The Science Ship sped down the mighty Yangtze River, leaving countless sceneries far behind.

Facing He Xinyin's question, Mr. Zhao smiled and asked, "Mr. Fushan, if Juhetang can develop according to your ideal state, what do you plan to do next?"

"Of course we will expand it and try it out in the whole county, then extend it to the whole prefecture, the whole province and even the whole country." He Xinyin said as a matter of course.

"So what happens in the end?" Zhao Hao asked.

"In the end, the world will naturally be united." He Xinyin said, twirling his beard.

"Then what does it mean for the world to be united?" Young Master Zhao asked again.

"The Book of Rites says it clearly. Do I need to repeat it?" He Xinyin said with a pout.

"Yes." Mr. Zhao said with a smile.

He Xinyin was about to lose his temper when he remembered that he was seeking advice, so he had to patiently recite the long passage "When the great way is practiced, the world is for all..."

In fact, this was also the highest guiding ideology when he founded the Juhe Hall. Reciting it after so many years naturally brings back a special feeling.

After hearing this, Master Zhao asked with a smile, "I wonder what the Juhetang did in the beginning?"

"This..." He Xinyin pondered for a moment and said, "As far as the Juhe Hall is concerned, I think I have done a good job. 'Select the virtuous and capable, be trustworthy and friendly, and make sure people love not only their own relatives but also their own children, so that the elderly can have a place to live, the strong can be employed, the young can grow up, and the widowed, the lonely, the disabled and the sick can all be taken care of. Men have their share and women have their home.' These have basically been achieved."

"For a long time, I even achieved the goal of 'I don't need to keep goods that are thrown away, I don't need to use my strength, I don't pick up lost items on the road, and I don't lock my door at night.'" He paused, then said with pride: "Even my teacher praised me and said, 'In just a few years, I have almost established three generations in this area.'"

"But why is it so difficult to continue?" After saying this, he fell into deep confusion again. "It's not just that the accounts are not enough to cover the expenses, but what makes people desperate is that people have gradually changed from the initial polite and trustworthy style to being perfunctory and numb, and they are not serious about their work. A large amount of rice is left in the fields and not stored in the warehouse. It has become 'goods that don't need to be stored are abandoned on the ground, and labor that doesn't need to be used is hated'. As a result, the harvest of the fields has been declining year by year, and the family is still wasting materials in short supply. Poor families only know how to ask for money from the family..."

It was the first time for Luo Rufang and Li Zhi to hear He Xinyin expose his shortcomings. They thought, my goodness, how did he raise people to be so arrogant? No wonder even the wealthy Liang family couldn't handle it.

"So something must have gone wrong, but what exactly was it?" He Xinyin looked at Zhao Hao again, confused and helpless like a child.

"Mr. Fushan's practice is almost perfect. If we still can't see the hope of realizing a world of universal peace, it can only mean that this path itself is wrong. It is impossible to realize universal peace by moral education alone!" Then he heard Zhao Hao's words sound like a bell.

"It is impossible to achieve world peace through moral education alone?" The three people repeated in unison, and Li Zhi smiled and said, "I didn't expect that you are a Legalist."

"It is even more impossible to rely on harsh laws." Zhao Hao said firmly: "If you are not careful, you will be torn into pieces by a chariot. What does it have to do with the world?"

"Then you are a Taoist?" Li Zhi asked again, "Governing by inaction, until you retreat to a small country with few people, where everyone can hear each other's chickens and dogs, but never interact with each other?"

"Who wants to live like that?" Zhao Hao laughed. "Everyone relies on farming for a living. There is no department store trade, no writing or poetry. Everyone has become a primitive person. At least we are probably all very sad. How can we call that a world of peace?"

"Then who are you?" Li Zhi didn't understand.

"I'm a scientist." Mr. Zhao said with an expression that said your question is stupid, "The pursuit of science is to make people's lives better. Science is skeptical of any unproven statement, so we don't know whether the world will be united or not. But I know one thing very well, that is, the beauty achieved by suppressing human nature is a false beauty. No matter how beautiful it is, it is just an illusory bubble that will burst with a poke!"

"Is the beauty achieved by suppressing human nature a false beauty?" Luo Rufang repeated it again, this time praising without any flattery: "As my teacher said, 'People's love for money and sex is all born from their nature. What they do at the moment is actually the will of heaven, which cannot be blocked.' It seems that we are indeed on the same path."

"Look, if Mr. Fushan had just talked to your senior brother, he would have known the problem." Zhao Hao spread his hands and said with a playful smile: "What I find most interesting is that the Taizhou School adheres to the 'natural theory of desire and passion', and you, Mr. Fushan, even criticized Confucius as worthless and regarded Cheng and Zhu as pigs and dogs. Why can't you get out of the rut of Neo-Confucianism that eliminates human desires and preserves the principles of heaven when doing things?"

"This..." He Xinyin's face flushed red. Young Master Zhao's criticism hit the root of his problem, so he naturally found it hard to accept. "I never said that I wanted to eliminate human desires. I just hope to improve people's morality through education. When morality improves, desires will naturally be restrained. What's wrong with being pure-hearted and having few desires?"

As he said this, he thought of what Zhao Hao said, 'The beauty achieved by suppressing human nature is a false beauty', and he couldn't help but be speechless.

Yes, you can be pure in heart and have few desires, but you cannot require everyone to be pure in heart and have few desires. Otherwise, what is the difference between that and Cheng Zhu?

He Xinyin was silent for a long time before he murmured, "Is moral education really wrong?"

"Of course, moral education is not wrong. Otherwise, what is the difference between humans and animals?" Zhao Hao said solemnly, "However, moral education can only determine the lower limit of a society, but not its upper limit. Otherwise, how could the Han Dynasty be defeated by the Five Barbarians, Liao, Jin, and Yuan? No matter how bad our morality is, it is much better than theirs, right? What was the use of the education of scholars at that time? We would have been destroyed, slaughtered, and treated like two-legged sheep."

"This..." He Xinyin and the other two showed admiration on their faces, thinking that this kid is even crazier than us. No matter how rebellious the Taizhou School is, it has not jumped out of the scope of Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism. The conflict with Neo-Confucianism is still a dispute over the line among scholars.

Well, when it comes to science, the role of scholars, and even scholars themselves, are directly denied...

Luo Rufang could not help but retort: ​​"It is true that dynasties in history conquered the world by relying on horses, but can they rule the world by relying on horses? In the end, won't they have to rely on scholars to rule the country and bring peace to the world?"

"Of course, because governing a country is a complex and delicate matter, and it is absolutely impossible without scholars." Young Master Zhao sneered and said, "But it's just picking a general from a group of short men. As the saying goes, piled earth forms a mountain, and accumulated water forms an abyss. In theory, as long as there is enough time, even if you pile up earth one shovel at a time, you can pile it up to form a mountain; even if you scoop water one ladle at a time, you can accumulate it to form a large lake. But scholars have governed the dynasties for two thousand years, and our China is still stagnant. I dare not say that it is much better than the pre-Qin Dynasty, and in many places it is even far worse!"

"..." The three of them could not refute his admiration for the past, because they and most scholars, even including Confucius, still admired the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. They always mentioned the Three Dynasties, hoping to return to the era before the collapse of rituals and music.

When you think about it this way, scholars are indeed failures.

"So I say that scholars governing the country is just to maintain a minimum standard. They absolutely cannot make China get out of the vicious circle of order and chaos and truly move forward. Do you still want to achieve the more distant world of great harmony? Don't dream." Zhao Hao sneered and said, "Our Chinese people are the most honest. As long as they have food to eat and clothes to wear, no one will rebel. Scholars have been struggling for two thousand years, and they can't even meet this minimum requirement. Do they still have the nerve to do that?"

These words made the three of them blush and even feel that everything they did was meaningless.

"Then can you ensure that everyone has enough food to eat and clothes to wear?" He Xinyin retorted indignantly.

"I can, at least I know how to do it." Zhao Hao raised his eyebrows and said shamelessly: "Since you have worked in my Jiangnan Group's farm for a year, you should know that through scientific management and scientific planting, our Kunshan farm has achieved a high yield record of two crops a year and 7 stone per mu."

"Let me reveal in advance that this year, Kunshan Farm's per-acre yield has exceeded eight stones." With actual results as a foundation, Mr. Zhao was naturally confident in his words. "What about Kunshan before? Only one crop of rice could be grown a year, and sometimes Kunnan couldn't even harvest a single crop. Well, let's not talk about Kunshan, let's talk about other counties in Suzhou and Songjiang. At most, they grow one crop of rice and one crop of wheat a year. The highest yield of rice was two and a half stones, and wheat was one and a half stones, and that's it."

"With science, we can use the same amount of land to grow at least twice as much food and feed twice as many people. And this is just the beginning. With the continuous improvement of production technology, the output will continue to increase. Do you think I have the confidence to say that I have a way to ensure that everyone has food to eat and clothes to wear?"

"Yes..." He Xinyin nodded in agreement. If he was not convinced, he would not have lowered himself to ask for advice.

"I'm not saying that scholars are not good, but that the books they read are not good." Seeing that he was convinced, Master Zhao also slowed down his tone and said, "Mr. Zhuo Wu said that Confucius and Mencius's teachings are only a temporary panacea, not an eternal theory of 'the best of all times'. We can't regard them as eternal dogmas. That's very scientific."

"Hahaha, I finally understand." Li Zhi suddenly slapped his thigh and laughed, "You mean that scholars must learn science in order to govern the country, get out of the vicious circle of governing in chaos, and make the Ming Dynasty forever strong until the world is united, right!"

"There is nothing better than a bosom friend." Zhao Hao nodded without blushing and said, "The daily life of the people is the way, and science is the study of how to make the people live a better life. So our two families are indeed people of the same path, and we can help each other."

"Let's not talk about that for now." He Xinyin raised his hand and frowned, "Let me sort it out first. Mr. Zhao means that only by following human nature can we last long. So the responsibility of scholars should be to satisfy people's desires, so that the organization can last long, the country can be strong, and ultimately achieve great harmony?"

"At the same time, we must have morality to set limits on desires," Zhao Hao said in a deep voice. "Desires that are not restrained by morality are poisonous. They will eventually make the country evil, make the people unable to distinguish right from wrong, and ultimately bring about their own destruction."

After a pause, he winked and smiled, "Of course, this is the business of your Taizhou School."

The three of them finally understood what Zhao Hao meant by "morality is the lower limit of society". Both Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism regard morality as the upper limit of society, so generations of scholars would repeatedly seek morality.

But in fact, it is only because they cannot satisfy people's pursuit of a better life that they use moral ethics to reduce people's desires in order to maintain social stability. This kind of reverse operation of cutting one's feet to fit the shoes can only maintain the operation of society at most, and cannot bring a better life to the people.

Although He Xinyin's Juhuitang has relaxed the constraints of the orthodox ethics on the tribe members, it still does not change the way of restricting people's desires to maintain the operation of the system. How could there not be problems?

So the bottom line is, stupid, the problem is the economy!

p.s. There is no more today, I will try to post it earlier tomorrow.