He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Lu Wan's method is still fishing. Don't worry about whether it's old-fashioned or not, just tell me if it works!

Zheng Xuan, as the last great Confucian scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was of noble and upright character. The court tried to recruit him every day and even exempted him from his official salary, but he refused to go. Let alone a nobody like Liu Bei.

"My lord, there is no need to worry," Lu Wan said with a sly smile. "Lord Kangcheng is not interested in fame or fortune, so we certainly cannot invite him by ordinary means. However, a gentleman will deceive others in a righteous way. If we behave in a way that disgraces Confucianism, Lord Kangcheng will certainly not stand idly by, given his character."

A glint of light flashed in Liu Bei's eyes: "What does Wen Yuan mean...?"

"Kang Cheng Gong dedicated his life to inheriting the sacred learning and correcting errors. He is still vigorously promoting the merger of the Old Text School and the New Text School. For him, seeing students learning according to wrong answers is probably more painful than having to write a eulogy for the Ten Attendants."

"This isn't a good idea. What if Kang Cheng finds out we tricked him and leaves in a fit of anger?" Liu Bei was still somewhat uneasy.

Lu Wan stroked the beard on her chin, thinking about how to increase the success rate.

"I've got it! My lord, I have a plan!" Since even if Zheng Xuan was attracted by such a superficial theory, he couldn't be kept here, then I'll spread some marketable and vital knowledge and see if he can stay put.

--------

A few days later, a new theory quietly emerged in Xuzhou and gradually spread to the surrounding areas.

In Qingzhou, a scholar was loudly discussing with his friends in a tavern: "Ah, I think Xunzi's saying 'human nature is inherently evil' is absolutely right! People are born selfish. Is it useful to just talk about 'propriety' and moral persuasion? Look at those petty thieves on the street, can you get away with talking about 'propriety' with them? We still need 'law'! We need to establish clear and explicit legal provisions, like Han Feizi said, so that those who break any law will be punished with beatings, fines, or imprisonment! That's what really works!"

The person next to him immediately chimed in, "That's right! The world is in such chaos today because human nature is inherently evil. These feudal lords, for their own selfish interests, have disrupted the peace of the entire Han Dynasty. It's clear that Mencius's saying 'human nature is inherently good' was completely wrong. We should combine Confucianism and Legalism, treating gentlemen with 'rites' and petty people with 'law,' just like Liu Bei of Xuzhou."

Several of Zheng Xuan's disciples were eating nearby. Hearing people discussing the classics, they listened quietly, since they had nothing else to do but listen to pass the time.

At first it wasn't so bad, but after hearing the disciples say they wanted to cut off their own ears, I realized they were completely baffled. I recognized every single word he said, so why couldn't I understand it when they were put together?

When it came to the phrase "the integration of Confucianism and Legalism," one disciple couldn't take it anymore. He slammed his fist on the table and stood up to retort, "Nonsense! Have any of you even studied?"

"And who are you? So what if you're well-educated? What business is it of yours what we're having a chat?"

Upon hearing such impolite words, the disciple felt his low blood pressure instantly cured and loudly proclaimed, "How can it be none of my business that I am a descendant of sages? How can the theories of sages be interpreted like this? I tell you, the theories of Legalism are completely wrong and utterly unusable, let alone combined with the theories of Xunzi. If Legalism could educate all people, then why did the tyrannical Qin Dynasty perish after only two generations?"

"What a joke! You say that the Hundred Schools of Thought were useless and led to the downfall of the Qin Dynasty, but why was the Han Dynasty, which dismissed all other schools of thought and honored Confucianism, usurped by the bandit Wang Mang?" Another accomplice immediately chimed in, saying something rather treasonous. However, since the whole world was in a state of moral decay, no one took him to the authorities.

"This...this...I..." Upon hearing this, the disciple's face turned ashen. Wang Mang was truly the person that Confucian scholars least wanted to mention.

Because Wang Mang was truly acting in accordance with the words in the classics.

When Wang Mang reformed the land system, he demanded the restoration of the well-field system throughout the land, nationalizing all land and prohibiting its free sale. This seemed like a wonderful policy, and it's this very point that has led some to argue that Wang Mang was a time traveler.

The so-called well-field system involves dividing a large square piece of land, roughly 900 mu in size, into nine equal parts. The central field is the public field of the monarch, and the surrounding eight fields are distributed among eight households.

It sounds unreliable; where in the world are there so many square plots of land to divide up? Historical records of the well-field system only come from two books, "Mencius" and "The Rites of Zhou," and there were no records of the well-field system before that.

Of course, some people believe that such a system did exist, dividing the land into nine parts, not necessarily in a grid pattern, with taxes paid based on one-ninth of the harvest. This explanation is plausible.

However, this well-field system was based on slavery rather than private land ownership. At that time, the population was small and the land was abundant. Compared to land, people were a more important means of production, and the well-field system could concentrate the population for production. But now, with the development of productive forces, more motivated self-cultivating farmers have replaced slaves, and the well-field system has lost its foundation.

If you don't think this is a problem, then what about the more trivial issues? For example, some families have few laborers and can't even manage to cultivate one field; others have many people and one field is simply not enough to feed them. What should they do?

Since it wasn't mentioned in the classics, Wang Mang naturally didn't care.

Then Wang Mang ordered the abolition of slavery and the prohibition of the buying and selling of people. This was also a policy that seemed extremely deceptive, because at the time, not only did the powerful clans not understand it, but the slaves also did not appreciate his efforts.

Not all slaves at that time were filled with hatred for their masters. In fact, many slaves were quite affectionate towards their masters. This was because land annexation was already very serious at the time, and most people sold themselves into slavery because they had no land to live on. They were even grateful to those who bought them, because no matter what, they had food to eat and a home to live in.

Because of Wang Mang's ideals and the words of sages in the book, tens of thousands of slaves were driven onto the vast plains of society. But Wang Mang did not provide these people with land to support their livelihoods, so they had no choice but to either become kind-hearted starving ghosts or become bandits and robbers.

The words of sages are meant to be read, not learned. Wang Mang failed to grasp this point, and because of him, the population of the Western Han Dynasty decreased by 30 million at the end of the dynasty.

At that time, Wang Mang was still the leader of Confucian scholars across the country. As a result, the Confucian scholars' world collapsed. The words of the sages were problematic and unusable! A large number of Confucian scholars became confused because their faith in the Way was shattered. This directly led to the later Confucianism turning to metaphysics and becoming superstitious about divination and prophecy.

So this statement is like hitting Confucianism right where it hurts: if you say this is useful, then why did the chaotic times of the past still occur?