Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

In prison, under the new crooked neck tree.

Cao Duan looked at Jiang Xinghuo, who was sitting in front of him and put away his chess pieces after failing to make a move, and for a moment he didn't know what to make.

It's not that he doesn't know how to choose this game of chess, Jiang Xinghuo can't win even if he retreats to the starting point, but he is seriously thinking about whether to accept Jiang Xinghuo's proposal.

In Cao Duan's eyes, Jiang Xinghuo was like the fire in front of a moth. He knew clearly that if he got close to it, it would be easily burned to the point where no bones would be left, but he was still full of temptation.

Cao Duan was curious about what ambitions this world-famous Ming Dynasty Imperial Master had in terms of academic thought.

A person compares himself to Pangu and thinks that all the sages in the past lived in chaos. Is this extremely confident or extremely arrogant?

Cao Duan thinks it may be more of the former. After all, Jiang Xinghuo has single-handedly overcome part of the ultimate problem of Neo-Confucianism, and since the trump cards of the three gatekeepers in the debate competition were given to them by Jiang Xinghuo, So thinking about Jiang Xinghuo's groundbreaking research on philosophy, he can already be called "the first person in the world".

Cao Duan was very curious as to where Jiang Xinghuo's confidence came from. He vaguely felt that it should be hidden in today's conversation, or that the content of today's conversation was the middle blank part of the booklet.

If he agrees, then a new door will open for him; if he refuses, then the door will be closed again, which means that he will leave with endless confusion. He is really I don’t understand why Kong Xilu became like this? But the good thing is that he doesn't have to wade into this muddy water, and he doesn't have to step on the reformist chariot that may overturn at any time.

So, this is a very contradictory thing.

"You're scared." Jiang Xinghuo continued to pick up the chess pieces.

"That's right." Cao Duan said bluntly.

Cao Duan didn't intend to hide anything, because this was the fact. He was indeed afraid, so he wanted to retreat.

Cao Duan is neither a corrupt scholar nor a speculator. He is a person who studies academics with all his heart. He has both the purity of a scholar and the scholar's instinctive rejection and resistance to Yun Bo's treacherous temple.

"It doesn't matter." Jiang Xinghuo nodded slightly to express understanding, "You can come to me when you think about it."

Cao Duan said sincerely: "I am a coward."

"I don't force others to change themselves. Just think about it."

Jiang Xinghuo, who finally finished cleaning up the mess, put down the chess box in his hand and stretched his arms.

Cao Duan cupped his hands towards Jiang Xinghuo and turned to leave.

After taking a few steps, Cao Duan stopped.

This is the field in which he is best at, and he almost never fails in this aspect, even astonishing countless great scholars.

And he still believes this now.

only

It was still difficult for him to estimate Jiang Xinghuo's wisdom.

This young man seems to have profound wisdom, like a saint who really exists in the world.

The temptation brought by the unknown wisdom caused the two villains in Cao Duan's heart to start fighting again.

In fact, when the thought arises, one of the villains has already won.

Cao Duan pondered for a long time, finally exhaled slowly and turned back.

"Master National Preceptor, I still want to hear about the spiritual world and the contents of the blank part of the booklet. But this does not mean."

"It doesn't mean you have to do things for me. Of course, it's up to you."

Jiang Xinghuo pointed to the chessboard, indicating that he could make a move.

This time, Cao Duan took the lead with black, and still landed on the left corner in front of him. Jiang Xinghuo changed his chess strategy, and white moved next to him.

The two were playing chess and chatting.

"Let me tell you a story first."

Jiang Xinghuo slowly said: "A long time ago, in a dark cave, a few wild children who had lived in the cave since childhood made mistakes and were tied to stools with their backs to the entrance of the cave, unable to move. Behind them was a group of There is a fire outside the wall. The light from the fire casts the shadows of some things on the wall at the bottom of the cave, and the tied people can only see the shadows on the wall. They think that the true appearance of things is like a cave. The shadows on the wall are the same – that’s the real world.”

Cao Duan easily understood what Jiang Xinghuo meant. He was talking about the empiricism of early materialists in the pamphlet.

In order to defend the corner, Cao Duan continued to make misplaced moves. Jiang Xinghuo did not seem to be aiming for a stranglehold, but continued to play the wall style, followed by another white stone.

"Until one day, a wild child broke away from his bonds and escaped from the cave. He saw the outside world and saw a tree. However, perhaps because he was facing the dazzling sunlight, he doubted whether the tree in front of him was real. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the light outside, he saw the tree clearly and actually touched it."

"It dawned on him and he immediately ran back and told the wild children who were still tied to the stools: 'The real world is outside, there are only falsehoods and shadows here.' However, when this man untied those who were tied, But those people became angry because they had long been accustomed to accepting the 'truth' of shadows and regarded other people's advice as poison, so they stoned that person to death."

"However, these wild children had broken free after all, so they finally saw the wall behind them, the fire on the other side of the wall, and the entrance to the outside of the cave. These wild children who had lived in the cave since childhood finally plucked up the courage. After walking out and out of the cave, they also saw the tree. At first, they also suspected that the tree and the shadow appeared at the same time. Which one was real? But no matter who suspected it, they could not deny that the tree It is the real tree, and the tree that can be felt and touched is much more real than its shadow."

Cao Duan asked: "What then?"

"Then, the result is that some people are afraid of accepting this heavy truth and escape back into the cave; but luckily, some people stay and continue to explore the outside world."

Cao Duan thought for a moment and then said: "The 'shadow' here refers to the empiricism of early materialists, and this is not feasible?"

"It's not just that."

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head: "Inference may not be true, and seeing may not be true. The rational theory of early idealists is also unreliable."

"for example?"

"For example, you have lost this game of chess."

Cao Duan looked at the chessboard and fell into deep thought. After looking at it for a long time, he still couldn't see where he lost. It was clear that his black piece was guarding the corner along the side, and there were still many breaths in the corner. Even if the white breath continued to press down, It will only allow the corner he occupies to be completely formed. As for whether White can take advantage of the trend to develop towards Tianyuan, and whether he can compete with the past and slay the dragon, that is also a matter for later. Why do you say that you have lost now?

Could it be that the national master is actually a hidden national chess player who has already seen countless moves after this? But this is obviously a standard paradigm opening!

●○○○○○

●●●●

Cao Duan said sincerely: "Please give me some advice from the Imperial Master. I am so stupid that I don't know where I lost."

Jiang Xinghuo pointed to the small note pressed under the chess jar. When he turned around, Jiang Xinghuo had just written it, and the handwriting was still fresh.

Cao Duan took out the small piece of paper and looked at it carefully.

"The name of the game: Gobang."

"Rules: The first person to connect five stars wins."

Cao Duan: "."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled: "You see, seeing is not necessarily true, and the knowledge obtained by reason is not necessarily true. Maybe if the rules and conditions are changed, then the inferences you thought were just and natural before will be overthrown and started again. .Most people think that the phenomenon is real, but the phenomenon is not real. It is an unstable and changing phenomenon, and it is impossible to obtain true knowledge."

Cao Duan easily understood the word "rheology". In his opinion, the source was probably "Book of the Later Han·Volume 35·Cao Bao Biography": "The movement of things has moved back, and the situation has changed tens of thousands, and the system cannot be followed. Its evolution and taste are not enough to determine its characteristics, and it is the profit and loss of Sigu Shizhu." The meaning judged based on the context is also correct.

"So what does the Imperial Master think is real?" Cao Duan vaguely grasped the key point.

"It's not what I think, but what you think is real in this world?"

Jiang Xinghuo turned around from the stone bench and patted the crooked neck tree with his hand: "If this tree is the tree that those wild children who have lived in the cave since childhood saw and touched, is it real? "

"Isn't it?" Cao Duan asked with a frown.

"Try to feel the tree."

Cao Duan stood up and touched the strange-looking tree with one hand.

"not enough."

Cao Duan hugged the tree with both hands. The new clothes his wife had made overnight for him to go to Beijing were stained.

"not enough."

Cao Duan simply punched the tree with his fist, and the skin was scratched instantly, causing the tree to shake.

"Is it true?"

Looking at Jiang Xinghuo drinking tea, Cao Duan nodded.

"it is true."

Jiang Xinghuo put down the tea cup and leaned on the chessboard, seeming to be sleepy and mumbling.

"In the past, Zhuang Zhou's dream was a butterfly, and the butterfly's dream was like a butterfly. It was a self-explanation for his ambition! He didn't know Zhou. Suddenly he realized that he was like a Zhou. I didn't know that Zhou's dream was a butterfly, and the dream of a butterfly was Zhou Yu? Zhou was bound to be a butterfly. There are differences. This is called materialization."

Cao Duan's tall and thin body trembled slightly. He understood what Jiang Xinghuo meant. If the world he lived in was just a dream of someone, then was the tree in front of him still real?

"If this space we are in is just a dream of a man named Jiang Xinghuo six hundred years in the future before he died, or even more cruelly, this dream of Jiang Xinghuo before his death may be just a writing This is a story written by a writer, so am I real at this moment? Are you real? Is this tree that you think is so real that it will make you ache and bleed still real?"

Jiang Xinghuo turned his face sideways, and the midsummer sunshine fell on his face through the shade of the trees. It seemed that a little bit of Venus could be seen from the young man's thick eyelashes. He rested his head on his arm and seemed to be asking Cao Cao Duan is also asking himself.

Cao Duan was speechless.

During the days when he studied knowledge in the countryside, once his mind was exhausted, Cao Duan would often dream of sitting at his desk reading, writing, and thinking while sleeping. Just like Cao Duan in the dream could not prove the world he was in and who he was. Just like the real world, Cao Duan in the current "real world" cannot prove that the world he lives in and himself are real.

In Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, this philosophical proposition similar to Zhuang Zhou's Mengdie was also called the brain in a vat.

"A man (let's say it's you) was operated on by evil scientists. His brain was cut off from his body and placed in a tank containing a nutrient solution that kept the brain alive. The brain's nerve endings were connected to a computer. , this computer transmits information to the brain according to the program, so that he can maintain the illusion that everything is completely normal. For him, it seems that people, objects, and the sky still exist, and his own movements and body sensations can be input. Everything can be done outside Intercept the memory of the brain surgery, and then enter various environments and daily life he may have experienced. He can even be entered into a code and 'feel' that he is reading an interesting and absurd text here."

The core of this philosophical proposition is that an individual's cognition or judgment of objective existence depends on the stimuli he receives. It is assumed that the brain in the vat generates a series of "testing" responses to detect its own cognition, and at the same time the "system" can Promptly provide corresponding stimulation as a response. At this time, the crux of the problem does not lie in the brain's cognition of the world in the tank, but in "my" own cognition of the world. The objectivity of one's own existence is questioned. In a completely controlled environment, A paradox will form in the world of consciousness that stimulates creation.

So, how do you make sure you're not in this predicament?

In other words, how can you be sure that you are not one of the wild children who walked out of the cave?

"Shadow" (empiric theory) has been proved to be untrustworthy by you, so it seems that you can use touch and other senses and rational thinking in the brain to determine the "real" world. How do you know whether it is another, more advanced, and capable world? What about the "shadows" that trick your brain?

Cao Duan fell into complete confusion.

This epistemological proposition, which subverts the existence of the entire world, cannot be solved by Neo-Confucianism.

No matter how "sincere" his heart is, if the world is illusory, then what's the use?

What's more, Neo-Confucianism's explanation of the world is comparable to "Minecraft". It uses pure and dirty energy to explain the composition of the world. In the final analysis, it is worse than pixel blocks.

Suddenly, Cao Duan thought of Jiang Xinghuo's booklet.

According to the content of the booklet, from ancient times to the present, philosophers of all civilizations will choose either materialism or idealism when choosing a path.

The current proposition, whether it is the so-called empiricism of early materialists or the rationalism of early idealists, cannot be explained, or it can be said that they are all wrong.

And Jiang Xinghuo once wrote a sentence.

"But in fact, all people's fears come from their ignorance of the world."

Cao Duan truly felt his fear. Just as Jiang Xinghuo expected, this fear came from ignorance of whether the world was real.

"No!"

Cao Duan suddenly looked at Jiang Xinghuo and pointed at the booklet placed beside the chessboard: "Can I choose neither path?"

"Why do you say that?"

Jiang Xinghuo still lay on his stomach and tilted his head to look at him.

"As you said, materialism and idealism are like two people seeking Tao. Good or bad is not important. What is important is seeking Tao, and Tao favors neither good people nor bad people."

Jiang Xinghuo raised his head, raised his arms to expand his chest, contracted his shoulders back, and made a "click, click, click" sound.

"You are very smart, you are one of the smartest people I have ever met in this world."

"From ancient times to the present, the philosophical world has been chaotic. In this chaos, some people think that the world should be a certain way. This is a matter of course and eternal. In China, it is more representative The character is called Dong Zhongshu. Dong Zhongshu believes that feudal principles always come from heaven's will and will never change. This is the so-called "the great principle of Tao comes from heaven, and heaven does not change, and Tao does not change"; while some people keep studying this world, Think about the origin of this world, such as Zhang Zai."

“.Let’s call them ‘imaginers’ and ‘researchers’.”

"In addition to people like this, there are also 'doubters' like Zhuangzi. At a certain moment, he believed that the world was indeed not real, but he couldn't figure out which one was real, Butterfly or Zhuang Zhou."

"Doubt is of course very important. For philosophy, if we want to explore the truth of the world, then we must remove all unexamined, impurities, and doubtful things. We must doubt everything to ensure our success. Logical thinking is accurate, and all of this must have an origin, and this origin must be a self-evident first law."

Cao Duan looked at the brochure and then at Jiang Xinghuo.

This first law must not be something like common sense, experience, or rationality, or even the "science" proposed by Jiang Xinghuo, but something more fundamental.

"Don't think about it." Jiang Xinghuo smiled.

"Now go back to the starting point of the two forked roads. The path you seek is behind you."

The moment Jiang Xinghuo said these words, goosebumps all over Cao Duan's body stood up.

A feeling of great fear, excitement, and numbness stimulated his nerve endings.

Cao Duan turned around tremblingly, but there was nothing behind him.

Cao Duan understood all this.

Jiang Xinghuo stroked the rough bark: "When you doubt everything, there is only one thing that will not be doubted, and that is your thinking. Even if you doubt your thinking, you are still thinking. In other words, as long as Jiang Xinghuo is thinking, whether the world in front of him is a fantasy before his death, or a script written by someone, at the moment when Jiang Xinghuo is thinking, he really exists, and he can use this as a starting point to explore the meaning of this world. The truth, and then verify the authenticity of this world. This is not the science of mind, it is not that there is nothing outside the mind, there is nothing outside the mind, there is no reason outside the mind, nor is it that my heart is the universe and the universe is my heart, but the first law of philosophy."

"Cogito ergo sum."

Cao Duan looked at the shadow on the ground and thought to himself.

“In this world, maybe the flowers, plants and trees in the material world are not real, and maybe the moral laws in the spiritual world are not real either, but there must be one thing that is real, unshakable, original, fundamental, and ultimately decisive. That’s how I think.”

"Yes, when Cao Duan in the dream is meditating on a puzzling problem, as long as the thoughts come together, Cao Duan in the dream is real. Only then can he realize that he is in an illusion through thinking."

"But how does Cao Duan in the dream know that he is in a dream?"

After Cao Duan asked his question, Jiang Xinghuo crossed his legs again and folded his hands holding the tea cup in his arms.

"Why can you easily realize that the world Cao Duan lives in in the dream is illusory?"

Cao Duan sat down. Different from the first time, this time he poured himself a cup of tea.

The tea entered his throat, and Cao Duan immediately felt his body feel much warmer.

Cao Duan also sat on the stone bench holding a tea cup: "Because no matter how 'real' a dream is, the dream is ultimately missing. It cannot restore a world, or in other words, the dream itself is an incomplete world."

"Yes, incomplete."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded: "An incomplete world can be falsified without much effort."

“When we think about the origin of the world’s existence, we usually assume that the world is a complete whole, or that the world is made up of certain elements or materials, or that the world is controlled by some mysterious force, law, and principle. Talent is endless and operates endlessly. All the above philosophical thinking about the existence of the world are all ontological issues about the existence of the world."

"As a theoretical hypothesis, ontology must first assume that the world is a whole. Otherwise, people's cognition of the world will not be logically complete, and it will not be knowable, even if this 'whole' is just what you think. The whole is enough, because it is impossible for people to fully understand the world."

Jiang Xinghuo paused and then said: "The whole world is the ontology of the world, and whether it is Jiang Xinghuo, Cao Duan, or Cao Duan in the dream, the 'real world' they understand is based on the 'ontology' The world's totality of different existential phenomena manifested in so-called 'reality'."

"Then the question is actually very simple now. With the independent thinking of the First Law, how can we judge whether the world we live in is real?"

Cao Duan blurted out: "Reality can only be obtained through philosophical contemplation and deduction. I only need to study whether the ontology and phenomena are consistent with my understanding of the world based on various deductions! If a large number of them do not match, then the world may be false. !”

Jiang Xinghuo held two chess pieces, one black and one white, between his thumb and index finger.

"The black one is the ontological world; the white one is the phenomenal world."

"Needless to say, in the phenomenal world, everything you see, hear, and feel is the source of the incomparable reality of this world. All things you perceive are things in the phenomenal world."

"In the ontological world, there are three kinds of transcendental existence, that is, the transcendental existence of objective things, the transcendental existence of subjective rationality, and the transcendental existence of logical inference."

"First, it refers to various empirical phenomena that transcend objective things, that is, the general principles, rules and logical composition of the existence of things. What Kong Xilu is studying is just a drop in the ocean. The reason for conducting this kind of research is because All phenomena that can be realized by the self are connected together in some universal and inevitable way. All perceptual intuitive materials presented in self-awareness are connected by intellectual categories. The empirical knowledge synthesized from this is objective and valid. of."

Cao Duan finally understood what "science" was for in the world opened up by Jiang Xinghuo.

How to verify whether this world is real? Of course, it is through studying phenomena to obtain the general principles of things, which in Neo-Confucian terms is "investigating things."

Cao Duan couldn't help but ask: "So what is the 'new way of studying things' that Kong Gong said that he never told me clearly?"

"An observation tool that can magnify the appearance of everything in this world and see 68,000 insects from a bowl of water."

Cao Duan finally understood why Kong Xilu refused to be released from prison.

If it were him who could make a unique breakthrough on the road of "investigating things", then I'm afraid he would be in the same state as Kong Xilu, or even more addicted.

Cao Duan suddenly swallowed and looked at Jiang Xinghuo with a hint of fear in his eyes.

Yes, fear.

Jiang Xinghuo's method of gathering people is so clever. In front of him, there seems to be no one in the world who cannot be gathered together.

No one is without desires. All desires are either fame or profit. Even people like Kong Xilu and Cao Duan seem to be difficult to bribe, but this premise is just that there has never been such a thing in the world before. People can offer the right price.

The price is of course not mundane things like money, but the "Tao" they dream of.

There is only one person in this world who seems unable to be bribed.

That was Jiang Xinghuo himself.

But can the emperor really trust a person who has no desires, no needs, and no weaknesses?

Thinking of this, Cao Duan instinctively wanted to move away from Jiang Xinghuo like before, but somehow, his feet seemed to have taken root and he couldn't move where he stood.

Jiang Xinghuo can give him what he desires most.

——The way to understand the truth of this world.

After answering Cao Duan's question, Jiang Xinghuo continued:

"Second, it refers to various forms of thinking and thinking paradigms that transcend human beings. It refers to the general principles, rules and logical composition of human thinking, which is the starting point of the first law I just told you."

"Third, it is a tool for us to study whether the ontology and the phenomenal world are consistent, and whether the world is real. In other words, all inferences are composed of thesis, antithesis and propositional logic. We put the understanding of the phenomenal world into By observing it, you can find the corresponding ontology of things, and the existence of forms, types, paradigms, etc. in the real world are all logical phenomena."

Looking at the chess pieces in Jiang Xinghuo's hand, Cao Duan finally understood why Jiang Xinghuo seemed to be dismissive of that set of things even though he was the one who proposed the new theory of mind science.

Because "I Xunsi" can only lie to itself and cannot explore the truth of the world.

On the surface, it seems that in the theory of mind, as long as the heart is moved, the logical loop can be completed, but in the method Jiang Xinghuo taught him to explore and verify the noumenal and phenomenal worlds, although the most fundamental first law is It is based on the observer's thinking, but the observer does not blindly follow the thinking, but uses a state of near absolute calmness to verify whether the phenomena in the phenomenal world are consistent with the ontology and the logic of thinking through a set of systematic derivation tools. If If there are a large number of inconsistencies, then the "real world" he is in may be fake.

"All inferences are composed of thesis, antithesis and propositional logic. Can you give me an example?"

"Can."

Jiang Xinghuo wrote a set of pros and cons in the booklet.

Main topic: The world is limited in time and space.

Antithesis: The world is infinite in time and space.

Cao Duangang wanted to ask if any of them were wrong, but he immediately put the thought out of his mind.

The seemingly contradictory propositions, but he, who was a little familiar with Jiang Xinghuo, understood that they might all be right or wrong.

"To prove the point first, assuming that our world has no beginning in time, then at any given moment, an eternity has passed. Therefore, in the world, there is an infinite series of continuous states of things that have passed. However, the infinity of a series is that it can never be completed through continued synthesis. Therefore, it is impossible for an infinite series of worlds to have passed. Therefore, the beginning of the world is a necessary condition for the existence of the world. This logical deduction is that OK?"

Cao Duan nodded, and Jiang Xinghuo continued to use logical deduction to prove the antithesis.

"Antithesis, assuming that the world has a beginning in time, then, since the so-called beginning means that in the time before it, this thing has not yet existed, there must be a past time in which the world has not yet existed, that is to say , is empty time. But in empty time, nothing can happen, because any part of empty time itself does not have any conditions of 'existence' rather than 'non-existence', distinguishing it from other parts This is the case whether we assume that things happened by themselves or by some other cause. In the world, although many series of things may have beginnings, the world itself cannot have a beginning, so the world in the past The time aspect of is infinite, right?”

Even a wise man like Cao Duan had a trace of confusion in his eyes at this moment.

"So, does our world have a beginning in time?"

Jiang Xinghuo put down the black and white chess pieces in his hand and said calmly:

"I don't know either."

"Ideally, it would be better to reach the conclusion that one of them is wrong, so that we can go further on the road of exploring and verifying the world, but unfortunately, our time is It is limited. Even if we logically deduce all relatively important propositions in our short life, there will still be many unsolved mysteries, and these propositions that we cannot verify by thinking require many holes. People like Xilu come to verify by studying the world. When they make breakthroughs, propositions that cannot be falsified may be achieved in an instant. But some propositions may be made within hundreds or thousands of years. It still can’t be verified, but does it matter?”

Cao Duan thought for a moment and then smiled.

This is important, but not too important, because when a person who is in a dream but is completely awake can verify whether the world is real through two complementary methods, he is already on the path of pursuing "Tao" , it doesn’t matter whether the focus of “Tao” is a big dream or the end of the universe.

For people today, looking back on the past is nothing but confusion.

This step has not been taken by any philosopher in thousands of years.

At this moment, Cao Duan finally understood what the "Tao" was in "If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening."

It is not the "high road" at the end, but the road that really leads to the "high road".

"Even though we are in a dream, we still truly live in every moment of 'I think'. Our life and thinking are by no means meaningless. We are on the road to prove the authenticity of the world, which is already great. Meaning, even if the end is just a void.”

Cao Duan bowed his head.

"Thank you, Imperial Master, for showing me the way. Cao Duan is willing to do his best in this life to seek enlightenment."

——————

When Zhu Gaoxu found Jiang Xinghuo, he found that his master was already sleeping soundly, snoring slightly.

On the stone table under this familiar tree lay a chessboard, chess pieces, and a booklet.

The booklet was pressed by the chess jar, and the hot wind blew through it, leaving only a corner exposed.

“What cannot be said will be unspeakable.”