Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Xia Yuanji looked at the letter in his hand.

At the beginning of the letter, the text is very simple and straightforward.

Translated into vernacular, it roughly means "I am honored to receive another letter from the master. The last "Metaphysical Critique of 'Transcendental Theory of Human Nature'" itself also benefited Jiang a lot. After a thorough analysis of the issues raised by the master this time, After some thought, Jiang wrote the following answer and asked the master to read it."

And since it is the second communication between the two people, the content of the letter is naturally based on the thinking of the first communication.

Although there was almost no mention of the first communication in this letter, Xia Yuanji, who knew the inside story, keenly discovered the connection between the two.

What impressed Xia Yuanji even more was that this very long letter titled "Philosophical Correspondence: Alienation, New Nobility and Psychoanalysis of All Classes in Ming Dynasty's Future Society" was written from an extremely calm and objective perspective. No, perhaps from a cold, overlooking perspective. It is more appropriate to describe the changes in the human world from the perspective of an immortal.

It analyzes what new classes will be created based on the reform in the future of the Ming Dynasty if the reform takes place, and what is the overall mental state of these classes.

In other words, Jiang Xinghuo once again showed them the predicted future.

Xia Yuanji carefully read the core content of the letter.

Jiang Xinghuo did not use too esoteric philosophical concepts this time. He probably took into account the possible cognitive level and understanding ability of letter readers in this era, and preferred to explain what he wanted to say clearly rather than causing unnecessary confusion. misunderstanding.

In the first part, Jiang Xinghuo reviewed Dao Yan’s problem.

Dao Yan's question was slightly related to the content of the first communication. After receiving Jiang Xinghuo's reply, Dao Yan thought about it and believed that in the future, the situation mentioned by Jiang Xinghuo might indeed occur, and the current so-called human nature Debates about good and evil are all based on the current specific social conditions.

So Daoyan asked the core question of the second communication.

——In the future, that is, a certain necessary transitional stage in the more distant future that Jiang Xinghuo mentioned cannot be realized. Imagine if the Ming Dynasty was under the guidance of Jiang Xinghuo's theory, what social conditions would the people's spirit be affected by?

This is actually a disguised formulation of a question.

In other words, Dao Yan wants to know what will happen to people in the Ming Dynasty after the reform according to Jiang Xinghuo's theory.

The "people" here obviously need to be divided into various social strata for analysis. Jiang Xinghuo is unlikely to give him a general and vague answer.

In other words, Dao Yan was asking Jiang Xinghuo this question.

"What new social classes will be formed in the Ming Dynasty after the reform? What social conditions will affect their mental state?"

Through the answers given by Jiang Xinghuo, Dao Yan can also deduce what new social classes the Ming Dynasty will create due to the reform.

What I want to say here is the same sentence.

You can think of it, I can think of it, but Jiang Sheng can’t think of it?

Changes are inevitable, and the key point lies in supporting the new beneficiary class. Jiang Xinghuo has naturally made plans for this.

In fact, from discovering the identities of Zhu Gaoxu and Li Jinglong to guiding Zheng He to become the forerunner of the Chinese Age of Discovery, Jiang Xinghuo looked back on his experiences in the past few months and had already vaguely noticed that the person Yuan Gong said "can't go down the mountain" "Old monk", who is he?

As soon as he received Dao Yan's letter, Jiang Xinghuo understood clearly what question Dao Yan wanted to ask.

It seemed that he had completely influenced Daming after all.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo, who is also determined to reform the Ming Dynasty, unreservedly denounced the various social changes that will most likely occur in the future as the Ming Dynasty moves towards reform and reform.

In the second part, Jiang Xinghuo introduced the new class that is likely to emerge in the future Ming Dynasty.

In Jiang Xinghuo's writings, the first new class to emerge is called the "new aristocracy".

The so-called "new aristocracy" is the traditional feudal aristocracy of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the military meritorious nobles and clan members, which evolved through the changes of the new era.

In the new era, the direction for obtaining military merit and military merit will no longer be just the traditional land, but more towards the ocean.

This includes capturing valuable colonies and wiping out local resistance forces, as well as maintaining the smooth flow of global trade routes and sending troops to attack enemy countries that threaten the Ming Dynasty.

Here, Jiang Xinghuo mentioned a very interesting idea.

"Armed escort".

In other words, although most of the groups with high military merits are generated from the vast army, the army is no longer the only basis for the emergence of high military merits.

Traders, ship owners, naval officers. In view of the dangers of sea navigation, these identities can all obtain the authority of "armed escort".

In the process of "armed escort", the enemy navy, army and pirates defeated can be regarded as part of the military honors.

Rather than defining martial arts only as meritorious service against the enemy obtained in regular warfare and border defense.

The members of the clan will evolve into another form of "new aristocracy", that is, colonial subdivision agents under national assets. They rely on commercial activities to obtain economic benefits while also enjoying the traditional privileges of clan aristocrats, so they still remain in the temple. Will tend to the feudal system and be consistent with the ruling group.

Through psychoanalytic theory, Jiang Xinghuo analyzed that the "new aristocracy" must desire external expansion and pursue honor and wealth, and all of this is closely related to maintaining the existing temple system.

Obviously, now that Jiang Xinghuo knows everything that happens around him, the content he writes begins to have his own purpose for improving the Ming Dynasty.

You have to fool the emperor to make him happy, right?

As for the "new aristocracy", whether they are military meritorious nobles who have turned to the sea, or clans who rely on the role of agents for the national assets of the Ming Empire, there is no doubt that they need to be tightly united around the great Ming Emperor.

Then, Jiang Xinghuo continued to analyze that in addition to the "new aristocracy", through reforms, a new class called "manual workshop (non-factory) owners" would be born in the future in the Ming Dynasty.

In other words, when agricultural production-increasing technologies such as chemical fertilizers are popularized, within a certain period of time, the Ming Dynasty, which already has fewer people and more land, will have a huge surplus of food.

This will lead to the fact that if overseas trade is fully expanded, there will inevitably be a shortage of China's traditional key commodities, such as porcelain, silk and other items.

This constitutes a prerequisite for a part of the population to be separated from agricultural production, like the Song Dynasty, and enter economically developed cities and become workers in manual workshops.

The owners of handicraft workshops will also gain huge profit margins from the production of trade goods, and then become a new social class with a higher economic status.

Jiang Xinghuo also used psychoanalytic theory to analyze the overall mentality of the new class of "manufacturer owners", that is, they suddenly became rich economically, but lacked the corresponding temple status, and they relied on the tradition of buying low and selling high to earn the difference. The merchant class is different.

So without a new guiding culture, "manufacturer owners" would inevitably tend to learn from the styles and habits of the feudal aristocracy.

This is not only arty, but also the only way for the new class to gain social recognition.

Of course, this process is bound to be tortuous, and will also lead to the emergence of a third new social class.

"Manual workshop worker".

The so-called "handicraft factory workers", as the name suggests, are naturally the farmers who entered the cities from the countryside during a certain historical period when there was a large surplus of agricultural products and foreign trade led to a surge in labor demand in the handicraft industry.

Jiang Xinghuo calls the overall mentality of these "manual factory workers" "alienation."

Jiang Xinghuo borrowed the classic theory of the sages and believed that this spiritual "alienation" includes three parts.

First, it is different from the manual production process.

In the Ming Dynasty, for the farmers who entered the Ming Dynasty to work in handicraft workshops, labor was just a means of survival, and the labor process was destined to be extremely hard, without any educational significance or enriching experience.

In other words, working in the Ming Dynasty manual workshops is a meaningless consumption of life.

Because they needed income, they spent their time working in the Ming Dynasty manual workshops. Each of them received only a meager salary, and was robbed by the landlord and other bill collectors. In the end, they only received a few residuals.

In other words, this class itself is alienated from the manual production process. In the Ming Dynasty, the manual production process was closely related to them, but frankly speaking, it had nothing to do with it.

Second, it is different from hand-produced products.

In the Ming Dynasty, this class would continue to be engaged in production work in handicraft workshops, and the silk, cotton textiles, porcelain, pottery and other Ming trade products produced were destined to belong only to the "manufacturer owners" who were also a new class.

All the bone aches, headaches, sweat, mental anguish, trauma, repetition and stress in order to produce handicraft goods that make a profit for the “artisan workshop owner”.

In the Ming Dynasty, "manual manufacturers" became rich at this cost. The more handmade products this class created, the more wealth was produced for the "manual manufacturers".

However, for itself, creating handmade products is usually an extremely painful thing, both mentally and physically, but it also means that it will bring enjoyment and happiness to the "handmade workshop owner".

Third, alienation from nature and other people.

In the Ming Dynasty, this class transformed from farmers could easily become numb in the busy manual factory work, and then feel extreme loneliness and lack of self-worth.

Of course, the manual workshop owners of the Ming Dynasty will definitely preach to this class how they have become a new class with a good life through various innate advantages or acquired efforts, and can even rival the traditional feudal aristocracy of the Ming Dynasty. They will also claim that as long as they work hard enough to produce Handicraft products, they can also become themselves.

Jiang Xinghuo calls this "false consciousness", but in fact, the vast majority of them will never become "manufacturer owners" or even just get rich. No matter how hard they work, they can only survive.

In the third part of the letter, Jiang Xinghuo pointed out all the new classes created based on possible changes.

Whether they are "new aristocrats", "manufacturer owners", or "manufacturer workers", these new classes cannot and cannot pose a threat to the imperial power.