436 Scholars Unite (1/2)
As the invitations were sent out, scholars all around started to swarm to Shanhai City. The Juxian House in Xinan University was already completed, and they welcomed the philosophers to move in.
Amongst the philosophers, the earliest to arrive were Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao from the Legalism school of thought.
Legalism had three factions: law, tactics and power. Their representative figures were respectively Wei Yang, Shen Buhai, and Sheng Dao. When the school of though reached Han Feizi’s time, he combined the three together.
Wei Yang appeared to welcome Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao.
Shen Buhai was a slightly thin man who looked really clean. He was not good at speaking and smiling, and he appeared cold and handsome. Those who understood him knew that he was the typical guy—cold on the outside and warm on the inside.
Sheng Dao was totally different; he was an old man who could make you feel comfortable right from the start. Apart from being one of the famous Legalism experts, he was also one of the representative figures of The Old Huang Faction of Taoism.
The three of them had met during the Warring States Period. Meeting up once again was naturally a joyous occasion.
”Brother Wei Yang, quick. We need to discuss how to find problems for Confucianism.” Shen Buhai was an eager chap. Right after meeting up, he wanted to drag Wei Yang to discuss about the debate.
When Wei Yang saw Shen Buahai’s behavior, he laughed in his heart.
Wei Yang could not say that he totally understood the intentions of the lord. However, he had grasped a large portion of it. He knew that the lord's goal was not really to have both schools of thoughts fight it out to find the real winner.
In truth, it was really difficult to do so.
Today was different from other years. The philosophers came from different points of time to gather here. What kind of joyous occasion would that create?
Confucianism had Laozi, Meng Zi, and Xun Zi.
Legalism also had the fellow that combined all the Legalism teachings—Han Feizi.
The debate between Wei Yang and Meng Zi was not something that could be replicated. China's five thousand years of history had already proven that both school of thoughts had their pros and cons.
Confucianism was morals—the spiritual home.
Legalism was the law—the cornerstone of society.
Neither could be lacked.
After becoming the Internal Affairs Department, Wei Yang did not stop there. In Shanhai City, there were many legal experts from the real world. Wei Yang partook in many discussions with them about the problem of ruling through law and having laws.
Legalism and modern day laws were different. Although both ruled through laws, in truth, they were as different as night and day. Legalism could be said to be wielding the law to enact punishment.
The laws in Legalism were the rules of the king, meant to serve the king.
The way of Confucianism was also the way of the king, meant to help and serve the king and his family.
Hence, this debate would be totally different from the one that occurred in history.
Jiang Shang's knowledge was really vast and deep. He had secluded himself in Xinan University. After reading and analyzing tens of thousands of scrolls and books, his knowledge was far greater than the Jiang Shang in history.
It was because he saw the nature of the philosophers’ debate that he set up the two proceedings.
Wei Yang's knowledge was also seemingly immeasurable.
Seeing Shen Buhai so eager, he laughed slightly, “Brother Shen, why so eager? For this battle, we need to wait for Han Feizi to appear.”
”That's right.” Shen Buhai nodded, ”Since that's the case, why not lead us to meet Taigong?”
”I have that intention.”
Sheng Dao stood at the side and quietly listened to the two of them. Finally, he laughed and said, “Let's go, let's go.”
”Haha.”
The three of them looked at each other and laughed.
_Shanhai City West outskirts, Qingyang Temple._
Just as Wei Yang was welcoming his guests, Qingyang Temple similarly welcomed four special guests.
Temple Priest Ge Yan personally led the four into his room, looking really respectful.
This was expected, as those who came were the ancestors of Taoism.
The four guests were all old men with white hair, and they included Laozi, Zhuang Zi, and Yang Zhu. The last fellow was a friend of Zhuang Zi, the representative figure of the Logician school of thought—Hui Shi.
When mentioning Hui Shi and Zhuang Zi, one had to talk about the famous Debate of Haoliang.
At that time, Zhuang Zi and Hui Shi were traveling around Haoliang.
Zhuang Zi said, ”The fish are out swimming, so they are joyous.”
Hui Shi said, “You aren't a fish. What would you know about the happiness of a fish?”
Zhuang Zi said, ‘You are not me. What would you know about whether I know about the happiness of a fish?”
Hui Shi said, “I'm not you, so I can't know. The same follows that you aren't a fish, so you wouldn't know.”
Zhuang Zi replied, “The thing is when you asked the question, I already knew what you were going to say. I knew it long ago.”
In this simple debate, it was not hard to see that Hui Shi's logic was stronger than Zhuang Zi’s. After all, the school of logicians studied logic.
Of course, Zhuang Zi was only using the swimming fish to describe his own happiness.
Similar to Legalism, Taoism was also split into three factions: Old Zhuang Faction, Old Huang faction, and Yangzhu Faction. The most famous faction was the Old Zhuang Faction that Laozi and Zhuang Zi represented.
The least famous was the Yangzhu Faction.
Yangzhu Faction's main way of thinking was the avoidance of harming others, and it emphasized life. It opposed harming others and also self-harm.
After the Spring and Autumn Warring States, it disappeared since it was not well received.
All of them sat quietly with Ge Yan accompanying them.
”Taoist Ancestor, are you all joining the philosophers’ debate?”