Chapter 434 The Eight Eccentrics of New Yangzhou (1)
It is said that Wang Zhong couldn't eat or sleep well these days because of this cultural conference. When the scholars from the island countries either started to visit Beihai Town Hospital or were taken by Lin Ziping to survey the railway lines, he became more and more anxious.
.
Although Wang Zhong studied under his father's friends Zhang Wen and Guo Nengji in his early career, he was personally inspired by Gu Yanwu. The political ideals of this lineage were often referred to as "both physical and functional" and "inner sage and outer king".
As for the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, which talked about the nature of mind, they upheld the attitude that "fate and benevolence are something that the master rarely talked about; nature and the way of heaven are something that Zigong never heard of."
It has been more than two years since he came to Beihai Town. After more than a dozen conversations with Zhao Xin, Wang Zhong felt that he almost understood what Zhao Xin wanted to do. However, the more he understood, the more he had to fight for Confucianism and Taoism.
Make a way out.
In order to ensure Wang Zhong's personal safety and reduce the attention of the Qing court caused by this gathering, the Leishen waited for two days near Wutiaosha off the coast of northern Jiangsu, until news came from Sheyang Lake that the personnel had arrived in Funing.
Then a boat was sent to bring Wang Zhong to land.
When he arrived at Xuzhuang at Sheyang Lake that night, his friends, including Hong Liangji, Jiang Fan, Jiao Xun, and Zhong Huai, also rode in carriages and entered Xuzhuang one after another after nightfall.
When Hong Liangji was led into the spacious and bright back hall, the first thing he saw was Duan Yucai, who was over fifty years old. He and several young people were looking at the brass lantern on the table.
Duan Yucai was eleven years older than Hong Liangji, and he was also a well-known Confucian scholar. He passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-five and served as a tutor in the Imperial College. After that, he failed many times. During this period, he studied under Dai Zhen, who was in the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign.
He was awarded the title of magistrate of Guizhou and was transferred to Sichuan two years later. In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign, 47-year-old Duan Yucai resigned from his post and returned home on the grounds that his parents were old and sick and he himself was ill. He lived in Fengqiao, Suzhou, and devoted himself to writing about peace and harmony.
Collection of books.
"Brother Ruoying, I didn't expect that I alerted you all!" After Hong Liangji said this, he stepped forward and held Duan Yucai's hands.
Duan Yucao chuckled and said: "You Hong Changzhou can come, but I, an old man, can't come? He, Wang Rongfu, is so mysterious that he wants to save the Taoist system from danger. For such a big thing, do you think I can come?
have a look?"
Because Hong Liangji was from Changzhou, Duan Yucai called him Hong Changzhou.
At this time, Hong Liangji heard someone next to him say: "Brother Jun Zhi, is it possible that only Brother Ruoying is the one in your eyes?"
Hong Liangji turned around and saw a middle-aged man sitting in a corner of the room with a thin face, wearing a long green cloth gown and a black jacket. He quickly raised his hands and said: "Jiang Cen, you are here too! You are not
Do you want to be a tutor in Dantu?"
Thirty-eight-year-old Liu Tai said: "It's very boring. I have already resigned and returned to my hometown."
Liu Taigong, courtesy name Duanlin, was born in Baoying, Jiangsu Province. He passed the imperial examination at the age of 21, but failed in repeated attempts. In the middle of Qianlong's reign, Sikuquan Library started to run books. Liu Taigong, Wang Niansun, Zhu Jun, Cheng Jinfang, Dai Zhen, Shao Jinhan, etc.
When he entered the library and repaired, he often discussed classics and archeology. He was silent and rarely spoke, but every time he made a comment, all the elders were impressed.
At this time, Jiang Fan, who was sitting opposite Liu Taigong, winked and said, "I said that when I entered Xuzhuang just now, the old bird kept chirping in the tree. It turns out that the rehabilitated layman is coming."
"Rehabilitated layman" is Hong Liangji's nickname. When several people heard it, they burst into laughter.
Hong Liangji didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He pointed at Jiang Fan and said "naughty". He was fifteen years older than Jiang Fan, so he was already a generation behind him.
Jiang Fan rolled up his sleeves, stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Brother Beijiang, it has been three years since we parted ways in the capital."
After the two of them finished the ceremony, Jiao Xun, Zhong Huai and Huang Chengji came up to salute Hong Liangji and say hello.
While everyone was talking and laughing, they heard someone cough slightly outside the hall, and then they saw a man wearing a gray cotton preacher's robe, a dark scarf, and a round, fat face walking in quickly.
"Mr. Rong Fu!"
"Brother Rongfu!"
"Brother Rongfu."
Wang Zhong cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Everyone, Wang is late, so I will offend you!"
Although it was pitch dark outside the house, every detail of the hall was bright. In the eyes of everyone, today's Wang Zhong's eyebrows no longer had the decadent look of the past. His face was rosy and high-spirited. Only the gray hair on his temples could be seen.
It can be seen that he is no longer young.
Wait! Hair on the sideburns?!
The hair ornaments of this era were not the yin and yang heads of later generations, but money rat tails. Although the "rat tail" was slightly thicker than in the early Qing Dynasty, three-quarters of the head still had to be shaved.
Hong Liangji stepped forward and took a look, then walked around to look behind Wang Zhong, and suddenly said in shock: "Brother Rong Fu, where are your braids?!"
"This is not a Han attire, so what's the use of keeping it? Junzhi, I've been growing my hair for more than a year." After Wang Zhong said that, he took off the scarf, revealing the tied bun.
This made everyone present stunned. They thought that this person was really a thief and an enemy of the imperial court. No wonder there had been no news for two years. Even his wife and children were missing. He had probably taken his family to Beihai Town.
Bar.
Looking at the expressions of the seven people opposite, Wang Zhong said: "Have you forgotten the 'Nagifa Order' a hundred years ago?"
Duan Yucai, Hong Liangji and Liu Taigong were stunned for a moment and remained silent. However, the younger generation Jiang Fan, Jiao Xun and others looked confused.
It is said that when the policy of cutting pigtails was implemented in the early years of the Republic of China, the reason why many people were unwilling to cut their braids was not because they were backward and ignorant and regarded ugliness as beauty; it was because the Qing court had deliberately concealed it for nearly three hundred years, and that period of history was limited to those in China.
It is rumored among intellectuals and revolutionary parties that the reason why some Han intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China cared so much about having braids was actually mainly because they hated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which had long hair.
Throughout the Qing Dynasty, the use of the word "fa" was extremely careful from top to bottom. The Manchus spent more than eighty years revising the "History of the Ming Dynasty", but the four words "a thousand critical moments" were never used in it from beginning to end.
The word "Qingshilu", which records the emperor's words and deeds, is even missing. Using "a critical weight" to describe a hair seems to be very reminiscent of the "Nagi Fa Order".
Not to mention the Han people, many Manchus nowadays do not remember the history of forcing Han people to shave their hair and leave braids. Instead, they think this is a Han custom. Not to mention how many people don’t know that the emperor sitting in Beijing
In fact, he is a Manchurian.
For example, Zhong Huai and Huang Chengji who were present did not understand this period of history at all. They glanced at Wang Zhong's temples from time to time, trembling all over and sweating on their foreheads.
Wang Zhong noticed the uneasiness of the two people, shook his head and sighed: "The moon wheel hung miserably on the besieged city, the swords and halberds were thin and frosty, and the frost was too bright; the crows did not sing, the drums and horns were silent, and the whole battalion sang "Zhuan Wu Geng". The sound of the song was miserable and the flutes burst out.
, this night the three armies shed tears like blood; the west wind blows and the river is cold, and our army is miserable even if it drinks into it. Xin'an Changping is not an accident, it is rare in ancient times to die in peace; six to seventy thousand people have not fallen, and tens of thousands of bones and tombs are piled up like a mound."
Everyone was stunned when they heard this. Hong Liangji looked at Wang Zhong and said, "Is this Rong Fu's new work?"
Wang Zhong shook his head and said: "King Zhao did it."
"Huh?" Everyone thought that Zhao Xin, who was said by the court to be causing trouble in Northern Xinjiang and was greedy for money, actually still had such literary talent?
Well, Zhao Xin finally acted shamelessly and stole words and phrases from Feng Guifen's poems of the Qing Dynasty. But at this time, there were still twenty years before Feng Jingting was born, and his teacher Lin Zexu was just four years old, so he didn't use it in vain.
Jiang Fan's eyes turned red and he sighed: "Sixty or seventy thousand people!"
In fact, there were more than 600,000 to 70,000 people. When Jiangyin defended the city, including the villagers outside the city who came to help defend the city, there were more than 200,000 people. All men, women, and children in the city went to fight. When the city was broken, the women in the city
All of them committed suicide, including the elderly and children. Only 53 people were forcibly rescued by the Qing army because they were too late to commit suicide.
This period of history was recorded in the "Southern Strategy of the Ming Dynasty" written by Wuxi scholar Ji Liuqi. Due to the ban on literature during the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, it has never been published, and only the handwritten version survives. Historically, it was not until the Jiadao period that the outline of the text was relaxed, so it could not be published.
But not entirely.
Everyone here today likes to collect books, and Jiangyin and Yangzhou are only separated by a river, so except for Jiao Xun, Zhong Huai and Huang Chengji, the other four people have privately read the manuscript of this book.
Duan Yucai, the oldest, coughed lightly: "Everyone, please sit down and talk."
As soon as these words came out, everyone with their own thoughts sat down one after another. However, because of their age and the time of passing the exam, they rearranged their seats.
Among those present, Duan Yucai was Dai Zhen's eldest disciple, so in terms of seniority, Duan Yucai took the top spot on the left, Wang Zhong took the top spot on the right, followed by Liu Taigong, Hong Liangji, Jiang
Fan, Jiao Xun, Zhong Huai, Huang Chengji.
Afterwards, Wang Changsheng, who was stationed at Xuzhuang, brought his men some refreshments and whispered a few words to Wang Zhong before they all left.
Since the founding of Gu Yanwu in the Qing Dynasty, Sinology in the Qing Dynasty has been founded by Yan Ruochu and Hu Wei, pioneered by Hui Dong, and finally reached its zenith by Dai Zhen. From the middle of Qianlong's reign, with the opening of the Siku Quanshu Library, the emperor's "integration of governance and Taoism"
The image creation reached the extreme, and the literati's right to speak was completely controlled. However, the literati no longer dared to discuss the government affairs and comment on political rights and wrongs, so in the academic development, there was a grand situation of "everyone Xu Zheng, every family Jia Ma".
Numerous scholars focus on Confucian classics and immerse themselves in textual research. They believe that the older the classics, the more true they are. The so-called "all ancient books must be true, and all Chinese books must be good." This is different from the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties that focused on abstract discussions about regulating qi, mind, and nature, forming the famous "Qian" theory of later generations.
"Jia School".
The most famous among them are the "Wu School" headed by Huidong and the "Wan School" headed by Dai Zhen, which have the greatest influence. The characteristic of the Wu School is to collect the scriptures of Han Confucianism and communicate them to prove them. In short, "as long as
The classics of the Han Dynasty are good." The Anhui School attaches great importance to the textual research of the system of names and objects in the Three Rites, and understands the content and meaning of ancient books from the perspective of phonology and philology.
The Yangzhou School not only inherited the characteristics of the Wu and Anhui schools, but also developed and surpassed the two schools to form its own unique style. This school is headed by Duan Yucai of Jintan and Wang Niansun of Gaoyou. Although its origin is Dai Zhen, it is
Self-contained.
At this gathering in Sheyang Lake, except for Wang Niansun who was working as an official in the capital, Wang Yinzhi and his son who were studying behind closed doors at home, and Ruan Yuan who was staying in the capital, all the people from the Yangzhou School were basically present, and there were more
I got a Hong Liangji from the Wu sect.
From a Confucian perspective, everyone present, whether old or young, now or in history, are all famous Confucian scholars in the Qianjia School.
In terms of personal research preferences, Duan Yucai specializes in text exegesis (study of ancient Chinese word meanings), Wang Zhong specializes in the evolution of ancient and modern institutions, Hong Liangji specializes in geography, Liu Taigong specializes in astronomical music, and Jiang Fan specializes in "Yi".
Jiao Xun, Zhong Huai, and Huang Chengji were majoring in mathematics.
As the Qianjia School in history developed, the content of its research had nothing to test, and was even completely out of touch with social reality, and it became research for the sake of research.
Struggles for exegesis, analysis of melons, and exhaustion of all the wisdom and wisdom in the world are of no use to the prosperity of the country! This "spirit" will continue to later generations. What are the four ways of writing the word "fennel"?
"Dream of Red Mansions" can provide a conspiracy theory based on textual research!
Duan Yucai was a former county magistrate. Faced with Wang Zhong who had revealed his identity and rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, he really didn't know what to say. He thought about it for a long time and then asked Wang Zhong: "Are the wife and children okay?"
Wang Zhong smiled and said: "Everything is fine."
His son Wang Xisun is just three years old this year, and his wife Zhu is his second wife. Because the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was so bad in the early years, the first wife Sun did not do anything at home, so Wang Zhong, who was a filial piety to his mother, had to get married.
Liu Taigong was always taciturn, but faced with such an embarrassing situation, he still said: "Brother Rongfu, you mentioned in your letter that you wanted to save the Taoist order from danger. What do you mean by this?"
Wang Zhong picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea, moistened his somewhat dry throat, and said in an astonishing voice: "Everyone, we are experiencing changes that have not happened in a thousand years. The Manchu emperor in the north is already in danger. Now the saint descends today.
, Beihai repeatedly defeated the imperial army, conquered the Japanese in the east, and punished the Rakshasa in the west. Now it stretches from north to south, and the subordinate territory under its control has exceeded ten thousand miles..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Everyone here was shocked after hearing this. The Qing government blocked news from outside the customs and only said that foreign barbarians invaded and occupied the white mountains and black waters. Although everyone did not know much information, they were not fools.
.But no one knows what Beihai Town is like.
Duan Yucai twirled his beard and said, "Even so, it's just a change of dynasty. How can we talk about changes that haven't happened in a thousand years?"
Wang Zhongdao: "This is also the main reason why Wang invited you all this time. Nowadays, Beihai Town's military force is too strong. More than a thousand people can defeat the imperial army of ten thousand people without harming a single thing. However, the system is completely new. Zhong Shen has been in Beihai for two years.
There is no precedent for what I have heard and seen, even if I read through the classics.
Now that King Zhao has attacked the Japanese country several times, both the government and the public are as silent as cicadas when they hear his name and dare not disobey him. There are even Japanese hypocritical Confucians who, relying on the meager knowledge of Westerners, have defected to serve under his command. If things continue like this, when Beihai enters the customs and aspires to be crowned the king,
, there will be no place for scholars like us to live.”
Everyone was shocked when they heard Wang Zhongyan's conclusive statement that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was about to fall.
Jiang Fan raised his hands and said, "Senior Rongfu, can you tell everyone what the details of Beihai Town are?"
So next, Wang Zhong spent almost an hour telling everyone in detail about the ups and downs of Beihai Town in his eyes, inside and outside. During this period, everyone sometimes admired, sometimes disdained, sometimes clapped their hands, and sometimes looked at each other in horror.
Even though the people who came today are all like pastoral hermits, they actually all have aspirations for fame, but bad luck. In fact, if Wang Zhong didn't write a letter to summon him this time, historically Hong Liangji would have been ranked second in high school the year after that.
It is said that in the Confucian political pursuit of "inner sage and outer king", "inner sage" refers to self-cultivation, "ordering the family" is only the minimum requirement and the foundation of the outer king; and the highest ideal is "ruling the country" and "pacifying the world."
The participation of ancient scholars in actual politics was the political ideal of traditional scholars. This kind of participation in politics was not only a utilitarian behavior, but also because it was connected with the "inner sage" and was the way to achieve the highest realm of life.
way.
Confucianism is both a set of systematic beliefs and a set of political theories. Political Confucianism provides a basis for legitimizing China's monarchy, and primitive Confucianism also provides the scholar class with the basis and ultimate solution to the officialdom.
Spiritual sustenance.
Hong Liangji's brows furrowed more and more as he listened. Although Wang Zhong talked about large iron ships, towering chimneys, molten iron flowing day and night, mechanical farming and many other confusing new things, he was still keenly aware of Beihai Town.
means of governance.
The use of machinery to replace human labor in farming has led to a large number of agricultural people putting down their farm tools and entering factories and the army. Although it is sensational, it is understandable.
However, the government was sent to the countryside, and a large number of low-level officials who did not understand Confucianism were trained from illiterate peasants. They did not hold imperial examinations, did not take Confucian culture as the core of education, and made soldiers literate. All these made him gradually understand what Wang Zhong was worried about.
What. That King of Zhao has made this method so handy. Once he aspires to the throne and ascends the throne, what will the world be like? Where will the scholars live?
Thinking of this, Hong Liangji suddenly shuddered, and beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
It is said that in the traditional form of "scholar politics", since "scholars" and "officials" are the basic sources of bureaucracy, "Daotong" and "Zhengtong" are integrated. Once the imperial examination system is abolished, Taoism and Zhengtong will
will be separated immediately, and Confucianism as the carrier will be separated from politics. And the disintegration of the "Four People's Politics" is nothing less than a catastrophic disaster for all scholars!
Don't think that there is no difference between scholars and intellectuals. This is not just a change of name, but essentially the collapse of Confucian politics. Scholars combine Taoism and political tradition, and have the fundamental responsibility to not only clarify the world, but also
To implement people's hearts; and intellectuals, due to the separation of morality and politics, can only bear the responsibility of academic research to a certain extent.
Liang Qichao, a later generation, showed the similarities and differences in the mentality of scholars and intellectuals during the transitional period in his letters to his children. He claimed that at that time, he was "in inner battle and pain every day", "because as a political party, there were many people he did not want to see.
I have to meet people and have to do things I don’t want to do. I really can’t live with this kind of life. If I completely sit on the sidelines and shy away from difficulties, I really can’t live with my country and my conscience.”
In the end, he could only adopt a compromise method, that is, not participate in political discussions. How can he not suffer if his roots are gone?