My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 797 I don’t want to, no, you must!

Many people may think that in order to restore the simple folk customs of ancient times, moral education is needed.

But in fact, advocating that everyone should be moral is a hypocritical act, or it can be said to be a blind and one-sided cognition of some people who do not understand the real situation.

Therefore, what Fusu wanted to do in culture and education was very different from what the monarchs and kings advocated in past history.

Fusu opposed the promotion of "morality" and "enlightenment".

Qin II believed that the real goal of governing a society should be to allow people in the society to return to a state of mutual trust and to live in harmony with each other; and individuals could return to their own simple and natural state.

The so-called simple folk customs are actually an ideal society where people benefit themselves and others and can live in harmony.

This is the real purpose of Qin II asking the Qin people to re-learn "Huangdi Neijing", so that people can understand their own position in the world, follow the time, make use of geography, and cooperate with human affairs, so that they can live a relaxed and happy life.

At least Fusu hopes that in the era he lives in, hard work is not advocated and everyone is not encouraged to be inward-looking.

Fusu hoped to ease the situation and trend of competition among people after Yao and Shun, and it would be best if he could find a substitute.

People in ancient times did not pursue so-called cleverness, but retained simplicity and purity, so they lived in peace and everyone lived to their due lifespan. At the end of their lives, their bodies were often well taken care of, and their souls could return to where they came from.

People today are not like that, and I cannot bear to describe it in detail...

The society of ancient people is an ideal state that modern society cannot achieve, because their goal was to improve interpersonal relationships in society.

In a sense, the core of all knowledge in society actually revolves around the relationship between people, which can be magnified as a national war or narrowed down to the ethical order within a family.

A person's troubles basically come from troubled interpersonal relationships.

Disciplines are actually just different ways and methods of studying the world.

So if you want to understand the truth of the world, you can study chemistry, physics, psychology, literature, Buddhism, and even psychology.

They are just different ways and paths to understand the truth.

The reason why I want to say this here is to tell everyone that truth is absolutely true, it can be verified and confirmed through countless methods, it is absolutely objective and true!
But morality is not necessarily the case.

If we want to build an ideal society, we must return to people.

The so-called human being proposed by the modern philosopher Kant is an end, not a means, and the ancients understood its meaning deeply.

The core support for the social model of the Yellow Emperor's era was people, simple and honest people, rather than any system, objects or culture.

Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs for the benefit of mankind; he compiled the astronomical calendar to serve mankind.

But people today are different. They abandon the study of people themselves and start studying systems and culture.

The more you study these things, the more ethereal they become and the further they are from the right path, making it difficult for people to return to themselves.

But now we have so much culture. If we ask those intellectuals to abandon culture and return to natural simplicity, I guess those doctors and scholars will tear the roof of our Qin II's head off.

So there is still the same solution. Since the river can no longer flow backwards, let it flow in a good direction.

Now that Pandora's box has been opened and the demons and beasts have been released, we should stop focusing on the demons and beasts and concentrate on studying the treasure that Yao is trying to make people obtain - love.

It has come to this point. What is the point of clinging to facts that cannot be changed and water that cannot flow backwards?

This kind of ideology determined that the focus of cultural and educational popularization during the reign of Qin II was on cosmic science that benefits people, which is complementary to medicine and Yixue.

The long speech above has already denied the so-called morality. The so-called morality is something made up by bad people and villains to deceive people.

It was impossible for Fusu to continue promoting these things during the Qin Dynasty.

Lao Tzu is a truly wise man.

Lao Tzu believed that benevolence and righteousness were the result of moral degeneration.

When morality degenerates, benevolence and righteousness emerge.

Therefore, people today call Fusu a benevolent and righteous king because there is no one like Fusu in this era.

It was not Fusu who made the people successful, but the people who made Fusu famous for his benevolence and righteousness.

Lao Tzu once said, “When the great way is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness will come into being.”

When wisdom emerges, great falsehood appears.

Even if there is discord among relatives, there is filial piety and kindness.

When the country is in chaos, there are loyal ministers.

When morality degenerates, benevolence and righteousness emerge; when people have many ideas, many artificial things will arise.

Fake means artificial, not fake or disguised. Of course, the concept of artificial can also include hypocrisy in a certain sense. Pretended benevolence and righteousness are actually created by people, and pretended morality is actually created by people.

Can man-made morality and man-made benevolence still be considered morality and benevolence?

There is no unity in the family, so people say that we should be filial and kind. Children should be filial to their parents, and parents should love their children. The reason is that there is no unity in the family, because children are not filial to their parents, and parents do not love their children, so they preach that children should be filial and kind, and parents should be kind to their children.

Once the country is in chaos, loyal ministers will emerge. If the world is peaceful, there will be no such thing as loyal ministers or treacherous ministers.

Only when trouble arises, we should take those loyal, honest and upright ministers and use them as examples and models to educate and guide the people.

If everyone is a loyal minister, then will there still be loyal ministers?
If everyone is a filial son, then are there still filial sons in the world?

Therefore, benevolence and righteousness are the result of moral degeneration.

And that’s the characteristic of human beings: the less they have, the more they like to complain.

Only people who have no money always boast about how rich they are, while the truly rich people wrap themselves up tightly every day and dare not go out during the day. When they go out, they are alert to everything around them, always worried that someone is trying to harm them.

People who don't have love always shout about how much so-and-so loves them. But those who are loved are always fearless and not afraid of losing.

The less you have, the more you like to complain about it.

Among the people doing business on the street, the one who shouts the loudest will definitely not be able to sell anything.

Lao Tzu's dialectics in the pre-Qin period was so concise and to the point.

Therefore, when governing a country, the question of whether to follow the ancient laws or the modern laws is itself a low point.

The key is to see who is right. It is obvious that what Lao Tzu said makes more sense and is more in line with the actual situation.

We must pick up those lost fragments of civilization again, because they have gone through thousands of years of trials and tribulations, and are always shining brightly in the corridor of time and space.

At the beginning of such an industrial era, the first thing to do is to solve the ideological and cultural problems and point out the direction. Otherwise, blindly carrying out the industrial revolution will probably cause more problems.

The Industrial Revolution will provide a foundation for the Qin Empire, but culture will be able to inlay the Qin Empire with a pearl whose light will never fade.

There is no better time to make the objections to 'morality' clear than before the start of the Industrial Age.

Lao Tzu once said, "The clear path seems obscure, and the advancing path seems retreating."

The brightest may appear to be the darkest, and the most progressive may appear to be the most backward.

Therefore, the highest morality is to have no morality, which is to be immoral.

The first chapter of Laozi's silk book version of "Tao Te Ching" is almost a Taoist's general declaration of criticism of Confucianism.

I have mentioned before that Confucianism is impractical and advocates benevolence, righteousness, and morality.

In this chapter, Lao Tzu clearly explains why they oppose benevolence and righteousness.

As soon as you open your mouth, you will say that the highest virtue is not moral, so it is moral; the lowest virtue is not immoral, so it is not moral. The highest morality is not like morality, it is without morality, and it does not need morality.

How to understand it? The highest morality is that people do not need other people's evaluation when they are alive, and people should not make moral criticisms of others.

I don't need others to point fingers at my life, and I don't want to point fingers at other people's lives either.

Not using morality to 'edify' or 'justly criticize' a person is true morality.

The highest virtue is not being virtuous, and the lowest virtue is not losing virtue.

The real morality is to have no morality, not to be moral to others, and not to be moralized yourself. That is the real morality.

The morality of the lower virtues is the fear of losing morality, but in the end, the answer is that there is no morality.

Every time something happened in a country, a county, or a town, everyone would say that someone or a group of people had lost their morals.
This is just the tip of the lost moral iceberg.

It is better to put it in real life to make it more immersive.

Suppose a man is 35 years old and has not married and has children, he will be criticized by the whole family because he is not married.

This is what people call "morality".

Of course, this "morality" is no longer the "morality" that Lao Tzu could see two thousand years ago.

I probably never dreamed that future generations would one day force each other to the point where there would be a day in history when no one in society wanted to have children.

And not getting married and not having children has become a moral condemnation.

[As for the morality that people pursue, and the more explosive content, I dare not talk about it, and I dare not write about it either…]

Returning to Lao Tzu's "Theory of Morality", according to his dialectics, the more you want something, the less you have it; the more you fear not having it, the less likely you are to have it.

If you don't have the disease, you don't have to worry about not having it. On the contrary, it will not be absent.

This is the first hurdle a practitioner has to overcome, the hurdle of terror.

This is what Zhuangzi said: Even if the whole world praises him, he will not be encouraged; even if the whole world criticizes him, he will not be discouraged.

If you can be without a mind, you can get everything.

But people nowadays are precisely missing the forest for the trees.

If you have a greedy mind, a lustful mind, a fearful mind, a fame-and-wealth mind, and a discriminating mind, you will end up not being able to grasp anything.

So successful people always say that if you want to be successful, don’t think about success, focus on the process.

This is not chicken soup, but a true philosophy of success.

If you are taking an exam or participating in a competition, the more you want it, the more you fear you may not get it, and the less likely you are to get it.

On the contrary, if you go with a relaxed attitude and feel at ease, you will win the prize.

So why are people so afraid of losing their morals now?
The reasons for this problem are worth pondering.

But smart people should have guessed the answer.

The reason is very simple: morality is gone.

What to do if it is gone? But everyone knows that society cannot be without morality, so we must get morality back.

How to get it back.

This is the power of Confucius.

There are three ways to regain morality: benevolence, righteousness, and propriety.

Benevolence, righteousness, and propriety are the remedies for the decline of the highest morality.

But no matter what people do, what they get back will definitely not be as good as the original.

It's like, if a person has a disfigured face, and you find the best plastic surgeon to do a facelift for you, but no matter how good the surgery is, can it still be as good as the original one? Or in other words, can it still be the same as before?

My chin changed today and I need to put a pad on it. I have to go out tomorrow and can’t be exposed to strong winds, so I have to cover it up. I need to drink a lot of water and moisturize every day...

In the same way, why are people in society living increasingly exhausted lives? Because people often spend their energy protecting their "plastic surgery face".

My leg is broken and I get the best prosthetic limb, but is that prosthetic limb as good as the original leg?
What you get back will never be as good as the original.

So according to Lao Tzu, benevolence, righteousness, and propriety are all lower virtues, not higher virtues.

However, within benevolence, righteousness, and propriety, there are three levels. Benevolence is the first level among the lower virtues, righteousness is the second level, and propriety is the third level among the lower virtues.

So Lao Tzu made the above division of so-called morality.

The highest virtue is to do nothing and to have nothing to do.

I don't do it and I don't want to do it.

Wanting to do something means taking action, and it means doing it deliberately.

There is no morality to speak of. You are free to do what you want, and I fully respect you. I will not interfere with morality.

The best of the lower virtues is the highest benevolence, which is to do something without intending to do it.

What is Shangren? It means to do something even if you don’t want to do it, but you have to do it.

What is the higher meaning? To do something with intention, to do it and to want to do it. To do it and to do it because you want to do it.

What is the highest courtesy? If someone does something and no one responds, then throw it away with your arms raised.

What is the best gift? It is to want to do it, to have the intention to do it, and to actually do it.

If others don't respond, roll up your sleeves and force them to do it.

What is giving gifts? Not only should you do it yourself, but you should also ask others to do it together.

Therefore, courtesy is the worst morality. Not only do I have to abide by this "morality" myself, I also want others to abide by it.

The Taoist philosophy is inaction. The best thing is not to want to do anything or not to do anything.

A person does not want to be "moral", nor does he pull others to be "moral".

Doing it but not wanting to do it is the second best.

Doing and wanting to do it is the third category.

Not only do you do it yourself, but you also force others to do it. That is the worst thing.

The worst is etiquette, etiquette is the worst.

Benevolence, righteousness, and propriety originally came from the decline of morality.

Lao Tzu said that when virtue is lost, then benevolence is lost; when benevolence is lost, then righteousness is lost; when righteousness is lost, then propriety is lost.

When morality has degenerated, benevolence comes into play; when benevolence no longer works, righteousness comes into play; when righteousness no longer works, propriety comes into play.

Now let's think about it carefully. What does the collapse of rituals and music in the late Zhou Dynasty really mean? It depends on one's own opinion.

Poor Qin Empire, it started out in such a situation.

(End of this chapter)