"But for me, it is to attract human desire and follow the natural order."
In the warm study, Qin Siyuan slowly said these words. On the other side, Ning Yi tilted his head, and an incomparably complicated look flashed in his eyes.
"In this world, as long as it is a person, he has selfish desires. When selfish desires expand, people will be blinded, unable to see whether his actions are right or wrong. For so many years, we Confucian scholars have all kinds of complicated and noisy theories, all for the sake of seeking one Dao, the Dao of Great Harmony, the Dao of a gentleman. These Daos, after all, are interconnected. In the end, all things can be orderly, and all people in the world can perform their duties. If he is greedy, we should teach him what he should be greedy for and what he shouldn't. We should teach him that a gentleman should love wealth and obtain it in the right way. If he is depressed, we should teach him what is the right way to move forward. "
He paused and continued, "Why is this world like this, why is it like this, can finally let people find the answer, and not be confused. This is the truth, and also the justice of the heavens. This old man has lived for more than sixty years, yet I still stumbled and stumbled, unable to find a straight path. But how a person should behave, and why they should have such shallow views, through the annotations of these few books, have already been written in them. "
Yao Zunian said something that seemed to be a compliment. Qin Siyuan shook his head and smiled, but Ning Yi said in a low voice, "Keep the natural order, and extinguish human desire …"
"What Liheng said is like the Sage Realm that this old man has thought of." Qin Siyuan chuckled. "Luring people's desires to be in harmony with the natural order of things is precisely the same as making the individual and the greater self become one. But in this world, how many people can truly achieve this? The most important thing for us to write books and promote education is not to tell people what the end point of the Dao is, but what the reason itself is. Let them understand it themselves, let them walk it themselves. If they can understand the reason, they can naturally make human desire gradually move toward the natural order. "As for those who can maintain the Heavenly Justice and extinguish human desires, it can only be said that human desires and Heavenly Justice are already in harmony. Just like Sage Confucius, he followed his heart's desires at the age of seventy and did not go beyond the rules. His own desires would no longer deviate from the Great Dao. In this case, it can be said that he has extinguished human desires … But Sage Confucius has reached this step at the age of seventy. I'm afraid … it will be difficult for us to reach this stage in this lifetime. I can only tell others about my stupidity. "
At this point, he also sighed with some regret, "Speaking of something else, this old man has seen countless stupid people over the past few decades. But from another perspective, every single one of them seems to be a smart person. They … all seemed to understand what the greater good was, but they were always forced to do so. As officials, how could they not be greedy? When the people around you are greedy, how can you not be greedy? As a general, how could he not be afraid? When the people around you are running away, how dare you not run? It sounds like everyone is forced to do so. You should blame him, but it also seems like you shouldn't blame him. This old man has used too many schemes in his life. Every time I think about it, I always feel that it is hard to have a good reputation after my death. But if I don't do this, it will be difficult to achieve anything … "
"This old man is also thinking whether there is a way to correct this matter. In the end, after thinking about it, I can only say the reason clearly. If everyone can understand the reason, then perhaps there will be less selfish desires. If the soldiers and generals can understand the reason, then the soldiers and generals will not be afraid to fight to the death. If the officials understand the reason, then perhaps they will be less greedy. If the merchants who store grain can also understand the reason, then perhaps they will know that what they do is a great harm to the family and the country. Perhaps this method will be lighter, and perhaps … Lin Qiting will not die. "
He shook his head and smiled, "Of course, this old man is also thinking too much. These few books, although there are some annotations, but it is still hard to say how many people will read them. Liheng, your bookstore is not bad. When this old man is finished, please help me print a seal and send it out. If I can get the approval of two or three good friends, then this old man will have left something behind in this life. "
Ning Yi looked at him and nodded after a while, "… Of course."
This was basically what Qin Siyuan said about these books. His thoughts were already in the books, so he did not need to explain too much. He only answered when Yao Zunian, Wenren Bu 'Er, and the others occasionally asked him. Ning Yi buried his head in the books, looking for annotations and deducing them. What flashed through his mind were the two years.
Attracting people's desires, following heaven's justice. Upholding heaven's justice, eliminating human desires …
This is … Confucianism …
In the future, Ning Yi did not carefully study Confucianism. He only admired Confucianism. But with his ability, some things, even if he only admired them, could be slightly deconstructed. Confucianism was criticized in the future, but for Ning Yi, if someone said that a thing that could be passed down for thousands of years was pure rubbish and there was no reason in it, he would only regard that person as an idiot with zero IQ.
Confucianism and Confucianism were blindly abandoned by the May 4th Movement. In the eyes of some scholars and nationalists in the future, there was a saying: the Chinese have no fear. This was not a lie. Before the May 4th Movement, the Chinese had suffered the greatest humiliation. Therefore, when foreign culture invaded, they could not wait to overthrow and beat down everything they had. This kind of foreign culture invasion was advanced at that time. However, the Chinese people at that time overthrew their previous culture, but did not learn the core spirit of the foreign culture. Later, after a long period of pain, the collapse of spiritual civilization, and the lack of a place to convert, it was very miserable.
From Ning Yi's point of view, Confucianism, as well as all other schools of thought, was the study of how people should conduct themselves in society, how to get along with others, how people should suppress and guide their selfish desires, and how to form a country in order to make it the most glorious, and the people's mental outlook would be the best. This was the root of all philosophical systems, and it had never changed from thousands of years ago to the future.
So, what was the matter with Confucianism? If one looked at it from the beginning to the end, Confucius, who founded it, was not the moral guru of later generations. He was actually very pragmatic. On one hand, he pursued the pursuit of morality as the highest standard. On the other hand, he actually considered the reality of society and taught people how to do things. From the story of Zi Gong's ransom, to the exhortation to repay grievances with justice, to the argument that "the villagers wish to be virtuous is a thief", compared to the later generations of Confucianism, which developed to the point where "reason comes first", and then to the later generations where people were taught humility and retreated, but never clearly defined individual rights, the starting point of Confucianism was actually "reason comes first, then etiquette comes second".
After Confucius, Confucianism developed for more than a thousand years. In another period of history, during the Song Dynasty, social productivity had developed to a level where interests began to guide people's desires to a greater extent. When commerce developed and social classes began to become chaotic, society needed a clearer set of norms, and even a more detailed set of shackles to tell people what they should do, what they should not do, what their position was, and what they could pursue. At that time, establishing a country in this way was indeed the most reasonable.
The philosophical core of Confucianism was reason and natural justice. A hundred million people formed a country. What kind of method would make this country the most harmonious and stable? This was natural justice. Even in later generations, people knew the difference between the big and the small, the difference between the individual and the country. For the small to be the big, the individual's unbridled desires had to be suppressed and guided.
Humans themselves were nothing to write home about, and they were also animals with unlimited possibilities. But in terms of social composition, what was the most stable society? India's caste system had the strictest class system, but for thousands of years, their country did not even have a single uprising. How stable was it? While Confucianism set the rules, it actually preserved the path for people to walk up. It hoped that some people would be able to stand out, and even hoped that "one day", the world would be unified, and everyone would be like a dragon. It was also because of this that China created the most glorious civilization in those thousands of years, unlike India, which was quiet and dead.
For the great Confucians, creating a school of thought had their own profound meaning, and what they sought was a confidant. At that time, when it came to learning, there was a principle of willing to be beaten and willing to be beaten. If you were willing to learn, then I would tell you. If you didn't understand, then it was mostly because you were stupid. Zhu Xi's "preserving natural justice and extinguishing human desires" was the highest state pursued by a sage. The so-called human desires were not desires, but selfish desires. They discussed how a country could achieve the most ideal state, and of course, there were all kinds of harsh requirements. But as an ordinary person or a commoner, they might not be able to understand "why". Fine, then I will tell you what to do.
In the end, there were only a few rules left, but not many people understood the reason.
The people could make it known, but they could not. If you can understand, then I will tell you the reason. If you can't understand, then I will tell you what to do.
The rules and regulations of Neo-Confucianism have never been a retreat in terms of human nature or scholarship. On the contrary, it is a leap forward in scholarship. The more rules and regulations there were, it did make people lose some of their courage. But the men of the grasslands ate raw meat and drank blood. They were the most courageous. Who would be willing to be one? After Confucianism, Confucianism really found a soul and genetic code that ran through it from beginning to end. As a result, several dynasties changed, but Confucianism never died out. Because without Confucianism, there was no way to govern a country.
As for Wang Yangming's theory of mind, its core was "the unity of knowledge and action". This was also the highest pursuit of a sage. It was the highest pursuit of the concepts of kindness, righteousness, and sincerity. But relatively speaking, it was not as meaningful as "preserving natural justice and extinguishing human desires" when used to govern a country. This was only the highest state pursued by an individual. It could only be regarded as pure academic development. Of course, in later generations, it was even misinterpreted as "we must face our own selfish desires honestly" and "kill decisively and face the heart". This was the most ridiculous thing.
After Wang Yangming, the last great Confucian was Zeng Guofan. His theory focused on cultivating oneself and treating people. Because of the world's environment at that time, it also stressed pragmatism. However, a change that had not happened for thousands of years soon arrived. Confucianism was pushed into the mud pit, and his theory only influenced a large number of upper leaders, including Duke Mao and Duke Jiang. As for how high the so-called sage and gentleman were, it could be seen from one incident of Zeng Guofan. He once imitated Zeng Can and reflected on himself three times a day. Was he disloyal to others? Was he disloyal to his friends? Was he disloyal to others? He persisted like this every day for a month. In the end, it caused his ears to ring, his eyes to be blinded, and he vomited blood and fainted while reflecting on himself. This was because he thought too much. And this kind of strict self-reflection was something that he could only achieve in his old age.
When the Industrial Revolution began, the world underwent unprecedented changes. The root cause was that the development of science and technology allowed a person to use the power of dozens or hundreds of people, and could create the productivity of dozens or hundreds of people in the past. And in the previous society, no matter what, a person was used as a person. Confucianism and the caste system belonged to the rule of man under this premise. If there was no advancement of science and technology, they could almost always be self-consistent.
However, the development of science and technology required people to inflate their own selfish desires and desires, and to bring into play everyone's subjective initiative. This fundamentally shook the original nature of the rule of man. Only an unrestrained human nature could display a shocking brilliance. Of course, it later became "an unrestrained and positive human nature." The liberalism and universal values of the United States of America and the spirit of the Western literati all came from this center.
Confucianism was finally overthrown. It really should be overthrown, but the roots of the Chinese people were too much of a Confucian imprint. Later, when the old culture was completely overthrown, and before the new culture was born, there were too many pains. The mode of thinking of the Chinese people in the later generations was still too different from that of the West.
The Chinese method of analyzing things was from the whole to the part, while the Western scientific method of analysis was from the part to the whole. This was the core of the so-called difference between China and the West. But from the whole to the part, first a formed whole was needed. If there was none, then it could only be taken for granted. And from the part to the whole, it only needed to be pieced together with strict logic. No matter what the final whole was, it could all be moved. This led to the overall gap in scientific development between China and the West.
On the basis of society, the core of the Western spirit of freedom was to be reasonable first. In other words, how many rights each person had, and then how many virtues. For example, if a lifeboat was about to sink because it carried too many people, and someone wanted to come up, you could push him down. This was reason, and no one would criticize it. If you still risked your life to save him, this was a virtue. On the other hand, there were too many virtues that one should give in to, one should not fight for, and one should be tolerant towards others so that society could be harmonious and harmonious. Even if social rights were set at one, everyone would only be able to get 0.7, and where did the other 0.3 go? It would often be snatched away by those who were unwilling to give in and did not care about their reputation. Thus, only the kind or those who wanted to be kind would be blamed. As for the wicked … human desires were just like that. Wasn't it a very natural selfish desire? When the desire to destroy human desires was beaten into a quagmire, most people would completely go to the other extreme.
Of course, this was purely a deduction outside of the topic.
*****
Ning Yi and the others stayed in the study for a long time. They roughly flipped through the books, and Yao Zunian and Qin Siyuan had already started a heated discussion. It could be seen that Yao Zunian was very excited.
Philosophy …
Ning Yi sighed in his heart. He really should be excited.
If the things in these books were deduced in the future, many things would become orderly. Civil rights, monarchical power, official power, and so on would even be affected to a certain extent. In this world, people needed shackles. These shackles could lock away some selfish desires that they shouldn't have. People also needed some metaphysical pursuits. These pursuits could make people impassioned, even if there were millions of people, they would still pursue them. In the end, "having no choice" and "common sense" could not be used as a reason to do anything. No one's first wish was "I want to be a traitor". If Qin Hui in another period of history was similar to this, then he had also reached his final position in the midst of all kinds of "common sense".
But that would be a traitor.
In every dynasty and every generation, people would set up one or two people and say, "Look, society was destroyed by them." Thus, they would draw a line between the two sides and never feel that they were in any way similar to them. In fact, if it weren't for the worms that ate away at a healthy country, there would be no foreign invasions, and it wouldn't be the turn of a few treacherous officials, and there wouldn't be a need for heroes to shed blood.
The harm caused by corrupt officials, the harm caused by unscrupulous merchants, and the final harm caused by each numb person was actually no less than that of a traitor. It was just that it felt too good to call a traitor, and when he reflected on himself, he would vomit blood.
When they walked out of the room, it was already late at night. Outside the room was a courtyard with the bleak shadows of trees. Under the corridor, the room was emitting a warm yellow light. The night wind was cold. Ning Yi stood there and raised his head slightly. As he walked out of the overlapping courtyard, he seemed to be able to see the huge city, the eight thousand li road, the wilderness, the mountains, the forests, the rivers, the ships, the people, everything quietly shining with the stars in the night sky.
In every era, there would be some people who would gather the strength of an era, study life and wisdom, and in the end, shine brighter than the stars.
Ning Yi turned his head. The old man was at the door, smiling and waving at them. Ning Yi sighed. He could understand the old man's exhaustion and painstaking efforts over the years. He could also understand the responsibility and love for this era contained in the book, as well as the hysterical cries it let out.
Because he understood, he felt sad.
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