Guo Kang thought about it for a moment, and quickly decided to ignore Zhu Wenkui directly.

Jeanne Jr. seems to have the same idea. After she stopped Zhu Wenkui, she directly skipped the topic and asked about other things.

"If you follow this line of thinking, you will declare to the court in the future that you are not the legal system of Seris, so there is no competition, right?" She thought for a moment and said.

"Yes." Guo Kang nodded: "But on the other hand, we are people who can communicate." ”

"We've been here for a long time, we've dealt with a lot of people, and we're experts on barbarism. How so...... Most of the barbarians, in fact, are unreasonable. ”

It's not that these people were born with low morals—in fact, the Greeks were just that. The main problem is that they really don't understand. ”

"When we communicate, especially at the level of trade between countries, the first thing to consider is not good or evil. Ah, no, it's good and evil. Guo Kang said halfway through his words, and suddenly changed his words: "To be precise, it should be another type of good and evil - it is different from good and evil in personal relationships." ”

"I get it. Different strata of society have different morals. Jeanne nodded: "This belongs to political common sense, and it doesn't matter if you say it directly." ”

"This still can't be said directly, after all, we have to deal with the Central Plains civilization." Guo Kang said: "I plan to explain it this way: unlike the evaluation of good and evil between individuals, the main thing that countries look at is whether they follow the rules or not. If you abide by the rules and pay attention to order, it is good; If you do what you want and disrupt the order, you are evil. ”

"The people of the Central Plains like to spread moral evaluation to all aspects, and it is best for us to put forward a set of moral standards and use this as a banner to explain. In this way, it is easier to accept and less vulnerable to attack. ”

"Why is that?" Zhu Wenkui couldn't help but ask.

"Because the Central Plains civilization has a very large middle and lower class group." Guo Kang replied: "The development of other civilizations is the expansion of the lower layer, but the Chinese civilization is the downward expansion of the upper layer. ”

"In Europe, for example, with the economic and cultural recovery, the burgher class gradually emerged, and they belonged to the common people. Their civilian culture has emerged from the market and is self-contained. ”

"But that's not the case in the Central Plains. Since Confucius opened his private education, these newly emerged lower-class cultural people are all from the 'scholar' class. Their position is the lower class aristocracy. Confucius insisted on this, even if many of his students were already just commoners, he still used the requirements of 'gentleman' and 'scholar' every day to teach everyone. ”

"Others may not support the idea of a Confucian department, but their education system, and even the textbooks used, are emulated. Therefore, even with this atmosphere, it has become an important part of education in the Central Plains. ”

"Of course, with the rapid spread of education and the increase in numbers, the social class to which the new 'scholars' belonged moved more and more downward, and in fact changed from nobles to commoners. But these literate civilians still study and receive the same books and receive the same education as before. And this Confucian education system is very open, so that people who have a little money to go to school have begun to consider themselves nobles. ”

"Really?" Zhu Wenkui was a little surprised: "I can't see it." ”

"Because Confucius and his peers blurred the line between nobility and citizenship; Frequent wars have blurred the boundaries between citizens and freemen. Guo Kang replied: "So in the end, there is no clear boundary between educated household residents and nobles, and a broken family like Chen Ping, as long as he has gone to school, can call himself a 'wanderer', and he can indeed get a channel for promotion." Even if there are various back-and-forth in between, this trend cannot be stopped. ”

"Moreover, the aristocracy is also a large group, and it is not necessarily a nobleman who lives in luxury. But there's the simplest criterion – you can see if they're keen on discussing state affairs. ”

"There is no need for ordinary people to think about this, because the state management and they have nothing to do with it. If a group is habitually concerned about this, it means that they subconsciously think that it is something related to them. Now the scholars in the Central Plains are a typical example. ”

"It turns out that this is the meaning, and it seems to be ......" Zhu Wenkui thought for a while, and then said: "Then what impact does such a thing have on morality?" ”

"Originally, morality was stratified, but if it continues to develop like this, it can't be stratified." Guo Kang explained: "Originally, there were the morality of the aristocracy, the morality of the citizens, and the morality of the free people, but everyone's requirements were different. But when it is mixed up like this, it is impossible to distinguish it, and in the end there is a kind of morality left. ”

"At the same time, the 'scholars' who originally dominated the culture were the lower class aristocrats, but later a large number of commoners were added, which inevitably led to a change in the overall atmosphere."

And after these changes are completed, this is what we see now: the lower classes have their own morality, and they will think that this morality should be universal, and thus impose their own morality on the upper class. This may go beyond ordinary moral kidnapping, because behind it are yeoman farmers and small landowners, and the real threat of force is a rare phenomenon in many civilizations. ”

"Although the upper class did not want to accept it, it was the lower class that was the cornerstone of the dynasty because of the large number of people. Making them dissatisfied directly threatens the stability of the rule. So even if you pretend, the upper echelons have to pretend to be modest, filial, honest, kind and other morals. ”

"If you look at Europe, it's clear. Many of these morals are unnecessary and even harmful to the upper echelons. But it can't be helped, compared to the dissatisfaction of the lower classes, this bit of suffering is nothing......"

"That seems to be the case." Zhu Wenkui nodded: "Seris's side is probably the most demanding place for the morality of the upper class. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. ”

"It depends on the situation." Guo Kang said: "The demands of the civilians of Seris only appeared in their environment. And their environment is a serious surplus of talent. ”

"You see, in the past dynasties, the founding of the country was often only one state and one county, or even only two or three counties, which was enough to build a framework for a court that ruled the whole country. There is no shortage of people with management skills over there, and the vast majority of people just don't have this opportunity. ”

"So, they also have the confidence to select people with good morals."

"In other places, there may not be this condition - the upper class is almost capable, even if the morality is flawed, everyone can only pinch their noses and admit it. But in Seris, there are too many people to be officials. So why not ask for a more ethical person to go on? ”

So, although the actual selection is still difficult to control, this demand has persisted until now. In the future, I think it will continue. Guo Kang commented.

"Of course, there are definitely side effects to any phenomenon. The disorderly proliferation of moral requirements may be the flip side of this custom. ”

(End of chapter)