novelhk Chapter 271
Chapter 271
[The following may be unofficial history.]
When Qi Cheng saw the beginning of the video, he couldn't help but smile. This blogger is interesting. He shut up those people in the comment section right from the beginning.
There is always a shortage of people arguing in the comment sections of those history bloggers.
For example, when Qi Cheng watched a video introducing generals from two provinces, people in the comment section started arguing about how Zhuge Liang was selected into the Temple of Martial Arts.
Some people actually think that Zhuge Liang was chosen for the sake of the rule of ancient emperors. In other words, because Zhuge Liang was more loyal, he was favored by the emperor.
It's totally off the mark.
Everyone should be familiar with tribute, where people of lower status give famous local specialties to people of higher status. This is called the tribute system, and it started very early.
[It's been around since at least the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the Lu Province was required to pay tribute of dried sea cucumbers, and the Chu State was required to pay tribute of lemongrass. Later, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when they wanted to punish the Chu State, they found an excuse that the Chu State hadn't paid tribute in several years.]
[In fact, there are many more stories about tribute, let us talk about them.]
If we talk about the person who used tribute to cause trouble the most, it must be Emperor Wu of Han. At that time, due to the feudal system, there were many princes with the surname Liu in various places.
[Although there was an Enfeoffment Order, Emperor Wu felt it was still insufficient. He used the excuse that the gold presented by the Liu clan princes to the Imperial Ancestral Temple was impure and stripped over a hundred of their titles.]
[It is said that Liu Bei's ancestor Liu Zhen was deprived of his title due to the bribery of jiujin.]
Can the Ming Dynasty emperors learn from this? Why did they keep so many useless members of the imperial clan? Zhu Yuanzhang was the one who took the blame for producing such useless members of the imperial clan.
Zhu Yuanzhang: Why is the blame placed on me again?
big man
Liu Che felt a little embarrassed. He had taken the title and bribed others to maintain his rule. He had no idea that there would be such a person among Liu Zhen's descendants.
He felt that if Liu Bei were in his position, he would also implement this strategy.
……
[Some of the tributes later on caused quite a few jokes. For example, Yizhou was rich in tangerines, and every year they were presented to the emperor as tribute. To make them look beautiful, each tangerine was wrapped in paper.]
Later, an official took office and felt that paper was not high-quality enough, so he switched to cloth wrapping. Later, a minister named Gan Zibu came to this post station. When the official heard about it, he thought the court had sent someone to punish him.
He quickly ran to the post station to explain, and finally he understood that the person who had come down was Gan Zibu, and that he had nothing to do with the matter he was worried about.
[In history, there was indeed an official named Gan Zibu, but I don't know whether he actually experienced this.]
Dahan: There is no such thing in our dynasty.
Three Kingdoms: We don’t have any either.
Da Song: Not us.
Ming and Qing Dynasties: Don’t get involved, we’ve already taken enough blame.
[For provinces that are close, paying tribute is acceptable, but for provinces that are far away and need to keep fresh, it is a hellish journey.]
For example, during the Tang Dynasty, lychees were transported to Chang'an by fast horses, which was laborious and costly. Du Mu wrote a poem about this: "A horse gallops through the red dust, and the concubine smiles. No one knows it is the lychees that are coming."
[In later dynasties, many people also wrote poems satirizing this incident, but how did they do it? There was still a method, but it was not to transport lychees.]
For example, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the transportation of hilsa from the Yangtze River began with ice stored in special icehouses in Jinling. The transporters would then stop every twenty miles, raising flags during the day and lanterns at night.
The delivery riders were not even allowed to eat, only eggs, wine, and ice water. They had to deliver the fish from the Yangtze River to Beijing within three days.
Tang Dynasty
Li Shimin knew about the lychee incident in the previous video, and he also knew that it was Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's fault, but he didn't expect that the later dynasties would be the same.
He even has the nerve to write poems satirizing the Tang Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty
Zhu Yuanzhang said that he could not be blamed for this, as his capital was in Nanjing at that time, so it must have been the work of the fourth son Zhu Di.
I am a stick, and I must break his legs today.
Qing Dynasty
Emperor Qianlong felt that Tianmu's explanation was not detailed enough. The job of transporting shad had stopped as early as the time of his grandfather, although he still offered lychees as tribute.
But the methods have been improved a lot, and there is no need for fast horses for transportation anymore.
Just walk slowly. By the time we get to the capital, the lychees on the trees will be ripe. What are you talking about? What if the tree dies along the way? Feel your head to see if it's still on your neck.
Finally, I want to talk about our tribute system. The system was pretty normal at the beginning. People gave you things, and you gave them things of similar value in return.
Gradually, this system was broken. People would take something and you would give them back something hundreds of times more, hoping they would show off your superiority.
[If I didn't know, I would have thought he was just stupid and rich.]
[And it's impossible to tell from the tribute which ones are useful and which ones are completely useless.]
Of course, some would argue that there's a political component to this. They came to pay tribute because they recognized the leader's status and were willing to live under his leadership.
I think everyone can look at how the Zhou Dynasty treated the tributary princes. In the early days, who dared not recognize the status of the Zhou Dynasty?
[Those vassal states were struggling to build their own kingdoms. The Zhou Dynasty provided them with few resources, so as long as they remained strong, the smaller states around them would have no choice but to acknowledge their suzerainty.]
Tang Dynasty
Li Shimin reviewed it carefully and felt that what Tianmu said in the video made some sense. For these small countries around him, he had to use both a stick and a carrot.
It’s definitely not enough to just give without getting anything in return.
"What do you think should be done about this matter?"
Zhang Sun Wuji bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I think we should have stricter requirements for tribute within the Tang Dynasty. Some things should be purchased by the palace."
"That's right, I think we can suspend the tribute of some of the more difficult things." Wei Zheng said further.
"As for the small countries around us, I think we should not exploit them too much, but we should always have political influence on them, such as allowing their young kings to study in Chang'an."
"As for other commercial matters, they can be handed over to other government offices."
Li Shimin said that he needed to think about it carefully, as this was a matter concerning the reputation of the Tang Dynasty and could not be taken lightly.
Ming Dynasty
Zhu Jianshen felt that what Tianmu said made sense. Some small countries did not recognize the Ming Dynasty in their hearts, but just wanted to get some supplies from the Ming Dynasty. Such small countries were indeed difficult to deal with.
If you don't give him face, this small country might cause trouble on the border. If he just bites his tongue and accepts it, he'll feel like he can't vent his anger.
It seems that this tribute system really needs to be changed.