"Back to the saint, the minister is not guilty, although what Lord Tang said is true, but he secretly changed his concept, deliberately distorted the facts, and wanted to frame Weichen!" Lu Jing replied very calmly, "The minister wants to refute them one by one after listening to all the accusations made by Lord Tang, and ask the Holy Lord for permission." ”

Emperor Yuanyong nodded and said, "Quasi!" ”

Although Tang Zezhong was unwilling, the emperor had to say: "Lu Jing has an incident in Qinglin Academy, widely spread, in order to promote punctuation, he once used the words of the sage in public to break sentences, this move not only insults the sage book, but also insults the sages, it is a shame for Shilin." ”

"What Lord Tang said is in "Mencius Tengwen Gong I": Shun who is also to whom, and who is also doable?" Lu Jing asked.

"Yes, you were only a young child at that time, and you dared to speak out without shame, break sentences indiscriminately, and misinterpret the meaning of the saint, which is really arrogant." Tang Zezhong had already prepared, and then said Lu Jing's four sentences about this sentence in public.

"Who is Shun! To whom! The same is true for those who are promising. ”

"Who is Shun? To whom? The same is true for those who are promising. ”

"Shun, who is it? Yu, who is also? The same is true for those who are promising. ”

"Shun He? People also; Why? People too. The same is true for those who are promising. ”

"Holy Lord, my lords, build the so-called chapter and sentence Confucianism, break the avenue, especially the last sentence, it is simply an insult to the sages."

After hearing this, everyone in the court began to discuss, some felt that Lu Jing was insulting a saint, and some felt that Tang Zezhong was too far-fetched, but no matter how they thought about it, Lu Jing was a little displeased with what he did.

Lin Ruhai and Lu Jun's faces were a little ugly, the two of them had been secretly anxious, Tang Zezhong seemed to be impeaching Lu Jing, but in fact, he had been using these things to destroy Lu Jing's reputation.

In the end, no matter what the result is, as long as the things in the court are spread today, it will affect Lu Jing's reputation in Shilin.

Lu Jing asked calmly, "Master Tang is finished?" ”

"Yes, based on these two things alone, it can be seen that your heart is not right, your mind is rebellious, and your holy spirit is now conclusive, and the facts are there, please punish Lu Jing's crime!" Tang Zezhong said confidently.

Emperor Yuan Yong immediately looked at Lu Jing and waited for his explanation.

Lin Ruhai, Lu Jun, Feng Yanji and other people related to Lu Jing also looked at Lu Jing and secretly worried about him.

Lu Jing said calmly: "Back to the emperor, although there is something to be done in the history of the Tang Dynasty, it does not ask the reason, disregards the facts, and is far-fetched. ”

Then he turned to Tang Zezhong and asked: "Since Lord Tang went to Yangzhou specifically to get these books, and he inquired so clearly about the next things, don't you know that punctuation is just for elementary school practice sentence reading?" ”

"Hmph, no matter how clever you are, it will be difficult to shake the ironclad evidence, these books are not used by children, but books in the hands of many students of Qinglin Academy!" Tang Zezhong sneered.

"Hehe, although Lord Tang keeps shouting the sage book, but I am afraid that he is not a person who loves books, everyone who reads books has always loved books as life, and the books used after entering school will naturally always be at hand and have been used."

"Even the books in the hands of the students are the books they have used since they were young, and they are naturally cherished as life, and Lord Tang snatched them from them, just to frame them, it is really not a gentleman's doing." Lu Jing said coldly.

"It's hard to cover up your accusations with strong words!" Tang Zezhong said angrily.

Lu Jing no longer paid attention to Tang Zezhong, and then said to Emperor Yuanyong: "Back to the emperor, Weichen did sort out the punctuation marks, and also mentioned adding dotted sentences to the classics, but Weichen's original intention was to take punctuation and train Mengxue and elementary school to break sentences. ”

"Qinglin College also uses punctuation marks as a teaching method, using punctuation to break sentences, to train students' ability to deviate from the scriptures, and the meaning of a sentence is different.

"As for the sentence 'Shun who also gives to whoever else has a do', it is that when the minister was studying in his childhood, due to different sentences and different understandings of the classics, the minister had not been studying for a long time, and it was common for him to have some confusion about the classics."

"On the contrary, Lord Tang seems to uphold the way of learning and advocates a different understanding of the classics, but in fact, he does not allow others to raise any questions about the classics."

"Wei Chen only had a different understanding of a sentence in "Mencius" when he was a child, so he blamed him, thinking that the minister misinterpreted the words of the sage, and the sentence "the people can make it from it, but not make it known" in the "Analects", there are more than 20 kinds of explanations in the ancient and modern annotations due to different sentences!"

Lu Jing turned to Tang Zezhong as he spoke, and asked, "Does Lord Tang also want to accuse it of distorting the meaning of the saint, and destroy all the other annotations, leaving only one copy!" ”

"Emperor Qi, Weichen thinks that Tang Zezhong's move is to destroy the avenue of learning, imprison the thinking of scholars, so that future scholars no longer have their own opinions, can only understand the classics according to his meaning, if it is different from his meaning, he will fight against dissidents under the guise of maintaining the doctrine of the sage, and in the long run, Lieutenant General Shilin will be like a pool of stagnant water, and there is no life at all."

"You are arguing and talking nonsense, and this official has no such intention!" Tang Zezhong said angrily.

Lu Jing didn't give Tang Zezhong a chance to continue speaking, interrupted him, and continued: "The events of the minister's childhood are circulated in the Qinglin Academy, which just shows that the Qinglin Academy, adhering to the open teaching idea, uses the example of the minister to tell beginners that when they read the classics for the first time, they can try different sentences according to their own understanding, which can cultivate their ability to deviate from the scriptures and deepen their understanding of the classics. ”

"I don't know if Tang Zezhong didn't inquire, or deliberately distorted the facts, framed Weichen, or wanted to use this matter to target Jiangnan students!"

Tang Zezhong said angrily: "Your Majesty, Lu Jing's words are untrue, please treat Lu Jing's crime of bullying the king, many students and young scholars of Qinglin Academy are good at using punctuation, and they are quite popular, even in many academies in Yangzhou, it can be seen that this matter is extremely harmful, if it is not stopped, I am afraid that the entire Jiangnan style of study will be threatened." ”

Because Lu Jing won the top prize in the examination at the age of 20, some scholars in Jiangnan imitated his learning methods, which in turn led to punctuation being known by more people.

"Back to the emperor, the Hanlin Academy reviewed Chen Ting, he had studied in Qinglin Academy with his ministers, he knew a lot about this matter, as soon as the emperor asked, he knew that what Weichen said was true or false, Lord Tang has been alarmist, slandered every sentence, and wanted to take the crime of treating the ministers with nothing, I am afraid that the mind is not pure!" Lu Jing said.

Feng Yanji stood up at the right time and said: "I heard that Lord Tang's brother-in-law is also in the Hanlin Academy, could it be that Lord Tang is dissatisfied with the emperor's promotion to Lu Jing and his bachelor's degree, and wants to stand up for his brother-in-law?" ”

Tang Zezhong didn't care about fighting back at Feng Yanji, and hurriedly said to Emperor Yuanyong: "Your Majesty, the ministers are dedicated to the public, and the ministers are all guilty of great crimes because of what they have done, and the ministers are absolutely selfless!" ”

Emperor Yuan Yong glanced at Tang Zezhong, ignored him, and said in a deep voice: "Summoning Chen Ting to meet him!" ”

"Your Majesty, Chen Ting and Lu Jing used to be classmates, and they were both in the Hanlin Academy, so I am afraid that their words are not credible!" Tang Zezhong said busily.

"Is Lord Tang questioning the Saint's decision, or is he suspecting that the Saint doesn't have the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood?" Lu Jing seized the loophole in his words and fought back.

Tang Zezhong glanced at Lu Jing angrily, and hurriedly bowed to Emperor Yuanyong: "Your Majesty, the minister has no such intention, the minister is just worried, worried that the two of them will collude!" ”

Lu Jing smiled and said: "Confession, hehe, the saint has not yet been convicted, and Lord Tang will treat him as a criminal, so disrespectful to the saint, there is a crime of trespassing!" ”

Without waiting for him to speak, he continued: "Lord Tang's participation in the performance, I just learned about it after going to the hall, and Chen Ting was outside the hall, so I don't know how the two of us passed on the news, I am afraid that Lord Tang is worried that the lie will be exposed, and wants to stop this!" ”

"Your Majesty, Minister..."

Emperor Yuanyong said angrily: "Enough, when Chen Ting goes to the palace, I will have my own judgment." ”

Before long, Chen Ting was full of doubts and followed the eunuch to enter the main hall.

After his salute, Emperor Yuanyong asked him about Qinglin Academy and punctuation.

Although Chen Ting didn't know the specific reason, he saw that Lu Jing took a step back after his arrival, and he understood Lu Jing's meaning, which was a common code when they were in Qinglin Academy, reminding him that the situation was unfavorable, answering cautiously, and listening to the emperor ask about punctuation, he had a rough guess in his heart.

He was one of the first users of punctuation, and he also knew a lot about Guo Xianzhi's persuasion of Lu Jing at the beginning.

So in the answer, he hid the part that was unfavorable to Lu Jing, and used punctuation in Qinglin Academy to train students to break sentences, as well as Guo Xianzhi's things that asked them to try different sentence breaks, and said them one by one.

Emperor Yuan Yong didn't ask for details, so he asked Chen Ting to step back, and then asked Tang Zezhong, "What else do you have to say?" ”

After listening to what Chen Ting said, Tang Zezhong knew that the general trend had gone, although his participation was exaggerated and far-fetched, but most of them were facts, if he continued to argue, I am afraid it would make things worse, although he was unwilling, he had to be soft at the moment: "Back to the emperor, the minister also heard Yangzhou scholars talk about this matter, and thought that this matter was very harmful, so he was so anxious." ”

Lu Jun stood up and asked: "Lord Tang has time to go to Yangzhou to get the book, I'm afraid it's not in a hurry, but it's a plan to act, if Lu Jing has no certificate, I'm afraid you will use this fabricated thing out of thin air to slander his reputation everywhere!" ”

Tang Zezhong hurriedly knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the minister has no such intention, the minister has the responsibility of hearing about it, and the minister is also worried that if this matter is true, the harm will be far away, please ask the emperor to learn from it." ”

"Back to the emperor, Weichen wanted to come to Tang to deal with the minister's misunderstanding, the minister suddenly remembered that a few days ago when he was resting, the minister met Tang on the street, but the minister didn't know the identity of Tang Lord, and he didn't see him, and he thought that Tang was the one who misunderstood the minister's arrogance, so he misheard the rumors and believed it to be true, and Weichen believed that Tang was more public than selfish, so he would participate in Weichen, and it would definitely not be a deliberate slander of Weichen!" Lu Jing said.

"But so?" Emperor Yuan Yong asked.

Tang Zezhong gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressed his anger, and nodded to admit that Lu Jing made up a lie: "The minister was preconceived and mistakenly believed the rumors, so he wronged Lu Jing." ”

"As an imperial historian, although you have the right to hear about it, but this time you didn't find out the facts, so you impeached without authorization, delayed the court discussion, and I fined you a month's worth of money as a warning!" Emperor Yuanyong said in a deep voice, intending to continue to keep this Tang Zezhong.

"Wechen Xie Emperor forgiveness!" Although Tang Zezhong was extremely unwilling, he was helpless.

Many people in the palace were about to forget about Lu Jing, the champion, and regarded this matter as a farce, but when they saw Lu Jing in the court today, he resolved the crisis so calmly, and they immediately paid attention to him in their hearts.

The third prince and the fourth prince all looked at King Zhongshun and saw that he did not react, and then the two of them looked at each other in unison, and then they looked away.