Chapter 368: Declaration

The Nanchang Prefect's maneuver, though it only struck down the provincial graduate status within the Jiangnan West Circuit, stirred up public opinion that swept across the literary circles of the entire Great Ning Dynasty, and it also successfully drew the attention of the Great Ning imperial court to this matter.

It is just that "a scholar's rebellion will not succeed in ten years"; since ancient times, it has mostly been military generals who successfully rose up in rebellion, or those who were both skilled in civil and military affairs—the heroic figures of the past and present.

What kind of fortune does Xu Zhiyuan, the father of Xu, have? He is merely an ordinary village elder. After obtaining the imperial examination degree in his youth, he failed to rank in several examinations, so he married. It was not until a few years ago that he produced some Literary Qi, and in one stroke, he placed fourth among the provincial graduates of the Jiangnan West Circuit.

To say nothing of other things, what Xu Zhiyuan circulated was nothing more than his "Scolding the Dragon" essay, written at the Laoye Temple to scold the Shunji Little Dragon King, citing Han Yu's "On Dragons," and coupled with his own "Ink Plum" character, he cultivated a noble spirit within himself, triggered a resonance with the Confucian orthodoxy, and entered the three Confucian realms of cultivation: "Virtuous," "Grandmaster," and "Sage."

Now, it has become a hot topic once again.

To tell the truth, in any dynasty or generation, at any time, there are literati and poets who think, "How is this country? It is a systemic problem."

Especially the "Heavenly Heart Sect," which believes in Heaven-Man Resonance: when the moral level of the human world is low, Heaven sends down calamities; when the moral level of the human world is high, Heaven sends down omens.

Therefore, year after year, the hundred officials reported omens one after another to show that the holy dynasty's governance had already imbued the people with moral education.

Of course, where there is such an "Omen Faction," there must inevitably be a "Calamity Faction."

When the Calamity Faction sees a Heavenly Disaster, they will say, "This must be because the Emperor has done evil deeds," "There are treacherous officials in the court," or "This is the inner palace interfering in politics!"

Originally, the Omen Faction was greater than the Calamity Faction, and the Emperor also hoped to be a sage ruler, not some muddled or tyrannical one. As a result, for three consecutive years, Heavenly Disasters were constant: when the south had floods, the north had droughts; when the north had floods, the south had droughts; when it should have snowed, it did not, but instead, yellow winds rolled up yellow sand... followed by refugees fleeing here and plagues breaking out there, and earthquakes reported in several places...

Most people are muddled about how good days are lived, but most people have personally experienced how bad days are lived.

Rich farmers and small landlords who were previously living reasonably well could basically not hold on; they went bankrupt. It was considered lucky to be reduced to tenant farmers; some even became slaves or servants. Some of them were also "scholars," and although they were not necessarily noble, they had never suffered such hardships.

Therefore, the first to shout "the country is about to perish" were these small landlord and rich farmer classes.

The true poor farmers and tenant farmers had no culture and did not know about state affairs; they had not even left their own county in their entire lives. Only the small landlord and rich farmer classes had the qualifications to learn culture, yet they were at the very bottom of the entire power-holding class.

As for those further up, they became great families and county notables, already qualified to dominate the countryside, annex farmland, exert clan influence, and install clansmen as "minor officials" like personnel officials, village tax collectors, or village heads. Even in disaster years, famine years, or times of turmoil, the possibility of them weathering the risks was still very high, and sometimes they could even start an uprising.

This is the so-called "local snake." What is a local snake? If the Emperor is a dragon, then the great families and clans in various places are "flood dragons, vipers, and pythons"—they are "local emperors." A snake is a small dragon.

As the saying goes, "The earth unleashes its killing intent, and dragons and snakes rise to the land." This is the explanation: the dragon and snake figures in various places are stirring, vying for the great treasure.

Great families are the "nobility" of foreign lands, a "colossal monster" woven from the patriarchal system and the imperial examination system.

Nobility have marquises called "Electors," and for the various great families of the Great Ning Dynasty, it is the same. Emperors who truly rise from refugees and beggars are, after all, in the minority; most still emerge from among them.

Even if they do not produce an emperor, they produce Purple-Green Talents and prime ministers who govern the country... often, power remains hereditary. "Four generations and three dukes" is not just talk...

In short, regardless of whether they succeed, Xu Zhiyuan's move toward Equal Field severely affected the interests of the aristocratic families represented by imperial power. Do not think that the Emperor hates land annexation; he is the biggest landlord of all, with countless imperial manors enclosed by the royal family everywhere. They just do not want the great families to swallow up the rich farmers and the small landlord class, as this accelerates the dynasty's self-destruction...

When the Great Dao is practiced, the world is for the public.

But those who borrow the name of the Great Dao being for the public are often the ones pursuing their own private agendas.

After Xu Zhiyuan saw the Nanchang Prefect's essay, while others were filled with righteous indignation, he did not care much, only saying: "The Nanchang Prefect is a metropolitan graduate by background, and his essay is written extremely well. My essay is not as well-written as his. Under the influence of indignant emotions, his parallel prose is well-balanced, and his rhetoric is elegant; it is enough to be passed down through the ages and leave a name in history. It is just that he is slightly mistaken; I do not care for fame, and I do not strive for these empty things."

"They always say I am ruining the country, saying that since I took the imperial examinations, I have received the Emperor's grace and must be loyal. But is there any necessity in this? We study the sages' writings; were the sages' writings meant for becoming officials in the first place?" Xu Zhiyuan said to the students surrounding him: "Was your initial thought in studying to become officials, to occupy fertile fields, to get ahead, to become the highest and greatest officials step by step, to usurp power over the court step by step, or even to subvert the royal power?"

"How we are to thoroughly implement Equal Field and achieve the public good is to prepare for a long-term struggle against such people and such thinking. The Nanchang Prefect opposes us; this is his limitation as a feudal bureaucrat. But what about you? Do you also think he is right?"

"A person has their own aspirations and their own character. I do not fear these labels placed on my head; I only fear those who do not understand my painstaking efforts."

"In this world, the two types of people I see most are those who are willing to be slaves and running dogs for wealthy families, and those who hate that they are not slaves and running dogs for wealthy families."

"Many people resign themselves to fate, worshiping gods and Buddhas, praying for rebirth in the Pure Land in the next life. But if one truly prays and truly believes, can gods and Buddhas save them? Without relying on royal decrees or establishing religious laws, they are merely living humbly and surviving under this, assisting the dynasty in governing the people."

"Now that we have broken this, everyone has fields to farm and is no longer hungry, and they have begun to know books and etiquette, only to point at my nose and curse me as disloyal and unbenevolent—then I shall consider myself a failure."

"Today, I ask you: do you know what you are doing and what you want to do?"

After a moment of silence, a voice was heard saying: "We know, it is rebellion."

A child's voice and a child's words.

The adult in that family immediately covered the child's mouth.

They wanted to divide the fields and live a stable life, but after the fields were divided, they still wanted to be obedient subjects; they did not want to rebel, did not want to be beheaded, and did not want to shed blood.

"Yes, rebellion. Rebellion means being beheaded. So, is the thing that one risks beheading to accomplish a bad thing or a good thing? Do you want to join us in doing it, or should we just leave it at that?"

"Rebel, or not rebel?"

"If it were to seek an official post or amnesty, I could abandon you at any time to become that official. But what I think is that we are the people, not cattle or horses, or even worse than cattle or horses."

(End of chapter)