Chapter 227: Repaying grievances with virtue? How to repay kindness? (Second update)

"..." Everyone looked at the two tampers speechlessly, blocking people at the gate of the palace. Are you too blatant?

Li Shimin also had a twitching corner of his mouth. You two old hooligans actually threatened to beat someone in front of me, which was too disrespectful to me. Especially Yuchi Jingde, the previous words were quite good, and he thought you had changed his temper. Now it seems that it is the original recipe and the original taste.

"You must not be arrogant when you know the integrity." Although you want to laugh in your heart, Li Shimin had to pretend to be serious on the surface and scolded: "This is the Golden Palace, how can you be wild?"

"Your Majesty, I'm not arrogant. What these bastards say is so damn bad." Cheng Yaojin snorted angrily: "To put it bluntly, don't they just want the silver of King Yue? Lin Yi is still barren. If Lin Yi is barren, can His Royal Highness King Yue find five million taels of silver from a small city of Rili? This is not counted as those piles of materials that are piled up into silver, and it is probably not less than one million taels? This is six million taels... There is still a gold mine that is not counted...

Such a place is also called barren? Then Old Cheng has to ask our Lord Li and Lord Cui. If even such sunny beauty is still barren, then what kind of wealth should you call wealth? Chang'an? Or Luoyang? The question is how many Chang'an and Luoyang are there in the world?"

"This is also a bit reasonable." Li Shimin nodded and agreed: "Even a Rili City alone can get so much money. Even if there are not as many other cities as Rili City, half of them should be there, not to mention Sengjia Buluo and Fuchun, these two richest cities in Linyi. Their scale is far from comparable to a small Rili City. The benefits there should be more..."

Speaking of this, Li Shimin turned his attention to Li Zhengdao who had just stood up: "Li Aiqing, what explanation do you have for Zhijie? After all, Linyi is also a country. Although it is a little smaller, it is not impossible to even get five million taels. For this matter, I'd better give me an explanation. You only remember that we massacred 50,000 people in Linyi, but you didn't say who should we seek to avenge the people of the three states we were massacred? Are you still looking for Zhen'er? These people were all slaughtered by Linyi and Baitou before Zhen'er entered Nanyang, and it has nothing to do with Zhen'er."

Li Zhengdao was frightened and sweated coldly, but he still made a tough argument: "I...I thought...I thought...I thought that Linyi white-headed people are in the barbarian land. The people know etiquette and do not understand education, so it is reasonable to be more barbaric... But my Tang Dynasty governs the country with benevolence and virtue, and the revenge is not opposed, but the massacre of the city is a bit too much. If this kind of thing is spread, what will the Tang Dynasty look like in the eyes of others? What is the difference between us and barbarians? Only by repaying grudges with kindness can we show the demeanor of our Tang Dynasty."

"Repay grievances with virtue?" This is the second time Li Shimin heard this word today, and he couldn't help but sneer: "Repay grievances with virtue. If I remember correctly, it comes from "The Analects of Confucius·Xianwen"? Li Aiqing is a great Confucian and Taoist master in the world. He has studied Confucian classics for decades. Then I want to ask for advice. What is the next sentence for repaying grievances with virtue?"

"This..." Li Zhengdao was stunned and got stuck.

Repaying grievances with kindness does come from the Analects of Confucius, but this is not what Confucius said.

The original text in "The Analects of Confucius: Xianwen" is: "Someone said: How to repay grievances with virtue? Confucius said: How to repay grievances with righteousness? Repay grievances with virtue and virtue."

What does this mean? Someone asked: "How about repaying evil deeds with good deeds?" Confucius said: "What to repay good deeds with good deeds? Use appropriate punishment to repay evil deeds, and use good deeds to repay good deeds."

The old master's meaning is to support revenge and revenge, but he did not say that he should treat his enemies with his own good deeds. The reason for this is that later Confucianism took the meaning out of context and deliberately distorted the meaning of Confucius' scriptures to achieve his own goals. As a result, this set of theories was passed down, which is really incredible and strange.

However, the theory of "repaying grievances with virtue" has really existed in history, but it was not Confucius who proposed this theory. It was actually Lao Tzu's chapter 63: "How big or small, repay grievances with virtue."

The problem is that you are Confucian disciples. What Taoist scriptures do you learn without any trouble? Do you want to rebel against your master?

Besides, I just said that you would use your good deeds to repay the enemy's evil deeds, but I didn't say that you would tolerate the enemy's crimes. He didn't say that others would slapp your right face. Not only would you not fight back, you would have to put your left face up and let others continue to slap - this is not called repaying grievances with kindness, it is purely a shameful thing...

Seeing Li Zhengdao bowing his head and saying nothing, Li Shimin pretended to be disappointed and shook his head and said, "It seems that Li Aiqing can't answer. Since you can't answer, I will help you answer: How can you repay kindness with kindness? This is Confucius' original words. What does this sentence mean? I wonder if you all, who is willing to explain it to me?"

"..." The answer was only silence, especially those who had previously agreed with Li Zhengdao, almost shrank their heads into their necks, for fear that Li Shimin would name it.

Some people are afraid of being named, so naturally some people are eager to show their presence, such as Zhang Liang: "Your Majesty, I have a little bit of insight into this sentence."

"My dear, please speak."

"Yes." Zhang Liang sorted out the language and said, "How can you repay kindness with kindness? From the Analects of Confucius: Xianwen, someone asked Confucius how to treat his enemies? Should he use his own virtue to influence him? Confucius replied, if you treat your enemies with your virtue, what are you going to repay your benefactor? The real way to deal with it is to treat your enemies with your integrity and treat your benefactor with your virtue. This is the right thing to do."

"Well, thank you for your hard work." Li Shimin glanced at Zhang Liang with approval: "You all think, what is Zhang Aiqing's interpretation? Is it right or wrong? Are there any flaws? You can speak up for justice without any restraint."

"..." continues to be silent.

"Your Majesty, don't ask. They are all pretending to be turtles with their heads now, for fear that you will see them. Who dares to come forward to answer your question?" Yuchi Jingde jumped out and said in a silence: "And Zhang Liang's explanation is not wrong. Even if they dare to stand up, they can't refute Zhang Liang's point of view. It's useless to ask. Let's proceed to the next question."
Chapter completed!