After simply drawing a conclusion about the Tiger Hill Tea Tree incident, Chongzhen lost interest in continuing to chat.

He paused for a moment, then thought about it and said to Qian Qianyi and Sun Zhiji: "Last time the two of you presided over the editing of "A Concise History of China", I have decided to make the Ministry of Rites the history textbook of Daming Primary School.

However, this book is not bad for enlightenment, but if it is intended to be used as a further university textbook, the depth and direction are insufficient.

I also found that the more than 300 scholars who passed the imperial examination in this imperial examination wrote articles and discussed the knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics, which is about a good thing.

However, if you want them to deal with practical affairs and manage state affairs, there is still a lack of a lot of social common sense.

And it's not just these new scholars who have these problems, even most of the officials in the imperial court lack the overall picture of how to plan development and the direction of a country's way forward.

Social knowledge can be learned by observing specific social activities, but if you want to see the future direction of the Ming Dynasty, and how to strive to promote the Ming Dynasty in this direction, you need a clear political concept as a guide.

In the past, Sima Wenzheng wrote "Zizhi Tongjian", which used the gains and losses of history as a warning and used it as the basis for governing the country in the world, which I think is very good.

But what I disagree with is what Wen Zhenggong advocates: the immutable truth of the law of the ancestors. The purpose of our study of history is not to repeat the mistakes made by the ancients, but to learn from the successful ways of doing things of the ancients.

But I believe that at the same time, we should also realize that today is bound to be better than the past, and the people of today are bound to be better than the ancients.

If you blindly follow the laws of your ancestors to govern the world, you are undoubtedly a roundabout person who carves a boat and seeks a sword. For example, when the Ming Dynasty was founded, there was a lot of land and sparse people, so Taizu and Chengzu took the reproduction of the population as the first priority in governing the country.

But today, the land is small and densely populated, and even the deep mountains and Daze are already connected by villages, if we continue to govern the country with the policies promulgated during the Taizu and Chengzu periods, then it is obviously a bit of a disagreement.

Governing the country is like curing a disease, and if a doctor prescribes medicine indiscriminately, it will kill the patient. And if there is a deviation in the policy formulated by the state, the Ming will fall into chaos.

Therefore, I hope that Mr. Qian will continue to work hard to edit a book that supports political ideas with historical facts, and will serve as a political teaching material for the central government school of the Ming Dynasty and various universities. ”

After listening to Chongzhen's request, Qian Qianyi and Sun Zhizhi both had mixed feelings in their hearts.

After the publication of the "Concise History of China" compiled by them, it was criticized by some scholars who were rigorous in their studies, believing that there were too many errors and omissions in the book, and that they even used fabricated facts about some ancient history, but in fact there were no documents to support it.

In particular, the supremacy of labor advocated throughout the book is completely contrary to what Mencius said: those who work hard govern people, and those who work hard govern people. assertions. Therefore, some scholars slander this book, which is not only not a wild history, but also an evil book that confuses people's hearts.

If it weren't for Chongzhen's strong support, coupled with the vigorous advocacy of the Daming Times, which overwhelmed the criticism of these scholars, and the fact that this "Concise History of China" was only a textbook for civilian primary schools. It is estimated that this book has just come out, and it is about to face the end of being banned.

Although the emperor told the two of them that the response to this book was good, both of them knew that what the emperor said was good, referring to the reaction among the middle and lower classes.

Compared with the concise and concise historical classics, the sentences are difficult and obscure. A Concise History of China is written in the vernacular, with left-to-right typography, the use of new punctuation, and the annotation of allusions.

This makes this book an easy to read and easy to understand history book from the very beginning. Even people who don't have much literacy can roughly understand the contents of the book. In an age of lack of entertainment, the book turned out to be an interesting historical read.

Originally, this book was intended to be aimed at elementary school students in Gyeongseong's compulsory elementary school, but once it was released, it was very popular among children and talents in the Gyeonggi neighborhood.

Because in this era, history is a profession that only scholars can get involved in. Without the guidance of a professional teacher, even a person may not be able to read a historical classic.

Because the allusions and obscure penmanship used in each history book are enough for a person to spend half of his life without guidance. Nowadays, there is no professional dictionary such as Cihai that allows you to quickly look it up.

For these children and talents, the emergence of "A Concise History of China" is equivalent to giving them a book to quickly consult various historical allusions. They were unimpressed by the skepticism raised by the scholars.

After all, this book is an official primary school textbook officially recognized by the imperial court, and even if some allusions are understood differently by both sides, it is not a scholar who presides over the imperial examination, but the imperial court, isn't it.

Although Qian Qianyi and Sun Zhiqi relied on this book to gain the emperor's trust, their reputation among Shilin has decreased a lot.

Sun Zhiqi doesn't matter, although he is a Hanlin, his literary name has never been very significant. Qian Qianyi is different, the leader of the Donglin Party and the leader of the southern literary circle, in addition to poetry and articles, he is famous for his rigorous history.

The main reason for editing a humble "Concise History of China" was to gain the emperor's support and get him into the cabinet.

Now that he has entered the cabinet, there is no hope for further progress in a short period of time, so he naturally cherishes his feathers. After all, a person with a bad reputation can't ascend to the throne of the first assistant of the cabinet.

Although Sun Zhiqi wanted to deepen his intimate relationship with the emperor, he also knew that with his current status of fame, it was not enough to preside over the revision of such a history book on political ideas.

In addition to the emperor's strong support, Qian Qianyi's status as the leader of the literary world also made this seemingly deviant book not in a situation where everyone shouted and beat him.

Now that the emperor has proposed that the editing of history books with further political ideas will obviously be subject to more fierce criticism and criticism.

With his identity as a small Hanlin, he obviously can't resist the big storm after the release of the book. Therefore, he can only pay attention to how Qian Qianyi will respond to Chongzhen's suggestion, so as to decide his own direction.

Qian Qianyi thought for a long time before he said with some caution: "The concept of thick and modern and thin ancient put forward by His Majesty has not been advocated by many people in history, such as Wang Jinggong and so on. However, this statement is contrary to the meaning of the sages, and there have always been few supporters.

When His Majesty ordered his ministers to edit "A Concise History of China", although this idea was used, it was not really written after all.

Now His Majesty has asked his ministers to use historical facts to support the concept of the present and the past, which will undoubtedly arouse the disgust of the world's scholars, and thus set off a great controversy.

With the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, this kind of controversy that affects the entire Shilin is probably harmful to my Ming Dynasty.

What's more, such controversies have also occurred many times in history, and the historical allusions and documents that can be cited by both sides are basically very fixed. Until new literature and ideas are discovered, I am afraid that this debate will not lead to anything.

As this kind of controversy drags on, it will eventually turn from a dispute over academic ideas to a dispute between the DPRK and China. The minister felt that it would be better for His Majesty to think about it again, and it would be difficult for the minister's ability to compile a book that would not cause controversy. ”

Hearing Qian Qianyi's polite rejection of his request, Chongzhen's face did not change, and he still said very calmly: "Then Mr. will edit a book that can't be controversial." ”

Qian Qianyi was looking down and thinking about how to continue to persuade Chongzhen when he suddenly heard Chongzhen say such a sentence, and immediately looked up at the emperor with some surprise.

Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand and picked up the tea bowl in front of him and took a sip before looking at Qian Qianyi and said, "I want Mr. to edit the book this time, and I don't plan to use Chinese history. Indeed, as Mr. said, the use of Chinese history to illustrate the political philosophy of the present and the past is bound to cause an uproar.

So I intend to use foreign history to compile this book. At least until the scholars figure out the history of foreign countries, they can't question it, can they? ”

Qian Qianyi said in a bit of a panic: "Foreign history? The minister also did not know much about the history of the vassal states of Korea, Japan, and Annam..."

Zhu Youzhen interrupted him and said, "It's not the history of these feudal states, it's the history of the Francos.

I Ming called the Yi people of Macao and the Philippines the Francois people, but in fact the Yi people of these two places did not belong to the same country.

The country of the Macao Yi people is Portugal, and the country of the Filipino Yi people is Spain. These two countries were not originally big countries in Europe, but since the Europeans started to explore new shipping routes to the sea 200 years ago, these two countries have developed into great powers that divide the world.

Of course, for the Ming Dynasty, their division of the world is nothing more than arrogant nonsense. But in the process of Europeans exploring new shipping routes, these two countries became maritime powers in the truest sense of the word.

The Spaniards left him alone, and the power of the country, although in decline, was not completely decayed.

But Portugal is different, a small country with a population of less than a million and very poor property. But in more than 200 years of maritime exploration, it has occupied more than 20 times the size of its mainland in Africa, South America, and Asia.

The rate at which a country is rising so rapidly is also quite alarming. Just a few decades ago, Portugal had been annexed by Spain.

What I want Mr. to preside over is the process of Portugal as a country from its rise to its decline. Why did the Kingdom of Portugal rise and why did it fall? What kind of lessons can I learn from the Ming Dynasty to guide the future planning of the Ming Dynasty..."