"Master, you ...... You've just spoken? ”

After a long time, Meng Zhong asked in surprise.

Hearing this, Zhuangzi blinked his eyes and pretended not to know, "The old man is neither deaf nor dumb, why can't he speak?" ”

"It's not." Meng Zhong shook his head and said in surprise: "The disciple has been by your side for more than four years, and I have never seen you speak......

"It's just that the old man doesn't want to speak." Zhuangzi stroked his beard, and the old god said on the ground.

"Then why are you suddenly willing to speak again? Could it be that there is something wrong with it that the unfilial disciples do not understand? Meng Zhong asked curiously.

Hearing this, Zhuangzi said lightly: "Probably because he was angry with an unfilial disciple." ”

"Master......" Meng Zhong knew that Zhuangzi was teasing himself as soon as he heard it.

Looking at Meng Zhong's helpless expression, Zhuangzi smiled, beckoned and said, "Okay, okay, you sit here and tell me about your experience...... You must have learned a lot of things when you went out this time. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong sat down in his usual seat, that is, on the right hand side of Zhuangzi, still sitting cross-legged, and slowly recounted his experience.

Talking about his experience of going to Teng State in detail, to sum up, the major events are nothing more than "getting to know Hui An", "meeting Song Wangyan", "meeting Teng Hu", and "visiting Mencius", and other things are what he saw and heard in Teng.

When Meng Zhong mentioned Hui An's matter, Zhuangzi stroked his beard and nodded slightly.

Among the descendants that Zhuangzi was familiar with, Hui Ang was the most outstanding, and the only one who was criticized was that he chose to assist Song Wangyan.

In Zhuangzi's view, Song Wangyan was not a virtuous monarch.

"Since you have seen King Song, what do you think of it?" Zhuangzi asked.

Meng Zhong thought about it carefully, and then said according to Hui An's previous evaluation: "Song Wang Yan is a wise and tyrannical person. …… When he first met his disciple, he was actually quite kind, but he killed a minister named Tang Ying in front of his disciple......"

As he spoke, Meng Zhong told Zhuangzi everything that had happened that day, and Zhuangzi shook his head when he heard it.

Of course, Zhuangzi's shaking of his head here is of course aimed at the courtier named Tang Ying, after all, this person's remarks that "regardless of good and evil, the world will fear the king", he is really a bastard, even if this kind of person is talented, it is also talented and not virtuous, and if he stays in the world, he will definitely have disasters in the future.

But even so, Song Wangyan immediately killed Tang Yan with his own hands, which can also show the tyrannical character of this monarch and his contempt for human life.

There is a saying that the rabbit dies and the fox is sad, and the thing hurts it, although the Tang Ying killed by Song Wangyan today is indeed damned, but looking at the situation at the time, who dares to guarantee that Song Wangyan will not kill himself next time? Although Hui Ang insisted on the view that "the king will not kill me", judging from the actions of Song Wang Yan pointing his sword at Hui Ang at that time, Meng Zhong did not think that it would be a good experience to be an official under this monarch.

“…… But Brother Hui Anxian's later words made the disciple hesitate a little. He said that people will inevitably want to return to their homeland in the end, and if their homeland no longer exists at this time, wouldn't it be a sad thing? Meng Zhong said to Zhuangzi.

"Just like a fallen leaf returns to its roots, the leaves that leave the branches will eventually rot on the earth, returning the essence to the tree and nourishing the roots. People, it's the same, Zhang Yi, who is called the 'big husband' by the world, those who pursue profit, don't understand this truth...... Half a life chasing fame and fortune, after death is just a handful of loess, why bother? ”

Zhuangzi nodded slightly, such an explanation, Hui Ang also told him at the beginning, so he acquiesced to Hui Ang to assist Song Wang Yan.

After all, even Zhuangzi didn't want to see his country destroyed by another country, after all, this was the homeland where he was born and raised.

After that, Meng Zhong recounted his conversation with Teng Hu to Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi was surprised to hear that Meng Zhong had not killed Teng Hu in the end, and he couldn't help but rejoice and asked, "Why didn't you do it?" ”

So Meng Zhong told the family Sima Mengqing about capturing Teng Hu with his own life, and explained: "The disciple asked myself in my heart at that time, can this knife be regarded as avenging my brother?" Will my brother's spirit rest in heaven? Not! …… If that knife goes down, it is only for your own 'pleasure' at best. For his own pleasure, he seized Uncle Meng Qing's sacrifice and credit, what is this? ”

"......," Zhuangzi listened quietly.

I have to say that Meng Zhong's answer is still far from the most satisfactory answer in Zhuangzi's heart, but even so, Zhuangzi is very satisfied, after all, the disciple in front of him is only fifteen years old this year, and it is already a great thing to be able to think of this layer at such a young age, and to restrain the "human desire" in his heart.

"Don't you have regrets?" Zhuangzi asked deliberately rhetorically.

Meng Zhong shook his head and said: "Brother's revenge, Uncle Meng Qing has already avenged him and killed the 'Teng Monarch Teng Hu'; and the Teng Hu that the disciple saw was a 'hero of the other' who still thought about the country when he was dying, such a character really shouldn't die in the hands of the disciple who was the 'Song Bing'...... The disciple has no regrets. ”

Zhuangzi nodded when he heard this, and said approvingly: "Hatred breeds hatred, and hatred breeds hatred, which is a very terrible thing. In the past, there were Wu Nu and Chu Nu fighting for a mulberry tree, first arguing with words, and then biting and scuffling, Chu Nu was weak and was not Wu Nu's opponent, and when she returned home, she informed her family about it. The family was very angry, and the next day they took revenge on the Wu woman and beat the latter severely. Wu Nu was beaten, and she also informed her family about the incident, and her family, together with the clansmen of the same village, went to Chu Nu's house with swords and killed her entire family. Knowing that some Chu people were killed by the Wu people in the territory, the generals of Chu gathered an army and slaughtered the entire village where Wu Nu was located. When King Wu learned of this, he gathered a large army to attack the state of Chu, which finally triggered a decades-long war between Wu and Chu. …… And this is the hatred caused by a mulberry tree. ”

After a pause, Zhuangzi said: "And the Chu Nu and Wu Nu who caused this "Battle for Sang", each other's whole family was engulfed in hatred, resulting in the destruction of the family. ”

"Disciples are taught." Meng Zhong nodded thoughtfully, and then said, "If one party could repay the favor and let go of the dispute at that time, maybe it wouldn't have ended like that, right?" ”

"Huh?"

Zhuangzi heard some clues from his disciple's words, and asked suspiciously, "Rende?" Why do you think that way? ”

Seeing this, Meng Zhong said honestly: "That's the case, after Teng Hu's death, Brother Hui Ang took his disciples to Zou State to visit Mencius......"

Hearing this, the smile on Zhuangzi's face stiffened slightly, and he said lightly: "Is there such a thing? …… Let's take a closer look. ”

Seeing this, Meng Zhong told Zhuangzi about his visit to Mencius, including his debate with Mencius's disciples.

It is no exaggeration to say that when he heard that Meng Zhong had made Mencius's disciples speechless, and accused Confucianism of "ingenuity" in public, and the Confucian disciples were speechless, Zhuangzi was obviously over seventy years old, and his eyebrows flew with excitement, and he nodded again and again and smiled: "Good! Good! As it should be! ”

With that, he turned his head to look at Meng Zhong.

I have to say that although Zhuangzi has always thought that Mengzhong's disciple is intelligent, he didn't expect that this son could make Mencius's disciples speechless, and more importantly, Mengzhong did not simply use the debate of famous scholars to beat Confucianism, but used the "reasoning debate" advocated by Zhuang Zhou, which was reasonable and well-founded, so Confucianism was speechless.

"What is Meng Ke's reaction? Didn't he argue with you personally? Zhuangzi asked expectantly.

Meng Zhong shook his head and said, "Mencius said that if he was thirty years younger, he should personally go down to debate with his disciples, but now, if he wins, he will not be able to fight, and if he loses, he will lose face......

"This old thing is cunning!"

Zhuangzi snorted disdainfully, and said to Meng Zhong: "Everyone in the world says that Meng Ke is good at eloquence, but his general arguments have nothing to say, if he argues with you in person, he will only bring humiliation upon himself!" ”

"Old thing? You don't say that, right?'

Meng Zhong stole a glance at Zhuangzi.

Because as far as he knew, Zhuangzi was about the same age as Mencius, and Mencius was only two or three years older than Zhuangzi at most.

Master Zhuang said this...... It's a little mean. ”

Meng Zhong said euphemistically: "The disciple had a detailed discussion with Mencius that day, and some of Mencius's ideas and ideas benefited the disciple a lot. ”

"Oh?" Zhuangzi sneered and said, "Did he also give you a valuable wooden box?" ”

Obviously, this is Zhuangzi's use of Meng Zhong's satirical Confucian allegory of "buying and returning pearls" to mock Mencius.

Meng Zhong smiled bitterly when he heard this, shook his head and said, "As you said, Master, Mencius just gave his disciple half of the book......

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he took out a bamboo slip from his bosom, handed it to Zhuangzi and said, "Master, this is a letter from Mencius to Brother Hui'an, and Brother Hui'an has entrusted his disciple to forward this letter to you. ”

"Meng Ke's letter?"

Zhuangzi frowned slightly, but still took it, spread his hands and read it roughly.

Just by glancing at it, his brows furrowed deeply, and he immediately asked Meng Zhong with a straight face, "Have you read this letter?" ”

Meng Zhong didn't know why, shook his head and said truthfully: "Since it is Mencius's letter to your master, how dare the disciple dare to peek at it? ”

Hearing this, Zhuangzi regained his pleasant expression, quietly put aside the bamboo slip in his hand, and immediately asked Meng Zhong, "Ah Zhong, what are your plans next?" ”

Meng Zhong replied respectfully: "In recent days, the disciple wants to accompany his mother at home, and after staying for a few days, he hopes to return to study with his master. ”

"Hmm." Zhuangzi nodded and said, "You have been away from home for a long time, and you should indeed accompany your mother well." …… Okay, I won't keep you for the teacher, you will move the 'wooden box' given to you by Meng Ke to the house, and then go home to accompany your mother, and you will have to ...... as a teacher" He glanced at Mencius's letter on the side, and then continued: "I also want to write a reply to Meng Ke." ”

"Yes, the disciple is retiring."

Meng Zhong bowed and retreated.

Watching his disciple leave, Zhuangzi immediately put away the smile on his face, found a blank bamboo slip, and waved his pen on the bamboo slip with an angry face.

It happened that Uncle Zhuang walked into the house and saw that Zhuangzi was reading a book, so he glanced at it curiously, and immediately looked surprised.

He couldn't help but ask, "Master, who annoyed you and asked you to write such a letter to scold him?" ”

"Confucianism stole my Taoist 'virtue', and he also wanted to steal my Zhuang Zhou disciples, it's really hateful!"

As he spoke, Zhuangzi handed his letter to Uncle Zhuang, and said angrily: "Later, you will ask someone to send this letter to Zou Guo and hand it over to that person!" ”

"Who is it?" Zhuang Bo asked cautiously.

"Meng Ke!"

Zhuangzi said indignantly.

Hearing this, Uncle Zhuang subconsciously swallowed his saliva, and then looked at the letter in his hand with a shocked expression.