r18novel Page 465
Page 465
"When a dynasty prospers, the people suffer. When a dynasty falls, the people suffer."
After reading it, Wei Yuan thought to himself that Li Chang'an was indeed different from others; he was clearly dissatisfied with the world.
"Brother Li, do you mean that regardless of the rise or fall of a nation, it is always the common people who suffer?"
Li Chang'an said frankly, "That's not entirely true. A prosperous era without turmoil is the best era."
Wei Yuan muttered to himself, "A prosperous age without upheaval... without war or construction projects, how can it be called a prosperous age?"
"It's not difficult. As long as the wise rulers of prosperous times don't become foolish later, the people will still be very happy in the second half of the prosperous era."
Wei Yuan coughed twice. "You've come full circle, haven't you? You're implying that the current emperor is wise at first but foolish later, aren't you?"
Although Wei Yuan thought the same way, he kept this idea to himself. He didn't know why Li Chang'an dared to say these things to his face.
After examining these six tests of conscience, Wei Yuan had concluded that Li Chang'an was a person without any sense of reverence.
Only those who have no reverence in their hearts can turn the world upside down.
Wei Yuan said this to himself, and then he had a comprehensive understanding of Li Chang'an.
How could someone who disrespects gods, Buddhas, and emperors possibly have any reverence for a mere eunuch?
"Brother Li, you have successfully passed the qualification test for the night watchman. From now on, you will be the Golden Gong Night Watchman."
Li Chang'an said, "Lord Wei, it seems you didn't consult me."
Wei Yuan said with a smile, "You are above all the Golden Gongs. No major case will bother you, but you will enjoy all the privileges of a Golden Gong."
Li Chang'an said, "Then wouldn't I be in a high position with great power, yet not have to work hard, and become a parasite of the Great Feng?"
Wei Yuan pointed to the calligraphy and said, "A person who writes about the rise and fall of dynasties and the suffering of the people under the 'Mirror of Inquiry' cannot be a parasite."
Li Chang'an took the golden gong handed to him by Wei Yuan and said, "Then I won't be polite. From now on, I can rely on the power of the golden gong night watchman to bully men and women."
"By the way, Lord Wei, what are my qualifications?"
Wei Yuan said calmly, "Exceptional talent, the bearing of a Daoist master and a Confucian sage!"
Chapter 278 I didn't want to show off, until Huaiqing arrived.
Yunlu Academy.
Princess Huaiqing sat in Zhao Shou's room, where a guard was reporting on the recruitment of Li Chang'an.
"Your Highness, Zhang Shen and Yang Yan brought back a manuscript, and then Lord Wei and Dean Zhao went to Li Chang'an's residence in person."
"Without Li Chang'an's knowledge, Lord Wei allowed him to pass the night watchman qualification test. Now Li Chang'an has become the Golden Gong Night Watchman, but he doesn't have to sit in the office every day."
"Dean Zhao said that Lord Wei was being unfair by inviting Li Chang'an to the academy. He's on his way now, and Lord Wei is accompanying him..."
After the guard finished speaking, he realized that the princess was ignoring him and staring blankly at the manuscript in her hand, clearly not having heard a word he said.
Princess Huaiqing was a woman of great ambition and ambition, naturally competitive. She was second to none in her studies and martial arts, and was well-versed in military strategy and history.
Looking at Li Chang'an's manuscript, Huaiqing felt for the first time how much worse she was than her peers. Li Chang'an looked even younger than her, how could he write such profound theories?
No wonder Wei Yuan and Zhao Shou had to personally take action; they couldn't sit still any longer.
After a long while, Huaiqing put down the manuscript, took a deep breath, and was deeply shocked.
The Great Feng Dynasty has produced such a prodigy!
After a long pause, Huaiqing slowly said, "What did you just say... Say it again..."
A gust of wind swept through the woods outside the academy, and Zhao Shou led Li Chang'an and Wei Yuan to a stone tablet.
Next to the stone tablet is a bronze figure in meditation. The inscription is about the life of a scholar named Qian Zhong, a great Confucian scholar who was active in the early days of the founding of the Great Feng Dynasty.
"...At the end of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the world was engulfed in war and the people were suffering. Qian Zhong, a second-rank Confucian scholar, witnessed the suffering of the people and, filled with indignation, used his own flesh and blood to destroy the fate of the Great Zhou Dynasty."
"Afterwards, the Great Feng Dynasty was established, the war was quelled, and peace and tranquility prevailed throughout the land..."
"It's a pity that in the past two hundred years, the Great Feng Dynasty has only produced one Rank 3 Life-Establishing Realm scholar, and there have been no more Rank 2 Great Confucian scholars."
Listening to Zhao Shou's introduction along the way, Li Chang'an and Wei Yuan arrived at the Yasheng Academy.
Zhao Shou chuckled and said, "How long has it been since Lord Wei last visited the academy?"
Wei Yuan thought to himself, "I'm just here to see what kind of trouble Li Chang'an can cause at Yunlu Academy. After all, Li Chang'an once said that scholars are useless."
"I haven't been here for a long time. I mainly come here to discuss philosophy. I've long since run out of rivals."
Zhao Shou remained silent. In terms of military strategy, Zhang Shen was indeed no match for Wei Yuan.
Dean Zhao made up his mind to make sure that Li Chang'an would also take on a position at the academy, because such a person might really be able to help the Confucian school break through its current constraints.
In fact, Li Chang'an didn't have any particular ideas; he had many ways to show off his abilities in front of the people at the academy.
But who are you trying to impress at the academy? Xu Xinnian? How boring!
Inside the Yasheng Academy, two-zhang-tall red pillars support the main hall, and the statue of the academy's founder, Yasheng, stands tall.
The Second Sage was dressed in a blue Confucian robe, with one hand behind his back and the other on his waist, gazing into the distance, just like the statue in the night watchman's office.
Next to the statue of the Second Sage is a white deer statue. This white deer is not the Second Sage's mount, but his wife.
Zhao Shou said, "The white deer listened to the classics under the sage's seat, and then transformed into human form to accompany the sage. The human and the demon got along well from childhood and had a deep affection for each other, and eventually became husband and wife."
"The love between humans and demons is not tolerated in the world, both then and now. But the sage said that love knows no bounds, and as long as there is love, humans and demons can stay together forever."
Li Chang'an has no right to say that the Second Saint has heavy tastes, because he himself has only slept with one woman in this world, and that woman was a fox demon with a divided soul.
"Ahem!" Wei Yuan suddenly asked, "Brother Li, what do you think of the imposing presence of this sculpture?"
In the watchman's office, Li Chang'an once said that scholars are utterly useless.
"I saw the statue of the Second Sage at the night watchman's office but didn't know who he was. Now I understand him very well. He was great and had boundless love."
Zhao Shou chuckled, "Brother Li, you truly possess a broad vision and a grand perspective!"
Wei Yuan grinned, and Li Chang'an's statement changed from "useless" to "great," truly showing his ability to speak to people in a way that suits them.
Li Chang'an glanced at Wei Yuan and said, "Lord Wei, I have spoken from the bottom of my heart."
Meanwhile, Zhao Shou brought up the struggle over the foundation of the state, which was a way of clarifying his stance and winning over Li Chang'an.
"When Emperor Renzong was on the throne, the position of Crown Prince had been vacant for more than ten years. His eldest son and another prince born out of wedlock were both favored by Emperor Renzong. The mother of that prince born out of wedlock was a very favored noblewoman, so Emperor Renzong wanted to make the prince born out of wedlock the Crown Prince."
"Abolishing the eldest son and establishing the youngest son is the cause of chaos! All the civil and military officials in the court opposed this. Emperor Renzong issued decrees many times, but they were all rejected by the cabinet. At that time, the people who took the lead were all from Yunlu Academy."
"This struggle over the succession of the nation lasted for six years. No one was willing to admit defeat. Four Grand Secretaries were replaced, and several batches of officials in the court were replaced. Until a scholar from Yunlu Academy took over the position of Grand Secretary, he joined Emperor Renzong's camp, solved the problem for Renzong, and took the blame."
"Yunlu Academy was therefore disliked by Emperor Renzong, who believed that Yunlu Academy was not conducive to the rule of imperial power. So Cheng Hui established the Imperial Academy, and the court trained talents on its own."
"The decline of Confucianism began at that time."
Li Chang'an pointed to a stone tablet and said, "Is this the calligraphy of that Cheng Yasheng?"
He died for his country out of loyalty and gratitude, and his name will be remembered for generations to come. — Cheng Hui
Zhao Shou sighed and said, "That's right. I've observed that Brother Li's writings, although they also assist the emperor, are unique and do not pander to the emperor at all."
Li Chang'an thought to himself, "That depends on who wrote it."
Zhuge Liang was a powerful minister in both his lives. In his first life, Liu Shan was a hands-off ruler, while in his second life, Li Chang'an dared to let go. Of course, Zhuge Liang did not need to cater to the emperor.
"Emperors have the world in their hearts and do not scheme for personal gain. Naturally, they do not need Confucian scholars to flatter them. If Confucian scholars flatter emperors, then the backbone of Confucianism will be broken."
Li Chang'an's few simple words resonated deeply with Zhao Shou, who exclaimed, "No wonder Brother Li was able to break through to the Gentleman Realm at such a young age; you truly have profound insight!"
Wei Yuan picked at his ear. Over the years, he had been scolded by these Confucian scholars quite a bit. He had long expected Li Chang'an to say such things, after all, he was a person who did not respect the imperial authority.
Zhao Shou continued, "Cheng Hui devoted himself to studying the classics for thirteen years and created a system that surpassed his predecessors, namely, preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires."
He believed that everything in the world should follow reason, that reason is the essence of the world, and that it is the most correct thing. Only when everything follows reason can it flourish...
Li Chang'an interrupted directly, saying, "Everything should be viewed dialectically. There is nothing that is always right. This theory is fundamentally wrong."
“Dialectical…” Zhao Shou and Wei Yuan fell silent.
Zhao Shou suddenly said to the students outside the door, "Go and summon the four great Confucian scholars and the outstanding students of the academy!"
Dean Zhao had a premonition that Li Chang'an's views might be groundbreaking, and that the great scholars and students in the academy might be greatly inspired to put forward views that could rival Cheng Hui's.
The Imperial Academy, its arch-rival, advocated preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires, which suppressed Yunlu Academy for two hundred years, preventing it from ever raising its head.
Now, the very word "dialectics" has given Zhao Shou hope.
Before everyone had arrived, Zhao Shou continued, "Cheng Hui annotated the classics of the sages and established a set of effective rules. If scholars follow these rules, they will never make mistakes, which is in accordance with the laws of heaven and earth."
"This set of rules elevates loyalty, filial piety, integrity, and righteousness to the level of natural law. If the ruler commands the subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die; if the father commands the son to die, the son has no choice but to die. One must sacrifice one's life for the greater good and die to preserve one's integrity."
Li Chang'an knew that once this theory came out, the backbone of Confucianism would be completely broken.
"Alas... I have spent over a decade studying and researching, trying to refute this statement and establish a more correct set of principles, but I have never been able to find the right approach..."
Then, Zhao Shou began to share his experiences over the years with Li Chang'an, clearly hoping that Li Chang'an would join his camp.
Meanwhile, more and more students gathered outside the main hall, and the four great Confucian scholars entered the hall one after another.
These people listened respectfully to Zhao Shou's narration. They didn't usually have many opportunities to hear Dean Zhao lecture, so this opportunity was very rare.
Huaiqing, who was waiting in Zhao Shou's room, heard the commotion in the academy and asked, "What's going on outside?"
The guard replied, "Dean Zhao is currently giving a sermon in the main hall, and it is said that he has shared his insights from the past few years with Li Chang'an..."