Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 594: Confucius and Mencius’s teachings are the most suitable for developing industry

After being busy with various official documents and consultation meetings for several days, Guo Kang met Tuo Huan again. This time, as soon as he came to visit Guo Kang, he said to him: "You are going to be promoted, hurry up and prepare."

"Ah?" Guo Kang was confused.

"The court has recently held a meeting to discuss how to deal with Egypt." Tuo Huan told him: "Prime Minister Bu attaches great importance to the report you wrote before. He specially printed some of them and personally distributed them to everyone during the meeting of thirteen people. He said that we should see the ideas of the new generation of talents. Others also think it makes sense, and no one has expressed opposition so far."

"When the Senate met, Master Wang also gave a special presentation for you. He felt that this was the first time that a new business was being run from the grassroots level in a pagan area. Therefore, more innovative ideas were needed, and your idea is the most promising. They are still collecting opinions, but it should be generally OK."

"Master Wang has always been like this." Guo Kang shook his head: "I told him that this was just a reference, but he didn't believe it. I think he praised me too much. Sooner or later, I will get into trouble."

"And Prime Minister Bu, too. I know he's unsure, but doing this is too... deliberate. He's also an old official, why did he do this so abruptly..."

"Since the founding of the country, he is the first prime minister who was born a commoner." Tuo Huan told him: "And it's not just the position itself. Think about it, apart from the church representatives, were there any real commoners before the Thirteen People's Conference?"

"Is that so..." Guo Kang reacted.

Previously, those who could enter the Thirteen-member Council were either members of the Khan's House and the Pillars of the State, or nobles from the Northern Court, relatives of the emperor, or people from the families of the founding heroes. Occasionally, there were other situations, usually as adopted sons or representatives of noble families.

This is why the church has many civilian supporters even in the Purple Tent Khanate. Master Yin and Lama Wang are both civilians or even refugees. Apart from the veteran military nobles, they are the most stable members of the Thirteen-member Council. Everyone will naturally cherish this opportunity.

If this situation happened in the Central Plains, a large number of people would have been dissatisfied long ago. But the situation in the Western Regions was so bad that the situation in the Purple Tent Khanate was one of those with relatively smooth upward channels.

This situation was actually an accident. Originally, if it was a normal rotation, it should not be his turn. Although Prime Minister Wang is indeed old and may retire in the next few years, everyone has a rough idea of ​​the new candidate, who is probably someone from the Ministry of Rites. Before, Cao Jian's father was the most likely candidate, and the backup candidate was generally believed to be the Queen's cousin. In short, even among the people who like to make big words and are keen on exaggerating, few are optimistic about him.

However, due to an unexpected incident, Prime Minister Wang retired early, and the Cao family also exposed a lot of problems and was in a hurry to make internal adjustments. This gap gave others a rare opportunity.

As a beneficiary, the newly appointed Prime Minister Bu obviously understood the whole story and his real situation. So as soon as he came up, he began to show his goodwill to everyone. Especially his attitude towards Guo Kang, it was obviously to show his position and seek support from powerful people. Whether it is to reduce internal friction when handling official affairs in the future, or to gain private support to secure his position, such behavior is understandable. However, Guo Kang himself is actually a newcomer in the officialdom, and he always feels strange to be treated so politely by the Prime Minister...

"I'd better talk to him and express my position." He scratched his head and said to Tuohuan, "He is a little too hard now. This may damage his reputation and be detrimental to maintaining the prestige of the prime minister. The work of the prime minister's office in the future, and even other civilian officials in the future, will be affected."

"Don't think too much." Tuo Huan waved his hand: "He flatters you, just accept it. This way, it will be good for both of you."

"what?"

"I always feel that you are too influenced by the Central Plains. But we are not the Central Plains, and we cannot use the situation there as an example." Tuohuan explained: "The authority of our country is not as stable as that of the Central Plains, and the prestige of officials does not entirely come from the appointment of the court. There is no perfect imperial examination here, so the reputation of being clean and upright in the officialdom is not that important."

"In the current environment, if you accept his praise and cooperate with him, it will be a recognition of his authority. Moreover, everyone knows that you are a new generation figure that is valued by both the Guo family and the Khanate, and many officials are watching you. You two have cooperated with each other, and he has a good relationship with you. Not only does it not harm his reputation, but it will be more conducive to his work. Now and in the future, civilian officials will also gain more confidence and work steadily."

"Is that so..." Guo Kang finally understood what it meant.

"The minds of officials are not as simple as those of you Slavs." Tuohuan shook his head: "But this is not a big deal. Soon, the court will give you a real position and let you do things. You will know these things after practicing more."

"You are talking about position again. What is going on?" Guo Kang asked hurriedly.

"Didn't you say you wanted to find a place in Egypt as a pilot and recruit people to work on water conservancy?" Tuo Huan said, "Master Wang has always said that we need experiments to establish a foothold in a wider area and try to manage different religions. So the court attaches great importance to it and is planning to set aside a special area for you to preside over."

"There is a big difference between actual management and theoretical planning. Long-term management is different from your previous temporary call on the Slavs. However, all major events require the support of these basic work, so you should prepare well. I came here this time to ask if you have any questions that need help in advance."

"I can't really say for sure right now." Guo Kang admitted, "But as long as we can win militarily, I don't think the problem should be too big."

"Because the key to religion lies not in doctrine, but in the religious organization itself. The Mediterranean world has been divided for a long time, and everyone is unable to establish a unified organization, so religion will naturally split. Even if they once had the same faith and were theoretically believers of the same religion, in reality they will always split into different sects and regard each other as heretics. This is because everyone has this need for 'division'."

“Our Heavenly Father has given us full freedom, and we cannot blame Him for the division. After all, it is still our own problem,” he said, spreading his hands.

"I understand. You think that as long as we maintain a more stable organization, the doctrinal split will not be a problem." Tuohuan thought for a moment and said.

"Yes. Religion and religious organizations are two different things. Religion provides legitimacy to religious organizations, but the core function of religious organizations is not religion, but the provision of public services." Guo Kang continued to explain:

"In my opinion, doctrines are just tools. Just look at the Persians. Is there any big difference between believing in Ahura Mazda, believing in God the Father, or believing in Huda for ordinary people? I'm afraid it's very limited. It's just that the Zoroastrian organization has long been corrupt and has lost its influence on the people. The people need vibrant religious organizations to maintain public services, and Nestorianism and Muslims can fill this gap. So before the demise of Sassanid Persia, Zoroastrianism had already lost its vitality. I think it's because of this reason."

"On the other hand, if there is a unified country and a unified organization, then the doctrines will actually tend to be consistent. Even if everyone still has differences, they will not split or even conflict easily." "Our real advantage lies in having a way to maintain unity and maintain the unity of the organization. Look at the Central Plains. In the early years, there were various schools of thought, and later there were various schools of Confucian classics. There have always been many voices, but they have never really split. On the contrary, most theories are similar in this regard. I think this is an example that can be used as a reference."

"That's true in theory, but you also said that doctrines provide legitimacy for religious organizations. Different doctrines will definitely have an impact on the organization." Tuohuan pointed out: "The situation in our territory is generally fine. But if we march to the southern coast and eastern Mediterranean to recover the Roman homeland, we will definitely encounter a much more complicated situation than now."

"Some religions and sects have been in conflict with each other for thousands of years, and have even infiltrated the culture. Even if we let everyone know that the division is not God's intention but a problem caused by people themselves, it is still very difficult to get them to give up their long-standing conflicts and unite under the same faith. This is the objective situation over there, and I'm afraid it can't be solved by preaching alone. What do you think should be done?"

"I do have a more radical solution that can solve the problem once and for all," Guo Kang said, "but I think there are too many gaps here, and I don't know if it can work quickly."

"Just what you said." Tuo Huan urged, "As long as you have an idea, it's just a matter of how much you learn. After all, it's better than doing nothing."

"I think a lot of people might not like it," Guo Kang admitted, "because in my opinion, the doctrine is prone to division because it lacks something above the doctrine and above the worship of God."

"What is that?" Tuohuan asked.

"People." Guo Kang replied: "If we can make everyone realize that all kinds of divine will and interpretation are useless, and human will is the fundamental, then a lot of unnecessary internal friction can be avoided."

"You say this every day." Tuo Huan pointed out: "Does this solve all the problems?"

"At least it can avoid a lot of problems." Guo Kang said: "When monotheism replaced polytheism, everyone thought that divided city-states had divided gods, and a unified empire should have a unified father. But after so many years, we have already seen that this trick cannot be maintained stably either."

"We have seen many cases." He spread his hands: "Can faith bring people together stably?"

"I'm afraid it's not possible." Tuohuan admitted: "I've said this more than once. Neither we nor the Muslims can do it."

"So we should do the opposite. Let people first develop a unified will, then based on this unified will, maintain a unified god, and finally use this belief to maintain the country," said Guo Kang.

"After Dong Zhongshu, this model was perfected. Everyone tacitly agreed that the so-called will of heaven was a mysterious expression of the will of the people. The emperor obtained divinity from heaven and declared it through various sacrificial activities. Then, the court relied on the emperor to obtain the authorization of divinity. From then on, everyone was just fighting for the right to define 'people' and the right to interpret 'public opinion'. Few people who wanted to do things seriously would openly question this system. It is much more perfect than ours."

"On the surface, Seris has no state religion. However, the worship of heaven and the ritual system have played the role of a state religion. The scholar-official group also serves as a church. I have always advocated learning from their experience, because their model has been tested for a long time and is indeed the most suitable for our needs. Moreover, as technology develops further in the future, this advantage will be even greater."

"When our machines mature in the future, they can be manufactured on a large scale. Compared to the current production method, machines are more powerful, but they also rely more on strong organization. Because we must increase the scale of the workshop, control various mineral deposits, and ensure the transportation of raw materials and products in order to give full play to the efficiency of the machines."

"So, in the future, it will definitely be a unified great country that will be able to win in the industrial competition. All our current plans are to pave the way for this prospect."

"Oh, I see..." Tuohuan didn't quite understand this.

However, Guo Kang was very confident because during this period, he had figured out a lot of things and found that many historical laws seemed unexpectedly simple.

For example, he didn't seem to need to consider how industry came into being. Whether it was some natural phenomenon or whether he was really arranged by the Father and the Brother in Heaven to travel through time, he had already arrived, and the problem of how to make the earliest prototype machine had also been solved. So, he could take charge and complete this step ahead of time through his personal influence.

What really needs to be considered is how to enable the industry to develop further and better after the initial experiments.

So, which system had the fastest and largest industrial development? From all the history he knew, it was the Central Plains civilization.

After industrialization, the Central Plains civilization was influenced by European culture, but also retained a lot of local elements. Among them, the European culture was definitely not the dominant factor. It is not difficult to see that no matter how much they tried to get out of Asia and into Europe, they were just deceiving themselves. The Seris industry was more successful than Europe, but it couldn't be because they were more European than Europeans, right?

Therefore, the long-term and stable development of industry must rely on the local factors of Central Plains culture.

This is indeed in line with his cognition. After all, to achieve economies of scale and maintain various infrastructures, a strong and stable country is definitely needed. Countries that are too small, or countries that look big but will suddenly disintegrate, are unreliable. And Seris's system is an effective way to maintain a unified great power no matter what era it is.

The Romans obviously have no lack of European cultural elements. After all, they are the ancestors of Europe. If we do not recognize that Rome is Europe, isn't it the same as expelling our ancestors from the family tree? Therefore, we should learn the purest Central Plains culture.

The teachings of Confucius and Mencius supported an extraordinary empire for thousands of years in the agricultural era. After industrialization, these cultural heritages are still playing a role. Therefore, it is definitely not possible not to learn them.

"It shouldn't be a big problem for us to imitate." He thought for a moment and said to Tuohuan, "There are many records that we can refer to. The old master who wrote the book has long gone, but his "Book of Rites" still reminds us two thousand years later to maintain 'the same writing, the same track, and the same ethics.' I think if we follow these, we will definitely gain something."

(End of this chapter)