warring states careerist

Chapter 722
In troubled times, people are not surprised by such things as dead people.

After the Confucian scholar who had been beaten to death was carried away, the scene has quieted down, but the debate has also ended.

"Trades are different, do not conspire."

Arguing to this point, it is meaningless to continue arguing.

Although the Confucian scholar was beaten to death by his fellow disciples, part of his words were still accepted by the fellow disciples.

This is not the era when a hundred schools of thought compete for the court, hoping to get the favor of the king, at least not in Sishang... because the "king" in Sishang has his own morality and doctrine, and it is impossible to give up his own doctrine accept the teachings of others.

The Confucian scholars are about to leave.

The disciples of many schools who were scolded by the Confucian scholar before his death were silent, and the atmosphere was somewhat dull.

The Mohists say that righteousness is profit.

Just as the righteousness of the peasant family represents the interests of the small peasants, whose interests do the theories of other families represent?

The Mohists also said that if the righteousness of the world is to be achieved, which class will benefit the righteousness of the world in the future?

If it is human nature to pursue one's own needs, then what should the righteousness of one's own school be based on?

Where do the doctrines of the various schools of thought stand?

Confucian scholars scolded before they died, severely criticizing the righteousness of various schools with the most tragic and unavoidable human needs.

There is a Dao in the world, and when the sergeant hears the Dao, he practices it diligently;

According to the maniacal denunciation of the Confucian scholar before his death, it seems that each school of thought has its own loopholes and tendencies.

Or, recognize the needs of human nature and develop production to the greatest extent, so that production will always keep up with the growth of human needs.

Or, I hope that everyone can cultivate their minds and cultivate their nature, and rely on people's cultivation of mind and nature to come up with a complete set of theories: which needs should be met by people and which needs should not be.

Or, a combination of both.

There is no fourth way to go.

Many people think that the road on Sishang must be the right one?
Many people from other schools present have doubts in their hearts. The standard of Sishang Mohism to judge whether the world is a great profit can be summed up only whether the production has improved, whether the total wealth of the world has increased, whether the majority of people have benefited, and whether the population has increased...

From the point of view of Mohist righteousness, Sishang is doing very well.

But if you look at it in terms of etiquette and self-cultivation, Sishang did very poorly.

Moreover, many people from other schools of thought think that what Mohism has done is too much, such as stripping too much bloody reality and interests and showing it to everyone, including those people they think are ignorant.

For example, there are some things that don't need a reason at all, and they have to find a reason.

Just like in Sishang's recent law-making, support and support are regarded as rights and obligations, as an exchange of interests.

This makes people from many schools of thought feel uncomfortable. Filial piety is a natural principle. Why do you have to link these things with interests?

Benefits and utilitarianism are all placed in front of people, and people's needs are recognized as human nature. If this is true, what kind of world should it be?
The output of grain is increasing, the output of cloth is increasing, everyone is seeking profit, and everyone is running around for profit. This is today's Sishang.

But some schools feel that Mohism can solve many practical problems, but it is difficult to solve human nature.

Some people of the Taoist school feel that the Mohists are using the interests of "the world is beneficial to themselves" and "I am a part of the people of the world" to guide the mentality of the people in Sishang. In the general direction, it can make the world rich, but It will make people feel so empty inside that they lose themselves and become slaves to profit.

According to them, self-cultivation is important.

Knowing the majestic and strong, holding on to the feminine, is willing to become the ravine in the world; knowing the bright, holding on to the dark, is willing to become the valley in the world.

Everyone strives to be the first, and alone is willing to stay behind, saying that he has to bear the shame of the world; everyone is pragmatic, and alone is willing to keep the emptiness, so as not to make accumulations so that everything looks superfluous, like mountains piled up.He acted in a calm and unhurried manner, doing nothing but laughing at ingenuity; everyone prayed for blessings, and he was willing to compromise and say that he would not suffer for the time being.Take deep possession as the foundation and thrift as the guideline, saying that what is hard is easy to destroy, and what is sharp is easy to be frustrated.Always treat things with tolerance and never invade others.

This kind of disposition, I am afraid it will be difficult for others to stick to it in this world where everyone seeks profit.

Sishang's style is really too sharp, I'm afraid it's too much to go too far, and the moon is full.

If we only use the unity of benefiting the world and ourselves to educate the people, if this becomes the righteousness of the world in the future, how many people in the world can become people with such a true temperament?
People with this kind of true temperament are difficult to produce, everyone seeks profit, even if everyone is rich, it seems that it is not the world they want.

They did understand what the Mohists meant. The Mohists called the nobles moths, which meant that they were not tolerant to others, nor did they never invade others.

At this time, most people in the world do not yet have the financial foundation to cultivate their mind and nature, and even the three most basic problems have not yet been resolved.

Therefore, we must use the "seeking profit" to make everyone who is not qualified to cultivate their minds and cultivate their nature to resist the old things and release their desires that have been suppressed by etiquette for hundreds of years.

Overcorrecting must be overcorrecting. Only in this way can people in the world be inspired to seek profit and a better life, and can make them stand together with the Mohists against the entire old world.

But after all this is done?

Everyone's pursuit of profit and the world's great benefit are at this time a system of synonymous, equal, and universal love, which is consistent with the overthrow of the hierarchical system and the enfeoffment etiquette of the nobility.

But what about after the overthrow?

Would a world where everyone seeks profit be good?or bad?Or is it chaotic?
At that time, what will Zhu Xia Wanmin be like?
Is it introverted, modest, and not tired of things?
Or is it flamboyant, unrestrained, and profit-seeking?
The world will be chaotic?Will it still be cured?
Now they are getting close to the Mohists because they feel that in order to achieve the great rule of the world, everyone needs to have a material basis for self-cultivation. In the case of the enfeoffment system and the endless wars in the world, and the people are exploited by the nobles and there is no surplus, it is impossible. It is extravagant to ask everyone to cultivate their minds, so they support the Mohists' slogan of "seeking profit as the natural pursuit of human nature" in the world.

However, after this step is completed, what will happen to the world?

Is it to satisfy one's own needs, the whole world will never stop, move forward forever to the end, everyone rushes for profit, everyone becomes a slave of foreign things?

Or once the great order of the world has been achieved, stop going forward, cultivate one's morality, so that people will not be slaves to external things, and not be driven by interests to become servants of wealth?
Or there is another kind of argument that can be unified, so that everyone can not only be busy to meet their own needs, but also not be burdened by foreign objects, not transformed by wealth, and return to the natural simplicity of human beings, return to the essence, and return to the basics ?
At this moment, no one has an answer, and that seems too far away.

But some people have already started to think, the sages of Zhu Xia always think too far.

Under the long silence, it was like stagnant water.

After a long silence like stagnant water, someone finally made a ripple.

A man in his 40s came out of the crowd, with elegant manners, he seemed to be from aristocratic family other than Sishang, and he didn't have the kind of top-down "never enough to distinguish differences, county monarchs and ministers" deliberately caused by Sishang. temperament of equality.

Later generations Xunzi once criticized the morality of Mohism’s “regarding equality as a kind of political correctness and forcing equality regardless of any identity differences”, but it is enough to feel the atmosphere in Sishang, especially inside Mohism, it is difficult to judge from clothing The difference in status level can be seen on the surface, and most people who can participate in the debate at this time in Sishang are either Mohists or people in the clothes of the taxi class from outside.

This person is thin and looks like a person who has been studying all the year round. He has a fair complexion, and he should be working in some places where books are managed all the year round and it is difficult to see the sun.

This middle-aged man in his 40s walked among the crowd and said calmly, "I have a message, please listen carefully."

"I am neither a Mohist nor a Confucianist. I don't talk about profit or benevolence. I only talk about my views on many things from a human perspective."

After arguing up to now, Gao Zi really can't go on arguing with one person dead.This debate was doomed from the very beginning, because the audience was ordinary people, not princes.

Gaozi hoped to use this matter to make his name known to the world, but sadly found that there was no one on the other side who could argue.

For example, when Gongzaoye competed with Duke Luyang and defeated Duke Luyang by half a sword, this incident was enough to make Gongzaye famous all over the world, because Duke Luyang was a legendary figure who could return to Japan with his sword.

If he wins by beating a man who can't wield a sword, Gong Zaoye might not be able to make a name for himself.

This is the situation Gaozi is facing now. The Confucian scholar's words before his death caused those who could listen to the debate to be silent and deep in thought, making this situation even more uncomfortable for Gaozi.

Seeing that the person below was neither a Mohist nor a Confucianist, yet he came forward to intervene in the dispute between the two schools, Gao Zi nodded in agreement.

The middle-aged man opened his mouth but said: "I don't know if you have heard a strange story that Kai Zhishi heard from his two mentors?"

"This is a ghost story, not true. I think you have all heard it. I also read it in Luoyi."

Borrowing from the mouths of Mr. Sai and Mr. Tang Han, there are too many stories to tell. In this era when imagination is still limited to material bottlenecks, each of them can make people daydream. Everyone doesn't know what this middle-aged man said. Which is the story.

The middle-aged man said slowly: "It is said that there is a country in the far east of the ocean."

"The people of the country are clever and created a kind of beast, and named this beast Shoggoth."

"This Shoggoth is the pronunciation of the local people, such as Chu is to dodder and tiger. If it is named after a strange beast in Kyushu, it can probably be called 茰貐."

"This shoggoth may be called 茰貐, which is a slave, that is, a tool, or it can also be called a carpenter's saw or a blacksmith's hammer."

"This Shoggoth, or Jiao Jiao, has no consciousness. He just knows how to obey other people's orders, work diligently, and work endlessly every day, making the country peaceful."

"Thousands of years later, the country was destroyed, and the Shoggoths were left unattended, and they gradually gained their own consciousness. When a tool has its own meaning, is it still a tool? No one knows."

"The surviving people in that country have forgotten that Shoggoth was just a tool thousands of years ago. When they saw Shoggoth, they saw that it was extremely strong and its body was like a mountain, so they thought it was a god."

"That Shoggoth is not only powerful, but can also enter people's dream brains."

"No one knows that they have been controlled by Shoggoth. They think that everything they do is their own behavior, but they don't know that they have become a part of Shoggoth's body."

"Everyone is still human, and everyone even thinks that they are still their own consciousness, but in fact they have become a part of Shoggoth. I remember this story, it is appropriate to say, this is called alienation."

This is a story that has been circulated in Sishang. It was written a long time ago when I was writing stories, changing grammar, and spreading grammar...

The main purpose is not to tell this terrible story, but to say that there is a country in the far east of the ocean, full of gold, and people are sacrificed, thus fabricating such a demon story.

The focus is on the gold on the ocean in the Far East, and the second focus is on grammar and rhetoric, which is itself a playful story.

At this time, people's imagination is no different from that of later generations, but because of grammar, rhetoric, and vocabulary, the monsters in many stories either have human faces and animal bodies, or cry like babies, which is difficult to describe.

Compared with those alien beasts that can be seen and touched, this kind of alien beasts that can affect people's minds and make people think that everything they are controlled and done is their own spontaneous consciousness.

Even though many people have heard such stories, they still have lingering fears when they are mentioned by this middle-aged man.

Some Confucian scholars shook their heads and said, "My son is silent, and the power is chaotic and blames the gods."

The middle-aged man who is not Mo Feiru smiled and said: "This is just a tale of ghosts, a story of ghosts, it is just a satire of the world through ghosts."

"I heard Gao Zi talk about human nature just now, and I suddenly thought of this story."

"What is metaphysical is Tao, and what is metaphysical is called utensils."

"Is ritual a vessel? Or Tao? This cannot be distinguished."

"At the beginning of the creation of ritual, it was just a tool, a tool for making the world more stable."

"But this tool has been used for a long time, just like the Shoggoth in that strange story, it has self-awareness."

"Many men and women don't know that they have been alienated as part of the etiquette."

"My sister-in-law fell into the water, and the man wondered if I should go to save him? Men and women were not allowed to touch things, but they forgot that etiquette itself was only a tool for the stability of the world at that time. What is the world, isn't it the thousands of people in the world? It was originally used as a tool The traditional etiquette is to benefit more people, but now the etiquette itself has changed from a tool to a strange beast like a shoggoth or a scorpion, making people salute for the sake of propriety."

"Parents died, and my heart was inexplicably sad. I gave up my family property and served filial piety for three years, but I didn't know that etiquette is just a tool, and filial piety is the heart."

"Iron tools have appeared, but they still strictly abide by the etiquette. They think that it is a big mistake not to cultivate public land, but they don't think about the difference between farming public land and paying taxes on private acres."

"Many people forget that etiquette is just a tool, but they regard the form of etiquette itself as the ultimate goal, but the tool is only for convenience."

"Kong Zhongni founded Confucianism in order to use this tool to stabilize the world."

"He is also a man of great sages, doesn't he know the difference between weapons and utensils?"

"Many of his disciples and grandchildren regard etiquette as the ultimate goal, but they don't know that they are no longer human beings, but have been alienated into a part of etiquette. When someone stands up and says that etiquette is just a tool, they are furious, Denounce it as a traitor to Confucianism."

"When etiquette is no longer a tool, but becomes the goal, the whole world will be swallowed up by the Shoggoth beast, etiquette, and everyone will become a part of its control. They are no longer human, and no longer have the will to be honest. Sex, their behavior is governed by the law itself."

"Etiquette for the sake of etiquette, but don't know that etiquette itself is a tool, and tools are only for people."

When Gao Zi heard this, he knew in his heart that he shouldn't argue with this person, but he didn't know which school he belonged to.

When everyone was pondering, the middle-aged man said again: "Besides knowing and guarding, return to simplicity. Pu San is a tool, and a sage uses it to be an official, so the big rule cannot be cut."

"Since etiquette is a tool, it is like a carpenter. A large piece of wood needs to be trimmed with a saw first, and then a planer can be used. If a piece of wood has been modified a lot, it still uses a saw and an ax without a planer. It would be unwise to think that it was right to use the saw and ax in the past, so it is still right to use the ax after modification.”

"Pu San is a tool, and the great system cannot be cut. All things in the world are universally connected, and they all come out of their own way. Those who can find out the truth can probably be called saints, and the world can be stable."

After saying this, not only Gao Zi, but also disciples of various schools present already knew that this person must belong to the Taoist school, but they didn't know which branch he belonged to.

This sentence is very mysterious and has many different interpretations.

But at this moment, there is only one explanation left.

Pu is Tao, and the rest is art. The sage knows the Tao, so he uses the various tools transformed by the Tao to govern the world.

When Gao Zi heard this, he felt that he should pander to it. It sounded like the middle-aged man was speaking for the Sishang Mo family.

At least, the old man believes that etiquette has changed from a "vessel" used to govern the world to a strange beast like the Shoggoth or Jiao Jiao in the stories of Zhiguai. In the strange story, the person who is alienated and controlled by Qiao Jiao, but who doesn't know that everything is his own active consciousness.

However, just when Gao Zi was about to agree, the old man turned to Gao Zi again, and Yun Danfeng said with a light smile: "Since it is said, Pu San is a tool, and a sage uses it as an official, so the big rule cannot be cut."

"It is also said that metaphysical Tao is called Tao, and metaphysical is called utensils. Dao is invisible, colorless, tasteless, intangible, and yet omnipresent. However, metaphysical Tao cannot rule the world. The world can only be governed according to physical utensils. Si It's the same above."

"We have to use weapons as a last resort in governing the country. I'm afraid you also have Shoggoth beasts like etiquette on your back."

"You don't have aristocrats with etiquette, but you have a new weapon—the so-called officials selected by the meritorious."

"Officials who honored the worthy replaced clan enfeoffments, salaries from taxation replaced fiefdoms, laws replaced rituals...but they are still tools."

"One day if this thing awakens, I'm afraid it will be the same in the future."

"I hope you Sishang Mohists can control this strange beast of bureaucrats, and you must always understand that this is just a simple tool, but a tool. Don't let it self-act and wake up to become the world."

After the old man finished speaking, he didn't wait for others to ask any more questions, he bowed slightly to Gao Zi who was still standing in a daze on the stage, and walked out of the crowd.

Not far from the crowd was the place where the oxen and horses were kept. Under the eyes of countless people, the old man turned over and rode on the back of an ox.

The ox walked very slowly, not as fast as the horse, but the old man didn't mind it.

From a distance, someone asked loudly: "Sir, when will the world be truly governed? What will it be like in the paradise of Great Harmony?"

The old man did not turn his head on the back of the bull, leaving only echoes.

"People return to simplicity and nature, not tired of things, not controlled by utensils. If you want to rule the world without utensils, you must first rule it with utensils; if you want not to be tired of things, you must first desire all things."

"For me, don't be tired of things, you can cultivate yourself, and return to simplicity first."

"If you want profit and are tired of all things, you can cultivate the world and return to simplicity."

"Be careful, be careful."

The road is long, and the old man rode away on a bull, wandering around the world, without a trace, leaving only the warning that made Sishang beware of the awakening of the bureaucracy that replaced etiquette and enfeoffment as a Shoggoth.

(Volume [-], end)

(End of this chapter)