On the ninth day of the ninth month of September, the second class of Zhuangzi's teaching was originally scheduled for today, but because Zhuangzi accidentally fell into the water when he was traveling the day before yesterday, he suffered some wind cold and was also frightened, so yesterday when Zhuangzi was ready to teach Meng Zhong alone like the previous time, he was dissuaded by both Zhuang Bo and Meng Zhong at the same time.

After all, compared to the one-day delay of the course, of course, the physical condition of this Zhuang master is more important.

But unfortunately, Zhuangzi has a stubborn personality, and since he was scheduled to teach Zhuzi today, he must fulfill his agreement - no one can beat this old man.

But then again, what should be taught in today's curriculum? You must know that Zhuangzi rested on the couch for a whole day yesterday, but he didn't teach Meng Zhong alone in advance.

After thinking about it, Zhuangzi decided to ask Meng Zhong to tell Zhuzi the story of what happened during their trip yesterday, especially the fish basket net that 'violated the way of heaven', so that he could have a deeper understanding of the way of heaven through this personal experience.

So, when Zhuangzi sat aside with a medicine bowl and drank the decoction, Meng Zhong told Zhuzi in detail what had happened that day.

It is worth mentioning that when Meng Zhong vividly described how Zhuangzi struggled in the water after falling into the water at that time, the sons below wanted to laugh but did not dare to laugh, which was really uncomfortable. Even, even Zhuangzi couldn't help but look at Meng Zhong frequently, as if he was blaming Meng Zhong: What is this doing in such detail?

After listening to the conversation between Zhuangzi and Meng Zhong in the story, the sons below fell into deep thought.

It can be seen from the dialogue between Zhuangzi and Meng Zhong that Zhuangzi did not resist "killing", just as he did not prevent Meng Zhong from killing the two fish to satisfy the hunger of his master and apprentice, because Zhuangzi felt that "man eats fish in order to fill his stomach" is also in line with the way of heaven—after all, man is one of all living beings under the way of heaven.

Different from Confucianism, which emphasizes "a gentleman is far away from cooking", Mencius, a Confucian sage today, once said, "A gentleman is like a beast, and he can't bear to see his death; Hearing its voice, I can't bear to eat its flesh. It's a gentleman who cooks far away."

But let's ask, how many Confucian gentlemen have been vegetarians all their lives?

In other words, although Confucian gentlemen can't see killing, they still have to eat, and it is no wonder that Zhuangzi has repeatedly criticized Confucianism for its "hypocrisy".

At this point, Taoist thought is very frank and simple, believing that whether humans eat birds and beasts, or animals eat people, they are all under the operation of the Heavenly Dao, and there is no good and evil - the view of good and evil is just put forward by people themselves, and there is no good and evil under the Heavenly Dao.

What Zhuangzi really wanted to resist was to continue to kill living beings in the case of a 'surplus', for example, at that time, Zhuangzi thought that he and Meng Zhong would eat those two fish enough to fill their stomachs, so why let the rest of the fish lose their freedom and die?

By extension, Zhuangzi was also opposed to war, arguing that as long as the monarchs of various countries were wise, like Yao Shunyu Tang in ancient times, encouraging their citizens to produce more and relaxing the amount of taxes, the people would not starve, and the country would become rich and powerful even if it did not plunder other countries.

"Master, about the fish basket net, the students have any doubts, please ask."

When Meng Zhong mentioned that Zhuangzi wanted him to destroy the fish basket net, Meng asked in confusion: "Master thinks that the fish basket net is a 'non-Tao' and wants Ah Zhong to destroy it, but with this object, the students and others can catch enough fish to eat all the people in the house with only a short time and energy every day, so that the students and others have more time to learn the ideas of the sages......

Mengsui means to keep a part of the nets from being misused.

On the side, Hua Hu, who was in charge of fishing in the past, nodded again and again.

It has to be said that after seeing the convenience of fishing with a basket net, he really doesn't want to use a fishing rod to fish as before, which may not guarantee a harvest even if it takes energy.

Zhuangzi thought for a moment, and was going to write down the explanation on the bamboo plaque, but after taking a look at Meng Zhong, he changed his mind - he wanted to hear what Meng Zhong thought about it.

After all, although Meng Zhong did destroy the fish basket net in front of him at that time, he was not necessarily convinced.

After receiving Zhuangzi's signal, Meng Zhong pondered for a while and said, "Don't hide it from Master, in fact, I also think that Ah Sui's words are not unreasonable. However, I can more or less guess the Master's concerns. …… In the past, it was not easy for a fisherman to catch fish, so he cherished every fish he caught, and most of the fish he caught would not have a great impact on the fish in the river. However, if a more convenient way emerges, not to mention that fishermen may not still cherish the fish they catch as much as before, let's talk about the "profit-driven" nature of the world, and some people may use fish baskets to catch river fish on a large scale, resulting in the extinction of river fish. …… I heard that the Jin Kingdom once banned "gambling (gambling)", and the offenders were heavily responsible, and there were very few gamblers involved in the gambling game, but why did the Jin Kingdom impose severe punishments? I think this may be because the people who made this law feel that gambling encourages people to 'try to get something for nothing', just as all countries value agriculture and boycott commerce, because it is easy to make a profit from business, and if everyone goes to business for profit, no one will be willing to cultivate the fields in a down-to-earth manner. …… The principle of the two is the same. ”

At this time, Zhuangzi had already put down the medicine bowl in his hand, and after listening to Meng Zhong's explanation, he nodded in surprise.

Whether Meng Zhong was willing to destroy the fish basket net is still unknown, but this opinion of this son in this matter is indeed worthy of Zhuangzi's surprise - especially when Meng Zhong pointed out the nature of "the world seeks profit", which is the reason why Zhuangzi wanted to destroy the fish basket net, because he did not want this convenient fishing tool to be spread, so that the fish in the rivers and lakes would be caught by the world and eventually harm the world himself.

It is not difficult to see from this that Zhuangzi was indeed arrogant, and his view of the world often evolved to the bad side—perhaps because he felt that it was a "world of failure" at that time.

Immediately, Zhuangzi wrote on a bamboo plaque: Fishing with all your might, won't you get it? And next year there will be no fish.

The allusion of "fishing with all your might" originates from the "Yongji", an important minister under the Jin Wen Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period.

At that time, it was the end of the "Battle of Chengpu", a key battle between Duke Wen of Jin and King Cheng of Chu for supremacy in the Central Plains, that is, the "Jin, Qin, Qi, and Song Four Kingdoms Alliance" versus the "Chu, Cao, Wei, and Zheng Kingdoms Alliance".

At that time, although the national strength of the Jin State was still on the rise, it may not be able to win the powerful Chu State, so the Duke of Jin Wen asked the plan and his confidant "Hu Yan", and the latter offered a deceptive strategy - that is, the origin of the allusion of "avoiding the three rounds", the Jin army used the promise of the Jin Wen Gong to the king of Chu Cheng that "if he is unfortunate in the future, I should avoid the three retreats for you", retreated to the land of three houses (ninety miles), showed the enemy weakness, deceived the Chu army into penetrating the enemy territory, and was finally defeated by the Jin army, thus laying the great cause of the Jin State to dominate the Central Plains for a hundred years in one fell swoop. [PS: I'll mention the details later.] 】

And when "Fox Yan" offered this trick, Jin Wengong also consulted "Yongji", and Yongji said this sentence to Jin Wengong at that time: Fishing with all your might, won't you get it? There will be no fish in the coming year; Burn the serval and the field, will you not get it? There are no beasts in the coming year. The way of fraud, although it can be stolen now, will not be recovered in the future, and it is not a long technique.

Yongji intended to tell Jin Wengong that if you want to defeat the Chu State and dominate the Central Plains, the most fundamental thing is to rely on the army and national strength.

Duke Wen of Jin thought so, so after defeating the state of Chu with the strategy of "Fox Yan" in this "Battle of Chengpu", he devoted himself to the development of the state of Jin itself, which made the state of Chu unable to defeat the state of Jin and become the overlord of the Central Plains after all in the hundred-year-long "battle for hegemony of Jin and Chu", until the king of Chu Zhuang was born a hundred years later.

Although the allusion of "exhausting Ze and fishing" is that "Yongji" used it to warn Jin Wengong not to always pin his hope of defeating Chu on conspiracy and trickery, the words "exhausting Ze and fishing" and "burning servals and fields" themselves contain simple truths, which are why they were later widely circulated and used to advise the monarch and the world not to only covet immediate gains.

After listening to Zhuangzi's 'explanation', the sons had different reactions.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong said: "If you have different opinions, you may wish to put them forward to discuss and debate. ”

This proposal is actually very much in line with Zhuangzi's wishes, but it is a pity that the princes below still have little knowledge and understand few truths, so it is difficult to accurately and thoroughly expound their own opinions.

Of course, the main reason is that the 'ideological level' of the princes is too low—what they think about is the pros and cons of the fish basket net for themselves; However, Zhuangzi focuses on the pros and cons of the fish basket net for the whole world.

Thinking about the problem at different levels, Zhuangzi naturally did not arouse interest—this may be the real reason why after Huizi's death, Zhuangzi lamented that he could no longer debate opponents.

During this period, only Meng Zhong's insights made him somewhat interested.

For example, Meng Zhong proposed making the mesh of the fish basket net larger, so that the small fish could escape from the mesh and not stop the small fish and fry that were still growing.

However, Meng Zhong did not have any good suggestions for "the profit-seeking nature of the world", believing that he could only start from the aspect of "strengthening moral restraint".

"Strengthen moral restraint", this statement made Zhuangzi quite unhappy.

You must know that Taoism advocates taking the initiative to improve one's self-cultivation and strengthen moral restraint, which is actually Confucianism's requirement for the world - Confucianism deliberately emphasizes etiquette, and its essence is not only to divide the class of kings, kings, ministers and ministers, but also to strengthen the benevolence, righteousness, and etiquette of the world, and then make the world better, or simply, more orderly.

Although Taoism also advocates making the world more orderly, the difference is that Taoism hopes that people will take the initiative to accept and perceive 'order', while Confucianism directly puts order on the heads of the world through the number of rituals.

『……』

Looking at Meng Zhong, who was still talking in front of the princes, Zhuangzi pursed his lips and stroked his beard thoughtfully.

He found that Meng Zhong, a disciple whom he had not yet admitted to being a disciple, seemed to have a good impression of Confucianism.

Not...... This is not possible!

Zhuangzi thought secretly.

He felt that it was necessary for him to teach Meng Zhong alone, so that the latter could fully recognize the true face of Confucianism, so that this son could devote himself to the Tao.