A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

Bianjing, the back garden of the Su family mansion

Su Shi and Su Zhe sat side by side under the eaves.

Shen Mo said that the eight-legged essay system for selecting officials was creating "standardized people," and Su Shi suddenly nudged his younger brother with his elbow.

"Ziyou said that standardized people are not the same as standardized people. How can people be standardized? It's not like firing porcelain, where everyone comes out of the same mold."

Su Zhe thought for a moment and said, "The standardization she's talking about isn't about appearance or height, it's about ideas. Everyone's ideas should be the same."

"That would be even more absurd." Su Shi slapped the palm-leaf fan on his lap. "Thoughts are different even among brothers. You and I share the same father and mother, but you are steady and I am impulsive. You like to dig deep into things, while I like to broaden my perspective. If someone insists on unifying our thoughts into one standard, would we still be ourselves?"

Su Zhe did not answer immediately.

He recalled his experiences in the imperial court over the years, the struggles between the old and new parties, the old party's rise to power and the denigration of the new party, and the new party's rise to power and the denigration of the old party.

He had read both articles and both memorials.

To be honest, he doesn't think either side is the absolute truth.

But in the imperial court, no one wants to hear the truth.

What they want is to know which side you're on and whether what you say conforms to their standards.

Even if something is correct, it cannot be said if it deviates from the standard.

"Perhaps those eight-legged essays were just a way of choosing sides in the imperial court, only now they were taken to the examination hall." Su Zhe slowly said, "The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties didn't want talented people, they wanted people to choose sides. You entered the examination hall not to prove how smart you were, but to prove that you were willing to follow their rules. If you were willing to follow them, you joined the team; if you weren't, you were out."

Su Shi remained silent for a while, then suddenly laughed, feeling both absurd and helpless.

"So Xianglin's wife's chastity was in accordance with the rules, and Kong Yiji's taking the imperial examination was also in accordance with the rules. They were both taking sides. It's just that Xianglin's wife's rule was the chastity arch, and Kong Yiji's rule was the eight-legged essay. People who can't abide by the rules become useless, no matter if you are a woman or a scholar. No wonder she said that these two things are the same thing. I really never thought of it this way before."

He put down his palm-leaf fan, gazed at the sky, and the image froze on two lines of text on the blackboard: "The integrity of a subject, the integrity of a woman."

"Ziyou, who do you think made this rule?"

"emperor."

"Did the emperor set the rules to make people live well, or to make them obedient?"

Lin'an, Wuyi Academy

Zhu Xi was still sitting under the eaves.

The unfinished game of chess in front of him had been set out for a long time. The disciples had already dispersed, and only Chen Chun remained standing behind the pillar, not daring to utter a sound.

Shen Moyan said the following in class: "The Qing Dynasty stipulated more strictly than the Ming Dynasty that the imperial examinations could only test Zhu Xi's philosophy, because Zhu Xi's philosophy emphasizes the great righteousness between the ruler and the subject. When a foreign emperor sits on the dragon throne, what he fears most is not corrupt officials or incompetent ministers, but the sense of distinction between the Chinese and the barbarians in the hearts of Han Chinese scholars. Therefore, he needs your scholarship to prove his legitimacy."

The female teacher on the celestial screen had mentioned him before.

In the previous series about Xianglin's Wife, she said that "preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires" has been distorted by later generations into a tool for cannibalism.

Zhu Xi remained silent for the entire night that time.

This time she did not criticize him.

She was simply stating a fact: your knowledge was used by foreign emperors to subjugate your people.

This statement hurt him more than criticism.

"The great righteousness between ruler and subject..." Zhu Xi repeated these four words in a low voice.

He recalled the first time he wrote a memorial to Emperor Xiaozong when he was young.

At that time, he was full of enthusiasm and wrote tens of thousands of words, with only one central idea: to rectify the emperor's mind.

When the ruler's heart is upright, the world is upright; when the ruler's heart is not upright, everything will fall apart.

Why does he keep talking about "rectifying the ruler's heart"?

In his view, the emperor was the most dangerous person in the country.

The emperor was unrestrained and could do whatever he wanted.

Therefore, he wanted to uphold the principles of Heaven and the fundamental social order, and to use the words of sages to put a rein on imperial power.

The fundamental principle of loyalty between ruler and subject is never one-way obedience.

The ruler should treat his ministers with propriety, and the ministers should serve their ruler with loyalty. If the ruler is not a ruler, the ministers may not be ministers. This is what Confucius said.

But he did not expect that after his death, his knowledge would be selectively taken by later emperors, who would only take the five characters "a subject serves his ruler with loyalty" and quietly delete "a ruler treats his subjects with propriety".

His "rectifying the emperor's heart" turned into "rectifying the minister's heart".

His "natural law" became a shackle that imprisoned people's hearts.

His "righteousness between ruler and subject" became a whip in the hands of a foreign emperor.

Zhu Xi suddenly felt very tired, a kind of exhaustion that felt like his spirit had been drained.

He spent his whole life writing books and teaching, wanting to make the world a better place.

But after his death, his name was engraved on the eight-legged essay examination papers, becoming the three most hated characters by generations of scholars: Zhu Xi's commentary.

"Mold".

In a meditation room at the Longtan Lake Buddhist Temple in Macheng, Huguang, an old man with a shaved head suddenly chuckled.

His name was Li Zhi, and he was seventy-three years old this year. He had just been released from the prison in the capital in the thirtieth year of the Wanli reign.

His laughter was dry, like sandpaper scraping wood.

"To mold people into the same mold, well said."

Sitting next to him was a young monk, whose Dharma name was Mingyin, who was his disciple.

Mingyin dared not respond; he knew his master was about to begin again.

Sure enough, Li Zhi pointed to the words "standardized people" that Shen Moyan had written on the blackboard on the sky and said, "She is right, but it is not enough. She is too polite. What is a standardized person? It means to make people into fake people, to use every word that the sages said as a mold, to stuff living people into it, and to cut off those that cannot be stuffed in, and to throw away those that cannot be cut off."

Li Zhi shifted in his chair, his voice low, each word sounding as if squeezed out from between his teeth.

Do you know why I despise the eight-legged essay?

When I was twenty-six, I passed the imperial examination. For others, passing the imperial examination was a joyous occasion, and they would hold a banquet to bring glory to their ancestors.

I didn't say a word when I came out of the examination room.

Because I know exactly what those articles I write are—a bunch of nonsense.

Take a sentence from the Four Books and Five Classics, copy a passage from Zhu Xi's commentary, start by explaining the topic, put together an essay, and use it to exchange for official rank and fame.

Is this what you call scholarship? This is just copying books.

What kind of people were selected when the imperial court used this system to select officials?

The best at copying books, the best at understanding the superior's intentions, and the best at filling in the blanks in the format.

A bunch of fakes, a court full of fakes.

Mingyin whispered, "Master, you were also an official..."

"I did it, I did it for twenty years, until I was fifty-four, then I quit."

Li Zhi said, "I have spent twenty years in officialdom and have seen more hypocrites than you have seen real people in your entire life. Those officials who passed the imperial examinations write flowery essays and spout benevolence and morality, but when they turn around, they are corrupt, pervert the law, and oppress the people. Why? Because they were not taught how to be a person from the beginning, but how to be an official. To be a person, you need to have sincerity, but to be an official, you only need to follow the rules."

He stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window of Shibafu-in Temple is a bamboo grove, and the sound of the wind passing through the bamboo grove is like turning the pages of a book.

"Later, I figured it out. I quit being an official, shaved my head, and became a monk. You think I'm a Buddhist? No. I just didn't want to wear that long gown anymore."

Mingyin was taken aback: "Master, you're not a monk?"

"I shaved my head to tell those people that I don't respect your rules. You want to wear long gowns? I shaved my head, so you want to take the imperial examinations? I taught, so you don't accept female students? I will."