Huang Liji cleared his throat and asked Chongzhen with a solemn expression: "What the minister wants to say to His Majesty is that an article recently appeared in the Daming Times, called "On the Rights and Duties of the People".

Although this article seems to be in line with Mencius's people-oriented thought, it is very different on the inside. After this article was published, not only the people of Shilin were arguing about it, but even many officials in the DPRK and China felt that this article seemed to deviate from the right path.

The minister knew that this Su Changqing was a pen name used by His Majesty to publish an article in the Daming Times, and the minister wanted to consult His Majesty, what was His Majesty's intention in writing this article? ”

Looking at Huang Liji's expression, Zhu Youzhen finally dispelled the idea of wanting to prevaricate at will, and he pondered for a long time before he spoke: "What I mean, isn't it already very clear in this article."

The people, the monarch, and the scholars should all know where their respective rights and responsibilities lie, and only when everyone acts within the scope of their own rights and responsibilities can we eliminate the current contradictions in the country, right? ”

Huang Liji frowned, he felt that Chongzhen still hadn't fully said the truth, so he said simply: "Your Majesty, as soon as your article was published, many officials thought that this article confused Mencius's original intention of putting the people first.

The people mentioned by Mencius are people who read and reason, not ordinary people. The article asserts that people should be clear, understand, fight for their rights, and assume corresponding responsibilities. In this case, where did Your Majesty place the local gentry?

The foundation of today's dynasty is really the gentry and not in the small people, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River account for nine, and the small people account for one; The gentry in the other provinces accounted for six or seven, and the small people accounted for three or four; Only in the northern provinces and the southwestern frontiers, after civil unrest, natural disasters, and the adjustment of the imperial court, there are three or four gentry, and six or seven small people.

Your Majesty's pity for the small people and offending the gentry is probably not a blessing for the country. What's more, if the power of the people rises sharply, the power of the gentry is certainly greatly or declining, but is the power of the court not questioned by the people? ”

Huang Liji's outspokenness made it difficult for Chongzhen to hide it anymore, he sighed and said: "Shoufu's consideration is not unrealistic, but what I am concerned about is different from Shoufu. It's just that I don't know where to start for a while. ”

Huang Liji's expression suddenly relaxed, he changed to a more comfortable sitting position, and then looked up at the sunlight outside the window and said: "Your Majesty's reception room is indeed very good, the sun is very warm in the room, and the minister happens to have nothing else to do this afternoon, as long as Your Majesty speaks, the minister is happy to listen all the time." ”

Zhu Youzhen paused for a moment, but soon returned to normal. Although since he ascended the throne, he began to transform the Ming in front of him according to his own worldview, and this change he regarded as reform.

However, from the point of view of Huang Liji and other bureaucrats who assisted him in promoting the reform process, the so-called reform was similar to the political and social reforms promoted by Zhang Jiangling, and the ultimate goal of such reforms was to continue the life of the Taoist and legal systems of the Ming Dynasty.

In other words, from the very beginning, these reform-pushing officials only wanted to continue the life of the dynasty, rather than to break the old society and build a new one.

Four years after the Ming Dynasty's reforms, the social structure of the northern provinces, especially the Gyeonggi area, has undergone great changes. With incomplete land reform and strong support for industry and commerce, Beijing and Tianjin have begun a rapid process of transformation into industrial cities.

Four years ago, Tianjin was nothing more than a subsidiary city of Beijing and a transit point for Jiangnan Caoyun to enter the capital, and it was more of a big warehouse than a city. Today, however, Tianjin is the largest export port in the north, and various new workshops have been built here. Factory owners, traders, and workers and sailors from various industries formed the backbone of the city.

As for Beijing, the largest city in the north, it has also begun to transform from a purely consumer-oriented city into an industrial city that produces wealth. The fastest-growing industries in the outer and outer cities are cotton textiles and machinery manufacturing.

Tens of thousands of artisans, hundreds of thousands of military households, and other urban civilians began to break away from the fate of providing specialized services to the royal family, nobles, and bureaucrats, and began to work hard for themselves and their families in pursuit of wealth.

The first effects of the capitalist mode of production are gradually revealed, which breaks the personal dependence of feudal society and then reconstructs the various ties in the social relations of production with money as a link.

If someone asked Chongzhen four years ago how many people there were in Beijing, he would have replied: "It's only about 30,000 or 40,000, and the rest are just talking cows and horses, they don't have any ability to think, they can only obey the orders of their masters." ”

But after four years, Chongzhen will answer: "There are at least 300,000 or 400,000 people in this city who think they are human, and the remaining cattle and horses are slowly awakening." ”

The emergence of the burgher class also meant the decline of the status of the nobles and gentry in the capital. In fact, those cities in the south of the Yangtze River with a more developed commodity economy have already undergone such changes, so there are groups in Suzhou that resist taxes, and there are incidents in Songjiang where people copy Dong Eun.

From the moment of its birth, the burgher class had already shown its strength over the old feudal gentry. In order to be able to control the force of division, the Jiangnan scholars vigorously promoted the education of the academy and the publishing and printing industry, and tried to use Confucian ethics and thought to control the minds of the citizens; On the other hand, they vigorously colluded with the gangsters to threaten and divide the people by force to maintain the authority of the local gentry.

For such a new class of citizens, Chongzhen knew them far better than anyone else in this era. In later generations, people will divide them into two classes, one called the bourgeoisie and the other called the proletariat.

When they awaken their class consciousness, all the imperial power, the old aristocracy, and the gentry will be crushed by them. The great power of these two classes will completely change the face of the whole world.

As a person who has come from the past, Chongzhen naturally will not try to use the old feudal theory to imprison the hearts of this new class, because history has proven that this kind of attempt will not have any chance of success except to regress the entire social productive forces and bury an old empire.

Because any feudal society is in the pursuit of eternal immutability, the descendants of the emperor will always be the emperor, the descendants of the nobles will always be the nobles, and the descendants of the common people will always be the common people.

However, the capitalist mode of production determines that it must break this eternal and unchanging illusion in order to achieve the tremendous development of the social productive forces. In pursuit of profits, capital does not allow anyone to put a cage on it that imprisons the development of productive forces, regardless of whether the other party is the supreme emperor or the gods who look down on the world.

Although Su Changqing is not a philosopher, he has also heard the saying that if you want to get the capitalist mode of production, you will get everything from capitalism.

Since he chose to start the process of capitalism in this era, he naturally did not think of playing any reformism. In order to cater to the capitalist mode of production, it is inevitable to propose a new social and ethical order to maintain a new class society.

Of course, if he just says it like this, I'm afraid even Huang Liji will be unacceptable. Once the reformists in the court also began to oppose the reform and continue to advance, then Chongzhen would lose a group of allies who wanted to save the Ming Dynasty, and an additional group of enemies.

Therefore, he was silent for a long time, just thinking about how to correctly convey his thoughts to the other party, so as not to let Huang Liji misunderstand his intentions and cause the two sides to break up.

After being silent for a long time, Zhu Youzhen finally cleared his throat and said: "It has been nearly 4 years since I ascended the throne, and in these 4 years, thanks to the assistance of the gentlemen in the cabinet, I have finally gained some experience of governing the country from an ignorant teenager back then. I believe that the first task of governing the country is to let the people live and work in peace and contentment. I wonder if Mr. thinks so? ”

Huang Liji owed his body, and replied very seriously: "Your Majesty's intelligence is from heaven, and the ministers dare not be greedy for heaven's merits." His Majesty's judgment on the important task of governing the country is indeed to the point, and the minister agrees. ”

Seeing that Huang Liji agreed with his concept of governing the country, Zhu Youzhen continued, "Looking at the history books, since ancient times, the country wants to let the people live and work in peace and contentment, in addition to the government's tax and conscription to be restricted, the most fundamental thing is to solve the problem of land distribution.

During the Warring States Period, Li Kui once said: One husband coerces five people, and governs 100 acres of land. Mencius and Xunzi also said: A family of eight, a house of five acres, and a field of one hundred acres. It can be seen that people in ancient times raised a family with 100 acres of land.

Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty promulgated the Juntian Decree in accordance with the proposal of Li Anshi of the Han Dynasty: 40 acres of open fields (only growing grains) for men over the age of 15 and 20 acres for women. At that time, it was a rotation method, so the open field was doubled or doubled. As for mulberry fields, 20 acres per person are granted, and without mulberry fields, hemp fields are granted, 10 acres for men and 5 acres for women. In addition, the slave and maid receive the same field as the beloved. 1 head of ploughing cattle receives 30 acres of land, limited to 4 cattle.

It can be seen that from the Warring States period to the Northern Wei Dynasty, China still had a lot of land and a small population, so as long as the land was given to the poor, the country could be stabilized.

Then only a hundred years later, during the opening of the Sui Dynasty, slaves and maids were restricted from receiving fields, and the number of people from 60 to 300 princes in Shuren families was limited, and Ding Niu's receiving fields had been abolished. In the Tang Dynasty, slaves and maids and cattle were not allowed to grant land, and women did not have the example of granting land, only widows and concubines could get 30 acres of land.

At the time of the founding of the current dynasty, due to the many years of war and the lack of people, the encouragement of land reclamation did not limit the number of acres of each family. However, in modern times, as Mr. said before, most of the land in the world is in the gentry, clans and noble families, and the land occupied by the small people has become a minority.

Do you think that in today's world, people can live and work in peace and contentment? ”