Wentang

Chapter 681

"The first emperor Che Tonggui and the same text unified weights and measures, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism. The sage today re-determined weights and measures, orthographic and meaning, and the accent of official dialects. Wang Ji said:

"However, I have a question. You once said that only Confucianism has been unified ideologically to form a unified cultural group. Now that you are planning to promote the study of a hundred schools of thought, aren't you afraid that the academic world will return to chaos?"

"This room is too hot. It's not good. Alternating hot and cold makes it easy to catch a cold." Yue Shan unbuttoned his cotton-padded jacket, fanned the wind with his hands and complained, and then said:
"Reviving the Hundred Schools? You are thinking too much. Where is the knowledge of the Hundred Schools? Where are the descendants of the Hundred Schools?"

"After Confucianism is the only one, the learning of the hundred schools has long been lost. Over the years, we have used all our strength to collect the classics of the hundred schools, and only found some fragments. Without the core classics, the so-called hundred schools can only exist in history forever among."

"There are only four schools of Taoism, Confucianism, Law, and military that can be passed down to the present. After hundreds of years of development, the four schools have long been integrated and cannot be separated."

"Once a unified and diversified civilization is formed, it will generate a strong centripetal force. Even if a new idea appears, it will be quickly absorbed and digested by this powerful civilization and become a part of itself, with little possibility of division."

"So the establishment of the Shrine of the Sages to invite the sages of various schools of thought will not cause a ideological division of the Chinese civilization."

"On the contrary, we, as latecomers, will always be alert to what a splendid civilization our ancestors created. We must not be arrogant. Only by maintaining a humble and progressive heart at all times can we inherit and develop Chinese civilization."

The idea of ​​great unification is beneficial. This point of dominance of Confucianism has been proved, and it has made the Chinese nation condense into one strand.But there are also disadvantages. When it is really "respecting Confucianism", the academic world will gradually become "narrow".

In fact, although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to respect Confucianism alone, even in the Han Dynasty, there was never really only one family of Confucianism, and in fact Taoism, Confucianism, law and soldiers were parallel.

This situation lasted until the establishment of the Song Dynasty, and it really entered the era of Confucianism.

What are the consequences of truly respecting Confucianism?

Legalists?People have shouted that half of the Analects of Confucius has ruled the world, you Legalists dare to show their heads and try.My Confucianism governs the country according to the standards established by the sages thousands of years ago, and your Legalists go away.

military commander?They have all been reduced to the same treatment as prisoners-face tattoos.

Although Zhu Wen created the face tattoos of soldiers, it was the Song Dynasty that really carried forward it as a system and implemented it.

What kind of people have tattoos on their faces?Criminals, the tattoo itself is a means of punishing criminals.Now they are tattooing the faces of soldiers who defend their homes and the country. The emperors and literati of the Song Dynasty really had a lot of ideas.

Have you shed blood and been wounded for your country?Hehe, the literati don't even need a reason to kill you. Just saying that you are too proud and disrespecting me can kill you.

You said that he has made meritorious service in killing enemies for the country, and is a good man of the country?Scholars who take part in the imperial examinations and gain fame are called good men. You are a group of thieves who join the army and are at the same level as untouchables. How dare you call them good men?
The military family was completely trampled into a mud pit, and was trampled fiercely by Confucian scholars with their feet on their faces.

Taoism is considered to have the best end, incarnated as Taoism barely surviving.

At that time, apart from Confucianism, it was fallacies and heresies, even if your ideas were different from those of the sages, it became blasphemy.

Although the Chinese nation has no criminal record of burning heresy, it is still no problem to isolate you.

It would be fine if Confucianism could bring forth the new through the old and push civilization to a higher peak, but the problem is that they don't have the ability.

They first ate the old books left by their ancestors, and after interpreting the classics left by their ancestors, their successors found that they had nothing to do.

They are also trying to break through, but they don't want to jump out of the circle to find new things, but continue to circle in the circle to find things that have not been discovered.

So they began to 'deeply dig' every sentence and every word in the classics left by their ancestors, trying to figure out the higher thoughts that the saints did not write in the books.

This is how Neo-Confucianism and Xinxue were born. The emergence of these two schools has indeed pushed Confucian culture to a peak, but they have not made much progress in governing the country, and they have even turned the clock back.

Of course, what is meant here is not something like "preserving the laws of nature and destroying human desires". Zhu Xi explained that it is the law of heaven for people to marry wives and have children and hope to live a good life. Desire.

But Neo Confucianism, as the ideological cornerstone of ruling the country, places too much emphasis on the human heart.

People in later generations understand that people's hearts are uncontrollable, and a more realistic legal and moral system is more suitable for governing a country. Too much emphasis on people's hearts is madness.

Someone wants to say, is Neo Confucianism really that bad?How do you know, have you tried?

Although I haven't tried it, someone has tried it, it is Manqing.

The Manchu and Qing courts copied the Neo-Confucianism of the Song Dynasty to govern the world, and their enforcement of the Neo-Confucianism was even stronger than that of the Song and Ming dynasties. It was simply regarded as a golden rule.

But what are the consequences?It became the dynasty with the strictest ideological imprisonment in Chinese history.Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty should be most blamed, Neo Confucianism also has a lot to blame.

So when complaining about the Qing Dynasty, you can completely complain about the fact that Neo Confucianism is too unrealistic and too idealistic.

The establishment of the Temple of Sages and Sages invites all the pre-Qin scholars to enter, in order to tell the world that Chinese civilization is not just a Confucian family, but developed by countless sages guided by their own thoughts.

The thoughts of various schools of thought play a huge role in it, and they cannot be discarded just like this, but absorbed and integrated selectively.

When you are stuck in the bottleneck of the current academic research and cannot find a way forward, you can look back at other thoughts of Baijia, maybe you can draw inferences by analogy.

Fortunately, it is the Tang Dynasty now—even though almost all the thoughts of the hundred schools of thought have been lost, he has still collected some of them.If it takes another few hundred years, it really can only be found in the tombs of ancient people by archaeology.

Although many of these fragments are missing, careful study can still give a glimpse of the brilliance of a hundred schools of thought.

In addition, the construction of the Shrine of the Sages can also preserve the existing status of Taoism, Legalism, and military strategists, preventing them from being trampled under the feet of Confucianism like in the previous life.

Some people want to ask, Confucianism is so obedient that you want to set up a sage temple?Will you agree to put all the sages of various schools of thought into it?
The problem is that they can't do it if they don't listen.Now is the Tang Dynasty, Taoism is the first prominent school, followed by Buddhism, and finally Confucianism.

Now it is not their turn to oppose the establishment of the Holy Sage Temple by the imperial court, and they will even support it in turn.Because bringing the founders and masters of their own theories into the sanctuary will help their academic survival and continuation.

"Have you determined who can enter the Saints' Temple?" Wang Ji said with some expectation.

Yue Shan naturally understood what he meant, and didn't play tricks on him, and said bluntly: "Don't worry, Brother Ling is also among them."

Wang Ji said excitedly: "Haha... It's still Yue Hou who understands me, so I will have the face to meet my brother under the nine springs."

Wang Tong was one of the few people in the Sui and Tang dynasties who made some breakthroughs in learning. When discussing candidates a few days ago, he was naturally included.

After his emotions calmed down a bit, Yue Shan continued: "In ancient times, there were six people named Chao, Ziyi, Suiren, Yanzi, Fuxi, and Shennong."

"In modern times, there were Huangdi, Chiyou, Leizu, Cangjie, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao, Shun, Yu and others."

There are still a few people Yue Shan didn't mention here, that is, the so-called descendants of the Yellow Emperor who migrated to all directions and multiplied different races that he fabricated in the book "Chinese Civilization".

Naturally, the purpose is to use this method to further increase the sense of identity of various ethnic groups with Chinese civilization, and to create favorable conditions for the great integration of nationalities.

"Then there are the Three Dynasties and the pre-Qin period, Shang Tang, Zhou Wenwang, Jiang Shang and others. There are more people in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, mainly people from this period. The founders and masters of various schools of thought, as well as the famous great sages It's all on the list."

"However, although it is called the Temple of Saints and Sages, the people included in it are actually divided into three classes, saints, sons, and sages. Saints are respected, sons are next, and sages are the last."

Although they are all sages, their achievements vary greatly, and it is impossible to generalize them. It is normal to divide them into one, two, and three.

Wang Ji nodded clearly and asked, "Which people have been canonized?"

Yue Shan said: "The Yellow Emperor is the most respected ancestor of the humanities; followed by Lao Tzu, who was named a Taoist sage and the most sage teacher; thirdly, Confucius, who was named a Confucian student and a teacher of all ages; next are Li Kui, a sage of law, Sun Wu, a sage of soldiers, and Mo Mo." The sage Mozi, the sage Xu Xing, the sage Bian Que."

"Wait." Wang Ji interrupted him, "I can understand that the Yellow Emperor, Laozi, and Confucius are respected. I can also understand that the founders of the Legalists and Military Schools are holy. Even Mozi is not unacceptable."

"What's the matter with the sages of agriculture and sages of medicine? The yin and yang family, the political strategist, the famous family, and the miscellaneous family are not more famous than them. Why are they both canonized?"

Yue Shan said with a smile: "I advocated these two canonizations. The saints and other colleagues also asked the same question as you. This is how I answered them."

"Without farmers, everyone will starve to death, without doctors, everyone will die of illness. These two are closely related to our survival. We must vigorously develop them in the future, so we must raise their status, so that more people will be willing to Get into it."

"Even if one mu of land can only increase the yield by one catty, all the land in the country adds up to a huge number. Every time a doctor conquers a disease, he can save countless lives."

"Elevating the status of the founders of the agricultural and medical schools to the holy position is a start, and there will be other measures to improve their status in the future."

Wang Ji thought for a while, but finally did not make any comments.He could understand Yue Shan's approach, but he didn't quite accept it.After all, the status of the peasant family has never been very high.

Although those in power say that they are scholars, farmers, businessmen, and merchants, in fact, the social status of farmers in ancient times was only slightly better than that of craftsmen.

Mencius even made no secret of his contempt for the farm family, calling the founder of the farm family Xu Xingxing a barbarian liar.

The status of doctors is not high. As I said earlier, doctors should have a high status in saving lives and helping the wounded.But in fact, the status of doctors in ancient China was not high, except that they did not have craftsmanship, and their social status was at the same level as craftsmen.

This is very nonsense, Yue Shan naturally wants to correct it.

Although there are many people who are against the canonization of Xu Xing and Bian Que, in their view, giving a sage status is already a high regard for them.

But in this kind of matter, Yue Shan, who is a child of the gods, has too much power to speak, and he can only agree with others if he supports others.

There is also Mozi, Mozi canonized not only because the Mohist school was prominent in the pre-Qin period, but also because of the craftsmanship of the Mohist school.

He planned to integrate the ideas of Mohism and Confucianism from the aspect of Gewu, and then elevate the status of Gewu and craftsmen to create a good environment for the subsequent development of physics and chemistry.

In a word, his ultimate goal of doing these things is to form a pattern of Confucianism as the foundation and a hundred schools of thought for use, which is a bit similar to the post-foundation of the previous life.

Seeing that he had no doubts, Yue Shan continued:

"In addition to these few canonized saints, the rest of the schools are those who have gathered a hundred schools of thought or who have pioneered what they have learned, such as Liezi, Zhuangzi, Yin Xizi, Mencius, Xunzi, Han Feizi, etc."

"Most of the seals were from the pre-Qin period, and there were relatively few after the Qin Dynasty, just a few such as Zhang Heng and Jia Sixie."

"Finally, there are sages. Those who have made in-depth research in the field of learning and have made great achievements in interpreting and propagating theories of a hundred schools of thought are sages. Such as Fan Sheng, Dong Zhongshu, Cui Shi, Zheng Xuan and others."

Wang Ji asked again: "Is the final list determined so quickly? I'm afraid scholars all over the world will have different opinions."

Yue Shan laughed and said, "How is that possible? It's just a part of the list, but this part of the list included by the imperial court is the final version and will not be changed."

"Scholars want to offer opinions, and at most they are checking for omissions and filling in vacancies, and nominating people who the court has not considered. As for whether the people they nominate can enter, the court has the right to decide."

Wang Ji shook his head and gloated: "You are forcing the ancient school and the family to die. They must hate you now."

Yue Shan said: "That's what they asked for. If they stand still and obstruct social progress, they must be prepared to be beaten. If they don't cut some meat this time, they don't want their ancestors to enter the Saints' Temple."

"I've already seen how helpless and furious they are." Wang Ji laughed.

Ever since he knew that his elder brother had been included in the ranks of sages, his mentality became detached, and he seemed to sit and watch the situation change.

Yue Shan joked: "You don't have any ideas about this?"

Wang Ji laughed and said, "Haha, although you didn't say it, I can guess that there must be a rule that the living cannot enter the temple. Whether I can enter the temple after I die is a matter for you, the new leader."

"I don't believe that you will just sit back and watch me, a newcomer, fail to enter the Shrine."

Seeing the scoundrel's appearance, Yue Shan laughed helplessly.

According to the achievements of his previous life, Wang Ji was far from reaching the edge of the Shrine of the Sages, but in this life he made a major breakthrough in the "Book of Changes Annotation" compiled under the influence of Yue Shan, which is one of the core classics of Xinxue.

Unless Xinxue collapsed overnight, he would definitely be able to enter the Shrine of Saints after his death.I dare not think about the position of the son, and it is estimated that Yue Shan has this hope in the contemporary era, and the position of a sage is still guaranteed.

Well, it is actually the consensus of literati in this era that Yueshan can seal the son.Not because of "The Analects of Confucius" or "Only Respecting Confucianism", let alone "Five Books of Yue Xue", but because of the book "Education".

In the eyes of scholars in the Tang Dynasty, although the Analects of Confucius has written new ideas, it is only another interpretation of Confucian thought, and it is not detached.Dominating Confucianism and the Five Books of Yue Xue is even less qualified.

Only the book "Education" has completely surpassed the shackles of the predecessors. It is a book that belongs to Yue Shan himself, a contemporary classic.

With this book in hand, as long as he doesn't engage in anger and resentment, he will be able to seal him up after death.This is not counting whether he will write other better works in the future.

Closer to home.

Yue Shan and Wang Ji discussed the various innovations of the imperial court recently, and discussed how to cooperate with the new learning. Seeing that the weather was getting dark, they were ready to go home early.

After walking a few steps, Wang Ji said, "By the way, take some time to visit Ma Cong, he is going crazy."

(End of this chapter)