Before this debate, we must first understand what is the development history of Confucianism, which has been inherited for thousands of years.
First of all, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius founded Confucianism.
There is only one word at the core of this idea - [Benevolence].
He advocated regulating harmonious interpersonal relationships with love for others to maintain the "rituals" of the Zhou Dynasty.
He advocated order between the noble and the humble, advocated governing the people with virtue, and opposed tyranny and arbitrary punishment.
He also asked the ruling class to cherish the power of the people, win the trust of the people, and be honest and self-disciplined.
By the Warring States Period, Mencius' thoughts developed.
He advocated the implementation of benevolent government in politics, put forward the idea that the people are more important than the monarch, advocated that "policy lies in winning the people", and opposed tyranny, abuse of the people, and mobs.
He advocated giving farmers a certain amount of land, not infringing on farmers' working time, and lenient sentences and low taxes.
It can be seen from this that the ancestors of Confucianism are relatively kind, and their basic stance is on the side of the common people.
As for the ruling class, we cannot say that it is not good, we can only say that it requires a lot.
Therefore, burning books and entrapping Confucians happened.
The First Emperor looked down on these Confucian scholars and asked the emperor every day, if this didn't work or that didn't work, he might as well kill them all.
Not only did Lao Qin look down on Confucianism, but the way Confucius and Mencius restrained the ruling class would not be tolerated by any emperor.
The chicken thieves appeared at this time.
By the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu's New Confucianism became the dominant ideology.
He used Confucianism as the basis, added yin and yang, the five elements, the induction of heaven and man, these messy things, and mixed various schools of thought to establish New Confucianism with a theological tendency.
This set of ideas, the word "benevolence", Lao Dong still talks about on the surface, but the root is in "inspiration from heaven and man" and "divine right of kings".
Sure enough, this set of things immediately allowed the ruling class to grasp the academic basis for its own legitimacy.
There is no need to say more about what happens after that. For thousands of years, Confucianism has been centered around endorsing the legitimacy of the ruling class regime.
In the Song Dynasty, due to the influence of Buddhism and Taoism.
New colors have been added to the big dye vat of Confucianism.
Zhu Xi proposed the idea of preserving natural principles and destroying human desires.
He believes that principle is primary and is the law governing the operation of all things in the universe, while Qi is secondary and is the material that constitutes all things in the universe.
As for what regulating qi is, we will talk about it later.
Anyway, there are a lot of weird things mixed in here.
For example, if the king wants the minister to die, then the minister has to die. This is the beginning.
Confucius said that the king is the king and the ministers are the ministers, the father is the father and the son is the son.
The first requirement is that the monarch should behave like a monarch, and then the ministers should behave like ministers.
Zhu Xi directly made them absolute.
Thousands of mistakes are made, and the fault lies with the ministers. The emperor was right.
This was of course appreciated by the higher authorities. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism suddenly became a prominent school.
Okay, here we are, end of review.
At this time, things started to get tough, and Tang Lian asked the first question of the day.
“Is human nature essentially good at the beginning?”
Since the birth of Confucianism, there has been an unanswered question: Is human nature inherently good or inherently evil?
Confucianism advocates the unity of nature and man. If you want to advocate it, you must know what the original nature of human nature is, and then you can find the right solution.
Xu He's question, which seems boring to modern people, is indeed of great significance in the eyes of Confucians.
Qiu Teng glanced at the three people he picked.
The three of them replied in unison: "Thank you, Master Jiu, human nature is kind!"
Qiu Teng looked at Tang Lian and said to himself, I want to see what kind of flowers you want to say about this question.
Tang Lian seemed unaware of the gaze from Qiu Teng.
Then he smiled and said: "Okay, I think so too..."
Those three people looked at each other and smiled, that's it?
But Tang Lian continued: "Since humans are originally good by nature, how can we maintain this goodness?"
"Forehead……"
"this……"
Several people were dumbfounded for a moment.
Qiu Teng was anxious and angry, but he couldn't end it personally. He could only say to Tang Lian: "They don't know, so does any of these people you picked know?"
There were three people on Xu He's side, and two of them quickly shook their heads like rattles.
Tang Lian didn't seem to care. He smiled and said warmly to Xu He, "Do you know?"
Xu He really wanted to ask him: "I'm just pretending, are you sure it's okay? If it's okay, I'll officially start?"
Looking at Old Tang Hexi's smile, Xu He thought for a moment, and he wasn't afraid of the problem anyway.
Because I'm sitting on the fence... No, it's because the two Cheng sages don't agree with each other.
"Returning to the question of Bachelor Qiu and Tang Jijiu!" Xu He bowed and said, "Cheng Yi replied that human nature is good and evil comes from the outside. As long as we guard ourselves and don't be tempted by the evil of the outside world, we can maintain our own integrity. Basically good."
"But Cheng Hao disagreed with his point of view. He said: Evil does not exist in the outside world, but arises from the human heart. As long as we cultivate our own minds, we can maintain our own inherent goodness."
Why did Xu He remember Er Cheng’s discussion of this issue so clearly?
Because it was this debate between them that triggered a revolution in Confucianism and directly led to the birth of two new schools of Confucianism...
Science and psychology.
Cheng Yi's ideas were inherited by Zhu Xi, and were known as Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism in history. He believes that everything has its own principles, and the principles are external, so he advocates studying things to seek knowledge and understand the principles of all things, so that he can achieve the heart of a saint.
In order to better explain the ideas of Neo-Confucianism, Zhu Xi even put forward the famous saying: preserve the principles of nature, and then eliminate human desires.
So what is natural law and what is human desire?
For example, people need to drink water and eat. This is a natural law. However, when there is water and porridge, you must drink thatch and eat abalone, which is a human desire.
But looking at these words, you will feel that there is nothing wrong with Zhu Xi and that he spoke very well. But in addition to this, it also has another meaning, which is sequence. Preserve heaven's principles first, and then eliminate human desires. Zhu Xi believes that people's self-cultivation needs to follow the laws of nature. Heaven's laws are the first nature, and human hearts are the second nature. Human hearts must be in line with heaven's laws.
Cheng Hao's ideas were inherited by Lu Jiuyuan. Lu Jiuyuan's shocking sentence - My heart is the universe, and the universe is my heart - created the school of mind science. He believed that the laws of heaven are not outside the heart, and that the human heart is the laws of heaven. Zhu Xi held the laws of heaven in his hands but went all over the world to find them. Isn't it absurd?
Lu Jiuyuan's ideas were eventually inherited by Wang Yangming, who proposed the famous "Heart is reason". Wang Yangming believes: The principles are not external, but in my heart. The way of heaven is the way of the heart. To preserve the principles of nature is to get rid of human desires. To get rid of human desires is to preserve the principles of nature. It is better to cultivate the mind than to understand the principles of all things.
From Confucius to Wang Yangming, Confucianism finally realized the unity of nature and man. Wang Yangming was also hailed by later generations as: the last saint.
Therefore, Tang Lian's point of attack finally appeared.
"The University" tells people that people's unhappiness is caused by material and spiritual things.
So how to solve spiritual problems?
Does this [human desire] mean that after we understand the laws of how everything operates, we can figure it out through investigation?
Or are the desires in people’s hearts born from their original hearts, and we just need to stick to our original intentions?
The big problem of the century!
