Although I had to maintain my composure, I still had to fight back. I couldn't let this person take the initiative, or I would fall into his trap. If I lost face here today, I would be doomed in the future.
So Wei Dazhong stood elegantly on the stage, looking at Song Yingxing with a smile in his eyes and said, "Don't you think this is wrong? When Confucius taught, he also had 3,000 disciples. Everyone knows the benefits of teaching. As for the academy, it is a place for the inheritance of knowledge. Shouldn't it be protected?"
"My teacher did this for the benefit of the scholars of the world, wasn't he doing this for the Ming Dynasty?"
Zhu Youxiao took a sip of tea and glanced coldly at Wei Dazhong on the stage.
Not to mention anything else, just the way this hat is put on is amazing.
Wei Dazhong brought up Confucius right away, which was to put pressure on Song Yingxing. To put it bluntly, it was to stop Song Yingxing from talking nonsense, or to make him speechless.
Zhu Youxiao threw a handful of candied fruit into his mouth, then looked at Song Yingxing, who was standing upright in front of him, with interest, wondering what he would say.
Song Yingxing had come here today, so he was obviously well prepared. He would not be frightened by Wei Dazhong's words. He would definitely refute them, or even fight back fiercely. So Zhu Youxiao waited and watched the fun.
As expected, Song Yingxing took a leisurely step forward and said in a loud voice, "Did His Majesty say that lectures are not allowed?"
When these words were spoken, everyone present was stunned.
Wei Dazhong was also stunned, and then his expression became so ugly that anyone could see it.
He couldn't say anything about this matter. Firstly, it involved the current emperor, which was a rather sensitive topic; secondly, there was really nothing to say, because the emperor did not prohibit lectures, but only did not allow anyone to give lectures, and also did not allow anyone to talk about anything outside of the subject privately.
But for Wei Dazhong, it doesn’t matter whether lecturing is prohibited or not. What matters is whether they can lecture or not.
It was obvious that the imperial court had targeted them before, but they could not fight back on their own, so naturally they had to bring in scholars from all over the world.
But now Song Yingxing wants to expose this matter, which is simply an unforgivable crime!
"Your Majesty certainly did not say that lectures are not allowed, but those treacherous ministers did it. They only let their own people lecture, but not others. What is this? They are treacherous! Of course we must oppose them." Wei Dazhong raised his head and said loudly with righteous indignation.
"Then, who will decide what should be said and what should not be said?" Song Yingxing took a step forward slowly and said loudly again: "Will you judge? Or will those present judge? Or will the current emperor judge?"
Song Yingxing said this loudly with a very serious expression on his face.
Everyone present looked at each other. How should they answer this question?
There was no real answer. In private, they certainly felt they had the final say; but in this situation, no one dared to say so publicly.
If you really say that, it would be equivalent to making treasonous remarks in public.
Wei Dazhong took a step forward, straightened his back, and said with his head held high: "As long as it is the knowledge of the saints, I can naturally explain it."
Wei Dazhong believed that what he said was correct and made sense no matter where it was put, and His Majesty could not say anything.
He stared at Song Yingxing with burning eyes, thinking quickly in his mind how to drive Song Yingxing away, and preferably make him lose face.
"Saint?" Song Yingxing sneered, and suddenly raised his voice: "Who is the saint?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the people present were in an uproar.
However, Song Yingxing did not stop and continued, "In the eyes of us Confucian disciples, Confucius is a sage, Mencius is a sage, and Xunzi is a sage? Can anyone say that?"
Hearing this, everyone hesitated.
Because this is impossible to say. Xunzi is different from Confucius and Mencius. Their thoughts differ in many ways, and are even more different from the Neo-Confucianism of the Song Dynasty, with which they have a significant conflict. On the contrary, Xunzi's thoughts have many similarities with Guanxue.
Of course, not everyone can speak freely. I can speak, but you can't. To put it bluntly, it's a struggle for the right to speak.
Wei Dazhong looked at Song Yingxing with disdain and said, "That person is naturally a saint worthy of being enshrined in the Confucius Temple. Only those who enter the Confucius Temple can be called saints, no one else can."
Song Yingxing looked at Wei Dazhong and suddenly wanted to laugh.
He felt that his trip today was not in vain. Xunzi was not denied entry to the Confucius Temple, but was driven out.
Xunzi advocated: "Rites and laws go hand in hand, and kingship and hegemony are unified."
Emperor Xuan of Han declared, "The Han family has its own system, which is originally a mixture of the ways of hegemony and kingship."
The Han system was a mixture of kingship and hegemony, and Han Confucian thought was also a combination of Confucianism and Legalism. Xunzi was highly respected in the ideological and academic circles at that time.
In the early Tang Dynasty, when the rulers reflected on the historical lessons of the fall of the Sui Dynasty and the rise of the Tang Dynasty, they paid particular attention to Xunzi and his thoughts.
Starting from the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Confucianism began to praise Mencius, and Xunzi began to be questioned by Confucianism.
During the Song Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism emerged, and Neo-Confucianists fiercely criticized Xunzi's theory of the distinction between heaven and man and his theory of human nature being evil.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the Confucians of the time wanted to remove Xunzi from the qualification of being worshipped in the Confucius Temple.
In the ninth year of the Jiajing reign, the emperor approved Zhang Congjian's petition to dethrone Xunzi, and Xunzi was thus disqualified from being worshipped and was driven out of the Confucius Temple.
Wei Dazhong's rebuttal was that only the theories of those in the Confucius Temple could be discussed, and the theories of people outside the Confucius Temple could not be discussed.
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