Suzhou Prefecture School is located in Sanyuanfang, across the street from Canglang Pavilion. It was built by Fan Wencheng in the Northern Song Dynasty.
According to legend, when he was the governor of Suzhou, he bought this piece of land and planned to settle here. According to custom, he asked a Feng Shui master to look at it, and the master told him that this was a Feng Shui treasure land, and if Fan Gong settled his family here, he would surely produce officials and ministers in the future.
If it were someone else, they would have built a house and settled down happily. But Mr. Fan said, if I settled down here, only my family would be rich. How could it be better to build a school here so that all the children in Wuzhong could receive education and everyone could be rich?
So he donated the land and built a grand provincial school here.
At that time, Suzhou was often flooded and was far from being as prosperous as it is today. When Fan Gong first built the school, there were only about 20 students enrolled. His subordinates thought that the school was too big, but Fan Zhongyan said confidently: "I am afraid that one day people will think it is too small."
So he invited the famous Anding scholar Hu Yuan to be the first teacher, and invited famous scholars to come to Suzhou to give lectures. For a time, it was unprecedentedly grand, and its influence spread all over the country. Not only did Suzhou become a place of culture and education, but it also led to the construction of official schools across the country. Thus, "prefectures have prefectural schools, states have state schools, and counties have county schools", and culture and education flourished from then on.
Since the Song Dynasty, hundreds of people from Wuzhong have passed the imperial examinations and countless people have served as ministers and dignitaries. Suzhou is neither a capital nor a grand city, but it is the most prosperous city in the world, thanks to the legacy of Mr. Fan Wencheng.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why Hai Rui chose Suzhou Prefecture School as the first stop of his inspection tour of Suzhou.
He wanted to take Fan Wencheng as an example.
~~
One day in advance, Cai Guoxi asked Chen Tongzhi and Zhang Tongpan to come to the provincial school to keep an eye on it, so as to avoid any trouble at the first stop.
Prefect Cai's worries were not unfounded, because Professor Li Zhi of the prefectural school was quite unreliable.
It has been half a year since Li Zhi came to Suzhou to take office. At first, he was just late and left early, and he would sneak away to Kunshan to spend the night every other day. It was just a problem of work attitude.
Because he was under the care of Master Zhao, Cai Guoxi only had someone give him a beating and then turned a blind eye.
Who would have thought that this fellow not only did not restrain himself, but became even more arrogant, and began to spread his heresy among the students.
At first, Cai Guoxi didn't take it seriously until the teachers and students of the provincial school came to him to complain, saying that after listening to Li Zhuowu's lectures, they felt their hearts were corrupted and they could no longer be pure Confucian students.
Cai Guoxi was still a little bit skeptical, thinking that these people were too weak-willed and could not stand a little spiritual pollution. He went to the government school incognito and sat in on Li Zhi's class. Well, even he, a famous Neo-Confucianist, almost began to doubt his life...
In class, Li Zhi openly criticized the Six Classics, the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, saying that they were not sacred texts that would last forever, but were compiled into books by a group of disciples of the saints based on their recollections of fragments of words they had heard, which might have a beginning but no end, or an end but no beginning, or were simply fabricated.
Later scholars thought that these were all the profound theories of saints and regarded them as classics. But how could they know that most of them were not the profound theories of saints at all?
Even if there really is a saint who said it, it was just a random response to a matter at that time to enlighten those disciples who were not enlightened. It was just a matter of discussing the matter and prescribing the right medicine. How can it be regarded as an eternal truth and used to find a sword on the boat?
Therefore, it is obvious that the Six Classics, the Analects, and Mencius have long been used as tools for moralists to deceive people and have become shields for hypocrites to hide behind. Therefore, we must not judge right from wrong based on Confucius's right and wrong! We should not imitate Confucius in everything we say and do, as that would be an ugly behavior.
Cai Guoxi couldn't help it and slammed the table and said, "If it has no value, why does the school still teach it?"
"Its only value is a tool for seeking fame and fortune." Li Zhi said calmly: "Scholars in the world 'purely pursue Taoism, yin pursue wealth and honor, wear elegant clothes, behave like dogs and pigs', how many of them really believe in it?"
The students couldn't help but nod their heads secretly. If it weren't for a golden house, a thousand bushels of grain and a beautiful wife, who would read these disgusting words of saints and far-fetched annotations of Cheng and Zhu all day long?
"You're talking nonsense!" Cai Guoxi's face flushed, and he shouted angrily, "If Confucius had not been born, the world would have been dark forever. How can a little lunatic like you deny it with just one word!"
"Ah, it turns out that if God had not given birth to Confucius, the world would be dark. It seems that Laozi, the Three Sovereigns, the Five Emperors and other saints before Confucius all walked around with lanterns all day long!"
"Hahaha..." The students burst into laughter and the battle ended.
"What a crap professor! I think he's just a beast that can only scream!" Cai Guoxi was so angry that his nose was crooked, but he couldn't argue with Li Zhi, so he had to leave cursing.
What he didn't expect was that someone recognized his identity. As a result, the joke of "Li Jiao**cai" spread in Suzhou, and Li Zhi became completely famous!
Not only were the students of the prefectural school obsessed with him, but the whole city was full of Li Jiaoshou's "fans". Now when Li Zhi started teaching, the classroom was immediately full, and students from the county school, candidates from the provincial college, Taoist priests from the temple, and monks from the temple also came to listen. Then within a few days, his fallacies and heresies would spread throughout Suzhou.
Later, the classroom was too full to accommodate people, so Li Zhi gave lectures in the square in front of the Confucian Temple. As a result, every time he gave a lecture, thousands of people came to listen to his lectures, and they were all fascinated and became Li Jiaoshou's die-hard fans.
It is no exaggeration to say that it took Li Zhi only half a year to surpass those famous literati, female historians and famous prostitutes in Suzhou City, and became an academic star who swept Confucianism, Buddhism and the people, and the first popular idol in Suzhou.
He not only opposed false Confucianism and criticized Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, but also criticized the empty talk of the right wing of Wang's school. He vigorously advocated utilitarianism, mercantilism and people-oriented thinking.
Almost every one of his opinions and words made the Taoists feel uneasy and disgusted. They went to Cai Guoxi one after another and asked the prefect to drive this heretic out of Suzhou City.
Before Cai Guoxi finished writing the memorial to impeach Li Zhi, a civil uprising broke out in Suzhou. In the end, it was only thanks to Zhao Hao and the Jiangnan Company that he managed to stabilize the situation and avert a catastrophic disaster.
How could Governor Cai chase Zhao Hao's people away without warning? He could only ask Mr. Zhao tactfully if Professor Li could be more restrained when giving lectures. Zhao Hao agreed readily, but he didn't know whether he told Li Zhi about it.
Anyway, after so much time, Li Zhi was still a nephew holding a lantern - the same as before. Governor Cai had no choice but to let him go.
"Today, at least today, don't make trouble for me." Seeing that the governor's sedan chair had arrived at the street corner, Cai Guoxi turned around and glared at Li Zhi fiercely. Seeing his rebellious face, Governor Cai couldn't help but soften his tone and said, "You can't touch the tiger's butt, I beg you, okay?"
"All right." Li Zhi rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky, not taking the words of 'Cai Zhifu' to heart at all.
ps. This chapter is from yesterday. There are three more chapters to go. Please give me your monthly votes!