Li Shimin's eyelids couldn't help but twitch.
He had never seen such an insolent person before.
He, the esteemed Son of Heaven, the Emperor of the Great Tang, was being so respectful.
Why did these words sound so unwilling?
Lin Shen waved his hand, "Alright, sit down. There's no need to pretend in front of me."
Li Shimin gritted his teeth and sat back down, looking at Lin Shen.
He had to admit.
Although this kid was indeed exasperating.
But he did have some real abilities.
Lin Shen said softly, "Before solving this problem, you need to understand one thing: class, it's impossible for it to disappear."
Li Shimin nodded.
Then he reacted and looked at Lin Shen in shock, "Isn't your school aiming to eliminate classes?"
Lin Shen looked at him strangely, "Did you just imagine that yourself? I've never said anything like that. Only someone very naive could say such a thing."
Li Shimin's teeth gritted audibly.
He was the one who had just said such words!
Lin Shen continued, "The goal is to resolve class contradictions, not to eliminate classes."
"Class cannot be eliminated."
"After understanding that class cannot be eliminated, you need to know that common interests and conflicts coexist between two different classes."
"Let me give you a simple example, it might be too complicated otherwise."
Li Shimin took a deep breath, telling himself not to get angry...
Lin Shen picked up two pens from the table and demonstrated, "You see, suppose I arrange a few people to repair a road, and I appoint one of them as the leader."
"At this point, classes naturally arise."
"This leader represents the ruling class or the supervisory class."
"The rest are the working class."
"What are their common interests? The ruling class wants the workers to work hard and get the road repaired."
"The workers also want to get the road repaired."
"But what is their conflict?"
Lin Shen didn't continue speaking, but looked at Li Shimin.
Li Shimin's cheeks were red with anger. He had never worked as a laborer, nor had he ever thought about these things. He couldn't come up with a clear answer.
Lin Shen shook his head and sighed.
This made Li Shimin feel like a fool.
Lin Shen explained, "Their conflict lies in the ruling class wanting to gain more benefits from this job."
"And the workers also want their fair share of benefits."
"But for this job, I only give them a hundred taels of silver to do it."
"The ruling class wants to get more benefits, so they have to take from the workers' pockets, which will exploit the workers..."
"When the workers can't accept the exploitation from the ruling class, they will rebel, threaten, or even kill the previous leader, then elect another leader and redistribute the benefits."
After listening to this long explanation...
Li Shimin suddenly realized.
Lin Shen's example was simple, but he saw the rise and fall of a dynasty within it.
Speaking of it...
The Sui Dynasty seemed to have collapsed like this.
Li Shimin scratched his chin, squinting at the brushes on the table, and whispered, "But you can't guarantee that the newly elected leader will fairly distribute the benefits."
Lin Shen nodded, "That's right, that's why there are dynastic changes."
Li Shimin became even more curious.
To use such a simple and straightforward method to explain the root cause of the collapse of a dynasty.
These were things he had never considered or thought of before.
His worldview underwent a profound change.
Li Shimin felt like he had grasped something vaguely...
But what exactly it was, he couldn't say.
After a moment of silence, he asked, "So, how does your school plan to solve this problem?"
Lin Shen squinted, smiling brightly, "It's simple, through gradual change."
Li Shimin was somewhat puzzled, looking over with doubt.
Lin Shen continued, "My ancestors, after distancing themselves from the secular world, didn't give up their study of philosophy."
"When they realized that class contradictions were the cause of dynastic changes and social unrest, they began to study how to make class contradictions disappear."
"Banning classes is unrealistic; at most, it can reduce the disparity between individuals, but that requires substantial support from productivity."
"Don't ask me what productivity is for now. I'll explain it to you when I have time. Just listen to me for now."
Seeing Li Shimin restless, and with that eager little hand, Lin Shen knew that Li Shimin was extremely interested in the term productivity.
But he wasn't ready to explain it yet.
Lin Shen continued, "So my ancestors came up with a series of methods to solve it."
"The first is to give everyone a way to break through class barriers."
Li Shimin looked at Lin Shen curiously.
Lin Shen smiled and whispered, "In fact, the imperial examination system, in an intangible way, is already doing this, giving hope of upward mobility to the lower class."
"Preventing the upper class from always being the upper class and the lower class from always being the lower class delays the outbreak of class conflicts."
Li Shimin pondered, "But not everyone in the world can read. Those who can read are generally from scholarly families..."
Lin Shen squinted, his eyes gleaming, "The second point is to promote economic development."
Li Shimin asked curiously, "Promote economic development?"
Lin Shen nodded, "Yes, to elevate the status of merchants and traders, so that common people can earn more wealth through commerce, allowing their children to study and participate in the imperial examination to change their class."
Li Shimin furrowed his brow.
The children of merchants and traders couldn't participate in the imperial examination, according to the laws of the Great Tang.
That was something his ancestors deeply despised about merchants and traders.
"This might not be appropriate..." Li Shimin shook his head, hesitating.
Lin Shen looked disdainful, shaking his head, "I just praised you, and now you're like this. I know what you're afraid of. When merchants and traders hold too much social wealth, it will indeed impact society to some extent."
"But this impact is entirely controllable..."
Lin Shen also felt some emotion in his heart.
The ancestors of the Han people were undoubtedly the most visionary.
They had realized very early on the appearance of the beast called "capitalism."
They knew how much chaos its appearance would bring.
So they pressed down on this beast in its infancy.
Merchants were discriminated against, which was the best proof of this.