To be honest, Meng Zhong was still quite curious about Mencius, the contemporary head of Confucianism, but it was a pity that at this moment he was sitting behind two or three hundred Confucian disciples and could not see Mencius's face at all, which made him temporarily put away his curiosity about Mencius and quietly listen to the latter's narration.

“…… In the past, the bird asked Yang Zhu and said: Remove one of the hairs of the offspring, in order to help the first generation, what do you do? (If plucking a hair from your body can benefit the people of the world, why don't you do it?) ）

Yang Zi said: Shigu is not a dime. (The problems of the people of the world are by no means solved by plucking a single hair)

The fowl said: Fake money, why? (Would you like to, if so)

Yang Zifu Ying.

It can be seen that Yang Zi takes it as me, plucking a hair and benefiting the world, not for it. Mo Zhai and love, Mo Zhai put his heel on the top, benefit the world, for it. (Yang Zi advocates 'for me', even if plucking a hair on his body can benefit the people of the world, he will not do it, while Mozi advocates 'love', as long as it is beneficial to the people of the world, even if he polishes the top of his head and breaks his feet, he is also willing.) ）”

As Meng Zhong listened, an old voice spoke smoothly.

"Huh?"

Meng Zhong was slightly stunned.

At this time, Mencius is talking about a conversation between "Yang Zhu" and Mozi's proud disciple and the second generation of the Mozi family, "Poultry Slip (gǔ) Li (xī)". [PS: That is, the origin of the allusion of "a dime does not pluck out.] 】

Of course, he knew who Mencius was referring to as "Yang Zhu", who was also a representative of his Taoism, advocating "noble self" and "for me", even if he had been dead for thirty or forty years, his thoughts still influenced the world, and Meng Zhong's mentor Zhuangzi, a Taoist sage whose "ideas were not accepted by the world", was simply worlds apart.

But it is undeniable that Mencius actually distorted Yang Zhu's thoughts.

Meng Zhong had read "Liezi" written by his Taoist sage Liezi, and the book also recorded this dialogue between Yang Zi and Fowl.

However, Yang Zi was not dumbfounded by the fowl, but disdained to answer.

Because in the Liezi, there is a follow-up to this dialogue - Mencius only intercepted the previous paragraph.

According to the "Liezi", Yang Zi was disdainful of answering at that time, but his disciple "Meng Sunyang" asked Yuzi rhetorically: If you let your skin suffer some damage but give you ten thousand gold, would you be willing?

Poultry says yes.

Meng Sunyang asked again: If you are given a limb but a country, are you willing?

The fowl was silent.

After that, Meng Sunyang asked again: If you cut off your head and let you get the world, are you willing?

The fowl was speechless.

Finally, Meng Sunyang said to the bird: A hair is smaller than the skin, and the skin is smaller than a limb. However, a hair grows into skin, and skin grows into a limb, although a hair is only one-ten-thousandth of the body, but why should you despise it?

The fowl was speechless.

Yes, it was said that he was speechless, but in fact, it was the second-generation Mojia Juzi "Bird Slippery", not Yang Zhu.

At this moment, Mencius only intercepted the first half, as if Yang Zhu was speechless by the birds, which may be hidden from other people present, but only Meng Zhong, a Taoist disciple.

Subsequently, after Mencius finished recounting this dialogue, many voices criticized Yang Zhu's thoughts, reprimanding the latter's ideas as "selfish".

To be honest, Meng Zhong felt a little aggrieved for Yang Zhu.

Because Yang Zhu's thought is not the idea of "selfishness" at all, but "not conducive to the world, not taking the world", that is, advocating that the world become better on the premise of not infringing on one's own interests, on the other hand, if the premise of making the world better is that one person needs to lose interests, how can such a world be called "good"?

Human life is only once, everyone should cherish, maintain their own nature, do not infringe on the interests of others for their own interests, but also do not have to sacrifice their own interests in order to "make the world better", this is what Yang Zhu's "noble self" thought really wants to express: if everyone does not pluck a hair and benefit the world, nor is it greedy for the world's great interests and pluck their own hair; Everyone is for himself, and he does not infringe on others, so that the world will be peaceful.

But now, Yang Zhu's thoughts have been distorted into "unstoppable" stinginess and selfishness, and they have been distorted like this by Mencius, the master of Confucianism, to be honest, which made Meng Zhong's impression of Confucianism and Mencius fall all of a sudden.

However, Meng Zhong did not come forward to expose it, the reason is very simple, first, this is an attack between various academics, and his teacher Zhuangzi has also exaggerated the harm of Confucianism, and the mutual attack between various schools of thought, which is a very normal thing in contemporary times; Second, Zhuangzi doesn't like Yang Zhu.

Yes, also the inheritor of Taoist thought, Zhuangzi very much disliked Yang Zhu's thought.

Zhuangzi felt that if everyone took "self-esteem" as the criterion and did things that "did not harm their own interests but benefited the world", it would encourage people's "discriminating mind", and the discriminating mind is the premise of people harming others and benefiting themselves.

Therefore, Yang Zhu's thought is nothing but hypocritical heresy and sideways.

『…… Let's pretend I didn't hear it.'"

Listening to the Confucian disciples criticizing Yang Zhu's thoughts, Meng Zhong thought secretly.

There is no reason to make his teacher Zhuangzi angry because of this in order to defend Yang Zhu's thoughts, right?

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong simply pretended not to hear it, and continued to listen to Mencius explain the scriptures or criticize Yang Zhu's thoughts.

Some people may think that Mencius used Mohist thought to attack Yang Zhu's thought, does he think that Mohist thought is better?

How can it be!

After only a few moments, Mencius began to attack Mohist ideas, such as the Mohist idea of "concomitant love".

According to Mencius, Yang Zhu's thought advocates that everyone is for himself, which is not a monarch's remarks, while the Mohist idea of "love" is not to have parents.

Both Confucianism and Mohism advocate "love", among which Confucianism advocates that "love is equal", such as love for the monarch, love for parents, love for sages, and love for ordinary people, all of which are different, and should be different.

The Mohist idea of "love and love" advocates that relatives should be treated the same as outsiders, and gentlemen should be treated the same as ordinary people, so Mencius attacked Mohist thought as a heresy of "no parents" - if you treat outsiders like parents, where do you put your parents?

Therefore, Mencius fiercely criticized the Mohist idea of love, accusing "love" as a heresy that does not want parents and monarchs, and people who do not want parents and monarchs are beasts - it can be said that the criticism is very ruthless.

Later, Mencius said that in today's world, the thoughts of Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai are full of people, and people either fall to Yang Zhu's thoughts or Mo Zhai's thoughts, but both of these are undesirable, and the only desirable is Confucius's thoughts.

If Confucius's doctrine is not carried forward, it is to deceive the people with heresies and prevent the practice of benevolence and righteousness.

And if righteousness is prevented, it is to allow wild beasts to eat people, and people will also eat each other.

It seems that this kind of family words, Meng Zhong just listened to it, and he listened to it quite happily, anyway, the Yang Zhu thought and Mohist thought criticized by Confucianism have nothing to do with him.

After Mencius finished "spraying" Yang Zhu Thought and Mohist Thought, he began to talk about his "royal way" and "benevolent government" thoughts.

Mencius advocated the royal way, that is, to govern the country with benevolence, benevolence is benevolent government, that is, to hope that the monarch will treat the people under his rule generously and benevolently, first of all, so that "the people have permanent property", that is, the people have their own wealth, and the king mainly protects the wealth of the people from being infringed upon.

On the basis of "the people have constant production", Mencius also advocated that the burden of the people should be reduced by lightening the burden, which is the proposition that "the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the monarch is light".

To be honest, Meng Zhong still agrees with these views. [PS: Confucianism at this time was not yet a tool of the ruling class. 】

When the disciples asked questions later, an ordinary disciple of Mencius mentioned Teng, and he asked Mencius: "Master, I heard that Teng is a country with benevolent politics, why did it fall into the fate of being attacked by Song?" Is this the immorality of the Teng State, or the immorality of the Song State? And Qi, as a powerful country, did not send people to reconcile the battle between the two countries, is this also a manifestation of immorality? ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong whispered to Hui An: "If this person is a disciple of Mencius, I am afraid he will be removed." ”

Hui Ang smiled bitterly.

But in fact, Mencius was not angry, he just said honestly: "The state of Teng was attacked by the state of Song, just because the state of Teng was small." Swallowing the small with the big and bullying the weak with the strong is the result of the collapse of etiquette. ”

Subsequently, Mencius once again reaffirmed the need to "imitate the previous kings" and "implement benevolent government".

On this basis, all the doctrines in the world have become the targets of accusations and attacks by Mencius's disciples, but there is no Zhuangzi's thought.

Speaking of this, Meng Zhong also felt a little embarrassed, because although his teacher Zhuangzi was a contemporary Taoist sage, his ideas were not widely disseminated, and there was no such thing as enlightenment in contemporary times, and it was natural that he would not be attacked by Confucianism - because it was not necessary.

However, just when Meng Zhong thought so, he heard a disciple of Mencius ask: "The Song State attacked the Teng State, and my Confucianism went to persuade the Song King, but the Taoist Zhuang Zhou of the Song State was indifferent and sat back and watched the Song army attack the Teng State, what do you think of this matter, Master?" ”

Hearing this, Mencius frowned, because Mencius actually respected Zhuangzi quite a lot.

At this moment, someone in the column seat chuckled and said: "Zhuangzi is hidden from the sky and does not know people, where will he pay attention to the war between Song and Teng, and how many innocent people will suffer in this war?" ”

Hearing this, the Confucian disciples present all chuckled.

This burst of laughter was extremely harsh in Meng Zhong's ears.

He immediately sneered and said, "When you Confucians distort the scriptures and meanings of all schools and confuse the world with clever and false theories, will there be less strife in the world because of this?" Amusing! ”

“……”

In an instant, the laughter stopped abruptly, and everyone present turned their heads to look in the direction where the voice came from, and finally in the last row of the horizontal seats, they saw Meng Zhong with cold eyebrows, and Hui Ang with an embarrassed face beside him.

"It's Hui'an, and ...... This son just said that it was clever? Could it be that he is a disciple of Zhuangzi?'

Mencius opened his eyelids slightly and glanced at Meng Zhong in the distance, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

Because as far as he knew, Zhuangzi, the great sage of the Song Kingdom, had never accepted anyone as a disciple in the past twenty years.