Zhao Bing can be regarded as "reading all" of China's five thousand years of history. He also has a rough understanding of the development of primitive society to socialist society, and also understands that in every social transformation, great thinkers will appear, pointing out the direction of historical development. But to judge the greatness of a thinker, he also knows that it depends on whether he can have a clear understanding of the important historical turning point he is in and establish a unique "historical consciousness".

Confucianism ruled China for thousands of years, and Zhao Bing knew that there must be something good about it. Of course, his thoughts were also affected in his previous lives. But he also knew that Confucianism was not static. Since Confucius founded, his disciples and later Confucian scholars made various interpretations and developments, and continued to innovate and improve them to meet the needs of different periods.

Lu Xiufu guessed well just now. During this period, Zhao Bing "abandoned Wu and followed Wen", picked up the classics and history that he had been very disgusted in the past, trying to find out what he needed, and the classics written by Xunzi were also included. He found that although what he said was "difference to the classics and destiny" and was criticized by Confucians of all generations, it was not undesirable, especially some remarks were very consistent with the current situation.

However, the meaning revealed by the emperor's words made Lu Xiufu and Deng Guangjian shocked. In their cognition, Xunzi was not orthodox, and even deviated from the thoughts of his ancestor Confucius. Some of the thoughts were criticized and rejected by later generations of great scholars, and had great differences with the current popular views, and therefore had long been suppressed.

First of all, Xunzi was not accepted by most Confucian scholars on the issue of destiny. In fact, the so-called destiny of heaven, destiny of heaven, and the way of heaven have always been a concern for various schools in the pre-Qin period. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Heaven" and "destiny of heaven" were regarded as personality gods. By Confucius, his personality and destiny were diluted. Confucius mainly used the affection of relatives to discuss benevolence and virtue, and regarded destiny as a blind dominant power.

After Confucius, his disciples and descendants tried to integrate "benevolence", "heart and nature" and "destiny". On the one hand, they wanted to obtain ontological support for the pursuit of "benevolence" and "heart and nature". On the other hand, they rationalized and valued the meaning of "heaven", "destiny" and "heaven's way"; but Xunzi took the components of Taoism's natural view on "heaven", "heaven's way" and "destiny". However, its theoretical purpose is not to move towards naturalism, but to highlight the "division of heaven and man", and then based on "division of heaven and man", he constructed his own "human" theory.

Secondly, in terms of moral practice, Xunzi believed that "a saint is what people accumulate and achieve." The highest requirement is "becoming a saint". Xunzi insisted on the consistency of his theory and believed that in terms of natural emotions, saints are no different from ordinary people, and that they can only achieve themselves through acquired efforts.

In national governance, Xunzi attaches great importance to "ritual". Xunzi believes that ritual produces results from distinguishing and regulating the relationship between profit and desire of different people. In the process of governing ritual, we cannot only consider human desires, but should allow both things and desires to stand up for a long time, maintaining a balance between material growth and desire growth, which has also caused conflicts in traditional Confucian values.

In addition, the point where Xunzi was criticized by Confucianism in later generations was that he taught two disciples of the Legalists: Li Si and Han Fei. They both had learned "imperial arts" from Xunzi, which was also the most worrying issue between Lu Xiufu and the others, and they were worried that the emperor would go astray because of this.

"Your Majesty, although Xunzi is a Confucian scholar who preached the scriptures of Confucius, he has theories of the good and evil of human nature that he is contrary to the saints..." Deng Guangjian felt that as an imperial teacher, he had the responsibility to correct students' bad thoughts, and thought about it and said.

"Sir, I think that the good and evil of human nature have no decisive significance to Confucianism, and its value is only lies in providing an internal human nature for the education of rituals and music. This issue has been debated for thousands of years and has not yet been concluded. Therefore, I think it is better to leave this to the scholars and scholars to debate, so we don't have to get entangled in this anymore." Zhao Bing said.

"In addition, Xunzi believed that human nature is evil, which only shows that there is no difference between saints and ordinary people, gentlemen and villains in their innate nature. The intention of establishing a theory is not to fundamentally abandon this difference, but to highlight this difference from the perspective of acquired efforts. It highlights that acquired efforts to cultivate gentlemen and saints emphasize the aristocratic nature of spiritual temperament and cultural education. However, in the pursuit of saints and pursuit of aristocratic spirit and character, it is in line with the concept of Confucius. When it comes to becoming a saint, he also hopes to use the education of saints to change his temperament and become good."

"Your Majesty, although Xunzi is a Confucian scholar who preached the scriptures by Confucius, he tends to be utilitarian, but loses moral education, and advocates etiquette and law. This is not the study of our generation, nor is it the way to govern the country!" He wanted to debate with the emperor about the saying that his nature is good and evil is blocked by his words. Deng Guangjian could only change the topic so that His Majesty could no longer avoid it.

"Xunzi believed that human nature is to pursue profit, and the role of etiquette restricts human profit, and there is indeed a conflict between the two. But I think that in order to ensure the normal operation of the court, the permissible rule of etiquette and the following etiquette must certainly resort to a kind of compulsory nature. Therefore, it is inevitable that etiquette will be transformed into law." Zhao Bing said.

"Therefore, Xunzi has the key points of etiquette and law, and the great division of etiquette and law. It refers to the ritual and law together. Etiquette is a category between righteousness and law. I think that when righteousness and etiquette are both called morality; when ritual and law are called together, etiquette is mostly referring to morality; when ritual and law are called together, etiquette is mostly referring to the system. Xunzi said that etiquette is the great division of law, which refers to both the basis of legislation and the moral stance of etiquette as the principle. It can be said that it is a great master who takes into account the pursuit of profit and necessity of reality, but adheres to moral ideals and strives to maintain a balance between the two. Therefore, I think it is better to discuss it and learn and transform it," Zhao Bing said with a smile.

In fact, in Zhao Bing's view, Mencius, who inherited and carried forward Confucius' theory, and Xunzi, who was "rebellious", took a path of different paths and the same end, and Xunzi's theory was more forward-looking. The greatness of Mencius lies in answering the question "What is a man?" and Mencius' answer to this question has influenced China's human ethics values ​​for more than 2,000 years. The greatness of Xunzi lies in his focus on answering "How should a man be?"

From the perspective of human nature, Mencius and Xunzi, one talking about self-discipline and the other talking about external discipline, are very important in both aspects. For example, from moral self-discipline to moral education to achieve "the same virtue as the upper and lower levels" - isn't this the prototype of today's patriotic education, and its lofty spirit of "sacrificing oneself for justice" is the source of our national belief?

Conservatively speaking, Mencius' historical status is no less than Heidegger's to the German nation. Xunzi's "nature is evil" laid the foundation for Legalists and ancient Chinese legal theory. At the same time, Xunzi's theory is also full of benevolence. As for his students Li Sizhu's practice and Han Feizhu's theory, they are unfamiliar as Legalists, which is a later story. From action and theory to assist Qin Shihuang in unifying the six kingdoms, it is a great achievement. There is no need to demand the ancients, and they also have the limitations of the times.

Regarding the interpretation of the legitimacy of the regime, Mencius's "those who win the hearts of the people will win the world" was a very great and profound insight. Xunzi logically reasoned that "transformed nature and falsehood" and said that the source of social systems is also a great idea that crosses the ages. As for the viewpoint of society, Mencius said that "those who work hard govern people, and those who work hard govern people", "those who have constant property have perseverance", and Xunzi said, "Therefore, it is clear that the distinction between heaven and man can be called the most human being."

The formulation and form of the law are not purely the issue of distribution of interests, but there is also a moral issue; the uniformization of the law breaks the boundaries between nobles and civilians, making all people equal. However, the adherence of etiquette still prevents the educated people from falling into decline. Therefore, it is difficult to say which one is more important and who is more wise. Zhao Bing thinks that only children make choices, while adults say they both want it.

"This..." Deng Guangjian was once again frustrated by the emperor's "fallacies and evil sayings". He also felt that what His Majesty said was not without reason, and he could not refute it for a while. He also knew that Xunzi was in, when Qin was rising, and all the families were facing challenges. How should we understand this country that developed rapidly, which was very good at innovating in political systems or absorbing the innovative achievements of other countries?

Deng Guangjian is also a great scholar of the Song Dynasty and is familiar with the classics and history. Although he failed to see the records of his entry into Qin in the biography of Xunzi in "Records of the Grand Historian", he can see his records related to Qin in "Xunzi". He believed that the people's lifestyle was simple and ancient. Especially for the performance of officials and scholars, he praised them, believing that they were frugal, respectful, and loyal. The scholars and officials were able to "clearly distinguish between public and private", not as good as Zhou and were not flirted with. The court also had decisiveness. From the perspective of the way of governing the country, Qin could serve as an example.

In "Religion", he also records his dialogue with King Zhao of Qin: King Zhao of Qin directly told him that Confucianism was not helpful for governing the country. Xunzi did not immediately change his position like Shang Yang, but emphasized that Confucianism has the "effect" of being beautiful in the court and being beautiful in the wild and being beautiful in the wild. Confucianism has inherent requirements for its own moral qualities, which makes Confucian scholars not influenced by the greed and evil way, and will inevitably become an important force in maintaining social order.

Then King Zhao of Qin continued to ask a key question, namely, how should Confucianism demand itself if it becomes a "person". When answering this question, although Xunzi emphasized the meaning of equal importance to etiquette and law, he emphasized the ideal side of Confucianism. He insisted that political legitimacy comes from the kingly way, not violent acquisition - to do one unjust, kill one without guilt and win the world, and not to do it.
Chapter completed!