Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 12 Arguing
Chapter 12 Argue
Many students in the school agreed with Liu Junsheng's point of view, thinking that repaying grievances with virtue is the only way to show the demeanor of a gentleman and to embody the virtue of a gentleman.

Kong Sheng, who is a teacher, smiled at the moment. After taking a glance, he finally looked at Li Xiuyuan and said, "Li Xiuyuan, do you think so too?"

Sitting upright, Li Xiuyuan, who was calm and relaxed, said slowly at this moment: "The students think this is a big mistake."

"Repaying grievances with virtue, why do you say something wrong? Even the princes of the court nodded in agreement." Liu Junsheng smiled lightly: "Besides, the son of a merchant has only the smell of copper all over his body. How can he know what virtue is, what learning is, and it is impossible to understand what a gentleman is." Virtue."

After speaking, he looked at Li Xiuyuan with disdain, as if he looked down on this lowly son of a merchant.

"Other people agree that it is other people's business, but not mine. Although the son of a merchant is full of money, he is hard-earned. It is not as good as some officials' families. New officials can't help but increase taxes when they take office, and search for people's fat and anointing." Seeing that this person seemed to be targeting him deliberately, Li Xiuyuan immediately retorted.

Liu Junsheng said angrily, "You say my father is a corrupt official?"

Li Xiuyuan laughed: "If it wasn't for the corrupt officials who gave your father's salary tens of taels of silver a year, why would Mr. Liu be well-clothed and well-fed? It is the jade belt on Mr. Liu's body, which is at least a hundred silver, even if your father doesn't eat or drink I can’t afford it for three years.”

He looked down on his son of a merchant, and how could he ever look down on these corrupt officials who beat the bones.

What's more, my Li family's family business is so big that it covers the entire Guobei County. I don't know how many people have been blessed, how many people have worked for them, and countless people have been indirectly supported. But what did the county magistrate do when he took office?It's just to increase taxes and search for people's fat and people's anointing.

"You..." Liu Junsheng immediately stood up angrily.

"You dare to tarnish my Liu family's innocence and tarnish my Liu family's reputation? Do you know that I, Liu Junsheng, is already a child, but a scholar with a reputation, and you have violated the court's law by slandering a scholar? How dare you speak virtue here?"

Li Xiuyuan laughed: "If I am guilty, you, Liu Junsheng, are guilty of the same crime as me. If you were born as a child, why am I not?"

He is also a child?
Liu Junsheng immediately blushed a little, but he turned around and said, "My dispute with you is just an academic dispute, but you insult my father's innocence. What's the reason for that?"

"It seems that you provoked this matter. You humiliated me first, and I fought back later." Li Xiuyuan said lightly: "We just exchange courtesy with each other."

"A gentleman lies in tolerance. Why do you have to be so fussy? The teacher said just now that you should repay a grievance with virtue. It seems that you just wandered around and didn't listen to it." Liu Junsheng said.

The students next to him nodded and said, "That's right, Brother Li, Brother Liu, although your words are a bit immoral, but you shouldn't be fussy, you should make big things into small things."

"That's right, we are all classmates, why are you arguing, why don't you apologize to brother Li, and let it go."

"Repaying grievances with virtue is the virtue of a gentleman. Brother Li should learn from the style of a sage."

When Li Xiuyuan heard the words of these students, he immediately smiled and said, "Is it my fault now? I shouldn't argue with Liu Junsheng, but I should repay my grievances with virtue and apologize to Liu Junsheng? It seems You students have read too much, and your brains are a little bit dull."

"Brother Li, this is a bit serious." A scholar immediately said displeased.

Not only him, some scholars who agreed with the previous views all looked at Li Xiuyuan with some annoyance. Unexpectedly, Li Xiuyuan, who is brilliant in writing, is also a layman who scolds without opening his mouth. It seems that the family of merchants is the family of merchants. No slenderness.

"Don't be angry, everyone. Let me ask you a question. Since you agree to repay grievances with virtue, then I would like to ask, why repay virtue with virtue?" Li Xiuyuan said calmly.

Why repay virtue?

Liu Junsheng smiled contemptuously: "It is natural to repay virtue with kindness."

"Repay grievances with virtue, and repay virtue with virtue. If this is the case, who is willing to spread kindness? If this is done, and there are people who seek virtue with resentment everywhere in this world, how can there be people who repay virtue with virtue? "Li Xiuyuan shook his head: "Don't look at my rebuttal to Liu Junsheng just now, Liu Junsheng immediately became angry and wanted to accuse me of slander? Is this revenge with virtue?"

The hearts of the scholars froze, and they were speechless.

That's right, even Liu Junsheng, who said the words of repaying grievances with virtue, can't do it, how can he ask others to do it?

Thinking of Li Xiuyuan scolding himself and the others for their poor brains before, he and the others were not angry, do you want to argue with them?

After being pointed out, these people all turned pale.

Wrong, all wrong.

Reading has gone astray.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Xiuyuan smiled lightly and said: "Repaying grievances with virtue is just a dream language of idiots. A saint would never say such words."

"Then what's your opinion, Brother Li?" Zhang Wen, a scholar next to him, cupped his hands.

Li Xiuyuan glanced at the crowd, and then said calmly: "From my point of view, it should be like this: why bother to complain? Repaying complaints with honesty, how to repay virtue, and repay virtue with virtue."

What everyone heard was suddenly enlightened, like waking up from a dream.

"Absurd." However, at this moment, Liu Junsheng said with a blushing face; "Even if you are right, are the princes above the court unreasonable?"

"Hehe, who are the lords of Gungun? Those who live in the temple, they naturally hope that the people below will repay their grievances with virtue, so that they can rest easy and their country will last forever." Li Xiuyuan said calmly: "This is the law of fooling the people. evil,"

"The people are ignorant, even foolish people are for the stability of the world. If the idea of ​​direct retribution is spread, then there will be fights everywhere, and this is a great evil." Liu Junsheng was also a little quick-witted, and immediately retorted.

Li Xiuyuan laughed again: "The people are ignorant, how can officials fool them? The wisdom of the people should be exploited."

"How?" Kong Sheng, a teacher, couldn't help asking at this time.

Li Xiuyuan pointed to his feet and said: "Setting up a school, accepting children from all over the world to go to school, within [-] years there will be people who study everywhere, and within [-] years the wisdom of the people will be developed."

"Okay, that's a good speech." Kong Sheng was very excited when he heard it, and nodded repeatedly.

Teaching children to read is like planting young shoots, which will grow into towering trees in the future. After that, the world will be full of pillars and knowledge everywhere. Isn't the wisdom of the people wide open?

"Although this statement is good, it is just a castle in the air. You must know that there are so many people in this world. It is difficult to set up a school that can accommodate the world's young children. It is difficult to do it even if the imperial court does this. Countless money and food will eventually cause chaos in the world." Liu Junsheng said at this time.

Li Xiuyuan said again: "Beilin College has only been established for ten years, but it has educated more than a hundred people. Regardless of whether they are talented or not, they are all able to read and write. If these more than a hundred people are all teachers, teaching and educating people, after ten years So what?"

"There are at least ten thousand people who are educated." Zhang Wen next to him murmured.

Li Xiuyuan laughed again; "How long will it take ten years for ten thousand people to be teachers?"

"Hundreds, millions of scholars." Zhang Wen shivered.

"One school can produce a million scholars in 20 years, but there are more than a thousand schools and academies in the world. If there is a heart, how can the wisdom of the people not be developed?" Li Xiuyuan said.

Liu Junsheng was in a trance when he heard the words, and was speechless at the refutation. No matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't think of any rebuttal.

"As you said, it stands to reason that the wisdom of the people has already been developed, why is it still like this for hundreds of years?" Zhang Wen asked again.

Li Xiuyuan said: "This is back to what I said just now, the law of fooling the people. It's not that the princes of Gungun didn't think of this, but they didn't want to do it. They think that farmers will be farmers from generation to generation, and merchants will be generations from generation to generation." Merchants, artisans have been artisans for generations, and officials have been officials for generations, so the high-ranking officials and dignitaries above the court can be hereditary and forever rich."

Speaking of these words, all the scholars in the academy, including Kong Sheng, froze in place and remained silent for a long time.

These words were deafening and impacted their thoughts and insights all the time.

It was as if a shooting star pierced through the dead sky, allowing people to see the most real side of this world.

(End of this chapter)