Needham's dilemma pointed out that China has always been in a leading position in the long course of history, but in modern times, for unknown reasons, it suddenly fell behind the barbarians of Western Europe and lost the opportunity to enter modern society first. Nowadays, many people have expressed their opinions and put forward various theories and hypotheses to explain this problem, so let's examine these theories first to see if there are sufficient reasons for them.
Great voyage
Tianbao eunuchs have been talked about in the West, many people have also lamented that the Ming Dynasty did not continue to go to the West, just around the same time or even a little later, Europe launched a vigorous navigation movement, through the navigation plunder of colonial resources, rapidly grew into the center of the world. In the eyes of this group of people, the Ming Dynasty missed the opportunity to become the hegemon of the world and take the lead in building a modern society.
A three-fold eunuch full of ambition
But does this perception hold water?
As we all know, the age of European navigation and the rise of the Ottomans are inseparable, with the interruption of the Eastern Trade Route, Western Europe, especially Portugal and Spain, which are the most geographically superior on the Atlantic, first saw the possibility of opening up new trade routes, and all this was based on the Western Europeans' understanding that the earth was a sphere. It can be said that the Western European people's great motivation for sailing was twofold: the double desire for material wealth (gold) and spiritual wealth (exploring the unknown world).
Run to the great voyage of the unknown
In contrast to Daming's intention to go to the West, Ming Shizu's overthrow of his nephew and ascension to the throne required shocking measures in domestic and foreign affairs. Therefore, the plan of internal cultivation of the Yongle Ceremony and the dispatch of the foreign fleet to the ocean (the Belt and Road) was also logical. Secondly, the Heavenly Dynasty has always had a diplomatic and trading system called "tribute": that is, so that the barbarians from all sides can appreciate the supreme style of Yangyang China and obediently kneel down to pay tribute. However, the tribute was not paid in vain, and for those barbarians who had superficial efforts in place and gave face to the emperor and the imperial court, the Heavenly Dynasty Shangguo never hesitated to give back, which is not difficult to explain that Ryukyu Korea and other countries clamored to be a vassal state of the Heavenly Dynasty: Who is not willing to exchange the emperor's rich rewards with local specialties that can be seen everywhere? Of course, the tributary system also had an official monopoly on trade and was the main means of trade between the Central Empire and other countries. It can be seen that Zheng He's voyage to the West also carried the task of developing a tributary system, but the proportion of practical commercial uses in it should obviously not be overestimated. It is not difficult to see that the reason why the Ming government made the decision to go to the West was mainly to increase cohesion internally, publicize the strength of the country externally, and create a kind of Confucian favorite virtue under the heavens, and the dream of the four parties coming to the dynasty (dream? ）。
Unwilling to come to the North? I'm sorry, though it's far away
If we leave aside the factors of motives, zheng he's fleet really went to the sea to do business and establish colonies like westerners, then could the Ming Dynasty knock on the door of modern society?
In fact, on this question, the history of Nanyang for thousands of years has long given the answer.
As early as the time of the Persian Empire or earlier, Egyptian-Persian-Arab merchants had already developed the Indian Ocean route, Sri Lanka, the entire Indochina Peninsula, including Indonesia and Malaysia, had strong traces of Indian culture in the early days (the Indochina Peninsula is obviously still considered to be an Indian cultural circle, except for Vietnam), while Malaysia and Indonesia (the greenery of these two places are related to Zheng He's fleet) have been islamized in recent centuries, changing the previously imported Hindu-Buddhist beliefs. Apparently, Indo-Persian and Arab merchants not only traded in the Indian Ocean for a long time, but also continued to establish colonies on the local islands, spread their culture and beliefs, and plundered a lot of local resources. The route of Zheng He's fleet was only a very mature trade route developed by the Hu merchants. It is not difficult to see that it is obviously not true to say that it is possible to seize the opportunity to enter modern society by relying solely on seafaring and the establishment of colonies.
The death of Srivijaya in the Malay Peninsula witnessed the colonization of Indian culture in the South China Sea
What's more, Zheng He's fleet had little interest in doing business at all.
The mighty Zheng He fleet?
Judging from the number of people and the size of the number of ships, Zheng He's fleet was indeed the only huge in the world at that time. In the eyes of many Chinese people, the explosion of Westerners in the same period is also one of the reasons why they feel sorry. We may wish to delve into the reason why Zheng He's fleet was so "powerful".
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di obviously understood the essence of concentrating on big things
Compared with Western Europe, the highly centralized central government of the Heavenly Dynasty obviously had the enviable advantage of "concentrating forces on big things". Rather than saying that ancient China was a feudal society, it is better to call it a highly bureaucratic and centralized state slave society, and the people have unfinished compulsory labor, such as the annual free levy of servitude, and the tax burden levied arbitrarily according to the will of the emperor and bureaucrats at all levels. On the basis of such a superior system, Zhu Di could certainly recruit a large number of unpaid migrant workers at will to contribute to his huge plan to go to the West.
Ordinary people who could not bear the heavy burden of servitude and taxation rose up, and they never forgot to continue this system when they came to power
Looking at the situation of Western leaders, it completely verifies the old Chinese saying: poor mountains and evil waters produce people. King John's master was defeated at the front, and the nobles not only did not cut back on food and clothing to relieve the king's worries, but instead took advantage of the situation to force the palace, directly violated Tianyan, and forced the lord to sign the Magna Carta restricting his power. Similarly, the King of France, who claimed to hold a powerful authoritarian power, wanted to collect taxes, and he needed to convene a three-tier council of various "people" to obtain their consent. The monarchs of the weak monarchies such as Portugal and Spain (before the Great Voyage), in addition to relying on the ambitions of the adventurers and reaching some kind of agreement with them to divide the spoils, also needed to squeeze gold out of their tight treasury to recruit and fill the ranks, and with such an inattentive people constrained, how could they form a huge fleet like a heavenly dynasty?
Louis XVI levied a little tax and held a meeting, and he broke his heart for the Americans, and finally he could not avoid a knife
Shipbuilding techniques of Zheng He's fleet
The legendary Zheng He treasure ship, known as the ancient aircraft carrier, has two football fields the size and a displacement of 20,000 tons. In fact, however, these figures are nothing more than forced drama. Considering the habit of the Ming bureaucracy to surprise the Dutch merchant ships and exaggerate their length at every turn, according to a more reasonable estimate, Zheng He's treasure ship would not be larger than the largest sealed ship at the end of the Ming Dynasty, with a length of no more than 40 zhang and a displacement of no more than 5,000 materials. It is undeniable that the shipbuilding technology of the early Ming Dynasty adhered to the legacy of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and it also belonged to a high level in the world. But shipbuilding technology, which relied solely on experience, was soon left far behind by the scientific (through mathematical calculations and material selection, etc.) of the Westerners. In addition, Zheng He's treasure ship does not have the ability to truly go to the ocean, as mentioned above, its operating route is a long-established Commercial Route in the Indian Ocean (basically along the coastline, even if there is a certain distance from the land, it is controlled within a reasonable range, and the supply docks and islands can be planned in advance), and magellan, Columbus and others opened up the transatlantic and Pacific routes that float on the unknown sea for several months. The hull structure of the treasure ship fleet cannot withstand the challenge of real ocean-going, and it is very likely to disintegrate during a long voyage.
The legendary aircraft carrier class has been sought after by many brick families
In the end, the Ming Dynasty could not afford to continue the project of going to the West, and although there were very low labor, the large demand for supplies and the tributary trade that could not make ends with it were overwhelmed.
More reasonable treasure ship restoration
In summary, first of all, the great navigation itself is not enough to enable the main body of implementation to enter modern society (nor Spain and Portugal, mainly the Netherlands, Britain and the United States), and the elements embodied in the West under the Ming Dynasty: a high degree of centralization, state slavery, only the inheritance of technology lack of scientific rational refinement, no merchant consciousness, etc., are all natural and the quality required by modern society.
Science and pragmatism
The Chinese people are also very proud of the so-called "pragmatism", despise the beliefs of the Westerners, and compare it with superstition because of the one-size-fits-all propaganda of ideology. But how far away toilet paper and textbooks are, how far away textbooks are from truth. It can be said unceremoniously that Western pragmatism and the pragmatism of the Celestial Dynasty are not on the same channel at all.
Aristotle, who has his finger on the ground, is still a god-like figure that ordinary people are out of reach
This famous painting must have been seen by everyone, Plato with his finger to the sky, Aristotle with his finger to the ground. Symbolic Plato's thinking questions are more metaphysical, and aristotle's research is more grounded. Western philosophers of the classical and northern european dynasties in general also regardEd Aristotle as a certain down-to-earth pragmatism (for creating general methods and rules that can be used for practical deductive reasoning). Note, however, that non-first-class figures of the Academy of Athens could not be among them, and the floor on which Aristotle stepped was much higher than the ceiling of ordinary people. The Western theological philosophy of the Christian era, after experiencing mystic Neoplatonism, was re-entered under the pure rationality of Aristotle's philosophy under the influence of Arab reflex, followed by nominalism providing a theoretical basis for breaking the Yahwehle constraints, starting with Occam's razor, that is, simplifying the complex doctrine under the influence of Yahweh, and cooperating with the experimental tradition developed from medieval alchemy, and finally forming the prototype of modern science in Bacon and Galileo. Its "practicality" is relative to the pure speculative tradition of classical philosophy (without regard to possible practical uses), but still without losing its pure spiritual core (true scientists study for the sake of research, and exploring the unknown is the greatest pleasure).
The soles of bacon and Galileo's feet are still ceilings that ordinary people can't reach
China's so-called practicality is not so much a willingness to proceed from reality as it lacks metaphysical and pure speculative ability. In the case of Christianity, which is "superstitious" by many people, the doctrine of the Trinity (and the complex terminology in it) could only have been born in the Greek soil where philosophy and speculation were fully developed (personality, Christianism, the difference in creation, etc., which had to be shamanized in order to cater to the understanding of the local people when Jingjiao was introduced to the Heavenly Dynasty in Central Asia, etc.), and the Middle Ages, which were criticized by textbooks and characterized as "dark", also gave birth to pure speculative masterpieces such as the Complete Book of Theology. It has almost reached the highest peak that human reason can reach, far from what the so-called Song Ming Theory of Mind in the same period could hope to be in case. Due to the lack of pure speculation (that is, the lack of the ability to strictly define and reason under formal logic), Chinese metaphysics can often only stay in the category of mysticism, that is, the so-called "spirit" of "Tao Ke Dao, Extraordinary Tao", which is unclear and unclear, but the old ancestor said that there is such a thing, that naturally exists (how dare you question the wisdom of the old ancestor for thousands of years, serious face). This is vividly reflected in the inheritance of martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine.
How could the wise foreign monkeys of the old ancestors understand?
In the absence of speculative traditions, China's so-called "practicality" can only be a kind of vulgar "pragmatism" that is externalized into such vulgar "belly black studies," "exploiting loopholes," and "shooting horses every time," and is the practice of jia-style mingzhe self-preservation and Li Hongzhang's "middle school as the body, western learning as the use." Such pragmatism may facilitate the pace of catching up when the door is forcibly opened, but it seriously lacks originality and also hinders the ideological understanding of the reasons why advanced civilization is advanced.
Zen "Epiphany"
Huineng's epiphany is very Chinese
The sinicization of Indian Buddhism also reflects this feature, and "epiphany" is a concept that did not appear in India. In addition to ancient Greece, India was the most developed region of spiritual speculation, and the incomparable Sanskrit and strict reasoning of enlightenment gave Indian thought almost as much as the logic system of the classical West. In the process of localization of this system in China, there is no doubt that it has been challenged. "Enlightenment" emphasizes that an individual can suddenly comprehend a certain advanced learning without the need for speculation and cultivation. It is some kind of mysterious, indescribable process, which highly coincides with the ambiguous side of Chinese thinking.
Counterexamples provided by the Hellenistic and Arab periods
There is also a high degree of pure speculation, the Hellenistic era, and the Muslim society that occupied all the Christian East and learned the deep Greek philosophical tradition of Christians, why can't it enter modern society?
The economy of the Hellenistic era, though greatly developed, was still dominated by government planning (e.g., Ptolemaic Egypt), the business model was relatively primitive, and the high-end ideas were only the playthings of a small group of highly intelligent people and elegant monarchs in the ivory tower (such as the libraries of Pergamum and Alexandria, and the so-called Palace of Wisdom at the Court of Baghdad), and Aristotle's tradition of reasoning and deduction was valued, but his enthusiasm for experimentation was hardly inherited. This was roughly similar to that of the Hellenistic and Arab periods. In contrast, the Renaissance in Western Europe did not appear out of thin air, but came from the experimental traditions of medieval alchemy and the independent civic classes in the commercial cities. The Renaissance was not so much a revival of the glory of ancient Greece and Rome as a great explosion of medieval achievements in the name of the classical (in fact, Galileo in physics, Occam bacon and others in philosophy, all revolutionized the life of the ancient Greek tycoon Aristotle, while Neoplatonic mysticism has long been swept into the garbage heap of history).
Neoplatonism, represented by Plotino, made theoretical preparations for the acceptance of Christianity throughout the empire
Feudal society?
Speaking of the Middle Ages, many people believe that the situation of the European states in the Middle Ages led to competition, which led to the entry into modern society. But if you look at Japan, if you look at North India, when you look at Central Asia, these places are all small countries and "full of competition" environments, why can't the above places enter modern society?
Contrary to common sense, it was these so-called feudal states that hindered the development of society, which was particularly evident in medieval Western Europe— the feudal states under the rule of Thera were divided into kings, forming countless thresholds for taxation, greatly hindering the commercial activities that led to the rise of the merchant middle class, reducing the vitality of the empire, taxation, and the enlistment of the army, forcing the emperor to join forces with the commercial cities to fight against the feudal lords (the decree declared it a protected free commercial city of the empire," granted its franchise rights, etc.). The facts are in front of us, and the so-called "competitive vitality" under feudalism is far from the root cause of modern society.
The intellectual traditions preserved by the Church in the Middle Ages in Western Europe were first in Italy, and then in all of Western Europe, setting the precedent for modern universities
brief summary
To sum up briefly, the process of entering modern society can only be as follows: first of all, there must be a clear and rational way of thinking (ancient Greece, ancient India), under which the regulations and laws under rational metaphysical thinking (whether natural law or common law, the guiding ideology derived from the philosopher's abstract views and discussions of the world and political and ethical relations, as well as some tribal customs) can only be possible (ancient Rome), and on the basis of reasonable laws, the emergence of the free and middle class guaranteed by law is possible The power of the absolute monarch will be limited (medieval Europe), and on this basis, the rationality is not mutually destructive competition (compared with the law of the jungle that many modern Chinese people still believe in), and the commercial environment that will not be deprived of property or even life by the despots for various reasons at any time (Shen Wansan is just a pig raised by Zhu Yuanzhang that can be slaughtered at any time, just like all the merchants in ancient times of the Heavenly Dynasty). On top of all this, coupled with a little luck, such as the medieval alchemy-positivist connection-science and technology blowout, the emergence of modern society is possible and indispensable.
Chinese Old Friend Needham
By the way, the Needham conundrum? That doesn't exist at all, it's just mr. Li's whispers and fantasies that revel in Chinese culture.