Chapter 638: Aristocrats and Hooligans

From Qu Yuan's spiritual decay to Tao Yuanming's spirit, this is caused by the brutality of the feudal dynasty. Qin Shi Huang burned books and pit Confucianism, creating a precedent for the slaughter of the 'aristocratic spirit', and the cruel reality forced the elite who pursued personal independence to choose self-exile????

Self-exile is a helpless choice, but also a noble choice. In the face of a corrupt and brutal regime, he is unwilling to go along with the dirt and withdraw, preferring to live a life of poverty in self-exile in exchange for spiritual freedom and personal dignity.

This kind of self-exile has become a way of life that the elites who are unwilling to commit themselves to the Chinese dynasties have to choose, which is a kind of contempt for power, this is a stubborn adherence to noble morality, and this is an alternative aristocratic spirit.

The spirit of the third generation of Zeng Guofan represents a spirit of pursuing meritorious service and the spirit of pursuing the perfection of personal character.

This spirit represents the spirit of scholars in the later period of history, and this spirit is attributed to the influence of Confucius and Mencius.

The core of the Tao of Confucius and Mencius is loyalty and filial piety, which on the one hand created the servile nature of scholars who were loyal to the imperial power, and on the other hand, they also created the rigorous character of scholars.

The core concept of the cultivation of personal character in the Tao of Confucius and Mencius is: self-cultivation of things, unity of family, and peace in the world. Meritorious, virtuous, and verbal have become the three realms pursued by scholars. Zeng Guofan combined the three realms into one, and became a spiritual model for feudal scholars and doctors, and a model for the modern aristocracy of the Chinese nation.

In contrast, Qu Yuan's pursuit is an unyielding pursuit that is not subject to the established framework, while Zeng Guofan's pursuit is a pursuit of self-improvement under the established framework.

That's because Confucius and Mencius thought in Qu Yuan's time had not yet become a kind of Tao, and Qu Yuan's pursuit was the pursuit in a state of freedom of thought, so his pursuit showed a kind of bold bearing, while Zeng Guofan's pursuit was under a high degree of constraints, and he did not dare to go beyond the thunder pool half a step, and followed the way of Confucius and Mencius to reach the highest realm from the subtleties.

In contrast, Tao Yuanming's pursuit spirit is the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom, and he would rather self-exile than bend his waist for five buckets of rice.

In Tao Yuanming's era, although the way of Confucius and Mencius has been pushed to the position of the hegemon, but it has not been deepened to the people, so Tao Yuanming disagrees with the way of Confucius and Mencius, in his mind, power and the way of Confucius and Mencius are not as good as chrysanthemums in the wilderness, and his intoxication with nature far exceeds the obsession with power and material.

When the way of Confucius and Mencius was strengthened by successive dynasties, the way of Confucius and Mencius became the master of the spirit of the Chinese people.

Scholars have lost their personal freedom, and even more so their freedom of thought. Therefore, it is impossible to have nobles like Qu Yuan, and it is difficult to have nobles like Tao Yuanming, only the nobles of Zeng Guo's vassal can only make contributions and improve themselves within the feudal system.

The transformation of the spirit of the three generations of aristocracy symbolizes the revenge of the aristocratic spirit in the Chinese civilization from having the world in mind to being content with self-preservation, and the aristocratic spirit has completely declined.

From Qu Yuan's spiritual decay to Tao Yuanming's spirit, it was the cruel reality of book burning and Confucianism that forced them to give up the pursuit of excellence, and chose self-exile, refusing to commit themselves to power in order to adhere to their noble personality. This is a kind of helplessness, but also a kind of contempt for the powerful, and it is this helplessness and contempt that shows their noble personality spirit.

From Tao Yuanming's spiritual decay to Zeng Guofan's spirit, the national elite had to bow to power and enter the feudal system to pursue meritorious service to complete their pursuit of secular power.

This kind of closeness has lost its independent thoughts and personality, but there are also a large number of nobles who pursue personal character cultivation within the system, such as Liu Zongyuan, such as Yue Fei, and Wen Tianxiang.

Fan Zhongyan's spirit of "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the joy of the world after the world", and the spirit of shouldering morality with iron shoulders expressed in Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Justice" are all outstanding manifestations of the spirit of the traditional aristocracy, and they are all perfect personalities within the system.

The decay of the aristocratic spirit has essentially weakened the power of the aristocratic spirit, which has limited the actions of the nobles in history to human civilization.

In other words, the Renaissance in China failed, while the Renaissance in Europe succeeded, which led to the persecution of China by the Western powers with rogue genes after the later industrial age.

Most of the modern natural sciences, modern democratic mechanisms, and epoch-making ideas in human history were created by European aristocrats. In particular, the modern European aristocracy created the "Constitutional Monarchy," the "Declaration of Independence," and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," and Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States created "I Have a Dream," and put these ideas of civilization into practice, creating a glorious history and becoming a milestone in the march of mankind toward civilization.

But in fact, the rudiments of these ideas have appeared in the Mohists and the Hundred Schools of Thought for more than 2,000 years, but there is a gap between the two, that is, even more than 2,000 years ago, the first Renaissance in China was successful, and the Mohists and Confucianists went hand in hand, and the mergers of Legalism, soldiers, famous farmers, doctors and other schools jointly created a powerful and incomparable empire.

Then this Imperial warship, which is likely to sail to the sea of stars more than a thousand years ago, will not do such a thing as bullying other countries across the ocean.

This is the gap between Chinese civilization and Western civilization.

It is the gap between the aristocracy and the hooligans at the root.

Therefore, even if Huaxia's science and technology are revived, they may be similar to Western modern science and technology in terms of projects and processes, but the starting point and philosophical foundation must be in different directions.

At least it will not turn the explosives used in mining into a murder weapon to harvest life, but into fireworks to celebrate happiness.

But it's a pity that history doesn't have ifs, maybe in the parallel world, the first renaissance of the hundred schools of thought in China succeeded, otherwise, how could Wang Yao get the revival system, this extra-dimensional incomprehensible, but something closely related to Chinese civilization?

But this is also a conjecture, after all, in the face of hooligans, the loser has no right to speak, this is the logic of hooligans, and hooligans are self-satisfied by bullying and enslaving others.

The aristocracy, on the other hand, is the logic of helping the weak to achieve self-satisfaction.

The last time the Chinese aristocratic spirit rose, it was when it was oppressed by the Western powers, the light of the cultural context that briefly burst out, and it also allowed the Chinese cultural context to continue without being cut off by the West.

It was the era of the meeting of old and new civilizations, and the decaying and declining feudal dynasty fell into turmoil, losing its former strength, and the long-imprisoned ideas lost their shackles, gained freedom, and thus gained vitality. It was also an era when Western civilization was thriving, triggering the elite of the Chinese nation to flock out and go abroad to find a way to save the country.

In this way, Chinese and Western cultures have created a new generation of cultural aristocrats by chance, and the essence of Chinese and Western cultures has been perfectly integrated in them, creating elites who have the virtues of Eastern humility and the technology of Western modern culture, which can be called one of the best elite groups in human history.

It was an era of crisis for the Chinese nation, and it was also an era for the Chinese nation to pursue a new life, so it became an era of Chinese national talents.

The elites of that generation were admired by the world for their outstanding knowledge and noble character; , even their personal life sentiment, let future generations fall for it, but also for the modern Chinese Dragon Kingdom, leaving valuable wealth and culture, so that the weak national strength in the world of the Dragon Kingdom, can win glory for China in the field of humanities, become a new generation of Chinese children who are afraid of being oppressed, another kind of encouragement and self-confidence.

After all, at that time, the advanced technology and life attitude of the West were introduced into China, and the Western 'Huahua World' made the Chinese descendants who were crushed by the war and shame fall into an inferiority complex that could not be resisted.

They were shocked by the prosperity of the outside world, and they completely fell to the ground, losing the courage to chase after them.

So one by one stories about foreign countries were circulated by us. For example, the American imperialists eat meat every day, the faucet can produce hot water, and even the TV is color. The cities of Europeans are full of buildings, every household has a flush toilet, and even private individuals can afford to buy a car....

These stories, which seem ridiculous today, really shocked a generation of Chinese people in that era.

The backwardness in material life is not terrible, and the Chinese nation has created achievements that shocked the Western powers with blood and sweat, but the spiritual backwardness is indeed a trauma that is difficult to make up.

Most of the people of that generation were not inspired by the aristocratic spirit of China, which led to the existence of ideas such as "admiring foreign countries", "fine days" and "exquisiteness" in modern times.

Obviously it is the same musical instrument, the trumpet is more elegant than the suona, the foreign language is more precious than the Chinese, and the quality of the white man is more noble than the Chinese.

In addition to this contrast, it is more of a disagreement with the Chinese civilization itself, it is undeniable that there is a lot of dross in the Chinese culture in the old era, but more of the essence is no one cares, as long as the Chinese tradition is mentioned, the eyes are full of contempt, and the invasion of the great powers in that period is blamed on the traditional culture.

It was indeed an indisputable fact that the traditional culture lacked science and technology at that time, and it was also a fact that the Qing court was decadent.

But the invasion of the great powers is an indisputable fact, if you are right or wrong, is it because you were beaten, complaining that you don't have the strength to fight back?

Shouldn't it be the original sin of the beater?

Of course, in the logic of hooliganism, to be backward is to be beaten.

What's even more terrifying is that more people think that the logic of the hooligans is correct.

This era of putting the cart before the horse, if left unguided, will lead to big mistakes.

What needs to be revived in the revival system is not a certain culture, but the spiritual core that is most closely followed, so this book appears in the new system, and Wang Yao does not feel abrupt at all in this position, because this book symbolizes the original theory of science and technology derived from the Chinese civilization, which is not the same as the Western civilization.