Today is the last day of Tianlu Pavilion's debate, and early in the morning, Liu Aiji, Zhang Pengzu and Du Tuo helped Lan Zhongweng to come to Tianlu Pavilion as usual, and sat in the back to listen as usual.

It has been half a year since the imperial court's debate began in February, and now it is July, and it has entered the midsummer period, and the weather is very hot, although they came early in the morning, they still feel steaming.

The hall was already full of people, which made people feel even hotter, although the bamboo curtains around the hall were closed, but there was not a trace of wind penetrating in, so everyone was sweating.

Fortunately, everyone has a sunflower fan, of course, an old gentleman like Lan Lao, his hands will be sore after shaking the sunflower fan for a long time, so Liu Ai and the three of them also helped him shake the fan very obediently.

There is one more person on the stage today, that is, Yang Chang, the chief farmer, I saw that he came over with Du Yannian early in the morning and sat next to him, and it can be seen that the relationship between the two of them is quite good.

Yang Chang came with Yang Yun, he sat next to Liu Aiji, followed to observe, and he came to listen to the next few debates.

On the last day, Prime Minister Tian Qianqiu of course had something to say, he first announced that today was the last day, because of the previous argument there were several times when he almost got into a fight, so he emphasized the issue of discipline again, saying that it was a gentleman's dispute, don't be casual and casual, of course, the cause of every almost fight was provoked by the so-called bachelors of arts sent by Liu Dan, the king of Yan.

This time, it was the turn of the imperial historian's subordinate official Li Wenlong to fire the cannon first, it is estimated that he has been very dissatisfied with some of the performances of Confucianism these days, so as soon as he opened his mouth, there was a full smell of gunpowder, only to hear him stand in the center, pointing to the group of Confucians and saying: "You so-called sage readers, all day long holding ancient books and humming, specifically reciting the quotations of those dead, in this regard, the court officials are inferior to your literature; You virtuous literature only know that the prison is behind the court, but you do not know what is inside, and even if you hear about it, you don't know how to do it; Governing civil affairs is like a carpenter chopping wood with an axe, and it is okay to meet the standards; Du Zhou, Wang Wenshu and others used the law to punish the bad guys and sentenced them to conviction, so that the crimes of robbers and bad guys were prohibited in the future; Therefore, archery should be aimed at the target, and the governance of the country should rely on the law; Shun and Yu gave up the throne with Wende Chan, and Shang and Zhou seized the world by force, and each had a set of measures and methods for governing the country in different eras; If you want to use the methods of the humble and simple era to deal with today's cunning bad guys, it's like going to save the people who are drowning, and they are still coming slowly and step by step, and they have to be humble to each other when they go to put out fires, haha, it's ridiculous, ridiculous!. ”

It's a bit of gunpowder, full of bullets, waiting for the war.

But this time it was very strange, the Confucian side did not immediately open fire, after a period of silence, a middle-aged man over thirty years old who had been sitting at the front and had not spoken silently stood up, only to see him dressed neatly, strode out, stood in the center and saluted to the stage, and then saluted to the people on the side of the subordinate official Yushi.

After the salute, I only heard him say softly: "Student Jiujiang Zhu Naijin, after listening to this adult just now, he seems to have some opinion on us scholars, please listen to me slowly; During the reign of King Wen of Zhou, the people were kind, but when they arrived at King You and King Li, the people were very violent, which was not due to the difference in human nature, but due to the customs of society; Therefore, the reason why Shang and Zhou prospered, and why Xia Wei and Shang Wei perished, was not because Shang Tang King and Zhou Wu had honest people like Boyi, and the country was governed well; Xia Wei and Shang Wei did not decay and chaos because of people like Liu Xia and Zhuang who did not abide by their duties, so the prosperity and decline of the country did not lie in the people; Confucius once said that we are all the same in the trial of litigation cases, but the difference is that it is necessary to make no one litigate, and it is difficult to avoid a case, but it is easy to try a case; It was foolish in ancient times to think that it was foolish not to fundamentally promote benevolence and righteousness, but to always use criminal law to punish after an incident has occurred, but today it is wise; The use of the torture rod to stop social chaos and the replacement of benevolence with strict laws were considered traitors in ancient times, but today they are regarded as sages. ”

Zhu Naijin's words seem to be soft, but in fact, there is a knife hidden in the cotton, and of course it also attracts the applause of Confucianism.

......

And just like that, the argument ended in a quarrel.

This Tianlu Pavilion debate is the famous "Salt and Iron Debate" in history, and Huan Kuan, who made the record, recorded it as an eternal treatise "Salt and Iron Theory" a few years later.

The proposal of salt and iron was put forward by the doctor at that time, and the great Sima general Huo Guang borrowed the name of the emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty to issue an edict to gather the virtuous literature recommended by various counties, states and counties in Chang'an, investigate the people's suffering, and hold a debate in the Tianlu Pavilion of Weiyang Palace. In this debate, the virtuous writers asked the imperial court to abolish the official sale of salt, iron, and wine, and to abolish the law of equal loss.

In fact, these measures were formulated by the then imperial historian Sang Hongyang when he was the former chief of the agricultural industry, and naturally he strongly opposed it, and the two sides engaged in a fierce debate, which was the famous salt and iron debate.

In this debate, the two sides clashed over the causes of the people's suffering, the policy of war or peace with the Xiongnu, and the strategy of governing the country.

At the end of the debate, the Imperial Court only dismissed the Gunguo Sake Bowl and the Kannai Iron Official, and all other policies remained unchanged. However, Sang Hongyang suffered a certain setback in politics, and Huo Guang won the support of public opinion with the help of this group of virtuous bachelors of arts, and the economic policy also shrank to some extent. And most of those virtuous writers were used by the imperial court and were used by Huo Guang, enriching his power, which also marked that most of the previous policies of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had changed to the present, and the empire had begun to turn the rudder.

The arguments on both sides of the conference had a positive impact on the ruling policies of the Han dynasty during the Zhaoxuan period. From the mainstream point of view, Huo Guang, who was in power, basically adhered to the policy formulated in the edict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, implemented the measure of "resting with the people", cultivated the public land with the poor, lent seeds and rations to the peasants, exempted some taxes and forced labor, lowered the price of salt, and maintained friendly relations with the Xiongnu, which played an important role in the social and economic recovery and development of Emperor Zhao and Emperor Xuan. These measures are in line with the idea of "practicing benevolent government and governing the country with virtue" put forward by virtuous literature. Virtuous literature was also valued by the rulers and became an active force in the political arena.