Changle Palace.
As Liu Heng listened to what had happened at the Imperial Academy, he pondered briefly and said, "Jing, I have always been curious. Apart from high office and generous salaries, what exactly do these eminent scholars want?"
Scholars of great virtue and prestige, upright character, and profound learning were called eminent scholars. The term roughly corresponded to a great Confucian scholar, but could be applied across all schools.
Luo Jing considered this before answering, "I believe these men wish to establish their ideal realm.
"The Confucian School wishes to establish a realm of the kingly way, where people have no regrets in nourishing the living or burying the dead, and there is great unity under heaven. The Legalist School wishes to establish a realm where there is one sovereign and all under heaven enjoy peace. Even the Huang-Lao tradition wishes to establish a peaceful realm where the sounds of chickens and dogs do not carry between communities.
"Beneath these broad aims, each school has its own methods. Mengist Confucianism, for instance, holds that if sovereign and ministers respect one another, the sovereign will be sagacious and the ministers worthy and capable. This theory is applied to all social relationships.
"Official administration will then be honest and clear, and land engrossment will disappear. Once these two problems disappear, all that remains is to distribute a hundred mu of land to each household, and peace will reign under heaven.
"The Spring and Autumn Confucians and the others are much the same. Their thick volumes of classics are filled entirely with writings on how to establish an ideal realm.
"Indeed, much of what they describe directly follows the Luo State of former years. Many wish to build Great Han into a version of the Luo State whose benefits extend to all