Chapter 355 The French’s exclamation (please subscribe)

"Oh my god, this is God's country. Why is it so rich here? Why are the people here so polite and elegant?"

Bai Jin sighed.

Bai Jin is his Chinese name, and his original name was Joachim Bouvet, a French missionary.

He received a comprehensive education including theology, linguistics, philosophy and natural sciences, with a particular interest in mathematics and physics.

Historically, he was a figure who made outstanding contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the West in modern times.

Then, he saw that the official road of Yingtian Mansion in the Ming Dynasty was wide and clean, like a spider web, spreading among the trees. There were as many carriages as flowing water, and they were very orderly, and the people walking on the sidewalk had smiles on their faces.

.

Unlike their European counterparts, the streets are full of filth, and both nobles and citizens don't like to take baths, especially on rainy days, making the whole city smelly.

Therefore, he felt that France was really incomparable to the Ming Dynasty.

"Oh my God, do the common people here also live in brick houses like this castle? You know, our common people can only live in shacks, and beautiful brick castles only belong to the nobles."

"People here love to read. Every home has a book. It is common to see people reading with books. There are even special newspaper readers who read newspapers to the common people. Moreover, the books they read are very miscellaneous, including Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

It can take root here, and even our doctrines are discussed here. Oh my god, if this is where we are, other types of doctrines and books are not allowed except what is allowed by the church. How come the church here is so disrespectful to culture?

Tolerant, but they don’t seem to have a religion they must believe in!”

"Also, I was lucky enough to see their Guards. It was really the most invincible army I have ever seen in the world. They were all tall and straight, and very brave. The key was that they numbered less than 50,000, and they were equipped with firearms.

There are also a lot of artillery, mainly from their Royal Manufacturing Directorate. I heard that tens of thousands of craftsmen are involved in manufacturing, and many artillery equipment enter the army every day. Even if France raises the tax rate to 80%, it will not be able to support such a huge army.

Army and craftsmen!

Even many Ming literati took the initiative to call some Western missionaries with learning and moral character as Western Confucians.

Another French missionary, John Hong, was equally surprised.

"The nobles here seem to have infinite wisdom. For example, their Prime Minister Chen has already known all our knowledge and knows geometry and geography better than me. Finally I met their emperor, my God, their emperor.

He is so young, but so wise and knowledgeable that it is terrifying, because he actually knows our French history, and he also reminds us to be wary of England. We do not have enough nobles in our own country to realize the threat of England!"

"The prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is beyond our imagination as a French. It is no wonder that they can manage such a vast territory. This undoubtedly proves the advancement of their ruling system! Perhaps, if France wants to become such an empire, it must also learn from them.

, their Chinese characters seem to be more conducive to expression, and it is easier to open up people's wisdom. I think if France wants to become such a powerful super empire, the first thing we need to do is to popularize Chinese characters and learn their culture. I have to say that this place is really

A kingdom favored by God!”

Moreover, like Marco Polo, he praised the Ming Dynasty without hesitation.

"There is no difference between nobles and commoners here. Commoners here also have their own houses and gorgeous clothes. They can also receive education. If they get sick, they can also get treatment. There are many hospitals opened by the government, and doctors are hired by the government.

Yes, because of government subsidies, civilians can get treatment without paying a higher price when they are sick. Even infectious and fatal diseases have to be registered. My God, they can cure diseases without bloodletting! Here

It seems that the government does not just serve the nobles, they have sufficient tax revenue to ensure the life of the common people."

On this mission to the Ming Dynasty, France sent the famous diplomat Carrière, who was Louis XIV's most trusted diplomat.

Even in modern times, because China was lagging behind, many literati who had an inferiority complex because of seeing the power of the West believed that their country's backwardness was due to the different writing, and actively advocated abandoning the Chinese language. Now the Frenchman Bai Jin has also begun to pay attention to his own writing.

The self-confidence in culture has been shaken.

The scholar-bureaucrats of the New Ming Dynasty also formed active thinking through this proactive cultural exchange, and formed their own new ideas.

"I finally arrived at Yingtianfu. The prosperous towns along the Yangtze River made me feel that any city is richer than our Paris. Therefore, I am even more looking forward to how prosperous their capital will be, and when

After I saw it, even though I was mentally prepared, I was still shocked by its prosperity. Maybe this is the city of God!"

"Their emperor was not crowned by the church. I boldly asked, saying that the emperor was appointed by God. In other words, their emperor is both a secular ruler and equivalent to their God?" Kaliel said in amazement.

.

In the Ming Dynasty, since the emergence of Xinxue in the Zhengde Dynasty, the hegemony of Neo-Confucianism in the ideological world has been shaken, and many literati who do not conform to mainstream thinking have appeared, such as Wang Fuzhi and Yan Yuan. They believe in True Confucianism.

Turn around and plunge into the study of things to gain knowledge.

Bai Jin and Hong Ruohan were indeed greatly shocked when they came to Ming Dynasty this time.

Hong Ruohan naturally had the same feeling. He had already taken the initiative to buy the Four Books and Five Classics, Tang Poems and Song Ci, "Laws of the Ming Dynasty" and "Ancestral Instructions of the Emperor Ming". He was determined to find out the reasons for the strength of the Ming Empire from Chinese literature and history.

The secret is that as a wealthy missionary, he naturally hired an interpreter. If he wanted to understand Chinese culture, he could understand a little bit.

On the contrary, Westerners in this era were not as proactive in absorbing foreign cultures as the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, because they are still relatively barbaric. They engage in direct colonial plunder and forced assimilation in terms of cultural exchanges. They regard other cultures as heretics, and even

Direct physical annihilation of people with other cultures, otherwise there would not have been many religious wars.

Along the way, Bai Jin began to imitate Marco Polo and write his own travel diary, and also wrote down his experiences in the Ming Dynasty.

Because in this era, the scholar-officials of the new Ming Dynasty were not as conservative as the scholar-officials of the later Qing Dynasty, but were more proactive and open-minded than Westerners in understanding foreign cultures.

"I feel like I'm in heaven. Yingtian City seems to be covered with brocade. I'm dazzled by the dazzling array of goods. The common people all have smiles on their faces. They don't seem to know the horror of death and the hardship of poverty. Hungry seems to be with them.

Always insulated!”

Advocates of Neo-Confucianism did not have the ability to suppress other intellectual thoughts like the Western church. In addition, Emperor Zhu Kezang liked the new science - science, which focused on exploring the essential laws of things and transforming them into practical social applications.

Therefore, Ming Dynasty's current thinking is particularly diverse and open, so much so that all kinds of scholar-officials were affected by this. Although there are conservative ones, there are also many open-minded people who actively study other cultures and intend to create new knowledge.

This also makes the country now more open and civilized than other Western countries.

Therefore, the two missionaries from France, Bai Jin and Hong Ruohan, could not help but be amazed and ashamed of themselves.
Chapter completed!