Chapter 810 Ancient and Modern
Xiuyiwei sent news about Guo Tu's return home. Looking at him like that, Zhang Chong knew that he should understand.
This Guo Tu is indeed a very smart person, and his ability and professionalism are beyond words.
He had been reprimanded by himself before and was sent to Dali Temple as a co-organizer, where he made great achievements.
Dali Temple is also called Tingwei. When Liu Bian failed in the Manna Rebellion, General He Jin changed Tingwei's name to Dali Temple and specifically investigated the imperialists involved in the case.
After that, the imperial court was not changed back, not because the name Dali Temple was so good, but because from then on, the Guandong imperial court was actually shut down.
When the Taishan Army enters Kyoto, it will naturally be necessary to establish a name and appease the people. Naturally, dealing with the backlog of litigation cases in Dali Temple is also an important part of stabilizing people's hearts.
Therefore, Zhang Chong specially asked Guo Tu, who came from a legal family, to go to Dali Temple to assist in this matter.
As expected, Guo Tu was very capable. For these cases that had been accumulated for many years, Guo Tu only took 20 days to clarify the cases. Except for the cases that were meaningless because they were too long, the others were all concluded under difficult circumstances.
Not only are the trials quick, these cases are also convincing.
Of course, Zhang Chong has also seen several trial cases. To be honest, in terms of technical means, they are not very impressive.
But in this era where "Spring and Autumn" is used to judge prisons, the two sides often fight over principles. Whoever's principles are right will be legal, and the opposite will be illegal.
Therefore, Guo Tu often does not need to technically determine who is guilty, but only needs to determine theoretically.
The fundamental concept of Guo Tu's prison sentence is the "Gongyang Biography".
As we all know, in the Han Dynasty, cases were tried based on the Spring and Autumn Annals, but not many people can distinguish the details.
"Spring and Autumn" has three classics, namely "Zuo Zhuan", "Gongyang Zhuan" and "Gu Liang Zhuan".
Although these three biographies overlap in content, in summary, "Zuo Zhuan" focuses more on narratives, while "Gongyang Zhuan" and "Gu Liang Zhuan" focus more on explanations.
Among them, "Gongyang Zhuan" and "Gu Liang Zhuan" are two relatively opposing academic trends.
In their interpretation of the scripture text, "Gongyang" is regarded as progressive and mostly advocates reform, while "Gu Liang Zhuan" is regarded as conservative and mostly advocates maintaining the existing order.
At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and his son Prince Li had a public case about "Gongyang" and "Gu Liang", and we can see the differences between the two classics.
The official ideology of Emperor Wu at that time was to respect "Gongyang", not only because Dong Zhongshu was the ruler of this classic, but also because this classic coincided with Emperor Wu's own political aspirations, which was to change the rules of the previous generation and forge ahead. .
Therefore, Prince Li, the son of Emperor Wu at that time, also learned "Gongyang", but suddenly one day, he asked his lecturer, "Gu Liang".
At that time, the ruling and opposition parties understood that Prince Ru's governing philosophy had undergone major changes from that of his father, that is, he seemed more willing to return to the stable political order of the past rather than always trouble the world.
The ruling philosophy of Prince Ru was reasonable, because at that time, Emperor Wu was engaged in continuous wars, which consumed a lot of national power. In order to maintain high war expenses, Emperor Wu could be said to have squeezed the people and financial resources of the world to the extreme.
So in the middle and late period of Emperor Wu, the world was in turmoil, many households fled, and in some areas there was no registered population left.
Of course, Emperor Wu was very aware of this reality, so when he learned that the prince's ideas conflicted with his, he was even happy at first.
He told the prince and the queen that he had pulled out all the hard-to-pluck thorns now, and then the prince would be more advantageous in the future.
It can be said that in the ideology of the time, "Gongyang" and "Gu Liang" were just different stages, and could even complement each other to a certain extent.
Therefore, although these two sutras seem to be opposites, they have a unity of yin and yang.
However, when these two classics were put together with Zuo Zhuan, another of the three classics of the Spring and Autumn Annals, there was a huge conflict, because the two involved the most important academic struggle in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, the dispute between modern and ancient scriptures.
Qin Shihuang's fire destroyed Confucian classics.
When the Five Classics were revised in the early Han Dynasty, they could only be dictated by the surviving Confucian scholars and then interpreted in official script, which is called the modern text.
And what about ancient Chinese prose? In the process after the Han Dynasty, folk people continued to unearth some ancient books before the Qin Dynasty and then submitted them to the court. Such classics were called ancient texts.
So in other words, from the perspective of the spread before and after, modern texts are the earliest, and ancient texts come out later.
At that time, the Confucian "Five Classics" had different classics from ancient to modern times. Many of the differences were in the text, chapters, chapters and other forms.
For example, in the Spring and Autumn Annals, "Gongyang" and "Gu Liang" are modern texts, while "Zuo Zhuan" is ancient texts.
But later on, the contradiction between the two became more and more serious, which caused the conflict between the interests of the two academic groups.
As we all know, the Han family still used Confucianism and Legalism until Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty. However, after Emperor Xuan's son, Emperor Yuan, the ideology of the Han family had completely shifted towards Confucianism.
This ideological supremacy was directly reflected in the country's search for talents, which began to promote scholars according to Confucian classics.
A Confucian scholar can achieve the Three Gongs step by step by relying on the mastery of the classics. This was something that would never have happened before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, whoever has the right to interpret classics will get the biggest piece of cake. Not only can their family enjoy wealth and wealth, but students can also continue to follow this academic path.
In this way, teachers and students help each other and eventually become academic elites, and academic elites become clan elites, and the two become one.
Before the ancient literature scholars launched their attack, modern literature had always been the mainstream official doctrine of the Han Dynasty. Those scholars who mastered ancient literature could only do wild fox Zen in the countryside and had no impact on modern literature.
But a change occurred during Wang Mang's time, that is, Liu Xin, a master of ancient literature, helped Wang Mang usurp the Han Dynasty and establish himself on his own. In addition, Wang Mang needed a new ideology to footnote his orthodoxy, so he developed ancient literature.
But Wang Mang was soon overthrown, and Liu Xiu, who re-established the Han family, came up, so logically, he should reaffirm the official orthodox academic thinking of the Pre-Han period.
In fact, Liu Xiu did this.
Because he regarded himself as the founder of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu naturally inherited the Jinwen thoughts of the previous dynasty academically.
At that time, he invited scholars from all over the world to gather in the capital and reestablished doctors of the Five Classics. The fourteen doctors he established were all scholars of modern literature.
It can be seen that Liu Xiu wanted to completely deny the ancient scriptures advocated by Wang Mang and show his political attitude of bringing order to chaos.
But when it came to Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Xiu's grandson, the situation changed drastically.
Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, by personally taking charge of the Baihuguan Conference, completely accepted modern literature as official orthodox thought, and its proportion was much higher than that of modern literature. Since then, ancient literature has flourished.
Since then, ancient literature has completely become orthodox thought, while modern literature has become weaker and weaker, until the two are completely fused. Why does this reversal occur?
In fact, the reason is very simple, that is, in terms of academic vitality, modern literature has entered the end of its life.
As a scripture that has been an orthodox classic for more than a hundred years, there are often more than 100,000 words of explanations and commentaries behind a scripture. It can be said that a scholar studying modern texts may not be able to finish a scripture in several years.
However, ancient prose, which has been developed among the people before, can be learned very quickly because of its subtle meaning. A scholar may be able to complete the study of the Five Classics in a few years, which is unknown how much faster than the former.
Originally, this kind of speed did not matter, but when the country needed to unify academic thinking, Jinwen was abandoned because it was too cumbersome.
Therefore, modern literature, as an official doctrine, has actually withdrawn from the stage due to the loss of vitality.
But it happened that Guo Tu was the master of modern studies. Not only Guo Tu, but also the entire Guo family's studies were all based on modern studies, and they studied "Gongyang Chunqiu".
The reason for this is very interesting. The reason why Jinxue was abandoned by the Han family was exactly the motivation of the Guo family to stick to Jinxue.
Indeed, modern learning is cumbersome, but as a family inheritance, it is too advantageous.
Because only cumbersomeness can establish a threshold, especially since the Guo family, as jurists of the Han family for generations, need this kind of threshold Confucian classics to maintain their monopoly.
In fact, this situation is not limited to the Guo family. Big families such as the Yuan family, the Yang family, and the Wei family are all members of the modern school of governance. This is the motivation behind it.
When Guo Tu tried the case, he decided the case in full accordance with the ideas of "Gongyang".
If a son faults his father and the father is at fault, then he should be punished. But if a "Gu Liang" scholar comes to decide the case, he will curse the son. How can a son of man blame his father? So he punished his son severely.
From this, we can see the opposition between the two types of scholars. The former always accuses the latter of being ignorant of flexibility and pedantic and conservative; while the latter always accuses the former of being a thief who uses the excuse of contingency to disrupt the destiny of the family.
But all in all, Zhang Chong approves of "Gongyang" because he is very close to his own idea of seeking truth from facts.
Therefore, he is quite satisfied with most of the cases handled by Guo Tu. Otherwise, what's the use of just handling them quickly?
It was precisely because of this achievement that Guo Tucai was quickly reinstated, became a long history of Yu Jin, went to Yiluo with the army, and finally made great achievements, was moved to the Shaofu Shaojian, and became an important official of the Ministry of Finance.
But looking at it now, Guo Tu's little idea popped up again. After looking at Guo Tu's list, Zhang Chong knew at that time that this was Guo Tu's attempt to cultivate political allies.
So Zhang Chong decided to give him a beating, just in time to let the government and the public know about Xiuyiwei, the Sword of Damocles.
There is no need to say that this thing is used all the time, but its existence itself is already working.
Of course, Zhang Chong's reason for beating Guo Tu was not only to protect him, but also to have an "imperial" mentality.
Because if you think about it for a moment, you will know how many times the Han Fu incident has been spinning in Zhang Chong's mind.
There are several facts here, each conveying different information.
Let’s talk about Han Fu giving gifts in private. This in itself shows that Han Fu has bad personal ethics. How could such a person be regarded by Zhang Chong, let alone be rewarded?
Looking at Guo Tu's refusal to open the door to accept the gift, it shows that whether Guo Tu has the idea of forming a party for personal gain or not, he at least understands the importance and the principles of public and private, which shows that Guo Tu can use it.
Finally, looking at the whole thing, Han Fu, as an upright person, actually found a young minister to smoothen the relationship. What does this mean? This shows that Guo Tu must be related to Han Fu, otherwise why would he give gifts when he comes up?
This clearly shows Guo Tu's attitude on this matter. He is indeed selfish, so he naturally wants to beat him.
In fact, from such things, we can see the difficulty of Zhang Chong's administration.
Sometimes he really likes the battlefield because the enemy is visible and all you have to do is defeat the enemy on the battlefield.
But in politics, strong means are of course necessary, but if we only use force to do things, then the entire politics will fall into a stagnant water, and everyone will be in danger. Who dares to do things?
Therefore, politics should pay more attention to gentleness and degree.
And grasping that degree is what Zhang Chong must learn.
Different from his extraordinary military skills, Zhang Chong understood that he was just the best in political methods.
He studied medicine in his previous life, and it was in that small department that he learned the most about politics. Therefore, Zhang Chong had an obvious disadvantage compared to the political elites under his command.
But fortunately, Zhang Chong understands where his advantages lie.
That is, as a superior, he is naturally invincible in politics. As long as he remains discerning, political affairs can always be handled well.
Moreover, he also used the successful experience of latecomers to ensure political efficiency from the institutional perspective by borrowing the political system of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Of course, Zhang Chong also understands the shortcomings of this political system, which is that the person in power must be a superman in terms of physical fitness.
Let’s take the simplest one, which is to get you up between three and five o’clock every day, 365 days a year. Can you do it?
If it were Zhang Chong in later generations, he would pat his chest and say that he couldn't do it.
Not to mention summer, let me ask you, can you get up at five o'clock in winter? The quilt on your body alone can seal you.
And how complicated it is to deal with government affairs.
You have to find someone to hold several meetings about one thing, and you have to listen to feedback from different channels repeatedly. With this kind of high-intensity information acquisition, those who have had many meetings in the future can understand Zhang Chong's pain.
This process does not include the fatigue of sitting for a long time, the fatigue of reviewing, and the fatigue of writing. It can be said that as a superior, the moment you sit in that position, you are being punished.
Therefore, if you want to game this system, you must be a superman.
But who makes Zhang Chong really Superman? His extremely strong physique not only makes him the chosen seed driller, but also the chosen ox and horse man.
If you sleep six hours a day, it’s okay; if you work twelve hours a day, it’s okay!
Now, it’s not the time to enjoy it, you still need to work hard!
However, Zhang Chong himself also understands that if this kind of high-intensity work is placed on anyone other than himself, he will either collapse in the end or be ruined to the end.
But what cannot be avoided is that this centralized system coupled with his inhuman physique is indeed a strong alliance.
If you didn't squeeze yourself like this, you would really be wasting this sacred body!
What about the latecomers?
Let’s talk about it later, anyway, now is the most suitable time!
After all, you have to believe in the wisdom of future generations!
I'm afraid there aren't many novels that can clearly explain ancient and modern literature and Spring and Autumn Period.