Chapter 86 Section 5 The "childish disease" of "radicalism"

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally had his own ideas about setting off such a stormy mass movement throughout the empire.In an order, Zhu Yuanzhang announced his vision of a village head: "If the people in the world listen to me and follow this order seriously, then within a year, all corrupt officials in the world will become good officials." .Why? Because the good people are always monitoring and the bad people dare not do anything wrong, so officials at all levels have to be good officials and people.” In another place, he said: "Whoa! The elders and wise people in the cities and villages where I live are willing to follow my words and make this trip, and the world will be peaceful."

This is of course a typical "if...then" logic.It is undoubtedly correct to rely on the bottom of the society to supervise officials. The problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang did not seriously consider institutionalizing and normalizing this kind of supervision, but hoped to use only one mass movement to solve all problems. "Radicalism" has a very deep soil in China, a big "moderate" country. "Radicalism" is an "infant disease".Just as young men and women in love believe that as long as there is love, all other dissonances between two people are no problem, so political "radicals" believe that moral passion can defeat all injustices, as long as they are politically oriented. Any difficulty in actual politics will not be difficult to overcome if you concentrate on and absolutely abide by moral principles.It is characterized by taking things too lightly, impulsiveness, extreme attitude, fanaticism, and love of violence.It drags down that Chinese politics has been unable to break away from the category of medieval "ethical politics" and evolve into "secular rational politics".

"Rationality" is not a deficiency in Zhu Yuanzhang's innate quality. His clear mind and clear order in the war fully proved the strength of his reason.However, as he got older, the fantasies of "radicalism" in his political thinking became more and more the main theme. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang is a man, not a god.Under the strong pressure of all heroes, he can force himself to abide by rational command every minute and every second, and painstakingly find the only way to survive amidst many difficulties.After ascending to the throne, although he repeatedly reminded himself to be "careful" and "cautious", since the external pressure has disappeared, the long-suppressed "impatience" and "severance" in his nature inevitably surfaced .However, the smoothness and ease of slaughtering heroes and imprisoning the people almost met no resistance, which greatly strengthened his self-confidence and sense of impetuosity.

Sitting in the supreme position with no restraints around, Zhu Yuanzhang could not avoid the corruption of human nature by this position.Therefore, on the one hand, he is still able to work conscientiously, earn enough food and clothing, and force himself to work selflessly; on the other hand, he has no ability to suppress that powerful and blind "self" back under the control of "rationality". More and more controlled by the "self".The natural "violence" in the character and the "pan-moralism" tendency and the illusion of "power omnipotence" in the rural vision merged, resulting in the first phenomenon in Chinese history: the emperor sat on the ninefold, stretched out his hand at the lowest A fire was set among the grassroots in the country, and it was a whimsical hope to use the fire of local "anarchism" to completely burn down the soil of bureaucracy.