My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 51: To be the Righteous Emperor or to be the Xian Emperor, this is the question

After finally dealing with all the matters concerning obtaining an official position and receiving a title, Zhuge Jin certainly didn't want to stay in Xudu for even a single day longer.

He had already obtained all the things he wanted, and Cao Cao had also noticed him.

It was simply nonsense to try to recruit talents from Xudu. It had been tried before and failed. Everyone who came here wanted to be directly conferred an imperial title by the imperial court. Their purpose was very clear, just like those people who would rather have a bed in the capital than an apartment in other places.

In this case, Zhuge Jin did not want to cause any more trouble. After leaving the palace, he planned to leave the city at noon that day.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao seemed to want to show them some favors to win them over one last time, and he insisted on setting up a private banquet for him and Chen Deng at the Sikong Mansion, and then ordered someone to secretly send them some gold and jewelry as travel expenses.

The banquet was not large, with only Cao Cao himself, Xun Yu, Sima Lang and Geng Ji attending.

Zhuge Jin had no way to refuse, so he had to continue pretending to be flattered and being nice to the other party, and they drank until the afternoon.

Just when the banquet was about to end, the arrival of an uninvited guest suddenly interrupted the atmosphere of the banquet.

Cao Cao was drinking happily and drawing a cake to wish for an official post. An official from the Sikong Mansion came in and whispered in his ear:
Cao Cao raised his eyebrows, looking slightly unhappy, but he managed to hold it in. He immediately stood up, straightened his clothes, and turned to Zhuge Jin and instructed: "Zi Yu is so knowledgeable that he even reported it to the emperor. The emperor sent Zhao Yilang to summon him. It must be something important. Let's go out together to greet him."

It turned out that Liu Xie sent Zhao Yan to summon him, but he didn't know what the reason was, even though he had just seen him during the court meeting in the morning.

Zhao Yan went to the Xuzhou County Residence first, but did not find Zhuge Jin. After asking others, he found the Sikong Mansion.

Cao Cao personally led his men to greet him. After they had exchanged greetings, Zhao Yan explained his intention: "After the court meeting today, Your Majesty felt that Captain Zhuge was quite talented and learned, so he asked the attendants about him. He learned that he had even surpassed the famous scholar Ni Heng in the debate on the classics, and his arguments were brilliant. Your Majesty is eager to learn, so he wants to discuss the rise and fall of virtue and fortune in the pre-Qin period and the present dynasty."

Everyone then realized that it was because Zhuge Jin's refutation of Ni Heng's remarks in front of more than a hundred scholars seeking official positions that day had reached Liu Xie's ears.

Cao Cao was surprised at first. How could such a folk academic debate interest the emperor?

But he reacted quickly, and then realized that Liu Xie was trying to find some spiritual sustenance and comfort - after all, the Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasty in the previous four hundred years had all said that "Qin first had virtue, but later lost it. Han inherited Qin's virtue and possessed the world."

As a result, whenever the world was in turmoil, countless people would wonder whether the Han Dynasty had also reached the point of losing its moral integrity.

One important reason why Wang Mang was able to usurp the Han Dynasty was that Confucianism itself sided with Wang Mang, building up momentum for him and saying that Wang Mang inherited the virtues of the Han Dynasty.

But Zhuge Jin refuted Ni Heng's remarks the day before yesterday, delaying the "beginning of virtue" from "ruling the world" to "ruling the world". If we dig deeper, we may find that "Qin was doomed before it had time to have virtue, so Han was the original virtue, the beginning of virtue".

Given Liu Xie's identity, once he learned about this political philosophy theory, would he not want to explore this spiritual sustenance in depth?
After realizing this, Cao Cao had nothing to blame Zhuge Jin for. The emperor's private chat with him was probably not about any real power or policy strategy.

As for the emperor seeking spiritual comfort, haha, how could such an illusory thing cause any waves?
Cao Cao was the most pragmatic person and he looked down upon the role of political philosophy, so he was not worried at all.

Zhuge Jin was still a little cautious, and quickly apologized to Zhao Yan: "Your Majesty, did you summon me immediately? I just had a banquet, and I am afraid that I may be inappropriate after drinking..."

Zhao Yan did not embarrass him: "Your Majesty has given your order. You can come to see him tomorrow morning."

The emperor summoned people on a whim, sometimes in a hurry, but more often he made an appointment in advance. Because the emperor didn't know when the messenger would be able to find someone, so he wouldn't wait forever. Academic discussions were not urgent business.

Zhuge Jin finally breathed a sigh of relief. After respectfully bidding Zhao Yan farewell, he had to ask Cao Cao for instructions: When he was debating with Ni Heng the other day, he had said something shocking in order to win. He wondered if he should talk about it in front of the emperor...

Cao Cao did not make things difficult for him. He simply gave him some advice, asking him not to criticize his predecessors too much and to strike a good balance. Then he let him go back to his residence.

Cao Cao also noticed that after Zhuge Jin heard Zhao Yan summon him, his first reaction was to delay by making the excuse of being drunk, and then asked him for instructions.

It can be seen that there was no conspiracy in this matter. The emperor just had a sudden impulse and the subject of discussion was Confucianism, so there could not be any substantial harm.

If Zhuge Jin was like Dong Cheng three years later in the parallel universe, and rushed immediately when summoned by the emperor without asking Cao Cao for instructions, then Cao Cao would have suspected that he had been given secret instructions.

……

The banquet ended hastily after being interrupted by the emperor's envoy.

Because he was not to be summoned until the next morning, Zhuge Jin hurried back to his residence in Xuzhou and packed up everything. He also instructed Chen Dengming to help him take his entourage and luggage out of the city early and wait at Weishui Pavilion, 30 miles east of the city.

Zhuge Jin only left behind Chen Dao and a few guards with high martial arts skills, and they fled immediately after the imperial prelude was finished.

Everything went smoothly, and in a blink of an eye it was the next morning, October 22nd.

Zhuge Jin did not dare to neglect it. He rushed to the palace with Chen Dao and others early in the morning. He left Chen Dao and others at the door and followed the eunuchs into the palace. He was then received by Zhao Yan and brought directly to the emperor. Liu Xie received him in the study, with only a few attendants and palace maids around him. It was obvious that he was summoned alone.

When Liu Xie saw Zhuge Jin, there was an inexplicable expectation in his eyes. He first asked Zhuge Jin a few questions about how he could help Kong Rong coordinate the details of the renovation of the imperial palace.

Zhuge Jin also explained everything he knew, and described the strategy of "achieving three tasks in one go" in more detail, including how much labor costs water transportation can save compared to land transportation, and how much backfilling after dredging can save compared to mining soil from far away.

Liu Xie was also quite pragmatic. Two and a half years ago, when he was still under the control of Li Jue, there was a great famine in Guanzhong, and Liu Xie ordered the treasury to be opened to provide disaster relief.

However, one of the responsible officials, Hou Wen, was found to have committed fraud. Liu Xie asked people to take rice and beans and cook porridge in front of the emperor as an experiment. He then combined it with the accounts of Hou Wen's relief distribution to prove that he had indeed embezzled money, and he severely punished Hou Wen.

It can be seen that Liu Xie's mathematical level and empirical thinking were relatively good among the Han emperors. Therefore, Zhuge Jin's report to him on the cost-saving methods and detailed accounts of the palace construction also made Liu Xie listen with great interest, and he once again praised Zhuge Jin for his pragmatic talent.

After chatting for a while, Liu Xie suddenly changed the subject and turned to the debate between Zhuge Jin and Ni Heng on the meaning of the classics that day:
"Mr. Zhuge, there is one thing I don't understand. I heard you say the other day that 'ruling the world' is not the beginning of virtue, it is just a means, and 'ruling the world' is the beginning of virtue and is the goal. I think that makes sense.

So, you tell me, did Qin ever have the virtue of "the world is ruled by the virtuous"? Was Qin Shi Huang the legitimate emperor or did he steal the world? Was it my Emperor Gao who was the original virtuous? Or did he inherit Qin's virtue?"

Zhuge Jin gave an imperceptible bitter smile; he knew that the emperor would not hesitate to grasp at any straw that could increase the sacredness of his rule in order to quickly rebuild the royal authority from the chaos.

However, if he completely denied Qin De in front of the emperor, Cao Cao would definitely get into trouble if he found out, because Cao Cao certainly did not want the Han emperor to have unprecedented sacredness.

But Zhuge Jin couldn't just go back on his word.

After a short period of intense thinking, he finally came up with a plan to get out of this situation without offending either side: "Your Majesty, what I said that day was just a discussion of the classics. I am young and inexperienced, and I have just entered the official career, so I dare not speak rashly about practical policies.

Qin Shi Huang might have had the idea of "lightening taxes and levies and using the manpower saved from unifying the country for the people" after "completely unifying the country and eliminating foreign threats", but this can no longer be proven.

Because he didn't live to see that day, who knows what Qin Shi Huang would have done if he had lived another 10 or 8 years and completely pacified the Baiyue? He died in the process of "ruling the world", and the subsequent events have become a mystery. "

Liu Xie's eyes flashed with disappointment, but then a new hope flashed. He grasped the new psychological comfort and asked anxiously: "Do you think that Qin Shihuang died in the process of 'unifying the world'? Didn't he unify the six kingdoms twelve years before his death?"

Zhuge Jin knew that if he chose to deal with it tactfully, it would cause more doubts about the academic details, but he could only continue. So he took a deep breath and said, "It depends on how Qin Shihuang defines 'the world' in his heart. If he destroys the six kingdoms and unifies the world, then there is no problem.

But he continued to use military force after conquering the six kingdoms. Perhaps he considered the Xiongnu and the Baiyue as part of the empire. Qin Shihuang's understanding of the empire may have surpassed the Zhou people's understanding of 'outside the empire, all are barbarians'. "

Zhuge Jin's words may be difficult for people in later generations to understand, and one explanation must be given. According to the Zhou Dynasty people's definition of the word "world", barbarians were not included in the world.

Therefore, Duke Huan of Qi's handling of the Lai Yi and helping the State of Yan fight the Shanrong could be regarded as "restoring peace to the world" in the Zhou Dynasty, which meant "expanding the scope of the world and turning the areas that were originally barbaric into part of the world."

Zhuge Jin attributed the problem of Qin Shi Huang to "not having clear goals before doing things, and just going as far as possible", thus avoiding the question of whether he would have a empire.

Seeing that the emperor was still not satisfied, he added casually: "Moreover, if you must say that Qin did not rule the world, you can also use Minyue as an example. Many of the Baiyue were not descendants of Goujian, the King of Yue at the end of the Warring States Period, but the King of Ouyue and the King of Minyue during the Qin Dynasty were indeed descendants of Goujian and belonged to the scope of the 'Chinese world'.

In the year of his death, Qin Shi Huang successfully conquered Dongye (now Fuzhou) and "captured its leader" and forced him to surrender. However, Qin was unable to occupy the southern half of today's Kuaiji County (Fujian) until its demise. The King of Ouyue had another son who established himself there. From this perspective, Qin Shi Huang was indeed one step away from "annihilating all the princes within the world."

After hearing what Zhuge Jin said, Liu Xie finally found psychological comfort and looked much more relaxed.

He also noticed that Zhuge Jin was very restrained in his speech, and at this moment he happened to mention some historical cases, so Liu Xie was moved and suggested: "Is there such a thing? It seems that I am not good at studying history, Zhao Yan."

"I'm here." Zhao Yan responded quickly.

Liu Xie ordered: "Follow me to the library and look up the "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Book of Han" to verify this statement."

As he spoke, Zhao Yan led the way and took Zhuge Jin to the emperor's private library.

The palace maids and eunuchs nearby wanted to follow and serve, but Liu Xie stopped them, saying, "I am going to the library and need quiet time to study. I don't want to be disturbed by noise."

This made sense, so the attendants had no choice but to stay, and no one thought about "avoiding Cao Cao's eyes and ears."

When there was no one else around, Liu Xie took out a volume of "The Chronicle of Qin Shi Huang" from the Records of the Grand Historian, looked it over, sighed, held the book in his hands, and asked:
"Mr. Zhuge, I have one more concern. If I say that Qin Shi Huang did not have Yuan De, then doesn't that mean that Emperor Gao created Yuan De out of nothing as a village head? From now on, does that mean that anyone who can stabilize the world, end the civil war, and use the saved manpower for the benefit of the people will also have virtue?"

Zhuge Jin was anxious to get away, knowing that if he did not give Liu Xie more comfort, it would only lead to more trouble.

So he gritted his teeth and said something that completely relieved Liu Xie: "If Your Majesty is really worried, you might as well change your mind and think that the virtue of Emperor Gao came from Emperor Yi."

(End of this chapter)