Zhu Biao saw his father open a notebook.
On the title page he could faintly discern the characters: Supplement to the Ancestral Instructions.
Painful memories surfaced in an instant. The mere sight of those words caused his expression to stiffen.
Glancing sideways, he saw that his mother's face bore no surprise at all. From that alone he formed a vague understanding.
"Father, this is…"
The Empress shook her head, her face full of disapproval.
"He intends to record in full the shortcomings of Great Ming, so that later generations may take warning and not repeat them. By this he hopes to prolong the state's mandate."
So it was as he suspected.
Zhu Biao immediately felt a weight settle in his heart, heavy and oppressive. It was as though joy itself had retreated from him. Even the miraculous screen before his eyes could no longer stir any emotion upon his face.
Their conversation had been heard clearly by the younger princes nearby.
Zhu Di bared his teeth in silent frustration. Zhu Zhen's face twisted in open misery. Zhu Su, who had been casually noting down his own thoughts in a small booklet, nearly dropped his brush.
Yet none of them dared speak.
Their father's stubbornness was well known, especially at moments such as this. One careless word might invite punishment. If dissatisfaction were to be expressed at all, there was only one person who might attempt it.
"Chongba," the Empress said calmly, "the faults of great families are countless. Over a hundred years, new faults will surely arise to replace the old. How can thousands of words ever suffice?"
"The sons are all still here," she added pointedly.
Zhu Yuanzhang curled his lips slightly, but then spoke almost proudly:
"The later generations themselves said it. Among the emperors of Ming, those who drank heavily were few. Only one case of drunken misconduct is recorded, and that nearly resulted in charges before the Ancestral Temple."
"Was it not because in the Ancestral Instructions I wrote: 'Wine should be drunk sparingly. Meals should be taken on time. After noon one must not eat to excess'?"
"Even if faults renew themselves, if I add one clause, that is one concrete fault removed in advance."
The Empress fell silent for the moment.
Zhu Biao, however, could not.
"But Father, have you considered the possibility that later descendants might not obey?"
"You dare?!" Zhu Yuanzhang shot back instantly.
Zhu Biao stiffened his neck, but his momentum faltered.
The Hongwu Emperor turned his gaze toward his other sons.
"Or do you dare?"
The princes lowered their brows at once, silent as cicadas in winter.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with satisfaction.
"If you all obey, then your sons, seeing that you obey, will not dare disobey."
"Moreover, whether it be my achievements or Biao'er's, both stand as the pillars of Great Ming. Who would dare defy them?"
Yet Zhu Biao still felt unease.
"If matters were truly as Father says, then Great Ming should not fall within mere centuries."
Without lifting his head from the page, Zhu Yuanzhang continued writing.
"Your mother already said. Faults renew themselves, as with those elixirs."
"But if through this screen we can learn the faults of a thousand years hence and record them all, then will not Great Ming be safeguarded for a thousand years?"
"If Ming perishes, it is because my Ancestral Instructions were written too briefly."
The Empress pressed her fingers to her forehead.
He had reasoned himself into a circle. Now no one could dissuade him.
---
[LightScreen]
[Ögedei's death by drinking, it must be said, has consequences whose remnants persist even to our present day.
The most direct impact concerns the subsequent governance of the Rus region.
The Second Western Campaign achieved abundant plunder. However, because of Ögedei's death, the army withdrew relatively early. The Mongol khanate thus established strong influence in the region but did not fully impose a direct and comprehensive ruling advantage.
Later, the Third Western Campaign, which was also the final one, shifted its focus elsewhere.
Therefore, the Kipchak Khanate, which governed this area, largely relied on inciting hostility among the Slavic peoples of the Rus region in order to secure its dominant position.
As time passed, the aftershocks of succession disputes within the Mongol khanate continued to ripple outward. The Kipchak Khanate inevitably declined at a rapid pace.
Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seized the opportunity to rise and began contending with the Kipchak Khanate.
There exists a historical argument that the Mongol westward campaigns and the development of maritime navigation accelerated cultural and technological exchange between East and West, thereby hastening the world's overall entry into modernity.
As the world rapidly became a more interconnected whole, nationalism and national identity became more difficult to form.
This argument further holds that the past six centuries represented the final window for the formation of unified nation-states. Those who seized the opportunity could forge consolidated nations and secure greater living space for their peoples. Those who failed risked fragmentation and collapse, such as the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Tsarist Russia.
Viewed through this lens, the Kipchak Khanate, which endured for over two centuries, occupied a delicate position within that window.
The Slavic descendants of the Rurik dynasty had fragmented into mutually warring principalities after the dynasty's collapse.
Under normal circumstances, continued warfare among these states might have led to the fusion of the East Slavic tribes into a new unified people.
Alternatively, had the Mongols fully conquered and unified the East Slavs under firm rule, the Slavs might have united under the common pressure of a foreign overlord, eventually founding a new state upon the ruins of the Kipchak Khanate.
But because of Ögedei's sudden death, the Western Campaign halted abruptly. The East Slavs, half conquered, found themselves suspended in an awkward intermediate state.
The rising Poland and Lithuania lacked the strength to eliminate the Kipchak Khanate. In the continuous cycles of warfare, and within that crucial window period, the Slavs rapidly developed nationalist identities aligned with three separate political powers.
Later, although Tsarist Russia reunified Eastern Europe and attempted to reforge the East Slavs into a single core, the profound differences in lifestyle and cultural perception among the three groups rendered the effort unsuccessful.
The memory of Mongol rule had penetrated to the marrow. The resentment and hostility born of that rule had been etched into the bloodline.
Even today, a popular proverb circulates in Europe:
Cut open a Russian, and inside is a Tatar.
In this single sentence the cultural conflict within the Slavic world is starkly revealed.
All history is contemporary history.
The Slavic experience is not unique. Similar patterns are widely found in regions once ruled by the Mongols.
Yet among them, the number of states and peoples capable of genuinely reconciling internal divisions is exceedingly small.
This is why among the achievements of the Hongwu Emperor are listed the four words: mending North and South.
Four short words, yet insufficient to describe the brilliance of that accomplishment across past and present.]
---
Zhu Yuanzhang's brush paused.
He looked up slowly, then gave a soft sigh of satisfaction.
"This descendant understands my difficulty."
He recalled that earlier the screen had briefly mentioned the complicated inheritance between Yuan and Ming, describing it as thorny. There had been no more fitting word.
There had been that Han man, Zhang Tiangang, who served the Jin state and, after its fall, wished to die for Jin while mocking Southern Song. Such situations were not rare at the founding of Ming.
From the An Lushan Rebellion until the Northern flight of Yuan, six centuries of turmoil had divided north and south. Hebei and the southern lands had long ceased to recognize one another.
At the founding of Ming, many northern scholars still felt gratitude toward Yuan. Some refused office and withdrew into seclusion. Others fled north to serve the remnant Yuan court.
Under such circumstances, how could Yuan simply be denounced as rebellious barbarians?
He did not seek to wage a southern Han campaign against northern Han.
A ruler must treat all under heaven equally. Otherwise how would he differ from the Yuan, who divided their subjects into graded categories?
In time, when northern youths grew under Ming's governance, sat for the examinations, and entered the court, those elderly adherents of Yuan would naturally fade away.
Now, hearing later generations affirm his achievement in reconciling North and South, his spirit lifted.
That day was not far off.
Zhu Biao watched his father resume writing with renewed vigor.
He understood now that what his father sought was not merely longevity of reign, but healing of fracture.