It can be said that he has lived the kind of life he most longed for.
Because he has a group of friends around him, a group of like-minded friends who can keep the same thinking and stance as him and share many common topics.
There are even dozens of talented young people who agree with many of Xu Jiazhuang's ideas and have become his loyal followers, viewing him as their righteous elder brother and teacher.
For example, Gu Yanwu from Kunshan, Wang Fuzhi from Hengyang, Chen Chen from Huzhou, etc. These outstanding young people follow Qian Chengzhi almost every day, walking on the streets in a mighty manner, and they look quite impressive, which makes Qian Chengzhi never look back.
I feel deserted and lonely.
Even if he meets a group of Confucian scholars face to face and a verbal dispute breaks out, Qian Chengzhi is not afraid that his side will be at a disadvantage, because he is also surrounded by a large number of people. Who is afraid of whom in a verbal dispute?
Even if you take out a stick and start doing it like a gangster, there is no need to be afraid.
This is the confidence that comes from strength in numbers.
If there are fewer like-minded people around you, or even just a few isolated people, even if you have mastered the most correct truth, you will still feel guilty and unsure. In other words, the number of people represents the amount of truth. What is "truth mastery"?
It's useless in the hands of a few people. After all, this society is made up of people, and it is people who decide whether it is the truth or not.
Now Qian Chengzhi is more confident and more confident, and his adherence to Xujiazhuang's philosophy has become even firmer.
The only drawback is that his wallet is a bit heavy, and his salary of more than two thousand silver dollars per year is not enough. Fortunately, after the village owner Xu Yuan learned about his situation, he approved a special fund of five thousand silver dollars per year. If he does it
The benefits will increase. After all, you have to be willing to spend money in the field of public opinion warfare. As long as more people agree with Xujiazhuang's philosophy, the benefits in the future will definitely be much greater than this small amount of publicity funds.
Therefore, this made Qian Chengzhi even more motivated and wanted to achieve greater results.
So he proposed the idea of holding a face-to-face debate conference on the Purple Mountain in Nanjing.
A huge venue needs to be arranged.
Use the audio equipment provided by Xujiazhuang.
It must be able to accommodate at least 100,000 live spectators.
The debate was held from April 20th to the 29th, lasting ten days.
Debate a topic every day.
Not only will the performance of both parties be recorded throughout the entire process, but after the debate on stage, the audience will also be asked to vote to determine who wins.
In short, we must use this face-to-face and tough method to argue with Confucianism, be tough and tough, and have a fair fight to see who represents the truth more?
Qian Chengzhi's suggestions and plans were approved by Xujiazhuang's senior management, and 300,000 silver dollars were allocated and a professional team was sent to Nanjing to prepare for the debate.
Naturally, after the "Challenge" was announced, the literati who swore to defend Confucianism to the death accepted the challenge one after another and gathered in Nanjing.
However, regarding the rules of the debate competition, the selection of the audience, and the selection of the debate topic, the two sides had another confrontation in the newspaper. Finally, on April 15, a set of specific plans acceptable to both sides was discussed.
Mainly three core contents:
First, there are ten debate topics, Tianxia Confucianism and Xujiazhuang each provide five, no matter what the topic is.
Secondly, there are 100,000 spectators, and each side organizes 50,000 people, regardless of their status.
Third, when voting determines the winner, anonymous voting is adopted, and any audience’s voting choice is not allowed to be interfered with.
After this competition plan was announced.
Stable.
All the Confucian scholars felt that it was stable and they would definitely win this time.
"Xujiazhuang despises us so much that he dares to let us choose the theme at will. Haha, as long as we pursue Xujiazhuang in terms of ethics, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, they will definitely lose. After all, Xujiazhuang will lose.
, there is no respect at all, no filial piety, no ruthlessness, only naked interests, these are the Achilles heel of Xujiazhuang!"
"Even if the debaters hired by Xujiazhuang are sharp-tongued and can confuse right and wrong, we still have another insurance, that is, the 50,000 spectators we organize here can all be scholars, all descendants of Confucianism, and are extremely firm in the path of sages.
There is absolutely no possibility of swaying. Even if we are obviously at a disadvantage in the debate on the stage, not a single one of these 50,000 votes will be lost. And the 50,000 ignorant fools invited by Xujiazhuang, even if they all support Xujiazhuang, as long as there are so
If they are dissatisfied with one or two points (such as filial piety), they may vote for us, and there is no possibility of losing."
"Arrogant, Xujiazhuang is too arrogant and arrogant!"
"Yes, Xujiazhuang must be taught a lesson from failure this time so that he will not dare to despise us again."
"Unite, as long as we unite this time, we will be invincible!"
…
soon.
April 19th.
Nanjing, Jiangnan Guild Hall, backyard living area.
In a room.
Under the service of his concubine, Qian Chengzhi put on a gray Chinese tunic suit with a stand-up collar. Half of his long hair on the back of his head was cut off, and the remaining half was tied into a ponytail. He looked both elegant and energetic.
Cheer up.
The Purple Mountain Debate Conference will officially begin tomorrow.
Qian Chengzhi is wearing this formal suit now because he will go to the Purple Mountain venue later to hold a mock debate competition as the host, so that his debaters can familiarize themselves with the environment in advance, which will help them perform better tomorrow
.
After putting on the clothes and sorting them carefully.
"Husband, can our side really win this debate?"
Concubine Su Ziyu, a young woman of eighteen years old, put her head on the man's broad chest and asked softly, feeling quite worried in her words.
She has a plump figure, a waist as big as a willow, and a pure and cold jade face, which reminds people of a fairy who does not eat the fireworks of the world. If placed in modern society, her appearance, temperament, figure and appearance would definitely be rated above 90 points.
The top goddess.
But such a top beauty, not only served Qian Chengzhi attentively and carefully, but also had her whole heart attached to him, and behaved extremely docilely.
It is said that she, with such outstanding appearance and temperament, is willing to be Qian Chengzhi's concubine despite not marrying a good husband?
Because not long ago, Su Ziyu was one of the six famous prostitutes in the Qinhuai River, ranking third. She had outstanding talents and was good at poetry. She was known as the "Purple Jade Fairy". There were countless dignitaries and young talents who favored her and wanted to see her.
The tea fee for her is at least fifty taels, but she is very aloof and only accepts guests who are willing to see her.
But Qian Chengzhi is one of the guests she is very willing to receive.
Not only did he waive his tea bill.
Qian Chengzhi only wrote a dozen poems of average quality, but he was so impressed by the famous prostitute that she volunteered to give him the first night red pill.
Afterwards, Qian Chengzhi had to raise money and borrow money from everywhere. He also sent someone to bring 3,000 taels from his hometown of Tongcheng without telling his original wife. Finally, he ransomed the famous prostitute "Purple Jade Fairy" for a high price of 15,000 silver dollars.
, became his concubine, for which he incurred a lot of debt.
For this reason, Qian Chengzhi didn't realize that something was wrong. How could he win the love of Fairy Su with just a few mediocre poems he wrote? It also caused his original wife who stayed in his hometown to cry sadly when he learned about the situation.
, which made many elders very angry. If you think about it carefully, the gain outweighs the gain.
But forget it.
I can't think about it any longer.
As a man, who asked him to just have money? What man doesn’t have one or two little hobbies? As for Qian Chengzhi, who used to long for and fantasize about talented people and beautiful women, and red sleeves, he can only say one wish now.
If you get beaten, it's up to one to take it.
"Of course we can win, we will definitely win! This is what the village owner said personally. Since the village owner has such great confidence, then I am also confident enough to win." Qian Chengzhi said, he now has many people with Xujiazhuang
Like people, they have a kind of blind worship and trust in the owner of the village.
"Well, husband, I also believe we can win."
Su Ziyu nodded repeatedly.
In fact, if Su Ziyu had not been ransomed and still stayed in the brothel and painted boats, as a famous prostitute, she would definitely support Confucianism 100% in this debate between Xujiazhuang and the Confucian sects all over the world, and would fight with the brothel
Together, the sisters cheered for the Confucian scholars.
But now, sisters, I'm sorry, I support my husband.
Oh, no, we can no longer call each other sisters. You are no longer my sisters, because I am now my beloved.
Su Ziyu thought to herself, a glimmer of light flashed in her deep eyes like a stream of autumn water.
…
April 20th.
At ten o'clock in the morning.
Outside Nanjing, on the top of Purple Mountain, the debate venue has been set up.
Audio equipment debugging completed.
A full 100,000 spectators of all ages, including men, women and children, have also entered the venue.
All relevant preparations have been completed.
The Xujiazhuang vs. Confucian orthodox debate has officially begun!
The specific debate process that followed, the wonderful performance of the debaters on the stage, the feedback from the audience, and the results of the debate that day were recorded verbatim in the "Oriental Times".
The discussion and repercussions caused by the two days for readers and people all over the Ming Dynasty, all over the world, and among countless people from all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty, cannot be described in just three to five thousand words.
Even tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of words are not enough to write all the details.
I can only briefly describe the process and results:
This debate lasted for ten days and had a profound impact on the entire Ming Dynasty. A total of ten topics were debated.
The five debate topics provided by Xujiazhuang are: people's livelihood, productivity, fairness, sustainability, and civil rights (that is, what rights should people enjoy, such as the right to survive and the right to be free from fear).
The five debate topics provided by Confucian scholars are: human ethics, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, legal etiquette, and conscience and integrity.
Each of the ten debates around the above ten topics was very fierce. It can be said that everyone was red-faced and racked their brains. They tried every means to refute the other party. It was like a life and death battle. No one could bear it.
There will be consequences for losing.
The final result was beyond many people's expectations.
Xujiazhuang won all ten games.
The Confucian orthodoxy was defeated in all ten games and was completely defeated!
How is this possible?
Even on the five issues set by Xujiazhuang, Confucianism does not have an advantage. If it loses, it loses. It is barely acceptable. How come on the five debate topics set by the Confucian scholars, Confucian orthodoxy also failed.
You can't break up even one game.
What is going on? Is there something fishy in it?
In fact, there must be some tricks. The main reason is that the Confucian approach is outdated, does not keep up with the development of the times, and is even completely unreasonable.
As far as the topic of "loyalty and filial piety" is concerned, filial piety is indeed necessary. It is a good quality worth promoting, but it will not work if it is too much, especially if the father observes filial piety for three years (usually 27 months), if the father
After the death of the mother, one has to observe mourning for three years, and after the death of the mother, another three years, which adds up to 54 months of mourning. The average life span of the people in the Ming Dynasty was more than 38 years old, and at least one tenth of their lives was wasted.
Then calculate the loss in national productivity.
Calculate the economic losses.
and the impact on future generations.
The behavior of keeping filial piety can only be described as useless. It is a kind of formalism. Even if the dead parents know better, they will not support this behavior.
Of course, for the ruling class, loyalty performances such as keeping filial piety must be promoted. How can people who are not filial to their parents be loyal to the emperor? So keeping filial piety is enough for the officials and courtiers to play, and you cannot ask them to stop.
Ordinary people who have stopped paying homage also observe filial piety. In addition, the common people who pay money, food, taxes and taxes can be regarded as the food and clothing parents of the officials. It is said that it is better to cultivate kindness than to give birth to kindness. Officials are so filial to their biological parents, but for their food and clothing parents, they
How did you do it? Did you fulfill the so-called filial piety?
Under such sharp irony, Xujiazhuang naturally won the debate on loyalty and filial piety.
Finally, there is the question of the voting audience. Each side provides 50,000 people. The Xujiazhuang side provides mostly ordinary people, most of whom are illiterate or semi-illiterate. Logically speaking, the position can easily swing. The Confucian side only provides 50,000 scholars!
How could a sensible person vote wrongly?
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Having said that.
But the 50,000 viewers that Xujiazhuang has invited are all people whose families work in Xujiazhuang, or whose livelihood is related to Xujiazhuang. They may disagree with some of Xujiazhuang’s views, but voting for the wrong vote affects their family’s livelihood. This is absolutely unbearable.
, so no matter how the debate is on the stage, there are only a few rebels in the 50,000 iron ticket warehouse, so they just vote for Xujiazhuang with their eyes closed.
As for the 50,000 scholars of Confucianism, just because they have read and understood the truth, they must abandon their personal will and demand that they deny those views that sound very reasonable.
It's a very painful thing to do, and because every vote is anonymous, it shouldn't hurt to rebel by yourself and support Xujiazhuang.
Therefore, in ten consecutive debates, Xujiazhuang won all ten debates with a slight advantage of several hundred votes, dozens to more than ten votes.