Of course, there are loopholes in Chen Ying's words. What he refuted was Han Yong's statement that "etiquette requires women who have lost their husbands not to remarry", not "women who have lost their husbands cannot remarry". Of course there is a difference between the two. In fact, he also
No clear evidence can be presented to prove that Confucius meant to allow widowed women to remarry.
But Chen Ying took the initiative and raised questions first. Song Lin, Han Yong and others could not immediately turn around and question. In the eyes of traditional literati, questioning in reverse was a very unclassified behavior. Those who dared to remonstrate in front of Yunxi were all
People with good character would naturally not do such a thing.
Taking advantage of the fact that Song Lin and others had nothing to say to refute, Yunxi ordered the second imperial edict to be read out: "The Emperor Chengyun of Heaven decreed that the late emperor established the system of burial. However, Zi said: 'Be respectful, tolerant, trustworthy, and benevolent. If you are respectful, you will not insult, and if you are tolerant, you will not be insulted.
If you win people, if you are trustworthy, you will be able to do whatever you want, if you are quick, you will be meritorious, and if you are helpful, you will be able to win over others.'... Therefore, from now on in the capital, and in other places from the date of the decree, the system of burials for sacrifices will be abolished, and I hereby express my gratitude."
"Your Majesty," all the ministers present knelt down and said. The system of burial had been abolished as early as the Qin Dynasty, otherwise Qin Shihuang would not have built a pile of terracotta warriors and horses to bury him in his mausoleum. All dynasties had never formally established it before Zhu Yuanzhang.
It has been restored (not counting the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties). Confucianism has always believed that this is a very inhumane behavior. When Zhu Yuanzhang first proposed to be buried in sacrifice, some people opposed it, but Zhu Yuanzhang ignored it.
After reading this imperial edict, the waiter announced his withdrawal from the court.
After Yunxi left Fengtian Hall and everyone dispersed, Song Lin said to Han Yong, Huang Kui and others on the way out of the palace: "Although His Majesty appointed Chen Ying to refute our opinions, it is indeed difficult for us to find words for a while.
Refutation, but this is not because the Neo-Confucianism we believe in is wrong, but because we still do not study Neo-Confucianism deeply. After we went back, we found the "Book of Rites", "The Analects of Confucius" and other books that recorded the words of Confucius and the three figures of Cheng and Zhu
If you study the works of the sages carefully, you will definitely refute Chen Ying's words and make your Majesty take back his orders."
"When I go back, I will definitely study Confucianism carefully, understand the profound meaning of the three sages, and persuade Your Majesty to take back his life." Han Yong and others also said. They had made a decision and dispersed back to the Yamen to study Confucianism. Most of these people were in the
There is nothing much going on in Qingshui Yamen on weekdays, and some people's job is to study the etiquette of past dynasties, so they can do private things openly during working hours.
And Yunxi did not stop there. After retiring from the court, he said to Chen Ying, Yuan Zhi, Li Shilu and others who came to Qianqing Palace: "In the past few days, I am sure that Song Lin and others will not give up and will study carefully.
The "Book of Rites", "The Analects of Confucius" and other sages' books refute Chen Aiqing's words and allow me to take back my life."
"And I will also take this opportunity to refute the fallacies in Neo-Confucianism, so that the majority of scholars will not be deceived by the omissions in Neo-Confucianism and restore the original intention of Confucius."
Yes, the reason why Yunxi wanted to publicly repeal the decree to encourage widows to observe chastity in court was, firstly, so that Yunlan could get married without causing any criticism, and secondly, to attack Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Otherwise, there was no need for him at all.
Publicly abolish this decree. After all, the royal family has privileges. Even if he does not issue this imperial edict to force Yunlan to marry, there will not be a few civil and military officials who do not have the foresight to remonstrate; even if someone does remonstrate, he can treat it as nothing.
See.
Yunxi went on to say: "In Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, there is still some truth in what is said about the principles of heaven. Although there are flaws, the flaws cannot hide the good points."
"Although the theory of three cardinal principles originated from Dong Zi, Confucius said that kings, ministers, ministers, fathers, sons, sons. The three cardinal principles just reworded Confucius's original words in more understandable words, and there is no mistake. But Cheng, Zhu et al.
But people’s interpretation of the Three Cardinal Guidelines is wrong.”
"Cheng Zhu and others' interpretation of the father as the guide for the son means that no matter what the parents do, the children cannot refute, they must obey and must not disobey at all. But is this not in line with Confucius' original intention?"
"The Analects of Confucius says: Meng Yizi asked about filial piety. The Confucius said, "No violation." Fan Chiyu, the Confucius told him, "Meng Sun asked about filial piety to me, and I replied, 'No violation.'" Fan Chi said, "What does it mean?"
"Yes?" Confucius said: "When you are alive, do things with etiquette; when you die, be buried with etiquette." From the following text, we can get that Confucius's word "no violation" does not mean that you must not violate the words of your parents, but that you must not violate etiquette. According to the Zhou rites
Be filial to your parents. But Cheng, Zhu and others took it out of context and only said to the students: Confucius’s intention is correct.”
"Let's talk about the husband as the guide for the wife. The Zhongyong Chapter of "The Book of Rites" says: There are five ways to achieve great things in the world, so there are three who practice them, namely, monarch and minister, father and son, husband and wife, brothers and sisters, and friendship among friends. The five are the principles of the world.
Those who have attained the Dao; those who are wise, benevolent and courageous are the greatest virtues in the world."
"Whether it is in line with the way of kings and ministers, the way of father and son, the way of husband and wife, the way of brothers or the way of interacting with friends, it all requires wisdom, benevolence and courage. The so-called starving to death is a small thing, and a big mistake is a big mistake. Isn't this the principle of benevolence?
?How could it be done by a smart person?"
"As for 'preserving heaven's principles and destroying human desires', I also want to say a few words."
"What is the law of heaven? What is the desire of man? Zhu Xi once said: "Eating is the law of heaven. It requires delicious food and human desire." If everything were so clear and clear, it would be easy to say. But how can everything in the world be related to food and drink?
Can the distinction be made so clearly? Since the distinction is not clear, in a place where Confucianism is not popular and there are few scholars, "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires" will inevitably become the words of the local gentry to deal with the people at will, which will be very harmful. What's more, although Confucius also said that self-restraint and restoration
However, there is no way to suppress the people's affairs with laws and regulations." Yunxi did not completely deny the idea of "preserving natural principles to destroy human desires" because it is not easy to completely deny this within Confucian thought.
Yunxi finally said: "Generally speaking, Neo-Confucianism is not without merit, and I do not intend to completely overthrow Neo-Confucianism, but there are so many fallacies in Neo-Confucianism. If they are allowed to spread wantonly and distort the original intention of Confucius, it will be very harmful. Love you all.
You are the people in our dynasty who truly respect the orthodoxy of Confucianism. You must refute the fallacies in Neo-Confucianism and absorb the original meaning of Confucius in Neo-Confucianism, as well as some obscure words that Confucius told and very appropriate explanations by Cheng and Zhu, in order to rectify Confucianism.
I'll leave it to you all, my dear friends." After saying that, Yunxi bowed to them all.
Yuanzhi and others hurriedly avoided their bodies, but they felt secretly happy. The emperor respected them so much and gave them such important things, which greatly satisfied their vanity, and their faces were all red.
Moreover, except for one of them, all of them believed in Zhou Li or Dong Zhongshu, and they were originally very disgusted with Neo-Confucianism. Being able to criticize Neo-Confucianism with the support of the emperor was an unimaginable good thing. How could I not be happy?
?
Yunxi said a few more words to them, the focus of which was to emphasize that he should not overthrow all Neo-Confucianism at once, but should absorb the essence of Neo-Confucianism and discard the dross. Although he had already said this just now, he was afraid that they would just ignore it.
, so I have to emphasize it again.
After hearing Yunxi's last instructions, everyone nodded in agreement, no matter what they thought in their hearts, and then all but one person bowed and left.
But Yunxi looked at their backs and was still thinking about Confucianism.
Three years ago, before the imperial examination in the second year of Jianye, Yunxi decided to start promoting the true Chinese tradition of the Five Classics "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn", in the hope of breaking Confucian views on things other than loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.
However, in just three years, it was far from enough to cultivate a group of scholars who were proficient in the Five Classics. He could only settle for the second best and deal with the most conservative branch of Confucianism - Neo-Confucianism for the time being.
In fact, objectively speaking, Neo-Confucianism is not without merit. First of all, Neo-Confucianism puts forward the theory of "natural principles", believing that "reasons are in advance", and "reasons" are not subject to human will, that is, the objective idealist point of view. This is
It is a big step forward from the subjective idealism of ancient times.
Moreover, the view of "reason in advance" is also a major constraint on local gentry. In local areas, especially in the countryside, there is no government to limit the power of the gentry, so that theoretically the gentry in the countryside has unlimited power, which is obviously very difficult for local governance.
Disadvantageously, there are many examples in history of the gentry forcing the people too much and causing them to rebel, and the government can only wipe their butts. With a principle that everything in the world must follow, just like the morals of Western knights, they can be restrained to some extent.
a little.
Second, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi successively dug out the word "investigating things to achieve knowledge" from the "Book of Rites" and proposed that it means to study the nature of things to obtain knowledge and principles. This actually provides a basis for scientific research in China.
for convenience.
Third, Neo-Confucianism was the first to propose dialectics, and the writings of Zhu Xi and others are also very logical, which is very beneficial to cultivating the logic of scholars; and being logical is also a necessary condition for conducting scientific research, and even for doing things well.
necessary conditions.
Therefore, Yunxi did not intend to completely overturn Neo-Confucianism. However, there were still many problems in Neo-Confucianism, especially in the later period. The phrase "preserve the laws of nature and destroy human desires" suppressed human nature too much, and became more and more divorced from reality, becoming a constraint for people.
The dogma of hands and feet is even a tool for "killing people with reason", so Yunxi also wanted to eliminate all the problems in Neo-Confucianism. So he ended up doing what he does today.
Yunxi stood and thought for a while, then came back to his senses and said to Chen Ying: "Chen Aiqing, thank you for your hard work, Chen Aiqing."
Chen Ying immediately bowed and said: "I just did my duty, how dare you say it's hard?"
Yunxi stared at his back and did not let him stand for a while. He had a thorough understanding of Chen Ying. To put it simply, at least he was not a bad person now, but he was very ambitious about fame and would do anything to climb up.
Although Yunxi doesn't like such a person, it still has its uses. For example, if he publicly supports Yunxi's will in the court today, he would never be able to do it if there are ministers who persist. Therefore, Yunxi must be on guard against Chen Ying.
, also need to be appointed.
"Chen Aiqing, please get up. No matter what, you did a good job today, and I'm very pleased." Yunxi said to him, "I always appreciate people who do things sincerely. As long as you do things with sincerity, I will never treat you badly."
"I must be sincere in my work and live up to His Majesty's expectations," Chen Ying said.
Yunxi said a few more words to him and asked him to go down; Chen Ying's face changed slightly, but she still bowed respectfully and left.
Looking at his back, Yunxi said to himself: "You want to be promoted? It's too easy to be promoted."