I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 45 A Man Comes to Debate

After selecting the image spokesperson, Yuan Shu emphasized the concept of "Yu Shun is the ancestor of conscience" throughout his annotations to "Mencius".

Whenever there is content related to Yu Shun, the concept of "appealing to conscience" must be left in the annotation to praise and admire Yu Shun.

In order to prove whether a truth is correct or not, we need not only a successful person to admire, but also a negative example.

So who is this negative example?
off the shelf.

King Hui of Liang.

Mencius truly loved Yu Shun and truly hated King Hui of Liang.

He criticized King Hui of Liang from head to toe, without showing any mercy, so Yuan Shu felt that Mencius must have been prejudiced against King Hui of Liang. There must have been many arguments and unpleasant experiences between King Hui of Liang and Mencius, which made Mencius bear a grudge against King Hui of Liang for a long time.

Mencius had a very low opinion of King Hui of Liang throughout the whole article. In his conversation with King Hui of Liang, he always criticized King Hui of Liang for pursuing profit and disregarding righteousness.

But in Yuan Shu's opinion, this is a bit like talking without any pain.

The monarch of another country was worried about the triple oppression from Qin, Chu and Qi, but you only talked about Wei itself and didn't mention the other three countries, as if it was Wei's fault that it was all its own fault. This theory that the victim was at fault was really inappropriate at that time.

Therefore, when annotating the chapter about King Hui of Liang, Yuan Shu had to make large-scale changes, changing Mencius's meaning from simply praising benevolence and righteousness to hoping that King Hui of Liang would implement the strategy of "appealing to conscience."

Mencius said that as long as benevolent policies were implemented and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, then the people could defeat the powerful armies of Qin and Chu even with wooden sticks.

Yuan Shu commented that Mencius was using a metaphor to emphasize the importance of awakening one's conscience and implementing benevolent policies.

When the people become wealthy, they will naturally protect their property. At this time, Qin and Chu sent troops to attack, and the people and the monarch stood on a united front. The people will naturally rise up to fight against Qin and Chu.

Taking this as a breakthrough point, Mencius's entire preaching of benevolence and righteousness was transformed into a preaching of conscience, and the criticism of King Hui of Liang mainly focused on the point that he only listened but did not take any action.

From this, we can conclude that King Hui of Liang’s failure was that he only knew his conscience but did not act on it.

Not doing is the same as not knowing.

If you don’t know, naturally you can’t do anything.

Of course it will fail in the end.

Yuan Shu compared King Hui of Liang with Yu Shun, and used Yu Shun, who had a conscience, to defeat King Hui of Liang, who had no conscience. While following Mencius's tone of criticizing King Hui of Liang and praising Yu Shun, he forcibly mixed in the concept of "cultivating conscience".

In this way, he realized his own magical transformation and achieved a comprehensive victory of unity of knowledge and action over knowing but not doing.

This is one aspect.

On the other hand, Yuan Shu would not deliberately misinterpret some of Mencius' ideas on people-centeredness and benevolent government.

The good things should be kept, with original and honest annotations that emphasize the way of benevolent governance in prosperous times and warn the monarch not to act recklessly, otherwise he will surely encounter disasters.

For example, in the paragraph [The three treasures of the princes: land, people, and government, those who own precious pearls and jade will suffer disasters], Yuan Shu gave an original annotation:

[Mencius said that the three treasures of the princes are the country, the people and the government, not gold, silver, pearls and jade. If one regards gold, silver, pearls and jade as treasures, it will backfire on him. This is true for the princes, and it is also true for the emperor. If the emperor regards gold, silver, pearls and jade as treasures and does not exercise benevolent governance, he will suffer disaster.]

For this type of absolutely politically correct chapter that simply emphasizes that the monarch should live a simple life, work diligently and love the people, Yuan Shu annotated it according to the original meaning, and at most added some of his own opinions.

As for this annotation operation, Yuan Shu paid more attention to another thing.

It is to use punctuation marks to mark the entire text.

He marked where commas, periods, and exclamation marks were used.

In his annotations, he first explained punctuation marks, saying that he felt that ancient people's articles were controversial because of the difficulty of punctuation, so he wanted to stop these controversies, and thus created various punctuation marks to be used for punctuation, replacing punctuation, making it easier for scholars to read.

The full text of "Mencius" has more than 30,000 words, which is not a large number. It does not take much time to annotate it from the political perspective of "cultivating conscience". In addition, Yuan Shu has a solid foundation in sentence reading and knowledge of punctuation marks, so it is not difficult to annotate it.

However, when he showed Ma Rong a part of the article he had annotated, he received a warning from Ma Rong.

Ma Rong thought that Yuan Shu's annotations to Mencius were not a big deal, but the punctuation marks he used might attract the attention of someone with ulterior motives, thus posing a certain threat to Yuan Shu.

"Each of the fourteen schools has its own opinions. I think this symbol can be widely used in books. If so, I'm afraid that someone with ulterior motives will attack you. You have to be careful."

In response to Ma Rong's warning, Yuan Shu said that he had already thought about this problem.

But now, he is really not afraid.

Because something happened in Luoyang.

In June of the ninth year of Yan Xi's reign, the first Party and Faction Persecution, as later historians called it, broke out.

The first Party and Faction Persecution was caused by the fact that Emperor Huan of Han was shocked by the spring famine. Too many people died during the famine and the people were full of resentment. In order to give a symbolic explanation to the people, he prepared to grant a general amnesty.

The emperor was preparing to grant amnesty to the entire country, and the eunuchs who were close to him were definitely the first to know about it.

After knowing this, some eunuchs had evil intentions and privately instructed their clansmen and white gloves to hurry up and do some bad things, such as killing people and robbing to accumulate wealth, so that they could pass through unscathed and gain benefits when the amnesty order was issued.

This is also a way to make money, and the main focus is on information asymmetry.

During this wave of events, there was an accomplice of the eunuch named Zhang Cheng. After getting the news from the eunuch, he let his son deliberately kill someone who had a grudge against him. Then he confidently let his son go to jail, waiting for amnesty, and then welcoming his good son back.

As a result, this matter was discovered by Henan Yin Li Ying.

Li Ying was an old minister in the court. He had always been at odds with the eunuchs. He had fought with the eunuchs many times before, and the two sides had fought back and forth. After this incident, Li Ying quickly learned about the backers behind Zhang Cheng and his son and the whole story of the incident, and was very annoyed.

But just before he was about to take action, Emperor Huan issued a general amnesty.

Seeing that Zhang Cheng and his son were about to escape justice, Li Ying became furious and resolutely executed Zhang Cheng's son despite the amnesty order.

At the same time, there were also many scholars and officials in local counties who did such things.

Previously, there were many children of eunuchs and white gloves in local counties and prefectures who broke the law and discipline, committed murder and robbery, or seized other people's property, and they were all very arrogant. As a result, after the amnesty order was issued, they were all acquitted.

Can this be tolerated?
These scholars and officials were just like Li Ying. They were filled with anger and were willing to do evil. Despite the amnesty order, they executed many lawbreakers who were close to the eunuchs and confiscated their property. In a passionate attack, they destroyed the wealth of many eunuchs.

Many of the eunuchs’ families, or the lands and wealth they had purchased in other places, were all taken away in one wave, and their life savings were gone. That was their future retirement money!
Can the eunuchs tolerate this?
They immediately reported the matter to Emperor Huan and cried to him, and also asked Zhang Cheng's disciples to write a letter to falsely accuse Li Ying, which was considered a complete declaration of war against the scholars.

Emperor Huan was not a fool. He also saw the bad intentions of the eunuchs from this incident, but he paid more attention to the collective disobedience of scholars and officials from the central government to the local governments.

He issued an imperial decree and required the whole world to obey and implement it. This is due procedure.

Those scholars and officials who violated the amnesty order and insisted on killing people were openly defying the imperial edict and violating political rules, and openly slapping Emperor Huan in the face.

When things got to this point, it was no longer a conflict between eunuchs and scholars, but a conflict between the emperor and his ministers. Any emperor with a little bit of temper could not stand his power being challenged.

If you violate the amnesty today, will you rebel and overthrow me as the emperor tomorrow?
Emperor Huan was furious about this and adopted the eunuchs' advice, launching a comprehensive crackdown on the scholars.

Even though eunuchs make thousands of mistakes, one thing is particularly important - they are obedient!
The first Party and Faction Persecution broke out.

Important officials such as the Minister of the Imperial Household Du Mi, the Chief Censor Chen Xiang, and scholars such as Chen Shi and Fan Pang were all wanted. Many local officials of counties and states were also wanted. A large number of scholars and officials were arrested and brought to justice to be severely punished.

These people are collectively called party members.

After the first Party and Factions Persecution broke out, a large number of central and local officials were hit, and there was chaos both inside and outside the court. The eunuchs and scholars fought each other with endless pleasure. The whole Luoyang was in chaos like northwest Shanxi, and the eyes of the people all over the world were on Luoyang.

In this situation, who would care about a little Yuan Shu and his little Yi Xin Hui?

Taking advantage of this loophole, Yuan Shu had time to reorganize the Yi Xin Society, improve its rules, review its membership qualifications, and annotate the "Mencius".

During this period, as Yuan Shu's reputation grew, as the Yi Xin Hui organization gradually expanded, and as the farmer-assistance campaign continued to develop, Yuan Shu's popularity grew, inevitably attracting the jealousy of some narrow-minded people.

These people came to have academic exchanges with Yuan Shu under the banner of academic discussion and communication.

To put it bluntly, it means to debate the scriptures and then climb up the tree.

Moreover, because Yuan Shu's identity as a child prodigy was confirmed, people generally no longer cared about his age or his reputation. Some scholars in their thirties and forties who were well-known also began to debate with Yuan Shu.

They came to visit one after another, one after another trying to climb up by stepping on Yuan Shu with bad intentions, but none of them had any good results.

They generally underestimated the enemy and couldn't help but think that Yuan Shu was just a child and therefore not that threatening. So once they were sharply counterattacked by Yuan Shu, it was easy for them to lose their balance and then fail.

Most of these people did not pose any real threat to Yuan Shu. Only one debate left a deep impression on Yuan Shu.

Not only was the person he was debating with interesting, but also the content of the debate was very sensitive.

The debater was named Jia Xu, courtesy name Wenhe, a native of Wuwei County in Liangzhou. He was twenty years old and had just been selected as a filial and incorrupt official. He was about to go to Luoyang to serve as a palace attendant.

When he passed through Youfufeng, he heard about the story of the child prodigy Yuan Shu. He was very interested, so he went to Maoling County to listen to Yuan Shu's lectures.

After listening to and watching several debates between Yuan Shu and others for a few days, he took the initiative to visit Yuan Shu and expressed his desire to have a debate with Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu looked at the twenty-year-old, hot-blooded future ruthless scholar Jia Xu and was very interested in him, so he accepted his challenge.

Unexpectedly, this guy started debating with Yuan Shu on such a sensitive topic as prophecies.

Moreover, he stood on the standpoint of Zuo Zhuan and quoted Jia Kui's remarks, saying that Jia Kui quoted the theory of prophecies to interpret the scriptures, seized the advantages of Zuo Zhuan, and established that Yao was the virtue of fire. Liu was the descendant of Yao, so he naturally inherited the virtue of fire, and thus won the emperor's appreciation.

"I have long heard that Mr. Yuan does not read prophecies and does not like them. However, if there were no prophecies, Yao would not be the fire virtue, Han would not be red, and Gaozu would not be the son of the Red Emperor. How could Han be established? I wonder what Mr. Yuan thinks?"

The young Jia Xu narrowed his eyes, and his slender pupils revealed a gleam of shrewdness, calculation, and a hint of ruthlessness and decisiveness.

Lu Zhi, Zhao Jun, Wei Jia and others who were watching from the sidelines at the time all thought that something was wrong and that Jia Xu was a very dishonest guy. This topic really hit the nail on the head and no matter what Yuan Shu said, he would not get any good results.

Yuan Shu also felt that this debate was very difficult at the time.

Mainly, this kind of thing involves some historical issues and concerns the legitimacy of the Han Empire's establishment and rule. If you are not careful, you will be labeled as politically incorrect. If someone with ulterior motives insists on making trouble, Yuan Shu will be in big trouble.

When Liu Bang first started a rebellion against Qin, he called himself the son of the Red Emperor and killed the son of the Black Emperor - a white snake. He used this as a symbol of his rebellion and to rally the people's hearts. Therefore, when the Han Empire was first established, it was established as the fire virtue, and the official uniforms worn by the officials of the Han Empire were mainly red.

However, relevant officials in the court later argued according to the theory of the five elements that was popular at the time. Qin was the virtue of water, and earth overcomes water. Since Qin was established during the Han Dynasty, it should be the virtue of earth.

Moreover, if the Han Dynasty was the Fire Virtue, then Liu Bang should not be the son of the Red Emperor, but the Red Emperor himself. Since he is the son of the Red Emperor, he is born by the Red Emperor.

Fire creates earth - so the Han Empire should be the earth virtue.

So the officials of the Han Empire changed their official uniforms from bright red to bright yellow.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang and his son Liu Xin, who promoted the study of ancient Chinese classics, made their debut. They fundamentally overturned the theory of the five elements' mutual restraint and adopted the more moderate theory of the five elements' mutual generation, which was officially recognized by the Han Empire.

How bad is fighting and killing?
It is more practical to be humble to each other!

From then on, the theory of the mutual generation of the five elements was formally established.

The reason why dynasties change is because the dynasty's mandate has come to an end, so it must be passed on to the next dynasty to continue the mandate. Therefore, the relationship between dynasties is not one of conquest or killing each other, but a normal succession of the mandate.

The father and son re-derived the virtues of successive dynasties, from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in ancient times to the Han Empire, and finally established that the Han Empire was still the virtue of fire.

It is worth mentioning that among them, they directly ignored the Qin Dynasty.

For the sake of political correctness, even the Qin Dynasty was denied to be a unified dynasty, and the Qin Dynasty's mandate of heaven was not acknowledged.

However, this statement actually still has some problems. Forcibly omitting the Qin Dynasty seems far-fetched no matter how you look at it.

So during the reign of Emperor Zhang of Han, the scholar Jia Kui, in order to promote the ancient text classics to replace the modern text classics, cited the theory of prophecies and divination to help interpret Zuo Zhuan. He took out the records in Zuo Zhuan and proved that the Liu family was the descendants of Yao and inherited Yao's fire virtue, further consolidating the view that the Han Empire was the fire virtue.

This statement was praised by Emperor Zhang of Han, and the status of ancient Chinese classics was greatly enhanced.

The Gongyang Spring and Autumn Annals established the Modern Text Confucianism, while the Zuo Zhuan established the Old Text Confucianism.

Therefore, the ancient classics itself has an ambiguous relationship with the theory of prophecies and divinations. If you want to talk about the ancient classics and Zuo Zhuan, you basically cannot avoid the theory of prophecies and divinations.

At least it was unavoidable during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Yuan Shu publicly stated several times that he did not read prophecies. Although this was somewhat related to his status as a member of a noble family, the problem was that you were studying ancient Chinese classics in the Guanxi base of ancient Chinese classics, but you did not read prophecies and even denied the status of prophecies in politics and academia.

What are you doing?
(End of this chapter)