Chapter 21 The source of Confucianism

Once, Yan Hui asked Confucius: "What is benevolence?" Confucius replied: "Restrain oneself and return to the ritual." It means to restrain one's desires, restrain one's behavior, and make it conform to the norms of ritual. This is benevolence. Li and benevolence are the two most important categories in Confucius' academic thought.Ritual is the external order, while benevolence is the inner cultivation. It can be said that benevolence and etiquette are two sides of one body, interdependent.Benevolence is obtained through continuous refinement in life and practice. Confucius himself did not dare to say that he "followed his heart's desires and did not exceed the rules" when he was seventy years old. would violate the principles of etiquette.However, with the continuous expansion of the influence of Confucianism, there are more and more interpretations of benevolence by later generations, with different opinions and no consensus.Some think that benevolence is an instinct, some think that benevolence is a kind of natural law, and some people see the fluffy appearance of a newly hatched chick and claim to understand what benevolence is.Later, benevolence gradually got hooked with kindness and became benevolence, endowed with the meaning of sympathy and compassion.In fact, for Confucius, benevolence is a kind of perseverance and a kind of wisdom.

In the spring of 500 BC, the two countries of Qi and Lu reached a peace will.In the summer of the same year, Duke Ding of Lu came to Jiagu (now in Laiwu, Shandong Province) of Qi State and had a meeting with Duke Jing of Qi. According to Zhou etiquette, when princes meet each other, they are accompanied by ministers who are in charge of arranging the affairs of the meeting.The position of minister of courtesy is extremely important, and Feiqing cannot take it.Since the Duke of Lu Xi in the state of Lu, all the ministers of rites have come from Sanhuan.But this time, Duke Ding of Lu brought Kong Qiu, an old acquaintance of Duke Jing of Qi.

"Historical Records" records that before Lu Dinggong set off, Confucius said to him: "Whoever has literary affairs must have military equipment, and whoever has military affairs must have documented equipment." It is recommended that he prepare both hands and bring enough guards.Lu Dinggong agreed. On the day of the oath of alliance, Duke Jing of Qi and Duke Ding of Lu took the stage together and toasted each other. Officials from the State of Qi came over and asked for instructions, "Please enjoy the music and dance from all directions." Duke Jing of Qi said, "Okay." Arms covered, hair covered, bows, spears, swords and halberds and other eighteen kinds of weapons, screaming and flocking to the front of the stage, wanting to perform on stage.Kong Qiu immediately drew his sword in his hand and shouted loudly: "Guardians of Lu, take up arms and prepare to fight. Don't be soft! The monarchs of the two countries met for friendship, but the Dongyi captives in the distance used force to make trouble. Is it the Qihou’s way of hospitality? Since ancient times, barbarians cannot disturb our Chinese descendants, and force cannot force friendship—this is deceiving the gods, losing morality, and abandoning etiquette. I believe that Qihou is not such a person.” Qi Jinggong Hearing this, his face was ugly, and he waved his hands quickly to make those people back down.

When it was time to make an oath, the officials of Qi State handed over the written agreement to Confucius for review.Confucius saw that all the terms had been agreed upon by the two parties, but the Qi people unilaterally added another one: "If the Qi army leaves the country, if the Lu country does not follow with a chariot of three hundred times, it will be punished by heaven!" Kong Qiu unconsciously smiled, and said to the Qi people: "Then let us add one more sentence: If the Qi State does not return the land of Wenyang, let us use it to meet the needs of the Qi State, so should it be!"

At the Jiagu meeting, Qi State did not take advantage of it because Confucius handled it well.After Qi Jinggong went back, he scolded the ministers: "Kong Qiu used the way of a gentleman to assist Marquis Lu, but you all gave some bad ideas to the widows, and used the way of a villain to deal with them. It will be a shame!" Ying had passed away, and the officials were trembling and dared not respond.Finally someone came out and said: "If a villain has done something wrong, please say a few good words to make amends; if a gentleman has done something wrong, then you have to come up with something practical to make up for it. If you really want to apologize to Marquis Lu, send Wenyang Give them back their land."

The so-called Wenyang land is the territory dedicated to Qi State when Yang Hu defected.Qi Jinggong thought that as long as he could divide the Jin alliance and draw Lu to his side, a few cities would not be a problem, so he agreed to this suggestion.After the meeting, the people of Qi State returned the three cities of Yun, Huan (Huan) and Guiyin to Lu State. The Jiagu meeting made Kong Qiu's personal prestige sharply improved, and his influence in the political arena of Lu State was also growing.By 498 B.C., he was strong enough to realize his long-cherished wish, and he acted on the hated Sanhuan, and issued the order of "falling into the three capitals" through Duke Ding of Lu.

The three capitals, that is, the largest fiefs of Sanhuan, are Feiyi of the Ji family, Liyi of the Shusun family, and Chengyi of the Meng family.Falling into Sandu means destroying the city walls of Sandu and making Sanhuan lose the base to compete with the government. The question is, will Sanhuan give in easily? Confucius found an excellent breakthrough. According to "Zuo Zhuan", when the uncle and grandson dared not be alive, he wanted to make his son Zhouchou his successor, but was once opposed by Gong Ruomiao, the governor of the city.Because of this incident, Zhou Qiu had a lot of dissatisfaction with Gong Ruomiao, and when he inherited the family business, he ordered Ma Zheng (an official in charge of military affairs) Hou Peng of Liyi to kill Gong Ruomiao.Hou Zuo didn't want to, but he didn't want to offend the big boss, so he always said that he couldn't find a chance.

Hou Peng didn't want to kill his direct leader, but his subordinate Yuren (the head of the groom) thought it was a good opportunity to take the top position, and took the initiative to find Shusun Zhouchou and said: "I passed Gong Ruomiao's yamen with a sword, and he will definitely kill him." Ask whose sword it is, and I'll tell you it's yours. He must be surprised and ask to show it to him. I pretended not to know the rules, handed the tip of the sword to him, and took the opportunity to assassinate him." Zhou Qiu Said: "Okay! If you do it, I will reward you very much."

The Yuren acted according to plan, holding a sword and intentionally passing through Gong Ruomiao's yamen.Gong Ruoxiao was a man of knowledge, and when he saw that the head groom was holding a shiny sword, he really asked, "Whose sword is this?" Yuren said, "Master Uncle Sun." Gong Ruoxiao was even more puzzled: "Why is his old man's sword in your hand? Quickly bring it over and show it to me." Yuren walked up to the hall and handed over the sword.Gong Ruoxiao suddenly changed his face and said, "Do you think I'm the king of Wu?" King Liao of Wu was assassinated by Zhuan Zhu with a fish intestine sword, which is well known throughout the world.Gong Ruoxiao's words showed that he had realized that Yuren was intending to assassinate him.But it was too late, when the Yu people heard the words, they hurriedly sent out the sword, and stabbed Gong Ruoxiao to the point of chills.

When Hou Fang heard that Gong Ruoxiao was assassinated, he knew that Shusun Zhouchou had instigated him. In a rage, he raised the banner of rebellion in Licheng.Shusun Zhouqiu and Zhongsun Heji jointly sent troops to encircle Qie, but they were unable to attack.Later, Qi State was asked to send troops to help, but they still couldn't take it down. This also shows how strong Liyi was built. When the military offensive was weak, Shusun Zhouqiu general Liyi's engineer (officer in charge of craftsmen) Sichi approached him and said: "The rebellion in Liyi is not only a worry for my uncle Sun, but also a worry for the State of Lu. Where do you go, just figure it out!"

Si Chi replied: "Where do my servants go? It's in the last chapter of "Yang Zhi Shui"." "Yangzhishui" can be found in "The Book of Songs·Tang Feng". The last chapter is: "Yangzhishui, Baishi Linlin. I heard that there is destiny, but I dare not tell others." The meaning is very clear, I heard your order, I dare not tell others. Shusun Zhouqiu listened, and Prime Minister Ji thanked him. Si Chi returned to Liyi and said to Hou Zuo: "Licheng is located between Qi and Lu. It is very dangerous for you to betray Lu and not to join Qi. If things go on like this, the people will be terrified, and sooner or later they will rebel. As the saying goes, you can enjoy the coolness by leaning against a big tree, why don't you ask to submit to Qi?" Hou Peng thought it was reasonable, so he sent an envoy to contact Qi.After the envoy of Qi State arrived, Si Chi spread rumors in the city: "The Hou criminals will exchange land with Qi Hou for land, and you will all be moved to Qi State to live." impossible!So he made a noise and wanted to go to Hou criminal to reason.Si Chi said to Hou Zuo again: "The folks heard that you want to take refuge in Qi State, and they are so angry that they will not agree!" Hou Zuo said: "Then what should I do?" Si Chi said: "You might as well go with Qi Hou Let's exchange land! Qihou has always wanted to get this land, so as to threaten Lu. If you are willing to exchange, he will definitely give you a larger land. In addition, please prepare more armor and put it inside the door, just in case .” Hou Zuo agreed again. A few days later, the state of Qi sent a team to inspect the land in Liyi.Si Chi saw it on the city tower, and sent people to all the streets to shout: "The Qi army is here to relocate!" For the Chinese, there is nothing more terrifying than the word "relocation".The residents of Liyi panicked and flocked to the Hou Criminal's mansion to ask for an explanation. They happened to see the armor inside the door, so they rushed over to put it on, and surrounded the Hou Criminal on the gate tower. Si Chi stood next to Hou Zuo, drew his bow, and pretended to shoot an arrow downward.Hou Zuo stopped him and said, "Don't use force against your own people. Go down and negotiate with them and let them let me live." Si Chi went down to negotiate with the residents, and everyone agreed to let Hou Zuo leave.So Si Chi went out of the city first, and Hou Zuo followed.Every time Hou Zuo went out, people closed it.At the last gate of the outer city, Hou Zuo suddenly stopped Si Chi and said, "You go out wearing Uncle Sun's armor. If Uncle Sun is held accountable in the future, the people of Liyi will not be able to bear it." Si Chi said: " Don't worry, the stolen armor from Uncle Sun's house has marks on it, and I dare not wear it out. You see, this is my own." Hou criminal said: "You'd better go back and sort out those armors before leaving, the things of the master's house , don’t get the numbers wrong.” Si Chi looked at Hou Zuo, and saw that he was calm and felt ashamed.He suddenly understood that Hou Zuo had seen through his plot, but he couldn't bear to expose it face to face, so he used this tactful way to persuade himself to stay.He wanted to say something, but he didn't know where to start, so he could only bow to Hou Zuo to the ground, and then watched him leave. Through such means, Shusun Zhou Qiucai took Liyi back.Confucius keenly grasped this matter to make a fuss, and said at the court meeting: "The ancestors clearly stipulated that the circumference of the city of the Qing Dynasty should not exceed a hundred pheasants. Now all three capitals exceed the standard, and they are built large and strong. It has become a worry for all the ministers (referring to Sanhuan). If it is not demolished, the rebellion may happen again at any time, the interests of the country will be damaged, and the interests of the family will not be guaranteed. May I ask, is any of you willing to do this? " Kong Qiu's words hit the hearts of Ji Sunsi and Shusun Zhouchou like a heavy hammer.Shusun Zhouqiu had just suffered from the rebellion, and Ji Sunsi also felt sympathetic - the Nankuai Rebellion started in Feiyi; the Yanghu Rebellion, Feiyi's Gongshan Buxuan contributed a lot and stubbornly resisted The longest, it was not conquered until the year before last.Fei Yi has indeed brought a lot of troubles to the Ji family! As a result of the discussion at the meeting, Zhongyou, the favorite disciple of Confucius and the family governor of the Ji family, was in charge of supervising the implementation of the "Falling into the Three Capitals". Shusun Zhouqiu took the initiative to demolish the city wall of Liyi.When Ji Sunsi was about to demolish the city wall of Feiyi, he was opposed by the people of Feiyi.Yang Hu's remnants Gongshan Buxuan and Shusun Zui led some Feiyi people to sneak into Qufu in an attempt to launch a coup.Kong Qiu had been prepared for a long time, and arranged Sanhuan and Lu Dinggong to enter the ancestral temple of the Ji family to take refuge. out of Qufu. After this incident, Feiyi's city wall was also successfully demolished. When it was Chengyi's turn, he encountered a real problem.The governor of Chengyi, Gonglian Chufu, said to Zhongsun Heji: "Chengyi is the northern gate of Lu State. If the city wall of Chengyi is demolished, Qi people can easily invade Lu State, which is not good for the country. Moreover, Chengyi belongs to the Meng family. The protection of the family, without Chengyi, there would be no Meng family. You can pretend you don’t know, anyway, I don’t agree with this matter.” Zhongsun Heji was originally unwilling, but when he heard Chufu Gonglian say this, he really opened his eyes. With one eye closed, he kicked the ball back to Kong Qiu. At this time, the only solution is to resort to force.In December of the same year, Duke Lu Ding led an army to crusade against Chengyi, and the result was "Foke".Chengyi is too strong, if it is not voluntarily demolished, it will be difficult for outsiders to attack. Confucius finally failed to demolish Chengyi. "Dropping the three capitals" has become "falling into the two capitals", which is obviously not satisfactory.But if you consider that he was the first person to attack Sanhuan in more than a hundred years, and successfully weakened two of them, this achievement is already considered very good. In the second year of "falling into the three capitals", Confucius was fifty-six years old and reached the pinnacle of his official career.In the spring of this year, Duke Ding of Lu ordered him to act as the prime minister in the capacity of Da Si Kou. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the official systems of various countries were not unified and changed greatly.Before the "Three Huan Specialized in Lu", the State of Lu once had a great prime minister, which was equivalent to a prime minister.After the rise of Sanhuan, the power shifted from the public to the Qing family, and the post of Dazai gradually fell into disuse.Confucius' "Post-Photography" can be found in the records of "Historical Records". It is estimated that Lu Dinggong did not dare to provoke Sanhuan too much, so he came up with a temporary position.In any case, Confucius can now legitimately issue orders to the whole country and realize his ambitions. The so-called spring breeze is proud of the horseshoe disease. After Confucius came to power, a smile appeared on his usually serious face from time to time.When the students saw it, they expressed their incomprehension: "Didn't you often teach us that 'a gentleman is not afraid when disaster strikes, and he is not happy when he gets promoted'?" Kong Qiu responded quickly: "That's what you said. But Didn’t I also say that ‘a gentleman is happy because he can respect the virtuous and the corporal’? Now that I’m an acting prime minister, I can promote many talents, so of course I’m happy!” Having said that, the first major thing he did after he came to power was not to recruit talents, but to kill the doctor Shao Zhengmao. Shaozheng is an official position established by the Zhou Dynasty.Shaozhengmao may be the Mao with Shaozheng as the family name, or it may be the Mao who served as Shaozheng.According to records, Shaozhengmao was quite an influential figure in the state of Lu. He often discussed Confucius' new policies in court and in the streets and alleys, and made sharp criticisms of them.When Kong Qiu was still the Chief Sikou, he had already disliked him.When Confucius was in power, Shaozheng Mao still didn't know how to restrain himself, and as a result, he was killed, and his body was exposed for three days, as an example to others. Kong Qiu's killing of Shaozheng Mao is a well-known public case in Chinese history, which was first recorded in "Xunzi": This ancient text is not difficult to understand.Kong Qiu's reason for killing Shao Zhengmao can be summed up in one word as "bewitching words to confuse the public". "Historical Records" is estimated to be based on "Xunzi", saying that Kong Qiu "judged Lu Dafu who messed with the government and Shao Zhengmao". However, Zhu Xi, a great Confucian in the Song Dynasty, believed that this matter is not credible. The reason is: "Xunzi" was written a hundred years after Kong Qiu's death.Just think, why is such an important matter not even recorded in "Zuo Zhuan"? Did Confucius kill Shaozhengmao? In the records of Confucius, Confucius once said: "A gentleman is harmonious but different, and a villain is the same but not harmonious." Able to accommodate different opinions; small people strive to agree, but they have their own ghosts and it is difficult to unite.From this point of view, Kong Qiu was very tolerant, and it was unlikely that Shao Zhengmao would be motivated to kill because of something unfavorable to him.Confucius also said: "If you attack heresy, you will be harmed." Mr. Qian Mu translated it as: "It will be harmful if you focus on the opposite end." It shows that Confucius should also be a person who advocates tolerance in academics. . How could such a tolerant Confucius, once he became a high official, take very cruel measures to kill Shao Zhengmao?As mentioned earlier, the public reason is that Shao Zhengmao criticized the current regime too much, which is inflammatory and subversive, and it is very likely that the ruling foundation has been shaken.But the problem is that Shaozheng Mao's knowledge is not consistent with the official theory, and Confucius' knowledge is just adhering to the Zhou rituals hundreds of thousands of years ago, which has not kept pace with the times at all, and is also inconsistent with the official theory at that time.When it comes to criticizing the current regime, Confucius is even more eloquent in his criticism. He sees all the "Bayou dance in court", "Yong" from the Three Families", and "Ji's journey on Mount Tai". Keep in mind, verbal criticism and pen criticism, when he was in the audience, his criticism of the current regime could never be inferior to that of Shao Zhengmao.Therefore, Kong Qiu's public reason for killing Shaozhengmao can be applied to Kong Qiu himself, which is unacceptable.In this way, regarding the truth of this period of historical koan, the reasons mentioned in "Xunzi" are suspicious.In the opinion of the author of this book, it is still too early to make a conclusion about the real reason for Shaozhengmao's murder, and the inside story may have to wait for further discovery and interpretation of pre-Qin historical materials.