Chapter 33: The High Frontier of Thought
Recognition of the state? This new concept was refreshing to everyone present. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Everyone present thought for a long time, and most of them thought that this was really an overkill, and only a few people realized the deep meaning.
As the King of Wei said, how could the King of Wei rule the people of Wei? This is determined by the history of the Wei state, which has been established for three generations, and the Wei family naturally has the legal right to rule the Wei state. If we add the power of public opinion of the entire world power, then even if the system of "divine authority of the monarch" is abandoned now, the Wei family's rule in the Wei State can be stable. Judging from the declining status of Zhou Tianzi at this time, and the increasingly serious collapse of etiquette and music in the whole world, sooner or later, the legitimacy of the state will be questioned.
In real history, this has happened. Historically, after the Qin State swept away the six eastern states, the Qin State also quickly perished in the peasant uprising. When the Qin State fell, the six countries that were destroyed by the Qin Dynasty were all restored one after another, but why did these countries exist for only a few years before they were destroyed one by one by the nascent Han Dynasty? There are many reasons, including economic reasons and military reasons, but in Dai Yan's view, the most important of them is the loss of the state's legal power. Because the etiquette of the entire Zhou Dynasty completely collapsed, and the order left by the Zhou Dynasty to the entire world was swept away by the Qin and Han dynasties, those former nobles naturally lost their "Mandate of Heaven", how could they be qualified to rule the people of their region again?
In fact, the later Han Dynasty rebuilt the country's jurisprudence was also a long process, and the early Han Dynasty has always pursued the national policy of "lightly repaying the small endowment and recuperating", among which the entire world suffered great damage in the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and the more important aspect is that the people of the world have doubts about the emperor's rule of the world. In the land of Qilu at that time, nostalgia for Xiang Yu's behavior was popular. And by the time of Emperor Jing, the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu arose in one fell swoop, and immediately became a monstrous trend that swept the entire world. If it weren't for the strength of the Guanzhong sergeant, the whole world might have fallen apart. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Confucian Dong Zhongshu put forward political theories such as "Heaven and Man Induction" and "Three Principles and Five Constants", which were actually to construct the emperor's legal power to rule the world. And Confucianism has such great merits, it is natural that it can easily persuade the emperor to "depose the hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone." ”
In the war, the military power in the high place has a huge advantage over the military power in the low place, so the high frontier countries that occupy the commanding heights can form a deterrent to the low frontier countries, and the most famous in history is the suppression of the Qi state by the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. However, in all the struggles of mankind, the idea of occupying the commanding heights and crushing the lower frontiers with the high frontiers is everywhere. For example, in the 19th century, the British HSBC Bank controlled the currency issuance power in China, so Britain was able to suppress China for nearly a century, which is to master the high frontier of finance. Later, the U.S. imperialists inherited this British thinking and expanded it, and then the Federal Reserve controlled the currency issuance power of the whole world, that is, it controlled the financial frontier of the whole world, so that the United States was able to influence and even control the whole world in disguise.
However, in Dai Yan's view, the military high frontier and the financial high frontier are not the most powerful, but the most powerful are the ideological high frontier. Human beings are social creatures and are constantly influenced by all aspects of society. Therefore, if anyone can control the thinking of the whole society, or grasp the right to speak in culture, then this person is definitely more powerful than the greatest emperor. Think about it, if a person could decide what is good and what is bad, what is good and what is evil, how much influence would that person have? Thus the high frontier of the realm of ideas involves great interests, and those who occupy this commanding heights have become saints in every civilization. In China, this man is Confucius; In the Western world, this man is Jesus; In the Middle East, this man is Muhammad. After the evolution of modern civilization, the influence of these cultural giants is declining. Although the culture and public opinion of the whole world are diverse and diverse, before Dai Yan crossed over, it was the Western world that held the high frontier of thought.
For example, Russia and Singapore, two of the most interesting countries of later generations, can be seen to grasp the highest point of this idea. The Russian president really came to power by election, but he has been in power for a little longer, and Western countries have decided that your country is autocratic and poisonous. The country of Singapore is very interesting, its country's first prime minister, Father Lee, served as prime minister for more than 20 years, and the entire Lee family controlled seventy percent of the industry, and then the father of the country stepped down, set up a new puppet, and himself was controlled behind the scenes as a cabinet senior minister, and then the post of prime minister passed to his son, and the whole country almost became a monarchy. But what is the impression of Singapore in the West? It is a developed country and a model of a democratic country. The definition and impression of these two countries was thus transmitted to the people of the world, and the whole world condemned Russia and loved Singapore, which even the slightest discerning person could find the absurdity, but could not refute it. Why is that? It's nothing more than that the high frontier of the whole world's ideas is not in your hands.
For the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended and were lively, and each school did everything to knock other schools to the ground. What is the reason for this? It is nothing more than a struggle for the high frontier of ideas, determining the thinking of all people in the whole world, defining what is good and what is bad, and how much interest is this? I'm afraid that none of the richest countries can compare. Dai Yan traveled to this era, and of course he was very interested in the commanding heights of thought. And in the commanding heights of thought, of course, the most important thing is the legal power of the state, and now the king of Xuzhou is equivalent to destroying the legal foundation of the country in disguise, which is the best opportunity for Dai Yan, if he can define the legal basis of the country, he can easily define which country is legal and which country is illegal in the future. How could Dai Yan not seize such an important opportunity?
Qi Wang Tian really realized the deep meaning of Dai Yan's words, and then he asked Dai Yan: "Since you said that the Song Kingdom recognized my Qi State and also recognized the widow as the king, this can be regarded as the name of the country, and the widow recognized it." The widow also spoke here, officially recognizing the Song State. However, the widow is very curious, Song Junzi was originally a minister of the Song Marquis, but now he has stolen the throne of the Song State, how do you want the widow to admit this? ”
Everyone present laughed, laughing at the young Dai Yan for not being sensible, he had nothing to do but want to provoke such a mess of recognizing the country, if the king of Qi did not recognize Zixi's status as the king, wouldn't this young son lift a stone and shoot himself in the foot?
Dai Yan didn't care about the ridicule around him, since the King of Qi had begun to accept his own set of rules, how could he himself be restricted by the rules he had set? He said to King Qi: "Just now the kid asked King Wei what is the basis for ruling the Wei Kingdom? The state of Wei was originally part of the state of Jin, and the king of Wei said that the state of Wei was built by his grandfather, and it has been three generations now, and the people of Wei have also accepted the rule of the Wei family, which is the history of the state of Wei, and the boy of course admits that he has the legal right to rule the country according to history. The State of Qi was originally built by the Zhou Feng Jiang clan, and the King of Qi Naitian's clan ruled the current Qi State for four generations, which is the history of the current Qi State, and the kid recognized the Qi State on the basis of this reason. And I, the Dai clan of the Song Kingdom, have been in charge of the Song Kingdom for three generations, and my brother has ruled the entire country for more than ten years. What is the difference between this and the Wei and Qi states? If the King of Qi does not recognize the monarch of our country, dare to ask the King of Qi Do you really have the legal basis to rule the Kingdom of Qi? ”
Everyone present was in an uproar, and they were all amazed that this young prince of Song dared to talk to King Qi like this. If you anger the King of Qi, will this Song Kingdom have a good time?
However, Dai Yan didn't care about this at all. Because he knew very well in his heart that the King of Qi would never dare to do anything to him, and the King of Wei on the other side would also not dare to do anything to him. There will definitely be a lot of controversy about the recognition of the state, but Dai Yan is not worried about it. Because the several dominant powers present at the moment - Wei, Qi, and South Korea, these countries are essentially "chaotic ministers and thieves" under the old order of Zhou. Wei and Korea were the product of the three Jin divisions, and the Qi were replaced by the Tian clan, and these states could all be called "unright", and the kings of these countries hardly worried that their future courtiers would do what their ancestors had done. As long as they are a monarch who has made a difference, they are always thinking about solving this problem. Wei Wenhou invited Zi Xia, a student of Confucius, to come to Xihe and founded the Xihe School; The current Qi Wang Tian Yinqi invited talents from all over the world to create the world-famous Jixia Academy. Are they doing useless things by spending a lot of national wealth?
Of course not, they are actually just thinking about "whitewashing" the history of their ancestors' victory. Now, however, another country of "rebellious ministers and thieves", the prince of the Song Kingdom, has come up with a very creative idea: the legitimacy of the state is based on mutual recognition. In this way, there is nothing wrong with the illegal actions of their ancestors, anyway, these influential countries can represent the public opinion of the world, and these countries recognize each other, so the black history of their ancestors is not called black history.
With such a foundation, then the foundation of one's own country's rule can become solid. It was too late for these great monarchs to welcome Dai Yan, so how could they punish the Song State for such mere words?