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

Episode 5 of Sky Curtain is airing.

Who killed Xianglin's Wife? — The structural violence of feudal ethics

On the screen behind Shen Moyan, five faces appeared in turn: Master Lu, Fourth Aunt, Mother-in-law, Aunt Liu, and Day Laborer.

Shen Moyan clicked, and a line of text suddenly appeared below Master Lu's portrait on the screen: The Personification of Etiquette.

"Master Lu is the most explicit advocate of traditional ethics in the novel. He comments that 'this person has big hands and feet,' which shows that he treats Xianglin's wife as a tool. He calls her a bastard, which means that he is cursing Xianglin's wife even after she dies."

"But we must ask, was Master Lu a bad person? By the standards of feudal ethics, he was probably a gentleman. His cruelty did not stem from personal malice, but from the set of rules he sincerely believed in."

"This is the banality of evil: a person creates tragedy because he is doing his duty and following the rules, and he doesn't even feel any remorse."

"Next up is Fourth Aunt." A line of text appeared below Fourth Aunt's image on the screen: "The Internal Discipline Enforcer for Women."

"Fourth Aunt is a successful example of how feudal ethics disciplined women. She accepted the idea that 'impure people will defile the gods,' and then consciously carried it out, using it to punish other women."

"This is the most successful aspect of feudal ethics: it makes the victims internalize the logic of oppression and become the executors of the next level of oppression."

Shen Moyan gestured for everyone to look at the screen, where the following text appeared below the mother-in-law's image: "Traders under the economic system."

"The mother-in-law forced her daughter-in-law to sell herself because, in a system without social security, the widowed daughter-in-law was her only asset that could be liquidated. Feudal ethics allowed her to sell her daughter-in-law, but did not allow Xianglin's wife to choose her own husband."

"The class oppression and gender oppression of feudal ethics are exposed at the same time. Women at the bottom of society are oppressed in multiple ways, and even older women who are also at the bottom of society are given limited oppressive power over the next generation of women."

"The appearance of Aunt Liu adds the element of ghosts and gods; she is a conspirator between superstition and traditional ethics."

"Aunt Liu is not a bad person, she is a 'good woman'."

But it was precisely her "kindness" that cost Xianglin's life. She genuinely believed she was helping Xianglin, and it was this "good intention" that made it impossible to hate her; instead, it only instilled greater despair, because even good intentions could kill.

"Besides these five main characters, the novel also features day laborers and people from Luzhen, who are indifferent bystanders."

"How did he die? He died of poverty, didn't he?"

Shen Moyan said, "This is the coldest sentence in the entire novel. It reduces Xianglin's death to a purely economic fact, erasing all other reasons, such as the rejection by traditional ethics, the intimidation of superstition, and the abandonment by society."

"This is the fifth level of cannibalism in feudal ethics: normalizing and commonplaces human suffering, and letting the victims die in silence."

Shen Moyan sighed inwardly.

Who is the murderer?

Everyone is, and everyone is not.

No, Master Lu did not. He simply did what he believed was right.

Fourth Aunt is not; she's just following the rules.

No, my mother-in-law doesn't. She just needs money.

No, Aunt Liu just wanted to help.

He wasn't a day laborer; he just didn't care.

"But that's precisely the most terrifying thing. In this murder, everyone felt innocent. They didn't conspire, they didn't plan the killing, they just lived their lives as usual, and then..."

"Then, Xianglin's wife died."

"This is the essence of structural violence. It doesn't need bad people; it just needs everyone to follow the rules. Then, those who are outside the rules and unable to protect themselves are the ones who get crushed."

Wuyi Abode.

Zhu Xi suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the room.

He walked for a long time before finally stopping at the window.

A disciple asked softly, "Master?"

Zhu Xi didn't turn around. He remembered something and muttered to himself, "Rules? Who made the rules? By what right do they make the rules that force my mother to kneel?"

He didn't continue.

But he knew in his heart that now he had become the one who set the rules.

In the thirty-first year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, at the Ministry of Rites.

Minister Dong Gao summoned all the vice ministers, directors, and principals of the Ministry of Rites to discuss how to handle the Tianmu incident.

"Your Excellency," a vice minister said, "the novel 'The Blessing' is actually a satire of traditional ethics, and its intentions are despicable. We should issue an order to all provinces to prohibit the public from discussing the content of the novel."

"Can it be destroyed?" another doctor retorted. "The celestial canopy appears only once every three days, visible to everyone in the world. You think you can ban it?"

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Dong Gao finally spoke: "Our dynasty governs the country with filial piety, and the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues are the foundation of the nation. Although what Tianmu said is said in the form of a novel, it is actually suspected of undermining the fundamental principles of the nation."

He made the following decision: "First, issue an order to the provincial education commissioners to strengthen the instruction of scholars and students and reaffirm the orthodox status of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism."

Secondly, in each prefecture, state, and county where there are memorial arches commemorating chastity, local officials are ordered to repair and protect them.

Third, summon the students of the Imperial Academy and invite several highly respected senior scholars to hold a debate to refute the fallacies of the Heavenly Canopy point by point.

The group accepted the order and left.

Dong Gao remained alone in the empty hall.

Outside, the sky was playing a segment where Shen Moyan narrated "Who is the murderer."

He heard a sentence:

"In this murder, everyone felt innocent; they were just following the rules, and then Xianglin's wife died."

He suddenly remembered something that happened in his hometown thirty years ago, the year he passed the imperial examination.

A widow was tied up in the ancestral hall by her clansmen for having an affair with a peddler, and strangled to death with a water-soaked hemp rope.

He was in the capital at the time, and I only learned about it later from a letter from his family.

The letter contained only one sentence: "So-and-so was unfaithful and has been dealt with according to clan rules; no one in the clan has objected."

He didn't think much of it at the time.

I don't want to think about it now.

He slowly got up, straightened his official robes, and prepared to go to the palace to pay his respects to the emperor.

He shook his head, leaving the conclusion of the sky behind him.

"Xianglin's wife was killed by the entire feudal ethical system, which included: patriarchal clan power, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, folk superstition, rural public opinion, and everyone's conscious observance of these rules."

"In the next class, our last class, we will discuss: Why did Mr. Lu Xun write this story? Why should we reread 'The New Year's Sacrifice' in this era?"