Chapter 350: The doctrinal debate that caused a huge public outcry
far away.
After leaving the prince's residence, Xue Shence and others went ahead, leaving Zhao Duan behind to deal with the follow-up.
"A bunch of idiots! If adults hadn't come here today, you would have suffered a lot." Hou Ren took a few steps, swung his scabbard, and hit the three Jinyi people indiscriminately.
Zhao Duan raised his hand to stop him and said calmly: "Forget it, if you hit anyone again, you will be really useless."
"Bah, it would be better if it were abolished!" Hou Renmeng looked furious and shouted at the three of them: "Why don't you thank me, sir?"
The three of them woke up like a dream, with red eyes like children who made mistakes and were beaten to admit their mistakes.
There was no angry look on Zhao Duan's face and he said calmly:
"I won't do it next time. Lao Hou, you take them back to the Yamen first and apply the wound medicine. I will go back for a meeting in the afternoon. It seems that I have indulged you too much. This time, it can be remembered."
Hou Renmeng looked ashamed and nodded in response.
I no longer have the face to stay, I wish I could go back immediately and straighten out the discipline.
"By the way, there is one more thing," Zhao Duan suddenly stopped him and ordered:
"After you go back, find someone to check whether Xu Zudi and Mrs. Xiao were together when they set off from Qingzhou Road, or they bumped into each other halfway."
Hou Ren was startled: "Sir, what do you mean..."
Zhao Duan glanced at him and said, "Do you think that this Prince Heng is really just trying to support Li Lang? Looking for trouble? Wanting to humiliate me?"
In his mind, he kept reviewing everything that had happened before through recall.
In the room, Xu Zudi scolded Li Lang several times, and the last game...
Zhao Duan's eyes drifted far away and he said quietly: "It seems that we won a city, did not lose face today, and settled the matter, but how could we know that Xu Zudi's most important goal was not achieved?"
Only then did Hou Renmeng come back to his senses:
"Sir, are you saying that the prince arranged this incident deliberately for you to see? The point is not about Li Lang at all, but about that Madam Xiao? He deliberately let us see that he treats the head of the Xiao family in East Lake like a slave? Is this his true purpose?"
Zhao Duan nodded and said with a smile: "If you can guess this level, you have made progress."
Hou Renmeng smiled and flattered:
"We can always learn something by following you, sir, and we can always learn something, right? Outsiders say you are a thousand-year-old fox, but our moral conduct is far behind."
"... If you don't know how to flatter someone, don't flatter him." Zhao Duan glared.
After driving a few of his men away, he straightened his thoughts, and then he rode up to catch up with the large army in front.
Xue Shence smiled and said, "Have the arrangements been made?"
Zhao Duan said gratefully: "Thank you, sir, and all your colleagues for supporting the scene."
Xue Shence had no intention of going in-depth on this topic and said with a rare laugh: "How can I thank you? How about you treat me to drinks at the lunch banquet?"
Zhao Duan also smiled and said: "Of course it is, then it will be better if you don't get drunk and don't come back."
The generals looked at this scene, burst into laughter in tacit agreement, put aside this episode, and went straight to the reserved restaurant with murderous intent.
The entire second floor of the restaurant had been reserved, and the generals were seated, eating and drinking in a harmonious atmosphere.
However, only halfway through the banquet, commotion was heard from downstairs, accompanied by heated discussions, and the words "Zhengyang School" were vaguely heard.
Attracting the attention of the military attachés, Xue Shence ordered people to inquire about the situation.
After a while, the military attache who asked the question returned and said with a solemn face:
"Something has happened. Mr. Zhengyang wants to argue with Master Dong!"
Zhao Duan stopped holding the wine bottle in mid-air and narrowed his eyes: "What's going on?"
All the military attachés also pricked up their ears.
Soon, they learned what happened.
It turned out that there was no morning court today. In the morning, Mr. Zhengyang went to the palace to pay his respects. The empress, Dong Xuan and other scholars greeted him to show their respect for this great southern scholar.
However, Zhengyang issued an invitation to fight in the palace, saying that he came here because he could not bear to see the saint's teachings being distorted and the righteousness declining.
Therefore, I came to Beijing to "correct learning and mold etiquette" and to debate with the current mainstream doctrine in Beijing.
Grand Master Dong Xuan, as a senior figure, accepted the challenge on the spot and made an agreement with him to hold a theoretical battle in the Plum Garden of the capital five days later.
By this time, the news had gradually spread, and public opinion was in an uproar.
The reason for the commotion downstairs was that two groups of scholars were arguing fiercely and almost started fighting.
"Bang!"
Shi Meng clenched his fist and hammered the table, and said in a deep voice: "This Zhengyang is here to cause trouble."
The other generals also showed indignation, making a political statement, and some even clamored to kill the scholar.
Xue Shence listened expressionlessly, with worried eyes. Of course he understood that such a "quasi-sage" scholar who was the focus of the world must not move arbitrarily.
Therefore, the military attaches were purely talking about it and it was easy to kill him. However, after the killing, it triggered a nationwide public outcry and the consequences were incalculable.
There is no smoke in the battlefield this time, so we need to use our words and pens as swords to fight back.
Immediately, the generals lost the atmosphere of eating and drinking and ended hastily.
Zhao Duan went downstairs and rode straight to the Xiuwen Hall. He needed to know the situation!
…
…
Xiuwenkan.
When Zhao Duan arrived at the door, he faintly sensed something was wrong in the atmosphere.
"Master Zhao!" The little official guarding the gate became energetic when he saw him coming.
"Is the Grand Master here?" Zhao Duan got off his horse and asked eagerly.
"Here, everyone is here."
"good."
Zhao Duan threw away the reins and walked inside. The officials knew his identity and did not stop him.
As soon as people entered the hospital, they heard heated discussions coming from the room.
Zhao Duan pushed open the door and saw all the bachelors neatly gathered around the long table in the Xiuwen Hall.
Grand Master Dong, who is octogenarian, wearing the robe of a bachelor, and having a face as heavy as a date, sat on the throne with no expression. Next to him, on the left is Han Zhi, Han Banshan, the most talented person in the capital.
On the right side is Mo Zhaorong, the big ice tuozi.
"Scholar Zhao? You're here!" Everyone stopped talking, turned around and saw him, and greeted him one after another.
Zhao Duan nodded solemnly, walked to a group of bachelors wearing armor, frowned and asked, "What's going on? I heard the news that the Grand Master is going to discuss learning with Zhengyang."
Mochou seemed to have the word "sorrow" written on his face. She motioned for him to sit down, then nodded and said:
"Yes, Zhengyang is coming fiercely. He must have been entrusted by King Mu to come to the capital to criticize the etiquette, law and orthodoxy."
No, are everyone speaking so directly?
Not covering up at all... Zhao Duan complained. Seeing the faces of the bachelors as usual, he understood that the conflict with the Eight Kings had long been settled in the Xiuwen Hall.
The empress's improper victory in winning the country has always been the biggest weakness in the legitimacy of Xu Zhenguan's regime.
Regardless of the distorted rhetoric promoted by Kuangfushe, even if you take a step back, the whole world will know that it was the second prince's coup, and the empress was the one who countered the rebellion.
But if he followed the etiquette and laws, Xu Zhenguan should have looked for the remaining heirs from the royal family, adopted him or whatever, and raised a new male emperor.
But she chose to proclaim herself emperor, which gave scholars the opportunity to criticize etiquette.
In the past three years, through the Northern School scholars led by Dong Xuan citing scriptures, the legitimacy was barely achieved.
But outside the capital, especially in many places in the south, voices criticizing the empress for usurping the throne have never ceased.
Now, the implementation of Xu's "New Deal" has made the eight kings anxious.
Finally, one by one began to fight back.
King Huai'an sent his daughter to test, and King Jing used the Taicang silver mine as a pawn to force Li's party to split.
King Heng sent his son with unknown intentions, while King Mu asked Zhengyang to come out of the mountain and counterattack with etiquette.
Zhao Duan sighed in his heart, understanding that etiquette may seem intangible, but it is extremely crucial.
"If the name is not correct, the words will not be smooth, and if the words are not smooth, the things will not be accomplished." This is the principle.
Han Zhou said in a deep voice:
"The other party came well prepared this time. He did not leave the mountain for ten years. As soon as he came out of the mountain, he attracted the attention of the Nine Dao and Eighteen Governments of Dayu. He walked all the way from the south. He seemed to be low-key, but in fact he was flamboyant. The news of his coming to Beijing caused a stir. Everyone knows.
When he entered the city, he brought more than a hundred students with him. He was also making a name for himself in the city in the past few days. Now that the challenge was issued, the Grand Master had to accept the challenge, and only the Grand Master was qualified to take on this battle. "
Zhao Duan asked curiously: "Zhengyang's banner is just about academics?"
Mochou glanced at him and explained:
"It's just about academics. Zhengyang is very smart. He did not directly criticize His Majesty's accession to the throne. Instead, he kept saying that he only focused on the 'academic dispute'. This made it even harder to touch him. But people are not fools. This knowledge The debate, in the final analysis, comes back to etiquette. If he wins the argument... it will be very troublesome."
Zhao Duan turned his head, looked at Dong Xuan who said nothing, and said seriously:
"Master, how confident are you?"
Dong Xuan's aura today is very cold, or rather heavy. The wrinkles on his already deeply furrowed face are particularly deep, and his eyes are heavy:
"If the debate is compared to a game of chess, when it comes to chess strength, I think I'm stronger, but it's hard to say if the opponent has the upper hand."
Zhao Duan understood.
This is a euphemism. In debates, victory or defeat never depends solely on the rhetoric of the "debater", but more importantly, the topic of the debate.
The cards Dong Xuan got were not good.
"Five days from now, what will be the topic?" Zhao Duan asked again.
Master Dong said calmly: "What is Zhengxue?"
Fortunately...it's not the worst situation...Zhao Duan relaxed a little.
Zhengyang's banner was "Kangzhengxue, shaping etiquette". What the empress was afraid of was etiquette, but Zhengyang did not directly attack etiquette, because this would only force the court to go to extremes.
Although Zhengyang came out of the mountain, it seemed that he did not intend to seek death... If Zhengyang directly started spraying rituals after entering Beijing, there would be only one outcome.
He used his own death to exchange for the anger of scholars all over the world and feed Zhuang Xiaocheng's public opinion war.
But he did not choose this extreme route. Instead, he took a roundabout way and only talked about "righteous learning." This was a bit euphemistic, giving the court the option to challenge and leaving a little way for himself to survive.
After all, in terms of true learning, there is still a chance of winning. Even if you lose, the damage will not be fatal.
Of course, it’s just not fatal. Righteous learning and etiquette are integrated. If the former is established, the latter will also benefit.
"We were just making plans, discussing Zhengyang's possible moves, how to win, or draw a draw." Han Zhou explained.
"You continue." Zhao Duan said that he was coming to listen.
Everyone was not too surprised. They all knew that Zhao Duan had unique insights into governing the country and seemed to have a certain level of poetry.
But when it comes to the foundation of Confucianism, the doctrines of saints, many classics, chapter excerpts... pure accumulation of knowledge, this cannot be explained by "genius" at all.
Dong Xuan and Zhengyang are both geniuses in this area, and have accumulated knowledge and skills for decades.
How old is Zhao Duan?
If statecraft can be derived from practice and observation, and poetry can rely on talent, then the knowledge of saints can only rely on decades of hard work.
This is the reason why only Dong Xuan dared to challenge, while so-called talents like Han Zhi did not dare to take the lead.
Logically, no one thinks that Zhao Duan can accumulate more knowledge than these two people. The most everyone expects is whether he has some "ghost ideas" and "off-the-chart tricks."
Seeing that he had no suggestions, the scholars were a little disappointed, but they still actively discussed again and discussed loudly. The entire Xiuwen Hall was filled with noisy voices and a tense atmosphere.
Zhao Duan was alone again, sitting quietly.
Listening to everyone's discussion, it was as if he had entered the Xiuwen Pavilion for the first time.
Amid the noise, he stretched out his hand and took a thick piece of information from the table.
Open.
This is clearly a collection of many intellectual insights from the "Zhengyang School" compiled by bachelors. Among them are Mr. Zhengyang's lectures in Yunfu, many quotations from his answers to his disciples, and some articles published by Zhengyang.
They are all opinions and views on Confucianism, or more accurately, they are analyzes of the remarks of the sages.
Zhao Duan didn't feel anything at first, but gradually, his expression became a little strange:
"Why does this theory... look familiar? There is a hint of mind science in Neo-Confucianism? No... this Zhengyang theory seems... to have big loopholes."
——
Procrastination strikes again, a little late
(End of chapter)