"Take responsibility for the things before you die, and what to do after you die." Bao Hong said with a smile, "Although those celebrities and Qingliu don't care about fame and profit, they can be described as an extremely demanding pursuit of fame and posthumous fame. It is completely regarded as the name of the text as more important than life. ”

"It's a good person to take care of the things before and after, so why judge after death." Huo Guang said with a smile, "This matter is actually because of the relationship between the inspection system. It is precisely because of the paranoid pursuit of the system of filial piety and honesty that the pursuit of fame by scholars in the whole era has become so paranoid. ”

At the beginning of the first year of Emperor Yuanguang of the Han Dynasty, the county and the state were each given one person for filial piety, that is, one person for each of them. In the normal case of the two Han Dynasty, filial piety and honesty are often concatenated and mixed into one family. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, until the Eastern Han Dynasty, many famous princes were born in filial piety, which had a great influence on the politics of the Han Dynasty.

The election system of the Han Dynasty was a system of filial piety and honesty, with special attention to the evaluation of individuals by celebrities, and sometimes a word of evaluation by celebrities could immediately raise a person's value. For example, Qiao Xuan, a famous scholar, commented on Cao Cao, "I see that there are many famous people in the world, and there is no one who is like a king?" Junshan is self-sustaining. I'm old! is willing to take his wife as a trust", Cao Cao "became famous"; Xu Zijiang also commented that Cao Cao was "a capable minister who rules the world and a traitor in troubled times", and Cao Cao's fame was greatly shocked.

At the same time that this style of appreciating figures was prevalent, the orthodox Confucianism of the Eastern Han Dynasty was divided into two schools, one was the Qing school and the other was the turbid school. Of course, turbidity means dirty, and the turbidity school mainly refers to those eunuchs and ministers. The Qing school was mainly those literati who claimed to have inherited the Confucian tradition, and they resolutely did not associate with the turbid school. The Eastern Han Dynasty eunuchs were autocratic, and the struggle between the clear stream and the turbid stream was fierce. Therefore, if anyone is involved with eunuchs and ministers, they will descend from the Qing school to the turbid school. Like Kong Rong, Yang Xiu, and You Heng belong to the pure leaders of the Qing school, which is characterized by absolutely supporting the rule of the Han Dynasty and always thinking about recovering the Han Dynasty, but because they are cultural people, they flaunt the Qing Gao, and inevitably fall into the abyss of "good name addiction".

As far as the end of the Han Dynasty is concerned, it is better to have a reputation in the early batch, after all, it has not reached such a crazy point, but sending out a large number of clear stream lists, it can also be seen to what extent the atmosphere at that time has become.

In the alternating period of Hengling, the party was in trouble, and the Qingliu scholars on the land of the Central Plains flaunted each other, and made a ranking of famous people in the world, the highest known as "Sanjun", followed by "Eight Jun", again "Eight Gu", and then "Eight And", and the most "Eight Kitchens".

Sanjun refers to Dou Wu, Liu Shu, and Chen Fan, who are "the ancestors of the first generation", that is, examples worthy of learning from the world;

Bajun refers to Li Ying, Xun Yu, Du Mi, Wang Chang, Liu You, Wei Lang, Zhao Dian, and Zhu Yu, who are "heroes of people", that is, heroes among people;

Bagu refers to Guo Linzong, Zong Ci, Ba Su, Xia Fu, Fan Fan, Yin Xun, Cai Yan, and Yang Bu, who are "those who can lead people with virtue", that is, morality can set an example for others.

Eight refers to Zhang Jian, Cen Hui, Liu Biao, Chen Xiang, Kong Yu, Yuan Kang, Tan Fu, and Zhai Chao, who are "those who can guide people to follow their ancestors", that is, they can guide others to learn from the examples of the three monarchs.

The eight chefs refer to Du Shang, Zhang Miao, Wang Kao, Liu Ru, Hu Muban, Qin Zhou, Fan Xiang, and Wang Zhang, who are "those who can save people with money", that is, they do not hesitate to save those in need.

At that time, people regarded these people as gentlemen, and the ministers of the court, from the minister to the minister, were afraid of being accused and derogatory by them, and they all came to visit them.

The so-called Qingliu refers to those scholars who abide by the basic tenets of Confucianism. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Fan Fan, the main general of the Qing Dynasty, argued with Wang Fu, a regular servant of the Zhongchang Dynasty, and quoted the words of Confucius, saying that "seeing the good is like not being able to see the evil, and seeing the evil is like exploring the soup", and he "wants to make the good and the good clear and the evil and the evil with the dirty", which points out the meaning of the distinction between clear and turbid. He sighed and said: "The ancient follow-up was good, and he sought more blessings, and now he is good, and he is in a great slaughter." Obviously, he expressed the Qingliu ideal with the distinction between good and evil: to standardize his own cultivation with the good path expounded by the ancient sages, to fight against the evil forces in reality, and to achieve the rule of the country and the people. Therefore, the princes of Qingliu and the temples lived diligently in the government, promoted the straight scholars, and used Confucian righteousness to urge the Son of Heaven to act in accordance with the Tao; In the rivers and lakes, it refers to the government and government, evaluates the ministers, and sets a model for the world with his own character. This kind of ideal was gathered for a time, and "the wind of straightforwardness and righteousness was carried out in Si", so that "from the secretary of state to the down, they are not afraid of their derogatory opinions, and they have come to the door."

From this normative requirement, we extract a sentence to explain that we should standardize our own cultivation with the good way expounded by the ancient sages, resist the evil forces in reality, and realize the governance of the country and the people.

The intellectuals of all Chinese dynasties have always been prone to play such a role, because they flaunt the style of integrity, are not afraid of the strong and powerful, deny the government, and denounce the people in power and are deeply disappointed by the scholars.

It can be said that it seems that when every dynasty goes into decline, there will be some intellectuals who spontaneously gather to turn the tide. No matter what their purpose, no matter what political role they play, and no matter whether they can objectively advance the course of history, there will always be great Confucians who can represent the conscience of intellectuals. It is not a lie to say that the conscience of intellectuals is the backbone of the nation, but there is a simple truth, which is understood by careerists, eunuchs, and even the leaders of the rebel army, that whatever they want to do will inevitably evolve into a coercive action to prevent others from doing other things.

The Qingliu people are always divided into a generation of ministers who are pragmatic and brave enough to take responsibility and unrealistic generous people, and of course, there are also opportunistic elements. And each time the end is a mass slaughter and unjust imprisonment.

But here's the problem, for a person or a scholar, standardizing one's cultivation with the good path expounded by the ancient sages and fighting against the evil forces in reality are all goals that can be achieved by self-initiative.

However, these two articles are just expressions, and what really matters is the ultimate goal that needs to be achieved, that is, to achieve the rule of the country and the people.

If you only use high moral standards to demand yourself, it will not bring disaster to the country, but the bad thing is to demand others with high standards while selling fame and reputation.

In fact, I think that setting the moral standard too high is useless, just like Zigong redeeming people instead of getting paid but being reproached by Confucius, thinking that it hinders people's path to goodness. Detached from the standards of reality will only make most people fail to meet or even give up, and in this way, it will appear that the "clear stream" people are above the others. They hold up this set of standards to condemn the emperor to death, to impeach their colleagues, and at the same time to call friends and self-proclaim, causing a very bad impact, which is completely contrary to the ultimate goal of achieving the rule of the country and the people.

The general saying is that it is said to be the end of the book, and it can even be said to be the opposite of each other. Indeed, on the surface, it seems that you are indeed driving, but in fact, you are driving in the opposite direction, and you are driving very hard, and you can even give up your life to drive hard.

However, it doesn't work, you work hard for a long time, you are actually pushing the whole country into the fire pit.

The batch of Qingliu mentioned above is quite reliable, and the group of Sanjun went to Yingchuan to get a school, and almost completed the task of setting things right. If it weren't for Boss Cao himself being confused, anxious to do what King Wei was, and by the way, he also killed Xun Yu, how would it not be possible in the end.

But the more it reaches the final stage of the late Han Dynasty, it can be said that the society is becoming more and more exaggerated, and the clear stream is becoming more and more unreliable.

Let's just say that the most well-known clear stream represents 'Kong Rong Rang Pear'.

Volume 70 of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty "The Biography of Zheng Kongxun" introduces three things that Kong Rong is famous for: first, Kong Rong is the twentieth grandson of Confucius, with a high family and a cultural family; Second, Kong Rong has a young genius, "Henan Yin Li Ying prides himself on being simple and serious, does not accept guests in vain, and is not a celebrity in the world and a Tong family, and he is not allowed to be white", and Kong Rong wants to "want to see his people", he said to the doorman that it was Li Ying's "Tongjia", and his words were amazing, and he was evaluated by the celebrity Li Ying as "a great weapon"; Third, he was a dutiful son, who saved Zhang Jian from being detected by officials, and fought with his brother and mother to bear the death penalty and won his reputation. After these 3 things, Kong Rong became famous.

Kong Rong is the leader of the Qing School, so he always has to maintain his reputation and does not want to be associated with the Turbidity School. He believed that the Yellow Turban Army's uprising was mainly due to the failure to do a good job in education, so he "repaired the city, revered the school, set up the order, promoted the virtuous, and showed the Confucian scholars", but in that era when the world was falling apart, his approach was inevitably a little lagging behind. In order to maintain his reputation, Kong Rong was too restrained when leading his troops into battle, and he often couldn't stand out from the crowd and break the convention, so he couldn't achieve victory.

When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's power gradually became stronger, Kong Rong knew that the two were going to usurp the Han family after all, so he was unwilling to take refuge in them. His staff Zuo Chengzu persuaded Kong Rong to marry Yuan Shao or Cao Cao, and Kong Rong was angry and killed him. Kong Rong was conceited of his talent and temperament, and was determined to calm the crisis of the country, but because of his rough talent and empty thoughts, he did not succeed.

Yuan Tan attacked Beihai, the two sides fought from spring to summer, there were only a few hundred soldiers left, and the stray arrows shot like rain, and the city was already close to each other. Kong Rong still reads a few books and talks and laughs freely. At night, the city fell, and he fled to Shandong, and his wife and children were captured by Yuan Tan.

Fan Ye said that Kong Rong "has a wide range of talents, and has not succeeded so far", although Kong Rong was very "generous" when he was besieged by Yuan Tan, "Rong Yin reads a few books, talks and laughs freely", but "the city falls at night, it is to go to Dongshan, and his wife and son are captured by Tan", which is a bit ironic after all.

Sima Biao also said that Kong Rong "thought that he was intelligent and superior, and he was talented and destined for the world, and the heroes and heroes at that time could not reach him", "However, he was appointed, curious and different, and he was a light talent, as for the ancient people, he was wrong to be respectful, and although he was prepared, he did not discuss national politics", saying that although Kong Rong advertised Confucian orthodoxy, he had no achievements in politics, no clever schemes, and just loved fame.

The only political achievement is that during the period when Beihai was the prime minister, Kong Rong gathered the people after arriving in Beihai, gathered troops to talk about martial arts, issued a letter, and wrote a book in person, communicating with various states and counties, and planning together. Due to the defeat of Zhang Rao in the crusade against the Yellow Turban Army, he was transferred to Zhuxu County. Slowly gathered more than 40,000 men and women who were bewitched by the yellow scarves by the officials and ordinary people, and then set up cities, set up schools, show Confucianism, and recommend virtuous Zheng Xuan, Peng Xuan, Bing Yuan, etc. Treat the people of the country, even if there is only a small good deed, they are treated with courtesy. The people of the country have no descendants and those who have passed away, so they help to bury them. Because of his political voice, he was called "Kong Beihai" by the people of the time.

This is purely based on all kinds of messy 'Corporal Lixian', if you really want to talk about people's livelihood, I'm afraid many magistrates can do it. Of course, to engage in school, it is necessary to test his reputation. But, in general, it's really not wrong to say that he doesn't have much real material.

Later, in the same year, after Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty moved the capital to Xuchang, he recruited Kong Rong as a master craftsman and was promoted to Shaofu. Whenever the court meeting visited and summoned the right person, Kong Rong often cited evidence to make a decision, and the ministers and doctors were only in name.

According to tradition, Kong Rong was a good guest, liked to criticize current affairs, and spoke fiercely, and was later killed by Cao Cao because he angered him.

I really want to talk about it, after all, as a Qingliu celebrity, he is loyal to the Han family, so he is against Boss Cao in all aspects.

However, even political struggles depend on the mind, and it is not something that can be used simply by singing the opposite tune.

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao was defeated in the Battle of Chibi, and suddenly felt that his talents were still in short supply, and it was okay to fight on land, but it was not possible to fight on the water, and it was still far from recovering Jiangnan and unifying the world. Because Cao Cao was born a landlord from a poor family and belonged to the turbidity school, it was difficult to recruit Qing school figures like Kong Rong, and the Qing school had fallen into a situation where he had nothing to say, so Cao Cao wanted to reduce talents without sticking to one pattern. Cao Cao put forward the standard of "meritocracy".

In the seventeenth year of Jian'an, the Son of Heaven worshiped Cao Cao, "praise and worship is not nameless, enter the dynasty and do not trend, and the sword goes to the palace, such as Xiao He's story"; In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, the Son of Heaven ordered Cao Cao to be the Duke of Wei, so far, Cao Cao's mood on behalf of the Han Dynasty was more intense, but at this time, Ma Chao's rebellion in Guanxi affected Cao Cao's unification for a while, and he couldn't stop it, so it came down to the lack of talents, and then issued the second order to seek talent. One of the centers of these two orders is to break the Confucian norm of morality, "meritocracy", as long as there is talent, whether it is good or bad, they will be hired.

In the case of Cao Cao's eclectic reduction of talents, the Qing school with Kong Rong, Yang Xiu, and You Heng as the leaders still went their own way, talked about the government and politics, could not establish meritorious deeds, and could not come up with good strategies, of course, they were looked down upon by Cao Cao, and they often insulted Cao Cao and were killed by Cao Cao, which is also one of the reasons.

Therefore, Kong Rong's death is not only pure disgusting Cao Cao, but also Cao Cao's non-cooperation and personal grudges with Cao Cao, Kong Rong's death reflects that the critics of the late Han Dynasty have fallen into the abyss of not being pragmatic, and they have become obsessed with good names. At the same time, it also shows that the orthodox Confucian scholars of the Qing school in the late Han Dynasty have fallen into a rigid situation, and they cannot change their power and cannot keep up with the development of the situation, which is out of date.

And now the situation at the end of the Han Dynasty, the ten permanent servants or relatives are relatively much better than Boss Cao. And although those scholars experienced Wang Mang's setbacks and the continuous killing of the prime minister, they still did not stop pursuing the beautiful ideals of human politics. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when the eunuchs were rampant and the world was full of complaints, they rose up to fight, killed and severely punished the children and relatives of the lawless eunuchs, so as to maintain social justice and purity, and uphold justice for the people.

However, even so, in the two successive disasters of the party, no one was able to resolutely rise up in anger, regardless of his personal 'infamy', directly took down the root cause of all this, set things right, cleaned up the filth, and calmed the world, it cannot be said that Huo Guang scolded them wrong. (To be continued.) )