Pawn Crossing the River

Qi Xuansu also attended the meeting, and of course he knew what the Grand Master was going to say.

Some of the other attendees knew it, and some didn't, but they would all know it soon.

In fact, it's not hard to guess.

In the big discussion about giving the former Grand Master a "temple name", when this issue was suddenly brought up, it couldn't be about Xuansheng or the fourth Grand Master. It was obvious, either five or six, or simply five plus six together.

Soon, the Grand Master talked about the issue of the fifth Grand Master.

The atmosphere in the entire meeting suddenly became solemn.

But no one dared to speak out against it rashly.

Although the denial of the fifth Grand Master was pushed behind the scenes by the Third Master and the major families also followed suit, it was the sixth Grand Master who did it.

Overturning the case for the fifth Grand Master, on the surface, denied the sixth Grand Master.

However, the Sixth Grand Master was truly a loner, without his own direct lineage and outstanding successors. Even the Zixiao Palace almost disbanded him, so naturally no one spoke for him. Putting all the blame on the Sixth Grand Master, without digging deeper, just touching on it, there is no problem.

Although the Sixth Grand Master is not dead, he is no longer in the world, which is the same as putting the blame on a dead person.

The Grand Master sat on the Grand Master throne that had been vacant for a long time, and the entire Golden Palace was only the voice of the Grand Master.

"Freedom has boundaries. In fact, the world does not need excessive freedom. The world needs rules, boundaries and protection. The world hates chaos and needs a leader who can provide both constraints and shelter. Whoever can calm the chaos and establish order will be supported. At this point, I think there are two people who cannot be avoided.

"One is naturally the first Grand Master Xuansheng, who ended the chaos and established the order of Taoism, and the other is the Fifth Grand Master, who further strengthened Xuansheng's order.

"Speaking of order, I want to talk about King Ping's eastward migration. On the surface, the reason for this was the beacon fire tricks on the princes and the beauty of the woman. If you can look deeper, you will understand that King You was a tyrant and come to the conclusion that King You blamed the woman. In fact, these two views are very superficial, and the main fault is neither Bao Si nor King You.

"If you want to see the whole picture, you must have a deep understanding of the background at that time. In fact, King You wanted to abolish the prince and replace him with Bao Si's son Bo Fu. As a result, the prince joined forces with his uncle Shen Hou to rebel, led the Western Rong into the pass, killed King You, and the prince established himself as king, and was King Ping. The infiltration and hollowing out of the royal family by the foreign relative Shen Hou was exactly the reason why King You wanted to change the prince. Later, Shen Hou's rebellion also confirmed that King You's worries were not unreasonable. After King Ping established himself as king, other princes supported King You's younger brother. The two kings coexisted for ten years, which further proved that King Ping did not succeed to the throne normally.

"So, can we blame King You or Bao Si for this? We can't just sit there and wait for death. Or simply put, as the emperor, did King You have the power to depose the crown prince? If he did, then King Ping was a rebel.

"King Ping succeeded in his rebellion. A rebellious son who killed his father and an unfaithful traitor wanted to whitewash himself, so he came up with the story of playing with princes by lighting beacons: to discredit his father who wanted to depose him as a tyrant, and his concubine Bao Si who helped Bo Fu fight for the crown prince as a beauty who brought disaster. This is the essence of the power struggle, not simply a tyrant and a disaster.

"But King Ping failed to achieve his wish. Although he killed King You, it was easier to invite a god than to send him away. The Western Rong slaughtered the capital with blood. The entire western part was under the control of the Rong. King Ping had no choice but to move east to Longmen Prefecture. The serious consequences of this move are immeasurable. Not only did the prestige of the royal family disappear, and the government orders could not leave Longmen Prefecture, but it also led to disorder in the world, thus laying the root cause of the rise of the princes.

"This is the importance of order. Although the Confucian history books whitewashed King Ping in every possible way, it is undeniable that King Ping broke the rules and disrupted the order, which eventually led to the change of the world. It is not a big problem to say that the Ji royal family was destroyed by King Ping. In this regard, King Ping is a sinner for all ages. "

The Grand Master paused for a moment, and no one spoke. Everyone was thinking. Everyone knew that the Grand Master's words were meant to imply something: King Ping was not the revival leader of the Ji royal family, but a sinner through the ages. King Ping was not the one who restored order, but the source of the chaos. The beacon fire trick was essentially a smear after the rebellion was successful.

So who is the Taoist King Ping?

The Grand Master spoke again: "So, order is the most important, and the law is only a means to maintain order. We talk about maintaining stability all day long, but what kind of stability is it? It is the stability of order. And order is divided into two parts, one is structural order, and the other is behavioral order.

"What is structural order? It is the superstructure of our Taoism. To put it more clearly, it is the ideology based on a certain economic foundation and the sum of the corresponding political laws, organizations and facilities."

"What is behavioral order? It is public order and good customs, or simply summarized by the word "ethics". In the past, Confucianism talked about heaven, earth, emperor, parents and teachers. Now we have overturned this and no longer talk about this. We talk about equality, but in the past two hundred years, we have not been able to summarize and organize a very complete system. The five generations of great masters realized this problem, so they wanted to rectify the atmosphere and listed many regulations and rules in order to maintain and strengthen this order.

"I also know that many people are dissatisfied with these rules and think that their interests have been damaged, which has led to dissatisfaction with the five generations of great masters. But have you ever thought that as the top leaders of the Taoist sect, we are essentially the biggest beneficiaries of order. You want to rebel against the five generations of great masters for your own selfish interests. Not to mention the problem of repaying kindness with enmity, it is essentially digging up your own roots. If you don't abide by the order yourself, why should others abide by the order?

"Many Taoist friends often complain that others always ask him to follow the standards of saints just because he is in this position. In fact, the reason is very simple, because the power is mutual. We advocate that the people below talk about dedication and realm, and the people below will in turn ask us to follow the standards of saints. If we can't do it, then the credibility will be lost. Without credit, the order will be affected and the cost of governance will be greatly increased.

"The five generations of great masters saw this point, so they set rules and strictly governed the Taoist sect to sweep away the old customs. In this regard alone, the five generations of great masters have made great contributions to the Taoist sect and cannot be erased."

The entire Jinque was silent, and a pin drop could be heard.

The Grand Master said again: "The Grand Master of the Fifth Generation was not King You, and I don't want anyone in the Dao Sect to be King Ping. I think that some historical evaluations of the Grand Master of the Fifth Generation are not objective and fair. We must re-evaluate the Grand Master of the Fifth Generation in a fair and objective manner and re-emphasize the issue of order and rules.

"I personally think that since the Grand Master of the Fifth Generation ascended to heaven and passed away, the atmosphere of the Dao Sect has obviously deteriorated. Why is this so? The root cause is that some people are not wholeheartedly for the public, but regard power as their own private property. I have said many times that we must set our hearts right, our style right, our attitude right, be open and aboveboard, and engage in open plots instead of conspiracies. But some people turn a deaf ear and do their own thing. "

At this point, the Grand Master paused obviously.

Qi Xuansu was taking notes, and suddenly heard the Grand Master raise his voice and directly called out his name: "Qi Xuansu. "

Under normal circumstances, the Grand Master would not be so disrespectful to Qi Xuansu. In formal occasions, he would call him "Master Qi", "Master Qi" or "Master Taiwei", and in private, he would call him by his courtesy name "Tianyuan", or at most by his given name "Xuansu", and there would be no such situation of using his given name and surname together.

"Yes." Qi Xuansu stood up subconsciously.

The Grand Master asked: "You went to the port outside the city yesterday and asked people to clear the area, right?"

Qi Xuansu was just slightly startled, and then lowered his head, not daring to refute, nor could he refute.

The Grand Master continued: "You are really so arrogant, are you performing official duties? It's just a private matter, why do you ask people to clear the area? Among those people who do what they want, you are one of them. "

Qi Xuansu immediately said: "I was wrong about this matter. I made the mistake of treating the power granted by the Taoist sect as private property. I asked for everything and got special treatment. I didn't have a right heart, a right style, and a right attitude. I admit my mistakes to my master and Jinque..."

The headmaster said: "This is Jinque for meetings. There is no master or title."

"Yes." Qi Xuansu immediately changed his words and said, "I admit my mistakes to the headmaster and Jinque and ask for punishment."

The headmaster said: "Don't avoid the important issues. You must make a deep self-examination. "

Qi Xuansu nodded in agreement.

The Grand Master asked how the Fengxiantang's Master should be dealt with.

The Fengxiantang's Master wanted to make a big fuss, but the matter was not a big deal. At most, he would be punished, so he could only explain it truthfully.

So Qi Xuansu was punished once and fined one year's salary.

In fact, many discerning people can see that only close people would scold like this. If it were someone else, it would not be like this. This can be understood as killing a chicken to scare the monkey, or as a double act. After all, the Grand Master did not make any substantial punishment. He did not remove Qi Xuansu's Master of the Mansion, nor did he dismiss Qi Xuansu's Master of the Palace. In the end, he was only punished, and at most he was fined three cups of wine.

In this way, Qi Xuansu was picked out in advance. The Grand Master punished Qi Xuansu in public, so it would be difficult for others to talk about Qi Xuansu in the future, nor would it be easy to compare with Qi Xuansu.

The Grand Master looked at Qingwei Master: "Qingwei Master, what do you think? ”

Qingwei Zhenren said: "The Grand Master's words are profound and meaningful. I completely agree with the Grand Master's opinion. I have no objection."

Even Qingwei Zhenren did not speak out, so naturally others could not oppose the Grand Master when he was right. They all expressed their opinions and agreed with the Grand Master's opinion.

At this time, Ning Lingge said: "The Grand Master wants to correct the original source. I agree very much, but many of the decisions made in the past were made by the Sixth Grand Master..."

The Grand Master said: "You can't blame the Sixth Grand Master. After all, it is the limitation of history."