That night, after Meng Zhong told the family Sima Mengzhi and the young sect leader Meng Hu about the "visit to Mencius", he followed Hui Ang on the journey to Zou in a carriage.

"Don't you need to report this matter to the king?" During this period, Meng Zhong asked curiously, after all, as far as he knew, Hui Ang was an important minister beside Song Wangyan, although Song Wangyan would not be inseparable from Hui Ang for a moment, but it stands to reason that Hui Ang would not do anything "pampered and arrogant", and should be reported to Song Wangyan.

In this regard, Hui Ang explained that in fact, he had come to visit Mencius this time, because Mencius had a disciple who went to Pengcheng for the second time to see Song Wangyan and begged Song Wangyan to stop attacking Teng.

In fact, as early as two years ago, there were Mencius's disciples "Wan Zhang", "Gongsun Chou", "Chen Zhen (zhēn)" and others who asked to see Sima Jing of the Song army and persuaded Jing Zhen to stop continuing to attack Teng State.

According to Hui An, Mencius's disciples' desire for the Song state to stop attacking the Teng state was initiated by Mencius's disciples Gongsun Chou, Chen Zhen and others, and Mencius himself did not express his position—that is, he did not support it, but he did not oppose it.

After learning about this, Hui Ang had a debate with Wan Zhang, Gongsun Chou, Chen Zhen and others, saying that the Song State's attack on Teng State was to better implement the royal way, so he reluctantly sent away Mencius's disciples.

However, due to the fierce resistance of Teng, the fighting between the two armies of Song and Teng escalated, involving the ordinary civilians of Teng, which made Confucianism particularly unhappy, until a few months ago, when Song Wangyan again ordered the conscription of troops to attack Teng, Confucianism again sent people to Pengcheng to ask Song Wangyan to see Song Wangyan.

In this procession of Confucian disciples who went to Pengcheng, two unusual figures appeared, namely Mencius's only son "Meng Zhong" and his only grandson "Meng Di".

The appearance of Meng Zhong and Meng Di in the ranks of Confucian disciples who "dissuaded Song Wang Yan" means that Mencius is increasingly unable to tolerate the actions of the Song army in Teng?

Although Hui Ang still intervened to dissuade these Confucian disciples this time, he felt that it was necessary to visit Mencius in person, listen to the latter's thoughts, or explain the latter, after all, Mencius had an extraordinary reputation in all the countries of the Central Plains - simply put, Mencius's words could be called the "name" of Qi, Wei, Chu and other states to conquer the Song state.

Therefore, it is very necessary to have a good relationship with Mencius.

As for bringing his brother-in-law Meng Zhong, that is Hui An's own selfishness, or rather, his care for his younger brother as an elder brother.

"Brother, are you a disciple of Mencius?"

Meng Zhong asked Hui Ang about Dao curiously, because as far as he knew, this righteous brother was particularly miscellaneous, including Taoism, Ming, Confucianism, Law, Mo and other schools, but it can be seen from the strategy of governing the Song State that Hui Ang was actually biased towards the Confucian "benevolent rule", and "benevolent governance" was precisely Mencius's idea.

Hui Ang smiled and shook his head.

Hui Ang is a member of Huizi (Hui Shi), a person from Shangqiu in the Song Kingdom, as a native of the Song Dynasty, his first contact is the "Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)" and the "Analects", that is, the ideas of Taoism and Confucianism.

Later, his clan uncle Hui Shi, who served as the state minister in the Wei State, returned to the Song State because he was robbed of the throne by Zhang Yi, and Hui Ang began to contact the thoughts of famous masters because of the relationship between this clan uncle.

When Hui Ang persuaded Song Wangyan with "benevolence", and when the latter valued his participation in the governance of the country, he began to come into contact with academic ideas such as Legalism and Mohistism to supplement his shortcomings in governing the country.

As for the relationship between Hui Ang and Mencius, Hui Ang asked Mencius for advice many times, but only for advice - just like he also consulted Zhuangzi for advice, and was not a disciple of Mencius, and the reasons for this are very complicated, for example, as the minister of the Song State at that time, he was no longer suitable to worship Mencius; For example, Song Wangyan had more or less prejudices about Confucianism and did not allow Hui Ang to do that.

After chatting for a while, Hui Ang gave Meng Zhong a brief introduction to the life of Mencius.

Mencius, Ji's surname Meng, Ming Ke, Zou (邾国) people, his ancestors are one of the "three Huan" of Lu "Mengsun", in the Lu State office and Sanhuan for more than 100 years of internal fighting, Mengsun gradually weakened, and finally lost, helplessly moved from Lu to Zou as a vassal of Lu State, and settled down in Zou State.

Mencius's teacher is said to be the disciple of "Zi Si Ling (jí)".

Among the Confucian disciples, there are two very famous people who have the character Zisi, one is "Yuan Xian", let's call it "Zi Si Xian".

Zi Sixian was a native of the Song Dynasty, a disciple of Confucius, one of the seventy-two sages of Confucius, he was born poor, cautious, self-clean, and lived a life of poverty and happiness, refusing to merge with the world—his thoughts were somewhat close to Taoist thought.

It is said that after the death of Confucius, Yuan Xian lived in seclusion in Weiguo, with thatched huts and tiles, coarse tea and light rice, and an extremely hard life.

At this time, his classmate and friend, "Zigong", who was also a disciple of Confucius, had become a doctor in Weiguo at this time.

One day, Zigong was dressed in gorgeous clothes and rode in a luxurious carriage, and came to visit Yuan Xian, and when he saw that the latter was not in good clothes, Zigong asked with concern, "Are you sick?" ”

Yuan Xian replied honestly: "If you have no wealth, you will be poor, and if you learn the Tao and cannot do it, you will be sick, but I am not sick, but poor." ”

Zigong left ashamed when he heard this, while Zi Sixian leisurely sang the folk songs of the Song Kingdom in front of his humble home.

Another Confucian celebrity who is known for his character Zisi is Confucius's grandson "Kong Ling (jí)", that is, "Zi Si Ling (jí)", who is a disciple of Confucius's proud disciple "Zeng Zi (Zeng Shen)".

It is said that Confucius's son "Kong Li" died early, and Confucius entrusted his grandson Kong Ling to Zeng Shen before his death, so that the latter worshiped under Zeng Shen's door - according to the Confucian "Taoism", Confucius passed on Zeng Shen, Zeng Shen passed on Kong Ling, and Kong Ling's second disciple passed on to Meng Ke, which is the Confucian Taoist inheritance. [PS: The internal schools of Confucianism that are not "Taoism" have been defeated by the same sect one after another in the long years, such as Zizhang Zhiru and Zi Si Zhiru (in fact, referring to the original constitution), including Zi Xia, Xunzi and others, have been branded as hereticals, and interested book friends can understand it by themselves. 】

Therefore, Mencius is the contemporary "head" of Confucianism, and also the founder of "Meng's Confucianism" - at the moment when Xunzi has not yet "learned something", Mencius is bound to be inseparable when mentioning Confucianism.

Let's talk about the Zou State, the monarch of the Zou State, is the descendant of the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor is "Yan An", the ancestor of the surname Cao, after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang, the descendants of Yan An were sealed in Zou, that is, the origin of the Zou State - the monarch of the Zou State is the viscount, so the monarchs of all dynasties are called "Zou Zi".

The original Zou State was not weak, it was the same country as the "Tho (jǔ) State", and among the countries around Mount Tai, it was second only to the two countries of Qi and Lu, but later due to civil strife and hostile relations with the Lu State, the Zou State was divided, and since then it has been in a slump and has become one of the weakest countries in the Central Plains, which has been ignored by the countries of the Central Plains.

On September 22, after a short two-day journey, Hui Ang took Meng Zhong to the country of Zou, a country that now has only "one county".

Of course, the statement of "one county land" is indeed a bit exaggerated, after all, there are two or three earthen cities in Zou State, but it is undeniable that the whole territory of Zou State is indeed not as big as the Taoyi of Song State, and it belongs to a small country that can walk around the national border in one day.

However, although the land area is small and the country is also very poor, the Zou State is very peaceful from top to bottom, and it is a world of difference from the Teng State that is only two days away, and it must be said that this is the credit of Mencius - his existence made Qi, Lu, Song and other countries dare not offend the Zou State.

About half an hour after entering the kingdom of Zou, the carriage drove into a small manor, which, according to Hui An, was where Mencius lived – let's call it "Mencius's residence".

During the carriage, Meng Zhong observed the Mencius residence through the car window, and he found that the layout of the Mencius residence was actually similar to that of the Zhuangzi residence, at best, there were more houses and fields around it, and it was more like a village than a residence.

"Mencius had many disciples, right?"

Meng Zhong asked Hui Angdao with emotion.

Hui Ang smiled and explained, according to him, Mencius did not have many disciples, at least not as good as Confucius, who claimed to have 3,000 disciples, but disciples to disciples, and followers to followers—even if they were not accepted by Mencius as disciples, there were many people who were willing to follow him.

These retinues and their families, together with Mencius's disciples and their families, make Mencius's residence seem to be a small village.

A moment later, the carriage stopped in front of a palace-like building, and immediately Hui Ang and Meng Zhong got out of the carriage and walked into the building.

The reason why this building is like a palace is not because of the luxury of its construction, but because it occupies a large area, and I think it is because of the relationship between Mencius and many disciples.

Walking into this building, which is called a mansion, you are greeted by a door wall with a large "Confucian" character written on the door wall in large seal script - a slight deviation from the Song State characters that Meng Zhong knew, and it is roughly recognizable.

Turning the door wall, you are greeted by an empty courtyard, very large, which seems to be larger than the entire Zhuangzi residence, and at this time, Mencius is in this courtyard, telling his disciples and those who are willing to accept his ideas about the Confucian scriptures.

Confucianism is very particular about etiquette, which can be reflected in the number of seats.

Mencius sat alone behind a low table, facing his disciples and his retinue, and on the left and right sides of him, there were longitudinal seats, where Mencius was probably seated, and everyone had a table in front of them, and there were books on the table.

And further on, that is, closer to the place where Hui Ang and Meng Zhong were, there were no horizontal seats with tables, and ordinary disciples and retinues sat on a straw mat one by one, facing Mencius, and sat upright.

Meng Zhong roughly counted, only to find that there were as many as two or three hundred people in the courtyard.

Probably noticing the arrival of Hui Ang and Hui Ang, one of the last Confucian disciples sat back, made a silent gesture, and then pointed to the side again—looking in the direction he was pointing, he could see a pile of straw mats placed there.

Seeing this, Hui Ang took Meng Zhong to take a straw mat each, sat at the end of everyone, and quietly listened to Mencius's teachings to solve his doubts.