“Hypatia, you must be careful when speaking in the future. The way of survival in our great China is that under the premise of you agreeing with our values, you can do whatever you want to do.”
“You Westerners are too barbaric. Anything that goes against God’s will is heresy, and the only path to redemption is the stake. Of course, you women need to fight with lions. We’re different. ‘To punish without teaching is wrong’—especially in the realm of learning. Our great Han imperial family actually rarely conducts ideological massacres. More often, it’s admonishment. As long as scholars don’t endanger the foundation of rule, they’re generally left to their own devices. Look at those old fellows sitting in the imperial pavilion—they came from Mount Tai. I heard these people are researching the interaction between Heaven and Man in mountain caves.”
“On the land of the Great Tang, the Emperor’s power is supreme. If he wishes, no one in this world can defy his will. So, clever scholars created a theory—that Heaven and Man are interconnected. Everything the emperor does in the mortal realm, Heaven senses. If there’s a locust plague, it’s because the emperor was dissolute. If there’s a flood, it’s because the emperor killed excessively. If there’s a drought, it must be that great injustices exist in the world. An earthquake is even more serious—it means the emperor isn’t qualified enough, that Heaven and Earth are furious.”
“As for things like eagles attacking in the palace hall, white rainbows piercing the sun, winter thunder rumbling—these indicate great changes are coming to the world. The purpose of saying all this is to require the emperor to exercise self-discipline, to not overstep bounds. It’s a theory for limiting imperial power. However, the effectiveness of doing this doesn’t seem very good. Bad emperors still emerge endlessly under Heaven.”
“So, Dong Zhongshu, the founder of the Heaven-Man interaction theory, based on this interaction, proposed in his ‘Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals’ the unity of Heaven and Man. This theory requires all of us to remove the various constraints attached to our bodies and only follow the laws of nature. This is a Daoist doctrine.”
“The earliest to expound this theory was Zhuangzi. Dong Zhongshu borrowed the outer shell and used Confucius’s words to justify himself, treating our life’s journey as a process of cultivation. The older one gets, the more one comprehends. That saying goes, ‘At seventy, I could follow my heart’s desires without transgressing moral principles.’ By now, it’s become that all old men cannot be provoked. This is the most painful realization I’ve had these years. Good words, bad words—they’ve said them all. Right words, wrong words—they’ve said them all too. No matter what you say now, there’s no way to escape their framework. What we need to do is continuously enrich these theories. Seize upon one phrase, one word, and use it to death. Even if it doesn’t match the sages’ words at all, no problem—as long as you say this is the sages’ theory, that we’re continuing the lost learning of past sages, you can shut everyone’s mouths. I don’t tell just anyone this—Hypatia, let’s encourage each other with these words.”
Hearing this completely mismatched explanation, Hypatia expressed extreme reverence for Yun Ye’s profound knowledge, swearing and vowing that in the future, if she didn’t find support from ancient sages’ theories, she absolutely wouldn’t speak.
“That’s right. In the future, when speaking with people, ‘The Master said’ and ‘The Odes say’ as opening phrases absolutely cannot be omitted. Speaking this way, even His Majesty the Emperor must listen carefully, otherwise it would be great disrespect to the sages. Invincible in all situations!”
“The Master said, ‘See no impropriety.'” Hypatia suddenly quoted the Master, and she said it to Xinyue. “He just peeked at my chest.”
Xinyue immediately erupted, viciously pinching Yun Ye’s waist.
Having learned to speak like a proper person, Hypatia immediately ran to Li Gang and their group’s pavilion to show off. The academy had a very large pavilion today. Apart from the imperial family’s, the academy’s pavilion was the largest.
Yun Ye leaned lazily in his soft chair, watching Li Tai gesticulating wildly while debating qi with several old fellows from Mount Tai. He was the type who got excited with an audience—the more people who came to debate him, the more excited he became. Even while spitting as he talked, he maintained the elegant etiquette and bearing of the imperial family. When old fellows came up, he inevitably addressed them as masters, helping the old men onto the platform and pouring tea, all done personally. This made Li Er laugh with his mouth wide open, constantly pointing at Li Tai and boasting to other imperial family members.
Zhangsun also had a face full of smiles, sitting among the consorts, looking around proudly. Her eldest son was the Crown Prince—loyal, honest, and benevolent. Not a single person in the entire court had objections to him inheriting the throne in the future. Her second son was full of knowledge and was now on the platform debating with a group of Confucian scholars. By the looks of it, this time would definitely establish his position among the scholar community. One son ruling people’s bodies, one son ruling people’s thoughts—looking through all the empresses of past dynasties, who could compare with her? The couple’s feelings were harmonious, the sons were brotherly and respectful. Other empresses with such outstanding sons would have already fought tooth and nail over the throne, but her talented second son had not the slightest interest in imperial power. He threw all sixteen provinces of his fief to his older brother to help manage, only wanting money, not power. It was laughable that when her husband handed Qing Que’s fief to their eldest son to manage, he still harbored a testing mindset. Who knew that Chengqian managed the fief with swift and decisive action, doing what needed to be done, not pretentious, not perfunctory, completely treating it as his own fief to govern. Moreover, he didn’t plant a single one of his own people there. Even Qing Que admitted that in managing people, his elder brother was much stronger than himself.
“Master Li Zhang, you’ve lived long on Mount Tai with white hair devoted to the classics, already reaching the highest peak of the study of qi. This student admires you immensely. Now Yushan Academy has become the foremost academy under Heaven in scale—of course, student is talking about scale. To become foremost under Heaven in the pursuit of learning, there’s still a long road to travel. Student earnestly requests that you stay briefly at Yushan. We students have long coveted your learning. Please, Master, grant this favor.”
Li Tai had just failed to out-argue the old man, so he’d lost. But this fellow’s obsession with learning flared up again. Rarely encountering one or two people more learned than himself, how could he not drain them dry before tossing them out?
Li Er’s smile became even more brilliant. He wasn’t the least bit bothered that Li Tai couldn’t out-argue the guests from Mount Tai. That an eighteen-year-old young man could debate with top scholarly masters for a full hour was already rare. If he’d won the debate, that would have been unreasonable. The most outstanding part was his son’s attitude toward learning—once he couldn’t match someone, he immediately sought them as teachers. This was even more moving than winning the debate.
Just as he was preparing to put on a show of reprimanding Li Tai a few words, he heard Li Gang laughing loudly and saying, “Li Zhang, Old Mei, Wen Hai, Kua Yang—how do you old things find my disciple? If not for your shameless wheel tactics, it would be difficult to beat him.” Such brazenly arrogant words—could they really have been said by the highly respected Li Gang? This seriously didn’t match his usual character. Yun Ye was very worried that the several old men from Mount Tai would explode on the spot.
The four old men were truly worthy of being worldly experts. The one called Kua Yang said expressionlessly, “Li Wenji, thirty years ago you were already no match for this old man. Poetry, ancient writings—in which did you surpass us? We’ve focused on the study of qi for fifty years, secluding ourselves from the world, which let a fool like you become famous throughout the world. Wanting to use provocation on us—your cultivation is still insufficient. However, this disciple of yours is not bad. Taking an alternative path to explain the study of qi, transforming the formless into the tangible—hehe, this probably isn’t something you could teach. Your limited skills—this old man knows them well. First surpass this old man in the simplest path of poetry before speaking.” Having finished speaking, he closed his eyes and said no more. The venue immediately fell silent. This high-level cursing match wasn’t something ordinary people could interrupt. Even Li Tai himself knelt on the ground, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, playing dumb.
Li Er’s interest instantly rose to its highest point. A cursing match between masters—he’d never seen this before. With great interest, he looked at the Mount Tai elders, then at Li Gang sitting in his wheelchair, waiting for an even more spectacular showdown between them.
Li Gang laughed heartily, pointing at Kua Yang and saying, “When there are no heroes, petty men become famous. Back then in the path of poetry, this old man was indeed slightly inferior. However, among my disciples, there are also those skilled in this path. Through him, this old man came to understand that the path of poetry is an insignificant minor path, a game of stacking phrases. You first beat him, then come find this old man. If you lose, come to the academy to be a teacher for three years.”
When Li Gang’s words finished, Li Er felt as if he heard his own heart crack in half in an instant. Helplessly, he supported his head with his hand and had the palace maids behind him massage his temples.
Wang Gui and Zhangsun Wuji, who felt the same way, all covered their faces and sighed. No matter how skilled the Mount Tai elders were in this path, wanting to compete in poetry with a freak like Yun Ye meant certain defeat. Those poems weren’t things a human could compose. “Liangzhou Ci” and “Grass on the Ancient Plain” had long been revered as supreme classics. No matter how formidable the Mount Tai Elder’s poetry was, he didn’t have several poems that spread so that everyone under Heaven knew them. The unified understanding in Chang’an now regarding poetry was that it was a technical thing, having nothing to do with learning. Wang Gui had burned his poetry collection that he’d originally prepared to publish. If competing in other things, the academy would definitely lose. But competing in poetry—no one was optimistic about the Mount Tai Elder anymore.
“What if this old man beats you?” Elder Li Zhang looked mockingly at Li Gang with slanted eyes.
“Win? You’ll win? This old man never thought of that, so I didn’t mention it. You’re definitely going to lose. Let me say in advance—academy teachers get eight strings of cash monthly salary. You fellows at least have some learning, so let’s make it ten strings. The academy provides three meals a day free, and for lodging, we’ll give each of you a small building with superb scenery. Every seven days you get one day of rest. The academy has horse carts and ox carts for your free use. Want to go boating? The academy also has small boats and bamboo rafts. Each teacher can only bring four of their own household servants to live there. Of course, this is a rule that can be flexible. For extra people, you must bear the cost yourself. How about it? The academy’s benefits aren’t bad, right?”
Elder Nong Mei laughed in extreme anger, chuckling twice and saying, “No problem. This old man very much wants to see your esteemed disciple’s superb writings, to see what kind of giant brush could write articles that would shame us old men. Li Wenji, if you don’t surprise this old man, my mountain cave is still lacking an old servant to sweep. You’ll do nicely. Also for a term of three years—how about it?”
Li Gang laughed toward the heavens, wheeling his chair to the Mount Tai elders’ presence. He struck palms with the four old men to make an oath, then proudly shouted toward the Yun family’s pavilion, “Yun Ye, come out!” Very much with the flavor of releasing the hounds.