I have no doubts about Confucius' principles of benevolence and righteousness.
Benevolence and righteousness are nice to say.
A benevolent person is divided into two parts; a righteous person is like having his head buried in his chest.
Could it be that throughout the ages, how many people have lost their lives because of the word "benevolence and righteousness"?
Let’s not talk about it from afar, let’s just say that a few years ago, the gentleman of the Song Dynasty, Zifu, lived his whole life in the word “benevolence and righteousness”.
When he was young, Zizifu begged in front of his father, Duke Huan of Song, to give up the position of crown prince to his concubine brother, Muyi. He also said: "Muyi is older than me, and he is loyal and benevolent. Please make Muyi the king." "
Duke Huan of Song Dynasty told Zifu's idea to Muyi. After hearing this, Muyi refused to accept the position of crown prince and said, "Isn't it the greatest benevolence to give up the country to me? No matter how benevolent I am, I can't keep up with my brother!" Besides, it is not in line with etiquette to abolish the direct descendants and establish concubines."
In order to avoid Zifu's resignation, Muyi fled to Weiguo. Zifu did not give up his position as prince, so he inherited the throne and became Xianggong.
In the spring of the thirteenth year of King Xiang, Duke Xianggang of the Song Dynasty met with the princes for the first time in Ludi. The kings of Qi and Chu gathered together.
Duke Xiang took his position as the leader of the alliance, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the king of Qi and the king of Chu. He also made his own decisions. Without the consent of Qi or Chu, he agreed to meet with the princes again in Yudi in the autumn of that year.
Mu Yi persuaded him that Song Dynasty was a small country, and if a small country tried to become the hegemon, it would bring disaster, but Duke Xianggong refused to listen.
Before arriving at Yudi, Muyi advised him to bring troops with him in case something changes. Chu people are not trustworthy.
Song Xianggong said: "I proposed not to bring an army myself. I have made an agreement with the Chu people. How can I not keep my promise?"
Therefore, Song Xianggong went to the meeting without any troops.
On the appointed day, the kings of Chu, Chen, Cai, Xu, Cao, Zheng and other six kingdoms all came. The Chu State had already prepared an ambush.
Duke Xiang of Song and King Cheng of Chu had a dispute over their rivalry to be the overlord of the princes. King Cheng of Chu suddenly ordered people to capture Duke Xiang of Song, brought him back to the Chu State and imprisoned him, hoping to use it to conquer the Song State.
It was not until the winter of the same year when the princes met in Bodi that Duke Xiang was released through the mediation of Duke Xi of Lu.
After Song Xianggong returned to his country, he heard that the State of Zheng supported King Chu Cheng to become the overlord of the princes, so he decided to attack the State of Zheng.
Mu Yi tried to dissuade him, but Duke Xiang still refused to listen.
In the early winter of the fourteenth year of King Zhou Xiang, Song Xianggong led troops to attack Zheng State, and Zheng State asked Chu State for help.
The state of Chu sent a capable general, Cheng Dechen, to lead his troops to attack the capital of the state of Song.
Duke Xianggong of Song Dynasty was worried about domestic losses, so he had to retreat from Zheng State. The armies of both sides met at Hongshui.
The Chu army began to cross the Hongshui River and charged towards the Song army.
Mu Yi said: "Chu has many troops and ours is small. Let's take advantage of their opportunity to cross the river and destroy them."
Song Xianggong said: "We are known as the teachers of benevolence and righteousness, how can we take advantage of others to cross the river and attack?"
The Chu army crossed the river and began to form formations on the bank.
Muyi said: "It's time to attack."
Song Xianggong said: "Wait until they prepare their positions."
When the Chu army set up their formation, the Chu soldiers rushed forward and defeated the Song army. Song Xianggong was also shot in the thigh by the Chu soldiers.
The Song army was defeated and suffered heavy losses. They all complained that Song Xianggong did not listen to the opinions of his son Muyi. However, Song Xianggong taught him a lesson: "A gentleman with a benevolent heart will not attack the enemy who has been injured during the battle, and he will not attack the enemy at the same time." An old man with gray hair. Especially when the ancients fought, they did not rely on obstacles and obstacles to win. Although the Song Dynasty was about to perish, it still couldn't bear to attack the enemy who had not set up a good formation."
In the summer of the fifteenth year of King Xiang, Duke Xianggang of the Song Dynasty suffered from an arrow wound left in the Battle of Hongshui and died.
Throughout Song Xianggong's life, he was burdened by and died of benevolence and righteousness.
Benevolence and righteousness are harmful to others.
But I didn't stop Confucius from leaving.
There is a road at the feet of everyone in this world. He has his way, and I have my way. Our ways may be different, but our determination to walk on this path is the same.
He believes in benevolence and righteousness. In fact, he believes in the goodness of human nature.
Are there any people in this world who are naturally kind?
Selfishness and ugliness are the true nature of human beings, so education appears in this world.
I looked at the back of Confucius striding away, and I only hoped that one day, if his ideals were shattered by reality, he could still walk so freely between heaven and earth.
After Confucius left, my life returned to its former peace.
Except there is a little follower named Ge Tian beside him.
Like Confucius, he was also an ordinary person.
In other words, he is a rare ordinary person among Confucius' direct disciples, and he was specially found for me by Confucius.
There is a saying that before I set out for Qin State, I dismissed my servants in Xiangyi and resumed my life as a solitary person. Then I returned to Peixian County with only an old cow by my side. After all these years, I have not felt any discomfort. Appropriate.
Now that there is suddenly a waiting person around me, I realize...
It's really uncomfortable to have people waiting on you.
I couldn't do this, and I wasn't allowed to do that. I was treated like an octogenarian.
Although I am indeed not too young, my physical condition is much better because I have been practicing Qi all year round. Although it is not as good as Confucius who was in his fifties, he is like a twenty-year-old Confucius, but it is better than the average person who is in his fifties. is more than enough.
In my situation, waiting can only make me feel burdensome.
Moreover, when Confucius stayed, this boy was still rude and had endless troubles all day long.
If this guy could say something serious, it would be a relief, but this guy is obviously one of the direct descendants of Confucius, but he has no serious business at all. All he thinks about all day long is "Qi Men Dun Jia" and "Qi Men Dun Jia". "Yin Yang and Five Elements", "Yi Shu Divination" and the like.
No matter how you look at it, you don't look like a serious person.
I once asked him what his future goals were.
He said he wanted to build a big clan.
I suddenly realized that I had no doubts about this dream.
In this chaotic era, establishing a clan is a simple yet difficult goal.
To put it simply, just find a woman who wants to live with you and have a bunch of kids, and you'll be a clan.
As for the difficulty...
There are thousands of clans in this world, and there are very few that can be called big clans, but most of them have one characteristic in common.
They are all aliens.
Ordinary people who want to build a huge clan will be dead ends without Confucius's extensive knowledge and the courage of Qin's Ying family.
"Then I have to take this dead end."
Ge Tian answered me this way.
At that moment, he seemed to be no longer the little follower beside me, but a shining leader of the clan.
He believed that he would be able to become the leader of the clan.
Believe it and do it.
I asked him: "Why are you so confident?"
He scratched his head and felt a little embarrassed: "Actually, I used divination to tell myself two fortunes before. I know that telling myself fortune is a taboo, but I'm quite curious about my future, so I forgot about it. , as a result, the two hexagrams were unexpectedly similar, both indicating that the Ge family will have a big clan in the future."
"And the hexagram also says that I, the descendant of the Ge family, will definitely have a dragon among men in the future."
Speaking of this, he also shook Qimen Dunjia, whose book cover was torn.
I frowned, feeling that I could use three words to describe these words: unreliable.
But even so, I didn't say anything.
It is a good thing to have ideals. In this chaotic era, ideals can often give people the faith to persevere.
It would be really sad if all faith is gone.
Moreover, keeping him is not entirely without benefits.
At least he's talkative.
Having him by my side helped me block a considerable number of people who came to study as a disciple, giving me a lot of time to concentrate on my practice.
Is this a blessing and a curse?
To some extent, being a loose mouth can be regarded as an advantage...probably.
Cultivation is a boring process, but it also gives you a sense of accomplishment. Watching the meridians in your body grow little by little, that sense of satisfaction can fill any emptiness in your heart.
But unfortunately, my Dantian has never been broken through.
The sea of qi is like a celestial dam, lying between me and my dantian. As long as it is there, I can only be regarded as practicing Qi, not practicing Qi.
Time passes day by day, month by month, and year by year.
Ge Tian also joined the ranks of practitioners.
Although he wasn't feeling energetic, it didn't matter.
Yin Xi didn't feel Qi either, but he could absorb Qi into his body through breathing and breathing.
The method of drawing Qi has nothing to do with whether you feel Qi or not. As long as the body has meridians and a place for Qi to flow, you can draw Qi into the body.
But I am not optimistic about Ge Tian's practice.
Yin Xi has been taught the method of breathing and breathing by "Fireball" since he was a child. He has not stopped for a moment for so many years, but he has never felt Qi. This shows that the simple method of eliciting Qi does not have much impact other than strengthening the body. usefulness.
If you want to truly enter into spiritual practice, you should first sense Qi, then draw Qi, travel through the meridians, rush into the sea of Qi, enter the Dantian, and finally practice Qi for your own use.
This is the most likely solution that Confucius and I concluded.
The inability to sense Qi means that the practitioner has a blind eye to the Yuan Qi introduced into the body. There may be problems even when walking through the meridians, let alone when it circulates around the sky and returns to the sea of Qi.
I told Ge Tian about this, but Ge Tian did not feel depressed. Instead, he studied harder.
He said: "I have not breathed since I was a child, but I can develop it into instinct from now on; I have no sense of energy, but I can memorize all the meridians. A blind person can also touch an elephant, not to mention that I have meridians. With the guidance of the map, there will definitely be no mistakes."
As he said, it is.
I had no reason to persuade him, so I just let him have his way.
Cold comes and summer comes, autumn passes and spring comes.
I didn't break through the sea of qi, but I saw Confucius again, but this time, he didn't have the same high spirits as before.
He is obviously over seventy years old, and his face is no more than forty years old.
But this forty-year-old body exudes a heavy air of twilight.
This time he didn't bring anyone else with him, only himself.
The two of us talked for a while, and Confucius suddenly said: "Brother Li, you are right. What is benevolence and righteousness in this world, and what is human nature? I can't see clearly."
I asked: "What happened?"
At this time, Confucius explained the matter.
There was a driver of the Shusun family named Zi Hoeshang. When this man went to the wild to collect firewood, he caught a unicorn.
Kirin!
I was shocked and listened carefully to the story behind.
But the story behind is even more surprising.
When this man named Zi Ho Shang caught the Qilin, he did not know and could not identify what it was.
He didn't recognize the animal, and he didn't know what strange thing it was.
Without knowing it, he broke off the unicorn's left front leg!
People are really a very strange thing.
Facing an unknown person, and he is a living being, the behavior adopted is such a cruel method.
Why?
What kind of human nature do people have to react like this?
Although it is understandable that people will feel fear when they encounter a monster, that is, something they do not recognize. The first result of fear is self-defense, and the active method of self-defense is to attack the opponent.
The force of such an attack caused the Kirin to break its left front foot, making it less likely to harm others.
But the evil of human nature was inadvertently exposed.
The hoe merchant brought the injured unicorn back. When his uncle and grandson saw it, he thought it was something strange and did not recognize it.
Weird things are unlucky.
So, he ordered people to kill this unlucky thing and throw it outside the city.
Later, Shusun probably felt that there was a mystery that he wanted to solve, so he sent someone to tell Confucius about it.
Confucius came to take a look.
Okay, Qilin!
Others don't know this thing, but he does.
A once-in-a-lifetime unicorn!
This is an auspicious beast, just like a phoenix.
When unicorns and phoenixes come to the world, they are like messengers of peace, bringing auspiciousness and bringing people a prosperous age.
It was actually announcing the gospel and bringing blessings to everyone, but as a result, it was caused great harm by such an ignorant and cruel person.
Confucius was very sad and asked towards Qilin's body: "Why did you come to this world?"
Such a chaotic, indifferent, ignorant, and extremely violent human world.
This time is so dirty...
Why come?
What is benevolence?
What is justice?
Are people really born kind?
So why are there so many disputes in this world?
I looked at Confucius and suddenly felt sorry for him.
I don't know him, but I know myself.
He and I are actually very similar.
What would I do if my way suffered such a blow?
Such a strong barrier, such a strong will, such a high degree of perseverance, a soul that has not been hit by any force in the world, now seems to have a hole opened.
】
Then his tears welled up from the hole.
Confucius cried.
This once high-spirited man, a man with unparalleled talents, was defeated.
He decided to put down the "Spring and Autumn" which was in the middle of writing and devote himself to spiritual practice.
I know that what he put down was not just the unfinished "Spring and Autumn".
That was the first half of his brilliant life, and it was also the second half of his life where he sang loudly.
Now he has left everything behind.
He did not stay, but took the Qi Yin method and the meridian diagram from me, and left in a hurry, facing the sky and the earth.
He saw his back, but he didn't hold his head as high as before.
There were vaguely broken round pieces like jade falling down, causing ripples on the ground.
Maybe not that cool.
Now he is truly Confucius.
