Diqin Designer

Chapter 27 Discussing Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism with the First Emperor

After defending himself, Li Nian officially began to speak: "Except for a few schools, all the various schools of thought have their own political ideas, that is, ideas for governing the world, such as Confucianism's revival of Zhou rituals, Taoism's inaction and governance, and Mohism's universal love and non-aggression..."

"During the Spring and Autumn Period, people's minds were changing, and the various schools of thought sought better ways to govern the world, and thus put forward various propositions. There was nothing wrong with this. The problem was that these propositions ignored certain factors. In the words of later generations, they ignored objective factors and were too subjective."

"For example, Confucianism believes that restoring the rituals and music system of the Zhou Dynasty will bring peace and prosperity to the world, but it does not consider whether people want to return to the environment of the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius encountered obstacles everywhere and his teachings were not adopted."

"The same is true for the Taoist and Mohist schools. Is the Mohist school's 'universal love and non-aggression' good? Of course it is good. Treat strangers as if they were your own family members!"

"If I were a stranger and met a Mohist disciple who believed in 'universal love', I would definitely be very happy. But if I were a relative of a Mohist disciple, what would I think? I would probably hope that my relative could be closer to me."

After talking about Confucianism and Mohism, Li Nian talked about Taoism: "Taoism, Huang Lao's philosophy of 'doing nothing but achieving everything' is more desirable than Mohism and Confucianism, but when should we do nothing, what should we do, what is the degree of doing nothing, and what is the amount of doing nothing?"

"'Nothing is impossible' is also like this. When can nothing be impossible? What can nothing be impossible? What degree can nothing be impossible? What amount can nothing be impossible? A learned and wise person may be able to grasp the degree, but how many learned people are there in the world?"

The Huang-Lao school of thought sounds very good. It respects the laws of nature, opposes blind actions by kings and princes, advocates giving full play to the subjective initiative of subjects, and advocates "waiting for the right time to act" and "acting according to the time."

But how to grasp the "time" and who decides it? The king or the subjects? The learned or the illiterate common people?

How do we know whether this “time” is grasped accurately? Does everyone and every class grasp the “time” the same? If it is different, what should we do?
Simply put, governing the world with Huang-Lao teachings lacked relatively unified standards and systems, and everyone was too free, but this was not conducive to the stability of the world and the consolidation of imperial power.

There were rebellions of princes in the early Han Dynasty, rebellions by the King of Jibei and the King of Huainan during the reign of Emperor Wen, the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" during the reign of Emperor Jing, and the growth of local powerful people. One of the reasons was that the "non-interventionist" policy of Huang-Lao school provided conditions for the development of princes and local powerful people.

How could Emperor Wu of Han, who was power-hungry and ambitious, tolerate this? He naturally adopted the self-reformed Confucianism and kicked out the Huang-Lao school of thought.

"If you use Huang-Lao's teachings to govern the country, it may be OK when the country is just beginning and there is a lot of work to be done, but if it goes on for too long, disasters will surely occur."

People can only have relative freedom, not absolute freedom.

Li Nian's answer to Ying Zheng was: "Because the constraints of Huang-Lao's teachings on the world are too loose, and people's desires are endless, disasters will arise naturally, which is not conducive to peace in the world."

In fact, as the dynasty's society stabilized and the economy recovered, Huang-Lao philosophy gradually failed to adapt to the needs of social development.

"If Confucianism is to be realized, everyone in the world must be a gentleman; if Mohism's way of governing a country is to be realized, people must be equal in terms of closeness and distance; if Huang-Lao's teachings are to be realized, everyone must abide by the law, not be greedy, and not have delusions. If this can be achieved, the world will be united!"

The Confucian, Mohist and Taoist philosophies on governing a country are different, but in terms of the ultimate goal they all want to achieve, they all want universal peace and a utopian world.

But how can people be without desires and selfishness?
Therefore, although the ideas of governing the country proposed by the various philosophers were good, they were not practical, at least not practical for the current situation of the Qin Dynasty. The fact that Confucianism was later chosen by Emperor Wu of Han was because it had transformed itself.

After listening to Li Nian's analysis of Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism, Ying Zheng said: "Legalism is not suitable for governing the Qin Dynasty. Is it the same reason as Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism?"

Li Nian said: "There is a well-known knowledge in later generations, 'Everything in the world is in motion', which can also be understood as 'Everything in the world is in change'. May I ask the king, how does Shang compare to Xia, how does Zhou compare to Shang, how does the six kingdoms compare to Zhou, and how does my Great Qin compare to the six kingdoms?"

Ying Zheng did not answer this question, but said: "You mean that things are constantly changing, and the Qin Dynasty is also changing, and the Legalists are no longer suitable for the Qin Dynasty today?"

Li Nian nodded: "For a period of time, the Legalists were suitable for the Qin Dynasty, so the strength of the Qin Dynasty increased rapidly and surpassed the six countries in one fell swoop, but the current situation of the Qin Dynasty is different from that time."

"Back then, the power of the Qin State was weak and not strong among the other states. If Shang Yang had not implemented the reforms, the state would have perished. But now, the six states have been destroyed and the world has been unified. There is no rival for the Qin State in the Nine Provinces. Can we still use the Legalist law to govern the Qin State as we did before the unification of the world?"

"Your Majesty is no longer the King of Qin, but the ruler of the world. When you think about how to govern the world, you can no longer do it the same way as before. You must focus on the entire world. The people of the original six kingdoms are now also the people of Qin."

Zhu Yuanzhang also encountered a similar problem - the Case of the North and South Lists, but Zhu Yuanzhang handled it very well. He knew very well that he was the master of the world, not the emperor of the north or the south.

Ying Zheng's heart was shocked. Even though he had already thought of it, he still felt awakened when Li Nian pointed it out.

"Yes, I am not only the King of Qin, but also the ruler of the world. The Legalists can rule the Qin Dynasty, but they may not be able to rule the whole world. The Qin Dynasty today is different from the Qin Dynasty when our ancestors appointed Shang Yang. There was no Li Nian in the original history. Did I fail to figure this out, which laid the seeds for the fall of the Qin Dynasty?"

Ying Zheng asked himself in his heart, if Li Nian knew, he would definitely tell him: In history, you, the First Emperor, realized that you were the master of the world, so you "standardized the writing system, the wheel gauge, and the customs." It's just that you didn't realize that the Legalists of the past were no longer suitable for the current Qin Dynasty, and you still used the Legalists' method to govern the Qin Dynasty on the entire world, which not only made the Qin people unbearable, but the people of the six countries could not stand it even more.

In later generations, people often equate Legalism with rule of law. In fact, the two are very different. Legalism serves the king and is quite harsh and cruel to the people.

The Legalists had five methods of controlling the people: making them stupid, tiring, humiliating, weakening and impoverishing, in order to weaken the people's power in order to consolidate the king's rule.

This is not only the idea in "The Book of Lord Shang", but also the same idea in "Han Feizi".

Li Si played an indispensable role in the First Emperor's policy of "burning books and burying scholars". It was Li Si who persuaded the First Emperor to burn books based on the Legalist thought. Li Si was a Legalist!

In the past hundred years, the Qin people could still tolerate the governance of the Legalists, but now that they have unified the country, they are still using the Legalists to rule with high pressure. Even an iron string will break at some point, and the people of the six countries have never been treated like this before, which makes it more likely for them to become dissatisfied.

　The contents of this book are just my humble opinions, and I hope they can make you happy. Thank you for your support, thank you for your support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)