Chapter 359: On Wealth

The Mohist leader put on his tortoise-shell glasses again. The starlight in his eyes was slightly dimmed, but the spirit on his face was more full.

He looked at Li Jianhu, who was pulled to his side by Zhou Tieyi, and took a serious look at him. He then looked at Qin Yu, Xuan Chan and the others, and sighed, "The brilliance of unpolished jade."

If he had seen these rough jades before meeting Zhou Tieyi, he would have been very happy. Even if they were not from the same sect, he would have taught them a few words. But after meeting Zhou Tieyi, he suddenly doubted his ability to teach, so he smiled and said, "I can still give some advice on cultivation, but I still need to learn other principles."

Then he looked at Zhou Tieyi and sighed in his heart, like the brilliance of the sun and the moon.

He understood that Zhou Tieyi’s ideal was very beautiful, even better than the Mo City built by their Mohist school, but what kind of hardships would be required to achieve such beauty?
Suffering and frugality are not worth singing about, but they are objective realities.

The Mohist school spent thousands of years just to build an illusory Mo City. If Zhou Tieyi wants to realize his ideal, how long will it take and how much suffering will he have to endure?

So Zhou Tieyi said that he might not be able to make it to the end. The Mohist master knew that this statement was true. The person who proposed an idea might not necessarily see it come to fruition, just like the sages of the various schools of thought.

He turned his head and looked in the direction of Yujing Mountain.

The Mohist school values ​​the virtuous, so it selects the most virtuous and capable people in the world and establishes them as emperors.

However, this is only an ideal after all. Mohism has never really put this step into practice. Even Mohism itself deliberately ignores this sentence because it has no practical basis at all.

Because even when the Holy Emperor was in power, there was no talk of abdicating and letting others take over, let alone the war between the five kingdoms in the north and the south five hundred years later.

If Mohism is advocated, then Mohism will have to participate in the competition for the world. Only by overthrowing the original emperor by violence can a new emperor be established.

However, this concept of violently overthrowing the regime and seizing power is in conflict with the Mohist concept of "non-aggression".

The Mohist doctrine of non-aggression emphasizes opposition to unjust wars, not opposition to war.

But how do we define "injustice"? Will it make our own "justice" become "injustice"?
Will it eventually lead to a society where everything is determined by force?

So for so many years, the Mohists themselves have been struggling with this problem and have not found a proper and reasonable solution.

In other words, Mohism itself originated from the limitations of small handicraftsmen, and imposed naive utopian ideas on a society based on people's ever-growing desires.

But the powerful thing about the Mohist school in this world is that they were able to actually build the city of Mo City.

Therefore, this city is both the embodiment of Mohist thought and a prison of Mohist self-isolation.

This is exactly the case of Mocheng.

Therefore, everyone in the world thinks that the universal love tax is correct, and the Mohist universal love tax is correct in that it skips the process of reproduction and is directly used for distribution.

The Mohists also thought that their path was correct, but people in the world were too stupid and had too many desires, so they were unable to reach the realm of great love.

Therefore, the Mohist school placed more emphasis on frugality and self-restraint. If it were not for Gongshujia's Six-Ring City serving as a control group, forcing the Mohist school to make continuous progress in mechanical engineering, as Zhou Tieyi saw today, the Mohist leader was still using the mechanical force driven mechanical vehicle from a thousand years ago to demonstrate the concept of equality and love, then the Mohist thought would have been confined to a thousand years ago.

The Mohist master looked at Zhou Tieyi and smiled, "I want to hold a Mohist seminar and invite Lord Zhou to give a lecture."

The Mohists themselves were also good at debate and could even restrain the famous scholars.

The so-called Mohist theory of Mohism is like the "Luotian Grand Ceremony" at Xuandu Mountain. It is an extremely grand ceremony to summon the younger generation of Mohists from all over the world to return.

The status of the lecturer of Mohism is even higher than that of the chief priest of the Taoist Luotian Grand Ceremony. He is a true preacher who allows all Mohists in the world to learn your Taoist tradition.

This opportunity is something that even a third-grade or even second-grade cultivator would love to have.

Zhou Tieyi thought for a moment and said, "The time has not come yet. I have not yet reached the third rank, so what is the point of preaching? Besides, my theory is still in practice. It won't be too late to start Mohist Theory after you see that my theory has initially blossomed and borne fruit. Compared to Mohist Theory, I care more about whether you are willing to change."

The Mohist master thought for a moment, "What changes?"

Zhou Tieyi smiled like a fox, "For example, we can use the collected tax to build a few new railways."

The Mohist tax of universal love is a huge sum of money. It would be a shame not to use such a large amount of original capital accumulation.

······
In the illusory world of Taixu.

A Taixu illusory face sent back a message.

"When Zhou Tieyi arrived at Mocheng, the sky of Mocheng changed color. The bright moon shone brightly on Mocheng, and the dark room was filled with light. The Mohist leader's doctrine changed."

When the bone priest received the news, he thought about it for a long time. He felt both happy and worried about it.

Zhou Tieyi's arrival in Mo City caused changes in the Mohist school's orthodoxy. Is this change good or bad?
The person who gave the message did not give a clear answer, but one result was certain, that is, the strength of the Mohist master who was in the process of change must have been damaged to a certain extent. This was just like the Great Xia Emperor practicing Taoism, and even Mo Tianheng changing to swordsmanship. The change, modification, and reconstruction of the Taoism would all go through a relatively weak period, or even a chaotic period. Now it depends on how long the weak and chaotic period of the Mohist master's Taoism change will last, and whether the Mohist master is willing to deviate from the original track and risk his life to touch the realm of the lofty saint.

The bone priest stretched out his bony palm and gently pointed at the void, passing the news he had received to the other nine ancient priests.

At the same time, he was a little conflicted, because in the short term, this news would definitely be a good thing for him who wanted to establish a divine court in Taihang Mountain. He might even have the opportunity to kill the leader of the Mohist school. But what if this news itself was a trap?

The change of sky color is certainly easy to verify, but how to verify that the Mohist leader has indeed begun to take the risk of changing route?
······
After Zhou Tieyi stayed at the bed to rest, the leader of the Mohist school looked at his disciple Mo Jian in the mansion. He hesitated again and again. He felt that he had gained a lot from meeting Zhou Tieyi today, which was beyond his imagination.

But in this harvest, he felt that he, the best man in the world, was like a child carrying gold through a busy street. On the one hand, he wanted to dig more gold from Zhou Tieyi's gold mountain, and on the other hand, he was worried that he would be robbed or cheated when crossing the street.

So he thought over and over again, and was less decisive than before.

"Teacher, are you hesitating about the tax?"

Mo Jian had followed the Mohist master for so long, so he naturally knew what his teacher was hesitating about.

Although Zhou Tieyi's theory is very good, when it comes to reform, there are too many interests that need to be balanced.

And just as Zhou Tieyi pointed out today, the entire Mo City and the Mohist ideal are based on the tax of universal love.

Now the Mohists want to use the universal love tax to build railways, expand reproduction, and make profits. This idea seems good, but what should be done with the places that are supposed to be subsidized by the universal love tax this year?
Those old people in the poorhouse and those children in the Moyuan are watching this money.

The universal love tax was already stretched to the limit, and now another sum of money has to be spent. Which Mo Academy or Poor House’s subsidy should be cut?

During this process, the Mohist leader and his disciple Mo Jian were able to accept Zhou Tieyi's new ideas, but what about other people in the Mohist school?
That is why the leader of the Mohist school wanted to hold a Mohist debate, allowing Zhou Tieyi to convince other younger Mohists first, so that it would be much easier for him to promote reforms later.

Thinking of this, the Mohist master chuckled and said, "It's easy to know but hard to do. Even I can't help wanting to take shortcuts."

Mo Jian bowed and said, "Teacher, I think the other method proposed by Zhou Hou is feasible."

"Are you talking about the joint construction of the railway with Gongshujia and Ningwangfu?"

If the Mohist school builds the railway alone, the money spent will be huge. But if it is built together with the Ning Wangfu and the Gongshu school, then the Mohist leaders will have plenty of ways. We, the Mohists, don't pay the money, but we can provide manpower and effort!

No one can ignore the role of Mohists in the project, and the Mohist leaders can order Mohists to do voluntary labor. Although this decree is not often used, it is much better than using the universal love tax. At that time, a small subsidy can be given from the balance of the universal love tax. According to Zhou Tieyi, once the railway is built, it will soon generate profits and achieve primitive accumulation.

This is indeed a good idea, but it also has hidden dangers.

The Mohists and Gongshujia built a railway together. How to prevent the Mohist disciples from fighting with the Gongshujia disciples? The Mohists and Ning Wangfu built a railway. Was it a signal to the political arena in Tianjing that the Mohists had begun to unite with the Zhou family and Ning Wangfu and were preparing to suppress Confucianism locally?
The struggle for interests here is no less than that of the universal tax, but one is an outward struggle and the other is an inward struggle.

Seeing that his teacher was hesitant again, Mo Jian said, "Teacher, choose the lesser of two evils. Moreover, this matter must be done. Only in this way can we test whether Zhou Hou's theory is the theory leading to the holy way that our Mohists have been looking for for thousands of years."

"Yes, it must be done. Only those who use it can see the benefits to the country and the people."

The Mohist master sighed, and then became more certain, "Then we should first build a railway with Gongshujia and King Ning from Shantong Prefecture to Tangzhou Prefecture."

After saying that, he walked to the desk, began to grind ink and write. He finished the first letter quickly, which was written to King Ning. He thought about the second letter for a long time before he started writing.

"On Wealth and Goods and the Tax of Universal Love".

He wrote this article for a while and then stopped, then started again. When the morning light was already rising in the distance, he finally finished writing the article.

However, in the end, he still deleted the three words "universal love tax". Just like Zhou Tieyi said, the time is not right, and those who want to make changes cannot confuse the minds of their subordinates.

If the Mohists want to completely move away from the original concept of universal tax and the concept of frugality, they must produce actual results. This process is tortuous and requires repeated consideration, but it requires progress step by step.

Finally, the great master of Mohism put pen to paper.

Zhou Tieyi, farmer's father.

Tianfu was his name, and then the Mohist leader read the article again and handed it to Mo Jian, "Send it to Tianjing. Isn't Mo Qu running a newspaper belonging to our Mohist school? Ask him to publish the article. By the way, Mocheng will open another newspaper, and you will be the host."

Mo Jian asked respectfully, "Teacher, what is the name of the new newspaper?"

The Mohist master took another piece of paper and started writing.

"People need to report".

(End of this chapter)