Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 5026: Distinguishing Righteousness and Profits
Confucius said, "A gentleman talks about righteousness, while a villain talks about profit." "Wealth and honor gained through unrighteousness are like floating clouds to me." He was extremely disparaging of wealth and completely opposed gentlemen and villains. He said that those who talked about righteousness were gentlemen, while those who talked about profit were villains. He was extremely contemptuous of wealth. In fact, the vast majority of gentlemen who talked about righteousness were wealthy and well-fed...

Mencius was even more extreme, and even said, "Why talk about profit? It is enough to have benevolence and righteousness." He strongly disparaged money and believed that as long as one had "benevolence and righteousness", one could wear good clothes and eat good food.

When everyone is devaluing wealth and advocating morality, the poor can continue to be poor and even if they work hard, they can't even have a full meal, while the rich can enjoy their wealth with peace of mind, read books and write theories, and continue the perverse theory of "accepting poverty"...

The root of all this lies in the ancient understanding of wealth.

The ancients believed that the wealth of the world is constant, and if someone takes one more point, someone else will inevitably take one less point.

The Tao Te Ching says, "The way of Heaven is to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency." Its meaning is that the country should give benefits to the people and should not compete with the people for benefits.

In an era of low productivity and almost non-existent wealth circulation, this perception is understandable.

However, when the national treasury was full and the people were rich, the Tang Dynasty still used the Confucian methods to govern the country. This was either stupid or evil.

Xu Jingzong has always called himself a "small man who only cares about profit". Instead of feeling ashamed of it, he feels proud of it. How could he look down upon the Confucians' hypocrisy?
There is nothing wrong with pursuing morality and justice, but it is wrong to deceive the world that justice is more important than profit...

Kong Yingda glanced at Xu Jingzong and said, "A gentleman is ashamed to talk about profit. It's not that a gentleman doesn't know the benefits of profit, but he wants to use it to guide the social atmosphere. If a gentleman always mentions profit, people all over the world will flock to him. Where is the morality?"

The "gentleman" he mentioned does not only refer to a gentleman of morality, but also, like Confucius, refers to the ruling class above the temple. "Villains" are not "people of low morality", but ordinary people who accept the rule.

Those in high positions must set the trend and make people all over the world know the truth that "righteousness is more important than profit". If the ruling class advocates that profit is the most important thing, then no one will talk about benevolence, righteousness, and morality. A society that only values ​​profit and not righteousness will naturally be a place where people are in chaos and order is turbulent.

Although Xu Jingzong never considered himself a Confucian disciple, he had a high level of attainment in Confucianism. However, he did not dare to debate with Kong Yingda, as the other party was far superior to him in terms of academic knowledge, status, and prestige. How could he win the debate?

"I am not arguing about the meaning of profit, I only care about the wrong theories of wealth in the past. I want to tell the world with facts that wealth is created. When the whole country works hard, agriculture, commerce and any other means will create wealth. Wealth may increase or decrease, and it is definitely not constant!"

Now many officials have gradually realized that when wealth is buried in a cellar as copper coins, it is equal to zero and meaningless. However, when wealth circulates, variables will appear and it may even increase in value on the original basis. In short, when wealth circulation intensifies, it will become more and more.

Therefore, many people began to advise that the national treasury and the royal treasury should not hoard a large amount of money, but should spend it as soon as possible. No matter what means are used, as long as the circulation of wealth is increased, the entire empire will benefit.

This is the mainstream contradiction in the government and the public at the moment. It is not the distinction between "righteousness and profit" but the opposition between the two views of "wealth constancy" and "wealth circulation and appreciation".

Some say conservative, some say radical.

It is a collision of two ideas.

Kong Yingda shook his head and said, "As you said, it may be feasible to investigate and sort out the financial situation of the world and to find out the truth about wealth, but no matter what the truth is, it does not need to be made public. Some things should not be publicized even if they are right."

Xu Jingzong agreed with this: "The country needs to get to the root of the problem when formulating policies, but this is not necessary for external propaganda. 'People can be made to do what they want, but they cannot be made to know it.' It is enough to let the people know what to do, but not why they do it."

Kong Yingda glanced at him and was too lazy to say anything more.

The saying "The people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to understand it" has many interpretations even within Confucianism. What Xu Jingzong said here is naturally the worst interpretation, which is used to mock the Confucian idea of ​​"fooling the people".

The reason why he did not argue was that unless Confucius were resurrected to give a definite answer, no one could come up with solid evidence to explain its meaning, let alone refute the explanation of others...

Fang Jun smiled and said, "This is a misunderstanding caused by lack of rigor in writing. If the compiler of the Analects had added punctuation marks to make it possible to accurately punctuate sentences, why would there have been hundreds of years of disputes? The promotion of punctuation marks is urgent!"

There are no punctuation marks in ancient Chinese texts, which makes many sentences difficult to break down and increases ambiguity. Could it be that the ancients really were unable to invent punctuation marks?

No.

In fact, there were punctuation marks such as "dots" and "line marks" in the pre-Qin period. At that time, the punctuation marks were not standardized, their shapes were irregular, and they were extremely arbitrary. Most of the time, as long as the author himself knew their meaning... But it is not difficult to unify the punctuation marks on this basis.

The reason why standardized punctuation marks have not appeared is more because intellectuals have elevated books to an extremely high status, making it difficult for ordinary people to understand the meaning of a book even if they get one because they cannot break up the sentences. Only those who have inherited the book from their family can understand the books and classics. They emphasize "read a book a hundred times and its meaning will become clear" to show off the nobility of scholars.

Even today, many readers are still extremely averse to adding punctuation marks to books, believing that this lowers the threshold for reading and makes reading a "very low-level" thing...

Kong Yingda was a true Confucian scholar who devoted himself to the promotion and inheritance of Confucianism. He did not care about the so-called "scholarly superior" remarks. He nodded and said, "I have re-edited the Five Classics, modified or removed many of the specious remarks, and added punctuation marks to make its original meaning clear and understandable to all. However, if it is to be printed all over the world, it will cost a lot, and I need a lot of funding from the printing house under Erlang's name."

Fang Jun readily agreed: "It's a small matter, just let Master Kong know when the time comes."

Not only did he have no prejudice against true Confucianism, he even highly respected it. He only hated that later Confucians castrated Confucianism in order to cater to the rulers, eliminating many of the core meanings of Confucianism and leaving only some doctrines and propositions that were in line with the interests of the rulers. Even these were eventually distorted and misinterpreted, becoming accomplices in imprisoning thoughts and fooling society.

Confucianism is truly the treasure of China.

Xu Jingzong said sarcastically, "Although Master Kong is not from the Kong family of Qufu, he is the 32nd generation grandson of Confucius. The Kong family of Qufu respects you very much and follows your lead. The family also has a lot of land and countless assets. Why are you so stingy and outsource even such a small matter as printing books?"

He always loved money and never avoided it, but he hated those people who always claimed to be righteous and were ashamed to talk about profit but actually had billions of dollars in assets. Therefore, even when facing a great scholar of the time like Kong Yingda, he could not help but ridicule him.

Kong Yingda, however, walked away with his hands behind his back, ignoring all attention and leaving Xu Jingzong with only the back of his head.

Xu Jingzong: “…”

Fang Jun said with a smile: "Although Master Kong's family has thousands of acres of fertile land, they have sponsored poor students in the countryside to study for decades. All widows, widowers, and orphans can go to the Kong family during the New Year to receive a gift, whether it is money, grain, oil, or rice and cloth. No matter how big the family business is, it will soon be gone after decades of persistence. If it weren't for the money and silk bestowed by the late emperor and Your Majesty, I'm afraid they would not be able to hold on."

Xu Jingzong: “…”

He quickly trotted after Kong Yingda and said sincerely, "I am ignorant of the truth and speak nonsense. I hope Master Kong will not take it to heart."

He himself is greedy for money and likes to amass wealth. He hates those who talk about morality and ethics but are actually crazy about amassing wealth. However, he has a heartfelt admiration for those who truly spend all their wealth and are willing to help others.

Because he couldn't do it himself...

How could Kong Yingda pay any attention to this shameless villain who always talks about profit?

He doesn't care what other people think of him, whether it's praise or criticism, he doesn't care at all.

*****
Three days later, the exam was over.

At dusk, several gongs sounded, and the gates of the Chang'an and Wannian county governments were opened. The streets were brightly lit and crowded with people.

The candidates walked out of the examination room exhausted and listlessly, carrying many examination materials with them. The attendants and servants who were waiting to greet them smelled the foul smell of their husbands, and saw the untidy beards on their pampered faces. They quickly stepped forward to take the examination materials and returned to their respective residences.

Fang Jun and invigilators including Kong Yingda, Xu Jingzong, and Li Anqi all breathed a sigh of relief. No accidents occurred during the exam and they completed their invigilation tasks smoothly. The exam finally came to an end.

However, although the candidates had left, the four men's task was not yet completed. They personally supervised the officials of the Ministry of Rites to collect and organize hundreds of test papers, put them into boxes, and transported them to the Ministry of Rites by horse-drawn carriage. They then sat in the Ministry of Rites to preside over and supervise the work of covering the names and transcribing the papers overnight.

The entire Ministry of Rites was brightly lit all night long. The Ministry itself was short-staffed, so dozens of officials from the other six ministries, the Secretariat, and the Shangshu Province were withdrawn...

It was not until the next morning that all the work was completed, and then the test papers were escorted into the Taiji Palace. In the Wude Hall, they were publicly reviewed and graded by a group of prime ministers and great scholars who had not participated in the examination.

Inside the side hall.

Fang Jun and other invigilators including Kong Yingda, Xu Jingzong, Yan Shigu, Liu Li, Li Anqi, and Yuwen Jie sat on their chairs. They had not been able to return home for many days and were all exhausted and listless. They had no desire to talk or chat.

A palace maid came in quietly, lowered her head and came to Fang Jun under the gaze of her master. She placed a food box in her hand on the coffee table, took out a few plates of cakes, some side dishes, and a pot of rice wine, and placed them one by one.

She said softly, "Your Highness knows that the general has worked hard for many days, so he prepared breakfast and asked the servants to bring it to you. Please enjoy it, general."

The rest of the people: "..."