I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 44: The Image Spokesperson of Isshinkai

Yuan Shu happily reduced his workload and handed over more of the work to Lu Zhi and the Thirteen Guardians, allowing him to spare more time to annotate "Mencius".

Yuan Shu has a relatively contradictory attitude towards the annotations of the book "Mencius".

On the one hand, Yuan Shu agreed with Mencius' idea of "benevolent government and the kingly way".

However, he particularly disliked the strong concept of "following the ancient kings" in Mencius's thoughts.

To follow the example of the previous kings means to pursue the legendary politics of the three ancient dynasties and to govern the world in the same way as the legendary emperors of the three ancient dynasties governed the world. Only in this way can prosperity be ushered in.

Mencius' articles are vigorous and beautiful, with a kind of vigorous and awe-inspiring righteousness, which is inseparable from Mencius's own personality cultivation. This also constitutes the background tone of the book "Mencius". Benevolent government and the kingly way also come from this, and the people-oriented thought also comes from this.

At the same time, "following the ancient kings" was also Mencius' biggest problem, which was already evident in the era in which he lived.

King Hui of Liang summoned Mencius and wanted to ask him for specific ways to deal with the threats from Qin and Chu, but Mencius only told him the necessity of benevolence and righteousness, and was very contemptuous of the profit-seeking part of King Hui of Liang's words.

When King Hui of Liang asked him about military affairs, he answered with the words of righteousness, saying that a head full of evil will eventually destroy itself. He even said that as long as he implemented benevolent policies and allowed the people to live and work in peace, then even if his own army used sticks, they would be able to defeat the fierce armies of Qin and Chu.

Anyone with a clear head would know that this statement is ridiculous. How can a wooden stick be compared with a fine sword?
Moreover, people are in imminent crisis, and you are still talking about benevolence, righteousness, and morality. It is like people are about to die of illness, and you still ask them to practice Tai Chi slowly to keep fit. Is there any meaning?

Therefore, not only did King Hui of Liang not use Mencius, but later when Mencius went to Qi, King Wei of Qi also just wanted to use Mencius as a signboard and establish him as a national mascot to attract more people with practical talents.

To put it bluntly, in that era of great strife, everyone was suffering from acute illnesses that could not be cured by practicing Tai Chi or taking tonics.

Surgery is needed to remove the lesion before recovery can be discussed.

Mencius's doctrine is a typical doctrine for prosperous times, not for troubled times. Only in prosperous times when social class contradictions are not prominent will there be the spare capacity to implement Mencius's doctrine. There is no soil for it in troubled times.

In the Eastern Han Empire at that time, social contradictions were acute, and dissatisfaction among all social classes with the current situation was about to overflow. Everyone felt that their interests were violated, and rebellions broke out one after another, a typical sign of troubled times.

If you shout about benevolence and righteousness at a time like this, people will just think you're a fool.

It is true that at a time when Confucianism is prevalent in the world, benevolence, righteousness and following the example of the ancient kings are politically correct and rashly violating them would result in dire consequences. However, Yuan Shu would never allow his doctrines and thoughts to be tainted by this sour and pedantic atmosphere.

Therefore, his so-called annotation of "Mencius" was more about wanting to interpret "Mencius" from his own perspective, striving to defeat other people's annotations and make his own modified version of "Mencius" popular in the world.

He wanted to bring in Xunzi's thoughts as well, and "distort" Mencius' thoughts, turning them into respect for both the former kings and the present kings, so that they would have a flexible bottom line.

The main method is to give full play to the spirit of Dong Zhongshu, focusing on the idea that if you have it, you have it, and if you don’t have it, you have to have it. You say yours and I say mine.

Anyway, you are dead, so what you say is up to me, right?
If Dong Zhongshu can do it, so can I!

Therefore, in the chapter "Mencius", Yuan Shu began to make crazy changes to Mencius's theories of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness.

It must be said that it is quite easy to modify these contents.

The grammar and meaning of Chinese characters had changed greatly, mainly during the Pre-Qin and Han dynasties. Many characters no longer had their original meanings, and many words had deviated from their original meanings.

Take the most well-known and most praised sentence in Mencius: "The people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least important."

The word "min" has many different meanings in different periods in ancient times.

In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, the two words "min" and "chen" are both pictographs of eyes. Chen has vertical eyes, while min has horizontal eyes with thorns.

The ancients regarded eyes as an extremely important representation of the human body, and often used one eye to represent the entire head or even the whole body. Vertical eyes meant submission and obedience, while horizontal eyes meant disobedience.

Therefore, ministers are obedient subjects in the modern sense, and subjects are rebels and disobedient people in the modern sense.

"Horizontal eyes with thorns" means blinding one eye. It originally referred to slaves captured on the battlefield or disobedient people, whose eyes would be blinded to facilitate control and prevent resistance.

Later, after the word "min" came to refer specifically to people, the word "mian" came into being to refer to the blind.

Therefore, "min" once referred to those who disobeyed orders or slaves.

In ancient times, "the people" were the same. People were the people, and the people were the people. They were all self-references, similar to how "I" was a general self-reference at that time.

Therefore, there is a theory that Qu Yuan’s famous line “lamenting the hardships of people’s lives” was not a lament about the hardships of ordinary people’s lives, but a lament about “the hardships of life”. He lamented about his own life and felt that his life had been full of hardships.

Considering that Qu Yuan, a nobleman of the Chu State, later committed suicide, this statement may not be groundless.

"Min" also refers to people who own property. As the saying goes, "Those with constant property have constant heart, while those without property have no constant heart." Only those with constant property can make it easier for rulers to collect taxes and register for military service. Therefore, "Min" can also refer to people who own property. Commoners refer to all people who have property but no official position.

What about those who have no property?
It's probably just "hooligan".

Therefore, when it comes to “people are the most valuable”, does it mean that ordinary people are the most valuable, or that people with industries are the most valuable? And it is not easy to judge whether it refers to a large group of people or a specific small group of people.

But it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t prevent Yuan Shu from “misinterpreting” it.

When annotating, Yuan Shu specifically annotated this sentence: [People refer to all the people of a country.

She is the god of the land, and Ji is the god of rice. She and Ji together mean land and food.

Jun is the ruler of a country.

Mencius believed that the people were the most important, the land was second, and the monarch was the least important. Why? Without people and land, how can there be a country? Without a country, how can there be a monarch? That’s it.

In addition, Yuan Shu also made some changes to it in many places.

For example, [Mencius said: If you believe everything in books, it is better to have no books. In Wucheng, I only took two or three strategies. The benevolent man is invincible in the world. The most benevolent will defeat the most unkind. Why is there so much bloodshed?]

The book here refers to "Shangshu", and Wucheng refers to the "Wucheng" chapter in "Shangshu".

It tells the story of the war in which King Wu led the King to attack King Zhou. Because there were many people helping in the war, many people died. So much blood was shed from the dead that the wooden mallet for pounding rice floated up.

However, Mencius said that he did not believe this, and thought that when a benevolent man like King Wu went to attack an unbenevolent man like King Zhou, how could so many people die?

If we fight injustice with justice, shouldn't the enemy army turn against us and our army win a great victory?

That’s what I mean.

But from a purely historical perspective, King Wu's attack on King Zhou was just a surprise attack. For the army and people at that time, they could not read and understood nothing. It did not matter whether it was benevolent or not. It was just a matter of who used better tactics, who gave more incentives, and who did a better job in providing relief.

Therefore, it is understandable that so many people died in the Battle of Muye.

What Mencius said was typical pedantic talk, idealism to the extreme.

But from another perspective, the spirit he expressed is worthy of recognition.

It is better to believe in books than to have no books.

It would be wonderful to change the word "Shangshu" to refer to all books, thus expressing the idea of not blindly following others and having one's own will.

You can't believe everything in books, and you can't believe everything in Confucian classics. Look, Mencius, the famous Confucian disciple, said this. How can you completely believe in Confucian classics?

Learn to doubt, you bastard!

Therefore, Yuan Shu made some magical annotations from this perspective.

[Shu is the Book of History, Wucheng is a chapter of the Book of History. Mencius said that the benevolent are invincible, and Wucheng has errors in his records, so the Book of History cannot be trusted completely. The Book of History is like this, and so are all other books. If you trust all books in the world, then there is no book in the world. When reading books, you should not blindly follow them.]

Mencius mainly expressed the idea that a benevolent person is invincible. He elevated benevolence and righteousness to an unprecedented level and even denied objective history.

Yuan Shu, on the other hand, changed the perspective, focusing on not blindly following others, emphasizing self-will, and requiring readers to learn to explore themselves and maintain their own will.

Hey, that’s what I said. That’s what I meant. What can you do to me?
Mencius said: Shun lived in the deep mountains, among trees and rocks, and roamed with deer and pigs. The difference between him and the wild people in the mountains was very small, but when he heard a good word or saw a good deed, it was like a river bursting its banks, unstoppable. 】

This is what Mencius said in praising Yu Shun.

In the entire book of "Mencius", Mencius praised Yu Shun more than a hundred times, completely promoting Yu Shun as a model of benevolent government in his mind. As to whether this is true or not, no one knows.

But this did not prevent Yuan Shu from discovering something beneficial to himself.

For example, this passage says that Shun lived in the mountains a long time ago and had no contact with the outside world. He was no different from the wild people in the mountains. The only difference was that when he heard good words and witnessed good deeds, he would do them.

This record can be used to well support the theory of awakening conscience proposed by Yuan Shu.

The reason why Shun became a wise king in ancient times was not only because he was able to accept good words and deeds, but more importantly, he would do them. Once he did them, it was like a surging river that could not be stopped.

It was precisely because he would do good things with his own hands, instead of just forgetting about what he had heard or seen, that he became the successor of Yao and chose Yu as his successor.

So Yuan Shu annotated this record.

[Many people hear good words and see good deeds, but few people ask good words, see good deeds and then put them into practice. The reason why Shun was a wise king, inherited Yao and enlightened Yu, and established the governance of the Three Dynasties, is just like this.]

Later, Yuan Shu also drew the conclusion that Shun’s nature contained benevolence and righteousness through the record: “Yao and Shun were born with it; Tang and Wu were born with it; the Five Hegemons were given it by loan. If they have been borrowed for a long time and have not returned, how can we know that they are not there?”

Following this conclusion, he connected together the events of Shun's having a conscience, practicing it, and ultimately achieving his emperorship and being respected by the world, thereby establishing Shun as the first person to follow conscience.

This means using Mencius's mouth to promote Shun's way of awakening the conscience, using Mencius's words to defend himself, and establishing the ancestor of the school of awakening the conscience - Yu Shun.

The modern literature school needed to establish Confucius as its banner, and the ancient literature school recommended Zhou Gong as their mascot, so Yuan Shu felt that he also needed to find a sage to serve as his face.

Yu Shun, the man who was close to perfection in Mencius' mind, was Yuan Shu's choice.

Yuan Shu decided that Yu Shun would become the image spokesperson of Yi Xin Hui!
(End of this chapter)