The big man has a living father

Chapter 14 Huo Hai Returns to Huo Mansion

All that is not within the six arts and Confucius' teachings should be cut off and not allowed to advance, which at first glance seems to mean the same thing as "abolishing all schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism."

But in fact, it is completely different.

The former means that anything that is not mentioned in Confucius' Six Arts should not be developed.

This sounds similar to abolishing all schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism, but in fact it is very different.

Because policies are made by people and will inevitably be expanded when implemented.

What are the Six Arts?
Etiquette, music, archery, imperial duties, calligraphy, and mathematics.

For example, the Zhou Dynasty had five rituals: auspicious rituals for sacrificial offerings, ominous rituals for funerals, military rituals for military affairs, guest rituals for guests, and auspicious rituals for weddings.

So much time had passed, and by the Han Dynasty, banquets were still held when the elders celebrated their birthdays.

According to the former, that won’t work!
For example, if there is only shooting and no chopping here, then the general should not chop people, but only shoot arrows.

For example, a general should not ride a horse, he can only drive a car.

Isn't this crazy?

Even if we agreed to Dong Zhongshu and fixed it according to the current Han rituals, it would be impossible.

Emperor Wu was not a fool. What if he invented a weapon more powerful than swords?
What if a mount is developed that is faster than a horse?
You may not use it, but your enemies may. For example, the Huns used steel knives before the Han!

Therefore, it was impossible for Emperor Wu to agree to the former, but the latter of abolishing all schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism was not a big deal.

He did not restrict the generals on how to kill the enemies, but he did restrict the generals to read the Four Books and Five Classics if they wanted to study.

In the past, generals only needed to read military books, but in the future they will also have to read the Spring and Autumn Annals.

This means abolishing all schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism.

In essence, this was a game between Dong Zhongshu and Liu Che.

Who are the people who can serve as officials in the Han Dynasty? They are either descendants of the founding military heroes, or the children of ministers in the court, or relatives of the Han Dynasty, or relatives by marriage.

This way of entering officialdom is called Menyin.

But now, there is a shortage of talent, and new ways of selecting talent must emerge in this window.

Dong Zhongshu proposed two solutions. One was to go to the Imperial College, take an examination, and become an official after passing the examination.

One is that you can choose whatever you want, but all other schools of thought must be eliminated and Confucianism must be the only one to be respected.

In other words, you have to choose a Confucian scholar.

Could it be that Liu Che couldn't hire an illiterate person to work in the court?
In fact, it is not appropriate to say how much impetus the imperial examination system played. Didn’t our predecessors think of the imperial examination system?

No, it’s because the times no longer required the imperial examination.

By using this condition, Dong Zhongshu blocked the path to becoming an official.

You have to study, and only read Confucian classics, before you can become an official.

Either you have made great military achievements or you are a descendant of a noble family.

But do nobles stop studying?

When there are more scholars in the court, can the nobles escape?
Therefore, Dong Zhongshu relied on this set of ideas to block the paths of all other schools of thought and turned the opportunity to become an official into an internal benefit of Confucianism.

Dong Zhongshu speculated that based on this skill, later scholars and officials would put themselves together with Confucius for worship.

His status is even more impressive than that of Xunzi and Mencius!

However, Dong Zhongshu's approach has a huge flaw.

That is 'beyond the six arts'.

What if, after trying, Liu Che or subsequent emperors discovered that things other than the Six Arts were more useful for governing than Confucianism?
What should we do if someone uses methods other than the Six Arts to replace "the interaction between heaven and man", "rule by man and rule by virtue", and "select the virtuous"? !

Now, here comes an attempt.

Huo Hai, the successor of Mozi, is here.

This means that war is coming again.

Academic dispute, academic war.

Dong Zhongshu put down the Mohist Classic and looked at Shi Qing: "When will Huo Hai enter the palace next time?"

Shi Qing: "In the morning two days later."

Dong Zhongshu: "Two days from now, in the morning, I will teach the prince about Confucianism."

……

Huo Hai sat in the carriage, with two retainers driving the carriage and two retainers following beside it.

All the way to Huo's Mansion. As a top noble, a relative of the emperor, a powerful general, and a representative of the young and strong faction, Huo Qubing naturally had his own general's mansion in Chang'an.

But Huo Hai would not live in the general's mansion.

Because the general's mansion was too small and there was no one inside.

The retainer sitting in front of the car whispered: "Second Master, do we really want to recruit more retainers?"

Huo Hai nodded: "Of course."

So many of the Huo family's followers had followed them before, but when they were cutting trees in Maoling, they all ran away, leaving only four.

Among the four people, three are rangers who can only kill people and cannot read.

There was only one person who had received education and was a descendant of the Legalist school, namely Xiang Xu, who is now driving the coach.

When he first heard this name, Huo Hai asked him if he was a descendant of the Overlord. Then he found out that the descendants of the Overlord had long changed their surname to Liu and were granted titles.

But now he has no one under his command, so Huo Hai can only use Xiang Xu as the chief butler: "I dare not use those who run away. I want to recruit people who will unconditionally execute any order I give."

"I need followers who can get things done, not followers who question me."

Xiang Xu: "But, the general is not here now, so I may not be able to transfer too much money and grain."

"The current housekeeper of the Huo Mansion was arranged by the Great Mistress."

Huo Hai said happily: "In a few days you will know that I have endless money."

Huo Hai will need money in many places in the future, so of course he has to make money.

In fact, it had already been agreed upon when talking with Liu Che before that Huo Hai would make paper and sell it, but the price had to be high and the quantity had to be controlled. Only after Liu Che had the final say could he start selling it in large quantities.

Of course, when Liu Che was talking, he didn't think about how big the gap was between the sales volume he mentioned and Huo Hai's.

A lot of trees had been cut down in Maoling before, and Sima Xiangru looked at the paper and sent people to get it. He would be able to start selling the paper soon. The price was the same as that of bamboo slips of the same size, which was already a huge advantage.

There were no bamboo slips for sale on the market, and large families that needed bamboo slips had to hire special servants to make them.

Even though making bamboo slips was free and only required the employment of a slave, a book almost required being pulled by a cart.

This car and horse are worth millions of dollars!
What about the room where the bamboo slips are stored?

What about the labor cost of turning over and drying the bamboo slips?

Poor families could not use bamboo slips on a large scale, and the bamboo slips of just one or two books were of little value.

Although silk can be used for writing, a book of silk costs about 800 coins. The average monthly income of young and middle-aged men in Chang'an City is also about 800 coins.

But these people still have to support their families, and they may not be able to save even a thousand coins in a year.

This silk has 800 characters on it. Where are the writing materials?
Why don't you borrow the original copy when copying a book? ? How much does it cost to borrow the original copy? It's several times the price of silk!

In addition, the books borrowed were most likely bamboo slips, so you would have to hire a carriage and horses to move them home, and also hire porters.

And you'd better pray that it doesn't rain when you're moving, otherwise you'll lose a lot of money.

If it is a unique copy, you will lose a lot of money!
Ordinary people’s families have no money and are not qualified to go to school, let alone buy paper.

Nowadays, it costs 10,000 coins to buy a slave, and it costs about 100 coins to keep a slave for a month.

It took four slaves a month to make a book of bamboo slips.

In other words, as long as the paper for a book costs between four hundred and eight hundred wen, it can dominate the entire market with its convenience!
However, because of the agreement with Liu Che, Huo Hai determined that the starting price was at least eight hundred Wen.

And the paper from selling a book could support eight servants.

If you change it to guests who want to eat meat and have better food and a better place to live, you can feed two or three of them by serving them meat once a week.

As long as he starts selling paper, Huo Hai will be able to support himself.

Moreover, Huo Hai would also need to research penicillin, which would require building greenhouses and making glassware, which would require doctors, blacksmiths, and a large number of laborers.

The carriage had arrived at the door, and Xiang Xu went to knock.

After the door was pushed open, the servant took a look, then closed the main door and opened the side door: "The second young master is back, let the groom lead the horse."

Huo Hai jumped up and stood up on the carriage: "Someone, drag that guy out and beat him up!"

"Open a side door for me, huh?"

"beat!"

Just as the fight was about to begin, a middle-aged fat man with a beard came out: "Second Master, wait a minute..."

Huo Hai: "Drag that fat guy out and beat him up together!"

My arrogance started from here.

(End of this chapter)