The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 152 Everyone has his own path, and there is no such thing as being forced to do something

"I do want something..." Ying Chengjiao turned around and looked around: "There are too many people here, it's not convenient to talk, can I talk to the master alone?"

Deng Lingxue hesitated for a moment and was about to speak.

Seeing that the girl had just stepped past Chang'an Jun, she looked back at Chang'an Jun with a sword in her hand.

The girl, who always appeared cold, now even had a glimpse of worry in the corner of her eyes.

"Heh." Deng Lingxue smiled bitterly again.

He was clearly the one being suppressed and taught a lesson, so why did he seem to be the bully? Could it be that a big man like him would secretly hurt others?

[He Mo from Qin State has really ruined the reputation of my Mohism. Can't he even have the most basic trust?]
[Perhaps, I should really go to Qin State and live up to my reputation as a Mohist.]
He sighed secretly and attributed the girl's distrust of him to Qin Mo.

Although Qin and Chu were adjacent to each other, due to the characteristics of the Qin State, Deng Lingxue had never set foot on Qin soil.

He dusted off his hands, stood up, and began to speak with a smile:
"If we talk alone, I'm afraid that Chang'an Jun will blame me again. How about asking this girl to come along? With a girl here, Chang'an Jun will probably give me some face."

Deng Lingxue was convinced that the people Chang'an Jun wanted to avoid were just the Mohists.

Ying Chengjiao smiled and stood up, holding his knees:
"I have my wish, but I dare not ask for my ear."

Before today, Ying Chengjiao never thought that he would have any good feelings towards someone who wanted to kill him.

It was obviously the girl who wanted to go along, but Deng Lingxue said that he didn't want to be blamed.

This treatment is perfect.

While satisfying the girl's wish, it also makes everyone present comfortable and avoids causing chaos.

If the girl took the initiative to ask, or Deng Ling asked the girl whether she wanted to follow him in, the Mohists in the courtyard would definitely feel dissatisfied.

The house was very simple, and when you looked up you could see tiles mixed with thatch.

Fortunately, there are complete tables and chairs.

Ying Chengjiao was carried by Bai Wuxia to a chair. The boy sat upright with his chin just above the table. From a distance it looked like a head was placed on the table, which was a bit scary.

Bai Wuxia, who was standing behind the chair, saw this and felt not horrified but only amused.

The girl thought of the pig's head placed on the altar during the New Year holidays, and her smile melted like ice and snow, but she immediately stopped when Ying Chengjiao glared at her.

Deng Lingxue also saw Ying Chengjiao's embarrassment, so he naturally moved the table away, picked up a chair and sat opposite Ying Chengjiao to avoid embarrassment.

"Chang'an Jun has something to say. Now we can talk." Deng Lingxue actually didn't think there was anything to talk about with the boy in front of him.

But the other party came to him just to talk to him and didn't do anything immoral, so he couldn't find a reason to refuse.

Including the conversation in the courtyard, Deng Lingxue had no intention of discussing the Tao at first, he just answered every question.

Some people are born not able to say "no", while some people are taught not to say "no".

Ying Chengjiao nodded slightly in gratitude:
"I want you to cherish your life and not seek death."

"... Chang'an Jun always likes to say some shocking things." Deng Lingxue tried his best to be polite.

Although he had long been prepared to sacrifice himself for justice, he still didn't like others saying that he was seeking death.

The young man said sincerely:

“The kid thought he made it very clear outside, but now it seems the giant still doesn’t understand.

"Mozi created a stone called 'Daoyi', and a large number of people believed in and followed Mozi, and this is Mohism.

"After Mozi's death, Mohism was divided into three schools.

"They are the ink of Xiangli, the ink of Dengling, and the ink of Xiangfu.

“People call the Mohism promoted by Deng Ling the Chu Mohism, which is the current school of Ju Zi.

"Your ancestor Deng Lingzi re-imagined a stone based on the stone imagined by Mozi. But he believed that the stone he imagined later was the stone imagined by Mozi, so he still called it 'morality'.

"Chu Mohism took Deng Lingzi's imaginary stone as its standard, discarded the empty talk and mechanical things in the original Mohism, and devoted himself to universal love.

"Until now, Chu Mo has taken it as his duty to be chivalrous and to save the weak and the people, and this has remained the case until the generation of Juzi.

“Although I have only known Juzi for two days, from his performance and the attitude of the people around him, I am convinced that he is a person who seriously implements Deng Lingzi’s ‘morality’.

“And I have a good impression of people like Juzi, and I agree with Deng Lingzi’s ‘morality’, so I don’t want to kill you.

"But if the master is determined to kill me, then I will have to kill him first."

Deng Lingxue did not react too violently, and asked with a faint smile:
"Does Chang'an think Xue is a person who is afraid of death?"

The beliefs he had adhered to throughout his life were ridiculed, and when someone said he wanted to kill him in person, he remained polite and gentle.

Ying Chengjiao compared him with Kong Bin and found that Chu Mo, who was the best at using force, was more polite than the Confucianists, who attached the most importance to etiquette.

He didn't know the reason, he just knew that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to kill this ordinary man in front of him.

The boy shook his head:
"Of course not, Giant."

Deng Lingxue asked again with a smile:

"Since Chang'an Jun knew that Xue was not afraid of death, why did he threaten Xue with death?"

"I'm not threatening you, sir. I'm just stating the facts." Ying Chengjiao used the most sincere tone to express his non-threatening intention.

Deng Lingxue looked at the young man with interest and said:

“By listening to Chang’an Jun’s words, I can tell that he has indeed studied Mohism and read Mozi.

“But is what Chang’an Jun said necessarily what Mozi said?
“Isn’t what Chang’an Jun said about Mohism today the stone that Chang’an Jun imagined?
"Xue admits that he was no match for Chang'an Jun and was indeed bewitched by his words at first.

“But not anymore.

“Gongsun Long said that a white horse is not a horse. I could not convince him, and no one I met could convince him, including the Mo Juzi of Qi.

“Is it true that a white horse is not a horse? No.

“Everyone knows that a white horse is a horse.

"Gongsun Long can convince people with his mouth, but he cannot convince them with his heart."

Deng Ling learned to point to the heart:
"The same is true for morality. Morality is in everyone's heart and will not change because of Chang'an Jun's words.

"Chang'an Jun shook Xue's faith, and argued that morality did not exist, and that it was wrong for Xue to kill you based on morality, so Xue should give up killing you.

"This is a very difficult thing to do, harder than fishing the moon out of the water.

"It's better not to waste time trying to persuade Chang'an Jun. Find a few more retainers with strong martial arts skills to protect Chang'an Jun's life."

Ying Chengjiao looked into Deng Lingxue's eyes and shook his head gently:
“‘Morality’ did not exist originally, but as more people came together, it began to exist.

“But it is true that the meaning of the word ‘morality’ is indeed a human creation.

"It is also true that Chu Mo acted in accordance with Deng Lingzi's 'morality'.

“The master initially said that killing the boy was not a moral right, but it was not against morality.

"If the 'morality' spoken of by the great master is the 'morality' spoken of by Mozi, then anything that is not moral is against morality.

"Why was there no Chu Mo when Mozi was alive? Because Mozi himself did not advocate killing people. Mozi's universal love is to save people and love people, not to kill people."

Deng Lingxue said in a deep voice:

“Mozi said that killing a thief is not killing a person.

“It means that killing a thief is not killing a person.

"In my opinion, Chang'an Jun will be the biggest thief in the future."

Ying Chengjiao immediately said:
“That’s what you thought.

"I don't want you to think, I want myself to think.

“I understand where you’re coming from.

“You think that I now have a very good reputation among the upper classes of the nations and will become a living saint in the future.

“But I, the saint, am not actually a saint.

"The brass dance I created is only known among the upper class nobles, and is harmful to the common people.

“When I grow up, I, a fake saint, will create many things like brass dancing and exploit the people to support the nobles.

“But because of the title of saint, the people will be willing to be exploited, and will be exploited with a smile.

"As a result, the world will fall into the darkest era, which may be darker than the era of Jie and Zhou in your opinion.

"Right?"

Ying Chengjiao's rebuttal was quick and hasty, and he did not respectfully call Deng Lingxue a giant in his words, which made his attitude clear.

Deng Lingxue nodded, this was exactly what he thought.

"This is not just about learning from one person, but also about learning from the people around you and thinking the same way."

Ying Chengjiao sneered:
“So you are Mohists of Chu Mo, not Mohists of Mohism.

"Mozi said to kill the thief, not the person.

"How do you define a thief? Your 'I thought'?

"If he is defined as a thief, even if we don't use the laws of the governments of various countries, we should at least judge him by his behavior, right?"

The boy opened his arms, showing his weakness, and continued:
"I am only seven years old. Can I, at the age of seven, rob people and steal their property?

“Of course, I am a young master, and I have enough men to do such things.

"But did you find out?"

Deng Lingxue looked at the boy's stern face and shook his head. He believed that the boy would not do such a thing.

How could this group of young masters be short of money? Do they need to kill people for money? Killing people for beauties is more appropriate.

The boy in front of him was only seven years old, obviously not old enough to snatch a beauty, and he had neither the heart nor the energy.

Ying Chengjiao kept a sneer on his face and said:

"Since there is none, then I am the 'human' in Mozi's 'not to kill'. If you kill me, wouldn't that be a violation of Mozi's 'morality'?"

Deng Lingxue thought for a moment and sighed:
"Changan Jun is making excuses again."

Ying Chengjiao stared and snorted coldly:

"This is the most obvious truth, just like what I said yesterday that Mohism is not a completely moral school.

"Don't deceive yourself and blame everything on sophistry, okay?"

Deng Lingxue felt uncomfortable again, just like he felt yesterday. He felt bad as if his beliefs had been challenged.

Ying Chengjiao used metaphors and other theories to compare with Deng Lingxue. If Deng Lingxue disagreed, he would still remain firm in his beliefs even if he could not refute it.

But Ying Chengjiao used Mohism, and according to Mozi's words, if Deng Lingxue, the great Mohist scholar of Chu, did not agree with it, he would be abandoning his own doctrine.

Deng Lingxue, whose body and soul had long been stained black by ink, nodded helplessly:
"Okay, I admit that what Chang'an Jun said is right. My intention to kill Chang'an Jun goes against Mozi's 'morality'.

"But Xue still wants to kill Chang'an Jun.

"As Chang'an Jun said, I believe in the 'I think' of me and other Mohists. We cannot sit idly by and watch Chang'an Jun endanger the world in the future.

"This may be my Chu Mo's 'morality'. Thank you Chang'an Jun for your advice today, which helped me find myself."

Deng Lingxue, who had always called himself a Mohist, looked calm but was in great pain inside when he spoke as Chu Mo.

The three Mohist schools of Qin, Qi and Chu all believed that they were the orthodox Mohists and had fully inherited Mozi's true ideas.

Ying Chengjiao's face looked much better.

If Deng Lingxue insisted that this was sophistry, he really had no other choice.

The truth is only useful if it is told to someone who will listen.

The person involved covered his ears and shouted, "I don't want to listen." It's no use no matter who comes to help.

The boy rubbed his cheeks vigorously, and the words he said sounded a little honest:
"Since you admit that you are acting in accordance with the 'moral' philosophy of our ancestor Deng Lingzi, then things will be much easier.

"Mohism advocates universal love, which is love without distinction.

“All people are the same and equal, and the love we have for our parents, our neighbors, and everyone else should be the same.

"You love me, I love him, he loves you. As long as everyone loves each other, the world will be a beautiful world without war and fighting." Confucianism advocates benevolence, which is a differentiated love.

“Everyone has compassion. Because we love our youngest children, we want to take care of children as young as our youngest children. Because we love our parents, we want to take care of the elderly who are as old as our parents.

"The Confucian and Mohist schools have been arguing over this view. I have no intention of judging who is right or wrong, nor do I have the qualifications to do so. I just want to express my opinion on this view that you are very familiar with.

“Confucius is benevolent, Mozi is universalist. These are two different personalities. They both worked hard in the direction guided by their own hearts and took two different paths.

"They publicized their inner voices and led more people to express benevolence and universal love. Later generations followed Confucius and Mozi, following the guidance of their hearts and walking the paths of the two sages.

"Did these two roads exist originally? No.

“Without Confucius and Mozi, there would be no such two roads. The two sages were the ones who built the roads.

“Confucius taught everyone without distinction, and Mozi criticized tyranny.

“What the two predecessors did was obviously much more brilliant than what I did, but in the final analysis, this was what they wanted to do.

“What I said may be too general and unclear, so let me put it another way.

"For example, if you encounter a person being robbed by bandits, regardless of whether the person asks you for help or not, you will definitely rush to save the person, right?"

Deng Lingxue nodded.

This is inevitable; there is no reason for Mohists to stand by and watch someone die without helping.

Ying Chengjiao nodded and continued:
“You will save people because that is what your heart wants to do, and that is what your heart is directing you to do.

“In the eyes of the people here, you are a saint who saves people from suffering.

"In fact, according to the standards of a saint, I would say you can be considered a saint.

“But you have to understand one thing.

“You do things according to morality, and your morality is imagined by your ancestor Deng Lingzi.

"At the end of the day, you are following your heart and doing what you want to do, understand?
"There is no good or bad in this world. Everything is determined by people."

The young man looked up at the few rays of sunlight that came through the cracks between the tiles and the thatch, pointed at the beam of light with a tiny bit of dust on it and said:

“You see, we see the sun every day, and the sunshine shines on us every day.

“The sun will not remain warm and gentle because of the wisdom of Emperor Yao, nor will it become scorching or disappear because of the tyranny of Jie and Zhou.

“As the sun is, so is the sky.

"Heaven will not let you have everything go your way just because you uphold morality, nor will it let me die suddenly just because I don't uphold morality."

Deng Lingxue frowned slightly.

Upon seeing this, Ying Chengjiao stopped talking at the right time and stretched out his little hand to signal Deng Lingxue to speak frankly.

Deng Lingxue nodded in greeting and said in a deep voice:
“Heaven has its own will. It delights in righteousness and dislikes injustice.

“Heaven wants people to love and help each other, not to hate or be on guard against each other.

“When the heaven sees the righteousness, it is pleased and will send down sunshine to illuminate the earth, allowing all things to grow.

“During the reigns of Yao, Shun, Yu, King Wen of Zhou, and King Wu of Zhou, they obeyed the will of heaven and enjoyed long and prosperous reigns, with descendants that continued unbroken. People in later generations praised them as holy kings.

When God sees injustice, he becomes displeased and orders the rivers, lakes and seas to destroy their dams, order locusts to cover the sky and eat up all the food, and order the sun to shine and cause drought for a thousand miles.

"During the time of Jie and Zhou, they did not obey the will of heaven, so heaven punished them, causing them to lose their country and their lives, and they were cursed by people in later generations.

"Heaven is omniscient and omnipotent. It will not overlook even dark and deserted places like mountains and valleys. Its clear eyes will see everything clearly.

“From what I hear from Chang’an Jun, it seems that he is treating heaven as a dead object, which is wrong.

"Chang'an Jun should have some respect for God.

"Everything Chang'an Jun does, the heaven can see."

Ying Chengjiao chuckled.

[Morality is defined by humans, what does it have to do with heaven?]
[If we talk about the will of heaven, it is the natural law of the survival of the fittest and the survival of the weak.]
[Morality, huh…]
He thought about it in his mind and didn't say it out loud.

"Tianzhi" is the first chapter of "Mozi" and one of Mozi's most important thoughts. One of the theories that Mozi used to attack Confucianism during his lifetime was that Confucianism did not believe in heaven.

Ying Chengjiao had no intention of persuading a Chu Mo master not to believe in God. This was not much easier than getting a Chu Mo master to give up Mohism.

Besides, this has nothing to do with his purpose, he just wants to achieve his goal.

The boy narrowed his eyes and smiled:
"In that case, then let your heaven send down a bolt of righteous thunder to strike me to death."

Deng Lingxue shook his head and said:
“What God wants to do is not something I can control.

“The sky has not sent down thunder now, not because it has not seen Lord Chang’an, but because it believes that Lord Chang’an’s crime does not deserve death.

"Heaven is the most just and great. When Heaven deems that Chang'an Jun's crimes are unforgivable and he deserves death, it will definitely do so."

Ying Chengjiao spread out his hands and said:
“That’s easy.

"Then if you kill me, you are violating the will of God?

"If even Heaven doesn't think I deserve to die, why do you think I deserve to die?"

Deng Lingxue explained:

"Heaven is fair and just, so it will definitely intervene when Chang'an Jun has done enough evil things.

“And learning is to avoid the crimes that Chang Anjun will commit in the future, to prevent them before they happen.

“Learning does not defy the will of heaven, it merely fulfills the will of heaven in advance.”

Ying Chengjiao clapped his hands, shouted "Cheers", and said:

"I thought I could find loopholes in your words and hide my inner thoughts, but it seems I was too naive.

"If I don't analyze myself for you, you won't let me go... Haha, actually I'm letting yourself go. I really don't believe that Chu Mo has the ability to kill me.

“Let’s get back to the previous topic.

“Everyone’s life is all about following the guidance of their heart and walking the path they want to walk.

“Confucius’s path is about benevolence, while Mozi’s path is about universal love.

"Your ancestor Deng Lingzi once walked this path, and your heart agrees with this path, so you are walking on it now. I will call it morality for the time being.

“From this point of view, you are the same as your ancestors Deng Lingzi, Confucius, and Mozi.

"To be precise, all people in the world are the same, they are all walking their own paths.

"So am I, I am also walking my own path, guided by my heart.

"It's too much to say that I work for the country, the people and the world. I work for myself.

"I wanted to take this path myself. Even if someone forced me along the way, it was my own choice once I agreed.

“There’s never been anything that’s beyond your control.

"Someone forced you to commit suicide. If you didn't commit suicide, your entire clan would be exterminated. You chose to commit suicide and then said that you had no choice.

"No, this is your own choice. Your heart chose the latter between your life and your three tribes."

The young man pointed at Deng Lingxue's chest and said softly:

“Everyone follows their own heart, including you, Deng Lingxue.

"It's the same with you, you're doing it for yourself, you're following your heart.

"You want to kill me, it has nothing to do with the 'morality' of the world, because there has never been 'morality' in the world.

"This only has to do with the 'morality' in your heart and the path you want to take.

“If you want to kill me, you are blocking my way.

"Although I like you very much, I like your personality, the way you handle things, and the path in your heart called 'morality'.

"But the path my heart guides me to take has more weight in my heart than yours. If you stand in my way, I will have no choice but to kill you. Do you understand?
"According to the Qin calendar, I am seven years old this year.

“In November, I killed Prince Gao of Zhao with my own hands.

“I pulled the rope around his neck and felt his life go from extremely strong to extremely weak.

"I'm not saying this to show off, but to tell you that even though I'm only seven years old, I can really kill people."

The young man saw the shock in Deng Lingxue's eyes for the first time and smiled softly:
"Kong Binzi asked me jokingly, but I didn't answer and avoided the question.

"From this point of view, you are better than him. Does it count as Mohism being better than Confucianism?"

Deng Lingxue didn't think the joke was funny at all. He didn't feel like laughing at all. He just felt a chill in his heart.

A seven-year-old child killed someone with his own hands.

Even the most brutal Jie and Zhou were not so brutal when they were young!

His murderous intent towards the young man in front of him became even stronger.

The young man didn't wait for Deng Lingxue's answer, curled his lips in boredom, and continued:
“I will now tell you what my path is and how I will go about it.

“I hope you can believe, let yourself go, save your life.

"After all, our paths are partly connected. You can save the people around you who are about to starve to death, and I can reduce the number of people who are about to starve to death in the world..."

Gai Nie waited in the courtyard for more than an hour and saw the door of the house open.

The Chu Mo master Deng Lingxue personally escorted Ying Chengjiao, Bai Wuxia, and Gai Nie to the door, and said to the young man seriously at the door:

"I hope that Chang'an Jun's heart will always be firm and lead him on this path. If Chang'an Jun's heart changes..."

"Then the giant will bring the Mohists to kill me." The young man smiled brightly.

Deng Lingxue nodded in response and clasped his fists:

"Take care, young master!"

The change of name means a change in Chu Mo's attitude towards the young man.

The young man clasped his fists in response and said softly:

“We choose our own paths.

“The life we ​​have now may not be what we want, but it is definitely what we asked for.”

In the afternoon, the government in the city received a report that the leader of Chu Mo had returned to Chu with a group of Mohists.

The next day, the convoy set off from Lu’s Jewelry and headed for South Korea.

Two days later, an envoy from Wei State stopped the carriage and asked for a meeting, saying that he was ordered by the King of Wei to bestow the title of Chang'an Jun on Chang'an and the title of Prime Minister of Wei, and to appoint him as Prime Minister of Wei.

As a result, Ying Chengjiao was able to wear the seals of the four countries of Zhao, Yan, Chu and Wei, and his fame was almost as great as that of Su Qin, a famous official who wore the seals of the six countries.

Eight days later, the convoy arrived at the gate of Xinzheng, the capital of Han.

Perhaps it was really a blood relationship, Ying Chengjiao suddenly had an idea and walked out of the car holding the little black tiger.

He looked up at the high city walls and could only see people, but could not tell whether they were men or women.

He stared at one of the figures intently.

In his sight, the figure was blurry and almost indistinguishable from the surrounding figures.

He took out the clairvoyance and put it in front of his eyes.

That blurry figure turned into a young and beautiful woman who also held a telescope and had tears on her face.

"Mother." He whispered softly.

The wind was quite strong today, blowing the water off his face and into his mouth.

He smiled and smacked the food twice; it tasted salty.

　Make up 2500 words, and there are 5500 left.

　　00:15 Remember to refresh after reading. I added 500 words when I revised it later.

　　No more chapter divisions, the emotions in the chapters are not in place and there is lag.

　　I have finally finished writing the storyline about Chu Mo. I am so tired. I am already having a headache about the debate with Gongsun Long later on...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)