Chapter 160 Canon Making: Hundreds of Schools of Thoughts

Style: Historical Author: Floating Dreams and Three Lowly GuestsWords: 2223Update Time: 24/01/18 11:57:49
The Huai Kingdom conquered the capital of Ying and annexed the Han River Plain and Nanyang Basin. The states of Bang and Zhou were greatly shaken. The Chu State, which had competed with the Three Jin Dynasties for hundreds of years, was destroyed like this?

At this moment, the wariness of the various countries against Huai State once again increased.

At the same time, the consequences of the failure of King Chu's reform also alerted the states of Zhou and Zhou. If the country does not change the law and strengthens it, it will be destroyed.

With the lessons learned from the Chu State, the kings of various countries became more eager for the reform. Originally they were hesitant because the nobles in the country opposed the reform, but this time no one hesitated anymore.

After Huai State annexed Chu State, the population in the territory increased greatly. The newly acquired land required the dispatch of a large number of officials, and the Huaiguo Academy was almost exhausted and was not enough.

Wang Pu drew a large number of officials from the Huai State and sent them to serve in the newly occupied land. At the same time, it was announced that the newly occupied land would be tax-free for three years, followed by two and a half years of tax, and then corvées would be levied according to the Huaiguo system.

You must know that the corvee service in the Chu State was very heavy in the past, and to collect the corvee service, you had to bring your own food and tools to work for the government, and there was no wages. The corvee law revised by the Huai Kingdom required the government to distribute grain, a small amount of money and tools.

After the restructuring, the lives of the people of Chu suddenly became much easier. Those feudal lords who originally wanted to recruit the people to continue to resist were directly cut off by Huai Guo's move.

In addition to ordinary people, Wang Pu began to forcibly move the powerful people in the newly occupied lands to other places. Then the soldiers who made great achievements this time were placed in these areas.

The Huai State attaches great importance to military merit, and soldiers who perform meritorious deeds can be rewarded with fields. This time in the attack on Chu, there were countless people who made great contributions. Wang Pu allocated all the land rewarded by these soldiers to the newly occupied land.

After obtaining the land, these soldiers will take root in these places, and they will naturally be the grassroots officials for Wang Pu to rule this land.

After these soldiers were disarmed and returned to their fields, they would become local lizheng or village chiefs, the lowest level of Huai Kingdom rule.

Because these people have served as soldiers, understand orders, know some laws, and have seen the world, grassroots officials dare not act recklessly.

At the same time, these people know the local situation and can help collect taxes and recruit troops. This has many benefits. It allows Huai State to control the grassroots and know the situation at the grassroots without being deceived.

The territory occupied at one time was so large that the Huai State needed a lot of time to digest it, and for a while it was unable to go to war with other countries. However, because of the pressure from the Huai State, the states of Bangzhou and Zhou were afraid that the Huai State would launch an attack, so they did not dare to fight against each other for a while. , it was rare for the world to settle down.

Huai State was concentrating its efforts on digesting the spoils of war, and all countries in the world began to lick their wounds and prepare for the next war.

After Huai State annexed Chu State, it can be said that it dominates the world. After the strength of the Huai Kingdom increased, the Huai Kingdom Academy was also sought after by more scholars.

More and more scholars came to Huaiguo Academy, and various schools of thought continued to break out in the academy. The original dozen or so schools of thought have gradually developed into dozens or even hundreds of schools due to the collision of these ideas.

Various schools of thought debated in the palace, and in this fierce debate, hundreds of schools of thought also began to plagiarize from each other. In addition to the core ideas, they also began to absorb things from other schools of thought that were beneficial to them or that they thought were good.

Zi Jue woke up from his deep sleep, mainly because during this period of time, he gained a lot of luck. Every time a major event occurs in the world, the system will remind Zi Jue. As for whether he is willing to wake up, it depends on Zi Jue himself.

In the academy, the debates between various schools of thought brought Zijue a lot of luck, and these debates were recorded by the scribe.

Zijue woke up from his deep sleep and saw so many schools of thought erupting in the academy. He immediately gave Wang Pu, a descendant of this generation, a spiritual thought.

Wang Pu, who was handling affairs in the main hall, suddenly paused, then put down the bamboo slips and got up and rushed to the ancestral temple.

In the ancestral temple, Zijue asked him to sort out all the theories of the hundreds of schools of thought in the academy, and then compile them into a book called "The Hundred Schools of Scholars".

After hearing the words of his ancestors, Wang Pu also suddenly realized that creating the classics of various scholars is a major event that can be passed down for eternity. It is also a good opportunity for Huai State to seize the right to speak.

Immediately Wang Pu returned to the Huai Palace and ordered: "Gather the tribesmen to prepare a compilation of a great canon. It will rise from the academy and compile all the classics of the hundreds of schools of thought. This book will be called "The Book of the Hundred Schools of Scholars" "Let our wisdom be passed on to future generations!"

Following Wang Pu's order, the Huai Kingdom immediately mobilized. It was not an easy task to compile a canon, let alone one that included hundreds of schools of thought. This requires a lot of manpower.

Moreover, there are a large number of opposing doctrines and theories among various schools of thought, and these need to be carefully sorted and edited.

"The ancestor Wen Wang made the "Huai Code" and became the ancestor of legal studies in the world. The reforms of various countries were all born out of Huai. Since then, there have been classics written by great sages such as "Gongyang Shu", "Guan Zi", and "Sun Shuzi". All should be included in it. In addition to legal, Confucian, Taoist, Mohist, agricultural and other schools of thought, other small schools of learning must also be included."

"The classics of various schools of thought must not be tampered with or distorted, and this classic will not end here. Our descendants must continue to add to the classics, so that future generations can also see the wisdom of our sages."

In the palace, all the princes immediately realized the benefits of this matter. If the Huai Kingdom was to compile the "Hundred Schools of Thoughts", then their Huai Kingdom would naturally be regarded as orthodox. Not only that, this was also A perfect opportunity to seize the right to speak.

Originally, this important task of compiling a canon could only be done by the Emperor of Zhou Dynasty. However, since the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward, the royal family has declined and has completely become a mascot, with no ability to do it at all.

As for the compilation of such a grand ceremony by the Huai State, if the Huai State had not attacked and destroyed the Chu State. If the Huai Kingdom did this, the other vassal states of Bangzhou would definitely disagree, and even tit-for-tat they would compile a canon of "Hundred Schools of Thoughts".

But now the Huai Kingdom has attacked and destroyed the Chu Kingdom, and the king of Chu has moved westward. In the world, the Huai Kingdom accounts for four out of ten, and it dominates the world. No princes dare to fight with him.

With such influence, naturally no one would dare to say anything when it comes to creating a grand ceremony.

After the decision was made to compile the canon of scholars, the Huaiguo Academy immediately became excited. Scholars from many schools wrote letters to their friends, asking them to bring the school's classics for help.

It is a very difficult task to repair a book, not to mention that this is a masterpiece, and the number of bamboo slips used must be astonishing.

The only advantage is that there are many classics, which are all available in Huaiguo. Even some classics passed down by the sages and sages are also included in Huaiguo. This saves the editor a lot of time.

——

Ancient China preserved historical books and cultural classics to an incredible degree. Apart from China, no other country in the world records its history so clearly and completely.

The ancient Chinese sages left behind all-encompassing scholarship and thoughts, which allows us to find the origin of any of our current thoughts. Let us witness the wisdom created by ancient Chinese sages thousands of years ago.

——"Cambridge History of China·Ancient Chinese Civilization"

(End of chapter)