Chapter 371: Feng Yan

(The title is "Looking Forward" — I typed it wrong by mistake)

……

Faced with Hou Ba's worries, Diwu Lun did not answer directly. He only said to Wang Long, "Wenshan, tell us: why did our master so detest the New Text classical scholarship back then?"

Wang Long assented: "The King once said that when Emperor Wu of Han exalted only the Confucian arts, he was in fact making the hundred schools converge into one. At that time, the schools of the Five Classics could still contend with one another; the Great Unity, the debate over Hua and Yi, the Great Vengeance — all of these had practical political benefit."

"But after more than a hundred years had passed, the New Text classical scholarship no longer possessed its old forward drive. It had grown stagnant and lifeless. The old Erudites and venerable scholars sank into poring over words and phrases. Beyond the classics and their commentaries, the derivative family methods and master methods grew ever more cumbersome, easily running to millions of words. They treated other schools as their moat, building high ramparts. Our master and Liu Xin both bitterly denounced and refuted this."

"And yet the Han selected its officials precisely from such a crowd. Mastery of the Five Classics became capital for promotion. Once the classical Erudites became the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers, they tried to trace the blueprint from subtle words and grand principles, restoring fragmentary ancient institutions in their governance. How could late Han politics not rot?"

Diwu Lun nodded. It was indeed so. When he had set the topic "The Han's Mandate Is Exhausted," he had also discussed with Wang Long and the others the question of "how the state came to this." The overturned cart ahead — how could one not take it as a warning?

Looking at ideology alone, the entire governing thought of the late Han had gone awry. From Emperor Yuan of Han to Emperor Ping of Han, over half a century, court ministers drawn from old scholars, apart from struggling for power and profit, were most zealous about institutional reform and restoring antiquity. They fooled the Emperors into utter folly, treating the Qin system as original sin — and the Han's own kingly-hegemonic institutions, inherited from Qin, as sinful too!

This would not do; it must be changed! Yet the reforms only skimmed the surface — such as renaming the Chancellor to Grand Chancellor, or the Imperial Counselor to Grand Minister of Works.

Or they fought back and forth for generations over how many ancestral temples a Han Emperor should keep. When they finally achieved results and cut a few temples, because Emperor Ping of Han fell ill and they feared the ancestors were displeased, they changed everything back to the way it was before.

As if with such a change, all the ills of a dynasty in its twilight could be readily solved, and the ancestors would bless the Han line for ten thousand generations.

Of course, when these matters were obstructed and shelved by the powerful consort clans, the upright officials took it for granted: "The state decays day by day because the restoration of the kingly way is not yet thorough enough!"

The same logic as later ages saying, "The Middle East is in chaos because democracy is not thorough enough."

Wang Long denounced Liu Xin without the slightest mercy: "Liu Zijun was originally a fellow traveler with our master. He too loathed the ways of the New Text scholarship and attacked the Erudites for splitting characters and analyzing words, for their tedious phrases and fragmented diction. But his method was to promote the Old Text classics, to verify the original meaning of the Confucian canon. In the end, the further he went, the more archaic he became, turning into a new academic despot. Ultimately, it was still about establishing new classics and contending for official academic posts."

And so came the grandiose institutional reforms after Wang Mang and Liu Xin joined forces — a Central Plains Spring. First they reformed the Great Han out of existence, then they reformed the Xin Dynasty into ruin.

Diwu Lun took up the thread: "But our master was different. Our master commended Confucius, saying that the way of Zhongni is like the four great rivers — they run through the Central States and finally enter the sea. Senior Brother must remember those words."

Hou Ba nodded: "What our master followed was the original source of the Five Classics. He hoped to unite the learning of the Five Classics and apply it to the present age, not to burrow into words and phrases."

Diwu Lun clapped his hands: "Exactly! Our master said that in ancient times, the teachings of Yang and Mo blocked the road of Confucius's sage-way. It was thanks to Mencius who refuted and cleared them that the road ahead became open."

"Yet today's Erudites of the Five Classics secretly compare themselves to Mencius, when in truth they are the ones blocking the road! That lot sell counterfeits and pass them off as genuine — sheep's substance under a tiger's skin. They have even forgotten that Confucius did not speak of prodigies, feats of strength, disorder, or spirits, and they recklessly use apocryphal and prognosticatory learning to twist the Five Classics!"

As friends, it was here that Liu Xin and Yang Xiong parted ways. Liu Xin wanted to use the Old Texts to contend with the New Texts and lead things back to the true path.

Yang Xiong, however, felt that whether Old Text or New Text, classical scholarship had utterly forgotten the original heart of the Sage Confucius. Better to ground oneself in the roots of the Five Classics and construct a new classical system.

To put it plainly, both old men wanted to become new sages — they simply took different paths.

"Thus it was that our master modeled the 'Model Sayings' on the 'Analects' and composed the 'Supreme Mystery' in imitation of the 'Changes.' He meant, like Mencius, to sweep away those blocking the road and open a path for the Sage's way to advance."

Diwu Lun looked at the two men and said with deep feeling: "Our master passed away midway. The work that remains must be completed by us."

"Now that the Xin of Wang Mang has collapsed, the Erudites of the Imperial Academy are utterly discredited, and the Old Text and New Text schools attack each other, each claiming to be correct, leaving the scholars of the realm not knowing whom to follow — this is the perfect moment to slowly sweep them away!"

This is what they call striking when your enemy is sick to take his life. If you insist on waiting until the realm is fully settled and the opposing forces have banded together before acting, the resistance you face will only be greater.

Diwu Lun would boil the Five Classics schools like a frog in warming water. The old Erudites were bitterly pleading for the Five Classics to be included in the examinations, weren't they? Very well! At the next civil service selection two years hence, he would give them two questions, a ten percent share.

Yet they would only test the classics, not the commentaries — just writing out the original text from memory would do. That chaotic mess of family methods and master methods need not be studied. And by the way, he would let the Old Text and New Text factions keep tearing at each other over whose version was standard. Diwu Lun would stir up discord from time to time, the better to divide and rule.

The Five Classics learning of today: a child takes a master and guards a single art, and only when his hair turns white can he speak of it. It is a profession into which a scholar steps and to which he surrenders his entire life. Diwu Lun did not wish to abolish it completely — only to turn it into a mere elective. For the sake of grades one would read through the Five Classics, but one could sit the exams without seeking deep understanding.

Diwu Lun said: "Since we are to remove those blocking the road, how can the brambles filling the path be cleared by learning's subtle influence alone, without blade and axe to open the way? Therefore, from time to time, I must also rely on government decrees to forcefully push certain things through. I imagine Senior Brother can understand my painstaking efforts."

Hou Ba had followed Yang Xiong from the earliest days, and his grasp of Yang's learning was the most solid. What Diwu Lun said was indeed his teacher's heartfelt wish. Only then did he relax.

He even secretly reproached himself: "I was only afraid the King of Wei would distort our master's learning. It seems my worries were unfounded!"

But Hou Ba's worries were indeed not unfounded. Diwu Lun's words today were half true, half false. He truly meant to use Yang Xiong's learning to strike at the Five Classics, but he had absolutely no intention of letting Yang's learning become the new official ideology afterward!

……

That night, the three drank and talked cheerfully, speaking mostly of amusing past events in Xuanming Ward. They did not touch again on scholarship or politics.

After seeing the two off, Diwu Lun leaned back on the couch. Having finished his sobering soup, he murmured to himself:

"Teacher, ah, Teacher — it is not that I scorn you, only that between the 'Model Sayings' and the 'Analects' there is indeed a gap. The difference is probably an entire 'Mencius'…"

The "Model Sayings" contains passages singing the praises of Wang Mang, lauding Wang Mang for his diligence in royal affairs — building the Circular Moat, establishing schools, instituting rites and music, fixing carriage and dress regulations, restoring the well-field system and symbolic punishments, guiding the Han Empire toward a restoration. It hails him as a great figure worthy of comparison to Yao and Shun, a true "Sage" second only to the Duke of Zhou.

That chapter Diwu Lun had already ordered deleted.

Yang Xiong's works are more those of an imitator. Never mind their philosophical depth or universality — the most painful thing is that the text often does not speak in human language. In terms of clarity and ease of understanding, it actually falls short of the "Analects" from centuries earlier.

The "Supreme Mystery" is even more obscure and impenetrable. Diwu Lun would doze off just looking at it, and he could not see the "synthesis of the Five Classics' essentials" that Huan Tan so esteemed.

In his view, apart from his rhapsodies, the praiseworthy parts of Yang's scholarship were the "Regional Words" and the "Exegetic Chapters" used as a literacy primer. But one was too esoteric, the other too elementary.

Seen this way, even if Yang Xiong's learning were pushed by government decree, it would flourish for a hundred years at most, and then it would be naturally winnowed out, with no one asking after it.

"Though our teacher wished to take the essence of the Five Classics and discard their dross, to create a new Confucian theory, millet stalks cannot grow rice. In the end, he and Liu Xin reached the same destination by different roads. The theory they created, though it changed its name, in essence remained a 'backward-looking' learning!"

Why backward-looking? Because Confucius and Mencius are behind us, and the Three Dynasties are behind us too!

"But the learning I truly wish to promote is a theory that can make people look forward!"

Yet whatever the theory, it must face the problem of "localization" — it must be integrated with reality. Marxism-Leninism needed to be Sinicized; does later thought not need to be ancient-ized?

This is a long process of practice, not something that can be solved by uttering a famous quote or transplanting a couple of concepts. Diwu Lun was no great thinker; he could only grope his way forward slowly. This was the road truly strewn with brambles, one he could only climb with his bare hands. Whether he could succeed was still unknown.

During this window period, he could not allow the Five Classics to recover their vitality either. So he would wave the banner of honoring the late master's learning and send "Yang's learning" into the fray to stir up trouble.

For one, it fit the King of Wei's persona of "filial piety and righteousness," keeping the Old Text and New Text schools from figuring out who their true enemy was.

For another, it could coax Wang Long into devoting himself wholeheartedly to the task, staging a rival show against the Five Classics schools. When the learning Diwu Lun truly needed grew from infancy to adulthood, Yang's learning could then exit the stage.

Only, he wondered — many years later, when Wang Long discovered that Diwu Lun had deceived him, what expression would he wear?

"If I said it now, no one would believe it…"

Diwu Lun gazed at the dawn light in the east and sighed:

"The true 'Golden Age of the Three Dynasties' lies not behind us, but ahead!"

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……

The day before, Diwu Lun had entertained Hou Ba at Jianzhang Palace. It had been a private banquet.

But the next day, when Hou Ba formally entered Weiyang Palace, it was no longer as a senior brother, but as the envoy and minister of Gongsun Shu, the King of Shu!

Hou Ba did feel gratitude toward Gongsun Shu. Gongsun had not only properly protected Yang Xiong's tomb but had also granted him the post of Imperial Household Grandee. Hou Ba had married and had children in Shu. After five years, he had already come to regard it as home.

In his heart he hoped the "Wei–Shu alliance" could hold firm.

Diwu Lun outwardly planned the same and even put forward a novel proposal.

"As the equal of the King of Shu, I shall build a 'Shu Residence' in Chang'an. I hope the King of Shu will likewise build a 'Wei Residence' in Chengdu. Our two states shall exchange envoys to reside permanently in each other's lands, and together resist the various Han claimants!"

Hou Ba was naturally delighted. Diwu Lun wished he could stay longer in Chang'an, but Hou Ba pleaded his mission bound him and he must return to report.

"I hope you, elder apprentice-brother, will come serve as this resident envoy to Wei."

Diwu Lun did not press him to stay. After seeing him off, he turned and questioned Feng Yan, who stood to the side — the man whose "extraordinary merit" in securing the Shu alliance and bringing back intelligence on Hanzhong had earned him, not punishment, but an increase of two hundred households. The hounds are not yet cooked once the hares are slain; the time for that had not come.

"Jingtong, tell me: what sort of man is the King of Shu?"

Feng Yan replied, "When Wang Mang's chaos left ritual vessels ruined and scattered, Gongsun Shu set about restoring them with grave diligence. This indeed brought peace to Yizhou, and his speed was no less than when Your Majesty pacified Guanzhong."

Diwu Lun laughed. "And compared to me?"

Feng Yan thought to himself... they seemed about six of one and half a dozen of the other...

But his lips could only say, "Gongsun Ziyang beside Your Majesty is as a candle flame striving with sun and moon!"

"Yet he surpasses the likes of Liu Xuan and Wei Ao. In your servant's view, Gongsun Shu poses a far greater threat to Your Majesty than the Western Han, the Northern Han, or the Greenwood Han!"

After the Battle of Zhouyuan, the Western Han had utterly lost the standing to contend for the realm. They could barely hold even Beidi Commandery and had shrunk entirely back into Longyou.

The Northern Han went without saying — it was already splintered in civil war, the situation there a tangled mess.

As for the Greenwood Han, though its territory was vast and its population and soldiers numerous, those in power had no notion of governance. Word had it that around Luoyang, people often fled to Henei, unable to endure the chaotic rule of the Greenwood chieftains from their bandit days, and they said...

"Famines strike repeatedly, order is in chaos. In Henan and Hongnong, some have already begun to miss the Wang Mang dynasty!"

When Diwu Lun heard this, he was immediately amused — it showed that the fervor of "hearts longing for Han" was beginning to fade.

Feng Yan had traveled into Shu himself and observed Gongsun Shu's conduct firsthand. "In the Warring States period, horizontal alliance made Qin emperor, vertical alliance made Chu hegemon. The present situation is much the same. Though the realm's powers are many, those truly worth reckoning are few indeed."

That is because you do not yet know Liu Xiu, Diwu Lun thought to himself. He had lately heard from scouts that Liu Xiu had gone to the southeast and seemed to have taken Linhuai, a populous commandery — he could only hate that his own reach fell short.

Feng Yan continued, "While restoring the people's livelihood, Gongsun Shu has also built great ramparts, arrayed chariots and cavalry, drilled battle formations and archery, and massed troops and arms, claiming a hundred thousand. In Chengdu he raises palaces and halls; at Jiameng he stockpiles grain. He carves seals in abundance and has arrayed his full complement of ministers and hundred officials. Now he has dispatched a general to take Wudu, and next he will move to seize Hanzhong."

"Once he takes Hanzhong, Gongsun Shu's ambitions will swell, and he may well cast his gaze further upon the lands within the passes. Therefore your servant believes..."

Feng Yan made his prediction: "At the shortest, one year; at the longest, three. Between Wei and Shu, a war is certain to come!"