After a debate at the Prefectural Academy, Zhao Feng had followed up "The World Belongs to All" with another startling proposition: "The people are paramount; the ruler is of lesser importance." Once this explosive view spread beyond the Prefectural Academy, it sparked another round of arguments, and the controversy only grew louder.
In the courtyard of the Four Seas Trading House in Qingzhou.
Lin Ziwei brewed a pot of tea for Zhao Feng.
"The scholars and men of letters in Capital City, the remonstrance officials and censors-especially those from Cloud Crane Academy-are all denouncing you with their tongues and pens. I hear they've submitted quite a few memorials impeaching you, their great general. His Majesty has suppressed them all, though."
"Actually, His Majesty has Cloud Crane Academy itself to thank for being able to suppress those memorials," Lin Ziwei said with a smile.
"How so?"
"When Cloud Crane Academy was first founded, its first headmaster, Cheng Zihuan, who later became the Lesser Sage, requested an edict from Emperor Taizong: open every avenue of speech, and punish no one for speaking. That edict actually restricted imperial power. Though later emperors weren't necessarily obliged to observe it, His Majesty's use of it to suppress the memorials against you has left those remonstrance officials helpless." Lin Ziwei was widely learned and knew these matters as intimately as treasures in her own home.
"So that's how it is." Zhao Feng now understood that one reason His Majesty had kept him from entering the capital was to spare him this war of words.
Still, when he had first thrown out the words "The World Belongs to All," he had already prepared himself to be caught in this storm of controversy.
His Majesty clearly wanted to let the matter cool down, however. He had best refrain