Chapter 29 Chapter 5 From the Song Dynasty onwards

The official presumed virtue of the Song Dynasty was fire virtue, and there were some non-mainstream chatter below, which could not shake the overall situation at all.But in fact, these debates are already the reflection of the Five Virtues Theory.Beginning from the Northern Song Dynasty, some sensible people finally felt tired of this strange theory that had lasted for more than a thousand years, and began to attack it violently. It's not that there were no sensible people in the past, everyone is equally stupid, but even if there are a few sensible people in the corner, they can't gather together and form a trend, and their criticisms are also submerged in the tide of history and the vast classics , It’s hard to find out, no one in the troubled times has the time to engage in academic reflection; on the contrary, there are quite a few guys who exaggerate the five virtues to glorify the rulers, so as to beg for some leftovers, let’s not worry about it for the time being.From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu "respected only Confucianism," and Emperor Yuan simply "taught morality."The Romanticism of the Tang people is very strong. As we said earlier, both writers and artists like this kind of quasi-performance art the most, so they are not very good at criticizing it.The Song Dynasty was different. Compared with the people of the Tang Dynasty, the people of the Song Dynasty valued rationality. Song poetry was later scolded by many people for not being poetic because it was too reasonable. In addition, the old Zhao family used the imperial examination system and the policy of redundant officials to cultivate an unprecedented scale of bureaucrats. When the group comes, the big-ticket idlers have enough to eat and have nothing to do, so they can only go to the pile of old papers to study knowledge.

Regarding the theory of the Five Virtues, Hu Yuan, a great Confucian, was the first to challenge the theory of Confucianism. .Hu Yuan wrote "Hong Fan Kou Yi", starting from the earliest theoretical foundation of the Five Virtues theory "Hong Fan" to criticize. So what is "Hong Fan"?We know that there is a "Book of History" in the Confucian classics, also called "Book of Books", which is said to have compiled many official historical documents from Tang Yao, Yu Shun to the Zhou Dynasty. Among them is "Hong Fan", which is said to contain It is the "Great Law of Heaven and Earth" taught by Jizi, a survivor of the Shang Dynasty, to King Wu of Zhou.

According to textual research, many chapters in "Shangshu" were forged by later generations, and even those real ancient documents have been tampered with by successive dynasties of Confucianists.As for "Hong Fan", it is estimated to be the work of some idlers in the Spring and Autumn Period or even the Warring States Period, because it mentions the nine great laws that the Emperor of Heaven bestowed on Dayu to govern the world, including the Five Elements, Five Events, Eight Politics, Five Periods, Huangji, Three Virtues, Jiyi, Shuzheng, Five Blessings and Six Extremes.Look, the five elements are mentioned in it. The five elements were created by the yin and yang scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period. Neither Jizi nor King Wu of Zhou had heard of them. The theory of the five elements is also the basis of the theory of the five virtues.

Hu Yuan wrote "Hong Fan Kou Yi", the main purpose of which is to re-explain the "interaction between heaven and man" mentioned by Han Confucianism. "Heaven-human interaction" has been said for more than a thousand years just like the five virtues. It is impossible for Hu Yuan to refute all of them. Moreover, if he refuted this point, then the monarch's "ordered by heaven" has no foundation and is on the verge of collapse. Hu Yuan still wanted his head, he didn't dare to do that.He just thinks that Han Confucianism’s belief in prophecy is ridiculous, and he thinks that God uses human efforts to achieve its will. It has nothing to do with auspiciousness, prophecy, and the five elements. It comprehends the original intention of the most sage master Confucius.

Confucius talked about human affairs, but not about heavenly affairs. Why, do you think you are smarter than Confucius, and you actually directly talked about heavenly affairs?What's more, he still used nonsense such as the five elements' birth and restraint to speculate on God's will. If he said it was a blind man touching an elephant, if he said it was wrong, he would just run the train with his mouth full of words, without a word of truth. Mr. Hu Yuan fired the first cannon, attacking the five elements that are the foundation of the five virtues, and then Zheng Xie, who was the number one scholar in the fifth year of Emperor Renzong's reign in Song Dynasty (1053 A.D.), also wrote good poems.Zheng Xie published an article "Theory of Five Victories", continuing to criticize Yin-Yang and Five Elements.But the two of them are just the vanguard officials of this "inverted five" trend. Soon, the general will be on the stage, and that is Liu Yi, a great writer and historian who is one of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". Layman Ouyang Xiu.

Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi were the chief editors together. They edited "New Tang Book", and later edited "New History of the Five Dynasties" by themselves.We know that the ancient dynasties paid the most attention to "orthodoxy". That is to say, anyone who dares to call himself the emperor must solemnly declare that I, the lord, are the true roots of the Chinese inheritance. , is a mountain thieves who can't get on the table.Therefore, when studying history, it is impossible to avoid this "orthodox" issue. Ouyang Xiu used orthodox weapons to violently attack the five virtues.

Ouyang Xiu wrote an article "On Orthodoxy". He said, what is "orthodoxy"?Since ancient times, the dynasties that have achieved kingship must have extremely strong virtues to bear the destiny, or they have been honored by the common people for their achievements, or they have succeeded through the accumulation of many generations. How can it be possible to rely solely on one kind of morality, one kind of virtue? ? Then, he proposed a brand-new concept called "extremely orthodox" -- "When it comes to orthodoxy, everyone wants orthodoxy to continue and never be cut off. Once the facts do not match the theory, create a concept to continue it." , so this theory does not always make sense. In fact, orthodoxy may be cut off.” Ouyang Xiu believes that only those dynasties that “control the Central Plains and basically unify the world” can be called orthodox. Even the small dynasty of a small dynasty cannot be regarded as orthodox.Based on this, he first excluded the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties from the orthodoxy, and later reworked this "On Orthodoxy" in his later years, and also left out the Three Kingdoms and the Five Dynasties.

This fundamentally declares the bankruptcy of the Five Virtues Theory. Why do you say that?Because according to the theory of the Five Virtues, no matter whether it is the old version of Professor Zou or the new version of Liu Xin, the hereditary inheritance is one root to the end, continuous and continuous, without any stuttering in the middle, only in this way , to show that the change of dynasty is indeed related to the five virtues that match the five elements, or one gives birth to one, or one restrains one.If there is a fault in the middle, the circle of mutual generation and mutual restraint will not be round, and the natural theory will not make sense.

But as we have said, for political needs, the past dynasties have not deduced the Five Virtues according to the most perfect model. Either a certain dynasty was deliberately eliminated, or a dynasty that was hundreds of years ago was suddenly added. It was artificially torn into many rags.Okay, you can say that certain dynasties or countries are not orthodox, and if they are not orthodox, they are not worthy of talking about virtue, but you have to propose another orthodoxy at the same time, otherwise the cycle will be broken.For example, according to Wang Bo's "The Millennium Calendar of the Tang Dynasty", the Tude of the Tang Dynasty must be replaced by the Huode of the Han Dynasty. However, the Han Dynasty has been destroyed for nearly four hundred years. You said that it has been extinguished for such a long time. Fire, where is the regeneration unearthed?Didn't the soil come out of nowhere?

——Let’s not even mention that the soil virtues established in the beginning of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the water virtues established by Khitan Liao himself, all came out of thin air. All in all, Wang Bo and his like belong to the category of thinking and thinking, and they can’t come up with a system that is really seamless and makes sense for any dynasty; but if you really come up with such a system, you will encounter too many problems , No matter how you say it, you can't say it well.At the beginning, Professor Zou's system was very simple, only the Yu, Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, and there would be no major problems. Master Liu Xin drew up a complicated system, but most of them were legendary dynasties. Let him talk, even if it is completely inconsistent with the real situation, no one can refute it.After the Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, with three divisions, and then the Eastern Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, one after another, the system was completely out of order.

When Mr. Zhao Chuiqing, who failed in history, asked the Song Dynasty to succeed the Tude of the Tang Dynasty and change it to Jinde, the officials refuted it one after another. The reason was: "The five virtues are replaced in a cycle. , how can we skip several dynasties and inherit the fortune of a hundred years ago?" The officials' theory is correct, but you have to ask them to carefully trace the cycle of five virtues for more than a thousand years since the Qin and Han Dynasties. Once again, without leaving any gaps, it is estimated that they will all go crazy. So Ouyang Xiu put forward the concept of "absolute orthodoxy", saying that orthodoxy will be cut off, and overthrew the theory of the five virtues with one stick.He said: "The rotation of the five elements, the decline of one family and the prosperity of the other are all words used by charlatans to swindle money. The saying that 'the rise and fall of a dynasty is controlled by the five virtues' is pure nonsense!" All kinds of natural disasters and changes are natural phenomena and have nothing to do with personnel. Chenwei and auspiciousness are all blind connections. They point the finger at Dong Zhongshu, Liu Xiang, Liu Xin and other great Confucian masters, saying that they are "nonsense, guessing God's will" .Therefore, since the "Han Shu", many history books have been mixed with a "Five Elements", which specifically tells all kinds of absurd and strange things. Record the relevant facts, and don't get involved with personnel at all. As mentioned earlier, I also sneered at those super unreliable Xiangrui who gathered together in Qianshu.Later, when he edited "New History of the Five Dynasties", since he did it by himself, he simply didn't do this kind of fancy work.