My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 472: The Downfall of Mohism

After arriving at the outskirts of Luban Garden, Liu Rong did not rush to go deeper, but stopped and looked sideways around Luban Garden - 30% of Luban Garden was surrounded by a military camp that was impenetrable.

Five years ago, Liu Rong was named crown prince, and soon after he became regent.

At almost the same time, Bowang Garden was allocated to Liu Rong as his private garden.

Afterwards, according to custom, all the counties and kingdoms in the country brought out a group of "heroes of the world" - that is, outstanding representatives from all walks of life, to try to get along with Crown Prince Liu Rong.

This is also an initiative that is very characteristic of the Han Dynasty in the process of cultivating a crown prince since Emperor Taizong Xiaowen.

no way.

Before Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, the Han Dynasty did not have a mature, complete, and obviously effective model for training a crown prince.

Emperor Taizu Gao was a founding monarch who was born with knowledge. His growth experience is neither replicable nor of any reference value.

The subsequent Emperor Xiaohui, Liu Ying, could at most provide a highly representative negative example for the Han Dynasty.

The former Shao Emperor Liu Gong and the later Shao Emperor Liu Hong, who came after him, were not even qualified to be negative examples.

Then, there was Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, who was born with the knowledge of how to be an emperor.

When Emperor Taizong took the throne firmly and began to plan to train a crown prince, he found that past experience could hardly provide even one successful case that could be emulated or replicated.

The only negative case: Emperor Xiaohui Liu Ying, also only provided a wrong option of "don't keep him in captivity".

Therefore, Emperor Taizong could only grope his way forward and adopt a crown prince training plan that was completely opposite to that of Emperor Xiaohui.

——Emperor Xiaohui has developed lung fog due to being kept in captivity, so let him be released!
Then there was Crown Prince Liu Qi, who was fearless because he was free to do whatever he wanted, and he killed the Crown Prince of Wu with a chessboard.

Emperor Taizong was undoubtedly very troubled by Liu Qi, the crown prince.

He was so troubled that he even thought of changing the crown prince and establishing Prince of Liang Liu Yi as the heir.

But later, King Huai of Liang, Liu Yi, accidentally fell off his horse and died, and the great national figure Jia Yi also died of depression.

In desperation, Emperor Taizong had no choice but to go down one path - doing his best to train Crown Prince Liu Qi into a talented person.

Among them, the most crucial one is to let the prince come into contact with all kinds of people as much as possible.

In terms of academics, Confucianism, Legalism, Huangdi, Mohism, and Agriculture must all be present;

In terms of status, children of officials, descendants of royal families, and descendants of meritorious officials must also have it.

It was under this kind of cramming-style educational model that broadened one's horizons and expanded one's horizons that Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi was finally cultivated by Emperor Taizong.

Five years ago, Liu Rong was named Crown Prince.

With himself as a "positive case", Emperor Xiaojing's training plan for Liu Rong basically copied the entire model that Emperor Taizong had used to train himself.

The prince supervises the country?

Do it!
The prince’s private garden?

Give!
Of course, there is also the logical root of the Prince's Private Garden: to create opportunities for the Prince to meet heroes from all over the world and come into contact with people of all kinds from all walks of life.

It was during this process that Liu Rong, with a simple move of his finger, added several 'fallen Mohists' to the talent pool of his private garden for the crown prince: Bowang Garden.

The reason why they are called decadent Mohists is naturally because the Mohist group, as members of the Mohist School, have never been very bullying to the powerful.

——The butt determines the head.

The Mohist school of thought itself is based on the lowest, poorest common people as its foundation and base. The entire school's pursuit is to pursue a better future and tomorrow for these miserable people.

Naturally, the Mohist School would not be kind to Liu Rong, a "carnivore" who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

But fortunately, Mohism, like the fragmented Confucianism, is not internally monolithic.

Confucianism is divided into five major schools based on the six classics of Poetry, Book of History, Rites, Music, Yi Jing, and Spring and Autumn Annals, except for the lost "Book of Music".

And within these five major schools, each is divided into small academic branches.

For example, the Book of Songs is divided into regional branches such as Qi poetry and Chu poetry, and even individual branches such as Yuan Wang poetry;
Because of the difficulty in passing down the "Book of Changes", it was directly divided into Tian's Yi, Zhou's Yi, etc. according to the individual scholars.

There is no need to elaborate on the "Spring and Autumn Annals": there are three major representative schools, namely Guliang, Gongyang and Zuozhuan, as well as many less well-known small branches.

Even the Gongyang School, a small branch of the Spring and Autumn Annals, was further divided into two factions, namely "My Annotations to the Spring and Autumn Annals" and "My Annotations to the Spring and Autumn Annals", because of the different philosophies between the two teachers, Hu Wusheng and Dong Zhongshu.

In this way, Confucianism, which originally belonged to the same school, was divided into five major branches: The Book of Songs, The Book of History, The Book of Changes, The Book of Rites, and The Spring and Autumn Annals, and even dozens of more detailed small schools.

As mortal enemies for thousands of years, the division within Mohism was no better than that within Confucianism.

——Initially, in the early Warring States Period, the Mohist school was divided into three factions, namely: Xiangfu clan, Xiangli clan, and Dengling clan.

To put it bluntly, there were three such people who each took away a part of the backbone members and went to different places to spread out, resulting in the Mohist school splitting into three parts.

Among them, Deng Ling entered Chu and gradually developed in the direction of knight-errant.

When Xiangfu entered Qi, he focused on the Mohist characteristic of being "good at debate" and headed straight towards becoming a debater.

Only one pragmatist remained: Xiangli, who entered Qin after Shang Yang's reforms and, relying on the Mohist school's rigorous scientific attitude, devoted himself to equipment manufacturing and scientific research.

Did these three schools go their separate ways and become three different schools?

Not really.

In fact, the academic philosophy and ultimate goal of these three schools are still the original Mohist ones: universal love and non-aggression.

It’s just that in terms of how to achieve the goal, the three parties adopted the method they thought was most effective.

——Deng Ling entered Chu and believed that peace should be achieved through chivalry and justice. As long as the Mohists fully played the role of knights, they could infect people all over the world with their fame and influence, thus preventing the occurrence of war.

When Xiangfu entered Qi, he firmly believed that the truths of the world were all discovered through debates. As long as one had superb debating skills, he could use his eloquence to persuade the princes and nobles who intended to start a war to return to the right path.

Only after Xiangli entered Qin did he make an extremely accurate judgment: the only way to end the war was to achieve universal peace.

Only when the world is unified and there is no second country under the heaven, will the war end and people of the world can achieve lasting peace.

Therefore, the Mohists, who clearly advocated "universal love and non-aggression", began to help the Qin Dynasty, which had just reformed and strengthened itself, to produce advanced weapons and military equipment, as well as various civilian equipment. In this process, the Mohists of Xiangli who entered the Qin Dynasty gradually merged into the Qin Shaofu and became the main component of the term "Qin craftsman".

And in today's Han Dynasty, as everyone knows, the Mohist doctrine is almost extinct.

The reason for this is, of course, that during the decade between the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Mohist school, which had split into three parts, was almost without exception destroyed by the war.

——Deng Lingshi, the "chivalrous Mo" of Chu, had long since become a complete idler and a source of social instability. He was eliminated as early as after Qin unified the country.

Even if there are some fish that slip through the net, few of them still remember that they are "Ink of Deng Ling", and they only regard themselves as heroes.

Its behavior and advocacy are limited to superficial chivalry, robbing the rich to help the poor, etc., and have long been disconnected from the profound and rich ideological philosophy of Mohism.

You can say that there are hundreds of thousands of "Deng Ling's Mo" in the Han Dynasty today - wanderers can be found everywhere in the world.

But if you are serious about it, in today's world, the Deng Ling clan's Mo who really want to save the people of the world with the way of chivalry - even if they are not extinct, there are definitely less than ten of them.

Considering the current population base of the Han Dynasty and the vast territory of China, Deng Ling's ink can be considered to be completely lost.

Not only are the people dead, but even their doctrines and ideas will never reappear under the rule of the Han Dynasty.

After all, something like the Brown Society would naturally not be favored by the ruling class.

Whether in the past or now, this is the most hopeless profession.

The 'Xia Mo' in Chu was extinct, but what about the 'Bian Mo' in Qi?
Worse.

The disciples of Dengling clan, who lived in Chu, could only be said to have gone astray and abandoned the teachings of their school, but at least they still had numbers.

Even if all the wanderers in the world today are excluded, there may still be a few heroes of the Deng Ling family hiding in the corners of some deep mountains and old forests.

However, the Xiangfu clan debate on Mo in Qi was officially certified as 100% extinct.

——During the Chu-Han contention period, Tian Heng, the restored King of Qi, first accepted the surrender of Li Shiqi, a Han lobbyist, but then became furious at the sneak attack by Han general Han Xin and brutally cooked Li Shiqi to death!

Later, Qi was conquered by Han Xin, and King Tian Heng of Qi fled to an island east of Qi with his followers and relatives.

A few years later, Overlord committed suicide at Wujiang River, and Liu Han unified the world.

As luck would have it, the news of King Tian Heng of Qi's escape to an island reached the ears of the newly-elected Emperor of Han: Liu Bang.

Naturally, Liu Bang was furious when Tian Heng cooked and killed Li Shiqi.

However, he did not hate Tian Heng, but hated the military genius Han Xin who attacked Qi State for his own selfish interests and led to the death of Li Shiqi.

——Tian Heng has already agreed to surrender, and the Han family has obtained the State of Qi without losing a single soldier!

But Han Xin went back on his word and took advantage of Qi's lifting of its war preparedness to launch a surprise attack. He also immediately submitted a memorial to Liu Bang after conquering Qi, requesting that Liu Bang make him the King of Qi!
Liu Bang blamed Han Xin for Li Shiqi's tragic death, but he was more afraid of Tian Heng.

What are you afraid of?

They were wary of the former King of Qi, who had not contributed to the destruction of Qin and had not been granted a fief by Xiang Yu, but was still able to restore Tian Qi and gain unanimous support in Qi. If he stayed on the uncontrolled island for a long time, it might very likely cause unrest in Qi.

So, Liu Bang sent envoys to the island where Tian Heng was hiding - which was later known as Tianheng Island in Jimo, Shandong.

The envoy told Tian Heng: The King of Han has already ascended the throne, and he knows that the incident that year was not the King of Qi's fault.
Now I pardon the crime of the King of Qi and summon him to the court to pledge his loyalty, so as to rectify the relationship between the ruler and his subjects and let the whole world listen.

Unexpectedly, Tian Heng refused in panic and said: I cooked and killed Li Shiqi in a rage, but now I heard that Li Shiqi's younger brother Li Shang is one of the most meritorious generals under the emperor.

If I respond to the summons like this, I'm afraid Li Shang will not let me go, so I request the Emperor to allow a stray dog ​​like me to stay on this island as an ordinary citizen.

Tian Heng's request was reasonable and well-founded, but Liu Bang obviously would not agree to it.

——Being able to restore the throne in Qi, Tian Heng’s prestige in Qi was so high that Emperor Liu Bang was willing to appoint his eldest son as the king of Qi!

Therefore, in order to reassure Tian Heng, Liu Bang specifically ordered Li Shang: after Tian Heng arrives, if anyone dares to touch his entourage, the entire family will be executed immediately!

Then he sent another envoy to summon Tian Heng to the court to meet the emperor.

This time, the envoy was no longer gentle, but first told Tian Heng Liu Bang's "warning" to Li Shang verbatim, and then reminded Tian Heng: If you go to see His Majesty obediently, you may be granted the title of king, or at least a title of marquis.

But if you still refuse to come to see the emperor, then the next time you come to invite me, it will no longer be an envoy like me, but a general like Han Xin who leads troops...

Things had come to this point, and Tian Heng knew that he could not escape, so he could only return to the mainland from the island and head towards the capital of the Han Dynasty at that time: Luoyang.

Just as he was about to arrive in Luoyang, Tian Heng did something that shocked everyone in the world.

——Tian Heng told his followers: The King of Han and I are both kings who sit facing south. Now you want me to meet him in a servile manner. Isn’t this an insult to me?

The King of Han called me here just to see what I look like. If you cut off my head and send it to the King of Han, he will still be able to see my appearance.

Then, Tian Heng drew his sword and committed suicide!
His followers followed Tian Heng's will, cut off Tian Heng's head, and sent it to Liu Bang in Luoyang to see.

Liu Bang was deeply moved and admired Tian Heng's integrity, so he ordered Tian Heng to be buried with the rites of a prince.

Things should have ended here.

But what really shocked the world was just beginning.

——After collecting Tian Heng’s body and burying it properly, the two accompanying retainers committed suicide in front of Tian Heng’s tomb!

When the news reached the island where Tian Heng was hiding, all of Tian Heng's followers on the entire island committed suicide without exception!
When the news came out, the world was shocked!
Countless people were shocked by the integrity of these thousands of disciples!
However, few people know that the thousands of followers who followed Tian Heng were the only surviving spark of the Mohist debate of Xiangfu clan in Qi after the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty.

All the surviving members of the Xiangfu clan, including the contemporary Qi Mo master, were among the followers who died for Tian Heng!
Just like this, the Qi-Mo school, or rather the Xiangfu-Mo school, which had been able to preserve its traditions due to Tian Heng's protection, was "annihilated" and no one survived.

Not only did the people die, but even the theory disappeared on that unknown island.

There was no Chu ink or Qi ink left, and the only remaining Qin ink - that is, the pragmatic Xiangli family's ink, was not much better either.

Qin was destroyed after all.

Qin Shaofu was eventually swept into the dust of history with the demise of Qin.

As for the Qin Mo lineage that merged into Qin Shaofu, only some of its backbone members left and became the 'old Qin craftsmen' of Han Shaofu.

But no one is willing to admit that he is a "Mohist" anymore.

(End of this chapter)