[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-overthrowing-han":3,"chapter-overthrowing-han-overthrowing-han-chapter-32":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Overthrowing Han",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1222791,1620,"Chapter 32: Caught in Strife (5.6k)","overthrowing-han-chapter-32",32,"\u003Cp>In just half a month, with the full support of his mother, Gongsun Xun began to rise rapidly in fame both inside and outside Luoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the saying goes, those in officialdom respect your authority, those out of office respect your background, but everyone respects your \"virtue\" and your coin!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So when a disciple of one of the current Nine Ministers — a scion of a family barely counted among the notable clans — began trading coin for \"virtue,\" the results were naturally outstanding, not to mention having a man of talent like Xu You running around on his behalf.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, by the time the weather grew hot in the sixth month, the charity lodges had already taken rough shape using existing wine shops and residences. Never mind how Gongsun Xun was faring in Luoyang — even Han Dang had become a \"great magnate\" in Goushi! Who knows how many desperate fugitives came to join him; even Liu Bei was so happy in that charity lodge he forgot all about... well, forgot all about dog-fighting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And with connections now established both above and below, Gongsun Xun also secretly had people spread certain rumors — for instance, that the three Gongsun brothers were a single dragon of Liaoxi, complete with dragon head, dragon body, and dragon tail; or that Gongsun the Second, Gongsun Xun, was known as the Timely Rain of Luoyang and the Protector of Righteousness in Goushi; and even something like: \"He who has never known Gongsun Xun may call himself a hero, but in vain.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These slogans were all personally decreed in the latest letter from Lady Gongsun. Some were fairly reliable — for example, the first two, one clearly aimed at the scholar-official class and the other clearly aimed at the lower classes. But some truly did the son harm — take that last one, for instance... it was far too grandiose. Li Yuanli, the foremost of the Eight Steeds who perished in the Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions, was merely \"the Model of the Realm.\" If someone like Yuan Shao used that epithet, it might be fine, but what right did a border-county youth from Liaoxi have to such a title?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, not long after that line got out, Liu Kuan came to have a heart-to-heart with him, dark circles under his eyes, and Gongsun Xun swiftly called a halt to this kind of hype-building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, on the whole, this life could still barely be described as like a fish in water... What had he come to Luoyang for? To study the classics, naturally — that is, to get his academic credentials. But was there any failing grade here? Any professional qualification exam?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps there was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what were the assessment criteria? Scholarship? Of course it was \"virtue\" and \"reputation\"! So how could Gongsun Xun not be like a fish in water?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, these good days came to an abrupt end in mid-sixth month, because a series of high-level matters entirely beyond Gongsun Xun's control, yet greatly affecting him, suddenly occurred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, the one who stirred up this trouble was none other than that Cai Yong, Cai Bojie, who loved submitting memorials spouting nonsense... Of course, Gongsun Xun could swear that this time his memorial truly offended no one and truly obstructed no one. In fact, what Cai Yong proposed in this memorial was a great undertaking beneficial to both the state and the people; one could even say this matter alone was enough to secure his place in the history books.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To put it plainly, what Cai Yong proposed this time was the carving of the Stone Classics!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Later Han took classical studies as the foundation of its state ideology. The court officially designated the Seven Classics (presumably the Five Classics from the Four Books and Five Classics, plus the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety), but it had never established official versions of the classic texts and commentaries. In this era, the textbooks differed from school to school, and indeed, the so-called school rivalries originally arose precisely from differences in textual versions and interpretive approaches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His Majesty the reigning Emperor, likely having just assumed personal rule, was quite receptive to such civil and martial accomplishments. Moreover, in the fourth month the tombs of the late emperors had been soaked by rain, and recently signs of a locust plague had appeared in Luoyang and Hongnong. So perhaps wishing to present a false picture of peace and prosperity, or perhaps seeking some \"resonance between Heaven and man\" — in any case, the court formally issued an edict to undertake this great project.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Liu Kuan, as one of the three Imperial Tutors, and especially the court's acknowledged authority on the Book of Changes and the Book of Songs, naturally had to participate in this matter... Thus, even the indolent Superintendent of the Imperial Household dared not be indolent anymore. And since there was no time to summon helpers from his own school, he immediately called upon all his disciples in the capital to help him revise and collate these two classics day and night, to ensure that before the Stone Classics project began, he could represent his school and produce the corresponding official texts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>None of Liu Kuan's disciples could escape. Even someone like Xu You was inexplicably called over to help, and Gongsun Xun certainly had nowhere to hide. So now he spent his days together with Gongsun Zan, Gongsun Yue, Fu Xie, Wang Yi, Xu You, and others, taking up the bamboo slips in Liu Kuan's home that were nearly breeding worms, and began scrutinizing character by character... There was truly no way around it. The Confucian classics were actually very short in word count, yet the Former Han had dismissed the Hundred Schools and revered only Confucianism, and the Later Han had taken this stuff as the very root of state ideology, elevating classical studies to a degree unprecedented before and unsurpassed since. Therefore, when later generations interpreted them, they had to treat every single character as some kind of treasure, meticulously parsing every word and phrase, and then deriving principles for conduct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, with this revision of the Stone Classics, there was not a single scholar under Heaven who could remain indifferent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so, the second chain reaction triggered by this matter immediately began — Lu Zhi was coming back to the capital!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heaven knows how Teacher Lu pacified the rebellion. But regardless of whether there were hidden dangers or such claims, the man had, in just these few short months, utterly suppressed the Jiangjiu barbarians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what could one say then? One could only say that Teacher Lu truly lived up to being a man of dignity — he played his maneuvers to the absolute extreme!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, he submitted a memorial to the Emperor, saying: how could the vital office of a two-thousand-bushel Grand Administrator not have a fixed term? Some serve only half a year before leaving, which is hardly conducive to implementing moral transformation. Therefore, a system should be established, with a minimum of four years. At the same time, Teacher Lu hastily added in the memorial: since your subject has spoken such words, then to show that your subject is not covetous of power and position, may Your Majesty dismiss your subject from his post; otherwise, how could your subject have the face to live in this world?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The young Emperor, of course, did not arbitrarily change the Grand Administrator's term of office because of this one memorial, nor did he dismiss the man from his post. He merely issued an order commending Teacher Lu, while reiterating that the Grand Administrator's term was to be \"adapted to local circumstances.\" However, just as the commendation and explanation were delivered by swift horse to Jiujiang, Teacher Lu immediately followed up with another public memorial, stating that he had fallen ill... so ill he was near death, and he earnestly requested resignation — no matter what, he must die in his hometown in Youzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Emperor, having just expressed his stance on the term of office, had no choice but to hold his nose and issue a retroactive notice approving sick leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Teacher Lu's showmanship continued to soar. Within a few days, the envoy who had approved the sick leave returned, bringing with him a third memorial... By this time, Teacher Lu was already referring to himself as a commoner. He said his illness had suddenly improved somewhat — at least he wouldn't die — and he had also heard about the matter of carving the Stone Classics... Now, as a direct-line disciple of the great Confucian Ma Rong, as a former Erudite of Classical Studies of the court, as a man who had devoted his entire life's thoughts to the ideological construction of the Great Han, how could he possibly be absent from such an undertaking? He would rather die beneath the Stone Classics steles! If it really came to it, participating in a private capacity would do as well!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, he risked death to volunteer his own services!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, anyone with sense knew that this was Lu Zigan revealing his true intent at last!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In any case, it was all a dazzling show, and the goal was simply to come and work on the Stone Classics! And the Emperor, as well as the court, were left dizzy and disoriented by Lu Zhi's performance. Add to that the fact that this man was truly accomplished in both civil and military affairs — a rare talent — and that he had, after all, suppressed the Jiangjiu barbarians and completed the task assigned by the court... So in the end, the court had no choice but to reluctantly grant approval: come back and resume your post as Erudite, and work on the Stone Classics while you're at it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it was only at this point that Gongsun Xun, Gongsun Zan, and Gongsun Yue — the three brothers, or rather, these three bumpkins from Liaoxi — finally learned the truth from Xu You: all these events were actually entangled with the ideological struggle between the New Text and Old Text schools within classical studies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To digress a bit here, the so-called differences between the New Text and Old Text schools boil down to three points:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First is the difference in the script used for writing, which is also the origin of the names \"New Text\" and \"Old Text.\" The New Text was written in the Han dynasty's standard scripts, clerical script and small seal script; the Old Text was written in the ancient scripts used before the Han.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second is the difference in internal systems. The New Text school believed that the Spring and Autumn Annals authored by Confucius was the primordial classic, in which the old master expounded his quintessential political thought — what is called \"subtle words with profound meaning,\" every word a gem. Therefore, one should hold fast to tradition, and from four characters one could extrapolate a hundred-thousand-word political treatise. The Old Text school, on the other hand, believed that Confucius merely \"trusted and loved the ancients,\" simply expounding the thoughts of the ancient sages and the perfect institutions of antiquity, without adding anything of his own. Moreover, in the Old Text school, the Duke of Zhou held a higher status than Confucius.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, there is the difference in the canonical texts relied upon. For the Spring and Autumn Annals alone, there were three prominent schools of commentary based on lineage. The Old Text school revered the Zuo Tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals, while the New Text school believed in the Guliang Tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Gongyang Tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals. And the Book of Songs was divided into the Han Song, the Qi Song, the Lu Song, and the Mao Song... In any case, the factional lines were as distinct as the Jing and Wei rivers!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, enough of this popular-science digression. Returning to the matter at hand, what exactly was the situation at this very moment?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The answer is that the hidebound New Text school, despite its verbosity and superstition, had — because Dong Zhongshu of its Gongyang Tradition lineage had devised the theories of Heaven-Man Resonance and Grand Unity — become the unchallengeable \"official learning\" of the court as early as the time when Emperor Wu of Han revered only Confucianism. And when Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, restored the realm, the fourteen Erudites he established to unify thought were also mostly from the New Text school. Thus, the court's full support for the New Text school had continued right up to the present.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other hand, although the Old Text school could not obtain state-level support, it was indeed far more advanced than the New Text school in terms of scholarly rigor. In recent years, eight or nine out of ten truly accomplished great Confucians were from the Old Text school. So... it merely lacked the support of the central government. One could even say that outside the central government, it was essentially the Old Text school dominating the realm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And finally, what truly left the three Gongsun brothers speechless was that their nominal teacher, Lu Zhi, was a major figure of the Old Text school, while their other teacher, who had intercepted them midway — the Superintendent of the Imperial Household, Liu Kuan — was, as a representative figure of the Han Song, a major figure of the New Text school.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a daze, the three bumpkins from Liaoxi found themselves plunged into an extremely awkward predicament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You don't understand,\" Xu You said, his face uncharacteristically grave and earnest. \"Lu Zhi, Lord Lu, is the first Old Text Erudite appointed by the court in these years. The day he entered the court, scholars across the realm vaguely felt it was a sign that the Old Text was replacing the New Text... I even privately suspect that his being jointly recommended by the Four Bureaus to suppress the rebellion in Jiujiang, colliding so neatly with this Stone Classics matter, is probably no coincidence. Rather, it's because the Three Excellencies, the Nine Ministers, and the other Erudites of the court are all major New Text figures. They had long premeditated the Stone Classics project precisely to consolidate the New Text's position, and so they employed this maneuver!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun and the others fell silent at this... At this moment, the three bumpkins truly did not know what to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And yet,\" Xu You shook his head repeatedly, \"who could have imagined that the great Confucian from your Youzhou would truly be accomplished in both civil and martial affairs? The intractability of the Jiangjiu barbarians is known to all, yet in just a few short months, the moment the Stone Classics matter was set in motion, Lord Lu wrapped up the affair beautifully and returned — and didn't forget to submit a succession of memorials openly mocking all the New Text grandees... Such methods are truly awe-inspiring.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Back then, when Teacher Liu learned that our eldest brother was a nominal disciple of Lord Lu, yet still accepted him as an inner-chamber disciple, could it be that there was also some... consideration?\" Gongsun Yue asked, somewhat feebly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I fear so,\" Xu You said, stroking his beard. \"But 'consideration' is not quite the word. Think about it — our Teacher Liu ranks among the Nine Ministers, his fame fills the realm, and he has no shortage of disciples. What need would he have to scheme against you few? And from what you've said of that day's circumstances, it was indeed by chance. Besides, Teacher Liu had no idea that Lord Lu could return within a few months! So I fear that, that day, his desire to cherish your talents outweighed any thought of snatching away a few quality disciples from Lord Lu.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun nodded repeatedly: \"Teacher Liu is magnanimous and benevolent, and his kindness to us three is weightier than a mountain... No matter what, we cannot blame him! But Brother Ziyuan, you are a man of wisdom and resource — please, you must advise us. Lord Lu is due back within days. When the time comes and he inevitably clashes with the various New Text grandees, how should we brothers conduct ourselves?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is precisely the crux of the matter,\" Xu You said with a sigh. \"Your position, my worthy friends, is truly awkward. Allow me to think it over carefully.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three brothers waited together in silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"First of all,\" Xu You said after pondering for a while, \"with Lord Lu's return, the struggle between New Text and Old Text is unavoidable. For although Lord Lu stands alone, behind him is the entire Old Text school, immensely powerful. Moreover, while the Stone Classics project will take several years, the determination of the textual versions can only happen within this year. So this conflict is not only unavoidable, but I fear it will be clear-cut and intensely fierce from the very outset.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun, utterly speechless, could only stand with his hands clasped: \"The realm is in such chaos — never mind the eunuchs' dictatorship, just this year alone, first the rains in the fourth month damaged the tombs of the late emperors, and now Luoyang and Hongnong are beginning to suffer a locust plague... How can the various lords of the court still have the mind to fight over New Text and Old Text?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What kind of talk is that, A-Xun?!\" Gongsun Zan said with a cold laugh upon hearing this. \"No matter how chaotic, could this Great Han dynasty really fall? As for this New Text and Old Text business — we've been in Luoyang for several months now; do you still not understand its weight? Why can the Yuan and Yang families produce Three Excellencies for four generations? Why was our Teacher Liu chosen as an Imperial Tutor, and considered certain to rank among the Three Excellencies sooner or later? First and foremost, the learning handed down in their families is the official learning — that is, the New Text!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Bogui speaks truly,\" Xu You nodded. \"This is the key. This dynasty emphasizes classical-learning lineages. What office one holds is determined by family background, and family background must be supported by classical learning... This, in fact, is also the root reason why the Old Text school, despite its strength, has never been able to overturn the New Text and become the official learning.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun shut his mouth... It wasn't that he didn't know all this. What he had meant in his moment of urgency was: damn it all, the Great Han is about to fall, and you people are still studying ideological questions?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the moment Gongsun Zan opened his mouth, Gongsun Xun realized he had been thinking along the wrong lines — after all, the Great Han had lasted nearly four hundred years counting both periods. The idea that Heaven's Mandate rested with the Han had been implanted in everyone's mind. Until the realm descended into chaos to a certain degree, probably very few people would think the Great Han was finished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And come to think of it, even Gongsun Xun, after his mother had shown him miracles and he had no choice but to believe, had still deliberately gone to test the Great Han's level of judicial enforcement with his own hands... Even so, he still harbored feelings for the Great Han in his heart... let alone other people?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, if people were determined to hold a grand ideological debate, what could you do about it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"However, on careful reflection, it seems to me that you worthy brothers need not worry too much about being dragged in too deeply...\" Just as Gongsun Xun's mind was wandering, Xu You turned the conversation back. \"Because as far as I know, although Lord Lu and our Teacher Liu belong to different factions, they are both, after all, virtuous great Confucians, renowned for their lofty integrity, and their personal friendship is quite deep — they are said to be drinking companions. Under such circumstances, how could they put you three disciples in a difficult position?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Be that as it may, I must still seek your advice, Brother Ziyuan,\" Gongsun Xun said helplessly, cupping his hands in salute. \"Even if neither teacher intends to make things difficult for us brothers, once this conflict erupts, won't it be unseemly for us brothers to show our faces in public anymore?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Uh...\" Xu You rolled his small eyes and said, \"To be honest, I think at this time you worthy brothers had best avoid drawing unnecessary attention from the scholarly world. After all, this matter of abandoning the Old Text to study the New Text is neither big nor small; if it gets out, it would be unseemly, and if it stirs up discussion, that would be even worse... If it really comes to it, shutting your doors and studying hard for a few months might not be a bad idea.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three Gongsun brothers exchanged long glances. Wasn't the whole point of traveling to study — coming to Luoyang — precisely to build connections? Shut the doors and study hard, my foot! And Xu You was a money-lover; he too would be reluctant to see his \"God of Wealth\" shut his doors. So this fellow was clearly offering such advice only because he was at his wit's end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the three pondered it over and over, and truly could do nothing about it. They could only thank Xu You and take their leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This Lord Lu... is simply too much!\" The moment they returned to their small courtyard in Luoyang, Gongsun Zan, boiling with rage, kicked over the rocking chair beneath the tree in the yard. \"We came to acknowledge him as our teacher, and he himself refused to see us. He himself left word for us to go seek out a renowned teacher on our own. We've only just managed to attach ourselves to Teacher Liu's school, and now he comes back without cause! And brings such trouble down on us! And those sons of his he left in Zhuojun — every one of them a hypocrite... One day, I'll make their whole family pay!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun of course had no way of knowing that, in “history,” this clan cousin of his actually had an extremely poor relationship with Lu Zhi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, in another time and space, over a decade later, aside from one youngest son, all of Lu Zhi’s older sons in Zhuo Commandery seemed to have died in the chaos of war in Hebei. And Lu Zhi himself, when Gongsun Zan governed Youzhou, would rather live in seclusion in a poor place like Shanggu than go help his own student. Gongsun Zan also seemed utterly unaware that a teacher of his, who could well be called a renowned minister, was living in seclusion right under his administration. Instead, it was Yuan Shao, with whom Gongsun Zan was fighting tooth and nail at the time, who successfully summoned Lu Zhi out of retirement, letting the latter serve for a while as a military advisor or some such figurehead… The details within this cannot help but set one’s imagination racing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Lady Gongsun could not possibly remember such obscure scraps of historical trivia. In truth, what filled her mind were mostly films, games, novels, forum debates, and the like, all based on the framework of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. By the time that plague forced her to pass things on to her son, who knows how much more she had forgotten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And, that being said, even if Gongsun Xun truly knew of this “possibility,” he was in no mood at the moment to go counsel this psychologically twisted clan cousin of his… Even if his own psychology wasn’t twisted, he still felt pretty damn annoyed, alright?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had latched onto a golden thigh, scattered his money around, built the charity hostel, made himself a familiar face in Luoyang, and even gained a sliver of reputation — and then suddenly he had to shut his door and study bitterly for half a year. Who could accept that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even if he couldn’t accept it, what could he do?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Were matters at that level something people like them could casually stick their beaks into?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long sigh, Gongsun Xun felt a rare urge to write a long letter to his mother, to let that old lady of his, who was said to know eighteen hundred years of future history, give him some advice… Facing such a situation, what was to be done?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lu Zhi stood eight chi two cun tall, his voice like a bell. In his youth, he and Zheng Xuan both studied under Ma Rong. He could comprehend ancient learning and was fond of delving into essentials rather than adhering rigidly to chapters and verses. Rong came from a powerful maternal-relatives family and often had rows of singing girls perform before him. Zhi attended his lectures for years without once glancing aside; Rong held him in respect for this. Upon completing his studies, he took his leave and returned home, teaching behind closed doors. By nature firm and resolute, with great integrity, he constantly harbored the ambition to aid the world. He disliked rhapsodies and fu poetry, and could drink one dan of wine.” — Book of the Later Han, Biography of Lu Zhi\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PS: Thanks to the big boss Mao Buhuai for the second red banner, and… Mao Buhuai’s double red banner… or perhaps I should simply thank big boss Mao Buhuai for four red banners… I’m already dizzy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And also thanks to the editor big boss for the recommendation slot… Speaking of which, my last book went through nearly a full half-year recommendation drought… truly a flood of emotions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, by the way, there’s a book group. Interested students can join: 684558115.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",4335,"2026-06-04T19:42:03.441Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","fde85d99613da66ed863c0c97d2c8cec44722e860c75b3cd112a464426c48785","overthrowing-han-chapter-33","overthrowing-han-chapter-31",548,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Foverthrowing-han-cover.jpg"]