The two of them saw the main hall, and saw that in the center of the main hall were several rows of cases, which were already full of people, and there were many scholars and scholars standing next to them. After a few moments, the Master of Ceremonies stood on a high platform in the main hall and said loudly:

Today is the fifteenth 'Hundred Schools of Thought' in the Jixia School Palace, and this 'Hundred Schools of Thought' is presided over by Mr. Meng Lao, the wine lord of this Academy! You can speak freely, but you need to be polite and orderly, shoot the case before speaking, and do not attack and slander, insult and make noise!" After speaking, he said to Mencius, who was sitting on the stage next to the case:

"Your Excellency, please!"

Mencius stood up and said:

"This is the third time that Ke has presided over the grand meeting of the 'Hundred Schools of Thought,' but I am still very excited! I remember the first time I participated in this grand meeting more than 40 years ago, and I am filled with emotion! At that time, I put forward the viewpoint of 'human nature is inherently good,' but Shang Ying from the Qin State refuted it with the words 'human nature is inherently evil.' Shang Ying held that there are constant wars and chaos in the world, the hungry people change their children and eat, and the full ones are arrogant and lascivious; the people fight bravely and take strongly, and the world clan takes advantage of the power; the great husband is deceitful and the princes are lawless and kingly, these are all facts of 'human nature is inherently evil'! More than 40 years have passed, and I still have not found a strong argument to refute him, and it is sad and painful! Is human nature really so disappointing? I have devoted my life to benevolence and morality, but with little success, and I cannot help but doubt my own views. Today, I would like to ask all of you whether it is 'human nature is inherently good' or 'human nature is inherently evil'?"

As soon as the words fell, someone in the hall patted the case, and the celebrant said:

"Mr. Gongsun, please speak!"

"Under Gongsun Chou, please advise!" Gongsun Chou, a student of Mencius, bowed around and said:

If human nature is inherently good, the actions of our generation are to consolidate the basics and restore the original face of human beings; if human nature is inherently evil, there is nothing wrong with the actions of our generation in educating the people of the world and promoting the spirit of morality! Shang Ying is a Legalist, and in the view of the Legalists, if human nature is inherently good, the Fa will lose its most fundamental meaning and basis, so the Legalists naturally think that human nature is inherently evil! If at the beginning of human beings, they were as weak as water and as white as jade, so how could they be said to be 'evil'? So Shang Ying's point of view is naturally untenable!"

As soon as the words fell, someone took the case again, and the celebrant said:

"Tianzi, please!"

The person who took the case was Tian Piao, who was around the age of Tian Piao and Mencius, who were both Taoists and supporters of Legalism, and were figures on the same level as Mencius at that time. When everyone saw Tian Biao speak, they were silent, and only listened to Tian Biao:

More than 40 years ago, when Mencius and Shang Ying were arguing, Shenzi and I were both present, and both of us and Shang Ying were Legalists, and although we cannot say that we fully support Shang Ying's viewpoint, we still tend to support Shang Ying's point of view compared with Mencius's viewpoint! Shang Ying's argument that 'human nature is inherently evil' has listed all kinds of factual basis, which makes it difficult for people to refute it! Mr. Gongsun believes that human beings are weak and white at the beginning, and there is no evil at all, and Lao Yan believes that it cannot be overturned. The argument that human nature is inherently evil" is because human beings cannot be evil in the first place, but they cannot prove that human nature is not evil!

"Makes sense!" many people in the hall nodded, and Tian Xiao continued:

"Lao Tzu has a saying: 'For the world's streams, Changde will not leave, and return to the baby.'" For the valley of the world, Changde is enough, and it returns to Park. It can be seen that Lao Tzu also agreed with Mencius's view. As one of the inheritors of Taoism, Lao Yu naturally cannot deny the views of Daozun, and he also cannot refute Mencius's views! Mencius was puzzled by this all his life, and Lao Yu also felt the same way, and he asked the great sages here to give advice!"

"Tianzi is humble!" said someone in the hall. After a whisper, someone in the hall patted the case again, and the celebrant said:

"Mr. Gongsun, please speak!"

This time it was Gongsun Long, Wang Xu and Tian Dan saw that he was not very old, but there was a place in the hall, and they were curious about who he was, and someone happened to ask next to him, and the other person replied in a low voice:

"This person, Gongsun Long, is a disciple of Keiko, a famous representative of a famous family!"

Wang Xu and Tian Dan saw Gongsun Long's proud expression, thinking that there were shocking words, they couldn't help but have some expectations, and only heard Gongsun Long say:

"The debate between Mencius and Shang Ying has also been heard below, and the root of it lies in the words 'good' and 'evil'! I would like to ask you: 'What is good and what is evil?' If there is no distinction between good and evil, how can there be a debate between good and evil? Let me first ask you, what is good? What is evil?"

Wan Zhang said:

"Those who kill are evil, those who save others are good, those who harm others and benefit themselves are evil, and helpfulness is good; benevolence is good, tyranny is evil! There is a clear distinction between good and evil, what questions does the gentleman have?"

"King Wu Xing's benevolent and righteous army kills the enemy as a murderer, and the king of Xuan raises tyrannical soldiers to rescue the soldiers besieged by King Wu is also a rescuer, so how can you judge good and evil?" Gongsun Long immediately asked.

"The benevolent kill to save more people, and the violent save people to kill more people, and it's also clear!" Wan Zhang replied.

"Even if the matter of King Wu and King Xuan is clearly distinguished, right and wrong in the world may not be able to be clearly explained, right? Then let me ask you again: The day before yesterday, Lao Wang asked me to borrow five buckets of rice, and today I went to ask for it, but Lao Wang didn't return my rice, and he quarreled with me! May I ask sir, is my Gongsun Long evil or good?" Gongsun Long said.

Wan Zhang was stunned for a moment, and said disappreciably:

"It depends on the specific situation! If the old king still doesn't produce rice, it is not good for you to force him to return the rice!"

"If I don't have rice at home, even if he doesn't have rice, can't I ask him if I'm starving to death?"

"This ┄┄ is a bit difficult to say!" Wan Zhang frowned.

There was a whisper in the hall, and Gongsun Long clenched his fists and looked around and said loudly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the tiger and wolf are evil, and the swallow pigeon is good; this is what you think is good and evil in your hearts, and good and evil exist in your hearts! Therefore, good and evil lie in the hearts of the people! Therefore, the sage said: The benevolent see the benevolent, and the wise see the wise, and this is the truth! Good and evil are in the hearts of the people, and it depends on how you define them! If you define 'goodness' as weakness, then Mr. Meng's viewpoint is desirable; if you define 'evil' as taking, then Shang Ying's viewpoint is preferable! Lao Tzu Youyun: The good is like water, because it is weak; people are evil, and they intend to take, so they take it as evil! What do you think?"

"High theory, high theory!" many people in the hall praised.

Standing in the crowd, someone suddenly asked:

"May I ask Mr. Gongsun, which is evil and which is good between stone and wood, and what does Mr. think in his heart, and how do you define it?"

"Stones and wood have no life, and there is no distinction between good and evil!" Gongsun Long was stunned for a moment, and then replied.

"Lao Tzuyun's 'good is like water', and water is also an inanimate object, since water has good and evil, why don't stones and wood have it?" said the man.

Gongsun Long couldn't answer for a while, and the celebrant saw this and said:

"Please come forward and speak!"

When the seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy heard the sound, he went to the temple and bowed to Mencius:

"In Xia Lu Zhonglian, Mr. Jiu admired his name, because he supported Mr. 'human nature is good', so he took the liberty to ask questions!"

"Oh?" Mencius asked with a smile when he saw that he was almost a child:

"Are you my Confucian disciple?"

"Zai Xia is not a teacher's protégé, Zai Xia is just a carpenter, a public loser classman, just an unknown person!" Lu Zhonglian replied.

"He is a descendant of Luban, and he is also a master!" Mencius turned to Gongsun Long and asked:

"Sir, may answer his question?"

"Such a question cannot be answered below!" Gongsun Long said disdainfully.

"Where does the stone and wood come from good and evil, isn't this deliberately making things difficult?" someone in the hall whispered.

"The gentleman has been talking for a long time, but he just wants to say: There is no good or evil in the world, good and evil are only in the human heart! But this argument?" Lu Zhong said.

"Exactly!" replied Gongsun Long decisively.

"If that's the case, why bother making such a big detour, are you afraid that everyone here won't understand?" Lu Zhong said.

"Then let me ask this son, which is good and which is evil, stone or wood? Since the son thinks that human nature is inherently good, please also teach him!" Gongsun Long said angrily.

"I can't answer below, and I can't teach below! But I think that good and evil are not in people's hearts, and good and evil exist between heaven and earth!" Lu Zhonglian hugged his fists and retreated after speaking.

"Good and evil exist between heaven and earth! Well said!" someone in the hall praised, and then there was a discussion, and Mencius said:

"The debate between the two teenagers is very wonderful and convincing! The old man thinks that perhaps we are getting closer and closer to the truth! I also ask you here for the two sons, are there good and evil in stone and wood? If so, which is good and which is evil?"

As soon as Mencius's words fell, an old man in the hall gently patted the case, and everyone saw that it was Gao He, the predecessor of the Mo family, and they were all waiting for him to speak.

After the celebrant spoke, Gao He said:

"My Mo family ancestor worships ghosts and gods, and some people once ridiculed the ancestor for 'having ghosts in my heart'! The Holy Ancestor replied with a smile: 'Ghosts and gods exist between heaven and earth, if my mind can hold heaven and earth, ghosts and gods are in my heart!' Mr. Gongsun believes that good and evil lie in people's hearts, and I also agree with the truth that good and evil exist between heaven and earth! In the world, we often find it difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and it is difficult to distinguish between good and evil, but good is good, and evil is evil, no matter what we think, it also exists between heaven and earth like mountains and rivers!"

Before Gao He finished speaking, there was a burst of applause in the hall! Gao He continued:

"There is good and evil in man, good and evil in birds and beasts, and good and evil exist between heaven and earth, but is there no good and evil in wood and stone? Even if it is difficult for us to distinguish between good and evil, it does not mean that they are not good and evil!"

After Gao He finished speaking, he sat down, and Mencius continued:

Mr. Gao He is worthy of being a predecessor of the Mo family, and today the old man has also been taught! There are good and evil in heaven and earth, and there are also good and evil in human nature! More than 40 years ago, the old man said that he could not talk about Shang Ying, but the old man never admitted defeat in his heart, and he was never willing to admit the view that 'human nature is inherently evil'! Once this argument is admitted, it is easy for people to excuse the bad and evil things they have done, and they are unwilling to do good deeds sincerely! The reason why the old man adheres to the viewpoint that 'human nature is inherently good' is that he hopes that the world can take this as his belief and will' Kindness is our nature, and as the Tao that exists between heaven and earth, so that people can see hope and have warmth in the world!

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency!" Someone loudly interrupted Mencius's words without filming.

"Please, please!" said the celebrant.

When the man heard this, he patted the case and said:

"Lord Sacrificial Wine, since today is a hundred schools of thought, everyone has something to say, and they are talking about things, but they can't incite people's feelings and grandstand! Although I am a nameless member of the Legalist family, I can't let people count down my Legalist predecessors at will!" This person is Han Geng, a nobleman from Xinzheng, South Korea. Han Geng was Han Feizi's uncle, and he had a deep influence on Han Feizi's later success in the Legalist family.

"How can Mr. Han be a nobody?

"That being the case, we only talk about good and evil, and everyone present can speak freely without worrying!"

"Lord Sake, may I speak?" The crowd heard only the voice of a child, but they could not see anyone.

"Let Jean, let Jean!" A ten-year-old child finally squeezed out and bowed to Mencius:

"Teacher Mencius, can I speak?"

Mencius smiled, and before he could answer, the celebrant next to him shouted softly:

"I know you, what the teachers said today is the right thing, you hurry down!"

"Don't worry, he can say!" Mencius stopped.

"I said that if the adults are unhappy, will they punish me?" Xun asked again.

"You say, I will definitely not punish you!" Mencius said with some surprise in his heart.

"Every time my father punished me, he would say to me, 'Facts speak louder than words, and you still quibble!', may I ask you, my lordship, is that so?" a childish voice asked, and many people in the hall laughed when they heard it, and hurriedly responded:

"Yes, not bad!"

"Since Shang Ying won over Teacher Mencius with facts, if the teacher wants to win him, he can only rely on facts to speak! All of you adults are passionate about words, but you can't tell the facts to prove the inherent goodness of human nature, aren't they all nonsense!" Xun Jing finished speaking to Mencius, and turned to everyone.

When everyone heard this, the hall suddenly fell silent, but they didn't expect a child to say this!

Xun Kuang's immature eyes looked at everyone, and then turned to Mencius and said:

"The Lord of the Wine Sacrifice is a good person, but the Lord lives above the temple, and he can only do good deeds if he has food and clothing! Although there is no shortage of good people and good deeds in the world, how many people can do good deeds with a hungry stomach? I think that even the priests would not give their food to others when they are hungry, right?

Mencius was stunned when he heard this, but he didn't expect that his impassioned words would make a child speechless. When he was confused, Han Geng said:

"This kid is right, facts always speak louder than words! Looking at today, the princes are constantly conquering and killing people in the world are killing one after another; the people of the world are deceitful and only for profit; and there are very few people in the world who do good like fireflies in the night! The fundamental reason for this is that 'human nature is inherently evil'! Mr. Meng has the virtue of a gentleman, but the inherent goodness of human nature is only a wish, not the truth!"

There was a whisper in the hall, and at this moment, Song Yu stood up and said loudly:

"Everyone, Song Yu will say a few words!"

Song Yu was a Taoist master and was quite respected, and many people in the palace recognized him, so they stopped to listen to him. 宋钘 says:

"Just now Mr. Gongsun Long said that 'good and evil lie in the hearts of the people', and Lu Zhonglian said that 'good and evil exist between heaven and earth', in my Taoist view, the two are not contradictory. If a person can hold heaven and earth in his heart like Mozi, good and evil are both between heaven and earth, and also in his heart! If the theory of 'human nature is inherently good' of Lord Sacrificial Wine wants to defeat Shang Ying's theory of 'human nature is inherently evil' in fact, everyone knows in their hearts that this is an impossible fact! If the truth is the inherently evil of human nature, the world will be slaughtered continuously, the world will surely suffer, the world will definitely fall into reincarnation, and in the end it will only lead to destruction! Only when human nature is good, will the bloodshed stop, the plunder will disappear, the fraud will be reduced, and the light will remain in the world!"

"In this way, after all, 'human nature is evil'?" someone next to him asked.

"Human nature is inherently good, it must be human nature!" a few more people shouted.

While everyone was still arguing, Wang Xu saw Xun Jing going out, so he said to Tian Dan:

"That kid is interesting, let's go, go see that kid!"

"I haven't decided the winner yet, listen to it for a while!" Tian Dan said.

"Aren't you not interested in the battle of words?" Wang Xu said with a blank look.

"It's okay to listen to it┄┄Okay, let's go!" Tian Dan said and walked out with Wang Xu.

The two of them went out of the main hall gate, walked a few steps, and saw Xun Kuang sitting on a stone in the apricot grove, Wang Xu asked:

"Xun situation, the inside is not finished yet, why did you run outside?"

"I'm talking nonsense with my eyes open, I can't listen to it anymore!" Xun Jing looked up at him and the two of them:

"Gentlemen, teach us righteousness and morality every day, if human nature is good, why do we need to teach so much every day? Where can there be so many wars and killings in the world? Isn't this a lie?"

When Wang Xu heard this, he glanced at Tian Dan, looked around again, picked up a white stone on the ground, and asked Xun Qian:

"What color is this?"

"White!"

Wang Xu threw the stone into a sewage pit at the foot of Xun Qian, and then said to Xun Qian:

"Take out the stones!"

Xun Guo took out the stones in the sludge, and Wang Xu asked again:

"What color is it now?"

"Black. Xun replied.

"If human nature is originally white, but the world is black, then after people are born, won't they be the black you see?" Wang Xu asked with a smile.

"Yes!" replied Xun in confusion.

"People believe in their eyes, but their eyes can't see the truth of the facts, and if they want to see things as they are, they rely on wisdom, not their eyes!" Wang Xu said.

"What do you mean by 'human nature is inherently good'?" Xun said in confusion.

"I didn't say that! You want to know the answer by wisdom, not by eyes, not by ears!"

"Excuse me, sir, how can a person have wisdom?" Xun asked him.

"If a person wants to have wisdom, he can't be self-righteous, listen to half of it, learn half of it and run out!" Wang Xu said with a smile.

When Xun Jing heard this, he stood up and bowed to Wang Xu:

"Sir, please bow to me, the student is wrong!" he said and ran towards the main hall.

The two of them laughed when they saw that he was so young, but he was so serious.

"How is this kid?" Wang Xu asked Tian Dandao.

"Far-reaching, strong-willed, if there is a master, he will become a great talent one day!"

"It depends on his creation!" Wang Xu said:

"This argument seems boring, but it actually has a lot of meaning!"

"Good and evil are like yin and yang, coexisting between heaven and earth, restraining each other, and repeating the cycle!

"Yes! It is not easy for Song Yu to say that 'there is no contradiction between good and evil in people's hearts and heaven and earth'!"

"I think Lu Zhonglian is a talent and a friend to make!"

"Yes, this man will surely be famous all over the world one day!" replied the king.

The two said that they had left the gate of the school palace, and Wang Xu said:

"Senior Brother Su Qin is in the Qi Kingdom right now, why don't you go and pay a visit to him?"

"I've heard of Su Zi's name for a long time, but I want to see it! It's just that he has been the secretary of state in my Qi country for many years, but he has made no achievements, I'm a little strange!"

"Yes, there are not many people in the world who can be taught by the teacher himself, and Su Zi is also one of them, with his talent and fame, it really shouldn't be like this!"

"I heard that Tian Wen's attack on Qi was Su Zi's suggestion, I think with Su Zi's strategy, I wouldn't have thought that Qin would definitely send troops for Chu to relieve the siege!"

"In this way, we just went to see Tian Wen, aren't we overstepping our bounds?" Wang Xu laughed.

"Now Tian Wen's reputation is not under Su Zi, Tian Wen is the prime minister, I am afraid that Su Zi is unhappy in his heart, and he is unwilling to sincerely give him advice to attack Chu State!"

"Let's go, he'll know after a while!"