"It's not polite!"
Fang Yun only felt a magical power spreading throughout his body. That power seemed to be the highest rule between heaven and earth. Fang Yun involuntarily bent down, held a pen, and wrote on a blank piece of paper.
These four words are obviously very simple, but Fang Yun found that there was an invisible and powerful force preventing him from writing these four words, as if as long as he finished writing these four words, he would be crushed to pieces by that force.
Fang Yun knew that this was an examination on the meaning of scriptures, which was far more peculiar than asking for sacred words and poems.
Fang Yun took a deep breath, and the source of this sentence emerged in his mind.
In the "Mencius Li Lou Chapter II", Mencius said: "A great man does not do what is not proper, what is not right."
Fang Yun slowly put down his pen and wrote the four words "非礼之礼" on the paper. After writing the last word, it was like poking through a layer of window paper.
A thunderous sound exploded in Fang Yun's ears.
"What is etiquette?"
Fang Yun was stunned for a moment, thinking that "ritual" is actually a general term. It can be the system of the entire society, the norm of personal moral behavior, books such as "Book of Rites" and "Zhou Li", or it can be specific to weddings and funerals. To directly answer what ritual is, it seems simple, but it is also a very difficult thing.
Even Qishu Tiandi could not help him answer this question. At this time, Fang Yun could only answer it based on what he had learned in the past few days.
"Etiquette means rules." Fang Yun answered calmly.
The invisible force suddenly disappeared. Fang Yun looked down and saw that the words on the paper were still there. He breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that he had passed the first level of the subject of Classics and could take the formal exam.
Fang Yun had just sat down when he heard loud crying coming from not far away, but the crying suddenly disappeared, as if blocked by something.
"It looks like someone answered incorrectly. Or maybe they were too nervous because it was their first time taking the test on classics, and their spirits fluctuated greatly, resulting in them losing the qualification to take the test. Taking the test on classics in the imperial examination is not the same as writing the classics at home." Fang Yun thought to himself, and placed the page with "Improper Etiquette" on the upper left, then took out a piece of white paper and placed it in front of him.
The title consists of only four words, and a passage of scriptures is no more than a thousand words, but the test takes a whole day, which is enough to show that the scriptures are difficult to write.
Fang Yun thought: "Improper etiquette, if interpreted literally, can be simply understood as not conforming to the rules. And this question is a very tricky one."
"The original sentence is 'What is not proper etiquette, what is not righteous, the great man will not do'. If I only explain 'what is not proper etiquette', although I won't 'commit a crime', it will definitely fall behind, and no matter how well I write, I won't get a good grade. If it involves 'what is not righteous', if I write well, I will naturally get a good grade, but if there is a slight problem, it will be 'committed', and I will be directly classified as the last D grade, and fail the exam."
"Others can only write about propriety and not righteousness in order to avoid mistakes, but if I want to compete for that talent, I must focus on propriety and touch on righteousness. So, how should I approach the topic so that I can skillfully connect 'unpropriety propriety' and 'unrighteous righteousness', and at the same time explain 'unpropriety propriety' well?"
Fang Yun was stumped for a moment, because writing the meaning of the scriptures was not difficult, but writing it well was really difficult.
Moreover, the sentence "A great man will not do what is not propriety, what is not righteousness" has been annotated and interpreted by different great scholars, and the interpretations are different.
Among them, the explanations of "not in accordance with etiquette, not in accordance with righteousness" are similar, which can be interpreted as "not in accordance with the normative rules, not in accordance with moral righteousness", but "adults do not do it" has three different interpretations, one is "adults do not do it", one is "people of high moral character do not do it", and one is "people of high status do not do it".
Fang Yun thought: "The three types of people are different, so the angles of interpreting 'improper etiquette' are different. When they use examples to prove their point, the examples they cite must be different. If one step is wrong, all steps will be wrong. Even if all three interpretations are correct, there must be a difference in superiority and inferiority."
When Fang Yun read "Mencius" and various annotations before, he thought that to explain the word "adult", he must connect it with the previous text.
"This sentence is from the sixth section of the "Mencius Li Lou Chapter and Verses", and there is a fifth section before it, which says that the monarch should be benevolent and righteous. So the following sentence obviously cannot be superficially considered to be an adult, and saying "a person of high moral character and prestige" is not an echo. It is obviously referring to a person of high status."
"Most importantly, 'unrighteous etiquette' is obviously aimed at the makers and enforcers of rules. If we simply interpret adults as adults, then the previous text can also be written as 'unrighteous behavior', etc. Mencius is the second sage, and since he said 'unrighteous etiquette', it must be different from 'unrighteous behavior'."
After thinking it over, Fang Yun quickly determined that this sentence was Mencius's warning to those who make and enforce the rules not to exercise norms that are not in line with the rules, and not to do things that are not in line with morality.
When Fang Yun thought of this, he suddenly clapped his hands and laughed.
"I know!"
"What is impolite etiquette? Since it is a rule, why is it not in line with the norm? Therefore, the key point of these four words is to first determine under what circumstances etiquette is etiquette and under what circumstances it is not etiquette!"
Fang Yun felt as if he had been enlightened, and everything in front of him became clear.
So, Fang Yun began to think hard.
Soon, Fang Yun was stumped again. Although the problem was easy to solve, the ideas varied in level.
"Since the 'sir' I identify is a person in a high position, the maker and enforcer of rules, then 'improper etiquette' should be elevated to the level of the court's way of governing the country or the policy of the Holy Academy. After all, the Holy Academy is managed by semi-saints. If I write about their 'improper etiquette', I might be shocked to death by their literary advisors. Therefore, it is best to write about the court and the country."
"It's good to have a direction. However, if I want to write a first-class commentary and overwhelm others with an absolute advantage, I must do as Feng Yuanjun said and write some 'shocking' concepts or ideas. However, these ideas must conform to the trend of the world and can actually exist in the future. Fortunately, this aspect is not difficult for me."
"So, what should we choose to interpret 'improper etiquette'?"
Fang Yun was so anxious that he couldn't make up his mind until lunch time.
After lunch, Fang Yun kept thinking until 1:30 in the afternoon. He finally got an inspiration and kept writing on the blank page. Finally, several words appeared multiple times.
"Ancient and modern", "abdication", "inheritance", "hereditary", "monarch", "election"...
Fang Yun looked at these words and thought, "Besides time, what else can change etiquette? For a country, what etiquette is more important than the political system? Then, I will write this sutra based on the political system changes from ancient times to the present! Abdication is an ancient etiquette, but it is not in accordance with the rules and is not an etiquette now; and hereditary succession is the etiquette of the present, but in the future, it may also be an unethical etiquette."
"This is the trend of history, and even the saints cannot change it. Therefore, this idea is not only correct, but it must be a 'shocking statement' for the current Shengyuan Continent. However, I cannot write about the specific system of the future. I only need to point out certain characteristics of the political system of the future that are in line with the etiquette of the future! You must not write too much or too completely, otherwise it will inevitably bring disaster."
“At the same time, the meaning of unrighteousness must also be written in.”
Fang Yun wrote and drew on paper again, and finally decided to write this sutra from the perspective of the changes in political systems from ancient times to the present.
Fang Yun picked up the pen and chose a blank page to write the solution.
"The ancients regarded this as propriety, but I must follow it now, which may not be in line with the ancient propriety; the ancients regarded this as righteousness, but I must follow it now, which may not be in line with the ancient righteousness."
After Fang Yun finished writing the last word "也", the entire academy including the Confucian Temple suddenly shook slightly, and then an unnoticed terrifying force descended silently on Fang Yun's examination room.
Fang Yun was originally extremely happy, because after he picked up the pen, the talent on the entire page was not "slowly rising and increasing" like ordinary poems, but "rolling and rising", that talent seemed to have life. At the same time, the page of paper actually began to float.
"This is a vision that can only be seen in the world and protect the country!" As soon as this thought came to Fang Yun's mind, the surging talent disappeared, and the paper fell back on the table like a deflated ball.
"This..." Fang Yun panicked. There were two possibilities in this situation, one possibility was extremely good, and the other was terrible.
"what to do?"
Fang Yun looked at the piece of paper carefully, then blew gently. The paper was blown away, but there was no unusual phenomenon.
Poems and articles that protect the country weigh a hundred pounds, and a page of poems and articles that are passed down to the world weighs ten thousand pounds. If it is not the original author, at least a university scholar can barely lift it, and people below the university scholar cannot lift it at all. Only when the pages of poems and articles that are passed down to the world are placed in a box made by the demon world "Floating Wood Cloud" can others hold the box and read it.
"That's weird! If this isn't an article that's going to be circulated around the world, then this isn't a very good possibility. If it were a very bad possibility, I would be dead already."
Fang Yun didn't dare to write. He pondered over it but still couldn't understand the meaning. Finally, he realized that he didn't have much time and would not be able to finish it if he didn't write it down.
"Forget it! The article I wrote is about the human experience in another world. Even if it conflicts with this world, it will never cause a catastrophe. If my article really causes a catastrophe, the semi-saints will stop it and will never let me continue writing."
After thinking about it, Fang Yun picked up the pen again and wrote the "emergence" part after solving the problem.
"The affairs of the world..."
After writing the essay, Fang Yun began to use political system change as an example. This time he was more careful than before, for fear that he might write something too shocking and cause major changes.
Fang Yun wrote slowly, and after he finished the last word, nothing happened.
"Huh..."
Fang Yun let out a long sigh. The pressure just now was too great. If he wrote down ideas that conflicted with the holy way of this world, he would probably be punished by the Holy Spirit. That would be too terrible.
"Since I was able to finish writing this article smoothly, it means there will be no problem. I have seen a longer history of the human race, and used their experiences to write this scripture. If I am not as knowledgeable as Tong Li, I might as well commit suicide!"
Fang Yun carefully checked the meaning of the sutra, word by word, and checked it five times before stopping.
“Boom boom boom…”
The drums sounded, and the provincial examination ended. (To be continued...)