warring states careerist

Chapter 39
A person is always inferior to a group of people.

A hundred years ago, Confucius had sages72 and three thousand disciples, so when he traveled to various countries, all countries treated him with courtesy.

He gathered his disciples with the courtesy and affection of teachers and students.There is Zilu who is unparalleled in faith, Duanmuci who is rich and wealthy, and Ranqiu who can reform the tax system with a spear in the field.

A hundred years later, after he founded a private school, all schools came together.

With ghosts and gods, righteousness, and saving the world as his thoughts, Mozi gathered a group of disciples no less than Zhongni's back then. They are all the essence of a lifetime. How can Gongsun Ze compare with him?

In the past, Qi State was first established, but only three or four hundred soldiers were able to conquer Dongyi and eventually become a powerful country.Regardless of Confucianism or Mohism, these disciples can govern a country.

Besides, there were many things that Gongsun Ze disdained and would not know, so he left.

Bian 54 didn't have the opportunity to debate with Shi right away, and Mozi didn't say whether Shi was his personal disciple or not, but asked Qin Huali to introduce him to many Mozi at this time.

Among them are some characters that I have heard before, but most of them are people I have never heard of, and he can't remember so many people for a while.

However, many of these people are handicraftsmen, and it can be said that they can find suitable skillful hands from planting to smelting.

As for carpenters and stonemasons, Mozi himself is the best in the world. The Gongshu Ban has passed away, and no one can match him. Naturally, the people taught by his men are not weaker than the successors of the Southern Gongshu Ban.

Everyone asked about the things mentioned in "The Paradise".

Those born in masonry care about millstones; those born in carpentry care about columbine carts and drains; those born in smelting care about annealing cast iron; those born in farmers care about grain and rice in this world...

All of a sudden, it was full of enthusiasm. Debate 54 was not tall, so he couldn't squeeze those craftsmen.

But in the end he still found an opportunity, holding Shi's hand and opening his mouth.

There are many things that can be debated, and the Mohist logic system is common internally and has already taken shape. What kind of arguments can be argued with each other and what arguments cannot be argued with each other has long been determined.

Shi Xin thought, once he opened his mouth, it would not be able to stop for a while, and it was okay to deceive Gongsun Ze by himself.

In the face of such a person who is proficient in debate and unparalleled speech, if he can't find an argument and reveal something that shouldn't be revealed, that's not good.

When Debate 54 was about to speak, Shi smiled and said, "I've heard an interesting story, brother, please listen to it?"

Debate 54 nodded hastily, the rest of the people wanted to see the debate between Jian Shi and 54, and listened to this story.

"In other words, Taoyi is a place where merchants come and go. One day, three Mohists who learned debates went into a restaurant together. Said: 'I don't know'. The second inkman replied: 'I don't know'. The third inkman replied: 'Of course'. The master said: 'Then I will know'."

"Let me ask, what does the first unknown mean? What does the second unknown mean? Why did the third person say yes when the first two were unknown? What did the master know in the end?"

When Bian 54 heard this story, it seemed very simple at first, but when he thought about it carefully, he felt endless aftertaste. He faintly thought of the key point, but he didn't fully grasp the point, so he scratched his head anxiously.

A group of Mohists nearby laughed and said: "54, if you argue with Yang Zhu, Lie Yukou and others, wouldn't you be considered as poor at this time?"

Debating 54, I just pretended I didn't hear it, and said that you are not deep in debate, how can you appreciate the flavor of this question?
Mozi thought about it for a while, and he understood what the four people meant, and said, "This question is interesting, enough for 54 to think about it for a while."

Now that he had figured it out, he coughed lightly and said, "54, you think about it first. The rest of you let that reed flower take you around the village, and let her read to you the five-fold paradise."

All the disciples claimed it was true, Mozi waved at Shi and said, "Follow me."

Knowing that the most critical time has come, Shi Shi held his breath and came to Mozi. The people behind him were still discussing those things, but he turned a deaf ear to them.

The joy before was like an ignorant boy going to his girlfriend's house for dinner for the first time, and the meal was enjoyable.

But the hardest part is after the meal. The father finds an excuse to send his girlfriend to the kitchen to wash the dishes, and the remaining two are the real conversations. If there is a little carelessness, the joy at the dinner table will be wiped out.

Seeing that Mozi was a little nervous, he smiled and said, "You don't have to be nervous, just take a few steps with me."

"Yes."

"I want to ask a lot of things, just like the hemp ball in a woman's hand has been played with by a child. I don't know where to start asking. How about this, let's look around as we walk, and start asking from this village."

"Yes."

He has edited it for more than half a year, and although it is not perfect, he thinks it can be fooled.

The two walked casually, one in front of the other.

Mo Zi raised his head and saw the wall that Gongsun Ze saw half a year ago with the words "Liu Huo in July and Clothes in September".

The wall is still the same wall, and the words have been written to the next few sentences.

This is a very good poem, which can not only incite dissatisfaction, but also fits the scene of the village community. More importantly, there are many numbers and various months, which are suitable for the literacy of Mongolian children.

Mozi pointed to the words on it and said, "Is this a word? It is specious. I don't know it, but I can guess a few."

"Yes, sir."

"Are you literate?"

This word is not that word.

Shaking his head, he said to himself that in the land of Song and Chu, insect seal script was popular, which is the so-called small skill of insects in later generations.Although it is a small skill, it is also a skill. How can I recognize it?
Mozi pointed to the words on the wall and asked, "You can write, but you can't read?"

"Mister, this character is not that character. In the past, Cangjie realized the will of heaven and wrote characters. His original intention was to pass on knowledge to others. There was always a case of Zengzi murdering people in word of mouth. In this case, the characters themselves have no fixed trend. As long as people People can accept it."

Shi thought about it for a while, then laughed again: "Sir, in the village commune, I can write. Since no one in the village commune can't write, so to them, the words are the words I wrote. I said it was one, That's one, and when they all think it's one, I'll write one."

"After leaving the village, I can't write. Give me a bamboo slip, and I can't read it, so I can't write and I can't read."

"Whether I can write or not doesn't depend on me, but on others. Cangjie is alone, whether he can read or not doesn't matter."

Mozi smiled and asked, "Do you want to learn how to write?"

Shi replied solemnly: "Sir, I don't want to learn."

Mozi was a little surprised.It is not easy to learn characters at this time. How can anyone who is eager to learn not want to learn characters?
Shi replied: "I want many people to recognize the writing I wrote on the wall. I don't have to learn to write, but I already know how to write. I don't want to learn, I just want to teach."

Mozi also laughed and said, "Is this character not that character?"

"This word is indeed not that word."

"Why do so many people know this word?"

"Peaches and plums don't say anything. If there is gold on the mountain, people will move the gold by themselves, instead of forcing the gold to be distributed to everyone. Mr. has the will of heaven, and I also understand the will of heaven. Naturally, I will take the initiative to learn this character. If you don’t learn it, you won’t understand Tianzhi.”

Shi squatted down, picked up a branch, and wrote a paragraph on the ground.

Mozi looked down and could guess a few, but he didn't recognize them together, so he didn't know what they meant.

"Sir, do you recognize it?"

"I can't recognize them all. I can guess a few."

"Sir, this passage is about how to grow sweet potatoes and how to store them. Those who want to learn these words must not be aristocrats who have no crops. Have you heard the things in "Promised Land"? They are all in line with the will of heaven. Yes. Whether it is the silk of vegetation or the characters of mud printing, it can be made. When the time comes, I will print all these characters, and those who can’t read at all, if they want to learn these things, they will learn these characters.”

Mozi nodded and said, "That's right. But why didn't they rewrite these characters into seal characters?"

Shi replied: "Because if seal characters are characters, then few people who learn these 'characters' can read. Besides, my husband once said that it is good for people to call it clever, but not good for people to call it clumsy. How can people abandon clever things? And how about going back to the clumsy thing? Furthermore, only I, the Mohist, know the method of mud printing, and it cannot be passed on to the outside world. How long will it take for them to copy the "Li" in seal script on the bamboo slips? We print "The Will of Heaven" on the silk of grass and trees. "How long will it take? Then 20 years later, will more people be familiar with "Tian Zhi"? Or more people will be familiar with "Li"?"

"Zhongni passed it down by word of mouth, but only had three thousand disciples. If it was passed down through writing, how much more than three thousand disciples?"

"Taoyi's merchants like to observe the market from a high place. Those with low prices will buy and those with high prices will sell. That's why it's called the monopoly."

"Since merchants can monopolize the market, why can't we Mohists monopolize learning to determine the origin of the world's learning? Once these two things come out, the world's learning will be dominated by Mohists."

"Besides, today's characters can be understood by everyone in the world. How can there be one in a thousand people? If in the future, one in a thousand people knows that character, and one in a hundred people understands this character, then is it true that one in a thousand people knows one? Literacy? Or is it that one in a hundred people is illiterate?"

"So, my disciples don't learn characters, they only teach them. Then they will naturally be able to write and recognize characters."

Mozi laughed loudly. He thought his ambition was already great, but he didn't want this ambition to be as good as his.

The next sentence after laughing shocked Shi into a cold sweat.

"Your approach was similar to what I thought when I was young. Among Mohist scholars, there were not many scholars, and many of them were illiterate. When I was young, I thought, in this case, why not learn from Cangjie and reinvent writing? But I It took half a year to finally understand the great wisdom of Cangjie, which I am afraid that I would not be able to complete in my entire life with my own efforts."

The cultural level of many Mohists is indeed not high. The "Mo Jing" handed down from ancient times has the most typos among the schools of thought, and there are many borrowed words—probably written by elementary school students. .

Mozi also speaks a dialect, and many dialects can still be heard in the villages of Qi, Lu and Henan in later generations. For example, dialects such as "Zhong Bu Zhong", "Hunger and Poverty", and "Bin Fu" still have the same meaning after 2000 years.

It is the first time I know whether Mozi has ever thought about creating characters, but in the "Mojing", Mozi proposed to standardize grammar in the debate system.

At least in the Debates, Mozi once raised the issue of tenses in normative grammar: what has not yet happened and will happen in the future is called and; what has happened must be called when it is expressed; Because I can't think of a suitable word, let's call it and...including the reasons and assumptions of the various examples in dialectics...Although it will not change too much, it must be in Mohist's internal argumentative essays It is necessary to standardize the grammar, there is nothing wrong with it, and it is related to the debate system.

Mozi's meaning is probably to create a set of characters that Mohists can understand and quickly learn for internal communication. Anyway, the communication between Mohists is difficult for ordinary people to understand, and the level of education is not high, and there are many typos.

It's just that after trying it, I realized that this was an almost impossible ambition, so I stopped it abruptly and never talked about it again.

Mo Zi finished this sentence, stared at Shi, and asked the next most important sentence.

"Cangjie created characters. That is the ancient sage. As you said, he realized the will of heaven. I think I am smarter than ordinary people, but I can't do this kind of thing. Who did you learn these characters from?" Why is this person not well-known? You say that you have realized the will of heaven and thought of the millstone, I believe it; but you say that you can write without learning, I don’t believe it. I talk about fate, and there is no destiny .”

I know that Mozi must ask about his own eccentricities, but fortunately he has already become proficient in weaving in the past six months.

So he bowed to Mo Zhe and said, "Sir, this is not my own creation. What I know is also learned from others."

Mozi laughed and said, "Is this the strange man you mentioned?"

"Not one, but two."

Shi slowly said: "One is named Sai Yinsi, and the other is named Tang Han. This Sai Yinsi called me Mr. Sai, but the other named Tang Han said that the name came from his parents, so it is only allowed Let me call him Tang Han."

Hearing these two names, Mozi murmured, "Mr. Sai? Tang Han?"

(End of this chapter)