Chapter 61 The Decline of Taoism and the Rise of Confucianism in the Epilogue

When Sima Guang wrote about the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first person who appeared on the stage was the famous Dong Zhongshu.When we read history books, we should not only read historical materials, but also analyze the reasons why historians choose historical facts. After all, all history books were created as historical works in those days. Recording historical materials, if it is purely a compilation of historical materials, it should present all the miscellaneous things. Looking back at the writing method from this point of view, there is no doubt that Sima Guang dared to write Dong Zhongshu's deeds at the beginning of the Emperor Wu Dynasty, which shows that in Sima Guang's view, Dong Zhongshu, a Confucian scholar, had an extraordinary influence on the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.Although later generations said that "abandoning a hundred schools of thought and enshrining the six classics" is itself controversial, in fact, Confucianism did emerge in the political arena of the Western Han Dynasty with the arrival of the Emperor Wu Dynasty.

This is doomed that Confucianism will fight against Huang Laozhi in the near future. The smoke of gunpowder spread quietly in the generation gap between Dou Yifang and Liu Che's grandfather and grandson. Dou Yifang and Dou's family are undoubtedly fanatical admirers of Huang Lao's art. During the reign of Emperor Jing, "Emperor Jing and all Dou had to read "Lao Tzu" and respect his art" ("Hanshu Biography of Foreign Relatives") .However, what Dou Yifang worships is not only the art of Huang Lao, but also power. When Liu Che came to the throne, although the old lady had been blind for a long time, she still had a lot of energy, holding power tightly in her hands, and refused to let go.Unfortunately, Liu Che was just sixteen years old at this time, and the blooming season of sixteen years old was just puberty, full of fanaticism and restlessness.And precisely at this time, Liu Che was in charge of the highest power in the world, which undoubtedly stimulated his desire, made his heart restless, and his mind crazy.He needs to master a weapon to control other people's minds, so that people in the world will go crazy with him.

Obviously, the technique of Huang Lao is not a handy weapon. The reason why Huang Laozhi was able to perform on stage in the early Western Han Dynasty was mainly because of the declining current situation in the early Han Dynasty.The main feature of Huang Laozhi's art is "flatness", which allows the society to recover and develop freely and steadily without waves, so that the practice of "resting with the people" is suitable for "post-disaster reconstruction".But on the other hand, after a period of time, this kind of governance model will inevitably make the whole society lack room for improvement. After "reconstruction", it is necessary to "go up to a higher level". The motivation for "upstairs" cannot be provided by Huang Lao's technique.

The era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a new task, not to develop people's livelihood, but to satisfy the ever-expanding desire and ambition of the imperial ruling class. The impoverished Huang Lao's statecraft can't expand the territory, can't be powerful all over the world, can't be exchanged for the BMW of the Western Regions, so what do we need it for?Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought so. Is the art of Huang Lao really useless and without merit? actually not. Mr. Ma Yong summarized three contributions of Huang Laozhi to early Han society in his book "Han Dynasty Spring and Autumn Studies Research":

First, the social economy has been restored and developed; Second, social order was stabilized; Third, it has promoted the free development of several major schools of thought since the pre-Qin period. The art of Huang Lao made great contributions, especially in terms of driving social production and promoting ideological development, and its achievements far surpassed those of the Qin Dynasty.However, these contributions are worthless in Liu Che's eyes. He doesn't care at all. He opposes Huang Lao's art because he hates his grandma, not because he thinks Huang Lao's art is bad from the bottom of his heart.

In a sense, Confucianism was chosen by Liu Che as his weapon against Dou Yifang. The old man always likes to be old-fashioned ignorantly. In the early years of Emperor Wu, Dou Yifang kept suppressing his little grandson Liu Che who was not very obedient. Dou Yifang took the road of intervening in politics for three reasons—she has a desire for power; she feels that her grandson is still young; and she fully believes in her own life experience. The tragedy of Dou Yifang is that she doesn't know what is called the "reverse psychology" of puberty.Her disciplining of Liu Che might be commonplace in ordinary people, but the imperial power gave Liu Che arrogance and ambition. In his view, this kind of discipline became a kind of powerful suppression, and the supreme imperial power was trampled by Dou Yifang. It was worthless, which made the young Liu Che feel extremely angry, and the seeds of hatred were planted from then on.

The conflict was first ignited by the Dou family themselves.Liu Che's uncle Tian Fu brought over Dou Ying, a relative of Dou's family who was the prime minister at the time, and together they recommended Confucian scholars Zhao Wan and Wang Zang to serve as Doctor Yushi and Doctor Lang Zhongling respectively.The two lived up to Tian and Dou's entrustment, implemented the ritual system, changed court clothes, and built Mingtang. Dou Ying advocated Confucianism. Although he was a relative of the Dou family, he had never been able to get along with Dou Yifang. It is Confucianism, and Confucianism is also "Laozi" ("Historical Records Biography of Laozi and Han Fei"). Dou Ying's defection to the Confucian camp was a great blow to the Huang-Lao School.

If Zhao Wan and Wang Zang wanted to build Mingtang, they had to find a Confucian scholar to serve as their adviser. They invited their teachers—an expert in research, a disciple of Xunzi, a classmate of Liu Jiao, king of Chu and Yuan, and a disciple of Uncle Fuqiu. Great Confucian Shen Gong. Shen Gong has profound qualifications and profound knowledge. Such a heavyweight has joined Liu Che's camp, and his influence is naturally extraordinary. At the beginning of Liu Che's accession to the throne, he recruited talents widely. At that time, the prime minister, Wei Wan, suggested to Liu Che: "The virtuous people who are promoted, or the words of Zhishen, Han, Su, and Zhang, who disrupt the country's politics, please stop."

Liu Che replied: "It is possible." The words have been made clear, people who study Shen Han Huang Lao's art are not needed, people like Yuan Ang and Jia Yi who still have some political style in their bodies are not needed.What kind of person do you want?What is needed is a Confucian student who actively joins the world and can serve the autocratic king. It was Liu Che's first attempt to use Confucianism to replace Huang Laozhi's position in the political arena of the Western Han Dynasty. However, this attempt failed in the end. It is necessary to forcibly deprive Dou Yifang of the right to intervene in the political situation of the court.Of course the old lady didn't do it, she just found someone to get some black material about Zhao Wan and Wang Zang and fell in front of the grandson's case, you can figure it out.

After all, Liu Che was young, and the old lady calmed him down at once. Liu Che ordered the abolition of the decision to build Mingtang, and all work related to the promotion of Confucianism, and sent Zhao Wan and Wang Zang to prison.The two eventually committed suicide, and the old man Shen Gong was sent back to his hometown in Shandong. This scene will also be staged in the late Qing Dynasty in the future. The Hundred Days Reform of the Guangxu Dynasty is exactly the same, and it is also because the bloody reformers wanted to deprive Cixi of her power, and finally went to destruction.History is strikingly similar.

And Cixi is obviously luckier than Dou Yifang. She and the rebellious Emperor Guangxu eventually returned to the west. Emperor Guangxu had no chance to take revenge on her after her death, but Dou Yifang did not have such good luck—— No matter how strong a person is, she still can't survive the time. Some disputes in the world are like this. They are all "desperate" in essence. The result does not depend on who wins who, but depends on who survives who first.Victory belongs to the side that has the last laugh, not the side that stands for justice.Liu Che is still young, while Dou Yifang has already half-stepped into the underworld. In the sixth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Jianyuan (135 BC), the Empress Dowager Dou died.As soon as Dou Yifang died, Liu Che immediately became energetic. In the second year, he changed Yuan Yuanguang, recruited Xiaolian from all counties and states, and immediately adopted Dong Zhongshu's opinion to depose hundreds of schools and formulate six classics.From then on, Confucianism flourished, while Huang Lao declined. What the author needs to explain here is that people often say that Chinese ideology and culture have completely changed from pluralism to unity since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "only respected Confucianism". Confucianism has become the orthodox thought and has lasted for more than two thousand years. Regardless of how the word "orthodox thought" should be clearly defined, and whether "Confucianism" has experienced changes in the future, it is certainly not a single one in terms of the cultivation of a nation's cultural and ideological traditions for thousands of years. What can be created by an individual and a single period of time.On the surface, after the Qin and Han Dynasties, no figures like the pre-Qin philosophers appeared, but in essence, it was because the historical role carried by the "Zibu" was gradually replaced by the "Jibu".After the Qin and Han Dynasties, we have not seen too many famous books like "So-and-so Son". There are, but their influence is not as good as that of similar books in the pre-Qin period. The influence is getting wider and wider. Therefore, it is obviously unfair to simply attribute the decline of Zibu and the disappearance of the scholars to Liu Che's "supreme Confucianism". Having said that, as far as the death of Dou Yifang is concerned, this marks the complete disappearance of the influence of Huang Laozhi on the political situation of the Han Dynasty, while Liu Che's Biaozhang Liujing carried out the "Wen Jing" two dynasties from the perspective of ruling philosophy. Great Cleansing".Although the later famous official Ji An also advocated ruling the country with Taoism, his views did not seem to fundamentally affect Liu Che's governance. Liu Che's behavior of respecting Confucianism is obviously not out of love for Confucianism. The motive for choosing this approach is actually very simple. On the one hand, this is because Liu Che, who has a deformed and perverted heart, is out of a desire for revenge. In order to rebel against his grandmother, he uses this method to deny all the rules set by Dou Yifang, and whips the old man mentally and physically. Even though Dou Yifang was not a true and kind person, Liu Che's actions were unreasonable. On the other hand, respecting Confucianism is also a new ideological support Liu Che sought for his autocratic rule, hoping to consolidate his own rule and strengthen imperial power. For the sake of his own fame, Liu Che wanted to completely overthrow the glorious image of Wen Jing Zhizhi. However, history cannot be wiped clean. Through the author's narration in the whole book, what we can see is—— The rule of Wenjing was the only political practice in the era of Chinese imperial power, with pre-Qin Taoism as the main guiding ideology.Although the political struggle within the ruling class was still cruel and dark during this period, it cannot be denied that this political attempt promoted the perfection of the Chinese imperial system and the development of social economy. The rule of Wenjing is like a gust of autumn wind, the warmth is mixed with the cold breath of political struggle, but it is still worthy of the memory of future generations, because the wind blowing from other periods and prosperous times in Chinese history is often more cloudy. Bitter cold, behind all the virtual images of the prosperous age, most of them hide an extremely ugly reality.The Wenjing era was the least covered up, because this period itself was relatively less dark, and Huang Laozhi was using its smooth and soft breath to suppress the hostility of this era... until Liu Che lifted the manhole cover, and the imperial machine It just started running like crazy. The Wenjing rule, which was relatively mild and enlightened and believed in the art of Huang Lao, has been forgotten by people prematurely. Sad!