I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 101 Everyone can become a saint if they read the books of saints
At first, no one who was listening reacted to Yuan Shu's approach.

They didn't know that Yuan Shu was talking about the previous things at first, and they thought he wanted to make some clarifications, but he changed the subject and talked directly about the general situation in the world, and even said something like "This is truly a critical moment for survival!"
Isn’t this a bit alarmist?

Although the Han Dynasty has some problems, why is it a "critical moment of survival"?

The Han Dynasty was obviously still very powerful and stable, so why does it sound like a doomed country in your mouth, Yuan?

What's your intention?
From this moment on, many people were distracted by Yuan Shu's attempt to change the subject and were no longer paying attention to previous events.

The other group of people were confused and didn't know why Yuan Shu suddenly changed the subject, but they didn't know how to react in such a situation.

Yuan Shu had no intention of giving them any time to react.

This is my home turf.

The speech begins!
Yuan Shu then recounted the series of things he had said during his lecture in Maoling.

Although the content was roughly the same, he still reconsidered the specific narrative style and wording.

He wrote a first draft himself and called Cheng Li, Jia Xu, Wei Jia and others to discuss it with him. He carefully extracted some essences to make it easier for people to understand, more gripping and attract everyone's attention.

He first talked about the specific social phenomena from the perspective of the world situation, and then talked about his specific experiences in Maoling County in recent years, analyzing these specific examples to verify his point of view of "a critical moment of survival."

He wants everyone to believe that this is a real critical moment for survival, and it is not fake.

The social unrest in Maoling County alone is enough to reflect this.

Afterwards, he talked about the causes of the incident from the perspective of specific social phenomena, talked about the rampant landlords and the corrupt officials, and then talked about the superficial reasons and deep-seated causes of the incident.

Then he changed the subject and started talking about the chaos at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, and he made great details about the Confucian scholars' shattered ideals and self-degradation at that time.

Here, in order to prove that his argument is reasonable, he took the example of Ouyang Xu, a great Confucian scholar in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, who embezzled tens of millions of yuan while serving as a prefect, as a starting point to describe the phenomenon of collective confusion and degeneration after the Confucian scholars' ideals were shattered.

Even a great scholar could be so depraved, let alone others?
When people have ideals, they can work hard towards their ideals and endure some hardships and obstacles, as well as some physical torture for this purpose.

After the ideal of self-discipline and restoration of rituals is shattered, people are left with only an empty shell without spirit. The only way to keep this empty shell alive is to fill it with desires.

The entire upper class of society has collectively fallen. Those who should have been pursuing governing the country and pacifying the world cannot find their ideals and instead pursue desires. This is the reason for the corruption of social morals and the rampant chaos.

Scholars always attribute the country's decline to eunuchs' disorderly politics and external relatives' meddling in government affairs, but why don't they reflect on themselves?

Eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wife are in power, so aren't there some scholars and officials who are tyrannical, corrupt, and commit crimes?
Yuan Shu cited seven or eight cases in which scholars and officials were convicted for corruption, saying that if scholars wanted to oppose the eunuchs and external relatives’ interference in politics, they must correct themselves. If they couldn’t even correct themselves, how could they have the face to accuse the eunuchs and external relatives?

"Ideals are shattered, desires grow, desires are uncontrolled, corruption is rampant. In this case, what is the difference between us scholars and eunuchs? Or is it that the corruption of eunuchs will harm the country, while the corruption of scholars and officials can revitalize the country? What is the reason for this?
If you don't regulate your own behavior and restrain your desires, you can't blame others for wanton indulgence. This is the most obvious truth. This is also the most fundamental reason for all the stubborn diseases of the Han Dynasty. To cure the disease, you must remove the root. If the root is not removed, the disease will not be eliminated. How can the stubborn diseases of the Han Dynasty be solved by eradicating one or two eunuchs? "

After putting forward this conclusion, Yuan Shu did not give the audience any time to react or refute, and immediately began to talk about his ideas on solving this social problem.

That is to follow conscience and integrate knowledge and action.

"So how do we solve this most fundamental problem? That is to use conscience and unify knowledge and action. This is the cure that Shu has found. It starts with the most fundamental conscience in our hearts, fills the gap with conscience, restrains desires, corrects oneself, and reshapes the spirit.

When conscience is achieved, spirit is established. When spirit is established, ideals are realized. When ideals are realized, desires disappear. When desires disappear, people can become saints! When we scholars learn the principles of saints, what we should do is to pursue the path of saints until we finally become saints ourselves.

Read the books of sages, walk the path of sages, reach the end, and become a sage right away. You are a sage, I am a sage, he is a sage, everyone can become a sage, everyone is a sage! When a sage governs a country, how can the country decline? When a sage governs a country, how can treacherous villains survive? "

Yuan Shu once again brought up the arguments that "studying can make one a sage" and "everyone can become a sage" that had caused the students in Maoling County to tremble collectively.

He did not elaborate on these arguments in "Mencius's Interpretation" and "On Knowing and Doing" in order to leave a fatal weapon for his speech.

He believes that some remarks have different effects when spoken in person or written in a book.

It's like a book written by a mustache man. It's so long, boring and makes people want to sleep after reading it.

But when he speaks, he is passionate and effective. The same content coming out of his mouth is like a spiritual chicken blood.

He is a great speaker, but not a qualified writer. Yuan Shu also referred to his experience and decided to keep some explosive things on his side so that people can listen with their ears instead of just seeing with their eyes.

The two major senses must be used together to double the effect and make it more deeply rooted in people's hearts.

If some body movements were added, the effect would be even better.

He waved his arms, put on a stern expression and tone, and gave a speech to the crowd in a lecturing manner.

"We should not underestimate ourselves. We should not think that there is only one saint. We should not think that saints only exist in the past and not in the future. If we do not want to become a saint, why should we study? If we do not dare to become a saint, what qualifications do we have to study?"

"What is the purpose of the saints compiling books and passing on knowledge? It is to enable the younger students to learn the saints' teachings, become the saints' successors, carry on the saints' teachings, pass on the saints' teachings from generation to generation, and never break the saints' teachings."

"Will a saint be happy because his disciples are as devout as believers? Doesn't a saint hope that his disciples and descendants can surpass their predecessors and achieve great things? Doesn't a saint hope that another saint will appear among his disciples and descendants?"

"The purpose of reading sage books is to become a sage. If you read sage books without becoming a sage, what will be the result? You will become a treacherous official who succumbs to the evil and treacherous! Why are there so many treacherous people nowadays? Why are evil people in power nowadays? It's because we scholars don't want to become saints! We dare not become saints!"

Yuan Shu clenched his fists, used all his strength to tear his vocal cords, and roared out his last words.

"If you don't become a saint, you will degenerate into a treacherous villain!"

"If you don't become a saint, then you have read the books of saints in vain!"

"If you don't become a saint, there will be no hope for the world! You will surely perish!"

“Everyone can become a saint if they read the books of saints!”

“Whether you are willing to become a saint or not, or whether you dare to become a saint or not, the moment you pick up the book of saints and begin to study, you are already—a saint in the making!!”

He roared the words "prepare saints" particularly fiercely.

When he roared, he even felt his body and brain trembling.

His whole body was shaking and he almost fell down.

Fortunately, he managed to stabilize himself in the end.

Of course, the credit also went to Cheng Li who was standing behind him and supported him.

Otherwise he might really fall on the podium with his back to the sky.

He was too emotional and tried too hard.

His words were transmitted to far away places through the loudspeaker, so that even people who could not see his appearance clearly could hear what he said.

His assistants faithfully carried out the task of spreading his words, word for word, and they also roared in the same way, using all their strength to pour out all the words and emotions.

Everyone inside and outside the Imperial Academy, regardless of whether they saw Yuan Shu or heard Yuan Shu's voice, had the four words "Prepare to Be a Sage" clearly engraved in their minds and hearts.

Zhang Hong heard it.

Wang Lang heard it.

Ma Ritian heard it.

Cai Yong also heard it.

The scholars heard it.

The insects heard it too.

Everyone heard it.

(End of this chapter)