There is a book that has been selling well for more than twenty years, and those who study literature and history cannot avoid this book, and many people will fall into it when they first read this book, and they will have to read it in one breath. This book is "Fifteen Years of The Wanli Calendar", which is mainly about history. Look at social phenomena through the "grand historical view".
This book is different from the history textbook, and there is a feeling that the dragon sees the beginning and does not see the end. The author of the book is Huang Renyu.
The biggest difference between "Fifteen Years of The Wanli Calendar" and the history books is that it is not only narrating history, it is not talking about the historical facts seen in history textbooks.
There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and reading this book can reflect on their own experiences and thoughts. Everyone's intelligence is different, and the things they understand are different. Many schools and government agencies have publicly explained this book, and they want to bring this "big historical view" to more people.
Huang Renyu and "Fifteen Years of Wanli"
Huang Renyu's book
Huang Renyu wrote this book after decades of travel, heard the explanations of various groups of people, and later realized after the hesitation of life, with profound thoughts.
Whether it's a university teacher, a government worker, a student or a brick-moving person on a construction site, you can see your own world through this book. Regardless of the major, psychology, statistics, and management can reflect different knowledge in this book.
Because the angles are different, many people look at them differently. Everyone has a way to read it, especially some business leaders, who are even more fond of this book.
The English title of "Fifteen Years of the Wanli Calendar" translates to "1578, an insignificant year." Many historians do not attach importance to the year 1578, because it is true that there were no major historical events in the year. In the long course of history, events in other dynasties have occurred far more than this year.
Huang Renyu
A day in 1578
Just like a person's life, the year you are born until death, with your fingers counting the important things in a person's life, who will remember that summer in the shade of the trees staring at the ants for an afternoon? But Huang Renyu is different, he sees a lot of clues from 1578.
In 1578, the turmoil was uncertain, and behind it was the actual operating state of a dynasty.
There are six important characters in the book, and although the characters are small, they reflect the rise and fall of a huge empire over the past century. The root of the problem lies in the inability to break through the shackles of the system and lead to failure. This is yet another failure, not the first in history.
Chinese always pay too much attention to morality and despise the rule of law. The magic weapon for an empire to rule the world is morality and the Book of Five Books, not the rule of law. The consequence of this is that all people become victims of society, and there are many sober officials above the court, who are all victims of maintaining moral and social stability because the system is not perfect.
This is a "Ming Dynasty history" when the capital was in Beijing. This year seems to be a bumper harvest year in the Ming Dynasty, but it is also a year of huge casualties, which can be glimpsed from some personal events and small events.
In 1578, Li Shizhen's outstanding personal deeds were the compilation of the "Compendium of Materia Medica", which he compiled after 27 years of hard work and reference to more than 800 works. In this year, the ethnic minority Eight Villages rebellion, when Wang Yangming sat in Nanning, because the number of rebels was large, nearly 70,000, the strength was strong, Wang Yangming plotted a strategy, 100,000 officers and soldiers quickly encircled and suppressed, after more than a hundred days, killed more than 10,000 people.
In this year, When Emperor Myōjin was sixteen years old, he had reached the age of marrying a wife and having children, not to mention that he was the king of a country and had married empress Wang at that time. In April of that year, the father of Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant chancellor, died, and he was "ordered to return to his hometown" to return to his hometown. After the death of the minister's father, he was the only one who could worry the emperor.
Myōjin Sect
It is said that the scenery along the way is decent. The scene where Zhang Juzheng is returning home is described in Huang Renyu's book.
There are "bird wrenches" who open the road for the bus, which is sent by Qi Jiguang and is a new weapon, and the current police car opening is nothing at all. His bus was to be carried by thirty-two sedans.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty had regulations on the buses of officials, and in the "Ming Shi Youfu Zhi I", "The Seven-Year Order of Hongzhi, the civil and military officials should take the car, and the person who takes the car shall be four people." Those who violate the law and use eight people without authorization, play the music." Zhang Juzheng's bus exceeded the system regulations, but so what? According to Huang Renyu's research, Zhang Juzheng traveled for three months.
According to the research of most historians, it is believed that the people of Ming Shi were poor because of the "heavy taxation".
Then, at that time, Zhang Juzheng took a series of reforms, the famous "one whip law" in history. It was also in 1578 that the land was re-measured, and the original taxable land was 4.23 million hectares, and after the re-measurement, it became 7.01 million hectares. Some history books say that because the reform touched the interests of many people, many people impeached Zhang Juzheng and finally had to be abolished.
Zhang Juzheng
Thoughts on reform
The reason for the failure of reform is not these vested interests, but the fundamental problem of not radically changing the replacement of morality with the rule of law. A whip law has no legal effect. It has no institutional effect. "It is difficult to enumerate", and the old taxes have resurfaced. Among the economic problems at that time were the problem of high consumption, the problem of population, the problem of usury, and the salt administration.
When did so many social problems arise? Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty was a man who emphasized morality over the legal system. The Ming Dynasty was vast and had a strict centralized system, and in the face of economic problems, Zhu Yuanzhang protected the traditional economy and abandoned the advanced economy.
For example, according to the formal system, military salaries are generally issued uniformly, but Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that if the people pay taxes in kind, then this kind of goods does not enter the state warehouse, but directly to the non-commissioned officers. Non-commissioned officers who take things are not paid. A year later, because the pattern was particularly chaotic and divorced from reality, this policy was not resolved.
All chinese dynasties and dynasties have been said to be "light tax". These ideas have influenced for more than two thousand years. In ancient times, there were very few systems related to economic development, and there were only a few literary books and sweats, and even fewer studies on the economy.
For example, in Sima Qian's "Biography of Cargo Colonization", for economic policy propositions "laissez-faire", other works, such as Jia Yi's analysis of price relations, and Huang Lizhou have some expositions on the currency problem, but lack systematic research, let alone special works.
Ancient Chinese people under heavy taxes
In Western history, there is the famous Adam Smith's argument. Compared with China, in Britain, those young people who broke free from feudal society, because of the protection of the system, Britain has an unprecedented industrial revolution. Of course, the UK has become an example for the countries behind to pursue development.
If compared with the UK, the assumption of the humanity of the economy was proposed relatively early.
Hu Jichuang said that he was "self-interested" and "for me", and it seemed that he was talking about philosophy and talking about human nature, but in fact, he had a great role in promoting economic issues. This is also the embodiment of the ancient emphasis on virtue, if these people with power can further transition from the characteristics of "self-interest" to the study of economic and economic issues, then the economic system can be formulated, which is undoubtedly a major progress in society.
Unfortunately, ancient China did not put the system at a high level. Tang Qingzeng said, "As far as various social systems are concerned, of course, the economic system is the most important." If the economic system can be studied, other related social systems will develop with the development of the economy, and the basic desires of human beings can be satisfied.
The rule of law grew and developed, and abstract morality replaced the law. From the bureaucracy down to the villagers, the criteria for judging right and wrong are "good" and "evil", not "legal" or "illegal".
Ancient Chinese tax collection ideas and Western economic thought have their own emphases, and ancient China focused on using morality to standardize and attached more importance to moral aspects. Western economic thought shows tolerance and acceptance of people's desires, but uses legal means to maintain and restrict them.
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
In Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and in the writings of Marx webber, we can see the important role of institutions in a society, especially for economic development.
Comrade Li Dazhao summed up the ancient laws of social and economic development in our country, and he believed that this nature of selfish people in ancient China was constrained by morality, which is the same as the conclusions studied by Mr. Huang Renyu. With the development of society, today's social system, including the economic system, has been improved, and the market has better served the people.