Chapter 5026: Discrimination between Righteousness and Benefit
Confucius said, "A gentleman is known as righteousness, and a villain is known as benefit." "Being rich and noble without righteousness is like a floating cloud to me." Opposites, those who speak righteousness are called gentlemen, those who speak profit are called villains. Regarding wealth, Extremely contemptuous, in fact, most of the gentlemen who speak righteousness have great wealth, plenty of food and clothing...
Mencius is even more extreme, and even said, "Why bother talking about profit, there is only benevolence and righteousness." He was very concerned about money and silk. They are derogatory and believe that having "benevolence and righteousness" can lead to good clothes and good food.
When everyone is belittling wealth and promoting benevolence and morality, the poor can continue to be poor and remain poor, even if they have put in countless hard work, but still cannot have a full meal, while the rich can Enjoy wealth with peace of mind, read and write, and continue the fallacy of "being poor and accepting your fate"...
The root of all this lies in the ancient understanding of wealth.
Regarding the concept of "wealth", the ancients believed that the world's wealth is constant. If someone takes more, someone will definitely take less.
"The Tao Te Ching" says that "the way of heaven is to make up for the excess of damage and make up for the deficiency." The meaning is that the country should make concessions to benefit the people and should not compete with the people for profits.
In an era when productivity is low and wealth circulation is almost non-existent, this understanding is understandable.
But when the national treasury was full and the wealth of the people was flowing, the Tang Dynasty still followed the Confucian way of governing the world, which was either stupid or bad.
Xu Jingzong has always been known as a "little man who speaks profitably". He is not ashamed but proud of it. How can he see the Confucian duplicity?
There is nothing wrong with pursuing morality, benevolence and righteousness, but it is wrong to deceive people in the world that benevolence and righteousness are more important than interests...
Kong Yingda glanced at Xu Jingzong and said: "A gentleman is ashamed of talking about profit. It is not that a gentleman does not know the benefits of profit. , but to lead society in this way If a gentleman's words are sure to be beneficial, then people in the world will flock to them. How can benevolence, righteousness and morality exist? "
The "junzi" in his mouth does not only refer to the moral gentleman, but is the same as the "junzi" in Confucius' mouth. It refers to the ruling class above the temple. "Villains" are not "people with low morals", but ordinary people who accept rule.
Those who are in the temple should lead the trend and let the people in the world know the truth that "righteousness is more important than profit". If the ruling class preaches that interests are the most important, no one will talk about benevolence, justice and morality, and only one will only value profit. , In a society where justice is not spoken, people's minds will naturally be in chaos and order will be turbulent.
Although Xu Jingzong never considers himself a Confucian, his Confucian attainments are not low, but he dare not argue with Kong Yingda. The other party is far superior to him in terms of academics, status, and prestige. How can he win the argument?
"I am not talking about meaning and profit, I only care about the wrong theories of wealth in the past. I want to tell the world with facts that wealth is created. When the whole country works hard, agriculture, commerce, etc., any method will create wealth, and wealth may increase. , may decrease, but is by no means constant! ”
Now many officials have gradually realized that when wealth is buried in the cellar as copper coins, the wealth is equal to zero and meaningless. When the wealth is circulated, variables will appear and even increase in value on the original basis. Simply put, In other words, when the circulation of wealth intensifies, there will be more and more.
So many people began to advise that the national treasury and the royal treasury should not hoard large amounts of money, but should spend it as soon as possible. No matter what method is used, as long as the circulation of wealth intensifies, the entire empire will All will benefit from this.
This is the mainstream contradiction in the current government and the public. It is not the "dispute between justice and benefit", but the opposition between the two viewpoints of "constancy of wealth" and "the circulation and appreciation of wealth".
It can be called conservative or radical.
It's a collision of two ideas.
Kong Yingda shook his head and said: "As you said, it may be feasible to investigate and organize the world's wealth situation and study the truth of wealth, but no matter what the truth is, it does not need to be made public. Even if some things are right, But it’s not appropriate to publicize it too much.”
Xu Jingzong said. This actually agrees: "The country's formulation of policies requires the ultimate foundation, but external propaganda does not have to be like this. 'The people can make it happen, but they can't make it known'. Just let the people of the world know how to do it, but there is no need to let them know why they do it." "
Kong Yingda glanced at him, too lazy to say anything.
The phrase "the people can follow it, but cannot make it known" has many interpretations even within Confucianism. Xu Jingzong's explanation here is naturally the worst one, in order to mock Confucianism for "fooling the people" "That set.
The reason why he did not argue was because unless Confucius was resurrected and gave a definite answer, no one could provide conclusive evidence to explain its meaning, let alone refute other people's explanations...
Fang Junxiao Said: "This is a misunderstanding caused by the lack of rigor in writing. If the Analects of Confucius was written at that time, Compilers added punctuation marks to make it possible to accurately segment sentences. Why have there been hundreds of years of disputes about the implementation of punctuation marks? "
The lack of punctuation marks in ancient Chinese classics makes it difficult to segment sentences and increases ambiguity. , are the ancients really unable to invent punctuation marks?
No.
In fact, in the pre-Qin period, there were punctuation marks such as "dot mark" and "line mark". At that time, the punctuation marks were not standardized, irregular in shape, and extremely arbitrary. Most of the time, as long as the author himself knew Its meaning is enough...but it is not difficult to unify punctuation marks on this basis.
The reason why there have never been standardized punctuation marks is mainly because intellectuals have elevated books to a very high status, so that even if ordinary people get a book, it is difficult to understand its meaning because they cannot separate the sentences, unless there is a family inheritance. Only by reading books and classics can we pay attention to "read a hundred times, and the meaning will be apparent" to flaunt the nobleness of scholars.
To this day, many readers are still extremely reluctant to add punctuation marks in books, believing that this lowers the threshold for reading and makes reading a "very low-level" thing...
< br>Kong Yingda is a real great scholar, single-minded Focusing on the promotion and inheritance of Confucianism, he did not care about the so-called "advanced scholars" remarks. He nodded and said: "I re-edited the "Five Classics of Justice", modified or eliminated many specious remarks in it, and added punctuation marks to make it original. It is clearly visible and known to everyone. However, if it is published all over the world, it will cost a lot, and the printing company under Erlang's name will need a lot of funding."
Fang Jun readily agreed: "It's a small matter, Master Kong will let you know."
Not only did he have no prejudice against true Confucianism, he even I highly recommend it, and I only regret that later Confucians castrated Confucianism in order to cater to the rulers, eliminating many of the core meanings of Confucianism, leaving only some doctrines and propositions that were in line with the interests of the rulers, and even this part was eventually distorted, misinterpreted, and reduced to They are an accomplice in censoring thoughts and deceiving society.
Confucianism is actually the treasure of China.
Xu Jingzong looked strangely at the side: "Although Master Kong was not born into the Confucius family in Qufu, he is the thirty-second generation grandson of Confucius. The Confucius family in Qufu respects you very much and follows your lead. The family is also full of obstacles and has no wealth. , why even such a trivial matter as publishing a book? Are you so stingy and mean to others?"
He has always loved money and silk, and has never shied away from it, but he hates those people who are willing to talk about righteousness and are ashamed of their wealth, so even if Facing a great scholar like Kong Yingda, he couldn't help but make fun of him.
Kong Yingda walked with his hands behind his back and ignored him, leaving only the back of Xu Jingzong's head.
Xu Jingzong: "..."
Fang Jun said with a smile: "Although Master Kong's family has thousands of acres of fertile land, it has helped poor children in the countryside study for decades. All widowers and orphans can go to the Confucius family to receive a gift during the New Year, whether it is money, silk, grain, oil, or Or Mibu, no matter how big the family fortune has been for decades, it will soon be dissipated. If the late emperor and His Majesty had not given me money and silk, I would not be able to survive. "
6◇ 9◇Book◇Bar
Xu Jingzong: "..."
Hurry up and run two steps behind Kong Yingda, and said sincerely: "This is a low-ranking official who doesn't know the truth and is talking nonsense. I hope Master Kong won't take it to heart." . ”
He himself is greedy for money and hates people who talk about benevolence and morality but are actually crazy about making money. However, he admires and admires those who really spend their wealth and are willing to help others.
Because he can't do it himself...
How can Kong Yingda pay attention to this shameless villain who always praises his words?
I don’t even care what the other person thinks of him, whether it is praise or criticism, he doesn’t care at all.
*****
Three days later, the exam will end.
At dusk, several gongs rang, and the gates of Chang'an and Wannian counties were opened. The streets and alleys were brightly lit and crowded with people.
Exhausted and gloomy, the candidates walked out of the examination room and carried many examination items out of the gate. The attendants and servants who were waiting to greet him smelled the bad smell emanating from their husband's body and looked at the unshaven beard on his pampered face. They hurriedly bowed forward to receive the examination items and returned to their respective residences in a crowd.
Fang Jun, Kong Yingda, Xu Jingzong, Li Anqi and other invigilators all breathed a long sigh of relief. No accidents occurred during the exam, and the invigilation task was successfully completed, and it finally came to an end.
However, although the candidates left, the four people's tasks were not completed. They personally supervised the officials of the Ministry of Rites to collect and organize hundreds of test papers, put them into boxes, transport them to the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites by carriage, and sat in the Ministry of Rites to preside over the whole night. Supervise the work of name anonymization and transcription.
The entire Rites Yamen was brightly lit all night long. The main Yamen was short of manpower, and even dozens of officials from the other six departments, Zhongshu Province, Shangshu Province, etc. were removed...
It was not until the early morning of the next day that all the work was completed, and then the examination papers were escorted into the Tai Chi Palace. In the Wude Palace, the papers were publicly reviewed and graded by a group of prime ministers and scholars who had not participated in the invigilation of the examination.
Inside the side hall.
Fang Jun was sitting on the chair with Kong Yingda, Xu Jingzong, Yan Shigu, Liu Jie, Li Anqi, Yu Wenjie and other invigilators. They had not been able to return home for many days in a row. They were exhausted and mentally exhausted. Not much desire to talk.
A palace maid came in quietly, lowered her head and came to Fang Jun under the attention of the master. She placed a food box in her hand on the coffee table and took out a few plates of pastries, a few side dishes, and a pot. Rice wine, placed one by one.
Said softly: "Your Highness knows that the Taiwei has worked hard for many days, so he prepared breakfast for the slaves to bring for the Taiwei to enjoy." The rest of the people: "..."