The Peak of Feudal Imperial Power

"People in later generations have glorified Ying Zheng, that tyrant! Is that even Ying Zheng?"

"Have all the people of our Six States died out in later generations?"

"Heaven is unjust!"

Seeing the two versions of Ying Zheng appear one after another on the heavenly screen, the remnants of the Six States felt everything they knew had been turned upside down!

Even the First Emperor of Qin himself had never imagined that this was how later generations saw him!

"This world divides and unites again and again, but it is always the common people who suffer."

"A realm governed by law, a people enlightened by Confucianism."

"I wish to forge a sword for the Son of Heaven..."

"Unite all under heaven, and prosper for ten thousand generations!"

"It was I who brought the four quarters to heel and opened up the vast world! It was I who gave the people food in the morning and shelter at night! It was I who created a true country and home!"

"Those people have never stood where I stand. How could they understand the view through my eyes? How dare they judge my achievements!"

He had never said any of those domineering words! Yet every sentence expressed what was in his heart!

As for Legalism and Confucianism, Ying Zheng understood that the harsh laws and punishments of Legalism could maintain the stability of the state, while the benevolence and morality of Confucianism could guide people's hearts. Legalism was a sword that cut through tangled chaos; Confucianism was a shield that protected the foundations.

He wanted to draw on both, balancing firmness with gentleness, rather than letting either dominate. Otherwise, he would not have arranged for Confucians to teach Great Qin's eldest prince.

As for the rest, Ying Zheng ignored it for the time being.

The emperors who had already been jealous of Ying Zheng were even more jealous now.

More than two thousand years later, there were still people who wanted to marry the First Emperor of Qin.

More importantly, the person who posted that comment had a beautiful woman as her profile picture.

Not only that, someone even wanted to capture Tang Sanzang and bring him to Ying Zheng!

[The peak of feudal imperial power #Qing Dynasty #Confucianism]

It's our Great Qing again?!

Seeing the video's title, the emperors of Great Qing thought that what the heavenly screen was about to show should be favorable to Great Qing.

It was the perfect chance to show everyone under heaven.

["Why did feudal imperial power reach its peak in the Qing Dynasty? One very important reason was that the emperor took control of the right to interpret Confucian culture."]

Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin: "The right to interpret Confucian culture. That's an interesting phrase."

["Ever since Emperor Wu of Han dismissed the hundred schools of thought and elevated Confucianism alone, Confucian culture became the orthodox culture of the feudal dynasties, and Confucius became Sage Kong, whom emperors of every age had to revere. Moreover, the right to interpret Confucian culture remained in the hands of Confucian scholars, that is, the scholar-official class."]

"Dismissed the hundred schools? Elevated Confucianism alone?"

Hearing this, the thinkers of the hundred schools, apart from the Confucians, nearly stopped breathing.

["For example, in the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu was the authority on interpreting Confucian culture. By the Song Dynasty, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, and Zhu Xi were representative figures in the interpretation of Confucian teachings."]

["Don't underestimate this kind of power. Whoever held it occupied the moral high ground and possessed immense authority."]

["Although imperial power was strong in every dynasty, emperors still had to honor Confucianism as orthodoxy and speak and act according to the principles it advocated."]

["For example, suppose an emperor loved a commoner woman and wanted to make her his empress. But the scholar-officials who held the right to interpret Confucian culture would say that people were divided by rank, and that an emperor marrying a commoner woman violated Confucian propriety. If the emperor dared do such a thing, they would denounce him as a foolish ruler, and the entire court would oppose him. The court historians might even devote a separate passage in the historical records to condemning him. Unless the emperor was exceptionally headstrong, he would not defy the world's condemnation to marry that commoner woman. In this way, the scholar-official class restrained the emperor and limited imperial power."]

["But in the Qing Dynasty, the scholar-official class was stripped of this right, and the emperor gained the right to interpret Confucian culture. A defining event came during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, when he personally examined officials of the Hanlin Academy on the subject of true and false Neo-Confucianism, and denounced Li Guangdi, Xiong Cilü, Tang Bin, and others as practitioners of false Neo-Confucianism."]

["These men were among the most prestigious Neo-Confucian scholars of their time and were also representative figures of Confucianism. Originally, the right to interpret Confucian culture had been in their hands, but now Kangxi said their interpretations were wrong, and all interpretations had to follow his."]

["Under these circumstances, the emperor himself had the final say on whether he had acted rightly or wrongly, and whether he was a foolish ruler or an enlightened one."]

["In feudal dynasties, the right to interpret Confucian culture was equivalent to the right to interpret morality. It was one of the most important means by which the literati and scholar-official class limited imperial power."]

["Now that even this right had been taken by the emperor, the literati and scholar-officials lost their final weapon. Imperial power was completely freed from restraint and reached its peak."]

[By the time of the Manchu Qing, Confucianism was no longer Confucianism! It had become servility!]

[Confucianism was corrupted generation after generation. Its role in history was that of a maidservant: anyone could dress it up, and anyone could use it.]

[Exactly right!]

[Well, they were Manchu Tatars, not descendants of Yan and Huang.]

[The main thing is that the Qing Dynasty wasn't Han Chinese.]

[The Manchu Qing's power base was the Eight Banners. Even the landowners and great clans had to bow their heads!]

[You talk reason with them, and they talk blades with you.]

[The Manchus killed them into submission!]

[Cynicism!]

[Sun Dianying was a national hero.]

[The main thing is that the Manchu Qing's original shareholders were the Eight Banners, not the scholar-officials!]

[The Manchu Qing emperors used scholar-officials to govern the realm, and the Eight Banners' scions felt that the power in their hands had been taken from them.

If the emperor wanted to kill scholar-officials, the Eight Banners' scions, who had only grievances against the scholar-official faction and nothing to gain from it, certainly wouldn't hold back.

What? If all the scholars were killed, who would govern the realm?

The uneducated Eight Banners' scions said, "Although we haven't studied, we're confident we can govern the realm well."

Once those pompous Confucian scholars are all dead, there'll be no one left to compete with me for power.]

After watching the video and reading the comments one by one, the emperors of every age understood why imperial power had peaked in the Qing Dynasty.

You talk reason with them, and they talk blades with you. Well said.

They reasoned with blades, and if someone wouldn't listen, the blade went in clean and came out red, right?

Many emperors wanted to follow the Qing Dynasty's example and take control of the right to interpret Confucian culture, only to discover they couldn't.

Throughout the dynasties, some had won the realm through their own abilities, some had been raised to power by great Aristocratic Clans, and others shared rule of the realm with the scholar-officials.

"Confucianism? Servility? Cynicism?"

Each comment stabbed into the hearts of Confucian scholars throughout the ages like a knife.

The sages, second sages, and great scholars of Confucianism nearly stopped breathing, just as the thinkers of the hundred schools had earlier.

They naturally could not accept Confucianism becoming servility.

As Confucian scholars and officials, they found it even harder to accept that their means of limiting or even suppressing imperial power had been taken away. It concerned the interests of the Lineages behind them.

"Barbarians are barbarians indeed—brutal, unreasonable, and deaf to reason!"

"This Qing Dynasty cannot be compared to our Great Yuan!"

"Compared with these Jurchens, I feel even the Mongols to the north are better than them!"

In one time and place, Confucius's disciples were all furious. In later generations, the hundred schools had been dismissed and Confucianism alone elevated, and emperors of later ages all had to revere their teacher as Sage Kong. But as they watched on, none of them could keep their composure.

Confucius himself was relatively untroubled. He could not live forever, and how Confucianism developed after his death was not something he could control.

The emperors of Great Qing were quite pleased after watching the video.

They had solved a problem that no previous dynasty of the Central Plains had resolved.

Cixi: "Our Great Qing far surpasses every dynasty before it!"

"Who was Sun Dianying? Why do they call him a national hero? What did he do?"