The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

This saying was first recorded in Mencius, which was a quote from Confucius.

Those who support burial with the dead believe that "the first person to use clay figurines instead of living people for burial will have no descendants" means that the first person to use clay figurines instead of living people for burial will definitely have no descendants. Their reason is simple, because the burial with the dead system is an important part of the Zhou Dynasty's rituals and music. Since Confucius advocated the restoration of the past, he would naturally support the burial with the dead system.

Those who oppose burial with the dead believe that this sentence means that Confucius opposes burial with the dead, but there are two interpretations.

The first explanation is based on Confucius' original words in Confucius' Family Sayings, which believes that Confucius advocated using straw bundles to form human figures as real people for burial. If clay figurines similar to living people are used for burial, the family or country of such a person will inevitably be destroyed. Confucius believed that even clay figurines that look like people should not be buried with the dead, and naturally living people should not be buried with the dead.

The second explanation is that the first person who used clay figurines instead of living people for burial was very kind. Wouldn't such a person have no successors? The implication is that this kind of kindness should be carried forward and there will definitely be successors.

Those who oppose the practice of burying people alive with the dead use "benevolence" as evidence, but those who support the practice use "ritual" as a basis.

Neither Confucius himself nor the people of Confucius' family explained this statement. Instead, when Mencius quoted this statement, he determined that Confucius opposed burial with the dead.

"Ritual" is one of the holy ways, but ritual has been changing, and no one can grasp the pulse. Only semi-saints can modify rituals in the form of holy discussions, but the modifications are all in urgent need of change, and the system of burying people alive with the dead has never been included in the holy discussion.

Looking at the course of human history, Fang Yun is very clear that the system of burying people alive with the dead must be abolished!

"Then, the topic of this sutra is "Duke Mu of Qin killed three good men", abolishing evil rituals and promoting benevolence and righteousness!"

Fang Yun chose the topic of this sutra. The sutra is not a policy essay. Policy essays can discuss the pros and cons of the system of burying people alive with the dead in detail, but the sutra should generalize burial with the dead as an evil ritual.

After a long time, Fang Yun decided to use the extremely rare "multi-break" method to break the topic using the two aspects of "benevolence" and "loyalty".

"A benevolent person knows that people love life and hate death; a loyal person knows that he should serve his country rather than dig up the foundation of his race."

This means that a benevolent person should follow human nature to do things. Everyone wants to live and does not want to die. Burying people alive is naturally an unkind act. And a person who is loyal to the human race should know that everyone is the cornerstone of the human race. Harming the cornerstone of the human race is disloyal to the human race.

Fang Yun knew that the topic should be correct, complete, and great, and avoid bias, evil, and haste.

The benevolence in the first sentence is correct and well-behaved, but the second sentence directly throws out "burying people alive is digging up the foundation of the human race", which is a bit "evil" and "hasty". Once the following cannot be self-consistent, the meaning of the whole scripture will inevitably be downgraded.

Before writing, Fang Yun was a little frightened, but after writing the two sentences, he calmed down.

If the second sentence cannot be interpreted in the following text, it will naturally be "evil" and "hasty", but if it is interpreted well, it will be "complete" and "great".

Fang Yun had figured it out. The second sentence used Xunzi's "name and status make the group" holy way concept as an introduction to further explain the issue of social division of labor. In essence, it means that the current human race is short of manpower, but it is close to the productivity of later generations, intercepting some advanced concepts and integrating them with the ideas of Shengyuan Continent.

After breaking the topic, Fang Yun directly pointed out that Qin Mugong's killing of the three good men was tyrannical, and then wrote this scripture according to the structure he summarized. He quoted the original words of the saints when he should, used factual arguments when he should, and finally used the most orthodox Confucianism to prove that burial with the dead is an evil ritual, and evil rituals must be abolished!

In this scripture, Fang Yun explained the consequences of burial with the dead from multiple perspectives such as economics and sociology, pointing directly to the core of the problem, and his sharpness far exceeded any previous opposition to burial with the dead.

However, Fang Yun slightly changed the language of later generations, did not mention the core, and only said "guess" instead of "reason".

Fang Yun was actually using clearer and more detailed language and reason to explain the thoughts of Shengyuan Continent. This behavior is a note.

When writing this sutra, Fang Yun thought of a famous saying in later generations.

The Six Classics annotate me, and I annotate the Six Classics.

The wonderful use of this way lies in one's heart.

However, Fang Yun knew that his literary rank was very low, and if he really made an annotation, he might be backfired by the power of the Holy Way, so he was very careful in choosing words.

After Fang Yun finished writing this sutra to abolish the evil ritual of burying people alive with the dead, he felt a great power rising from the paper.

Fang Yun felt that the talent contained in it might not be as good as that of "Shui Tiao Ge Tou", but its vastness and abundance far surpassed any poem.

However, a more majestic and immeasurable force pressed down, covering up all the strange phenomena in this article.

The sutra is no different from others. Even if Fang Yun is careful everywhere, since it mentions "abolishing evil rituals" and denies the rituals of Shang and Zhou, and the reason is clear, this sutra must not be published before the saints make comments, and the Holy Temple will take the initiative to suppress it.

Not to mention other consequences, just the fact that the news spreads hundreds or even thousands of miles away, causing ideological confusion, may cause some scholars to burst their literary courage.

Fang Yun saw the strange vision being suppressed and realized that this article had "reached the ears of the saints", at least it was at the level of the sutras that could protect the country. If the level was not enough, no matter how wonderful the ideas were, they would not be taken seriously by the saints.

Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief, feeling exhausted all over, and only felt pain in his right hand. After a closer look, he found that his right hand was slightly swollen. He was shocked. This was because of his lack of literary talent. Once he wrote such an article involving the way of the saints, he would be retaliated if he was not careful.

"Fortunately, what I wrote makes sense. If I had made up something or I didn't believe it myself but still claimed to 'abolish bad etiquette', I would probably have killed myself."

Fang Yun shook his sore neck and looked up. It was already late at night. He hurriedly reached out to touch the test card, which could tell him the specific time.

"I didn't expect that it took me six hours to write just a few thousand words. If I'm not good enough in the future, I'll try to write less of this kind of article!" Fang Yun thought to himself.

Afterwards, Fang Yun held the test card and silently recited, and a plate of hot food fell from the sky.

Fang Yun was hungry, and after eating the beef and rice on the plate, he fell asleep.

Fang Yun slowly fell asleep. After a while, Fang Yun suddenly felt something was wrong. He opened his eyes and saw a pair of huge eyes in the depths of the endless void.

The eyes were composed of two suns, shining brightly.

"Give me back the fragments of Wenquxing!"

Then a force of eternal ice turned into an ice river and rushed over. Wherever the force of ice passed, the stars froze and the void cracked.

Fang Yun was terrified and closed his eyes waiting for death, but his body could not move at all.

However, a white fox suddenly appeared and blocked the eternal ice river.

"Is it Nunu?"

The figure of the white fox suddenly disappeared, and then a huge arm of unknown length appeared in front of him. The arm was covered with blue-black scales, with sharp nails, and countless divine objects with a huge aura were flying around.

"Give me back my divine eyes!"

Fang Yun was shocked.

Suddenly, countless golden human characters appeared on the ground. Those shining golden characters formed chains of light, interweaving into a large net, pulling the huge arm back to the ground.

Fang Yun vaguely saw that there seemed to be three words "Emperor Canon" in the characters that made up the chain, and he didn't know if it was an illusion.

Fang Yun just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a huge black evil dragon head that connected the sky and the earth standing in front of him. The dragon head was so big that Fang Yun could not see his body at all.

The dragon head alone was as big as a planet!

The evil dragon opened its mouth and swallowed the sky and the earth, as if it wanted to suck all the light into its mouth.

Before the dragon head could speak, Fang Yun was already disheartened. He did not expect so many powerful forces to target him. He said in distress: "Who did I offend?"

"Give me back the blood of the ancestor dragon!" The evil dragon roared.

Fang Yun had no choice but to wait for death, but the evil dragon suddenly retracted its head and whispered: "Sorry, I recognized the wrong person."

Fang Yun was confused. This style was wrong!

Fang Yun looked closely and saw that the dragon head of the evil dragon suddenly shrank rapidly and shrank into a turtle.

The turtle looked at Fang Yun embarrassedly.

Fang Yun was so angry that he stepped on it, scolding it while stepping on it, venting all his dissatisfaction caused by the shock just now on the turtle.

Yangui soon couldn't stand being stepped on, and suddenly shouted: "Stop hitting me! If you hit me again, I will kill you with the Moon Tree Divine Punishment! Kill you!"

Fang Yun was stunned, and felt his whole body cold.

On the bed in the examination room, Fang Yun slowly opened his eyes, feeling uncomfortable all over, and at the same time, he had an inexplicable feeling in his heart, always feeling that some vicious monster was watching him somewhere.

Fang Yun looked around, but saw nothing, but found that the sky was a little dark, and then he realized that he was dreaming just now.

Fang Yun was startled.

"Did I oversleep? This is the third night?"

Fang Yun hurriedly got up, and didn't even bother to put on the Juren suit, and reached out to touch the exam card on the desk.

It was the first quarter of the morning.

"It's more than nine o'clock in the morning, why is it so dark, can't the holy temple block all the dark clouds..."

Fang Yun suddenly shuddered, stood at the door of the study, and looked up at the sky.

A dark vortex enveloped the sky, and countless blood-red thunders flashed in the vortex.

At the core of the vortex, a spear head composed of blue and white lightning appeared!

The Thunder Spear was slowly leaving the core of the vortex, and it would soon completely descend over Jingguo.

The Thunder Spear exuded the breath of extinction and the end of all living things. Fang Yun only took a look at it, and a strong despair arose from the depths of his soul. Then he slowly stretched out his hands, broke the brush, and pointed the sharp broken end at his throat.

The literary courage was slightly shocked, and Fang Yun suddenly woke up and threw down the brush.

"What a terrible punishment of the Moon Tree God, I can't even look at it. Today, I have no chance of survival, I just hope Yuhuan is safe." Fang Yun sighed lightly, and his heart became more bitter. He didn't expect that the demon saints were so decisive and used such a powerful force to deal with him.

At the same time, a petite woman wearing coarse cloth and painted with grass ash on her face came to the door of the Fang family.

Yang Yuhuan stood behind the threshold and looked at the woman silently. At this moment, Yang Yuhuan's eyes were dull and her face was gray, as if she had no vitality at all, like a walking corpse.

"I am Su Xiaoxiao, and I came here because I admire the name of Fang Wenhou. I voluntarily sacrifice myself to be a servant of the Fang family. I hope Madam will have mercy on me." Su Xiaoxiao looked at Yang Yuhuan timidly, her dark eyes flickered slightly, and she really looked like a little maid.

"You are late." Yang Yuhuan's voice was hoarse, and as soon as she finished speaking, tears fell.