Act According to Circumstances, Know Through Action; Investigate Things and Extend Knowledge

Choose people and assign them positions according to their hearts?

Hearing these eight words, the Confucian scholars were first taken aback. Their confusion did not lessen, but they understood what the phrase meant.

It spoke, in fact, of Emperor Guangwu's good governance: following the hearts of the people and selecting suitable men for the corresponding official posts.

"But what does this have to do with governing the Central Plains and the Grasslands separately?"

Most of them still could not puzzle it out and waited for Qiu Yan to continue.

Qiu Yan did not keep them waiting long. "The Grasslands and the Central Plains are different. Even if they serve under the same banner, friction will arise. Thus, following the hearts of the people is unavoidable, and governing them separately means ensuring that the wrong people do not occupy the wrong positions. Between choosing and discarding lies the shaping of customs. Whom one selects and whom one abandons concerns not a single post, but the prevailing ethos across the entire region."

Zhang Shun said, "Sir means that if the Central Plains and the Grasslands are mixed together rather than kept apart, it will disrupt the spirit of the whole force?"

"That is only one aspect. Once that spirit falls into disorder, an army will often collapse without a battle. It will also more easily provoke internal strife and throw itself into disarray. That would undoubtedly be unwise." Qiu Yan turned and glanced at him.

"If so, then was the unity sought by the sages of old—the settling of all under one—wrong?" Zhang Shun's brows drew tighter and tighter. The Literary Thought above his head curved slightly, a sign that his thoughts had fallen somewhat into confusion.

"Of course it was not wrong. Those principles were precious lessons the sages had distilled