Chapter 316: Ritual and Music are the Sharpest Knife
Changle Palace.
Liu Heng's eyes sparkled as he looked at Luo Xin with admiration: "Uncle, are you the most powerful person in the Han Dynasty? At the banquet yesterday, all the ministers listened to you."
When Luo Xin heard Liu Heng's childish words, he smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the ministers do not listen to me, they listen to your Majesty."
Hearing this, Liu Heng tilted his head and said in surprise: "Uncle, Heng'er doesn't understand."
Luo Xin touched Liu Heng's head and said softly, "I am the regent. What is a regent?
The world was originally ruled by Emperor Renzong Xiaohui, but when your father passed away, you became the master of the world. However, you were still young, so Emperor Xiaohui asked me to manage the world on your behalf. This is called regent.
So the ministers do not listen to my words, but to your Majesty.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand now. When you understand, you will be a real emperor. As long as you study the governance of the country and the classics, you will become a wise and enlightened ruler praised by everyone in the world.”
Liu Heng felt very powerful when he heard this, and said proudly: "Uncle, the emperor asked you to manage the world for Heng'er instead of other ministers, it must be because you are very powerful, you must teach Heng'er everything, Heng'er also wants to be like you."
Luo Xin laughed out loud and said, "Okay, today I will explain the Zhou Li to Your Majesty."
"Zhou Li?"
Liu Heng was puzzled and said, "This course has been taught by several other Confucian scholars. It is full of rules and regulations, which is very boring."
Luo Xin smiled and said, “Yes, the pure Zhou Li is indeed very boring, but do you want to know the story behind Zhou Li?
These stories are only known to the Luo family, and are not even recorded in the records of the various schools of thought in this world."
"What's the story behind this?"
There was a look of reminiscence on Luo Xin's face. His memory seemed to have gone back to the time when he was studying family history. It had been too long.
The Luo family history is really too long, especially the early Luo family history is almost the history of Bang Zhou. Countless people and events make it very difficult for younger generations like Luo Xin to learn.
Fortunately, there are no stupid people in the Luo family, at least there are no big problems with memory, otherwise they probably can't even remember the names of their ancestors.
"The Zhou Li was established by King Su, but it is not easy to implement any of its provisions. For example, the one about ritual and music says, 'The emperor, dukes, ministers, officials, and scholars cannot exceed the rules.'
This sentence may seem very plain, but no less than ten princes died because of this alone."
Liu Heng was so shocked that he almost jumped up. He never expected that there was such a bloody incident behind this sentence, but he was not afraid at all. Instead, he asked with great interest: "Uncle, please tell me quickly. Heng'er is very curious."
Luo Xin naturally had a purpose when he told Liu Heng this. He wanted Liu Heng to understand the logic of political operation. These were things that the Hundred Schools of Thought would not teach Liu Heng. They could be said to be the art of ruling.
The Zhou rituals had long been completely abandoned in the chaotic times of hundreds of years when rituals and music were in decline. Moreover, the Zhou rituals were designed to cooperate with the feudal system and could not be fully applied to the current Han Dynasty.
But are rituals and music useless?
Of course not!
The essence of rites and music does not lie in the superficial hierarchy. After all, he is a time traveler. Although he is not as diligent as his descendants in serving the public good, he is an advanced young man after all.
The ritual and music system created by Ji Zhao, although clearly divided into upper and lower levels, also set corresponding responsibilities for the emperor and princes, ministers, and officials at all levels.
The Emperor is supreme, but the constraints he is subject to are also supreme.
The essence of this ritual and music system lies in giving a person a social identity and building a complete social system that can accommodate people from all over the world. It is also a complete distribution system.
What’s even more amazing is that there is only one way to truly break this system, and that is the advancement of productivity. The advancement of productivity will destroy the original mode of production, and the newly created mode of production will in turn affect the advancement of productivity.
Socially, this manifested itself in the breaking of the feudal system and the introduction of a new political system, which resulted in a series of drastic changes in the superstructure.
On the surface, it seemed that rites and music had collapsed in the early Spring and Autumn Period, but in fact, that was simply the result of the entire order being out of control due to the decline of the Zhou emperor's moral principles. Therefore, after Duke Huan of Qi united the nine states and pacified the world, once social order was restored, a new rite and music system centered on the hegemonic country was re-established.
In other words, this system will only fail when the Xia Dynasty develops to the point where it no longer needs the original feudal system.
For example, when Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, the population of the Xia Dynasty had reached tens of millions. Almost everywhere within the visible range was the land of the Xia Dynasty, and the speed of travel between regions was greatly accelerated. This was a world that was completely different from the Zhou Dynasty.
But at this time, the most terrifying thing about the ritual and music system arrived. When the ritual and music system was broken and a new era began, the smartest people would find that what was broken was only the extremely strict ritual system.
This system has penetrated into the bone marrow and the blood of the entire civilization. No matter how the system is formulated, it cannot escape this circle.
The new system still needs to define an identity for everyone in the world, including merchants, farmers, craftsmen, powerful people, and nobles.
The proportions among them must be determined according to the etiquette system, and matching benefits must be allocated to these identities. If a dynasty cannot do this, any class will cause chaos in the dynasty. If most people are dissatisfied, then it will perish.
As early as a thousand years ago in the time of Duke Wen of Luo, Luo Su tried some relatively radical reforms and achieved great success, but also suffered great failures. Those reforms that really touched the root of the problem all failed.
Of course Luo Su summarized the reasons and finally made him silent.
Because no matter how powerful he was, he was not a god. He was the greatest nobleman in the Zhou Dynasty besides the emperor.
All his allies were great nobles and great slave owners, and all those he promoted became new great nobles and new great slave owners.
This is his base, and it is also the base of Bang Zhou. Therefore, even if his reforms temporarily harm the interests of certain nobles and slave owners, in the long run, they must maintain the aristocratic slave-based system in order to succeed.
Even Duke Wen, who was a man of extraordinary talent, could not change this iron rule. From that time on, the Luo family understood one thing: it is not a good thing to be too advanced in thinking. It is best for everyone to go one step further from the top of the pole. If you want to go a hundred feet further from the top of the pole, it will only break.
The family can suppress everyone once, twice, but eventually the accumulated anger and resentment will burn the family to ashes.
So Luo chose another path.
Luo Xin vividly described to Liu Heng the scene of the princes being killed. Naturally, he ignored the bloodiness and told the story in a very funny way. Liu Heng could even laugh. However, when Liu Heng grows up and can still recall it, he will probably be terrified when he thinks about it carefully.
This is Luo Xin’s way of education. He lets his words and deeds influence Liu Heng in a subtle way. When Liu Heng grows up, every time he does something, he will remember what he said to him and how he did it.
Especially since this person is his idol and his spiritual pillar in his youth, he will unconsciously follow Luo Xin's footsteps.
Of course, in order to achieve this outcome, Luo Xin himself must be upright. In the future, when Liu Heng grows up and sees the fickleness of human nature and the cruel reality, when he is disheartened, he will see that Luo Xin is actually a saint. His fantasy will not be shattered, and he will become more encouraged, thinking that his uncle did not lie to him.
The story ends, and it is time for Liu Heng to exercise. All of Liu Heng's education was arranged by Luo Xin. He was not as cruel as Luo Xin's son. After all, Liu Heng had no ancestors to bless him, and Luo Xin was worried about something going wrong.
"Uncle, what are we going to do today?"
Liu Heng asked while jumping up and down. Luo Xin held Liu Heng's little hand and walked out of Changle Palace. On the wide square, the figures of the two people were stretched very long under the sunlight.
The coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer.
Three years passed like this.
————
In the previous article, the author described the continuity of ancient Chinese culture. This chapter talks about the continuity of the political system. According to the historical records of ancient China, there were three state dynasties: Xia, Shang and Zhou.
Some people try to prove that older dynasties are orthodox, and older mythological figures are orthodox, and that the Shang and Zhou dynasties were the actions of later generations. It is ridiculous that the descendants of Germanic people do not hesitate to call themselves Rome and then denounce their ancestors for invading Rome.
There is no doubt that after a thousand years of rule by the Zhou Dynasty, the Xia and Shang dynasties had almost no influence on later generations. The Zhou Dynasty, on the other hand, was the source of Chinese culture in every aspect, not just in terms of the existence of the Supreme God, but most importantly in terms of its influence on cultural institutions.
As we all know, every progress or regression of productivity will lead to changes in the social system. This is because the economic base determines the principle of superstructure. Such changes are usually drastic and cruel. Conservative forces will always resist stubbornly and ultimately achieve change through bloodshed.
This was not the case in ancient China. Admittedly, the changes during the transition between dynasties in ancient China were far more drastic than those in Western countries, but the new dynasty was always able to quickly choose a more appropriate political system based on the economic situation. It was unreasonable to propose high-level institutional construction every time within a short period of time between the old and the new.
However, the author found the source of all of this, which is the ritual and music system. This is a universal system that can adapt to any economic base. As long as the essence of ritual and music is mastered, and then all people in society are labeled and their strength is estimated, the contradictions in society will suddenly become clear.
Next, let me explain in detail how this system worked in the Han Dynasty - History of the Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty
(End of this chapter)
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