The ninth chapter, the unity of knowledge and action, benevolence is invincible
In March of the seventh year of Hongguang, after half a month, Chen Hongyu finally arrived in the capital city of Wu.
The Great Wu Capital City has a history of thousands of years, and obvious traces of repairs can be seen on the city walls.
At this time, there was a long line of people queuing out of the city gate. This was a routine inspection into the city.
However, they did not need to waste time here. After Xu Yan showed his identity certificate, they entered the capital directly through the official-only portal next to it.
"After several years of separation, the capital has not changed at all."
After Xu Yan sighed with emotion, he said to Chen Hongyu: "Ping'er, in the next few years, you will be studying the classics in Kyoto."
"My nephew knows!" Chen Hongyu lowered his head and replied.
In the past half month, Xu Yan had had many conversations with him, including the purpose of coming to Beijing and the arrangements for him.
When Xu Yan was young, he had made some good friends, and now these friends are all in high positions, or are famous as ministers.
Now, a few of them have opened a Minglian Academy in the capital, specifically to teach the younger generations of their faction.
Xu Yan resigned from his official position this time in order to give lectures in the academy, and by the way, he was also allowed to enter the academy for further study.
After entering Kyoto, Xu Yan was seen walking through the bustling streets with ease. Soon after, there were fewer pedestrians around, but they had already arrived at the area where officials live.
Not long after, Xu Yan led Chen Hongyu to a mansion, with the four characters "Minglian Academy" shining brightly above the plaque.
"Dong dong dong!" There was a knock on the door, and an old servant in his sixties or seventies opened the door of the mansion, followed by more than a dozen guards.
At first, the old servant was a little wary when he saw a dozen people outside the door, but as soon as his eyes glanced at Xu Yan's face, he immediately softened.
"It turns out that the rock has arrived!" The old man said with a smile: "Come in quickly, come in quickly."
The old man welcomed everyone inside while chatting with Xu Yan.
"Oh, after nearly ten years of separation, I finally see the rock again!"
"Uncle Zhong, don't be so emotional, we may see each other every day in the future." Xu Yan said with a smile.
"That's right, that's right. Junshi and the others don't have much free time yet. Among your group of friends, you are the only one who is qualified for the position of Academy Headmaster." Uncle Zhong smiled and said curiously: "Panshi, you are now
It must not be far from Tianfeng Juren, right?"
Xu Yan nodded reservedly and smiled: "Just three to five years!"
After the words fell, a look of surprise appeared on Uncle Zhong's face, but it quickly disappeared and he just sighed in admiration.
Xu Yan was talking to Uncle Zhong here, but Chen Hongyu followed behind him quietly until Uncle Zhong sent a servant to lead him to arrange the house where he would live in the future.
After being busy until the second day, Chen Hongyu finally settled down in the academy.
The academy is divided into inner and outer academies. The students in the inner academy are carefully selected and have outstanding talents or elders in high positions. The students in the outer academy are of lesser importance.
With Xu Yan here, Chen Hongyu naturally entered the inner courtyard.
The inner courtyard is not large in size. After Chen Hongyu entered the school, he found that there were only sixteen or seven students in the school, all of whom were about the same age as him.
"When the academy was first built, it was just a place for a small faction to train their descendants. It is to be expected that it is a little rough."
After chatting with these students and getting acquainted with them, they returned to their seats and started reading.
After studying on my own for about an hour, the lecturer walked in!
"You must be brother Panshi's nephew!" The lecturer's name is Cai Ping. He is a student of the Great Wu Imperial Academy, and his status is probably above that of scholars and below that of others.
Now it seems that he is in his thirties. If he can reach this point in his thirties, both his knowledge and his future are bright. Now it is more than enough to come to the academy to teach children like them.
"Exactly! Student Xu Ping has met the lecturer."
"Well!" Cai Ping looked at Chen Hongyu who was saluting and nodded, and said: "Although you are brother Panshi's nephew and your own talent is very good, you have to know that these classmates here are similar to you in terms of background and talent.
, playing should not give rise to arrogance and laziness.”
"Yes!" Cai Ping nodded with satisfaction. Seeing that Chen Hongyu was indeed humble and peaceful, he nodded with satisfaction and returned to the desk.
Cai Ping is talking about "Zhao Zi" among the four books, which is similar to Mencius in his past life memory and is also one of the four books in this world.
Perhaps because he arrived a little late, Cai Ping had already explained the third chapter of "Zhao Zi", "Zhao Zi·Song Taizong".
This article explains that more than a thousand years ago, Zhao Zi traveled to the Song Dynasty and persuaded Song Taizong, the then emperor of the Song Dynasty, to implement benevolent policies, trying to convince Song Taizong that benevolence and righteousness would bring good results to the country.
At that time, the Song Dynasty had just been founded for a few decades, and the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were still relatively heavy. Song Taizong listened to Zhao Zi's opinions.
The implementation of benevolent government exempted a large number of exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes, lightened the burden on the people, and carried out drastic reforms, which directly transformed the Song Dynasty, which had just experienced war, into a prosperous age.
Therefore, Song Taizong's achievements directly caught up with the founder of the country, Taizu, and were recorded in "Zhao Zi".
"In fact, in "Zhao Zi·Song Taizong", we can clearly see that Zhao Taizong only listened to some of Zhao Zi's opinions.
What Zhao Zi advocated was not only the implementation of benevolent government, but also some unrealistic theories that were not adopted.
However, this did not affect Zhao Zi's status at all.
Because Zhao Zi’s remarks are not just empty words, but an attempt to re-establish values that have gradually declined in the Confucian world that is in chaos.”
"While Zhao Zi was traveling, Wei used an army of 200,000 to capture the twelve cities of Qi, but Zhao Zi persuaded the king of Wei to retreat and return the invaded territory of Qi.
King Wei used his powerful military strength to conquer one city after another. How could he give up the fat he got just because of the words of Zhao Zi and his family?
Zhao Zi could not fail to realize that political and military logic cannot be shaken fundamentally.
But in his era, hundreds of kingdoms were in chaos, and rituals and music began to collapse.
He has realized that the value of politics can no longer be compromised and degenerate. In that case, politics will be completely reduced to the calculation of real strength and the competition of tricks, and will be further and further away from the pure human heart.
Therefore, even though he knew that King Qi would not adopt his words, he still said it."
Having said this, Cai Ping looked at the many students sitting below and said: "The most important thing in Confucianism is the unity of knowledge and action. One's own cognition and behavior must be the same."
"More than a thousand years ago, demons from outside the territory invaded, the seal of heaven and earth was released, and Zhao Zi became a sub-sage overnight.
He used his pen to slay evil spirits, fought to the death, and protected the peace of millions of people. Even the country that had killed him several times because of his ideas was protected.
Zhao Zi combines knowledge with action, and uses practical actions to demonstrate the benevolence he believes in."