Great Han Empire

Chapter 261 The situation changes suddenly
Xu Shao is more than 40 years old, with a slender figure, a pair of deep and wise eyes on a fair and handsome face, and three long beards on his face. .

Accompanied by today's celebrities He Yong and Kong Rong, Xu Shao slowly approached the Kaiyang Gate.

There are more than 2 scholars from Luoyang Taixue and Hongdumenxue (now the president of the university), doctors (now the university professor), Zhusheng (now the university students) who heard the news from Luoyang and Gyeonggi Gathered at the Kaiyang Gate in the south city of Luoyang, they lined the road to welcome Mr. Xu Shao to give lectures in Beijing. The grand scale and warm atmosphere were the most grand since the party was imprisoned.

Today's Taixue sacrificial wine is the servant Ma Rixun (read di), the son of the great Confucian Ma Rong of the former dynasty, and the sacrificial wine of Hongdumen is the servant Le Song and Jia Hu.The three of them rushed forward to greet them, and after exchanging pleasantries, Ma Rixun and Le Song Jiahu argued about which school Xu Shao should live in.

The scholars on both sides of the city gate were divided into two factions of Taixue and Hongdumen. Everyone stood on one side, with a clear distinction, and shouted one after another, deafeningly, for no other reason than to invite Mr. Xu to his school.

Ma Rixun is a great contemporary Confucian, Le Song and Jia Hu are also considered celebrities, the three of them explained their reasons and tried their best to invite Xu Shao.

Xu Shao smiled and said, "There is no need for the three adults to argue. I study "Book of Changes", so of course I will stay in Taixue."

Several Taixue chiefs (administrative officials of Taixue) who followed Ma Rixun were ecstatic when they heard the news, and rushed to report the news. In a short time, the shouts of all the students of Taixue soared to the sky, and the sound shook the sky.The students of Hongdu Sect were immediately discouraged, and their shouts immediately died down.

Le Song hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Xu, Your Majesty has an order, I hope you can stay in Hongdu Gate..."

Xu Shao waved his hand and said apologetically, "I'm a lowly commoner. It doesn't matter if you don't listen to His Majesty's words. I'm sorry." Then he said in a stern tone, "We, the Confucian children, take the Confucian classics as the foundation of our lives. The country also regards Confucian classics as the foundation of politics and education, but today’s people turn a blind eye to it and openly sing the opposite, forming a Hongdu school with a bunch of literary jesters and comedians. , In fact, they are all trivial skills and talents, if you learn them, can you govern the country?"

Le Song and Jia Hu never expected that the well-known Mr. Xu Shao would criticize Hongdumen as useless before entering Luoyang City.The two looked at Xu Shao foolishly, dumbfounded.

Xu Shao glanced at the two of them, and continued with a little anger, "The children of Hongdu's sect are ignorant, and there are many people who seek out tricks, which is the root cause of the endless disasters in our Han Dynasty. This kind of filthy place, it doesn't matter if you don't go. .”

He Yong laughed and said: "Come here, immediately pass Mr. Zijiang's comment on Hongdu Gate to Luoyang City, hurry, hurry, this is Mr. Zijiang's first comment when he came to Luoyang."

Kong Rong pushed Le Song lightly, and said with a smile: "The two masters of Jijiu can enter the palace to reply to His Majesty, and just say that the Hongdu Gate can be closed, haha..."

"Brother Zijiang, please, please..." Ma Rixun pulled Xu Shao with a smile and said, "Please get in the carriage."

Ma Rixun is in his 40s, tall, slightly obese, with a bushy beard, loyal and humble.When Xu Shao met him for the first time, he refused very politely after hearing the words: "I'm not used to riding in a carriage, I'd better go back with the disciples."

A group of people stepped into Kaiyang Gate and walked into Luoyang City. Tens of thousands of Taixue scholars and scholars from all over the world followed behind, cheering and shouting, and it was very lively.Although the scholars of Hongdumen were very depressed, they cheered excitedly when they saw Mr. Xu walking into Luoyang, and followed behind.If you are lucky enough to get a comment from Mr. Xu, you will be worth a hundred times as a fish jumping over the dragon's gate.

Le Song and Jia Hu looked at each other speechlessly, with low self-esteem and helplessness on their faces.Jia Hu smiled bitterly and said, "How to explain to His Majesty?"

Le Song sighed and said: "Let's go, go to the palace and ask the emperor for your sins. Since the establishment of our Hongdu Gate, when have people looked at it? It doesn't matter if we lose face and be scolded, but what is your majesty's face? ?”

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Taixue is the central official school in ancient China and the highest institution in the ancient Chinese education system.

Taixue was first established by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. There were five doctors in "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn", and 50 doctoral disciples.By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there were 1 disciples imitating Confucius, and the Taixue also had [-] employees.By the time of Wang Mang, the number of Tai students had increased to more than [-].

In October of the fifth year of Jianwu (AD 29), Emperor Guangwu built Taixue outside Luoyang Nankai Yangmen, and the school reopened.Beginning with Emperor Guangwu, the monarchs of all dynasties have attached great importance to the education of Taixue, and the reputation of Taixue has become higher and higher, and the Xiongnu also sent people to Luoyang to study.After Emperor Shun succeeded to the throne, he repaired Taixue, opened up houses, constructed 240 rooms, and 850 3 rooms.The lecture hall of Taixue is ten feet long and three feet wide, which is very grand.By the time of Emperor Xiaohuan, there were [-] Tai students.

Taixue is under the jurisdiction of Taichang.The teacher of Taixue is called a doctor, and the doctor must be selected and used after an examination, which emphasizes the teacher's demeanor.A total of 15 people including doctors and doctors offered sacrifices in Taixue.The famous Confucian masters in this dynasty often served as doctors of Taixue among them.Most of the Taixue students were from officials and eunuchs, and some were from poor families.Due to the different origins of the students, the treatment is also different.Some children of officials and eunuchs can enjoy state salaries, while children of poor families not only take care of their own clothing and food, but also have to provide for their own lighting candles.

The prosperity of Taixue in the Han Dynasty was closely related to the talent selection system at that time.It was the dream of students in the Han Dynasty to enter the imperial school, pass the examination, and become an official.All the students of Taixue can directly become officials after passing the exam, and those who fail can also make up the exam.Tai students still have the opportunity to serve as officials in the central government after returning to the local area.At that time, the local government had an opportunity to recommend talents to the central government once a year, and most of the selected candidates came from Taixue.There are many students in Taixue, but only a few can become officials in the end.Some people go to school at a young age, and when they are gray-haired, they still haven't obtained an official position, and their lives are poor.For this reason, the imperial court conferred official positions on several occasions to all the Tai students over the age of [-], which can be regarded as the great grace of the emperor.

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Hongdu School, located outside Taixue and under Hongdu Gate, was founded in the first year of Guanghe (AD 178). It was the first academy of literature and art in ancient China.

Cifu is a unique literary genre of the Han Empire. The words and sentences of Cifu are beautifully arranged, and they are catchy and cadenced, making people mesmerized and soul-stirring.Nowadays, today's people especially like to do Fu.

The emperor's teacher, Yilang Cai Yong, told the emperor that Ci Fu is a small skill, and morality is the foundation;Cai Yong's preaching disgusted the emperor, and he couldn't even understand it.The emperor admired his talent very much, but his teachers Yang Ci and Cai Yong didn't think so. The emperor thought he was underestimated. In fact, all of them are hideous, and they are all bullshit and incomprehensible people.So, a whimsical idea popped up in the emperor's mind.He wants to start a school and start a new stove to fight against Confucianism.

The emperor immediately called for his servants, Le Song and Jia Hu, and asked them to gather people from all over the world who were good at writing poems and Fu, as well as those who could write strange characters, Miao Shu, bird, fish and insect calligraphy, etc., to build a Hongdu under the sect of Hongdu. door science.Different from Taixue, this new school specializes in Fu and calligraphy, becoming the first academy of literature and art in Chinese history, and today is the dean of this academy.The emperor also specially ordered the scholars of Hongdumen to paint the portraits of Confucius and 72 disciples and hang them above the hall, indicating that this school also learned Confucianism.

The emperor devoted himself to thinking, forgetting to eat and sleep, and personally wrote a [-]-chapter long Fu "Xihuang Pian" on the theme of the above ancient history. He ordered Hongdu Academy to use "Xihuang Pian" as a textbook for the college.Now, the Son of Heaven has really set a precedent for the academics of the Han Kingdom, and the Confucian classics and academic circles of the Han Kingdom were in an uproar, and the criticism once reached its peak.The emperor saw that the entire dynasty was caught in academic debate, and his mouth was crooked.Who says I'm not a genius?

Jijiu Lesong and Jia Hu of Hongdu School were literary courtiers, and they came from common people. With their fame, they would never be able to recruit celebrities.At the beginning, Hongdumen had only 50 people, and it was very depressed. But with the joining of Zhang Zhi and other celebrities, Hongdumen suddenly developed unprecedentedly. Fu, calligraphy and painting, and music all represent the highest level of Han Kingdom. level, the number of bachelors who came here soon exceeded 1, and there was a vague tendency to compete with Taixue.

Academic and value debates inevitably began.

Speaking of this, we have to talk about Zhang Zhi and cursive script in the Han Dynasty.In the Western Han Dynasty, cursive script was mainly produced by the guards and apprentices. It was a typical folk calligraphy style. It developed in the Western Han Dynasty when Du Cao and Eastern Han Dynasty Cui Yuan. By the time of Zhao Yi's "Fei Cursive Script" in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the cursive script of the Han Dynasty had already become popular in the world.With the emergence of the ideological trend of calligraphy innovation, cursive script rose rapidly, forming a fanatical and persistent cursive script craze in the entire scholar class.The cursive script writers represented by Hongnong's Zhang Zhi and his younger brother Zhang Chang even gave up their official careers and devoted themselves to the art of cursive script.This choice of life value also greatly affected the students of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They abandoned their official careers and devoted themselves to cursive script, which led to fierce attacks from Confucian scholars.

Zhao Yi said in "Fei Cao Script" that calligraphy is a tool for expressing Taoism through art and art, and is the foundation of kingship, while cursive script "goodness does not lead to government, and clumsiness does not damage governance", so it is not the vocation of a saint.The purpose of Zhao Yi's writing "Non-Cursive Script" was to reaffirm the dignity of Confucianism, calm down the enthusiasm for cursive script that permeated the scholar class in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and make them re-establish their belief in Confucianism.Zhao Yi's Confucian orthodox position made it impossible for him to recognize and understand cursive script from the perspective of calligraphy aesthetics.Zhao Yi's conservative concept did not hinder the in-depth development of cursive script, which reflected the aesthetic trend of the times, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The cursive script fever among the scholars not only did not cool down, but intensified. , reached its zenith.

The acceptance and opposition of cursive script by scholars in this dynasty divided the scholar class into two camps with clear positions.This is no longer a purely artistic standpoint, but two different life value choices, two different cultural and artistic concepts, and two diametrically opposed political standpoints among scholars in this dynasty.

The academic debate had just begun, and the emperor immediately brought this struggle to politics.

The emperor found his own value and realized his ideal in Hongdumen Academy, which was beyond the expectation of Confucian students.The emperor has lived in the deep palace for a long time, and the success of establishing Hongdu School made him feel fresh and satisfied.Therefore, he rewarded those who helped him heavily and gave them a high status.

In the second year, the emperor was more obsessed with running his college. He issued an imperial edict to recruit students from all over the country, and ordered the central and local bureaucrats to recommend them. Inspectors and eunuchs, if they enter, they will be ministers, servants, and even be granted titles as marquises.The emperor also asked people to praise the portraits of 32 doctors in Hongdu, including Le Song, Jiang Lan, and Zhang Zhi, and exhorted students all over the world to follow them as examples.

This move of the emperor seriously damaged the talent selection system of the Han Dynasty. The ministers wrote letters to dissuade him, admonishing the emperor to put the country as the most important thing, and the study of ether as the most important thing.But the emperor would not listen to all the books to advise and advise, and he was stubborn.The result is clear and obvious. The traitors could not reach out to Taixue, but they easily controlled Hongdumenxue. Countless ignorant, corrupt and perverted people rely on a plagiarized Fu, a painting and calligraphy Stepping into the hall and entering the room, he suddenly became a bureaucrat of the Han Dynasty.Hongdumen suddenly became a cornucopia for treacherous eunuchs, a filthy place where filth was hidden.

But interests drove countless people to pursue it, and Hongdumen became more and more prosperous.

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Xu Shao's comment made the emperor furious. He spent countless efforts in Hongdumen. He very much hoped to be affirmed by Mr. Xu Shao, the "No. Even without entering the gate, he commented that Hongdu Gate is a place of filth and the root cause of the great Han Dynasty's chaos. up the bubbles.

From today onwards, the former glory of Hongdumen will be in the past, and Hongdumen will also become the laughing stock of the world.

"No. [-] Review in the World", no one can shake its influence.

If the emperor is very angry, he will often go to Yongle Palace to vent his emotions to his mother.Today, he was so angry that he hurried to Yongle Palace, yelled a lot in front of his mother, and almost sent people to Taixue to arrest Xu Shao.

The empress dowager listened patiently to his scolding, and then asked, "Mr. Xu is the number one judge in the world?"

The emperor nodded and scolded bitterly: "This Xu Xiang, isn't his son getting married? Why did he invite Xu Shao to Luoyang?"

The Empress Dowager laughed, and she said slowly: "Your Majesty, Mr. Xu invited him here just to put money on his own face. I think it's fine if this Mr. Xu Shaoxu is here, what kind of Hongdu family are you?" , It’s gone if it’s gone. It’s not a big deal. It’s just a hole for spending money. It’s better if it’s gone. In the past, I remember someone scolded Hongdumen as a pheasant school, and Mr. Xu said it was a filthy place. It’s very polite to be merciful.”

The emperor sneered disdainfully.

"I heard that Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang persuaded you to transfer part of the Northern Army and bring Xiao Shihou to Jizhou to worship the ancestors, right?" the Queen Mother asked unhurriedly.

"I'm thinking about it."

"What are these mid-level officials thinking? The emperor is gone, the eldest prince is gone, and the northern and southern armies have followed us to Jizhou. Isn't this Luoyang an empty city? Since it is an empty city, the middle-level officials ask Your Majesty Why did you transfer Dong Zhuo's troops to Hedong County? Did they have some kind of conspiracy?"

The emperor looked at the queen mother strangely, and asked, "Is this what Tiao Hou Dong Zhong said to the queen mother?"

"Yes." The queen mother said, "Although the general has ulterior motives, the middle officials have always covered the sky with one hand, and the emperor must guard against it."

The emperor was silent.

"Tiaohou is the nephew of my natal family. Although he hates the middle officials for killing his father and always wants to take revenge, there is no doubt that he is loyal to His Majesty and Xiao Donghou. He pretends to be crazy outside, and the big People in the General’s Mansion mingled all day long and got a lot of news. The emperor should reward him heavily. If my family doesn’t use it, how can we let Xiao Donghou inherit the imperial line in the future?”

"What does queen mother mean?" the emperor asked.

"He can be the Hussar General. The Hussar General will set up the mansion, and Tiaohou can take the opportunity to accumulate strength and prepare for the future Xiao Donghou to inherit the imperial line."

"This matter can't be rushed, we need to find the right time, lest Tiaohou become the enemy of public criticism." The emperor said, "Has the queen mother forgotten the death of uncle?"

Empress Dowager Xiaoren's expression darkened and she did not speak.

"The queen mother doesn't want to take Xiao Shihou with her?"

"The eldest prince wants to stay in Luoyang." The queen mother said slowly, "I don't trust the middle officials, especially Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang. They must have another purpose in persuading the emperor to do this."

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The emperor summoned Zongzheng Liu Yu.

"Has Ai Qing heard Mr. Xu Shao's comment?"

Liu Yu glanced at the Son of Heaven carefully, and said cautiously: "The news has spread throughout Luoyang City."

"Look, this is a memorial sent by more than a dozen doctors from Hongdumen, and they are leaving." The emperor pointed to a pile of letters on the case table and said, "What I have said for several years is not as good as what Xu said." A word from Mr...." He shook his head again and again, with a look of helplessness on his face.

"Is what he said really so effective?"

Liu Yu thought for a while and said, "Mr. Xu is just telling the truth."

The emperor glanced at him, and walked back and forth in the study twice with his hands behind his back, his face was cloudy and hesitant.

"Aiqing, tell me, if I invite him into the palace and ask him to comment on my two princes, will he agree?"

"Absolutely not." Liu Yu blurted out in shock.

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(End of this chapter)