The audience in the audience may include many people, such as the officials from the Song Dynasty who accompanied him.
They watched Tang Sidei's performance, or nodded repeatedly while squeezing their beards, or sighed with expressions of compassion, as if Tang Sidei had explained the root cause of the country's many ills in one word, as if what Tang Sidei said was to save the country. The only way for this rotten and degenerate country, there is no other way.
Everything is due to the deterioration of the world and the unfavorable people's hearts. It is all due to contemporary people's failure to do, practice and implement what the saints said, so today's disasters occur.
But Xin Qiji was not his audience.
He was a cold bystander, so he really couldn't understand the direct connection between a full stomach and the teachings of the saints, and he felt that he really couldn't stand Tang Situi's shamelessness and ability to misrepresent a deer as a horse.
If the officials of the Song Dynasty were such a group of people, it is no wonder that they could not save the great country and only half of the country was left.
If they continue to be so shameless, think about it, the remaining half of the country won't be around for long.
Xin Qiji also received a traditional elite education. He had been familiar with Confucian classics since he was a child. He once longed for the ideal country described by ancient sages, and once longed for the world of great harmony where everyone pays attention to etiquette.
Although he no longer believes in Confucianism, he still remembers many things in it.
Su Yonglin also remembered the same thing.
So Su Yonglin once took the time to chat with Xin Qiji about what would happen if the country was governed according to Confucius's vision. Then Su Yonglin pointed out a great practitioner -
Wang Mang.
From his experience, we can see the efforts made by the true disciples of the saints to realize the ideals of the saints and their ultimate fate.
The sage just said that there was no condition for him to do it, but in the late Western Han Dynasty, this great god really did it.
He said that he must refer to the Three Dynasties, and everything must be based on the "Li" of Zhou. The blueprint for the New Deal is all about restoring that ancient era. He really wants to bring the whole society back together.
Isn’t this considered a die-hard saint disciple?
But what did he get?
Those Confucian literati really didn't know that everything Wang Mang did was specifically expected by the saint?
Don't they know that the saint specifically wants the whole society to return to the orderly era of the Western Zhou Dynasty?
They know that, but they cannot admit that the essence of Wang Mang's reform is the retro reform, which is based on the highest ideals of the saint. If they admit this, doesn't it mean that the saint's idea is impossible to realize and is a complete failure?
Then won’t the political life of Confucianism come to an end?
Then we can only completely deny Wang Mang, deny his reforms, and reshape the Confucian political concept to make this concept more in line with the needs of feudal rulers.
From then on, the ideals of the saints only remained in books and would never be put into practice. Confucian disciples only relied on the ideas of the saints, and what they did in private was not enough for outsiders.
Su Yonglin's remarks shattered Xin Qiji's last memory of the "Three Generations of Rule" described in Confucian classics.
From then on, Xin Qiji only read Confucian classics as moral and philosophical books, and read less and less. Instead, he began to dabble in some books on natural sciences. In terms of political principles, he read more Su's political treatises and more Participated in the internal seminar meeting of the Renaissance secretly organized by Su Yonglin, where politics were discussed.
To this day, when he discovered that the Southern Song Dynasty was still so shamelessly and hypocritically adhering to the so-called Confucian philosophy of governing the country, and used this philosophy as a fig leaf for them to do whatever they wanted, he couldn't help feeling disgusted from the bottom of his heart.
"I think that under this heavy snow, what the refugees need most is a house to keep out the cold and enough food, not the teachings of a saint, right? Keeping them fed and clothed should be more important than anything else."
Tang Situi was stunned when he heard this, and then looked at Xin Qiji, seeming a little surprised why Xin Qiji was not impressed by this grand blueprint and great aspirations.
Immediately, Tang Situi had a new rhetoric.
"Of course we need food, of course we need houses. These are all available, but without the teachings of saints, how can we have these? It is exactly what is said that the book has its own golden house, and the book has its own beauty like jade."
Tang Si retreated and smiled, quite ambiguously.
Xin Qiji could not help but frown and feel disgusted.
Regarding this point, Su Yonglin felt very speechless at first. He strongly criticized Zhao Heng's approach many times in internal meetings, believing it to be extremely short-sighted and ugly behavior.
How noble is it to study diligently, realize the ultimate ideal, and govern the country and bring peace to the world?
Idealism will appear naive in front of realists, but without idealism, there will be no progress in realism.
Therefore, studying and studying is of course for the highest level concept of governing the country and bringing peace to the world. It has been the same in all dynasties. Only you, the Emperor Zhao, used naked money and women to win over the scholars.
Are you studying just for money and women?
How can the dignified emperor and the state propaganda machine be so direct and pure?
Everyone in the United States knows that they shamelessly promote themselves as a beacon of democracy, refuse to admit when they have done bad things, cling to the banner of freedom and democracy and refuse to let go, and have the attitude that they will die with freedom and democracy, even if they are all The whole world knows the virtues of the old beauty, but they lie to themselves until they are stunned.
It would be better for you, Da Song, to directly admit that being an official of your Zhao family is just for money and women.
What else is there to say?
Xin Qiji felt the same as Su Yonglin at this time. He really had nothing to say to these people.
He had nothing to say, but Tang Si retreated and had a lot to ask.
Not to mention the purpose of Xin Qiji's visit, he was very interested in the rumors he had heard recently that the Ming Dynasty was going to launch an imperial examination and make major reforms to the imperial examination system.
This kind of informal semi-official reception banquet is not suitable for talking about business matters, but it is not bad to talk about the imperial examination.
So Tang Situi brought the topic to the imperial examination.
"I heard that the Northern Dynasty is about to launch the imperial examination and make some changes to the imperial examination. May I ask if this is the case?"
"It's true."
Xin Qiji happened to not want to talk about this kind of thing anymore, so he continued along with Tang Situi's topic.
“What specific aspects does this change?”
Tang Situi helped Xin Qiji pour a glass of wine.
"There are quite a lot of changes. To put it simply, His Majesty the Emperor is preparing to restore the Tang Dynasty's method of selecting scholars by subject and recruit more talents."
After Xin Qiji finished speaking, Tang Sihui was stunned for a moment while holding the wine bottle.
"Acquisition of scholars by subject?"
"Yes, select talents by subject."
"This...is quite a big change."
Tang Side put down the wine bottle and said, "With such a big change, isn't the Northern Dynasty worried about causing some chaos?"
"How did Wang Xianggong in the Southern Dynasty cancel the selection of scholars by subject? Now our dynasty has just restored it."
Xin Qiji smiled with some irony.
"This...hehehehe..."
Tang Situi smiled awkwardly.
"The selection of scholars by subject in our dynasty is not exactly the same as that in the Tang Dynasty. There are also many changes."
Xin Qiji's mood gradually improved, and he took a piece of meat and put it in his mouth: "In my court, I select candidates by subject, divided into four subjects: liberal arts, science, law, and engineering. Each moment has corresponding test questions and admission criteria. After the mid-term examination, all candidates will be Jinshi. There is no distinction between high and low.”
"Arts, Science, and Law Works? This... I dare to ask Mr. Xin, what are the four subjects of Arts, Science, and Law Works?"
Tang Situi found it a bit difficult to understand.
The law is understandable, but what does this article represent? What does Li stand for? Work... wouldn't it be a craftsman's work?
Tang Situi's question was quickly answered by Xin Qiji.
"Wen is the same examination as the current Jinshi examination in the Southern Dynasties. It mainly tests classics. Of course, in our dynasty, we also added content related to agriculture and "Xunzi"."
Xin Qiji's first answer shocked Tang Sidei.
Examining agriculture is nothing, but is this "Xunzi" the "Xunzi" that was widely criticized by Song Confucians?
That "Xunzi" who preached that human nature is inherently evil and therefore should not be treated as such?
"Director Xin, could this Xunzi be..."
"It's "Xunzi" written by the great scholar Xunzi."
Xin Qiji smiled and nodded: "Your Majesty, I like Xunzi very much, and decided to include Xunzi in the scope of scientific research, in parallel with other classics."
Tang Situi was immediately scorched on the outside and tender on the inside.
