Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Father, Heaven's behavior is constant. It will not exist for Yao, nor will it perish for Jie. This is the content of "Xunzi Tian Lun Pian"."

Zhu Gaochi's expression still showed a bit of surprise, and he tried his best to continue explaining to Zhu Di.

"Xunzi, I know that he was the master of the pre-Qin period when hundreds of schools of thought contended."

Zhu Di took a sip of tea and said slowly: "I just know that Xunzi served as the sacrificial wine for the Jixia Academy of Qi three times, and compiled and passed down the Book of Songs, Shangshu, Rites, Music, Yi, and Spring and Autumn. He also trained several great disciples."

Zhu Gaochi said quickly: "Prime Minister Li Si of the Qin Dynasty, Prime Minister Zhang Cang of the Han Dynasty, and the famous Han Fei."

When Dao Yan heard what Zhu Di said, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.

Since Zhu Di still remembers the history of Xunzi, it will be much easier to communicate with him when he thinks about what he is going to say next.

Zhu Di looked at Dao Yan, Zhu Gaochi, and Zhang Yuchu beside him, and asked, "What? Do you all think this explanation must be feasible?"

Dao Yan nodded and said with a smile: "What your Majesty said is absolutely true!"

"Then tell me, how do you plan to explain this universal gravitation and heliocentric theory?" Zhu Di asked slowly, hiding some of the flutter in his heart.

"We should start with the Tian Lun Chapter and the Uncovering Chapter of Xunzi." Zhu Gaochi paused, stretched out his hand to invite Dao Yan and Zhang Yuchu to speak.

Dao Yan said nothing, so Zhang Yuchu naturally took over.

Zhang Yuchu flicked his feather coat and said seriously: "Your majesty allows Pindao to be presumptuous and dares to talk about these two chapters of "Xunzi" to break this situation."

"Zhang Zhenzhen, it's okay to say it." Zhu Di looked very generous.

Zhang Yuchu pondered for a moment and then said: "Actually, it's simple to say. Let me start with what His Highness the First Prince just mentioned. The laws of nature are always consistent. It does not exist for Yao, nor does it perish for Jie."

"Your Majesty must know the meaning of this sentence. That is to say, in fact, the movement of heaven is constant. It does not exist because of Yao's wisdom, nor does it disappear because of Jie's tyranny. In other words, in fact, "Xunzi·Tianlun Chapter" The first sentence of the opening sentence already denies the induction of heaven and man."

"Otherwise, according to the theory of the connection between heaven and man, heaven would have long ago favored Yao for his sagacity, and would have punished Jie for his tyranny."

That is to say, Xunzi, as an ancient Chinese philosopher who advocated simple materialism, on the basis of attaching importance to social and human affairs, absorbed ancient materialist atheistic thinking and the natural science achievements of the Warring States period, and established his own set of Materialistic view of nature.

Xunzi's materialistic view of nature is fundamentally contrary to the traditional idealist view that destiny determines human affairs and the divine right of kings. According to Xunzi's view, the good or bad of human affairs and the chaos of society are completely determined by the ruler's governance measures. Appropriately, it is not necessarily related to changes in nature.

In Zhu Di's mind, he seemed to recall the stories of the sages that his elder brother Zhu Biao told him when he was a child, and his memory of Xunzi's views gradually became clearer.

Zhu Di nodded and motioned for Zhang Yuchu to continue.

Seeing that the emperor was not angry about this, Zhang Yuchu relaxed and continued.

"The next part of this paragraph is: if it is controlled, it will be good; if it is chaotic, it will be bad; if it is strong and used sparingly, then the sky will not be poor; if it is prepared and moved, then the sky will not be sick; if you cultivate the Tao without hesitation, then the sky will not be poor. Heaven cannot bring disaster. Therefore, floods and droughts cannot make them hungry, and cold and heat cannot make them sick."

A rough translation means that when a king responds to Heaven by governing the world, it is auspicious, and when a king disturbs the world in response to Heaven, it is a misfortune. If people can strengthen their basic temperance in use, then Heaven cannot make people poor; if people have enough food and drink, and exercise in accordance with the seasons. , then Heaven cannot make people sick. If a person is dedicated to cultivating the Tao without any second thoughts, then God cannot inflict disaster on him. Therefore, floods and droughts cannot make people hungry, and cold and hot weather cannot make people sick.

"Do your best, God, what the hell?"

The third prince Zhu Gaosui who was guarding the door suddenly said.

"Shut up!"

Although Zhu Di scolded him, he was very satisfied with his youngest son's summary ability.

It's just one sentence, can't we just say that and be done with it?

Zhang Yuchu insisted on talking a lot, which made my brain hurt.

"Master Zhang." Zhu Di warned slightly, "Speak concisely!"

"I understand!"

Zhang Yuchu was so sincere, knowing that the emperor didn't like to listen to nonsense, so his words immediately became refined.

"Xunzi also said that the duties of the way of heaven will not succeed or be obtained because of human efforts. This means that things like the way of heaven have nothing to do with people. Although the way of heaven It is great, so people don’t need to think more about it; although the way of heaven is wonderful, people don’t need to worry too much about it. It is said that people don’t compete with heaven, because it is meaningless.”

"Why is it meaningless?" Zhu Di asked curiously.

"Xunzi's explanation is that heaven has its seasons, the earth has its wealth, and humans have their governance. This is called the juxtaposition of heaven, earth, and man. The meaning of juxtaposition is not to interfere with each other, and if man abandons the reason why man can It would be extremely foolish to try to interfere with the functions of Heaven (that is, the ability to govern all things).”

Zhu Di: "."

Zhu Gaosui: "."

In fact, in the past, because they did not read so many books by sages, especially Xunzi's books, which were deliberately shielded and downplayed in the Confucian system, the concepts they accepted were those of "influence between heaven and man" and "divine right of kings". .

It is equivalent to an information cocoon being artificially created.

Zhu Gaochi is more studious, and he also goes to school with Zhu Gaosui. After Zhu Gaochi has completed the coursework assigned by the teacher, he will also study other books, so Zhu Gaochi knows this.

But knowing it doesn't mean Zhu Gaochi will talk about it.

So after going back and forth, Zhu Di finally realized that the "reception between heaven and man" was not something that has been accepted since ancient times.

On the contrary, Xunzi, one of the Confucian saints who was several generations earlier than Dong Zhongshu, had already put forward a point of view to refute the criticism!

And the best thing is that Xunzi is older than Dong Zhongshu!

"Any more? Go on."

Zhang Yuchu saw the emperor's face was gloomy and uncertain for a long time, and his heart was still worried. It was not until the emperor asked him to continue that Zhang Yuchu continued cautiously.

"Yes, and the next step is to directly explain Mr. Jiang's 'heliocentric theory' from "Xunzi"."

"What did you say?"

Zhu Di was greatly confused.

Among the information known to Zhu Di, the 'heliocentric theory' was a statement just proposed by Jiang Xinghuo, and the existence of universal gravity must be proven through a torsion scale experiment before heliocentric theory can be deduced and proven.

But Zhang Yuchu told him that "Xunzi: Theory of Heaven" could directly explain the heliocentric theory?

How can this be? Could it be that there really is a mysterious and mysterious way of heaven in this world, and it has been recognized by Xunzi for a long time?

"Your Majesty, I say that Xunzi can explain the heliocentric theory." Zhang Yuchu hurriedly bowed and bowed.

Zhu Di frowned, but did not continue talking after all. Instead, he asked the eunuch next to him to help Zhang Yuchu sit down.

"You continue, I want to know more details." Zhu Di said softly.

Zhang Yuchu cupped his hands and said: "That poor Taoist has made a fool of himself. If there is any inappropriate expression, please forgive me."

Zhang Yuchu slowly repeated a sentence in "Xunzi" that could be used to explain the 'heliocentric theory'.

"The stars are spinning, the sun and the moon are shining brightly, the four eras are in control, the yin and yang are changing, the wind and rain are spreading, all things have their harmony to live, each have their nourishment to achieve success, you don't see its deeds, but you see its achievements, this is what it is It is called God. Everyone knows why it is made, but no one knows that it is invisible. This is called Heaven. Only the sage does not seek to know Heaven."

The meaning of this sentence is that the stars in the sky follow each other and rotate, the sun and the moon alternately shine each other, the four seasons take turns to control the climate, yin and yang change all things, wind and rain generally give to all things, all things are born in harmony with the sky, and all things are born with the harmony of the sky. It grows with nourishment and does not see any special actions of heaven. Everyone knows that the reason why all things are created requires heaven, but they do not know that heaven is invisible. This is called the way of heaven.

"I can understand what you said before." Zhu Di frowned slightly and said, "The last sentence, what does it mean that only saints do not seek knowledge from heaven? Why can't saints seek knowledge from heaven?"

Zhang Yuchu originally wanted to say that the general understanding is that because the way of heaven is unknowable, it is difficult to understand with human rationality. With moderation, understanding nature is not as good as understanding yourself, so Xunzi said this.

"Cough, cough."

But Daoyan suddenly coughed twice.

Zhang Yuchu suddenly woke up and said with an almost blissful heart.

"Because the saint is the human emperor, the human emperor does not need to know the way of heaven. The emperor himself is the incarnation of the way of heaven and is a part of the way of heaven!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole room was silent!

Zhu Di's heart beat violently, his face remained calm, except for his tiger eyes, which stared at Zhang Yuchu.

Zhu Di had never thought about this, and even wanted to angrily accuse Zhang Yuchu of talking nonsense!

But Zhang Yuchu looked very calm, without any sign of panic. This made Zhu Di shaken in his heart. Is this guy really talking nonsense?

In other words, it can really be explained this way.

"Haha! What a human emperor! Your Majesty is truly worthy of being favored by heaven!" Dao Yan couldn't help but clapped his hands and laughed.

Dao Yan had been observing Zhu Di's reaction just now. He found that although Zhu Di's face was as calm as water, in fact, his fists were clenched, veins popped out on the back of his hands, and his eyes were shining, showing that Zhu Di was not as calm in his heart as he appeared on the surface.

Before the Zhou Dynasty, there was no emperor!

In the Xia, Shang and even older eras, the king was the human emperor!

"Preface to the Spring and Autumn Weiming Calendar" records: "The Emperor came out of Yanggu and divided into nine rivers."

"Sanwu Liji" records: "The Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor of Earth, and the Emperor of Humanity are all juxtaposed."

The meaning of human emperor is the emperor of the human world who is equal to the way of heaven.

It was only after the Zhou Dynasty that the title "Emperor" came into being.

What is the Son of Heaven? The eldest son of heaven.

The king has long lost the domineering power of the human emperor. In order to consolidate his status and political power, he claims that his power is granted by God and he governs the world in accordance with the will of God, so he is called the Son of Heaven.

From then on, the emperor of the human world changed from being on par with Heaven to becoming the son of Heaven.

"I am the emperor of men, not the emperor!"

An exciting idea suddenly appeared in Zhu Di's mind.

This is almost the same as what he was thinking when he just observed the stars during the day!

Zhu Di looked at Longhu Mountain Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu in front of him and said slowly: "I want to ask you one more thing."

"Your Majesty, please speak."