Chapter 8 Chapter Eight The Legend Begins

Li Dongyang is by no means a sympathizer of Liu Jin. The reason why he hesitated was precisely because he noticed a factor that was ignored by other ministers—the character of Zhu Houzhao. Jiao Fang's betrayal was just an accidental factor. Liu Jin's success was ultimately due to Zhu Houzhao. This player would not kill his playmates, and the "eight tigers" would never sit still. Li Dongyang is a thoughtful person. He is thoughtful and sees farther and more than Liu Jian and Xie Qian. He knows that it is not so easy to solve Liu Jin. Liu Jin is a terrifying opponent, far more terrifying than imagined. To defeat this powerful enemy, one must wait for a better time.

Yes, now is not the time. But other officials didn't seem to think so. They regretted the departure of Liu Jian and Xie Qian, and wrote letters to persuade them to stay. The first batch of officials who wrote letters included more than 20 people including Bo Yanzheng, the censor of the Overwatch Council, and Dai Mian in Nanjing. , Liu Jin handled this matter very decisively - Ting Zhang. More than 20 people all have court sticks, one by one to beat one by one, and no one can be missing! The worst thing was that Dai Mian was beaten to death during the incident in Nanjing. In order to save Dai Mian, many people wrote a second batch of petitions.

Among the group of people who were dragged out for spanking, there was a petty official named Wang Shouren, who was inconspicuous compared with those who were spanked in the same period.But this court stick has an extraordinary meaning to him. This 34-year-old little Beijing official is about to step on the center of the historical stage, and the legendary experience begins. Wang Shouren, the head of the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War and the sixth-rank sesame official, his light will be the best in the contemporary era and shine through the ages. In 1905, the Japanese Navy Admiral Togo Heihachiro returned to the mainland. As a rare genius general in Japanese military history, he led the inferior Japanese fleet to wipe out the Russian Pacific Fleet and Baltic Fleet in the Russo-Japanese War, and became a household name in Japan. .

Because of his outstanding performance in the war, the Emperor of Japan appointed him as the Minister of the Navy Command, recalled him to Japan, and held a celebration banquet for him. At this banquet, in the face of praise from all the participants, Dongxiang Heihachiro remained silent. He just took out his waist card and showed it to everyone. There were only seven characters on it: I bow my head and worship Yangming all my life. Wang Shouren, courtesy name Bo'an, nicknamed Yangming. In the eighth year of Chenghua (1472), Wang Shouren was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang. Most of the people who achieved great things were born in poverty.It's pretty much the norm.It is a pity that the situation of Mr. Wang Shouren is exactly the opposite.

Wang Shouren's family is a well-known big landlord, very rich, and he also has a very famous ancestor-Wang Xizhi.I don't know if it's true, but given his family's conditions, it's not surprising even if it is. Most of the Wang family's ancestors had been officials. It is said that the ancestor Wang Gang once served as Liu Bowen's servant, and he was a fourth-rank official at the highest.But when Wang Shouren's father Wang Hua came here, things changed. In the seventeenth year of Chenghua (1481), ten-year-old Wang Shouren left Zhejiang and moved to Beijing with his family. Because of the smoke from his family's grave, his father Wang Hua won the first prize in the examination of this year.

Now the Wang family is even more amazing, and Wang Hua's sense of responsibility has also been greatly enhanced. After all, I am a hero, and I am already the champion. Even if my son can't surpass himself as a hero in the future, he can't be a fool.So he invited many teachers to teach Wang Shouren to read. Ten-year-old Wang Shouren began to read the Four Books and Five Classics. He comprehended quickly and could infer other cases from one instance. His intelligence surprised the old gentlemen. But after a while, the teachers discovered something bad. According to the teachers’ reports to Wang Zhuangyuan, Wang Shouren was not a good student. He didn’t sit in private schools, but he liked to dance with guns and sticks, read military books, and he also liked to ask some weird questions and write some inexplicable things. There are poems to prove it:

The mountain is close to the moon and the moon is far away, and the moon is small, so the mountain is bigger than the moon. If a person has eyes as big as the sky, he should see that the mountains are taller and the moon is wider. In the eyes of the gentlemen, this is a ridiculous doggerel. After Wang Hua read it, he thought about it for a long time. He called Wang Shouren and asked him a question: "Is the study stuffy?" Wang Shouren nodded. "Follow me for a walk outside the pass." What Wang Hua said outside the Guan is Juyongguan. He keenly felt an indescribable mystery from this poem. For the first time, he realized that his son was extraordinary and his study room could not accommodate him. Wang Hua decided to Take him out to open his eyes.

The name of this poem is "Mountain House Covered by the Moon", and the author Wang Shouren was twelve years old at the time.This is also his first poem that has been handed down through the ages. This poem seems naive in words and has the charm of doggerel, but it is full of mystery.Which one is bigger, the mountain or the moon? The twelve-year-old boy gave a plausible answer with his unique way of thinking and observation. His mode of thinking was called dialectics in later generations. Wang Hua made an unusual promise.At that time, Juyongguan was no longer what it was in Zhu Di's time. Mongolian cavalrymen often appeared, and it was an extremely risky thing to take a teenage son out of the customs.But Wang Hua finally fulfilled his promise after consideration.

It wasn't long before he regretted his decision. Outside Juyongguan, the young Wang Shouren saw the vast grassland and desert for the first time, and experienced the joy of a galloping horse. heart. A seed began to sprout in his heart. Originally, Wang Hua just wanted to take his son out for a stroll, just to step on a spot, but Wang Shouren's next move surprised him. One day not long after, Wang Shouren, uncharacteristically, walked up to Wang Hua solemnly, and said to his father solemnly: "I've already written a letter to the emperor, as long as you give me tens of thousands of horses, I'm willing to go out of the customs to make peace for the country and bring peace to the Tatars!"

According to investigation, the speaker Wang Shouren was fifteen years old at this time. Wang Hua was silent. After a long time, he woke up like a dream and finally reacted. Excitedly, he picked up the book at hand (he couldn't find a good one at the moment), and hit Wang Shouren head-on, and said while beating: "Make you crazy! Make you crazy!" Mr. Wang Shouren's dream of serving the country for the first time was shattered, but he was not discouraged. Soon after, he had a new life plan, a more ambitious plan. Wang Hua's intestines were full of remorse, he never imagined that his precious son really dared to think and do anything.

Maybe after a while, he will forget these stupid thoughts.Wang Hua once thought so naively. Perhaps his prayers had an effect. Not long after, Wang Shouren came to him again, this time to admit his mistake. Wang Shouren said calmly: "My thoughts last time were unrealistic, thank you for your father's teaching." Wang Hua was very pleased and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, it is good to have ambition, as long as you study hard in the future, it is not impossible." "No need, I won't go to war. Now I have a new ambition." "Oh, what do you want to do?" "Be a sage!" This time Wang Hua didn't stay silent anymore, he responded quickly - a resounding slap in the face. It's over, it's over, the fame of the whole life will be ruined in the hands of this kid. Wang Hua finally reached a consensus with the teachers. If this kid is left alone, the whole family will be defeated by him in the future. After careful consideration, he decided to discuss a marriage with his son.He thinks that as long as this kid is married and his wife is in charge, he won't do anything out of the ordinary again. Wang Hua was the number one scholar, and he once served as a lecturer to the emperor. He has a high position and authority. Although Wang Shouren likes to make troubles, the young man is still quite handsome (I have seen the portraits, so I can testify), so after the news that the Wang family is getting married, many People squeezed their heads to apply. Out of safety considerations, and because he didn't want this kid to stay in the capital and cause trouble, Wang Hua selected an official lady from Hongdu (Nanchang), Jiangxi, and then called Wang Shouren, who had just turned seventeen, and told him to pack his luggage immediately and go to When you get married in Jiangxi, don't hang out in front of yourself. Wang Hua arranged such an arranged marriage for Wang Shouren just to make peace, but he didn't expect that his move would bring him even more trouble. The dazed Wang Shouren was just kicked out of the house and fled to Hongdu, Jiangxi. Fortunately, his etiquette is not bad, and his father-in-law is very satisfied with him.After going back and forth, the marriage was settled, and the date of marriage was also confirmed. This father-in-law probably doesn't go to the capital often, and he hasn't heard of Mr. Wang Shouren's deeds, but it doesn't matter, because soon, he will appreciate the power of his son-in-law. The wedding day is here, the official family is getting married, and the groom is the son of Wang Zhuangyuan. Naturally, it should be more lively and grand. The father-in-law's family is very busy, but when everyone is done and ready to salute, they find that one key person is missing—— -bridegroom. This is not a joke, whether or not you get married is the next thing, how can you explain to Wang Hua if you lose someone? The father-in-law was sweating profusely, and sent all his subordinates to search for it, but they couldn't find it no matter how hard they searched. The whole family was so anxious that they even wanted to die.It wasn't until the next morning that they found Wang Shouren in a Taoist temple on the outskirts of the city, and everyone was very excited. But Wang Shouren, who had been missing for a day, was not excited at all. He looked at the sweaty people in surprise and asked his question: "What are you looking for me for?" It turned out that this brother went out for a walk on the day of his wedding and saw a Taoist temple, so he went in and chatted with a Taoist priest.It wasn't until someone reminded him that he remembered that there was one thing he didn't do yesterday. In any case, Wang Shouren got married successfully, got his wife and started a family, and his anecdote spread throughout Hongdu, and everyone thought he was a weirdo. Wang Shouren is not a weirdo. Those who laugh at him don't know that this seemingly weird boy is a firm-willed man who does what he says. He has long been tired of the Four Books and Five Classics, and he doesn't care about being an official in the imperial examination. In this way, he set the only goal for his life-to be a sage. It is good to have ideals, but the ideal that Brother Wang chose is not very practical. After all, apart from a few lunatics and psychopaths who claimed to have realized this ideal, there are only two or three people who are recognized by everyone, such as Kong and Meng. Wait. Wang Shouren couldn't figure it out himself, so he haunted Buddhist temples and monasteries, hoping to find inspiration from monks and Taoists to become a sage.But apart from learning to read scriptures and meditate, I didn't even see the shadow of sages.He was not discouraged, and he continued to pursue the way of sages. After all, a way will be found, Wang Shouren firmly believes in this. Perhaps it was his sincerity that finally moved the heavens, and not long after, it pointed out the only correct path to Wang Shouren. In the second year of Hongzhi (1489), eighteen-year-old Wang Shouren left Jiangxi and returned to his hometown Yuyao with his new wife. During the journey, he met a scholar, and they went together to chat to relieve boredom. During the conversation, he raised the question in his heart: "How can one become a sage?" The scholar thought for a long time, and gave a four-word answer: "It's poor reasoning." "what for?" The scholar smiled: "You go back and read Zhu Shengren's book, and you will know it naturally." Wang Shouren was ecstatic, he thought he had finally found the answer. Zhu Shengren is Zhu Xi. If you want to talk about this man, everyone on the earth knows him. His popularity is unparalleled. Even the great ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to change his family tree and make him his grandson. But the controversy about him has not stopped for hundreds of years. Those who scold him say he is a scum, and those who praise him say he is a sage, but no matter what, both parties admit that he is a person who has influenced history . What kind of person is Zhu Xi? Supporters believe that he is the iconic figure of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties and a great philosopher. Opponents believe that he is the iconic figure of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties and the chief culprit in the imprisonment of thoughts. In fact, Mr. Zhu Xi is far less complicated than people say. In my opinion, he is just a person with pursuit, but his goal is a bit special. What he pursues is the deepest secret in this world. (Reminder: The following content will describe some difficult-to-understand philosophical issues. I believe that everyone can understand according to the way I narrate. If it doesn’t work, just go to the book.) Since ancient times, there has been a group of monks who abide by the precepts, do not eat meat, do not drink alcohol, and chant scriptures and Buddha all day long. Unlike other monks, they often sit still for decades, and some even beat and tortured themselves. Body, painful but still the same. There is such a group of martial arts practitioners, after years of training, their martial arts have become very strong, but they practice harder and persist. There is such a group of scholars, some of whom have already learned a lot, and even become famous, but still study hard day and night, regardless of the cold or heat. They weren't deranged idiots who got themselves into trouble for no reason, working so hard just to find one thing. Legend has it that there is a magical thing in this world. It is invisible, yet ubiquitous, as light as nothing, but as heavy as Mount Tai. If you can know this thing, you can understand all the mysteries in this world , See through all disguises, master all knowledge, everything in the world can be attributed to mastery! This is not a legend, but an objective fact. The name of such a thing is "Tao". The so-called Tao is the sum of all the laws in the world, and it is the most fundamental law. As long as you can understand the Tao, you can understand everything in the world. This is really a big temptation, so for thousands of years, it has attracted countless people to pursue it one after another.More importantly, facts have proved that Tao not only exists, but can also be grasped by people. For different types of seekers, Tao has different ways of expression. For monks, the name of Tao is "Enlightenment", and for scholars like Zhu Xi, its name is "Li". The "enlightenment" that monks dream of pursuing is not illusory. In fact, it is a very mysterious pleasure, far better than all the joys and all spiritual medicines in the world. No worry, no joy, no sorrow, joy always stays in the heart.Buddhism calls it "enlightenment". The most famous "enlightenment" person is the "Sixth Patriarch" Huineng, and the later monks Deshan and Linji are also famous all over the world. Poor mysteries are like a drop thrown into the void; exhausted cardinals are like a drop thrown into a huge abyss. This is the so-called way of the Buddha. As for the Tao of warriors, it can be roughly explained with such a story: According to the saying in martial arts, the longer the weapon, the better, which is the so-called "one inch long, one inch strong".But it is said that during the Five Dynasties, there was a master who used a sword, but the more he used it, the shorter it became. Later, when he was fifty or sixty years old, when his swordsmanship was superb, he didn't use the sword anymore. defeated. It was only when I read this story that I really began to believe a common phrase in fiction: "There is no sword in your hand, but you have a sword in your heart." Zhu Xi's Taoism originated from Confucianism, also called "Li". It is neither enlightenment nor martial arts practice. Everything in the world is broad-minded, not surprised by favor or humiliation, fearless, self-cultivation, family harmony, country governance, and world peace! Only the sincerity of the world can realize its nature; if it can realize its nature, it can realize its human nature; if it can realize its human nature, it can realize its nature; if it can realize its nature, it can praise the cultivation of the world; If it is transformed and cultivated, it can be connected with the heaven and the earth! This is the way of Confucianism. The above roughly explains the meaning of Tao. If you don’t understand some classical Chinese, you don’t need to find a translator. To sum it up, as long as you understand three points: 1. Tao is a rare thing, and it is what many people pursue all their lives. Second, no matter what kind of occupation or type of work, there are many benefits after enlightenment. 3. It is very difficult to realize the Tao, and those who can understand the Tao are very good. That's it, as long as you can understand it. Having said so much, there is still a key problem that has not been resolved. Since the Tao is so good, how can we understand the Tao? It is still divided according to occupation. If you ask an enlightened monk, the answer you get will be very interesting. To this question, the monk Shouchu's answer is: three catties of hemp. Zen Master Danxia's answer is: burn the Buddha statues to keep warm. Monk Qingfeng's answer is: Vulcan came to pray for fire. Monk Deshan's answer is: Manjusri and Puxian are picky. (guilty sin) They are not talking nonsense. If you have enough understanding, you can understand the true meaning of "wine and meat pass through the intestines, and the Buddha sits in his heart".The so-called no Buddha in the eyes, but there is a Buddha in the heart, is the essence of Buddhism. And the only way for Buddhists to realize Taoism is also hidden in these seemingly absurd words. Simply put, it is three words - relying on oneself. They answer the questions with all kinds of sensational words, just want to tell you that the matter of enlightenment cannot be taught or cannot be taught, and no one can help you except yourself. But the answers given by the eminent monks are really not very operable, and ordinary people can't do it, so it's hard to satisfy us. Let's look at the warriors again. For those who practice martial arts, the answer to this question is even simpler. If you throw a sword to you, you can practice slowly. Don't ask yourself, the devil knows. After all, there are usually only one or two top masters in a long martial arts novel with hundreds of thousands of words. If you haven't practiced it, brother, that's normal, so you must correct your mentality. Now our expectations are pinned on Zhu Shengren of Confucianism, hoping that there is a key to the road of sages here. Zhu Shengren really lived up to expectations, and pointed out a golden road for us in four words: Investigating things and poor principles. Well, now we are finally back to the starting point, standing on the same starting line as Mr. Wang Shouren, so what is the magical power of these four words, and what do they mean? Zhu Shengren was still very patient. He told us that although "reason" is difficult to understand, it exists in everything in the world. The yellow ox in your farmland is reasonable, and the broken boxes in the backyard are reasonable. Well, the private money you hid beside your bed is also justified. Reason is everywhere, and to understand it, one must "grid". As for how to qualify, it doesn't matter to you, whether you are in a daze or do it, you can qualify as you like. It is enough that Zhu Shengren doesn't charge you for tuition, and he can help you fight the world? So when will "grid" be able to "grid" out of reason? Good question!Regarding this question, Cheng Yi, another great teacher of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, gave a clear answer: "Determine one thing today, and another thing tomorrow, and you will know the truth of heaven in the end." See it clearly, as long as you keep "checking", "checking" with your heart, "checking" with concentration, and "checking" overtime, you will "suddenly understand". So when can we "suddenly see through"? I'm sorry, the instructors didn't mention this question, and I don't know, but brother, just go to "grid" boldly, please believe that when you reach "sudden penetration", you will be able to "sudden penetration". Well, this is the end of our philosophy class. Some basic concepts about Buddhism, Zen, Confucianism, and Neo-Confucianism were discussed in the class. I believe this way of presentation can be understood by everyone. In fact, I don't want to talk about these things, but if I don't talk about them, it will be difficult for you to understand Wang Shouren's various weird behaviors later, and you will not be able to appreciate his courage and wisdom that are unmatched through the ages. The path of sages is a completely different path. It has a beginning, but it never seems to see an end.It is mysterious, weird, and unfathomable. It is more difficult than the road of a famous general. On this road, there is no helper, no mentor, and you don't know when you will succeed, when you will fail, or even when you will succeed. should give up. However, the eighteen-year-old Wang Shouren embarked on this road without hesitation, and he finally succeeded. Nineteen years later, at that place, at that night, at that moment recorded in history.