Xuande

Chapter 594 Respect ghosts and gods and stay away

Liu Da, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, was a man of great artifice.

He promoted the Baihuguan meeting purely from the aspect of consolidating the ruling interests of the Han Empire and his personal interests. In exchange for the interests of the Ancient Literature School, he reached a compromise with the Modern Literature School and demanded that the Modern Literature School give up their corresponding insistence and fully cooperate with the imperial power. consolidate.

This point is represented by [Three Cardinal Principles and Six Periods].

The Jinwen School accepted his conditions, fundamentally established the supremacy of the imperial power, made the imperial power a power that no one could question, and thus established a relatively strict social hierarchy system.

Later, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty inherited Liu Xiu's practice. In response to the anti-theological trend of thought in the society at that time, he attempted to officialize the theory of prophecy in a more orthodox name, bringing imperial power and theology together, and binding them more firmly, so that anti-theology Thoughts are aimless.

This made Confucianism's theological path started by Dong Zhongshu more and more irresistible, and it went further and further on the road of idealism and superstition. Finally, after the Baihuguan Conference, it achieved a complete body of theological nature.

As far as this point is concerned, because it was abandoned by Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty as a victim, the study of ancient Chinese classics was not restricted too much in this regard.

Whether it is dealing with prophecy or theology, the ancient prose scriptures are more or less influenced, but the ancient prose classics do not have such a clear direction.

And Liu Bei, at least on the bright side, cannot oppose the binding of imperial power and mystery. He cannot openly question the status and authority of the emperor, but he can do something in terms of ideological trends.

Therefore, at this superstructure design conference, he asked the ancient literature school to uphold the concept of Confucius at the beginning, and to take the path that best suits the temperament of the ancient literature school.

retro.

The core guiding ideology of the ancient literature school is also very simple, in one sentence.

Respect ghosts and gods and stay away.

I don't say whether they exist, nor do I want to explore this issue, but ask everyone to stay away from them, don't mention them, and try not to provoke them in daily life and political activities, and don't affect your daily life because of some mysterious things. administrative.

Stick to two degrees.

Respect, far away.

Sacrifice, we worship as usual, pray, we pray as usual.

But when it comes to national politics, stay a little farther away from them. The most important point is-don't berate ministers at will because of some natural and man-made disasters. This is meaningless and very stupid behavior.

"Heaven has permanence, it does not exist for Yao, and does not perish for Jie. Is it because the ancients did something right that a virtuous person like Shang Tang appeared? Is it because the ancients did something wrong that a foolish king like Xia Jie appeared? If If that’s the case, they existed in an era, did the people of that era do something wrong or did they do it right?”

Liu Bei shook his head and said: "I really dislike such a statement. Natural disasters can be predicted, so how can a person's evil deeds be determined? When something happens, go investigate and find out whether it is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, and then investigate Yousi, that's all right."

Regarding Liu Bei's opinion, the leaders of the ancient literature school looked at each other, and then looked at Lu Zhi together.

They dare not resist Liu Bei's wishes now, but they clearly realize that Liu Bei's idea is very different from the mainstream reality.

Xunzi's academic thoughts have long been marginalized by the mainstream of Confucianism.

Because he was born in the Xihe School of Zixia School after the split of Confucianism. The splendor of the Legalist school is typical of integrity.

At that time, everyone was engaged in idealism, and only you wanted to engage in materialism. If you were not marginalized, who would be marginalized?

The ruler needs someone to explain to him why he is the ruler, and to further solve why only he and his descendants can be the ruler. This is a propositional composition, and the best direction to solve the problem is occultism and superstition.

With materialism, the ruler cannot establish a stable family inheritance, and cannot explain why his family can rule from generation to generation, unless the descendants are awesome.

But now, Liu Bei's thinking is actually directly pointing to Xunzi, and there is even a vague tendency to move closer to Legalism. This can solve the former problem, but not the latter.

This situation is not very beautiful ah.

So Lu Zhi coughed a few times and looked at Liu Bei.

"Xuande, it's not that your suggestion is bad. It's just that, as far as the current situation is concerned, if we adopt such a strategy, not to mention whether it can be recognized by the court, what will the world think of the ancient literature school? We are Confucius. disciples, not disciples of Xunzi."

"Teacher, of course I know."

Liu Bei laughed and said: "But since we have replaced the Jinwen School, we must do something different from the Jinwen School. Otherwise, what is the difference from the Jinwen School? If there is no change, everything will be copied. After 100 years, it will still be the same. A new school of ancient literature will be born to take our place."

This……

Everyone looked at each other, looking at the smiling Liu Bei, no one could speak.

To put it bluntly, what they really want to do is to become the [Jinwen School].

But Liu Bei said that there will be a new [Ancient Literature School] to replace them, and the time may only be 100 years.

This is unbearable.

For the benefit of the school, for the benefit of their own family, they must figure out what kind of thinking Liu Bei, who can lead the policy direction of the court in a certain sense, really thinks.

Cai Yong, who had not yet gone to perform his duties, sat at the front and asked Liu Bei questions.

"Xuande, how do you want to make changes?"

Liu Bei looked at Cai Yong, and said slowly: "Cai Gong, we must differentiate from the Jinwen School, we must correct the wrong practices of the Jinwen School, if not, we will collapse even faster than the Jinwen School, we What needs to be done is to make people in the world agree that it is natural for us to replace the Jinwen School.

If after we replace the Modern Literature School, the Great Han has become worse instead of better, how will the people of the world view the Ancient Literature School?What face do we have to let the big man continue to rule the country with ancient Chinese classics?At that time, the Modern Literature School will revive, it is unknown..."

Liu Bei's pointed words made everyone agree and nodded.

They are very clear that when they replaced the Jinwen School, their main attack was the poor performance of the Jinwen School, so they made the world agree that after replacing them, the big men would be better. This was the original reason for their superiority.

Now the eyes of the whole world are staring at them. If the big man can't become better, but something bad happens instead, won't the foundation of their ancient literature school be unstable?
This can't be done.

Seeing everyone nodding their heads one after another, Liu Bei nodded in satisfaction.

"My generation has indeed been recognized by the imperial court and can replace the Jinwen School, but it has not yet been recognized by the people of the world. There must be something different about my generation so that the world can see the difference."

Lu Zhi did not object to this, but he had doubts.

"Xuande, your idea is good, but the Jinwen School has dominated the Han Dynasty for more than a hundred years, and many things have deeply affected the entire Han Dynasty. It is not a good thing to change suddenly, not to mention that we are not used to it, and the world is not used to it either. .”

"So, there is no need to be so anxious, but we must have a program, how to do it, and how to operate it. We must discuss it in advance, otherwise we will be caught off guard."

Liu Bei nodded and said, "At the imperial court, teachers and disciples can work together to promote it, and there shouldn't be any major changes. Therefore, before that, the ancient literature school must reach an internal consensus."

Lu Zhi agrees.

"The failure of the Modern Literature School to reach an internal agreement is the reason for their downfall. The Ancient Literature School's ability to reach an agreement is the reason for their success. However, Xuande, it's a matter of discussion, so don't go too far."

"The disciple knows."

Liu Bei nodded slowly, and then confessed some of his opinions.

Through the study of Baihu Tongyi, Liu Bei generally understood what the final maturity of the governance system of the Eastern Han Dynasty was.

To put it simply, it is theological governance. With the help of some methods of Confucianism, combined with the theory of prophecy and prophecy, the essence of Confucian classics has become an unquestionable dogma.

In order to stabilize the status of the ruler of the Eastern Han Empire.

(End of this chapter)