Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 554 There is no philosophy in Greece, only constant rereading
Guo Kang basically agreed with what they said. In his opinion, what everyone said actually made some sense, and there was no mistake in quoting scriptures.

In this society, all parties compete with each other. If a person has some qualities that exceed those of the people around him, he will definitely want more. Especially these days, people who have read books generally feel that their talents are underappreciated. Even for a woman, after learning so much knowledge, it is normal for her to have such thoughts.

Guo Kang still remembers that when the theologians and philosophers in the church studied and criticized Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, one of the focuses they focused on was that Neo-Confucianists were too partial to women and placed too high expectations on them. They always felt that They can be taught to abide by social rules. But in fact, the higher the level of education and the more books they read, the stronger these people's desires and ambitions will be.

However, Neo-Confucianists are all good at being teachers. My philosophical level is not very good, but I think about educating this and that every day. But human nature cannot change like this, so in the end, they will definitely destroy themselves.

From this perspective, this is not wrong...

However, Neo-Confucians like to preach, not so much because of some of their characteristics or innovations, but because of the inertia since Confucius. Maybe it's because they run schools themselves, so these people are used to preaching without deciding anything, and they have become path dependent.

However, without education, there seems to be no other way at present. The Greek philosophers actually couldn't come up with a good solution.

What Theodora said before was the opinion of Socrates and Plato. In this regard, she did not deliberately change the concept or use personal information. However, based on this point of view, she did not express the conclusion proposed by Plato.

According to the narrative of "Utopia", the final conclusion derived from this concept is that the monogamous marriage system should be abolished, family relationships should be dissolved, and men and women can be completely free to combine. All children are also owned by the public and are raised uniformly by the city-state, without paying attention to who the children's parents are. Plato believed that this should be the final and most perfect form of social development, and that the Utopia, or Utopia, should be organized in this way.

Guo Kang was already familiar with this conclusion before he studied Greek philosophy with his teacher. In his time, calls for the dissolution of the family and socialized upbringing were also common voices. Although in the eyes of people at that time, these should be some very pioneering and progressive concepts, in fact they were not "new" at all, and they were only a little later than Kong Laoer...

In Rome today, the group that has made the greatest contribution is the adult male citizens who were born as yeoman farmers.

——If nothing else, if Guo Kang also announces that he will no longer maintain a family and hangs out with those girls every day to have free love, she will be the first to be anxious. At that time, she will probably have to complain about how the dissolution of the family has been caused to her.

Guo Kang actually doesn't know much about what kind of men are the most popular. But he knew that the most widely circulated theory at present was summarized in the Jianghu dialect book compiled by Mr. Shi, Mr. Luo's teacher. To put it simply, it is the five characters "Pan, Donkey, Deng, Xiao, Xian".

Most ordinary people live like this. He doesn’t have much outstanding appearance, and he doesn’t have the energy to take care of it, and he doesn’t have much of a mood on weekdays. If there were no restrictions imposed by the monogamy system, then women would definitely be concentrated around a few of the most popular men, and would have little to do with these people.

For example, would these people support a utopian society? Guo Kang felt that there was no need to think about it. As long as they have some common sense and social experience, they will sneer at it. Because the free combination of men and women advocated by Plato is not good for them.

For opponents, the reasons are easy to find. After all, the Greeks, and even Europeans as a whole, actually didn’t come up with much new stuff. After more than two thousand years of struggle, this set of ideals is still changing its skin back and forth, allowing everyone to discuss it over and over again in different ways. This innovation is not as innovative as the Neo-Confucianists - at least they are better at editing.

War and farming are the basis for maintaining the country, but these are very hard work. Training, marching, digging, water conservancy construction, reclamation, field work...all have to withstand wind and sun, rain and frost. When Yu the Great was trying to control the floods, he ended up with calluses, lameness and hemiplegia. This is true for legendary leaders, let alone ordinary people? Even a handsome young man will change after a few years of hard work. What's more, people who do business are often very busy, so how can they be in the mood to coax women every day?

The so-called free competition often results in monopoly.

In his view, social morality and the accompanying rules and customs are not some mysterious and illusory things, and they do not have to be linked to lofty settings such as Heavenly Father or natural laws. On the contrary, this is a reflection of the most basic needs of different groups of people.

Therefore, this kind of thing is really impossible to say. Guo Kang can understand why she did it so selectively. After all, he himself felt that that conclusion was too outrageous, and he didn't know how Plato elaborated it.

It can be said that, essentially, Europe has no philosophy. It keeps repeating what Socrates and others said back then, without making any progress in the entire concept.

In this regard, the idea of ​​​​decoupling is also correct.

Most of these endowments have nothing to do with ordinary citizens who are the foundation of the country.

As a political power, the morality advocated by the Purple Horde Khan must satisfy the interests of as many people as possible in order to gain everyone's support. However, the interests of various classes and groups may conflict from time to time. In this case, those who have contributed the most and made the greatest contributions must be given priority. Whether it is the law or various default rules in society, this must be arranged.

Therefore, Theodora only talked about one of the cases and did not talk about the final analysis result. After she said it, not to mention that others would definitely not accept it, she herself probably didn't agree with it very much.

But such a result means that whoever works will be unlucky, so naturally it cannot be sustained. And their bargaining chip is also very simple - they don't need to pay attention to those philosophical sermons, and they don't need to worry about whether women have the right to choose their partners at any time, because they have knives in their hands.

Therefore, an interesting phenomenon is that as the intensity of war increased and mobilization capabilities improved, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, laws and social rules became more and more conservative. During the most intense period of the war, illegal concubinage and adultery were serious enough to be punished by death, making most women legally unable to have relationships with upper-class men.

Similarly, some people believe that the reason why Confucianism has become more and more conservative is not that the scriptures and meanings have changed, but that people have changed. With the popularization of education and the decline in the cost of knowledge dissemination, more and more lower-class intellectuals have emerged. It was these lower-class Confucian scholars who brought the stance of their class and actively chose the conservative classics and meanings; it was not the classics and meanings that evolved and developed on their own and became conservative. And counterexamples also exist. The most famous example is that after the Roman citizen soldiers gradually disintegrated, the social atmosphere became more and more open, and finally reached the level of debauchery. The extravagance and chaos of Rome were deeply ingrained in the memory of Europeans, and were repeatedly mentioned by the church to call on people to maintain moderation. It even appears repeatedly in literary works in various forms.

Therefore, it is actually meaningless to simply discuss whether society should be conservative or open, and which state is more "advanced" or "better". Because this is not a philosophical issue, but a game between different classes - of course, whoever wins will be better.

On the other hand, if the social system and the power of various classes have changed, then forcibly changing policies will actually be of no use.

The decree of Augustus regarding absolution also existed. At that time, the social atmosphere in Rome had changed. Among the upper classes of society, there were problems of not getting married and the fertility rate declining.

Generally speaking, the decrease in births is due to the inability of the lower classes to provide sufficient resources to raise children, but the problems in Rome also occurred in the upper classes of society.

As the power of the aristocracy declined, the need for marriage decreased. Moreover, because they lived a prosperous life, they did not need children to take care of them and could live out their lives under the care of slaves and servants. The status of Roman women was also higher than that in Greek society. Upper-class women owned property, did not need men to support them, and were able to attend social events on their own, so their willingness to marry also declined.

Augustus was deeply concerned about this and hoped to reverse the situation by decree. In addition to rewarding childbearing and raising the status of mothers with multiple children, various methods have been thought of.

Augustus believed that family stability was a prerequisite for having children. However, the Roman upper class at that time was keen on divorce, and some ladies even had to change husbands every year. To this end, he formulated the "Julius Formal Marriage Law", which stipulated that seven witnesses must be found, cumbersome identification, and a committee headed by the senator ruled before divorce could be carried out. Trying to maintain family stability by deliberately making divorce more difficult.

Among other things, he asked Roman public officials to take the lead in having more children. Whether citizens elect public officials or the head of state appoints officials, under the same conditions, priority will be given to those with more children.

There was a "sabbatical period" for official positions in Rome, which required that after resigning from one position, one had to wait for a period of time before taking up the next one to avoid monopoly. Augustus stipulated that the number of children could reduce the period of leave by several years. Those public officials with many children can even be re-elected seamlessly.

At the same time, Augustus also imposed additional taxes on single women, deprived elderly single women of their inheritance rights, and confiscated their large properties. "Illegal" marriage between an old husband and a young wife, which is not conducive to the birth of offspring, is also subject to sanctions. In such a family, once the husband dies, the wife will also lose the right to inherit his property.

These measures were carefully designed by him. Some of the methods can be found in other civilizations. It cannot be said that he did not take care. However, the actual effect is still not good.

Tacitus later recorded that Augustus's laws failed to interest people in getting married and starting families. The upper class often resorted to fake marriages and adopted children to evade sanctions, and it was still fashionable not to have children. This series of efforts ultimately failed.

In Guo Kang's view, Augustus' efforts did not target the cause itself, but only focused on the phenomenon caused by the cause. In this case, there must be a problem. However, at that time, Rome's expansion was approaching its peak, and the structure of society had begun to change. There was really nothing he could do.

Now, Eudocia and Theodora both want to gain a higher status. In this respect, the Purple Horde provided more opportunities than ancient Rome and the previous Greek dynasties. Therefore, we can confidently say that we are worthy of them.

In this case, it is unrealistic to want to change anything. Just like Augustus could not change the Roman society that was close to its peak, Tuo Huan and Guo Kang, and even the Great Khan and the Zhuguo, could not actually change the society of the Purple Horde Khanate in its rising period. And they naturally don't have this ability.

"I think we don't need to be too nervous." He thought for a while and said, "Our country's system will never produce another Wu Zetian."

"When Queen Mother Helena was at her strongest, she used a group of pillar states to expel several other pillar states, and the premise was that their territories were too expanded, which affected the administrative reform of the court and the stability of the court. When she couldn't do anything for When her actions of seeking power and interfering with the succession of the Khan's throne provided enough convincing, the Legion overthrew her in one day."

"Wu Zetian can kill the general who just won the battle, but on our side, no officer or soldier will listen to her. Who dares to give such an order, those soldiers who have just won will go to talk to her collectively, No one else will stop him." He spread his hands and gave an example: "The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty may still be too honest..."

"I can also understand her emotions." He pointed at Eudosia and said to Tuo Huan and others: "These days, there will be no more Queen Theodora."

"The premise of that situation is that there is someone as powerful as Justinian. Empress Theodora is actually sharing and using his power, not her own power. But we don't have this kind of power now. A ruler who speaks his mind can directly lift a person from a humble background to the top of power based on his own likes and dislikes, ignoring the praise and criticism of society. "

"Whether this is a good thing depends on who it is for." He said truthfully: "However, it is not a bad thing to recognize the reality clearly. On the contrary, if the understanding of society is not deep enough, there will be problems."

"I think you both have this problem." He shook his head and said to Eudosia: "You have actually seen through part of society, but your reaction is too simple and direct."

"Society is built on the maintenance of force, especially Roman society. But this does not mean that the goal can only be achieved by directly controlling the source of violence, a simple and crude way. Aren't there many ways to achieve this? "

(End of this chapter)