Chapter 295: Life or death, he accepts it
"Your Majesty, are you talking about these six words, 'Crab has six knees and two claws'?"
"That's right."
"What do you think, Your Majesty?"
Ying Chengjiao hesitated for a moment, and even though he and Xunzi were the only ones in the room, he subconsciously covered his mouth with his hands.
He whispered, "Is it written wrong?"
Xunzi was slightly stunned, obviously not expecting Ying Chengjiao to give this answer.
After being silent for two moments, he burst into laughter, causing the blue-gray soap towel on his head to tremble back and forth and almost fall off.
Ying Chengjiao also laughed out loud.
"Even if Cheng Jiao is stupid and wrong, Xunzi doesn't have to react so strongly, right? This is too exaggerated."
"You are not laughing at your stupidity, but at your return to nature and freedom from restraint. You have asked this question to dozens of disciples, but no one has said the same thing."
"If I were your disciple, I would not say such things. How dare a student say something bad about his teacher?"
"No. The King of Qi once praised you as the best teacher. You have served as the chief priest three times. The world believes that you are the most knowledgeable and will not make mistakes. But is it really so? Even the great sage Confucius made mistakes, so you will certainly make mistakes too."
Xunzi didn’t know.
In Ying Chengjiao's previous life, there was a type of question called reading comprehension. They would take out an article, circle a few sentences and ask what they expressed .
The author's own answers are far from the standard answers, making it difficult to pass the exam. The author is unable to understand the meaning of his own article when reading it.
Ying Chengjiao was troubled by this type of question that forced him to raise the level and fabricate profound meanings. This led to his thinking being very different from that of his contemporaries, and he did not like to think about things in a profound way.
"Is this really a typo? Xunzi, this typo has caused countless people to speculate. Some say Xunzi has never seen a crab, and the crabs he wrote about are all hearsay. Some say Xunzi loves to drink with crabs, but because he was short of money, the crabs he bought were missing legs."
The old man who considered himself a Confucian laughed endlessly with a clear voice.
"The Jixia Academy is located on the shore of the East China Sea, how could you not have seen the true eyes of crabs? Even if you are short of money, you can just go to the beach and catch some yourself. This statement is probably an immature thought of the monarch, but it is pretended by people from later generations. The monarch is as cunning as a fox."
Ying Chengjiao bid farewell to Xunzi with a smile and walked out.
"If Xunzi has time, he should revise the article "Encouragement to Study" so that future generations won't waste their brains."
Xunzi saw Ying Chengjiao out.
"Now that the article is finished, let it take its course. Your Majesty, how could you have known that your "Encouragement to Study" would be passed down through the ages? Could it be that your Majesty has surpassed the generations that will come after you?"
Ying Chengjiao nodded naturally.
"Cheng Jiao lived two thousand years later and studied "Encouraging Learning". If we count in this way, Cheng Jiao can also be considered a student of Xunzi."
Xunzi's smile widened.
"This is not a joke, you will be very happy to hear it. If all your disciples are like you, you will be able to say in your dream that Confucianism originated from you and came from you."
Watching the king leave, Xunzi closed the door and blew out the three dim candles.
I took off my coat, removed the soap towel, and lay down on the bed, but I couldn't fall asleep for a long time.
"If my words can really be passed down through the ages, and not banned by the king, then there must be more than one Jixia Academy. The King of Qin does not treat his people as human beings, and the Qin laws are cruel. Enforcing the law without imparting virtue is ultimately a mirage. Encouraging the world to learn and teaching everyone can make a great country. Your Majesty, can you do this, can you..."
The old man did not revise "Encouraging Learning" as Ying Chengjiao advised because he made the mistake on purpose. He never admitted the mistake from beginning to end, right?
How could an old man living on the coast of the East China Sea not know what a crab looks like?
If it was really a typo, the old man could have changed "six" to "eight" on the spot, which was not a difficult task.
The reason why the old man wrote "The crab has six legs and two claws" in "Encouraging Learning" is to let the readers know that even a person with great knowledge like him can make mistakes and he also needs to learn.
Anyone who sees the mistake here can come up to him, point out his mistake, let him know his mistake, and learn from it.
Xunzi hopes that those who study will know that learning is a lifelong thing, there is no end to learning, and there will never be a day when one will finish learning about the world.
Xunzi pointed out the main point in the first sentence of "On Learning".
A gentleman said: Learning should never stop.
Xunzi and Mencius did not get along well with each other. One proposed the theory that human nature is evil, and the other proposed the theory that human nature is good.
But when it comes to learning, the two have the same views.
Mencius said: "The trouble with people is that they like to be teachers."
This sentence apparently means that the problem with people is that they like to be other people's teachers.
In fact, it means that the biggest taboo in self-cultivation is pride and complacency, and being a know-it-all is a kind of complacent behavior.
Because you always like to be someone else's teacher, it means you think you have learned enough.
This kind of thinking and behavior hinders the further improvement of moral character and knowledge.
Xunzi said: "Learning should never stop."
Ying Chengjiao walked out of Xunzi's residence and went to another house. He stood outside, looking at the bright lights peeking out from the window screen, and stopped in his tracks.
"Your Majesty has been standing here for quite some time, why don't you come in and have a chat?"
The owner of the house called out loudly, but did not open the door to welcome Ying Chengjiao into the house like Xunzi did.
Ying Chengjiao was silent for a moment.
"I was just walking around, and I hope you will forgive me for disturbing your rest. Tomorrow we will leave Xianyang, and you should get up early and ask the servants to pack up and ride in the same carriage with Cheng Jiao."
Turn around and leave without hesitation.
No more sound came from the house, but the candlelight inside remained brightly lit until dawn.
In Xianyang city, it is not only Guiguzi's house that is brightly lit tonight.
At Wang Wan's mansion, the senior old prime minister was neatly dressed in court robes.
Outside the door, the ox cart had already been prepared.
When he was young, Wang Wan sneered at ox carts, thinking that they were things that only pleasure-seeking people would ride, and that they preferred slowness to stability.
The old Qin people should ride in a horse-drawn carriage and travel at full speed, with unstoppable force.
But at this age, the old prime minister, who could not adapt to the bumpy ride, has fallen in love with the ox-drawn cart that he once despised. Unless he has to travel in an urgent matter, he will give up the horse for the ox.
The old prime minister was holding the door frame in the hall, watching the driver sitting on the front beam of the ox cart with a whip in one hand, watching the big blue ox's tail swinging back and forth.
I wanted to go out several times, but in the end I didn't take a step.
"Your Majesty must not be asleep yet, is he waiting for Wan? What is Wan going to say when she enters the palace to see him?"
The old prime minister talked to himself, speaking words that no one else could hear except himself and the illusory gods and ghosts of heaven and earth.
I looked up at the sky. The moon was not very bright, but there were many stars shining.
The old prime minister thought about the madman who asked the sky to punish him during the Wax Festival. The blood in his veins, which had long cooled, returned in a limited time, making him want to ask the night sky.
God, can't you see that guy?
He looked at the round moon, thinking about the Moon Rabbit and Chang'e on it, and moved his dry lips up and down, but in the end he did not say a word to the sky.
Decades ago, at this moment, he was already in the Zhangtai Palace, giving advice and plans to the Zhao hostage who was not favored by anyone.
If he had not gone, the Zhao hostage's carriage would have stopped in front of his house, which was not simple but definitely not luxurious.
To this day, even for such a big event, there is still an ox cart parked in front of him instead of a horse carriage.
Wang Wan was looking forward to hearing the sounds of horse hooves and the neighings of fine horses outside his mansion, but he did not want what he expected to become a reality.
He stood in the mansion in a state of conflict, hesitant and caught in a dilemma.
"Master Chengjiao, you should be treacherous and cunning in your actions. How can you be so like an ordinary man? You hid your incompetence in the past, but why can't you control your temper now? You have poked a hole in the sky of Qin..."
The old prime minister turned and walked inside; he was tired of standing.
The ox cart outside the house slowly drove away, and the blue ox walked leisurely back to the cowshed. The driver dropped the whip in confusion and went back to sleep.
Feng family.
Feng Quji, the Imperial Censor, sat in his study with seven bright candles lit on the table.
He held a wolf-hair brush and wrote quickly on the bamboo slips.
[Chang'an Jun, Meng, Xi, Bai, Baili, Gongsun, Meng, Wang Wan, Your Majesty...]
These words were written in cursive form and were in a disorganized manner. No one could recognize what they said except Feng Quji himself.
The seven large candles not only emit light, but also heat.
This soon made Feng Quji's body covered in sweat, and made this high-ranking Qin official, who was the Imperial Censor and privately known as the Deputy Prime Minister, breathless.
Crash~
After filling a bamboo slip with writing, Feng Quji would scrape it onto the ground and spread out the next blank bamboo slip.
He continued to write down some words that only he could see clearly, and only he knew what was written and his name, and then he continued to write on the ground.
When the bluestone floor was covered with bamboo slips and his clothes were stained with smoke, the Imperial Censor held a brush in his right hand, supported his hands on the table, and gasped heavily.
"What exactly does Lord Chang'an want to do? How can Your Majesty turn a blind eye to this? The city defense army is so close but you don't come to rescue. Is it Your Majesty's intention or the Meng family's concern..."
The Imperial Censor, who had been riding on the wall and falling on whichever side the wind was stronger, had too many questions and too many puzzles.
This sudden extermination of the whole family caused a great panic in the heart of the Imperial Censor, who had originally intended to protect himself and only do things to add icing on the cake instead of helping in times of need.
He can still be a fence-sitter and still not take sides.
The end result may be peace, or it may be the three great families.
"Too fast, too fast indeed. How can one act like this? How can Your Majesty tolerate such a person who does not care about the overall situation? Ying Chengjiao, Ying Chengjiao, Ying Chengjiao..."
Feng Quji broke the brush in his hand and sat in the chair with lifeless eyes.
At this moment, he was in a state of confusion.
Fortunately, he declined the invitation to the banquet of the three great families. Fortunately, his son Feng Jie was granted a fiefdom early after leaving Xianyang City. Fortunately, he did not follow the trend of the nobles to attack Ying Chengjiao these days, but followed Wang Wan's example and kept silent and did not help either side.
His intuition told him that Ying Chengjiao's extermination of the three great families was extremely evil. It openly violated Qin law, but secretly hung a Qin sword over the city of Xianyang.
Such behavior will surely lead to death.
But in reality, the inaction of the city defense army and the fact that the First Emperor remained silent until this moment made him feel for the first time that he could not see through the situation in Xianyang.
"Your Majesty cannot be unaware of this, but you have not taken any action until now. Is Your Majesty going to use Chang'an Jun to take action against the noble families? Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that the Qin State will be destroyed?"
Feng Quji's face was ferocious and he growled twice.
His body went limp and he collapsed on the ground covered with bamboo slips. He grabbed a bamboo slip and covered his face with it.
"Your Majesty and Lord Chang'an acted in unison, one in the open and the other in the dark, deceiving the world. Cowards, cowards, we are the cowards. If we had known that the situation would be like this after the unification of Qin, how could we have entered Qin to serve as officials? Now, even if I want to do something, I can't do it. I have waited for a lifetime, and at the end of the day, I can only wait. If I am buried here, my life will be really ridiculous..."
Meng family.
For the first time, Nei Shi Meng Yi disobeyed the orders of his great-grandfather Meng Ao. No matter how much Meng Ao cursed him and threatened to be expelled from the family tree, he still closed the gate of the Meng Mansion and did not let anyone out.
His mother Zhao Sufeng looked at him fiercely and scolded him again and again. Meng Yi, who was usually the most filial, disobeyed his mother's wishes this time and insisted on having his own way, so that no one in the Meng mansion was allowed to go out.
The young Nei Shi knelt down on both knees in front of his grandfather Meng Ao and his mother Zhao Su with empty hands.
"If Grandfather and Grandmother insist on going, please step on Yi's corpse."
Father, my brother is away at the battlefield, and I must protect the Meng family.
For the many noble families who attended the banquet that day, the entire mansion was brightly lit tonight, waiting anxiously for the arrival of dawn.
Although Ying Chengjiao killed the three great families in broad daylight, the sunlight could not bring any comfort to these noble families who were used to hiding in the dark and making a fortune.
But the life-saving straw they originally wanted to grasp was not the light, but the First Emperor. After dawn, they could enter the palace to meet the First Emperor, and they could explain the matter bitterly and speak their mind.
They also went to meet today, and the Xianyang Palace was almost broken through by the surging aristocratic families.
They did not see the First Emperor, but only saw Empress Afang.
The Queen said that the First Emperor was not in the palace, but had gone to Yong to worship his ancestors and visit the Queen Mother, and would not be back until the next morning.
Although the noble families did not know whether this was true or not, they could only take it seriously. They did not dare to question the whereabouts of the First Emperor.
The Qin Dynasty was not like later dynasties, where the emperor could not move around freely and had to stay confined in the palace.
In this era when court meetings were not held every day, the First Emperor, who held the greatest power in the world, had a high degree of freedom and could go wherever he wanted.
The most nervous family is the Baili family.
The Baili family, which had just been linked to the Meng family and was proven to be the descendant of Baili Xi, had a long history, but none of the top family members were in Xianyang city tonight.
They were afraid that if they stayed in Xianyang City they would suffer the same fate as the three great families and be wiped out.
Baili Cheng, the very responsible head of the Baili family, did not leave, he stayed at the Baili family.
He was not used to seeing life and death, but it was he who established relations between the Baili family and the Meng family, and he could not convince them to leave Xianyang City.
He just sat in the courtyard and waited quietly, no matter whether it was an assassin or dawn.
He is a native of Qin and he chose his own path.
He accepts life or death.
The darkness gradually faded, just like a brush dipped in ink writing, which is very thick at first and becomes lighter and lighter as time goes on.
When the first ray of light from the horizon shone on Baili Cheng's face, the head of the Baili family, who had not slept all night, smiled with relief, feeling fortunate that this ray of light was sunlight and not the reflection of a sharp blade.
It's dawn.
