Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 393 Do the Greeks Dare to Marry?

"I have studied Confucian classics, and I also understand the research results of Confucianism. They have already said a lot about how to treat women, right? I still know these descriptions." Guo Kang hurriedly opened his mouth, trying to tell him that he has already attached great importance to it. up.

Brother Patrick, however, shook his head again.

"The theologians and philosophers here all think that Seris's philosophy is very wise. But unfortunately, they are all too kind." He commented earnestly.

"Nowadays, many people like to study the theories of the Cheng brothers, Mr. Zhu and others. But after our research, we found that they still have high expectations of women, imagining that they can let them through education and persuasion. Get on the right track."

"This problem seems to be more than one of Neo Confucianism." He thought for a while and said, "As far as I know, it has been like this since ancient times."

"My colleague, Brother Yang, studies the philosophy of Seris. He told me that even the philosophers in the classical era said that the main problem of the people of Seris is that they like to be teachers. Perhaps from very early on, they I am very addicted to enlightening others, and I can get a lot of happiness from it."

"As far as I'm concerned, it's not a problem. Compared with other fun, this hobby is already very healthy." He spread his hands: "But we should also know that some people are just impossible to teach."

"I have seen a very meaningful fable before." He said to Guo Kang: "According to Hesiod, Prometheus, the 'seeer', created human beings, and then Athena, who is in charge of wisdom, came to help He, finished the work."

"Prometheus took great care of human beings. He stole fire from heaven to help people; he also tampered with sacrificial ceremonies, leaving more meat for people to enjoy instead of offering sacrifices to gods. These behaviors finally angered Zeus, So he summoned the other Greek gods and created woman to punish Prometheus and humans."

"The first woman was named Pandora. Hephaestus created a demure-looking creature in the image of the goddess. Aphrodite gave her the power to drive men mad; Hera gave her curiosity; Hera Hermes gave her the gift of lying and a heart of cunning; Athena gave her ignorance, and a splendid dress. She also carried all the evils of the world, and has been with all mortals ever since."

"Pandora means 'with all the talents', which means that she symbolizes all the qualities of women: their appearance and clothes look very beautiful and can attract human beings; but when human beings worship them like gods, they are It will only lead to disaster."

"Women are cunning, but they are extremely curious, and they always inquire about all trivial information regardless of the consequences. They are good at making up lies, and always use deception to hurt human beings, but they have no real wisdom - Athena, who symbolizes 'wisdom', is not Not liking them, this ability is only given to humans created by Prometheus. And in various fables after that, wisdom is always on the side of men.”

This story has been widely circulated among Greek philosophers to this day, and Guo Kang is also very familiar with it, and can understand these not-too-obscure metaphors.Humans and men can be regarded as one word-it may sound a bit strange, because in the stories of the Greeks, humans and women are indeed two different species.

"Hesiod said that the women of later generations are all descendants of Pandora. They are beautiful scourges sent by the gods. They will continue to torture men, making them toil like worker bees all day long, but they can only feed other people's peaks."

"Those who get married will never be happy. Even if someone gets a virtuous wife, his life will be full of ups and downs and worries; and once the family is in trouble, this bad luck will be even more deadly."

"Some men refuse to marry because of this, but when he grows old, he will face the same painful situation. No one will support him, and other relatives will compete for his property - this is the punishment that has been designed so that they could never escape the wrath and vengeance of Zeus."

"Of course, we don't have to believe in the mythical part of the novel." He said: "This fable is also easy to analyze: the intention of fire is actually very obvious, and it is a symbol of civilization; and keeping the sacrifices for ourselves means that human beings have obtained the benefits of doing things." Freedom to make decisions, even if such decisions are not pleasing to God."

"So, the meaning of the whole story is also very clear: as human beings break away from barbarism and enter a more developed civilized society, with higher freedom, the problem of women also appeared."

"You see, barbarians rarely encounter this kind of problem, and we Romans have suffered seriously—I think you can understand it." Brother Patrick said with a wry smile: "I think this is exactly a kind of accompanying The misery born of civilization."

"This is another concern of mine: if you don't take precautions, as your organization matures and your civilization develops, the disasters caused by women will become more serious. This may be what 'Zeus' Revenge' represents original intention."

"I think this is not a problem caused by the development of civilization, but a problem in the process of civilization development." Guo Kang thought for a while, and expressed his point of view: "It is normal for problems to occur in various directions. , and some may even be places we have never paid attention to. But we can't stop eating because of choking."

"We can indeed pay attention, but we don't need to scare ourselves too much." He said: "I believe that these are just technical and management problems, and can also be resolved through appropriate adjustments in these areas."

"I was worried about whether it was so easy, so I came to see you." Brother Patrick said frankly:

"Hesiod is a Greek poet in the Archaic era. Many people think that he is earlier than Homer. It is roughly the ninth century before the Celestial Brothers, or the eighth century, according to my impression..." He thought After thinking about it: "It's Serris's Western Weekend Anniversary, the character at that time."

"He already discovered so many problems in that era. Now, after more than 2000 years, how many of them have been solved?" The monk shook his head: "I think the Greeks are still trapped in it. There are some signs of improvement. That's why we think this fable still has reference value."

"As for the future..." He hesitated and frowned: "Of course I can't predict the future, but I don't think it's optimistic. What do you think? Will the future Greeks really dare to get married?"

This question stopped Guo Kang from asking.

Seeing that he hesitated for a while and failed to answer, Brother Patrick was not in a hurry, but continued: "In our opinion, many of the oriental views brought by the Roman Church are different from what we think. For example, they think, Men and women are born of yin and yang, and should belong to the same species. Of course, there are not many scholars who think that women are created separately: according to the traditional Orthodox view, women are created by a part of men and should be regarded as a kind of Human subspecies are right."

"Of course, this can only be considered a trivial matter. The main problem is that the people of the Central Plains may be...too good at fighting. This makes their culture too well protected, and they have not suffered a fatal blow for a long time; their philosophers , and therefore become too kind, or too idealistic." He criticized tactfully.

"Seris scholars of all ages have written many works, trying to educate women from various angles, regulate their behavior, improve their morality, and make them a beneficial part of society instead of punishing human beings. ——However, you may wish to imagine, trying to use artificial rules to restrain a woman's nature, is it possible to succeed?"

The monk shook his head again, and said bluntly: "Mr. Zhu Xi is too kind to the 'Pandora's Daughters', and his expectations are too high. He underestimates the gap between women and humans, and also underestimates their destructive power."

"Therefore, Neo Confucianism has serious problems in this regard. I am afraid that it cannot solve practical problems and will definitely be replaced by true philosophical ideas."

(End of this chapter)