The West Garden was not built in a day, just as Rome was not built in a day.

There is not only the beauty of the shade of the forest and grass here, but also the victory of the smoke and waves, compared to the Forbidden City within the siege, here is undoubtedly free, but also vast, looking up, it is no longer the layers of yellow tiles and red walls, but the vast world.

Xiyuan is only one step away from the Forbidden City, but don't underestimate this step, it means that there are no rules, and as an emperor, you can also get temporary freedom. There is no hard work on the case, no confrontation between monarchs and ministers, no step-by-step court, no boring lectures on feasts, and no responsibilities as husbands and fathers.

The people outside the city want to go in, and the people in the city want to come out, and this is only suitable for the emperor. It's just that 'the whole world is not the king's land', the world is just a city without walls, rather than going out in micro-service, it is better to build an 'ideal country' that only belongs to itself.

And Xiyuan is the 'ideal country' in the hearts of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and of course Zhu Zhongwei is no different.

He is good-looking, this seems to be a gene embedded in his blood, just like the role of the emperor in the opera, he is just playing himself, if you have to give the emperor's drama life a name, it might as well be called "Escape from the Forbidden City... Days.

On the second day of the first month of June, it was the queen Lingdan, according to the rules of the palace to do a wave first, to the fifth day of the first month of June, Emperor Yongming drove the Yuxi Palace in Xiyuan, and the ministers feasted in it.

The drama of the inner court is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Rites and the Department of Teaching and Workshop, but is in charge of the Bell and Drum Division, which is actually the three waves of people, the Bell and Drum Division, the Sizhai and the Yuxi Palace, there are legends, rice beating, brocade, water puppets, lion dances, and acrobatic plays.

The inner court will also perform foreign dramas, such as Yiyang and Kunshan, which were originally led by the ministers, but it coincided with Du Yuqi's entry into Beijing, so she and her apprentice Xueyi were also invited to this banquet.

The performance was set in the Yuxi Palace, and before that, the emperor and his ministers had already enjoyed the rice beating and water puppet show.

This kind of miscellaneous drama is of the nature of Zhu Li, such as the rice drama, which is to play the rent collection of civil officials, word lawsuits, etc. Guo Jin belongs to the elegance and vulgarity, all in the ending is interesting, like a joke. The water puppet show is exquisite, and its pomp and luxury and exquisiteness all reflect the royal elegance and complexity.

The puppets used in the water puppets are all carved from light wood, with statues of overseas barbarians, fairies, generals, soldiers, etc., more than two feet high, painted with five-color paint, each of which is lifelike. The bottom is a mortise and tenon joint, and it is carried on by bamboo boards. The puppeteer enters the pool with half of his body behind the screen and moves around the water, and there are also live fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, eels, and algae floating on the water.

The palm print of the bell and drum division led a group of ministers to let the characters float on the water, swim and play, and then match the drum music and noise, and there are other "dubbing" people, who confess the topic on the side, answer for the puppet, and cheer for the guide......

A water puppet show, its characters and utensils are prepared by the imperial supervisor, fish and shrimp in the pool, etc., prepared by the internal official supervisor, surrounded by the screen and curtain, etc., prepared by the division supervisor, gongs and drums, etc., prepared by the War Bureau...... In such a scene, six or seven prison bureaus were mobilized to jointly undertake it, and a water puppet of this scale can only be completed by the palace.

Emperor Yongming and the courtiers were full of interest, so between them, it seemed that the relationship between the monarch and the minister was also a lot better.

However, Li Ju saw that all this was only a superficial harmony.

The transmutation of the relationship between monarchs and ministers has been contrary to the concept of pre-Qin Confucianism since Qin initiated the great unification. The relationship between the lord and the subordinate under the legal system always exists in a rigid form.

Zhu Yuanzhang took over the power of the world to one person, and took civil officials as the backbone of his governing system, but he could not solve the selfish desires in human nature.

This kind of cruel government has also caused a general fear of the scholars, imagine if the scholars generally lack the sense of political subjectivity, how can they talk about the way of the king?

And not the suburbs, not the temple, not the Wanli, the relationship between the monarch and the minister has been extremely alienated and even intensified, the upper and lower sides are fighting, and the government and the opposition are dissent. The lord often inflicted the humiliation of the court rod on the ministers, and the ministers did not hesitate to sell the king to win the name. Scholars also tend to attack each other and compete with each other for fame, and morality has been reduced to a tool and means for scholars to compete with each other and obtain political capital. This situation has made the most appropriate annotation for the political and moral famine of the Wanli period.

In fact, Li Ju vaguely felt the discord between the monarch and the minister under the transmutation, most of which originated from the group organization of the bureaucracy. Whether in the Song or Ming dynasties, the bureaucracy was a delicate and complex, large and hierarchical organizational system.

When an organization changes from a means to an end, its primary purpose becomes to maintain the organization itself. Officials, on the other hand, have shifted their attention from the social function of 'doing the right thing' to the rules of the bureaucracy itself. Therefore, officials would rather spend a lot of resources and energy on matters such as hierarchical dignity, status promotion, benefit distribution, relationship coordination, organizational allegiance, etc., to maintain their legitimacy and the necessity of existence.

Emperor Yongming's dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy may have been due to the experience of the past, he hoped that the civil officials would provide more public management in society, rather than just pursuing organizational interests, and especially hated the kind of abuse of the power of the Son of Heaven by the corruption of morale caused by academic corruption, which was itself an encroachment on the imperial power.

To the present day, the emperor did not want the will of the bureaucracy to become the will of the state, even though he himself was a 'partner' of this group, which was a contradictory aspect of his role as emperor.

Perhaps this also explains some of his unusual actions, such as the appointment of women as officials. At the same time, Li Ju also understood that although Emperor Yongming was not good at the law, he might not punish the bureaucrats who went out of bounds.

In the gap between the change of plays, the palm print of the bell and drum division came forward to pray, saying that the Yuxi Palace was ready.

Emperor Yongming was very happy when he heard this, and said to his ministers: "Ladies and gentlemen, go with me." ”

Du Yuqi is a famous singer in the Shen Xiang class, Shen Xiang is a Kun class, and is deeply loved by the Queen Mother's old people.

Du Yuqi's best grasp is the "Soul Departure" in "The Peony Pavilion", and the two performances today, one is the emperor's own order of "persuading farmers", and the other is "Chunxiang Trouble".

"Persuading Farmers" is about Nan'an Taishou Du Bao going to the countryside to patrol the countryside and persuade farmers to teach mulberry. "Since ancient times, China has been based on agriculture and mulberry, and the way of internal governance is to persuade farmers."

And "Chunxiang Troubles Learning" said that the maid Chunxiang was Du Liniang's companion, and the Confucian student Chen Ziliang was the teacher who taught her, because the lectures were boring and boring, and she had been closed to the school for a long time, the young lady was deeply bored, and Chunxiang held the young lady by her side, repeatedly disturbing the school rules, which made the old pedant very angry.

The whole "Peony Pavilion" is a metaphor for a world, which is the real reaction of the current real society, and the three male characters in the play: Du Bao, Liu Mengmei and Chen Ziliang can be called the epitome of current readers. Du Bao has entered the official career, Liu Mengmei is still on the road, and Chen Ziliang has white hair, and the three of them almost cover all the situations that scholars face in their lives.

Liu Mengmei prides herself on her talent, and as soon as she appears, she has the dream of winning the Toad Palace; Chen Ziliang studied the hardest, but in the end he was just a corrupt Confucian; is Du Bao, and after Deshi, Wen Taowu ruled the country and leveled the world, but he sang as soon as he appeared on the stage:

"Xishu is a famous Confucian, Nan'an is too guarded, and several Langmiao rivers and lakes. Purple robe and gold belt, the merit is not completely gone, Huafa is unbearable to look back, and intends to replace the west of Wanli Bridge. I'm just afraid that Jun En won't allow it, and the five horses want to kick ......"

A song full of court flowers, it seems that it can't exhaust the sorrow and fatigue of his career as a eunuch.

Every time Li Ju heard this, he was overwhelmed with emotion in his heart, just like he said, the so-called 'the sky is a net, where is there leisure'?

He is getting older, and the older he gets, the more he likes to remember the beginning, thinking that he Li Ju was still the emperor's personal Tanhualang, handsome and chic, and how kind of demeanor was his spirit? His father asked him:

"Do you know how to be an official?"

He replied to his father, "Believe in learning, keep the good way of death; If there is a way in the world, you will see it, and if there is no way, it will be hidden; See, then take the world as their own responsibility, hidden, hidden in the mountains and forests, hidden in the market, hidden in the temple......"

He thought that he could get his father's approval, but unfortunately his father was silent......

Drawing on fame and fortune, life has become boring, and in the end he lives like he hates it, every time he looks at the mirror, the old eyes, the deep nasolabial folds, and the Sichuan characters on the raised eyebrows are all the 'rewards' of the years to themselves.

So he understood that his father's silence originally represented a kind of sadness, like watching himself take a path of no return, but he was never able to dissuade him......

Li Ju was in a trance, obviously it was just a "Peony Pavilion", and he had a lot of emotion?

He smiled helplessly, took out the square scarf from his sleeve, pressed the corner of his eye, and then folded the square scarf in half and put it back in his sleeve pocket.

At this time, on the stage, the net (farmer) sang: Ahhhh Lu Yan Yan around the mountains, spring grass green thousands of fields, sunset does not stop the afternoon horse, peach blossoms and red apricots, bamboo fences, ah, ah, ah, oh scared......

Bai said: Ah, it's so slippery!

"Suo Nanzhi": mud slippery, feet squeaky sand, short rake and long plough in the arms, night rain sprinkled with flax, dung residue on a sunny day, fragrant wind and dying.

Everyone: Come here, see the old man.

Jing (farmer): Yes, go to the Yousheguan Mansion Lari, let me put down the hoe and Lasuke, belch, the old man Laduo is on the head, and the farmer kowtows.

Sheng (Du Bao): You sing well.

Net (farmer): Nothing nice to hear.

Sheng (Du Bao): The night rain sprinkles wild hemp, the dung residue is clear and the wind is dying. Fathers and elders, do you know that dung is fragrant? Burning incense is dedicated to the king, and the food and gold are full, and when you are hungry, you smell the food, and the ambergris is not as fragrant as the dung residue......

"Haha, it's so ambergris can't smell like dung!" Emperor Yongming also smiled when he heard this.

When everyone saw that the emperor was laughing, they also laughed with him.

Li Ju smiled and sighed: "It is said that the dealer is a flower, and it all depends on dung." The minister has heard a joke, saying that a villager in ten miles away to the market, carrying dozens of pounds of burden on his shoulders, just out of the market town, that is, to relieve his hands, this villager does not want to leave the dung in the barren mountains and mountains, stunned to support the fast ten miles, then in their own manure tank, and then ten miles and eight towns are praised him, really a person who can live......"