In the autumn of the twenty-ninth year of Lu Zhaogong (BC513), heavy rain fell around Jiangcheng, the former capital of the Jin Kingdom; A few days later, the sky cleared slightly, and the strong sunlight pierced through the gaps in the clouds and hit the earth. The shadow of a legendary dragon suddenly appeared in the sky on the outskirts of Jiangcheng, and the dragon let out a loud roar as it circled, rolled into the clouds for a while, and disappeared with the thick clouds.

At that time, a large number of Jin people, including Wei Shu, witnessed the magnificent spectacle, and the Jin people then made various guesses about the reason for the dragon's appearance. Wei Shu couldn't help but marvel, he had always thought that dragons only existed in legends, but he didn't expect to witness the dragon's deity in his lifetime.

Wei Shu asked Taishi Cai Modao: "I heard: 'The reason why people are not as smart as dragons is because people have never captured real dragons. Is this true? ”

Cai Mo said: "The wisdom of man is indeed insufficient, but it cannot be said that the wisdom of the dragon surpasses that of man. In ancient times, there was a fact that the real dragon was raised, so the 'Dragon Clan' and the 'Imperial Dragon Clan' appeared. ”

Wei Shu asked: "I have heard of these two clans, but I don't know the allusions in them, can the master tell me?" ”

Cai Mo said: "Dragons in ancient times were very common. At the beginning, there was a person named 'Biao Shu'an', and his sister-in-law was named 'Father Dong'. Father Dong is particularly fond of contact with dragons, he has a unique talent, and gradually became familiar with the habits of dragons, and understood what dragons like and dislike; He can meet the needs of dragons and dance with them, so there are many dragons around him. Dong's father tamed the dragon to serve Emperor Shun and drove the chariot for Shun. Emperor Shun gave him the surname Dong, which was the Fenglong clan; He was also sealed to the area of Dingtao, Shandong, and Yiyi was the descendant of Dong's father.

However, after the Xia Dynasty, the dragon clan declined and became almost extinct, and the skill of domesticating dragons gradually disappeared, and it was difficult to find traces of dragons. Later, Kong Jia (the ninth monarch of Shaokang) was able to serve God with virtue; In order to reward Kong Jia, God specially gave him four dragons, two females and two males. However, Kong Jia couldn't raise it, and he couldn't find the remnants of the Fenglong clan who had mastered the technology, so he had to let the four dragons fend for themselves.

"The ancient 'Tao Tang clan (the ancestor was Emperor Yao)' had been renamed 'Feng Wei' at that time and was in decline. There is a man named Liu Lei in the clan, who met the dragon clan by chance, and Liu Lei learned the art of the dragon from him. After completing his studies, Liu Lei went to serve Kong Jia and served as an official who tamed and raised dragons. Kong Jia finally got on the chariot driven by the four dragons and traveled around the famous rivers and worlds; In order to reward Liu Lei, and in order to be different from other clans, he specially awarded him the title of 'Royal Dragon Clan'.

Later, a female dragon unfortunately fell ill and died, and Liu Lei actually made it into a delicacy and presented it to the queen privately. The queen was full of praise for this peerless delicacy, but she didn't know that it was made of dragon meat. Soon, the queen was ill and could not eat well, so she asked Liu Lei to serve delicious food again. Liu Lei was so frightened that he did not dare to disobey his orders and refused to kill the dragon, so he had to flee the summer capital and go into exile in Lu County (near present-day Lushan County, Henan). The descendants of the Fenglong clan were sealed in the Tang Dynasty and renamed the 'Tang Du clan', and became the king of the Tang Dynasty and gave it to Shu Yu, and the Fan clan of the Jin State was the descendant of Liu Lei. The dragon technique has been lost since Liu Lei, and no one can tame the dragon. ”

Wei Jiang asked, "Since dragons were very common in ancient times, why are they almost extinct now?" ”

Cai Mo said: "Everything in the world is managed by officials, and the names and duties of officials are stipulated in the Zhou Rites and the etiquette laws of various countries. When an official is appointed, he must fulfill his duties, and if he fails to perform his duties, he will be reckless. If you lose your official position, you will lose your future, so officials must be conscientious and conscientious, so that what is managed will prosper. If a certain official is abandoned, it will be dormant and annihilated. Therefore, the highest official in the world is the Five Elements, named the Shanggong, listed as a nobleman, in charge of the society, and the most noble.

"Among the officials of the five elements, Jin Zheng is called 'Bei Shu', Mu Zheng is called 'Jumang', water is called 'Xuan Ming', fire is called 'Zhurong', and earth is called 'Hou Tu'. Later, a certain water official rebelled and was destroyed, and the first emperor abolished the Xuanming official. Dragons belong to water, and without the protection of water officials, the dragon race cannot be continued.

There is another evidence that dragons were common in ancient times, that is, there are many sentences about dragons in the "Zhou Yi"; Such as 'don't use the hidden dragon', 'the dragon has regrets', 'the flying dragon is in the sky', 'see the dragon in the field', 'the dragon fights in the wild' and so on. If dragons weren't common at the time, who could have described the scene so clearly? ”

Wei Shu asked again: "What officials did the clans of the ancient emperors belong to?" ”

Cai Mo said: "There are many people in the ancient emperor's family who serve as facial features. Shao Hao lived in Poor Sang (Qufu) at that time, and he had four brothers, namely 'Chong', 'The', 'Xiu', and 'Xi'. The four clans have been loyal to their duties for many generations and have not wasted the king's life, and the poor mulberry has grown stronger. A son of the Zhuan clan later served as Zhu Rong, and a son of the Gonggong clan served as Houtu. Houtu evolved into 'Tian Zheng' or 'She, Ji', in charge of farming and worship to the shrine gods, and before Xia, Houtu was the 'pillar' of the Lieshan clan; Zhou Zu 'Qi' also held this position, and has been worshiped to this day. ”

Wei Shu exclaimed: "The ancestors are really great, but unfortunately, we really know less and less about the ancestors. I have read a lot of ancient books, and I only know a little about things from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the present day. In a thousand years, our descendants will probably not even know about the events of our time! You can't forget your ancestors even if you count them! ”

Wei Shu soon organized a group of officials and sent them to various places to collect all kinds of scattered folk classics and anecdotes, and after returning, they were compiled into a book and stored in the treasury for people to copy and consult.

In the winter of this year, Zhao Ying and Zhongxing Yin Shuaishi built a city in Rubin, the hometown of Lu Hunrong, which was occupied by the Jin State. The two levied a car of pig iron from the locals, and after returning to China, Zhao Ying cast a tripod with iron, and the tripod was cast with the "Jin Punishment" formulated by Shi Kuo, and this tripod was guarded at the gate of the temple for the Chinese people to visit, and the tripod was also called "criminal tripod".

The Jin State thus became the second country after the Zheng State to publish a written law, with a difference of 23 years between the two countries; What Shu Xiang strongly opposed back then has now happened in the Jin Kingdom.

It is generally believed that Guan Zhong's thought already contains a large number of Legalist elements, so Legalist thought originated in the Qi State in the early Spring and Autumn Period. However, it was the Jin people who carried forward the Legalist thought. Shi Ping and Zhao Dun were the pioneers of the Jin Dynasty, especially Zhao Dun, who formulated and amended a large number of Jin laws during his reign; Shihui, Luan Shu and others inherited and carried forward the spirit of the law and turned the Jin State into a country that relied on the "Jin Law" to speak. The strength of the Jin State has a great deal to do with the implementation of the legal system.