Chapter 717: Go to Europe

Ji Kun understood now!

So the whole long trip he, Qian Qianyi, Zhu Zhiyu, Wang Fuzhi and the others had made was never about buying a lost treasure — it was about authenticating it and copying it!

As long as they copied the Zilun Gewu Pian and authenticated it as a lost work of Confucius, they would never get another look at the "original." The thing wasn't genuine, so it couldn't be examined too much — too much scrutiny and the fraud would show. How would they explain it then?

So the Zhu Emperor had long since arranged a backup: he had Princess Dong'e come forward and claim the so-called original. Once the thing belonged to the Princess, it became part of her dowry, and later it would go straight into the imperial palace collection, where no one would ever see it again... and perhaps a fire or flood might even be arranged to destroy the evidence outright.

Once the evidence was destroyed, the Zilun Gewu Pian could no longer be proven false! Then the Zilun Gewu Pian could join the Four Books and Five Classics — from then on it would be the Five Books and Five Classics!

Moreover, the Zilun Gewu Pian was not meant to promote the political ideals of the Sage, but to investigate things and seek the Dao. It opened the gate to the Confucian pursuit of the Great Way. Once it was listed among the Five Books and became a Confucian classic, it would open a gate for all the scholars of the realm to the learning of investigating things and extending knowledge... From then on, all the scholars of the realm would devote themselves to investigating things and extending knowledge, and no one would ever rebel against the Great Ming again. The Ming realm would stand firm as bedrock!

How brilliant the Hongxing Emperor was!

But where had such a brilliant method of investigating things and extending knowledge been copied from?

The great talent Ji Kun racked his brains and could not figure it out, so he had no choice but to copy first and ask questions later. He and Wang Fuzhi each copied the bamboo slips on the table once, then exchanged and checked them against each other, confirming that not a single character differed. Only then did they take their leave of Jia Busi and return to Lüshunkou to report.

"Good, good, good. That girl Dong'e does understand reason. She has already secured the original Zilun Gewu Pian for Us, and will bring it to the Old Mountain Palace before the New Year."

Nanjing, the Forbidden City.

Zhu Cilang had received the memorial of the Heshuo Princess Dong'e, and today he brought it up at the meeting of the Two Courts in the Eastern Warm Pavilion of the Hall of Venerating Heaven.

Before Princess Dong'e's memorial arrived, Qian Qianyi, Zhu Zhiyu, Wang Fuzhi and the others had already sent a copy of the Zilun Gewu Pian to Nanjing by 600-li express. The senior ministers of the Two Courts had all read it, and all had sent congratulatory memorials to the Zhu Emperor — this was a "propitious omen" event!

A lost work of the Supreme Sage had appeared in the world, and what was more, it was an important work like the Zilun Gewu Pian!

According to the theory of the unity of Heaven and man, this proved that Zhu Cilang was greatly virtuous — though one wondered whether Dorgon, who had robbed the grave at Qufu, deserved any credit? Without him digging up the tomb, this thing probably would never have come out, would it?

The Minister of Revenue Zheng Zhilong said with a smile, "The Heshuo Princess's heart turns toward the Great Ming and toward Your Majesty. For rendering Your Majesty such a great service, she should be richly rewarded."

He was recruiting an ally for his daughter!

Zheng Chagu, as Noble Consort, was always one rank below Wu Sanmei, the Empress. If she could pull in Princess Dong'e as a second Noble Consort, then two Noble Consorts could attack one Empress from both sides, and the balance of power would be even.

"She does indeed deserve a reward!" Zhu Cilang nodded with a smile. "But Dong'e is still young and has not yet entered the palace, so it is not convenient for Us to reward her now. Let us record the merit for the time being!"

With the Zhu Emperor pushing the matter off, Zheng Zhilong's favor had cooled considerably.

He then turned the conversation: "Chief Grand Secretary, what do you think of the Zilun Gewu Pian? Can it stand alongside the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects, and the Mencius as the Five Books?"

"Your Majesty, this subject believes the Zilun Gewu Pian is sufficient to stand as a system of its own. What it corresponds to should be the Four Books and Five Classics."

"Oh? Is that so?" Zhu Cilang feigned surprise. "The learning in the Zilun Gewu Pian can equal all the learning in the Four Books and Five Classics?"

The content of the Zilun Gewu Pian was actually quite miscellaneous. Zhu Cilang in his previous life had not been a philosopher, but he was thoroughly familiar with induction, deduction, analysis, reasoning, statistics, probability, and operations research. He was also fairly familiar with positivist material, and understood a bit of dialectical materialism. All this jumbled material had been turned into "The Master said" and "Zigong asked," and written into the Zilun Gewu Pian — though none of it was elaborated in detail. Some of it Zhu Cilang himself did not fully understand, and some of it, closely tied to financial analysis, he could have written a book to explain in detail, but he had not done so. This was only the beginning; no need to be so profound. So he had merely opened one gate after another.

Even if he had only opened the gates, the learning within was immense! It would not be an exaggeration to say the Zilun Gewu Pian surpassed the Four Books and Five Classics!

Yet although the learning in the Zilun Gewu Pian was vast, it all remained at the surface and required deep excavation and research. One could say that the Zilun Gewu Pian was dozens or even hundreds of gates. What lay behind the gates still required the great and lesser Confucian scholars of the Ming to dig out for themselves — and whatever they dug out would make them great philosophers and great Confucians!

"Your Majesty, the learning in the Zilun Gewu Pian is of course extremely great, but it is different from the learning in the Four Books and Five Classics." Wei the zhuangyuan was a zhuangyuan after all; his intelligence was high, and he had already glimpsed something. "The Four Books and Five Classics are learning that has been thoroughly digested — once one has read and understood them, one is a great Confucian of the age. But the learning in the Zilun Gewu Pian has only just begun. Every single item can be said to conceal a heavenly secret, requiring great effort to exhaustively investigate its principle. If one is to pursue scholarship, then one should exhaustively investigate every item in the Zilun Gewu Pian!"

That was true!

Those "Master said" passages were all summarized by the great philosophers of Western history, and each one, when expanded, was a whole field of learning.

And these fields of learning were themselves methods and tools for understanding the world — that is, methods and tools for investigating things and extending knowledge!

Studied in depth, they were simply inexhaustible.

By comparison, how deep could Confucian political science and moral ethics go? Moreover, these fields had already been studied by generation after generation of Confucians for two thousand years — how much more could still be excavated?

"The Chief Grand Secretary speaks wisely!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Since the Zilun Gewu Pian has appeared in the world and contains such great learning, its principles should be exhaustively investigated... We believe that the Imperial Academy and the Grand Secretaries should take the Zilun Gewu Pian as the foundation of their scholarship!

As for the Four Books and Five Classics and the rest — they have been studied for so many years already; that is about enough."

Zhu Cilang wanted to turn the Imperial Academy into a national-level research institution for studying the Zilun Gewu Pian! And the Grand Secretaries would become scholars who studied the Zilun Gewu Pian, not bureaucrats who did no scholarship and only held office.

"Your Majesty, will the Imperial Academy still recruit students?" The Minister of Works Li Mingrui was now in the same faction as Qian Qianyi. With Qian Qianyi not in Nanjing, he naturally had to look after the interests of the southerners.

The Imperial Academy could not just do scholarship! It also had to recruit students!

"It will!" Zhu Cilang laughed. "After they are recruited, they will study the Zilun Gewu Pian, and we will also open courses in mathematics and the investigation of things... In addition, fencing and firearms will also be studied!"

The Imperial Academy had thus become a university!

But not the kind of university of later ages that emphasized professional training — rather, a university that provided a generalist education.

"Your Majesty," Li Mingrui pressed, "how should the Imperial Academy students be recruited?"

"By examination!" Zhu Cilang said. "They will be examined on the Zilun Gewu Pian and mathematics... We have compiled a New Mathematics. It is not very difficult. We will print several hundred thousand copies together with the Zilun Gewu Pian, then distribute them to the education bureaus of each prefecture, and the education bureaus will hand them out to scholars for self-study."

Things like philosophy and mathematics depend on natural talent. With enough talent, self-study can yield modest results. The Zhu Emperor did not have many teachers available at present, so he would distribute the textbooks and let people study on their own for a year or two, then select the outstanding ones by examination — guaranteed to be clever people with IQs above 130.

Then he would continue distributing textbooks for them to study on their own... This university was irresponsible to the extreme — a whole self-study class!

He paused: "As for the Grand Secretaries... they may be called Imperial Academy Grand Secretaries. Seven shall be appointed to jointly administer the Imperial Academy. Below the seven scholars, there shall be Directors of Studies and Bureau Secretaries to handle mundane affairs, and Erudites and Instructors to teach the students. As for the selection of the seven scholars, Our intention is also by examination — We shall set the questions Ourself!"