Early the next morning, just after going to the court, Yun Xi waved his hand, and a waiter stepped forward to read out the holy decree: "Fengtian carries the emperor's edict,......, from now on, abolish the reward of exempting the festival woman from the family's errand service." ”

Suddenly, there was a "buzzing" sound above the court. Although this holy decree is short, the content of what it says is very important, at least for those ministers who believe in Cheng Zhu Lixue, it is like a burst of thunder in their ears, and the things they originally planned to say suddenly forgot about it, and they want to discuss this matter with Yun Xi.

The first shot was Song Lin, a science master who is now in Honglu Temple in front of Shaoqing. Immediately after the decree was read, he stood up and said, "Your Majesty, this must not be done! ”

"Uncle Song Cheng Zheng (Cheng Yi, one of the two Cheng Cheng of Science) has a cloud: 'Whoever takes the body with the body, if the person who takes the wrong part is matched with the body, it is his own loss of the body.'" Another person asked, 'Can a widow marry again?' Uncle Cheng Zheng said: "Absolutely not, some people are afraid of freezing to death and starving to death, so they use hunger and cold as an excuse. ’”

"Your Majesty, this matter must not be allowed, and the court should encourage widows to observe festivals, and to be the norm."

After Song Lin finished speaking, another science disciple, Huang Kui, also stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, Zhu Zi also said: 'Mr. Xi Yichuan tried to discuss this matter, thinking that starvation to death is a small matter, and a loss of festival is a big matter. From a secular point of view, honesty is pedantic; However, a gentleman who knows the scriptures and understands the reason should know that it is not easy. From this point of view, the court should let the common people keep the festival. ”

After that, several more people came forward to admonish the matter. Yun Xi looked around the entire court and saw that although many Wenchen did not come out to admonish, they also showed disapproval on their faces, and did not agree with Yun Xi's will.

This is also normal. "Historical Records: Qin Shi Huang Benji": "The wife is to escape from marriage, and the son cannot be a mother." As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, the mainstream opinion advocated widows to observe festivals, which shows that this is a natural political correctness in Confucianism, even if some people feel that this is not a big deal, or they do not want to anger the emperor so they do not admonish, but in fact they also support this view.

However, Yun Xi certainly expected this and had already prepared for it. Han Yong, the third Wenchen Shandong Dao Yushi who had just finished speaking, had not returned to his original position, only to hear a person beside him: "All the monarchs are all wrong!" ”

Han Yong hurriedly looked sideways, and saw Chen Ying, the left of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Court and a scholar of the Middle School, stand up and say loudly: "The so-called Confucianism was created by the Confucian sage, and then Zepi and all the people. If you want to advise Your Majesty's will, you still have to quote the words of Sage Kong, although Ercheng and Zhu Xi have profound Confucianism, they are not saints after all. How can the words of the three of them be used as evidence? ”

"I dare to ask my colleagues, did Confucius ever say that a woman should not remarry?"

Although everyone was a little surprised, they were able to hold on. Everyone knows Yunxi's practice of planning and then acting, so he is also prepared for someone to come out and refute it.

Song Lin immediately said: "There is a cloud in the middle chapter of the Book of Rites: the five ways of the world, so the three people who do it are also monarchs and ministers, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, Kundi, and friends. There is a cloud in the music chapter of the "Book of Rites": Then the sage made it, for the father and son, the monarch and the minister, and thought it was a discipline. This is the monarch is the minister, the father is the son, the husband is the wife, and the three are also. ”

"But did Confucius ever say that the husband is the wife, and the wife is not allowed to remarry after the husband dies?" Chen Ying asked again.

Song Lin frowned. In his opinion, Chen Ying's words are very nonsense. Although the books of ancient times or the remarks of Confucius do not explicitly state that wives are not allowed to remarry after the death of their husbands, everyone generally includes this point in the outline of husband as wife, and does not get to the bottom of it in this way.

"The minister, the son, the father, the wife, this is a courtesy, Confucius serves the king with loyalty, even if the king does not use it, he must be loyal, from which it can be deduced that Confucius does not approve of the wife remarrying after the death of the husband." Han Yong said.

In fact, Han Yong's sentence is no longer very strong evidence, and Chen Ying does not admit that it is okay to debate with him on this; But if Chen Ying does this, this time it will turn into a scuffle, and it will be completely impossible to distinguish who is right and who is wrong.

So Chen Ying accepted Han Yong's inference, nodded and said, "What my colleague Han said is good. But in the third chapter of the Analects, Zixia asked: Clever smile, beautiful eyes, I always thought it was Xunxi, what does it mean? Zi said: Painting after the fact. Zixia asked again: 'After the ceremony?' Zi said: "The giver is also a businessman!" It can be used with words and poems. ’”

"And the Son said, 'If a man is not kind, what is the courtesy?' People are not kind, how can they be happy? ’”

The above is enough to see that Confucius believed that the world first has benevolence and righteousness and then etiquette, so benevolence and righteousness precede etiquette. Colleague Han, I don't know if my opinion is wrong? ”

"Not really." Han Yong could only say.

"There is also a cloud in the Yang goods chapter of the Analects: Zizhang asked Confucius to be benevolent, and Confucius said: 'Those who can practice the five are benevolent in the world.'" 'Excuse me. He said: "Gong Kuan Xin Min Hui, Gong is not insulting, Kuan is the public, faith is a person, Min is meritorious, Hui is enough to make people." ’”

It can be seen that Confucius believed that a person who achieves the five points of dignity, intelligence, integrity, diligence, and benevolence is a benevolent person.

No one answered.

Chen Ying didn't wait for them to answer, but went on to say: "There is a cloud in "The Book of Rites and Rites": "Men and women eat and drink, and people want to survive. Death and poverty, the great evil of man remains. Therefore, those who desire evil have the great end of their hearts. People hide their hearts, they can't measure it, beauty and evil are in their hearts, they don't see their colors, they want to be poor, how can they give gifts? ””

From this it follows that in order to restrain the desire of the people to eat and drink, men and women, it must be restrained by courtesy. But after benevolence, benevolence comes first, and the law is used to force a woman to not marry after losing her husband, can it be called mercy? I don't know what your colleagues think, but I don't think it's merciful. If it is not called mercy, it is not in harmony with righteousness. ”

How, then, is it reasonable to use the law to make a woman observe the feast after she has lost her husband? If it is not in accordance with etiquette to do so, what is wrong with Your Majesty repealing this decree? ”

"This." Song Lin twisted his beard and pondered.

The whole debate process of Chen Ying just now is like this. First of all, it was proposed that although Cheng Zhu and the three of them had great achievements in Confucianism, they were not Confucius, and what they said could not be used as evidence, and they were asked to provide strong evidence - Confucius's words to prove that their wives could not be remarried after losing their husbands.

Of course, they could not find such words, so they had to infer by inference, from the words of loyalty to the king that Confucius had had, and that it was part of the etiquette.

Chen Ying admitted their inference, but immediately proposed that, according to Confucius's original intent, etiquette was formed after benevolence and righteousness, so benevolence and righteousness should come first, and etiquette came second, and quoted Confucius's original words to show that one of the requirements of benevolence and righteousness is benevolence.

Finally, he quoted the words of the Book of Rites to propose that the affairs of men and women are human desires, and that it is not merciful to suppress human desires, and it is not benevolent, and it is not in accordance with righteousness, let alone etiquette. Thus refuting the argument that etiquette requires a widowed woman not to remarry. And then it proves that there is nothing wrong with Yun Xi to repeal this decree.