Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 171 "Tai Xue Lu Xiansheng's Comments on Su Shi" (4k)

However, just when the students were about to watch Lü Dalin's in-depth criticism, Lü Dalin stopped and said to the students: "Please help me collect these fragments of information circulating in the market. I need to study them.

In academic matters, it is unwise to quote something out of context. It is irresponsible to judge academic work based on a few words before knowing the full story. "

The students were a little disappointed, but they knew that Lu Dalin had a very rigorous attitude towards academic research, so such behavior was normal.

But then they became excited again: Lu Dalin wanted to conduct in-depth research, which showed that he was already dissatisfied with Su Yun and wanted to study him more. Once he found that his theory was inappropriate, he would definitely spit on it!
After class, Shao Bowen gathered his classmates.

"You have heard what Mr. Lu said. Mr. Lu hopes that we can collect Su Yun's remarks to do some research. We can also take this opportunity to do something practical.

Next, I will go deep into the market and collect these comments. If you are interested, you can follow me.

Of course, you can also ask your servants to collect some in the market, and we will compile them and submit them to Mr. Lu. "

Everyone agreed, because they all wanted to see what was going on, so they acted very quickly and soon collected a large book of fragments. Shao Bowen and others personally went to Lu Dalin's house to hand it over.

Lu Dalin looked at the full book of chapters and sentences, thanked Shao Bowen and others, and then began to study it.

Shao Bowen and others were curious about how Lu Dalin would react, so they lingered outside Lu Dalin's house.

Lu Dalin's anger in class was just a momentary reaction. After denouncing the fallacies and heresies on the spot, he reflected on himself for a few days after returning.

It is not the right attitude to do academic research to criticize other people's theories before knowing the full picture!

However, after he studied the chapters and sentences handed over by Shao Bowen, he became angry again!

“This is heresy!”

Lu Dalin's roar immediately made Shao Bowen and others outside the house run in.

Lu Dalin glanced at Shao Bowen and the others and asked, "You haven't left yet?"

Shao Bowen chuckled and said, "Sir, we would like to hear your opinion on these chapters?"

Lu Dalin snorted and said, "I've just started reading it. I need to finish studying it first."

Shao Bowen looked around and said, "Sir, I'm a little thirsty. Can I ask you for a glass of water?"

Lu Dalin glanced at Shao Bowen, snorted and said, "Since you are so interested, I will just watch and talk about it casually.

Let me make it clear in advance that what I am going to say next is just my first impression based on my initial contact and does not represent my academic judgment.

Secondly, these are just chapters and sentences, and they do not represent Su Yun’s overall knowledge. They may even be biased, so my comments will also be biased. You must remember these two points.”

Shao Bowen asked expectantly, "Sir, can we record this? Can we talk about your views when we discuss this with others?"

Lu Dalin frowned, then nodded and said, "Yes, but you must write down my two opinions first, and explain these two points when discussing with others."

Shao Bowen and others were overjoyed and spread out papers to record Lu Dalin's comments.

Lu Dalin didn't care about them and just read the chapters himself.

But when he saw it, he got angry again: "Absurd! What does 'the heart is the reason' mean? What does 'everything is born from the heart' mean? What does 'the four directions and the up and down are called the universe, the past and the present are called the universe' mean? The universe is my heart, and my heart is the universe?

Only by studying the Tao and investigating things can one gain knowledge. If one does not study the laws of nature, he will know nothing. Like that ignorant village man or woman, what truth can they know?
For example, the heart of a villager, is his heart the universe, and do all things come from his heart?

Also, everything is born from the heart. People are born and die every day in this world, but the laws of nature are constant, and they do not exist for the sake of Yao or Jie. How can a person's heart affect everything?"

Shao Bowen's knowledge of classics was the most outstanding among all the students. After all, his father was Shao Yong, a great Neo-Confucianist. When he heard Lu Dalin's series of questions, he understood what Lu Dalin meant. He quickly picked up his pen and wrote:
[Su believed that "heart comes before reason", that the conscience of the heart is the judgment of all things on reason, and that the state of the heart determines the cognition and behavior of things, emphasizing that "heart is reason".

Mr. Lu believes that "nature is reason" and that the principle of heaven is the origin of all things. We must exhaust all knowledge through the study of things to gain knowledge and achieve an understanding of reason.

Then he heard Lu Dalin's angry tone, saying: "If you can't do it, you can't say you know it" "Knowledge and action are one"... Only after understanding things can you know it, but if you don't know how to do it, then you can only fail. It's really misleading!"

Shao Bowen quickly picked up his pen and wrote:
Su Shi said, "If you don't do it, you can't call it knowledge. The unity of knowledge and action." Su Shi believed that knowledge and action are inseparable, and true knowledge must be verified through practice, emphasizing "the unity of knowledge and action."

Mr. Lu insists on "knowing first, then doing", and believes that before taking action, one must first accumulate theoretical knowledge.

Then I heard Lu Dalin say: "To cultivate one's conscience, the meaning of "cultivating" here is to hone it in things and see it in objective reality."

"To follow conscience" means to realize conscience in actual actions and to integrate knowledge and action.

Just as I said, once the order of sequence is changed, the overall idea will change drastically.

Let’s ignore this for now, it’s just a minor point, the fundamental point is that he replaces the principles of heaven with human hearts, which is really without the principles of heaven. This alone is enough to prove that his doctrine is completely perverse and heretical! ..."

Shao Bowen quickly took note:
[Su believed that inner conscience is a person's inner moral standard and the basis for judging right and wrong, and emphasized "conscience".

Mr. Lu believes that the principle of heaven is an objective spiritual existence and is the root of morality...】

On this day, Lu Dalin made various comments while reading the document. Shao Bowen wrote them down one by one and sorted them out later.

Other students from the Imperial College came to borrow and copy the book, and this book, which originally had no name, gradually got a name as it was circulated, called "Taixue Xiansheng Lu's Comments on Su Shi's Record".

This book was very popular as soon as it was published. It first caused a sensation among the students of the Imperial College, and then it was introduced to the public through the students. After that, almost all scholars had a copy of it on their desks.

It’s not that people all like to follow the crowd, of course this is a correct statement, but the reason why this book can be circulated is that its content is indeed wonderful.

Su Yun's sentences are always shocking, and every sentence is refreshing.

However, Lu Dalin's comments were all made from the perspective of Neo-Confucianism. The Neo-Confucianism at that time was not the Neo-Confucianism of later generations, and its scope of transmission was not that wide, so these remarks also sounded novel.

Of course, Shao Bowen also made great contributions. Without his writing style and summarizing ability, this discussion would not have become so wonderful. Although Lü Dalin criticized Su Yun's remarks, the popularity of this book has whetted the appetite of readers.

Although Su Yun's remarks were criticized, such refreshing remarks allowed some people who had long been tired of contemporary Confucianism to see a new world and also caused a great wave of discussion.

It can be said that this book seems to be critical, but in fact it plays a role in promoting Su Yun's materialist dialectical psychology. Although Su Yun's "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books" has not yet been published, everyone already knows that a shocking book is about to be published!

This craze has not only not diminished in popularity with the arrival of the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, but has become a hot topic due to the increased number of gatherings.

Many years later, many people still remember that during the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival holiday in the fifth year of Yuanfeng, the key words were "Su Yun", "Lü Dalin", "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books", etc., while "Achieving Conscience", "Unity of Knowledge and Action", "The Heart is Reason", etc. were also widely spread.

Later, this book "Mr. Lu of the Imperial College's Comments on Su Shi" was also presented on Zhao Xu's desk.

Placed together with it was a thick book with the words "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books" written on the cover.

Su Yun entered Chongwen Academy in late August of the fourth year of Yuanfeng. Now it is already late January of the fifth year of Yuanfeng. After five full months, he finally had a first draft of the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books.

Zhao Xu read the Annotations to the Four Books in conjunction with the Records of Su Shi's Comments by Mr. Lu of the Imperial Academy, and could not help laughing. He said to Sun Sigong, "Ju Zheng is really a mischievous man."

Sun Sigong smiled and said, "I heard that Mr. Su likes fishing very much. Although I have never fished before, I heard that fishing requires making nests and the bait must be carefully prepared in order to catch big fish. I think Mr. Lu has really taken the bait this time."

Zhao Xu smiled and shook his head, saying, "Yushu was indeed too reckless this time. How can we make a conclusion without knowing the whole situation? He has always been rigorous in academics, so how could he be so easily fooled this time?"

Sun Sigong laughed and said, "Mr. Su's remarks are truly shocking and outrageous. They had already spread widely before Mr. Lu's comments.

Mr. Lu was taught by Mr. Hengqu and Mr. Cheng successively, both of whom followed the path of Neo-Confucianism. Every word of Mr. Su’s remarks dug into the foundation of Neo-Confucianism, so it’s no wonder that Mr. Lu couldn’t sit still. ”

Zhao Xu glanced at Sun Sigong and said, "You still say you don't understand the meaning of the classics?"

Sun Sigong was not panicked, he laughed and said: "I don't understand, but it doesn't stop me from finding someone to help me.

I have been watching Mr. Su every day. If I can't understand the progress of Mr. Su's writing, how can I report to you, the emperor?"

Zhao Xu just teased Sun Sigong and turned his attention to the Annotated Four Books. He said with emotion: "The publication of this book is a devastating blow to Neo-Confucianism. I have never read such a rigorous classic since I was a child!

These days, I have read the collected annotations of the Four Books, and I can't believe that this can be written in five months.

If I hadn't watched this book being written bit by bit, I would have doubted that this book must have been polished for at least several decades to be so rigorous!

There are two articles in the Book of Rites, one is the Analects of Confucius and the other is Mencius. They expound numerous truths and some of them are contrary to the truth.

At the beginning, it talks about one truth, which then spreads into the truths of all things in the middle, and finally merges into one truth at the end.

Let it go, and it is connected to everything; take it back and look at it, and it is so mysterious. "

Zhao Xu stood up and walked excitedly in the hall, saying as he walked: "In the future, scholars will be blessed. First read the "Great Learning" and establish its outline. Other classics are all miscellaneous talks in it.

After you have mastered "The Great Learning", you can read other sutras and then you will see that [this is the matter of investigating things and knowing affairs, this is the matter of rectifying the mind and being sincere, this is the matter of cultivating the person, this is the matter of regulating the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world]!
With this outline, readers will be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort in their studies!

Now that we have an outline, we need to “explore its roots” using The Analects and Mencius.

The most important task for scholars is to look within themselves. Looking within yourself is the only important thing. Study the two books of "Analects" and "Mencius" carefully and thoroughly, and try to understand the intentions of the sages, admire them and stick to them.

Zhao Xu laughed and said, "Before this book, if a scholar wanted to understand his mind and see his true nature through reading, he would have to spend more than ten or twenty years. After this book, I'm afraid that a few years can equal the effort of more than ten or twenty years before!"

Sun Sigong quickly congratulated Zhao Xu and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty. Not only have you got one Su master, but there will be countless more Su masters in the future. Your Majesty will no longer have to worry about a shortage of talent!"

Zhao Xu burst into laughter.

Last year, Queen Mother Liang of Western Xia imprisoned Emperor Huizong of Xia, Bingchang, which led to political unrest in the country.

Zhao Xu believed that the opportunity to capture Western Xia had arrived, and he took the opportunity to launch a five-way war against Xia, but failed. This made him worried and he fell seriously ill. He had been depressed since then. Only today did he feel genuinely happy and excited.

Although many of the theories in the book "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books" written by Su Yun seem shocking, a deeper study reveals that they are very practical and detailed. It not only teaches people how to cultivate themselves, but also provides extremely detailed guidance on how to do things.

There are several theories in it that Zhao Xu was extremely obsessed with, one is called the theory of contradiction, and the other is called the theory of practice.

These two theories were explained very brilliantly. Although Zhao Xu was skilled in handling various complex government affairs over the years, he had never conducted a holistic analysis from a theoretical perspective.

After reading these two theories, Zhao Xu felt as if the top of his head had been opened, and a high-dimensional wisdom was pouring in from the top of his head.

Well, it’s been an epiphany.

Many things that I couldn’t understand or figure out before, after analyzing them with these two theories, immediately opened up my mind.

It's magical.

With this book to teach scholars all over the world, the court of the Song Dynasty will be filled with capable ministers in the future!
Being defeated temporarily in the war with the Xia people is nothing. As long as the Song Dynasty produces many talented people, we can destroy not only the Western Xia but also the Liao Kingdom in a snap!

but……

Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes.

It would be a pity if such a good book could not be used as a textbook for the imperial examinations.

However, the textbooks used now were those promoted by Wang Anshi. Although Wang Anshi semi-retired in Jiangning, the New Law School was still in power.

If I treat it with Su Yun's collection of annotations on the Four Books, it might arouse the fear of the new law faction. They might doubt myself and wonder whether I should change my ways.
Zhao Xu frowned.

(End of this chapter)