manynovel Chapter 1128 Morality
Chapter 1128 Morality
Chapter 1128 Morality
Zhang Mansion.
General Xu sat below Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue said to General Xu: "Then this case is true."
General Xu said, "Reporting to the Prime Minister, I really don't know about this matter. It was my wife who contacted a few fellow villagers to do it."
Hearing what General Xu said, Zhang Yue pinched his forehead.
Zhang Yue said: "I know you are a clean official, but I didn't expect you to be so lax in disciplining your family members."
"After all, people don't just pop out of cracks in the rocks. They also have family and fellow villagers to take care of. But now that Cai Zhizheng is in prison, I'm afraid you can't escape."
General Xu said, "I have betrayed your trust, and I am willing to accept the punishment."
Zhang Yue said: "For now, I have no choice but to let you go on a mission outside the city and come back after a while."
"Yes."
General Xu bowed and left Zhang Mansion.
This time, General Xu was involved in the case of Imperial College student Yu Fan.
It turned out that a student named Yu Fan beat the drum to appeal for justice.
The content of the letter was that "the lecturers in the Imperial College are unfair, and they examine students and make promotions and appointments based on personal connections."
"Anyone who passes the test and gets into the upper class is either promoted by power or by merit. Those who are poor and have little talent will usually be demoted."
This was the drawback of the three-house system implemented after Wang Anshi reformed the Imperial College, because students in the upper house could be directly appointed as officials, while the quotas for promotion to the upper house were in the hands of the Imperial College officials such as the lecturers.
This caused the morale of the Imperial Academy to plummet, and the scholars all rushed to compete for the position of lecturers and bribed them to invite them.
So the emperor ordered General Xu, the prefect of Kaifeng, to investigate the case. At first General Xu shirked responsibility, saying that the case was indeed difficult and he did not have the energy to handle it.
The emperor was dissatisfied with General Xu and temporarily removed him from his post as prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, but he remained as a Hanlin scholar.
Cai Que took over the case.
As soon as Cai Que took over the case, he investigated the facts thoroughly.
The first person involved in this matter was Yuan Jiang, the Minister of State Affairs. Yuan Jiang asked his son Yuan Shening to bribe Sun Yan, the lecturer of the Imperial Academy, and Ye Tangyi asked his grandson Yuan Bohu to be a student of the Imperial Academy.
Afterwards, Yuan Jiang agreed to promote Sun Yan in return.
In addition to Yuan Jiang, there were also lecturers Gong Yuan who accepted silver and silk from student Zhang Yu and lecturer Wang Yanzhi's request to upgrade unqualified papers to top grades.
It was said that Shen Zhu received porcelain and bamboo mats from Zhang Yu.
It is said that Ye Tao received tea and paper from Zhang Yu, but he did not receive visits from students on holidays.
He directly accused Shen Jichang of accepting bribes from students of the Imperial College and of receiving unfair promotions.
Wang Yanzhi was convicted of accepting bribes from Imperial student Zhang Gongbi and was appointed to an upper residence without giving the actual facts.
Yu Zhongzuo accepted bribes from Taixue student Chen Du.
Cai Que found dozens of people after investigating, such as Li Junqing, the registrar, Cai Xun, the military officer, and Wang Yu, the chancellor of the Imperial College. He also included Xu Jiang, the former prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, and his brother-in-law and several fellow villagers who were also involved in the case.
Among them, Gong Yuan was Wang Anshi's favorite student; Shen Zhu was Wang Anshi's nephew; Ye Tao was Wang Anshi's nephew-in-law; and Shen Jichang was Wang Anshi's brother-in-law.
There is also Yu Zhong, who was the top scholar in the sixth year of Xining and the son-in-law of Lu Huiqing.
After General Xu left, Cai Que was led to the hall by Peng Jingyi.
Zhang Yue handed the list back to Cai Que, and then said: "Since it has been confirmed, we will handle it according to the law!"
Cai Que asked, "Prime Minister, the charges against some of them could be either light or heavy. Should we report them all as severely punished?"
Zhang Yue said: "The Imperial College is where you and I studied. The court provides food and clothing, so you and I no longer have to worry about food and clothing; it invites wise teachers to give lectures, so you and I no longer have to worry about seeking knowledge; it gathers all the books in the world here, so you and I no longer have to worry about copying books to read."
"So we must rectify the situation. Although General Xu is a good friend of ours, since he is involved, he should be banished to show fairness."
Cai Que smiled playfully and said, "That's right."
Zhang Yue looked at Cai Que's smile and knew exactly what he wanted.
The spearhead of this matter was directed at Yuan Jiang, and there was also a group of new parties in the Imperial College. Of course, except for General Xu, all the other candidates on the list were suitable.
In his memorial, Yu Fan also said that the Imperial Academy did not teach the Analects of Confucius or Mencius, but only the Book of Zhou Li.
Why?
Wang Anshi compiled the New Interpretations of the Three Classics, among which the New Interpretation of Zhou Li was written by him personally.
There is no problem with you talking about Zhouli in the Imperial College, because Wang Anshi wanted to change from the 'Qin system' to the 'Zhou system', so the reform had to find a theoretical basis in Zhouli.
Zhang Yue had no objection to this.
But you are too learned to talk about anything other than Zhouli!
When Zhang Yue was the vice-chancellor, he asked Su Che, Chen Guan and others to revise the Doctrine of the Mean and the Mencius.
It has been edited and published.
Now that Zhang Yue has been appointed Prime Minister, although I don’t want you to use The Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius as teaching materials yet, you should still talk about The Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius.
Don't you even understand what your leader means? Don't you have the slightest bit of understanding?
The lecturers of the Imperial College, led by Shen Jichang, turned a blind eye. It was not that they did not understand, but they did not take Prime Minister Zhang Yue seriously at all. Did they still think that it was Xining instead of Yuanfeng?
Previously, when Zhang Yue was debating with Wang Anshi, Shen Jichang also encouraged students to criticize his own annotations to the Tao Te Ching and supported Wang Anshi, while at the same time sparking a debate among the students of the Imperial Academy.
During his debates, Shen Jichang and others directly criticized the students who opposed Wang Anshi and supported Zhang Yue, and downgraded their papers or expelled them from the upper and inner dorms.
It just so happened that Cai Que handed over the Yu Fan case.
Cai Que said: "I remember the case of the Imperial College in the second year of Xining. At that time, the Prime Minister was in charge of the Imperial College, and Duke Shu suspended or excluded the Prime Minister and six lecturers from the Imperial College."
"The prime minister was demoted three levels in a row, down to the position of Tongpan of Qinzhou. After that, the lecturers of the Imperial College were Gong Yuan, Shen Zhu, Ye Tao, and Shen Jichang."
"I still remember that the Prime Minister cursed Duke Shu for his 'one morality' and for suppressing the opinions of scholars. He and I spoke out for Yan Fu and others who spoke out in the Imperial College."
When Cai Que said this, the irony was already strong.
Zhang Yue knew that Cai Que was satirizing himself for taking another step forward on the road to questioning Wang Anshi, understanding Wang Anshi, and becoming Wang Anshi.
Zhang Yue said shamelessly: "Hey, be upright, Confucius said, what you say must be done and what you do must be fulfilled, what a petty person you are."
Who says you can’t slap yourself in the face?
I'll stick my face out right now... No, I still have to find the justification for my behavior.
"In fact, there is nothing wrong with morality. There is a saying in the university that the way of university is to manifest virtue, to renew the people, and to stop at the highest good!"
"To manifest the bright virtue, to renew the people, and to stop at the highest good are the three principles of the university. Among them, to manifest the bright virtue is to promote the bright virtue."
Confucian morality is different from Taoist morality.
Taoist morality is more accurately called the way of virtue. This virtue is straight from the top to the bottom of the heart. To put it bluntly, it is the path leading to the inner heart. More accurately, it is how people can live in harmony with the world and how to achieve the unity of man and nature.
Confucian morality is a universal value, which is a value that everyone is required to abide by. For example, Confucianism believes that everyone has a natural obligation to prevent certain behaviors that violate customs but do not violate the law.
Therefore, some people are not allowed to talk about their individuality or individualism.
Some people may think that it is their own business and has nothing to do with others, but Confucianism believes that if everyone thinks that what you are doing is wrong, they have the right to stop you.
Therefore, the first principle of university is to manifest the bright virtue. You should not only understand the bright virtue, but also promote it.
As for what "Mingde" is today, Zhang Yue has the right to define it, and this is the rectification of the name.
……
The next day at court, Cai Que reported to the emperor the bribery case involving Yuan Jiang, Xu Jiang and other lecturers at the Imperial Academy.
Zhang Yue watched Yuan Jiang's expression from the side.
He took advantage of the great victory in Lanzhou to decisively strike back at his political enemies.