Wentang

Chapter 800 The Rise and Fall of the School

The more Wang Tang and the others got to know about the Academy, the more they liked it, and they admired Yue Shan who created all this.

Especially Wang Tang, after reading the introduction to Gewuxue, he realized that this knowledge is not a simple artisan skill, but so profound and wonderful.

The principles of all things, the changes of all things, biology... are all knowledge systems that he could not imagine before.

The more he studied Gewu, the more he became obsessed with it. If he only wanted to study Gewu before to study water pumps, now he fell in love with it from the bottom of his heart.

After that, he found introductory books on the three sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology, and eagerly learned the above knowledge.

Lian Shenghong and Li Lu didn't have much to say about this, after all, they had just met each other not long ago, and some things were not suitable for them to say.

However, after learning that Gewuxue can also go to the museum as an official, they let go of their worries.If you want to study, do it, at worst, you will be admitted to the museum in the future.

But the three of them seem to have overlooked a problem, is it possible to go to Gewuyuan just by saying it?
A week later, the new issue of Weishui Journal was published, and more than 20 copies of the newspaper were shipped to all parts of the country by merchant ships, along with Yue Shan's new book.

"The Rise and Fall of Schools".

As students of the academy, the three of Wang Tang had the advantage of being close to the water, so they bought this book one step ahead of schedule.

Yue Shan is writing a new book, the news has spread two or three years ago, and it has become the most concerned thing of scholars, even Wang Tang and Lian Shenghong who are far away know it.

It was finally published after so many years, and they naturally bought it back and read it immediately.

As a result, the more I read it, the more amazed I became, and I broke out in cold sweat when I saw half of it, and I dare not continue reading.

"This... this... Dean Zhenshu is too...too..." He wanted to say that it was too nonsense, but he didn't dare to say it for a long time.

"The literary world is going to be in chaos again," Li Lu said.

"More than that, the world might be in chaos." Wang Tang said in horror.

"Then do you think the dean is right?" Li Lu asked suddenly.

"How is it possible? This is completely Hu... Hu..." Lian Shenghong jumped up to refute as if his tail had been stepped on, but he never dared to say "pull".

"What do you want to say?" Wang Tang looked at him warily and said.

Li Lu shook his head and said, "You guys have too many prejudices, think about it for yourself."

At this moment, Lian Shenghong and Wang Tang felt that the little brother they had just met was very strange, but for some reason, the contents of that book always appeared in their minds.

At night, I tossed and turned in bed unable to fall asleep, and when I closed my eyes, all I could see was the shadow of the book.

The two sat up from the bed at the same time, glanced at each other without saying anything, got up silently, picked up the book again and continued to read.

Not just the two of them, there are countless people in the world who have the same thoughts as them.

I regard "The Rise and Fall of Schools" as fallacies and heresies, but I am deeply attracted by the viewpoints it puts forward, and I can't stop.

Wang Ji was also flipping through the book under the light.

He is the second reader of this book - as for the first one, it is naturally Li Lizhi.

After reading this book, he was silent for a long time and hesitated for a long time. He didn't know whether he should support Yue Shan to publish this book, or continue to hide this book.

He guessed that the content of this book would shock the world, but he didn't expect it to be so subversive.It can be said that it has fundamentally overturned the original disputes among schools of thought.

Once this book was published, it was not as simple as splitting the new school of thought, but digging a hole to bury the new school of thought and the ancient school of thought together, and then re-establishing a theory on their graves.

If they fail to do so, they will be mobilized and attacked, and their reputation will be ruined.

But after thinking about it, he decided to agree to publish it, because he felt that the writing was correct.

After that, he temporarily put down the "De Dao Jing Zhu" that he was writing, and studied the book carefully.I read it over and over again, this is already the seventh time, but I still feel that I have gained a lot every time I read it.

"Master, it's time for you to rest." Ouyang urged through Tong.

"It's still early, I'll take a look." Wang Ji said.

"No, you don't sleep well in the first place, and if you go to bed late, it will be even worse." Ouyang Tong insisted without backing down.

"You child, do you dare to disobey your teacher's order?" Wang Ji said angrily.

Ouyang Tong was not afraid at all, and said with a smile: "The dean said, if you don't rest on time, he will take all your books away, and you won't be able to read them for ten days and half a month."

"I see which of you dares." Wang Ji said loudly.

"Master, please don't be angry. If you are too angry, you will be the one who will take the medicine and suffer." Ouyang Tong walked over and closed the book in his hand and said.

Although Wang Ji was very angry on the surface, he was very happy in his heart. He pretended not to be happy, but in fact he had already left the book, and was helped by Ouyang Tong to stand up.

After walking two steps, he suddenly sighed, "Have you read Cuilan's new book, what do you think?"

Ouyang Tong thought for a while and said, "What do you think? You really deserve to be the dean. No one dares to write like that except him."

Wang Ji said: "It's not that I didn't dare, it's that I couldn't think of it. Immortal boy, fairy boy, hehe...the thoughts and thoughts are really different from ours."

"We are still studying the sage's thinking, and he has begun to study why the sage thinks this way."

Qufu County Government.

The gray-haired Kong Yingda was also flipping through the book. From the degree of folding of the corners of the book, it could be seen that he was not flipping through it for the first time.

And his attitude towards this book is even more complicated. As a direct descendant of Confucius, he naturally doesn't want to see his ancestor's reputation and doctrine being questioned a little bit.

However, as a master in the area, he also knows better what he should stick to.

Moreover, although this book cancels some of the mystique about Confucius, it highlights his personal greatness from another perspective.

Because in this book, Yue Shan gave an alternative answer to the foundation of the birth of Confucianism:

Confucius was born in the scholar-official class, and his thoughts were formulated based on the etiquette of the scholar-officials in the Zhou Dynasty, representing the scholar-official class.This is a kind of belittling to both Confucianism and Confucius' thought.

But at the same time, Yue Shan affirmed Confucius' achievements, and even strongly promoted Confucius.

Although Confucius founded Confucianism on the basis of scholar-official etiquette, he did not copy it, but made a breakthrough.

For example, there is no discrimination in teaching knowledge to people all over the world, officially breaking the monopoly of the nobility on knowledge, allowing the head of Guizhou to learn knowledge and change destiny.

His knowledge is no longer inherited from Zhou Gong or someone else, but based on what he has learned, experienced, and thought, which is completely his personal achievement.

Not only for Confucius, Yue Shan made a new and subversive interpretation of the thoughts of a hundred schools of thought in this book.

With the increase of population and the development of land, the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty could no longer rule the world, and the whole country was divided and fought against each other.

This formed the situation of "after self-righteousness, use the strong to bully the weak, and use the crowd to defeat the few" mentioned in "Zhuangzi Robber Zhi".

In the face of the severe disaster caused by the melee among the princes, two trends of thought emerged: joining the world and leaving the world.

Confucianism and Taoism are the representatives.

Lao Tzu and Confucius were the first to propose a complete system of thought, and the other schools of thought were all based on them.

Lao Tzu was a scholar-bureaucrat who was in charge of the library of the Zhou Dynasty and read a lot.He believed that the current chaos was caused by the Zhou Dynasty system, so he advocated restoring the earlier system.

Combined with the thought of birth, the Taoist school was created.

Confucius was also a scholar-bureaucrat, and he hoped to restore the Western Zhou system. On this basis, he combined with WTO thought to improve and create the Confucian system.

From this point of view, although the "sense of fate" in Lao Tzu and Confucius has been cancelled, it also highlights the greatness of the two.

When others are still at a loss in the face of troubled times, they have already begun to look for a way out and put forward a complete ideological system.

This is greater than the so-called 'Mandate of Heaven'.

With the division of the three families into the five kingdoms, the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the arrival of the Warring States Period.

But this also means that the patriarchal clan system of the Western Zhou Dynasty completely disintegrated, but the new patriarchal clan system has not yet been established.

More and more people with lofty ideals began to look for new ways out, the most outstanding of which are Mohism and Legalism.

In the past, the protagonists of this world were the nobles and the scholar-official class, and everyone else could only follow the crowd.

During the Warring States period, the old patriarchal clan system collapsed, the new patriarchal clan system failed to be established, and the ruler's ability to control the country declined.

Handicraftsmen and yeoman farmers were liberated as never before, and they had a more independent political status.

Facing the brutal melee among princes, they began to think about the way to end the troubled times and preserve themselves.

But their origins determined that they were unwilling to return to the original patriarchal system, because in the original patriarchal system they were only vassals.

After finally gaining an independent political status, how could he be willing to go back to the past?

So they abandoned the old-fashioned idea and started looking for a new solution.

Mozi was born as a craftsman, studied Confucianism, and combined with his own experience, he put forward the idea of ​​universal love - hoping to end the war while maintaining the current political situation.

In this way, the war is over, and they can maintain their political status, which is the best of both worlds.

The Legalists went a step further, abandoning not only old-fashioned ideas, but also all unrealistic fantasies, and no longer made any efforts to preach morality.

In their view, the old system has proved useless, so it must be completely overthrown and a new set of patriarchal clan system must be re-established.

In their view, only order can solve chaos, only strong power can restore order, and only concentrated power can concentrate power.

So it was proposed to abolish the feudal system and implement a centralized system, but only the law can centralize power.

Therefore, "Han Feizi Xindu" says:

The reason why the husband country is strong is politics.

The reason why the Lord is honorable is the right.

The law is the root of the king.

Punishers, love themselves.

The reasons for the birth of other schools of thought are mostly due to similar reasons, influenced by other theories—mainly influenced by Taoism and Confucianism, combined with their own class to put forward their own academic ideas.

The thoughts of various schools of thought are not isolated, but have been influencing each other, absorbing and merging with each other.

Taoists look down on Legalism very much, especially Zhuangzi, and think that Confucianism is nothing but hypocrites.

However, in fact, Confucianism and Taoism are the two most comprehensive theories that influence and integrate with each other. It is not an exaggeration to say that Confucianism and Taoism are not separated.

The military strategists absorbed the ideas of Taoism.

Legalism grew out of Confucianism and absorbed Taoism.So Sima Qian put Laozi and Han Feizi in one chapter in Shiji.

With the progress of the annexation war, the small vassal states were gradually destroyed, and the big country took the lead in establishing a new patriarchal system in the country by drawing on the ideas of various schools of thought.

The best among them is the state of Qin. After Shang Yang's reform, he fully implemented the legalist thought on his own land.

Abolish the situation where the scholar-official noble class and the monarch jointly govern the country, and formally implement the bureaucratic system.

And on this basis, a new political system was established, a new legal system was implemented, a new land management system and so on.

Legalism was also the first school to successfully practice its own doctrine.

With the demise of the vassal states, other theories gradually lost the opportunity to practice, which also meant that they lost their living space.

When the Qin State unified the world, other theories completely lost their political status and began to disappear in large numbers.The yin-yang family, peasant family, miscellaneous family, etc. all died out during this period.

On the basis of Legalism, Qin State established a brand-new patriarchal system and national ruling system.

This system has been passed down to the present, so there is a saying that the Qin political system has been practiced for a hundred generations.

Why did Confucianism and Taoism re-emerge later, while Mohism died out?

Because the bureaucratic class produced under the new patriarchal clan system gradually transformed into a new class of scholar-bureaucrats.

They occupy the mainstream of society, and naturally hope to gain more honorable status and power for themselves.

So they reincorporated Confucianism into the political system of the country, and carried out a complete transformation of Confucianism.

To a certain extent, Han Confucianism is no longer the learning of Confucius, but the product of the re-transformation of the emerging scholar-bureaucrat class in the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, the so-called respecting the ancients of the ancient school actually respects the thought of Han Confucianism, not the thought of Confucius.

Taoism changed its face and passed down in the form of Taoism. In order to facilitate the promotion of the theory among the people, Taoists of later generations also transformed Taoism.

So the Taoist thought we see now has deviated from the original intention of Lao Zhuang.

Of the four major schools of the year, only the Mohist school died out, because the power of small producers and self-cultivators was too weak.

Once the new patriarchal clan system is established, the state will inevitably strengthen its management and make them lose their freedom and independent political status.

In this case, Mohism can only perish.

But only the name 'Mohist' died, not their ideas.

In fact, Mohist thought has already been integrated into Chinese civilization, and we are also advocating the idea of ​​universal love.

And what is the Mohist political appeal?They want to end the war, hope to live in peace, and hope that the wealth they have created can be preserved.

A new patriarchal clan system was established, a unified country was reborn, and their political demands were completed.

Although handicraftsmen and yeoman farmers will still be bullied and exploited, the immediate problem of survival has been alleviated.

The popularization of knowledge among the people, and the emergence of the examination system and the imperial examination system also gave them a chance to change their destiny.

Therefore, there is no need for the Mohist revival.

The situation of Legalism is even more special. Few people mention Legalism after Confucianism is the only one, but has its thought disappeared?

No.

The existing patriarchal clan system and political system were established on the basis of Legalism.

To eradicate Legalism is to break the existing patriarchal clan system and return the world to chaos. No one wants to see this situation.

Although people no longer talk about Legalism, it has been closely linked with the entire national system and is inseparable.

Not only the Legalists and Mohists, although other schools of thought have perished, the essence of their theories have been integrated into the Chinese civilization and passed down.

The Hundred Schools of Philosophy is the exploration of the way forward by capable people with lofty ideals in the world, and it is the thinking of the feasibility of ending the troubled times.

Perhaps many ideas have flaws of one kind or another, but each kind of thought is a treasure of Chinese civilization, and is worthy of learning and awe by future generations.

From the perspective of Chinese civilization, all schools are only temporary.

He is the mainstream who adapts to the development of Chinese civilization, and will be replaced and perish if he does not adapt or complete his mission.

This is true of the Mohist School, the Farm School, and the Yin-Yang School, the Legalist Military School, and the Confucianism and Taoism.

But the demise of the school does not mean the demise of their thought, the essence of their thought has been integrated into Chinese civilization, illuminating the way forward of Chinese civilization.

It will surely shine with the glory of Chinese civilization.

……

This is the main framework of "The Rise and Fall of Schools", which is relatively new in the 21st century, not to mention the Tang Dynasty.

And when this view was put forward in the Tang Dynasty, it would inevitably cause shocks in the world.

(End of this chapter)