I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 244 This winter, the big man was very busy

"..."

Dong Zhongshu was still frowning and thinking.

Liu Ju's words "cutting off one's future from the world", especially the last word "Confucian sage", gave him no reason not to seriously consider the questions raised by Liu Ju.

Liu Ju just stood aside, picking his ears out of boredom and looking at Dong Zhongshu.

After a while.

Dong Zhongshu raised his head, and there was a hint of clarity in his cloudy old eyes. He first bowed to Liu Ju very solemnly, then coughed twice to clear his throat, and said solemnly:

"Your Highness, although there is some truth in what you said, there are also many points that I cannot agree with..."

Liu Ju could tell at a glance that this was Dong Zhongshu's prelude to a debate with him.

Confucian scholars seem to all be of this character. Previously, when discussing the "deposing and enthroning of the crown prince", those Confucian scholars all behaved in a similar way before speaking, emphasizing the importance of using courtesy before force.

What he knew even more clearly was that everyone has their own expertise. If anyone wanted to debate with a great scholar who was an expert in this field, and the subject of the debate was Confucianism that the scholar had studied for a lifetime, then if he didn't have some masochistic tendency, then he must be mentally ill...

So Liu Ju decisively interrupted Dong Zhongshu's spell casting:

"Mr. Dong, don't argue with me. You will win if you argue!"

"?!"

Dong Zhongshu could not help but be stunned. He had debated with countless people in his life, but this was the first time he met a player like Liu Ju who did not play by the rules.

Then he saw Liu Ju raised his eyebrows and continued:

"But what good is it if you win the debate?"

"Think about it again. 'Spring and Autumn Unification' is useful to my father. You are a great scholar in the country. 'Harmony between man and nature' is not pleasing to my father. You can only go and pray for rain."

"Now I am the father, and the future is me."

"You have been suppressed by us, father and son, your whole life, and you can't resist, so why don't you just go with the flow?"

"This is good for both you and Confucianism. Believe me, it's right."

"..."

Hearing this again, Dong Zhongshu couldn't help but be dazed.

He recalled the fear of being executed by Emperor Wu of Han, and the time when Liu Ju "destroyed the dike and flooded the fields" and was specially summoned by Emperor Wu of Han to "debate on scriptures" in the Xuanshi Hall...

What is the trend?

This is the real trend!

If he had not compromised with Liu Che decisively and acknowledged his benevolence and virtue as in accordance with heaven and that he was a benevolent and wise king when he was summoned by Liu Che for a debate last time, but had instead stiffened his neck and insisted on arguing with Liu Che to the end, he would probably have been beheaded or thrown back to the suburbs to retire.

So what Liu Ju said was really heart-breaking. Yes, what’s the use even if he wins the debate?
At this moment, Liu Ju's eyebrows and eyes suddenly became blurred in his eyes.

Then Liu Che's face appeared behind Liu Ju, from big to small, from far to near, and gradually overlapped with Liu Ju's eyebrows and eyes...

Dong Zhongshu subconsciously took a step back.

He got it!

He understands it all!

Regardless of whether Liu Ju's criticism of Confucianism was correct or full of loopholes, his final conclusion was not nonsense: "You may be criticized for a while, but if you can change the future of Confucianism, which is isolated from the world, your sin will be in the present, but your merit will be in the future... Maybe you will have the opportunity to become a Confucian saint."

If you only think about the literal meaning of this sentence, you would be wrong.

The key point is the word "future"!
Liu Che is now!
Liu Ju is the future!

Liu Che can either promote Confucianism alone or allow a hundred schools of thought to contend with each other. This is the current trend.

How Liu Ju views him and how he views Confucianism is his future, the future of Confucianism, and the trend of the future!
In the future he only needs one sentence.

He would die without a burial place and Confucianism would no longer have a place to stand.

Of course, this also made him a Confucian saint who went down in history, allowing Confucianism to continue forever and even usher in another glorious era!
That’s what it means!
This must be what Liu Ju meant. I understand. I understand completely. I have made some progress in these years in the wild. I can now understand the hidden meaning of these riddlers!

It was this father and son...

picture!
They are so similar. Although their styles of doing things are different, they are both equally domineering, and equally... shameless, forcing great scholars to debate for them.

While Dong Zhongshu was complaining in his heart, there was a hint of fear in his eyes when he looked at Liu Ju.

Although he had lived in Bowang Garden for a long time before and had some dealings with Liu Ju, in his heart, Liu Ju was still a child with some shortcomings in thinking and behavior. After all, many things Liu Ju had done before seemed to him, an outsider, like a newborn calf who was not afraid of a tiger and acted recklessly without considering the consequences.

And now.

Dong Zhongshu suddenly realized that this prince was much more powerful than he had imagined, and his imperial mentality was no less than that of Liu Che, and sometimes he was even too much.

He has been hiding his edge all this time!

He deceived himself, deceived many people, and also deceived Liu Che, and then unknowingly influenced the general trend, whether it was the current trend or the future trend!
How can one not be frightened by such a prince?
"Gulu!"

Dong Zhongshu swallowed unconsciously. These new thoughts made him lose all the courage to debate with Liu Ju. He immediately bowed his head.

"I am not trying to argue with Your Highness. In fact, what I mean by disagreeing is that I think Your Highness is still too conservative."

"I think that since Your Majesty has ordered the establishment of the 'Medical Major' in the Imperial College, I should not stand still and draw lessons from it. I should also formulate the rules for the establishment of other majors in advance to prepare for any emergency."

"As for the bad reputation, I am already at this age, I am afraid I will not be scolded for many years, why should I be afraid." "What do you think, Your Highness?"

"Eh?"

Liu Ju was also stunned when he heard this, and couldn't help but look Dong Zhongshu up and down.

Could it be that what I said just now was so good, so reasonable, and so impeccable, that it instantly gave Old Dong an epiphany and gave him a clear understanding of the future two thousand years later?
It seems that my previous worries were completely unnecessary. Mr. Dong is not an old antique. He is still very easy to accept some new things...

"Mr. Dong is righteous and admirable."

So Liu Ju returned the greeting with a smile.

"Your Highness, I am so kind. Although I am a nobody, I will do my best."

Dong Zhongshu bowed again.

When he said goodbye, he had straightened his slightly hunched back, which was completely different from his previous sighing and gloomy face. It was obvious that he had enough motivation.

"..."

Looking at his back, Liu Ju smiled and shook his head.

While thinking to himself, isn't it a bit unfair to always cheat and sneak attack such an old comrade? He walked slowly towards Qiufang.

After late autumn comes the cold winter.

This time last year I went to Nanyue, so I didn’t feel the cold that much.

If nothing unexpected happens this year, I'm afraid I'll have the chance to experience the winter in Chang'an, the Han Dynasty.

It's really cold. I don't want to go out. I can only stay in Qiufang and roast charcoal to survive. In this case, I should come up with something fun to kill time...

"Your Highness."

As he was walking, two people came towards him. When they saw Liu Ju, they immediately gave way to the side of the road and bowed respectfully.

"It's Cui Lingcheng and Imperial Physician Ding. No need to be polite."

Liu Ju immediately recognized the two men. They were the two guys who had strongly opposed him and Yi Shuo's plan to take action against Liu Hong in front of Liu Che in Zhumu Garden.

But now their attitudes have completely changed.

Of course they didn't dare to act rashly when they saw Liu Ju. Apart from anything else, their identities alone were already evident.

But now, even when he just met Yishuo, he had an attitude of humbly seeking advice from a pilgrim. Every now and then, he would run to Bowang Garden to learn from Yishuo, and behave like a disciple.

Not only that, after Emperor Wu of Han issued an edict to open a "medical profession" in the Imperial Academy.

These two guys even asked all the imperial doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau to write a joint letter requesting that Yishuo be appointed as the first "Doctor of Medicine".

Of course, I also submitted the admission application for my own children, so as to occupy the first batch of spots to prevent others from getting there first...

Anyone who knew the inside story could see that although Yi Shuo would never be hired by the Imperial Medical Bureau, after this incident, she had become the uncrowned king of the bureau.

……

The man was very busy that winter.

It’s not because the Spring Festival is approaching, the Han people don’t celebrate the Spring Festival.

It was not until several years later when Emperor Wu of Han promulgated the Taichu Calendar that the first day of the first lunar month became the "New Year's Day". Now, the beginning of each year is still the first day of October when winter comes.

If we have to say what festival is around the Spring Festival, it is actually the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is the Lantern Festival in later generations.

This festival was originally established by Emperor Wen of Han to celebrate the suppression of the "Lü Rebellion" and to express gratitude for the hard-won peace and prosperity.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, it was changed into a suburban sacrificial ceremony to worship the Taiyi God.

And the big man was not busy because of this.

Nowadays, the Han people are busy with many things and many people are busy.

The disaster relief officials are very busy.

The past year was a year of severe drought, and disaster relief work is underway.

Li Guangli and Li Yannian were very busy.

Li Guangli was appointed as the Commandant of Music and Li Yannian as the Order of Music Bureau. The two of them formed several teams of entertainers to perform in the countryside, and were working with disaster relief officials to publicize the reform achievements of the state-run salt and iron industry to the people through performances while telling the stories that Liu Che himself most wanted to tell the people.

Zhao Guo and Sang Hongyang were very busy.

With the arrival of spring, the Daitian method will begin to be implemented on a pilot basis in the capital and the three prefectures. They need to do a lot, both technical promotion and cooperation from local grassroots officials are particularly important.

Dong Zhongshu is very busy.

Yishuo is very busy.

The Imperial Medical Bureau is very busy.

It seemed that everyone was busy. Even Wei Kang, who had been lying in bed for more than 20 years, had become a busy man who was rarely seen. No one knew what he was doing.

Liu Ju himself is also very busy...

(End of this chapter)