Han officials

Chapter 308 Unstable Dao Heart [4K]

"Public justice is certainly important... but shouldn't the proper relationship between ruler and subject be abandoned?"

When Zheng Xuan asked that question, Lu Zhi's dazed gaze finally settled.

Yes, they have believed in the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues their whole lives, they can't just let it all go to waste, can they?
If he could, Lu Zhi would rather die than see the collapse of the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, let alone break them with his own hands.

For a pure Confucian like Lu Zhi, physical death was nothing, but the collapse of his faith was the true destruction.

Because this means that the meaning of his existence, and his decades of perseverance, have vanished in an instant.

However, Wei Zhe today is no longer the naive young man who had just transmigrated.

He didn't discuss modern humanistic thought with Lu Zhi, but instead smiled faintly and asked in return:
"I've heard that Master Lu and Master Zheng were direct disciples of Master Ji Chang. Have they forgotten everything they learned back then?"

Zheng Xuan knew that Wei Zhe was not the kind of person who would casually humiliate his elders, so he immediately asked in bewilderment:

"Why do you say that, General?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhe shook his head, disappointed.

"Mr. Ji Chang's life's work was nothing more than the four characters 'Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues,' yet you all failed to even understand them."

Upon hearing Wei Zhe's words, Zheng Xuan suddenly realized and couldn't help but nod slightly.

After all, what Wei Zhe said was indeed correct. Although their teacher Ma Rong wrote a lot, the core of his work was the four words "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues," and these four words were even his proudest achievement.

Many people may think that the "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues" were proposed by Confucius as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and are the foundation of Confucianism.

Or perhaps Dong Zhongshu proposed this principle when he encouraged Emperor Wu of Han to "dismiss all other schools of thought and exclusively honor Confucianism."

In this way, Emperor Wu of Han was moved by Dong Zhongshu and allowed Confucianism to become the dominant school of thought.

However, the term "Three Cardinal Guides" actually first appeared in the "Basic Meaning" chapter of Dong Zhongshu's "Luxuriant Dew of Spring and Autumn Annals" in the mid-Western Han Dynasty.
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Heaven covers and reveals the ruler... The three cardinal principles of the kingly way can be sought from Heaven.
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Furthermore, Dong Zhongshu merely used heaven and earth, yin and yang, and spring and summer to refer to the relationship between ruler and subject, husband and wife, and father and son, without refining the well-known Confucian essence of "the ruler is the guide for the subject, the father is the guide for the son, and the husband is the guide for the wife."

As for the "Five Constant Virtues"—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness—their concepts come from the four cardinal virtues of Mencius.

The Gongsun Chou chapter of the Mencius states:

Compassion is the beginning of benevolence... The fact that humans possess these four beginnings is like the fact that they possess four limbs.

However, Mencius only mentioned benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom here, without mentioning "trustworthiness".

The inclusion of "faith" in the Five Constant Virtues was first seen in Dong Zhongshu.

It wasn't until the fall of the Former Han Dynasty and the establishment of the Guangwu Emperor's dynasty, more than a hundred years later, that Ma Rong first proposed the term "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues".
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The Analects, Book 2, Chapter 2, states:

The Shang dynasty followed the rites of the Xia dynasty, and the changes and additions are known; the Zhou dynasty followed the rites of the Shang dynasty, and the changes and additions are known; and those who succeeded the Zhou dynasty, even after a hundred generations, are known.
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Ma Rong's commentary on this sentence is:

The reason is the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues; the difference is the Three Unities of Literature and Substance.

This means that what the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties inherited and followed was the "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues"; what they modified and changed was the "Three Systems of Culture and Substance".

From then on, the "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues," which had been submerged in the millions of Confucian commentaries throughout history, were extracted by Ma Rong and given great importance. Based on this, he systematically reconstructed the Confucian Five Classics for the first time.

Many views that seem self-evident to later generations have actually emerged after hundreds of years of accumulation.

It was precisely because of this achievement that Ma Rong was revered as a Confucian master in China and admired by scholars throughout the land.

Later, Ma Rong followed Zengzi's example in writing the Classic of Filial Piety and also wrote a book called the Classic of Loyalty.

He proposed three stages for realizing the ideal of loyalty:
Be loyal to yourself, your family, and your country.

Most importantly, he explicitly stated in the "Chapter on the Sage Ruler":

From bottom to top, each has its own veneration. Therefore, the king serves Heaven above, Earth below, and the ancestral temple in the middle.

Simply put, Ma Rong believed that even the emperor had a duty to be loyal to, namely to Heaven and Earth and to his ancestors.

Therefore, from the very beginning of the "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues," Han Confucian scholars emphasized the mutual constraints between the two parties.

It even emphasizes that those in positions of power need to set an example, serve as role models, and educate the ignorant.

The gentleman's virtue is like the wind, while the petty person's virtue is like grass; that's essentially the meaning.

Because the common people are like weeds, they bend whichever way the wind blows.

If the social atmosphere is bad, it must be because the wind blowing from above is not in the right direction!
From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Qin, Han and Three Kingdoms Periods, Confucianism has always believed in this view.

Even the great Confucian scholars of the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties basically adhered to this view.

If Bao Zheng were to speak like he does in movies and TV dramas, saying "If the emperor commands the subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die," then even a rigid old man like Zhu Xi would despise him.

In fact, it was not until the fall of China that Wu Cheng, a cynic who attached himself to the Yuan Dynasty, began to deviate from the ancient teachings of Confucianism.

In his work "Collected Works of Wu Wenzheng", his interpretation of the Three Cardinal Guides simply regarded the ruler, father, and husband as heaven, while the subjects, sons, and wives had to maintain absolute and unilateral obedience to heaven.

Zeng Guofan, a prominent official in the late Qing Dynasty, also continued this line of thought. In his "Family Instructions of Zeng Guofan," he wrote:

Even if the ruler is not benevolent, the subject cannot be disloyal; even if the father is not kind, the son cannot be unfilial; even if the husband is not virtuous, the wife cannot be disobedient.

Therefore, the "three cardinal guides are not constant" of Yuan and Qing Confucian scholars had long deviated from the original intention of Han and Tang Confucianism.

They no longer demanded benevolent rulers, kind fathers, and virtuous husbands; instead, they began to advocate "blind loyalty," the kind of loyalty where "if the ruler commands the subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die."

In other words, in the eyes of Han Confucian scholars like Lu Zhi and Zheng Xuan, the later Confucian view that "if the ruler commands the subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die" was truly corrupt and outdated.

Haha~ People two thousand years later are even more old-fashioned than their ancestors from the Han Dynasty.

I have to say, this joke is so lame!

Fortunately, Lu Zhi was not so pedantic yet, and fell silent when Wei Zhe mentioned the "Classic of Loyalty".

However, Wei Zhe did not let him go.

Today, in this library, he is no longer the Duke of Wei or the General of the Cavalry, but a Confucian scholar.

Today's discussion is not a debate on classics, but rather a discussion of the Way by Confucian scholars!
In the afternoon sunlight, Wei Zhe paced back and forth in the corridor, speaking with an air of self-righteousness:
"The ruler is the guide for the subjects; if the ruler is upright, the subjects will also be upright. The father is the guide for the son; if the father is upright, the son will also be upright. The husband is the guide for the wife; if the husband is upright, the wife will also be upright."

"Therefore, in order for the state and the world to be in order, the ruler, father, and husband must first be upright, and then the ministers, sons, and wives will follow suit."

"In terms of the responsibilities to the family, the country, and the world, the ruler must be upright before the ministers can be upright, the father must be upright before the son can be upright, and the husband must be upright before the wife can be upright."

"This has always been true, from ancient times to the present."

At this point, Wei Zhe turned to look at Lu Zhi beside him and said:

Do you agree with what I've said, Lord Lu?

Lu Zhi fell silent upon hearing this, but then nodded firmly through gritted teeth.
"Indeed, this is the way of Heaven!"

Even though he knew that Wei Zhe was definitely defending himself, Lu Zhi still resolutely acknowledged these principles because these Confucian theories were also the teachings of sages and his own beliefs.

Ten years ago, Guoyuan said during a debate with Bingyuan in Lelang:

"The things of this world are either right or wrong, and this applies to heaven and earth, past and present, and cannot be changed. If there is anything wrong with Confucius's words, then it is wrong, so how can we force a interpretation?" Guo Yuan had such integrity, and his teachers Zheng Xuan and Lu Zhi naturally had the same awareness.

However, what Wei Zhe was waiting for was Lu Zhi's words.

He immediately walked slowly to Lu Zhi and said in a deep voice:
“As Master Ling once said in the Classic of Loyalty: From the bottom to the top, each has its own veneration. Therefore, the king serves Heaven above, Earth below, and the ancestral temple in the middle.”

"If this is the case, then the emperor should also be loyal to Heaven and Earth and set an example for the world in order to educate all people."

Do you agree with what I've said, Lord Lu?

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhi closed his eyes in anguish, and two turbid tears slowly flowed from the corners of his eyes.

At this point, he could even guess what Wei Zhe was going to say next.

In an instant, the library fell into a deathly silence, as if even the air itself had frozen.

In the quiet room, only Lu Zhi's painful gasps could be heard.

However, after a moment of silence, Lu Zhi finally opened his eyes and stared at Wei Zhe, his voice old and hoarse as he said:

"Indeed, this is the way of nature!"

Fortunately, Lu Zhi was not a great Confucian scholar of the New Text School of Confucianism, and he did not engage in apocryphal and prophetic theology.

Otherwise, if a modern Confucian scholar were here today, he probably would rather die on the spot than admit it.

At this moment, Wei Zhe couldn't help but feel admiration for Lu Zhi, and so he finally thrust out the last stab:

"In this world today, the rich own vast tracts of land, while the poor have nowhere to stand. High-ranking officials indulge in lust and debauchery, greedily and cruelly ruling over the people. Lower-ranking officials and servants are even more ruthless and vicious than tigers in their greed for wealth. Therefore, the people are lying in ditches and ravines, and thus the Yellow Turbans rose up in eight provinces!"

"The consequences of evil will backfire, and the world will collapse and perish in a single day. Is this not the way of Heaven?"

"If those in and around the court are not upright themselves, how can they correct others?"

"If the ruler and father are not loyal to Heaven and Earth, how can they set an example for the world and educate the people?"

"If Lord Lu is truly loyal to the Central Plains and to the Way of the Sages, he should follow the will of Heaven and the people. How can you blame me!"

When Wei Zhe finished speaking, Lu Zhi was completely speechless.

This time, Wei Zhe didn't use any Legalist or Taoist teachings; instead, he defeated him entirely with his own reasoning.

So no matter how much pain Lu Zhi was in or how unwilling he was to face it, he had to admit the reality—the time for a change of dynasty had indeed come, and this was the way of heaven!

After all, Wei Zhe was right. When the former imperial court could no longer serve as a model for the people, how could they be expected to continue educating them? What qualifications did they have to educate the people?

In this way, what was once orthodox is no longer orthodox!

However, just as Lu Zhi sat dejectedly on the couch, grieving for the Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked out of the blue:
"So... is the general ready to seize the throne?"

Upon hearing this, even Cai Yong and Zhou Yu, who had remained neutral observers, couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.

Even Lu Zhi, who was overwhelmed with grief, couldn't help but pull himself together and look at Wei Zhe.

Wei Zhe never expected that it would be Zheng Xuan who would ask such a heart-wrenching question in the end.

After thinking about it, he finally answered Zheng Xuan's question.

Looking out the window at the old pine tree that had regained its vitality, Wei Zhe smiled gently and said:

"The cycle of destiny has its own set of rules."

“If I am virtuous, the deeds of Shun and Yu will naturally be repeated.”

"If I am without virtue, I will suffer the same fate as Wang Mang. What more is there to say!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhi remained silent, Zheng Xuan sighed softly, and Cai Yong shook his head, none of them uttering another word.

At least in theory, what Wei Zhe said is indeed in line with the way of the sages.

Otherwise, the Zhou replacing the Shang, or the Shang replacing the Xia, would both be considered treason.

The reigns of the three dynasties were no longer a time of sages and virtuous men, but rather a time of deceit and treachery.

On the contrary, if Wei Zhede is favored by the people and his achievements are unparalleled, then the Mandate of Heaven should rightfully belong to him!

That's the good thing about pure Confucianism: it's stubborn but not outdated, and it's even a bit like it prioritizes reason over people!

Of course, this is similar to Wei Zhe's position on the orthodox tradition, as well as that of Lu Zhi, Zheng Xuan, and others.

If he had continued to rely on apocryphal texts and classical studies like Emperor Guangwu, Lu Zhi and others would not have been so easily persuaded today.

Even so, the discussion just now was a huge shock to Lu Zhi and the others.

Seeing Zheng Xuan and Lu Zhi's dejected appearance, Wei Zhe decided not to press them any further and immediately prepared to leave, planning to discuss the Three Dukes' issue with them later.

It is said that the positions of the Three Dukes in the State of Wei may seem to be just honorary titles that anyone could hold, but in reality, they are not that simple.

The reason why Wei Zhe personally came to persuade Lu Zhi and the other two to accept the positions of the Three Dukes of Wei, and even went so far as to discuss philosophy with Lu Zhi, was not to find someone to be the Three Dukes, but to get these three to support his political stance.

After all, this is an official position in the State of Wei. If the three elders accept it, it would be tantamount to supporting Wei Zhe.

Just like the Four Recluses of Mount Shang with Liu Ying, this was using their lifelong reputation in the literati to endorse Wei Zhe.

This greatly helped Wei Zhe in his struggle for control of public opinion.

Even if these three elders do nothing in the future and just sit there like clay statues, the significance of their appointment as Wei officials will have already been fulfilled.

This is actually Wei Zhe's own fault.

If he hadn't been so greedy, wanting to seize both the imperial lineage and the Daoist lineage, there wouldn't have been so much trouble.

Putting aside other things, if he were willing to follow Emperor Guangwu's example and spread some prophetic folk songs to endorse himself, the difficulty of seizing the world would probably be much less.

Those powerful families who control the "interpretation rights" of apocryphal texts and the various clans large and small that are attached to this chain of interests would probably welcome Wei Zhe's rule.

Just as Wei Zhe reached the entrance of the library, he suddenly remembered something, so he turned to Cai Yong beside him, pointed to the silk on his desk, and said with a smile:
"I urge Lord Cai to record today's words truthfully, without altering a single word."

Upon hearing this, Cai Yong immediately replied proudly, "Of course!"

Historians record events precisely by not adding or subtracting a single word, and by writing truthfully and accurately.

As for the Spring and Autumn Annals written by Confucius, strictly speaking, it cannot be considered a historical book; it can only be regarded as an academic work derived from the study of the History of Lu.

Therefore, Confucius was a Confucian, not a historian!

To be honest, based solely on Wei Zhe's words, Cai Yong's impression of Wei Zhe improved even further.

However, Wei Zhe ultimately did not make it.

He had just left the library when he was stopped by two scholars from Zhixing Academy, Xi Lu and Sun Yan…

(End of this chapter)