Call of Heroes: A History Only I Know

Chapter 201 Confucian debate, national concept! (seeking subscription)

"What do you think about this matter?" Su Che looked at the old man opposite, asked with a smile, and at the same time passed the memorial in his hand.

The old man sitting opposite Su Che, with dark skin and gray hair and beard, lowered his head and stretched out his hand, taking the memorial respectfully.

His hands were as rough as old pine bark, cracked one after another, and several thick calluses appeared on the palms, which looked like the palms of a real old farmer.

But such a person is the new aristocrat of Ming Dynasty, the distinguished Wenxuan Duke Kong Xilu.

Since he was named Duke Wenxuan, Kong Xilu had arranged everything at home, and came to Yingtian Mansion specifically to thank His Majesty the Emperor for his kindness.

When Su Che saw Kong Xilu, he thought he was just an ordinary old man.

Unexpectedly, after talking for a while, Su Che was surprised to find that this old man still has something!

His thoughts and theories are completely different from the so-called Confucianism now, and are closer to the original Confucianism - the journey of the great way, the world is for the public.

More ideal and purer.

Since China experienced the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Song and Yuan, Confucian culture has been continuously misinterpreted and distorted, and finally became the appearance of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, Confucian culture was popular, but the social atmosphere was extremely open and free.

On the contrary, in modern times, the so-called feudal ethics emerged in endlessly, and gradually became an old society that cannibalized people.

Confucianism in this period has become a mixture of the authority of the patriarchs, bureaucratic habits, local folk customs, and the dross of Song and Ming Neo Confucianism, and then put it under the skin of a sage book, misinterpreting it as the sage's teachings, but it is nothing more than a twisted freak.

This distorted Confucianism has completely deviated from the original path. They took all the advantages of ethics, and then shamelessly put the four words "benevolence, righteousness and morality" on themselves, as their invincible weapons.

This kind of Confucianism shattered the pure ideal world of the pre-Qin period, and gradually made Confucius an old existence that everyone hated.

This kind of situation began to appear as early as the Song Dynasty. The Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was the origin of the entire poison, and the poison was strengthened later.

Even the psychology of the sage Wang Mingyang did not set things right.

What exactly is the so-called Cheng-Zhu Confucianism?
This is the new Confucianism founded by Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Shao Yong, Er Cheng and others, carried forward by Zhu Xi, and inherited from the school of Zisi and Mencius.

Er Cheng puts more emphasis on theory. Their theories laid the foundation of Daoism with "the mystery of heart transmission", and took "reason" as the highest category, so it is also called Neo Confucianism.

Its core point of view is - "preserve the principles of nature and get rid of human desires", which was later inherited and developed by Zhu Xi, so later generations call it Cheng Zhu School.

This school of thought is a very complete theoretical system, which has directly influenced the development of China.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, Cheng Zhu has been established as the official ideology by successive emperors.

Because this set of New Confucianism perfectly adapted to the transformation of centralized power in feudal society, and gradually moved towards political philosophy.

Cheng Zhu's repeated emphasis on the "three cardinal guides and five constant principles" and "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism" and other ideas provided fine theoretical guidance for the emperor's autocratic rule and became the spiritual pillar of the dynasty's rule!
To put it bluntly, Cheng Zhu is the ideological tool used by the emperor to paralyze the people of the world.

Loyal to the monarch and patriotic, the three cardinal guides and the five constant principles, the principles of heaven and the destruction of human desires...

Although the importance of Cheng Zhu to the stability of the country is self-evident, its restraint and imprisonment on the thoughts of the people are also obvious.

This set of theories has restrained the thinking of the people and made the people of the world numb.

Naturally, Su Che didn't like such a set of theories, so he abolished the North Kong and conferred the title of Nan Kong in order to find a breakthrough.

Old Zhu in history did it more directly than Su Che.

In the second year of Hongwu, he issued an edict that "Confucian temples will be released in the spring and Autumn period, and they will stop in Qufu, and there is no need for the whole world to worship."

To put it bluntly, people in the world don't need to sacrifice to Confucius, but only need to sacrifice to Qufu.

however.

As soon as the edict came out, there was an uproar in the government and the public, everyone cried and made noises, one by one, just like a funeral at home, the whole court stopped immediately.

Under pressure, Lao Zhu could only withdraw his life.

Then he turned his gaze to Mencius.

What is Mencius' theory?
Confucius said in "The Analects of Confucius": "The king envoys his ministers with courtesy, and the ministers serve the king with loyalty."

The courtiers should be loyal to the monarch, and the monarch should treat his courtiers with courtesy.

But he didn't say, if the emperor's envoys are not polite, what should the ministers do?
Mencius explained it for him:
The king regards his ministers as brothers and feet, and the ministers regard the emperor as his heart;
The original intention of these remarks is from the perspective of the people. He does not advocate that the people of the world should be loyal to one surname and one person. If the emperor cannot protect the people, everyone in the world will be punished.

This is the core thought of Mencius.

After that, Lao Zhu organized people to revise "Mencius", and deleted the content such as "the people are the most important, the society is second, and the king is the least".

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang opposed Mencius so much is actually very simple.

It's not for the so-called selfish desire, for the stability of one's own country.

Rather, he saw through the essence of the words and recognized the real reality.

The people are the most precious, the society is second, and the monarch is the light.

This sentence sounds as if there is nothing wrong with it, it is simply too good.

But the problem is, this can only be said by ordinary people!
Once other people say it, it will be different.

For example, those civil servant groups said this.

Why should civil servants speak out on behalf of the common people, and what is their real intention?
But here comes the question again... Do ordinary people have the right to speak?Obviously not.

In addition, from the standpoint of the civil official group, there are even more problems-is your civil official yourself expensive or light?
The essence of this society is not composed of the people, the country, and the emperor, but the people, the country, the bureaucrats, and the emperor.

After Mencius left out the bureaucratic group, there is room for this sentence to be distorted and exploited.

This sentence puts the civil official group in the position of the final adjudicator, allowing the civil official group to grasp the right to speak for the "people", and antagonizes the relationship between the monarch and the people.

That is to say, those who keep saying that "the people are the most important, and the emperor is the least", once they restrain the imperial power, they will naturally become "the people are the most important, and the officials are the most important".

The Song Dynasty is such an example.

The emperor shared the world with the scholar-officials—the civil servants corrupted unrestrainedly, lost power and humiliated the country, imposed excessive taxes, and used the cruelest torture to suppress the resistance of the common people.

The final result is that the people, the country, and the monarch all suffer.

The Yuan Dynasty is also a good example.

The system of the Yuan Dynasty was essentially a Confucian country with the thought of "the people are more important than the emperor".

The tax package system of the Yuan Dynasty only needs money and does not interfere with local governance. Such a high degree of autonomy can be said to be a system that many people dream of.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty was also an era in which Confucianism was extremely free and open.

Kublai Khan himself was even more respectful to Confucian masters. In addition to appointing Confucian masters to occupy very important positions, he also readily accepted the title of "Great Confucian Master", and sincerely accepted the Confucian principles of "three cardinal guides and five constant principles" and "righteousness and sincerity" taught to him by the great Confucianists.

Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism directly rose to the official ideology of the Yuan Dynasty.

But the final result was the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang, as the real peasant emperor who came out from the bottom, naturally saw clearly the essence of the Confucian saying that "the people are more important than the emperor".

Zhu Yuanzhang's dead family, in the eyes of those who keep saying that "the people are more important than the emperor", are they considered "people"?

Obviously not.

What kind of "people" are people who cannot speak out?
The so-called popular will in the Confucian literati has always referred to those who have the right to speak.

Many people think that Zhu Yuanzhang is a cruel ruler and a complete dictator by deleting Mencius's "the people are more important than the emperor".

However, some things are not that simple.

Because there are lessons and conclusions from the previous two dynasties.

Faced with many problems in this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang has been trying to change.

It's a pity that even Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know a way to crack it if he wanted to break his scalp.

This is the limitation of the times.

Zhu Yuanzhang tried to struggle, but what he could do was very limited.

And Su Che is also making his own attempt.

I just don't know if these attempts will be successful?
He looked at Wenxuan Gong Kong Xilu. In this old man, Su Che saw a little shadow of pre-Qin Confucianism. He is not Confucianism of "Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism". This is good news.

Kong Xilu looked down for a long time, then raised his head and said: "The heart of compassion is the essence of benevolence; the heart of shame is the essence of righteousness; the heart of humiliation is the essence of propriety; the heart of right and wrong is the essence of wisdom. Your Majesty's founder of the country can be called a minister of benevolence and righteousness because of sacrifices. His deeds can be called ministers of benevolence and righteousness."

This evaluation is not unreasonable, Su Che nodded, and continued: "I held the sacrifice not to enlighten them, but to do other things. This can be considered unintentional."

After a pause, Su Che continued: "After Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, Confucianism was divided into two families, Cheng Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan. The evils of Cheng and Zhu are under arrest, while the evils of Lu Jiuyuan are still in play."

"In the field of Confucianism, there is still a dispute between Cheng Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan. What do you think, sir?"

Kong Xilu lowered his eyes slightly, thought for a moment, and said, "Since the Yuan Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has become very popular, causing women to completely lose their status and become vassals, gradually becoming a folk custom that favors men over women."

"But even so, the status of most men has not been improved, and their property belongs to the clan, so that both men and women are part of the squeeze."

"The so-called preservation of the principles of nature and the elimination of human desires, I think this is too ideal, too unrealistic, and there is no way to suppress human desires."

"The more suppressed the desire, the stronger, the more twisted, and the more cruel the desire."

"Its essence...is no different from that of a scourge."

"As for Lu's mind theory, I think it's a fault of being close to Zen. It's not the main channel, but a partial channel."

Although Kong Xilu's tone of voice was slow, but very loud.

In his opinion, Zhu Cheng's Neo Confucianism is a scourge, while Lu Jiuyuan's Xinxue has gone astray.

These few are all great sages of Confucianism, and their status is not ordinary.

The so-called learning of the mind, later there was a master named Wang Yangming, and his thought was a result of Zhu Lu's debate.

Yangming's theory of mind is not only the inheritance and development of Lu Jiuyuan's theory of mind, but also can be regarded as a synthesis of Zhu Lu's theory.

And the founder of mind theory, Lu Jiuyuan believes that "heart" is the origin of all things in the universe.

He put forward the idea that 'heart' is 'reason', emphasizing that 'the universe is my heart, and my heart is the truth', and believed that everything in the world is in the heart.

So his theory is called 'Xin Xue'.

Lu Jiuyuan believes that it is not necessary to seek out the poor truth, but to obtain the natural truth by introspecting the heart.

Lu Jiuyuan had many debates with Zhu Xi. The scope of the debates involved all the core issues of Neo-Confucianism, and the impact of the debates also involved multiple schools of thought at that time.

The debate between Zhu and Lu, as well as the similarities and differences between Zhu and Lu developed by later scholars, have lasted for thousands of years.

But in the eyes of Kong Xilu, the 56th generation of Confucius, these two factions belong to heretics!

Hearing these words, Su Che immediately showed a malicious smile, and he quickly said, "Please teach me, sir!"

Kong Xilu didn't dare to speak, and then lowered his head and began to explain what he understood as "Confucianism".

Kong Xilu is an old-school Confucianist. His Confucianism is more traditional, and it is something that Su Che has understood a long time ago. But even so, Su Che still listens very seriously.

After a while, after Kong Xilu finished speaking, Su Che got up respectfully, and then bowed earnestly with a full gesture.

This made Kong Xilu feel that his life and pursuit had reached the pinnacle. Isn't the ultimate goal of the ancient literati the "teacher of the emperor"?
Kong Xilu's black face was slightly flushed, and he hurriedly bowed deeply in return.

Su Che said with a smile: "Sir, we all agree. Today's Confucianism has gone astray. It should be corrected."

"However... we think we should add something else."

Kong Xilu hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, please tell me."

Su Che thought for a while and said: "In the pre-Qin period, Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi put forward a series of views on the issue of Yi and Xia based on the situation at that time and on the basis of the early views on Yi and Xia. On the one hand, they emphasized the distinction between Yi and Xia, strictly guarded against Yi and Xia, and respected the king and rejected the barbarians."

"On the other hand, it advocates changing the barbarians with Xia and dividing the barbarians with "rituals", yearning for a unified situation where the barbarians are integrated and the world is one family."

Su Che talked about the "Differentiation between Yi and Xia", which was a cliché. Kong Xilu was stunned for a while. After listening for a long time, he didn't understand what His Majesty wanted to say.

After a while, Su Che expressed his opinion, which is what Tu Qiong saw.

Su Che said: "However, countless years have passed since the pre-Qin period. We think that this term has to be changed. It is no longer based on "rituals" to divide Hua and Yi. It should not be limited to regions, ethnic groups, and officials and people. As long as there are 'same mythology', 'shared history', and 'common culture', they are all Chinese ethnic groups."

"As long as we have a common past, we are the same people."

Hearing Su Che's words, Kong Xilu obviously didn't realize the key point, and nodded subconsciously: "Your Majesty makes sense."

Su Che smiled slightly, and said to himself: "That's right, that's what I planned to do..."

In history, Zhu Yuanzhang once said: "The Mongols are also my people."

He intermarried the captive Mongolian women with Han people and treated them equally.

But Su Che intends to go one step further than Zhu Yuanzhang.

He wants to thoroughly strengthen the concept of "nation"!

In ancient times, the concept of Yi Xia and Hu Han was somewhat different from the modern concept of nationality.

This kind of nationalism is generally called proto-nationalism, and it has something in common with nationalism, but it has not developed into full-fledged nationalism.

What Su Che is going to do is to fully reveal the concept of "nation"!

(End of this chapter)