The second year of the First Emperor

The new system has been fully announced, and all regions have begun to change their titles. Previous titles will no longer be rewarded, but those who had the titles have retained their titles and have not been abolished. Zhao Kuo's reforms directly changed the foundation of Qin. The people of Qin can no longer participate in wars and can no longer obtain titles from the battlefield. Well, or in other words, they must first become a standing army to obtain military titles.

Now, if they want to get a title, they can only use other methods, either to do farming, to be craftsmen, to study and become officials, etc. Zhao Kuo broke the restrictions on his profession. In the former Qin State, there was a list of origins to indicate what household registration this family belongs to. For example, if your household registration is a craftsman, then you can do craftsmanship with peace of mind. If you dare to do business or farm, you will be punished. Different professions cannot be linked to each other.

Zhao Kuo felt that this was not conducive to development. The reason why Qin State stipulated this in the past was to perform its own duties and to enable Qin State to develop as a whole. However, if there is peace and no war today, Zhao Kuo thought to consider more for the people. After the people were farming, they would do some small business, make a few farm tools, or sell the silk at home. Is there any problem?

Anyway, Zhao Kuo felt that there was no big problem, so let the people develop slowly by themselves and don’t deprive them of their livelihoods. As long as they don’t do anything illegal or disorderly, they’ll do it.

Next, of course, is to rectify the law. Zhao Kuo made up his mind to abolish those laws that were only suitable for wartime. When talking about the law, it is naturally impossible to avoid Han Fei. Now Han Fei is the right prime minister, and his status among all officials is only lower than that of Li Si. Well, if it is not considered the nine ministers of Zhao Kuo...... it should be like this. Zhao Kuo and Han Fei sat in the courtyard, and Zhao Kuo once again talked about the revision of the law.

Han Fei was silent for a long time. Han Fei was a very complicated person.

From the original historical line, he was an extremely complex and contradictory person. First of all, he was a firm supporter of the Legalist school. He firmly believed that only by using serious laws can the country be governed well. Historical experience told Zhao Kuo that Han Fei's insistence was correct, and law is indeed indispensable and most important for a country. Morality is only encouragement, and the law must be enforced.

However, there are some theory of Shen Buwei in Han Fei's thoughts, and Shen Buwei is also a figure of the Legalists. Moreover, this person has a great influence on the Koreans, which makes Han Fei become a good monarch. How to say, Han Fei hopes that everything will be executed under the law, but he also hopes that the king can be vigilant against the people around him and not believe them. If necessary, he can even pass the law to execute these ministers.

This is a bit contradictory, because the king's behavior is trampling on the law, the service of the law and the king, or the service of the king and the law?

The second contradiction comes from Han Fei's attitude towards the common people. Han Fei firmly believes that he cannot be too good to the people, cannot spoil them, cannot let them know too much, cannot let them think about it themselves, must firmly tie them up and make them completely obey... However, Han Fei believes that very low taxes should be implemented, reduce labor service, do not let the people be tired, and they should eat, drink and wear well.

This is also very contradictory. Is it a system formulated to make the people live better, or is it a system that allows the people to live better for the implementation of the system?

The third contradiction comes from Han Fei's attitude towards South Korea. First of all, Han Fei is a firm supporter of the unification theory. He believes that the world is suffering from war and should be unified. However, Han Fei was obsessed with South Korea in his heart, and even told the King of Qin that he did not formulate a way to attack South Korea when he unified the world. This eventually led to him being suspicious of the King of Qin and died in prison because of frame-up.

If Xunzi's charm comes from his confidence, Han Fei's charm must come from his complexity. This is a person who always struggles with contradictions.

However, when encountering Zhao Kuo, it amplified the contradictions in him, making Han Fei more complicated, but also made Han Fei find some answers. In the past, Zhao Kuo explained several questions he had raised, that the law was supreme, and the king should obey the law. The people are the foundation of the country, and all systems are for the people. Great unification must be implemented and we cannot hesitate.

Zhao Kuo agreed with the teacher's statement, but this could not stop Han Fei from thinking about himself. With such an answer, Han Fei debated himself and wrote many famous works, including the spirit of the law, the theory of kings, the theory of the country and the people. These things were enough to make Han Fei surpass his original historical status, but because the things he studied were too complicated, there were only a few people who could understand it, which also praised Han Fei as the sage of the Legalists.

Zhao Kuo eventually taught a disciple of the Legalists, but Zhao Kuo was not angry. Han Fei was such a person, stubborn and stubborn, and he could learn knowledge, but he had his own opinions and his ideas were difficult to be influenced by others. As a young man who began to think about governing South Korea in his early twenties and proposed a series of systems, no one could suppress his intelligence.

Xunzi cannot do it, nor Zhao Kuo can do it. Han Fei just turned them into the source of his own knowledge, but he will not blindly obey their knowledge. He is a person who knows how to think about himself.

Many people cannot understand Han Fei's actions and think that he is doing useless work. However, Zhao Kuo knew in his heart what Han Fei was doing. He was opening the door to a Chinese rule of law society. The things he wrote were all treasures of a nation. Think about hundreds of years later, when the social productivity reaches a certain level, someone raised Han Fei's books high and demanded that power belong to the people.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's thoughts, Han Fei said, "The law is to restrain people's behavior. Now you want to relax your management of the people. Are you not afraid that they will be unscrupulous and will destroy the interests of Qin?" Zhao Kuo replied seriously: "I don't think walking in the countryside after farming can destroy the interests of Qin... You said that you should use the law to restrain the people, but the contents of the law are formulated by people."

"Change the law according to the development of the times. You know the new saint's sayings, but why can't you do it?"

"It's not that I can't do it, I'm just worried... to execute what you said, those borers will pounce on you and drill into the hole of the law to bite the flesh and blood of the Qin Dynasty... They will not be satisfied. When we leave, they will follow the practice you have to surrender to the law and constantly reduce the constraints of the law on the world... For borers like Confucianism, they only know to just please the king, and they will get the support of the king, and then the law becomes worthless in front of the powerful."

"After the great unification, the king has no opponent and is unique. He has no need to respect the ministers. The emperor has a strong power, so the ministers don't have to find ways to do things. As long as they get the favor of the king, they can even be an incompetent villain. I just worry that one day, the king will act recklessly, and there is nothing to restrict him or restrain him. The ministers will act recklessly based on the favor of the king. The king will make the ministers kneel down and wait for the orders..."

"The ministers do not want to establish achievements, but just think about how to get the favor of the king and speculate on the king's intentions... The wealthy local families bully the people and destroy the foundation of the country by making friends with these ministers. If they meet a wise king, the ministers cannot rely on his favor, and the local tyrants cannot rely on the power of the ministers, then the country can continue. If a mediocre king, from top to bottom, it will be extremely chaotic... the country will definitely perish."

"All I can think of is a strict law and a perfect system. Now that you want to open a vacancy in the law, I am afraid that in the future, the Legalists will completely decline, and those borers and the national measurement standards will become the personal hobbies of the kings. Moreover, this destructive power will become increasingly greater, and there will be dynasties constantly appearing, constantly destruction, and cycle back and forth, and countless disasters... This is essentially because of power."

"The law restricts everyone, from the people to the king, today's emperors do things overbearing and no longer take the law seriously. He privately ordered the disposal of local officials and did not obey the law. This is wrong. As the first king, he should attach importance to the law, set an example, and even leave orders. People in later generations must follow it. I always persuade him to go against him. Although he did not say it clearly, he already felt a little disgusted with me."

"You are determined to help those people open the gap in the law. You are my teacher and I respect you very much, but I can't understand what to do in the future world... What should we do to restrain everyone, and what should we do to maintain long-term peace..." Han Fei raised his head, his face full of worries about the future, and his eyes were filled with deep sadness.

Han Fei talked more and more, but Zhao Kuo couldn't help but tremble. He looked at the man in front of him in fear.

For a long time, Zhao Kuo always regarded Han Fei as a feudal remnant, or an extremely feudal person, because he was the only one who would oppose Zhao Kuo's new policy, and his thoughts were so backward in Zhao Kuo's opinion. However, when he heard Han Fei's words today, Zhao Kuo almost knelt down. When everyone was studying the problems of slavery society and wanted to take the society further, this person had already begun to study the problems of feudal society...

Zhao Kuo always thought that he was limited by the times, but now, Zhao Kuo felt that Han Fei was not limited by the times. He skipped the era directly. He seemed to close his eyes, staring at China a thousand years later, and then began to think about how to help future generations. What kind of monster is this!!?

Zhao Kuo took a deep breath and asked, "Since you want to use the law to restrain the king, why advocate the theory of Shen Buwei? Encourage the king to use power to increase his power? Isn't this conflict with your ideas?"

"No, I advocate the theory of Shinbuwei, not to increase the power of the king, but to make the king not favor any ministers, and be wary of them, so as not to act recklessly through the king's favor."

"Then you oppose the enlightenment of people's wisdom because..."

"I am afraid that there will be too many powerful people at the bottom... Once these people appear, they will become borers of the country, and they will squeeze blood from the people and drink hard..."

"No, I'm opening up people's wisdom to break the monopoly of knowledge. If I don't do this, it will lead to a situation where the powerful monopoly of knowledge..."

"No, on the basis of having a title and unequal status among Chinese people, universal education cannot break the monopoly at all, but will create a larger monopoly!"

"No, I set that those who study can get titles, which is the best way for the people! Without this, the common people will never be able to move up in their lives..."

"I can't become a powerful man in my life, right?"

"No, I can only be bullied by the powerful for the rest of my life."

"That's right, so I agreed with you at the beginning."

The master and apprentice sat quietly. Zhao Kuo suddenly said: "There is no perfect system, and in different eras, the system will continue to change. After us, there will be more people on this land, such as you and me, who will find ways to solve these problems. What I do now is what I can do the most. I have no other way. I have a lot of ideas in my mind, but it is impossible to achieve this now."

"Teacher, I understand, the older I am, the more surprised I am... There may be many Han Fei on this land, but there will definitely not be another Marquis of Wu Cheng. In the next two thousand years, it will never happen again..." Han Fei said seriously.

"No, if you say it wrong, there will be many people who are better than me."

"And you... have only one. I can tell you with certainty that based on what you said to me today, I can confirm that there will never be a second Han Fei again in the next two thousand." Zhao Kuo looked at the proud disciple in front of him and said very seriously.

"Teacher, the reason I have told you so much is to advise you not to destroy the binding power of the law." Han Fei said seriously. At this moment, he changed from the saint who was worried about the country and the people to the old-fashioned saint of the Legalist sage. Zhao Kuo frowned, but no longer became as angry as usual. He said calmly: "No, the binding power of the law will not be destroyed. I will find a way. The emperor, I will tell him to obey the law..."

"But now, the scope of the law is too wide, which has really affected the normal life of the people, especially for the people of the six countries, they cannot tolerate such a life at all. The six countries have just been destroyed. If someone is determined to make trouble with the dissatisfaction of the people, it is probably a problem. The newly unified world must not go through war again... Otherwise, I will be gone at that time... who will protect the people?"

Han Fei widened his eyes and looked at the white-haired teacher in front of him, feeling sad.

"Okay, I'll help you revise the new law."
Chapter completed!