In the dark room, Hai Rui was shocked to find that he was actually moved to tears by the young man.

This is such a great shame!

He quickly reached out to wipe away his tears and said with a gloomy face, "Isn't that so? If it wasn't a punishment from heaven, how could the two lively children of Zhongdi and Zhongliang die one after another?!"

"Of course not!" Zhao Hao stared at Hai Rui's eyes, as if he wanted to engrave his will into his mind.

"Because in this world, there is no such thing as heaven and man's sympathy, there is no such thing as heaven's will! There is no such thing as heaven's punishment! The deaths of the two young masters were just accidents and illnesses..."

Zhao Hao's statement was indeed unorthodox and sensational. But it was undeniable that it was the statement that made Hai Rui feel most relieved...

And the human mind always unconsciously seeks liberation...

But at the same time, this statement seriously challenged Hai Rui's beliefs, causing the old fighter to immediately shake off his previous decadence and weakness. He slammed the table and questioned Zhao Hao:

"You young man, please stop talking without thinking. If you say that, where will the way of heaven be placed?"

"Have you not heard that 'Heaven and Earth are not benevolent and treat all things as straw dogs'? Heaven's way is the law of change of all things in the world. It is objective and natural and cannot be changed by human will." Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "People will be punished by Heaven's way for not following the laws of nature, but as long as your behavior does not interfere with nature, even if you kill people in the world and kill the king and usurp the throne, you will not be punished by Heaven."

"Are you a Taoist believer?" Hai Rui narrowed his eyes and looked at Zhao Hao coldly, "But we Confucians don't see it that way. We believe that there is a connection between heaven and man. In our view, heaven and man are of the same kind and can sense each other. Heaven can intervene in human affairs, and man can also sense heaven. If the king is unjust and treacherous, heaven will send disasters to condemn and warn; if the government is in order and the people are harmonious, and the king is wise and the ministers are virtuous, heaven will send down auspicious signs to encourage..."

"That was nothing more than Dong Zhongshu and his ilk tampering with the Yin-Yang School's theory to please the emperor." Zhao Hao shook his head and said, "Before him, no Confucian sage had ever mentioned the concept of 'the connection between heaven and man'."

"The Master said, 'The state is suffering from severe drought, is it not due to the failure of punishment and virtue?' He also advised the monarch to 'correct punishment and virtue, and serve the heaven'!" In this world, the person who can defeat Hai Rui in an argument has not yet been born. Then he smiled contemptuously and said, "Isn't this the origin of the interaction between heaven and man?"

"You have to consider the context in which Confucius said these words. Who was he talking to?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"Of course it's the king." Hai Rui frowned.

"That's not the end? Confucius traveled around the countries to make the kings accept his ideas. But the kings don't know how to fear. Without God to scare them, how could they listen to the old master's teachings?" Then Zhao Hao shook his head and laughed:

"But in fact, he privately said to Zigong, 'What does Heaven say? The four seasons run their course, all things grow, what does Heaven say?' It can be seen that Confucius himself did not believe in that."

Hai Rui was stunned. He knew that what Zhao Hao quoted was the original words from the Analects. But he did not dare to easily refute the words of the sage. He just waved his hands and said, "No, you are wrong. Otherwise, what is the point of countless scholars studying the classics and seeking the truth for thousands of years?"

"Isn't it true that reading books by sages is for the purpose of becoming an official?" Zhao Hao was quick-witted, and before Hai Rui got angry, he quickly said with a serious expression, "Of course it is meaningful to seek the truth! But in this world, there is no unified truth that all things return to. Instead, the heavens, the earth, and the human world each have their own different laws and different truths."

After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "You can summarize the principles of the human world from the complex phenomena of the human world. You can also summarize the principles of nature from the complex phenomena of the heaven and earth. But these are two completely different things. You cannot combine the two and blindly force a single answer."

"Don't blindly insist on being the only one?" A gleam of light flashed in Hai Rui's eyes. Zhao Hao's words hit the sore spot for him and the scholars all over the world.

The Confucian sages of the Han Dynasty told them that there is only one truth in the world. This one truth is the most fundamental law in the world, the so-called "reason". As long as you understand the one truth, you can understand everything in the world.

This desire is so great that it makes everything in the world lose its charm. For thousands of years, countless scholars have come one after another just to find that one and only one!

But the question was so difficult that everyone was searching like headless flies but couldn't find the answer. Instead, many people went crazy because of it.

Later, Zhu Xi emerged and pointed out the golden road of "investigating things and exploring the truth" for Confucian scholars. Then Cheng Yi, another great figure of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, gave a specific explanation, saying, "Today, investigate one thing, tomorrow, investigate another thing, and you will suddenly understand everything and finally know the truth of heaven."

Now scholars all over the world had a clear path and no longer ran around like headless flies. However, they followed the guidance of teachers Zhu and Cheng, year after year, and tried over and over again, but they could not figure out the only reason. So they were stuck in a dead end again and could not get out.

Until Wang Yangming came out of nowhere and told the scholars loudly that there was no need to go through so much trouble. The "reason" that everyone was pursuing was in everyone's heart. As long as you do good and avoid evil, you will be studying things. Then, with this conscience, you can integrate knowledge and action, which is enough to guide your life...

This enabled many scholars to finally break free from the shackles of Neo-Confucianism, walk out of the dead end of seeking the truth, liberate their minds, and become believers of Yangming's Philosophy of Mind.

However, there are still many Neo-Confucianists like Hai Rui who think that Yangming's philosophy of mind is avoiding the important and avoiding the difficulty of seeking the truth, so they always sneer at it. So they continue to seek the truth in a dead end, but no one can deny that this hopeless pursuit is a torture and torment.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many scholars turning to the embrace of the School of Mind...

~~

"Don't blindly force the only one?"

Hai Rui repeated in a low voice.

Zhao Hao's words raised a point that he had never thought of before - what if there is no principle that all things in this world return to one, but instead there are many unconnected and non-interfering paths existing at the same time?

No matter how absurd he thought this view was, Hai Rui had to admit that, in addition to the School of Mind, Zhao Hao had proposed a theory that would allow scholars around the world to take a breath and not have to struggle with themselves in a dead end.

Based on this contribution alone, Hai Rui would never treat Zhao Hao as an ignorant boy again, but would regard him as a great scholar like Wang Shouren who was knowledgeable and capable of creating his own school of thought.

For an old fighter like Hai Gangfeng, there is nothing more satisfying in life than meeting such an opponent!

Hai Rui felt the long-lost fighting spirit bursting out from the bottom of his heart. He felt his fighting spirit rising again, and he was ready to convince the young man!

So, the two of them held different views, and started a heated debate on whether the "Tao" is unique and whether the "harmony between heaven and man" is what Confucius advocated. In the end, no one was determined until dark...

ps. The fourth update, added by the leader, dedicated to 'I Love Third Sister'...