The emperor came very suddenly.

What he said also seemed very abrupt.

But neither Xue Yingqi nor Wang Ji had anything to say.

Neither was he dumbfounded as Wang Shizhen had expected, nor was he making things difficult for the emperor and forcing himself to prove himself, as in the storybook.

Several people quickly calmed down their surprised expressions and looked at the emperor quietly in unison.

After Qian Dehong was silent for a moment, he laughed at himself and praised: "Your Majesty is indeed a holy king! A good holy king who is a saint inside and a king outside!"

Not only did Zhu Yijun not show off, but he humbled himself again and said: "What the student is sitting on is not a dragon chair, but a low chair. If you think highly of it, you might as well call me a layman."

Qian, Wang, Yuan, and Xue, together with Li Zhi and Wang Shizhen, stood up and saluted: "Changwei layman."

Different from the role-playing of "Taojun Zhenjun" and other ministers accompanying him, this "lay scholar" truly demonstrates Zhu Yijun's current status in Confucian classics.

Zhu Yijun responded implicitly: "I invite you, gentlemen."

Everyone took their seats.

Yuan Hongyu looked at the emperor curiously: "I haven't asked the layman yet, what is the title of that magnificent article just now?"

Zhu Yijun replied seriously: "You should not praise Yuan Gong Xiong's article, but his inferior work is a literature review called "Pure Reason and Practical Reason: A Brief View of the Confucian School."

Yuan Hongyu nodded when he heard the words, sipped the food carefully for a moment, and couldn't help nodding again and again.

His expression was reserved: "The lay scholar has done well in his studies."

Zhu Yijun smiled and said nothing.

Wang Ji's voice was slightly astringent, and he spoke slowly: "When I met Mr. Yuan, I was still lamenting the blooming of a hundred flowers. Now that I met the layman, I was already worried that I had lured a snake out of its hole."

He is now the man who carries the cauldron from Yangming’s postgraduate school.

It is believed that the essence of conscience is emptiness and silence. To realize this essence, we can only start from enlightenment, and all external efforts are redundant.

As the originator of the arrogant man who does whatever he wants, he doesn't have too many scruples when speaking.

He was deposed because his theory was not tolerated by Xia Yan.

Yan Shannong was framed and imprisoned for criticizing "dictatorship".

Liang Ruyuan advocated the practice of fellowship among teachers and friends to form a force, the so-called "party meeting", but he was repeatedly imprisoned and arrested.

Wang Ji was extremely alert to the emperor's sudden appearance.

Although a school does not die with the death of an individual, the emperor's attitude has an impact that cannot be ignored on the environment in which the school survives and develops.

Zhu Yijun shook his head when he heard this, and sincerely explained to Wang Ji: "How can the Confucian debate have room for secular power to interfere?"

Xue Yingqi on the side didn't know how Wang Ji's expression changed, so he interrupted at the right moment: "Only now will we know the origin of the title of today's meeting."

No wonder Wang Shizhen is so angry.

Dare to use the word "definition" as the title, it turns out that there is a living holy king standing behind you.

Wang Shizhen took over the words: "The ancients said that everything must have a beginning."

"At the beginning of the founding of Taoism, Zhang Hengqu established his true words to establish his mind for heaven and earth and his destiny for the people."

"What's the explanation?"

"Explore the origin of the poor world and understand the fundamentals of human existence."

"In this case, defining the scope of human nature and clarifying the perspective of understanding the outside world are naturally the first priority."

"With this as the title, doesn't it get straight to the point?"

Speaking of which.

It’s time to get to the point.

As the leader of the outline, Zhu Yijun was naturally conscientious and did not slack off in the slightest.

He added a little to the audience and explained: "The essence of human beings and the perspective of understanding the world seem to be two questions, but they actually point to the same question."

"Although the ontology of human beings refers to people, it does not mean people in the sense of flesh and blood, or in the individual sense, but rather the source of human consciousness - 'reason'."

"Therefore, the connotation of ontology does not lie in being centered on people or individuals, but rather in using one's own rationality as the basis for understanding the overall existence of heaven and earth, and in turn using this to distinguish one's own existence."

"Human beings exist independently of the world and yet exist within the world."

“So, let’s just talk about one point today.”

"Where will this Confucian dispute go?"

Several people on the stage listened to the emperor's talk, with expressions of amazement in their eyes.

Everyone in the audience was in disbelief. Now when they heard these words spoken by the emperor himself, most of them had complicated expressions on their faces.

Fortunately, the political literacy of this group of participants is well established, and no one dares to openly talk about this matter.

It was just a matter of familiarity, tacit exchange of glances.

Yuan Hongyu was silent for a moment, and was the first to take over the words: "The layman outlines and lists Cheng and Zhu as the origin of the kings of Lu. I will say it first. I assume there is no objection?"

As a direct successor of Neo-Confucianism, in terms of origin, Yuan Hongyu should indeed be the first.

Everyone naturally recognized it.

Yuan Hongyu returned the greeting sternly, and then said: "Zhu Xi, as the master of Taoism in the former Song Dynasty, has been criticized by this dynasty, which is really a pity."

"Yangming refutes Zhu Zi's 'investigation of things to achieve knowledge', which places too much emphasis on external principles and does not first base itself on conscience. This is a contempt for the 'noumenon'."

"As Chang Wei layman said just now, Yangming created the theory of mind with this, taking sex as the essence of human beings and conscience as the essence of human beings."

"What a shame, it's an overkill."

"Now, using Wang Longxi as the main stream, we take the four words "nothing outside the heart" to obliterate people's understanding of all things, and only take "self" and "I am the only one".

"Also take the four sentences of no good and no disgust, regard the mind as nothingness, and all cultivation efforts will hinder understanding."

"Morals, etiquette, laws, human relations, and consensus were all burned to the ground."

"Fantasy and unrealistic, using evil as beauty, confusing characters, and losing subject and object. This is a great absurdity in the world!"

"When it comes to rejecting others, we must first reject Wang Longxi's teachings."

Longxi refers to Wang Ji.

It can be said that this is the most influential and controversial guru.

It doesn’t talk about investigating things, it doesn’t talk about practice, it only talks about enlightenment.

In layman's terms, its proposition is just one sentence: "I don't want you to feel it, I want me to feel it."

It can be said that he is the first master in dispelling consensus and has an unparalleled status among certain specific groups.

But after being so popular for thirty years, it’s time for it to be backlashed.

It is normal to receive verbal and verbal criticism from fellow practitioners like this.

Qian Dehong was always angry with him because of this; Gu Xiancheng, a younger generation, unscrupulously criticized Wang Ji's teachings and Li Zhi's.

Now that the emperor said that he wanted to weed out the old and bring forth the new, Yuan Hongyu was also the first to drag Wang Ji out and beat him.

Wang Ji was very restrained, so he responded with a smile and motioned for Yuan Hongyu to continue.

"As for new ones..."

"The orthodoxy of the Wang sect is in Qianxu Mountain, and its great master said that the purpose of the study is mainly stated by Yangming in his later years, and it is honed in practice."

"The argument is based on 'nature has no body, and knowledge is the body; knowledge has no origin, and things are their true existence.' We strive to practice 'practical observation' in matters, so as to eliminate the 'qi restraint and material obstruction' in understanding."

"Li Zhuowu, a member of Wangmen's other sect, found a unique way and pioneered universal theories."

"It is based on the theory that "abstract heavenly principles are applied to people, and people understand the way through practice", advocating that people can understand the principles and adapt to the world's conditions.

"King Zhu also studied in Xue Fang Mountain and picked up two sentences, 'Everything is prepared for me, and everything is in my heart', and 'Studying things to understand the truth, predicting and then acting', and integrated them into two sentences."

"Integrate Zhu and Wang, focus on 'practice', practice it personally, and then pursue your original intention."

"Confucius said that the heart is the essence. Confucius said that knowledge comes from studying things."

"In this way, Qian Xushan, Li Zhuowu, and Xue Fangshan all ended up with Zhu Xi by different paths?"

"Zhi" refers to pushing to the extreme; knowing means "knowledge". Pushing my knowledge to the extreme means that I want to know everything. Ge means "to"; "wu" refers to things, and I want to know everything to the extreme. also."

"Ge and Zhi, things and knowledge, are not a certain thing or doctrine, but a whole existence in the ultimate sense, which is called principle."

"This is the unique essence of Zhu Zili."

"Different from Er Cheng, Zhu Zi focused on discovering the state of oneness between things and myself under the form of principles, that is, enabling people to achieve a one-to-one correspondence between things and myself under principles."

"Constructing the distinction between its ontology and externality, in order to realize the understanding of the self and the detachment of the self."

"This is what I just said about Yang Ming's overcorrection!"

"Now it seems that if you want to innovate and bring forth the new, you should focus on studying things to achieve knowledge!"

Retrospective is an essential skill for Confucianism, and its origin is often due to the situation in the world - when things are not going well, you will always use a certain time in the past as an argument. The fundamental reason is to use it as a basis for restructuring.

When rituals and music collapse, let’s talk about the system of the Three Emperors.
To be continued...