Chapter 156: Sitting and Discussing the Dao

“Emperor Ning’s ambitions were far-reaching; he wished to make everyone in the world like a Dragon, and his intentions might be commendable. However, his actions bordered on madness and would undoubtedly plunge the world into turmoil.”

Inside the classroom, State Preceptor’s eye sockets were bruised, and his bald chin looked somewhat comical, yet his expression was exceptionally grave. “Everyone practices martial arts? Committing crimes with martial arts? If you suddenly grant ordinary people fierce, violent power without corresponding morality and legal constraints, the slightest disagreement will lead to drawing swords against each other. A squabble between neighbors could result in a massacre, and a dispute in the marketplace could turn into a slaughterhouse. At that point, would everyone be like a Dragon? No, everyone would be like a wolf! The laws of the imperial court and moral principles would vanish, and it would be a fast track to chaos!”

State Preceptor’s tone was low, seemingly carrying a sense of helplessness at not being understood.

“Bah! You hypocritical Confucian scholar, your mouth can truly turn the dead into the living and black into white. I feel ashamed for you just listening to it!”

Old Man spat, nearly landing on State Preceptor’s feet. He pointed his bamboo stick at State Preceptor’s nose, so angry that his beard was almost curling up. “What do you mean by ‘fierce, violent power’? Emperor Ning wanted the people to practice martial arts so they would have the power to protect themselves and not be bullied! Not so that they could go and bully others, dammit! According to you, anyone holding a knife must be a robber? You Confucian scholars hold pens in your hands, yet I don’t see every one of you becoming a sage! Instead, you’ve produced quite a few hypocrites who deceive the world!”

“Vulgar. I will not argue with you; I am discussing this with Young Master!”

State Preceptor shouted, looking at Ding Suian expectantly, as if wanting him to act as a judge.

Old Man also looked over, huffing.

This.

Actually, both of them had a point.

The starting point of ‘letting the common people have the power to protect themselves and not be bullied’ was completely fine; the concern that ‘the slightest disagreement could lead to drawing swords, a neighborhood squabble could result in a massacre, and a market dispute could turn into a slaughterhouse’ was also a genuine hidden danger.

It was a bit like the ‘gun control’ debate in a country on the other side of the ocean in his previous life.

If the imperial court lacked corresponding management methods, the grassroots level would easily rot. The order originally maintained by elders and clans based on village covenants and civil rules would likely turn into complete ‘survival of the fittest,’ where those with brute force would dominate.

The order of ‘elders and clan laws’ was not good; but the order established by ‘Martial Artists’ relying on their fists might not necessarily be better than the former.

On this issue, Ding Suian was not inclined to support Old Man. But the bamboo stick in his hand was not a reasonable one.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked: “State Preceptor, since the Confucian Sect did not intervene in this matter initially, it amounted to tacitly accepting the legitimacy of Great Wu. Why was there later The Ren-Chen Confucian Rebellion?”

“…”

State Preceptor’s face stiffened, as if he had been asked a difficult and embarrassing point.

“Hahaha~”

Old Man laughed heartily, pointing at State Preceptor and cursing: “Hypocritical Confucian scholar, neither fish nor fowl! You deserve such an end!”

“The events of that year…”

State Preceptor had just started speaking when Old Man interrupted him with a laugh: “This heart-pleasing past must be told by me to the silly grandson~”

After saying this, Old Man got up, walked to State Preceptor’s side, and kicked his calf. “Move! Go sit over there~”

“Vulgar~”

State Preceptor hummed, exchanged seats with Old Man, and the latter moved closer to Ding Suian before saying with a full smile: “The demons of the North, it’s easy to invite a god but hard to send one away!”

Listening to Old Man, after Chen Gou founded Great Wu, he allowed the three demon lords to establish the State Religion in Great Wu, permitting them to build Daoist palaces extensively and accept believers widely.

In just a few years, they had the momentum to rival the Confucian Sect.

The State Religion, supported by the imperial family, developed rapidly. Its doctrine directly denounced the Confucian Sect as ‘false learning’ and the ‘way of weakening the people,’ and it repeatedly seized the Confucian Sect’s school fields and academies, changing the sacrifices to the three saints of the State Religion.

Seeing that the power to ‘educate the masses’ was about to slip away, the Confucian Sect petitioned repeatedly but received no response from Emperor Wu. They then plotted to ‘support a young prince to the throne.’

To put it plainly, they wanted to depose the emperor.

This fit the usual style of the Confucian Sect. If the emperor was obedient, he was a good emperor; if not, he would be ‘dissolved in water’ or ‘have his lineage cut off.’

This time, the Vermilion Bird Gate Incident in Southern Zhao was inseparable from the promotion and cooperation of State Preceptor and his peers.

They had a natural fanaticism for participating in politics.

“…However, the plan was not secret, and Chen Gou learned of this matter. He no longer cared about the ‘sentiment’ of the hypocritical scholars who had tacitly accepted his usurpation, so he joined forces with the demons of the State Religion. In the winter of the Ren-Chen year, he surrounded the Central Heaven Academy. Over three thousand Confucian scholars were captured and killed, shaking the world. The great Confucian Wei Chun was injured by the three saints of the State Religion and was later exterminated along with his three clans. Countless Confucian classics were burned, private schools were banned, their Legacy was cut off, and all academies in the world were destroyed.”

“After this catastrophe, the elite of the Confucian Sect withered, their Origin Qi was severely damaged, and they went underground, either hiding in the mountains or mingling in the marketplace. This hypocritical scholar fled to Southern Zhao that year.”

State Preceptor had walked to the door at some point. Under the sunlight, his face was pale, and his eyes were pained.

Old Man, like a mischievous child, kept digging into the gaps between the floor tiles with his bamboo stick. His expression was satisfied, but his tone was complex. “Hmph! Dealing with a tiger, you end up being devoured by the tiger! You thought that tacitly accepting Chen Gou’s ascension would preserve your set of rules, but what happened? You almost uprooted your own Foundation! You deserve it, dammit.”

State Preceptor, with his back to the two, slowly said: “The pen of history is like iron, that is undoubtedly true. But the events of that year, what we did, was not for personal gain, but for… the sake of the common people of the world. This infamy, our Confucian Sect will bear.”

“Bah!”

Old Man’s response was short and crisp.

Ding Suian also admired Old Zhou. In the history of Southern Zhao and Ning, all the factions that participated in the assassination of Emperor Ning were villains.

The role played by the Confucian Sect was also extremely dishonorable, but this old Mr. Zhou seemed to still believe that their inaction back then was a kind of ‘great justice’ of deep planning and enduring humiliation.

It really fit that saying of Old Man: ‘People are always the protagonists in their own stories.’

State Preceptor sighed softly, turned to look at Ding Suian, his voice carrying a hoarseness and persistence after surviving a catastrophe, yet different from his previous pure defense. “Young Friend Ding, ATai scolds well, and I know that the Confucian Sect’s choices back then were indeed flawed, and the subsequent great disaster was also a cycle of Karma, for which I cannot shirk responsibility.”

He changed the subject. “However, there is one thing that concerns the fundamental essence of our Human Race, and I must argue it, and I must let you know. First, the light of the secular world far surpasses the darkness of theocracy. Even if our Confucian Sect has a thousand faults and ten thousand errors, we have established a complete system of secular morality for this human world! Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust—they may have omissions, or be used by hypocrites, but their core is to teach people how to be human, how to get along with others, and how to build an order based on human relations, not divine oracles!”

To Ding Suian’s understanding, State Preceptor was saying that the ‘secularization’ advantage brought by the Confucian Sect was what prevented the former Ning Dynasty and the early Great Wu from falling into the darkness of theocracy, where theocracy was greater than political power.

But… the current State Religion was already showing signs of it.

“Second~” State Preceptor continued. “The Dao of the Confucian Sect has always emphasized two uses.”

“Second,” he calmed his emotions slightly and continued, his tone regaining the steadiness characteristic of a Confucian scholar. “The Dao of our Confucian Sect has always emphasized holding the two ends and using the middle, upholding the classics while adapting to circumstances. It is by no means a non-black-and-white opposition between good and evil. Emperor Ning’s new policies were certainly far-reaching, but they were too radical and advanced, leaning towards bias; while the later Emperor Wu and the State Religion acted perversely, they were too cruel, leaning towards tyranny.”

“Our Confucian Sect’s choice back then was not completely agreeing with one side, but trying to find a ‘Middle Way’ between the extremes. Who would have thought that the Confucian Sect itself would become a link in creating the tragedy.”

Ding Suian heard this and was a bit distracted.

He couldn’t help but think of Zhao Yan and Ah Ji. At that time, he asked why the little fox could become sisters with a chicken demon, and Zhao Yan said righteously: A chicken and a chicken demon are different; the former has no spiritual intelligence and is inherently food for all living things in the world.

There was also the shadow of the Confucian Sect behind the Jile Sect. He wondered if Zhao Yan’s theory was influenced by the Confucian Sect.

That simple, even somewhat childish statement of hers, at this moment, within the discourse system of State Preceptor’s ‘holding the two ends and using the middle,’ suddenly had a different meaning.

The distinction that Zhao Yan could eat chickens but not chicken demons was neither the extreme compassion of the Buddhist school—‘no eating meat, no killing’—nor the pure barbarism of ‘survival of the fittest with no bottom line.’

It just happened to find a boundary of ‘Middle’—distinguishing based on spiritual intelligence and emotional connection, rather than generalizing.

This might be a small footnote to the ‘Middle Way’ that State Preceptor spoke of in reality?

The focus is not on ‘mediocrity,’ but on ‘Middle.’ Do not go to extremes, adapt according to actual circumstances, and find the ‘degree’ that is most suitable and can best maintain balance.

Just like the Confucian Sect itself, it does not demand absolute asceticism, self-mortification, or exclusion like some extreme sects; it acknowledges that people have desires, but requires ‘propriety’ to restrain them; it acknowledges that the world has differences, but advocates ‘benevolence’ to harmonize them.

Otherwise, it would give birth to the kind of extreme ‘white left’ from Ding Suian’s previous life who thinks they are superior, thinks they have perfect morality, and while being vegetarian themselves, demands that others not eat meat.

“What I say today is not to whitewash anything. The disaster of the Ren-Chen year, the near annihilation of the Confucian Sect, is also the clear manifestation of the Heavenly Dao. I just hope you, Young Friend, can understand that the path of the Confucian Sect in trying to maintain the order of the secular human world and finding a balance between Yin and Yang, even if it is rugged and bumpy, and even stained with filth, its core—people-oriented, rejecting theocracy from being above human relations—is not outdated.”

At this point, State Preceptor paused slightly. “The demons of the Heavenly Dao teach people to be beastly with blood food, promote illusory fairylands to collect money, and even use the blood and Qi of living beings as nourishment to promote their cultivation and satisfy their private desires. ATai and I are both old. If we want to return a bright and clear world to this era, it will depend on you all.”