Who Cares

81

Chapter 81 Flatten

Xu Guangzhi was best at expressing policy theory on current politics, and because of his strong writing skills, he often had deafening arguments. It was not easy to refute him, but fortunately, Guan Suyi had nothing to do after being thrown away to the village estate in her previous life, so she was studying and learning day and night.

Shang Chongwen’s imitation of the policy was titled “Confucianism Law”. After repeated revisions by Guan Father, many points that conflict with the new law had been deleted. And Xu Guangzhi’s popular policy that swept the entire upper class circles was titled “Confucianism and Law”, which had not been edited out at all, and its main idea was that law was a moral auxiliary. When a country formulated its law, it should be based on Confucian ethics and morality, and then the law was applied to compliment it. The benchmark for officials to try cases and sentencing was morality and etiquette first, and then national law. If the two were in conflict with each other, then morality and etiquette would take precedence over national law, which was the so-called: “If the rites and music cannot flourish, the punishment will not be properly executed*“.

Then in the article he went deeper step by step, and successively put forward the arguments of concealment of relatives*, the eight discussions*, the official allowance*, the upper invite*, the quasi-five-clothes to control the crime*, and the ten evils*. Leaving aside the concealment of relatives, the eight discussions, the official allowance, and the upper invite have indeed provided an excellent tool for the privileged to evade legal sanctions, it could be said to completely overturned the argument “the prince and the common people breaks the law, the punishment are the same”. The theory of quasi-five clothing to control crimes was based on the closeness of blood kinship, the husband was the guide for the wife and the father was the guide for the son, and it greatly consolidated the patriarchal authority, but the women had become the most humble being, they could not disobey her father, husband, or even son, when receive harm, except enduring it, they could not resist.

A wife suing her husband was a capital crime, and a child suing her parents was also the same. All families were oppressed by the patriarchal power. From the previous “severe punishments and strict laws” to “completing the defense of rituals and teachings”, the influence of Confucianism on the people and the township, and even the country were extended to the limit.

It was conceivable how the patriarchs and the privileged classes, who got the most benefit from it, would cheered and supported it wholeheartedly. This article was their mouthpiece and sharp blade, it was the best voice for the clan to resist the country, the etiquette to resist the law, and the privileged class to oppress the people. It’s not an exaggeration to call it “Outstanding Article”.

Guan Suyi read it over and over again, her eyes were already cold, dipped the brush in thick ink, and slowly wrote, “Moral as private moral and law as public law. When governing a country, should private or public be considered first? The common people are the public, and the individual is the private, every person in the world know which one is more important. Moral as the master of the law can also be interpreted as private above the public, which is like putting the cart before the horse, and a perverse act. The sentence bending the law for personal gain must first harbor selfish desires, and then disregard the laws and regulations; if the law is disordered, the people will be ruined; if the people are ruined, the country will perish…

After reading and re-reading the opening, and changing it again and again, she wrote more and more smoothly, then gradually lost in it. Later she became deaf and blind towards her surrounding, completely indulge in her writing.

Jinzi and Minglan guarded her silently, and seeing that it was time for dinner, they stepped forward to remind, “Madam, it’s time to take a break…”