The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 281 The real purpose

"Your Majesty? What is this?"

"Haha, Prince, you have come from afar, so naturally you should meet your family. Although I miss you, I am not in a hurry to disturb you. I will wait for you to spend a few days with your family before coming to see me."

Cao Mao drove the carriage directly to the General's Mansion and let Wang Su get off there.

Looking at Cao Mao's smiling face, Wang Su always felt a little uneasy.

Wang Kai was about to say something when Cao Mao left.

Wang Kai said displeasedly, "How rude of you, Your Majesty?"

Wang Su looked at his youngest son deeply and said, "There is something urgent to do now. After I finish it, I will tell you what rudeness is."

Wang Su brought his son into the General's Mansion. Sima Yan and Sima You quickly came out to greet them. They did not expect their grandfather to come so suddenly. Sima Yan's eyes were red. He held his grandfather's hand and was particularly close to Wang Su. Sima You stood not far away, with his head lowered, looking very respectful, but not very friendly with Wang Su and others.

Judging by the scholars' standards, Sima You's performance was obviously better. After all, his behavior was in accordance with etiquette, and he did not "abuse his favor and act dissolutely" when meeting his elders.

But from the perspective of family, Wang Su and Wang Kai both liked Sima Yan, and they didn't dislike Sima You, but they were not as close to him as Sima Yan.

Sima Yan was a person who valued feelings very much. He often protected his relatives. Many people talked about his unfair treatment of Sima You and thought that he did not take these things seriously. But compared with a certain Emperor Wen whose position was also threatened by his younger brother, Sima Yan was too gentle to his younger brother!
First of all, after Sima You was named King of Qi, he was never tormented around.

As a vassal king, he served as General of Cavalry and Grand Master of the Imperial Court, and also retained a private army of several thousand men.

More than half of the ministers in the court originally openly supported Sima You to inherit the throne, and later dared to openly support Sima You after Sima Yan officially became emperor.

Sima You stayed in Luoyang for a long time, and served as a general, a minister of works, and a minister of the imperial court.

It can be said that if these things happened to other emperors, Sima You would definitely not die of grief and anger. In the end, Jia Chong and others continued to advise Sima Yan, which made Sima Yan suspicious, and he immediately ordered his brother to return to Qi.

But it was not to depose Sima You and make him a pure vassal king.

Sima Yan issued an edict to let his younger brother return to Qi State and serve as the Grand Marshal, with the power of the Imperial Guard, and the commander-in-chief of all military affairs in Qingzhou.

Sima You was unwilling to leave, saying that he wanted to guard his mother's tomb. More than ten important officials in the court wrote a letter to refute Sima Yan, asking him not to expel the King of Qi from the court.

To be honest, Sima Yan was truly lenient. Even at this point, he only dismissed the officials who had submitted the petition. If this had happened to a certain Emperor Wen, there would have been rivers of bloodshed.
Sima You was extremely talented and had the style of a successor to Sima Shi, while Sima Yan had a more simple character. He was not as likely to seek fame as his younger brother, but he treated his friends and relatives very well.

In Wang Su's view, Sima You was a capable grandson, and Sima Yan was a well-behaved grandson.

"Take me to see your mother!"

Wang Su had countless doubts in his mind at this moment and had no time to say much to Sima Yan. When he saw Wang Yuanji, Wang Su finally breathed a sigh of relief that his daughter and grandson were fine.

Wang Su immediately ordered everyone to go out and asked Wang Yuanji alone about what had happened in the temple.

At the same time, Cao Mao's carriage did not return to the palace, but instead came to the west of Luoyang, which was Wang Xiang's mansion.

Wang Xiang was stripped of his official title, but was not thrown into the Tingwei prison. However, this did not mean that he was completely free. Cao Mao still sent people to keep him under guard.

There were a large number of soldiers guarding inside and outside his mansion.

When Cao Mao arrived, the soldiers hurriedly made way for him. Wang Xiang also learned the news and came out to greet him in person.

Wang Xiang at this moment looks particularly sincere. When facing the emperor, the fear, guilt, and uneasiness on his face are so real.

Looking at such outstanding acting skills, Cao Mao couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It seemed that he still had a lot to learn.

"His Majesty!!"

"Teacher, please don't be so polite. I came here this time for an important matter. Let's go in and talk."

The two men walked into the inner room, and Cao Mao asked the soldiers to wait outside the door.

Then, the two of them sat facing each other.

Cao Mao didn't waste any words and said directly: "Teacher, Wang Su has returned to Luoyang."

A hint of uneasiness flashed in Wang Xiang's eyes.

He knew very early on that Wang Su would be a restless factor, but in order to obtain the position of Taichang as soon as possible and start a new era of his own, Wang Xiang at that time could only temporarily ignore Wang Su, speed up the process, and claim Wang Su's academic achievements.

In Wang Xiang's view at the time, after he came to power, Wang Su would not dare to completely break off with him as long as he could give the other party some compensation.

But the situation now is obviously a little different.

He is now a criminal with nothing, and the ministers will definitely not dare to continue to support him. If Wang Su comes to him at this moment, Wang Xiang will probably be ruined from then on.

Wang Xiang wasn't afraid of death, but reputation was extremely important. If it were ruined, it would affect the entire clan. In a clan world where the inheritance of classics was fundamental, his actions would surely arouse public outrage and cause his entire family to be looked down upon.

This is more serious than killing Wang Xiang.

"Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

Wang Xiang stopped pretending at this moment, and asked directly about Cao Mao's conditions.

He had no deep hatred with his disciple, so there was no need for the disciple to deliberately seek out Wang Su to ruin his reputation, and it would not benefit Cao Mao at all.

Now that he came to see me and talked about this matter, it meant that there was still hope, and perhaps I could still be of some use to him.

Cao Mao laughed. He liked dealing with such smart people.

Pretend when you need to pretend, and be honest when you need to be honest.

The reason why Cao Mao wanted to keep Wang Xiang was actually because of the study of classics.

There is a very serious problem nowadays. The highest theoretical knowledge, that is, Confucian classics, is in the hands of aristocratic families. If you want to climb to the position of two thousand stones, you have to study the classics. If you are not from an aristocratic family, you do not have this condition, unless you become a disciple or former official of a wealthy family.

Wang Su now accuses Wang Xiang of plagiarizing his classics.

Cao Mao could make a big fuss about this matter.

Through the struggle between these two people, the right to interpret the classics was brought into question, and then the right to interpret the classics was returned to the hands of the temple.

To put it more simply, it means giving the government the power to choose official schools. The government can designate a certain classic as official knowledge and recruit officials through this knowledge.

In the past, due to the issue of official schools, the Eastern Han Dynasty launched a massive debate on ancient and modern literature.

By the Wei and Jin dynasties, this academic dispute had weakened considerably as the dominant position of the classics of ritual and law began to decline.

Cao Mao wanted to take this opportunity to try to break the aristocratic families' monopoly on knowledge.

Wang Xiang could ask directly, but Cao Mao could not say it directly.

Cao Mao did not dare to take this teacher lightly. Although he had nothing now, he was still the biggest threat among all the ministers. It was people like Gao Rou who held him back. If he were to serve as Si Tu and be fully responsible for the struggles in the temple, Cao Mao might really suffer a great loss.

Cao Mao said seriously, "Teacher, I came to you this time to ask you, did you really steal the knowledge of the prince?"

Wang Xiang was stunned. "Don't you know whether I stole it or not?"
But he reacted quickly, shaking his head. "Your Majesty! I never did! The Taixuan Sutra wasn't just the property of a prince; it was written by ancient sages. Does that mean he's the only one qualified to annotate it? If anyone else does, he'll accuse them of stealing. How can that be justified?"

"I have never had any contact with him, so how could I have stolen his knowledge?"

"Although I have great respect for the prince, he treats the sage's book, which has been passed down to this day, as his own private property and forbids others from annotating or reading it. In my opinion, this is extremely excessive and disrespectful to the sages!"

"If we follow his statement, then is it true that no one other than the Kong family can delve into and annotate books like the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Analects?"

"The Taixuan Sutra should be studied by the Yang family. How can the prince explain it?"

Wang Xiang quickly began to refute.

Cao Mao smiled again. Yes, this was exactly what he wanted.

How to become a real big family in the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties?
The most fundamental condition is that you must have the final right to interpret a classic.

Take Xun Xi for example. Why did he dare to rebuke Zhong Hui for delving into the Yijing without even understanding the most basic knowledge? And Zhong Hui didn't dare to refute him at all?

This is the role of the final right of interpretation. The inheritors can decide how to annotate, punctuate, and understand the classics, and the rest of the people can only listen to them.

Through this supreme power of interpretation, they can monopolize knowledge and official titles, absorb a large number of elites from commoner backgrounds, turn them into their own disciples and former officials, and then become a behemoth that makes no one dare to take action against them easily.

Cao Mao really disliked this situation. He wanted to either get the highest right of interpretation or destroy the highest right of interpretation in the hands of this big family.

The scriptures are passed down from generation to generation, right?

I will make you do corvee labor for generations!

Wang Xiang looked at the smile on the emperor's face, suddenly realized something, and his face changed drastically.

"Your Majesty, while that is true, my knowledge cannot compare to that of the prince. The prince's family inherited the classics and he is a great scholar who governs the world. I have not stolen his knowledge, but I would never dare to say that he is unworthy of annotating the classics. The prince's talent is known to everyone in the world."

"Your Majesty is still young. The foundation of governance must be the classics. If this matter were to undermine the classics, it would cause unrest in the court and frighten the scholars, which would be detrimental to the empire!"

(End of this chapter)