Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Three Theory of Punishment and Reward for Loyalty
Inside the Gongyuan.
Let us say that Su Shi and Su Che were chatting with Lu Yao in their dormitory and asked about Lu Yao's ambition to become an official in the court in the future.
Lu Yao thought about it for a while, because he really didn't know whether Su Shi would stand with him in the future, so even if he was a great talent, Lu Yao did not intend to tell the truth. However, due to Su Shi's sincere eyes,
Lu Yao could only find a different topic.
"As for ambition, I can't talk about it. However, after I take the imperial examination, I have something big to do." Lu Yao said with a slight smile.
Su Shi and Su Che also became interested upon hearing this. Su Shi asked, "We brothers must know about this. Isn't it just a new Cuju competition?"
Su Che also echoed: "What I'm saying is that this year's palace examination has been postponed until after the Cuju competition. It seems that the emperor still attaches great importance to this competition. This move is to attract more people.
Let’s watch the game.”
I have to say that when it comes to political sense, Su Che and Su Shi are indeed not much different.
Lu Yao smiled and said: "Listening to what you said, you two are really determined to succeed in this exam. This tone is obviously telling me that you will definitely enter the palace exam."
Su Che was young and frivolous, so he said: "That's natural. How can the talents of the two of us be compared to those guys with less talent and less knowledge?"
Su Che certainly had his merit when he said this, but his voice was a bit loud, and there were more than just the three of them in the dormitory. When he said this, the other seven people all looked at Su Shi and Su Che.
.
Su Shi also felt that something was wrong, and immediately gave Su Che a cold look, then smiled at the other seven, turned back to Lu Yao and said: "Brother Lu, your thoughts are all on this new Cuju competition now."
, aren’t there other things worthy of your attention?”
Lu Yao said: "No, actually you two are wrong. The big event I just mentioned is not actually the new Cuju competition. The competition is naturally important, but the big event I mentioned is actually a big event.
A very personal matter."
Su Che was confused, but Su Shi had already guessed it and said, "I know, it must be your marriage to Han Yunyu, the eldest daughter of the family of Master Han Yong, the Minister of Finance."
Lu Yao smiled and said: "Exactly, according to the normal time, we should be able to propose marriage after the imperial examination. However, now that the imperial examination has been postponed, I am really in trouble."
What was difficult was that Lu Yao had already made a decision in his heart, but he just wanted to use his marriage to distract Su Shi from the topic.
Regarding love, as a native of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi can be said to be a master of love, so in his opinion, Lu Yao now has some confusion, so he naturally wants to provide help, and the topic naturally continues with Lu Yao.
Su Shi said: "What's so difficult about this? The results of the provincial examination will basically be announced about ten days after the end of the examination. Those who do not have enough scores will naturally be eliminated. As long as they are within the passing line, they will be eliminated."
Everyone has the opportunity to participate in the palace examination. Although this palace examination will determine the final ranking on the gold list, as long as you perform normally in this provincial examination, you should get a good ranking in the palace examination. I think with Brother Lu’s literary talent, I think
It's really easy to pass the provincial examination. Once the results of the provincial examination come out, Brother Lu can propose marriage, and when the palace examination is over, he can officially get married. It's such a simple matter."
Indeed, the method Su Shi mentioned was actually the countermeasure that Lu Yao had already thought up. Although Han Yonghe was a very traditional person and attached great importance to being well-matched, Lu Yao relied on his previous achievements and financial resources.
Han Yonghe must also be considered.
After passing the provincial examination, he went to propose marriage, and waited until the palace examination was over before officially getting married. I guess Han Yonghe wouldn't say much.
However, when it comes to marriage, another person's name appears in Lu Yao's mind, that is, Cao Han.
I don’t know, what is she doing now? I asked Pan Wen to give the letter to Cao Yu. Did Cao Yu tell Cao Han about it?
Now Lu Yao is in the Gongyuan, taking part in the most important exam for ancient students. What he is thinking about at this time is romantic affairs. It is really unprecedented and unprecedented.
Su Shi and Su Che didn't know what Lu Yao was thinking. They saw him looking up at the roof in a daze. Su Shi called Lu Yao again.
Only then did Lu Yao come back to his senses. He first affirmed the advice Su Shi gave him, and then said that he was a little sleepy and wanted to sleep. The two brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe said nothing more, and the three of them fell asleep one after another.
Got off.
This is Lu Yao's first day of the provincial exam. The exam time flies by really fast. There are still two days left before the provincial exam will be over.
The second day of the exam.
After getting up early in the morning, like other candidates, Lu Yao entered the examination room after breakfast and started the next day's examination.
The content of the exam on the second day is mainly about essays. In modern terms, it is a propositional essay, which usually requires candidates to comment on various allusions or a certain historical figure recorded in classics and history. For propositional essays, Lu Yao is still very interested.
It was easy, but when he saw today's test questions, Lu Yao was startled. With the corner of his eye, he looked at Su Shi, who was sitting behind and to his right.
Today’s topic is “On Punishment and Reward, Honesty and Honesty”, which is quoted from Kong Anguo’s annotation in “Shangshu”: “In punishment for suspicion, the punishment should be light, and in reward and suspicion, follow the crowd, and honesty is the ultimate.” In today’s terms, this topic is “On Suspicious Crime”
Take it easy".
The reason why Lu Yao was surprised by this topic was because he remembered Professor Liu who taught Lu Yao's course when he was studying Chinese language and literature in college. In modern terms, Professor Liu should be regarded as Su Shi's
I am a die-hard fan of Su Shi and highly admire Su Shi’s poems and articles. Among them, there is an article "On the Perfection of Honesty in Punishments and Rewards". I remember that the teacher once told me that when Su Shi wrote this article, the author of that article was
The examiner is Ouyang Xiu.
Moreover, Professor Liu at that time also left the article as a class assignment and asked the whole class to recite and translate it. At this time, Lu Yao began to recall carefully. It was obvious that he could not remember the whole article clearly, but some of it was
He can still recite some fragments.
- "Biography" says: "Reward those who have doubts and obey them, so they are generous; punish those who have doubts and obey them, so they are cautious about punishment. In the time of Yao, Gaotao was a scholar. When he wanted to kill someone, Gaotao said "kill him" three times, and Yao
It is said "forgiveness" three. Therefore, the world is afraid of Gaotao's firmness in enforcing the law, but is happy with Yao's lenient punishment. Siyue said "Gun can use it", Yao said "no, Gun ordered the Yi tribe", and then said "try it".
How could Yao not listen to Gao Tao's killing, but use Gun from the Four Mountains? However, the meaning of the sage can also be seen.
"Book" says: "The suspicion of crime is only light, and the suspicion of merit is serious. Rather than killing innocent people, it is better to lose everything." Oh, let's do it. You can reward it, you can not reward it. Rewarding is more than benevolence; you can punish it, you can do it.
There is no punishment, and the punishment exceeds righteousness. If it exceeds benevolence, it will not be regarded as a gentleman; if it exceeds righteousness, it will flow into the forbearance. Therefore, benevolence can be exceeded, and righteousness cannot be exceeded. In ancient times, rewards were not given with honors and honors, and punishments were not punished with saws.
.Rewarding with juelu means that the way of reward is to do what juelu adds, but not to do what juelu does. To punish with sword and saw, it means that the power of punishment is applied to the areas that the sword and saw can reach, but not to the areas that the sword and saw cannot reach.
Ye. The former kings knew that the good in the world cannot be rewarded, but titles and salaries are not enough to persuade them; they know that the evil in the world cannot be punished, but swords and saws are not enough to cut them off. Therefore, if you have doubts, you should point them out to benevolence, and treat the world as a gentleman and an elder.
, so that the world can follow the path of the gentleman and the elder. Therefore, it is said: the ultimate in loyalty.
"Poetry" says: "A gentleman behaves well, and the common people are confused. A gentleman is angry, and the common people are confused." When a gentleman is in chaos, how can he have any other skills? When he is happy and angry, he does not lose his benevolence.
The meaning of "Spring and Autumn" is that legislation requires strictness, and responsibilities require leniency. Because of its meaning of praise and blame, it is used to control rewards and punishments, and it is also the most loyal.
This article is not long, but in Lu Yao's view, this article is nothing more than a reference material given to him by Su Shi. Of course, in addition to Su Shi, there is also Professor Liu. If it weren't for him,
If all students were forced to memorize this article, Lu Yao would not be able to use it now.
With this article as a reference, this exam was completely an open-book exam for Lu Yao.
In this article, Su Shi bases his argument on loyalty, quoting the example of ancient benevolent people who implemented punishments and rewards based on loyalty, and elaborated on the Confucian thought of benevolent government.
The full text is concise and easy to understand, with rigorous structure and thorough reasoning. The examiner Ouyang Xiu believes that this article has escaped the unrefined and difficult style since the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, and he appreciates it very much. He once said, "I can't help but sweat after reading Shi's calligraphy. It's so good! I'm sure
Avoid this person and let go of the land."
Although the argument written by Su Shi in this article is very outstanding, Lu Yao definitely cannot use this article directly for his own use, otherwise it will definitely be regarded as the same as the test paper. Therefore, Lu Yao decided to write the article written by Su Shi first.
This article was translated in my mind in vernacular, and combined with my own understanding of the four words "give a lighter punishment for suspected crimes."
In fact, in Lu Yao's view, the most insightful part of Su Shi's article is the section "Book says", which translated roughly means as follows:
"Shangshu" said: "When there is doubt about the seriousness of the crime, it is better to be dealt with lightly; when there is doubt about the merit, it is better to be rewarded heavily. Rather than killing innocent people by mistake, it is better to commit the error of law enforcement." Alas! This sentence fully expresses
It means loyalty. When you can reward or not, reward is too kind; when you can punish or not, punishment is beyond justice. Being too kind is not a gentleman; going beyond justice is cruelty.
.So, kindness can be exceeded, but righteousness and law cannot be exceeded. The ancients did not use titles and salaries for rewards, and saws were not used for punishment. Rewards using titles and salaries only work for those who can get titles and salaries, and cannot affect those who cannot get titles and salaries.
People with a salary can use knives and saws as instruments of torture. It only works on people who are subjected to this kind of punishment, but not on people who are not subject to this kind of punishment. The ancient monarchs knew that the good deeds in the world are endlessly rewarded, and they cannot all be rewarded with titles and salaries.
Reward; I also know that the world's sins cannot be punished all, and they cannot be punished with swords and saws. Therefore, when there is any doubt about rewards and punishments, treat it with kindness. Treat the people of the world with the generosity and kindness of a gentleman and an elder, so that everyone in the world will follow suit.
Back to the way of loyalty and benevolence of the gentleman and elders, so this is the extreme of loyalty and punishment!
Lu Yao felt that to answer this question, he should not only refer to Su Shi's article, but also combine it with his own modern thoughts. In fact, the concept of lighter punishment for suspicion has gradually become a common practice, both in ancient and modern times.
Legal principles, in fact, have changed from acquitting the crime beyond doubt, to aggravating the crime beyond doubt, and then to abrogating guilt beyond doubt in our country in modern times. This is undoubtedly the progress of the rule of law and the progress of human rights.
However, Lu Yao knew very well that he was now in the examination room of the Song Dynasty, and he must give his answer based on the actual situation.
After thinking about it for a while, Lu Yao finally started to write.
Different from the first day of the exam, the first person to hand in the paper in the examination room today was Su Shi. This is also reasonable. Su Shi wrote in one go without any modifications. His article will be remembered in later generations.
It became a masterpiece.
Lu Yao was the second person to hand in his papers and leave. When leaving the examination room and going to the rest area, Lu Yao continued to recall the interesting things about this article that Professor Liu had mentioned before.
Let us say that Ouyang Xiu presided over the provincial examination and asked the poet Mei Shengyu to review the papers. After reading this article, Mei thought it was "Mencius style" and recommended it to Ouyang Xiu. At this time, Zeng Gong, a corporal of Ouyang Xiu's family, was also taking the examination. They thought this article was
Excellent, it may be Zeng Gong's work. Ouyang Xiu did not dare to rank it as the first in order to avoid suspicion, so he demoted it to the second. However, the example of the mutual restriction of criminal law between Yao and Gaotao cited in the article is unknown. It will be asked by Su Shi.
He, Su Shi said with a smile: It's natural. He actually made it up to deceive the examiner. Because of his talent, Ou Mei didn't mind. The actual example quoted is from "Book of Rites: Prince Wen Wang Shizi", and it is an example of Duke Zhou.
When Su Shi was about to take the exam, he mistakenly recorded it as something about Yao. The good guy didn't know the source, so he embellished it and created this fable.
In any case, this article, "On the Perfection of Punishments and Rewards," can be regarded as Su Shi's famous work. Whether it is from the perspective of composition or the meaning of the thoughts it wants to elucidate, it is unparalleled in ancient times. For
On this point, Lu Yao admired Su Shi from the bottom of his heart.
When Lu Yao came to the lounge, he saw Su Shi sitting in it. Lu Yao originally thought that Su Shi, who wrote such a famous article, would be sitting there with a very high-spirited expression. However, Lu Yao saw
The scene was not like that. He saw Su Shi sitting there with his brows furrowed and his eyes closed. He looked very nervous.
Lu Yao recalled Su Shi's article and the interesting things that happened later, and then he realized and understood why Su Shi was nervous at this time. It was because some of the examples in this article were actually made up by Su Shi.
It's not what really happened. That's why Su Shi became so nervous now.
However, this small problem can only hide the flaws, Lu Yao thought so in his heart, but ancient students have always pursued perfection, and Su Shi was no exception. Even if he can tell the fabricated things frankly in the future, but now he has just handed in the paper
, I still feel very uneasy.
So, Lu Yao walked up and said, "What's wrong with Brother Dongpo? He's looking sad."
Su Shi opened his eyes and saw that Lu Yao was here. In Su Shi's opinion, Lu Yao was a great talent, but for him, he was ashamed to say anything to Lu Yao about his mistake in writing the article just now, so he could only say: "
It’s nothing, I just suddenly remembered that I should add something to the article I just wrote, and I feel a little regretful.”
Lu Yao naturally knew why Su Shi was like this, but he continued to be friends after seeing through it without telling him. So Lu Yao changed his direction and comforted Su Shi, saying: "Brother Su, don't be so upset. In my impression, whether you are composing poems or
Writing has always been done in one go, no matter what the occasion. Why have I become less confident now that I am in this Gongyuan? And now that the test paper has been handed in, there is no use thinking about it anymore. It is better to do it well.
Prepare to face the next exam, what do you think?"
After Lu Yao's persuasion, Su Shi felt much better.
At noon, Lu Yao followed Su Shi and Su Zhe and accompanied the large group of candidates to the canteen in the Gongyuan. For other students, this was their second time to eat in the canteen, but these three students, Lu Yao, Su Shi and Su Zhe,
Man, this is the first time that I have been to the cafeteria of Gongyuan and ate with other students.
Originally, Lu Yao thought that this kind of food should be just like that. It couldn't be so delicious. After all, it was a big pot meal, so he could just eat whatever he wanted. It was better to cook it himself in the evening and make something good to eat.
.
But I didn't expect that the dishes provided to Lu Yao in this cafeteria taste really good. As mentioned before, in the Song Dynasty, salt and other strong seasonings were not often used when eating, so every dish was prepared and eaten.
It tasted like clear soup with little water and no flavor, so Lu Yao had no choice but to cook it himself, heavy on oil and salt.
However, the food Lu Yao ate in the canteen today was a bit heavy in taste. To Lu Yao, it tasted like a normal amount of salt used in modern dishes, but in the Song Dynasty, it would have been heavy on salt.
Lu Yao tasted good, and because Su Shi and Su Zhe had eaten the food cooked by Lu Yao last night, they were able to accept the strong food in the cafeteria. However, the other students present seemed to think that the food was a little bit...
Salty.
Lu Yao briefly thought about it and understood why more salt is used in cooking in this cafeteria. Because these students must have been under tension and high pressure these days. Under such circumstances, physical strength and energy are required.
It is very easy to overdraw, so at this time, it is even more necessary to add some salt and strong-flavored things to cheer up the students, so as to ensure that they will not be distracted and concentrate during the exam. Moreover, eat salt.
Too much will make students feel thirsty, which also increases the amount of water the students drink and ensures the moisture in their bodies.
Thinking of this, Lu Yao had to admire the ancient imperial examination system. Even the small food supply had been adjusted accordingly. Because of the taste, Lu Yao felt that the food cooked in the canteen tasted better.
In the middle and upper class, if he had known this at the beginning, there would actually be no need for Lu Yao to bring that big bag of food and cook the food himself.
After dinner, Lu Yao handled the afternoon exam easily, and the next day's exam passed just like that.
That night, just like the previous day, Lu Yao took Su Shi and Su Zhe to the kitchen after all the candidates had finished eating. This time they did not need to lead the way. However, when Lu Yao arrived and left the kitchen, he still saw the students from the previous day.
The examiner. Needless to say, this person must have liked the food prepared by Lu Yao, and he has been waiting here early in the morning.
Lu Yao didn't hesitate and started cooking.
Compared with the dishes on the first day, Lu Yao used the remaining ingredients in the canteen to add two more dishes today, including a braised fish dish, which Su Shi was full of praise for.
After the meal, just like before, Lu Yao served everyone a cup of sour plum soup. After everyone drank it, Lu Yao called Su Shi and poured him another bowl. Obviously, this bowl of sour plum soup was made by Lu Yao.
Yao left it specially for Su Shi.
"Brother Lu, what are you..." Su Shi asked with a smile.
Lu Yao waved his hand and said, "This bowl is for you to stop thinking about the exam this morning, go back and sleep well, and prepare for tomorrow's exam."
Su Shi understood that Lu Yao was comforting himself with this bowl of sour plum soup, and he couldn't help but feel warm in his heart, and drank the bowl of sour plum soup.
However, the meaning of the bowl of sour plum soup given by Lu Yao to Su Shi was naturally not what Su Shi understood. For Lu Yao, no matter how he combined modern thoughts, in the end, the examination essay he wrote, whether in terms of structure or the thoughts expressed,
Thirty to forty percent of the above are based on Su Shi's classic masterpiece. Therefore, this bowl of sour plum soup should be regarded as Lu Yao's own gratitude to Su Shi.
After dinner, the three of them returned to the dormitory together. Unlike yesterday, everyone was very familiar with each other today. Everyone who had not chatted much last night had already started chatting today. Moreover, the topics they chatted about were naturally
That is to say, it is about the exam of this day, and the most talked about topic today is naturally the topic of punishment and reward, loyalty.
However, these seven people had some disagreements over whether the suspected crime should be acquitted or given a lighter sentence. When Lu Yao and the other three came back, they were in the middle of a quarrel.
These people didn't have a good impression of Lu Yao, but they still recognized the talents of Su Shi and Su Che. Seeing these two people coming in, they immediately called them over, wanting to hear their thoughts.
Su Shi and Su Che both stood on the side of the lighter punishment.
As for Lu Yao, he got into bed early and didn't want to pay attention to their debate.
