Chapter 5 Heaven and Man - Jokes in Weiyang Palace

"This theory talks about calamities and disasters, distorts the will of God, and is absolutely absurd..." The sun had already set in the west, but the two rows of nine-branched lamps had not yet been lit, and the somewhat dim Chengming Hall of Weiyang Palace seemed even more empty.Prime Minister Chief Shi Lu Busu's voice was still as impassioned as it was an hour ago. The young emperor of the Han Dynasty, who was later called Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, leaned against the dragon-carved lacquer case, stroked his short mustache with one hand, closed his eyes, and smiled in a half-smile.

At the bottom of the steps, the father of the Chinese doctor stood standing with his wat in his hand, straining his face as hard as he could, showing a respectful look.It's just that no one can see that his thumbs are happily overlapping and circling behind the wat board. "It's just nonsense, insane!" Finally, Lu Bushu completed his grand thesis with a decisive conclusion. He suddenly felt something was wrong, and felt that his voice seemed to be collected word by word by a pair of invisible hands, and put it into a pocket to cover it tightly. The hall was terribly quiet, as if there was no one there.

He raised his head secretly, and saw the woven bamboo slips that he refuted so badly, spread out on the low table in front of him, like a pile of mud, gray in the twilight. Dr. Gong Sunhong stood opposite the master's father, bowing slightly.Looking at Lu Bushu who was lying on the ground, his wrinkled face showed infinite pity, but there seemed to be some unconcealable pleasure. Behind the curtain, one could faintly hear a little eunuch giggling with his mouth covered, but was soon swallowed up by silence. Liu Che still closed his eyes with a half-smile. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly opened his eyes, his face suddenly darkened.

Lu Bushu suddenly broke out in cold sweat. Except for Lu Bushu, everyone in the hall knew that the pile of "ridiculous" bamboo slips came from Dong Zhongshu - and Dong Zhongshu was Lu Bushu's godlike teacher! Yesterday, the master father and doctor acted as a thief at Mr. Dong's place. In the fifth year of Yuanguang, Dong Zhongshu was implicated because Liu Fei, the assistant king of Yi, offended Emperor Wu.He didn't care whether his official career was well-rounded or not. At this time, he had more time to rationalize his thoughts and make some suggestions for the government.

He also thought of the fires in Liaodong Gaomiao and Changling Gaoyuan Hall a few years ago.At that time, according to his theory of heaven and man, Dong Zhongshu believed that it was a warning from heaven, just like what Confucius meant when Lu was on fire.He believes that the Gaomiao is located in the east of Liaodong, which symbolizes the local princes outside; the Gaoling is in Guanzhong, which symbolizes the ministers of the court; The dignitaries were too domineering, so God sent a disaster to order the emperor to carry out some pruning and rectification.But the emperor has never been able to understand the mystery, and after a few years, this phenomenon has become more and more serious.Thinking of this, he felt that he could not procrastinate any longer, and he had the responsibility to convey the will of God to Emperor Han in order to accept the condemnation and act in accordance with the sky.So he began to write the essay "The Story of Disasters and Misfortunes".

Before the memorial was finished, the sneaky master father Yan came to visit again.But it just so happened that he had to go out for a while, so he had to leave the master alone at home to wait. The magnanimous Dong Zhongshu did not expect that this was exactly what the master father wished for.As soon as he went out, the master's father rummaged through the desk like a sow. "The fire is like God saying to His Majesty: 'Find out the ambitious and unrighteous among the local princes, and kill them ruthlessly, just like I burned down the high temples in Liaodong; Come out and kill him ruthlessly, just like I burned Gaoyuandian'".Ah, doesn't that make it clear that you want to trick the Lord into taking us under the knife?The master's father is still a little self-aware, decency is not his nature, and Dong Zhongshu's ministers who "hold a high position but have dishonest intentions" may include him.When he was annoyed, he had an idea, rolled up the bundle of bamboo slips that had not yet been compiled, stuffed them into his sleeves, left without saying goodbye, and played secretly all night.

Not knowing whether it was the master's suggestion or Liu Che's own idea, he decided to ask Dong Zhongshu's apprentice to evaluate the teacher's masterpiece as an outsider. Thus, a small farce started in Chengming Hall. The majestic "Spring and Autumn" authority, a generation of Confucian masters, dare to publish such a statement that even his favorite disciples think is "absurd", it is really a monster!I still want to understand God's will in vain - what crime should a small Chinese doctor incite the wise Jinshang to kill the minister? The Han family has never been kind to ministers.Even if you have great achievements, a small mistake can make you unrecoverable.The meritorious officials who followed Gaozu from birth to death to fight the world were enshrined one hundred and forty-three marquises. In the early years of Emperor Wudi, there were only four who were in danger.Especially under the ruthless official Zhang Tang's Luo Zhi, even "belly slander" has become a majestic law. Didn't the big farmer Yan Yi who didn't say a word die because of this absurd crime? ——Although this is something to say later, being harsh is Emperor Wu's consistent style.

It seems that Dong Zhongshu is doomed this time. Therefore, the expected "Xia Zhongshu official should die." When retiring from the court, Gongsun Hong and Zhu Fuyan looked at each other and smiled. However, within a few days, Liu Che issued an imperial edict, pardoning Dong Zhongshu and reinstating him. Liu Che's great strategy is not understandable by the master father Yan who "can't live with five tripods, but dies with five tripods". He is really a rare hero in Chinese history. The Han family passed to Liu Che, and all classes slowly recovered from the devastation.He keenly noticed that some power was about to move under his feet, and it was gradually becoming difficult to control.

Especially those ambitious princes, although they were flat a few years ago, they are now a little uneasy again.Like the King of Huainan, while quietly accumulating power to covet the big position, he recruited a group of messy scholars and created "Huainanzi" to confuse people's hearts and build momentum for himself. . Thoughts are complicated and people have no masters, which is really detrimental to governance.Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn" unification theory put forward in the countermeasures was really too timely.He advocated the unity of thought: "Princes are ordered by the Son of Heaven, sons are ordered by their fathers, ministers and concubines are ordered by the emperor, and wives are ordered by their husbands." To be ordered is to obey unconditionally, the people are unified by the ministers, and the ministers are unified by the emperor.

Of course, Liu Che did not forget that Dong Zhongshu's theory still has a key sentence: "The emperor is ordered by heaven!" But he believes that the emperor is the representative of heaven in the world, and unification with the emperor is equal to unification with heaven. God, only one.Of course, there can only be one emperor. If this kind of theory is instilled, who would dare to oppose the sky and the Son of Heaven?From now on, won't the country be as stable as Mount Tai forever?From then on, why are you afraid of falling apart and disintegrating the princes and separatist regimes?

Liu Che will never allow anyone to have the slightest doubt about his authority to execute God's will. All he needed was for Dong Zhongshu to forge a pair of solemn and exquisite shackles, to imprison his subjects layer by layer, honestly under his feet.And I never thought that I also stretched my neck and drilled into the highest circle on the top of the pyramid-the emperor, in the theory of heaven and man, must not be classified as "human" under the command of heaven as Dong Zhongshu imagined. . Dong Zhongshu, this pedantic and cute Dong Zhongshu, actually wanted to take that pair of bright clothes and tiptoe to my head, eager to try.condemn?We must not allow him to set this precedent, otherwise the group of arrogant Confucian scholars will really think that they are the messengers of God's will, and justifiably point fingers at government affairs endlessly. The warning from heaven is nothing but an excuse and a word game for window dressing.But such an excuse can only be Liu Che's own excuse, and it must not be the basis for any subject to challenge the monarch! So, Liu Che made a small joke with the kind and generous master and apprentice Dong Zhongshu—he had no intention of killing Dong Zhongshu in the first place.Because he wanted everyone in the world to know: Dong Zhongshu's fault was just a false communication of God's will this time, not that there was never God's will in the high heavens, let alone that God's will should not be obeyed.It's just that what we have to listen to is not the distorted interpretation of arrogant Confucian scholars, but only the will of heaven that the incarnation of heaven, the son of heaven—the supreme emperor—is commanded to understand! Not only did Liu Che not kill Dong Zhongshu, but he also listened to his words: depose all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone.It is even more necessary to praise him highly, and to present this former doctor who designed a complete set of governance plans for his Liu family for generations, to the throne of "Confucianism master". After all, Dong Zhongshu is a sensible person. From then on, he never "dare to repeat the disaster." ("Hanshu·Dong Zhongshu Biography") Not daring to speak out about disasters does not mean admitting that one was wrong. Dong Zhongshu did not delete the Mandate of Disaster and Misfortune in the already completed "Spring and Autumn Fanlu".He firmly believes that the ultimate judgment is still in the high sky, not in the hands of the emperor on earth.In that mysterious and sacred place that can never be seen clearly, there are a pair of majestic giant eyes looking down on the earth every moment, looking down on everyone's every move on the earth, according to an eternal law to justly make rewards or is punishment. Landslides and landslides, floods and droughts, strong winds and fires, these terrible disasters are God's harsh methods.One of his starting points for sorting out the theory of heaven and man is to restrict the unlimited power of the emperor through the high heaven, so that the monarch's rule will not be too violent and absurd. In order to prove this supreme power, Dong Zhongshu spent a lot of energy, using the mysterious and strange yin and yang, the five elements, and even the five sense organs, nine orifices, limbs and bones of the human body to find the correspondence one by one in the unpredictable high sky.In fact, this imaginary mysterious power has indeed exerted a great influence on later generations. Abnormal celestial phenomena, unlucky disasters, as usual, numerous "guilt edicts" (although unlucky prime ministers are often blamed for being responsible for "adjusting the yin and yang"), and "prophecy and auspiciousness" that try to prove the dragon's orthodox position, It's all a manifestation of the monarchs' more or less awe of the destiny, not to mention how many bloody fights and plots have taken place under the guise of "destiny". It spread to the folks and carried forward even more. Lu Xun’s nanny, Chang Mama, said the magic method of long hairs against cannons: "(called the old lady) take off your pants and stand on the city wall in rows. The cannons outside will not be released. It will blow up", this is the specific application of the mysterious relationship between heaven and man.In fact, Dong Zhongshu himself used this method, hiding the men and letting the women shout and dance wildly in the wilderness to pray for rain, saying that in this way they can "close the yang and let the yin escape". According to the "Han Shu", Dong Zhongshu's approach "does not mean that he can do what he wants to do in a country." Dong Zhongshu believes that the eternal law on which this punishment is based should be the Dao expounded by Confucius: Confucius is the spokesperson of heaven, and Confucianism is almost synonymous with the principles of heaven. It seems that he has succeeded: "Depose all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone" has become a national policy. But in a sense, Confucianism died in the hands of this Confucian master. Just as any man must first become a eunuch before being used by the palace, so once a great idea is adopted by the monarchs, it must first be castrated.What's more, the original, lively and somewhat scattered thoughts of Confucianism, after flowing out from the hands of the wise Confucius, have already been purified in the hands of various masters.Generations of masters sorted out, buried, and pruned, and built a set of exquisite systems according to their own understandings, which gradually made the original simple thoughts lose their original appearance, and gradually covered them with a mysterious veil. Dong Zhongshu himself even ruthlessly wrapped up the Confucianism that fell into his hands like a descendant wrapped around his feet. He wanted to use the three cardinal guides and five constant rules to bind the subjects of the big man firmly; From the part that I think is suitable for Confucianism - from "not talking about strange powers and confusing gods", "the master's words about nature and the way of heaven, you can't get it but hear it", and finally he has his "relationship between heaven and man". There is an ancient book that said that on the night Cangjie created characters, someone heard ghosts crying.Then, on the night when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the edict "Only Respecting Confucianism", was there any abnormal noise from the grave of Confucius?More than 2,000 years later, Gong Zizhen wrote a poem: "I don't know the ancients and nine streams, which one survives and dies today? Or if Confucianism dies first, so what?" No matter whether it is a thought or a person, when he is in a low position and trying to climb up, his vitality is always the greatest.But when he occupies a high position, is satisfied, and has the ability to suppress his opponents, his development has reached the limit, and the next step is to go downhill.This is what Sun Tzu said "the difference between offense and defense". When Confucianism was promoted to a state of being able to communicate with the heavens and resemble a religion, its roots were actually pulled out of the ground and it became a dead knowledge.The less promising descendants can only work hard in the circle drawn by Dong Zhongshu and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It is common to annotate tens of thousands of words in a single word in the classics—just like when the feet develop later, they pay attention to what "thin, Small, sharp, curved, fragrant, soft and upright". Dong Zhongshu should have felt frustrated at the time: he must have noticed that the Confucianism used by the imperial court to govern the world was not quite the same as the Confucianism he respected.The best example is Gong Sunhong.This old opponent who also studied "Spring and Autumn" had already shown signs of danger in his countermeasures: he actually interpreted Confucian "wisdom" as the so-called "art" of Legalism for the monarch to control his subordinates!Isn't this the heresy of Legalism disguised as Confucianism?However, this cunning so-called Confucian scholar who Dong Zhongshu despises extremely, actually made his way to the top with this set of arguments. He was promoted by the emperor as the number one countermeasure, and was worshiped as a doctor.What's even more frightening is that in the current imperial court, those cruel and cruel grammatical officials have also imitated Gongsun Hong, and all put on the appearance of Confucian benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. Dong Zhongshu was indignant, this is obviously taking the "dominant" way - the real Confucianism should practice the "kingly way" of generosity and integrity. Indeed, more than a hundred years later, Liu Xiang, a great scholar, praised Dong Zhongshu for his "talent of Wang Zuo".The problem is that there has never been an era in the history of China where there was a real "kingly way". Even the golden age of Zhou Wenwu, which Confucian scholars were most proud of, still left traces of "blood flowing and drifting" in the Confucian classics, and Taigong even spread the reputation of using soldiers like gods. The kingly way of "great harmony under heaven" has always existed only in the beautiful fantasy of generations of Confucian scholars.No matter who it is, no matter how high the kingly way is, it is the real path chosen by every hero. The hero will not be bound by any kind of other people's thoughts. Liu Che is the hero among heroes. Dong Zhongshu thinks that he is the three strategies of heaven and man, which are the best words between heaven and earth, but they are just one of the various strategies put in front of Liu Che. Since Liu Che chose the Three Strategies of Heaven and Man as his outline of economics and state affairs, he must firmly hold the policy initiative in his hands.In his view, Confucianism, which advocates the relationship between heaven and man, is actually the same as Qin Shihuang's burning of books and burying Confucianism. When Liu Che saw the catastrophes between man and nature that even the high disciples could not understand the great Confucians of this generation, he must have secretly laughed in his heart.But it must have been what he expected: Confucian scholars who are self-righteous and partisan in attacking dissidents have always been facing the enemy of unknown theories, and they will never give up if they do not refute the individual. More than two thousand years later, in that absurd and fanatical catastrophe, Dong Zhongshu, as a huge metaphysical "feudal poisonous weed", was thrown into the 18th hell, and the shrine was copied, as if smashed... In fact, looking back on the long history of our country, he has actually made great contributions: after all, no matter what era, the stability of people's hearts is the foundation of development.Dong Zhongshu put forward the Confucian theory that God used as the backing of the great unification. At that time and for a long time after that, it played an objective role in sorting out and stabilizing the thoughts of all strata, and truly unified the ideological world for the first time in history, or It should be said that it is the first time that it has become the only mainstream in the ideological world that can suppress all other theories, suppressing those chattering, messy, and dangerous speeches that contain centrifugal tendencies so that they can never rise again.To be more exaggerated, it is the widespread dissemination of Dong Zhongshu's thought of great unification that has enabled the Chinese nation to return to the road of unification despite the division and reunification for thousands of years. In this sense, he can almost be compared with Qin Shihuang who confused the world. Of course, we should also see that only stability alone cannot develop quickly and for a long time. The three cardinal principles and five constant principles that have been cast for thousands of years are like shackles, day by day, and this ancient country with a long history is bent over and cannot pass through. angry. But can Dong Zhongshu be blamed?Just like the baby walker used by babies to learn to walk, it can effectively regulate the child's posture at the beginning and speed up their learning to walk; but no matter how old the child grows, he will not take it off, and even wear the baby walker when he grows a beard , that can only make the child deformed and disabled.And can the man who invented the baby walker be blamed for that? It is the rulers of later generations who cling to this set of effective spiritual shackles and cannot put it down, and they are the ones who polish, oil and maintain it. The Huns have fled far away, the princes have all been destroyed, and the people are obedient. The gray-haired Liu Che sat alone on the Bailiang Terrace proudly. On the towering copper pillars on the side of the platform, immortals also made of copper hold up a golden plate to receive the dew. He picked up the "Spring and Autumn Fanlu" left by Dong Zhongshu, who had passed away for many years, and wanted to see if it mentioned whether there were really gods in the sky. Now Liu Che really wants to know what is above that mysterious sky.