In 1950s, American scholar Lewis put forward the concept of "poverty culture". He summed up the characteristics of poverty culture, including high mortality, low life expectancy, low education level, long-term struggle for survival, pawning, living like a slave, busy life without leisure, longing for power, male chauvinism, only paying attention to the present, distrusting the government, weakness, sensitivity to status differences and lack of class consciousness. This poor culture gives people a strong sense of destiny, helplessness and inferiority. They are short-sighted, far-sighted and narrow-minded, and cannot understand their difficulties in a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds.
We must redefine the relationship between civilization and wealth. Wealth allows people to have extra time and energy to care about their own hearts, the world beyond their horizons, and to think about luxury issues that have nothing to do with their appetite. It is the soil where wealth and civilization grow.
Ancient Greek civilization was built on rolling gold coins. The Greeks had to take risks because the barren land could not support themselves. The huge Greek fleet kept exporting wine, olive oil and pottery, bringing back food and money. An economic historian asserted: "From the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC, the Greek economy rose rapidly. If we fully estimate the specific situation of different times, the Athens economy gives the impression that it is somewhat similar to Europe in the19th century. "
Wealthy civilians demanded political rights, which eventually led to the formation of democratic politics.
After the Middle Ages, the fundamental reason why Europe broke through the darkness and ushered in the Renaissance was that with the improvement of production technology, European serfs could become richer and richer, and they could bargain with feudal lords and obtain citizenship. Their educational level and spiritual strength have been continuously improved, which finally promoted the wave of commodity monetization and ushered in the development of capitalism.
As mentioned above, after the Song Dynasty, the per capita arable land area of farmers in China never recovered to the level of per capita 10 mu. Therefore, the Song Dynasty became the last glorious dynasty in the history of China civilization. Since then, during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the intensification of poverty has increasingly consumed the spirit of China people, and China culture has entered a long-term pause and retrogression. The impact of poverty on human dignity and human degradation is incalculable. When a family declines and falls into poverty, its members often become depressed and vulgar from the high spirits in the past, while their parents' style becomes more and more short-sighted, autocratic and rude. This is the change in China. Since the demise of the Song Dynasty, the aristocratic temperament and humanistic atmosphere in China culture have become increasingly weak, and the self-confidence in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the elegance in the Song Dynasty have never reappeared.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in abject poverty, was an important promoter of the decline of Chinese civilization.
Zhu Yuanzhang met all the conditions of the destitute. When I was a teenager, I went to herd cattle for the landlord. The children of the poor are easy to feed. Although the food they ate was the worst in the world, they didn't stop him from growing into a burly figure, but he was a little ugly: long head, wide chin and donkey face. Secretly called him "outstanding in appearance and extremely strange in bones."
In the future, the emperor's favorite game is "Being Emperor". You see, barefoot, a blue cloth gown, full of holes and patches, worn out, but he tore palm leaves into pieces, tied them to his mouth, got a beard, found a spoke plate to wear on his head as a flat crown, and sat on the mound, letting the children row by row, respectfully.
The only cultural activity is storytellers traveling in four neighboring eight towns. What are the xuanhe heritages of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Three Kingdoms, Yang Jiajiang and Dasong? In these ballads, he knew that "the king told me to die, but I had to die", that there were "loyal ministers" and "treacherous court officials" above the imperial court, and that "Song Taizu defeated 480 military countries with a sentry stick". Up to now, for the vast majority of China people, these storytelling legends, the bottom cultural products of traditional culture, are their real spiritual cornerstones and have laid the foundation for their life-long way of thinking.
Rural society has both simple human feelings and rural scenery, as well as ignorance, barbarism and blind obedience to power. The cultural spirit of the bottom of society permeates all aspects of Zhu Yuanzhang's body and mind. With the magical change of fate, Zhu Yuanzhang, who ascended the throne, inevitably spread the bad cultural factors in his personality to the whole country and national spirit.
Every move of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty was bound by the peasants' way of thinking. In his general plan of governing the country, we can clearly see the spiritual imprint of the poor culture in small villages on the south bank of Huaihe River.
Based on the experience of rural life, Emperor Hongwu's idea of governing the country showed a strong static orientation. His basic tendency to govern the country is to fix the running mode of the country and let the whole society return to the original state of "few people and many people are not old". As an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang maintained a simple peasant morality and paid special respect to the elderly in the world. He promulgated the "T-shirt saving year", stipulating that "companies should carefully examine people." In the 1980 s and 1990 s, neighbors said they were ready for the New Year. It was delicious. Poor and unemployed, over 80 years old, giving five barrels of rice, five pounds of meat and three barrels of wine every month; Gave a horse10 in the 1990s; Its breeding can only be self-sufficient, providing only wine, meat, poultry and phlegm. "
After the cancellation of the Prime Minister, Zhu Yuanzhang was as busy as a bee. He is whimsical, thinking that the old folk Confucianism started from other places and is clean and experienced, so he directly promoted assistant officials from the bottom of society. In September, 13th year of Wu Hong, the four auxiliary systems were established, and several common old Confucian scholars such as Wang Ben, Du Zhan and Gong Ji were found with the help of "praising politics". As officials, Chun, Xia and Dong helped him manage himself and "pay attention to Tianlang as soon as possible". However, after a period of practice, Zhu Yuanzhang found his ideas too naive. "All people are old Confucianism. They started from the family, but they have no advantage. " These old people made no contribution except visiting their grandchildren, so he had to abolish four assistant ministers in the fifteenth year of Hongwu.
To the outside world, farmers' basic reaction is rejection, fear and distrust. A closed life makes them feel safe and relaxed. They don't like adventure. They just want to keep the way of life handed down by their predecessors and live a stable life. Although Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the world by force, enterprising spirit and adventurous spirit, once the world stabilized, he immediately restored the conservative nature of farmers. Dayuan Empire is a worldwide empire, but its successor Zhu Yuanzhang is completely uninterested in the outside world. He was content to drive the Mongols back to the desert instead of going deep into the desert to completely destroy them. The Japanese kept making trouble and angered him. He also wrote several letters blaming him for a terrible meal, but he never thought of going far. He is not interested in overseas trade that has brought great wealth to China. He not only banned overseas trade, but also banned fishermen from fishing in the sea, and transferred all the island residents to China. Three days later, the latter died. In the Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang, more than 20 neighboring countries were listed as countries that did not levy, warning future generations to "remember not to be careless." Although there is not much property to protect, farmers in China have been keen to protect quadrangles for generations. After Qin Shihuang, Zhu Yuanzhang spent a lot of manpower and material resources to rebuild the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, so the Great Wall we see today is basically a relic of the Ming Dynasty.
The short-sighted interest view is another profound symbol of Guzhuang village where Zhu Yuanzhang lived. The bottom culture is the product of hunger, and pragmatism is its core. The possession and preservation of a few biological resources have attracted the attention of all farmers. For a little food and a few straw houses, people can use their physical and mental strength mercilessly, make good use of abacus, and let every grain of rice give full play to its role. Farmers rarely have the opportunity to exercise more advanced thinking skills, such as classification, abstraction and reasoning. In their view, the world is real. It is the sum of mountains, water, soil, trees, crops, pigs, cattle, sheep and chickens. When calculating numbers, they always flash images of these things in front of their eyes, or imagine what their fingers and toes look like before calculating. They can't understand the truth beyond the material level.
Like other villagers in Guzhuang Village, Zhu Yuanzhang is a staunch supporter of agriculture. In their view, businessmen are people who get something for nothing. They work hard on the land in exchange for real food, while businessmen only exchange goods nationwide. The total amount of goods has not increased, but it has produced a lot of extra profits like magic. They can't figure it out anyway. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was the most relaxed emperor in the history of China. In order to belittle businessmen, he specially stipulated that farmers can wear four kinds of fabrics: silk, yarn, silk and cloth. Businessmen can only wear clothes made of silk and cloth. Business examiners are subject to various difficulties and restrictions.
At first, in the Song Dynasty, China implemented a complete tax monetization, while Zhu Yuanzhang simplified the tax system into a material system. "The officers and jailers in the yamen are sent by villages in turn, and even stationery, paper, tables, chairs and benches are piecemeal repaired from villages." Huang Renyu said that Zhu Yuanzhang's design "is equivalent to announcing to China and foreign countries that China is the largest rural group in the world and can be satisfied without business."
The third influence is strong family values. Brothers fight, fathers and sons fight. In rural society, blood relationship is more reliable than any other relationship. Zhu Yuanzhang, who became emperor, had strong doubts about anyone, but trusted his blood relatives unconditionally. He is stingy and ungrateful to everyone, but he is afraid of his relatives.
Zhu Yuanzhang turned a blind eye and stubbornly let his children share the power of the emperor. His children were all made princes, with a huge army of "80,000 armor and 6,000 wagons" to prevent the imperial power from falling into the hands of others. Ministers pointed out the serious drawbacks of his feudal monarchy, but he thought it alienated his own flesh and blood, arrested the speaker and put him to death in prison. This arrangement eventually led to confusion. He stipulated the thinnest official salary since ancient times and the thickest royal salary since ancient times. He stipulated that his relatives and descendants should enjoy wealth from generation to generation and should not engage in any occupation, so the supply of the royal family became the heaviest financial burden of the country after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Farmers in China are the most industrious people in the world. They never consider their own labor when calculating the production cost. Physical strength and energy seem to be the least valuable things and can be consumed at will. Zhu Yuanzhang is one of the most industrious emperors in the history of China. He has a deep foundation in rural life and never dares to increase his workload. From his accession to the throne to his death, he hardly took a day off. In his will, he said, "It's hard to worry about the country and the people for thirty years." According to historical records, from September 14th to 21st in the 18th year of Hongwu, within eight days, Zhu Yuanzhang approved a total of 660 internal and external imperial edicts 1, and handled 339 1 piece of state affairs. On average, he reviews more than 200 Zagreb documents every day and handles more than 400 state affairs. Finally, you can imagine how hard he worked.
Farmers deny themselves most strictly when enjoying life. After thousands of years of poverty, their thrift has even become a blind instinct, not a means. Zhu Yuanzhang's frugality reached its peak among emperors. After becoming an emperor, I ate breakfast every day. "Only vegetables and tofu." There is no golden dragon on his bed. "It's like a porcelain bed." When he ordered the workers to make cars and sedan chairs for him, copper was used instead of gold. Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered people to grow vegetables in his palace. Wu Hong three years in the first month, zhu yuanzhang took out a piece of paper, to the ministers. As you can see, they are all Bai Na sheets made of small pieces of silk. Zhu Yuanzhang said, "It is better to abandon this legacy."
Like every farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang has a strong sense of place. Most of his heroes come from his hometown. After he ascended the throne, he felt that there was no better place than his hometown, and he missed the villages on the south bank of Huaihe River more and more. "The sacred heart misses the hometown of the son of heaven and wants to live in Fengyang for a long time." Fengyang was originally a barren land. When People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, he insisted on building its capital here. Despite repeated warnings, the ministers did not waver. Farmers save time and time again in their lives, but when building houses, they will give everything they have. Similarly, in order to manage Fengyang, the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on acting rashly, wasting money and manpower. He spared no effort to recruit hundreds of thousands of soldiers and craftsmen. He is afraid of spending money on materials. To be firm, pour molten iron into the crack. I didn't expect craftsmen to be so diligent that they used "disgusting methods" to express their anger. Frustrated Zhu Yuanzhang killed a large number of craftsmen, but his plan to return to his hometown in rags fell through. Otherwise, the decadence on the south bank of Huaihe River really became the capital of Ming Dynasty in ten years.