Chapter 975: So China Has Puritans Too! (Please Subscribe)

"Mister Special Envoy, the boat to Pukou on the north bank of the Yangtze is ready."

The one who interrupted Thomas Marvell's thoughts was Henry Pitt, England's envoy to the Great Ming. He had originally been a profiteering merchant adventuring in India, holding a nominal post in the British East India Company. Later, because he caught the "folded-ear horse" boom, he made a fortune — as it turned out, Zhu Cilang's massive purchase of Indian folded-ear horses had fattened a great number of English profiteers. This was because the Mughal dynasty was highly vigilant, fearing that the Dutch would use trade as a means to invade India! So they deliberately suppressed the Dutch East India Company while propping up the British East India Company.

In short, thanks to the generosity of Emperor Zhu and the wisdom of the Mughal dynasty, Henry Pitt became a millionaire.

After the folded-ear horse trade boom passed, Henry Pitt also wound up his business in India, then spent money to buy himself the post of ambassador to the Great Ming, and went to Nanjing to serve as ambassador while also acting as the commercial representative of the British East India Company.

Thomas Marvell turned and glanced at Pitt, and found that although he was getting on in years, he still kept an upright figure, and was full of vigor. There was not the slightest smell of tobacco on him, nor did he carry a pipe or tobacco pouch — at a glance, one could tell he was a highly disciplined Puritan!

"To Pukou?" Marvell asked. "Is the embassy not inside the city of Nanjing?"

Marvell had arrived in Shanghai together with Colbert and the others, but had not gone on to Nanjing with them. Instead he had stayed two days in Shanghai, and then made a trip to Suzhou. Only after inspecting the Great Ming's manufacturing industry in Shanghai and Suzhou did he come to Nanjing. He had arrived just today, and upon entering the city had first gone to see the silk-reeling workshops in the east of the city, then gone to the west of the city to see the loom workshops. Now dusk was approaching, and he did not even know where he would sleep tonight.

Henry Pitt replied, "Yes, Mister Special Envoy. The embassy is not inside the city of Nanjing, but at Mount Lao on the north bank of the river."

"Why place the embassy at that Mount Lao on the north bank?" Marvell found this somewhat strange.

"Because the city of Nanjing is too corrupt and too degenerate," Henry Pitt said with a solemn face. "It is not a city fit for a Puritan to live in. By comparison, Pukou and Mount Lao on the north bank are more suitable for an upright Puritan to reside in!"

What this meant was that Nanjing had far too many places for eating, drinking, and amusement, while Pukou and Mount Lao on the north bank were fine — they were good places where even if you had money, you had nowhere to spend it!

"What? China has places suitable for Puritans to live?"

"Of course!" Henry Pitt said. "China has Puritans too!"

"Really? How come I never heard the Jesuits mention this?"

Henry Pitt explained, "Because they are not Christians. What they believe in is... the Lord of Heaven!"

"They are Muslims?" Marvell still did not understand.

"No. They do not seek God through religious rituals and clergy, but hold that believers should commune directly with the Lord of Heaven." Henry Pitt said, "And they also advocate asceticism, holding that to believe in the Lord of Heaven, one must eliminate human desires!"

What he was describing was the Neo-Confucian doctrine of the resonance between Heaven and man, and of preserving Heavenly principle while extinguishing human desire — it really did sound somewhat like the Puritan viewpoint!

Marvell nodded, appearing very approving — yes, that was exactly the flavor. China truly did have Puritan thought!

This was an important discovery!

"Come," Marvell said, "let us go and see China's Puritans!"

Pukou and Mount Lao on the north bank of the Yangtze were indeed vastly different from the flourishing cities of Jiangnan such as Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai.

Although the Pukou area also had large numbers of handicraft workshops, docks, warehouses, banks, and shops, life here was far more austere. There were no brothels, no gambling houses, and even theaters were very rare, while schools and military camps could be seen everywhere!

It turned out that Pukou had been built up as a key military town and military-industrial town from the first year of Hongxing onward. The handicraft workshops concentrated in this area were mostly for making guns, casting cannon, forging armor, producing gunpowder, and building ships.

Besides the handicraft workshops, large numbers of military camps and military academies had also been moved from the city of Nanjing to Pukou. There were also new-style elementary schools, middle schools, a university, and a vocational college, sponsored by the Royal Trading Company and the Veterans' Brotherhood under the Grand Marshal's Office, all opened in Pukou.

These included the Yangtze Navy main camp, the Xiaoling Guard Imperial Guard main camp, the Artillery Department main camp, the Cavalry Department main camp, the Engineer Department main camp, the Nanjing Military Academy, the Nanjing Artillery School, the Nanjing Military Middle School, the Nanjing Military Elementary School, Pukou Elementary School, Pukou Middle School, the Capital Academy Pukou Branch, the Pukou Engineering School, and so on.

And in order to ensure that the surroundings of the military camps and schools remained sufficiently austere, Zhu Cilang had also issued an imperial edict imposing controls on commerce within the city of Pukou (formerly Jiangpu County), banning brothels and gambling houses from opening in Pukou, while also restricting the number and location of restaurants and theaters.

In short, the aim was to turn Pukou into a thoroughly dull place.

But this dullness happened to suit the aesthetic taste of Thomas Marvell, that English Puritan poet.

Moreover, the streets of Pukou city had been carefully planned. Every street was straight and broad, paved with stone slabs. Many of the buildings along the roads were Western-style or a blend of Chinese and Western styles, tall and upright, very imposing.

Drainage ditches had been dug along the roadsides, and there were people specially assigned to sweep the streets, so they looked very clean. There were also dedicated sidewalks, planted with street trees and fitted with lampposts. By the time Thomas Marvell rode in his carriage toward Mount Lao, the sky had already darkened, and lanterns had been hung on the lampposts. The light was dim, but one could still barely make out the road surface.

The carriage traveled along the official road to Mount Lao for about forty minutes. By then there were no more tall buildings on either side of the road; in their place were rows upon rows of small buildings, most of them with lamplight flickering inside.

"Who lives here?" Marvell asked.

"Those who live here are mostly officers of the Ming army, or officials of the various ministries of the Grand Secretariat, the Grand Court of Judicature (the Court of Judicial Review), and the Censorate, as well as teachers from the Imperial Academy, the Capital Academy, the Military Academy, and other schools." Henry Pitt said. "From here all the way to the Mount Lao palace city, these are all their residences. These residences are not private homes, but official residences, provided free of charge to officials, officers, and teachers. So the closer one is to the Mount Lao palace, the larger the residence, and the higher the status of the person living in it."

To the west of the Mount Lao palace city there is also a town called Tangquan, which is where the Great Ming court is stationed at Mount Lao, and our embassy is there too.

The area around Tangquan Town is all noble residences. All civil and military officials and scholars who hold noble titles have granted residences there. The Emperor has also opened Mount Lao Elementary School and Mount Lao Middle School in Tangquan Town, specifically to enroll the children of nobles."

"What is Tangquan Town like?" Marvell asked again. "Is it prosperous?"

"Not prosperous at all," Henry Pitt said. "It is quite austere and frugal, like a Puritan city!"

He was right. Tangquan Town was a city of "eliminating human desires." There were only a very few restaurants in the town, not a single theater, still less any brothel, and of course no nightlife. As soon as it grew dark, a curfew was imposed, and unless on official business, no one was allowed to stroll the streets.

The reason the political center of the Great Ming Empire was like this was that after Zhu Cilang had secured his hold on the realm, he began to consider the long-term perpetuation of the feudal dynasty.

In his view, a feudal dynasty still needed the support of the meritorious nobility — but it could not rely on a group of corrupt and degenerate nobles. Rather, it must rely on a well-educated noble class capable of self-discipline and willing to bear military obligations and responsibilities as its pillar.

And to prevent the corruption of the nobility, besides strict, systematic, and sound education, one had to intervene in the environment in which they lived and grew up.

The children of the nobility should best not live in flourishing cities like Nanjing, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Yangzhou, but should grow up and study in "desire-eliminating" places like Mount Lao and Pukou. Therefore, in Tangquan at Mount Lao, where the nobles were most concentrated, not only was there no entertainment, but there was also a strict curfew system!

However, the carriage Marvell rode in was an embassy carriage, an authorized official vehicle, and so was exempt from the curfew. It could carry this English special envoy late at night to the English embassy in Tangquan Town — a small building in European style, also in the Puritan style, quite plain.

(End of Chapter)