This is a task that is of great significance to the entire China, and Su Yonglin attaches great importance to it.

He personally named this task the restoration project of the Three Dynasties of Ancients, and ranked it as two major tasks along with the formulation of the Chinese Chronicle Law. It does not have to be confined to time and age. As long as the Ming Dynasty is still there and as long as conditions allow, it can continue to explore.

How did the ancestors of the Chinese move from ignorance to civilization step by step, from mountains and fields to urban settlements, develop small tribes into big empires, and burn cultural fire into raging fires...

These are things worth exploring.

And in Su Yonglin's opinion, such exploration is really too romantic.

In order to explore what happened before the first year of the Republic, Su Yonglin also ordered the National History Department to prepare for the establishment of the Ming Archaeological Corps. With the meaning of verifying history and distinguishing ancient and modern times, the Ming Archaeological Corps was granted the Ming Archaeological Corps the authority to explore ancient monuments, collect ancient books, and rescue and excavate ancient tombs within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

On the issue of ancient tombs, Su Yonglin particularly emphasized his own views.

"As long as the ancient tombs discovered are not damaged, it is best not to try to destroy them. Unless you are fully sure that the antiques inside them can be protected from damage, you should not excavate them. Forced excavation is equivalent to destruction, and there is no point in excavation.

Once a damaged tomb is found, troops must be mobilized immediately to close the local area and no idle people are allowed to enter. Except for the personnel of the Archaeological Corps, others, including local officials, are not allowed to enter. All the ancients excavated are sealed and no outsiders are allowed to touch them. They must be properly maintained during delivery."

In addition to this principle, Su Yonglin also plans to establish the Ming National Museum.

In the future, he plans to place all the ancient cultural relics he owned in the palace and the ancient cultural relics found in the archaeological area in the National Museum for storage, and publicly viewed by the people all over the world to help them understand history.

In the National Museum, he will also carve the entire Chinese history context and match it with antiques so that all people can feel the entire Chinese history context in an immersive way, feel the heaviness, inheritance and existence of history.

After a series of work arrangements, the historical research project of the Ming Empire began.

This is an unprecedented large-scale historical research project, with the Ministry of Finance transferring funds and professionals gathering to explore the dusty past of the three ancient dynasties...

And this is also Su Yonglin's humanistic sentiment.

At the very least, he wanted the people across the country to know from now on when they were born and how old they were, and no longer had to rely on medical means such as teeth age to judge how old they were this year.

As a person living in this world, you should know your age, your birthday, and know that you are an individual. This is a very important personal right for a person.

The feudal dynasty did not give them this right, and the Ming Dynasty must not give it to them.

On this basis, let them know what kind of country they live in, what kind of land they live in, what happened to the land under their feet, and who have been fighting for the continuation of the country and nation...

In this way, the inheritance of a nation can be deeply engraved into the heart, blood, and spinal cord of every successor, and will be passed down forever.

When they all consciously believe that they are descendants of this country and nation, then certain things will not be easily transferred according to the wishes of the rulers.

When a country has its responsibility to truly become a matter that everyone believes for granted, they will complete the awakening.

In addition to this general context, Su Yonglin also asked the National History Department to change the recording method of past historians who focus on the results of events rather than the process of events. In particular, it should pay attention to changing the historical principle of Confucian historians who practice history [for the honorable person, for the relatives, for the wise].

At the internal meeting, Su Yonglin strongly criticized this historical principle.

"Because they are venerables, relatives, and wise men, they don't even record the bad things they have done? Where is there a pure saint in the world? Confucius himself killed Shao Zhengmao because of academic disputes, so he really has no selfishness?"

"Once you discover a talented person, you must imagine him as a perfect person in the world, and do not allow him to have any flaws. Once you find someone who has done something bad, you will consider him as an unforgivable person and ignore his other achievements. Is this the attitude of studying history?"

"People are complex and diverse. The same person may have completely different personalities when he is young and old. He is very naughty when he is young, but he starts great careers when he is young, or he is extremely well-behaved when he is young, but he becomes a villain who does evil things when he is young. There have never been many such things."

"There are no saints or purely virtuous people in the world. As long as you are a human being, as long as you eat grains and grains, you will have seven emotions and six desires, you will have joy, anger, sorrow and happiness, you will make mistakes, and there is no one who will not make mistakes. Just like me, have you made fewer mistakes?"

Su Yonglin held a meeting of all historians in the National History Department, requiring all historians to interpret ancient official history and unofficial history in an all-round way, and to adopt a compatible approach, not only writing down the achievements of historical figures, but also writing down the evil things they have done.

Not only that, we cannot deny the tragic and conspiracies of political struggles, nor can we deny the power tricks.

We must uncover the fig leaf written by Confucian historians, tear off all the fig leafs in some people's mouths such as "for the country, for the people, for the orthodoxy of Confucianism, for the morality of the sages", and clearly write down all the scenes of political struggles for power, money, and wealth.

In particular, we must clearly write down the causes and consequences of their political struggles, the interests of whom, their lives, etc., especially what harm such political struggles have caused to the people, and we must write them clearly.

For example, the Sanyi Huihe River in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Gu Can

The reason is that Emperor Taizong of Song failed to attack Yanyun in the Northern Expedition and could not regain Yanyun and established a defense line to protect Hebei, which caused great strategic unrest in the Northern Song Dynasty.

The Sanyi Return to the River was originally a project. In order to prevent the Yellow River from flowing into Yanyun, so that the Liao army could go downstream, the Northern Song government tried to change it.

However, with the volume of the Yellow River, diverting the route will cause unimaginable risks, which are unbearable in some places, so officials in these places jumped to oppose it.

As the party struggles became increasingly fierce in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, the Huihe Project finally could not escape the fate of being involved in political struggles, and thus transformed from a simple and scientific water conservancy project into a political event.

For their own interests, all forces in the court repeatedly competed in the return to the river incident, destroying each other's plans. Even if they used the lives of the people as sacrifices, they would defeat the other party and successfully take power.

In the end, Sanyi failed to return to the river, causing a tragedy, and the millions of people who died tragically and displaced became victims of political struggles.

And no one cares about them.

The Northern Song officials were extremely indifferent to them and did not care at all.

This made Su Yonglin deeply angry, and this was also a reason why he had to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty no matter what.

And when studying history, can you not write down these things?

Of course, a Confucian historian who pays attention to the priests will not write. They will only use various Spring and Autumn styles to modify and decorate, trying to make people forget this history and the lives of millions of people.

They think beautifully.

In the entire history of China compiled by the Ming Dynasty, these must be clearly recorded, and how the so-called "loyal and good people" who are called for their country and the people "for their country and the people."

This is the only way to reveal where the emperors, generals and ministers of the old feudal dynasty place the country and nation for their own selfish desires.

Such history is the most real history, which helps Su Yonglin completely tear the veil of warmth in feudal society, make its ugly face clear to the world, and make everyone alert and be wary.

With this relationship in it, Su Yonglin felt that even if he died, it would not be so easy for unworthy descendants to walk the road back.

Most of the historians in the National History Department grew up under feudal education, most of whom were originally from the Jin Dynasty, and the historians in the Western Xia Dynasty were retained, and there were not many historians who changed their positions in the Ming Dynasty.

So they were shocked by Su Yonglin's request. They never thought that an emperor would make such a request.

Is this really a good thing for him?

However, although these historians are relatively conservative in their thoughts, they have some benefits and are obedient.

Since the famous His Majesty Li Shimin, who was inconvenient to name, hoped to watch his daily life and succeed, the last layer of fig leaf of Confucian historians was torn off by the imperial power without mercy.

So they fully exerted the spirit of their ancestors and became more and more obedient.

They will do whatever the emperor asks.

No matter what Su Yonglin wanted to do, he was the emperor after all. The emperor made a request, so they just followed the orders to do it. Anyway, the world is not theirs.

Therefore, this order was implemented very smoothly in the National History Department. These professional historians are naturally influenced by political struggles and are very good at modifying them. However, if they do not modify and write straight, it is not impossible.

But this is far from what Su Yonglin needs to do.

What he needs is to form a new historical view, a historical view that is completely different from the Confucian historical view.

For this, he took time to write articles.

After spending some spare time, Su Yonglin wrote four articles, including "Does it necessary to record history for the honorable person?", "The political game behind historical events starts from the Three Yi Return to the River", "Our historical concept needs to be reshaped", and "The blood and tears of the people behind the family tree of emperors, generals and ministers".

In these four articles, Su Yonglin initially constructed a new historical concept.

Then, based on his own insights on history, he made a comprehensive criticism of the Confucian historical view, and described the so-called official history of all dynasties as [the genealogy of emperors, generals and ministers].

He wanted to make the most fierce and strong criticism of past official historical books as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!