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Chapter 299 The cultural monster of Confucianism must be tamed


"Your Majesty, the new cultural movement we engaged in has made many rotten Confucians on the Tang side jump in anger again....."

After reading the information sent back by Jinyiwei, Xue Lu smiled slightly, and then looked at Li Lu, seeing Li Lu smiling and nodding, the tacit understanding for many years made Old Man Xue quickly know that Li Lu was very satisfied, so he continued, "But Your Majesty, have you thought of it, although we have suppressed Confucianism vigorously, but this Confucianism has been nearly eight hundred years since Dong Zhongshu and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tossed Confucianism.

Some things have infiltrated the blood of our Han people.......

"Xue Lu has long been wiped out of the identity of the Tubo people, and now he is our Han people when he opens his mouth and closes his mouth, which shows the success of Li Lu's sinicization policy, he said the bloodline here, paused, and did not continue, although he didn't say it, but Li Lu understood, "Great Minister, are you saying that we want to transform Confucianism, not completely exterminate Confucianism??"

”After listening to Li Lu's words, Xue Lu's eyes lit up, he saluted Li Lu, and then said with great admiration, "Your Majesty really deserves to be the smartest person in our Great Britain, and the name of the person bestowed by God is worthy of it........"

Saying that, he took a few folds and handed them to Li Lu, Li Lu took a look, ouch, these folds were actually from the hands of some Confucian scholars under his rule, he looked at it roughly, and then smiled, "These Confucian students, really, really .......""

The old minister doesn't know what to say about these Confucian students, hey, these Confucian students, seeing that your path doesn't work, they actually threw the fold to the old minister........

Although these people are better than those corrupt Confucians in the Tang Dynasty, they are still far from what we want......."

Xue Lu continued with a smile, "Your Majesty, but since these people are showing signs of surrender, why don't we take advantage of the situation to transform Confucianism?"

If it is in the Central Plains, Confucianism is deep-rooted, and it is indeed difficult to deal with, but Daying is our own territory, hehehe......"

Li Lu nodded, it is indeed necessary to transform Confucianism, one thing is very important, that is, to control public opinion, only when public opinion falls to their side can they get more support, and only with the support of the majority of people can they rectify Confucianism.Xue Lu is a wise man in the world, after he read the Chinese history books intensively, he keenly found that there are big problems in Confucianism, but he also found that hundreds of years of precipitation, some Confucian ideas have infiltrated into the blood of the Han people, and some things in Confucianism are also very desirable, so he advocated the transformation of Confucianism, to remove the chaff, so that it can adapt to the actual situation in Britain at present.Xue Lu's idea resonated with Li Lu, as for why Li Lu wanted to transform Confucianism, this has to start from the fact that in his previous life he wrote a time travel novel to collect and understand the history of thousands of years of scientific and technological development in China, when Li Lu saw a puzzle that a Western historian had said on the Internet, this is a puzzle proposed by a Western scholar named Joseph Needham, because the puzzle he proposed has always been recognized as the "Needham problem", yes, it is a puzzle named after him.Why did capitalism and modern science originate in Western Europe and not in China or other civilizations?

This is known as the Needham Mystery.One of the key points of Joseph Needham's question is why modern science and technology and industrial civilization were not born in ancient China, which was the most technologically and economically developed and prosperous country in the world at that time.Yes, until the 16th century, China was the most technologically advanced country in the world, and our ancestors printed the first book with a publication date in 868 AD.

In 1088 A.D. the "magnetically guided" compass was invented; Guan Zhong's tidal phenomena of the lunar cycle are completely consistent with Aristotle's observations.But why did China's technological and social development stagnate in the 16th century, just a few hundred years after Grandpa Mao established the Red Dynasty, to the point that it became an aging empire that was humiliated?

Joseph Needham believed that China was the only country in the world with centralized power for more than 2,000 years, and since the unification of the six kingdoms by Qin, a strict "feudal bureaucracy" has been formed, and the positive effect of this system is that China has been very effective in concentrating a large number of intelligent, well-educated people, whose management has kept China in order, while the negative effect has made it difficult for new ideas to be accepted by society, and there is little competition in the field of new technology development.Joseph Needham also believed that Confucianism had a negative attitude towards science, that its excessive humanist tradition had hindered the development of science, that Confucianism had contributed little to the development of science, and that throughout Chinese history, Confucianism had opposed the scientific exploration of nature and the scientific interpretation and promotion of technology.However, Joseph Needham also noted two fundamentally contradictory tendencies of Confucianism with regard to the reality of science and technology, which on the one hand fostered the germination of science and on the other hand, undermined it.For in the former, Confucianism is basically rational, and opposes any superstitious or even supernatural religion; However, in terms of the latter aspect, Confucianism focuses on human social life and ignores non-human phenomena, and only studies 'things' rather than 'things', so Joseph Needham came to the conclusion that Confucianism is inferior to Taoism in terms of contribution to science, and in fact Confucianism is indeed inferior to Taoism in its contribution to the development of science and technology.Li Lu basically agreed with Joseph Needham's assertion that traditional Chinese science, like other traditional scholarships, reached its first prosperity in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.However, after the Qin and Han dynasties, especially Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, overthrew the Hundred Schools of Thought by respecting Confucianism, the political structure of great unification and the scattered small-scale peasant economy formed a cultural structure based on the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism, and dominated China for nearly 2,000 years.Confucianism is mostly ethnocentrist, and takes it as its mission to explore social order; Taoists, on the other hand, are natural-centric, obsessed with the natural order.This is not to say that Confucianism does not discuss the natural order and Taoism does not study the social order.However, Confucianism understands the natural order in terms of social order, while Taoism understands the social order in the context of the natural order.Thus, from an academic perspective, Confucian culture provides the prototype of Chinese social science, while Taoist culture provides the prototype of natural science.The traditional Chinese sciences developed under these two approaches are the sciences that integrate natural sciences and social sciences.In the approach of Confucianism, the study of natural science and technology is subordinate and secondary.Any culture has the duality of identity and difference.Identity is the guarantee of cultural inheritance, and seeking difference is the condition of cultural development.Comparing the two cultures of Confucianism and Taoism, it can be seen that Confucian culture emphasizes identity, while Taoist culture mainly seeks differences.The identity of Confucian culture is manifested in the attitude of Confucian scholars in respecting the scriptures and revering the sacred, and the research mode of transmitting commentaries and exegesis.The heterogeneity of Taoist culture is manifested in the heretical style and negative way of thinking of Taoist scholars.The culture of identity is officially fixed and perpetuated, and it becomes a conservative state ideology.This is the historical fate of Confucianism.As an ideology, Confucianism's conservatism has long hindered the free and enterprising spirit of science, but this happens to be one of the original sins of Confucianism and one of the important reasons why Li Lu cannot accept it.However, some Confucian things have infiltrated into the blood of our Han people, even if Li Lu started from scratch in the Western Regions and Saibei, he can't completely ignore the influence of Confucianism, and there is no way that some things in Confucianism are also very reasonable, and they are infiltrated into the blood and bones of the Han people.Confucianism still has merit, completely abandon the undesirable, but can not accept it all, then what to do, easy to do, to remove the chaff, abandon its dross, take its essence, since it can't get rid of, then it can only transform Confucianism, so that it can be used for its own use, now is the best opportunity, one, in Britain under the control of Li Lu, Confucianism has been greatly suppressed, two, Confucianism has not completed its ultimate change, has not completed the change of Confucianism......

If, at this time, the power of the state and the Daomen were used to re-interpret all the ideas and knowledge of Confucianism, including the literature and classics that they had handed down, to re-interpret them correctly and conducive to the benign development of the Chinese nation, to put it bluntly, it would be the order of Confucianism to reform and firmly hold the right of interpretation in their own hands.Dong Zhongshu and Zhu Xi can turn Confucianism into something that Confucius and Mencius don't know, then he Li Lu can also tame the cultural monster of Confucianism, not to mention that there are many big names in Confucianism and Taoism under Li Lu's rule, and the most important thing is that he Li Lu is a big man with a system, and he has the confidence to transform this monster into what he wants.Li Lu, Xue Lu and other confidants and thinkers decided to carry out a major operation on the ideological and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, represented by the hundred schools of thought, including Confucianism, in combination with reality, and form a completely formal interpretation that was officially recognized and vigorously promoted by the British Dynasty.

Therefore, the ideological system that kills all new things with a stick will jump out and do evil, and Li Luhui will personally strangle this kind of sign in the cradle, or even in the atomic state, otherwise Joseph Needham's problem will still be unsolved.In the Tang Dynasty in the east, Li Lu doesn't want to manage it now and can't manage it, but on the territory under his rule, this ideological revolution, he decided to push forward even if it is difficult, and he wants to step out an ideological path for the Chinese nation in this time and space that can make the Chinese nation move towards modernization......."

Your Majesty, aren't we engaged in this new cultural movement, just like this, the Ministry of Propaganda and Education will gather a group of people to have a campaign to interpret ancient texts......."

Xue Luxiang said when answering Li Lu's question on how to control the initiative to transform Confucianism, "What do you think?"

”Ancient Texts Interpretation Movement?

Li Lu couldn't help but be amazed when he heard it, "Great Minister, this ancient text interpretation movement is good, as long as the interpretation of the scriptures is firmly in our hands, hum, don't worry about Confucianism and don't give in......."