Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 139 0134 [Teaching in the Tao]

In the early morning, by the river, Xue Daoguang had been meditating all night.

There is also burnt wormwood next to it, which is used to smoke mosquitoes.If Zhu Ming hadn't let Bai Sheng smoke, Daoist Xue would have been carried away by mosquitoes while looking inside.

"Daoist, let's go!" Zhu Ming shouted.

Xue Daoguang slowly opened his eyes, got up and said, "Let's go."

Zhu Ming asked, "Have you ever figured it out?"

"I understand now, my little friend is messing with my vision," Xue Daoguang glanced at him, "I don't want to argue with you about Taoism, but I can walk with you for a while. When can I really let go, it's a matter of course Only when you have achieved success in cultivation. Little friend, what you said yesterday ruined my 20 years of morality!"

"Hahaha!"

Zhu Ming laughed loudly: "How could it be that scary? The Taoist priest just had some extra thoughts, and your Qi training is not for nothing."

At this time, Xue Daoguang was still trying to annotate Ziyang Zhenren's "Wu Zhen Pian", and he hadn't even started to summarize and compile his own Taoist scriptures.

Dao Xin is not very firm, and now Zhu Ming has mixed in some benevolence and righteousness.

"Brother Zhu, here are the pancakes, a total of eighty!" Bai Sheng came over with his bag in hand.

This village is small, but the people live a decent life.

Just because this is the last stop of the boat in Hanzhong, we have to walk further.Regardless of whether it is the official delivery shop or the tea delivery shop, the officials and soldiers will not attack the people in the village.

If they are forced too hard, all the farmers will flee, and it will be difficult to supply supplies here. Will they go to the northwest wind in the future?
The eighty pancakes that Bai Sheng brought at this time were the wheat he carried with him, and he paid for the villagers to bake them this morning.

Other scholars and officials are also inviting the villagers to pancakes, and I don't know how long they will go.

Zhu Ming led the cornucopia, the horses carried clothes and food, Bai Sheng and Shi Biao carried dried shiitake mushrooms, and set off towards the north in the middle of the morning.

There are more than 200 people traveling together.

In addition to official errands, scholars, soldiers, and civilian husbands, there are also some small businessmen and ordinary tourists.Some people have stayed here for two or three days, and they dare not travel alone for fear of encountering bandits in the mountains.

After walking for half a day, everyone stopped to rest.

Zhu Ming pointed to Baoshui, and asked the official who was traveling with him: "These rivers look quite wide, why can't we use boats anymore?"

The official came from Yangzhou and wanted to send official documents to Tokyo. He replied: "There are hidden reefs under the water, and the current is very fast. If you don't pay attention, the boat will be destroyed and people will die. And in some places, the trackers can't leave. Don’t even think about pulling the boat.”

The water transportation on Baoxie Road has always been a flower in the mirror.

The Han Dynasty also wanted to carry out water transportation through Baoshui, recruiting more than 5 civilians and digging hundreds of miles of plank roads, but the water transportation plan was eventually abolished. The reason is four words: the water is turbulent and the rocks are big.

Zhu Ming turned around and looked back at the official tea team. All the peasants were carrying tea, packed with tea sacks and piled up far above their heads.The tea leaves are all tied to the wooden racks. During a short break, they bend their knees and squat halfway, and the racks can support the ground to save effort.

In addition to tea, some peasants also carried grain on their backs, and even the town soldiers who were holding tea carried a little grain on their backs.

Zhu Ming actually wanted to ask why he didn't use mountain horses or wheelbarrows to transport tea.

It didn't take long for Ju Ming to understand.

After walking a long section of plank road, I suddenly had to climb a steep slope, and it was not easy to push a wheelbarrow up.

Mountain horses should be fine, but raising horses requires money and food, and the death of a horse is a huge loss.The civilian husband doesn't care, he only gives some rations, no wages, and no compensation if he is exhausted.

For the tea horse department, horses are more valuable than human lives!

There is free manpower, why use horses?

"I'm exhausted, take a rest!"

Climbing up a section of hillside, some scholars rushing to take the exam lie down directly, regardless of whether the ground is dirty or not.

Officials, traders, scholars, and passengers delivering official documents all decided to stop for a rest.

Only those rural soldiers and civilian husbands who transported tea continued to rush on their way desperately under the urging of the tea escort officials.Those who move a little slowly will be scolded, and those who are too lazy to leave will be whipped.

Ju Ming sat on the hillside, looking at one after another of the peasants trying to pass in front of him.Their expressions were numb again, as if they were thoughtless machines.Apart from the mountain road in front of them, they couldn't see anything else.

"How difficult the people's livelihood is!" Ling Guxu couldn't help but sigh.

Min Zishun said: "This is due to the corruption of the officials. The officials of the Tea and Horse Division have deducted layer upon layer and put the burden on the peasants. They can definitely raise Sichuan horses to transport goods, but they are not even willing to pay that little money."

Yangzhou belongs to the various roads in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and is the place most harassed by tea servicemen.

From officials and gentry to merchants and ordinary people, they all hate this.All the profits belong to the tea and horse department, and they don't give half a dime to the local government, but they still disturb the local order.

But what can be done?
Cai Jing stood behind the Tea Horse Secretary, and he had a deep relationship with the Northwest Frontier Army, and he was able to make countless money every year.A small official of the Tea Horse Department dared to call and drink to the local magistrate.

On the first day of abandoning the ship and walking, the tea transport team disappeared without a trace.

After walking for half a day, Ju Ming looked at the river. It was no longer a hidden reef. The scattered reefs were visible to the naked eye, and it was impossible for a larger boat to pass.

Ju Ming observed the mountains and rivers along the way, and asked Li Hanzhang at this moment: "Sanlang, when Zhuge Wuhou sent his troops out of the inclined valley, how did he use the flowing horses to transport food from here?"

"Maybe it's just rumors, "Three Kingdoms" may not be accurate." Li Hanzhang said.

Ju Ming guessed: "Is it possible that the Liuma is a kind of boat and cart that can pass both land and water. When the plank road or road is stable, push the cart and use the wheels to move forward. When crossing mountains and ridges, remove the wheels and change the cart into a boat. The tracker Pulling forward, you only need to build fiber-pulling plank roads in some sections of the road. Big ships can’t pass here, but small boats are easy.”

Li Hanzhang thought for a while: "There is also this possibility."

In the evening, rest in the mountains.

Chen Yuan sat cross-legged beside Zhu Ming, and the rest of the candidates also surrounded him.

Chen Yuan asked: "What Dalang said yesterday is the unity of knowledge and deeds, which is also good. But if this person's thoughts and thoughts are all evil thoughts, wouldn't the unity of knowledge and deeds harm others and himself?"

"That's why we need to ask our conscience first," Ju Ming said.

Chen Yuan shook his head: "Mencius said: If a person is capable without learning, he has good ability; if he knows what he does not think about, he has good knowledge. In this way, good knowledge can be known without thinking. It is innate, not acquired. Seeking to obtain. These words are in conflict with knowing by investigating things. The knowledge obtained by investigating things is not the conscience mentioned by Mencius."

Zhu Ming bowed to Wang Yangming in his heart: "There is no kindness and no disgusting body. There is goodness and maliciousness. Knowing the good and knowing the evil is conscience, and doing good and eliminating evil is investigating things."

Chen Yuan was thinking silently, and the scholars were also thinking.

Suddenly, Chen Yuan clapped his hands suddenly: "These four sentences coincide with the doctrine of the mean: destiny is nature, willfulness is Tao, and cultivation is teaching! Could it also come from your father?"

Zhu Ming nodded: "Of course."

Chen Yuan sighed: "Brother Yuanzhang, you are really a great Confucian!"

The same four sentences, uttered by different people, mean exactly the opposite. Zhu Ming directly changed Wang Yangming's idealism into materialism.

Others can understand it any way they want, but for Ju Ming, "to do good and eliminate evil is to study things." You must first understand the truth of things, and then do good and eliminate evil.It can be on the physical level, understanding and using physical knowledge to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages; it can also be on the social and moral level, recognizing social laws and ethical order, and punishing evil and promoting good.

Those four sentences, read upright are epistemology, and read backwards are methodology.

So, Chen Yuan and Zhu Ming began to discuss, the scholars listened quietly, and Gu Xu was ordered to lie down on the ground to record.

Even Tu Rukui from Jiangxi was sitting by the side listening intently.Although they are second-rate goods in Jiangxi, they are first-rate in Hanzhong.

It was getting dark and the bonfire was lit.

After Zhu Ming and Chen Yuan finished communicating, the scholars began to ask questions.

Tu Rukui first asked: "How to make the knowledge from Gewu fit the conscience of Mencius' nature?"

Chen Yuan replied: "Heaven's destiny is called nature. To a conscience, one must understand the destiny and return to one's original heart. This is easy to say, but difficult to do. It is about the Confucian mind, nature, and numerology. Many sages and Confucians have spent their entire lives studying it. This. Confucius said, you know the destiny at fifty, and I am afraid that it is difficult for you to understand the true meaning at such a young age. You need to see more, learn more, and understand more, and you will be diligent about the sun and the moon before you can touch it."

Chen Yuan's understanding of conscience is more suitable for ordinary people.

Wang Yangming's kind of conscientiousness requires too much talent. It can indeed educate many strong people, but it also turns countless people with mediocre talents into fools.

Zhu Ming put it more directly and clearly: "First set up a big ambition, and then use it as a goal to be a person, to learn, to do things. This big ambition is not necessarily your destiny. I am still young, and I can only look at the sky from a well. Seek great ambitions in the sky. When you climb out of the well, your ambitions may change. You can also set your ambitions from an early age, such as helping the world and saving the people, but how to do it has to be explored slowly. If one day, for your own ambitions, If you can sacrifice your life for righteousness and go to death calmly, if you can resolutely abandon the glory and wealth, then you will truly find your destiny."

Chen Yuan frowned. He didn't quite agree with Zhu Ming's point of view, but it seemed that the general direction was correct, so he didn't bother to correct it.

After answering many questions from the scholars, Chen Yuan suddenly stood up and started the first public lecture of the new school.

The first thing he talked about was my principles, the use of Taoism, and the principles of square rules. He tried his best to explain it in an easy-to-understand manner, and even officials and merchants came close to him, as if they were listening to stories told by great Confucians.

After talking for a while, a small businessman asked: "Mr. Chen, you said that if everyone follows the rules, the country will be rich and the world will be peaceful. But why do I abide by the law and do business and can only earn some hard money? Those big businessmen who do evil, But can they make a lot of money? My ruler is straight, but I have to suffer. The ruler of big merchants is curved, but they can enjoy happiness. They are all drawing squares for their families, countries, and the world. My ruler is too short. Can draw a little straight line. Big merchants have longer rulers, and they can draw a lot of crooked lines."

Chen Yuan said: "You are not wrong, it is not your problem. It is the incompetence of the officials, which makes the good people suffer and the bad people enjoy the blessings. I hope you can continue to be a good person. If you have the ability, you will punish the bad people. If you are not able, then do it." Take care of your own affairs. We scholars will try our best to help you. We will drive out treacherous officials and rectify the administration of officials, so that good people can enjoy happiness if they abide by the law, and bad people will be punished if they break the law."

But the small businessman didn't believe it, and said in a mocking tone: "I'm waiting for that day."

Chen Yuan pointed to the small businessman, and said to the scholars rushing to take the exam: "This man doesn't believe, can he be blamed? He can't win the trust of the people. This is really a shame for us scholars!"

Most of the scholars bowed their heads in shame, while some felt disdainful.

(End of this chapter)