Chapter 57 Section 2 The first ideological line of defense

In the first year of Wu, that is, the year before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent many armies to unify the world, and the wars were extremely frequent: Zhu Liang's ancestral troops marched into eastern Zhejiang and attacked Fang Guozhen; Xu Da's troops rushed to the north after capturing Zhang Shicheng; Tang He led an army to attack Qingyuan controlled by Fang Guozhen; Hu Mei's troops entered Fujian to attack Chen Youding; , and piled up Zhu Yuanzhang's table case tightly.However, at this time of military affairs, Zhu Yuanzhang poured a lot of energy into a seemingly insignificant job: formulating etiquette, that is, stipulating how the people of the Ming Empire in the future should salute when they meet, and how to dress and wear hats at ordinary times.

In June of the first year of Wu (AD 1367), Zhu Yuanzhang established the "Second Bureau of Ritual and Music" in Nanjing, mobilized experts and scholars from all over the country, and started this work under his personal guidance.We need to pay attention to one point: Zhu Yuanzhang only ordered the Ministry of Education to formulate laws in October of that year.That is to say, the etiquette construction of the Ming Empire in the future will be prior to the legal work, so the history books say: "Ming Taizu first established the world, and he did not neglect his duties. He first opened the Second Bureau of Rites and Music, recruited senior Confucianism, and divided Cao into discussions." Zhu Yuanzhang often summoned these etiquette experts, brought many ancient books, and discussed with them the complicated and abnormal etiquette regulations one by one, and it took half a day to study.

Zhu Yuanzhang is a very realistic person.The world has been set for the first time, and a thousand wastes are waiting to be prosperous. Zhu Yuanzhang needs to take care of countless major events. Why does he focus on etiquette? This is inseparable from Zhu Yuanzhang's overall design for the future world.In Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial blueprint, etiquette is the foundation of the state.Institutions and legal regulations are hard power, while etiquette is soft power.Soft power is like water, omnipresent and all-encompassing, and its importance is even more important than hard power. Courtesy, defense also.This is the core intention of Zhu Yuanzhang's etiquette construction.Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Etiquette is the defense of the country, the discipline of human nature, and the priority of the court. It cannot be ignored for a day."Because ordinary people may never deal with the government for a lifetime, but they cannot do without etiquette for a day.

Etiquette seems to be insignificant, but in fact it exerts a great power of subtle influence on the shaping of the psychology of social members.Strict and meticulous etiquette deeply penetrates the consciousness of status into people's collective unconsciousness, so that people behave well, keep their duties, and do not dare to offend others.Only when people's lives deviate from the rules, do they need to be dealt with by law.This is the so-called "Guide the people with the rites, and persevere with the rules." In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, an important reason for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty was that the Yuan government only grasped the law and not the establishment of etiquette.He said: "The Yuan family was confused, the Ji Gang was not established, the ruler was desolate and the ministers were appointed, and the prestige was moved downward. As a result, the laws were not good, and the hearts of the people were scattered, which led to turmoil in the world."

That is to say, the Yuan regime did not do well in the work of establishing guidelines and establishing discipline, and great power fell into the hands of powerful officials. As a result, people's hearts were scattered and the world was in turmoil.So just after he became King of Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang announced that etiquette work is the first step in building a country: "At the beginning of the founding of the country, first set the rules and regulations, and follow the rules and regulations first." From the first year of Wu to the third year of Hongwu, during the entire four years, Zhu Yuanzhang took etiquette work as the central task.After several years of hard work by hundreds of experts and scholars, finally worked out such as "Daming Jili", "Xiaocilu", "Hongwu Ritual System", "Zhusi Duties", "Jigu Customization", "Guochao Production", "Essentials of Great Rites", "Dynasty Ritual System", "Daming Ritual System", "Hongwu Ritual System", "Ritual System Collection", "Ritual System Jiewen", "Taichang Collection of Rites", "Book of Rites", etc. A series of rules and regulations are as numerous as mountains and seas, and the regulations are as fine as a cow's hair, covering all aspects of life in the Ming Dynasty, from the emperor down to the small people.Therefore, the people of the Ming Dynasty spoke highly of Zhu Yuanzhang's work on the rule of etiquette, thinking that the etiquette he formulated was "the court of the temple in the upper suburbs, the county of the king next, and the party of Xiangzhou in the lower middle. A hundred kings of profit and loss, surpassing the ages, or starting with righteousness, or following the changes of the times."

So, what does this set of perfect etiquette include?