Chapter 175: A hundred schools of thought contend [two in one]
In August and September of the fourth year of Wei Xing'an, in compliance with the order of King Zhao Run of Wei, the Ministry of Rites began to hold the first-ever Hundred Literary Events, allowing leaders of various schools in the world to compete for a total of twelve places for the "four masters and eight assistants"
.
In view of the fact that Daliang had already been troubled by these literati, the Ministry of Rites specially moved the assessment venue outside the city. About fifteen miles southeast of Daliang City, an open space was set aside for hundreds of disciples to debate with each other and compete for quotas.
of venue.
In a few years, the Wei Kingdom's highest national school, "Daliang Academy", will be established on this vacant land to continuously provide talents to the Wei State. However, right now, this place is just a desolate vacant land.
In early September, when the local farmers in Daliang were preparing for the autumn harvest, disciples from hundreds of schools in the city, each carrying straw mats and dry food, walked to this open space to mark out the sphere of influence of their respective schools, like a territory.
Although this open space looks very desolate, it does not affect the fervent hearts of the disciples of the various schools. They spread out the grass, discuss academics with their companions, and think about how to defeat the other opponents and win a place.
Among them, some are serving officials of the Wei State, some are white people in the opposition, and some of them are not even from Wei, but the friendship inherited from the same school of thought makes them sit next to each other and look very united.
"Hey! Zhang Qigong, the right captain of Tiance Mansion!"
Seeing a group of Legalist disciples walking past, one of the Confucian disciples exclaimed in a low voice.
After hearing this, some Confucian disciples from other Central Plains countries curiously asked: "Who is this Qi Gong? Why is Brother Xian so afraid of him?... I am Gongyang Gao, from Da Qi."
"Are you from Qi?" I saw the man exclaimed just now looked at Gongyang Gao for a few times, then nodded and explained in a low voice: "Tiance Mansion is the government office directly controlled by the monarch of Wei Dynasty, and Zhang Qigong, then
He is a powerful figure in this official office, and his status is no less than that of ministers in various ministries."
After hearing this, Gongyang Gao looked surprised: "The ministers of the King of Wei are actually disciples of Legalism? This... what should we do?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a Confucian disciple nearby comforted him and said, "Brother Gongyang Xian, don't be alarmed. Among my Confucian disciples, there are also close ministers of His Majesty..." Just as he was speaking, he showed a little joy on his face and said with a smile: "Here he comes.
!”
Gongyang Gao raised his head and looked in the direction the man pointed, and saw a young scribe riding a horse. When he got close to the gathering place of the Confucian disciples, the young scribe got down and got off the horse.
After taking a bunch of packages, he walked quickly and greeted all the Confucian disciples: "The owl is a step late, please don't be offended, dear brothers and sisters."
The nearby Confucian disciples returned the greetings one after another, and some of them reminded: "Brother Jie Zi, Zhang Qigong of Legalism has just arrived."
"oh."
Jie Zigui looked around, and soon he saw Zhang Qigong sitting on a straw mat, chatting and laughing with the other Legalists around him, as if he had become the leader of the younger generation of Legalists.
Seemingly noticing Jie Zizi's gaze, Zhang Qigong turned around and looked at each other. Although he nodded slightly and said hello, Jie Zi could clearly see the arrogant look in his eyes.
"Oh."
Jie Ziwei smiled faintly and nodded in response.
As one of Wei Wang Zhao Run's right-hand men, Jie Ziu is no stranger to Zhang Qigong. Just like him, Jie Ziu is destined to succeed Du You as the chief assistant of the inner dynasty in the future, and may even be the prime minister. Zhang Qigong is also destined to become the chief minister of punishment.
official.
At this time, Gongyang Gao looked at Jie Zizi in surprise. Seeing that the person coming was elegant and elegant, he asked privately: "Why...does this person need someone?"
Or someone familiar with the matter introduced in a low voice: "This is the minister of the imperial court, your majesty's closest minister, Jie Zizi."
"How does it compare to Zhang Qigong just now?" Gongyang Gao asked.
The man snorted and said, "Of course Brother Jie is better."
Because he knew the principle of literati looking down on each other, Gongyang Gao didn't take it too seriously and still looked at Jie Zizi carefully.
Unexpectedly, his eyes were noticed by Jie Ziu, who came over with a smile on his face, raised his hands in greeting and said, "This wise brother is so new to me. I wonder where he is from and what school he studied in?"
Gongyang Gao quickly raised his hands and returned the greeting: "Gongyang Gao, a native of Qi, has met Master Jiezi. The one I am studying here is from the Bu family..." "Note: Bu family is Zixia."
"A lineage of the Bu family?"
After hearing what Gong Yang Gao said, the Confucian disciples around him looked at Gong Yang Gao with strange eyes.
Why, because Bu's line of thought is relatively 'alternative' among Confucianists. It does not focus on "denying oneself and restoring etiquette" and teaching people to learn the words, deeds and actions of ancient sages, but advocates "advancing with the times" and not blindly
To paraphrase the classics of sages, in the current era, Confucian disciples have mixed praise and disapproval of the Bu family.
No, after Gongyang Gao said these words, the Confucian disciples around him inadvertently distanced themselves from him.
But only Jie Ziyu's eyes lit up, as if he had met a close friend.
Under the surprised eyes of other Confucian disciples, Jie Zizi smiled and said to Gongyang Gao: "I came here in a hurry and didn't bring a mat with me. Brother Xian, would you mind if Jie Zizi sat with you?"
"As you wish!" Gongyang Gao said happily, and quickly invited Jie Ziyu.
After the two sat down, they started talking to each other. Gongyang Gao faintly realized that Jie Zizi's ideas seemed to coincide with his, which made him even more interested.
Under the excitement, Gongyang Gao also put forward his own immature thoughts. He believed that the frequent wars in the world were due to the numerous countries, and this chaotic situation would definitely be terminated by "great unification".
After hearing this, Jie Ziyu felt an indescribable joy all over his body - wasn't this what he was thinking?
"Qi people, Gongyang Gao."
Jie Ziu secretly remembered this name in his heart. He knew that although the Gongyang Xian brother in front of him was inconspicuous at first glance, in his opinion he was a rare talent. With such a talent, he must serve Wei Wei.
If the king keeps him, how can he be allowed to return to Qi?
Wanting to stay here, Jie Ziyu said cryptically: "Brother Xian is very interested in his thoughts, but now is not the time. After this happens, will Brother Xian be willing to stay at Yu Di's house for a few days?"
When Gongyang Gao heard this, he immediately realized that the person in front of him was very supportive of his idea of "great unification", and he was so surprised that he almost danced for joy.
He never imagined that he would come all the way from Qi to Wei. He was just going to witness the grand event of the Hundred Schools of Thought contending in Wei and perfect his idea of "great unification". He never thought that he would actually meet someone who was the same as him in Wei.
They are like-minded people by coincidence - it is really a worthwhile trip!
Because they had similar thoughts, even though Jie Ziyu was from Chu and Gongyang Gao was from Qi, the two of them quickly became close friends.
"There are... so many people."
As the children from hundreds of families arrived one after another, Gongyang Gao was very surprised, because he looked around and felt that there were probably no less than a thousand people from the hundreds of families gathered here.
From ancient times to the present, there has almost never been such a lively scene among literati.
After thinking about it, Gongyang Gao asked Jie Zizi: "I have so many Confucian disciples. Isn't it no longer a question of getting four "major" places?"
"It's hard to say." Jie Zizi shook his head slightly.
Although he is also a disciple of Confucianism, he also knows that traditional Confucianism has its limitations. There is no problem in using it to educate the world and persuade people to do good. However, this time Wei Wang Zhao Run's request was to "make the country rich and strong."
, at this point, the legalists, Mohists, military strategists, and political strategists have great advantages.
After hearing what Jie Ziyu said, Gongyang Gao was very surprised: Is it possible that he, a Confucian scholar, could lose the election?
To him, this was simply unbelievable!
Seeing the surprised look on Gongyang Gao's face, Jie Zizi sighed slightly and briefly introduced his new confidant, Zhao Run, the monarch of Wei: "My monarch of Wei is a hard-working king.
, In fact, what Your Majesty prefers the most is Legalism..."
To be fair, Zhao Run has never mentioned which academic school he prefers, but his measures in recent years, such as suppressing the monopoly of wealth by nobles, prohibiting land annexation, rewarding people based on merit, etc., are all in line with the "determination of merits" of an academic.
One of the core points of the "controversy" - Fortunately, King Zhao Run of Wei did not oppose Confucian "rituals", otherwise, Confucianism would have been completely left behind by Legalism.
And because of this, although the number of Legalist disciples is much smaller than that of Confucian disciples, people like Zhang Qigong, the right captain of the Tiance Mansion, Tang Zheng, the minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Yang Yu, the minister of Dali Temple, etc., are not worried at all, because they Wei
The monarch of the country is actually a person who advocates Legalist thought. At best, he only puts on a layer of Confucianism on the basis of "ruling the country according to law."
Of course, even so, Jie Ziyu still believes that there is no problem for his Confucian school to win the four "major" places. The problem lies in the "dispute between Confucianism and Legalism" - which academic school is the first major?
is the real problem!
For now, Jie Ziyu is really not sure about his Confucianism defeating the Legalists - on the contrary, his new confidant Gongyang Gao, whose "great unification" thought is more important than the traditional Confucian thought,
It is possible to defeat the Legalists.
At this time, Du You, the Minister of Rites, who was presiding over this grand event, finally appeared. After describing many of the demands of this debate, he finally showed his 'positive face' - he walked to the side of the disciples of the Zongheng family grandly and let the scene
Many Confucian disciples shouted in low voices.
No one thought that Du You, the minister of rites in Wei who was responsible for educating the people, was actually a disciple of a political strategist.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Qigong, Tang Zheng, Yang Yu and others clasped their hands and laughed secretly: Confucianism has lost a strong supporter!
The assessment method is very simple, that is, representatives of a certain school state their thoughts in public, and then people from other schools point out the flaws. As long as they can convince everyone, or convince most people, they will be included as candidates for quota.
This is fair and cannot be done in public.
The order in which the representatives of the various schools of thought appear on the stage is based on the order of drawing lots, which is also fair.
The Mo family got the first draw.
The representative of the Mohist family was none other than Wei Mo's wealthy son Xu Ruo.
It is worth mentioning that Meng Wei, the minister of the Ministry of Industry of Wei, was also sitting at the gathering place of Mohist disciples today, and there were even some officials from the Ministry of Industry and the Metallurgical Bureau.
Jie Zizi, Zhang Qigong and other court officials were all very puzzled by this.
In fact, to be precise, Meng Wei, Minister of Industry of Wei State, was not a disciple of Mohism, but he strongly agreed with Mohism's view of "paying attention to craftsmanship".
Skills, simply put, are craftsmanship, such as making, forging, construction, etc., can all be included in this category.
But it is a pity that in this era, craftsmen are not valued. Confucianism even said that the skills that Mohism valued were "strange skills and obscene skills." One can imagine the status of craftsmen in this era.
Of course, in today's Wei State, craftsmen such as the Ministry of Industry, the Smelting Bureau, and the Mohist Family have long been proud and proud. On the one hand, Wei Wang Zhao Run attaches great importance to craftsmanship and technology. On the other hand, the Wei State can defeat South Korea. This kind of "wonderful skills"
'It can be said that he takes great advantage of himself.
But now, the Mohists have reached an agreement with officials and craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry and the Smelting Bureau that the status quo must be maintained and craftsmen with craftsmanship must not be looked down upon as before.
On this basis, Meng Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, led some officials from the Ministry of Industry and some officials from the Metallurgical Bureau to generously support Mohist thought. This made the momentum of the Mohists suddenly increase a lot, and their potential power and influence actually increased.
No less than Confucianism and Legalism.
The thoughts of Xu Ruo, the great scholar of Wei Dynasty, are divided into two parts. The first part naturally advocates "skills" and believes that "skills" are beneficial to the country and should not be underestimated. In this regard, he criticized Confucianism by criticizing Sang and Huai.
Because Confucianism has always looked down upon this kind of "strange and obscene skills".
Therefore, it was inevitable that Xu Ruo, the great scholar of Wei Mo, was attacked by many Confucian disciples present.
Unfortunately, this time the Mohists were very confident. When Xu Ruo sneered and taunted the Confucian disciples, "It was the strange and obscene skills that you despise that helped Wei defeat South Korea." The Confucian disciples were speechless.
Although they are unwilling to do so, the Confucian disciples must admit that the strange and obscene skills that they looked down upon in the past really helped Wei defeat South Korea, and this is something that their Confucian thinking cannot achieve.
Seeing that the Confucian disciples were speechless, Xu Ruo, the great master of Wei Mohism, did not forget to elaborate on the second part of his thoughts, that is, the core ideas of Mohism, such as non-aggression, universal love, etc., and this allowed those suffocating Confucian disciples to find
When asked about the method of attack and annihilation, Xu Ruo was immediately speechless when he asked, "Do you dare to say that the king of Wei is equal to the common people?"
Indeed, who among the farmers who dared to cultivate the land in the farmland could be equal to Zhao Run, the heroic leader of the Wei Kingdom?
As a result, the Mo family was quickly defeated.
Of course, even though he was beaten down, there is still no problem in being included in the list. After all, the first part of Xu Ruo's idea of "strengthening the country through skills" has already met the requirements of Wei King Zhao Run.
It is worth mentioning that when many Confucian disciples attacked and annihilated Xu Ruo, the great master of Wei Mo, Jie Ziyu did not say a word, which made Gongyang Gao very curious.
You know, if Confucianism and Legalism are competitors, then Confucianism and Mohism are natural enemies, and it is almost impossible to coexist.
Out of confusion, Gongyang Gao privately asked Jie Zizi: "Brother Xian has an old relationship with the Mohist Juzi?"
Jie Ziyu smiled and nodded, and Fu Er explained to Gongyang Gao: "Yu Di once had a discussion with Xu Ruo, the great master of the Mohist family. He also believed that only by unifying the world can they better implement their "non-offensive" tactics.
Think about it, so in this regard, he is the same as you and me."
"I see."
Gongyang Gao suddenly realized this, and looked with surprise and excitement at Wei Mo's great son Xu Ruo, who returned to his seat in embarrassment. He was happy that after Jie Zizi, he had found another comrade who supported his idea of "great unification"——
Although the other party is a descendant of the Mohist school, and he rejects most of the Mohist academics.
After the Mohist family, the second person to appear was the military strategist.
The representative of the military strategist was, of course, the former Minister of War, Li Huan, but it was Li Huan’s son, Li Jin, the chief minister of the Military Casting Bureau, who appeared on the stage - probably because Li Jin saw that the previous Xu Ruo who appeared was attacked by many Confucian disciples.
Finally, he returned to his seat in embarrassment. He was worried that his elderly father would suffer a similar fate, so he took his place.
However, unexpectedly, when Li Jin described his father Li Huan's strategy of "better and stronger soldiers", almost no one tried to attack him.
This is no wonder. After all, in this era of numerous countries, although military strategists are said to be less influential than Confucianism and Legalism, no country can lack military strategist ideas. What's more, Wei, who has 400,000 troops and 100,000 imperial guards,
Wang Zhaorun, he is definitely a military strategist who attaches great importance to the idea of "defending the country with strong troops".
According to some idle statistics, when King Su Zhao Run appeared in the Wei military, Wei's investment in the army gradually began to increase. Until King Su Zhao Run succeeded the position of King of Wei, Wei's military expenditures were lower than those of the previous king twenty years ago.
During Zhao Si's reign, the number increased more than six or seven times - this clearly shows that Wei Wang Zhao Run supports military strategists!
Of course, the more important reason is that military strategists basically have no conflict with Confucianism, Mohism, and Legalism. Therefore, people from other schools are too lazy to argue with military strategists. After all, military strategists will definitely be included in the list, but what?
, and its influence is destined to be unable to compete with Confucianism and Legalism, so there is no need to make enemies.
The third person to appear was a famous person.
Famous people, simply put, are debaters. "Note: The famous 'white horse is not a horse' is an allusion to famous people. Of course, this allusion makes famous people's reputation very bad, but in fact, famous people are advanced dialectical thinkers. However,
It’s hard for ordinary people to understand, so it’s not popular.”
In this world, famous lobbyists basically have to learn from the ideas of famous people.
Like this time, Han Chao, the envoy from South Korea to the State of Wei, also participated in this grand event. But to be honest, it is easy for people to get dizzy and be led around by the ideas of famous people. Anyway, all the people present
The sent student listened for a long time, but he still didn't understand what the other party was talking about.
Of course, no one went to attack famous people - because they didn't understand them at all.
The fourth person to appear is the strategist.
As a representative of the political strategists, Du You, the Minister of Rites, expounded his own views - only rough thoughts. After all, it is not easy to discuss the thoughts of political strategists in public, especially for someone like Du You who holds a high position in the Wei State.
Officials, this can easily expose Wei's strategic intentions.
Precisely because Du You's story was very superficial, although not many people criticized it, there were also not many people who supported it.
However, some of the famous disciples applauded and supported him.
This is no wonder, after all, the relationship between famous people and political strategists is very good. Some well-known lobbyists, such as the famous lobbyist "Feng Chen" of Qi State, have the academic theories of both famous people and political strategists.
Following the strategists, miscellaneous families, novelists, farmers, etc. also sent their respective representatives to the stage one after another.
However, in the eyes of many people at the scene, these small schools of thought were just here to look familiar. Either they could not meet the requirements of King Zhao Run of Wei to "make the country rich and strong", or they had problems with their own thinking.
Take the Zajia School, for example, which claims to "combine Confucianism, Mohism, and Legalism." It stews the thoughts of Confucianism, Mohism, Ming Jia, Legalism and other schools in one pot. It sounds nice that it is a collection of opinions and an eclectic approach, but in fact, this itself has problems.
.
For example, Confucian "love" and Mohist "love", one advocates benevolence that distinguishes objects and classes, and the other advocates benevolence that does not distinguish objects or classes. These are themselves opposites. How can they be inclusive?
Another example is that Confucianism emphasizes governing the country by etiquette, and benevolence is higher than the law, while Legalism advocates governing the country according to the law, and the law is above all else (in fact, there are still reservations). How can the two be inclusive?
So unfortunately, Zajia was quickly eliminated and was not even included in the candidate list.
Also eliminated along with the miscellaneous family were novelists.
To put it bluntly, novelists collect anecdotes about famous people and spread them among the people. Although they are of their own genre, to be honest, they really do not benefit the country. They just provide the common people with another way to entertain themselves.
This school of thought was eliminated, and the disciples of other schools were not surprised at all.
As for farmers, it is a bit dramatic that this school of thought was eliminated.
The ideology of peasants is very simple, which is to "focus on farming and mulberry trees to ensure adequate food and clothing." In fact, Confucianism also supports this point, but the bad thing is that part of peasant ideology is similar to Mohism, which advocates letting the monarch go to the fields to cultivate and understand the people.
Suffering is something that Confucians cannot accept.
The traditional Confucian view on farming is: I know the importance of farming, and I insist that if a country wants to be strong, it must not neglect farming, but I will not farm because that is what inferior people do.
As a result, farmers were also eliminated.
After that, there are Confucianism and Legalism, which are the most eye-catching in this grand event.
In fact, Confucianism and Legalism still have the same ideas in some aspects, that is, the maintenance of royal power. However, the biggest contradiction between them is whether "ruling the country by etiquette and law" or "ruling the country by national law."
As for the extension of the two thoughts, Confucianism believes that the privileged class enjoys privileges, while Legalism believes that everyone is equal under the law. On this point, Legalism still has reservations, that is, it ignores the monarch, the so-called "
Under the king, everyone is equal" because they need the support of the king.
And this also led to the fact that when Legalists were attacked and annihilated by Confucians, they were often speechless.