The ruling of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty left a reference for later generations of officials, but it did not end the controversy. Because this is no longer a judicial issue, but involves a deeper level.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, a similar case occurred in Liang State, which also killed his stepmother to avenge his father. The Minister of State, who actually managed the political affairs of the feudal state, reviewed the case and found that the crime of killing his mother had been committed, which belonged to the category of "great rebellion". It just so happened that the great Confucian Kong Jiyan passed by Liang Guo and told him that this was wrong, and explained the truth to him by the way.

"Spring and Autumn" records that Lu Huangong's wife, Wen Jiang, committed adultery with her brother Qi Xianggong. When Duke Lu Huan visited the State of Qi, Wen Jiang took the opportunity to say to Duke Qi Xiang: "Lu Hou has already found out that something is wrong, and he also told others, 'Gongzi Tong is not my son, but the son of Qi Hou. But Lu Huan Gong didn't say this, because Wen Jiang was in a hurry to borrow a knife to kill people, so he deliberately made it up.

When Qi Xianggong heard about it, he was very angry, so he found an opportunity to drunk Lu Huangong, and sent someone to break his ribs in the car and kill him.

Afterwards, Wen Jiang and his entourage returned to China with the body of Duke Lu Huan, and set up his son and son to be the same as Duke Lu Zhuang. However, Qi Xianggong's mismanagement led to the leakage of the matter. The people of Lu were very angry, and Wen Jiang hurriedly ran away, resulting in no one presiding over the subsequent series of ceremonies.

"The Legend of the Ram" and "Zuo Biography" believe that Lu Zhuanggong, as a son, should "be his father and mother", and sever his relationship with Wen Jiang in accordance with Zhou etiquette.

Therefore, Kong Jiyan believes that even if it is a mother, in the face of father's hatred, the relationship should be severed, and the stepmother should of course be even more so. Therefore, the prisoner did not kill his mother, but only killed passers-by, and should be charged with "not suing the official and killing without authorization", which should not be regarded as a great rebellion. Liang Xiang thought that this made sense, so he took his advice.

During the Han Dynasty, people advocated revenge, and those who took the initiative to take revenge could often get sympathy, and could get light sentences or even pardons from the government. Sometimes, in order to oppose the punishment of the avengers, officials will even voluntarily resign in protest.

In the Liang Ren case, Kong Jiyan can be regarded as giving a scholarly interpretation on the basis of the precedent of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. But that's the explanation, the explanation goes wrong.

There is no doubt that Wen Jiang is guilty or not. In fact, even in the Spring and Autumn Period, she was a relatively famous figure. Before marrying Duke Lu Huan, he was originally going to marry the crown prince of Zheng Guo. As a result, the crown prince of Zheng Guo would rather give up the foreign aid of a big country like Qi than accept her, and gave a reason of "Qi is not a coincidence" and sent her away. It can be seen how "famous" this person is.

There is no suspense in public opinion about this matter. Because of the Jiang women, there are too many things in Lu State.

Wen Jiang is already a very outrageous person, but there is a detail - her nickname is "Wen".

In other words, among the princes and wives of the Lu State, she is even more reliable......

Like Wen Jiang's own daughter-in-law and niece Mourning Jiang, she helped her lover Qing's father kill her son. The two of them killed two monarchs in a row, making the people of Lu think that "as long as Father Qing does not die, Lu will not be peaceful". In the end, Wai Jiang's uncle Qi Huan Gong couldn't stand it and personally killed her to calm down the chaos.

Some people believe that the reason why the scholars of the Lu State appear to be "conservative" and do not want women to interfere in politics is not because they follow the Zhou rites - if they strictly follow the Zhou rites in the early years, the women's power will be greater.

This trend of thought may be simply because they were tossed too badly by these women of Qi State.

As Socrates said, an unhappy marriage makes one a philosopher. I don't know if the many scholars of the Lu State and the Confucius family have verified this sentence......

In recent years, some Shang and Zhou stories were popular in the Central Plains, and Guo Kang had seen merchants bring them for sale before. Among them, there is also the story of Jiang Taigong and the fox spirit fighting method.

When the teaching gentlemen saw this book, they privately complained that this story was probably aimed at folk readers. After all, anyone who is familiar with the Spring and Autumn Scripture knows that Jiang Taigong's own daughters are much more terrifying than fox spirits.

Why, then, do the scribes still have disputes in this situation? Because this is not just a matter of a case, but a few basic principles of etiquette. To put it more modernly, it involves the ideological issue of the Central Plains Empire. The core of it is whether and whether you want to break off your relationship.

Such is the question of the exegesis of Kong Jiyan. His interpretation method is to analogy the biological mother and the stepmother, pointing out that the stepmother is not as good as the biological mother, but there are similarities between the two, and then leads to the Wen Jiang incident in the Spring and Autumn Period, so as to prove that the revenge of killing the stepmother is reasonable, and the punishment can be reduced as appropriate.

But this also means that there is only a degree of difference between the biological mother and the stepmother, and it is still basically the same level. So on the other hand, if the target is the biological mother, is there also a similarity with this stepmother murder case, and it is also reasonable and should be given a light sentence?

Kong Jiyan did not answer this question.

In fact, according to the view of the ramology that was popular in the early years, revenge should indeed be sought in this case. "The Legend of the Ram" believes that even if the biological mother is involved, it should be regarded as a severance of the relationship.

During the reign of Lu Zhuang, there was a solar eclipse in the country of Lu. At that time, people believed that the eclipse was the moon blocking the sun, and the moon was a symbol of femininity, and its corresponding body was the earth. Therefore, the people of the country gathered, gathered outside the temple, beat the war drums, and made it look like they were going to attack, so as to threaten the earth god and hurry up to end the solar eclipse.

According to the Ram Theory, this is a reasonable move, because the moon invades the sun first, so even if a mortal threatens the earth god, it cannot be considered disrespectful. These two things are also analogous, "Juewen Jiang is not unfilial, and the Wailing Society is not disrespectful" has also become a typical judgment standard.

It's a pity that historically, Lu Zhuanggong has not been able to do this. After some time, he said that he missed his mother and took Wen Jiang back.

The Ram Sutra also attacked this. Although Lu Zhuanggong's father is, Lu Huan Gong and Qi Xianggong may not be able to tell themselves, but since they inherited the position of the monarch of Lu State, they should give priority to their de jure father. Remembering one's mother is forgetting one's father, which is undoubtedly an act of forgetting one's roots.

So, at that time, it was the monarch and minister of the Lu State, what should be done, and to what extent should he retaliate?

It stands to reason that since the mother-son relationship has been severed, it should be treated as an ordinary person, and revenge can be taken as much as possible. The Ram Sutra has long been said: The king kills, the minister does not please the thief, and the minister is not the minister; The son does not take revenge, and neither does the son. Since the kings have been killed, the ministers should try to crusade against Wen Jiang, and Lu Zhuanggong should also actively take revenge.

In fact, there were many such things in the Spring and Autumn Period, even if the lord had been defeated, there were chivalrous men who insisted on assassinating the enemy and wanted to avenge him, and public opinion also regarded such people as righteous men and praised their conduct. According to this set of logic, it would be okay for the people of Lu to assassinate Wen Jiang.

However, Han Confucianism was very cautious about this, and most of the scribes were vague and consciously avoided it.

This may seem like a small problem, but at that time, revenge and reunification were the two foundations of the Ram Studies, which were once greatly promoted as the spiritual pillars of the Han Empire, and can be said to be its glorious background.

It's definitely not going to work if it's stuck so inexplicably.

(End of chapter)