Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Seeing that Zhu Di was about to refute again.

Of course Zhu Di had to refute, and there were many reasons to refute.

But Zhu Gaochi held Zhu Di's sleeve and asked along Dao Yan's train of thought.

"Master Daoyan, what do you think a world would be like without what the master calls 'blood-sucking insects' like us enslaving people?"

This question actually made Dao Yan hesitate.

Dao Yan pondered for a moment before answering.

"It is similar to what Confucianism called the 'Great Harmony World' in the pre-Qin Dynasty."

"The path of the great road is that the world is for the common good, select the worthy and capable, be trustworthy and cultivate harmony. Therefore, people do not only kiss their relatives, nor only their children, so that the old will have their end, the strong will be useful, and the young will have their own strengths, and they will be modest, widowed, and lonely. The orphans, the lonely, the disabled and the sick are all supported, men have their share, and women have their own homes. If goods are abandoned on the ground, there is no need to hide them in oneself; if one's strength does not come from the body, there is no need to hide them for oneself. This is the reason for conspiracy. There is no prosperity, thieves and thieves do not commit crimes, so the outside doors are not closed, this is called Datong."

Zhu Gaochi still did not refute, but followed Dao Yan's words.

"Master Daoyan thinks that this world should be for everyone, not for one family and one surname. But what is the difference between this and Xie Jin's proposal to restore the well-field system?"

Zhu Di couldn't help but interject and laugh: "Old monk, have you become the rotten scholar you looked down on the most at the beginning? You are useless and unrealistic!"

When Dao Yan heard this, the look on his face was not the anger that Zhu Di expected, but instead one of helplessness and some kind of... contempt?

"What is Jie Jin?" Dao Yan tried his best to explain, "It's just similar. I can't think of a better metaphor for the time being, but it's fundamentally different."

"Oh?" Zhu Di also got into a fight with Dao Yan, "Since you, old monk, said it's not the same thing at all, then tell me, what do you think about this matter?"

Zhu Di really didn't believe that Dao Yan could find a basis that would at least allow him to see a possible future world.

After all, Dao Yan was considered crazy in Zhu Di's mind.

However, something unexpected happened to him.

Dao Yan actually said something that shocked him.

"Like Jiang Sheng Zhili, manufacturing power must always improve. There has been no progress for more than a thousand years since the unification of the Qin Dynasty. It does not mean that there will be no progress in the future. This process may still be long, but it may also be short."

"If the ability to grow food is improved, a farmer can support a larger population than now, and the population will definitely flow into a more prosperous city. At that time, perhaps like the Song Dynasty, commerce and handicrafts will develop greatly, creating far-reaching achievements. Super-agricultural wealth.”

"Of course, this is also an example of Lao Na." The gray-headed Dao Yan explained patiently, "It is not the same thing as the Song Dynasty at its root, but it is really like the emergence of iron plows and oxen plowing in agriculture, the emergence of handicrafts huge changes.”

Hearing this, Zhu Di frowned, Zhu Gaochi was thoughtful, but Yuan Gong, who was listening silently, nodded unconsciously.

Yuan Gong, like Dao Yan, was born in the late Yuan Dynasty. He had seen the extremely prosperous handicraft industry in the south of the Yangtze River and the prosperous foreign trade scene of the coastal shipping department.

It was precisely because he had seen it with his own eyes that Yuan Gong believed it.

Yuan Gong said sincerely: "It is indeed possible. The real wealth creators in the world are either the farmers who grow food or the craftsmen who make items. Since agriculture has experienced disruptive progress, there is no reason why handicrafts cannot appear in the future."

"For example, in agriculture, it's like people's resistance turned into iron plows and oxen plowing." Zhu Gaochi thought leisurely, "Perhaps taking the weaving of Sichuan brocade as an example, in the future we can no longer have to work hard to weave it now, but will soon be weaved by someone." Iron tools like 'iron plows' are spun quickly under the power of 'oxen'."

"Are you both crazy?"

Zhu Di muttered, but unconsciously began to imagine it.

If that were the case, wouldn't it mean that the Ming Dynasty could cheaply produce a large amount of Shu brocade, which is extremely precious to Western countries, and thus rob Western countries of their immense wealth through maritime trade? !

Zhu Di didn't know why, but he suddenly remembered Jiang Xinghuo's words when he explained ocean trade.

With a sudden stir, Zhu Di secretly scolded himself.

"Why, are you going crazy like the old monk? Thinking about these impossible things."

Dao Yan naturally didn't know what Zhu Di was thinking, and what he said next made Zhu Di even more incredible.

"Jiang Sheng originally said that 'manufacturing power' should be temporarily understood as 'the ability to grow food.'"

"I thought about it carefully and realized that Jiang Sheng felt that the second prince or the audience like us were really stupid, so that's why he didn't say the second half of the sentence."

"That is 'manufacturing power'. In fact, it should be 'the ability to produce the most valuable things', but for today's world, the most valuable thing is food."

"What about the future world? The meaning of 'manufacturing power' is definitely not limited to the 'ability to grow food', because Jiang Sheng also said that manufacturing power will inevitably develop forward with time."

Dao Yan pointed at Yuan Gong and said: "Just like what Yuan Jushi said, the real wealth creators in the world are not blood-sucking insects, but two types of producers."

"One is a farmer, producing food; the other is a craftsman, producing goods."

“Who stipulates that the world can only progress in the direction of its ability to produce food?”

"After food meets the needs of the population, the production of goods becomes the most valuable thing, and it can also become a new manufacturing force."

Zhu Gaochi was stunned when he heard this.

Zhu Gaochi suddenly spoke and continued to follow Dao Yan's train of thought.

"As Master Daoyan said, according to Mr. Jiang's theory, manufacturing power determines manufacturing relationships. Changes in manufacturing power and manufacturing relationships will lead to changes in the material foundation of society, and then subvert the top-level structure."

"Then, can it be understood that as the manufacturing capacity of the handicraft industry improves, it will lead to the handicraft industry becoming the main body of social manufacturing power, that is, the material foundation, and then the people who rule the handicraftsmen will become the top structure of society?"

"Or in the future, the merchants who rule the craftsmen will replace the nobles who rule the peasants?"

"That is to say, the 'dynasty' formed by the nobility ruling the peasants, or the large and small landowners ruling the peasants will be destroyed."

Dao Yan confirmed, he nodded and wiped the dust from his face.

"Based on what I have seen with my own eyes during my more than 60 years of traveling around the world, whether the court wants it or not, whether it stops it or not, it is very likely that handicraftsmen will replace farmers as the new dominant class of society in the future."

"And the merchants who rule the craftsmen will become the new aristocracy just like the nobles who rule the peasants."

"wrong!"

Zhu Di, who had been thinking for a long time, interrupted Dao Yan.

"Even if you say that the handicraft industry will make subversive progress in the future." Zhu Di's determined eyes looked extremely heavy, "But in the end, people will still enslave people. They just changed from nobles sucking the blood of farmers to merchants sucking the blood of craftsmen."

"In that case, what's the difference if it's still a world ruled by vampires?"

"In other words, how do you prove that a world without blood-sucking insects will become a world of great harmony?"