“… In the past, we called the common people the heads of the Qian, the common people, and today we call them the common people. But no matter what we call them, it doesn't change that civilians are the foundation of our society. Without the presence of civilians, there can be no state.

I have only heard that there are no monarchs and commoners in this world, but I have not heard of the existence of monarchs and states without commoners. It can be seen that the most important thing in a country and society is the common people, not the monarchs and scholars. In the past, Mencius once said: The people are precious, the community is secondary, and the monarch is light. That's about what it means.

In a country, there should be people first, and then there should be kings and ministers, and this is the reason why the country continues to maintain social stability. But it is strange that from ancient times to the present, the saints have only discussed the powers and responsibilities of the monarch and the scholars, but none of them have ever talked about the rights and responsibilities of the people.

The saints and scholars talk about the people all day long, but no one is willing to tell the people clearly what is the foundation of the people, which is really difficult for the boy to agree.

Changqing believes that only when the people know their own rights and responsibilities can they take the initiative to safeguard their own interests and fulfill their responsibilities, which is the true foundation of the people for the country.

If the people cannot even safeguard their own interests, then how can they be expected to safeguard the interests of the state and society, and thus fulfill their responsibilities? And how can the monarchs and ministers who infringe on the interests of the people everywhere to satisfy their own selfish desires convince the people that they will build one: so that the old will end, the strong will be useful, and the young will grow. Widows, widows, lonely and sick people are all supported. What about the world of Datong?

Changqing believes that the people should be divided into three levels. One is a national, born in China and raised in China, that is, a national of China. The status of a citizen is not voluntary, but is granted. Their right is to enjoy the protection of the country, and their duty is to be loyal to their country. Once they betray their country and take refuge in a foreign power, they lose the right of state protection.

The second is a citizen, who is not only a citizen of his own country, but also obedient to the laws enacted by the state, to pay taxes according to the law, and to submit to military service called by the state. A citizen should not only enjoy the protection of the laws of the state, but also the right not to be infringed upon by the interests of the monarch and his ministers.

The third is for the people, the people, and the foundation of the country. The interests of the people are the interests of the state, and the responsibility of the state is the responsibility of the people. Therefore, in addition to enjoying the rights and responsibilities of citizens, the people should also take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of defending the country and the law. I think that this is the true meaning of the people as the foundation of the country..."

Xia Yunyi, who was sitting in the dormitory of Yenching University, had read the Daming Times several times with the publication "On the Rights and Duties of the People", but he still felt that his heart was about to move, and he always felt that the article was still unfinished, as if something was about to gush out of his heart.

Although the students of Yenching University have all been enlightened from Confucianism since childhood, most of the students who can enter Yenching University to study are young people and have not been imprisoned by the scriptures.

From conformist families to free and open university campuses, and teachers from the remnants of the mind who hated science and the new scholars who loved to explore the laws of the natural world, these teenagers began to gradually develop doubts about the ethical order constructed by Taoists.

The series of Confucian scandals uncovered by the Yan Shenggong case, as well as the public debates between scholars and theorists in the new studies, made the students of Yenching University disappointed with the sage bloodline and the ethical order of the Gangchang.

The Yansheng Mansion did not treat the tenants as well as the peasants treated their own livestock, and the most sneering thing for the students was that the Confucian family, who had the power of the Yansheng Mansion, did not treat the clansmen who were more distant from the bloodline and did not say anything about kinship, not only using the income from the sacrificial fields rewarded by the imperial court to issue usury, but also forcing the clansmen who could not afford to repay the usury to sell their children to pay off their debts.

As a result, the young students of Yenching University criticized the Yansheng Mansion and wanted to clean up the Confucian Mansion so as not to tarnish the reputation of the saint. But those Taoists jumped out one by one, trying to cover up the case of Yan Shenggong in the name of being a denier for His Holiness.

The actions of these Taoists made the students of Yenching University even more disgusted with the Yansheng Mansion, and even disgusted with the line of science.

But if they want to get rid of the cage of Confucianism, they need another academic system to replace Confucianism's interpretation of the Confucian classics, so as to construct another path to the world of Datong.

However, the system of science, which began in the Song Dynasty and was not completely finalized until the Ming Dynasty, is obviously not something that the teachers and students of Yenching University can easily shake. Among them, the radicals only picked up the ideas of the Shigong school and tried to use Wang Anshi's: for the use of the world and the country. The pragmatism was combined with the natural sciences advocated by the new school, thus replacing the empty talk of the sexualistic school.

However, this road may not be successful, from Wang Anshi to the Yongjia School and the Yongkang School in the Southern Song Dynasty, in the end, meritocracy was defeated by the physicists. The fundamental reason for this lies in the fact that meritocracy lacks a complete system of science, and it contains many contradictory ideas, and it is probably not possible for two or three generations to sort out a set of academic systems for governing the country.

However, Su Changqing's "On the Rights and Duties of the People", which was recently published in the Daming Times, seems to have opened the door to a new world for Xia Yunyi. From a few years ago, the will of heaven is the will of the people, to today's article on the rights and obligations of the people, which not only conforms to Mencius's idea of the people, nobles, and gentlemen, but also further turns the original imaginary people into flesh-and-blood people.

Xia Yunyi felt that if he followed this path, he might not be able to find a new path. By clarifying the boundaries of power between the people, scholars, and monarchs, it is possible to supervise and oppose the unlimited power of scholars and monarchs from the bottom up in the name of the people.

From the current Ming point of view, all the chaos in the Ming Dynasty now lies in the fact that the people have no rights, but they bear all the responsibilities; The kings and scholars wielded almost unlimited power, but they were not subject to any obligations. As a result, the elites at the top are unable to understand the suffering of the people at the bottom, while the people at the bottom are increasingly resentful of the elites at the top, and the slightest spark can start a raging fire.

Although after Chongzhen's accession to the throne, the outbreak of this social contradiction was temporarily delayed by reforming politics and investing in road facilities, water conservancy projects, and the development of industry and commerce and overseas trade. However, Xia Yunyi does not think that the contradiction between the two has disappeared, as long as the reform comes to a standstill, or social production comes to a standstill, then the people who have no food will eventually rise up.

Only by truly distinguishing the rights and responsibilities of the three and allowing each of them to act within the scope of its own rights and responsibilities can the contradictions between the three be truly eased and not as tense as it is now.

Just when Xia Yunyi was trying to think about it, Li Dingguo, his newly acquired servant in Shaanxi, knocked on the door of the study and said to him: "Master, Mr. Niu has brought someone to visit you." ”

Li Dingguo, formerly known as Li Hongyuan, is a native of Yulin, Shaanxi, and is now 10 years old. After Gao Yingxiang raised his army, there was a shortage of soldiers in Yulin, and he, his mother and sister were robbed by bandits, and finally joined the rebels. After Gao Yingxiang was pacified by the official army, only Li Hongyuan survived in the family.

When Xia Yunyi went to intervene in the resettlement of displaced people in Shaanxi, he saw that Li Hongyuan was smart and clever, and he was alone and had nowhere to go, which reminded him of his wife who was about to give birth, so he adopted him. Because of seeing the suffering of the displaced people in Shaanxi, Xia Yunyi felt that the state affairs were difficult for a while, so he renamed it Dingguo, hoping that the suffering of the Ming Dynasty would end here, and then get better step by step.

After hearing Li Dingguo's message, Xia Yunyi immediately began to clean up the desk, and said, "Okay, you invite Mr. Niu and them in, and then let the housekeeper bring a pot of hot tea." ”

Although Xia Yunyi lives in a dormitory, it is a small courtyard with a communal kitchen outside to serve the nearby dormitories. In fact, according to his qualifications, he could graduate as early as this spring, but as soon as he ran to Shaanxi, he delayed his graduation until next year.

However, for Niu Jinxing, Xia Yunyi's one-year postponement of graduation has greatly improved his status in the Youth Society. After all, he was handling all the general affairs in the meeting, and the members who joined the Youth Society for Xia Yunyi became his subordinates.

Xia Yunyi, who was praised by the emperor himself and became famous all over the world, could sit down and talk even in front of a high-ranking official like Yang He without worrying about being despised by the other party.

Most of the scholars who came to participate in the Youth Society had heard Xia Yunyi's name. Especially after the Fushe was implicated in the Nanjing Science Field fraud case, some Jiangnan scholars were worried that their future would be affected, so they withdrew from the Fushe one after another, and turned to the Youth Society where Xia Yunyi served as the leader.

The Restoration Society, which originally suppressed the Youth Society, was greatly discredited by the fraud case, but now it has made the Youth Society a leader in Shilin. And Xia Yunyi, whose literary name was not as good as Erzhang, also became a leader because the emperor repeatedly praised him as a model of Shilin and a pillar of the country.

If it is said that in the past, the people of Shilin were proud of intersecting with Lou Dong Erzhang, and they could be famous in Jiangnan if they got two Zhang. Then turn around now, if anyone can get Xia Yunyi's evaluation, his value will immediately rise sharply in Shilin.

What's even more mysterious is that the Fushe Society is a literati group that discusses the political affairs of the imperial court under the guise of research and learning, and the scholars who join the Fushe are actually worried that the imperial court will not have any views on the Fushe.

However, the Youth Society openly proclaimed that it was a political group among young people, and that the Youth Society was to absorb those young people who were interested in politics and change the bad face of the country, so as to reserve talents for the imperial court to govern the country.

In contrast, the scholars naturally joined the youth society of the national reserve elite in the majority, rather than the literati of the Fushe Society, who were not recognized by the imperial court. and joined the Youth Society, and became a member of the Society led by Niu Jinxing.