Chapter 141 The Analects is a good book

Su Shi looked at him with disdain, "What does cultivation have to do with morality?! They are just different ways of dealing with things."

“Are you still reading the Analects?”

"Read it again."

Su Shi said with disdain: "Don't read it anymore. It's a waste of things."

Murong Ji: "..."

Su Shi sucked on a piece of ice and lay back on the chair, "Ah~ comfortable~"

"What do you think of 'ritual'?" This time, Su Shi did not wait for Murong Ji to answer, as he found that it was useless to ask.

He said to himself: "Confucius said to achieve benevolence, Mencius said to pursue righteousness. Benevolence and righteousness. The Analects is a good book. It explains the human heart and human nature."

"What is 'etiquette'? Have you noticed that many 'etiquette' are anti-human?"

"It's like 'When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher. I will choose the good ones and follow them, and change the bad ones.' In other words, people are easily influenced by the environment, so we should choose the right 'companions', right?"

“For example, ‘Isn’t it a pleasure to learn and practice what you have learned?’ Is that really a joy? I don’t think so. Exploration and development are always painful. How can there be joy in that?”

"This person is a 'three-season person'. He is limited in his cognition and only willing to believe what he believes."

Su Shi suddenly sat up, looked at Murong Ji in surprise, smacked his lips, "I know why Zhang Boduan chose you to be his closed-door disciple."

Murong Ji was startled and a little confused, and asked: "Why?"

Su Shi lay back down again and sighed softly, "I thought you were lucky, so I took pity on you and gave you some pointers. Alas!"

Murong Ji endured Su Shi's verbal violence and remained silent.

Su Shi: "Boy, have you read 'When Zigong Asked'?"

Murong Ji: “I’ve read it.”

Su Shi: "You are the grasshopper in it, but you believe what Zigong said about grasshoppers with four seasons in a year. That's why Zhang Boduan accepted you. He said, you believe it. Believe it unwaveringly."

Murong Ji was startled and lowered his eyes, because he knew what heights Zhang Boduan would reach in the future.

What kind of heritage will the Quanzhen Sect develop into?

Just like everyone believes that as long as the emperor is Ying Zheng, Liu Che, Li Shimin and others, all the problems of the country will be solved.

Otherwise, who would trust a poor, slovenly and unknown old Taoist priest? Murong Ji exhaled and said nothing.

"You should read The Analects more often. If you read it in the right way, it is a book about how to be a good person. If you read it in the wrong way, it is a book about the unkindness and injustice of human nature."

Murong Ji was somewhat surprised and stared at Su Shi in a daze. He was a Confucian scholar, so why? Why did he speak like that? !
Su Shi picked up another piece of ice and slid it, "Oh, by the way, don't spread this. I'm fed up with those people. It's so annoying."

Murong Ji nodded blankly, "Of course not, I know my limits."

Confucius may have never thought about respecting the natural laws of human nature. What is the essence of human beings?
Beast! Two-legged beast.

The habits of animals are human nature, and nature cannot be changed. But Confucius wants people to live like "human beings". What should he do?
Restraining human nature and stimulating the illusory human nature. Thus, "ritual" was brought up again.

This had been done long before Confucius. It was done by Duke of Zhou, Ji Dan, who created rituals and music.

I have always heard that Confucianism is domineering. According to Confucius, you don't need to understand how to do this or that, you just need to do what I say, and you will understand it naturally one day.

Isn't that just overbearing?

Murong Ji exhaled deeply. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that Yuan Sheng and Zhi Sheng were fighting against the sky, the earth, and the sky.

Murong Ji felt that he was struck by lightning, being burnt on the outside and tender on the inside. As the saying goes, laymen watch the excitement while experts watch the details.

Once you really understand it to a certain level, you will feel more and more like a bug.

"I have understood your Tao. Well, how should I put it? The essence of life and death are both important. It is not only about cultivation, but also about cognition and enlightenment. Good and evil coexist."

"Let me ask you, the sincerity of a gentleman is sincerity, but the sincerity of a villain is not sincerity? It's just that the way of sincerity is different."

"I think that the sincerity that Zhang Boduan talked about is more like the Confucian nature, the nature of man. The nature of man is greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt."

"When you know yourself, you also need to understand that you have both good and evil. Good and evil should be one. Is the opposite of good necessarily evil?"

Murong Ji frowned slightly and murmured softly, "Isn't it?"

Su Shi glanced at him unhappily, "Haha, who is good and who is evil between Wang Jiefu and Sima the old villain?"

Murong Ji didn't say anything, and Su Shi said with extraordinary certainty: "Neither of them is a good person!"

Then he listed a series of evil deeds, wishing he could drag the two men out and whip their corpses.

Murong Ji quietly watched Su Shi vent his personal grudges...

Su Shi threw a piece of ice to Murong Ji and said, "Don't think too much. Just go on your way. Practice when it's time to practice and eat when it's time to eat."

"Achieving immortality is illusory and seems like a huge joke. It has trapped countless heroes and geniuses throughout history." Suddenly, Su Shi's face became extremely solemn. He turned to look at him and said word by word, "If, by chance, you really achieve immortality, you must not hesitate and behave like a human being."

Murong Ji raised his eyebrows slightly, a little surprised. What does this mean? Is it a warning or a mockery? He has been sitting here for such a long time, and Su Shi has mocked him a lot.

"What do you mean?"

Su Shi looked disgusted. This boy was still so stupid, not as smart as his two servants. "What do you mean? You are a human being, immortal, demon, ghost or god. Your essence is still a human being."

"If the immortal ways, demonic magic, ghost magic, and divine tricks are applied to a person, then that person becomes the magic of the human? Are you kidding me?"

"By then, you will be neither human nor ghost, and you won't even know when others are plotting against you. The safest thing to do is to figure it out on your own. If you make a mistake, just correct it and that's all."

Murong was a little stunned. He thought of two words: seek truth from facts and don't take the road you see.

Then he realized that Su Shi had told him so much, and he was shocked like never before. He suddenly asked, "Why did you tell me this, sir?"

"Of course you asked, so..."

"No, what I mean is, why are you willing to give me advice? Since Chengtian Temple..."

Su Shi was absent-minded for a moment. "When I was young, many people gave me guidance, although it was only for my father's sake. At that time, I thought, if I have the chance, I can also teach those who are willing to learn..."

"How could I have thousands of mansions to shelter all the poor people in the world and make them happy?"

"Oh, it suits my taste, but I'm not that great. Who hasn't been heroic in the past? When I was heroic, I beat Wang Jiefu and Sima the old thief with my big mouth, and they were so beaten that they didn't know what to do."

Murong Ji was suddenly speechless. These two men were indeed scholars. They were quite good at swordsmanship and archery when they were young. Who knows who would defeat whom.

In addition, what kind of injustice did Su Shi suffer? Why was he so resentful towards them? ! !
Then he realized that what he was talking about were the two times of accusations, which almost tore off the underwear of both factions.

Su Shi looked at the sky and saw that it was noon. "Stay for lunch."

Following Su Shi to the door of the study, he suddenly sighed.

"When a person reaches a certain level, he will understand many things. The laws of development of things are unchanging, and the results have become predictable."

Murong Ji was stunned and a little confused. Su Shi's words were interesting, as if he was hinting at something to him, or as if he was really expressing his feelings.

"You? Are you talking about later? What will happen later?"

Su Shi turned around and stared at Murong Ji with a pair of old and turbid eyes, "Hehe, when we met that year, I thought you were very strange. You really are a little special."

Murong Ji's pupils shrank and he said nothing. No matter what he was trying to argue about, it was very powerless. Su Shi was not an ordinary person. He was a one-of-a-kind existence throughout the ages, the son of God.

Just bow and salute, it is both an apology and a sign of respect.

After standing up, Murong Ji asked, "Are you talking about the chaos in the future?"

Su Shi was a little disappointed: "That's about it. The Song Dynasty is almost over."

Murong Ji: "Damn it! How dare you say that? You are so awesome, why don't you drag me down?" If this gets out, it will be said that he and Su Shi are conspiring to rebel.

"Now that Wang Anshi and Sima Guang are dead, shouldn't you strive to make progress?"

Su Shi rolled his eyes and said, "Can you blame me? I can't understand the truth and realize the truth. The most important thing is to do this."

"What do you want me to do? Start a rebellion? Use the emperor to control the princes? Many outstanding people have failed to solve the problems of the Song Dynasty. If I, Su Shi, were thrown into that group of people, I would only be bullied."

"Besides, the human and natural laws are not decided by anyone. It may seem like a small matter, but if you put it in the whole world, it will be a big problem."

"I can't force him to listen to you, right? Even the emperor can't do that, unless he is a monarch like the Qin Emperor or Han Wudi."

"Besides, before they came to power, they also lay dormant for more than ten years and then spent another ten years to build momentum."

Murong Ji glanced around and listened carefully. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found that there was no other breathing sound around them.

Somewhat dejectedly, he said, "Is there any way to solve this problem? I'll do it."

Su Shi simply nodded: "Yes, die early. It would be best if I could die before anything happens. I don't have to worry about it."

Murong Ji: "..."

He thought of a person, Zeng Guofan, who also made similar remarks, saying that the building was about to collapse and there was no way to save it.

"After I die, I won't care about the flood."

Su Shi's eyes lit up: "Ah, yes, yes, that's what I mean. Who did you copy from?"

Coming out of Su Shi's mansion, Murong Ji walked on the road with a speechless look on his face.

Who did Su Shi inherit his personality from?

His father, Su Xun, was a man who failed the imperial examination but still bought test questions for his two sons to seek psychological comfort.

(End of this chapter)