My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 575 There's Still Time
Liu Rong naturally disliked Confucianism from a personal perspective.

According to Liu Rong, the vast majority of the suffering in ancient China stemmed from Confucianism, which went further and further astray later on.

In his previous life, Liu Rong had heard people say that the spirit of the Qin and Han dynasties had been completely stripped away by Confucianism, which was full of talk about "benevolence, righteousness, and morality."

Liu Rong neither agreed nor disagreed with this statement; he didn't think it was entirely wrong, but rather that it was open to discussion.

However, the fact that the Yansheng Duke family had hereditary acts of submitting to the emperor has undoubtedly earned them the scorn of countless Chinese people throughout history, leaving them with a lasting infamy.

Liu Rong certainly understood that the mistakes of ancestors should not be borne by descendants, nor should the mistakes of descendants be the responsibility of ancestors.

Just as the Duke Yansheng's family had hereditary tradition of submitting to the emperor, no matter how unreasonable Liu Rong was, he wouldn't blame Confucius for it.

However, Liu Rong also believes that the hereditary practice of submitting to the Duke of Yansheng and the fact that later Confucian scholars were lazy and ignorant of farming, leading to jokes like "too itchy scalp" and "too cold water," are also related to the characteristics of Confucianism itself.

Confucianism, by its very nature, is a political doctrine that speaks for landlords and gentry, or rather, for local powerful families.

The influence of gentry and landlords can be seen everywhere in Confucianism's governing philosophy and administration.

In the Confucian view, the ideal state of a country is one in which local gentry and landlords serve as role models in spirit, as well as actual representatives and controllers, leading the people at the bottom of society to support local stability and operation.

But history has taught Liu Rong that the Confucian ideal of the 'gentry' probably only exists in the realm of ideals.

Throughout history, Liu Rong saw no so-called "good gentry" or any landlords or powerful figures who could serve as role models.

What Liu Rong saw was only the wicked landlords who ruthlessly oppressed and exploited the people at the bottom of society.

Such people exist throughout history and across the world.

The existence of Confucianism, however, provided these despicable people with the most solid legal foundation in ancient China.

—The oppression of the people by landlords and powerful families was an obvious mistake;

However, the existence of Confucianism allowed this vile group, whose very being was steeped in the blood of the poor, to be cloaked in the skin of 'good gentry'.

Based on this alone, Liu Rong could say: For the Chinese people, Confucianism is a sinner for all time!
The existence of Confucianism provided the landlords and powerful families of ancient China with a theoretical basis for exploiting the lower classes in a reasonable, legal, and even justifiable way.

It was precisely for this reason that Liu Rong's personal aversion to Confucianism reached its extreme, to the point that he "wished he could get rid of it as soon as possible."

However, as a qualified politician—a young emperor who could barely be considered qualified—Liu Rong also understood that: often, a politician's words and actions should not depend on personal preferences, but should be based on objective reality and the overall situation.

The most valuable lesson Liu Rong learned from the late emperor during the three years following his death, when he was Crown Prince and regent, was also this point.

The late emperor once told Liu Rong: If you decide on important national affairs based solely on personal preferences, it will inevitably lead to disaster.

Because the emperor himself represented the ancestral temple and the state.

According to the logic of equal rights and responsibilities, the emperor, who possesses the wealth of the world, must also be responsible for the world.

While the emperor can certainly make decisions that affect the entire country based on his personal preferences;

However, the emperor's decisions will not ultimately have consequences that only affect the emperor personally, but will affect the entire world.

—When the emperor makes the right decisions, it will not only benefit the emperor himself, but also benefit the whole country.
Similarly, when the emperor makes a wrong decision, it will not only be the emperor himself who suffers, but the entire world.

Therefore, whenever making a major decision, Liu Rong would repeatedly remind himself: it concerns the safety of the world, and regardless of the advantages or disadvantages, the impact will be felt throughout the world. He must never make decisions based on personal preferences, and should even try to avoid personal emotional factors, but should proceed from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages for the world.

The principle is similar to that a ruler should not wage war out of anger, nor should a general wage war out of resentment.

This is why Liu Rong was so tolerant of Confucianism, which he loathed and even hated in terms of personal feelings.

That's right.

In Liu Rong's view, the so-called "unfair" treatment that Confucianism has suffered in recent years can not be considered unfair at all; on the contrary, it has been too lenient.

After all, given Liu Rong's personal feelings and the extent of his aversion to Confucianism, even if Confucianism were completely lost, it would not be enough to atone for the sins of the Duke Yansheng's family, who had been practicing the surrender of the government for generations.

Since he clearly understands that he cannot be influenced by personal feelings or likes and dislikes and thus make incorrect judgments about Confucianism, Liu Rong naturally needs to look at the status of Confucianism in Chinese academic and intellectual circles, and even in the history of academic and intellectual thought, from the perspective of objective reality.

Leaving aside distant examples, let's take the Han Dynasty as an example.

After the late Qin and early Han dynasties, a period of great devastation and reconstruction—a time when the country was not only impoverished but also unable to recover in the short term—Huang-Lao thought had already completed its historical mission.

Especially after most of the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, the strengths of Huang-Lao thought were fully revealed, and the Han dynasty successfully entered a new era.

—From the previous stage of merely developing and compromising in everything, seeking only development and recovery in all aspects, to the stage of exerting great effort under Liu Rong's reign.

During the developmental stage, the superiority of Huang-Lao philosophy is beyond doubt;
However, the stage of exerting force is not within the scope of Huang-Lao philosophy.

Or it should be said that the Huang-Lao school's "wuwei" (non-action) philosophy is suitable for feudal regimes in their development stage, while in the development stage, the Huang-Lao school needs to emphasize "doing everything".

Unfortunately, after decades of peace and prosperity, Huang-Lao philosophy has almost abandoned, or rather forgotten, its other characteristics. In politics, it has almost only the four words "Huang-Lao inaction" that are almost instinctive.

As for the concept of "non-action" yet "doing everything," it has become an empty phrase that Huang-Lao scholars keep on their lips and in their hearts, but would never put into practice.

This also made the withdrawal of Huang-Lao philosophy from the historical stage a natural and inevitable outcome.

At the juncture when Huang-Lao philosophy had completed its historical mission and was about to exit the historical stage, the Han dynasty, or rather, Chinese civilization, had actually come to a crossroads.

There was not just one road ahead, but several roads for the Han people, or rather, for Chinese civilization to choose from.

For example, during the reign of the late emperor, the Han dynasty took a few tentative steps toward the Legalist path of "reform and strengthening" under the late emperor's extremely calm attempts.

The results are obvious.

—When necessary, Legalist reforms could indeed revive a failing dynasty;
However, when Legalists forcibly implement reforms without regard to necessity, they may disrupt the inherent harmony and stability of the dynasty.

To paraphrase a widely circulated saying from later generations, the Legalist path has always been able to turn the tide and save a collapsing edifice. As for why the tide "is about to collapse" or the edifice "is about to crumble," don't ask.

Just like during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Qin state, which was originally poor and backward, rapidly grew stronger after Shang Yang's reforms. It had already become the most recognized strongest state in the world decades before the First Emperor unified the country.

After decades of accumulation, this once strongest nation eventually became so powerful that it could single-handedly conquer the entire world!

Although this involved planning in various aspects such as diplomacy, military affairs, culture, and commerce, the Qin state's own formidable strength was also an indispensable factor.

But as the saying goes, what brings success can also bring failure.

The Qin state, which was originally impoverished and weak, was able to become strong because of Shang Yang's reforms;
The Qin Dynasty, which unified the country and dominated the world, also perished within a few decades under the almost fanatical reformist spirit of the Legalists.

Therefore, Chinese civilization learned a lesson from the fall of Qin: when a country is weak and has almost no other way to quickly become strong, relying on Legalist reforms to achieve strength is the optimal solution.

However, after becoming powerful, continuing to retain Legalism became a path to national ruin.

In short, Legalism is more useful when a country is weaker, and more harmful when a country is stronger.

As for the attempt made by the late emperor, it was at a delicate juncture when the Han dynasty was neither strong enough—at least not strong enough to attack the Xiongnu—nor weak enough—at least not as weak as it was at the beginning of the Han dynasty—to test the mettle of Legalism.

In other words, at a point in time when a nation is neither strong nor weak, but somewhere in between, it attempts to achieve ambitious goals that its own capabilities are insufficient to support by leveraging the Legalist school's ability to "turn the tide."

Specifically, at a point in time when the Han dynasty was originally powerless to fight against all the feudal lords and relatives and stood on the opposite side of the entire Guandong region, it was an opportunity to see if the Fajia school could produce any miraculous results.

The final result~
how to say……

Hard to comment.

From Zhuge Liang's perspective in hindsight, Chao Cuo's "Policy to Reduce the Power of the Feudal Lords" truly demonstrated the Legalist approach to "loyalty to the emperor and obedience to the emperor," playing an indelible positive role in eliminating the powerful and uncontrollable power of the imperial relatives and vassal states for the Han dynasty.

However, from another perspective, the outcome that the late emperor least wanted to see—standing on the opposite side of the entire Guandong region—inevitably came to pass after Chao Cuo's "Policy to Reduce the Power of the Feudal States" was published.

If we let our minds wander and speculate, it's not hard to come up with a possibility that may not be accurate: even without the "Policy of Reducing the Feudal States," if the late emperor had dealt with the imperial relatives and feudal lords through other means, the final result, no worse than the Rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu, would not have been much worse.

After all, at that time, apart from the Liang Kingdom, which guarded the gateway to Guandong, and the Yan and Dai kingdoms on the northern front, there was almost no other vassal state in Guandong that was loyal to Chang'an and the ancestral temples and state, and that the late emperor could completely trust.

From this perspective, and based on Liu Rong's own observations of the late emperor's perceptions, the experiment conducted by the late emperor through Chao Cuo was, in fact, a failure.

The conclusion of the experiment is probably that at an awkward juncture where a dynasty is neither strong nor weak, the positive effects of Legalism are not equal to its negative effects.

By considering the fall of the Qin dynasty, we can conclude that "the stronger the regime, the worse the effect of Legalism; the weaker the regime, the better the effect of Legalism." It is not difficult to see that the positive effects of Legalism are indeed linearly negatively correlated with the strength of the regime itself.

The stronger the regime, the worse Legalism becomes;
The weaker the regime, the better Legalism is;
The regime is neither strong nor weak, and Legalism is neither good nor bad.

To put it nicely, it's neither good nor bad; to put it bluntly, it's utterly useless...

Specifically, regarding the current Han dynasty, after the initial period of weakness and the period of mediocre strength during the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, the Han dynasty has begun to show its strength in all aspects under the current reign of Emperor Liu Rong.

The seeds sown during the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing were about to bear fruit, ultimately leading to an incomparably powerful Han dynasty.

Given this context, and considering the logic that the influence of Legalism is linearly negatively correlated with the strength of a regime, if the Han dynasty were to heavily rely on Legalism during Liu Rong's reign, it would undoubtedly have a negative effect.

At this point, the problem becomes quite obvious.

—The Huang-Lao school has completed its historical mission and is about to exit the historical stage, and will develop into the "Taoism" of later generations that seeks immortality and asks questions, and is full of mystical talk;
Legalism, due to its inherent characteristics, is not suitable for the increasingly powerful Han dynasty.

It can be said that the Han dynasty does not need to strengthen itself through Legalist reforms. In other words, the Han dynasty, which is already on the right path and is becoming increasingly powerful, should not 'cause chaos through reforms'.

With the decline of Huang-Lao philosophy, Legalism became inapplicable.

As for the other schools of thought—Yang Zhu certainly couldn't use them.

Emperor Taizu Gaozu once said: "The only person in the world who can truly study Yang Zhu's teachings is the current emperor."

Only after the death of the previous emperor can the next emperor have any say in it; even the crown prince cannot touch it!
This is also easy to understand.

After all, anyone sitting on the throne would feel a chill down their spine looking at a crown prince who constantly chanted "Yang Zhu is selfless and not burdened by material possessions."

The Mohists could only use their "Lu Ban techniques" but not their methods of governing a country—after all, the Mohist ideas were too advanced, and were even almost identical to those of later modern China.

For the Han Dynasty, which was still in the early stages of feudal civilization, it wasn't a matter of taking too big a step and accidentally hurting its balls; it was a matter of being far from being able to even do a split.

Gone!

There was no other choice but Confucianism!

Like those literati who had no choice but to follow Confucianism and could only benefit from Confucianism's "education for all" principle, thus riding the coattails of being "scholars" through Confucianism;
Now, the Han dynasty has also fallen to the point where it has no other choice but to follow Confucianism!
This explains why Emperor Wu of Han was so decisive in banning all other schools of thought and exclusively promoting Confucianism.

Even if they weren't abolished, the various schools of thought had essentially driven themselves to extinction!

Even if it doesn't become the sole dominant school, Confucianism has already seized control of the discourse in the academic and intellectual world!

From this perspective, Emperor Wu of Han's decision to dismiss all other schools of thought and exclusively honor Confucianism did not mean that he orchestrated the exclusive dominance of Confucianism, but merely that he officially acknowledged the objective reality that Confucianism had become the dominant ideology.

But now, it is only the fifth year of Liu Rong's reign, which is the eleventh year of Emperor Jing of Han in history.

At this point in time, Emperor Wu of Han was only eleven years old.
Liu Rong still has time.

There is still time to suppress Confucianism and prevent it from achieving the established fact of 'Confucianism being the only dominant ideology' in terms of objective reality.

Then, Liu Rong was forced to acknowledge this objective fact, just like Emperor Wu of Han in history, and not to bear the historical blame for 'the supremacy of Confucianism'.

(End of this chapter)