Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 112: Once a Legalist, you will be a Legalist all your life!
"Oh, this old man is a traitor?"

Yuan Wei's brows furrowed instantly, and a look of disbelief and anger flashed across his face.

He was really angry. No one had dared to be so rude to him for many years!
When his Yuan family had three generations of officials, even a domineering person like Liang Ji had to be respectful to them. When his eldest brother Yuan Cheng was alive, all the powerful and wealthy families in the capital listened to his words and did what he said. The scholars all said, "If things don't go well, ask Wen Kai."

The Yuan family now has three officials in its four generations, and Guo Tu actually dares to accuse his treacherous ministers?

Although I, Yuan Wei, have been extravagant and extravagant, promoted many of my students and former officials, and framed important officials fighting on the front lines, I am still a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty!
Yuan Wei glanced at his political allies who were watching from the sidelines, his brow furrowing ever deeper. Although he didn't understand the reason, he was acutely aware that his situation was extremely precarious.

There is nothing wrong with refuting the prince's opinion. There are many examples of scholars in the Later Han Dynasty openly banding together to challenge the emperor. Even if they are punished, it will be regarded as a good story to spread their good reputation.

But the prerequisite is to stick together!

Joining together to oppose is what the people want!
If one person opposes, he is courting death!

Therefore, Yuan Wei was anxious to extricate himself from the debate with Guo Tu immediately.

"I am the Minister of the Court, recognized by the Emperor, all officials, and the scholars and common people of the land. How can I allow you to slander me so wantonly? Aren't you afraid that the officials will investigate you for slandering the emperor?"

As he spoke, Yuan Wei walked slowly to Guo Tu, his eyes slightly narrowed, with a hint of warning in his eyes.

The crime of slandering superiors not only includes slandering the king, but also slandering superiors.

If Guo Tu is found guilty of "slandering the three ministers as treacherous ministers", he will be charged with false accusations. The lightest sentence would be exile to Jiaozhou. If he is punished according to the normal procedures, he will be executed in public. If he is dealt with severely, his entire family may be exiled!

"I have studied Xiao Du's Laws in detail. The Yingchuan Guo family has always been known for their integrity and unyielding character. Therefore, the Han emperors often appointed members of the Yingchuan Guo family to the positions of Chief Justice. How could they not know the punishment for 'falsely accusing the emperor'?"

However, when Guo Tu heard what Yuan Wei said, his face first darkened, and then his eyes widened with anger. He was not intimidated by Yuan Wei's warning at all. Instead, he felt that Yuan Wei was mocking him for not understanding the law. In a rage, he suddenly threw the bamboo and wooden tablet in his hand to the ground. The "bang" sound was particularly loud in the court.

"I haven't made any false accusations, so I'm not afraid of death. Yuan Ciyang, do you dare order the embroidered envoys to investigate?" Guo Tu rolled up his sleeves and pointed at Yuan Wei, angrily saying, "If you are guilty, you will be executed. If I am guilty, my entire clan will be executed!"

Guo Tu’s meaning is very clear. I dare to trade one for one with you. Do you dare to bet with me?
Yuan Wei was shocked when he saw Guo Tu's crazy look.

Where on earth did the prince find this mad dog? It is so rude and disrespectful.

These days, which wealthy family is clean? There are always some violations of the law or violations of the regulations regarding land, houses and tombs, so I really don't dare to let the Embroidered Uniform Envoy investigate.

Seeing that Guo Tu was determined to fight to the death and bring him down, Yuan Wei felt a little scared and unconsciously took a small step back, with a hint of panic in his eyes.

He is also afraid of the crazy people who don't care about their lives!

He was one of the Three Dukes, how could he die together with such a madman?
Thinking of this, Yuan Wei suddenly turned around, glanced at the Inspector of the Capital Region, Guo Hong, and winked at him with a hint of expectation and help in his eyes.

Your nephew is crazy and is gambling with the lives of your entire Yingchuan Guo family. Don’t you care?

But Guo Hong was seen gritting his teeth, the muscles on his face twitching slightly, veins bulging on his forehead, glaring at Guo Tu angrily, his left hand clutching the corner of his sleeve, and his right hand gripping the ivory tablet so tightly that the fingers were white.

Yuan Wei had no doubt that if Guo Hong had not been the Inspector of the Imperial Capital and had not retained some rationality due to the constraints of the law, he would have rushed up and slapped Guo Tu hard in the face with his staff to let him understand what love from an uncle was.

However, Guo Tu's words and Guo Hong's performance gave Yuan Wei a sudden flash of inspiration. He pointed at Guo Tu and said with disdain, "Mr. Guo, you are a mere Legalist scholar, unversed in the Five Classics. What gives you the right to show off in front of me?"

"Situ Gong's words are reasonable. You, the Legalists who have brought disaster to the country and the people and tyrannized the world, and you, the despicable Confucians of the Zixia clan, how dare you act so rashly here!"

Although it is unknown why Yang Ci and Liu Tao did not stand up, Han Fu, the Chief Censor, as Yuan Wei's disciple, naturally had to stand up to help.

What’s more, the target of criticism is the Legalists, a group of despicable Confucian scholars!
However, Yuan Wei's face suddenly changed, and he looked at Han Fu with a strange expression. He even wanted to slap this idiot to death.

Yuan Wei criticized the Legalists in the hope of directing his criticism at Guo Tu's identity as a Legalist scholar.

Yes, although Du Yannian betrayed the Legalists and turned to Confucianism in all aspects, and made great contributions to the Confucianists' struggle to overthrow the Legalists, who made Du Yannian a Legalist scholar before?
Once you are a Legalist, you will be a Legalist all your life!
The reason why Yuan Wei pointed his finger at Guo Tu's identity as a Legalist scholar was because the Confucianists and the Legalists in the Han Dynasty had a hostile relationship.

Although Confucianism completely suppressed Legalism after Emperor Xiaowu, and successfully replaced the law with the Spring and Autumn Judgment System, and held the final right of interpretation of all criminal cases in its own hands, the Han law was never abolished, and was even continuously improved through repeated revisions.

It is precisely for this reason that, despite the decline of Legalism, its semi-dead existence clinging to Confucianism as a Confucian scholar, the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism remains extremely delicate. Today's Confucians are not the same decadent scholars of later generations. Progressive Confucians within Confucianism also have their doubts about the practice of citing classics to decide cases, such as Ma Rong and Zheng Xuan. They not only provide interpretations of the "Da Du Lu" and "Xiao Du Lu" but also actively advocate that the increasingly mature and complete legal system should be reintroduced.

This made the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism even more delicate. The Ancient Literature School still had a number of progressive Confucian scholars with open-minded ideas. Although their attitudes towards Legalism were not consistent, they were ultimately influenced by two generations of Ancient Literature School leaders, Ma Rong and Zheng Xuan. Overall, they were more open-minded and did not mind paying a certain price to unite all the forces that could be united to fight against the Modern Literature School.

As long as you follow the modern literary school, we are half-brothers!
However, the modern literature school was almost unanimously opposed to the idea of ​​using laws to decide cases instead of citing scriptures, and they even looked down on the ancient literature school.

You are amazing, you are noble!

Anyway, your ancient literature school's "Zuo Zhuan" has no qualifications to participate in citing classics to decide cases, but our modern literature school does!
Yuan Wei also had the same idea: if you don’t help me, that’s fine!

My Runan Yuan family has passed down the "Mengshi Yi" for generations. It does not harm our interests to condone the Legalists, but what about you?
Can you allow those beggars from the Legalists to fight for power and profit on your territory?

Although Yuan Wei was careless for a moment, he was still a politician who had been in power in the court for many years. If things could proceed according to his plan, Guo Tu might really suffer because of his identity as a Legalist scholar.

But no matter how much he planned, he never expected that Han Fu would suddenly say, "Zixia is a lowly Confucian."

This sentence comes from "Against the Twelve Scholars" which says "He dresses properly, adjusts his complexion, and remains silent all day long. He is a lowly Confucian scholar of Zixia's lineage." It is an insult to the Confucian scholars of Zixia's lineage who dress like decent people all day long and act so aloof and cool.

Han Fu used this sentence to insult Guo Tu because although Zixia was one of the "Ten Philosophers of Confucius" and "Seventy-two Sages of Confucius", he had a status in the Legalists that was almost like the founder.

The Xihe School founded by Zixia produced many famous scholars, including Taoists, Mohists, Legalists and numerous renegades from Confucianism. Among them, Li Kui and Wu Qi, disciples of Zeng Shen, a disciple of Zixia, were the most famous.

Li Kui and Wu Qi were Zixia's second-generation disciples. The former was the true founder of the Legalists, and the latter studied both law and military science. Both were famous for their reforms.

There was also a man named Gongsun Yang, who embarked on the path of Legalism by studying Li Kui's "Fa Jing".

From this perspective, it seems that Zixia really should be called a lowly Confucian, but Zixia also has two direct disciples who consolidate his position in Confucianism.

One was called Gongyang Gao and the other was called Guliang Chi.

That’s right, they were the founders of the Gongyang School and the Guliang School who first passed down the Gongyang Chunqiu and the Guliang Chunqiu to future generations through word of mouth.

At the same time, Zixia annotated the "Book of Changes" and compiled the "Book of Changes", a famous work interpreting the "Book of Changes", combining his views with those of Confucius. It also provided the basic environment for the birth of Yixue works such as "Jing's Yi", "Meng's Yi", "Liangqiu's Yi", and "Shi's Yi", and compiled the Six Classics. The inheritance of the Six Classics was mostly influenced by Zixia's lineage.

Whether it is "Gongyang Chunqiu" and "Guliang Chunqiu", or "Jingshi Yi", "Mengshi Yi", "Liangqiu Yi" and "Shishi Yi", they are all modern text classics.

Well, in other words, Han Fu’s words “Zixia’s inferior Confucians” directly included most of the modern literary school in his criticism.

But that’s not all. Zixia once wrote the “Great Preface to the Book of Songs”, which was passed down through four generations to Mao Chang, who became the founder of the “Mao Shi” school.

Zixia's disciple Zeng Shen learned "Mao Shi" from Zixia and "Zuo Zhuan" from Zuo Qiuming. Zixia's lineage inherited the tradition of "Zuo Zhuan".

The phrase "Zixia's inferior Confucian" also included most of the ancient literature school in the insult. If we look deeper, all the princes who studied under Lu Zhi were within Han Fu's attack range.

The last person who dared to insult the most influential Confucian scholar in the Zixia lineage was Xun Kuang. He insulted all the Confucian sages and was able to remain unscathed only because of his status in Confucianism.

But why should you, Han Fu?
Because your head looks like a chamber pot?

(3143 words)
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PS: Sorry, I drank too much while entertaining clients yesterday.

Well... the main reason is that the customers are Japanese, four women and two men. Several of the leaders have poor stomachs and livers and can't drink or eat well. The Japanese made fun of us Chinese who have such a strong drinking culture, but why can't we drink.

A few of us leadership assistants thought that if we didn't get you bastards drunk into the hospital tonight, it would be considered a sign of our great country's style. So we couldn't stop drinking. We drank sake, rice wine, and red wine one after another. In the end, I didn't know how I got home. It was a disguised form of anti-Japanese and patriotism.

But I was still waking up and sleeping in the morning. Despite my sleepiness, I polished the draft that I had prepared for updating and posted it first.

In addition, I will try my best to add more updates in the next few days.

(End of this chapter)