Today I saw a reader leaving a message about Chinese people. I started thinking deeply about this topic in 2015. At that time, I happened to start a business with a friend who came out of Tencent WeChat. At that time, I was under great pressure and often faced some incomprehensible problems, so I began to think deeply about some problems.

One of the topics is the infighting among the Chinese.

These two words have been running through thousands of years of ancient Chinese history, and I began to find out why this phenomenon occurs.

Some people say that "internal fighting" is the bad nature of the Chinese people, and I don't agree with this. In my eyes, people are all human beings, flesh and blood, and they will cry out in pain when they are hurt, they will want to eat when they are hungry, and they will drink water when they are thirsty. This is human being.

To prove this, I dealt with many foreigners in the first half of 2016 and found that everyone’s ideas were actually the same, they were all just humans.

When I see problems, I like to tear all the surfaces apart and look at the innermost layer of: human nature!

Human nature is summarized in four words: seek profit and avoid harm.

For example, you are reading this book now and keep reading it because it makes you happy and makes you feel good, which is profit; for example, you feel very unhappy after reading two chapters, and you have a sense of defense against it, which is harm.

I came to Qidian to write a book last month, and only then did I know that Qidian readers have the saying "Don't think of ancient people with modern people." I am skeptical about this statement. I still believe that both modern people and ancient people are seeking profit and avoiding harm. This is what people have when they are born, just like people who have to eat when they are hungry. This is a kind of self-protection instinct of human beings. Only this instinct can allow human beings to evolve in the cruel nature.

Only after talking about the concept of human nature can one talk about internal struggle.

The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and the fall of the Ming Dynasty are actually the same reason. On the surface, it seems that foreign tribes are powerful, but in fact they are all internal struggles. Including Song, on the surface, the fall of the Jin Kingdom, but in fact they die by themselves.

I also said in my article that Chinese history has been a path for emperors to continue to centralize power since Qin Shihuang. By the Song Dynasty, imperial power had been unprecedentedly concentrated and could not be compared with all dynasties.

Speaking of this, many "historical bulls" are about to jump up and loudly scold the author for being stupid. The Song Dynasty was the most enlightened dynasty. The ministers dared to criticize the emperor as a dog. You said that he was centralized. Aren't you talking lies with your eyes open?

I guess most of the people who say this type of thing are student parties, and their appreciation for power is still in books.

Institutional centralization and the emperor's strong and weak character are two completely different concepts.

The position of prime minister was gone in the Tang and Song dynasties. Prime Minister was not an official position, but a title. When the Prime Minister was in the Qin and Han dynasties, it was very unfair to summon all officials to work in his prime minister's office. But it was true in history. Even Qin Shihuang could not let Li Si go to the palace every day and work underground in his eyes. Even if Qin Shihuang wanted to do anything, he had to convince Li Si, because Qin Shihuang was just a human being, and he also needed to rely on others to manage the empire.

Why is the road to centralization related to infighting?

Centralization is a self-protection phenomenon of imperial power. Only by constantly centralizing power can the imperial power be safe enough. Look at the Northern Song Dynasty, there is no more powerful ministers who can influence the emperor?

Some people say that Song Huizong was not influenced by any ministers, and Tong Guan, Cai Jing and others were just his dogs.

How does imperial power centralize and protect itself?

We are constantly divided into ministers, and we are the prime minister and the top leaders of all officials. The emperor must rely on all officials to govern the country. The eldest of all officials is the prime minister. However, the prime minister went to his own residence to work, and the emperor could not sleep. So Emperor Wu of Han started to engage in the inner court, and the master Yan was an official of the inner court and was not under the control of the prime minister.

The hand of imperial power constantly divided the power of the ministers in the court is to constantly create internal struggles between ministers. The more cruel the ministers are, the safer the imperial power is. The Northern Song Dynasty took this to the extreme.

Look, even if the Jin army is about to fight, the court is still fighting in internal struggle, and the development of internal struggle must be resolved. The emperor is the safest, but the emperor can no longer control the internal struggle. The internal struggle consumed the Northern Song Dynasty. Otherwise, why would Wanyan Zongwang go straight in, as if he was entering a state of no one?

Why do I understand the concept of infighting when I started my own business and started a project? Because many companies nowadays also exist, and infighting has a lot to do with the power structure. In other words, in the words of Mr. Gu Long, there are worlds where there are people, and infighting cannot exist.

We can only use a reasonable structure to slightly weaken it and control it within a reasonable range.

As a modern person, Zhao Huan must be at the commanding heights of power. If he wants to pull the Northern Song Dynasty out of the quagmire, he must not bring the so-called "constraint" political game to the extreme as some "students" think, otherwise the internal struggle will be uncontrollable.

The contradiction must be transferred, just like the main contradiction of a startup company is the contradiction between the company's people and the business, not the contradiction between the company's people.

I personally view the concepts of infighting and human nature very rationally. The people in this book, whether ancient or modern, are just humans.
Chapter completed!