Xiangcheng County Palace.

"Wen Yuan's method of dealing with the auxiliary machine last time, I appreciate it very much, and I am very angry." Fang Xuanling dropped a son on the chessboard.

"The eldest grandson Xiangguo is also dedicated to the country, I can understand him. We are all for the Tang Dynasty and for the world, if we don't even have this amount of tolerance, we don't deserve to sit in this central phase. Zhang Chao also fell behind.

"I have been doing one thing in the past few years, promoting the growth of the aristocracy and the industrial and commercial class?"

"Yes." Zhang Chao made no secret that Fang Xuanling was a very discerning person. Although he is usually relatively gentle, this one is a man with fiery eyes. The important strategist of the two Xuanwumen changes, such a person Zhang Chao never dared to underestimate.

"If the Tang Dynasty is the same as the Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasty, the history has not changed, then Fang Xiang thinks that there will be any changes in the fourteen years of Zhenguan and the six years of martial arts? No matter how strong the Northern Zhou was to unify the north, and no matter how strong the Sui was to dominate the world. In fact, neither Zhou nor Sui jumped out of the trap of history, and could only go around in the Central Plains forever. Even if there is a prosperous era of the opening emperor of Sui, it is difficult to last. ”

"At most, one or two hundred years, and then again. I hope that Datang can jump out of this trap and create a new era. Speaking of which, although the Sui was strong for a while, its territory never surpassed that of the Qin and Han dynasties. Looking at history, in fact, since the Zhou Dynasty sealed the world to the Qin Dynasty unified the world, the Central Plains has become conservative. We have been circling in the circle of the Central Plains, the Hu people in the northern grasslands, the great enemy of the people for generations, can not be killed endlessly, every hundred years or so, the grassland will invade the Central Plains in the south, and the rivers and mountains will change color. ”

"The southern part of the Central Plains, the land of barbarians, is also repeatedly difficult to explore. Even Jiaozhou and other places in the Qin and Han dynasties are always lost. ”

"What is all this?"

Zhang Chaotou didn't reply, "Since the Qin period, the centralization of power has allowed the Central Plains Dynasty to always be strong and prosperous every one or two hundred years. But it is precisely this centralization that makes it difficult for the Central Plains to be strong and lasting. ”

Fang Xuanling was stunned for a moment, shook his head with a smile, and then went to the next son.

"You can always come up with a set of self-justifying theories, such as the sun, earth, moon, and gravity that you said, which is impossible to refute."

Zhang Chao said, "What I said is not a fallacy and heresy, but an argument. Zhou divided the world, and implemented the feudal and patriarchal system, which is the foundation that maintained the world for 800 years. In fact, since the return of Qin, more than 1,000 years of history can be reduced to one day. You see, since Qin Shi Huang ruled the world, and then there was a change of dynasties, or foreign invasions, it was basically just a change in the surname of the dynasty, and how much substantial change has there been in the state code system on the surface and the patriarchal system inside? ”

"What's the more important source of all this? It is the Zhou metric system and Confucius's eternal master watch. ”

The difference between the Zhou people and the businessmen is that one is the system of establishing a successor, and the system of patriarchy and mourning clothes is born. And by the system of feudal children, the system of princes and princes. The second is the system of the number of temples, and the third is the system of not marrying with the same surname.

Its purpose is to accommodate morality, and to form a moral group with the Son of Heaven, princes, ministers, doctors, scholars, and commoners, which is the original intention of the Zhou metric system.

And the Zhou rites are a set of basic systems that the Chinese Dynasty has been following for thousands of years.

The feudal system and the patriarchal system are the foundation of Zhou rites.

But in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the patriarchal system was still there, and the feudal system was actually gone.

Yin people are still ghosts, and worship ghosts and gods. Yin Shang's power change, brother to brother, no father dies to son, there is no distinction between concubines. In fact, this is the same as the tribes of the steppe, a father has many sons, and when it is passed to the youngest brother, whether the son of the youngest son succeeds to the throne or the son of the elder brother succeeds to the throne, so it is easy to quarrel.

Starting from the Zhou metric ceremony, it is clearly stipulated that father and son will pass on from father to son, first and then later. Establish a patriarchal system that unites the inheritance of power with moral and cultural thought. The Son of Heaven, the princes, the ministers, the doctors, the scholars, and the common people all acted according to this set of standards, and they were all consistent from the folk customs to the state system.

Since then, China has gone through thousands of years and dynasties, but this patriarchal system has not changed, because everyone has accepted this idea since childhood.

Since then, Confucianism has become the only academic thought since the Han Dynasty.

Confucianism has influenced generations of scholars for thousands of years, the elites, and the ruling class.

Monarchs and ministers, fathers and sons, and ordinary people are the tools to unify the thinking of the Han people.

It can be said that this set of ideas also has its role, and its greatest role is to unify the thinking of the people of the world and form the concept of great unification. Even after experiencing wars and divisions, in the end, everyone still thinks that they are all Han Chinese, and they all aim for reunification.

In Zhang Chao's view, this is also a self-defeating achievement. If there is no unified thought, perhaps the people of Hebei will call themselves Yan people, Shandong people call themselves Qi people, Guanzhong people call themselves Qin people, Jiangnan people call themselves Wu Yue, Jianghan people call themselves Chu people, Shu people call Shu people, and so on.

Without such a unified idea, the vast Central Plains would have been divided long ago.

Europe is not much bigger than the Central Plains, and the reason why there has never been reunification is first of all ideology.

Of course, Confucianism has its shortcomings, but it certainly has its value in being consistently adopted by the ruling class of various dynasties.

"Patriarchy and feudalism." Fang Xuanling left another son, "The patriarchal system has been used to this day and has not changed. It is the feudal system, the Qin abolished the feudal county, the Han Dynasty did the county system, and later, the feudal system was constantly changing, and the Sui used the prince to guard the local government but did not divide the feudal state. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the same was true, and after Zhenguan, there was the beginning of the separation. Now that I think about it, the division of Zhenguan Year was also promoted by you Zhang Wenyuan. ”

"It seems that your real purpose is to rebuild the sub-feudal system."

Zhang Chao thought for a while, "The Central Plains is vast, and the imperial court is open to the outside world, if it is still directly under the central government, then such a vast place is actually beyond the reach of the whip." It is better to divide the feudal, the Central Plains is under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, and the surrounding feuds are divided into clans and meritorious heroes, forming the trend of the imperial court. In this way, the imperial court was also able to support the princes to continue to expand externally, which not only gave the princes the right to expand, but also enjoyed the expansion benefits of the Tang Dynasty. ”

"But Zhou divides the world, and it's not peaceful. King Ping moved eastward, and then there was the Spring and Autumn Warring States period of five hundred years. The princes competed for hegemony, and finally the warring states competed for power. ”

Zhang Chao smiled, "But at least, the princes have respected Zhou Tianzi for eight hundred years." Moreover, when Zhou founded the country, how old was Huaxia? Even the Central Plains are all over the place, not to mention the surrounding barbarian hu. And a few hundred years later, the former princes have created a big world for China, although the language is different in various places, but Huaxia has never changed. ”

"All parts of the world worship Zhou Tianzi as the co-master, and they all regard themselves as Huaxia, respecting the king, so that this civilization can be handed down."

After the Qin and Han dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty was in turmoil, and even if it was a unified dynasty, it was difficult to have any achievements in external development. On the contrary, Jiaozhou, Liaodong, Western Regions and other places in the Qin and Han dynasties were constantly lost.

"Wen Yuan, you want to be feudal again, but you don't worry about the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Warring States princes of Zhou, the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Han, and the rebellion of the Eight Kings of Jin?"

"There will definitely be a game between the central court and the local princes, but it is not unsolvable. The imperial court divided the princes, and at the same time, there was also a tuien order, and the vassal states continued to push the envelope to become smaller, and the princes had a lot of feudals, checking and balancing each other. If it is said that all the feudal states, or most of the princes, rebelled, it can only be said that the imperial court must have done something wrong. ”

"Fang Xiang, now is the Age of Discovery, and our merchant ships have been able to sail to the Americas, Australia, Africa and Europe, and even the Arctic Ocean. The world is so big, and the world is not only the Central Plains. With such a vast world, why do we still limit our steps? ”

Fang Xuanling felt the sincerity of Zhang Chao's words.

"What is Wenyuan going to do next?"

"Overseas colonization. Linyi, Funan, Zhenla, Fat Country, Wolf Tooth Xiu, Karma, Lion Country, Ring Day... The world is very large, and the seeds of Chinese civilization can be scattered all over the world with the warships of the Tang Dynasty. ”

Fang Xuanling smiled, "Talking to you for a while, I feel like I'm getting old." My eyes are still just staring at the small spot under my nose, but yours are already looking thousands of miles away. ”

"The stability of the imperial court is also very important, and the stability and prosperity of the Central Plains can cultivate more talents."

"Wenyuan, what do you need me to do?" Fang Xuanling asked.

"Lead the cabinet with me and assist Your Majesty in governing the world."

A chess piece settled, Fang Xuanling nodded, "This is originally my duty." ”

·······

Weekend.

Zhang Chao changed into civilian clothes, and he was not idle at home today. He only took Ke Qing to the street, walked around, and went to a nearby school.

On the weekend, the school is closed today, but there are teachers who give lectures. gave a lecture to the residents in this vicinity, and the lecture was still about the classics of Confucius and Mencius.

Today's lecture is given by the principal of this school, an old Confucian student.

As early as more than ten years ago, Zhang Chao took the teachers and students of Guozijian to compile a dictionary of martial arts, and later compiled a dictionary of Zhenguan.

The most important thing in the Wude dictionary is not a character book, he also has a set of pinyin symbols, which are phonetic for all standard Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of the note is not the reading sound of the readers in the past. Rather, it is a standard pronunciation for everyone, also known as Mandarin.

Since then, the imperial court has stipulated that scholars participating in the imperial examination must master the official language. Even the officials and officials of the imperial court had to be trained and studied in the official language, and they were required to master the official language fluently.

Schools around the country have also been implementing this set of official dialects over the years. Even literacy classes and literacy classes in many places will teach pinyin titles and teach official dialect.

More than ten years have passed, and now the popularization of the official dialect is quite successful, at least the officials, scholars and even businessmen can almost speak the official dialect, although many people have a little local accent, but at least they can understand it. Unlike in the past, some officials could not understand the local dialect when they arrived, and the local people could not understand the officials.

There were even emperors who could not understand what officials were saying when they summoned them.

A very ordinary article excerpted from the Confucian classics, but the old principal spoke very well, explained in simple terms, and even gave some examples, etc., and the ordinary people who listened to the class also understood it.

"Saburo, what's there to hear about this."

Zhang Chao listened carefully to the class, and waited until he began to prepare for the routine meetings in the school district before he left.

"Subtly, these peddlers and pawns who are listening to the lecture today will also have a lot of changes after listening to the words of the sage. Do you know what's the scariest thing in the world? It's not war, it's poverty, it's ignorance. Ignorance makes people blind, stupid, or even just a walking corpse. In order to make a nation and a country strong, the most important thing is not to eat and drink, but to open up the wisdom of the people. Fooling the people is always the stupidest way to govern the country and the people. ”

Of course, the cost of governing the country by foolish people is the lowest, but such a court will never be strong, and the people are ignorant and ignorant, so how can they be strong?

Fortunately, Datang has done well over the years.

Opening up the wisdom of the people is also the foundation of a strong country.