Emperor Liu Wei of the Han Dynasty was a very skillful person.

He promoted the White Tiger Guan Conference purely from the aspect of consolidating the interests of the Han Empire's rule and personal interests, in order to let the Ancient Literature Bureau exchange interests, and reached a compromise with the Modern Literature School, demanding that the Modern Literature School give up the corresponding insistence and fully cooperate with the consolidation of imperial power.

This point is represented by the [Three Platforms and Six Disciplines].

The modern school accepted his conditions and fundamentally established the supremacy of imperial power, making it a power that no one could question, thus establishing a relatively strict social hierarchy.

Subsequently, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty inherited Liu Xiu's practice, and in response to the anti-theological ideological trend in the society at that time, he tried to formalize the doctrine of Wei Wei in a more orthodox name, and brought together the imperial power and theology, which was more firmly bound, so that the anti-theological ideological trend had no purpose.

This made the theological path of Confucianism from Dong Zhongshu more and more irrepressible, and went further and further on the road of idealism and superstition, and finally achieved the complete body of theology after the White Tiger Temple.

And in this regard, because it was abandoned as a sacrifice by Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, the ancient scriptures were not subject to too many restrictions in this regard.

Whether it is the treatment of prophecy or theology, the ancient scriptures are more or less affected, but the ancient scriptures do not have such a clear direction.

And Liu Bei, at least on the surface, cannot oppose the binding of imperial power and mystery, he cannot openly question the status and authority of the Son of Heaven, but in terms of the ideological current, he can do something.

Therefore, at this superstructure design conference, he asked the ancient literature school to uphold the concept of Confucius at the beginning and take the road that is most in line with the temperament of the ancient literature school.

Retro.

The core guiding ideology of the ancient literature school is also very simple, in a word.

Worship ghosts and gods and stay away.

I will not say whether they exist or not, nor will I explore this issue, but ask everyone to stay away from them, not to mention them, and to try not to provoke them in their daily life and political activities, let alone affect their daily administration because of some mysterious things.

Stick to two degrees.

Respect, distance.

Sacrifice, we sacrifice as usual, pray, we pray as usual.

But when it comes to national politics, it's still a little bit far away from them, and the most important point is that it is meaningless and very stupid to stop belittleing ministers because of some natural and man-made disasters.

"Heaven is constant, not for Yao, not for death, the emergence of such a virtuous ability as Shang Tang is because the ancients did something right? Is it because the ancients did something wrong that a faint monarch like Xia Wei appeared? If that's the case, they exist in an era, then did the people of that era do it wrong or do they do it right? ”

Liu Bei shook his head and said: "I'm very disgusted with such a statement, natural disasters are predicted, how can a person's evil deeds be decided?" If something happens, go and investigate whether it is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, and then investigate Yousi, which is fine. ”

Regarding Liu Bei's opinion, the bigwigs of the ancient literature school looked at each other, and then looked at Lu Zhi together.

They didn't dare to resist Liu Bei's wishes now, but they obviously realized that Liu Bei's idea was very different from the mainstream of reality.

Xunzi's academic thought has long been marginalized by the mainstream of Confucianism.

Because he was born in the Zixia school after the split of Confucianism, that is, the Xihe school, although he himself is not used to Zixia, but in terms of the overall style and thought, he is a proper successor of the Zixia school, and personally opened the glory of the Legalist school, a typical uprightness.

At that time, everyone was engaged in idealism, only you had to engage in materialism, not marginal you, who was on the edge?

The ruler needs someone to explain to him why he is a ruler, and to further solve why only he and his descendants can be rulers, this is the proposition composition, and the best way to solve the problem is to engage in occultism and superstition.

If the ruler engages in materialism, he will not be able to carry out a stable inheritance of his family and the world, and he will not be able to explain why his family can rule from generation to generation, unless future generations are coaxing.

And now, Liu Bei's thoughts are actually directly directed at Xunzi, and there is even a vague tendency to move closer to the Legalists, which can solve the former problem, but cannot solve the latter problem.

Isn't that a wonderful situation.

So Lu Zhi coughed a few times and looked at Liu Bei.

"Xuande, it's not that your suggestion is bad, it's just that, judging from the current situation, if we adopt such a strategy, not to mention whether the court can be recognized, how will the world view the ancient literature school? We are disciples of Confucius, not disciples of Xunzi. ”

"Of course I do, teacher."

Liu Bei smiled: "But since we have replaced the modern literary school, we must do something different from the modern literary school, otherwise, what is the difference between us and the modern literary school?" If nothing changes, everything is copied, and in a hundred years, a new school of ancient literature will be born to replace us. ”

This......

Everyone looked at each other, looking at Liu Bei with a smile on his face, and no one was speechless.

To put it bluntly, what they really want to do is to become the [Modern Literature School].

But Liu Bei said that there would be a new [ancient literature school] to replace them, and the time was even only a hundred years.

It's unbearable.

For the sake of the school, for the sake of their own family, they must find out what kind of thoughts Liu Bei, who can lead the direction of imperial court policy in a sense.

Cai Yong, who had not yet gone to perform his duties, sat at the front and asked Liu Bei questions.

"Xuande, how do you want to make a change?"

Liu Bei looked at Cai Yong and said slowly: "Cai Gong, we must make a distinction from the modern literary school, and we must correct the wrong practices of the modern literary school, otherwise, we will collapse faster than the modern literary school, what we have to do is to let the people of the world agree that it is natural for us to replace the modern literary school."

If after we replace the modern literary school, the Han Dynasty does not become better, but becomes worse, then how will the people of the world view the ancient literary school? What kind of face do we have to let the Han continue to govern the country with ancient classics? At that time, the revival of the modern literary school is unknown......"

Liu Bei's words made everyone approve and nodded.

They know very well that they replace the modern literary school, and the main attack is the poor performance of the modern literary school, so let the people of the world agree that after replacing them, the Han will be better, and this is the original reason for their ascension.

Now the eyes of the whole world are staring at them, if the big Han can't get better, but something bad happens, then isn't the foundation of their ancient literature school unstable?

That's not going to work.

Seeing that everyone nodded one after another, with a solemn look on their faces, Liu Bei nodded with satisfaction.

"Our generation has indeed been recognized by the imperial court and can replace the modern literary school, but it has not yet been recognized by the people of the world, and our generation must always be a little different, so that the people of the world can see the difference."

Lu Zhi did not object to this, but he had doubts.

"Xuande, your idea is good, but the literary school has dominated the Han Dynasty for more than 100 years, and many things have deeply affected the entire Han Dynasty, and they have changed suddenly, not to mention that we are not used to it, and the people of the world are not used to it, which is not a good thing."

"So, there is no need to be in such a hurry, but we must have a program, how to do it, how to operate, we must discuss it in advance, otherwise we will be caught off guard."

Liu Bei nodded and said: "On the side of the imperial court, the teacher and the disciple can work together to promote it, and there shouldn't be much change, so before that, the ancient literature school must reach an agreement from within." ”

Lu Zhi agrees.

"The inability of the modern literary school to reach an agreement from within is the reason for their demise, and the ability of the ancient literary school to reach an agreement is the reason for the success, but Xuande, the discussion is the consultation, and the pace must not be too big."

"The disciple knows."

Liu Bei nodded slowly, and then gave out some of his views.

Through the study of the White Tiger Tongyi, Liu Bei generally understood what the final maturity of the governance system of the Eastern Han Empire was.

To put it simply, it is theological governance, with the help of some methods of Confucianism, coupled with the theory of Xuanzhi and Xuanzhi, to turn the essence of Confucian classics into an unquestionable dogma.

In order to consolidate the position of the ruler of the Eastern Han Empire.

(End of chapter)