Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 433 Tradition
During the Zhou Dynasty, when the academic atmosphere was relatively open, Jia Lian's so-called Jia's practical learning started from the capital, spread to the surrounding areas, and gradually became known.

Compared with the turmoil caused by Jia's practical learning, which focuses on discovering truth through practice, it is far less than an explosive academic news.

The thing is, scholars like big news, especially big academic news.

Neo-Confucianism and Mind-learning are two branches of Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism was the official school of thought and had the upper hand in the government, while Mind-learning flourished in the south, in economically developed regions such as Liangjiang, Huguang, and Zhejiang.

In terms of academia, the Great Zhou Dynasty continued the situation of multiple factions and different opinions in the late Ming Dynasty. Although Taizu of this dynasty corrected it and still regarded Neo-Confucianism as the official school of thought, many scholars in the folk did not buy it.

Then came the quarrels, of course, all disputes between scholars. After the emergence of newspapers, the pattern of writing articles to argue with each other began.

Seeing that the situation was undecided, someone suddenly wrote an article in the newspaper, questioning whether the Book of Documents was a forgery by later generations.

This has a huge impact. The key is that this anonymous person also listed four major doubts and a lot of evidence, both ancient and modern texts, are all fake.

That's right. The Book of Documents records the events of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and its source is Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. You can search for the events in the Book of Documents on your own; I won't elaborate here to avoid making false accusations.

After this article questioning the Book of Documents appeared, every scholar in the entire Zhou Dynasty had problems in their spiritual world.

The Book of Documents is a Confucian classic, but it was actually forged by later generations. How can this be tolerated?
The article spread so quickly that in just one month, it quickly spread from the capital to the south and then to the Central Plains. In short, it was extremely shocking.

The scholars of the Zhou Dynasty searched all over the world for the so-called author Huanzhu Louzhu.

This happened so quickly that the newspaper "Shilinfeng", which first published the article, became the target of public criticism.

The students of the Imperial College rioted again. They all went out to block the door and demanded that the author be reported to the newspaper. The students wanted to debate with this damn guy.

The newspaper repeatedly explained that the article was submitted anonymously and the author did not even leave an address, so the newspaper could not hand over the person.

How dare you publish this kind of article when you can't hand over the people?

The students in charge became even more angry and the violence escalated from verbal to physical violence.

How can I explain this? After reading Confucian classics for a lifetime, someone suddenly tells you that the Book of Documents is fake. What about the others? Were the Analects, Spring and Autumn Annals, and other classics written by predecessors under someone else's name? The Confucian classics that scholars regard as the golden rule are actually fake. Isn't this just reading in vain?
The spiritual world collapsed!

What is Jia Lian doing? He is hiding in the Wucheng Bingmasi, a safe place.

When Jia Lian learned that the student had blocked "Shilin Feng", he was very fortunate. Fortunately, he was anonymous, did not leave an address, and did not ask for any royalties.

Speaking of which, this newspaper is really stubborn. It dares to publish such an article.

You know what, this issue of the newspaper, Shilinfeng, sold out. We printed 10,000 copies and it was barely enough to sell.

As for academic issues, they should be solved in an academic way, but the Imperial College is a place with many troublemakers who like to resort to violence.

Just as Jia Lian was about to have lunch, someone outside reported: "The students of the Imperial College smashed the office of the Shilinfeng newspaper."

MD. They can't even eat in peace, these students deserve to die, they have the energy to smash newspapers, why can't they read "Jia's Practical Learning" carefully.

Well, the textbook used in Jia Lian’s technical school now is “Jia’s Practical Learning”.

There were many complaints in the academic community that such a good top scholar in Confucianism had gone against the orthodoxy and committed a heinous crime.

In other words, there is no way to deal with Jia Lian. The government does not care. The people in the private sector who want to intervene are far less violent than the power Jia Lian controls, so they can only watch with their noses pinched.

Jia Lian was very angry after putting down his chopsticks. How could he affect Jia's meal?

"Let's go, take the troops and go check the situation." Jia Lian gave an order, and Jian Renda immediately assembled the team. As the foreman censor, he was promoted by Jia Lian, so he had to keep an eye on the territory for the adults.

At Jian Renda's age, he still has the opportunity to make further progress, so he works very hard and strives to be promoted to the next level in three years.

From being the Xicheng Censor who was often bullied by the second generation of nobles to being able to call anyone he dislikes on the street to question him today, who should he thank for this earth-shaking change?
Jia Lian has been feeling insecure lately, so he always brings enough people with him whenever he goes out. Today, he brought ten family guards and a team of soldiers. There were also more team officers leading their teams along the way.

It's not that these team officers are proactive, but they come on missions with Lord Jia and get a lot of lucrative benefits.

In less than half an hour, Jia Lian appeared near the scene. Hundreds of people could be seen gathered at a distance of dozens of meters. They kept going in and out, moving out a bunch of things and setting them on fire in the street. Jia Lian saw clearly that there were all kinds of old newspapers, tables, chairs, benches, calligraphy and paintings. In short, after the group rushed in, they beat the people from the newspaper office away, moved out all the furniture, and wanted to burn it to vent their anger.

The officer who had been watching the play nearby came over and saluted Jia Lian: "Sir, how did I disturb you?"

Jia Lian looked from a distance and saw the flames rising and the fire was burning. He said calmly, "The fire has reached its peak. Go up and capture the people. Don't let anyone go."

The soldiers of the Wucheng Bingmasi screamed with excitement and surrounded the man from all directions to capture him.

Jian Renda praised him from the side: "Your Excellency is in control of the situation. The thieves can't escape even if they have wings."

"It's over, it's over. They are a bunch of lazy scholars who don't know the difference between grains. If it weren't for the money... they make too much trouble, I wouldn't bother to care about them."

He almost told the truth, but Jia Lian corrected himself in time. Jian Renda immediately said, "Your Excellency has always been magnanimous and generous. If they hadn't gone too far, you would naturally not have bothered with them."

When they saw the people from the Five Cities Army and Horses Division coming, the students did not run away. Instead, they all stood quietly, waiting to be captured.

I really didn't dare to resist. There were cases of ribs being broken in the past. It was so painful that no one wanted to try it. Some rich people even shouted: "Just catch them, don't pull them, it's just five taels of silver per person, isn't it?"

After hearing this, Jia Lian turned around and asked Jian Renda: "Am I too soft-hearted?"

Jian Renda really couldn't speak against his conscience this time. The monthly living expenses for a well-off family of five in the capital was only two taels of silver, and the students only had to go through the motions to get five taels of silver. He couldn't be too evil.

Seeing Jian Renda lower his head and remain silent, Jia Lian touched his chin and said, "I still have to be ruthless. Let me explain. The Imperial College is for habitual offenders. Everyone's fine will be doubled. Those who clamored not to care are the first offenders. Each person will be fined fifty taels and imprisoned for half a month. As for food and lodging expenses, each person will be fined five taels of silver per day. If one is less than one tael, they will not be released. No one can say anything about it."

Jian Renda naturally obeyed the order. This was to generate income for the government office, that is, for Lord Jia. Who would dare to do this in other government offices? Do you still want to keep your reputation? Lord Jia doesn't care about his reputation? Not really, he just doesn't care about his reputation among scholars. Speaking of Lord Jia's reputation among scholars, it is quite polarized. Those who like him think that Jia Lian is a moral role model, while those who don't like him want to bite him to death.

Jia Lian went back without showing up, and on the way he said to himself: "If I had known this would happen, I should have written it earlier. Let's make a fuss, the bigger the better."

The Wucheng Military Command arrested more than 300 students in one go. The Imperial College's chief priests and teachers were going crazy, and almost all of them were arrested. The newly appointed chief priest Wei Hu wanted to establish his image and thought it was an opportunity.

I hurried to find Jia Lian to plead for mercy, but I didn't see him. He hid. I didn't find Jian Renda, this shameless bastard, who kept asking for mercy from Lord Jia.

The gentlemen of the Imperial College both hated and envied Jian Renda. They hated him because he didn't give them face, and envied him because he had made a lot of money in the past two years. Damn, he even had enough money to buy a house.

There is no official who would not envy a boss who is willing to take the blame for his subordinates.

The gentlemen had no choice but to leave the Wucheng Bingmasi and think of finding someone to intercede for them. The first person they thought of was Zhang Tingen, Jia Lian's mentor, who was good at speaking.

So a group of people went to the cabinet, and Zhang Tingen met him. After learning their purpose, he refused very straightforwardly: "If I were you, I would not waste time looking for someone, but would quickly raise money to rescue him."

The newly appointed Jijiu Wei Hu pleaded, "Prime Minister Zhang, the students are also doing this for the good of the court."

Zhang Tingen sneered, "Under the banner of correcting academics, they smashed the newspaper office and set fire to it in broad daylight. Do you think this is good for the court? Jia Lian only fined him, which is already a generous move. Brother Wei, have you forgotten Ding Lian's previous experience? This is not the way to care for students. If the students publish articles in the newspaper to debate, will the Five Cities Military Department arrest people when they have nothing better to do?"

Having hit a snag, Wei Hu went to look for someone else. This time he went to Shuntian Prefecture and went directly to Li Yuan.

Li Yuan's situation in Shuntian Prefecture was rather delicate. Perhaps he had suffered losses in the past and had learned his lesson. Although he was in the position of supervisor, he only provided eyes and ears, but not a mouth.

What I do every day is to record and analyze what happened. After get off work, I go to the palace to see the emperor and report on my work.

This set is very smooth and you can tell at a glance that it was designed by an expert.

So, Wei Hu and a group of scholars blocked Li Yuan and made a request, asking Li Yuan to help him go to Wucheng Bingmasi to release the people.

After hearing the request from Wei Hu and others, Li Yuan almost had an inertial reaction for a moment, but fortunately he stopped the thought in time.

How should I put it? In the past, when Li Yuan was approached for such a matter, Li Yuan, who was known as the virtuous king, would naturally lend a hand. Recently, he has been receiving frequent instructions from Emperor Chenghui, and he has indeed matured a lot.

Li Yuan no longer cared about the title of virtuous king, which he had attached great importance to before. No matter how much these people flattered him, it was not as good as his father's approval.

"As a court official, Jia Lian is performing his duties. How can I interfere at will?" Li Yuan made an excuse.

Wei Hu was still unwilling to give in and said, "Your Highness, you can go and ask for the person in the name of Shuntian Prefecture. After all, the Wucheng Bingmasi has taken away all the power of Shuntian Prefecture."

This time, Li Yuan was not polite and directly refuted: "This is nonsense. The Wucheng Bingmasi did have overlapping functions with Shuntian Prefecture, but it never crossed the line to enforce the law. After Jia Lian took charge of the Wucheng Bingmasi, the public security environment in the capital improved greatly, and the people praised it. This is also the people's recognition of the court. Just because the students who violated the law and discipline were not exempted from punishment, it cannot be accused of usurping the power of the Wucheng Bingmasi."

After saying that, Li Yuan immediately turned around and left, leaving the group of gentlemen behind.

Li Heng, who had been secretly observing Li Yuan, was very disappointed after hearing the news: "Alas, the second brother didn't act impulsively, what a pity."

Wei Hu and others could only return disappointed. Feeling upset, they wrote furiously to impeach the Five Cities Army for being disrespectful to scholars and disrespectful to civility.

At the same time, he did not forget to write an article in the newspaper to curse Huanzhu Louzhu. How dare you question the Confucian classics, you you you...

There are more than 300 students, and this time the revenue generated for the Five Cities Army was only 7,000 taels. Jia Lian, whose vision has greatly improved, no longer cares about this small amount of money.

When I got the profit share, I wanted to withdraw it, but then I gave up. If I don't take it, the people below me can't take it. It's too inhumane to delay everyone's wealth.

After putting away the five hundred taels of silver, Jia Lian went home and gave it to Xiangling as pocket money.

The academic community continued to make a fuss, and Jia Lian no longer cared about the challenges in the newspapers. An article questioning the Book of Documents was successfully circulated and gradually fermented, and the purpose had been achieved.

It can only be said that this hype against Confucian classics has dealt a heavy blow to Confucianism. Although it cannot be said to have shaken it, will people still remain calm when looking at Confucian classics in the future?
Emperor Chenghui was alarmed by this matter. When Jia Lian went to report on his work, after listening to his report on sending military supplies to Wang Ziteng, Emperor Chenghui deliberately asked: "What do you think about the falsification of "The Book of Documents"? " This topic was not risky, and Jia Lian could give a more serious answer.

"I believe that practice is the only way to gain true knowledge. Confucianism has been the only dominant school for two thousand years, and it has never allowed or accepted dissenters. This is what I don't like. Neo-Confucianism is a prominent school of thought in this dynasty. I have found through my studies that many of its viewpoints have been integrated with Buddhist and Taoist concepts, eliminating the dross and retaining the essence. Therefore, learning should be inclusive and inclusive, discarding the old and embracing the new, so that learning can develop and progress, rather than sticking to fixed viewpoints. It should be noted that before Neo-Confucianism, there was Wang Anshi's new school, and before that, Confucianism was once suppressed by Buddhism. In the end, what they are fighting for is nothing more than the orthodoxy. Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, and it doesn't matter what the people below fight for. What matters is whether they are useful to the court. The useful ones will be kept, and the useless ones will be exiled. The right to define the truth is always in your hands, and no matter how much trouble they make, it will not cause any big waves."

Emperor Chenghui nodded repeatedly after hearing Jia Lian's words. What he meant by "rejecting all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" was just for the outside world. Using Confucianism to educate people is beneficial to the imperial power. If one day Confucianism is not beneficial to the imperial power, the imperial power will definitely not be lenient when it is time to abolish it.

"I am very pleased that you have such insights." Emperor Chenghui nodded with satisfaction. Jia Lian's practical learning was useful to the court, and it did not compete for the so-called orthodoxy.

After this incident, the situation that Jia Lian was happy to see emerged: the acceptance of Jia's practical learning in society was greatly improved. More and more scholars took the initiative to buy textbooks and study at home.

When Confucian classics are questioned and one's spiritual world is shaken, it is normal to look for other theories.

(End of this chapter)