Chapter 57: Screw It, I'm Going All In

This was a dilemma with no way out. Though Xu Guangqi did not know who was trying to harm him, he knew that this time, he would not be able to dodge it.

Xu Guangqi knew that the court was currently mired in chaotic disputes and partisan infighting, with everyone engaged in all manner of struggles. There was no way he could avoid being dragged in.

But Xu Guangqi also knew that once dragged in, his fate would be no better. How did Li Zhi die?

The Taizhou School was never welcomed. Whether it was the elder He Xinyin or the later Li Zhi, who among them came to a good end?

Everyone was the same!

Struggles over the orthodox lineage of learning had always been cruel and bloody, with no distinction of right or wrong. Xu Guangqi did not think he would be any different.

If he spoke, what would his fate be?

Xu Guangqi never imagined that this trip to the capital would be a journey to his death.

He raised his head to look at this young emperor of the Great Ming, trying to read something from his face, but found nothing at all. Xu Guangqi steeled his heart — since things had come to this pass, he might as well speak frankly!

"To answer Your Majesty, your servant's teacher was of the Taizhou branch of the School of Mind, much the same as the ideas revered by Master Li Zhi." Xu Guangqi said bluntly.

"Oh, is that so?" Zhu Youxiao feigned a puzzled look: "Then tell me about it, my dear minister!"

Xu Guangqi was taken aback. He still wanted him to speak? Could it be he was trying to gather evidence of his crimes?

Xu Guangqi decided to pick something explosive to say. As for when he would offend His Majesty, that was beyond his ability to predict.

At the same time, a faint hope stirred in Xu Guangqi's heart — what if he could actually convince His Majesty?

"Master Li Zhi and your servant's teacher denounced the Cheng-Zhu School of Principle as false learning, holding that one cannot 'take Confucius's judgments of right and wrong as one's own.' Their poems and essays attacked the restorationist doctrines of the Former Seven Masters and the Latter Seven Masters, and they considered *The Romance of the Western Chamber* and *Water Margin* to be 'the finest literature of all ages.' The *Six Classics*, the *Analects*, and the *Mencius* — these were not all the words of sages; they were elevated and embellished by later generations."

"They cannot be treated as eternal truths. These works were casual jottings by ignorant disciples and pedantic followers of the time; more than half are not the words of sages. Even where they are the words of sages, they were remedies prescribed for a particular moment, and cannot become 'the standard for all matters.'"

Watching Xu Guangqi speak with such eloquence, Zhu Youxiao could not help but marvel inwardly. Li Zhi was truly remarkable — unquestionably a great thinker of his age. To raise such a voice in this era was truly extraordinary.

At the same time, Zhu Youxiao sensed that this was the ideology needed for a place daring to reform. If even the way of Confucius and Mencius was not an unchanging path for all ages, then how much less so were the ancestral institutions?

Once this doctrine was acknowledged, any ancestral institution could be circumvented, and all manner of reforms could be carried out directly.

All those nonsensical claims would lose their foundation — that ancestral institutions cannot be changed, cannot be abolished — none of that would exist anymore.

"Master Li Zhi and your servant's teacher also held that Confucius was not a sage — that everyone is a sage, and there is no need to model oneself on Confucius." Xu Guangqi continued.

But at this point, Xu Guangqi stopped on his own.

In his view, this was where Master Li Zhi and his own teacher were most heretical — directly knocking Confucius off his pedestal.

Zhu Youxiao, however, remained expressionless. He did not see anything wrong with it. In later ages, Confucius had already been knocked down once before.

But Zhu Youxiao also knew that people still needed beliefs. If you toppled the old, you needed something new to take its place, or there would be serious trouble.

Li Zhi's idea that all people are equal and that everyone can become a sage — this was the best replacement doctrine. Zhu Youxiao also knew how inflammatory this rhetoric was; it had already been proven by later generations.

"Why have you stopped, my dear minister?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Xu Guangqi and asked with slight puzzlement. He had been listening with great interest!

In truth, Zhu Youxiao was mapping Li Zhi's ideas onto himself, examining where revisions were needed, where changes had to be made, to make this ideology suit him better.

Xu Guangqi, meanwhile, was somewhat dumbfounded. Keep speaking? His Majesty was actually not angry. He steeled his heart — if he wasn't angry, then he'd throw out something even more explosive.

"Your Majesty, Master Li Zhi and your servant's teacher held that most of the current disciples of the School of Principle are sanctimonious defenders of morality and hypocrites — calling themselves recluses while their hearts are those of merchants; speaking of virtue while their ambitions lie in thievery; claiming to disdain wealth and rank while outwardly feigning reluctance, in truth using this as a ladder to glory, all the while cloaking themselves in the language of morality and righteousness." As Xu Guangqi said this, he carefully watched Zhu Youxiao.

Hearing these words, Zhu Youxiao suddenly burst out laughing, and could not stop.

He realized that Li Zhi was truly a talent. Li Zhi had died too early — otherwise, this man would have been the best candidate.

The meaning of this passage was simple: it said that these people of the School of Principle, the Donglin Faction and the like, were all hypocrites.

They prided themselves on lofty purity, but everything they did was the work of merchants, and their hearts were filled with merchant thoughts. Their mouths were full of morality and righteousness, but that was merely a veneer to conceal themselves.

As a man from a later age, thinking of what the Donglin Faction had done — was this not exactly a description of them? No wonder these people had Li Zhi killed.

This was what happened when someone was exposed — they flew into a rage from shame. If they wanted to eliminate Li Zhi's ideas, they had to strike at the root — so they simply had Li Zhi killed outright.

Xu Guangqi watched the emperor roaring with laughter, his expression somewhat conflicted, his heart full of questions. What was going on? Had he been laughed at in anger?

That must be it. He truly could not escape his doom today. At this thought, Xu Guangqi's state of mind instead calmed down. Since there was no avoiding it, there was no need to keep dodging.

It was a long while before Zhu Youxiao stopped laughing. He coughed a few times and said: "Continue, my dear minister!"

"Still speak?" Xu Guangqi asked himself inwardly. He had thought he would be dragged away at any moment, but instead he was being asked to continue?

Fine, then he would speak.

"Master Li Zhi and your servant's teacher held that when scholars of the School of Principle open their mouths to discuss learning, they say 'you act for yourself, I act for others; you are selfish, I seek to benefit others' — but in reality they all 'study to pass the examinations and hold office to seek eminence,' scheming entirely for themselves, 'not sparing a single thought for others.' Such hypocrites, whose words and deeds contradict each other, are worse than the common folk of the marketplace and the farmers who till the soil, who are honest and say what they do."

This time Xu Guangqi did not stop, but continued directly: "These men speak of morality and righteousness, but in truth they use the School of Principle as a stepping stone to deceive the world and profit themselves, seeking high office and lavish rewards. They 'speak of virtue while their hearts crave high position, their ambitions set on vast wealth.'"

Zhu Youxiao felt even more regretful inwardly. What Li Zhi said made too much sense — was this not indeed the truth?

Especially that line — "study to pass the examinations and hold office to seek eminence" — it struck straight at the human heart!