Chapter 27 Discussing Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism with the First Emperor
Defending himself, Li Niancai formally said: "All the schools of thought, except for a few schools of thought, have their own political ideas, that is, governing the world. ideas, such as Confucianism restoring Zhou rites, Taoism doing nothing When it comes to governance, Mohism loves everything but does not attack..."
"In the Spring and Autumn Period, people's minds changed, and various schools of thought sought better ways to govern the world, and thus put forward various ideas. There is nothing wrong with this. The problem is that These claims put forward by various scholars ignore certain factors in order to Later generations said: It ignores objective factors and is too subjective. "
"For example, Confucianism's restoration of Zhou rites. Confucianism believes that restoring the ritual and music system of the Zhou Dynasty will bring peace and prosperity to the world, but they don't want people to hope for it. Want to return to Zhou Shi's environment? In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius encountered obstacles everywhere, and his teachings were not accepted. "
"The same is true for the Taoist and Mohist schools. Of course, the Mohist's "love all, not attack" is good, and it also applies to strangers. The same as for your own relatives!”
"If I were a stranger, I would be very happy when I met a Mohist disciple who believes in 'universal love'. But if I were a relative of a Mohist disciple, what would I think? I am afraid that I would like my relatives to be closer to me."
< br>After talking about Confucianism and Mohism, Li Nian then talked about Taoism: "Taoism, Huang Lao's school of 'doing nothing without doing anything' is more preferable than Mohism and Confucianism, but 'inaction' means when to do nothing, what to do without doing, why How can we measure inaction without doing anything? "
"The same is true for 'doing everything'. When should we do everything, what should we do, how can we do everything, and how can we do everything? A knowledgeable and wise person may be able to grasp the degree, but in the world, How can there be so many blogs? A scholar? ”
Huang Lao’s theory sounds very good. It respects the laws of nature, opposes the blind actions of princes, advocates giving full play to the subject’s subjective initiative, and advocates “acting when the time comes” and “acting according to the time”.
But how to control the "time" and who will decide? By the king, or by the subjects? Is it by educated people or by illiterate common people?
How do you know whether the "time" is accurately grasped? Does everyone and every class grasp the same "time"? What should we do if it is different?
To put it simply, governing the world with Huang Lao's learning lacks relatively unified standards and systems, and everyone is too free, but this is not conducive to the stability of the world and the stability of the imperial power.
In the early Han Dynasty, there were rebellions among the princes and kings, the rebellion of the kings of Jibei and Huainan during the reign of Emperor Wen, the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" during the reign of Emperor Jing, as well as the local tycoons and powerful people. One of the reasons was the "doing nothing" learned by Huang Lao. "Government" provided conditions for the development of princes, kings and local powerful people.
How could Han Wu, who had a strong desire for power and great talent, endure this? Naturally, he adopted the self-reformed Confucianism and kicked Huang Lao's learning.
“If the country is governed by Huang Lao’s learning, it will be fine when the country is first established, and everything will be ruined, but as time goes by, disaster will inevitably occur.”
People can only be relatively free, but not absolutely free.
Li Nian's answer to Ying Zheng was: "Because Huang-Lao's teachings have too loose constraints on the world, and people's desires are endless, and disasters arise from themselves, which is not conducive to the peace of the world."
The reality is that with the social stability and economic recovery of the dynasty, Huang-Lao's learning gradually failed to meet the needs of social development.
“If Confucianism is to be realized, everyone in the world must be a gentleman; for the Mohist method of governing the country to be realized, there must be no distinction between people who are close or distant; if Huang-Lao’s theory is to be realized, everyone must abide by the rules and laws. Give birth to greed, not to delusion If we can do this, the world will be unified!"
Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism have different ideas of governing the country, but in terms of the ultimate goal they want to achieve, they will all be a unified world, a utopian world. .
But how can people have no desires and no selfish motives?
Therefore, although the ideas for governing the country that Zhuzi came up with were good, they were unrealistic, at least not relevant to the current reality of the Qin Dynasty. The Confucians were later chosen by the Han Dynasty because they had already transformed themselves.
After listening to Li Nian’s analysis of Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism, Ying Zheng said: “Legalism is not suitable for governing the Qin Dynasty. Is it the same reason as Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism? "
Li Niandao: "There will be a common place in later generations. It is known knowledge that "everything in the world is in motion", which can also be understood as "everything in the world is in change". I dare to ask your Majesty, how does Shang compare with Xia, how does Zhou compare with Shang, and how does the Six Kingdoms compare with Zhou. , How does our Great Qin compare with the other six countries? ”
Ying Zheng did not answer this question, but said: "You mean that things are constantly changing, and Great Qin is also changing, and Legalism is no longer suitable for today's Great Qin?"
Li Nian nodded: "In a certain paragraph Within a short period of time, Legalism was suitable for the Qin Dynasty, so it made the Qin Dynasty a real Its power has increased rapidly, surpassing the six countries in one fell swoop, but the situation of Great Qin today is different from that of the past."
"Back then, the power of Great Qin was low and not strong among other countries. The country is destroyed. But now, the six kingdoms have been destroyed and the world has been unified. , there is no rival to Great Qin in the Nine Provinces, can we still use Legalist methods to govern Great Qin as before the unification of the world?"
"The king is no longer the king of Qin, but the lord of the world, and he is thinking about how to govern the world? time, it can no longer be the same as before, we must focus on The whole world, the original people of the Six Kingdoms, are now the people of the Qin Dynasty."
Zhu Yuanzhang also encountered similar problems-the North and South Bang case, but Lao Zhu handled it very well, and he knew very well that he was the king of the world. Lord, not the Northern Emperor or the Southern Emperor.
Ying Zheng's heart suddenly shook. Even though he had thought about it now, when Li Nian pointed it out, he still felt enlightened.
'Yes, I am no longer just the king of Qin, but also the lord of the world. The Legalists can rule the Qin Dynasty, but they may not be able to rule the whole world. The Great Qin today is different from the Great Qin when the ancestors appointed Lord Shang. . There was no Li Nian in the original history. Is it because I failed to figure this out and laid the foundation for the downfall of the Qin Dynasty? '
Ying Zheng asked himself, if Li Nian knew, he would definitely tell him: In history, the First Emperor realized that he was the master of the world, so he "written with the same text, drove with the same track, and walked with the same ethics" ", it's just that you didn't realize that the Legalism of the past was no longer suitable for the current Qin Dynasty, and the Legalism method of governing the Qin Dynasty was still applied to the entire world, which not only made the people of Qin unbearable, but also the people of the Six Kingdoms.
In later generations, people often equate Legalism with governing the country by law. In fact, the two are very different. Legalism only serves the king and is quite harsh and cruel to the people.
Legalism’s five techniques for controlling the people are to fool the people, tire the people, humiliate the people, weaken the people, and impoverish the people. They weaken the people’s power to stabilize the king’s rule.
This is not only the thought in "Shang Jun Shu", but also in "Han Feizi".
Li Si was indispensable for the "burning books to entrap Confucianism" implemented by the First Emperor. He used Legalist ideas to persuade the First Emperor to burn books. Li Si was a Legalist!
For more than a hundred years, the people of Qin could still tolerate the governance of Legalism, but now that they have unified the world, they still use Legalism to rule with high pressure. Even an iron string will break at some point, and the six The people of the country have never been treated like this before, and it is easier for them to become dissatisfied.
The content in the book is just my humble opinion, I hope you can enjoy reading it. Thank you for your support, thank you for your support!
(End of this chapter)