unavoidable extreme, they would likely — still aid the Far West, though they would also urge restraint in the killing."

Zhu Youjian shook his head, as if he had heard a joke. "Restraint in the killing? Not necessarily."

"Minister Xu, in Catholic doctrine, evildoers go to hell — that is true enough. But unbelievers — they go to hell as well!"

Zhu Youjian's voice suddenly rose, reverberating through the room. "Confucius and all the sages, Our imperial ancestors, your own ancestors! Because they were never baptized, because they never professed faith in their Lord, at this very moment, according to their doctrine, they are all wailing in torment in the Catholic hell!"

"We, the 'heretics' in their eyes — in their eyes, can they truly exercise restraint in the killing?"

"If that were truly so, why did Hispania slaughter twenty thousand Chinese merchants in Luzon? Where was God's mercy then?!"

At this, Zhu Youjian swept his sleeve back with a violent flourish and said sternly, "Once We had finished reading Catholic doctrine, We knew this faith absolutely could not be allowed to exist in Huaxia."

"It worships a single god and deems all other gods false. Those who enter the faith are brothers; those who do not are heretics."

"Xu Guangqi, We ask you."

"If the entire province of South Zhili were filled with Catholics, while the surrounding provinces believed in Buddhism and the Dao —"

"Would that one province of Catholics obediently pray and go about their daily lives?"

"Or would they tirelessly strive to convert the 'heretics' in their eyes? And if those heretics did not wish to be converted, would that not then escalate into conflict, even war?"

"Can you tell Us?"

"Such extreme xenophobia, taking oneself as right and others as wrong, utterly intolerant of any other faith's existence — can this truly be permitted?!"

Xu Guangqi rose to his feet, trembling, his face as pale as paper.

He wanted to salvage the situation, to make one last defense of his faith. "Your Majesty! Many of the rites and institutions can be changed!"

"Catholicism originally forbade ancestor worship and the veneration of Confucius — now it permits them! This was the fruit of Father Matteo Ricci's labors!"

"The doctrine of 'supplementing Confucianism and supplanting Buddhism' — does the same not apply to Catholicism? We can make it adapt to the Great Ming!"

Zhu Youjian shook his head, a flicker of pity in his eyes.

A faith born a thousand years ago — if it were so easily changed, it would hardly deserve the name of a millennium-old religion.

This so-called "adaptation" was nothing more than a strategy of compromise in the early stages of proselytizing. Once it gained power, it would inevitably turn and devour.

He had no intention of continuing to tangle with Xu Guangqi on this question that had no answer.

After all, he said it could not be changed, Xu Guangqi said it could — back and forth, it was all empty talk.

Zhu Youjian spoke directly, dropping one last bombshell.

"The reason We hold Catholicism in contempt — apart from its being an immense destabilizing factor in itself — is that We have never believed it to be some panacea for redeeming men's hearts."

Xu Guangqi opened his mouth to speak, but Zhu Youjian raised a hand and cut him off.

He was utterly disappointed with this day's interview and had already begun to lose patience.

"In the Daily Lecture, We said that every age has its own problems — do you accept that?"

Without even waiting for Xu Guangqi to answer, Zhu Youjian spoke at a rapid clip. "Does that logic not apply just as well to the founding of the Great Ming, to the Far West, to Catholicism itself?"

"'When the Great Way fell into disuse, benevolence and righteousness appeared; when wisdom emerged, great hypocrisy arose!'"

"That Europa which gave birth to Catholicism — how could it possibly be some land of supreme virtue?"

"You see only the sages among your missionary friends — how then do you explain the countrymen of those very sages running rampant across the Southern Seas?"

"Even if Catholicism resolved Europa's past problems, how could Catholicism itself be free of problems?"

"If Catholicism had no problems, why then was the Protestant faith born?"

"If Catholicism had no problems, why then are the thirty states of the Far West mired in war between the old faith and the new, fighting for decades without cease, slaughtering until blood flows like a river?"

"'Redeeming men's hearts'?"

Zhu Youjian gave a cold laugh. "The greed, corruption, and extravagance of our dynasty's hearts — do the nations of the Far West not possess the very same?"

"Otherwise, these barbarians who come from ten thousand li away — do they all come to preach? Is it not all for the white silver? For the spices? For the silk?"

"Sages? They are but a tiny minority in the end! The great majority are nothing but bandits in borrowed robes!"

Having unleashed this full barrage, Zhu Youjian felt the pent-up frustration in his chest dissolve entirely — both satisfying and regrettable.

The satisfaction, naturally, was the sheer exhilaration of an atheist blasting religion with righteous fury.

The regret was that among the SSR cards he had drawn, one was ultimately going to be discarded.

Forget it.

A man steeped in religion for over twenty years, an old man past sixty — his worldview had long since solidified. It was normal that he could not be changed. Let him believe if he wished.

The Great Ming was not so short that it could not do without one Xu Guangqi.

At worst, We shall cultivate talent Ourselves!

Just as Zhu Youjian was about to end this tedious interview, Xu Guangqi, who had been sprayed with spittle on the other side, slowly raised his head.

He did not refute, but his eyes were filled with a kind of bewilderment and immense confusion.

"Your Majesty — what is — the Protestant faith?"

Zhu Youjian rolled his eyes and said reflexively, "The Protestant faith is just —"

Wait.

Zhu Youjian stopped abruptly.

He looked at Xu Guangqi's bewildered expression and grinned.

"What? Did those saintly missionaries never tell you about the Protestant Reformation?"

Xu Guangqi shook his head blankly.

The smile at the corner of Zhu Youjian's mouth grew wider, tinged with a trace of cruel satisfaction.

In his past life, he had despised nothing more than fools who swallowed one-sided stories whole without the slightest effort to sift through them or absorb them critically.

And today, Xu Guangqi, most unfortunately, had stepped squarely onto his landmine.

So much so that he no longer cared a whit for the proprieties of respecting the aged and cherishing the young.

Zhu Youjian could not be bothered with pretense any longer either.

In any case, these people could always fill in the blanks about his sources of information themselves — whether it was the Embroidered Uniform Guard or some secret overseas intelligence.

He said directly: "The so-called Protestant faith — its greatest distinction from Catholicism — is justification by faith alone."

"The core doctrine of the old Catholicism was this: a person is born bearing sin, and if they do not atone for it in this life, they cannot enter Heaven."

"And to atone, one may do good works, one may have faith — but the most direct method was to buy the Church's indulgences."

Zhu Youjian mimicked the tone of those greedy clerics and said with contempt: "As the saying goes — 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs!'"

Xu Guangqi's pupils contracted sharply.

Zhu Youjian could not resist twisting the knife: "This is the supreme, exalted Catholicism you claimed would be used to rectify men's hearts."

"When Buddhism collects donations to gild a statue, it is to accumulate merit and virtue in this world — a matter of mutual consent."

"But with your Catholicism, you are born already in debt to the Church's grace. If you do not donate, there is no recourse — if you do not buy that scrap of paper, you go to hell!"

"This rivals even the petty underlings of the Great Ming!"

Xu Guangqi pressed his lips tightly together, his body swaying unsteadily, yet he still clutched desperately at one last straw and asked in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty — then — then what exactly is Protestantism?"

Zhu Youjian put away his smile and gazed out the window with deep, penetrating eyes.

"The birth of Protestantism — that was Catholicism's 'question of the age.'"

"This question, however, you should not be asking Us. You should go and ask those saintly friends of yours."

"Ask them whether they know what 'justification by faith alone' means. Whether they know the Western sage who answered the question of the age —"

Zhu Youjian paused, and then, in a standard English pronunciation that had never before been heard within this palace, he enunciated that name:

In that instant, Xu Guangqi felt as though he heard something within his heart shatter.

Zhu Youjian had not a shred of patience left.

He flicked his sleeve, and his voice resumed the cold indifference of an emperor: "Xu Baolu, your interview is over."

"Withdraw."

Xu Guangqi, like a wandering ghost, performed his obeisance mechanically, turned, and walked away in a stupor.

What this sovereign had just said had nearly overturned the entire worldview he had spent twenty years constructing.

It was not that he had not considered doubting whether what the sovereign said was true.

But —

Protestantism! Indulgences! Justification by faith alone! 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs!' And that perfectly enunciated 'Martin Luther'!

These terms were too specific, too vivid — they did not at all sound like lies the Emperor had improvised on the spot to refute him.

Moreover, the earlier discussion of the geography, artifacts, and investigative methods of various foreign peoples had already proven that the Emperor's understanding of Western learning far exceeded his imagination.

O Lord — could this be true?

Could it be that the truth I have devoted half my life to believing is also filled with lies and the stench of lucre?

In his daze, his legs gave way beneath him. He failed to notice the high threshold and tripped over it.

Thud!

Xu Guangqi stumbled forward a few steps and fell heavily onto the grass outside the Academy of Sciences.

But he did not immediately get up.

His body and spirit utterly exhausted, he simply lay there on the cold ground, staring up at the glaring winter sun overhead.

A line of turbid tears at last flowed silently from his eyes, streaking across his wrinkled face.

Suddenly, a voice drifted over from behind him.

"Xu Guangqi, We shall give you a few final words."

Xu Guangqi struggled to his feet and turned his head to look.

There, in the midday sunlight, the young sovereign stood at the threshold where light and shadow met — half his body in brilliance, half concealed in darkness.

"The land of China has never needed any savior!"

"For thousands of years, it has always been so!"

Zhu Youjian paused, as if steeling his own resolve as well: "And for thousands of years to come, it shall always remain so!"