New Shun 1730

Of course, pursuing the orthodoxy and alluding to the prominent schools of thought are things that only Confucian scholars who have experienced the founding of the Dashun Dynasty and the subsequent reforms can understand.

Quan Zheshen still can't hear this kind of thing that is embedded in the history of more than a hundred years.

He quite approves of what Meng Songlu said about developing water conservancy.

However, the situations on both sides are very different.

At least in the Huainan area, the main force of the Dashun side in developing water conservancy is already "idle people"; and the land system of the Joseon Kingdom is there, which is destined to rely on slaves and conscription for labor to develop water conservancy.

And "idle people" means that this itself is the nightmare of the Xinghu School - idle people are bankrupt farmers in rural areas and tenants who quit rent and flee famine. After the Xinghu School was divided into left and right, the Xinghu left has been trying to solve the problem of land annexation, and the idea is still very obvious.

In fact, even in the Dashun side, in the ideological debate at the beginning of the founding of the country and the end of the Ming Dynasty, the idea of ​​returning to the fixed identity system of the early Ming Dynasty once became the mainstream.

But in the end, it could not withstand the influx of silver and the commodity economy that had developed in the Jiangnan region, and the idea of ​​returning to the strict identity system of the early Ming Dynasty did not take root.

At least from the current point of view, it seems that the Dashun side has solved the problem of "idle people" caused by land annexation.

Those who hold the idea of ​​retreating and returning to the past are radical reformers. It's just that the direction of reform is a question of whether to go forward or backward, but they are definitely not conservatives. Those who squat in place and swing back and forth slightly are conservatives.

Radicals like Quan Zheshen may not really want to return to the past completely, but because they can't find the direction to go forward and are extremely dissatisfied with social injustice, they naturally think of retreating and looking for solutions from the knowledge of ancient Confucian scholars.

They are different from the people on the Dashun side.

As secondary members of the cultural circle, they don't have to bear the burden of Taoism.

Therefore, their ideas are often not very "formal". The original Christian issue in history can be seen as a clue - Pyongyang became the source of the Eastern Vatican, which is very strange. The literati such as Quan Zheshen who came into contact with Christian books did not "join" Catholicism, but created a Korean diocese. Whether it is a pastor or a diocesan bishop, they did not participate in the Catholic Church at all. They created it by themselves according to the books basically translated into Chinese, and they were self-proclaimed throughout the process.

This can also be regarded as a historical source of the proliferation of cults there in later generations.

Now that Quan Zheshen has seen the results of Jiangsu's reforms, his heart has actually been shaken, and he wondered if he could take this path?

With this idea, Quan Zheshen asked Meng Songlu.

"Brother Meng, what do you think of idle people? The reforms of Xingguogong created a large number of idle people here. But now it seems that idle people are not very harmful? The ancient Confucian scholars believed that idle people were the biggest trouble in the world. What do you think of this disagreement, Brother Meng?"

Meng Songlu actually had a hard time answering this question.

Because the fundamental question here is whether the Jiangsu model can be promoted throughout the country?

Or, is the reform in Jiangsu only applicable to Jiangsu?

If it is the former, then what is the school still struggling for? Whether it is enriching the people, or the system, or even practical learning, they don’t need to worry about it, so the only value of their existence is moral education?

If it is the latter, then the problem is big, and we need to analyze and figure out why this reform works in Jiangsu but not elsewhere?

Now that Quan Zheshen asked this question, Meng Songlu still used the "standard answer" of the school and replied: "If we only talk about Jiangsu, idle people may not be a bad thing."

"Knowing that Jiangsu is a place where the government suppresses idle people, it is not the right thing to do. The so-called idle people are a fallacy of the ancient Confucian scholars. Idle people are indispensable."

"Only with idle people can we get hired; only with idle people can we get people to walk."

"Idle people may help in farming; or help in hunting; or help in industry and commerce; or help in harvesting fodder."

"Their physical labor is worse than that of people with regular jobs."

"The ancient Confucian scholars believed that idle people have no job title, lean on pillows during the day, and sleep all year round, so they are called idle people. This is really a big fallacy!"

"The ancient Confucian scholars were wrongly angry about this kind of people, and they always wanted to punish them severely. Isn't it a complaint?"

In fact, this can also be regarded as Meng Songlu's school, which is outputting to the void.

The idle people mentioned by the ancient Confucian scholars and the idle people today are essentially the same, but the changes in the social foundation have made a difference.

What are idlers?

It refers to the people in feudal society who do not have a "regular" job, including scholars, farmers, merchants, and artisans.

According to this definition, those who work in factories and carry heavy loads on docks are actually "idle people".

They are farmers, do they have land?

They are merchants, do they have property?

They are workers... workers and small producers are completely different.

They have no industry, nor any traditional professions in feudal society.

If they have a job, they live, and if they don't have a job, they die. This is called idle people.

When there was still a lot of land, for the ancient Confucian scholars, idle people should of course go to reclaim wasteland and plant crops. Otherwise, if they are idle and wander around the city without a regular job, what else is this "no job, leaning on the pillow during the day, sleeping all year round"?

And now... In fact, since the late Ming Dynasty, this definition of the ancient Confucian scholars has begun to be somewhat "out of touch with reality".

Farming, industry and commerce, and fodder harvesting are all easy to understand. Yu Heng was a subordinate official of Tianguan Dazai, in charge of mountains, rivers, forests and marshes. The official title refers to forestry and its affiliated industries such as hunting, gathering, and medicinal materials.

This "rectification" of idle people by his school is not only due to the consistent thinking of the school, but also due to the social reality of Jiangsu's reform.

When Li Zhen was thinking about the equal land policy, he had considered it. There is not enough land, what do the extra people do?

Li Zhen was a person at the beginning of the founding of the Dashun Dynasty. At that time, everything was in ruins and the commodity economy was far from being as developed as Jiangsu after more than 20 years of turmoil.

It's not that he didn't think about the surplus population who couldn't be granted land, so he considered "changing careers" to become scholars, merchants, workers, etc.

But at that time, he thought, or not just him, but everyone must have thought, how many people can be accommodated by scholars, merchants, and workers?

It's impossible.

It was precisely because of this unsolvable deadlock that Li Zhen finally came up with an equal land plan that he himself might think was a bit ridiculous, that is, 50 acres of good land and 150 acres of bad land, and then divide 50 acres evenly after the bad land becomes good land...

In fact, this problem was not solved at all even in Jiangsu at that time.

The approximately 1.5 million people in Yanghuai and other places alone did not all become "proletarian" idlers.

Instead, the vast majority were either thrown to the Northeast or to Southeast Asia, plus the salt marsh area of ​​about 40,000 square miles, and these "idle people" were kept busy by a large amount of infrastructure.

The reform did not only involve the Yanghuai area, but also several prefectures in Jiangsu, all of which had different problems.

The number was definitely more than 1.5 million, in fact, more. It was just that because the reform in the Yanghuai area was too radical, the two pillar industries of the canal transport industry and the salt industry were abolished by Liu Yu, and it was completed within a few years. The size of the problem can be imagined.

The problems of the other prefectures and counties were only relatively less intense.

This was the reality of the world at that time. A hundred years ago, a small area in the Netherlands wanted to be full, which directly triggered several wars in Europe for the market, and Britain, France and Spain took turns to end up.

With so many people in Jiangsu, if more than half of them are "idle people" and they have work to do and are not starving to death, and the idle people do not become rebels, then it is estimated that they will eat half of the world.

Liu Yu insisted on printing in the United Nations because of this - social change requires death. Either the Bengal famine killed 15 million people, disintegrated the original cotton textile industry economy, and gave Dashun's idle people something to do instead of choosing to revolt; or Dashun itself died, civil war broke out, and peasants revolted, killing 70 to 80 million people.

Either others died or you died.

Anyway, it's like this now. Once the canal is abandoned, let alone other places and other industries, just the 50,000 to 600,000 salt transporters in Yangzhou Prefecture, and their families are about 200,000 to 300,000 people... Anyway, they have disappeared now, and this group no longer exists.

It may not be that they were killed, but for a fragile family, suddenly changing their careers and leaving their homeland is itself a huge pain.

For the court, this is the "price".

Another reason why the emperor could support the radical reform of Jiangsu was the "Yellow River" issue that was discussed when the Grand Canal was abolished.

To control the river, the canal must be abolished.

This is a consensus.

So, can the river be controlled by abolishing the canal?

Obviously, no, the Yellow River was also controlled by Dashun at that time? The Yellow River flows wherever it wants, and at most it can be repaired.

So, what is the other subtext of abolishing the canal?

Another subtext of abolishing the canal is that the Yellow River cannot be controlled. It has been diverted to the Huai River and flowed into the sea for nearly a thousand years, and it has been silted up too high.

It is only a matter of time before it breaks northward, just like the sword of Damocles in Western stories, which may fall at any time.

Based on this reality, the emperor must consider what will happen if the canal is not abolished and the Yellow River breaks and the canal is blocked and collapsed?

The canal will be cut off.

The central government loses food and silver from Jiangnan.

Millions of canal workers are unemployed and revolt.

Coupled with the survival of the people caused by the great flood, the uprising in the north broke out.

The economic center and the political center were separated, the centralization of power collapsed, and local forces rose.

Dashun was going to be finished.

Therefore, the subtext of abolishing the canal and using sea transportation was to assume that the Yellow River would definitely burst, and then to ensure the connection between the economic center of Jiangnan and the political center of Beijing.

Once there were many problems and they piled up, it would be difficult to solve them, and it became a dilemma at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the canal workers problem was solved first.

Then, wait for the Yellow River to burst, and rely on the financial resources and food of Jiangnan to complete the suppression.

One million canal workers, plus tens of millions of people in Shandong and Henan, this is the "cost of canal reform" that the emperor had already anticipated in his heart.

From the perspective of the emperor's rule, the dark perspective of abolishing the canal is just three words:

[Kill in batches]

First abolish the canal, kill a group of canal workers with the most rebellious spirit and natural organizational ability.

Then wait for the sword hanging over the head to fall and kill the victims.

Kill the rest, recruit the young and strong, and let the rest starve to death, be slaughtered, or be thrown to the northeast and southeast.

Don't wait until the problem breaks out all at once to solve it, because by then, you can't kill them all.

After having already prepared and imagined the situation of dealing with the resistance of tens of millions of people.

With this psychological foundation, the emperor was not shocked at all by Liu Yu's drastic reforms in Jiangsu and the impeachments that came one after another.

And the most difficult transition period has been passed, at least when the reforms hurt the people the most, the emperor supported them.

Now looking at these "idle people", the group of people in the Yanli School naturally have different views.

At least in Jiangsu, this seems to be a feasible solution to the nightmare of the Yanli School - too many people and too little land, and it is impossible for each person to have 50 mu of land. If it can be widely implemented, it can finally solve the dilemma that Li Xian has been thinking about since the equal distribution of land but not enough land, and the change of occupations but not enough for scholars and businessmen.

Therefore, their school's view on "idle people" has shifted to justifying the name of idle people, believing that idle people are the foundation for the development of industry and commerce.