Inscription

"Only then did a scholar from Cloud Deer Academy take over as grand secretary. He did not continue to uphold his predecessors' ideals. Instead, he resolutely threw in his lot with Renzong and, braving a torrent of abuse, resolved the matter for him. The fiercely contested dispute over the foundation of the state finally came to an end.

"Because of this, Renzong came to hate Cloud Deer Academy. He realized that its existence was detrimental to imperial rule. It was then that Cheng Hui proposed establishing the Imperial Academy, so the court could train its own talent."

"And that was also when the Confucian School began to decline."

That was the origin of the dispute between Cloud Deer Academy and the Imperial Academy over Confucian orthodoxy.

The Imperial Academy was a state university, while Cloud Deer Academy was private. How could a private institution possibly compete with a state one? Xu Qi'an suddenly understood.

When Xu Xinnian finished, he asked in a testing tone, "What do you think, Elder Brother? I mean about the dispute over the foundation of the state, not academics."

Does he think a country bumpkin like me couldn't answer if it were about academics? Xu Qi'an grumbled inwardly. He smiled and said, "On the surface, it was a dispute over the foundation of the state. In truth, it was a struggle for power."

"To fulfill their ambitions, scholars must hold great power, and the amount of power in a country is fixed. When you gain more power, someone else loses it. The highest achievement in factional strife is to strip the emperor of his power and become an uncrowned emperor."

Xu Xinnian had only meant to test him casually, but his expression changed drastically when he heard this.

Xu Qi'an glanced sideways at him. "What? Am I wrong?"

You're absolutely right, but you can't say such things carelessly. Xu Xinnian took a deep breath. "Go on."

Xu Qi'an nodded. "No matter how formidable the Confucian School's dragon-slaying art is, imperial power is ultimately stronger. 'Master the arts of the pen and the sword, then sell them to the imperial house.' That saying tells the whole story. Since ancient times, whether greedy or virtuous, no powerful minister has ever met a good end."

A minister could only hold sway over the court for a time. In the end, he would be brought to account, because a subject was always a subject. When Xu Qi'an had read history in his previous life, there had been so many uncrowned emperors. Which one had met a good end?

Cao Aman didn't count. An age of war, when imperial power had collapsed, was another matter.

Xu Xinnian pressed him somewhat urgently. "Is there a way to break out of this?"

The academy would never teach him the things his elder brother had just told him.

"There's no solution!" Xu Qi'an shook his head and sighed. "The court is a battlefield. Factional strife is fun for a while; the whole family ends up on the funeral pyre."

His words were strange, yet his eyes seemed to hold a thousand years of literature and history brewing within them. Looking into those eyes, Xu Xinnian was taken aback.

"But I do have another idea," Xu Qi'an said, changing tack.

"Please tell me, Elder Brother."

"Great Confucian Qian's deeds are a living example. Once you can affect a nation's fate, you go from being a scholar dependent on imperial power to a powerful figure who can stand on equal footing with it."

Xu Xinnian's eyes lit up, and delight had just begun to appear on his face when he heard Xu Qi'an say leisurely, "Erlang, you're exceptionally bright. There's hope for you yet."

"..." Only then did Xu Erlang realize, I'm the one who was testing him.

Xu Qi'an said no more, pondering a question in his heart. Although Cloud Deer Academy's prospects in officialdom had been cut off, it was still the sacred ground that held the Confucian cultivation system.

Only its path to officialdom had been cut off.

Although Xu Xinnian had not specified whether it was the academy's official prospects that had begun to decline or the entire Confucian system, Xu Qi'an believed it was the latter.

That was because of what Xu Erlang had said by the waterfall: for two hundred years, the highest rank attained in the Confucian School had been the third rank.

Was it because, after the third rank, practitioners of the Confucian system had to enter officialdom? Or did it have something to do with the Confucian School's fate?

"Then what does this stele mean? Why was it erected here?" he asked.

Xu Xinnian gazed at the words on the stele, his expression complicated. He sighed. "This was what followed the dispute over Confucian orthodoxy, or part of it, at least."

"Sage Cheng was a peerless genius. After he established the Imperial Academy, he knew that if he wanted to surpass Cloud Deer Academy, he needed an educational system of his own. Otherwise, the Imperial Academy's students would still be Cloud Deer Academy's students.

"So he devoted himself to studying the sages' classics, compiling new commentaries on them and incorporating his own ideas. After thirteen years, he finally created an educational system that, like indigo drawn from the blue plant, surpassed its source."

"Preserve heavenly principle and extinguish human desires?" A thought stirred in Xu Qi'an's mind.

Xu Erlang nodded. After their earlier conversation, he was now willing to explain academic matters to his uncouth elder cousin. He said:

"Sage Cheng believed that all things in the world follow a certain law. This law is called 'principle.' Principle is the most fundamental thing in the world, and also the most correct."

"All things depend on principle to flourish. But amid the tangled disturbances of the world, people lose themselves and lose sight of principle."

"So one must preserve heavenly principle and extinguish human desires?" Xu Qi'an said.

Preserving heavenly principle and extinguishing human desires was the outline of the Imperial Academy's school of thought. As for how it worked in practice, Xu Qi'an waited for Xu Xinnian to explain.

Xu Xinnian continued, "Sage Cheng compiled commentaries on the sages' works and established a complete set of rules. If scholars follow these rules, they cannot go wrong. They will be correct and in accordance with the laws of heaven and earth.

"These rules elevated loyalty, filial piety, chastity, and righteousness to the level of heavenly principle."

Xu Xinnian sneered. "If a ruler orders his subject to die, the subject must die; if a father orders his son to perish, the son must perish; for the greater good, one must give up one's life; to preserve one's chastity, one must go to one's death."

Xu Qi'an listened in silence, then suddenly asked, "What do you think, Cijiu? Is it right or wrong?"

Xu Xinnian froze. He stared blankly at his cousin and opened his mouth to speak, but a mysterious force caught in his throat, leaving him unable to say a word.

Xu Qi'an understood. This force was called "the shackles of thought."

"So that's why this stele is here?" Xu Qi'an turned his gaze back to the inscription.

"Mm." Xu Erlang nodded. "The dispute between Cloud Deer Academy and the Imperial Academy is a dispute over scholarship and ideals. But this stele has stood in the Sub-Sage Academy for two hundred years. It has never fallen, and for as long as it stands, Cloud Deer Academy will never defeat the Imperial Academy."

"The headmaster sat in the academy for more than ten years, poring over the classics until his hair turned white. He tried to refute what was written on the stele and create a more mature, more correct set of ideals, but he failed."

"Because it represents truth. It represents what is correct," Xu Qi'an said.

"Yes." Xu Xinnian sighed. "Not just the headmaster. In truth, generations of great Confucians and teachers at the academy have struggled against this inscription, but none have succeeded. How could the Sub-Sage's ideas be refuted by just anyone?"

"Then that blank stele beside it..." Xu Qi'an had a guess.

"The headmaster erected it there, but in all these years, he has never written a word on it." Xu Xinnian pointed at the table beside the blank stele and said:

"Later, students and great Confucians tried inscribing words on the stele to contend with Sage Cheng's inscription, but they were always wiped away the next day. The brush and inkstone on the table were left behind, though. Perhaps the headmaster still held a glimmer of hope."

"That's why, whenever students have a sudden inspiration and feel rather pleased with themselves, they come here to write on it. Unfortunately, the person the headmaster has been waiting for has never appeared."

"I once thought I could do it, and I wrote on the stele too..." Xu Xinnian stopped there. Clearly, he had no intention of telling his cousin about the recklessness of his youth and suffering another social death.

Die for righteousness and uphold integrity to repay the ruler's favor; leave a fragrant legacy for a hundred generations and a name for ten thousand ages. Facing the inscription, Xu Qi'an fell silent for a moment, then said gravely:

"Cijiu, let me ask you: which matters more, the ruler or all the people under heaven?"

Xu Xinnian answered without hesitation, "The people under heaven, of course."

Xu Qi'an asked again, "Then why do you study?"

Xu Xinnian answered instinctively, "To be loyal to the ruler and serve the country."

As soon as he said it, he froze.

Xu Qi'an paid it no mind and continued, "Is leaving a name in the annals of history truly a scholar's lifelong pursuit?"

Xu Xinnian did not answer. His silence said it all.

What the two great Confucians of Cloud Deer Academy had done to bask in the glory of a poem also said it all.

Xu Qi'an let out a long sigh.

If a ruler orders his subject to die, the subject must die. Why?

If a father orders his son to perish, the son must perish. Why?

Couldn't this shitty society have a few more human rights? Xu Qi'an smiled. "I'm not a scholar, but I'd like to write something too. Cijiu, grind the ink for me."

Xu Xinnian frowned.

Xu Qi'an said, "The brush and ink are here anyway. Aren't they meant for people to write with? If what I write is no good, someone will wipe it away tomorrow."

After hearing this, Xu Xinnian went to grind the ink. A short while later, he stood before the stele with the brush in hand and asked, "What would you like to write, Elder Brother?"

"This time I'll write it myself." Xu Qi'an snatched the brush from him and gazed at the blank stele.

The face of the stallholder whose breakfast he had eaten that morning suddenly appeared in his mind. The man had been pained to death by the loss, yet had not dared ask for silver. He had been as pitiful as a dog.

The problem of petty clerks in the Great Feng dynasty was a long-standing ill. The hall was full of beasts in official robes, forever talking about loyalty to the ruler and love for the country, yet they had never cast a compassionate glance at the common people at the bottom.

He thought of Zhou Li's overbearing manner as he rode his horse through the street. He thought of the accounts of officials' sons running rampant in the capital.

The existence of extraordinary martial power laid the ills of a feudal dynasty even barer; it also left the common people at the bottom without even the courage to rise in rebellion.

In his previous life, he had at least known of several great peasant uprisings, but in this world, peasant rebellions were swiftly extinguished before they even had a chance to take shape.

Xu Qi'an took a deep breath, exhaled heavily, and raised his brush to write:

"To establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish destiny for the people, to preserve the lost teachings of the sages of the past, and to bring peace to all generations to come!"

When he finished, Xu Qi'an felt refreshed, the gloom in his chest finally vented. He tossed the brush aside and said loudly, "Cijiu, this is what a scholar ought to do."

Rumble!

It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Xu Cijiu's mind, splitting apart his muddled spiritual awareness and shattering the shackles on his soul.

He stared blankly at his cousin. He did not know whether it was an illusion, but Xu Erlang seemed to see a dense purple qi flash above his cousin's head and vanish.

Crack!

The stele beside them suddenly made a cracking sound, and a huge fissure appeared, running from top to bottom.

The two brothers were startled. Before they could react, the entire Sub-Sage Academy began to tremble. Dust sifted down from the domed ceiling, and the candle stands toppled.

A stream of clear Qi surged from the Sub-Sage's statue and burst through the white clouds above the mountaintop. The strange sight could be seen from dozens of li away.

Xu Qi'an was dumbfounded. His face was extremely grim. "What's going on? I-I think we've caused trouble."

"What trouble? What trouble?" Xu Xinnian shouted excitedly. "What does this have to do with us? We've never been to the Sub-Sage Academy."

With that, he covered his head and bolted through the door, fleeing without a trace.

"Scholar, wait for me!" Xu Qi'an took off after him, thinking that when it mattered, scholars really were quicker on their feet.

P.S. The School of Principle in this book is an academic school I created by expanding on and heavily altering the Cheng-Zhu School of Principle. It is vastly different from the real School of Principle, so please don't take it too literally.

I drew on reality and then altered it myself. After all, if you asked me to invent an academic school out of thin air... Well, if I were that amazing, why would I still be writing novels?

I'm explaining mainly because opinions on the Cheng-Zhu School of Principle are sharply divided, and it could easily lead to unnecessary arguments. So I needed to make that clear.

Please send me recommendation votes, cuties.