Chapter 436- Scholars Unite
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
As the invitations were sent out, scholars all around started to swarm to Shanhai City. The Juxian House in Xinan University was already completed, and they welcomed the philosophers to move in.
Amongst the philosophers, the earliest to arrive were Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao from the Legalism school of thought.
Legalism had three factions: law, tactics and power. Their representative figures were respectively Wei Yang, Shen Buhai, and Sheng Dao. When the school of though reached Han Feizi’s time, he combined the three together.
Wei Yang appeared to welcome Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao.
Shen Buhai was a slightly thin man who looked really clean. He was not good at speaking and smiling, and he appeared cold and handsome. Those who understood him knew that he was the typical guy—cold on the outside and warm on the inside.
Sheng Dao was totally different; he was an old man who could make you feel comfortable right from the start. Apart from being one of the famous Legalism experts, he was also one of the representative figures of The Old Huang Faction of Taoism.
The three of them had met during the Warring States Period. Meeting up once again was naturally a joyous occasion.
“Brother Wei Yang, quick. We need to discuss how to find problems for Confucianism.” Shen Buhai was an eager chap. Right after meeting up, he wanted to drag Wei Yang to discuss about the debate.
When Wei Yang saw Shen Buahai’s behavior, he laughed in his heart.
Wei Yang could not say that he totally understood the intentions of the lord. However, he had grasped a large portion of it. He knew that the lord’s goal was not really to have both schools of thoughts fight it out to find the real winner.
In truth, it was really difficult to do so.
Today was different from other years. The philosophers came from different points of time to gather here. What kind of joyous occasion would that create?
Confucianism had Laozi, Meng Zi, and Xun Zi.
Legalism also had the fellow that combined all the Legalism teachings—Han Feizi.
The debate between Wei Yang and Meng Zi was not something that could be replicated. China’s five thousand years of history had already proven that both school of thoughts had their pros and cons.
Confucianism was morals—the spiritual home.
Legalism was the law—the cornerstone of society.
Neither could be lacked.
After becoming the Internal Affairs Department, Wei Yang did not stop there. In Shanhai City, there were many legal experts from the real world. Wei Yang partook in many discussions with them about the problem of ruling through law and having laws.
Legalism and modern day laws were different. Although both ruled through laws, in truth, they were as different as night and day. Legalism could be said to be wielding the law to enact punishment.
The laws in Legalism were the rules of the king, meant to serve the king.
The way of Confucianism was also the way of the king, meant to help and serve the king and his family.
Hence, this debate would be totally different from the one that occurred in history.
Jiangshang’s knowledge was really vast and deep. He had secluded himself in Xinan University. After reading and analyzing tens of thousands of scrolls and books, his knowledge was far greater than the Jiangshang in history.
It was because he saw the nature of the philosophers’ debate that he set up the two proceedings.
Wei Yang’s knowledge was also seemingly immeasurable.
Seeing Shen Buhai so eager, he laughed slightly, “Brother Shen, why so eager? For this battle, we need to wait for Han Feizi to appear.”
“That’s right.” Shen Buhai nodded, “Since that’s the case, why not lead us to meet Taigong?”
“I have that intention.”
Sheng Dao stood at the side and quietly listened to the two of them. Finally, he laughed and said, “Let’s go, let’s go.”
“Haha.”
The three of them looked at each other and laughed.
Shanhai City West outskirts, Qingyang Temple.
Just as Wei Yang was welcoming his guests, Qingyang Temple similarly welcomed four special guests.
Temple Priest Ge Yan personally led the four into his room, looking really respectful.
This was expected, as those who came were the ancestors of Taoism.
The four guests were all old men with white hair, and they included Laozi, Zhuang Zi, and Yang Zhu. The last fellow was a friend of Zhuang Zi, the representative figure of the Logician school of thought—Hui Shi.
When mentioning Hui Shi and Zhuang Zi, one had to talk about the famous Debate of Haoliang.
At that time, Zhuang Zi and Hui Shi were traveling around Haoliang.
Zhuang Zi said, “The fish are out swimming, so they are joyous.”
Hui Shi said, “You aren’t a fish. What would you know about the happiness of a fish?”
Zhuang Zi said, ‘You are not me. What would you know about whether I know about the happiness of a fish?”
Hui Shi said, “I’m not you, so I can’t know. The same follows that you aren’t a fish, so you wouldn’t know.”
Zhuang Zi replied, “The thing is when you asked the question, I already knew what you were going to say. I knew it long ago.”
In this simple debate, it was not hard to see that Hui Shi’s logic was stronger than Zhuang Zi’s. After all, the school of logicians studied logic.
Of course, Zhuang Zi was only using the swimming fish to describe his own happiness.
Similar to Legalism, Taoism was also split into three factions: Old Zhuang Faction, Old Huang faction, and Yangzhu Faction. The most famous faction was the Old Zhuang Faction that Laozi and Zhuang Zi represented.
The least famous was the Yangzhu Faction.
Yangzhu Faction’s main way of thinking was the avoidance of harming others, and it emphasized life. It opposed harming others and also self-harm.
After the Spring and Autumn Warring States, it disappeared since it was not well received.
All of them sat quietly with Ge Yan accompanying them.
“Taoist Ancestor, are you all joining the philosophers’ debate?”
Although Laozi was not the creator of Taoism, he was often termed as its ancestor.
When Laozi heard this question, he laughed but did not say anything.
Zhuang Zi did not bother either and focused on the teacup in front of him.
Only Yangzhu raised his head and looked at Ge Yan, “We came to visit Taigong and to read at the book collection house. We aren’t joining in the debate.”
When Ge Yan heard these words, he understood.
As expected, with the character of Old Zhuang, he definitely would not join the debate. Mentioning this topic, Kong Zi of Confucianism was half a student of Laozi.
The next day, Xun Zi of Confucianism brought a bunch of his followers and rushed to Shanhai City.
Ouyang Shuo arranged Administration Director Fan Zhongyan to welcome them. He wanted to use Fan Zhongyan to send them a message.
Shanhai City accepted everyone and was not restricted to any school of thought or faction.
Apart from Confucianism and Legalism, the other school of thoughts all came. Their goals were similar to Laozi and Zhuang Zi.
Apart from joining the philosophers debate, their main goal was still to meet Taigong and read at the book collection house.
Theoretically, the book collection house had appeared for so long, so why did they choose to come now?
One had to mention the hearts of the various school of thoughts and factions.
If it was not for the debate and they came at other times, Ouyang Shuo would definitely bug them.
Out of all the philosophers, not everyone was willing to move into Shanhai City.
Hence, to prevent problems, they could only suppress their desires. Only when Shanhai City opened up for the debate did they dare to rush here.
At this time, Ouyang Shuo did not have the face to meet and bug every single one of them.
One had to say that they were all schemers.
Out of those who came, there were those that came out in the open like Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao. There were also others like Lao Zhuang, who came secretly.
For example Mo Zi.
When Mo Zi came to Shanhai City, he did not alert anyone. The place he chose to stay was not the Juxian House that they prepared or an inn in the city.
Instead, he chose an unassuming wood workshop.
The owner of the workshop was a believer in the Mohist school of thought.
Compared to the other school of thoughts, Mohism had already infiltrated all the territories. They only held such a convenience because the members of the school of thought belonged to the lower ranks of society.
The disciples of mohism were termed as Mobians. Additionally, those who practiced martial arts were called Moxia.
Their leader was called Juzi.
Out of all the philosophers, only the Mohists had fully infiltrate the territories.
Thinking about it, it was quite terrifying.
Of the philosophers that reported their names, Nanjiang Governor-General House would always send people to receive them. This included Xu Xing from the agricultural school of thought. He was a middle-aged men, with a long beard, dressed really simply like a farmer.
The school of thought gained fame through their emphasis on agriculture. Ouyang Shuo specially arranged the Agricultural Division Secretary Sun Yannong to receive and accompany him to read agricultural books in the book collection house.
One of the famous works was the one return by Jia Sixie—Essential Skill to Benefit the People.
Seeing such a famous work, Xu Xing was delighted.
Apart from reading books, Sun Yannong also followed him to look around the outskirts.
During the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo had obtained the Olden Agricultural Tool Crafting Technical Manual. After which, he handed the manual over to the Agricultural Division.
Sun Yannong was naturally delighted to receive the manual. He immediately arranged people to build an agricultural tools workshop to craft the tools. Their goal was to quickly spread all these tools to the whole territory.
Sun Yongyan brought Xu Xin around and the main area he visited was the Agriculture Tool Workshop.
Looking around, Xu Xing was surprised beyond belief. To him, there was nothing more attractive than this place.
Apart from tools, Shanhai City’s method of nurturing of crops was also filled with surprises. One must not forget that Xinan University had many modern day agricultural experts.
The same day, Xu Xing decided to move into Shanhai City.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he decided without hesitation to set up an agricultural college in Xinan University. It would be the place where he could spread the agricultural school of thought. He would hire Xu Xing as the dean.
The few agriculture experts in the territory were moved to the agriculture college.
In a short few days, the agriculture college was completed.
The first batch of students were the basic level officials the various Houses and counties recommended.
On the day school started, Ouyang Shuo received a system report.
“System Notification: Agricultural school of thought representative figure Xu Xing has taken charge of the agriculture college in Shanhai Territory, attracting disciples, and meeting the three requirements. The agricultural school of thought has officially moved into Shanhai City.”
……
“System Notification: The agricultural school of thought has moved into Shanhai City. Shanhai City awarded the title of Land of Agriculture. Congratulations, player Qiyue Wuyi!”
……
The moment the notification sounded out, the other lords could only feel jealous.
Everyone knew that Shanhai City was about to hold the philosophers’ debate.
No one expected Shanhai City to already take down the agricultural school of thought before the debate even began.
It was really the case of there would always be someone better than you.
