The two brothers respectfully saluted each other, and Song An said with a smile: "After the autumn trial of the Criminal Department, I was busy inspecting the officials and handling the official documents and miscellaneous affairs on the desk, and I didn't have the opportunity to ask the master for advice for a long time. Although he was very respectful, his demeanor was quite casual, obviously as the only disciple of Chao Buzhi, the two masters and apprentices were very close.

Chao Buzhi smiled and said to Zhao Xingde: "Your senior brother has done the official position of this criminal department, and he has not grown in anything else, but he is good at the habit of refusing to suffer." He only talked about the study of words in Li Mansion, and now Zhao Xingde respectfully came to learn from the teacher, and naturally the knowledge he sought was not limited to the words, and he sighed for a moment, and Chao Buzhi said slowly: "The university has clouds, and then the character of the object is known, and then the sincerity is known, and then the heart is sincere, the heart is righteous and then the body is cultivated, the body is cultivated and then the family is Qi, the family is Qi and then the country is governed, and the country is governed and then the world is peaceful." He saw that Song An and Zhao Xingde were both listening to the lecture with solemn expressions, so he said: "Yuan Zhi has not yet become a family, nor has he become a leader, so today I will talk about self-cultivation." ”

Song An and Zhao Xingde nodded together, and Chao Buzhi said: "The way of self-cultivation is seen in "University" and "The Mean", both of you are quite proficient in scriptures, and you only talk about some experiences as teachers. ”

Zhao Xingde didn't expect his academic attitude to be so open-minded, and he was slightly surprised, but when he saw Song An's face as usual, it was obvious that Chao Buzhi had always been like this, so he listened attentively.

"Zi said, self-cultivation is the way. Yi said, the main road changes, each is life. Sexuality, the innate quality, if the difference between rigidity and softness and slowness; The one who lives is endowed by people, and if the noble and lowly belong to the longevity. Chao Buzhi said a few words, and seeing that Song An and Zhao Xingde were familiar with the classics and had no ignorance, he nodded slightly in his heart and said: "Those who cultivate themselves are also self-governing." People cannot govern themselves, and they cannot govern people. Therefore, what I said about Confucianism is to cultivate Qi and Zhiping, and to cultivate self-cultivation as the basic kung fu. The small gentleman is cautious, and the big one sacrifices his life for righteousness, all of which are the way of self-cultivation. ”

Speaking of this, Chao Buzhi saw that Song An had a puzzled look in his eyes, so he motioned for him to ask questions, and Song An asked: "The person who said 'sacrificing his life for righteousness' doesn't even have his own life, how can he talk about self-cultivation?" Zhao Xingde also nodded slightly, and when Song An asked, he also felt doubtful.

Chao Buzhi smiled slightly and asked, "What is the allusion to sacrificing one's life for righteousness?" ”

Zhao Xingde recited without thinking: "Mencius said, fish, I want it, bear paws, I also want it; You can't have both, and you can't have both, and you can give up the fish and take the bear's paw. Life, what I want, righteousness, also what I want; You can't have both, and those who sacrifice their lives to take righteousness are also. ”

Chao Buzhi nodded and motioned Zhao Xingde to go down, and Zhao Xingde continued to recite: "Life is also what I want, and what I want is more than the living, so I don't want to get it; Death is also evil to me, and evil is worse than the dead, so I have no way to get rid of it. After more than ten years of hard work, Zhao Xingde recited this article "Mencius Confession on the Fish I Want" to the end, "For the body to die and not to suffer, now for the beauty of the palace; The township is not subject to death, but now it is the worship of wives and concubines; The country is not allowed to die for the sake of the body, and now it is for the poor who know that I am doing it, is it not okay to do it? This is a loss of heart. ”

When Zhao Xingde recited the last sentence "This so-called loss of his original heart", Song An's mind flashed, as if he had a sudden realization, Chao Buzhi smiled slightly: "Do you understand?" ”

Song An suddenly understood a truth, with a look of surprise on his face, and said, "The disciple seems to understand a little. ”

Chao Buzhi smiled and said, "Let's talk about it? ”

Song An sorted out his thoughts and said in a deep voice: "As the master said, 'If you hear the Tao, you can die at night'." The way of self-cultivation is nothing more than life, and those who have finally attained perfection have reached the realm of the Master's 'seventy from the heart's desires without distance', which is to cultivate one's life in line with the way of heaven. Sexuality, the innate nature, points directly to the heart. To lose righteousness in order to survive is to ignore one's own heart, so that one's life and kung fu are damaged, and the opportunity to go to the Tao is lost, but it is better to sacrifice one's life for righteousness. ”

Song An saw more officials who were imprisoned in the Criminal Department, in the prison, under severe punishment, some of them were peaceful, and some were ghosts crying wolves.

Chao Buzhi nodded slightly and said, "There is some truth." Suddenly, his face changed, and he asked: "You say that you have lost your righteousness in order to make a living, and you have lost your heart and lost the opportunity to go to the Tao, then I ask you, what is righteousness?" ”

After Song An told the truth he understood, he was originally happy in his heart, but he faintly felt that something was wrong, the smile on his face gradually faded, and when he was thinking about it, he was suddenly drunk by Chao Buzhi, and his thoughts were chaotic again, and he didn't answer for a while.

Zhao Xingde saw Chao Buzhi look at it, and went through the classics he had read in his mind, and subconsciously replied: "There are clouds in the mean, and the righteous should also." The Spring and Autumn Zuo Chuan said, righteousness, the foundation of profit, and the benefit of evil, so that there is no meaning, can grow. ”

Chao Buzhi nodded, and looked at Song An again, Song An let out a sigh and sighed: "The student understands." Living is just profit, and righteousness is the foundation of profit, and sacrificing righteousness for life is sacrificing the original and chasing the end. He paused, glanced at Zhao Xingde, and said: "It's like a prison where there are people who die under torture, but if they confess indiscriminately in order to survive for a while, not only can they not save their own lives, but they are not even as good as death." He originally had the so-called righteousness of the monarch and the father and son, the country's social and other answers, but it was not as direct and thorough as what Yan Zi said in the Spring and Autumn Biography of the Zuo family quoted by Zhao Xingde, and secretly said, I am an official of the Criminal Department, known as the "Spring and Autumn Prison", but my mastery of the "Spring and Autumn" scriptures is not as good as Yuan Zhi.

Chao Buzhi felt that Song An's analogy was a bit far-fetched, so he explained: "The Heavenly Dao, for example, is the direction of north and south. Etiquette and righteousness, such as the magnetic needle of guidance. Fortune is like mountains and rivers. There are dangers ahead, you can take a detour, but you can't give up the magnetic needle. The world is turbid, and it can change, but it can't go with the flow. Life is as short as a white horse, if you can't stick to what is good and keep it, and lose morality, you will become a muddy person. Everyone's heart is different, in the past, Mr. Anding Hu Ying set up a tent to accept apprentices, and generally taught this way of self-cultivation, and his disciples were all handsome for a while, but Qian Zao's profoundness, Sun Jue's purity, Fan Chunren's straightforwardness, and Qian Gongfu's simplicity and forgiveness are different, which is the reason for the difference in heart. This life kung fu teacher can only point out the avenue, and the specific cultivation must be worked hard by everyone, once you lose your original heart, it will be difficult to get it back. ”

He said this, Zhao Xingde can understand. In a situation where the road is difficult to understand, choosing the good and stubborn is not a simple but effective option. Many talented people, once they lose their way, fall deeper and deeper, keep sinking, unable to extricate themselves, and finally leave a stench for 10,000 years, which is because they have lost their moral pointers and lost their direction.

Seeing that Song An and Zhao Xingde both nodded, Chao Buzhi said to Song An again: "What you said is that self-cultivation is just the study of life, but it is a little narrow-minded. The way of self-cultivation is not limited to the study of life, from the inside out, life, physical use, and power, can be accessed, in order to become an inner saint and outer king. ”

At this time, most of the Confucian schools on the side only talked about the study of life in the cultivation body, but Chao Buzhi deepened it, and he combined the income from his study tour in the Xia Kingdom, through the theory of Buddhism and Taoism, and completely opened up his own cultivation and the use of governing the country through the world.

He believes that sex is the fundamental nature, which is the existence that distinguishes humans from animals and from others, and the so-called primordial spirit of Taoism is sex. And life is endowment, such as a bright mind, a strong body, and so on. Sex and life are interdependent, sex is fundamental, but life is not insignificant, Buddhism's dry Zen, in order to see the mind and hurt the body, is not inevitably biased. Extending from life in turn, it is for physical use and power.

"The world often separates the contention of body use, and the body is heavy and the body is light. However, it is a big fallacy, how can the two be separated. When Zhao Xingde heard this, he suddenly remembered the popular saying in later generations, "middle school is the body, and Western learning is for use", but he heard Chao Buzhi pick up a knife to open the letter and said to the two disciples: "This is the body." After speaking, he picked up a piece of white paper, cut it in half, and said, "This is the use." He paused for a moment and said in a deep voice: "The study of life alone is only to achieve physical effort, if it cannot be used, then it is like today's rotten Confucianism, only talking about pure talk, empty words, and ignoring the miscellaneous studies such as economics and technology as turbidity, but I don't know that since these miscellaneous studies are useful to the country, the people, and themselves, they should be included in the ontology of academics." If it is not used, it is not enough to discern the truth. Heavy body and light use, must be complacent, sit in the well and watch the sky, Yelang is arrogant, is not the way for the master to cultivate Qi and peace. It's easy to know what is difficult to do, and it is easy to know and difficult to do. Being useful and being able to know and do is the true kung fu of self-cultivation. ”

Zhao Xingde and Song An are both people who are interested in miscellaneous science, and they nod frequently. Chao Buzhi said: "Life, the body and the four are all their own kung fu. The two sides of power are the extension of the body. ”

At that time, people admired hermits, when Wang Anshi refused to be enabled by the emperor three times, his reputation was getting bigger and bigger, and at this moment, Chao Buzhi clearly put forward the word power, Zhao Xingde and Song An both showed some strange expressions, but they did not dare to question it. Chao Buzhi smiled slightly and said, "The one in power, it's up to me to make foreign things work for me." If I can borrow it, I will also make foreign things for my use. ”

Song An nodded and said: "For example, I do the capital lawsuit and inspect the officials of the criminal department every year, this is the power, and the Qing discussion of the Taixue superintendent where Yuan Zhi is located, so that the court scholars and doctors have some encouragement, this is the potential." If there is no use of power, it is indeed impossible to rule the country and level the world together. ”

Chao Buzhi smiled and said, "Yuan Zhi, what do you know?" ”

Zhao Xingde figured out this way of using power, and replied: "The actual and external power of Go is similar to the power that the master said. Those who support power are like occupying the corners, and those who gain power are like taking the Central Plains directly. In the script, the bearded guest played against Li Shimin, and the bearded guest fell first in the four-pointed star position, claiming that the old man's four sons were based on the Quartet, but Li Shimin only fell in Tianyuan, and said that Xiaosheng had a son in the Central Plains. It turns out that it is also the way of power. ”

Song An nodded and said, "Yuan Zhi is a good analogy. Heroes and traitors, multiple powers and light power, good profit and forgetfulness, such as Tang Taizong, the British lord and Ming Jun, but the competition for power is more than the struggle for power. When the crown prince was built to the East Palace and also gained military power, Li Shimin was suspicious of his father and brother, but instead took advantage of the high merit to launch the Xuanwumen Change, and finally won the throne of the emperor. He looked at Zhao Xingde and hesitated, but he couldn't help but say: "At this time, although Cai Xiang is in power, the official family is already a little jealous, and there is a lot of discussion outside, but it is a little troublesome in terms of momentum." ”

Chao Buzhi smiled slightly and said: "You are good at the general trend of the court, if you can see the fire." At present, the dispute between the crown prince and the third prince in the East Palace, mixed with the change of phase, the grievances of the old and new parties in the imperial court, the situation is becoming more and more complicated, and you two need to be careful. The two sides of power and power, although they are not ontology, but they are an extension of the ontology, although they are not used by the ontology, but they can govern the country and level the world, and it cannot be said that it is not important, nor can it be ignored. The so-called Confucianism of a gentleman, not only to be good alone, but also to help the world, can not not take power as the way of self-cultivation, in order to be different from the flies and dogs, and achieve a big husband with the world in mind. ”

The three of them talked about this self-cultivation for a long time, and Zhao Xingde gradually let go of his inhibitions and joined in the discussion.

Chao Buzhi was originally quite dissatisfied with the scholars and craftsmen of the Song Kingdom, and saw that Zhao Xingde really understood the meaning of physical use, and did not have the prejudice of despising miscellaneous and other strange skills and tricks, and he was also quite relieved, so he nodded, and said to Song An: "In the afternoon, I have an old friend to visit, so I will have your senior brother to lead the way, go to the Taishi Bureau, and also go to astronomy, calligraphy, painting, the Fourth Bureau of Medical Officers, the Armory, and the Yamen of the Eight Divisions. He turned his head and glanced at Zhao Xingde, and then admonished: "Although this dynasty uses scriptures to learn scholars, there are quite a lot of astronomical and medical scholars in the Hanlin Academy, and they are regarded as turbidity, but there are many people with great ability, you go to the Hanlin Academy, but there are things that do not work, you must put down your body and humbly seek advice, and you must not be arrogant and arrogant." ”

Zhao Xingde immediately agreed respectfully, and said to Song Anzuo: "There are Lao Tai and Senior Brother." ”

Song An bowed slightly, and thanked him with a smile. Chao Buzhi has very few apprentices, and so far the only disciple who is officially commensurate with his senior brother is Zhao Xingde. Song Anpo is quite familiar with the art of observing people, and he has seen a lot of people who are arrogant outside in the prison of the Criminal Department, and as soon as he arrives at the prison of the Criminal Department, he will cry wolf and howl people who have no integrity. Today he secretly observed Zhao Xingde, this son is magnificent, calm, well-behaved, no clever words, no vanity and flashiness, he is quite satisfied with this new junior brother, and it is very important for the official career to help each other, and if the opportunity is suitable, you can carry one or two.

Chao Buzhi smiled slightly and said, "Both of your senior brothers and sisters have some intentions for these miscellaneous studies, but they are in the same spirit. Later, Zhao Xingde learned that this senior brother would inevitably encounter some complicated and difficult cases because of his position as the official of the Criminal Department, and miscellaneous studies such as medicine and arithmetic were quite useful to him, and he was also quite familiar with the technical officers of the Hanlin Academy.

After the lecture, the three masters and apprentices talked about the affairs of the court and the middle of the court for a while, and the maidservant came to report that lunch was ready, and Chao Buzhi took Song An and Zhao Xingde to the flower hall. At this time, Bianliang prevailed in the meal system, only to see that on the dining table, four or five meat and vegetable dishes and soups were listed in front of the four positions, and the aroma was overflowing, which was the food cooked by the master Li herself, and Li was already smiling and waiting in the flower hall.

The Li family is from the Li family of Chang'an, and the Xia Kingdom originally attached great importance to miscellaneous technology, and after following her husband to the Song Kingdom, she did not pay much attention to the world's prejudice against the officials of the Hanlin Academy. Seeing that Fujun and the two disciples who had entered the room had already taken their seats, Li said to Zhao Xingde with a smile, "I heard that Dr. Li's amazing son-in-law is ready to give Yuan Zhi, which is really a great thing." ”

"Thank you, Master, Master, for making it happen." Zhao Xingde thanked him, and there was some beauty in his heart. After the death of his parents, he had no close relatives in this world, and today's visit to the master, master and mother, together with the senior brother who met for the first time, faintly made Zhao Xingde feel warm and close in his heart.

Chao Buzhi waved his hand so that he didn't have to be restrained, and asked Zhao Xingde: "The Li Mansion hopes that Yuan Zhi and Ruoxue will set their names first and go to the mansion to study quietly." After the imperial examination next year, the marriage will be completed. What do you think? He hoped that Song An and Zhao Xingde's brothers would be closer, so when it came to Zhao Xingde's marriage at this time, he did not shy away from Song An's attendance.

Zhao Xingde naturally agreed in a hurry. When you go to the Li Mansion to study, you will naturally be able to get close to the water and get the moon first. Song An didn't expect that Li Ruoxue, a talented girl who was famous in Bianliang, would actually ask for a word to give this little junior brother who was unknown and had no outstanding background, and couldn't help but show a slight surprise.

Chao Buzhi contributed to this marriage, and he also said with a smile: "Yuan Zhi has no other elders in Bianliang, so the exchange of marriage posts, the three golden tea ceremonies to the Li Mansion, will be handled by your master and mother, that is, when you choose a good day, the dowry will be sent to the Li Mansion and the name will be set." He paused, glanced at Zhao Xingde, and said with a smile: "Although your foundation is not bad, but the orthodox scriptures used in the imperial examination need to be more careful. In addition, if Xue is an unborn talented woman, and the eldest son of the Li family is also a leader among the young people of Bianliang, you should not be too simple about the way of poetry and literature, and don't let people complain that 'there is a straight line between the world'. ”

The so-called teacher is like a father, Chao Buzhi actually beat Zhao Xingde as his own son and nephew, and borrowed the talented woman Xie Daoyun in the Eastern Jin Dynasty to be dissatisfied with her husband Wang Ning's lack of talent, and went back to her parents' house to complain that "between the world, there is Wang Lang", so that he would not lose his face. Zhao Xingde couldn't help but smile a little dumbly, and hurriedly stood up and said: "The disciple must study hard, and he will definitely live up to the fulfillment of the master and his wife." ”

He saw that the master actually wanted to buy a dowry for him, although he was shy in his pocket, he was still quite embarrassed to refuse, and finally the master Li Shi taught a lesson with a straight face, so he gave up. Chao Shaofu, the eldest son of Chaofu, was in Hebei as a pusher, and his daughter Chao Yu married to the Su family in Shuzhong a few years ago.