Chapter 222: Zhao Bingzhong, Are You Also a Transmigrator?

Li Zhizao wanted reform; Cui Chengxiu wanted cultural destruction—he sought to profit from this and find a foothold to attack others.

Both men had their own ideas and private agendas. On the surface, they appeared to support Huang Kezuan, but in truth they were merely borrowing his name to do their own things. Put plainly, Huang Kezuan took the blame while they reaped the benefits.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Youxiao's mood grew somewhat complicated.

Because wasn't this exactly what he himself often did?

It seemed these ministers learned quickly enough. This gave Zhu Youxiao a somewhat unpleasant feeling.

Zhu Youxiao turned his head to glance at Huang Kezuan standing not far away, and saw that his expression was very calm. Not knowing what he was thinking, he seemed not to have heard anything at all.

But Zhu Youxiao knew Huang Kezuan could not possibly have failed to hear the subtext in these people's words—at this moment, Huang Kezuan was simply playing dumb.

Perhaps Huang Kezuan also understood in his heart that without benefits, who would support you for no reason?

Under such circumstances, if people support you, it's not excessive for them to take a little something.

As for taking the blame—your matters are the biggest, so you take it. Whether they're there or not, you'll have to bear the blame anyway; it's only a difference in weight.

After Cui Chengxiu and the other finished speaking, Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly and said, "Do my beloved ministers have anything further to say?"

At this moment, everyone had a sense that something was amiss.

No one had expected things to take such a sudden turn, and for a moment, no one knew what to say.

Of course, not everyone stood there dumbstruck—someone stepped forward.

That person was none other than Yu Maohuai, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

When the officials at court saw Yu Maohuai step forward, they were all slightly taken aback. No one had expected Yu Maohuai to come forward at this time.

It should be known that for quite a long time now, this Yu Maohuai had been playing dumb all along.

Currently, the one jumping around most energetically in the Censorate was Cui Chengxiu, leading many to think Cui Chengxiu would replace Yu Maohuai.

But the bigwigs at court didn't think so—Yu Maohuai was His Majesty's confidant; how could he be so easily replaced by Cui Chengxiu?

Yu Maohuai's low profile was merely because the time for him to step forward had not yet come.

Now, at such a critical moment, Yu Maohuai had finally stepped forward.

Everyone at court felt their hearts sink. In their view, this might be His Majesty making clear his stance.

In fact, everyone knew His Majesty was supporting this matter. Because from the very beginning, the whole affair had been started by His Majesty himself.

The earliest instance was Chen Kedao coming to the capital to give lectures—he lectured for His Majesty first, and only then did the incident of School of Principle disciples attacking Chen Kedao erupt.

After that came the court's debate on prohibiting privately established academies and private lecturing.

Following that debate came the proposal for the court to establish the Imperial Academy and simultaneously redraft the civil examination syllabus.

So the entire affair, from start to finish, had actually been manipulated by His Majesty.

It was just that His Majesty had always remained behind the scenes and never stepped to the front.

Now, seeing Yu Maohuai's manner, everyone realized His Majesty might be about to step to the front.

Many people's faces darkened as they cast their gazes toward the few Grand Secretaries standing at the front. At a time like this, only the Grand Secretaries coming forward would do.

But the Grand Secretaries all had their eyes closed, looking utterly composed—or rather, looking confident and assured.

The officials at court simply had no idea what these old fellows were thinking.

Yu Maohuai took a step forward and said slowly, "Reporting to Your Majesty, your minister believes there is no need for this."

"At court, everyone knows the Four Books were all annotated by Master Zhu, which is why they flourished and were incorporated into the examinations. Therefore, your minister believes we may add the Xunzi to the Four Books—perhaps calling it the Five Books—but there is no need to remove the Mencius."

"As the saying goes, when scholars read, what they comprehend is the way of the sages; each person's comprehension naturally differs, and the sage's way they learn also differs. Your minister sees no harm in elevating Mencius and Xunzi side by side."

After Yu Maohuai's words came out, many people began grinding their teeth.

It looked like Yu Maohuai was muddling through, getting both sides to each give a step. But that was not actually the case—in doing this, Yu Maohuai also had his own private agenda.

First, Yu Maohuai had placed Xunzi on equal footing with Mencius.

That alone was already a huge matter. If everyone could accept Xunzi's teachings, why had they bothered to remove him from the Confucian temple?

Now that everyone had already removed Xunzi from the Confucian temple, by doing this, weren't you bringing him back?

Most critically, the Four Books and Five Classics were fixed by Master Zhu—with this move of yours, you can just add to them now?

Today you add a Xunzi; tomorrow will you add something else in?

This would never end. Plainly put, it was still undermining the roots of the School of Principle.

Although Yu Maohuai spoke with great righteousness on the surface, his move was still vicious—and accurate, steady, and ruthless!

At the same time, Yu Maohuai made these officials aware of the danger.

Those before him—whether Cui Chengxiu or Li Zhizao—had very clear-cut positions, so opposing them meant outright, thorough opposition.

But this Yu Maohuai stepping forward and directly proposing this Mencius-and-Xunzi-side-by-side arrangement offered the possibility of compromise.

Many people would think that if they couldn't oppose it to the end, then making an appropriate compromise wouldn't hurt.

This was in fact dividing and co-opting a group of uncommitted people within the School of Principle, preventing the School of Principle from uniting as one.

How vicious was his intent! How insidious were his methods!

Many people's gazes toward Yu Maohuai now carried a few extra traces of murderous intent.

Even more people were wondering whether this was His Majesty's intention.

Some even already had thoughts: if this was His Majesty's intention, then since the matter could not be done, why not take a step back?

After saying that speech, Yu Maohuai retreated back.

There was no expression on his face—the feeling he gave was: my business is done, my words are said, the rest is up to you all.

This attitude made people hate him all the more, grinding their teeth—it was equivalent to setting a fire and running away. You're satisfied, but what about everyone else?

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Yu Maohuai and sighed inwardly.

Why were all the ministers he used such old scheming bastards?

Was this also a case of what the superior likes, the inferior imitates?

Why couldn't you all learn something good? Why must you learn this?

This is truly disappointing to me.

"Your Majesty, I believe what Minister Yu said is inappropriate." A man suddenly stepped forward.

He spoke these words loudly, drawing everyone's gaze upon him, because no one expected that he would dare to speak so directly.

The reason was also very simple—everyone knew that Yu Maoheng was the Emperor's man, so what Yu Maoheng said was likely the Emperor's intention.

For you to step forward and oppose him like this was tantamount to opposing the Emperor; it wasn't that you couldn't oppose him, but couldn't you have said it less directly?

Everyone turned to look and discovered that the man who had stepped forward was actually Vice Minister of Rites Zhao Bingzhong.

This man was no stranger to anyone present, and even Zhu Youxiao was not unfamiliar with him.

Because Zhao Bingzhong's credentials were quite senior—he was a jinshi from the 26th year of Wanli, and had even achieved the top score as Zhuangyuan, but because of his upright and unbending nature, he had been stripped of his position and sent back to his hometown.

Zhu Youxiao knew of Zhao Bingzhong not because of this era, but because of later generations.

Zhu Youxiao had once seen a national first-class cultural relic—it was an original examination paper from the imperial examinations, and moreover the original palace examination paper of a Zhuangyuan.

Zhu Youxiao still remembered the topic of that palace examination to this day—it asked about the governance of emperors and the hearts of emperors.

The meaning was simple: what kind of mindset and what kind of policies should an emperor have.

In that palace examination, Zhao Bingzhong achieved the top score as Zhuangyuan, and his examination paper was preserved all the way to later generations. How exactly it had been passed down, no one knew, but it was the only surviving Zhuangyuan examination paper, so it had been listed as a national first-class cultural relic.

After seeing this examination paper, Zhu Youxiao had specially looked into the author of the paper, namely Zhao Bingzhong.

Then Zhu Youxiao discovered some interesting things—or rather, such an interesting man.

In Zhao Bingzhong's examination paper, he had written some very interesting things. For example, he believed that the foremost priority in governing the country was to establish laws and regulations, to promulgate statutes and decrees, and to place these laws and regulations at the forefront of all documents, post them at the gates and most conspicuous places inside government offices at every level, and distribute them throughout the nation.

These laws and regulations should not only be familiar to the people of the nation, but also voluntarily obeyed, so that the entire country could have laws to rely upon; people's goals would be clear, their sights and hearing unconfused; the lazy would be roused, and the capable and shrewd would be encouraged.

It could be said that when Zhao Bingzhong was young, he was already a firm supporter of governing the country through the rule of law.

Zhao Bingzhong extremely revered the Assessment Law, believing that corrupt officials needed to be severely punished; the poor and suffering people throughout the nation, with nine of ten households empty, had no avenue to appeal their grievances, precisely because corrupt officials ran rampant in society. Therefore, punishment for corrupt officials must be increased, and they should be fined until they lost everything.

So Zhu Youxiao had a very deep impression of this man, Zhao Bingzhong.

After Zhu Youxiao came to the Great Ming, he had been keeping an eye on Zhao Bingzhong, except this man had never done anything noteworthy—he stayed obediently in the Ministry of Rites and never participated in factional struggles.

His consistent attitude was: you lot go ahead and make your noise, I'll just do my own job well.

But this time, it was clear that Zhao Bingzhong could no longer sit still. Because he saw the hope that his ideals could be put into practice.

Using Xunzi to replace Mencius would be the beginning of governing by law. That was why Zhao Bingzhong charged straight out.

Originally Cui Chengxiu and the others had spoken quite well, and Zhao Bingzhong hadn't planned to come out. But Yu Maoheng's words made him unable to sit still.

"What does Minister Zhao have to say?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhao Bingzhong and asked with a smile.

"I report to Your Majesty: as the saying goes, there cannot be two suns in the sky, nor two masters in a nation. Emperor Wu of Han dismissed the hundred schools and honored only Confucianism—what he sought was nothing more than the unity of governance and doctrine. If this cannot be achieved, then it becomes the source of chaos under heaven and the beginning of factional strife at court. Therefore, I believe we should honor only one."

Zhu Youxiao nodded, wearing a thoughtful expression, then after pondering for a long while, said: "Then who does the Minister believe should be honored?"

"In reply to Your Majesty, I believe we should honor Xunzi."

Zhao Bingzhong said expressionlessly: "I believe there are gentlemen and virtuous men throughout the realm, but there will always be places where enlightenment cannot reach, and therefore rites and law should be promoted together."

"Rites are the foundation of being human, but not everyone will observe them. Therefore I believe rites are the upper limit of humanity—everyone should learn them, and everyone can strive to become a sage through that path, which is learning rites. This is also the purpose of enlightenment."

"But there are those who cannot be enlightened, and for them, law should be used to restrict and punish. Therefore I believe rites are the upper limit of humanity and should be widely propagated so that everyone understands rites."

"And law is the lower limit of humanity—if someone does not observe it, then they must be punished by law. Therefore I believe rites and law should be promoted together, and Xunzi's doctrine is precisely suitable—it could even become the national policy of the Great Ming."

Listening to Zhao Bingzhong's words, Zhu Youxiao almost wanted to ask him: did you transmigrate here too?

"Law is the lower limit of humanity"—this phrase was something everyone knew in later generations, and it was also how they conducted themselves.

There was also another very famous viewpoint: whatever the law does not prohibit, one may do.

This was for ordinary citizens—as long as the law did not explicitly state that you could not do something, you could do it.

But for government officials, what the law does not prohibit, they may not do; without legal authorization, they must not interfere.

Although it wasn't exactly the same as what Zhao Bingzhong said, the meaning was always thus.

When Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhao Bingzhong again, his eyes were filled entirely with admiration.

You should have stepped forward long ago, do you know that?

If you had stepped forward earlier, I would have used you long ago—perhaps by now you would already be in the Grand Secretariat.

Compared to that character Huang Kezuan who had come to his position midway, Zhao Bingzhong was far too suitable for the position of Minister of Justice.

If Zhao Bingzhong had stepped forward earlier, there would have been no business for Huang Kezuan at all.

Zhu Youxiao nodded thoughtfully and said: "I have taken note of the Ministers' views."

Hearing Zhu Youxiao say this, many people's hearts skipped a beat.

Wait—we haven't spoken yet!

We oppose this!

They wanted to step forward and express their opinions.

But Zhu Youxiao paid them no attention at all, and directly turned to the four Grand Secretaries, saying: "What do the Grand Secretaries think?"

Everyone's gaze instantly shifted to the Grand Secretaries, wanting to see what they would say.

At this moment, you couldn't very well rush out to grab the conversation—after all, it was the Emperor who had asked, and he had asked the Grand Secretaries. If you stepped forward to speak now, it would only make people think you didn't know proper procedure.

Huang Kezuan naturally didn't need to step forward, because this was his own proposal to begin with—there was nothing more to say.

Then it should be Sun Chengzong's turn, because among the remaining three Grand Secretaries, his status was the lowest.

Sun Chengzong stepped forward and said slowly: "Your Majesty, I approve."

After saying this, Sun Chengzong turned and stepped back.

And then there was nothing more—I've stated my position, and I don't want to say anything else.

Next, naturally, it was the turn of Second Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi stepped forward and, under everyone's expectant gaze, said: "I report to Your Majesty, I also approve."

After these two men spoke, an uproar broke out.

How could this be?

They all actually agreed?

From the very start of the court session, not a single voice of opposition had arisen in the hall — everyone was in complete agreement, and the only one who dissented was Yu Maoheng.

But even he wasn't outright opposed; he merely suggested that Mencius should be enshrined alongside Xunzi.

And so everyone's gaze converged on Han Kuang. Though they still harbored a faint glimmer of hope in their hearts, they all knew — there was likely no hope left.