Chapter 39 Section 3 The Four Great Ideals of Farmers

In order to judge whether Zhu Yuanzhang has betrayed the peasant class, we must first determine what is the social ideal of the peasant class. We cannot imagine that the peasants who followed Zhu Yuanzhang's uprising embraced revolutionary ideals.As small farmers in the era of natural economy, their dreams cannot "transcend the historical stage", and it is impossible to surpass the ambivalence of farmers who yearn for equality and superstitiously believe in authority.The social ideals of the farmers who have lived on this land for thousands of years can be summed up in the following points:

First, in their ideal society, there must be a stern, fair, and uncompromising Mingjun, who is high above the ground, decisive, and generously pouring sunshine and rain on the peasants.This Mingjun should be strong and majestic, see everything, appoint loyal ministers, reject treacherous men, and bestow discipline and peace on them like a father.This Mingjun should be extremely benevolent, lightly taxed and generous, caring for them like a mother, loving them, and helping them in a disaster year. Second, this society should be an egalitarian society. "Average" is the greatest ideal of the peasants, and it is also the slogan of previous large-scale uprisings.As a vulnerable group, farmers are cowardly, selfish and kind.They have had enough of being bullied by others, and they know what it feels like to be bullied best. Therefore, everyone's land and wealth are roughly equal, and no one has to suffer from jealousy. This has become their description of an ideal society for thousands of years .In Confucius, this ideal of peasants is described by Wen Cranchi as "not worrying about scarcity but suffering from inequality, not worrying about poverty but worrying about anxiety".The best vernacular interpretation of this sentence should be "I am not afraid of being poor, but I am afraid that others are not as poor as me. I am not afraid of having less things, but I am afraid that others have more than me."

Third, as a supplement to egalitarianism, this society should have distinct levels.The sky is above and the earth is below, the father is honored and the son is humbled. The personality structure of "authoritarianism" determines that the peasants strongly desire a stable and stable society with clear hierarchy and order.The "egalitarianism" of the peasants is the egalitarianism within the small farmers. They have never expected that all members of the whole society are equal. Such a social state of free competition with "regardless of age, seniority and inferiority" is beyond their imagination. , they thought that was bound to bring confusion.They absolutely agree that a society should have "high and low", and absolutely agree with the strict discipline given to them by the superiors.They believe that only in this way can the society be "peaceful all over the world, all people enjoy their work, the weather is smooth, and the monarch is upright and his ministers are good."

Fourth, as the peasants at the bottom of the society, apart from fear of natural disasters, there are three kinds of people who are most afraid of: one is the exploitation of corrupt officials, the other is the rich and powerful who use the strong to bully the weak, and the other is the local hooligans Do evil.Therefore, farmers sincerely hope that in this society, civil and military officials will be clean and honest, landlords and big households will be kind and law-abiding, and local ruffians will be wiped out.In other words, the peasants expected "fairness and justice" so that "everyone worked hard, devoted themselves to their duties, men valued virtuousness, and women were chaste".

Before Zhu Yuanzhang, no emperor could realize all the dreams of the peasants.Even those founding emperors who experienced the baptism of the peasant uprising were only able to achieve a few young and poor endowments at the beginning of the founding of the country.More emperors are colluding with landlords and bureaucrats (xie) on the first day of ascending the throne, joining hands to exploit the people at the bottom.