Ning'an County

A good memory was no match for a rotten brush.

Fang Yun planned to speed-read through everything again whenever he had free time. He would surely make new discoveries and learn new things.

At this moment, the Empress Dowager and the monarch found it fundamentally difficult to participate in court affairs. This rather resembled the Miscellaneous School's interpretation of "governing with folded arms"—emptying out imperial power and letting the officials govern. Yet it differed from the Confucian School's true interpretation of governing with folded arms.

In the Confucian School's understanding, governing with folded arms meant that the monarch did not increase taxes or forced labor. The nation would naturally prosper, and the monarch would naturally live at ease.

While listening to the court debate, Fang Yun glanced at the gauze curtain. The Empress Dowager and monarch sat upright behind it, like clay statues and wooden carvings.

Fang Yun finally understood why the Left Prime Minister could contend with the Empress Dowager. Court debates alone were not something non-scholars could comprehend.

"No wonder rites and laws would change..."

In Sage Kong's era, the various states had not yet developed to this extent. As the Imperial Examination system improved, scholars grew increasingly powerful, and the changes in court became ever more apparent.

Only now did Fang Yun understand why the sages had valued his policy essay, Ritual of Propriety, and made Great Scholars study it. The sages were using such examination questions and Classic Interpretation to subtly influence people, allowing the Human Race's scholars to gradually accept changes in "ritual," preventing some scholars from damaging their Literary Guts and Literary Palace because they could not accept changes to the Sacred Way.

Fang Yun suddenly realized that his most powerful strength was not the books within Strange Book World, but his gaze that