Chapter 918 Fighting against Cheng Zhu Li - the end
After selecting more than 100 people who will be listed in the imperial examination, a palace examination will be held to determine the ranking of these people and the official positions they will be selected for in the future. However, it is still some days before the palace examination is held, and this is not the most eye-catching thing inside and outside the court.
matter.
The most eye-catching thing inside and outside the court now is of course the debate between the Neo-Confucian school and other schools of thought.
A few days ago, Yunxi announced the abolition of the decree issued by Zhu Yuanzhang to exempt chaste women from their natal families, and also ordered the abolition of the burial system. The Neo-Confucian school and other schools of thought have been engaged in a constant war of words. As time goes by, not only does it not slowly stop
After that, it became more and more intense. Not only the civil servants in the capital, but also the local officials near the capital wrote to the capital and commissioned friends to post big-character posters for them.
Although there are many differences between the Neo-Confucian school and other schools of thought, and there are many points of view that can be debated, both sides involuntarily focused on their attitudes towards women. First, this debate was precisely because Yunxi abolished preferential treatment for chaste women in their families.
Secondly, it is easy to cause taboos when talking about other things.
Confucius himself said that the king, the minister, the minister, the father, the son and the son, compared the relationship between the king and his ministers to that of a father and a son. Even if Yunxi said that a son should be filial to his father, he should follow etiquette instead of doing whatever the father says, but it is still easy for the ministers to say such things.
People with ulterior motives suspected him of being unfilial, so everyone agreed to avoid this topic as much as possible. As for the principle of the king and his ministers, no one dared to talk about it. Moreover, the differences between the two sides on this point were very small, so everyone debated it to the end.
What should be the status of women?
Yunxi leaned on the couch, closed his eyes and listened to Chen Ying narrate the main arguments and basis of the two sides during this period, and then said: "In this way, the main basis of the Neo-Confucian School now is what Confucius said in "The Analects"
Said: 'Only women and villains are difficult to care for'?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Ying said: "Confucius said very little about women, and even if he did, most of them just talked about the relationship between husband and wife in general. Women naturally have to obey their husbands, but to what extent they should be submissive is just in line with the law.
Etiquette, so it is difficult to use as a basis."
"Many classics after Confucius cannot be quoted because this debate is titled as 'original tracing'. Therefore, this sentence of Confucius' derogatory meaning to women was regarded as a canon by the Neo-Confucian school, and it is the same as Zhou Rites, Han Dynasty
The rites and other schools of thought argue."
"That's it." Yunxi opened his eyes, picked up the Analects of Confucius placed aside, flipped through a few pages to confirm his guess, and said to Chen Ying: "Aiqing, come here." He then said
Chen Ying whispered a few words in her ear.
Chen Ying was very surprised after hearing Yunxi's words. She recited "The Analects of Confucius" silently in her mind several times, then raised her head and muttered in disbelief: "How could this be?" Even though Chen Ying only used Confucian classics as a stepping stone, she also
Somewhat shocking. If what Yunxi said is right, then the entire Confucianism will be affected.
"Chen Aiqing, you should also understand what I mean. Find a suitable time to spread this point of view." Yunxi said.
Chen Ying came back to her senses, bowed and said, "I will live up to my orders."
…
…
On the second day, it was already early in the morning.
This day is March 25th, the day when hundreds of officials take a break. Since it is a day of rest, ministers do not have to go to court or take charge of affairs, and can do what they want. Therefore, such days are
The two sides of the debate are the most active days, and today is no exception.
Starting from the beginning of Chen hour on this day, people would post big-character posters on wooden boards to explain their own opinions or refute other people's opinions. Most people in this era went to bed very early at night, so they got up very early. Many people
I got up at the beginning of the morning, wrote in the weak sunlight, and posted them after daybreak.
Therefore, a very normal thing happened: many people with opposing views met when they came to post the big-character posters, and then naturally started arguing. Soon, more and more people gathered in front of the board and divided into two sides.
, arguing loudly. From a distance, it looks like two gangs of underworld criminal gangs about to start a movie. But if you get closer, you will find that most of the people on both sides are middle-aged and elderly people over forty years old.
People, all wearing long robes, were arguing fiercely in fluent or blunt Mandarin. There were also people nearby who had anxious faces and were talking in words that no one could understand. They should be officials from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.
At this time, in the police station near the public rental housing, two policemen were sitting on the roof, eating melon seeds and watching the civil servants debate with curiosity. One of them said: "This is really novel. My family has been living in this area for generations.
People in the capital, after living for nearly thirty years, this is the first time they have seen civil servants making such a noise." He then became a little worried: "They won't start fighting, right? If they start fighting, the two of us will guard the police station and watch.
If you don't take any action, I'm afraid you will be reprimanded by your superior."
"No." The other person said: "Literati pay attention to whether a gentleman should talk but not take action. Although not all of these civil servants can be regarded as gentlemen, they will not take action either."
"What's more, even if they take action, what's the use of the two of us going up to persuade them? Most of them are court officials, they will listen to the two of us? If we meet someone, the two of us will not be reprimanded.
It’s time.”
Just as he was talking, another person walked into the public rental housing complex from the east and walked near the civil servants who were having a heated debate, trying to separate from the crowd and go inside.
"This is Chen Ying from Zhongshushe?" a policeman asked.
"That's Mr. Chen. I heard that he is a close confidant of His Majesty."
"In this case, what he said must have been approved by His Majesty?"
"That's how it should be."
"Then it seems that this debate is about to end. How can His Majesty's cronies speak out and debate this matter at will? There must be very important evidence." The policeman said.
At this time, Song Lin and others standing in front of the wooden board were thinking the same thing as him. Chen Ying had not spoken a word in the past few days and had not posted a single big-character poster. Now that he suddenly appeared, there must be something he thought was difficult.
The basis for the argument. Song Lin couldn't help but stop talking, clenched his fists and looked at Chen Ying.
Many people were thinking like Song Lin, so gradually there was silence in the venue, and everyone's eyes were fixed on Chen Ying, who was already standing in the middle.
Chen Ying quite enjoyed the attention. After scanning around, she coughed twice and asked Song Lin: "Scholar Song, please ask me, student, how many characters for 'female' are there in the Analects of Confucius?"
Song Lin was a little confused, but he still recited "The Analects of Confucius" silently in his mind and replied: "There are a total of nineteen characters for 'female' in the Analects of Confucius."
"I wonder how many of them contain the character 'ru'?"
"Your Majesty, there are a total of eighteen characters for 'female' that are related to the character for 'ru'."
As soon as he finished speaking, Song Lin reacted and said in surprise: "Is it Confucius's original intention that the remaining character for '女' also means 'Ru'? The original meaning of this sentence is..."
"It's 'It's hard for you and a villain to take care of each other.'" Chen Ying said loudly: "There are a total of nineteen characters for '女' in the Analects of Confucius. Eighteen of them have been identified by masters of all ages and must be false characters. Then
This is the only remaining character for '女', how can we say it is not a passable character?"
"What's more, if this word is Tongjia, it doesn't make sense. This sentence comes from the 17th Yanghuo chapter of "The Analects". If '女'tong'ru', this sentence means: (Yanghuo) you boy
It is difficult to get along with villains."
"If this character is indeed Tongjia, then Confucius never said anything disdainful about women. Even if women still have to obey men, they don't have to be as humble as the Neo-Confucianists say."
"This." Immediately, there was a sound of gasping, and then many people started talking with the people around them.
The point of view put forward by Chen Ying is so novel! Perhaps a long time ago, some people doubted whether the character "女" was a pseudo character, but as time went by, Dong Zhongshu's interpretation of the Analects of Confucius became the orthodox interpretation, although some people continued to question it in later generations.
His explanation was questioned, but no one has ever doubted this sentence, because the meaning of this sentence is so clear that even farmers who do not read can understand it. Therefore, the Neo-Confucian School even uses this sentence as the basis of its defense.
, and did not carefully analyze the issue of whether the character '女' may be a pseudonym, so it has now been refuted by Chen Ying.
In normal times, the reinterpretation of this sentence would not be a big blow to the Neo-Confucian School, but now this sentence is an important basis for the debate between the Neo-Confucian School and other schools. If the original interpretation is overturned, the Neo-Confucian School will immediately fall into crisis.
among.
"You're just talking about a family. Although the other eighteen characters for '女' are all Ru, it doesn't mean that this character for '女' is also the same as Ru." Song Lin reacted and retorted loudly.
"Confucius said in the Zhongyong Chapter of "The Book of Rites": 'The way of a gentleman is to spend money and hide it. The foolishness of a couple can only be understood. And to the end, even a sage also does not know something. The unkindness of a couple can be traced.
Yan, even to the extreme, there are things that even a sage cannot do.'"
"The couple in this statement does not refer to husband and wife, but to men and women as common people. Confucian scholars since ancient times have believed so, and students have no other opinions. But from this we can see that Confucius used the word 'wife' to refer to 'women'.
It's not the word 'woman'. So how can we think that the word 'woman' in 'Only women and villains are difficult to care for' means woman?" Chen Ying did not speak loudly again.
These words completely overwhelmed the Neo-Confucian school and left the Neo-Confucian school members present speechless. If they want to refute Chen Ying's words now, they have to prove that the word "husband and wife" in the Zhongyong chapter of "Book of Rites" means husband and wife.
But if the couple in this sentence is interpreted as husband and wife, it will not make sense.
Moreover, there is a word specifically expressing the meaning of wife in the "Book of Rites", which is the word "wife". They have no room to argue.
After Chen Ying said these words, everyone present in the Neo-Confucian school was speechless. Some even showed signs of dejection. Some proudly dusted off their bodies, bowed and saluted: "Colleagues, students are you still here?"
If you have something to do, just take a step forward." Then he left the place.
The two policemen sitting on the roof of the police station looked at Chen Ying with their mouths agape as he left. They guessed that Chen Ying would have something shocking to say, but they didn't expect the effect to be so good. Although they couldn't quite understand what Chen Ying said, they saw that they were present.
You can understand it by the owner's reaction.
But they soon became excited because they finally had something they could brag to others about. After Chen Zhongshu said this, many officials present became angry and wanted to beat Chen Zhongshu. Fortunately, I risked my life to save him.
"Thank you to me..." One of them thought about how he would say this to others.
However, it was precisely because of the distorted word-of-mouth transmission from many ordinary people that these words spread quickly. Not only the officials of the day knew it, but also the common people inside and outside the capital, including those scholars living in the countryside.
.The Neo-Confucian School quickly fell into many crises.
To make matters even worse, someone posted a big-character poster listing the major crimes for which Zhu Xi was impeached during his lifetime: seducing two nuns into thinking they were doting on concubines, and conceiving a housewife without her husband. Attacking Neo-Confucianism from a personal moral point of view
Zhu Xi, one of the important representatives of
At this time, Neo-Confucianism fell even more into a precarious situation. Originally, in Confucius's time, private morality was not completely on the same level as public morality, but in later generations, the two were on the same level, and bad private morality was also considered to be bad public morality. Zhu Xi himself
In this way, how can his theory be considered correct? Although the Neo-Confucianists dug through old papers and found records from that year, trying to prove that Zhu Xi only took two nuns as concubines, and it was not his fault that his daughter-in-law became pregnant. But this
Hundreds of years have passed since the incident, and it is very difficult to completely prove it; not to mention that even just taking a nun as a concubine is a scandal, and the Neo-Confucian School will be almost completely beaten in a short period of time.
But at this moment, Huiyuan Zhoushu, who had not yet participated in the palace examination, suddenly put up a big-character poster and said: "The Analects of Confucius has a saying in Wei Linggong's chapter: Confucius said: 'A gentleman does not use words to promote people, and does not use people to waste words.' Although.
Zhu Xi's own personal ethics are quite questionable, but we cannot think that all his words are wrong. There are still many truths in Neo-Confucianism."
After he said these words, many people who held the same views as him spoke out against the complete overthrow of Neo-Confucianism.
But this makes the real Neo-Confucianism even more embarrassing. Because the Neo-Confucianism itself advocates the integration of public and private, these words are tantamount to further denying the foundation of the Neo-Confucianism school.
In the end, Yunxi took action at the right time, saying that although the Neo-Confucian school had many fallacies, it also had some merits, allowing the Zhou Li sect to absorb some of the views of the Neo-Confucian school. However, not all people in the Zhou Li sect were willing to do this, so the Zhou Li sect broke out.
After a split, one of the branches formed a new school, which was later called the prototype of the Mingli School. But this is a story for another day.
At this point, most of the people in the Neo-Confucian school have switched to other schools, and the remaining people can only survive; many years later, after all the remaining people have died, the real Neo-Confucian school will become extinct, unless something like the Mongolian revolution happens again
The major political changes that destroyed the Song Dynasty, otherwise the Neo-Confucian school would not rise again.