The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Because Li Zhi had ordered Wang Keshou not to enter the house, such a high official and his entourage were standing in the yard to catch the cold wind.

Wang Wenlong walked to the side room, opened the door without knocking, and saw that Li Zhi had put on a brand-new monk's robe. When he saw Wang Wenlong, he took the initiative to hand it over.

"Jianyang is here."

Wang Wenlong also quickly returned the greeting: "Hello, Mr. Zhuo Wu."

Although Li Zhi was arrogant, he was not an ungrateful person. It was just that he only respected people he thought he should respect. As for those sanctimonious Neo-Confucians who also wanted to be treated with respect by Li Zhi, Li Zhi would only sneer at them.

Li Zhi himself felt that he had studied all the principles in the world, and no book had been able to impact his world view for a long time, but the physics books brought by Wang Wenlong succeeded in doing so. So he felt that Wang Wenlong deserved such treatment.

Wang Wenlong stepped into the door, looked at Wang Keshou outside, and said to Li Zhi: "Mr. Zhuo Wu, why don't you let Mr. Wang enter the room to talk."

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "I invited Jianyang to come here today to answer my doubts. Wang Yixu didn't go that deep into the Yixue. He listened too much and was confused. It's not that I meant to humiliate him."

Wang Keshou nodded outside the house: "Mr. Jianyang, go on your own. I'm just in the courtyard looking at the scenery."

Wang Wenlong could only accept: "That's it, Mr. Zhuo Wu please."

Li Zhi also stretched out his hand and made a gesture of invitation.

The two walked into the house together, and even Mao Wenlong stayed outside. Only a young monk served some tea in the house.

Wang Wenlong and Li Zhi sat across from each other. Li Zhi pointed to the pastries in front of him and said: "These are famous desserts sent by the literati in the capital. The people in the capital are luxurious, and all kinds of pastries are also exquisite. Although they are from the north, they are not inferior to those in the south of the Yangtze River. Mr. Jianyang, please use it."

"Thank you."

The young monk poured tea for the two of them, and Li Zhi also turned to the topic: "Today I want to talk about history with Jianyang. This is the manuscript of "Xu Cang Shu" that I recently wrote. You can understand the general content of my view of history."

Wang Wenlong picked up the manuscript, flipped through two pages, nodded and said, "I have read Mr. Zhuo Wu's Collection of Books. I can tell at a glance that this sequel to the collection is written by Mr. Zhuo Wu."

Li Zhi said: "Just read it. I don't know what Mr. Jianyang thinks of my view of history."

Wang Wenlong shook his head and said: "In my humble opinion, Mr.'s theory is specifically designed to refute Neo-Confucianism, and it is inevitable that he will go to the wrong side. As Mr. Wang said: 'The first three dynasties, regardless of the following three dynasties, Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties, there were more than a thousand years in between, and there was nothing right or wrong. Is there nothing wrong with people?', but it does not attribute all the thoughts of the Han, Tang, Song and Three Dynasties to Confucianism, which is difficult for me to agree with."

Li Zhi said: "Since Dong Zhongshu proposed to respect Confucianism exclusively, Confucius has been deified. Since the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, no one has dared to criticize Confucius's teachings. The three generations of the Han, Tang and Song dynasties regarded what Confucius said as right and wrong, and no one dared to express their own opinions. Isn’t this ‘no right and wrong’?”

"This problem is not that simple," Wang Wenlong said: "Since the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, although Confucianism has been the orthodoxy, the changes in thought have been very complicated. I think the essence of thought is social demand."

He explained: "Taoism flourished at the end of the Han Dynasty, Buddhism flourished again after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and Neo-Confucianism gradually emerged after the Song Dynasty. The evolution of ideas behind them actually reflected the different social backgrounds at that time. How could such a complex history of thought be passed through one Confucianism can be summed up?”

Wang Wenlong continued: "This does not include external exchanges of ideas, such as Jiaozhi introduced from the barbarians in the late Han Dynasty, pipa introduced in the Tang Dynasty, cotton cloth which gradually became popular in the Song Dynasty, and even the imperial examination system did not exist before the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The so-called later In three generations, from the Han Dynasty to the present, there have been such large-scale changes in people's clothing, food and social systems. How can the complicated historical content of these processes be summarized by whether one believes in Confucianism or not?"

Li Zhi smiled and said: "Everything you mentioned is food and systems, but the thoughts in the world are the main thread. Even if the material system has changed in the past three generations, the thoughts brought by Confucianism are still the same, and the human mind has not changed. , whether wearing cotton or linen clothes, listening to the pipa or the flute, you are still the same person? What is the difference?"

Wang Wenlong thought for a moment and suddenly said: "Mr. Zhuo Wu has a good opinion of Cao Cao?"

Li Zhi did not hide his admiration for Cao Cao at all, and nodded and said: "Cao Mengde is a man of merit. He can reuse generals who have come from Yuan Shao's office, and he can not pursue the problems of Zhang Liao and others. He even uses Guo Jia Yicheng, Yuan Shao's adviser." Great cause, this man valued talents, but Lu Bu was killed by him because of his capriciousness. Although he was extraordinary in the world, I thought he was a truly wise and famous minister, more popular than the so-called righteous minister."

Wang Wenlong nodded and said slowly: "In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, college students were often dissatisfied with national policies and often wrote letters to interfere in politics. Cao Mengde's solution after he came to power was to abolish the Imperial College, which resulted in learning being restricted to aristocratic families."

"In the first year of Chuping, Dong Zhuo caused chaos in the country and minted bad money, which the people were unwilling to use. After Cao Cao came to power, the solution was to promote barter, which led to the decline of private business."

"Land annexation was serious in the late Han Dynasty, and many farmers revolted. After Cao Mengde came to power, he adopted two methods: one was to increase tax rates greatly, forcing the poor people to have no land to farm, and either to join the army or to join the aristocratic families with better management. The second was to implement the system of wrongful service, which required the family members of farmers to serve in other places, and each household had to work in one place to prevent the peasant family from defecting. As a result, small farmers disappeared, aristocratic families rose up, and the law of wrongful service was abolished in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This Are all these methods also methods of resourcefulness?"

After hearing this, Li Zhi was stunned for a long time and couldn't help asking: "Is there really such a thing?" Wang Wenlong nodded: "I thought that the last three generations mentioned by Mr. It exists objectively, and what historians record is nothing more than a piece of historical data that reflects the history at that time.”

He said: "Today there is Mr. Zhuo Wu who directly denounced the hypocrisy of Neo-Confucianism. Didn't he exist during the Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties? If not, no one would believe in those kinds of folk religions."

This era is not like the Internet era of later generations. All kinds of information can be found at the touch of a finger. Many records about Cao Cao's actions are distributed in various ancient books. Each book has its own opinions and tendencies, and there are more or less some. Even Li Zhi could not read all of the Spring and Autumn writing styles in this era.

For example, Wang Wenlong has never heard of most of the things Cao Cao did that Wang Wenlong said. His judgment of Cao Cao is basically based on the content of limited historical data. In fact, the data sources are very narrow.

Li Zhi nodded in agreement: "It seems that I should also find more ancient essays to read."

Wang Wenlong continued: "I think the study of history should integrate historical books, notes, antiques, and even tombs and ruins at that time to truly understand the style of an era. History is history, and studying history should restore its origin. There are still certain things in the world It’s not that everyone has his own right and wrong, it’s just that this quality is difficult to find for the time being because our research is not deep enough.”

When Li Zhi heard this, he frowned: "This is crazy. How do you know that the results of your research are true?"

Wang Wenlong replied: "Just like the method of studying physics, you can find physical evidence for testing."

Li Zhi: "What if the physical evidence is inconsistent with the results you have researched?"

Wang Wenlong: "This means that our research results are still wrong, and we should make corresponding revisions based on newly unearthed physical evidence."

Li Zhi: "Then you are still not sure that your research is correct."

Wang Wenlong shook his head and said: "That's not the case. There must be an absolutely objective and correct history in the world. Of course we dare not say that history is absolutely correct if we study it ourselves, but at least through research we can continue to approach the truth of history."

Li Zhi smiled and said: "If you are close to the truth, it means it is not the truth."

Wang Wenlong was stunned and couldn't help but laugh. He knew that what Li Zhi said was probably after reading the popular science books on physics and mathematics that he gave him yesterday and quoting the infinite ideas in mathematics into the debate.

"There is no definite quality or conclusion about right and wrong." This is a very important concept of Li Zhi. He believes that everyone has his own opinion on things, and there is no certain right or wrong.

Therefore, he strongly opposed Confucianism and regarded Confucius's view of things as the only correct view. He also believed that everyone's view of the world was only a personal view and could not be transferred to others.

But Wang Wenlong knew that this was obviously wrong. Of course, there are right and wrong views on history.

Now Li Zhi only faces disputes between Neo-Confucianists and himself. Perhaps this point is not clear yet, but problems will arise if the deduction continues.

Take the dispute between Chinese and Korean history buffs in later generations, for example. Some Koreans cite various theories to say that in the past, the entire China was a land conquered by the ancestor of the Koreans, "Tangun", while the Chinese say that in the past At that time, China already had Chinese civilization represented by the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

If according to Li Zhi's statement, both sides have their own evidence, then both sides are right, and the issue is inconclusive.

But in fact, the evidence that the Koreans can produce is only the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" written during the Northern Song Dynasty in China, and the more recent "The Ancient Records of Tangun". In contrast, the Chinese people can produce no evidence to support their views. The evidence includes a large number of ancient ruins, cultural relics, and records. Naturally, the records on China's side are closer to the real history.

But if we use Li Zhi's thinking to study it, it can only become a mess.

However, the idea that right and wrong are indeterminate and inconclusive has become the core of Li Zhi's thinking. Li Zhi could not give up. After a long discussion, neither could convince the other.

But this doesn't matter, both of them admire each other quite a lot.

After a discussion, both of them were very happy. Li Zhi asked Wang Wenlong to stay for a vegetarian meal, and Wang Wenlong readily agreed. A few days later, Li Zhi told the students who came to listen to Wang Wenlong's insights, and then openly expressed his appreciation: "Now the world There are so many people who think right and wrong, and all kinds of remarks confuse people's minds. Those who can illuminate thousands of miles and discuss the past and present must have a heart with seven orifices. The fact that you come to listen to my lectures is one of the insights. According to this conclusion, if there is anyone like this anywhere in the world, Wang Jianyang of Fujian is also one."

"Although we have different opinions, his knowledge is not inferior to mine. You can read his books, listen to his opinions, and think carefully."

(End of this chapter)