"Your Majesty!"
Luo Wenjin steadied himself and rallied once more.
"Just now, Censor Wang roared in the Imperial Presence and pointed his tablet at others.
Why must a censor go to such lengths when presenting his views?
I ask Your Majesty to reprimand Wang Kan and restore proper court decorum!"
"I second the motion," Liang Chengye added. "The Court has its own rules of propriety."
Was Censor Wang presenting his views today, or brawling?
If everyone behaved thus, would court audiences not descend into a street market?"
Unable to attack Wei Zi, they attacked those who spoke for him.
This blade was cunning and venomous.
The "Biography of Wang Yifang" in the Old Book of Tang recorded that when Yifang impeached Li Yifu, Yifu's partisans accused him of "breaching decorum."
Whenever the Censorate debated affairs in those days, they often wielded "decorum" as a blade.
Those who attacked others did not attack their reasoning, but their manner.
Not their words, but their propriety.
Reasoning could be defended again; lost decorum could not be restored.
"Your Majesty, I too have a memorial." Another censor among the Upright Officials stepped forward.
"I wish to speak on military farmland."
"The land clearance in Ningxia has already caused a mutiny. The flames of Zhang Family Market still burn before our eyes.
The man who advocated this policy was Wei Nisheng.
Now he holds the seal of office and has personnel at his command.
If military farmland causes another mutiny, who will answer for it?
If Ningxia loses another city, who will answer for it?
I ask Your Majesty to hold Wei Nisheng accountable for his mishandling of the land clearance, as a warning to those who follow!"
Tracing cause backward from consequence, assigning guilt for events that had not yet occurred. This blade