As history continues to move forward, the former puppet Ying Zheng is gradually growing up, and even has a tendency to pro-government. At that time, there was Lord Xinling in Wei, Lord Chunshen in Chu, Lord Pingyuan in Zhao, and Lord Mengchang in Qi. They were just young masters, and their power was naturally inferior to that of Lu Buwei. Lu Buwei was not only the prime minister of Qin, but also the auxiliary minister of Qin. All military, aircraft and government affairs were concentrated in his hands, which could be said to cover the sky with one hand.
But looking at the four young masters of the Warring States Period, every one of them is a capable person and a master of winning people's hearts. His diners are said to be in the thousands. This caused a great imbalance in Lu Buwei's heart. He was the prime minister of a country and was in charge of the government, but he had very few followers. Therefore, Lu Buwei decided to do better than the four princes of the Warring States Period. Not only did he spend a lot of financial resources to recruit more than 3,000 people, but he also strictly screened them. Warriors, fierce generals, etc., Lu Buwei did not like at all. What he likes are people with outstanding literary talents and superior intelligence.
This may be related to Lu Buwei's own identity. Lu Buwei himself is a businessman, good at calculation and strategy. How could Lu Buwei take those traffickers and lackeys, reckless men with well-developed limbs and simple minds? The Qin State has many powerful generals and many masters. Lu Buwei does not have to violate taboos and raise those warriors for conquest.
Lu Buwei has reached a peak in power. Unless he seeks power and usurps the throne, there will be no chance of further promotion. For the current plan, only by writing books, establishing one's own prestige, expanding one's influence, and then passing on his name to history can Lu Buwei be interested in it. Moreover, Lu Buwei knew very well that only relying on his own talent to write books and spread his stories for generations to come would not allow time and his abilities would be limited. Only by fully relying on your own strengths can you realize your ideals.
Therefore, Lu Buwei decided to help him realize this wish with the help of retainers who are good at writing and debating. Lu Buwei asked his diners to write their own writings. As long as they heard, saw, and thought, they would write down everything. After thousands of articles were submitted, Lu Buwei discovered that they were all diverse, including three religions and nine streams, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, the rise and fall of countries, and the honor and disgrace of all things in the world. On the surface, these articles have no clues to look up and no system to present. This is a whole collection of essays, with different levels, and it is difficult to judge whether it is high or low. How can it become an extraordinary book?
At this time, a disciple suggested to Lu Buwei that he could select some people who wrote well, systematically screen the collected articles, classify them, delete, update and recombine them. Lu Buwei wanted to use this book to shine a light on his achievements, and he also hoped that it would be passed down for generations, so he was not sloppy at all. After the book was completed, he organized staff to revise it several times until it was satisfactory.
Thanks to the efforts of everyone, "Lü Shi Chun Qiu" (also called "Lü Lan") came out in 239 BC.
After the writing of "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" was completed, Lu Buwei selected several knowledgeable people to select, classify and synthesize these articles. Lu Buwei believed that "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" could be regarded as an eternal masterpiece, and even boasted that this book was a unique book that covered heaven and earth, all things, ancient and modern times.
Judging from the actual conditions at the time, it was really difficult to achieve such a huge work. Lu Buwei relied on the strength of Qin and his own power to write the book.
In terms of the system of the whole book "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" alone, it can be divided into twelve chapters, eight chapters, and six treatises. Among them, the twelve chapters are the essence of the whole book, which is divided into "Spring Records", "Xia Records", "Autumn Chronicles" and "Winter Chronicles" each have 15 chapters, totaling 60 chapters. On the basis of "Dharma Heaven and Earth", this book was finally edited. The twelfth century symbolizes the "big circle" of heaven. Therefore, in this part of "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", the twelfth month order is used as a clue to combine the materials. The "Spring Chronicles" discusses methods of maintaining health, the "Xia Chronicles" discusses teaching and music theory, the "Autumn Chronicles" discusses military war issues, and the "Winter Chronicles" mainly discusses people's ideological and moral issues. Due to the loss of one article, there are only 63 chapters left in the Eight Readings. They start from the beginning of the world and talk about the fundamentals of human affairs, the way to govern a country, the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong, how to control the people, and achieve the great deeds of the king. There are a total of 36 articles in the Six Treatises, miscellaneously discussing various schools of thought, but still having its own main line.
The 26 volumes of "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" include 161 articles (160 articles currently exist), with a total word count of more than 200,000. Its content is complex, mainly including Confucianism and Taoism, as well as Mohist, Legal, Military, Agricultural, Zongheng, Yin-Yang and other schools of thought, as well as astronomy, geography, calendar, mathematics, music and other aspects.
Therefore, "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals" was included in the "Hanshu Yiwenzhi". This naturally means that it involves too much content and is too complicated. However, if you look at the entire "Lu Shi Chun Qiu", you can find that it has a complete organizational system, a large number of theoretical frameworks, and a tightly connected organizational system. Just as what "Yong Zhong" said: "There are no pure white foxes in the world, but there are pure white furs, and they are all white."
The reason why Lu Buwei compiled this "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" is to gather the essence of each school and achieve independent and distinctive thoughts. Therefore, the whole article mainly focuses on Taoist thought and Confucian thought, with an objective and credible attitude. , starting from the perspective of fairness and science, treating everything equally, this is exactly what "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals" said: "Private viewing makes the eyes blind, private hearing makes the deaf, and private worries make the heart crazy. All three are private. Suppose, if wisdom is refined, there will be no universal wisdom. If wisdom is unfair, blessings will decrease and disasters will increase." Lu Buwei's concept is to integrate various schools of thought and create a masterpiece that is a masterpiece.
On the day when the book was written, Lu Buwei also faced the problem of power struggle with Qin Wangzheng. The King of Qin gradually grew up and recruited a large number of young talents such as Li Si to compete with Lu Buwei.
Seeing that his power was weakening, his status was declining, and his prestige was also decreasing. Naturally, Lu Buwei would not sit still and wait for death. He came up with a brilliant idea, which was to have the complete set of "Lu's Spring and Autumn" books transcribed. Then it was hung on the city gate of Xianyang. At the same time, an announcement was made to the entire world. Whoever can delete, add, or update a word in the original text will be rewarded with a thousand gold coins. Lu Buwei's move seemed reckless, but in fact it had profound meaning.
First of all, this announcement undoubtedly brought "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" into the center of world public opinion, making this book known to everyone. Through the practice of rewarding a thousand gold pieces for one word, everyone in the world realizes that this book is really a unique book that "prepares everything in the world from ancient to modern times" and "wants to unite the world." Every word in the article is precise and perfect. One more word is too many, one less word is too few, one word is too biased, and one word is too narrow.
Secondly, "Lu's Spring and Autumn" represents Lu Buwei's self-confidence in his own ambition and achievements in the world. Everyone in the world saw that even though there was a lot of money to lure him, no one dared to touch Lu Buwei's taboo and dare to seek skin from a tiger. In an instant, Lu Buwei's reputation was so great that even the King of Qin was ashamed. In this way, his power to assist the government can be more stable. If the King of Qin wants to be in charge, he must think twice before attacking Lu Buwei.
There is no doubt that "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" brilliantly concentrated the wisdom of thousands of people and brought together the essence of various schools of thought in the pre-Qin period. From a grand perspective, it took the essence and discarded the dross, and became the most ambitious academic work in the late Warring States period. A masterpiece.
"Lu Shi Chun Qiu" made a conclusive criticism of the pre-Qin scholars in terms of ideology. The chapter "Bu Er" says: "Lao Dan valued Rou, Confucius valued benevolence, Mo Zhai valued Lian, Guan Yin valued Qing, Liezi valued Xu, Chen Pian valued Qi, Yangsheng valued Ji, Sun Bin valued power, Wang Liao valued the first, and Ni Liang valued the queen." Objectively pointed out But they are not perfect. This book also creatively puts forward the idea of unifying various schools of thought, believing that "one can rule, and differences can lead to chaos; one can provide peace, and differences can lead to danger" ("Fu Er"). Under the unified idea, " "Everyone is different, stupid, intelligent, and clumsy in work, but they all try their best, just like coming out of a hole" is the ideal. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" was influenced by this kind of thinking and transformed, developed and abandoned various schools of thought. Naturally, in terms of choices, because the book was not written for a long time, each family has different political opinions and different views, so there are some omissions and biases. Especially on the great cause of the king, he absorbed Confucius's idea of unifying the dynasty, but he did not agree with the restoration of the ritual rule of the Zhou Dynasty, and preferred the feudal autocratic monarchy.
"Lu Shi Chun Qiu" also has its own simple understanding of the origin of matter. This book took the "Jing Qi" theory of Song Yin School and transformed it. The Yin School of Song Dynasty believes: "The essence of all things is life, with grains below and stars above." And "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" said: "All things are created in Taiyi and transformed into Yin and Yang." ("Lu Shi Chun Qiu") "Great Bliss") is similar to the Taoist thought of "Tao generates one, one generates two, two generates three, and three generates all things".
This extends to the concept of social history. "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" believes that history is progressive and develops, and states in the article "Chang Jian": "The present is to the past, just as the past is to future generations. The present is to future generations. , just like the present is to the past. Therefore, if you know the present, you can know the past, and if you know the past, you can know the future, and the past and the present are consistent." His concept insists that history is interlocking. People today look at ancient society, and When future generations look at today's society, it is actually the same. Therefore, politicians must adapt to the changes of the times and history, and change policies appropriately. Only in this way can society maintain long-term stability.
To sum up, it can be seen that "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" has its own unique insights in terms of its literary nature, ideological nature and dialectical nature, and is unprecedented in its own way.
That's why Sima Qian praised "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" without hesitation for "preparing everything in the world from ancient to modern times." In "Book of Bao Ren'an", it is even compared with ancient masterpieces such as "Guoyu", "Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn", and "Li Sao". Gao You of the Eastern Han Dynasty also praised it highly and believed that "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" was "outstanding among other scholars", which shows that he believed that the achievements of Lu Buwei's book were higher than those of the pre-Qin scholars and allowed him to take the lead.
As for the achievements and value of "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", it is still left to the continuous exploration of today's people and the continuous thinking of future generations. It is difficult to conclude anything. The only thing that can be certain is that "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" is receiving more and more attention and research, its value is constantly being explored and discovered, and its light cannot be hidden.
