"Please sit, everyone," Fang Yun said.
Only then did everyone obediently sit down. Some dared to perch on only half their seats, while the rest sat ramrod straight.
They revered him like a god and feared him like a Saint.
Next, Fang Yun began handling Xiang Prefecture's governmental affairs. At first, he dealt only with the prefectural administration and the administrations of its subordinate prefectures. Later, he moved on to the county administrations, and finally even pointed out problems in particular towns and streets.
The more the officials listened, the greater their admiration grew. Some officials of the Miscellaneous School nearly prostrated themselves in worship before everyone.
The Miscellaneous School's highest aspiration was to "embrace both Confucian and Mohist teachings, combine the schools of names and law, and thoroughly comprehend the ways of all Hundred Schools." Later, however, they discovered that this path was extraordinarily difficult. After Lü Buwei, the Miscellaneous School shifted its main focus to serving as officials.
Every scholar of the Miscellaneous School took pride in handling governmental affairs. They even believed that neither the Confucian School nor the Legalist School, nor any of the other schools, could match them at court. Some even believed that the Confucian School was exceptionally suited to educating the people and overseeing rituals, but not to holding office, because it demanded that its adherents treat themselves as Saints and officials as Saints-something utterly impossible to achieve.
The Miscellaneous School had always held that the Confucian School misunderstood the political way. Officials should be regarded, restrained, and held to standards as human beings. To regard, restrain, and demand things of officials as though they were Saints was an unmitigated disaster. It could even become a fig leaf for the Confucian School, eventually triggering an extremely grave crisis.
Some Great Scholars of the