Xu Guangqi and Zhang Yuan went to Taifusi Street to visit Wu Daonan, and Wu Daonan listened to their statements and asked: "If you start a debate, can you win the debate?" If you win, what do you want to achieve? ”

Xu Guangqi said to Zhang Yuan: "Jie Zi, you tell Elder Wu Ge." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "It's not that students are arrogant, such as Nanjing Shen Shilang's generation, there is no reason for students to lose in debate with him, this debate is not a debate between Buddhism and Catholicism, but an academic debate, Shen Shilang's reasoning is biased, students hold a complete reason, Shen Shilang's vision is narrow, students have a wide vision, in the face of natural disasters [***], the country's peril, is it only empty talk about Buddhism or benevolence, or down-to-earth and practical measures to save the country, as Shen Shilang said, the expulsion of the Taixi priest country can be peaceful for thousands of years, this is really not worth refuting, The students and Xu Zanshan wanted to let the gentry and the people know more about the Western Kingdom through this debate, to have an inclusive and inclusive attitude, know how to learn from each other's strengths, and the stones of other mountains can attack jade, not to mention that there are indeed places in Western Studies that I am not as good as Ming Confucianism, such as famous learning, such as calendar, such as water conservancy, such as ordnance, are all worthy of our learning, how can we abandon it because it is Western culture. ”

Wu Daonan looked at Zhang Yuan's 6,000-word reciprocal note again, nodded and said: "This omission is very good, very insightful, just stay with me, I will bring it to the cabinet, and submit it after the vote is drafted, and whether the debate can be held depends on the emperor's holy will." ”

Xu Guangqi and Zhang Yuan came out of Wu Daonan's apartment, and went to Qintianjian to visit Zhou Ziyu, the deputy superintendent, Zhou Ziyu admired Matteo Ricci very much, the reason was that the eclipse in November of the 38th year of Wanli Jingshi, when the prediction of Qintianjian was wrong, and Matteo Ricci, who died in May of the 38th year of Wanli, mentioned this eclipse in his posthumous work, and there was almost no error in predicting the time. In the end, it was found that the error in the prediction of the eclipse was not the mistake of the supervisor's calculation, but the calendar itself had a defect, if it was according to the calculation method provided by Matteo Ricci, Xiong Sanba and others, there would not be such an error, Matteo Ricci in the first time when he entered Beijing to meet the Wanli Emperor, he proposed to be willing to participate in the revision of the Ming calendar, and he was willing to participate in the revision of the Ming calendarSince Xu Zanshan and Zhang Xiushu want to start this debate, then I will also help. Immediately, he asked the emperor to revise the calendar, and the cloud, "the Atlantic naturalized ministers Pang Di'e, Xiong Sanba, etc., brought the calendar of other countries, and many Chinese classics did not prepare them, begging for the precedent of Hongwu's Chinese translation of the Western Regions calendar, and taking the Confucian ministers of the calendar from the same supervisor to translate the calendar of the other country to make up for the lack of the Ming calendar. ”

…… On August 19, Wu Daonan brought Zhang Yuan's performance to the cabinet to discuss the draft with Fang Congzhe, and Fang Congzhe looked at Zhang Yuan's performance and said in his heart: "Zhang Yuan is really keen, and he can see the signs of unfavorability for him from Shen Yu's performance. He said, "Brother Huifu, is it a bit of a fuss to have a big debate between the court and China for a few Jesuit missionaries?" ”

Wu Daonan said: "It is better to debate than to impeach each other in party fighting, and it is better to be tolerant of those naturalized ministers." ”

Fang Congzhe insisted on refusing to hold a debate, and Wu Daonan also refused to submit to the authority of the first assistant, and the two auxiliary ministers disagreed.

On August 20th, there were Hanlin editors Wen Zhenmeng, Qian Shisheng, Shu Jishi Ni Yuanlu, Zhang Dai's four recitals sent to the cabinet, all of which were for Zhang Yuan's support, Xu Guangqi had another recital to defend the Taixi missionaries, and Zhou Ziyu, deputy superintendent of Qintian, asked Pang Di'e and Xiong Sanba to participate in the revision of the Ming calendar, Zhou Ziyu asked to revise the calendar at this time, which was clearly instigated by Xu Guangqi and Zhang Yuan, Fang Congzhe was very angry, and said to Wu Daonan: "Zhang Yuan is a weak-crowned young man with great ambitions, In order to achieve the purpose of the debate, he actually encouraged so many officials to support him, and Brother Ruofu said yesterday that academic debate is better than party struggle for impeachment, and I think Zhang Yuan wants to use this debate to set off another party dispute, and Zhang Yuan's Han Society is already a party. ”

Wu Daonan Zhengse said: "Brother Zhonghan should not easily identify others as a party, the Han Society is a literary society that learns from the experience of literature and art, and there are many talents in the society, this time there are more people in the Jinshi, and I also understand the rules and regulations of the Han Society, one of which is that it is not allowed to gather members in the name of the Han Society to blackmail the government for their own personal gain, this alone is better than other literary societies, if the students, people and even officials of the Ming Dynasty can also do this, it is the blessing of the country. ”

Fang Congzhe said lightly: "There are a lot of duplicitous people in this world, listen to their words, but also watch their deeds, Zhang Yuan asked for a debate with such fanfare, isn't it the intention of forcing the cabinet and the court?" ”

Wu Daonan said: "Fang Ge's old words are serious, but I don't feel any persecution from Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yuan just wants to ask the Ministry of Rites to agree to debate with Shen Shilang and others in Nanjing." ”

The two auxiliary ministers did not speculate, and they were at a stalemate for a while, but it was obviously inappropriate to press so much in the cabinet room, and the cabinet did not have the emperor's right to stay in the middle and not to send it, Fang Congzhe said: "Then these few notes will be drafted by Brother Huifu, I will not sign jointly, everything will be decided by the saint." ”

If the first assistant does not sign, then confess that the first assistant does not agree with the vote of the other auxiliary ministers, and the other auxiliary ministers can also be forced to submit it, but the emperor will often take care of the face of the first assistant and reject the re-vote, so that the first assistant has face to show authority, but the auxiliary ministers who are forced to submit the ticket will have no face, so generally speaking, the second assistant will respect the opinion of the first assistant and will not easily deal with the first assistant - although Wu Daonan was angry, he did not dare to rashly submit the vote, and those music was pressed on the cabinet again, In the evening, Wu Daonan asked Zhang Yuan to go to Taifusi Street to meet him, saying that Fang Congzhe did not agree to hold a debate, and asked Zhang Yuan what countermeasures he had?

Zhang Yuan said: "Although the teacher submitted the ticket after the draft, there is no first assistant to sign the note can still give the emperor a reply, when the Ministry of Officials Shangshu Lu Guangzu and the cabinet Shen Pavilion old struggle for power, bypassing the cabinet directly to the emperor to submit the sparse, did not not not be blamed by the emperor, but also for the Ministry of officials to win the power of the cabinet ministers, the teacher is the cabinet secondary, of course, has the right to insist on his own opinions." ”

Zhang Yuan is familiar with the newspaper of the past 30 years, and knows everything about the affairs of the Wanli Dynasty, and there is one thing he did not say to Wu Daonan, when he entered the palace yesterday to give a lecture to the emperor's eldest grandson, he asked Zhong Benhua to invite Wang An aside, he told Wang An about the debate, Wang An agreed to help him promote, Wang An has a good relationship with Li En, the master of ceremonies, and this kind of thing is not for personal gain, Wang An is willing to help Zhang Yuan, an upstart in Hanlin, but Zhang Yuan can't mention this matter to Wu Daonan, since Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao joined forces to set up the young Wanli Emperor, the foreign ministers made friends with the internal officialsIn particular, the powerful internal officials have become a taboo, easy to attract criticism and impeachment, but the current situation does not allow all to follow the rules, should go through the back door and have to go, this is no way, from the perspective of Fang Congzhe's attitude, Zhang Yuan's prejudice is deep, Fang Congzhe is in the cabinet, Zhang Yuan's any national salvation strategy is difficult to implement, so if you can use this debate to refute Fang Congzhe's face and enhance Wu Daonan's status in the cabinet, of course, it is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone - Wu Daonan said: "The old man was killed by Li Song, Zhou Shidan, Yao Zongwen and Liu Wenbing were impeached by each other, and they were already at home, and it was the attack that happened, so they had to enter the cabinet to look at things. ”

Zhang Yuan said: "How can the student fall into such a situation as the teacher, the emperor will definitely respect the teacher's vote, the aftermath of the attack is still there, Zheng Guifei and Uncle Zheng are still panicked in their hearts, there is this big debate just to divert the attention of the government and the opposition, and the student mentioned in the recital is exactly what the country urgently needs, since the emperor approves the student's court trial strategy, he should also agree to the student's debate with Shen Shilang and others." ”

Wu Daonan nodded and said: "What you said is reasonable, then I will clearly say that I will submit the ticket, if the emperor refuses, then the old man will resign and return to his hometown, so as not to ridicule the old man for not going." ”

Zhang Yuan said earnestly: "Teacher, the safety of the country is a big matter, and personal honor and disgrace are small, the teacher can do beneficial things for the people of the country if he stays in the court, even if he endures some leisure, that is also the teacher's humble bearing, the world may not be able to see clearly, and the history has its own public opinion." ”

…… On August 21, Wu Daonan showed Fang Congzhe the recitals of Xu Guangqi, Zhang Yuan, Wen Zhenmeng, Qian Shisheng, Ni Yuanlu, Zhang Dai and Zhou Ziyu who had prepared the tickets, and asked Fang Congzhe's opinion.

Fang Congzhe saw that Wu Daonan insisted on going his own way, regardless of his opposition to submit the vote, he was shocked and angry, and at the same time a little worried, if the emperor rejected the vote, then Wu Daonan would naturally lose face, and he would not dare to vote without authorization in the future, but if the emperor planned to approve the red according to Wu Daonan's vote, it would be a great loss of face for the other party, and the authority of the first assistant would be gone, the holy will would be unpredictable, and the fate of the courtiers would be in the hands of the emperor alone.

Xu Guangqi's seven people's recitals were sent to the celebrant eunuch, and after the palm seal eunuch Li En read it, he came to Qixiang Palace to see the Wanli Emperor in the morning, and the Wanli Emperor was dizzy, and the people of the ceremonial supervisor read the recital to him, Li En took out Zhang Yuan's recital, and said with a smile: "Long live the lord, this is the recital of Zhang Zhuangyuan who wrote ten thousand words in the last time, Zhang Zhuangyuan is really a pen jian, and it is more than 6,000 words." ”

The old Wanli Emperor said "oh", he was still impressed by Zhang Yuan, and asked, "What did Zhang Yuan write?" ”

Li Endao: "Zhang Xiushu criticized the last Nanjing Ministry of Rites Shen Yu and others asked for the expulsion of Western missionaries, thinking that those Western missionaries were naturalized in our Ming Dynasty and should not be expelled together. ”

With Li En's last sentence, Zhang Yuan's goal was achieved, and it can be seen that the emperor's close ministers can turn over the clouds and rain.

(To be continued)