Chapter 202: The Big Picture

There was no rage, no scolding, and even the originally livid complexion gradually turned deep. Liu Zhao looked at Wang Yang and spoke slowly, his tone surprisingly calm:

"So, you think I am a bastard, is that it?"

Wang Yang's expression was innocent: "I didn't say that."

Liu Zhao said in a deep voice:

"Since I became an official, I have not accumulated wealth, not purchased property, gotten up before dawn to handle official business, not slept until the Hai hour, and have never been slack.

As for handling affairs in the middle of the night and questioning prisoners all night, it is even more common. What I am tied to in my heart is only the law.

Everything I say and do is based on the Qi law, practicing governance according to the law, and not avoiding noble relatives.

The cunning and rotten in prison are countless; the evil criminals who have been executed under the law are difficult to count!

Although there are many killings, there are rarely any injustices. Those I love, I do not bend the law to save them; those I hate, I do not bend the law to destroy them.

Although there is a suspicion of cruelty and urgency, living in this world, I have to use heavy laws.

Otherwise, how can I forbid evil and stop fraud, and maintain the discipline?"

He stared into Wang Yang's eyes and asked word by word:

"Do you think a person like me is a bastard?"

Wang Yang pondered for a moment and said:

"If according to what you said, then it is indeed not a bastard. But you claim that 'everything you say and do is based on the Qi law,' so I will ask you presumptuously, you let Du Shubao go, and helped him silence witnesses to remove future troubles, and you didn't even let go of that girl named Jiaojiao. Is this based on the Qi law? You sent Protector Fang to use the Liu Cheng case to frame me, wanting to trap me in the law, is that also based on the Qi law? Now you are using threats and inducements to make me sell my retainers, is that still based on the Qi law?"

Liu Zhao looked away and was silent for a moment:

"Some things are not what I want."

Wang Yang smiled: "Violating the law is violating the law, doing bad things is doing bad things. You make it so righteous that I almost thought I wronged you."

Liu Zhao took a deep breath and turned his gaze back to Wang Yang's face:

"I mentioned flexibility before. Some violations of the law are not good, and some things are not right, but for the sake of the long-term big picture, I have no choice but to do so."

"Whose long-term big picture?"

"The long-term big picture of the law."

"So, letting Du Shubao go, silencing those people, framing me, and wanting my retainers are all for the long-term big picture of the law?"

Liu Zhao paused for a few seconds, did not answer directly, but said:

"Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a monk who was compassionate. Seeing a famine in the village, people were constantly starving to death, and he was anxious. He wanted to distribute grain to help the disaster victims, but he had no grain himself, so he went to persuade a wealthy family. The wealthy family told the monk that as long as the monk tied up the female donor who often went to the temple to offer incense, he would donate a large amount of grain to the monk so that the monk could set up a porridge shed to save people.

The monk thought for three days and three nights, and finally, with tears in his eyes, tied up the female donor and sent her to the wealthy family. Then the wealthy family fulfilled their promise, and finally, no one in the village starved to death..."

Liu Zhao looked at Wang Yang and asked: "The monk harmed one person, but saved a whole village of people. Do you say this monk did something wrong?"

Wang Yang asked: "So your meaning is, you are this monk?"

Liu Zhao looked at Wang Yang and said slowly: "You dare not answer."

Wang Yang was happy: "What do I dare not answer? It's just that if you want to understand my answer, you must first answer my question."

"Your words make no sense. I just asked you, in this story, whether the monk's approach is right or wrong, why involve reality?"

Wang Yang smiled: "I didn't expect Commandant Liu to be a philosopher."

"Phil... philosopher?"

"I can tell many such stories, nothing more than putting people in a moral dilemma and making people feel embarrassed. If it's just for fun, or discussing metaphysics, then there is no problem. But it's a pity that there are always people who want to use this to summarize a truth, and then use this truth to refer to reality, which is quite inappropriate."

"How is it inappropriate?"

"Because most of these stories are unreasonable! For example, that village, why can the famine only be solved by this monk? Why is there only this one wealthy family? Why can the monk be sure that the wealthy family will keep their promise? Why—"

Liu Zhao interrupted: "The story is just for explaining the truth, how can it be verified? Aren't you nitpicking?"

"Yes, since you know that the story cannot be verified, why use a story that cannot be verified to refer to reality?" Wang Yang asked in return.

Liu Zhao was stunned.

Wang Yang continued:

"Most moral dilemma stories are not reasonable, but there are always people who think they are smart, either using these stories to excuse their own behavior in reality, or summarizing a truth from this story and then using it as a principle for their own actions in reality. But the problem is that a story is a story. Using false stories with many loopholes cannot correspond to real, complex, and reality-filled life with various possibilities and accidents.

This is the most deceptive part of this kind of moral dilemma story.

For example, the story you just told, like most stories with the same principle, chooses either A or B. A, agree to kidnap the female donor and send her to the wealthy family; B, disagree, then sit and wait for the people in the village to starve to death. There are no other options. And the result of each choice is extreme and fixed. Choosing A will definitely save a village of people, and choosing B is definitely equivalent to sitting and watching the villagers continue to starve to death. Even in the story, it will never allow the villagers to be saved by other means or even die out in advance. They must be hungry, hanging, and waiting for the monk to make this crucial decision.

But in reality, where are there so many either-or? And where are there so many extreme absolutes? Even if such examples happen occasionally, that is a realistic and specific choice made under realistic and specific conditions, and does not have the significance of broad inference and universal application.

Just like you keep saying that your 'some violations of the law' are for the 'long-term big picture of the law,' but is it really like this? Do you only have that one choice? After choosing that one, can the long-term big picture really be realized? And the realized long-term big picture, is it necessarily good?"

Liu Zhao's expression moved slightly, and he didn't make a sound.

Wang Yang continued: "According to your so-called 'big picture' thinking, then I can also say that violating the law and the long-term big picture of the law are contradictory in themselves. Because every violation of the law is destroying the foundation of the law. The damage to the legal system is like a thousand-mile dike collapsing in an ant's nest. Isn't this also a destruction of the big picture?"

"You are talking empty talk!" Liu Zhao immediately retorted.

"I started from a humble background, my family was poor, and I worked as a county official for fifteen years before becoming a commandery merit officer. I have seen too many things that I can't stand and have no power to manage. Although I don't violate the law, I can't practice the law either. If I want to practice the law, I can only climb up, climb to a high position!

During this period, although I will do some things that violate my heart and the law, this is an indispensable price!

I am now a Prefect, a Commandant, and I can purify the law of a commandery and a province. When I become a higher official, I can practice a greater law!

You talk empty talk about morality, which is easy, but the one who really does things is me! What qualifications do you have to accuse me?"

Wang Yang shook his head:

"It's the price again. Once the price is mentioned, it is sacrificing others. Killing others to silence them is your price, and violating the law to harm me is also within your price. This is why I especially hate the so-called big picture.

Because the big picture is illusory, future-oriented, and unclear. Just like you say you can practice the law better in the future, is it really like this? How can you be sure? What if you change your mind in the future? What if there is no future you mentioned at all? What if you become a bigger official, but continue to violate the law and your heart because of another so-called 'big picture'?"

The big picture is distant and blurry, and the small picture is current and fixed. For the sake of that big picture that can't be seen clearly, how many small pictures and small families must be sacrificed? One hundred? One thousand? Ten thousand? Or hundreds of thousands, millions?

Big picture? How many crimes are committed in the name of the big picture!

Those who commit great evils will never publicly declare that they want to commit evil. Perhaps their own intentions are not to commit great evils, but it is precisely for the sake of the so-called big picture that they constantly sacrifice the small picture, accumulating little by little, gathering sand into a mountain, and finally, they are surprised to find that the big picture has not yet been achieved, and a great disaster has already been brewed!

Good intentions can do bad things, and good intentions can also do evil things. The starting reason for many great disasters is that someone wants to do great good!

Once the bottom line is lost, the lower limit will be constantly broken.

Once the principle is lost, the criteria will be constantly discarded.

You are now a Commandant, violating your heart and the law, and doing evil, and the harm is already not small.

When you rise again, your power will be higher, your momentum will be stronger, and if you violate your heart and the law again, the harm will be deep! The disaster will be greater!

You say it is for the long-term big picture of the law, but I feel that perhaps by then, the big picture of the law will become worse.

Because I think that the big picture is composed of small pictures; and the significance of the big picture also lies in these small pictures.

Just as every commoner is a small picture, and the world is a big picture.

If someone claims to abuse the commoners for the sake of the world, then the person who destroys the world must be this person! Because his words and actions are contradictory and go against the way!

Isn't the Commandant's violation of the law for the sake of the law now the same contradiction, the same going against the way?

As for you saying that I am talking empty talk about morality, that may not be the case.

I am now rejecting your threats and inducements, isn't that practicing what I said?

It's just that the path I chose now is not easy to walk..."

Wang Yang said this and looked at Liu Zhao deeply: "And the path you chose at the beginning was just easier to walk."

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Not finished editing, stopping for one day. ===== CHAPTER 203 =====