"It's just benevolence and righteousness, why do you have to be profit?" Zhao Zhen finally said this. "Although money and grain are indeed the foundation of the country, in the end, benevolence and righteousness are the priority in governing the world. Benevolence and righteousness are the ones that govern the world, and the world is self-governing."

Xu Ping habitually touched the scepter on his waist, but he felt empty. He remembered that when he entered Tianzhang Pavilion, Zhao Zhen specially ordered a small yellow gate to put it away to show that he would not have to be bound by the etiquette of the monarch and his subjects tonight and could speak freely.

After taking back his hand, Xu Ping bowed: "Your Majesty, when reading the books of sages, especially when reading the original meaning, understand the general purpose, and directly point to the original hearts of ancient sages. Mencius said that King Hui of Liang, the profit here obviously did not refer to money and grain. According to King Hui of Liang, we can see that the profit here means that Mencius can bring what benefits can Mencius see the king. Mencius, a scholar who used benevolence and righteousness to lobby the countries, what money and grain can be brought? The profit here means that money and grain can be said, war and armor can be said, and the people can also be said, and everything is beneficial to King Liang.

All countries can be used. When Meng Ke was at that time, would it be beneficial to Wei State, but today it would be unfavorable to our dynasty? If this sentence is used to say that governing the country is not profitable, then what else can we govern the country? Meng Ke said, "Why do you have to say profit?" Because Wei State was sufficient money and food, and the army was elite, all that was lacking was benevolence and righteousness. This dynasty governed the world with benevolence and righteousness, how could it be compared with the Wei State, which was powerful and powerful! If this sentence was used to question the court's improper use of money and food, wouldn't it be that carving a boat and seeking a sword, and the mud would not be transformed?"

Zhao Zhen frowned and remained silent for a moment.

Now the court really doesn't care about money and food? Then there will be no Three Divisions, and not most of the government affairs will be in the Three Divisions' yamen. You can ask for money and food, but you cannot say it out in public, and it cannot be used as a guiding program for the court's governance.

Zhao Zhen hesitated not because he did not know the importance of money and food, but because once he made this matter clear, he could not predict the consequences. He governed the world with benevolence and righteousness, even if he just shouted slogans, he could unite people's hearts. What did the court use money and food as the mainstay to make the people of the world think? For the court, the people are used to pay money and food?

The Han Confucians talked about the destiny of heaven. The emperor was ordered by heaven. As long as the destiny was there, what would happen if the people suffered a little? So at that time, whenever there was a change in heaven, the prime minister would have to take responsibility. It would be considered light to be the one who took the emperor for his mistakes. To discuss the emperor's position, he was given for free? Of course, it was used to receive punishment for the emperor. On the contrary, the people in the world suffered a little, even if they could not survive and rebel, as long as the heaven did not warn him, it would not be a big deal.

This set could not be played in the Jin Dynasty, and the two religions of Taoism and Buddhism emerged, and social thoughts fell into chaos. By Han Yu's proposal of Mencius's Taoism, it completely ended Dong Zhongshu's theory, and by Song Confucianism, it was a different school. Simply put, it was through Mencius's idea of ​​being noble and light, and replaced the destiny of the people with the hearts of the people, or the hearts of the people are destiny.

In this era, although there was a major event in the court and the prime minister often had to apologize, he no longer needed to take responsibility for it. When Empress Dowager Liu was in the prime minister, the surface reason was that the fire in Zhaoying Palace in Yuqing was dismissed from the prime minister to respond to the natural changes. The real reason was that Empress Dowager Liu was dissatisfied with the king's constraints on him, and that revocation of prime minister had become an exception.

The people's hearts are the source of the orthodoxy of the throne, and they must at least be self-consistent in theory. Even if you do not take the people seriously in actual governance at all, what the court advocates should be people-oriented.

This is ideology, which is both influenced by political structure and affects political behavior at all times and everywhere.

Xu Ping sighed in his heart. He didn't know the benefits and interests of this? But there was too little time. He was not enough to incorporate his reform into the existing ideology, so he had to make a statement. As for completely changing this ideology, not to mention that Xu Ping could not come up with a better solution, even if he could take it out, it would not be able to improve it within a few decades, and it would not be able to spread it even more.

Reform first and use the formed social existence to catalyze the generation of new social consciousness, it is a path, but Xu Ping cannot afford to be equal. Without him, new reforms cannot be implemented. If he wants to promote, he must face the existing political reality and the constraints of old ideology. If he is not careful, this constraint will tie the reform to death.

This is the first wall that Xu Ping's reform hit. He must push this wall down before he can move forward.

As for finding an alliance of industrial and commercial capital, or dispersing the industry and commerce in the hands of Sansi to form a new industrial and commercial capital group, Xu Ping is not so naive as his help.

To say that effective capital of the commodity economy does not include land, it does not mean that as long as the industrial capital that does not rely on land will promote capitalism, it is a two-digit issue. Objectively, the risks and profits of industrial and commercial capital completely overwhelm agricultural capital and automatically guide capital to actively flow to industry and commerce, rather than relying on several capitalists who open factories and shops to promote the commodity economy. This is not a question of reliability or unreliability, but a problem that simply does not work.

As long as the investment in land is more profitable and has less risk, capital will automatically flow from industry and commerce to agriculture, and will not be transferred by the will of a few people at all. In this case, even if a chain of commodity economy is established, the profits obtained by capital will continue to flow out without being invested in consumption and expanded reproduction. This chain will sooner or later break, and the cute teeth of commodity economy will be extinguished.

This is materialism, and voluntarism is untenable.

To promote reform, Xu Ping must use the Three Divisions to form such a chain of commodity economy and strive to maintain it from point to surface to drive the development of commodity economy. As long as it develops, there will always be a critical point. Industrial and commercial capital has a completely overwhelming advantage over agricultural capital, and then it will develop healthily.

When I first started, I would only create comprador capitalists. I would withdraw capital that was supposed to be used for industrial and commercial development, buy land, and buy houses. There is no positive meaning, but it has side effects.

Capitalism does not refer to capitalists’ rule, but capital’s rule, which has nothing to do with whether capital is official or private. Only capital, such as an abstract object that has been separated from its specific personality, can be qualified to become the master of the commodity economy. Capitalists are at best just spokespersons of capital, and are not the only spokespersons of capital. Sansi is the largest capital holder in the world in this era. When the commodity economy develops, Sansi is the spokesperson of capital.

In this sense, the Sansi has the ability and willingness to promote the development of the commodity economy. Xu Ping did not encounter any internal resistance in the reforms started by the Sansi, and the resistance came from the outside.

Xu Ping still remembers that in his previous life, the European capitalist revolution began with primitive capitalism, or free-competing capitalists. Their ideological construction was based on the selfishness of human nature and naturally made choices of seeking profit and avoiding harm, so that under the conditions of full competition, resources would naturally make the best allocation. The core of this was mercantilism, fiercely competing for the domestic market and colonies. After the two world wars, this set of the theory basically went bankrupt, and European and American countries reconstructed it from the needs of economic systems.

There are many small European countries, and international trade is of great significance to the economy, and it is naturally a breeding ground for cultivating mercantilism. China is a unified country. In the chain of commodity economy, production focuses on commercial exchanges, and mercantilism has no conditions to develop in this environment. In the same economic chain, China's conditions naturally require the focus to be on production and consumption, and commercial behavior is not at the core. Correspondingly, the ideology established by Europeans back then is not suitable for the reality of the Song Dynasty society, and Xu Ping did not have room to copy it.

Society is a human society, and the ideology of society naturally starts from the basic characteristics of human beings, thereby deducing a theoretical system that is in line with social existence.

Although Xu Ping only reads the general idea, he has read a lot of books of sages over the years, including some thinkers in this era, and has also understood theories that can match the great ways in his heart and have a future in development. However, theories that only Li Xu's statements are the ones that can be said by Li Xu after comparison.

Human nature is originally simple, and there is no such thing as good or evil. Humans naturally have the need for survival. After meeting the needs of survival, there are more advanced needs. What meets human needs is social wealth. As long as we determine what social wealth is, we can propose that labor creates wealth, because human labor can naturally meet human needs, not only god-given things can meet. Labor can create wealth, and thus begin production, exchange, consumption, and expand reproduction of commodity economy cycle. This cycle can be established, and commodity economy becomes inevitable.

The most important thing is that the core of this theory is that social wealth is used to meet people's needs, so that profit is for the people of the world, and it is combined with the existing ideology.

The court seeks profit for the people of the world, so the profit of the court will no longer be contrary to righteousness, and will become the great righteousness of the world.

Isn’t this the banner raised by Mencius’s school?

In history, when most scholars were moving closer to Mencius’s Taoist tradition, Li Wei was unique in his own style of thinking that either Meng or respect Xun, and became his own family. And with this family’s words, he won wide recognition from society and became a great scholar of the times, and his theoretical foundation was beyond words.

It was Li Xu's efforts that opened the door to Wang Anshi's founding of new learning in history. Although Wang Anshi was actually a respectful person, he was completely different from Li Xu's attitude of fiercely opposing Mencius. It was Li Xu's school that opened the later utilitarian school of the Southern Song Dynasty, and fought against it when Zhu Xi gathered various schools into Neo-Confucianism.

Heaven’s changes are not worth fearing, ancestors are not worth law, and people’s words are not worth care. Although these words were not said by Wang Anshi in person, they also represent the attitude of the reformists at that time. But in fact, none of these three sentences went beyond the framework of Mencius’ theory. Mencius originally appeared in a state of not following the rules and regulations.

Using Li Xu's framework, Xu Ping would not have been so extreme, and could be integrated into the existing thoughts in a more relaxed way. If there was someone who could help Xu Ping do this in this era, it would only be Li Xu. It was just a chance to meet Li Xu back then, but after this period of constant correspondence and discussion of some academic issues, Xu Ping and Li Xu have consciously become fellow travelers in academic thought.

The only problem now is that although the framework of this theory has been laid out, it has not had time to consolidate the foundation and build the house. Zhao Zhen is really anxious now when he asks Xu Ping.
Chapter completed!