warring states careerist

Chapter 818 Controversy Difficulty ([-])

Faced with such a simple question of vulgarity, reality, philistinism, and shameless pursuit of profit, Meng Sunyang suddenly found that people like himself seemed to have been flying too high all the time, so that they were a little out of touch.

They can argue with the Mohists on personal and collective issues for more than ten years, but when they are asked "what to do", they are speechless.

Now when Dongxiang Ziqi asked the simplest question about "taxes", Meng Sunyang suddenly understood that there was still a long way to go for the Yang Zhu School.

At least, the Mohist set of things, regardless of whether the Yang Zhu school recognizes it or not, the minimum taxation, military system, government orders, and decrees are consistent, in line with their so-called will of heaven, and can be explained within the system.

Meng Sunyang never thought that he would face such a seemingly simple but extremely difficult question.

If the Yang Zhu School governs the world, will no tax be collected?If you collect taxes, is it considered a loss to others?

Another example is that the Mohists collect business taxes and support poor peasants. Does this count as harming the merchants and benefiting others?The Mohists can explain all this with the reasons of "universal love", "simultaneous people", and "benefits of the world". How can the Yang Zhu school explain the rationality of tax collection within the framework of its own system?
Out of compassion, they feel that those who are "forced to live" would be better off dying, which is extremely pitiful, so they hope that they can obtain land, so that at least they can be better than death and achieve a life-deficit situation. So what is the legal principle?
Is it because of compassion?
Or should we follow the Mohist saying that there was no emperor in ancient times, and the land belonged to all the people in the world. Now it is only natural to distribute the fiefdom to the people?
Is the way of Taoism natural?Is it so inaction to rule by inaction?If you agree with the Mohist approach, is it the same as agreeing with the Mohist statement that "the way of heaven is known, rationality can be deduced, and if you follow the sky, it is no different from inaction and self-transformation, and it can be achieved faster"?

Xu Xi from the peasant family can see at a glance that the reason why the Mohists let them govern those townships is to use their "true equality" morality to clean up the remnants of the nobles there.The reason why it can be seen is that the peasant family recognizes part of the principles of the Mohist school, but there are some disagreements on how to proceed at this time.

Meng Sunyang has not yet figured out the fundamental reason why the Mohists let them govern these townships, so the policy decision he wants to make is very difficult. Once he makes a mistake, the Mohist will use silent means to let them Lost prestige and became a laughing stock.

The Mohists seem to have generously transferred the Song State to the Song State and let them try to govern the various schools, but in fact, except for the peasant family who has enough influence in this Song State coup, the other schools do not want money, soldiers, or the masses. They have no foundation and no experience in governing. Everything they have is not earned by shedding the blood of thousands of people like the Mohist, but given to them by the Mohist. It is destined that they can only be reduced to a kind of puppets.

What Meng Sunyang faces now is a question of faith and morality.

Dongxiang Ziqi is questioning Meng Sunyang, if you divide the land of these servants, it is tantamount to pulling out my hair and losing my profit, so your rhetoric that you don’t hurt others to benefit the world is justified. It doesn't make sense.

The land of a hundred miles cannot be ruled, let alone the world?
The predicament that Meng Sunyang faced at this time is also the predicament that the Yang Zhu school must face in the era of change.

If the patriarchal system had not been loosened at all, and this time was before the Spring and Autumn Period, then it would be impossible to talk about not plucking a hair, because except for the nobles, the common people had no hair to pluck, and there was no king in the world.

If the times have progressed to the point where everyone has a hair to pull out, then it is easy to say that based on this, although the existence of a government will definitely be needed in the end and various corrections may be required, it is still feasible after all.

But the problem is that the Yang Zhu school is now facing an era of great changes unseen in a thousand years. Shi once asked Yang Zhu the question "what to do".

The current situation is that although the patriarchal system has disintegrated, it still exists, the aristocratic system exists, and there are small farmers with private land and private land. Don't pluck their hair, but let them benefit the world at the expense of them, and you don't want to think it goes against your own interests.

Shi also asked them, how many people in the world are eligible to be plucked?You want your hair not to be plucked by nobles and princes, why do you have it?Just reason with them?You have to let the world have more people who can be plucked, and then you can let your morality be accepted by the princes and nobles. The princes and nobles don’t let them not pluck your hair by reasoning, but by swords, guns and cannons...

But to do so requires sacrifice, which violates the righteousness of the Yang Zhu School of respecting oneself and benefiting the world without pulling out a hair, so they are also doomed to play supporting roles in this great era.

It's not that Zhan He and others have never thought about the question of "what to do" asked by Shi, and they also know that Shi's idea is actually right. Even a few people feel that the morality of the Yang Zhu school needs to be corrected.

But... If you want to seize power violently, you have to learn from Mohism, and then learn everything from Mohism, such as tax collection, military support, compulsory service, sacrifice spirit, collective system, compulsory education, and being forced to be thrown into the village as a teacher after being educated... all kinds of things, In that case, how is it different from the Mohists?

Seizing power without violence, and going back to the original question, how many people in the world are eligible to be plucked?How can these people guarantee that their hair will not be pulled out?When princes and nobles want to pluck their hair, can they resist?

The Mohists gave them a chance to "govern by non-violent seizure of power", and now, before they could govern, Meng Sunyang had already fallen from the sky, and when he found out that he really started to think about these issues on the ground, he was like this difficult.

After secretly allocating the scope of governance for the various townships of the Song Kingdom, the Yang Zhu School felt very happy and satisfied. After all, what the Mohists gave them seemed to be the relatively developed and affluent areas of the Song Kingdom except for a few large cities, where the patriarchal clan of the princes and nobles The remnants are also much less than those given to the farmers.

It looks beautiful... But in fact, they face many more problems than the farmers.

As far as the farmers are concerned, those townships were basically the fiefdoms of the nobles, and there were not many self-cultivating farmers, let alone those operating landowners near Surabaya. The land was divided according to the method of granting land.

But for the Yang Zhu School, the Mohist dug an unfathomable pit for them.

The problems they have to face are difficult even for the Mohists who have been in power for 20 years.

This includes... the land system, the population flow system, the possibility of population fleeing adjacent to developed industrial and commercial areas, how to ensure that the local operating manors retain labor under the premise of organized reclamation and colonization next to them, and the market fluctuations that will be suffered if they are reduced to raw material production places , the support and opposition of different classes in the future election, the contradiction between the desire of a large number of servants to have their own land and the desire for personal control of the emerging aristocrats who have annexed the land, the local industry and commerce is facing the problem of the impact and suppression of Sishang industry and commerce, and the development of local handicrafts The paradox of the urgent need for manpower and the frantic flow of people to Sishang...

All these, Meng Sunyang did not consider.

The Mohists wanted a Song State that provided military allies, markets, and soldiers in the west, and raw materials and cheap population in the east.

It’s just that the purpose of the east will inevitably not be so grand and upright, and it will easily get your hands dirty. Instead of this, it’s better to ask the Yang Zhu school, which seems to have reconciled with the Mohist school, but in fact has always been at odds with the Mohist school on some morals. pot.

Well done and stable, it will naturally become the scene that Sishang wants: self-cultivated farmers go bankrupt and flee to Sishang to provide population and cheap labor for Sishang, and merge land farming system to provide raw materials and food for Sishang.

If you can’t do it well, you won’t be able to stabilize it, and the people are violently resisting... Sorry, it has nothing to do with the Mohists. It’s because your Yang Zhu school is not good at governing. You see how well our development is. If you can’t develop it, it’s your problem. By the way, it proves In practice, your theories cannot bring about great order in the world.

Meng Sunyang has not realized this trap so far, and the Dongxiang Ziqi he is facing now is just one of a lot of conflicts that need to be resolved urgently, and there are many more similar to it.

…………

In another place in the Song Dynasty, Shi Jiao was questioning his closed disciple Wei Yang.

"Aren't you always ambitious? Now there is an opportunity to rule Baili. If you can rule, you will be famous. Why don't you want to?"

The young Wei Yang saluted his husband and said: "Sir, I have the ambition to govern a country of thousands of vehicles, but I have no talent for governing a hundred miles of land."

Shi Jiao said with a smile: "This statement is absurd. It cannot be cured for a hundred miles, so how can we talk about treating ten thousand times?"

He didn't mean to be sarcastic, because he had always known this disciple's intelligence, brains, and ambition. This time, Wei Yang, a middle school debater, came forward to question the farmer's four questions, which made him famous at a young age.

At least after Shi Jiao noticed the incident, Shi came here to ask about Wei Yang, exchanged a few more words, and even praised him, saying that he is quite talented.

Right now, he is no longer the child of a shoe-making family in Shangqiu, but a leader who is the most prominent figure in the world. To be able to get a few compliments from someone with such status can basically be a source of wealth.

Shi Jiao felt that Wei Yang would not be aimless, so he said that on purpose.

Sure enough, Wei Yang replied: "Sir, governing a country of ten thousand chariots is different from governing a town of hundreds of miles, especially this land of hundreds of miles is still a land of hundreds of miles under the protection of the Mohist."

"If you want to govern a country of ten thousand chariots, you must consider military affairs so that it cannot be invaded by foreign enemies; you must consider laws and regulations to convince the people; you must have magic to control subordinates; you must know finances, otherwise you will not be able to raise troops; you must be proficient in diplomacy. To make nations be enemies or friends..."

"But these hundreds of miles... Just one, you don't need to govern the army, you don't need diplomacy, so what can you actually do? As long as you govern the army, you need to consider the land system, the will of the people, the interests of the people, taxes and taxes, and the busy and slack seasons." , industrial and commercial copper and iron..."

"However, here, we don't need to take care of anything. Follow the steps, and everything will be done according to what the Mohists want, and then there will be great rule. When it comes to military power, it is in the hands of the Mohists; when it comes to diplomacy, Sishang will be in charge of everything; Pay the prescribed taxes to the center..."

"This land of hundreds of miles does not need me to defend martingale. Even a middle-aged man who has just graduated from the school in Sishang can rule in three to five years. Then I and the hundreds of thousands of officials in Sishang have another What's the difference? It's really hard to calm the ambition in my heart when everyone is obliterated."

"My government can make this town of a hundred miles compete for a thousand miles, but does the Mohist need such a person? Will it be allowed? How can I show my talent if everything is according to what the Mohist wants?"

"Besides, sir... how can it be considered a great rule?"

(End of this chapter)