Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 150 Trend!

Su Che was very concerned about the revision of "Collected Annotations of Mencius". After reporting on his work the next day, he immediately sent someone to the Imperial Academy to find Su Yun, and the two began to study "Collected Annotations of Mencius".

Su Yun didn't have high expectations at first. After all, he had been debating with Zhang Dun for three months, over and over again, and thought that there was nothing left to change. But as soon as he debated with Su Che, he immediately felt something different.

First, Su Che's attainments in Mencius far surpassed Zhang Dun's. Although Zhang Dun was also very good at the interpretation of classics, the original classic he studied was the Spring and Autumn Annals, and his attainments in Mencius were much worse than those in the Spring and Autumn Annals.

However, Su Che took Mencius as his main classic, and his in-depth research on it was beyond the reach of Zhang Dun.

The questions raised by Su Che were much more difficult than those raised by Zhang Dun. Even though Su Yun had been immersed in Mencius for more than half a year, he still found it difficult to deal with the questions raised by Su Che.

Second, Su Zhe is good at scolding people... Oh, no, he is good at debating. Sometimes it seems that Su Yun is right, but when the debate really starts, Su Yun is still at a loss.

Of course, it’s not that Su Yun is not good at debating, but he doesn’t have enough experience in debating. Facing Su Che, who has rich experience in cursing... debating, he always loses his way and falls into Su Che’s words.

Of course, Su Che was not debating for the sake of debating, but to help Su Yun accumulate experience in advance.

When it comes to debating, others will not give in to you. They will use any tricks to refute you, stop your ideas, or overthrow your theories. Sophistry may be the simplest of them.

These were extremely difficult for Su Yun, and even made him unable to sleep or eat. The debate with Su Zhe caused Su Yun a lot of mental pressure. Sometimes he was speechless while debating with Su Zhe, and sometimes he couldn't help but get furious.

For example, today, Su Yun analyzed Mencius with the main purpose of justice, while Su Zhe repeatedly defined the concepts of a few words. Every time he defined a word, he overturned the entire concept, and Su Yun's main purpose could no longer stand.

This approach is similar to Su Yun building a beautiful castle. Su Zhe did not look at how good the castle's structure was or how beautiful its appearance was, but instead stared at the corner and said that this stone should not be used in this way. It was not suitable to be used here for the foundation, but was more suitable to be used as a rockery in the yard. He dug out the stone, and the castle lost its support and collapsed.

Every time, Su Yun had to argue back and forth with Su Zhe about the definitions of these words, without making any sense at all. The whole book of Mencius was torn into pieces, making it impossible to understand what he was saying.

Su Yun had just explained the main idea of ​​a chapter today, but Su Zhe started to question Su Yun about some of the words in it. Finally, Su Yun was so annoyed that he stood up and said angrily, "Uncle! Are you debating the scriptures or studying Shuowen Jiezi? How can you help the scriptures if you argue like this!"

Facing the furious Su Yun, Su Zhe remained calm and said, "So, you don't understand the definitions of these words?"

Su Yun was angry and said, "Everyone knows what these words mean at a glance, so why do we have to find out the truth? After arguing for a while, don't we just adopt their common definitions? What's the point?"

Su Zhe smiled and said, "It's meaningful to make you angry."

After Su Zhe said this, Su Yun's anger disappeared immediately. He bowed to Su Zhe and apologized, "Uncle, I lost my temper."

Su Che smiled and nodded, then stood up and put his hands on Su Yun's shoulders, pushing him into the chair, and said earnestly: "This is only the most superficial means in the process of debating scriptures. If you can't help it, then you should keep this collection of Mencius for your own enjoyment.

If you want the Collected Annotations of Mencius to be recognized by the world, you must defeat all those who have objections to it, have bad intentions, want to insult it, and refute it. Only by letting it appear in front of the world in an irrefutable manner can it reach the position it deserves.

People become famous because of the classics, and the classics prosper because of people. You will become famous because of this "Collected Annotations of Mencius", and "Collected Annotations of Mencius" will also prosper because of your ability.

In the next few decades, you will face countless questionings. Someone will torture you, question you, ask you to answer questions about the meaning of the scriptures, and question you with all kinds of sophistry.

If you answer fluently, they only need to thank you respectfully to cover up their bad intentions.

But once you are stumped, they will suddenly become famous. Everyone wants to take part in such a profitable deal.

So, you must first learn to deal with all the means.

in addition……"

Su Zhe looked at Su Yun and said, "...If you want your hard work to be passed down, or even become a famous school of thought and a mainstream in the imperial examination, then you may have to sacrifice your entire life.

Either you teach throughout your life and let more people pass on the "Collected Annotations of Mencius", or you let the "Collected Annotations of Mencius" be presented in the imperial lectures.

Or, like Jiefu Gong, he promoted the interpretation of the "Book of Songs", "Book of Documents" and "Book of Rites", also known as "New Interpretations of the Three Classics", in the Imperial College, so that the new learning would prevail for a time. "

Su Yun frowned and said, "Although this school of thought was famous for a while because of its high position, after Lord Jiefu stepped down, the new school of thought has already declined and will not last long."

Su Che laughed and said, "That's because the new learning is not good enough! In order to reform the law, Jiefu did not hesitate to tamper with the meaning of the classics to make it conform to the needs of the reform. In this way, it is inevitable that there are many mistakes and omissions. If there are loopholes, it is difficult for it to become a classic handed down from generation to generation.

Mr. Jiefu's achievements in the interpretation of the classics are unparalleled, but because of the new law, he was unable to interpret the classics impartially. The failure today is simply because the root of the problem is broken."

Su Yun nodded, but he only listened to 50% of what Su Che said. What Su Che said was consistent with his position.

If you ask an old party to evaluate the new party, it is difficult to hear a fair stance, so you can only believe half of it, and you need to think about the remaining half slowly yourself.

However, Su Yun understood what Su Zhe meant.

What Su Che meant was that if one wanted to make the Collected Annotations of Mencius a popular discipline, one should either start teaching it quickly or else it would be possible to create a trend only when there were more students and a large number of people.

Or they would go to the palace to give lectures on that highest platform. Once they received approval from the emperor and the dignitaries, it would be easier to form a trend through top-down promotion.

Or you can learn from Wang Anshi and use administrative means to force promotion, which can also create a trend in a short time.

As for whether it can really be passed down for hundreds of generations... well, Su Che didn't say. There are too many unexpected things and it's hard to predict. It's already amazing that the theory can be passed down while he is alive. As for the world after death, that's not his business.

It's hard to say.

Just like Mencius's theory, it is powerful, but from the Spring and Autumn Period to the present, isn't it still just a Zi section, and has not been promoted to a Jing section? Whether this theory can be passed down for hundreds of years depends on what future generations need, not what you propose.

In other words, if you make your knowledge popular now and many people know about it, it is possible that it will be picked up and used again by future generations.

But now no one knows about you, and your fate will eventually be buried in the long river of history.

There are basically no theories that were originally unknown and only became famous after being unearthed through archaeology thousands of years later.

This was just a small episode in the debate between the uncle and nephew.

However, although Su Yun was repeatedly attacked by Su Che, it aroused his competitive spirit and he was determined to defeat Su Che.

In the following days, Su Yun poured his whole body and soul into Mencius, and turned out all kinds of doctrines and knowledge from later generations. He added anything that could increase the persuasiveness of "Mencius Collection", and then deleted and refined it in the process of debate.

Su Yun didn't know that during this process, although Su Zhe seemed to be criticizing him a lot on the surface, he was actually deeply shocked in his heart.

In Su Zhe's view, Su Yun was like a treasure house, who could come up with new things, new ideas, and new theories every day. The things involved behind these things could almost be used to write a book.

But Su Yun seemed not to care at all. Any theory that was useless to Mencius's Annotations would be discarded, no matter how sophisticated it was. Only those theories that could form a solid foundation when used in the Annotations would be retained.

Su Che later came to a conclusion - Su Yun was a true genius!
Whether it is Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty or the three masters of the early Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, the two Cheng brothers, etc. in contemporary times, they are all far inferior to Su Yun!
This also inspired Su Che to polish Su Yun. He wanted to do his best to make Su Yun and "Mencius Annotations" the most dazzling pearls in the Song Dynasty and even in Confucian classics!

Confucianism has been formed since the Spring and Autumn Period, and has grown from its infancy to maturity, and from maturity to rigidity. Many people have been trying to improve Confucianism and revitalize it, but Su Che now believes that Confucianism will reach a new peak because of the emergence of Su Yun!
In this way, one with a competitive heart and the other with hope, it was like Mars hitting the Earth, bursting out with extremely bright light.

During this period, Zhang Dun also tried to join in, but found that the debate between the two Su brothers was so sophisticated that he could only listen and could not interrupt.

Ah, I can understand it all, but when I want to find out where the problem lies, when I want to put forward some arguments and evidence, hey, I open my mouth and don’t know what to say.

This made Zhang Dun feel a little frustrated. After all, he was able to teach Su Yun a few months ago. How come Su Yun has grown to this level in such a short time?
Oh, that’s not right. Su Che had never reached this level before. Even if he was studying Mencius, he definitely didn’t have so many new theories and new ideas.

The key is that although there are many new theories and new concepts, each one of them is in line with the classics, upright, and in line with the doctrine of the mean, which is amazing.

Although Zhang Dun couldn't interrupt, it didn't stop him from coming to listen every day, because it was so enjoyable to listen.

The debate between Su Yun and Su Zhe was not only exquisite and fluent in content, but the debating skills of the two were also breathtaking, giving people the ultimate enjoyment just by listening.

After listening for a while, Zhang Dun brought his two older sons to sit in. As one could gain something from listening to such a top-level debate, Zhang Dun would naturally not miss this opportunity to help his sons improve.

Later Zhang Ruo also came.

Once, when Su Yun was with Wen Huanghua and others, he let the secret slip, and then Wen Huanghua and Yang Bing insisted on coming to listen.

Wen Huanghua and Yang Bing, who attended the class for the first time, were amazed and immediately immersed in it. They studied hard every day with the handwritten copy of Mencius and the Collected Annotations of Mencius.

This of course attracted the attention of other young people. Under their questioning, Wen Huanghua and Yang Biao revealed the debate, and then twenty or thirty more people came to listen.

Fortunately, it was already summer. Every night, Su Che lit a bonfire in the yard and prepared water and food. Then Su Yun and Su Che sat in the yard and debated. The others scattered around the yard, watching the two debate.

Su Che was happy to see the arrival of Wen Huanghua and others, as this was another way of teaching.

At this stage, the Collected Commentaries on the Mencius had actually become complete, and there was no need to worry about people coming to listen, nor was there any need to worry about it spreading out.

Instead, it’s time to spread it.

With the arrival of Wen Huanghua and others, Su Che began to change the mode of scripture debate.

There was a period of time before, when he mainly questioned Su Yun, mainly to make him adapt to various despicable means, but now he mainly guides, or mainly supports, that is, to guide Su Yun to explain the essence of "Mencius Annotations" one by one, so that the audience can understand it more easily and gain more.

The charm of knowledge was fully demonstrated in this process. After listening for a few days, Wen Huanghua, Yang Biao and others were no longer willing to call Su Yun their brother. Every time they met, they would bow and call him "sir". When Su Yun was lecturing, they would always serve him tea and food and regard themselves as his disciples.

Su Yun didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and told them that there was no need to be so polite. They were all classmates and it would be most comfortable to get along with each other as they did before.

But Wen Huanghua and Yang Bing said that from now on they would be Su Lang's running dogs, and when speaking to the outside world, they would call themselves Su Lang's disciples.

Su Yun couldn't persuade them and could only let them do as they were.

Without Su Yun's promotion, after obtaining Su Yun's consent, Wen Huanghua and others spread the "Collected Commentaries on Mencius" in the Imperial College.

Although there were no public lectures, the "Collected Commentaries on the Mencius" had gradually spread, and students of the Imperial College also came into contact with the book. After reading it, they were all amazed and quickly spread it to people around them.

As a result, "Collected Annotations of Mencius" spread rapidly in Bian Jing, or among literati, forming a new trend of reading "Collected Annotations of Mencius". Some people even talked about Mencius and his annotated works at brothel parties, as if they would fall behind the trend if they did not talk about his annotated works.

This trend reached a climax when the autumn examination came and students from all over the country flocked to Beijing.

The examination in Bianliang had not yet begun, but the examinations in various prefectures and counties had ended long ago. This was because, considering that candidates from all over the country had to go to Beijing to take the exams, the prefectures and counties would usually conduct selection first to make it easier for the candidates to come to Beijing to socialize.

(End of this chapter)