I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 52 Yang Biao's Challenge

Yang Biao was born in Hongnong County. He was a direct descendant of the famous Hongnong Yang family. Since he was young, he followed his elders to study "Ouyang Shangshu". After he achieved success in his studies, he read widely to improve his knowledge. He gained great fame at a young age.

Of course, it was similar to Yuan Shu’s initial reputation. He was discovered to have certain talents within the family, and then the family’s mouthpiece was mobilized to make him famous and lay the foundation for a smooth career in the future. This was only the initial action, and there would be many more actions to come.

For example, he would ask the county governor, state governor, the three highest officials in the court, and other people who had the power to appoint officials to recruit him to be an official, but he would refuse to go, in order to show his fame and self-respect.

Finally, when the imperial court came to summon him with an official car, he would go there reluctantly and become a true subject of the emperor.

Children from aristocratic families don't need to be indebted to those small characters, nor do they need to serve as disciples or officials of others. Only when the emperor summons them with an official car can it be considered as giving them face.

Yang Biao is twelve years older than Yuan Shu. He is also a young man full of vigor and vitality. He has been pampered by his family since he was a child and has never encountered an opponent in the world. Naturally, he thinks that he is the strongest in the world.

Suddenly, a little guy appeared who was more dazzling than himself, and was also his wife's family member. Naturally, Yang Biao became interested.

So after talking to his father Yang Ci, he decided to "travel west to study" under the pretext of visiting the great Confucian scholar Ma Rong, hoping to meet Yuan Shu.

Yang Ci didn't stop him.

Firstly, Yang Biao does not hold an official position now and is still in the stage of waiting for a price. The procedures prepared by his family for him have not been completed yet, so he can act freely.

Secondly, you can gain more fame at this stage, communicate more with some prestigious people, praise each other, and get a lot of help in the future.

Thirdly, the Yang family and the Yuan family were both prominent families and had once had a good relationship. However, with the rise of power among external relatives and the chaos in politics caused by eunuchs, the two families gradually developed different values.

On the political level, the Yuan family was already in a chaotic and neutral situation, while the Yang family still, to a certain extent, adhered to the position that scholars should have.

On a moral level, Yang Ci looked down upon the brothers Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei.

Now, hearing that the Yuan family was starting to pursue an academic career again, he became interested and agreed to Yang Biao's trip.

Yang Biao was very happy. He braved the cold wind and rode in a luxurious carriage all the way west.

On the way, Yang Biao obtained a part of the manuscript of "Mencius Interpretation" written by Yuan Shu through some channels of his subordinates. After reading it, Yang Biao frowned and felt that Yuan Shu should not be underestimated, and this reputation was not exaggerated.

If this book was really written by him, then his academic foundation and his understanding of "Mencius" are beyond the reach of ordinary people to question. To question him, one must overturn his entire logic, which is very difficult to do.

He reinterpreted "Mencius" in the way of the study of conscience that he preached, and discovered a large amount of content that had not been discovered by the academic circle, and established Yu Shun as the ancestor of conscience.

He used Yu Shun, an ancient wise king, to promote the legitimacy of following one's conscience, which was equivalent to raising a banner for his doctrine.

Just as the modern literary school reveres Confucius and the ancient literary school reveres Zhou Gong, he went the extra mile and revered the ancient emperor Yu Shun!

But Yu Shun is the ancestor of the Yuan family.

How to refute?

With a heavy heart, Yang Biao arrived in Maoling County in mid-December. On the first day of his arrival in Maoling County, he ran into Yuan Shu giving a lecture.

Facing hundreds of people, Yuan Shu was not at all stage-frightened. He first taught things related to "Zuo Zhuan" and the strict ancient Chinese classics in a very confident manner. After finishing these things, he changed the subject and began to teach his own set of things.

Yang Biao joined the crowd and listened for a while. He inexplicably felt that what Yuan Shu said was quite interesting. It could even be said that it had its own logic.

Looking at Yuan Shu's childish face, I actually suspected that he was just a child. However, his extremely bright and sharp eyes and sharp words showed the demeanor of a true child prodigy.

Soon, Yang Biao came to the conclusion that this guy had the real stuff.

He is not just a vulgar person who is hyped up, but a scholar with real talent and knowledge and his own set of ideas.

This is a true prodigy!
But what surprised Yang Biao the most was Yuan Shu's ability to control the entire situation and his unconscious emotional appeal.

When teaching ancient Chinese classics, he was very strict and upright, and did not go beyond the rules at all.

But when it comes to his own private goods, he begins to show his abilities.

The speech was very fast, full of emotion, and with different intonations depending on the content.

When he got excited, he even stood up and paced back and forth on the podium, with some body movements, attracting the eyes of all the students in the audience.

Even Yang Biao himself could not help but be moved by Yuan Shu's speech, and deep in his heart he couldn't help but yearn for the bright future that the study of conscience would bring.

Then he suddenly realized that he was almost tricked by Yuan Shu.

After the lecture, Yang Biao truly felt Yuan Shu’s strength.

Compared to his academic ability and debating ability, his ability to remain calm and composed in public and even to inspire the emotions of the audience is a particularly amazing ability. Even if someone had no knowledge of the study of conscience before, he would be able to listen to his lectures now.

His words are not complicated or boring. It can even be said that many of them are simple and easy to understand, and they can arouse people's emotions.

He incorporated the dark reality of society into his doctrine, and his words conveyed the meaning that his doctrine was born to change the dark reality. He also guided people to believe in the bright future that conscience can bring, and to use conscience as a sharp blade to cut through darkness.

Most of the people who came to listen to his lectures were young students who had never been in officialdom and had a decent background in real life. These people liked his lectures very much.

A small number of middle-aged people or people with experience and life either questioned or reflected, or simply went to Yuan Shu for a debate. Then they gradually changed their minds and began to take the entire study of conscience seriously and explore it.

So it is true that the first people to be fooled are young people, but most of those who are fooled later are older students or even scholars with accumulated knowledge.

Yang Biao was very young and had not experienced any major events, but he often heard his family members talk about the dark reality in the court, and he was very resentful of eunuchs, external relatives and the like.

Although this resentment was not entirely due to a simple sense of justice, but also included pride in his own status as a noble family, it was hard for him not to be moved when he heard Yuan Shu talk about past history, criticize the dictatorship of eunuchs and relatives of the emperor, and talk about rebuilding spiritual pillars.

Of course, the most important thing is that Yuan Shu is really good at speaking and can make the audience's emotions follow his emotions.

When he sighed, the crowd sighed with him; when he was sad, the crowd was sad with him; when he looked forward to the future with high spirits, the crowd also felt high spirits with him.

Then I unconsciously became his fan and even a believer.

After Yang Biao mingled in the crowd and listened to Yuan Shu's lectures for three days, he had a certain understanding of Yuan Shu's academic foundation and ability to deceive people. He had to admit that Yuan Shu was indeed a true child prodigy and the Yuan family was really lucky.

But so what?
Yang Biao does not think that he is inferior to Yuan Shu in academic ability.

So, on the sixth day after arriving in Maoling County, Yang Biao issued a "declaration of war" to Yuan Shu, inviting Yuan Shu to discuss academic issues and compare academic levels.

Of course, it's public.

He didn't say he wanted to debate, but every sentence he said was about debate.

Yuan Shu was also quite surprised when he first learned about this.

Although his reputation was so great, there were many people who wanted to step on him to climb up, but they were basically scholars from poor families who lacked the steps to advance. There had never been a scholar like Yang Biao who was born into a noble family.

They have no shortage of opportunities to advance, channels and means to become famous, so naturally there will be many people who will brag about them, calling them the world's most talented people, the king's assistant, the southern country's top scholar, and so on.

Moreover, most of these children from prominent families do not have real talents as impressive as their reputation, so the safest choice is to be honest and not be a conspicuous person.

And Yang Biao actually chose to discuss academic issues with him openly.

Moreover, Yuan Shu heard that Yang Biao married a daughter of the Yuan family four years ago, and the two families have had a harmonious marriage since then. The Yang and Yuan families are related, so why are they suddenly looking for trouble with him?
It's really fun.

How could I refuse such an interesting thing?

Yuan Shu was very happy and immediately accepted Yang Biao's challenge. Then the two met, agreed on the content of the challenge, and started "competing" in a public occasion.

The news spread quickly. When people heard that Yang Biao, the leader of the younger generation of the Hongnong Yang family, was going to debate with Yuan Shu, they became excited. The onlookers surrounded the debate venue in three layers, making it impossible to get in or out.

Even Ma Rong, who had been recuperating from illness and living in seclusion for a long time, made a rare appearance after hearing the news and expressed his desire to be a witness of this "friendly match".

Now everyone is even more excited.

With great academic giants watching and testifying in person, it looked like this debate was going to be a bloody one, with the brains of the dogs about to be beaten out.

In order to be fair, the content of the debate between the two was left to Ma Rong to decide. After thinking about it, Ma Rong suggested that Yuan Shu and Yang Biao use the Spring and Autumn Annals as the topic and start a discussion around the Spring and Autumn Annals. The position was not important.

In short, any topic can be discussed regardless of whether it is from the perspective of ancient or modern classics. The main thing is whether their knowledge is profound.

Yang Biao and Yuan Shu both thought this was possible.

Thus, this eye-catching debate competition began.

Yuan Shu had no intention of having a friendly match with Yang Biao, and Yang Biao obviously didn't come for a friendly match either, so the two of them started with a simultaneous use of their ultimate moves, and the fight was so exciting.

The first topic is very important.

In the debate on the ritual system, whether the monarch can use the ritual of a noble going out to marry a bride when he is in mourning for three years.

(End of this chapter)