My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 803 He, Mr. Huangshi
All the students were listening to the lessons in the garden.

As a rule, these students in the school did not have the opportunity to come out to the garden to listen to the music.

What is taught in this course on the History of Qin Law are legal documents, namely the eighteen Qin laws that all Qin people are familiar with.

From "Law on Land", "Law on Stables and Gardens", "Law on Warehouses", "Law on Gold and Cloth", "Customs and Markets", "Law on Works", "Workers' Schedule", "Equal Distribution of Workers", "Law on Corvée", "Sikong", "Law on Military Ranks", "Law on the Appointment of Officials", "Effect", "Law on the Transmission of Food", "Running Script", "Miscellaneous Regulations on the Internal History", "Miscellaneous Regulations on the Lieutenants", to "Law on Effect", all of them are regulations on the system for verifying the material accounts of counties and capital officials.

In addition, there is the "Miscellaneous Qin Laws", which include "Laws on Removing Officials", "Laws on Immigration Scholars", "Laws on Removing Disciples", "Laws on Labor", "Laws on Storage", "Laws on Hunting for Official Vehicles and Sima", "Laws on Cattle and Sheep", "Laws on Tutors", "Laws on Military Garrisons", "Laws on Capturing Thieves", and "Laws on Garrisons", a total of eleven.

In the past, the historians and legal clerks knew the 18 Qin laws by heart. If they could not memorize all of these books, they would not pass the exam. If they could not pass the exam, they would have to repeat the grade.

Being held back is not the worst thing. If a student is held back three times, he or she may be expelled from the school.

It can be imagined that it was these batches of strictly trained law officials who maintained the grassroots governance of the Qin Empire. Such strict and detailed laws simply left no way out for those "fish that slip through the net of the law" who wanted to dawdle on the moral bottom line.

Of course, such detailed laws will make many people feel suffocated to live in this country.

Because this country is full of rules and regulations, it is simply incomprehensible to outsiders. The punishment for urinating or defecating on the road is so severe that one may have to chop off one's toes.

Of course, the reason behind the strict enforcement of laws is the centralization and unification of power of the ruling class.

Of course, the kings of the six kingdoms also wanted to control the people and use something to restrain the morality that had already degenerated to no bottom line. However, the law kept changing, and because the kings did not do a good job of centralizing power, or the kings of the six kingdoms did not do a good job of centralizing power as well as the kings of Qin, their reforms eventually became a pool of mud in history, and no one cared about it.

No one wants to visit the past of a loser.

The construction of a rule of law society in the Qin State lasted for a full hundred years. It is difficult for people to estimate how advanced the Qin State was at that time and how high the civilization quality of the Qin people was in the world.

The Qin State was an ideal society jointly created by Shang Yang and Mohist Xiang Liqin, where laws were used as a unified morality. At least at the beginning, the Qin State was a country full of self-revolutionary spirit and eager to get out of the quagmire.

No country in history, before or since, has ever made such an attempt.

In the capital of the old Qin State, the vast majority of citizens still respected the law, because the laws of Qin were designed to restrain the powerful and protect the interests of the common people.

Simply put, it means preventing the wolf from eating all the sheep.

But the Qin Empire changed later. Starting with the emperor, all the generals and officers started to suck the blood of the people. Starting with the emperor, he took the lead in shielding his own "confidants" and kept them outside the legal sanctions.

After using Shang Yang's laws to protect their own interests in disguise, they used the laws to cover up the mouths of the people, causing them to suffer more deprivation and harm.

The people's trust in the law was completely destroyed. The rise and revival of the Qin State was due to the fact that the law protected the interests of the common people and restrained the behavior of the nobles.

The Qin Dynasty collapsed overnight because the law became a tool for the emperor to indulge in extravagance and debauchery and take whatever he wanted from the people. The law could no longer protect the interests of the common people, let alone restrain the people.

Obviously, there is something wrong with the system, but with people.

The cruel officials of the Legalists were in charge of the interpretation, reading, and case judgment of legal provisions, as well as the rules originally formulated by Shang Yang. After sentencing the people, they would explain to the people every legal provision involved in the case. This was to allow the people to learn legal knowledge after the trial, so that even if they lost the case, they would be convinced of their defeat.

Such a perfect and humane system design may become a mess when it is implemented.

Perhaps in the last years of the Qin Empire, during the period of the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising, the problem of the Qin State was not that there were too few Qin officials, but that the Qin officials were busy trying to please high-ranking officials and turned a deaf ear to and ignored the demands of the common people.

The law lost its proper protective function, and the empire collapsed.

Ministers such as Chunyu Yue and Zhang Cang had no right to interfere in the affairs of Qin officials in the past.

The entire Qin official class, after enjoying a hundred years of affluence, had long forgotten that their power came from the common people who worked from dawn to dusk, facing the earth and their backs to the sky. All they saw in their narrow eyes were official positions and money.

Zhang Cang had always been in a dilemma of whether to tolerate or not tolerate cruel officials. But he had no way to change them. The strength of the Qin State was based on laws and regulations, but the legal officials had become like this, which was simply terrifying.

So Chunyu Yue took charge of the Imperial Academy and began to reform the school curriculum according to the edict of Qin II.

This is why these students can listen to music in the apricot garden for the first time today.

The law enforcers of the previous generation have begun to defect one after another.

There is no other way. There are many military and industrial nobles. Once these people have gained a certain amount of power, for the sake of future generations, they will of course choose to send their children into the ranks of law enforcement.

In the history of the Qin State, the only thing that Qin people valued and worshipped, besides their ancestors, was the law. The law was the highest belief in the minds of Qin people.

Sending the children to schools to learn to be civil servants will prevent them from risking their lives to gain status, power and wealth, which is much better than fighting on the battlefield.

After breaking away from the sheep flock and transforming into wolves, the new wolves started a new round of hunting the sheep.

After Qin II ascended the throne, the Qin Legalist team had long become the "king's designated channel or way" for military and industrial officials to appease their descendants.

The second generation became the legal official generation. The students in the academy were just like their fathers. Apart from being grateful to the king, they had no sympathy for the common people.

In fact, their purpose in striving to change their class status is to become wolves, not to help the sheep.

In Chunyu Yue's eyes, all this would bring great harm to the empire in the future. Their awe and support for the emperor are certainly worthy of recognition, but these people are even less educated than the emperor himself.

He did not have a heart of justice but became a legal official. He never planned to give justice to the people but for his own future. Even if he was willing to support the emperor, it was only for the moment. Even if he supported the emperor, so what?

They are loyal to the emperor because their interests coincide with his for a while, but when their interests conflict with the emperor in the future, they will betray him.

It would be better to teach these people to love the people.

It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it is very Chun Yu Yue.

According to Chunyu Yue's observation, those who recite legal provisions in the study room are full of confidence in the beginning, but after one year of studying, they only want to graduate, and after three years, they forget about their relatives.

After reading what was written in the Qin Law, Chunyu Yue became even more firmly convinced that he was right.

If they read too much about Qin Law, their minds will be trained to think only from the perspective of benefits and disadvantages: what is beneficial and what is harmful.

Therefore, Chunyu Yue added many courses to cultivate the sentiments of these students, and he openly added the ritual and music part of the six arts of a Confucian gentleman into the curriculum.

Those disciples who were about to qualify as historians suddenly experienced the accession of Qin II to the throne, and then two strange courses were added to their complicated curriculum system.

This incident sparked heated discussions among many disciples in the Imperial Academy, because the academy had been undergoing reform. Fusu had helped Qin Shihuang to expand the qualifications for disciples to enter the academy, which meant that more and more people from all social classes could come to the academy to study law.

Those disciples came from all kinds of backgrounds, and the previous batches of students who had graduated were still in office. When they suddenly heard such news, they couldn't help but talk about the changes in their alma mater.

To be honest, some people are happy and some are unhappy about Chunyu Yue's changes.

Some people think that they come to the school just to get the status of a disciple, and if they pass the assessment they will be able to have a position in the future, so they just want to go out and have fun.

Some people think that Chunyu Yue's changes were destroying the atmosphere of the Legalists.

Chunyu Yue was, after all, a Confucian scholar, and Qin had a tradition of not allowing Confucian scholars to enter the country. Many law officials were strongly opposed to Chunyu Yue's "interference" in the school.

Among them was Lin Xin’s son, Lin Yannian, who had just reached adulthood and got married.

This young man, whom the emperor took good care of in private, was very disgusted by the Confucianists and Legalists' meddling in his affairs.

Because he clearly remembered that his father once said that Confucianism emphasizes human feelings, benevolence and righteousness, while Qin law emphasizes inhumanity.

If Chunyu Yue continues his reforms, it won't be long before the Qin State becomes a country where serious crimes are punished lightly and minor crimes are not punished at all.

The purpose of law is to restrain people's behavior, not to teach people to be gentlemen.

So far, Confucianism has not only failed to educate good people, but they have also produced so many disciples among their own group who have betrayed the dignity of a teacher, and yet they still try to manage the Legalists.

As a result, this young man had conflicts with some teachers in the Imperial College.

In the past, the students in these schools would recite laws in the classroom every day, and only go to the backcourt to ride horses, play Cuju, etc. during breaks.

But now, Chunyu Yue gave them more rest time, and asked them to practice with each other frequently, so that they could cultivate the friendship between fellow disciples when they have nothing to do...

Ahem, Lin Yannian was so convinced.

He sat in the second to last row, his narrow eyes hiding his impatience towards the musicians.

Those sitting behind and beside him were all descendants of the Legalist school like him. With the changes of the times, there were not many families that could pass down the title of Lingshi from generation to generation.

They represent the excluded group in this class - the declining legal and historical group of the Qin State.

Sitting at the front of the class were the young descendants of the two prosperous Wang and Feng families, as well as some descendants of their side branches.

The power struggle between classes and different groups has caused some families to quietly decline.

No one has been interested in the Lin family for a long time.

Perhaps it can be seen from Lin Xin’s death that the group of lawyers and historians is no longer important to the Qin Empire.

No one values ​​the so-called historical heritage anymore, because in people's minds, law is no longer such a noble thing.

Anyone can become a disciple in the school, so the historians who have been passed down for hundreds of years and generations are indeed dispensable to the Qin Empire.

Lin Yannian sat quietly alone in the woods. The sound of the piano was indeed beautiful, but he was staring at the white clouds in the sky in a daze.

While he was in a daze, he accidentally heard someone whispering, "His Majesty is here."

"What? His Majesty is coming?"

The tables in front of the students began to move.

Lin Yannian's thoughts returned to reality. He looked at the purple smoke still rising from the incense burner in the woods.

Four men in black clothes came in front of the zither player.

It turned out that the school supervisor sent someone to tell the musicians that the emperor was coming in person and now wanted to call all the students back.

The teacher was also a sentimental person. He was enjoying playing the piece of music when suddenly an emperor appeared and called his students back. It really ruined his mood.

So the teacher sent his students back, and he sat in the woods to continue playing the unfinished piece of music.

To be honest, these young students were originally quite disgusted with Confucianism because they assigned themselves a lot of homework and it was said that one of the six arts of a gentleman would be added to the examination in the future.

The purpose is to enable students to have noble sentiments...

Students of this age are the most strong and active. They wish to graduate quickly by taking fewer courses and solve cases. When they arrive at the government office, there will be plenty of books and documents to read on the spot. As long as they can read, they can become an official.

The so-called exam was just a cover, and Chunyu Yue's arrival made the atmosphere in the classroom even more weird.

In the past, the Imperial Academy Priest was the Emperor Qin II, who was the Crown Prince at the time. However, he had no say in the training of the students in the academy.

It is worth affirming that some of Fusu's reforms to the Imperial College made his current students respect and admire him.

Some people are willing to study law in a down-to-earth manner, and that is because they love the law and love the people in it, purely for the purpose of serving the king and making the current emperor happy.

When they heard that the emperor was coming, the students were so happy that they wanted to overturn the tables and leave.

Some even think of sneaking over to take a look when the teacher isn't paying attention.

Qin II's life was almost entirely filled with legends.

These young people have grown up listening to stories about Qin II since they were born.

It is said that Qin II knew everything.

The teacher noticed the disciples' frenzy and asked them to go back with him.

But the sound of his piano continued to echo in the woods, because he had not yet finished his piece.

Lin Yannian looked at the elderly teacher, who had a white beard and wore strange clothes. Although he looked old, he was in better spirits than the forty-year-old gatekeeper.

"What's the background of our teacher? The emperor came in person, but he didn't rush to pay his respects. He just played his piano leisurely here. Isn't he courting his life?"

"I heard that the current emperor has a good temper, but he can't be so emperor, right?"

Lin Yannian couldn't help but ask.

His classmates told him, "You don't even know the famous Xia Huanggong in Xianyang City."

"It turned out to be him."

Lin Yannian frequently looked back at the arrogant old man.

"They actually sent such a famous person to give us music lessons... Our chief priest is really..."

"Let's go, let's go. The chief priest is also acting on the orders of His Majesty."

(End of this chapter)