My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 731 People are the end, not the means.

All the ministers were silent, and the emperor was also silent for a long time.
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Previously, he had competed with the ministers in wits and intelligence, which caused a bad atmosphere in the court. Although he stopped the loss in time, Fusu always had some resistance to his ministers. Seeing that Feng Quji and the ministers still insisted on fulfilling their duties as ministers, Fusu felt a little relieved.

But Fusu believed that it was all his own credit.

If he hadn't taught these ministers a lesson, they might have thought that the man on the throne, although he looked like a tiger, had no power!

The question that Feng Quji asked Fusu can be summed up in one sentence: what kind of country do you want to build?

Qin II was silent for a long time and said eight words to his ministers.

"When he sleeps, he has no dreams; when he wakes, he has no worries."

When the ministers heard these eight words, they were a little confused.

As a result, some normal phenomena appeared in the Qin court, a senior class where seats were arranged according to rank.

The top 'scholars' in the front row remained motionless, deep in thought.

The "ministers" sitting in the middle first looked at the tablet out of habit, trying to find something on it.

The 'ministers' at the back looked at each other in bewilderment, 'What did your Majesty say?'

"Didn't hear that clearly."

"Oh, I don't understand. What does it mean to sleep without dreams and wake up without worries?"

"Sleep without dreams, wake up without worries. Who can do that?"

Feng Quji originally thought that Fusu would give some high-sounding speeches, after all, Fusu has always been very eloquent.

But he just gave eight words.

A smart man like Feng Quji quickly understood what was going on.

The emperor wanted to make the people reach a state where they could sleep without dreams and wake up without worries.

Difficult, difficult.

Before Feng Quji could react carefully, Zhang Cang suddenly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, what you said is very good."

"He sleeps without dreams, and wakes up without worries. A person who does not dream when sleeping and has no worries when waking up is really an enviable thing. This is the most ideal state of life in Zhuangzi's mind."

"Your Majesty has such a wish, which is exactly what I want. Compared with fighting, killing, and fighting, cultivating our character is what we humans should do most."

"People nowadays are obsessed with desires and cannot extricate themselves. A general wants to be a marquis, and a minor official wants to be a doctor."

"This situation should have been dealt with long ago. I think your majesty is absolutely right. This is the goal that a great country should truly pursue."

"What's more, with a wise ruler like your majesty leading us and loyal men like me assisting us, how difficult can this be?"

After Zhang Cang finished speaking, no one in the court dared to speak.

Almost everyone was shocked by Zhang Cang's remarks.

Only Meng Yi, who was sitting on the side, looked at Zhang Cang with admiration. Meng Yi had always admired Zhang Cang's character.

Everyone knew that this was Fusu's number one "henchman" supporting him. But this support was so great that even Fusu felt his scalp tingling.

Upon hearing this, Prime Ministers Feng Quji and Wang Wan also began to tremble violently.

What do you mean by not knowing your place? How can you say such a thing?

Does Zhang Cang know how difficult it is to govern a country?
The ministers also made some slight discussions.

Zhang Cang is now consolidating his power and is not afraid of anyone. He is angry with everyone, everything. During his tenure as an official, he was involved in a wide range of official duties, and he was just short of defeating a tyrant.

To be honest, he has been keeping an eye on the current emperor, wanting to remind him when he is not in a clear mind. This is Zhang Cang's wish, and it is also the wish of every counselor and censor.

For ministers, being able to make the king listen to their opinions is their greatest achievement and supreme honor.

Zhang Cang's positive pursuit will obviously bring him some harm.

However, Zhang Cang was not afraid of people's criticism. Mencius said, "I am good at cultivating the great and righteous spirit!"
The books Zhang Cang read gave him great strength and kept him moving forward.

Anyway, as soon as he stood up, everyone felt that he exuded an air of confident stupidity, but his clear eyes were full of determination for justice.

However, in the court of the Qin Dynasty, the talented people all had their own personalities. There were many eccentrics, and Zhang Cang was no exception.

In comparison, Zhang Cang is much more normal than Meng Yi, Liu Ji, and Ji Bu, isn't he?

Zhang Cang felt that what he had said before might have been a bit too implicit, and he thought that there were so many ministers in the court who were opposed to the reform of the military merit system.

So Zhang Cang decided to retreat in order to advance, so that the ministers could understand the great Qin II.

"Your Majesty, why do you want the people to reach such a state?" Zhang Cang was full of confidence. He understood Zhuangzi's teachings and the thoughts of the saints. He understood what Fusu was thinking.

But Fusu ignored him.

The ministers were also dissatisfied with Zhang Cang's recent remarks.

Damn it, Zhang Cang cursed them all one by one. Anyone who likes Zhang Cang has a hole in his brain.

Meng Tian only felt that the Second Emperor's eyes for selecting people were somewhat vicious, and he dared to employ any ugly or useless person.

It is not easy for someone like Zhang Cang, who is impulsive, loves to brag and speak the truth, to live to this day.

He still had to help Qin II to maintain order.

If the system was to be reformed, then it would be reformed. As a subject, he only needed to obey the king's orders. Moreover, it was the emperor's intention to let the two brothers assist Fusu.

The ministers, like Fusu, ignored Zhang Cang.

Zhang Cang was a little puzzled. What did I say wrong? Why did they ignore me?

Meng Tian asked Fusu, "Your Majesty wants to make the people sleep without dreams and wake without worries. But Your Majesty, even a saint would find it difficult to do this."

"Your Majesty wants the people to collectively achieve this highest ideal state of life. If this is the direction that our Great Qin will strive for in the future, then this direction is too lofty."

The implication is that what Fusu said was a bit too unrealistic.

Feng Quji looked at Meng Tian with admiration. He thought that among the younger generation of officials in the court, there was rarely a normal person like him.

The ministers also echoed Meng Tian's opinion.

"Yeah, this is a bit too difficult."

"We, the officials, can't do it, let alone the common people, no, what about the people?"

"I don't think your majesty can do it himself."

Li Xin felt a headache after hearing this. He looked at the words on the tablet and in a daze, he saw that the words began to move. Soon they began to visit each other, one word moving to the other side and that word moving to the next line.

These words began to dance.

Feng Jie watched how Marquis Longxi fell asleep. At that moment, Feng Jie wondered if everyone who was conferred a title of marquis at the age of 33 could live like him.

The civil officials began to fight with each other and all kinds of lofty theories came out.

Most of the warriors looked at Zhao Tuo, Feng Jie and Meng Tian to see what they would say.

The older generation of military generals either left Xianyang for other posts or retired and returned home to enjoy their retirement.

Most of the remaining ministers felt a little leaderless.

Chunyu Yue was also helpless. Things had developed to this point, which was completely different from what he had imagined. Prince Fusu became the crown prince and ascended the throne in that way.

After he ascended the throne, he did not use Confucianism, but followed the Huang-Lao philosophy; the ministers he appointed were not Confucianists, but all kinds of people in the world.

People like Zhang Cang are rampant in the court, and etiquette has disappeared.

The old man closed his eyes in embarrassment.

Liao sat on the side, looking at Fusu with the eyes of an old father.

At this moment, in Yuzhen Palace, the young man Ji Xin was playing chess with Qin Shihuang.

Ying Zheng had no intention of playing chess. He was thinking, if he were still in power, would Nanyue have been conquered already.

Fusu was such a fool that he signed an armistice agreement with the ruler of South Vietnam as soon as he came to power.

And Li Si, that Li Si, I heard that he was driven back home by Fusu. It can be seen that Fusu was stupid, a man like Li Si, whose intelligence was among the best in the world, dared to give up.

Ji Xin played chess with Qin Shi Huang and saw that the emperor was so absent-minded. After taking two steps, his mind drifted far away. He also looked in the direction of Xianyang City from time to time. He could only play chess with the retired emperor casually.

After a spring, Qin Shihuang had a lot of white hair on his temples.

The First Emperor was very angry about this.

Ji Xin, a young general with clear eyes and muscular body, was loved by Qin Shihuang, who was always kind to him.

At this time, Ying Zheng was wondering what was happening in the world right now.

Ji Xin accompanied the emperor carefully. According to the emperor's confidants, his main task was to make the emperor happy and not to sulk.

But after accompanying the emperor and getting familiar with him, Ji Xin always heard Ying Zheng asking himself, "Could it be that I was really wrong in the past?"

What is both funny and pitiful is that after leaving the throne, Ying Zheng stopped calling himself "Zhen" and started calling himself "Zhen" again.

At this moment, he looked at the Xianyang Palace with worry, worrying about the world and the fate of its people.

But he no longer had the arrogance he once had. In other words, his son taught him the best lesson.
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The breeze crossed a land of thirty miles, passed over streams, valleys, fields and dams, and reached the Xianyang Palace.

The waxed floor in the Da Zheng Hall was as smooth as a mirror. Li Xin fell asleep in a daze. At the same time, a few butterflies fluttered and circled outside the hall and slowly crawled in through the window.

They circled around Li Xin.

The other ministers surrounded Fusu, confused about the direction of governance set by the new emperor.

"Your Majesty, please explain clearly." Zhang Cang didn't understand. Why should this be explained clearly? Isn't this the way it should be? He wanted to speak, but was interrupted by other ministers.

Fusu listened to his ministers talking to each other, which sounded like the discussion of elementary school students.

There is no way. In the face of the known two thousand years of historical experience and the essence of Chinese and Western culture, no matter how much knowledge these ancient old men have, it is insignificant.

Fusu could only patiently explain to them using the theories of the great philosopher Kant.

“People are the end, not the means.”

"But since the country's system has become more and more complete, our governance has begun to go off track, and the purpose has been placed on how to evolve the system."

"From the beginning, we tried to improve the current situation of people through the system, but we lost sight of the original purpose. We were completely thinking about improving the system through people and building a better system. Then we derived more goals and built the most powerful country."

“At this point, people have strayed from their original development goals.”

“Man has treated man as a means to an end.”

This was the first time that Fusu publicly spoke about Western philosophy in the court. Not only were his views novel, but the key was that they were in line with the logic of these pre-Qin bigwigs. Moreover, in this era of flourishing schools of thought, the theories Fusu put forward did not feel abrupt to everyone.

And contrary to reality, in this era, the Qin Empire needs a brand-new and systematic theory to guide and help national construction.

So the ministers listened very seriously and carefully.

In terms of innovative theories, no one in the Qin Empire has had a higher say than Fusu so far.

In short, Fusu was the person in charge of the institutional construction of the Qin Empire.

Fusu had established such a high authority since the beginning of his time travel. Carrying a sword to the palace at the age of eight was not some distant myth.

“The establishment of a country is to enable people to live a better life and to better meet their needs.”

"The country was originally a tribe and a federation. The purpose of establishing a country is to protect the tribesmen within the country so that they can live and reproduce peacefully."

"Reproduction is the original goal of human beings. But now, people feel hopeless about survival, feel painful and powerless about living, and have no hope for development and progress, so much so that they are disgusted with the important matter of reproducing offspring and want to escape from it."

“This is the current state of the world. I’m worried that if we don’t solve this problem now, this problem will continue to happen in the future.”

"There is nothing new under the sun. What happened today will happen tomorrow. Unless we provide a solution template for future generations, they can learn from the experience."

"In my opinion, governing a country by using people as a means has obviously deviated from the goal of governance. High-intensity management, excessive intervention, frequent policies, strict and detailed laws, and so on are all ways to achieve the goal of governance by turning people into means and methods."

"Governing a country ultimately comes down to making people better. That is, making people better. On the premise of ensuring their survival and security, we should improve their spiritual character and temperament."

"It makes people feel comfortable and free. It does not make the country's territory wider, weapons stronger, or wealth greater."

"Lao Tzu said, 'The opposite is the movement of the Tao, and the weak is the use of the Tao.'"

"In fact, if a country can achieve this, its wealth will definitely be world-leading, and its technology will be unique in the world."

Fusu, the goal he proposed may be exactly the panacea that the Qin Empire desperately needs right now.

Because the Qin Empire was already at the forefront of the world in terms of systems, technology, industry, and agriculture.

To put it more simply, based on the country's current population and overall economic size, it is more than enough to feed everyone.

In other words, the country is not poor, but the vast majority of the people are in poverty.

So what exactly went wrong when this happened?

There are always people who say that it is a problem of system and distribution;
Others say that it is because the cake is not big enough and the plate is not wide enough.

However, has anyone ever considered a ridiculous thing? That is, if so much wealth is distributed equally, it would be more than enough.

If the cake is made bigger, wouldn't it make the country more dangerous? Because at that time, the gap in economic size between individuals will reach an incredible level.

The rest of the words cannot be said.

If you follow this logic, you will understand that it is not a problem of the distribution system or a problem of failed supervision.

What is the root cause?
What went wrong?
The answer is people.

The problem is with the people themselves.

Those in power want to fool the people, monopolize cultural knowledge, and even create false culture to hollow out people's brains and poison their hearts.

Once the people below really fall into the trap, the people above immediately lose their support, the regime collapses, and everything is reduced to ashes.

While those at the top are enjoying themselves, their governance becomes much simpler and exploitation becomes more convenient because they have deprived those below them of their wisdom.

Because of their arrogance, they themselves discarded knowledge and wisdom and became the same as the fools they expected.

As a result, the so-called tragedy occurred, which has been repeated throughout Chinese history.

Since the problem lies with people, solve it starting with people.

So how do we solve this problem? Based on historical experience, reforming the system is useless. No matter how good a system you promulgate, problems will arise as long as people implement it.

So at the root of the problem, it’s still people’s thinking and there are big problems with the education of the nation.

The world is a huge makeshift team, but it also has boomerangs. No one should intentionally harm anyone else. Whoever you want to harm will end up hurting yourself.

On this day, Fusu discussed with his ministers for a long time.

By noon, the ministers should have retired early and gone home to rest.

But they all followed Fusu and listened to him explain these principles.

In fact, those in high positions do not want to live like this, because they actually have power, but they are afraid every day.

And the wealthy also feel that life is always unhappy.

As the differences between people grow greater, exploitation and oppression increase, the poor begin to hate the rich, and the world becomes like a cesspool.

No one can escape.

Therefore, our ancestors, both in the East and the West, took into account the real difficulties when they explored the meaning of the universe and life and thought about the origin of mankind.

However, there is a common pain among these vastly different individuals - they all have troubles.

Therefore, the ancestors of the East and the West realized at the same time that people might have sinned against God, that is to say, the entire human race came to such a place because of sins.

There were naturally too many discussions and conversations with ministers about these philosophies.

Fusu mainly hoped that all his ministers would face up to a problem that no one had paid attention to in the pre-Qin era - there was something wrong with the direction of human development.

“If you pursue wealth, you will not get it; if you pursue power, you will be devoured by power.”

"The meaning of human existence in this world is definitely not to endure the pain of 'wanting but not getting' throughout one's life."

“Of course, there are a few good people who get good results, but they are a minority after all.”

"But I think that our Qin Empire, as a great civilization, should do something different, such as exploring a direction in which humans should develop."

"To realize one's own wisdom and complete one's personality."

Fusu's words really touched the ministers of Qin.

The amount of his knowledge and theories far exceeded the sum of all his ministers; he was very good at debate and metaphor, and could effectively convince others in a one-on-one manner.

He pointed out the weaknesses of these ministers and did not blame them. Instead, he chose to understand and tolerate them, pointing out that they were in the middle of the problem and could not solve it. So the ministers, who had different opinions on Fusu at the beginning, gradually turned to looking up at Fusu and surrounded him like pilgrims.

This is the power of knowledge!

Only true wisdom can convince everyone.

All this knowledge is very down-to-earth and not so mysterious. All wisdom is gathered from bits and pieces of knowledge.

This court meeting really made all the ministers admire Fusu.

Fusu answered their questions and explained clearly that the country's development goal is people.

Fusu thought that today's court meeting was quite meaningful.

But there is a more far-reaching meaning than this level. Fusu injected soul and new blood into the Qin Empire.

He created a new belief for the Qin Empire.

Just like his father.

His father Ying Zheng was once determined to end the war in the world and eliminate all the nobles!

And now, Fusu, standing on the shoulders of his predecessors and the blood and tears of his descendants, has designed a new trajectory for the Qin Empire, determined to lead human society into a higher level of civilization.

The court meeting was over. No one felt hungry anymore. Instead, they felt that some emptiness in their hearts was greatly satisfied. The inexplicable fear in their hearts was actually eliminated by Fusu's words.

Everyone wanted to continue listening to Fusu, but Fusu was very tired, and the purpose of today was just to convince everyone to move towards the goal of bringing peace to people's souls.

The final result was good, and the ministers were finally convinced by Fusu.

In the corner, Li Xin's snoring could be heard slowly, and everyone burst into laughter.

Fusu established his prestige in front of his ministers. The ministers all felt that the future was infinitely bright. Not only did they no longer resist the reform, but they also had great respect for Fusu and could not wait for him to assign them tasks to create an ideal world.

They were also looking forward to what kind of education Fusu would bring to the people.

Seeing that the ministers' attitude towards him changed from suspicion and rejection to curiosity, and then to admiration and respect, Fusu did not become proud.

He knew that this was the power of truth.

In the future, he will need to learn more so that he can adapt to the development of the Qin Empire and deal with various problems that may arise in the future.

[Author's monologue:
I always thought I couldn't do it, but I still wrote it. I would like to thank the wisdom gained from the exploration and the blood and tears experience summed up by the predecessors of all generations.

You should know that many of the concepts in my novels are not my personal opinions, but the results of my reading of history books, sociology, Western psychology, ancient thought books, Buddhism, and university professors. I hope you will stop misunderstanding me. People always say that I have personal opinions, but it is obviously you who did not read the books carefully. 】

(End of this chapter)