Chapter 15: The Way of the Sage

That night.

Inside the Duke's residence.

Gu Jin Nian stared at the moonlight, his expression slightly gloomy.

He sent people to notify every household, and also sent someone ahead to the Blue Moon Pavilion.

Unfortunately, there was no so‑called benevolent blessing.

Sure enough, the old saying proved true.

Good people get no good reward.

After returning to the Gu Family, Gu Jin Nian felt rather lonely; apart from his mother who deliberately came to ask what he had eaten, his father was busy with official duties.

Grandfather's recent activities were also unknown.

Members of the clan each had their own affairs to attend to.

So Gu Jin Nian was often alone.

Being alone wasn't the issue, but being denied a maid truly irritated Gu Jin Nian; originally there was nothing much to do, a chat with a maid sister would have been fine.

What a pity.

The clan members wouldn't allow it.

This made Gu Jin Nian a bit angry.

Damn, guarding against petty people is one thing, but do I also have to guard against upright gentlemen like myself?

It felt uncomfortable, but there was nothing to do; under the eaves one has to bow one's head.

As the old saying goes, first be a grandson then a grandfather; this heir of mine still has to endure a while.

Putting these distractions aside.

There were some matters Gu Jin Nian needed to start considering seriously.

Namely the ancient tree in his mind.

What exactly this thing was, Gu Jin Nian couldn't guess, but he had roughly figured out some aspects.

Nine branches represented nine different domains of energy absorbers.

So far the known ones are resentment, martial internal Qi, and gold.

Gu Jin Nian had tested it; silver notes had no effect, it had to be gold. Whether jade could substitute was unclear, so he had the steward prepare some high‑grade jade to try tomorrow.

The things granted by resentment were rather odd.

What martial internal Qi provides is still unknown.

And the gold provides things akin to intelligence; when he poses a question, the ancient tree answers, essentially whether the offered silver taels are sufficient.

It's equivalent to paying for answers.

Its utility is limited for now, but it is certainly helpful.

From a transmigrator's perspective, Gu Jin Nian roughly inferred two possibilities: either his current realm and strength were insufficient, so the results were modest—understandable, a way to stretch the story and slow the pace, those in the know understand.

The second scenario was that the energy obtained was insufficient, thus the benefits were few; Gu Jin Nian understood this better—energy conservation, after all.

Even the Nine Leak Fish knew.

Gu Jin Nian leaned toward the second possibility, because what realm distinction exists between resentment and silver taels? In other words, to obtain good things one must acquire more energy.

"Regarding resentment, one must obtain it from big figures; you can't get it from people like Zhang Yun."

"Unfortunately, I haven't entered the court yet; once I do, it would be much better. I could then mock the whole court's civil and military officials for fun, wouldn't that be delightful?"

"It would be best to give me a full imperial envoy; today report to the Minister of Personnel, tomorrow report to the Minister of Rites—picking faults would be a breeze."

"What a pity."

Gu Jin Nian felt a bit melancholy; he was still young, mainly lacking any official title.

But his early plan was set: to enter the court early.

As for the martial path, daily basic cultivation sufficed; this cannot be forced, after all time is limited.

Regarding intelligence, it depends on the situation; who knows how many silver taels the ancient tree will swallow. If it's a small‑scale affair, Gu Jin Nian can afford it, and later he can ask the treasury for a thousand taels of gold.

But if it costs tens of thousands of gold, it's not so easy to obtain.

The main reason is that the obtained intelligence isn't important.

If it were truly useful, it wouldn't be unaffordable.

Thinking it over so carefully, Gu Jin Nian felt even more helpless for no clear reason.

It's a pity that he is a descendant of the Gu Family; if he were an ordinary person, whatever he said would probably be superfluous.

Sigh.

He sighed.

Gu Jin Nian shook his head, stopped overthinking, and turned his gaze to the saintly books on the desk.

Confucianism and Daoism also form a system.

If his conjecture were correct, it corresponded with the ancient tree.

And to advance realms via Confucian‑Daoist practice, the early stage relies on studying, comprehending the sage's will, and condensing righteous Qi.

Honestly, whether martial or immortal path, resentment and money are trivial; what Gu Jin Nian truly cares about is Confucian‑Daoist cultivation.

In a world where the dynasty reigns supreme, studying is vital, especially when the nation is stable; then reading is extremely important.

Looking through history, when there are no external foes nor internal turmoil, scholars hold the highest status, because defending a realm is harder than conquering one.

Moreover, military generals can exert great pressure on the emperor, especially the vassal princes or dukes outside; their rebellions are no joke.

Civil officials' rebellions usually attach themselves to a prince, and such cases leave traces, unlike vassal rebellions.

The heavens are high and the emperor distant; even if you send someone, you can't be sure whether they've colluded.

Thus, emperors throughout the ages generally weaken the position of generals to consolidate central imperial authority.

But scholars are different; they cannot be guarded against, and one shouldn't try to guard against them—if scholars were all guarded against, then this country would be gone.

Of course, this is only in relative comparison; it does not mean scholars face no danger at all.

Take history as a mirror.

Generally, one first moves the military officers, then deals with the civil officials.

The danger is much smaller.

The Gu family is full of military officers, heavily biased toward martial arts; everything seems fine now, but once my grandfather passes away, our status will plummet dramatically.

This is also the Gu family's current worry.

Therefore, the Gu family must produce a scholar in the third generation; if not, then the fourth generation must produce a scholar.

Gu Jin Nian is well aware of this, because he has received news that the clan has already begun helping him select a wife.

Once my coming-of-age ceremony ends, it will basically be time to marry; there's no escaping it.

But Gu Jin Nian does not want to marry so early; he has no interest in it.

Having come this far, not doing anything just to brush up one's presence, to some extent loses the face of a transmigrator. Confucian Dao, powerful minister.

This is Gu Jin Nian's current idea.

Especially with so many poems and essays in his mind, if he doesn't take them out to show off, he would truly be wasting his vast knowledge.

Moreover, a Great Scholar can also condense phenomena; this makes Gu Jin Nian even more eager.

Thinking of this, Gu Jin Nian picks up the sage's book and begins to read.

At the same time, he also wants to thoroughly understand the Confucian Dao.

The moonlight is like ink.

Inside the Duke's residence.

The green lamp illuminates Gu Jin Nian's handsome face; there is no wind, all things are still.

In the blink of an eye, it is already the first quarter of the Yin hour.

With a hint of fish-belly white appearing on the horizon, sunlight pours through the window, falling on Gu Jin Nian's face.

From the day before yesterday to today, Gu Jin Nian has gone twenty-four hours without sleep.

Fortunately, this is a world where immortals and martial arts coexist; his body can fully withstand it, though he is somewhat fatigued, it's no big problem.

Most importantly, Gu Jin Nian has become engrossed in reading.

In one night, Gu Jin Nian read three books front to back: a history of the Confucian Dao, a history of the sages, and a sage's introductory classic.

They respectively introduce the history of the Confucian Dao, the history of the Confucian Dao sages, and an introductory text.

The history of the Confucian Dao is fine; it basically consists of three stages.

Human rites, gentleman's rites, state rites.

Its meaning is that those who have rites are human; otherwise, what distinguishes them from beasts? Next comes the gentleman's rites, whose core is to revere heaven, earth, ruler, parents, and teachers.

A gentleman first reveres heaven, then earth, then the ruler, followed by parents, and finally teachers.

Because of this, the Confucian Dao can flourish in all countries; after all, to an emperor, aside from heaven and earth, he himself is the greatest, which aligns with the view of imperial authority.

After all, imperial authority outweighs everything; this is a kind of ideological rule. Without this foundation, the Confucian Dao cannot hope to prosper, and may even be suppressed.

The third stage is state rites, namely establishing rules to halt large-scale war and slaughter; even if two states go to war, they must observe rites, exchange declarations of war, and have a just cause, and must not massacre the populace.

This conforms to heavenly principle, gains the favor of the upper heavens, and is also reasonable and just.

This is the change in the three stages of the Confucian Dao.

As for the history of the sages, it fills Gu Jin Nian with curiosity, because currently the Confucian Dao has only four sages.

The first-generation sage, the sage of myriad ages, called the Confucian Sage, a teacher for myriad ages, authored the Book of Human Rites.

The second-generation sage, the sage of a thousand autumns, called the Lesser Sage, devoted to the gentleman's thought, authored the Book of the Gentleman's Rites.

The third-generation sage, the sage of a hundred ages, called the Restoring Sage, the state's rites and way, authored the Book of State Rites.

The fourth-generation sage, the sage of Heaven's Mandate, called the Ancestral Sage, governing the state through Confucian Dao, authored the Book of Confucian Learning.

These four sages span an extremely long time: the Confucian Sage became a sage ten thousand years ago, the Lesser Sage five thousand years ago, the Restoring Sage three thousand years ago, and the Ancestral Sage fifteen hundred years ago, with intervals of about fifteen hundred years between them.

Moreover, only the first-generation sage received Heaven's Mandate's approval, so he can be honored as lasting myriad ages.

The later sages are all half-step sages, lacking only Heaven's Mandate, yet their influence is in no way weaker than that of the first sage.

Gu Jin Nian just needs to know about the first three sages: the way of human rites is to enlighten and educate the masses; the way of gentleman's rites is the teacher-student path, letting people study and cultivate themselves to become gentlemen; the way of state rites is to halt war, letting the world's people live in peace.

But what truly attracts Gu Jin Nian is the fourth sage.

He is called the Heaven's Mandate Sage, but historical records say that fifteen hundred years ago Heaven's Mandate did not choose the Confucian Dao; rather, scholars believe he broke through the shackles of Heaven's Mandate, forcibly reached the sage realm, promoted Confucian learning, and thus suffered a backlash from heaven and earth.

This view is accepted by scholars worldwide, but other systems do not accept it, so there remains doubt.

However, it is ultimately an event from fifteen hundred years ago, making it hard to verify.

But the Ancestral Sage's thought is quite unique.

He pioneered the idea that gentlemen govern the state and bring peace to the world; the Ancestral Sage believed gentlemen cannot merely talk about the world, they must study to understand the Way, enter officialdom, and use power to benefit the masses.

Meaning, don't just shout about saving the world with empty words; instead, study well, take the imperial examinations, for an individual's power is hard to change the world, but if one can attain a high position and become a major figure in the court, a single word can save tens of thousands of people.

He encourages scholars to contend for power and become officials, the higher the office the better, rather than after studying just indulging in empty talk all day.

This is essentially giving scholars a perfect excuse to become officials; combining with the history of the time, Gu Jin Nian discovered that scholars then also held office, but usually they were invited by the court to serve.

Even after becoming officials, if they have nothing to do they like to stir up trouble, openly displaying their opposition to imperial authority, upright and incorruptible.

Otherwise they are corrupt officials, birds of a feather.

This led to an extremely complicated situation at the time.

Because proactively seeking office is itself a disgraceful act, moreover colluding with the corrupt; furthermore, even if you do not collude, you cannot produce evidence—people's hearts are envious, and as your office grows, doubts and insults will increase.

Thus that era was extremely strange.

The emergence of the Ancestral Sage gave all scholars an extremely reasonable direction of thought.

Therefore, nowadays scholars, in order to become officials, will stop at nothing; even if they are insulted by the emperor, they are willing to endure.

In any case, I say I endure for the sake of all under heaven.

As for whether it is, you will know after I die.

And currently, the mainstream of scholars is basically this.

This is clearly problematic, and moreover a serious problem.

"The Fourth Generation Sage seems to have taken the blame."

After pondering all night, Gu Jin Nian inexplicably felt that this Fourth Generation Sage was entirely pushed into prominence.

It's not that it's impossible; on the contrary, the Fourth Generation Sage also has many great achievements, but this theory is the core.

Confucianism is revered by countless contemporary scholars as the sage's classic.

Inside it exist many unknown things; Gu Jin Nian can only perceive a bit, and dare not think deeply, nor can he think of anything.

As for the third book, the sage's enlightenment book, Gu Jin Nian has roughly finished reading it.

It revolves around benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and fidelity.

It discusses what propriety is and what a gentleman is, and as Gu Jin Nian puts the book down.

Strands of talent seeped into the ancient tree.

Attached to the fifth branch.

But there is not even a date pit, only a slight hint.

Indeed, the Confucian Dao also counts as one.

"Young Master, it's time for class."

At this moment, the steward's voice sounded outside, waking Gu Jin Nian from his thoughts.

(End of chapter)