For Liu Bei, the first thing after arriving in Luoyang was of course to meet his teacher Lu Zhi.
Lu Zhi's residence had been told to Liu Bei before. Liu Bei asked Zhang Fei, Liu Hui and others to go to their residence in Luoyang to make arrangements. He took Han Ning with him, and the two of them drove to Lu Zhi's residence to visit.
When he learned that Liu Bei was coming, Lu Zhi left work early from the official office and bought good wine and food from Luoyang to entertain Liu Bei. The master and apprentice ate and drank for a while, reminiscing about old times and chatting about home affairs, which was very pleasant.
After three rounds of drinking, Mrs. Lu took Han Ning to the backyard to talk about some topics between women. Lu Zhi and Liu Bei took a walk to eat together, and talked about the recent events in Luoyang.
It can be heard that Lu Zhi is very dissatisfied with the current politics in Luoyang.
"His Majesty is becoming less and less interested in government affairs. Did you know that not long ago, His Majesty actually opened a shop in the harem, letting the palace maids and concubines act as merchants, pretending to be a market, and buying and selling? The monarch actually dressed up like a merchant.
What's more, His Majesty got a dog in the Western Garden and dressed the dog in the clothes of high-ranking officials for fun, openly humiliating the high-ranking officials. He also drove a donkey cart around in the palace, attracting young people to imitate him. , and as a result, guess what? "
Liu Bei guessed it.
“The price of donkeys in Luoyang has soared?”
Lu Zhi was a little surprised.
"You knew already?"
"What is good at the top must be something worse at the bottom. Therefore, one should not be careful about what the top likes and dislikes. This is the example of the people."
Liu Bei sighed: "Whatever the emperor likes, the subjects will definitely pursue it. If it can be bought, they will rush to buy it, and the price will inevitably soar. Therefore, the superiors must be careful about what they like."
Lu Zhi stopped, smiled and said, "Xuande is eager to learn."
"Disciples dare not fail to learn."
Liu Bei bowed and saluted.
Lu Zhi chuckled.
"Xuande, your talent is very outstanding. My teacher even thinks that you should learn more classics, or have my teacher introduce you to other famous teachers. There is a possibility of inheriting the knowledge and establishing a sect. By then, Your achievements will be limitless.”
In response, Liu Bei just shook his head.
"Teacher, the world of Han Dynasty does not need one more Confucian scholar. No matter how many Confucian scholars there are, can the world of Han Dynasty become a better place? I don't think so."
Lu Zhi was stunned for a long time, and finally sighed and shook his head.
"Today's people have long forgotten the reason why our scholars studied the classics so hard. They have turned studying the classics hard into a way to get promoted and make money. In order to become a Confucian scholar, there is no other purpose."
"So, no matter how many classics they read, no matter how profound their knowledge is, no matter how many small words and great ideas they understand, how many of them can fill the hungry people's bellies? And how many of them can make the thieves disappear in the world?"
Liu Bei let out a long sigh and said: "Teacher, my disciples think that people today have reached a dead end when reading the Bible. They have become tools for reading the Bible and are no longer real people. They only have classics in their eyes, and only classics can help them." There is no other benefit.”
"Instruments for reading the Bible..."
Lu Zhi murmured to himself for a while, then sighed: "Xuande is right. He searches for every word, every sentence, and fights over the meaning of a word until he is red-faced and sometimes even bleeding. When practicing the Stone Classics as a teacher, students from different schools often got into fights.
Xuande, you don’t know that in recent years, because the number of people studying Gongyang has been decreasing day by day, some people have called for the dismissal of Dr. Gongyang and the establishment of Dr. Zuo. Such calls have become increasingly fierce, even when the Stone Classics was being revised. The students asked to replace the ram with Zuo. "
Lu Zhi sighed, shook his head, reached out and patted Liu Bei's shoulder, sighed again, and said: "This is not the original intention of the saint at all, but why have scholars become instruments for reading scriptures? Xuande, I can't figure it out. ah."
Liu Bei knew the reason, but he didn't want to say it and couldn't say it.
It is this society, this system, this general environment that has alienated people into tools for reading the Bible. They have taken the properties of tools to the extreme, and then human nature has been squeezed to the edge.
Thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge-style selection method will inevitably select a group of excellent tool people. It is okay to expect them to do things, and it is also okay to expect them to get things done, but it is difficult to expect them to make the world less cold. Big.
The more perfect and tight this system operates, the colder the world becomes and the less likely it is to see a way out.
But despite this, what can be done?
The world will not change just because one more person understands its true nature.
Therefore, even if he told Lu Zhi these things, it would be meaningless and would only increase his troubles.
Moreover, in order to survive, in order to survive in this system, if he cannot find another way, then Liu Xuande will become a tool sooner or later.
That's all.
Lu Zhi is a rare person in the entire system whose humanity is greater than his instrumental attributes. This is what Liu Bei admires about Lu Zhi.
In this bureaucratic society, if a person wants his humanity to be greater than his instrumental attributes, he must pay a certain price.
With Lu Zhi's great reputation, he could only be limited to a mere minister, and could never be granted the title of Three Dukes. Perhaps, this was the price he paid to maintain his humanity.
And how can he maintain his humanity in the whirlpool of Luoyang in the future?
Or should he completely give up his humanity and pursue the supreme authority at all costs?
Liu Bei cannot answer this question now.
He could only focus on more practical issues.
"My teacher sent me a letter before, saying that in June, the emperor issued an edict, ordering the minister to recommend one person each for the "Gu Wenshang Shu", "Mao Shi", "Zuo Zhuan", and "Gu Liang Zhuan". Yilang, does this matter have any hidden meaning?"
When Liu Bei raised this issue, Lu Zhi could only put away his thoughts and focus on the present.
But when it comes to this issue, Lu Zhi is quite disdainful.
"If there is a deep meaning, that would be fine. It's just the manipulation of the eunuchs to help certain people return to the court. All the candidates have already been selected, huh!"
On the surface, this matter involves the dispute between modern and ancient texts. In fact, this matter does involve the dispute between modern and ancient texts.
But judging from the results, it seems more like some unlearned guys are taking advantage of the dispute between modern and ancient literature to benefit themselves, fishing in troubled waters, and trying to provoke a war between the modern literature school and the ancient literature school, trying to get some benefits.
However, although the two sides in the dispute between ancient and modern classics have different academic interests, and the ancient classics teachers are in a disadvantageous position politically compared to the modern classics teachers, they can still reluctantly unify the line in the face of the eunuchs.
We are all serious men, how can we mix with that group of incomplete intersex people?
Liu Hong issued an edict to carry out special measures against four classics. Among the four classics, except "Gu Liang Zhuan" is a modern classic, the other three are "ancient classics".
It seems that some emperors want to use their imperial power to support the ancient literature school and suppress the modern literature school.
But that's not the case.
Who is the [Ancient Classics Master] who is recommended by the minister and is familiar with ancient Chinese classics?
Cao Cao.
Among the people who were selected to be worshiped as Yilang, Cao Cao's name was prominently on the list. The reason was that he was proficient in "Old Classics" and was an excellent ancient scholar, so he was worshiped as Yilang.
Liu Bei wanted to laugh when he learned about it.
Could this intention be any more obvious?
You eunuchs really don’t even pretend anymore, do you?
