According to the etiquette promulgated by the imperial court, Zhu Yunwen, the emperor's grandson, wanted to come to the Wenhua Hall to listen to the lecture after the early dynasty. The officials of the Zhan Mansion in the East Palace invited him to ascend to the seat, and he sat on the chair where his father, the first prince Zhu Biao, had sit, and then waited for the attendant to enter the palace to salute, and then the chamberlain showed him a book, and the accompanying reader first read the scriptures to him dozens of times, and then he returned to the shift, and then the attendant came forward to explain to him.

The master of today's lecture is Huang Zicheng, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, who is a very learned person, the first in the 18th year of Hongwu in the middle school examination, and the third in the palace examination. Now he is accompanied by the East Palace, and the course arranged for Zhu Yunwen today is "University", and the lecture is Zhu Xi's "Notes on the Four Books", it is said that "University" has been read by Zhu Yunwen a long time ago, but the emperor said that he has read it before, and now he still needs to read it again, read it deeply, and think about it carefully.

This is absolutely not wrong, because in another place, there is another person who is reading "University" in anger, and this person also read the book through when he was five years old, and can even recite it in its entirety, but when he gets older and older, he finds that he still needs to read this book intensively, and this person is Yang Shiqi.

So Zhu Yunwen listened to Huang Zicheng's opening of the scripture, which is the chapter of governing the country and the family:

The so-called ruler must first gather his family, and his family cannot be taught but can teach others, there is none. Therefore, the gentleman did not leave home and became a teacher in the country. The filial piety is the king, the younger brother is the chief, and the benevolent is the ...... A family is benevolent, a country is benevolent, a family is benevolent, a country is prosperous, a person is greedy, a country is in chaos: this is the opportunity...... Therefore, the rule of the country is in Qi Qi's family. "Poetry" cloud: "The peach is dying, and its leaves are blooming." The son is home, and it is suitable for his family. "It is suitable for his family, and then he can teach the countrymen. "Poetry" cloud: "Brother should be brother." "It is better to be a brother and a brother, and then you can teach the countrymen. "Poetry" cloud: "Its etiquette is not bad, it is the four countries." "It is the foot law of father and son brothers, and then the civil law, which is called governing the country in Qi Qi's family.

Zhu Yunwen knows all the meanings in this. There is no one who says that to govern a country, you must first manage your own family and clan well, because you cannot discipline your family well, but you can educate the people of a country well. Therefore, a gentleman should improve his moral cultivation and govern his family well, so that even if he does not leave the house, he can complete the education of the people. For the principle of filial piety to one's parents at home is the principle of serving the king, the principle of respecting one's brother at home is the principle of serving one's superiors, and the principle of loving one's children at home is the principle of loving the people. A country will be benevolent, a country will be compelling, a country will be compelling, and a country will be greedy and violent, and a country will be in rebellion.

Filial piety, Zhu Yunwen has done it, and even in the whole world, there is no one who does better than him. When Prince Yiwen was seriously ill, Zhu Yunwen personally looked at the decoction, never left for a moment, and did not sleep for more than ten days and nights, and after Prince Yiwen died, his back was bent to the point that he could not stand up. Since his father died, the only people he can be filial to are his mother and grandfather.

He has no brother to go to, Yu Huai Wang Zhu Xiongying died as early as eight years old, he is the eldest child in the East Palace, and there are three younger brothers than him, Yun Xi, Yun Xi, Yun Xi, and three younger sisters, Jiangdu, Yilun, and Nanping. He treated them with dedication and care. He and his three younger brothers, dining at the same table, sleeping in the same bed, once the emperor came to the East Palace, saw him and his three younger brothers sitting on the bed with their heads leaning on their heads, happily talking about something, the emperor was very happy, casually chanted the sentence "brothers cherish each other".

And without thinking, he said to the next couplet, "Ancestors and grandsons should be the same virtue", which made the emperor overjoyed, stroked his back and said: "Yun Wei has made great progress, I have chosen a good grandson!"

Ci, Zhu Yunwen now has a one-and-a-half-year-old eldest son, who is cute and cute, very endearing, he often holds him in his arms, thinking that when he was a child, his father also held him in his arms like this and teased him, at that time he was compassionate, just like this at that time.

All this filial piety, compassion, and kindness are out of his nature, and his filial piety to his parents, care for his brothers, and love for his children are not inferior to his father, which is impeccable. Is this enough, and can it really be "taught to the country" as the book says?

He thought that he ascended to the throne of the crown prince because his father was the crown prince, and he was the eldest son of the crown prince, and he, the crown grandson, was not strong in ability, nor was he expected by the public, whether it was experience, intelligence or cultivation, he was not as far as his father. Although there is an emperor who opens the way for him and makes him strong, it is just that he will get not flowers and wine, but an imperial thorn scepter that is still full of sharp thorns.

And those sharp thorns are not the heroes and honors that the emperor's grandfather said to his father, in fact, after the emperor's cut-off, these lords have long withered, and the rest are shrunk like quails.

These vassal kings and uncles all have military power, and some even have heavy troops. According to the rules of the imperial court, each vassal king could have three escort armies, and in the tenth year of Hongwu, the emperor ordered the army of the kings of Qin, Jin, and Yan to be increased, and the original guard army of the king of Qin increased from 1,451 to 2,264, the original guard army of the king of Jin increased from 1,630 to 2,251, and the original guard of the king of Yan increased to 1,364 to 2,263. The guard of the King of Qin is called Yulin Guard, the King of Jin is called Xingwuwei, and the King of Yan is called Jinwu Zuowei, that is, Yanshan Zuowei.

In the "Ancestral Training", it is stipulated that "the officers and soldiers of the royal command department are set up with the army, regardless of the number", which is actually the release of the restrictions on the army of the palaces, so no one can say how many soldiers each king has. Especially in the past ten years, the emperor has punished the meritorious heroes and nobles, transferred the power of commanding the army to the hands of several vassal kings, several wars against the Northern Yuan, the army even had to obey the Jin King and the Yan King moderation, and in addition to the three vassal kings of Qin, Jin and Yan who have the power to command the war, the military affairs of the north are also Gu, Dai, Su, Liao, Qing, Ning Wang, is the origin of the nine kings stationed in the border, and these vassal kings, all of them are people who lead the troops and are skilled in the army, for example, last autumn, Qin Tianjian Bu De Hulu is about to invade the south, and the emperor ordered Jin, Yan, Dai, Liao, peaceful The king of the valley dispatched the capital and the guards and horses, and waited for the battle, and finally the six kings actually combined 150,000 troops, which was 150,000 elite soldiers, although in the end there was no Hu Lu south, but the kings in the north were all in charge of the army for many years, patrolling and stationing on the border, think about the three vassal kings of Qin Jinyan, the remaining six vassal kings were only divided into Hongwu for 25 years, and now they can lead the troops to fight, it can be seen that in the army, how to train people, and the three kings of Qin Jinyan, who had been responsible for training and teaching his younger brothers, should be brave and good at fighting.

And the king of Chu and the king of Xiang, who were divided in the south, should not be underestimated, because they also led the army to conquer the southern barbarians, and both of them won. Then the soldiers and horses of the kings, as King Ning said in the song, - 80,000 with armor and 6,000 leather chariots. These vassal kings with heavy troops and like wolves and tigers are hidden dangers when they divide towns outside.

It is also unknown whether they will be honest and willingly professed to Zhu Yunwen, a nephew. And Zhu Yunwen's worries are not groundless, but he clearly feels the existence of this threat in some so-called trivial matters.

For example, in August of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, King Qin Jinyan and Zhou Qi were ordered to come to the court, and when he met his uncles, there was a kind of embarrassment and fear surrounding him. This embarrassment was first caused by etiquette - because he entered the East Palace in the name of "the emperor's grandson", his rank was lower than that of the princes, and he was also young. And in the temple, the uncle and brother sat in the westward direction, and they wanted to receive four bows from him.

When the five uncles saluted him, he was already in a state of trepidation, and he found that without the people of Zhan Shifu standing behind him, he could not find the slightest confidence. At that time, he thought in his heart, if the kings bow down to their nephews with the dignity of their uncles, will they be willing, and will they not have the slightest resentment?

The emperor's intentions were originally very good, for the king has the way of being a king, for the ministers have the way of being a minister, to abide by loyalty, abide by loyalty and filial piety, no matter how great the meritorious service, how prominent the status, the courtesy of the monarch and the minister can not be encroached upon, this is the reason why the kings worship him, and the reason why he worships the kings is because of the harmony of the nine clans and the friendship of relatives.

This is "respect" and "kiss", "kiss" requires "father's kindness, son's filial piety, brother's friend, brother's respect", mutual love and unity, "respect" not only requires the implementation within the family, between nobles, between nobles and commoners, between monarchs and ministers should stress the relationship between respect and inferiority, order and rank. And what the emperor wants is to achieve a perfect balance between relatives and respect.

But is it possible?

Zhu Yunwen obviously felt uncomfortable, he did not get any sense of security and recognition of his identity as a "gentleman" from such etiquette. And the kings must have been the same, who, when they prostrate themselves at his feet, could not clearly recognize their own identity, and the identity of those who had been bowed eight times and four times again.

If Zhang Zhaohua is allowed to see this, she will be able to realize where the contradiction lies - the emperor's biggest mistake here is the misjudgment and distortion of human nature. In ancient China, the "rule of man" has always been practiced, and when the prison is released, even human affection is higher than the law, and any rules and morals are determined by people, and they must be confirmed and followed by people. The visit ceremony of the crown prince of the East Palace and the family ceremony were completely separated, resulting in the two sides playing a dual role in this so-called "Ming Rite Ceremony": the political monarch is the nephew of the family, and the political minister is the uncle, which leads to a situation where everyone will fall into self-contradiction and self-denial after the ceremony.

There is also a background to this kind of psychological conflict, that is, the emperor is getting older and older, the power is not stable but in the competition, and everyone is full of contradictions in their political personality and is gradually alienated.

""Poetry" cloud: 'Its ritual is not distant, it is the four countries'. Huang Zicheng said: "Oh, it's wrong." The meaning of this sentence is that if there is no mistake in his manners and behavior, he can become an example of the country of the four directions and be supported by the people of the world. ”

When Huang Zicheng explained, he saw the thoughtful appearance of the grandson, so he stopped and asked implicitly: "Your Highness, what the minister just said, but there is something wrong?"

"Nope. Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said, "Mr. spoke very well, and I have learned a lot." The truth that governing the country must first unite the family, I will read it again today, and I will think about it even more. ”

As he spoke, he nodded slightly to Huang Zicheng, and Huang Zicheng understood.

So at the end of an hour's lecture, the grandson was surrounded by the deacons and officials of the Zhan Mansion, and Huang Zicheng was still sitting in the Wenhua Palace, and he wanted to copy all the handouts he had just spoken on and present them to the emperor, which was also required by the emperor, and all the scriptures of the grandson should be given to him.

But half an hour, suddenly a little waiter came over and said in a low voice: "Huang Xiuxiu, grandson, please come over." ”