Chapter 9 Section Four: The Shiqu Pavilion Conference and the "Xiping Stone Classic"

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dismissed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, Confucian thought was praised as the orthodox thought.In the field of ideology and culture, the views of Confucius and the Confucian school have become the standard for judging right from wrong.Confucianism is trivial, and scholars can only interpret it according to the scriptures.This was called "citing scriptures and judging events" at the time, not only in academics, but also in many major political decisions and difficult problems, also begging for Confucian classics.Therefore, the emperor attached great importance to the collection of scriptures.According to the "Hanshu Junbuyi Biography", in the fifth year of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty (82 BC), a man named Zhang Yanping went to the palace and claimed to be the son of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Prince Wei. Go ahead and identify.When the officials and people in Chang'an, the capital, heard the news, tens of thousands of people went to watch, and the government and the public were terrified.The matter is of great importance, Jingzhao Yinjun quoted the scriptures of "Spring and Autumn" without any doubt, and resolutely arrested Zhang Yannian and resolved the matter.Someone asked him, how can he arrest people without distinguishing between the real and the fake?Jun did not hesitate to say: "Spring and Autumn" records that in the past, the prince Kuai Kui (kui shame) of Duke Ling of Wei offended Duke Ling and fled to the state of Jin.Later, Duke Ling died, and Kuai Kui's son took over the throne. The state of Jin wanted to make Kuai Kui king, but Kui Kui returned to the defense on his own, but Kuai Kui refused.Compare the present with the conclusion of "Spring and Autumn": Prince Wei offended the first emperor (referring to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), escaped without dying, and ran back today. He is a sinner, so he was sent to prison.Later, after interrogation, Zhang Yannian was indeed a fake, and was executed as a result.

In the third year of Ganlu Emperor Xuandi of the Han Dynasty (51 BC), in order to discuss the similarities and differences of the Five Classics, a Shiqu Pavilion meeting chaired by the emperor himself was held in Shiqu Pavilion of the State Library.The meeting produced 18 articles of "Miscellaneous Discussions of the Five Classics", 42 articles of "Discussions of the Book", 38 articles of "Discussions of the Rites", 39 articles of "Discussions of the Spring and Autumn Annals", and "Discussions of the Analects" 18 chapters, unifying the interpretation of the Five Classics.After the meeting, these books will be issued to the whole country and collected by the National Library.These books have now been lost, and only remnants remain.

In order to determine the standard scriptures in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "Xiping Stone Classic" was specially engraved.Stone engraving became very popular in the Western Han Dynasty, and there were many steles, steles, and cliffs. The "Five Classics" is not only the subject of the national official examination, but also "cites the scriptures to judge things" in politics, so the accuracy of the scriptures becomes more and more important.Although unified by the Shiquge Conference in the Western Han Dynasty, the dispute between the ancient and modern texts of the Five Classics is still fierce.According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty Rulin Biography", there are still many people who insist on the ancient scriptures, and some even use bribes to ask Lantai of the State Library to revise the scriptures in the collection to conform to the scriptures in his private collection.In particular, the study of ancient texts and classics advocated by Liu Xin became the basis for Wang Mang's self-reliance in the Han Dynasty and the reform of the ancient system. It is very urgent to establish a standard of the modern scriptures. It was against this background that "Xiping Stone Classics" came into being.

In the fourth year of Xiping (AD 175), Liu Hong, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, ordered Cai Yong to compile "Yi", "Poetry", "Yili", "Spring and Autumn", "Gongyang Zhuan" in order to confirm the scriptures of Jinwen. He and seven classics were written on the stone tablet with a vermilion brush and carved by stone workers. It took eight years to complete and stood outside the Taixue Gate of Hongdu Gate at that time. It was called "Xiping Stone Classic" in history.After the stone scriptures were inscribed, the number of scholars and students who went to the stele every day to watch and check and copy the scriptures used to be as many as a thousand. "Xiping Stone Classic" was written in the official script (now) that was popular at that time, and it was highly valued by the rulers of all dynasties.Due to the change of dynasties, it has been completely destroyed for a long time, and only a small number of excavated stones are left.