My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 46: Verbal Battle with the Crazy Scholar (New Book, Please Vote, Collect, and Follow Up)
After Zhuge Jin used his righteousness to pressure Ni Heng, he also appropriately directed the focus of the argument between the two sides to the word "virtue".
Mocking Ni Heng for not even knowing what the "virtue" in "a virtuous person will live there" means.
This certainly has a profound meaning.

Zhuge Jin knew very well that although he had inherited the Confucian knowledge of his original body, as well as the logical reasoning and political philosophy of later generations, he might not be able to absolutely defeat Ni Heng if he really wanted to debate the right and wrong of Confucian classics with others.

As a famous troll in the Three Kingdoms, Ni Heng must have had considerable skills, otherwise he would not have given Cao Cao a headache, not daring to touch him and only sending him to Liu Biao.

If this is the case, how can Zhuge Jin fight a battle without confidence?
Therefore, when Zhuge Jin first opened his mouth, he thought of a strategy: he wanted to lead the debate topic between the two sides to a point that the Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasty would definitely get wrong, but the Confucian scholars of later generations would definitely get right.

In other words, this question must have been answered incorrectly as early as by the two great Confucian masters of the Han Dynasty, Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu, and Confucian scholars throughout the Han Dynasty ignored this mistake because they respected their teachers and ancestors.

But later, with the progress of history and Confucianism, by the Tang and Song dynasties, later generations had discovered this problem. By the time of Han Yu, Sima Guang, Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, it had been gradually corrected.

In this way, no matter how much Ni Heng prided himself on his talent, he would not say anything that clearly surpassed or denied the opinions of Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu, right? In this way, Zhuge Jin could use the progress of political philosophy over more than a thousand years to defeat his opponent.

Since it was Ni Heng who first mentioned the "immorality" of the court, Zhuge Jin seized on the meaning of the "virtue" in "those with virtue shall take over" and pursued it relentlessly.

One strike decides the outcome.

……

Ni Heng was indeed stunned. He was scolded by the other party for not being able to clearly explain what the "virtue" in "the world shall be inhabited by those with virtue" was. This was absolutely intolerable and must be refuted.

If he can't even answer such basic questions, he has no face to call himself a Confucian.

So after careful consideration, he decided to answer word for word using the most balanced and official ideas of Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu:

"The world belongs to all people, and only those with virtue can live in it. The virtue here is naturally to unify the world and save the people from the slaughter of civil war. In the past, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Chinese people slaughtered each other every day.

Although Qin Shi Huang was a tyrant, he was able to gain control of the country because of his virtue, which ended the conflicts of the Warring States Period. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the country lost its power and fell apart. Emperor Gaozong reunited the country, so his virtue lasted for hundreds of years.

This theory was already proved in Gongyang Zhuan, and later Dong Zhongshu supplemented it in Chunqiu Fanlu. What else can we argue about? Could it be that you, a fool, have never read Gongyang Zhuan and Chunqiu Fanlu? It is really lamentable that I would answer such an ignorant person! "

Zhuge Jin listened very carefully, and after confirming that the other party had indeed been tricked, he copied the relevant explanations recognized by Han Confucian scholars in a very detailed manner. He knew that he was in safe hands:

"Who said that the Gongyang Commentary had such a definition of 'virtue'? What you just quoted was clearly the note left by Gongsun Hong when he was studying the Gongyang Commentary during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu. It was Gongsun Hong's personal interpretation, not the original intention of Gongyang Gao during the Warring States Period.

Although this interpretation is not completely wrong, it is obviously confusing and misleading. Let me ask you, when Gongsun Hong's commentary on "the virtue of unifying the world" in Gongyang Zhuan, did it quote Mencius's view on "the virtue of unifying the world" in Mencius. Liang Hui Wang Shang?

Ni Heng was stunned, and he always felt that there was a conspiracy, but the answer to this question was very clear, so he could only answer immediately: "Of course there is."

Mencius did not have a very high status among Han Confucian scholars, being only one of the Thirteen Classics. However, Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu did quote Mencius when they argued for the virtue of "a man of virtue should live there". This fact cannot be denied.

Zhuge Jin continued to set the trap: "Mencius met King Hui of Liang and asked him: How can the world be stable? He replied: It can be stable by one.

Who can unite them? Only those who do not love to kill can unite them. Who can help them? Everyone in the world can help them..."

Zhuge Jin first briefly quoted a few controversial scriptures, and then went straight to the point: "From this we can see that in Mencius' original intention, the kind of virtuous government that can make 'everyone in the world agree' is not 'ruling the world' itself, but 'ruling the world'.

What King Hui of Liang and Mencius sought at the beginning was also "ruling the world". Mencius' answer of "ruling the world" was only a means to rule the world. The means and the ends must be clearly distinguished and cannot be confused!

When you can rule the world, then naturally everyone in the world will be with you. All people in the world will willingly accept the ruler who brings them a stable life. This is the "virtue" of "the world is ruled by those with virtue"!
What is "stabilizing the world"? It means to make the people of the world serve less, fight less, perform less corvee labor, and pay less grain than during the 500 years of chaos during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It means to make the people of the world have less internal friction and live a good life. This is called "stabilizing the world"!
Unifying the country was only a prerequisite for achieving the goal of "preventing civil war in China", because all the wise men at that time knew that without unification, the civil war would never end. But it was not enough to just do this.

If Qin wanted to be virtuous, its rulers should have seen that the policies they implemented were just a means to rule the world. After the end, they should have lightened taxes and levies, so that the people would pay less grain, serve less, and serve less in the military than in the Warring States period. If after the end, the proportion of serving in the military and the proportion of taxation were still as high as in the chaotic period, it would be "only one thing and not yet determined", missing the point.

Therefore, Qin Shi Huang may have accomplished "ruling the world", but the virtue of "pacifying the world" was not truly realized until the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of this dynasty, when he officially reduced the tax to one-fifteen, abolished corporal punishment, and reduced corvée and military service through national laws.

You corrupt scholars have misinterpreted the ancient sages and falsely claimed to be virtuous, but you cannot even distinguish between goals and means. It is truly laughable!

Just like you need to excrete to survive, but the purpose of living is not to excrete! "

Zhuge Jin's words were as powerful as Mencius's, and he refuted Ni Heng so much that he was completely unable to defend himself.

It just so happens that Zhuge Jin's words were based on the ancient sages. Even though the status of the entire book of "Mencius" is not high today, those sentences in "The King Hui of Liang - Part 1" were indeed quoted in "The Gongyang Commentary" and "The Spring and Autumn Annals", which Han Confucians cannot deny.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin's argument is full of progressive humanistic concerns and is a truth recognized by later generations. He just brought it out a thousand years in advance to show off.

In the upgraded values of Confucianism in later generations, unifying the world is still important, but we must recognize that unifying the world is a means to stabilize the world. The most core "virtue" is to benefit the people and reduce their burdens.

If after a brief period of unification, the people's burdens are not reduced and they do not benefit until the demise of the regime.

The money, food and manpower saved by not fighting a civil war were not spent on the people, but were used to better support the dictator. In this case, this is not "having virtue and then losing it", but "having no virtue from the beginning".

The money, food and labor saved after the end of the civil war were considered the "beginning of virtue" from the moment they were spent on the people.

The people are the masters of history and the driving force behind history's progress.

The reason why later generations had such progressive ideas was because in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there were too many regimes that "were unified for a short time but did not bring benefits to the people."

In order to distinguish the long-term unified dynasties of later generations from these short-lived dynasties, generations of people with lofty ideals began to think about this issue.

From Han Yu to Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, to Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, although these people may not all have good personalities, they have proved this philosophical problem clearly in the process of elevating the status of Mencius and emphasizing the idea of people-centeredness. Zhuge Jin is now using the collective wisdom of Confucianism for more than a thousand years to point out the mistakes of the ancients in "not having strict logic and confusing means and ends". How can he not win?

At this moment he was not fighting alone, he was possessed by Han Yu, Sima Guang, Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan at the same time.

……

Ni Heng was refuted repeatedly and fell into a huge state of loss and doubt about his life.

But he really didn't know how to refute it because he had already quoted the standard answers of Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu.

Even if the answer to this question is wrong, it is not his fault! It has been wrong since Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu, and it has been wrong for nearly 300 years!
In the past three hundred years, no Han Confucian pointed out this mistake. Isn't it normal that he continues to be wrong today because of the inertia of his thinking?
But why could the guy opposite overturn such a big table in an instant?

Ni Heng considered himself the most mad man in the world, but he was not mad enough to point out Dong Zhongshu's mistakes.

The guy opposite is definitely crazier than him!

That was to tie Ni Heng, Gongsun Hong and Dong Zhongshu together with ropes and then hang them up and beat them.

And the other spectators in the tavern of Yizhou County were completely stunned for the first time.

They all knew that Ni Heng had been hated by everyone for several months. He always looked for opportunities to debate with people and to enhance his reputation.

It just so happens that this guy has a good eloquence and is very good at making excuses. In the past few months, everyone has been avoiding him.

People of too high status bother to criticize him, and people of lower status cannot criticize him more than anyone else.

At this moment, the unknown young man from another place who submitted the application actually beat Ni Heng in swearing!

Moreover, what he said was very profound, and at first glance, it was clear that he was able to criticize others from an academic perspective.

The water flows down from a high place, and no one can stop it.

How could those spectators who usually hate Ni Heng not follow him?

When Zhuge Jin had just finished criticizing Ni Heng, the other scholars who were sleeping at home in the county residence were called down by their companions, and they crowded into the wine room, ordered a pot of wine and listened to Zhuge Jin criticizing Ni Heng.

Later, the tavern's business was so good that most of the people in the county residence came. There were not enough seats at the tables, so they had to stand and listen.

The owner of the wine shop was too embarrassed to ask people to buy wine before entering.

When everything was over, the county mansion tavern was packed with people, even at the door.

Fortunately, Ni Heng did not come to Xu Du alone after all. He was surrounded by several servants and acquaintances.

Just now, when we saw that he was being criticized so badly, someone had already gone to report it.

The Yizhou County Residence is not far from the Nine Ministers’ Offices, otherwise it would not have become a gathering place for those seeking official positions.

So after a while, someone came from the Chief Architect's Office to find Ni Heng's close friend Kong Rong to save the situation.

After Kong Rong arrived, he acted as a peacemaker. Seeing that the academic dispute between the two sides had already been discussed, he asked Zhuge Jin to stop while he was ahead.

Zhuge Jin also knew that Kong Rong had a good relationship with Liu Bei, and he had already criticized everything he needed to criticize, so he gave Kong Rong some face, but at the same time reminded Kong Rong in public:

"Master Kong is a descendant of a saint, and his reputation for courtesy is known all over the world. I admire him. But Master Kong seems to be unfamiliar with the art of coordination and planning. Today, I saw that during the construction of the palace, the transportation of civil engineering was so wasteful."

When Zhuge Jin went to visit the palace construction site in the morning, he noticed that there were big problems with the construction scheduling and it was inefficient. It even lacked the labor-saving thinking described in the later Song Dynasty textbook "three tasks are accomplished in one go."

If he could give some pointers, there would definitely be a lot of room for improvement.

But originally Zhuge Jin did not want to offer advice privately, as that would not benefit him.

But in this public place where many people seeking official positions gather, the situation is completely different.

He had the opportunity to show off his talents in public, and Kong Rong didn't want to take his contribution lightly.

In this way, when things are done well in the future, it will definitely reach the ears of Xun Yu and Cao Cao - Zhuge Jin certainly did not come to please Xun Yu and Cao Cao, but in order to save money and labor in building the imperial palace, it is also taking care of the people who are oppressed by corvee labor.

Secondly, Zhuge Jin knew that this would be beneficial to his Zhuge family as well as Liu Bei's official position and the reputation of the court.

In this case, he should just make a name for himself in public, reap the benefits and leave, and don't wait for Cao Cao to keep him as an official in Beijing. (Even if Cao Cao wanted to keep him, he could find an excuse to refuse the appointment, such as saying that he needed to go to the local area to save his uncle in the name of filial piety.)

Kong Rong originally came to save his friend, but he never expected that he would get into trouble. In front of hundreds of onlookers, he was pointed out that the resource allocation of the project he was responsible for was inefficient.

But under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he had no choice but to humbly accept the advice and listen to the other party finish his opinion.

(End of this chapter)