The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 571: The Deadly Situation
Li Yan picked up what he had written and took a look at it, shaking his head. After all, he did not start learning from a blank piece of paper with a pure mind. He lacked the innocence and elegance of a child. No matter how hard he practiced, he could not get rid of the mold left by his hard work in junior high and high school.

At most, they are only seven points similar in appearance. As for their spirit, it is probably less than three points.

Li Yan felt a little ashamed. Wenjun's own calligraphy was just as she said, about 70% of Mr. Youjun's level. She was probably encouraging herself by saying this.

We are not saints, and we cannot always have the upper hand! Li Yan comforted himself in this way. Fortunately, he did not rely on calligraphy to gain a foothold.

Wenjun saw Li Yan calm down, and a hint of disappointment flashed across his eyes. Then he thought of something, perked up, and asked in confusion: "Your Highness, didn't you often say that Fan Xing followed you for six or seven years, and that you had a deep relationship with him, and you couldn't bear to see him being punished by the court."

"Now he is imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, and many ministers in the court are clamoring to execute him. They are making a fuss in front of the Hongwen Hall every day. Are you really not going to plead for him?"

"Wenjun, have you heard of the story of Zigong redeeming people and Zilu receiving cattle in the Spring and Autumn Period?" Li Yan said slowly with a heavy heart.

Wenjun's expression froze, and then she fell into deep thought, nodded silently, and stopped asking questions. Li Yan looked at the beautiful pond outside the window and sighed silently.

The two men stood in front of the desk, neither speaking. The guard commander Heng Lian, who was serving beside them, had a puzzled look on his face. He didn't understand why the two people who had been so happy and even a little ambiguous just now now had extremely solemn expressions!
Is it because I'm standing here?

In the evening, Heng Lian arranged the guards of the Eastern Palace, went out of the Xuande Gate alone, turned left and entered the palace from the Anli Gate of the Taiji Palace. He passed through various palace barriers and came to the Chengqing Hall, where he reported the prince's daily life to Li Shimin who was having dinner.

While eating dinner, Li Shimin absentmindedly flipped through the memorials on the table.

Heng Lian was already familiar with this kind of situation. Seeing that there were no other ministers present, he bowed respectfully and said to himself, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince got up before dawn at the beginning of the morning hour again today, and then jogged around the small lake in the East Palace for almost an incense stick of time, and then practiced his own boxing style in the garden for half an hour."

"I had lunch at the first quarter of the morning. I drank a bowl of porridge and two mutton patties. Then I spent the whole morning studying court rules and laws with the Grand Tutor. I took a nap for half an hour at noon. In the afternoon, I practiced horseback riding and archery for an hour at the small horse farm in the East Palace."

"Then I wrote and painted in the Chongwen Hall. After dinner in the evening, I read for a while and then went to bed early."

"Um"

Li Shimin listened to Heng Lian's report without raising his head, and his eyelids did not even move.

Li Yan's life was like this for 360 days, nothing new, and the report to Henglian was also routine. Li Yan was a half-grown child, staying in the prince's palace, under the eyes of so many people, what tricks could he play?

Li Shimin often knew about the prince's food, clothing, housing, transportation, living habits, and rest patterns. It was more of a concern. He wanted to cultivate an excellent prince, not for the purpose of surveillance and prevention. The young prince Li Yan was still far from growing up to the level that could threaten Li Shimin!

Now, there is no right for an emperor like Li Shimin, who has walked out of blood and fire, to be on guard. If Li Shimin has to be cautious even with his young son, then he should not be the emperor.

Any minister picked out from the court is more threatening than Li Yan.

In fact, in the original drama, Li Shimin was afraid that Li Chengqian was too weak and immature, and he tried very hard to support the prince, but failed.

"Did you tell him what I asked you to tell him?"

Heng Lian said: "I followed the emperor's instructions and reported Fan Xing's imprisonment, including the details of Suizhou's fall, to the crown prince. The crown prince wanted to plead for Fan Xing, but for some reason he gave up in the end!"

"Oh?"

Li Shimin seemed a little surprised. This didn't seem to be what he had always known about his eldest son. He asked in confusion, "Didn't he tell me the reason?"

"The maid Wenjun asked the prince why he didn't plead for Fan Xing. The prince seemed to say something at the time, and then Wenjun remained silent. His Royal Highness was also very depressed. However, I have never read books before, so I don't understand what it means."

"Oh, what did the prince say at that time? Can you repeat it to me?" Li Shimin raised his head and asked with interest.

Although Henglian didn't understand, he still had a good memory. Recalling the scene at that time, he said: "The prince's original words seemed to be to the maid, Wenjun, have you ever heard of the story of Zigong losing people and the skinny cow on the road during the Spring and Autumn Period? Then the two of them stopped talking."

"During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zigong lost people and skinny cows on the road?"

Li Shimin muttered a few words, frowned and touched his head, and suddenly realized it. Zigong redeemed people from "Lüshi Chunqiu", which roughly means: Lu has a law. Lu has been at war for many years, and many Lu people have been exiled to foreign countries and become slaves. If there are wealthy families who go abroad to study and do business and can redeem them and bring them back to the country, they can go to the treasury to reimburse the ransom and travel expenses. "

"Once, Confucius' disciple Zigong's family was rich. He redeemed a dozen people from Lu State while he was abroad. After returning home, he refused to accept the state compensation. He was praised and came back to show off to his teacher.

Confucius angrily accused Zigong of this and said, "Zigong has done something wrong. From now on, the people of Lu will not redeem slaves from other countries. If you accept compensation from the state, it will not damage your character. But if you do not accept compensation, no one in Lu will redeem their fellow countrymen who have died."

Another disciple, Zilu, rescued a drowning man on the roadside. The man gave him a cow to thank him, and Zilu accepted it.

Confucius was delighted when he heard about this and praised Zilu, saying, "From now on, the people of Lu will be brave enough to rescue people who fall into the water."

Zigong used his own money to do a good thing, and his starting point was good. He should have been set as a moral model for everyone to learn from, but why did Confucius criticize him?
Where exactly was Zigong's mistake?
Not accepting the ransom may seem noble and selfless, but in fact it is a moral burden, which has brought public pressure to the natural principle of "ransom money". Therefore, Confucius said that this would cause many people in Lu to be unwilling to redeem their own people even if they saw them become slaves.

The redemption of a person was rewarded with money. When a person from Lu was redeemed, the redeemer would not only receive praise, but also receive the deserved reward, and might even be able to report some extra fees.

Gaining both fame and profit is also a kind of balance.

However, Zigong broke this balance. If people redeemed slaves and asked for the reward in the future, they might be regarded as greedy and laughed at by others, and ridiculed as not as good as Zigong. In this way, after saving slaves, they would either be laughed at or suffer losses.

Over time, people would gradually turn a blind eye to the suffering slaves, and no one would be willing to rescue them.

What a sage does can change customs, and what he teaches can be passed on to the people, but a sage does not just consider what is suitable for himself.

At that time, there were few rich people in Lu and many poor people. Zigong would not lose anything if he accepted the reward from the state. But if Zigong did not accept it, it would raise the moral standard that everyone could achieve to a level that most people could not reach, which would discourage many people from redeeming people.

Most people in a country are ordinary people who seek benefits and avoid harm. Not everyone has a family background like Zigong, nor does everyone have high moral cultivation like the disciples of the saints. When issuing any decree, we must consider whether the majority of the people can implement it, rather than targeting a small number of particularly good or evil people.

Zi Gong's good intentions destroyed a good policy that benefited the vast majority of poor people at the bottom of the society in Lu!

When Zilu saved a man and then received the cow, he was advocating a rule that good deeds will be rewarded and that efforts should be rewarded.

It will encourage more people to do good things and help others.
Li Shimin understood Li Yan's thoughts after a little thought, and an expression of admiration appeared in his eyes.

Fan Xing abandoned the city to alert the court, and knelt down before the enemy to stop the Hu people from committing violence against the people. Like Zigong, he did this out of kindness.

If the court turns a blind eye to this, then in the future those who are cowardly and afraid of death can find excuses and use Fan Xing's previous example to exonerate themselves, and surrender to the enemy or kneel down to beg for their lives.

The constraints of the country's laws on local pastors will disappear completely, and a moment of impatience will lead to sacrificing the big for the small, which will cause endless troubles!

If Fan Xing was spared, countless people would be harmed in the future. Fan Xing knew this clearly, so he chose to commit suicide. This is the greatness of Fan Xing. He was both loyal and righteous, but the only thing he did was to sacrifice himself.

This is the truth: Fan Xing's circumstances are excusable, but his crime is unforgivable.

It is really difficult to establish a good rule. The difficulty lies in engraving it into people's bones, and the subsequent people who maintain the rule must have a big picture and not destroy the Great Wall because of temporary gains and losses. Once a precedent is set, there will be a constant stream of exceptions, and finally it will all disappear.

In fact, by chance, the son of Jie Li forced Fan Xing into a deadly situation. He threatened the people of the city and demanded that Fan Xing kneel down. Unless he was a villain, anyone in this situation would die.

If Fan strictly abides by the laws of the court and ignores the deaths of the people in the city, Fan Xing would be a selfish hypocrite who disregards the lives of ordinary people for the sake of his personal reputation. This is contrary to universal values, because what people advocate is burning themselves to light up others.

But if he kneels down to save people, he will violate the laws of the court, just like Fan Xing did not want to kneel but had to kneel, and the court did not want to kill but had to kill.

Li Yan is so young, but he understands such profound principles. It is enough to show how seriously Li Yan studies, how solid his basic skills are, and how he can apply what he has learned to govern. It is extremely rare and precious that he looks at Fan Xing's affairs from the perspective of a crown prince.

(End of this chapter)