Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 589 This is also one aspect of Brother Tian’s teachings

After complaining about Theodora, Tuohuan asked about Guo Kang's plan.

"You just mentioned Egypt. I heard that Egypt has always had a strong academic atmosphere and is still an important cultural center in the Muslim world." He asked, "You have also talked to those envoys. Do you think we can use these people? Is the situation there better than in Europe?"

"The cultural center and education center over there are also owned by the Muslim Church. Can we make good use of them directly..." Guo Kang expressed deep doubt.

"That doesn't matter. As long as we can stand firm, there will definitely be scholars of Islamic law willing to cooperate with us and help us explain these issues." Tuohuan didn't care: "Egypt has changed masters many times in history, and this time won't make a difference. They must have been proficient in it a long time ago."

"That's true..." Guo Kang hesitated, "But the conditions in Egypt are far from enough for our requirements. So I think we must start from scratch."

"I've talked to Old Sea Urchin and the others. Even in its heyday, Egypt had no surplus civil servants and they were even scarce, not to mention now. Although in theory, the Mamluks have always needed to receive systematic cultural education so that they can serve as local governors and help their masters rule. But in reality, these people's cultural level is not high, and the country does not have a stable ritual system. After two hundred years, they are still a group of chaotic military leaders and guards."

"So I feel that their culture is still at the same level as Europe. So what if they are so-called developed? In the end, they still didn't have an education system, and they relied on the church to support it. It's just that Europe has the Church of God, and there are religious schools of the Islamic religion. Isn't this just the pot calling the kettle black?"

"Then according to what you said, everyone is just laughing at the pot calling the kettle black," Tuohuan pointed out.

"I do think so. Before a sound education system is established, everyone is just like the pot calling the kettle black." Guo Kang complained, "And I think that the people here probably won't be able to make any breakthroughs in the next few hundred years."

"It's so serious..."

"Really." Guo Kang said.

He knew this very well, because even after industrialization, education in Europe was still difficult to describe. In some places, the government wanted to promote education, but people really didn't have the ability to do so. In some German states, there were government-enforced education policies in the 17th century. Anyone who did not send their children to school would be fined. However, this kind of education was still contracted by the church. The textbooks for study were still the Bible and the annotations and commentaries on the scriptures by the sages of all ages. The priests were still the teachers. This dependence on the church continued until a long time later.

It was not until after the Napoleonic Wars that Prussia, having learned its lesson, began to carry out a comprehensive reform of education and promote secular education. This was the most "advanced" education in Europe at the time. However, because Prussia and its successors had long played the role of villains, this system was also long regarded as a derivative of the evil militarist system.

In contrast, those countries that "take the right path" and serve as models for everyone to learn from do not engage in these things. Until the 21st century, one in five people in the UK still had dyslexia. The United States was even more exaggerated. In its golden age in 1992, 14% of people were too illiterate to understand complete sentences, and 29% were smart enough to write their own names but could not understand complex texts such as telephone directories and medicine bottle labels. About half of adults cannot extract more than two numbers from text for use or perform two or more steps of calculation. This was the best data of the year. By 2017, these two proportions had grown to 19% and 33%.

This result is simply astonishing, and is not as good as the church education in modern European countries...

I don't know how to tell Tuo Huan these words. Of course, the principle behind this is not difficult to understand.

"The Mediterranean world, or the world outside the Central Plains, is essentially the same." He thought for a moment and said, "I've said before that everyone needs an organization. But whether it's the barbarians, the Yi, the Rong, or the Di, their civilizations are too backward. The way they build organizations relies heavily on superstition about idols and dogmas. They can't understand what true faith is, nor do they know what the truth really looks like."

"The Daodejing records that the Heavenly Father created all things and made man the most noble. The Heavenly Brother Saves the World Sutra warns us that the Heavenly Father loves the world and has endowed mankind with the most precious soul, and has also promised mankind the right to choose freely. Patriarch Zhang made it clear in the Ten Warnings to the World that we must be vigilant against those false prophets and not let them coerce and deceive mankind in the name of God. This kind of gang is very harmful and must be resolutely resisted until their lair is destroyed."

"After Heavenly Father created the world, he handed it over to us. Our collective will is actually a projection of Heavenly Father's will, or the embodiment of Heavenly Father's will in our world." He explained: "In the classical era, people used concrete tablets to represent God and perform sacrifices. This tablet is the embodiment of God in our world. The Spring and Autumn Annals said that the people are like the wooden tablets of God, which is a metaphor of this kind."

"However, this kind of thinking is too profound. I don't think other people can understand it." He shook his head: "Therefore, their upper limit is locked."

"I can understand it now." Tuo Huan nodded: "But I don't think you explained it this way last time..."

"There are many ways to interpret scriptures, and we are not restricted to just one." Guo Kang did not care at all: "The content of the scriptures is very limited. How to understand and interpret it depends on the specific environment. The meaning of gods and saints is always concise and clear. What we see is just one aspect of Brother Tian's teachings. It is not a conflict."

"Then you are indeed suitable to go to church to study scriptures..." Tuohuan scratched his head and said.

"what?"

"nothing……"

After evading the question, Tuo Huan continued to ask: "Go on, what impact did this kind of thing lead to?"

"This will definitely hinder many things." Guo Kang quoted again: "The Tao Te Ching says that the principles of the world are all natural laws. Patriarch Zhang commented that this is because the rules of us humans and the entire world are set by the Heavenly Father. Therefore, the Tao is in these natural laws and is everywhere."

"So, when we do things on a daily basis, we must also respect the facts and proceed from the natural reality. Only in this way can we be said to respect the will of Heavenly Father. There are also scripture teachers among the barbarians, but these people have become stupid from reading the scriptures. They keep muttering about believing in Heavenly Father, but they don't even understand the basic concepts."

"I told this to the people in the Kiev church a few days ago." Guo Kang shook his head and said to Tuohuan, "The ancients said that filial piety has three levels. The lowest level is material support; the higher level is to maintain a respectful attitude and not let parents be humiliated; and the highest level is respect. This highest respect, according to Confucius, is to carry forward the noble qualities of parents and continue their will."

"To God is actually similar to to my father. Regularly holding ceremonies and offering sacrifices is only the most basic belief. Improving one's character, observing virtues, and not bringing shame to the Father is a higher level. The highest and most difficult thing is to experience and practice this will. I'm afraid that most believers can't do this."

"I'll give you an example, and you'll understand." He thought for a moment and said, "There are also people in the barbarian tribe who hope that everyone will imitate us and build an evaluation system based on human beings. For example, human happiness itself can be used as the highest indicator. Meeting this standard is in line with the interests of mankind and can be considered moral. Moral concepts are constructed in this completely utilitarian way."

"This idea is a bit crude," Tuohuan said, "but it's also a big improvement. Barbarians originally had no morals, only the constraints brought by religion. It's a good thing to construct something at random."

"It is true in theory, but it has not been built in practice." Guo Kang said: "Someone raised this question: If you are driving a freight cart and the horse pulling the cart suddenly loses control, you can only pull the reins as hard as you can and try to drive it in one direction. If you turn left, you will kill one person on the other side; if you turn right, you will kill three people on the other side. At this time, which direction should you turn?"

"It depends on who it is." Tuohuan said, "But the situation is urgent, and it may be too late to judge. He must have gone to the side where there are fewer people." "If something happens, it shouldn't be blamed on the driver, right?" Guo Kang confirmed.

"Even if he hit something, it's not his fault. It could be the horse's fault, the car's fault, or even the victims' fault for running around, but this person did nothing wrong and should not be morally condemned." Tuo Huan finished speaking and asked curiously, "I don't know much about philosophy and have never heard of this topic. But why is this question related to the theory of moral construction? Do you really think this person's choice violated morality?"

"Yes." Guo Kang nodded: "This question is to prove that there is no completely moral behavior. Because in this situation, if you want to do something, you must make a subjective assessment and then act according to your own choice, which is equivalent to actively killing some people, so it is also immoral."

Tuo Huan scratched his head: "How strange... I still don't know what this means..."

"That's because your way of thinking and moral values ​​are not barbaric enough, but too practical." Guo Kang said bluntly: "If you consider it from a religious perspective, it will be very simple."

"Although this issue is moral, its core is not secular morality." He explained: "If you replace the people with animals - for example, a dog on one side and two pigs on the other side, although there will be property damage, there will be no moral questioning."

"I don't think a carriage can kill two pigs." Tuohuan corrected, "Pigs are very strong, especially the big ones. Last time I saw Nurhaci overturn the shield cart made by your men."

"what?"

Guo Kang was stunned for a moment, and quickly stopped him, saying, "I'm just giving you an example, don't change the subject..."

"The key is not to judge which side is more valuable, but whether people are qualified to judge." He explained: "People have souls, and the soul belongs to the Heavenly Father. Therefore, trying to measure whether one soul is more valuable or three souls are more valuable is an act of usurpation."

"People cannot replace the Heavenly Father to judge whether another person is 'worthy'; anything done based on such an evaluation is immoral, no matter how good the intention is. Of course, if the person being evaluated is not a person or has no soul, then it is another matter."

"Ah?" This time it was Tuohuan's turn to be surprised: "So the pit is here!"

"This isn't really a trap. It's actually grasping the opponent's pain point." Guo Kang replied: "This question has grasped the core of the barbarian culture, so it's so accurate..."

In fact, this famous ethical question is not the earliest version. There is a model with similar logic but proposed earlier, called the "Aboriginal Problem": Suppose a person comes to a country where the ruler captures 20 Indians and asks the visitor to release the remaining 19 if he can kill one of them personally; otherwise, all 20 will be killed. In this case, should the visitor intervene?

This question is actually more straightforward and more in-depth in its examination of morality and human instinct, but it is not as famous as the later trolley problem. Thinking carefully, it may be that this question is too American, and everyone first questions whether the indigenous people are human beings, which makes it impossible to trigger this religious paradox...

"I feel that the barbarian society is too primitive and backward. Without religion and the church, they can't do anything well. So, even if they try to take people as the core, oppose theology, and establish a new theoretical system, the result is just a change of shell." He thought for a while and said.

"What they used to oppose the church's tyranny was another church's tyranny that was even more terrifying and disorderly. What they used to oppose theology was another theology. Even when they opposed the oppression of women and tried to overthrow the theory of the second saint, they used nothing more than gender-swapped Aristotle's philosophy and the theory of original sin. For thousands of years, they simply had no ability to pick out this circle."

“As a result, the barbarians were unable to complete the construction of a theory that was people-oriented and practical. Because when they defined morality, even if they intended to build a new moral system with people at the center, they could not completely avoid the issue of God when making moral assessments. Just like assessing people’s souls on behalf of God, everyone would always subconsciously regard it as immoral - as long as the participants still wanted to maintain morality, they could not avoid this kind of torture.”

"I see..." His analysis seemed too complicated and Tuohuan didn't quite understand it.

"It doesn't matter whether you remember this logical deduction or not, just know the conclusion." Guo Kang said: "As long as it is this kind of rhetoric, it is a strange result made by the barbarians based on religious logic."

"Some accusations and complaints can only be understood in the context of barbarians." He gave an example: "For example, someone may accuse you of arbitrarily evaluating and defining others. But humans are originally made up of biological instincts and sociality. Once you join society, you will definitely be evaluated and defined by others, so this statement seems meaningless. However, from a theological perspective, mortals should not do this, because the only one who can truly define and judge people is the Heavenly Father - you see, this is easy to understand."

"I still find it strange," Tuohuan said. "I always feel that it is better to stay away from these religious lunatics."

"Ah, so you are just too practical. It's normal that you can't understand." Guo Kang shrugged: "I'll give you an example, and you can think of Nurhaci..."

"Forget it, I'll do all these things. What I'm planning now is how to correct this problem."

"That would require breaking their long-standing habitual thinking, which would be very troublesome," Tuohuan said.

"It's more than just breaking it." Guo Kang shook his head: "Just breaking it is useless, and it may even be more dangerous. Because the barbarians only have the moral standards brought by religion, so unless a new and complete system can be established, otherwise, opposing and breaking religion is not necessarily a good thing."

"As I said before, barbarians are incapable of truly building a moral system that is centered on people and based on practicality. Even if they manage to do so and use it to develop culture and society, this structure is very fragile and can easily be found to have flaws. Over time, this system will collapse and disintegrate."

"After it collapses, the worst situation will come - God's morality will be abandoned by people in the name of development and progress, and people's artificial morality will be easily shattered. As a result, morality will no longer exist. People cannot understand what their own meaning is, nor can they prove how moral truth should exist. The question I just mentioned is actually used to prove that this kind of truth does not exist. This situation, to be honest, is more troublesome than the rule of the church..."

"Why do we have to come up with an absolute truth..." Tuo Huan muttered, "Is it not possible to just set one?"

"That's not possible." Guo Kang pointed out: "This truth is the Heavenly Father. If there is no original Heavenly Father, we have to construct one, otherwise we really don't know what to do."

"All right……"

(End of this chapter)