Volume 4 Chapter 14: Debating Scriptures
In late February, Privy Councilor Zhang Jun hurried back to Kaifeng Prefecture.
I have to say that the conditions these days are really hard to describe. Something that could have been clarified with just a phone call ended up requiring a prime minister to personally spend more than a month to go through the process.
Of course, on the other hand, there is no phone, so anyone who wants to speak to someone in person has to spend time on the road.
Zhang Jun returned to Tokyo at noon that day, and went straight to the palace to see Emperor Zhao. However, apart from knowing that the "air pressure practice" in Xuande Tower had been postponed to tomorrow, he gained nothing else. According to Senior Official Lan, although the Emperor already knew about the Dongting Lake settlement, he did not know that Zhang Shuxiang would return to Beijing today, so he went on a private visit early in the morning.
It is undoubtedly a ridiculous and frivolous act for a great emperor to go on a secret visit in disguise. Of course, it should be firmly opposed. However, considering that Emperor Taishang Daojun was particularly fond of visiting prostitutes in disguise before his northern expedition...some things are just like that. As long as we bring enough manpower, we have to accept it with a pinch of our nose.
Otherwise, do you really think you can control an emperor on horseback who has personally fought in wars in an imperial society?
However, Zhang Jun still did not dare to delay, and he carefully asked the official Lan Guilan about the whereabouts of the emperor. Then, relying on his youth and health, he turned around and headed directly to where Emperor Zhao was, that is, the direction of Wuyue Temple.
Besides, if Emperor Zhao went to Wuyue Temple, it would not necessarily be considered a secret visit, because unlike the Daxiangguo Temple that was passed down to the Tang Dynasty, Wuyue Temple could barely be considered Emperor Zhao's private property - it was a Taoist place specially built during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty for the Fengshan activities, which was very compatible with the Daxiangguo Temple and was located on the south side of the Imperial College.
Of course, although it is very compatible with Daxiangguo Temple in terms of scale and system, everyone knows that the actual influence and business level of the two are not on the same level at all... First of all, Wuyue Temple has an illegitimate origin, because everyone knows that Song Zhenzong's Fengshan was a farce. Even Wang Anshi's generation of politicians completely destroyed the Han Confucianism's theory of the correspondence between heaven and man starting from the Fengshan event; secondly, the scale is similar and the distance is not too far, but there is still an obvious difference in location. Daxiangguo Temple is in the inner city and Wuyue Temple is in the outer city. The two are separated by a city wall and the Imperial College. Are the land prices in the second and third ring roads the same?
However, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because the location was too good, after Emperor Zhao returned to the old capital, the Grand Prime Minister's Palace was soon requisitioned for military use. It served as both a high-end military weapons supervisory office and inner city barracks, and even concurrently served as a reception center for senior generals... Now, no matter how delicious the monks' vegetarian food was, how high-end the location was, or how excellent the room service was, they could no longer continue to engage in commodity economic activities and folk religious activities.
At this time, due to the actual needs of Tokyo's economic recovery, Wuyue Temple located south of Taixue became the most upscale civilian hotel in Tokyo... It can only be said that, thanks to the blessing of the Taoist ancestors, the Taoists just sat there and did not move, but they actually surpassed the monks.
Don’t you see, if they want to debate the plot of “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” nowadays, the monks have to count on the abbot Fahe of the Shaolin Temple branch to take the lead in the west of the city. This part of the Imperial Street has always been the territory of the Five Mountains Temple.
Without further ado, although Zhang Jun did not know the specific reason why Emperor Zhao came to Wuyue Temple, he could still guess something... It was the first civilian hotel in Tokyo, and it was next to the Imperial College, so it was naturally a place where civilian scholars who were not students of the Imperial College gathered and lived. And now it was not the imperial examination season, and considering the postponement of the "air pressure practice", the people who gathered there were naturally the Taoists, Neo-Confucianists, or other great and famous Confucian scholars who came from afar.
As expected, Zhang Jun hurried to the Wuyue Temple. As soon as he entered the temple, he found that hundreds of scholars and students had gathered in front of the main hall. After asking, he learned that it was Yang Shi, a famous Confucian scholar and direct descendant of the two Cheng brothers, who was also the protagonist of "Standing in the Snow for Cheng's Door", who had brought his children here. These people were all here to see Yang Shi.
However, Zhang Deyuan arrived in a hurry in a purple robe. He could not find the figure of Emperor Zhao. When he asked around and was looked at by everyone, he immediately became the focus of attention. Then many familiar people came to greet him, and even the Taoist priests of Wuyue Temple came to serve him anxiously. At this moment, Zhang Jun realized that he was a little rash. In desperation, he had to bow around and then sit on the ground like an ordinary student, pretending to be eager to learn and seek the truth, and refused everyone to come in.
Just like that, after a while of bustle and hustle and bustle, an elderly man in his fifties came to the prepared cushion in front of the hall, but he did not sit down. He just raised his hand and greeted the crowd. The bustle below immediately dissipated:
"Learning is best achieved through quietness. Since you are here to learn, please be quiet for a while. The teacher will be here soon..."
"Isn't this Yang Shi?" Upon hearing this, Emperor Zhao, who was sitting behind the window in a side room about seventy or eighty steps away, asked a question that he shouldn't have asked.
The people accompanying him looked at each other in bewilderment. Before Yang Yizhong could respond, Lü Benzhong beside him said blankly, "Your Majesty, Mr. Guishan (Yang Shi) is almost eighty years old. He was an important minister before the Jingkang period. When your Majesty ascended the throne, he once accompanied you in Nanjing (Shangqiu). After arriving in Nanyang in the second year of Jianyan, I remember that my father once again summoned him on behalf of the court... How could your Majesty have forgotten everything?"
Zhao Jiu laughed in silence, then raised his eyebrows: "To be honest, Ju Ren (Lü's Chinese name), I really forgot a lot of things when I fell into the well that day. Later I remembered some of them roughly, but I am still a little confused."
Lu Benzhong nodded quickly. That matter was related to the secret of his father's ascension to the throne. He was unwilling and too lazy to think about it, so he directly introduced through the half-closed window: "Good instructor, you know that this person is a disciple of Mr. Guishan (Yang Shi), called Luo Congyan, known as Mr. Yuzhang, and is also a famous Taoist scholar and a great scholar in the southeast."
Zhao Jiu nodded when he heard this, but he was curious and asked again: "Yang Shi is so old, and he is a direct descendant of Cheng Men, and even his disciples are great scholars. Then he should be one of the best among the Taoists and Neo-Confucianists, right?"
Lu Benzhong immediately laughed and said, "Your Majesty's words are right on target. After Guan and Luo, Taoism has become more diverse, but there is no dispute about the top two figures at the moment. They are Mr. Guishan (Yang Shi) and Mr. Qingshan (Hu Anguo). The rest are three points shorter."
"Then your father and your Lu family are three points inferior?" Zhao Jiu kept asking. "Isn't it said that your father and Yang Shi are known as the Southern Yang and the Northern Lu?"
Lü Benzhong smiled helplessly, "To be honest with you, that is a school of thought... My father inherited the Lü family's teachings, while Mr. Guishan inherited the orthodox Luo School. However, if we measure the orthodoxy of Taoism, my father can still be compared with Mr. Qingshan."
"That's what I said!"
Zhao Jiu, who had gained a lot of knowledge in recent days, was completely enlightened.
It turned out that the current situation in this wild school was somewhat similar to those high-end immortal cultivation novels and martial arts novels he had read before traveling through time. It not only talked about the difference between a famous and upright sect and the gang route, but also compared the strength of the sects and the cultivation of the leader.
To be specific, Taoism is considered the mainstream and upright school (there are many other doctrines), and Hu Anguo, Yang Shi, and Lu Haowen are undoubtedly the leading figures among them. In the world of martial arts, they are like Murong in the south, Qiao Feng in the north, and Jiumozhi. In the world of immortals, they are the only three great masters in the Yuanshen period.
However, Hu Anguo was inferior to Yang Shi in two aspects. One was that he had once asked Yang Shi for advice and they had a half-teacher-student relationship; the other was that after his level had improved and he had the potential to establish his own school, he ultimately did not have the time to do so.
As for Lu Haowen, he conducted Taoist research through the inheritance method of family learning, which naturally gave him a certain bonus of sectarian identity, but he was inevitably not as powerful as Yang Shi's Chengmen Luoxue.
Therefore, although they are called together in various ways, in fact, among the three, Yang Shi is the true leader of the righteous path. In terms of cultivation, sect power, and even age, he is the number one in the existing Taoist system.
But such a person, who was nearly eighty years old, still traveled all the way to Tokyo City with his fellow apprentices and disciples. It can be seen how many people were offended by Lu Haowen's sudden establishment of a new school of thought and his desire to become a saint.
While talking and thinking, Mr. Yuzhang stood up and talked about some new academic achievements that Mr. Guishan Yang Shi had obtained in Southeast China in recent years, then he took the initiative to step down. Then, it was still not Mr. Guishan Yang Shi who took the stage himself, but a young man who took over to continue controlling the situation.
"This is Li Dong, also known as Mr. Yanping. He is considered a disciple of Mr. Guishan and also a disciple of Mr. Yuzhang... He is the orthodox tradition of Luo School." Lu Benzhong took the initiative to introduce.
Zhao Jiu nodded repeatedly... After changing his train of thought, the official suddenly understood everything. How could he not know that Yang Shi and these three generations of Luo Congyan and Li Dong, the old, middle-aged and young, were the direct descendants of the two Chengs of Luo School, that is, the current leader and the two future leaders designated as such?
At this moment, the slightly younger Li Dong came on stage and blurted out: "Everyone, I wonder if you can make a couplet?"
The crowd below was naturally in an uproar. Couplets were something that started to become popular in the early Song Dynasty and then became very popular. It was a common form of entertainment among scholars and students at that time, and was also one of the means of training poetry.
Obviously, although Li Dong had been given the title of Mr. Yanping early on, he was still young and not as rigid as Luo Congyan before him, so he took the initiative to stir up the emotions of the students and scholars who were watching:
"Then I'll make a pair... What is the pair?"
"Earth!" The response from below was almost instant.
"What's the matter with the rain?"
"Wind!" The voices below became more and more uniform, but there was also a hint of ridicule, because the other party was like coaxing a child, saying these basic things that were so difficult to be basic.
"What's the mountain?" Mr. Yanping ignored the laughter and continued to ask.
"ocean!"
"What is the mainland doing?"
"Changkong!"
"What are the four mountains against?"
"Three Dukes!"
"What's the evening drum?"
"Morning bell..."
The laughter became louder and louder, but at this moment, Li Dong suddenly raised his voice:
"Morality for what?"
There was a sudden pause below... All of them were scholars, so who wouldn't know that Mr. Yanping was waiting here? But since so many people came, there were naturally some mischievous people among them, and for some unknown reason, they laughed and said on the spot:
"Morality versus interests!"
"Wrong!" Li Dong immediately responded with a stern voice. "Morality versus rationality!"
"Get out!" Zhao Jiu heard this and suddenly whispered to Lv Benzhong. "Get out to Gongli!"
Lu Benzhong swallowed his saliva, but he was helpless and could only shout loudly in the wing room: "Why can't morality be used against utilitarianism?"
Then, the eldest son of the prime minister and the successor of Lu's Taoism, ran out from behind the wing door to everyone's surprise, but just stood in front of the window and continued to raise his voice and bow: "May I ask Mr. Yanping, why can't morality be used for utilitarianism?!"
Li Dong was stunned when he heard this, and then he bowed solemnly: "So it's Master Donglai, Master, please come in. May I ask why you are so aggressive? I said this because Master is going to talk about morality and ethics, not because I really want to make couplets!"
Only then did Zhao Jiu realize that Lu Benzhong was also a famous figure.
"Don't pay attention to it. Just ask him directly, is it possible to combine morality and utilitarianism?" Zhao Jiu whispered directly behind the window while thinking about it.
"I just want to ask you, why can't we practice both morality and utilitarianism?" Lu Benzhong replied stiffly. "From your tone, is it possible that morality and utilitarianism are in conflict?"
Li Dong was a famous scholar, so of course he had words to defend himself. In fact, since he had opened his mouth, he was going to speak. However, before he could open his mouth, someone suddenly sneered from below:
"The country is in ruins, the two saints are exiled to the north, and talking about nature and reason is useless to the country and the people."
Li Dong's face turned black. He turned around to look, but couldn't find the person who spoke. He could only turn his head to Lv Benzhong and said, "Mr. Lv, is this what you meant?"
Lü Benzhong had known about the Emperor Zhao's general intentions for a long time, and he had already boarded the pirate ship. He also had some thoughts in his mind, so he gritted his teeth and took the initiative to sneer at him: "Although this person's words are a bit too much, they do make sense after all... Mr. Yanping, let me ask you, four years ago, the country was almost in danger of extinction, and the Emperor was able to restore the old capital. Was it because of you guys who kept talking about nature and reason all day long? In my opinion, we scholars should promote the combination of kingship and hegemony, and use both righteousness and profit, so as to help the Emperor achieve a career like the Three Dynasties and the Han and Tang Dynasties!"
"How can you say that?" Li Dong's face turned pale. "How can the Han and Tang dynasties be compared with the Three Dynasties? How can the hegemonic way be compared with the kingly way?"
"How can they not be compared?" Lü Benzhong was really puzzled. "You must know that the Three Dynasties and the Han and Tang emperors all used both righteousness and profit, but the Three Dynasties were saints, with outstanding abilities, and their actions were in accordance with the principles of heaven, so Confucian scholars said they were the kingly way; while the Han and Tang emperors were not very capable after all, and their actions were not necessarily in accordance with the principles of heaven, and there were some things that were not right during the period, so Confucian scholars pointed to their achievements and said that they were the hegemonic way... But the kingly way and the hegemonic way are actually quite good, and they are all good things and good achievements that the emperor achieved after working hard and devoting himself to righteousness and profit."
"This is ridiculous!" Li Dong's face turned black, and he clenched his fists. He just held back and yelled at the other person. "The governance of the Three Dynasties was in accordance with the laws of nature and achieved the kingly way. When did they ever use utilitarianism and hegemony? And the scale of the Han and Tang dynasties, when did they ever do anything in accordance with the laws of nature? The Han and Tang dynasties were all selfish and sought utilitarianism..."
Lu Benzhong frowned when he heard this. Just as he was about to respond, he heard the person behind him asking again: "Is he saying that the kingly way and the hegemonic way are opposites? Is he saying that utilitarianism and righteousness are also completely opposites? If you choose one, you can't choose the other?"
Lu Benzhong could only respond, "Yes."
"And what he means is that history is from top to bottom, sinking down generation by generation? Hanzu and Tangzong are not even qualified to be compared with the three generations? The two sides are not even the same species?"
"I don't know what the species is, but that's roughly the meaning." Lu Benzhong once again responded with his hands down, which had already aroused the suspicion of many people in front of the hall.
"Forget it, let's go."
When Zhao Jiu heard this, he felt completely bored and kept shaking his head. Then he stood up and did not wait for Yang Shi to appear. He walked out of the room directly with a group of people and headed towards the gate of Wuyue Temple.
Lu Benzhong said nothing more and followed Zhao Jiu out. Countless students and scholars from Tokyo had probably met the emperor in the Imperial Academy, not to mention the officials. So they all stood up at once and bowed and greeted him like a wave. Only Li Dong on the steps in front of the hall was startled for a moment. He probably came down from the steps and saluted after being reminded by the students below.
"No need to be polite." Zhao Jiu felt bored and just raised his hand to signal everyone. "Don't forget to join in the fun in front of Xuande Building tomorrow..."
The emperor had issued an oral order, and countless imperial guards wearing soft armor rushed forward. Of course, most people stopped and said that they had received the order, but Zhang Jun and several officials who came to watch the fun followed.
A group of people came to the gate of Wuyue Temple, and the imperial guards surrounded them. Then someone led the horse. At this time, an official who had chased them carefully reminded them: "Your Majesty, Mr. Guishan is a famous scholar in the world, and he is also a retired important official of the country. He is nearly 80 years old. Since we meet in the temple now, we should meet each other, right?"
Zhao Jiu shook his head for a moment: "People with different ideals cannot work together."
The ministers who followed him out were all in awe - this was probably the first time that Emperor Zhao directly expressed his dissatisfaction with a certain doctrine in a semi-public setting, and this was enough to stir up a storm.
Sure enough, the next moment, one of the officials who followed him out, Chen Gongfu, the chief academician of the Imperial College, directly bowed his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Cheng Xue's lies are misleading the people. I request that Cheng Xue be banned!"
Zhao Jiu was stunned ... He couldn't help but express his attitude publicly in advance. Of course, he knew that it would attract more speculators, but he didn't expect them to come so soon, especially Chen Gongfu, who always left a good impression on him and didn't seem like the kind of person who would speculate on the spot.
"To be honest, Your Majesty." Chen Gongfu laughed at this. "When Li Gongxiang (Li Gang) was in power, I was so angry that I wrote a letter to ask for the ban of Luoxue. I wonder if Your Majesty still remembers it?"
Zhao Jiu realized at this moment that it was this person who had previously mocked Taoism for "talking about nature and reason without doing anything". He immediately came to his senses and asked with a smile in front of the Taoist temple: "What did you say at that time?"
"At that time, I disliked Mr. Guishan." Chen Gongfu, who was dressed in his home clothes, was not afraid of the angry eyes of several Taoist officials beside him, and still smiled. "When the emperor first ascended the throne, he advocated fighting against the Jin Dynasty on the one hand, but on the other hand, he petitioned to abolish the tea and salt laws... I really don't know why there is still tax exemption when the country is overthrown and it is necessary to train troops? Therefore, even though I once wrote a letter in the Jingkang period, requesting that Wang Shuwang's position be quickly removed and the old party of Chengxue be quickly placed in his place, and regarded as a Taoist scholar, I still couldn't help but write a letter to impeach Mr. Guishan again."
Zhao Jiu laughed even more.
However, several Taoist officials nearby were terrified and quickly saluted and said, "Your Majesty! The Party Imprisonment disaster must not happen again!"
Some people gnashed their teeth and said, "Your Majesty, this Chen Gongfu is fickle and cannot be trusted."
Zhao Jiu finished laughing and ignored these people. He only looked at Chen Gongfu and asked, "What do you think, Mr. Chen?"
"I think it really can't be banned." Chen Gongfu also continued to smile. "The sage Yuan changed his ways and used the old party, and the government stopped the old party from overthrowing the new party. The situation of the monarch and his ministers tolerating each other for the sake of the country and the new and old parties not fighting each other was hard to form, and it really shouldn't be easily destroyed. And I can't really come to the Taoist temple with this dress and nothing to impeach..."
At this point, Chen Gongfu suddenly became serious: "Your Majesty, what I want to say is, first, the court must quickly decide on the proper study of classics, otherwise the lower levels will not be able to do anything; second, if we want to decide on the study of classics, we must seriously debate the classics, otherwise we will not be able to convince the public; third, there is a large field of learning, there is the Cheng school that is gradually rising, there is also Lu Xianggong's original school, there are other schools and factions, and many people are not interested in this. If we really want to debate the classics, we are not afraid of any faction, but Your Majesty must stand up first and tell everyone what classics the court wants and what it does not want, then naturally there are some classics and some not ..."
Zhao Jiu suddenly realized.
Besides, Chen Gongfu's meaning is as straightforward as it can be. He actually represents a large number of pragmatic bureaucrats. These people recognize the necessity of Confucian classics as a guiding ideology, but they pursue efficiency and results more. Therefore, they don't care about the content of Confucian classics at all, but only pursue the act of "establishing an official doctrine" itself.
For example, during the Jing Kang period (when Emperor Qinzong of Song was in power), the court's decision to change from the new to the old was already very clear and could not be shaken, so people like Chen Gongfu hurriedly wrote a letter requesting that Wang Anshi's tablet be thrown away and replaced by those of the old party... But this was not because he, Chen Gongfu, was really an old party member. It was impossible for an old party member to get the first place in the upper house, which was equivalent to the top scholar, under the rule of the new party. Instead, he saw that the emperor at that time had made up his mind and the overall situation had been decided, so he wanted to end the matter quickly.
Later, in the early years of Jianyan, the overall situation completely collapsed. Nothing was more important than staying alive. Knowledge and morality had to go wherever they wanted, but those Taoist scholars were still arguing about those trivial matters. Naturally, they would impeach them in turn.
At this point, they are not against Cheng's school of thought or support for Lu's school of thought, they just hope that the overall situation will be settled quickly... In a word, they are impatient, and as long as there is no peace sutra, they will accept anything. On the other hand, this also means that the delay of Emperor Zhao has finally worked. By doing this, he is forcing these centrists to express their opinions.
However, although he was awakened and proud in his heart, the official just nodded and laughed again: "I know what Mr. Chen means, but I will wait until the result is out downstairs of Xuande Building tomorrow, and then I will announce it!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Gongfu didn't know what to say, so he just smiled and left.
At this time, the horse had been brought to the front. Zhao Jiu held the reins and said a few more words to Zhang Jun, the prime minister, "Mr. Zhang, you have worked hard on the way... What do you think about this matter?"
Zhang Jun immediately responded, "Your Majesty, I feel a little emotional when I go out this time... Just like what I mentioned in the letter, I see that everyone in the world has their own selfish desires and what they think is public-spirited desires, and when they collide, there is often no conclusion. At this time, Your Majesty should really put some serious Confucianism on the table, so that everyone in the world knows what principles to follow to do things, to determine right and wrong, and to resolve conflicts."
This is still emphasizing the importance of establishing official schools and debating classics... Obviously, he also understood what Chen Gongfu meant, and made a clear statement that "we will fight wherever the government points."
Zhao Jiu nodded, got on his horse, and continued to say to Zhang Jun: "Yue Pengju and Qing's letters have been delivered to me. I already know the whole story. You did the right thing... and I have already replied to Pengju, saying only, 'I have always trusted Yue Qing's work'... so he doesn't need to worry about those things."
Zhang Jun quickly bowed and said yes.
"Of course, I have always trusted Zhang Qing in doing things." Zhao Jiu continued to smile at him, then reined in his horse and was about to leave.
Let me tell you, Zhang Deyuan returned to the capital today. Despite the long journey, he still traveled back and forth just to hear this sentence. Now when he heard the official say it in public, he immediately felt relaxed and felt that everything was worth it.
"Oh, right." As Zhao was about to leave, he remembered something and turned back to mention it to Zhang Jun. "Just as you two sent the letter, Hubei Governor Ma also sent someone to deliver a letter..."
Zhang Jun was confused for a moment, but then he quickly asked, "Excuse me, I wonder what General Ma said?"
"He said Yang Yizhong should be executed." Zhao Jiu glanced at Yang Yizhong, who seemed to have adapted to the situation, and laughed even harder, shaking his head. "Because he understood from the result of you and Yue Fei dealing with Dongting Lake that Yue Fei had sent a secret letter before, but he extrapolated from this and said that this secret letter system was not the right way to do things. Yang Yizhong manipulated this matter as a military official, as if he had stolen power from a cardinal, and he even suspected that he was isolating the civil and military officials inside and outside the country, so of course he should be executed."
Zhang Jun felt disgusted when he heard this, but he waved his sleeves and reminded him: "Ma Jinglie is a disciple of Cheng, and he has his own views on the kingly way and the hegemonic way!"
Zhao Jiu smiled without saying anything, turned around and rode away. Yang Yi Zhong finally couldn't help but sigh, and could only lower his head and ride to catch up.
