"Yesterday, Yuan Meng was sent down, and now he is sent down a large amount of gold. How can it be so righteous? Only then can we understand: It is good to encourage people to have more happiness when they enter the house."
"Confucius said Cheng Ren and Mencius said Yi. I have forgotten them all. I only remember: He who knows the current affairs is a hero."
"Henglian: Shi Xiu surrenders!"
…
A group of children sang this couplet while running in the streets.
The innocent and crisp voices of children echoed in the streets and alleys of Beijing.
At first, no one cared, thinking that the child was singing nursery rhymes.
Even if the common people hear it, they only know what it is but don't know why because of cultural questions.
But the couplet spread so quickly that by noon, everyone in the entire city of Beijing had heard about it.
In the east part of Beijing, Zuixian Tower was already overcrowded before noon, and today it was even more crowded than usual.
Today, everyone's topic is a rare unity.
"What do you think this couplet means?"
"I don't understand, but I feel like I'm mocking someone?"
"Actually, it's not difficult to guess. We can't understand the upper and lower lines, but the horizontal lines explain everything. It's really interesting! Who is so bold and dares to say this?"
"Hey, you are so anxious!"
After a rich businessman complained, he shouted: "Servant, give this storyteller a pot of wormwood wine, and it's mine!"
When the nearby drinkers heard that it was wormwood wine, they all exclaimed.
Yinjiu wine is a kind of medicinal wine. It uses high-quality Daqu wine brewed from sticky-seeded red sorghum as the wine base and adds more than 10 kinds of medicines such as yinchi, bergamot, tangerine peel, and safflower.
It is apricot yellow in color, has a mellow fragrance, is sweet and refreshing, and has the functions of strengthening the spleen and stomach, treating wind diseases, relaxing muscles and activating blood circulation, and strengthening the body.
A pot of wormwood wine cost at least five taels of silver. In order to hear a piece of news, I gave him a pot of famous wine. It was really a generous gift.
"No more appetizing, let's take a look at Hengbiao. When Shixiu demoted the list, when did it happen? It must have been before the old dynasty was destroyed and the new dynasty was established.
Besides, who is qualified to move up and down the table? Ordinary people, even those with great wealth and the first rank of the dynasty are not qualified, so ordinary aristocratic families are excluded.
With this judgment in mind, let's look at the first couplet. Yesterday, Yuanmeng was defeated, and today, Dajin was defeated. In other words, this person or family at least spanned the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, nearly four hundred years ago.
Among the 400-year-old aristocratic families, there are only a few that have achieved full success and have been downgraded twice. Who else besides the Kong family in Qufu? "
The noisy restaurant suddenly became quiet when the storyteller mentioned the Kong family in Qufu, and everyone had a look of shock on their faces.
Who are the Confucius family in Qufu? It was a thousand-year-old family, a holy place for scholars all over the world.
Do you dare to say this about the Kong family because you think you didn't die quickly enough?
"That's not right either. Doesn't the first couplet say that the Jin Dynasty will be reduced today? The Kong family has taken refuge in the Jin Dynasty?"
"How do I know this, but from the analysis of this couplet, it is definitely the Kong family."
"Brother, when you say this about the Kong family, aren't you afraid of being liquidated by the Kong family?"
"What are you afraid of? Isn't it true that I'm not allowed to tell the truth now? Even if I don't tell it, others won't be able to guess it? Has the Kong family become so domineering?
Then I would like to ask, does this Ming Dynasty belong to His Majesty or the Kong family? "
After the storyteller finished speaking, all the drinkers within three feet of him left in unison, looking at the person who made the sound speechless.
Especially the rich businessman who just delivered the wine, his face was full of regret.
Damn...
You are noble and great.
But you can't trick us all.
Seeing the looks in the eyes of the people around him, the person who made the noise completely went berserk: "You are all afraid, but I am not afraid. At my age, I don't expect to gain fame anymore, and I don't want to join the Kong family.
Even if Yan Shenggong is here today, I also analyze it in the same way. What's the matter, why don't you let others talk about the bad things you do?
Confucius said benevolence, and Mencius said righteousness. Confucian etiquette, justice, integrity, shame, loyalty and filial piety completely failed them. "
The storyteller's roar echoed in the lobby, but the drinkers rushed to the outside.
The storyteller is crazy, but they are not crazy.
As the diners left, the storyteller's analysis quickly spread and was discussed in Beijing.
"I think the Kong family is right. They are just a kind of inheritance. This is called knowing the current affairs and becoming a hero.
If they were as loyal as many people, then the Confucius family would have been gone for a long time. How could they still spread the teachings of Confucius? "
"What nonsense logic, the Confucius family may not be here, but the way of Confucius and Saints must be there,
Even if the Confucian family is dead, can the new dynasty kill all the scholars in the world and burn all Confucian classics? "
"Yes, even if Confucianism is gone, aren't there still hundreds of schools of thought? Didn't our Ming Dynasty also have a saint?"
"Hey, if it weren't for this couplet, none of us would have thought about the Kong family's affairs carefully, and the Kong family would have surrendered. So what's the point of us scholars?
Those who aspire to be saints when studying, and those who aspire to rule as an official have surrendered. What kind of kingdom is there? "
"We can't control what has happened. By the way, have the Kong family really surrendered to the slave-building community? They are naked traitors!"
…
The discussion became more and more fierce, and everyone who had read the book fell into deep doubts. There was a contradiction between etiquette, justice, integrity, loyalty, filial piety and knowledge of current affairs.
The strange thing is that no minister mentioned this matter at the court meeting, as if it didn't exist.
Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli and other members of the six cabinet departments also avoided talking about it.
It's really embarrassing. What can they say if they report to His Majesty?
What did the Kong family come to do? Please ask the emperor to issue an edict to punish yourself, but do they dare to mention it?
What should we do about the other things in the couplet?
Your Majesty, please investigate thoroughly and punish severely? If this spreads out, no matter whether they are senior ministers or famous ministers of the Five Dynasties, they will be scolded to death by a large number of people.
If it is mentioned but there is no suggestion, then it is the same as not mentioning it.
Besides, the emperor must have known about the Jin Yiwei, Dongchang, Forbidden Army, etc. Since the emperor didn’t mention them, it was natural that he had intentions.
And in a manor in a small county town a few miles away from Beijing, several people gathered together.
But some people wore masks, and those without masks had a gloomy look on their faces.
After a while, someone said: "Where did this couplet come from? Have you found out?"
"No, it seems like it came out overnight, and it's all over the streets and alleys of the capital!"
"Could it be the emperor? Because the arrival of Kong Xingxie is the most detrimental to him, so he can only make this move!"
"Probably not. Even if the emperor doesn't want to see the Kong family, the Kong family is still the holy place in the hearts of scholars all over the world. It is a honor to be able to enter the Kong family.
If you do this kind of thing at this time, it will do no good to the court. "
"I don't understand a little bit. They planned so much just to get the emperor to issue an edict to sin against him, and they also involved the Kong family. What's the purpose?
Emperors in all dynasties have issued edicts to sin against themselves, so it doesn’t matter, right? "
