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Previously, there were too many trivial matters within the company, leaving no time for deep, systematic thinking; then I got reinfected with COVID-19, feeling dazed and lethargic for a while, never getting enough sleep, showing signs of Long Covid. Recently, I've fully recovered, and in addition to being busy with company affairs, I've also resumed the habit of listening to lectures, reading books, and reflecting.

Last weekend, I attended Teacher Li Xinfeng's course on "Ming History: Overview and Special Topics," which had many insightful takeaways and resonances, as well as new and interesting knowledge points. Today, I will outline some of them. Of course, these also include my own understanding and supplementary expansions. Since I have limited knowledge, the parts where I elaborate are more likely to be incorrect or misinterpretations of the teacher's original intent.

Firstly, the four keys to studying history are: chronology, geography, institutions, and catalogues.

About chronology

The Ming Dynasty was a relatively long-lasting dynasty and one of the longest periods of stable order worldwide. There's also the UK, which hasn't changed dynasties for over 1000 years, and the US, which has been around for over 230 years but is likely to outlast the Ming Dynasty.

When discussing Ming events, we often use the emperor's reign year. The Gregorian calendar has its advantages, being more consistent, but when we say 1587, we don't know what happened, it feels disconnected from cause and effect; however, using the emperor's reign year allows us to quickly locate the event in a physical and concrete social environment. For example, the 15th year of Wanli (which is 1587) and the 17th year of Chongzhen (the year this gentleman hanged himself on Coal Hill).

About geography

Primarily natural geography, the Ming Dynasty was in a Little Ice Age, one word: cold. We talk a lot about the greenhouse effect today; in the past 100 years, the average temperature has risen by 1℃, with nearly 0.7℃ in the last 50 years, already having a significant impact on the environment. However, during the 16th century, the Zhengde and Jiajing eras, the temperature was 2℃ lower than today. So life for common people was quite harsh.

Speaking of human geography, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the population was only 60 million, reverting to the population scale of ancient times. Population censuses during Zhu Yuanzhang's era were very strict, "the government valued land and households more than individuals." Thus, this number is relatively credible. Later, the population increased to 200 million, with a north-south ratio of 4:1, due to continuous growth and economic prosperity in the south. Until the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a large number of southern populations were reduced, with estimates ranging from 70 million to over 100 million deaths. Afterward, the north-south population ratio dropped to 1:1. History is written by elites, but under their pens, there is no record of the tragic lives of ordinary people caught in the tide of history.

About institutions

Most regimes inherit previous systems, believing that the rulers were inadequate but the system could still be used; some regimes deny the previous dynasty's system, believing that the system led to its downfall, but the system before that was better; and an extremely small number of regimes believe that all previous systems were inadequate, and only starting from their dynasty is the best system, making the people happiest. The Ming Dynasty belongs to the second type. The Ming learned many systems from the Han and Tang Dynasties, but in fact, many systems were borrowed from the Yuan Dynasty, though they believed these systems had existed since ancient times, such as the Zhongshu Sheng system, which was largely inherited from the Yuan Dynasty.

About catalogues

That is, historical materials. Similar to how the Yuan Dynasty divided people into four classes, historical sources can also be divided into four levels. The best are original documents without publication purposes, such as comments and textual materials in administrative processes, which most reflect the historical situation at the time; the second level includes non-historical texts like notes, collections, and diaries; the third level consists of contemporary histories, including official records, national classics, and local gazetteers; the worst level is later historical writings, especially Qing Dynasty compilations of Ming history, which are far removed from the actual era and heavily influenced by the Qing's strict control over speech, thus heavily processed. Although the writing is decent and worth reading, it cannot be trusted.

In addition to the four keys, there are many other interesting thoughts.

About Zhu Yuanzhang, this special existence.

Zhu Yuanzhang, coming from humble origins during the founding of the country, his army always won under his command, as if aided by heaven. But conversely, we consider that no matter how many parties participate in war, after countless battles, there must be a victor; similarly, it might seem impossible to find an ancient ancestor who produced sons in every generation, sounding incredible and hard to find, but thinking backwards, as long as someone exists today, they must have a father, and so on, leading back to an ancestor who produced sons in every generation. Therefore, after chaos, there will always be a victor. We cannot assume that because the result was correct, the initial decision-making process was flawless. History is full of randomness.

A successful person strives to make you believe that their success couldn't be accidental. A gambler who wins seven times in a row tells you the probability is one in a million, either believing it's controlled by supernatural forces or attributing it to their ability to choose lucky numbers and insight. But considering the total number of gamblers and games in the millions, such luck situations are bound to happen.

And history is just a series of numbers over time.

But Zhu Yuanzhang did not accept the randomness of history; he believed his success was inevitable. Because he was the victor, a man who gained great freedom could do whatever he wanted. He killed many scholars and sought to re-establish his own set of ancestral rules. He completely eliminated threats to the throne from the imperial family, servants, relatives, and powerful ministers, established the Great Ming Code, arbitrarily executed people, and used extrajudicial punishments. Zhu Yuanzhang thought he was selfless, which was indeed true, because the entire populace belonged to him, he had no need for personal desires, and everything he did, he believed was for the good. But the results were certainly bad and negative. Zhu Yuanzhang aimed to dismantle the Yuan and Song societies to build a new society, restoring the Han and Tang; but this construction was a deeper form of destruction.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not want people to entertain themselves; playing football would get your legs cut off, singing would get your tongue cut out, playing chess would get your hands chopped off. He believed everyone should stay home and farm properly. He required everyone to live and die well. But in that era, no one criticized Zhu Yuanzhang; everyone accepted it as their fate. It was somewhat similar to Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is considered an adaptive behavior of victims under pressure, essentially a defense mechanism against dangerous situations. "Breaking your leg and giving you crutches, then telling you: without me, you wouldn't even be able to walk, so you should be grateful" (many people say this was said by Lu Xun, but Lu Xun asked, "In which book did I say this?")

As the saying goes, "He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world." In fact, killing was the hard truth. "I flipped through history and found no dates, only slanted pages filled with the words 'benevolence and morality.' I couldn't sleep, so I read carefully through the night, finally seeing the words between the lines: the whole book was filled with two words: 'eat people'!" (This was truly said by Lu Xun, in "The Diary of a Madman.")

As mentioned earlier, we cannot judge the goodness or badness of this emperor based on the Qing Dynasty's historical writings about the Ming. If we look at the quality of life of the common people, the best emperors of the Ming Dynasty were often the least active ones. Because the Ming Dynasty had many meetings where conclusions were reached through collective brainstorming by elites, so the Ming didn't fear昏君(hunjun - dimwitted rulers),暴君(baojun - tyrants), or懒君(lanju - lazy rulers), but feared英君(yingjun - capable rulers). The impulsive decisions of one person were likely inferior to the collective decisions of a group of smart and competent technical bureaucrats. Chongzhen worked hard and met the worst end; Wanli didn't attend court, yet the prosperity and bustling markets along the eastern coast began during the reign of this most gentle person.

This principle should also apply to companies. As a CEO, should I interfere less in specific matters and instead focus more energy on finding better people, smarter than me, providing them opportunities to experiment and optimize through reflection; and through reasonable incentive distribution, retaining those who grow and iterate quickly, then giving them greater room to play.

The Ming Dynasty was the most successful era for the scholar-official bureaucracy system.

The imperial examination system allowed for social mobility, contrasting with the Song Dynasty where only those of noble birth could become high officials, half of the successful candidates in the Ming examinations were commoners.The Ming imperial examinations were not about the transmission of knowledge, but rather the selection of talent.Screening out those who can patiently study the most boring content.The textbooks were dead, candidates just needed to write elegant and qualified eight-part essays.These eight-part essays were used to expound truths, ultimate truths were already contained in the classics, no need to explore elsewhere.

However, the people selected by this system and education were too obedient, lacking innovation capabilities and aspirations. Zhu Yuanzhang set a framework (mentioned earlier as the ancestral rules), and we believed it was self-evident. The supervisory system made the bureaucracy self-regulate, maintaining social order, but it was difficult to respond to internal and external disruptions. Thus, the limitations of the scholar-officials were strong, with only Yu Qian being a genius, a special case, unfortunately dying young.

Of course, among these scholar-officials, there were also corrupt officials. In Ming history, Shen Yiguan and Yan Song were two controversial figures. But Shen Yiguan was initially a symbol of justice, standing up to Zhang Juzheng's dominance, ensuring fair evaluations during his tenure as examiner; if we review Yan Song's early works, we see he was a very upright person, concerned for the nation and its people. But why did they both become notorious villains after gaining power?

Hayek, in his discussion of fascist Germany, stated that totalitarianism inevitably leads to rule by evil men. "Totalitarian dictators soon have to choose between disregarding general moral principles and suffering failure. Precisely for this reason, the unscrupulous and reckless have a better chance of success in a society tending towards totalitarianism."

Psychology also shows that power can lead to traumatic brain injury. People with power become more impulsive, have lower risk awareness, and crucially, are less adept at examining issues from others' perspectives. Power is a tumor that kills empathy. The greater the power, the more severe the brain damage. Once we gain power, we lose the very abilities we first needed to obtain it. Because we can't understand others' individual traits, we rely more heavily on stereotypes and fixed patterns.

As a CEO making company decisions, one must be cautious, analyze thoroughly, question one's own thoughts and judgments, and then make decisions. For example, relying on a reliable board group; using different thinking tools like the Six Thinking Hats to think from various angles, seeking advice from "virtual advisors" to continuously adjust. Recognizing one's own limitations and boundaries, admitting there are many things one does not know.

Everyone thinks their era is the most unique, but in reality, it's just the result of magnifying the unique aspects of their own time. Every era believes it is at the bottom, yet discovers ever-lower bottoms. Many people pursue truth, goodness, and beauty. Teacher Li said in class that he only pursues beauty.

because we can only falsify, not seek truth; the difference between theology and science is that theology is a closed system, it does not accept falsification. In app stores, all Bible apps have high ratings because people cannot say God is wrong, everything is true and right; Karl Popper first proposed abandoning traditional induction methods, advocating empirical falsification as the scientific method principle, leading to modern science: a theory can never be proven correct, but it can be proven wrong, allowing progress.

because a petty person who stays within the bounds of evil is also a moral person, and good people cannot truly innovate. Violating natural laws, violating human nature, extinguishing human desires are actually the most evil. Greatly good people are often hypocritical. Moreover, creation and destruction are twin brothers; America's creative destruction is the main driving force behind economic progress, new technologies replacing old ones. Creative destruction is a core trait of the capitalist system, the foundation upon which the capitalist system exists, a phenomenon with which capitalists must coexist. Too obedient people rarely make innovations. Only by adhering to the bottom line of destruction can society progress.

. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, but mediocrity. Do not become a mediocre person, do not become part of the herd, do not become one of the monotonous masses.

Only this spirit of independence, this free thought, will endure through countless ages, as eternal as the heavens and earth, shining alongside the three lights forever.

- Chen Yinke