I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 112: Modern Text Confucianism Has Failed

After this happened, not only did Yuan Shu find it funny, but Yang Ci and Zhang Ji also found it hard to accept.

They themselves had not expected that they would stumble to this point.

Although the ones they arranged to attack were not the most trustworthy and talented disciples around them, they were not ordinary disciples who had not been taught any skills personally. They were all disciples who had received personal instruction and usually appeared to be decent people. They were able to pass some random checks and examinations.

Why did he show his weakness at this moment? Why was he so lame?

Moreover, it would be fine if he just lost the debate, but he lost to Yuan Shu, and even to Yuan Shu’s disciples, and couldn’t even see Yuan Shu. This was extremely embarrassing.

As a prestigious official school with unquestionable academic dominance in the Han Dynasty, it suffered a crushing defeat in the face of a school that had only been established for more than three years, and was completely powerless to resist.

How could orthodox academic research actually lose to heresy and unorthodox teachings?
Is the Han Dynasty court represented by a group of people like you?
Are people like you responsible for governing the country?

Yuan Shu did not express such views publicly and clearly, nor did he explicitly attack the New Literature School. Now is not the right time, but the New Literature School cannot conceal its own decline.

They couldn't even defeat Yuan Shu's unknown disciples!

Yuan Shu did not deliberately target or even incite the public to fight back against those who had attacked him, nor did he publicly say a bad word about them.

But facts speak louder than words.

Yuan Shu's disciples won victory after victory, while those disciples of the Imperial College doctors and famous people in the world suffered heavy losses. As such things happened more and more frequently, public opinion in Luoyang City changed more thoroughly.

They began to doubt whether the group of people they originally thought were high and mighty and erudite actually had any real abilities, began to doubt how they were able to hold such high positions, and began to doubt whether everything they said was correct.

The doubts began and got out of control.

The people who were originally on the sidelines began to move closer to Yuan Shu and Yi Xin Hui. More and more people went to apply to join Yi Xin Hui. They seemed to regard Yuan Shu as the winner of this public opinion storm in their hearts and had begun to move closer to the winner.

Yang Ci, Zhang Ji, Xun Qi and others found that the situation was getting worse and worse. Not only did they fail to test the boundaries of Yuan Shu's knowledge, but they exposed their own vast knowledge blind spots to Yuan Shu.

Yang Ci didn’t know what other people’s mentality was, but what he knew was that he himself was already a little exhausted and couldn’t afford to lose.

If he continues like this, let alone peace talks, he may not even be able to maintain his status as the Emperor's Teacher.

Does he also have to step down in person as the Emperor's teacher to argue with Yuan Shu?

If I lose, won’t it be useless?

The famous scholar who taught the emperor to read actually defeated a mere boy who was not even worthy of being a tutor in their eyes.

Yang Ci could not accept this situation.

We must never let this happen.

He could only send out his most capable disciples to challenge Yuan Shu.

The rest of the people also sent their last hope to challenge Yuan Shu.

So, on May 29th of the fourth year of Jianning, Yuan Shu led his thirteen generals in a peak showdown with forty-six strongest disciples including Yang Ci.

They fought fiercely with the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Shangshu as the main battlefields, and fought to the end in the large square at the main entrance of the Imperial College under the watch of tens of thousands of people.

Many court officials, dignitaries, and even eunuchs came to watch this duel.

All forces in Luoyang City are paying close attention to this extremely important confrontation.

Many people knew that if these elites representing the high-end combat power of the official school forces were defeated by Yuan Shu, the official school forces would have to send out real bigwigs to confront Yuan Shu head-on if they wanted to save the situation.

Otherwise, how will they be able to hang around in the Imperial College in the future?

Of course, Yuan Shu did not personally take action at the beginning. Instead, he let his thirteen generals fight against him first. The two sides fought fiercely for an hour. Yuan Shu lost eight generals, while the other side lost thirty-nine generals.

The last three remaining people, Cheng Li, Wei Jia and Su Chu, continued to fight against the remaining seven people on the other side. Another round of fierce battle began. After two incense sticks of time, only Wei Jia was left on Yuan Shu's side, while there were three people left on the other side.

So Wei Jia took on three people at once, and under the watchful eye of Yuan Shu, he burst out with all his energy and bombarded the three opponents. But in the end, he still fell down.

The person who finally defeated Wei Jia by a hair's breadth was Yang Ci's favorite disciple, Wang Lang from Donghai, Xuzhou.

So Wang Lang became the only one who could compete face to face with Yuan Shu in this peak showdown.

Yuan Shu was also very interested in him.

For some reason, when he learned that the man in front of him was Wang Lang from Xuzhou, he always felt like shouting to him, "I have never seen such a shameless person," to see if he would die on the spot in anger.

He felt that if this was possible, there would be no need to bother Zhuge Liang. However, Wang Lang was not such a person. Zhuge Liang never scolded him, and he was not angry to death. On the contrary, he was considered a generous elder.

Yuan Shu was not very interested in who he was.

What interested him was that after meeting him, Wang Lang did not seem to want to argue, but instead asked him a question.

"Mr. Yuan, I want to know, can following one's conscience and integrating knowledge and action really save the situation? Can everyone really become a saint? Why are you so sure? If it can't be done, what should we do?"

Yuan Shu was a little surprised.

"I finally came here, but instead of arguing with me, you want to ask me questions?"

Wang Lang nodded.

"I know I am no match for you. If I must debate, I will lose. There is no doubt about that. Instead of doing something that is definitely meaningless, I would rather use this time to ask you for advice on the confusion in my heart. I don't know how to answer it, and I hope to get your guidance."

Looking at the sincere eyes of the young "Wang Situ" in front of him, Yuan Shu thought for a while and nodded slowly.

"If you have any doubts, I will answer them for you."

Yuan Shu invited Wang Lang to sit down and straightened his clothes.

"I believe I can save the situation. I don't think it's impossible. If I don't even believe in it, how can I convince others to move forward with me?"

Wang Lang asked quickly.

"And what if that's not possible?"

"That's no big deal."

Yuan Shu smiled and shook his head: "The key is not whether it can succeed, because success or failure is not something that can be predicted by human power. When Confucius promoted Confucianism, did he know that his doctrine would be popular hundreds of years later? He didn't know.

When he was alive, he traveled around the world to promote his ideas, but few countries were willing to accept him and his philosophy. He encountered repeated setbacks and never saw his ideal of self-discipline and restoration of rituals successfully realized in the end.

But did he back down? He might be disappointed, but he never backed down. He always persisted, regardless of whether anyone was willing to believe or practice. He never backed down and remained consistent. This is an important reason why he can become a saint in the eyes of our generation today.

Sages are not necessarily absolutely right, but they will not doubt whether a path is feasible before they have achieved their own ideas. Even if it is a dead end, the sage will go to the end and make changes after seeing the end.

So I think that I will not change nor doubt my doctrine. If someone thinks I am right and wants to follow me, I welcome that. If someone thinks I am wrong and does not want to follow me, I also accept that. However, I will never allow anyone to assert that I will fail before I put it into practice.

How can something that has not been put into practice be considered a failure? How can a theory that has not been put into practice be considered a heresy or a side path? No one knows. The reason why some people say this is because they have evil intentions and their hearts are dirty, so they think everything they see is dirty.

For a person seeking to learn, it is very important to keep the mind pure and it is necessary to keep the faith firm. Without these two points, the result will be the same as those treacherous villains, despised by the world. Therefore, my doctrine is the study of the mind. "

After hearing this, Wang Lang thought silently, nodded slowly, and seemed to understand something.

After a while, he raised his head and looked at Yuan Shu again.

"So, you oppose the New Text School and put forward your own theory. Do you think the New Text School has failed?"

"Yes, it failed. It failed more than a hundred years ago."

Yuan Shu shook his head and said, "The living people nowadays are just talking about gods and ghosts who are reborn from the dead. They only look up at the sky and don't look down at the ground. How can such a theory floating in the air help people who are down-to-earth to live a happy life?"

"But is the current situation of the Han Dynasty really as you said, a critical moment for survival?"

Wang Lang wondered, "If this is the case, the current situation should be even more dangerous and should have been in chaos a long time ago."

"The centipede is dead but not stiff."

Yuan Shu sighed, “In the past, King Wen had already won the alliance of two-thirds of the princes, but he still submitted to King Zhou, thinking that the time was not right and he could not attack King Zhou. He waited until King Wu ascended the throne before he finally succeeded in attacking King Zhou. This was not because King Wen was afraid of King Zhou, but because the evolution of all things takes time.

Crops cannot grow in a day. A country, no matter how corrupt and decadent it is, will not collapse in an instant. When it shows signs of collapse, it will often persist for a long time before it reaches its true end. During this period, it will not make everyone think that it is about to collapse. "

Wang Lang was stunned.

"Do you... think that the Han Dynasty is about to collapse?"

"If no one can save the Han Dynasty, then the collapse of the Han Dynasty is not impossible."

Yuan Shu sighed and said, "Your Majesty, the Han Dynasty has the Xianbei and Xiongnu outside, and there are disasters and refugees inside. There are countless corrupt officials. Those who hold power are short-sighted and only care about themselves, not the country. Local tyrants annex land, plunder civilians, and commit countless crimes. Doesn't your Majesty feel familiar with this situation?"

(End of this chapter)