Chapter 1100: The Great Confucians of Hongxing (Seeking Subscriptions)

In the seventeenth century, the world contained roughly four civilizational spheres. One was the Western Christian sphere, one the Western Islamic sphere, one the Indian Brahmanic sphere, and one the Celestial Hua-Xia sphere.

Between the four great civilizational spheres there was exchange, and of course there was also confrontation.

And exchange and confrontation between civilizations very often existed at the same time. Having exchange did not mean there could be no confrontation. Having confrontation did not mean there could be no exchange. Being single-minded about either was absolutely unacceptable.

In times of exchange, one had to be good at learning the other side's strengths. And in times of confrontation, ruthlessness was indispensable.

Over the past dozen or so years, Zhu Cilang had been contending for supreme leadership of the Celestial sphere, and had not had much time to carry out confrontation with the other spheres. Moreover, at that time the Celestial sphere was still in a process of constant retreat, so it was not easy for it to come into confrontation with the other spheres.

But after Zhu Cilang defeated the Qing dynasty and once more raised the Great Ming to the status of Celestial Empire, confrontation between the Celestial civilizational sphere and the Christian and Islamic civilizational spheres began unavoidably.

In the Southern Seas and Central Asia, the once-again expanding Celestial civilizational sphere began to encroach upon the fringes of the Islamic civilizational sphere — ever since the An Lushan Rebellion of the Tang dynasty, the Islamic sphere had been encroaching upon the Celestial sphere. And the Celestial sphere had been retreating step by step; now at last it could strike back a little.

However, the situations in the Southern Seas and Central Asia were somewhat different. In Central Asia the situation was comparatively simple: it was the Dzungar tribe of the Celestial sphere confronting the Kazakh Khanate and the Khanate of Bukhara of the Islamic sphere. Russia, of the Christian sphere, was temporarily incapable of entering the game.

But in the Southern Seas, all four spheres — Celestial, Islamic, Christian, and Brahmanic — existed at the same time!

Among them, the Christian sphere was expanding powerfully and was on the offensive. The Brahmanic sphere was about to be eliminated from the Southern Seas. The Islamic sphere and the Celestial sphere had originally both been on the defensive, and for a time there had even been signs of their joining forces against Christianity. But with the rise of the Great Ming, the Celestial sphere, the Islamic sphere, and the Christian sphere were certain to struggle against one another in the Southern Seas!

Besides the Southern Seas and Central Asia, these two "battlefields between civilizations," Zhu Cilang had also opened up a "third battlefield" in North America to seize territory from the Christian sphere!

That is to say, what now lay before the Celestial Empire was competition among three great civilizations, and moreover there were three main battlefields confronting one another.

Of course, at the same time as the confrontation, exchange was not in the least lacking.

The situation was truly a bit complicated. Fortunately, the Zhu Emperor had always been good at facing complicated situations; he had never been a single-minded man.

Otherwise, the Celestial Empire's sphere would have been dismantled by his own hands! Because within the sphere, the struggles among the various schools, factions, and states were also extremely fierce.

For a civilizational sphere fundamentally cannot achieve one single thought, one single voice, one single leader — if it truly came to that, the civilization would have reached its end and would no longer progress.

For the progress of civilization depends upon the collision and contention of different thoughts, different opinions, and different voices.

What is called a civilizational sphere is merely a collection of a series of relatively close thoughts and cultures. For example, within the Christian sphere, the different sects and different ideas are as numerous as the hairs on an ox, and they have never been unified.

Even the Islamic sphere is the same; the struggles between different sects are still quite fierce.

And the Celestial sphere is even more chaotic, because the Celestial sphere does not have just one religion, but simultaneously contains at least four mainstream religions (schools): Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto.

Within these great schools, there exist two main threads: one is Confucianism, and one is Buddhism.

The Hua-Xia, Joseon, Annam, Japan, and Ryukyu, which simultaneously possess these two main threads, form the core of this sphere — although many people greatly dislike Annam, Joseon, and Japan, this does not change the civilizational attributes of those three countries in the seventeenth century.

Besides the four core countries that simultaneously possess the two main threads, there is also a group of countries and regions drawn into the Celestial civilizational sphere by Buddhism, such as Siam, Burma, Chenla, Laos, the Yellow Hat Mongols, and so on.

Because these countries and regions have been relatively little influenced by Confucianism, they are not core members of the Celestial civilization. But in the end they are still members of the Celestial civilizational sphere. Excluding them would weaken the Celestial sphere's ability to resist the encroachment of Islam and Christianity — that would be tantamount to voluntarily abandoning the outer positions and directly exposing the core positions to the enemy!

But relying solely on Tibetan Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism (some people feel that Tibetan and Han Buddhism differ greatly; in fact, the difference between Han and Theravada Buddhism is even greater) is not enough to consolidate the civilizational positions.

Therefore, while defending civilization by military means, the Celestial Empire also needs to expand the influence of Confucianism!

And Confucianism, now in possession of the Zilun Gewu Pian, has become quite formidable in combat!

This posthumous work of Confucius gave Confucianism a tool for seeking "Heavenly Principle" (the Lord of Heaven, God)! It enabled Confucian scholars to fully discuss and demonstrate Heavenly Principle — without the need for empirical proof, they could use speculative reasoning to explore and seek the one true "Lord," and at the same time use it to question many theories of Christianity and Islam.

"Duke for Perpetuating the Sage, what books have you been reading lately?"

Within a dragon boat on East Lake, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming was speaking with the great Confucian scholar Kong Yinzheng, who was accompanying him on a lake excursion.

"Your Majesty," Kong Yinzheng said, "this subject has been respectfully reading the New Testament of the Holy Bible."

"Oh, how is it? Does it make sense?" the Zhu Emperor asked with a smile.

Kong Yinzheng said, "This subject cannot quite understand it."

"That must be a problem with the translation, then?" Zhu Cilang said. "Later, look for the vernacular text translated by Johann Adam Schall von Bell."

"No, there is no need," Kong Yinzheng shook his head. "This subject is reading the Latin edition of the New Testament, but still cannot quite understand it."

"You even know Latin?" Zhu Cilang was startled, looking at the seemingly coarse Kong Yinzheng.

Kong Yinzheng laughed. "The Imperial Academy long ago opened courses in Latin, Greek, and Arabic. This subject went and studied Latin, so I can read a little."

Studying Latin, Greek, and Arabic was of course for the purpose of researching Western learning.

Many original editions or important manuscript copies of Western learning were written in these three languages. To read the originals, one naturally had to learn Latin, Greek, and Arabic.

And the reason the Great Ming's Imperial Academy had opened these three foreign-language courses was that, in the course of researching the Zilun Gewu Pian, the Academy's scholars discovered that much Western learning had points in common with the learning of the Zilun Gewu Pian. Studying Western learning could also promote understanding of the Zilun Gewu Pian — principles that one had originally racked one's brains over without understanding might, after reading a few Latin, Greek, or Arabic works, suddenly become clear!

So after those great scholars in the Imperial Academy discovered this trick, they all began studying foreign languages. If you could thoroughly explain even one principle from the Zilun Gewu Pian, then you were a great Confucian! Not only could you receive a generous great-Confucian stipend, but you could also leave your name in history!

So now the annals of the Hongxing reign already contain many great Confucians — several emerge every year!

This Hongxing reign not only has many filial sons and many loyal ministers, but even great Confucians are especially numerous. How could such a country fail to prosper?

And Kong Yinzheng was a "double great Confucian" — he had not only proposed the theory that "the brave man's love is benevolence," but had also proposed the Methodology of Gewu, to guide the investigation of things.

Truly an extraordinary great Confucian!

"Duke for Perpetuating the Sage," Zhu Cilang looked at the double great Confucian before him, "We now have an idea that requires a great Confucian such as yourself to carry out."

"Your Majesty, please command." Kong Yinzheng naturally would not decline.

"We need a Confucian Canon that can combine the principles of the Four Books, the Five Classics, and the Zilun Gewu Pian, to serve as the general treatise of Confucian scholarship." Zhu Cilang said, "Moreover, this Confucian Canon must be written in the vernacular, must be easy to understand, and must also give a concise and essential explanation of the doctrine of Heavenly Principle.

And this explanation must also withstand the test of doctrinal debate with foreign scholars!

Duke for Perpetuating the Sage, can you find some people to work on it together?"

This demand was certainly not low! And this Confucian Canon was also extremely important — so important that over the past dozen or so years, the Zhu Emperor had not dared to find anyone to compile it.

(End of Chapter)