In the twenty-fifth year of Dingwei, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea secretly received tribute envoys from the remnants of the Jianzhou Joseon Dynasty tribe, offering them sable and ginseng, and secretly exchanging information. Emperor Taejo dispatched a naval force from Dengzhou across the sea, with two hundred ships reaching the Han River. A proclamation was sent to the Royal Capital, stating. "Your ancestor Yi Seong-gye -gye received investiture from Emperor Go-jong, and his descendants have guarded the eastern vassal state, vowing to be its bulwark. Now you have forgotten the teachings of Jizi, and secretly communicated with wolves and jackals. Is this the conduct of a subject?" King Yi Ho of Korea surrendered in plain clothes, presenting household registers and maps, and wishing to relinquish his royal Korea Province and opened four schools in Pyongyang, Hanseong, Busan, Uiju, teaching the " Correct Pronunciation of Chinese." Scholars in the East began to study the " Correct Rhymes of China," and the literary style gradually resembled that of the China.
In the thirtieth year of the reign of Emperor Taizu (Renzi), the Russia built the Albazin City and plundered the border people. Emperor Taizu dispatched a general to Liaodong, ordering the construction of a thousand ice sleds. Taking advantage of the frozen Heilongjiang River, they rushed to the city day and night. After a three-month siege, they fired heavy cannons at the fortifications, causing the city walls to collapse. The Russia general, Tolbuzin, surrendered, which was granted. The Treaty of Nerchinsk was established, and a stele was erected to define the border. The Outer Northeast was incorporated into the map, and a General of the Heilongjiang River was appointed to govern it. At that time, the territory stretched east to the Aral Sea of the Whale Sea in the west, north to the North of the Desert, and south to Champa. Tribute envoys from all directions came in an endless stream, and the country was at its peak.
In the thirty-fifth year of Ding Si, an imperial edict was issued to unify spoken and written language. Emperor Taizu summoned the Hanlin Academy and instructed them, "The * Book of Documents * is convoluted, which is due to the times; the * Book of Songs * is clear, which is also due to the times. Now, farmers and workers need to be literate, and official documents should be understandable even to peddlers and laborers. Why make them so difficult?" He published the * Correct Characters for Vernacular Chinese *, standardized character forms, and changed the format of memorials to use vernacular Chinese. The great Confucian scholar Gu Yanwu submitted a memorial strongly remonstrating, arguing that "vernacular Chinese is shallow and vulgar, disgracing the culture." Emperor Taizu wrote in his Record of Daily Knowledge * to enlighten the world and save lives. If the principles are too profound and difficult to understand, and the people do not hear them, how can you save the world? I bestow upon you fifty taels of silver to return and write * Vernacular Record of Daily Knowledge * so that all people can understand it." Yanwu withdrew in shame. From then on, the * Vernacular Peking Gazette * became popular in the streets, and children in village schools recited vernacular Chinese, and the number of literate people increased daily.
In the forty-first year of the reign of Emperor Taizu (1363), civil reforms were initiated, and customs were rectified: foot binding was banned for women, with the edict stating, "The four limbs are given to us by our parents; how can they be mutilated? Those who violate this rule will be punished against their parents"; the system of concubines was abolished, and the law of monogamy was established, with princes and nobles not allowed to exceed this limit; 30,000 licentious shrines were destroyed, and the materials were used to build schools and hire teachers. The gentry of Jiangnan, feeling that the abolition of concubines and the ban on foot binding harmed their private interests, and also resenting the equal land distribution system, elected Lu Wenxiang, a student from Suzhou, as their leader, gathered a crowd to mourn at the Confucian Temple, and subsequently launched a rebellion, attacking the Suzhou prefectural government. Emperor Taizu dispatched the Book of Documents... The emperor held Book of Documents ceremony for Confucius and personally wrote the inscription, "The Way of the Sage is like Heaven, ever-renewing with the times; the Great Way is like a river, its vastness comes from its confluence. To be bound by old rules is not the way of a sage." He then ordered troops to suppress the rebellion, but the rebels were outnumbered and captured Wenxiang. Emperor Taizu, mindful of Wenxiang's pedantry, spared his life and exiled him to the Northwest, pardoning the rest of the rebels. Emperor Taizu said, "The teachings of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi have both essence and constraints; we should preserve the essence and remove the constraints." He ordered the compilation of the " New Book of Principles," which combined Western science and China classics and history into one volume to enlighten the people.
In the forty-fifth year of Dingmao, a weaving bureau was established in Songjiang, where steam-powered reeling machines were built. Each machine could reel 500 taels of silk per day, equivalent to the labor of a hundred workers. The Luanzhou coal mine was opened, and the Western well-drilling method was used to avoid gas hazards. The Daye ironworks was built, with blast furnaces producing 100,000 catties of iron per day, enough to supply Ordnance Battalion. The railway was opened, running from Tongzhou to Zhangjiakou, with trains carrying one million catties of goods, traveling 600 li day and night, with unimpeded transport. The Netherlands envoy, Fan Baideng, seeing the forest of chimneys and the roar of looms in Songjiang, exclaimed, "The sound of China looms has drowned out the chimes of Europe clocks! The Celestial Empire has been revived!" That year, the population was counted, and the population exceeded one hundred million. The granaries were stockpiled enough grain to last for twenty years, and every family was well-off.
In the forty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Renshen, he enfeoffed his twenty-eight sons as kings, granting them fiefdoms in the Western Regions, the North of the Desert, Korea, Annam, to protect China. Before their departure, he held a banquet and decreed. "The Zhou dynasty enfeoffed eight hundred kingdoms, and the Han dynasty established nine kingdoms, all to protect the Zhou dynasty and support the Han dynasty. You, upon arriving in your kingdoms, should teach agriculture and warfare, promote education, and gradually cultivate Chinese and barbarian customs, so that the Book of Poetry and the Book of History can be recited west of the Pamir Mountains, and the Han dynasty's attire can shine east of the Gobi Desert." Upon arriving in their fiefdoms, the kings built cities and cultivated land, and established academies and schools. The Willow Camp Academy was established in the Western Regions, and the Shoujiang Surrender City School was built South of the Desert, gradually fostering a flourishing of culture in the border regions.
In the year 1262 (壬午), Emperor Taizu toured the Nanyang. A fleet of two hundred dragon boats arrived at Old Harbor, where a million immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong gathered to welcome him. Incense altars stretched for twenty miles, and cheers echoed across the sea. Seeing the banana and coconut palms covering the Nanyang, the rice ripening for three seasons, and the abundant produce, Emperor Taizu exclaimed to his attendants, "This is truly a land of Zhuya! The ancients called it 'a place of pestilence,' but they did not understand its waters and soil." He established the Nanyang Pacification Commission in Malacca and ordered the navy to patrol the Java Sea, protecting merchants and driving away pirates. The kings of Siam and Chenla, upon hearing this, sent envoys to the court to request the establishment of a maritime trade office. Initially, the annual customs revenue was six million taels of silver, further enriching the national treasury. Emperor Taizu erected a stele in the ancient city, inscribed with. "Wherever the sails reach, all is Han land; wherever the sun and moon shine, all praise the Chinese ways."
In his later years, Emperor Taizu was especially diligent in his duties, rising at cockcrow to review memorials until late at night without ever slacking off. He often carried Complete Map of the World, marking post stations, railways, and garrison locations in red ink, planning border defenses. Once, he caught a cold, and his son, Crown Shouren, tearfully advised him to rest and reduce his labor. Emperor Taizu replied, " Yu the Great toiled to pacify the land, and the Duke of Zhou fed the Duke of Zhou to bring peace to the world. I have received the Mandate of Heaven and govern the four seas; how dare I say I am weary?" After returning from his tour of the Nanyang, he often stayed in Jinling. Whenever he visited Black Tortoise Lake and looked eastward along the Yangtze River, he saw the city walls and chimneys like a forest, iron bridges spanning the moat, steam locomotives whistling and schoolchildren laughing and playing, and newsboys carrying the " China Daily " running around. The front page, "Successful Electric Lighting Experiment," caught his eye, and he would fall silent for a long time, as if filled with countless emotions.
In the winter of the sixty-second year of the reign of Emperor Taizu (1544), on the day of Yihai in the eleventh month, Sacred Body Taizu, though unwell, still insisted on managing state affairs. On the day of Gengchen, he rose and ascended the Wuying Hall of Martial Valor, summoning his senior civil and military officials to receive his dying instructions. He instructed them to "guard the four pillars and bring peace to the people," saying, "The sharpness of the army depends on the sharpness of its weapons; the foundation of the nation's destiny lies in the peace of the people; the goodness of governance depends on the laws and regulations; and the prosperity of the nation depends on education. These four are the lifeblood of the state; guard them without losing them, uphold them without forgetting them." At midnight, the celestial phenomena suddenly changed; stars fell like silk, and a red light illuminated the hall. Soon after, Emperor Taizu passed away at the age of eighty-six.
The will reads, "I was originally a commoner, but by the grace of Heaven, and thanks to the valiant efforts of my soldiers, and the reader's vote for the best novel in the ' Shrouding the Heavens: Yuanshi of the Myriad Heavens ' ranked highly! The people are united in heart, and thus the eight wastelands are cleansed, and the six directions are unified. Future rulers should remember this well: the people are the foundation of the state, and when the foundation is firm, the state is at peace; the law is the guiding principle of governance, and when the guiding principle is in place, everything falls into place; education is fundamental, transforming the people and shaping their customs; military prowess is the defense, protecting the borders and ensuring the safety of the people. My funeral should be simple and frugal, my mausoleum should be built into the mountainside, without a mound or trees, so as not to burden the people."
The court officials followed the imperial decree and bestowed upon him the Heaven-Opening Liji Martial Saint Ren," with the temple name Taizu. He was buried at Changrui Mountain, with the mountain serving as his mausoleum, and no Minglou (a type of imperial tower) was erected, in accordance with his will.
The historian wrote: The late Ming Dynasty was in turmoil unlike any other in history. Bandits ravaged the Central Plains, the Jianzhou Jurchens roamed the northern frontier, Yanjing fell, emperors and empresses died for their country, ancestral temples were reduced to ruins, and the people suffered immensely. Emperor Taizu rose from humble beginnings, at the age of seventeen distributing wealth to gather brave warriors, Jinggang, he reorganized his army, showing his early prowess. In the Battle of Huang'ao, he was divinely inspired by military strategy, thus gaining a comprehensive understanding of ancient and modern changes, possessing both literary and military talents, his bravery comparable to Xiang Ji, and his wisdom to Zhang Zifang. In his campaigns in the south and north, he lost nine horses and suffered dozens of wounds, yet his will never wavered; despite repeated rebellions, his mind remained steadfast. After pacifying Jiangnan, he lifted the sea ban, and after restoring China, he equalized land distribution. With the empire Greater Stillness, he was determined to reform, cracking down on corrupt officials, breaking the monopolies of powerful families, and eliminating the exploitation of maritime merchants. Although he faced repeated resistance, he persevered, ultimately achieving clean governance, a peaceful and prosperous society, and a full national treasury.
Throughout his life, he fought countless battles to establish his dynasty, expanding its territory to thousands of miles, surpassing the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties; he reformed and innovated, breaking the shackles of a thousand years and opening up new opportunities for all ages. He banned foot binding to protect women's rights, promoted practical work to recruit real talents, used vernacular language to enlighten the people, and revitalized various industries to improve people's livelihoods. His merits are immeasurable and will shine through the ages.
In the past, Emperor Gaozu of Han rose from Pei, and Emperor Guangwu of Han established his dynasty in Nanyang. Both were commoners who conquered the world. However, Emperor Gaozu of Han purged his meritorious officials, and Emperor Guangwu was slightly less adept at expansion. Emperor Taizu combined the might of Emperor Gaozu of Han with the benevolence of Emperor Guangwu. The breadth of his territorial expansion and the depth of his civil administration were unprecedented in history. The Book of Poetry says, "Though Zhou is an old state, its mandate is ever new," which refers to Emperor Taizu. Heaven was disgusted by the moral failings of the Ming Dynasty and gave birth to Emperor Taizu to save the people and usher in the prosperous era of the Chinese Heavenly Dynasty. This was truly the mandate of Heaven and the will of the people.
On the Black Tortoise Lake, looking Yangtze River, one sees a forest of chimneys within the city walls, iron bridges spanning the chasms, steam locomotives whistling and schoolchildren laughing and playing, and newsboys waving copies of the " China Daily " running through the streets. The eight characters on the front page, "Electric Lighting Experiment Successful," immediately catch the eye, and one falls silent for a long time, as if a thousand emotions are hidden in one's heart.
The setting sun melts into gold, staining the Yangtze River. The city of Nanjing stretches out majestically, with chimneys in the twilight steaming with pale white vapor, weaving a beautiful curtain of light with the glow of the sunset. The whistles of steam locomotives pierce the twilight, mingling with the laughter of schoolchildren on their way home; the crisp cries of newsboys fade into the distance, and the scent of ink from the " China Daily " in their hands drifts away on the evening breeze.
Sixty years have passed.
From that desolate dusk during the severe drought in Southern Jiangxi, he traversed mountains of corpses and seas of blood, endured the peril of betrayal and defection, survived the desperate struggle of fighting alone, and tasted the chill of power struggles; he received the fervent adoration of the masses and also tasted the loneliness of the solitary lamp in the dead of night. In the end, with the strength of a mortal body, he pulled a civilization on the verge of collapse back to the world and pushed it onto a new track of industrial prosperity and territorial flourishing.
His achievements will be remembered for a thousand years, and peace and prosperity will prevail throughout the world.
He rested his hand on the battlements, his fingertips tracing the mottled brick marks, gazing at the last rays of the setting sun sinking into the distant mountains. The evening breeze stirred his dragon robe, the fluttering fabric seeming to carry the weight of sixty years of history.
Suddenly, the door deep within my soul, which had never been locked, swung open with a bang.
Only one ultimate "perception" remains, transcending the starry sea and discerning the heavens. Countless light and shadow surge within consciousness: a cultivator in green robes achieves the Golden Core in a secluded overseas island, surrounded by the spiritual energy of the Wood element, brimming with vitality; a demonic body pierced by divine chains trembles slightly in the Void, its destructive Daoist aura resounding through the stars, its might overwhelming the ages; a youth engulfed in flames merges with Heavenly Flame in a secret chamber, a seven-colored pillar of light soaring into the sky, incinerating the heavens; a swordsman in white robes becomes one with his sword atop the clouds, his sword heart illuminating and shattering illusions, his sword energy crisscrossing.
And he, this old man who unified the land, initiated industry, and reshaped civilization, was merely a bright beam in this endless light and shadow.
It turns out that all the magnificent waves, love and hate, all the great achievements and difficult decisions were just a few notes in the grand symphony of the Way of Heavenly Dao. It turns out that the three characters " Li Qingshan " carry far more than just sixty years of imperial rule and reform history.
An indescribable peace and fulfillment washed over me like warm water. No regrets, no attachments, only profound understanding that dispelled all weariness and vicissitudes.
Li Qingshan, standing atop the city wall, slowly closed his eyes, a smile playing on his lips, pure as a newborn infant, profound as the ancient starry sky.
The whisper was barely audible, yet it seemed to penetrate the barriers of time and resound throughout the heavens. "Sixty years of vicissitudes, ushering in a new era for the nation."
Beyond those unknowable and unpredictable heavens, deep within the Jade Pool, lies the Chaos Dao Platform.
The true form of Li Qingshan, clad in black robes, slowly opened his eyes. His gaze first reflected iron horses and icy rivers, a landscape as beautiful as a painting, the marks of sixty-two years of tempering his heart in the mortal world; then came surging steam and giant ships cutting through the waves, the brilliant splendor of civilization's innovation; finally, it settled into a profound tranquility, a testament to the weight of civilization and the vicissitudes of time.
A powerful and pure primordial force surged forth from the Void Stone Gate, flowing perfectly into his Dao body like a river entering the sea, and merging into his Dao foundation.
This concludes the discussion of Other Selves".