Mohist Tang
Chapter 73
After a long time, the people in the Imperial College woke up. It turned out that what Mozi showed them was not poetry, but this unique chalk.
"What is this?" Kong Yingda asked with a face.
"This board is called the blackboard. This white thing is chalk and can write on the blackboard. I think the lectures given by the doctors of the Imperial College are very laborious. They often repeat a sentence many times. With this blackboard and chalk, it will greatly reduce the burden of teachers." Merton said, holding a chalk and demonstrating it on the blackboard and writing a few words, He took a simple blackboard eraser and wiped it off.
Many doctors from the National Academy of Sciences even came forward to practice in person and praised them one after another. Blackboards and chalk can indeed greatly reduce the workload of teachers.
Kong Yingda''s eyes lit up and nodded secretly. This is really a good thing, but as the pride of Confucianism, he can''t be willing to be soft.
"It''s OK, but it''s far from a Qu Yuan plow!" Kong Yingda said hard.
Merton looked at Kong Yingda, who refused to bow his head, smiled and said, "please take a closer look at this poem."
Kong Yingda smiled and was secretly proud that mojiazi was still too young to show off his poems.
"It is indeed a rare good poem. It vividly expresses the hard work of farming and the difficulty of food. It is instructive to persuade people to cherish food and not to waste it. I believe that Da Si Nong will like this poem here!" Kong Yingda analyzed this poem in his long and eloquent comments.
Li Shimin nodded secretly and was relieved that the Tang Dynasty had always attached importance to agriculture and mulberry. Now the Mohist school has invented the Quyuan plow and columbine, and the grain will increase greatly in the coming year. There is another instructive poem of compassion for agriculture, which will certainly make agriculture and mulberry more prosperous.
Kong Yingda was secretly proud. Yu Guang glanced at the expression of the mojiazi, but found that Merton had a trace of sarcasm. He couldn''t help but wonder. He quickly and carefully looked at the poem.
"No problem! That''s exactly what it means!" Kong Yingda wondered, but a wonderful feeling came to his mind. His intuition told him that there must be something fishy about this poem.
Suddenly, his eyes suddenly paused and stared at the last point of the poem, as if he had been struck by lightning.
Other people also found Kong Yingda''s strange appearance. They were about to ask, but they saw Kong Yingda suddenly come forward and almost lie on the blackboard, staring at the back of each poem. The two small tadpole like symbols and two small circles left by mojiazi.
"What is this?" Kong Yingda asked in a trembling voice.
"Punctuation!" Merton replied.
"What''s the use?" Kong Yingda''s intuition must be of great use
Merton smiled and didn''t answer. He came forward and wrote a line on the blackboard.
"I won''t stay on rainy days." Li Shimin read it softly.
"Mo boy, what do you mean, you want to drive us away!" Cheng Yaojin grinned and threatened.
"Uncle Cheng is joking. I can''t wait for you to come. How can I drive you away?" Merton quickly explained, "let me tell you a little story here."
"Story, I like it?" Cheng Yaojin said with a smile.
Li Shimin smiled, but he remembered the story of catfish effect told by Merton outside the south gate, which caused a sensation in Chang''an.
"According to Mozi''s secret records, once Mozi visited a miser''s house, but it suddenly rained heavily. The miserly owner''s house didn''t want Mozi to stay, so he wrote on a bamboo slip:" if it rains, I''ll stay, but I won''t stay. " When Mozi saw the bamboo slips, he laughed, drew a few strokes on the bamboo slips, and happily found a room to live in. Although the host family was unwilling to see the bamboo slips, they had to hold their nose and refuse to recognize them. "Merton moved out the omnipotent Mozi secretly again.
"Why is this?" Qin Qiong asked curiously. According to the owner''s stingy character, it''s impossible to recognize it by pinching her nose.
Merton reflexively added a few punctuation marks on the blackboard, but the meaning of the whole sentence changed dramatically.
"Rainy days, guest days, do you want me to stay?" Qin Qiong couldn''t help laughing at these words.
A sentence was separated by punctuation marks, which produced two different meanings. No wonder the stingy host recognized it with his nose.
Li Shimin also laughed. The meaning of these two sentences was completely opposite. Mozi used his clever wisdom to resolve the embarrassment of having nowhere to live in rainy days.
"In my opinion, this sentence can also be read like this. If it rains, will it stay for me?" Li Shimin''s childlike Solitaire said.
Cheng Yaojin couldn''t wait to go on and said, "if it rains, I won''t stay!"
The two of them played this sentence directly from inside to outside.
Kong Yingda snorted coldly and said, "it''s just a joke. What''s the meaning?"
"Oh, master, look at this!" Merton turned back and wrote another sentence on the blackboard.
"The people can make it, but they can''t make it known."
"This sentence comes from the Analects of Confucius. Merton shook his head and said:" Kong Sheng advocated education without discrimination. There were 3000 and 72 sages. Mozi also respected it in those years. Merton didn''t believe that Kong Sheng would advocate the policy of fooling the people! "
"Fool the people policy!"
As soon as Merton said this, Li Shimin and Kong Yingda couldn''t help blushing. Emperors of all dynasties managed the world according to the theory that the people can use it and can''t know it. Now it seems that the term fool the people policy is very appropriate.
Merton added two punctuation marks on the blackboard, and the whole sentence immediately became another meaning.
"The people can make it by themselves, can''t make it known. For the people, those who can make it free, and those who can''t make it known. Teaching students according to their aptitude precisely reflects the Confucian thought of moralizing politics, conforming to the people, responding to heaven and opening up the wisdom of the people." Merton said.
Merton''s words made Kong Yingda sweat. He found that they may have misunderstood Kong Sheng''s meaning. What''s more terrible is that they should govern the country with such a wrong policy.
Before that, he must have believed that the people could use it and not know it. If someone suspected Kong Sheng, he would fight with him.
But now let him look at this sentence again. He found that he had three ways to interpret it.
"If the people can use it, they can use it; if not, they know it."
"The people can use it, not from it, so that they can know it."
"Can the people make it? No, they can make it known."
Li Shimin''s face is gloomy. He has always attached importance to Kong Sheng and even reused Kong Yingda as the Imperial College to train talents for the Tang Dynasty. However, he found that he may have used the wrong theory to govern the country for nearly ten years.
"Kong Aiqing, I order you to use punctuation marks to break Confucian classics and strive to be accurate." Li Shimin ordered with a dark face.
"Yes, Mr. Wei!"
Kong Yingda bowed down and left.
When I was about to reach the door, I suddenly stopped and bowed to the statue of Mozi enshrined in the Zhuangyuan building.
"Mozi is really a man of great wisdom!" Kong Yingda sighed and hurried away.