“Your Highness is talented and well-learned, and your grandfather is the renowned Duke Jiu. Then, does Your Highness know what day today is?”
Wang Chong did not answer, only stared at the Confucian. He knew that since this person had asked this question, he had more to say on the matter.
“The teachings of the west have been passed to the east, and now, everyone in the world knows that the eighth day of the fourth month is Buddha’s birthday. But how many people know that today was also the day in which the one hundred sages of the Spring and Autumn Period were extinguished?”
These words took Wang Chong by surprise, and he immediately raised an eyebrow as he waited for the white-robed Confucian to continue.
“In the Spring and Autumn Period, the many states fought against each other for supremacy, and the common people spent every day in calamity. That was a truly hellish era in which the strong ate the weak and all living beings were in peril. Later on, the one hundred sages began to promulgate their ideas, and by paying an enormous price, they were able to change the minds of the people, impressing the ideal of benevolence and righteousness in their minds. They turned the era of the birds and the beasts into the era of ‘man’, realizing Great Harmony1 throughout the world,” the white-robed Confucian solemnly said.
Wang Chong said nothing, only listened, but the words ‘Great Harmony throughout the world’ caused him to imperceptibly frown.
“In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, although the states fought against each other, there was also the illumination of the one hundred sages. Each sage was like a fire in the darkness, illuminating the era and pointing out the correct way for the people of the world. But now, the one hundred sages have been extinguished, and the people of the Central Plains and all the world around it have been plunged into darkness, have become lost, and the era has become once more that of the birds and beasts. The loss of the one hundred sages is a loss for all of us, so every year, on this day, the day the one hundred sages were extinguished, all of us will gather together to pay tribute to the sages and express our remembrance of that era!” the white-robed Confucian loudly proclaimed.
Wang Chong’s heart trembled, and he finally understood why the air had been so strange when he stepped into the restaurant. He also understood why there was that bizarre sword dance and why everyone was wearing black headbands. They were all paying tribute to the sages.
“King of Foreign Lands, you are the greatest talent we have ever seen. In such a short time, you have pacified both Mengshe Zhao and Arabia, and all of society hails you as the new War God. A man can live for a hundred years, but they must still die, and there are some things whose value or significance far surpasses that of a single human life. I hope that you can join us. If we work together, we can realize the hopes of the sages and create a truly harmonious world.
“Not just the Tang, not just the Central Plains, but all the cultures in this world, including the Turks, Goguryeons, the Xi, the Tibetans, the Khitans, all the other foreigners, and even the Arabs of the western world. People fight and kill in endless strife because they do not share the same language and thoughts, but if the world is united, if the ideas of benevolence and righteousness are impressed into the minds of all foreigners, including the Arabs, if everyone shares the same language, all wars and killing will cease to exist, forever vanquished from the face of the earth! This is the true method to end all wars for eternity!
“This is the true Harmonious World!”
The white-robed Confucian spoke with absolute solemnity. His words were not the product of a momentary passion, but the result of thoughts considered and pondered a thousand times over.
Wang Chong earnestly listened the entire time, not interrupting once. Wang Chong understood far too little about this mysterious and powerful faction that could control the Grand Preceptor, King Qi, Li Linfu, and the First Prince all at once, who seemingly dominated the Great Tang. No! It was the entire world that essentially knew nothing of them.
Wang Chong keenly understood that this was his best opportunity to understand them.
“The Harmonious World?”
Wang Chong’s expression sank at these final words, his brow furrowing. If the white-robed Confucian had not said these last few words, Wang Chong would have felt some admiration for him, but a Harmonious World? Just how many benevolent and ambitious men with lofty ideals throughout the ages had tried to realize this? Even in that other world, even after centuries and millennia of effort, this idea was still merely a fantasy.
Magnificent aspirations could not overcome selfish desires, and ideals would always lose to the hearts of the people.
Since ancient times, whenever someone brought up this phrase, it would be accompanied by great sacrifice and rivers of blood. The ‘Harmonious World’ was more often used as a tool by the mad, delusional, or ambitious to realize their selfish desires. For the sake of their personal obsession, they would pull in all the people of the world and bring them to the grave.
Wang Chong did not oppose the idea of the Harmonious World, but the Harmonious World required eternal perseverance, the constant altering of minds through thousands of generations. It was not something that the impatient could hope to accomplish in a few decades, a century, or even an entire era. They would never succeed, only bring down calamity and destruction upon the world.
They raised the flag of righteousness, but they did the work of the Demon King.
______________
1. Great Harmony refers the utopic vision of society in Confucian thought, where everyone loves and trusts each other and the world is at peace.↩
Chapter 1255 - A Harmonious World!
Chapter 1255: A Harmonious World!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong’s gaze instantly turned grave and solemn. He had made countless conjectures about his opponent. If he was only facing a group of ambitious folks, then no matter how dangerous they could be, Wang Chong was confident that he could limit the extent of their influence to a certain level. But now that they were espousing the ideal of a Harmonious World, he realized that the situation was far more serious than he had imagined.
“Impossible! You cannot realize it!” Wang Chong calmly said, his entire demeanor ice-cold.
He was not making an argument, nor was he speaking out of a personal grudge. He was merely relaying a fact. These people had no idea what they were doing. Wolves and tigers would be wolves and tigers, and the countries around the Great Tang were only feigning civility, using them. Hoping to use a few schools to change the mindsets of the foreign countries was a childish fantasy.
More importantly, they had no idea that a calamity was coming, and they needed to deal with far more than just the surrounding foreign countries. The Great Tang did not have the time!
But he could not say these things. Moreover, people of different ideals could not make plans together, so how could they ever believe him?
Haha, that was then, and this is now. In the past, such things were naturally impossible, but now is different!”
The white-robed Confucian gently smiled, not at all angered by Wang Chong’s reply and apparently having expected it.
“The Great Tang currently has no more problems along its borders, and it has even signed peace treaties with all the surrounding countries. Confucian schools have been established all throughout the land: in the lands of the Eastern and Western Turks, the Xi, the Khitans, in Ü-Tsang, Goguryeo, Mengshe Zhao, and Arabia. Many Hu have entered these schools to study. Benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, trust—the thoughts of the Confucian school have penetrated into lands it has never reached before, and they have even received the vigorous support of the Khagans and Emperors of those lands. None of our predecessors has ever accomplished such a feat!
“The barbarians are barbarians because they do not know of righteousness. The birds and the beasts are birds and beasts because they do not know of benevolence. What we ar
e doing now is teaching them benevolence, and righteousness, changing their way of thinking. ‘When people are of the same mind, they will share the same principles.’ As long as we make the barbarians understand benevolence and righteousness, as long as we connect with them through our thoughts and ideals, there will be no more wars or killing. ‘Under the sky, there is no land that does not belong to the sovereign, and as long as one lives on the land, there is no person that is not a subject of the sovereign.’ As long as we all share the same way of thinking, we are all of the same country, of the same people. This is the general trend of things, the flow of the river. No one can change this! This is the greatest transformation since ancient times, a feat that not even the one hundred sages were able to achieve. As long as it can be realized, this Junxian is willing to die one hundred deaths!” the white-robed Confucian, Li Junxian, proudly proclaimed, his eyes bright and his face in a state of boundless rapture. He seemed to be staring deep into the infinite, piercing into the boundless depths of spacetime.
And the Confucians at his side were in a similar state of rapture. The white-robed Confucian’s words gave voice to their ideals. Countless individuals of lofty ideals had failed over the centuries, but now, they held the possibility of making it into reality within their hands.
Ü-Tsang, Goguryeo, the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganates, Mengshe Zhao, Arabia… all the foreigners, all the countries bordering the Great Tang, had opened their gates to the Confucian school!
This was the greatest era for the Confucian school, an era like never before!
“To the sages!”
Li Junxian raised his cup to the air.
“To the sages!”
The restaurant resounded with the cries of all the other Confucians who had stayed as they raised their cups into the air. These people showed no reluctance or hesitation as they performed this ceremony in front of Wang Chong.
For a moment, the restaurant was deathly still.
Wang Chong gazed at the Confucians, inspecting their solemn and serene expressions, and his heart sank. But deep down, his heart began to resolve itself to a certain idea.
“King of Foreign Lands, I know what you are thinking. But if you had experienced what I had experienced, you would assuredly agree with our goal and ideals!”
Li Junxian faintly smiled, exuding a scholarly and elegant aura. Although this was the anniversary of the death of the one hundred sages, Li Junxian remained ever-perceptive and had long ago taken note of Wang Chong’s reaction.
“I was raised by the Confucian school. At three, I learned of propriety and righteousness, and at five, I studied the classics. At six, I had already read all the books, the ancient records of states and countries, private books, histories and classics, unofficial histories. I knew them all. By the age of seven, there was no book that I had not read, nor any teacher that could teach me. It was at that time that I came into contact with the concept of the Harmonious World for the first time!
“At the time, I also did not have a very great understanding of the Harmonious World, but one day, on one of my excursions, I saw two antelopes locking horns. My teacher at the time told me that antelopes were this way because they were beasts, so they did not understand benevolence or humility. If they understood benevolence and humility, understood that they were of the same kind, they would not have fought like this. In the end, the two antelopes both suffered lethal injuries and died from blood loss. This was the first time I experienced death, and it left an incredibly deep impression on me. For the first time, I understood why this world needed benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, why a Harmonious World was required!”
Li Junxian suddenly stared at Wang Chong and said, “But the one who made me truly understand the weight and meaning of the Harmonious World was you, King of Foreign Lands!”
These words caused Wang Chong to tremble and suddenly raise his head. These words had been a great surprise to him. Wang Chong had never imagined that this mysterious Confucian lurking behind the curtain would have any sort of connection to him.
“King of Foreign Lands, perhaps you do not know, but the first time I witnessed large-scale death, witnessed the cruelty of war, and truly acknowledged the principle of the Harmonious World and made it my lifelong pursuit was during the war of the southwest. When you led the more than one thousand clan experts and created a legend on the battlefield, I witnessed the hell of Asuras for the first time. I saw a mountain covered in corpses, its slopes strewn with hundreds of thousands of bodies, cut down like so many weeds. The earth had turned from green to red, and blood flowed like rivers. Even ten-some days after the war had concluded, one could still smell the thick stench of blood. Intestines and brains were exposed to the air. For the first time, I truly understood what sort of harm could be inflicted when people and countries did not share a way of thinking, and I truly understood just how much damage personal desires could create!”
“!!!”
Wang Chong was silent, but shock appeared in his eyes. He had never imagined that this mysterious Confucian schemer would have this sort of connection to him, nor that this sort of person had visited that battlefield after the conclusion of the war.
“The war of the southwest was only the beginning. I visited other places as well: Beiting, Andong, and those places in which you made your name as War God, Talas and Khorasan.
Li Junxian continued to talk, a hint of recollection in his eyes.
“In the southwest, I thought I had witnessed the extremities of war, but only when I visited Talas and Khorasan did I understand that my way of thinking was too simple. That was the first time I learned that one million people could die in a war, and that this number could get even larger. Haha, King of Foreign Lands, you might be thinking that this was our first meeting, but for me, that is not the case.
“In the southwest, when the war was over, you and I did not have the opportunity to meet, but in Khorasan, I saw you for the first time. You were riding back from Sindhu, and all the generals had come out to welcome you. You might not have noticed me at the time, but I was watching you from the crowd.”
Li Junxian spoke slowly, a nostalgic look on his face.
Wang Chong remained quiet, but his heart was heavy and grim. He had been earnestly listening this entire time. He had always believed that these people had only recently emerged, never imagining that everything had started from the war of the southwest, or perhaps even earlier. Wang Chong still understood too little about his opponent, so he said nothing and made no interruptions, only listened.
“…It was precisely because I experienced the cruelty of war that I regarded benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom with even more importance, and approved even more of the ideal of the Harmonious World. A death can be as heavy as Mount Tai or as light as a goose feather. To fulfill a long-cherished wish, ending all calamities and wars in the world; having all people, whether Tang or foreigner, accept each other and acknowledge each other; realizing the ideals of the sages and carrying on their spirit… is this not more important than any sort of honor or wealth? Only with this is a life not lived in vain!
“King of Foreign Lands, to realize a Harmonious World is to realize the final and ultimate goal. Countless talented and capable people will be required to realize this goal, must join together for this magnificent undertaking, which is why even the Grand Preceptor and King Qi have joined in. King of Foreign Lands, even though you refused me the first time, I still hope that you can carefully think my offer over. If we work together, the hopes of achieving this goal will be even greater!”
Li Junxian solemnly stared at Wang Chong.
The restaurant was quiet. Everyone else turned to look at Wang Chong, their eyes expectantly awaiting his answer.
After some time, Wang Chong finally spoke. “Are you done?
“Those who tread different paths cannot conspire together. Rest assured, I will never agree to work with you!”
Wang Chong’s words immediately caused
the Confucians in the restaurant to pale.
“King of Foreign Lands, you refuse to see the error of your ways!”
A furious shout resounded through the room as a figure to the right and back of Li Junxian suddenly stood up. It was the black-robed man with the featureless mask, the two eyes glaring out from the holes in anger at Wang Chong.
“Sword Ghost, sit down!”
With a wave of his snow-white sleeve, Li Junxian shouted down the people behind him.
“King of Foreign Lands, can you tell me why?” Li Junxian said, a gentle smile still on his face. Even after hearing Wang Chong’s answer, he was not angered, and his demeanor was truly admirable.
Chapter 1256 - The Confucian Sect!
Chapter 1256: The Confucian Sect!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Young Master Li, the heavens and earth, the sun, moon, and stars all have their Daos, and everything in the world has its principles. Rivers flow from places of high elevation to low elevation, while the sun and moon rise from the east and set in the west. All of these things are easily seen, principles that everyone understands. But your actions, your methods, are doomed to failure. Antelope can live together with mountain goats, but lions cannot share the same cage as tigers. Forcing an antelope to eat meat and a tiger or wolf to eat grass will only lead to a violent death.
“I can understand your original intentions, but Arabia and Ü-Tsang are wolves and tigers, not mountain goats. The concept of the strong eating the weak has penetrated deep into their minds. A few schools and some wishful explanations will never lead to success,” Wang Chong sternly said.
These people were far too idealistic. This was no longer a question of whether or not they would succeed, but of just how heavy a price the Central Plains would have to pay for their dreams.
“Heh, King of Foreign Lands, rivers run from places of high elevation to low elevation, but people can carry water from low elevations to high elevations. The sun and moon might rise in the east and set in the west, but when the sun and moon are not present, people can light torches to illuminate the darkness. For some things, if one does not even have the courage to attempt them, how can one even know if they will succeed?”
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 790