The world is getting worse and worse, but people's hearts are not as old as ever.

It means that the world is gradually deteriorating, and people's minds are no longer as simple and kind as the ancients, but are full of deception and hypocrisy.

I have to say that Meng Zhong's words happened to touch Zhuangzi's heart.

This is the reason why Zhuangzi tried his best to advocate "returning the world to the era of ancient saints" and even persuaded him to abandon unnecessary things such as "intelligence" and "scheming".

"But... can you go back?" Meng Zhong asked Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi remained silent.

Although he did not want to admit it, the fact is that his thoughts were simply not enough to shake the world.

Just as Zhuangzi was silent, Meng Zhong said carefully: "Master, I think this may be 'God'?"

"How to say it?"

Zhuangzi looked at Meng Zhong after hearing this, wanting to hear what this disciple has to say about this.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong thought about it for a while and said, "I think that the 'principal evil' lies in selfishness and constant property."

Selfishness, as the name suggests, refers to fixed industries belonging to individuals, such as wealth, land, etc.

During the Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang periods, the resident family belonged to the entire clan or tribe. Men cultivated land and hunted, women worked for mulberry and weaving cloth, and the whole world was very harmonious.

However, once people have selfish intentions, this harmonious situation is broken.

The Zhou royal family followed the Zhou rituals and promoted the well-field system, which actually hoped to achieve harmony in the ancient sages under the monarchy. [PS: Here, Zhuangzi's resistance to the monarchy was to resist the difference between the "excessive" etiquette under the monarchy and the deliberately particular class, not to resist the "king governing the people" model.]

However, in modern times, the well-field system has basically collapsed, and there are two main reasons.

One reason is "public fields".

The so-called public land was first used by the Zhou royal family to set an example and to ask the princes to set an example and persuade the people of the world to work hard to farm. The harvest of public land would be used to worship ancestors and gods.

But after several generations, both the Zhou royal family and the princes of various countries had gradually given up farming themselves, and instead asked the people to farm - and they were not rewarded.

At this time, people in the world already have selfish intentions. Who would do such a profitless thing?

As a result, the public land gradually became deserted, while the princes and the people privately cultivated the "private land" that was not recognized was increasing.

Lu was the first to admit that "private land belongs to permanent property", and Lu became stronger because of this incident.

Later, the princes followed suit and made the country reform and recognized that the land belonged to the permanent property of individuals (or clans), thus completely disintegrating the well-field system of "farming and eating together", and the "those who do not work cannot eat" model turned into "more work and more gains, less work and less gains", and the selfishness of the world quickly expanded.

"Confucius once said that those who have countries and families should not worry about lack of worries but unevenness, and not poverty but uneasiness. Once people have selfish intentions, they will start to care. However, under the system of well fields, some people do more, some people do less, some people are diligent and down-to-earth, and some people are cheating, but they get the same amount. How long can such an "unfair" system last?... Therefore, students think that the collapse of the system of well fields is inevitable, or is inevitable under the operation of the way of heaven." Meng Zhong said seriously.

When Zhuangzi heard this, he picked up a pen and wrote on a bamboo slip: Therefore, we must advocate that the world abandon its intentions.

Meng Zhong thought about it after seeing the bamboo plaque and said, "In the past, two people went to Jixia Academy in Qi to study. One of them was from Lu. Because their family was poor, they used pickles and porridge to fill their hunger every day. However, the Song people were rich and had continuous wine and food every day. Because the two of them had a good relationship on weekdays, one day, the Song people saw that the people of Lu ate pickles and cold porridge every day, so they asked the servants to prepare a basket of wine and food and ordered them to give it to the people of Lu.

The people of Lu thanked the people of Song for their kindness, but politely rejected the wine and dishes.

When the Song people asked him the reason, the Lu people replied: Because I have never eaten good food, I can still swallow pickles and cold porridge every day. If I eat the delicious wine and vegetables you gave me today, can I still swallow these pickles and cold porridge after tomorrow?

...

Master, the people under the rule of ancient sages have not yet been civilized, so people can live in harmony with each other, and people and beasts can live in harmony. But in today's world, people's hearts are strange and changeable. Do you hope that the people of the world will abandon their intentions? Isn't it that after eating delicious food, the Lu people asked him to eat pickles and cold porridge again? The boy believes that people without great perseverance cannot do it at all. If everyone can do it, then wouldn't everyone be Zhuangzi?"

After hearing Meng Zhong's words, Zhuangzi closed his eyes and sighed.

Although the disciple gave him a little compliment at the end, he was not happy at all because the example given by this disciple was so thorough.

Yes, human nature is to "get" and "possess" rather than "giving up" and "paying".

Those who have tasted delicious food may no longer be able to swallow the cold porridge of pickles; those who have tasted power may no longer be able to give up power; even if a sage with "wisdom" is willing to give up his wisdom?

Seeing Zhuangzi sighing, Meng Zhong said carefully: "My Taoist thoughts are applicable to ancient times, but I'm afraid... they are not very suitable for contemporary use."

Hearing this, Zhuangzi opened his eyes and looked at Meng Zhong, raised his hand and wrote on a bamboo card: Hui Shi once laughed at me for this.

Then, Zhuangzi wrote down what happened between him and Huizi on an empty bamboo slip - this was also the first time Zhuangzi accidentally revealed his connections in front of a dream.

The cause of the incident was that the King of Wei rewarded Hui Shi with some gourd seeds. Hui Shi planted these gourd seeds and harvested some big gourds.

Later, when he saw Zhuangzi, he used these big gourds to tease Zhuangzi's thoughts, saying that he had made these big gourds into containers for scooping water, but the walls of the gourds were too thin to bear the weight of their own (adding water), and it was easy to break. Even if it was cut into a scoop, it was too big, and it didn't take such a big gourd to scoop water, wine, and soup. He thought it carefully and felt that although the gourd was big, it was large and useless, so he broke it with a hammer and threw it away.

Zhuangzi understood at a glance: This is mocking me!

So Zhuangzi also told a story, saying that there was a family in the State of Song who squatted by the river for generations to wash silk cotton. Because they learned to make a skin care ointment, they could avoid frostbite after applying medicine by hand. Later, a guest came to visit the family and paid a high price of 100 gold to buy the secret recipe for pharmaceuticals.

The whole family of the Song people felt that they had worked hard to earn a few dollars in a year. Now, if they sold the secret recipe for ointment, they could earn a hundred dollars in a day. So they sold the secret recipe.

After this guest bought the secret recipe, he traveled to Wu Kingdom and met Wu King and gained trust. Later, Yue Kingdom invaded Wu Kingdom and the King of Wu sent him to lead his army to participate in the winter water battle. His soldiers all applied skin care ointment and did not have frostbite in his hands and feet, so he defeated Yue Kingdom's army. The King of Wu thanked him and gave him land and was granted a marquis. You see, the same hand did not crack, one was a big use, one was a big use, the other was a small use, and the other was a small use, and the silk cotton would never be able to be washed in the whole life. [PS: This allusion comes from Zhuangzi's "Xiaoyaoyou".]

Seeing Zhuangzi looking at him with eyes fixed on his eyes after writing this story, Meng Zhong was stunned and asked in confusion: "Is the Master worried that the students would think that my Taoist thought was useless? On the contrary, the students believed that if Confucianism produced a gentleman, and I, Taoism produced a sage."

"Confucianism produces gentlemen, Taoism produces sages?"

Zhuangzi blinked his eyes and felt very helpful, but he still picked up his pen and wrote a few words on the bamboo plaque to correct Meng Zhong's statement: There are no sages in Taoism, only sages in the wild.

Yes, unlike Confucianism who advocates benevolence and righteousness and praises saints, Taoism emphasizes "the sage is nameless", so it never praises sages.

"What the Master said is very much." Meng Zhong bowed.

Then, the master and apprentice once again turned the topic back to the two aspects of "Confucianism" and "clever and false".

During this period, Meng Zhong said to Zhuangzi: "Because it was impossible to pursue in the past, my Taoist thought may not be applicable to the current secular world. At this time, Confucianism advocated the 'ritual system' and used 'ritual system' to restrain the world. Students thought that there were also advantages... In the past, Bole trained horses, and because the horse king was unruly, the rest of the horse herd did not surrender. At that time, two people offered advice to Bole. One said that if you kill the horse king in front of the horse herd, the horse horse would be afraid and obedient. The other person said that as long as you forcefully put shackles on the horse king, the horse king and the horse would obedient over the time.... The Master thought that it would be better to kill the horse king or to put shackles on the horse?"

Zhuangzi looked at Meng Zhong deeply. Of course, Meng Zhong's fable implies the Legalists and Confucianism.

From the perspective of his original heart, he certainly thought it would be best to release the horses - this is Taoist thought, but in the case of "Taoism is not applicable to the current world", compared with Legalism and Confucianism alone, Zhuangzi had to admit that Confucianism's "ritual governance" is better.

After all, although Legalists and Confucianism are both for the purpose of maintaining national stability, the essence of Legalists is coercion, shock, and "make people afraid". Confucianism's "ritual governance" is nothing more than using benevolence, righteousness, etiquette and morality to restrain the world - one is killed, and the other is erased from the edges. If you choose between these two, Zhuangzi can only choose Confucianism.

That night, Zhuang Bo learned that Zhuangzi and Meng Zhong were debating in the main house today, so he smiled and asked, "Teacher, what do you think of Meng Zhong as a son?"

Zhuangzi pondered for a moment, picked up his pen and wrote on the bamboo plaque: It is very wise and extraordinary.

Seeing that Zhuangzi actually gave Meng Zhong such a high evaluation, Zhuang Bo was quite surprised. In addition, he told Zhuangzi all the things he had learned about Meng Zhong in the past few days.

For example, when Meng Zhong was born, he had a strange phenomenon, and he did not cry or make a fuss, which was different from ordinary people.

For example, when Meng Zhong was studying in a rural school within his Mongolian clan, he was quite studious and had already finished reading the Analects of Confucius at a young age.

Hearing this, Zhuangzi suddenly realized: I said, how did this kid understand Confucianism so well?

Thinking of this, he fell into deep thought again.

Although Zhuangzi had to admit that Confucianism's "trick" may have its advantages through communication with Meng Zhong today, he still instinctively resisted Confucianism.

But the problem is that, in addition to Taoism, Confucianism has the greatest influence on Meng Zhong, which makes Zhuangzi a little worried.

If Zhuang Zhou did his best and finally taught a Confucian disciple, wouldn’t that make the world laugh?

After thinking about it, Zhuang Zhou decided to teach Meng Zhong the knowledge of other schools other than Taoism, hoping to underestimate Meng Zhong's favorability to Confucianism.

But, which academic school should be taught?

After stroking his beard, Zhuangzi had an idea in his mind.

Famous artist!
Chapter completed!