“If we let go, with a bang, the Wu Dynasty, this country... it would all be gone. Search: \\(¨Complete¨ Site¨) to read quality literature for free."

In the room, Ning Yi made a "bang" gesture, and Li Pin frowned: "How could it be so?"

Ning Yi was silent for a moment: "Brother Li, have you ever considered why Confucianism has been repeating the saying that merchants pursue profit for thousands of years?"

"Sages advocate virtue and oppose selfish, profit-driven behavior. Isn't that natural?"

"Partly, that's right." Ning Yi nodded, "But another part lies in the fact that the study of merchants is not conducive to governance. In three words: it's hard to manage. If a person spends their entire life farming in a mountain village, that's fine. They live according to the methods passed down through generations, getting married, having children, and being buried in the mountains when they die. But one day, you enter the county town and see those colorful things, and another day you enter the provincial capital and see even more things that you can't react to. It's like you see that piece of clothing and you want it, so you think of ways... greed...

Ning Yi smiled: "Of course, in most cases, you will honestly work to earn the money to buy that clothing, but once you have desire, you will always try to exploit any loophole. Brother Li, do you think it's easier to manage an honest farmer who faces the soil and works all their life, or someone who already has desires in their heart? My dynasty has tens of millions of citizens, Brother Li. How many of them can my dynasty's legal system really control? How many of them actually live an honest life like that? If commerce develops further, how much more desire will there be?"

"This is actually a very interesting system. Since the Hundred Schools of Thought, there has been debate between the rule of law and the rule of virtue. The argument for the rule of law should have prevailed, but all along, Qin, Han, the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang... and slowly coming here, you will discover one thing: how many people could the rule of law control in the past? Heh... actually, it mostly relied on self-awareness, simple folk customs. A small village had its own set of rules. If you put the current Jiangning in the Qin Dynasty, Brother Li, do you think that with the laws and methods of that time, you could manage it peacefully for long? Perhaps the Qin Dynasty was very strict, but Jiangning... there are too many smart people, and there are too many loopholes to exploit..."

"Confucianism is a very great thing. After thousands of years of development, Brother Li, the benefits of merchants were not something that people only discovered in the Wu Dynasty. If commerce were liberalized, the rolling profits that would come would certainly not be something that people only know about today. The example of Tao Zhugong is right there. But why has the world suppressed commerce for thousands of years? The deep reason is that they saw the consequences. The ability of the rule of law... couldn't keep up."

"My dynasty is also like that, *******." Ning Yi tapped his forehead. "The more desires people have, the more unpredictable their behavior, the more they are tempted, the more they pursue profit, and the more they exploit loopholes. My dynasty does not suppress commerce, and it has its benefits, but civil officials are greedy for money, military officials are afraid of death, and the people are poor and weak, and the soldiers just get by. Isn't this the result of some of the sweetness it brings? Actually... at least it must account for a part of the reason, right?"

Li Pin stared wide-eyed, stunned. He didn't even have the mind to ask what the phrase "*******" meant. Just the parts he could understand were enough to shock him. After a long time, he said: "Liheng's words... do you mean that the study of merchants pursuing profit is the main culprit for the weakness of my Wu Dynasty?"

"No." Ning Yi took a sip of tea. "Absolutely not. This is a kind of development. My dynasty has a foundation, and the legal rules are also developing along with the development of merchants. This itself is a mutually beneficial process. It can only be said that many things have not kept pace with it, which is very troublesome, too complex... To solve the current problems of the Wu Dynasty, continuing to stare at merchants and currency, hoping that the state will intervene in the economy, and turn the annual income over and over again, making the country rich and the people strong, and then solving all the problems, that's impossible. You can't just taste the sweetness of commerce and stare at it alone. If you continue to develop, the entire balance will only become more skewed. This is too deformed, and something will go wrong sooner or later..."

Ning Yi shook his head, and Li Pin thought for a long time: "Then, Liheng, where do you think we should focus to find the key?"

"If we really want to get down to business, I don't know, but if we just treat it as a joke, without taking responsibility, heh..." Ning Yi smiled, "Why not start with Confucianism?"

"Confucianism... Liheng, are you referring to the current surplus of officials and scholars?" Li Pin thought about it and laughed, "I used to talk to people and said that the root of my dynasty's problems may lie in the fact that there are really too many scholars and officials, which is a big problem, but... if this matter is to be solved, I'm afraid it will be more difficult than commercial affairs..."

"What if I say... it's not too much, but too little?"

"Ah?"

Li Pin blinked, looking puzzled. Ning Yi turned his head and gestured towards the direction of the classroom.

"Brother Li, what do you think those scholars can do in the future after they have studied?"

"With Liheng's teaching method, not only teaching them knowledge, but also teaching them how to see things and make decisions, several of them will become good officials in the future, which should be no problem."

Li Pin said seriously. Ning Yi sat there and couldn't help but laugh, then took a sip of tea and clapped his hands. Li Pin asked doubtfully: "I wonder what Liheng thinks they can do?"

"Among them, that Su Wenyi can probably be a small official. His grades are not good, but his personality is the most outgoing, and he is good at interacting with people. As for the others... I actually teach them as shopkeepers or clerks. Of course, since they have studied and have the opportunity to become officials, they can also go and try, after all, being an official has good benefits..."

Ning Yi counted on his fingers: "Regular salary, grain allowance, job money, spring and winter clothes, clothing and food for attendants, tea and wine, cooking materials, firewood, charcoal, and livestock feed. In this era, once you become an official, the state covers all the expenses of clothing, food, housing, and transportation for your family and attendants, and the state will also give you several acres of good land. The work is easy, the law does not apply to scholars and officials, you are not punished for your words, and you can be promoted every three years without major mistakes. Who wouldn't want to be an official..."

Li Pin was silent for a long time: "Liheng actually said that these students can only be shopkeepers?"

"Not that they can only be, but that they are suitable to be. Most of their personalities are dull and honest, making it difficult to become officials. The way to be an official is to assess the situation and interact with people. If you also have the ability and ambition, then you can be a capable and good official. De Xin knows how to deal with people and has the ability and ambition to weigh and distinguish, so he can be a good official. Most of them are not capable of this, and these things are not simple."

Ning Yi shook his head: "Enriching the people, strengthening the army, and then selecting scholars. The way to select scholars can actually be solved by using specialists for special tasks. Why can't we open some professional schools? Anyone with skills does not need to hoard them. We can arrange for people to learn carpentry, arrange for people to learn iron smelting, arrange for people to learn cooking, and arrange for people to learn management—that is, to be shopkeepers. Most importantly, we can arrange for people to learn military strategy, arrange for people to learn water conservancy, and arrange for people to learn mining..."

Li Pin was clearly puzzled and did not quite agree with this: "If people have the money to study, who would want to learn these things?"

"That is the problem. Being an official is so good that everyone who has the opportunity to study goes for it. There is a thousand bushels of millet in books, and there are houses of gold in books, but... why are there so many surplus scholars and officials now? In ancient times, only a small group of people had the opportunity to study. Not many people were literate, and knowledge had to be passed down. The country needed them to govern, and it was easy to get a thousand pieces of gold but difficult to get a scholar. Therefore, the scholar only existed in the highest group, because there were not many of them to begin with. They established the heart for the world, established life for the people, continued the lost learning for the past sages, and created peace for all generations. They were too busy..."

"But what about now? Thousands of years have passed, and the world is developing... For example, there are many things in the world waiting for people to do. There is one thing that is the most important, and we do this one thing first, so we have always advocated it. But now, De Xin, there are already more people doing this thing. I am not referring to Confucianism, but to being an official. Why can't some of them be divided to do other things? After reading books, they will think about things. Now that the floods have reached this point, if there could be someone to study water conservancy, organize a set of theories, and then future generations would continue to study and research it. If these people didn't study other things, but only studied water conservancy, and treated Confucianism only as self-cultivation, would the annual floods still be like this?"

"Specialized personnel can improve the efficiency of anything and avoid many detours. For example, in the past, weaving cloth, mothers taught their daughters. Those peasant women made a machine at home and slowly weaved. Some were fast and some were slow, and the quality varied. Now, cloth shops all have workshops, and they hire female workers to work in them. Someone teaches them how to use the machine, and what kind of tricks can make it faster. In addition, someone is also considering how to transform the loom. One person can play the role of several people in the past, with uniform quality and several times the efficiency. If the efficiency of everything could be several times higher, what would the Wu Dynasty be like now? Wouldn't strengthening the army be as easy as turning one's hand?"

"Of course, this is just a joke. The difficulties are beyond your imagination. You say there are too many Confucian scholars, I say there are too few people who can study. If specialists were really used for special tasks, then there would be too few. As you said, people who have the ability to go to school in their families will not study the knowledge of merchants and craftsmen, and Confucianism will not do something like releasing their status. However, since it is already saturated, and there is too much, if the Wu Dynasty really wants to take a step forward, perhaps it can only consider starting from here. For example, gradually create public opinion, and first start with pressing projects such as military strategy and water conservancy to resist external pressure and ensure the people's livelihood. When everyone is not so miserable, and more people can study, then consider using specialists for special tasks. This is not like those rigid policies of strengthening the army. Once their status rises, there will naturally be people who understand it to think and do it. Now that other things have no status, of course everyone can only study..."

The room was quiet inside and out. Li Pin lowered his head and thought hard, and the siblings squatting outside were also resting their chins, looking a little troubled. Ning Yi took the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea.

"Confucianism is a very great system. In addition to self-cultivation, it is also the study of managing people and weighing the relationships between people. Hundreds of thousands of scholars, so many officials, on a hidden level, tens of millions of citizens across the country, are all within its weighing and control, especially in my dynasty, where the surplus of scholars and officials has obviously exceeded the limit. The impact of Buddhism, Taoism, and various theories, and the game rules it has created after a slight transformation, not only allow the interest relationships between these extra officials to be balanced, but also continue to grow, attracting many scholars to rush towards it one after another. Ten years of hard study in a cold window, and instant fame throughout the world, an almost perfect balance..."

He took a deep breath of the tea aroma: "I admire this kind of learning very much. Regardless of its merits and demerits, anything that can record how some people lived in a certain place in a certain form can be called art. Confucianism is definitely the most great and ingenious of all the arts of the past and present. Such a large piece of land, so many people, uniting them in such an extreme and harmonious way under a kind of game rule, thousands of years of wisdom, I look up to it..."

He raised his cup and tapped Li Pin's teacup: "Since we have met, let us taste it."

The tea aroma had actually faded, and Li Pin was still thinking. At this time, he stood up, took two steps back, and bowed deeply. Ning Yi had no choice but to stand up helplessly.

"Liheng's words, there are many that I have not yet figured out, but, as far as what I have figured out, Liheng has already surpassed me far. This matter deserves my bow."

"It's just a joke." Ning Yi returned the greeting, and then laughed, "If not for the fact that this dynasty does not punish people for their words, and that you and I are of no importance at this time, I would not dare to tell you... a joke, just idle chat..."

*************

Two updates are complete, do you believe it? Anyway, I believe it^_^

And it really is two updates, cough, these days I have been changing my schedule, and it is not easy to have a clear mind. Asking for monthly tickets!!!

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