Chapter 497 8.16 Legalists Take Over

Chapter 497 16 Legalists come to power

There are a large number of outstanding representatives of the Legalist school.

Guan Zhong, Shang Yang, Han Fei, Shen Buhai, Li Si, all of these shining names in history have contributed to this great school.

The Legalist mentor's philosophy of governing the country can be summed up in four words - enrich the country and strengthen the army.

Do your best and use any means to enrich the country and strengthen the army!

The successors of the Legalist thought have summarized several rules through managing the country, which have been widely used by all countries in the East Continent after being passed down for thousands of years.

1. For managing the people, a set of mature and reliable laws is much more reliable than words such as "kindness", "etiquette", "tolerance", and "fraternity".

Everyone obeys the law unconditionally!

Under the law, scholars, farmers, merchants, and businessmen are all equal.

In case of uncertainty, deal with it strictly.

Use the butcher knife and severe punishment to intimidate everyone, so that ordinary people will subconsciously tremble when they mention the law, as if they see a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

In this way, the country will be stable.

2. Defaulting to the view that "human nature is evil" and regarding "Confucian ritual system" as dregs.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the countries in the East Land were upright countries of etiquette. The nobles in the East Land at that time were not the nouveau riche of today. Their wealth was not simply reflected in the knives and coins in their hands, but everyone had the "aristocratic spirit".

Its outstanding representative "Duke Xiang of Song" was recorded in another volume of the Legalists, "Han Feizi".

In 638 BC, the State of Song fought against the State of Chu. The State of Song formed a battle formation beside the river "Hongshui". The army of the State of Chu needed to cross the Hongshui to fight.

The counselor said to Duke Xiang of Song that the Chu army had more people and better equipment than us. We should attack them immediately when they crossed the river to prevent them from connecting with the first line.

In this way, the Chu army will surely be defeated.

However, Duke Xiang of Song said, "No, this does not conform to the 'rules of war'!"

"A gentleman says that you cannot attack an injured enemy, you cannot capture an old man with white hair and beard, you cannot take advantage of an enemy in danger, you cannot add insult to injury when an enemy is in trouble, and you cannot attack an enemy who is not prepared."

(A gentleman does not seriously injure or capture an enemy with two hairs. In ancient times, the army did not block narrow passes. Although I am the remnant of a fallen country, I will not form a line without drums.)

"The Chu army is crossing the river now. If our army launches an attack at this time, it is not in accordance with benevolence and righteousness!"

"We must wait until all the Chu army crosses the river and forms a formation before we can attack."

As a result, after all the Chu army crossed the river, the Song army was crushed without exception.

Duke Xiang of Song was defeated and injured, and died the following year due to a recurrence of his old illness.

This classic case, known as the "Battle of Hongshui", was highly praised by Confucian mentors. Whenever Confucian scholars lamented that "people's hearts are no longer the same as before", Duke Xiang of Song was often the first name that appeared in their minds.

This name is a perfect aristocratic name in the eyes of Confucian scholars, and it cannot be tarnished in the slightest.

The disciples of the Legalists were the first to declare war on "rituals and laws". Han Feizi believed that Duke Xiang of Song, who was praised by Confucian teachers, had "justice like a fool".

Similar stupid things were everywhere in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The battle between Prince Cheng of Song and Hua Bao of Han recorded in "Zuo Zhuan·Zhao Gong 21" was even more jaw-dropping. In front of the two armies, Prince Cheng and Hua Bao, one bow each, went out to duel.

Hua Bao bent his bow and shot at Prince Cheng, but missed the target.

Hua Bao was agile and shot the bow again. However, at this moment, Prince Cheng shouted disdainfully: "Not shooting again is despicable!"

It means that the two people in the duel should shoot one arrow each. After you shoot me, it's my turn to shoot you.

You don't follow the rules, it's too despicable!

Hearing this, Hua Bao honestly put down his bow and arrow, and was shot to death by Prince Cheng.

The compiler of "Zuo Zhuan", the great Confucian Zuo Qiuming, not only did not laugh at his stupidity, but affirmed Hua Bao's dignity as a warrior.

The Legalist school sneered at this.

Sacrificing tens of thousands of soldiers for the sake of a good reputation, and then burying all the citizens of the country, this behavior is the greatest crime and should not be regarded as a model of etiquette at all.

The opponents fighting each other on the battlefield are not engaging in a fair and just competitive sport, but seeking survival for hundreds of thousands of people behind them.

The leaders of both sides should win by any means. On the battlefield, with the least cost, to the greatest extent to eliminate the enemy's living forces, this is a famous general worthy of singing.

It can be imagined. This is a kind of "treasonous" thought in the eyes of Confucian mentors.

3. In the eyes of Legalist mentors, people = livestock.

The Confucian school believes that the monarch should "love the people" and "respect the people" so that the people can support the monarch's rule from the bottom of their hearts. The so-called "Heaven sees what the people see, and Heaven hears what the people hear"

The people are satisfied, and the monarch can do it.

However, the Legalist school completely denies this.

Shang Yang, the compiler of Shangjunshu, believed that people who do not understand politics want to "win the hearts of the people". If you can govern with the support of the people, all the managers in the world should be great good people.

The profession of "politician" should not exist at all.

The people are all ignorant and malicious.

They need to be instigated and used by politicians, and some people need to be driven to experience suffering and torture. Sacrifice the happiness of this generation to obtain long-term stability of the country.

Even after winning the war, the key to governing the country is still "weakening the people" and "winning over the people". Strike the people and weaken their power. Only by making the people ignorant and poor, will the people lose all their right to choose.

A group of people with no thoughts, no knowledge, and even no ability to think, plus penniless people, cannot survive independently if they lose the support of the country.

When the country wants them to join the army, they can only join the army.

The country needs them to reclaim farmland, and they have no choice but to go into the barren mountains.

Only by suppressing the people in this way will they be closely attached to the monarch and form a strong symbiotic relationship.

The whole country will become a huge production and construction corps.

Efficient, cold and cruel.

**

It can be imagined that in the peaceful and prosperous era of "Kaiyuan's Reign", the status of Confucianism was supreme. They created a perfect country at the time of strength, which was enough to shock the barbarians from any country.

However, prosperity and decline is the objective law of material existence.

When peaceful life was disrupted and the world returned to war. Monarchs needed to use power politics to quickly transform the entire country from a decadent state into a well-functioning war machine.

For this reason, the Legalist school began to quickly replace all Confucian scholars.

By the Yuanhe period (AD805) when Emperor Xianzong of Tang ascended the throne, the transformation of the country by the Legalist disciples had begun to show results. The "reduction of vassal states" that the two generations of emperors, Daizong and Dezong, had failed to achieve as they wished, had begun to show results under the interference of power politics.

The frequent rise of Legalist disciples brought prosperity to the entire school.

At this time, even the "Legalist assassins" who had long been hidden under the light of the "Taoist swordsman" began to walk from the shadows to the center of the stage.