Chapter 350: Theoretical Debate that Caused a Public Outcry
far away.
After leaving the prince's residence, Xue Shence and others went ahead, leaving Zhao Duan behind to deal with the aftermath.
"A bunch of idiots! If it weren't for my Excellency coming here today, you would have suffered." The marquis took a few quick steps, waving his scabbard and hitting the three men in brocade clothes.
Zhao Duan raised his hand to stop him and said calmly, "Forget it. If you hit anyone again, you'll be really useless."
"Bah! It's better to destroy him!" Hou Renmeng was still furious and shouted at the three people: "Why don't you thank me, sir?"
The three of them woke up as if from a dream, their eyes red like children who had made mistakes, and they admitted their mistakes after being beaten.
Zhao Duan's face showed no sign of anger, and he said calmly:
"This won't happen again. Old Hou, take them back to the yamen first and apply the medicine. I'll go back this afternoon for a meeting. It seems I've been too indulgent towards you. This incident should serve as a lesson for you."
Hou Renmeng looked ashamed and nodded in response.
I no longer have the face to stay and I wish I could go back immediately to restore discipline.
"Oh, there's one more thing," Zhao Duan suddenly stopped him and ordered:
"When you go back, find someone to investigate. Did Xu Zudi and that Madam Xiao set out from Qingzhou Road together, or did they bump into each other halfway?"
Hou Ren was stunned: "Sir, what do you mean..."
Zhao Duan glanced at him and said, "Do you think that the Prince of Heng is making such a scene simply to support Li Lang and vent his anger? To cause trouble? To humiliate me?"
In his mind, he kept reviewing everything that had happened before.
In the room, Xu Zudi scolded Li Lang several times, and the last game...
Zhao Duan's gaze drifted off into the distance as he said quietly, "It seems we won a battle, we didn't lose face today, and we've put an end to the matter. But how do we know that Xu Zudi didn't achieve his most important goal?"
Hou Renmeng finally came to his senses:
"Sir, are you saying that the prince arranged this for you? The focus isn't on Li Lang at all, but on Madam Xiao? He deliberately let us see that he treats the head of the Donghu Xiao family like a slave? Is this his real purpose?"
Zhao Duan nodded and said with a smile, "You have made progress by being able to guess this."
Hou Renmeng chuckled and flattered:
"We follow you, sir, and learn from you. We should be able to learn something, right? People outside say you are a thousand-year-old fox. We are far behind."
"...If you don't know how to flatter, don't force it." Zhao Duan glared.
He drove a few of his men away, sorted out his thoughts, and then spurred his horse to catch up with the large force ahead.
Xue Shence smiled and said, "Is it arranged?"
Zhao Duan said gratefully, "Thank you, sir, and all my colleagues for supporting us."
Xue Shence had no intention of delving into this topic. He laughed heartily and said, "How do I thank you? How about you treat me to a drink at lunch?"
Zhao Duan also laughed and said, "That's right. Then we have to get drunk before we go home."
The generals looked at this scene, laughed in unison, put the episode behind them, and headed straight for the restaurant with murderous intent.
The entire second floor of the restaurant was reserved, and all the generals took their seats, eating and drinking in a harmonious atmosphere.
However, the banquet was only halfway through when they heard a commotion downstairs, accompanied by heated discussions, and vaguely heard the words "Zhengyang School".
To attract the attention of the military officers, Xue Shence ordered someone to inquire about the situation.
After a while, the military officer who had asked the question returned and said with a serious expression:
"Something happened. Mr. Zhengyang wants to debate with Grand Tutor Dong!"
Zhao Duan stopped mid-air, holding the wine jug, and narrowed his eyes. "What's going on?"
All the military officers pricked up their ears.
Soon, they learned what had happened.
It turned out that there was no morning court today. In the morning, Mr. Zhengyang came to the palace to pay his respects. The empress and scholars such as Dong Xuan welcomed him to show their respect for this great scholar from the south.
However, Zhengyang issued an invitation to fight in the palace, saying that he came here because he could not bear to see the saints' teachings being distorted and the righteous path being declined.
Therefore, he came to the capital to "rectify learning and reshape etiquette and laws" and to debate with the mainstream school of thought in the capital.
As a leading senior scholar, Grand Tutor Dong Xuan accepted the challenge on the spot and agreed to have a debate in the Plum Garden in the capital five days later.
By this time, the news had gradually spread and public opinion was in an uproar.
The reason for the commotion downstairs was that two groups of scholars were arguing fiercely and almost got into a fight.
"Bang!"
Shi Meng pounded the table with his fist and said in a deep voice, "This Zhengyang is here to cause trouble."
The other generals also looked indignant, making a political statement, and some even shouted that they wanted to kill the scholar.
Xue Shence listened with an expressionless face and worried eyes. He certainly understood that such a great scholar of the "quasi-sage" level who attracted worldwide attention must not be touched.
Therefore, the military officers were just talking nonsense. Killing them would be easy, but after that, it would trigger a national uproar, and the consequences would be difficult to estimate.
There is no smoke of gunpowder on this battlefield, and we need to use our words and pens as swords to fight back.
Immediately, the generals lost the mood to eat and drink, and the party ended hastily.
Zhao Duan went downstairs and rode his horse straight to Xiuwen Hall. He needed to know the situation!
…
…
Xiuwen Hall.
When Zhao Duan arrived at the door, he vaguely sensed that the atmosphere was not right.
"Master Zhao!" The clerk guarding the gate was cheered up when he saw him coming.
"Is the Grand Tutor here?" Zhao Duan dismounted and asked anxiously.
"Yes, they are all here."
"good."
Zhao Duan threw away the reins and walked in. The clerks knew his identity and did not stop him.
As soon as I entered the yard, I heard a heated discussion coming from the room.
Zhao Duan pushed the door open and saw all the scholars sitting neatly around a long table in the Xiuwen Hall.
In his eighties, Grand Tutor Dong, wearing the robe of a university scholar and with a face as red as a date, sat in the main seat with no expression.
Next to him, on the left, is Han Zhou, Han Banshan, the most talented man in the capital.
On the right is the big ice block Mo Zhaorong.
"Mr. Zhao? You're here!" Everyone stopped talking, turned around and saw that it was him, and greeted him.
Zhao Duan nodded solemnly, then walked into the middle of a group of scholars wearing armor, frowning and asking, "What's going on? I heard that the Grand Master wants to discuss academic matters with Zhengyang."
Mo Chou's face seemed to be filled with the word "sorrow". She gestured for him to sit down, then nodded and said:
"That's right. Zhengyang is coming with such force. He must have been sent by Prince Mu to come to the capital to attack the orthodox rites and laws."
No, do you all speak so directly?
Not hiding anything at all... Zhao Duan complained. Seeing that the scholars looked normal, he understood that the conflict with the Eighth King had been exposed long ago in Xiuwen Hall.
The empress came to power in an illegitimate way, which has always been the biggest weakness of the legitimacy of Xu Zhenguan's regime.
Regardless of the distorted rhetoric promoted by the Kuangfu Society, even if we take a step back, the whole world knows that it was the Second Prince who staged the coup, and the Empress was the one who suppressed the rebellion.
But if he followed the etiquette, Xu Zhenguan should have looked for the remaining heirs of the royal family, adopted them or whatever, to support a new male emperor.
But she chose to become emperor, which gave scholars the opportunity to criticize her on the basis of etiquette and laws.
Over the past three years, northern scholars led by Dong Xuan have managed to gain legitimacy by citing classics.
But outside the capital, especially in many places in the south, the voices criticizing the empress for usurping the throne never stopped.
Now, perhaps the implementation of the "New Deal" has made the eight kings anxious.
Finally, they began to fight back one by one.
Prince Huai'an sent his daughter to test the situation, and Prince Jing used the Taicang silver mine as a pawn to force the Li Party to split.
Prince Heng sent the Crown Prince with unclear intentions, while Prince Mu asked Zhengyang to come out of seclusion and fight back with courtesy and law.
Zhao Duan sighed in his heart, understanding that etiquette, although seemingly intangible and invisible, is extremely crucial.
"If the name is not right, the words will not flow; if the words are not flowing, things will not be accomplished." This is the reason.
Han Zhou said in a deep voice:
"This time, the other party came well prepared. He had not left the mountain for ten years, and once he did, he attracted the attention of the nine provinces and eighteen prefectures of Dayu. He came all the way from the south, seemingly keeping a low profile, but in fact, he was making a big show of himself, making the news of his visit to the capital known to everyone.
He brought over a hundred students with him when he entered the city, and has been making a name for himself in the city these past few days. Now that he has issued a challenge, the Grand Tutor must accept it, and only the Grand Tutor is qualified to take on this challenge."
Zhao Duan asked curiously, "Is Zhengyang's slogan just about academic discussion?"
Mo Chou glanced at him and explained:
"It's just a matter of scholarship. Zhengyang is very clever. He didn't directly criticize Your Majesty's ascension to the throne, but instead framed the matter as an 'academic dispute'. This made it even harder to provoke him. But people aren't fools. Ultimately, this academic debate comes back to etiquette and law. If he wins the argument... it will be very troublesome."
Zhao Duan turned his head and looked at Dong Xuan who was silent, and said seriously:
"Grandmaster, how confident are you?"
Dong Xuan's aura today was very cold, or rather, very heavy. The wrinkles on his already wrinkled face were particularly deep, and his eyes were heavy:
"If we compare the debate to a game of chess, in terms of strength, I think I am a bit stronger, but since the other party has the first move, it's hard to say."
Zhao Duan understood.
This is a euphemism. In a debate, victory or defeat never depends solely on the debater's eloquence; the topic of the debate is more important.
The cards Dong Xuan got were not good.
"Five days later, what will be the topic?" Zhao Duan asked again.
Grand Tutor Dong said calmly, "What is the correct learning?"
Fortunately... it’s not the worst situation... Zhao Duan breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhengyang's slogan was "correcting learning and reshaping etiquette and law." The empress was afraid of etiquette and law, but Zhengyang did not directly criticize etiquette and law because doing so would only force the court to go to extremes.
Although Zhengyang has come out of seclusion, it seems that he does not intend to seek death... If Zhengyang starts to criticize etiquette after entering the capital, there will be only one result.
He used his own death to arouse the anger of scholars all over the world and to provide ammunition for Zhuang Xiaocheng's war of public opinion.
But he did not choose this extreme route. Instead, he took a roundabout approach and only discussed "orthodox learning". This was more subtle, giving the court the option to respond to the challenge and also leaving himself some room for survival.
After all, if we talk about orthodox learning, there is still a chance of winning. Even if we lose, the damage will not be fatal.
Of course, it is not fatal. Orthodox learning and etiquette are one and the same. If the former takes hold, the latter will also benefit.
"We were just coming up with ideas and discussing Zhengyang's possible moves, how to win, or even end up in a draw," Han Zhou explained.
"You guys continue." Zhao Duan said he came here to listen.
No one was too surprised. They all knew that Zhao Duan had unique insights in governing the country and seemed to have a certain level of poetry and prose.
But when it comes to the fundamentals of Confucianism, the teachings of the saints, the many classics, picking out sentences... the pure accumulation of knowledge, this is not something that "genius" can explain at all.
Dong Xuan and Zhengyang are both geniuses in this field and have accumulated decades of knowledge and skills.
How old is Zhao Duan?
If statecraft can be derived from practice and observation, and poetry and prose can be acquired through natural talent, then the learning of a sage depends purely on decades of consistent hard work.
This is also the reason why only Dong Xuan dared to accept the challenge, and the so-called talents like Han Zhou did not dare to show up at all.
Logically, no one thinks that Zhao Duan can surpass these two people in academic accumulation. The most people expect is whether he has some "crazy ideas" or "tricks".
Seeing that he had no suggestions, the scholars were a little disappointed, but they started discussing actively again and talked loudly. The whole Xiuwen Hall was filled with noisy sounds and a tense atmosphere.
Zhao Duan was alone again, sitting quietly on the side.
Listening to everyone's discussion, it was as if he was entering Xiuwen Hall for the first time.
Amid the noise, he reached out and took a thick document from the table.
Open.
These are the many academic insights of the "Zhengyang School" compiled by scholars, including many quotations from Mr. Zhengyang when he lectured in Yunfu and answered his disciples, as well as some articles published by Zhengyang.
They are all insights and views on Confucianism, or more accurately, analyses of the words of ancient sages.
Zhao Duan didn't understand what it meant at first, but gradually, his expression became a little strange:
"This theory...why does it look familiar? A hint of Neo-Confucianism mixed in with Neo-Confucianism? No...this Zhengyang's theory seems...full of loopholes."
——
I'm procrastinating again. It's a little late.
(End of this chapter)
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