Fang Yun seemed not to notice the reaction of the Legalist scholar and continued speaking.
"We don't care about the law, we only look at the original rules. If we think further, where do the original rules come from?"
"From survival? There are many rules that don't actually affect survival."
"From calming down conflicts? If we examine primitive societies, we will find that people are more equal. They don't even have the concept of private property. Everything is collective, and conflicts are rare."
"From God's gift?" Fang Yun's expression suddenly became serious. "We humans have gone through countless hardships, and countless sages have paved the way for progress with their corpses, allowing us to develop to this day and gain countless achievements and merits. If we shamelessly declare that this is God's gift, we are defiling the sages of all ages, tantamount to grinding their bones and scattering them into ashes, tantamount to denying our bloodline, denying our wisdom, and denying the reason for the existence of our human race! Since everything is God's gift, what do people need to do? What have people done? Such people are not even as good as insects, not even as good as ants! Therefore, I don't want the human race to have such voices. People who say that kind of thing are the product of the failure of human progress and should be nailed to the pillar of shame in history!"
The scholars in the audience nodded one after another, agreeing with Fang Yun's words.
"Let's get back to the point. If we study it carefully, we will find that our ancient ancestors must have taken many factors into consideration when making rules. Among these factors, there are indeed survival and fighting. However, because there are so many factors, all of them cannot be the source of the original rules. So, let's continue to infer, what made those ancestors who made the rules consider so many factors? Perhaps some people think that the rules can be made casually, and if someone is unlucky, then they are unlucky, and if someone does bad things because of it, then they do bad things, and it doesn't matter if a child is bullied or an old man is killed..."
Fang Yun paused for a few breaths intentionally, then continued: "Hearing what I said, you will naturally have some resistance in your heart and think that this is not good. You see, this is the key point. We are actually following a potential standard to judge, especially when you were judging these things just now, I am afraid that most people would not consider whether it is legal, but would think it is not good, unreasonable and irrational. Then, we naturally come to the conclusion that this standard is morality."
"Our ancestors made primitive rules based on our morality, and the primitive rules influenced today's laws. Therefore, the origin of law is morality."
The meeting room was in complete silence. Some people were thinking deeply, some agreed, and some looked doubtful.
Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, "I said before that I am not making a final conclusion on the origin of law. I am just talking about my personal opinion. At least so far, no one can deny that morality is one of the most important factors affecting the rules of primitive society."
"I have seen many people in the audience who are not convinced. After all, in everyone's perception, Confucianism attaches the most importance to morality, and the Hall of Rites also attaches importance to virtue and morality. Moreover, there are currently some legalists who want to completely separate the law from etiquette and completely sever its relationship with morality. But in fact, everyone is influenced by morality, even if it is immoral."
"Let me give you the simplest example. If we do not consider morality and only look at murder from the perspective of textual content without emotional color, then when one person kills another and the victim dies, because there is no morality as a standard, we give up emotion and reason and just look at it from a purely neutral perspective. Our verdicts and sentencing of all murderers should be the same, because the process is murder and the result is death."
"But the reality is that we have emotions and morals, so the sentencing is different for manslaughter, killing in self-defense, or killing by cruel and vicious means. If the law does not take emotions and morals into consideration and is judged solely based on the law itself, it is actually untenable."
“So, if we really make a law that doesn’t take morality and reason into account, it will be the end of humanity.”
"At this point, we need to talk about sentencing. Currently, most legalists support 'retributive sentencing'. This does not need much explanation. Just from the literal meaning, we can see that this kind of law sentences according to the criminal behavior. It is a punishment for criminals. The heavier the crime, the heavier the punishment. Obviously, punishing people who do bad things comes from human morality."
"However, there are still a very small number of legalists who believe that morality should not be considered in sentencing, and that the law is not for punishment, but for preventing and stopping crime. But if we think about it carefully, we will come to some absurd conclusions. For example, if a person kills someone, then in order to prevent him from committing crimes again, he is sentenced to exile for ten years. Then, if a person says he wants to kill someone, or may kill someone, shouldn't the crime be the same?"
"If the purpose of sentencing is to prevent a person from committing crimes again, then it is impossible to decide how many years the sentence should be, because who can determine when the murderer will stop committing crimes? Is it the murderer himself, the Supreme Court, or the saints? I can say without a doubt that the saints cannot do it. If the saints can do it, they must slap the murderer to death and then say that from now on, they will guarantee that the murderer will not commit crimes again!"
"Of course, there are also peacemakers who want to compromise and think that sentencing should take into account both punishment and prevention. Then, everything should go back to the way it was before. Laws, after all, must rely on morality. Only laws that are judged to be just by morality are laws. Unjust laws are those that are used by a minority of people to protect their own interests, just like slave owners dictating what slaves should and should not do."
After hearing this, the Fafei family felt that Fang Yun’s words were easy to understand and he explained the relevant things very clearly.
However, the emotions of many members of the Fa family fluctuated significantly, because they vaguely sensed Fang Yun's purpose. Unlike the previous opposition and doubt, many members of the Fa family actually had a faint expectation this time.
Fang Yun continued: "We have discussed the source of law and what influences law. Now, we should consider who can make laws and for whom the laws are made!"
Amid the expectation of the crowd, Fang Yun suddenly changed the subject and said, "Before talking about making laws, I would like to quote a sentence from Han Feizi's "Five Vermin": 'If anyone praises the ways of Yao, Shun, Tang, Wu, and Yu in the contemporary world, he will surely be laughed at by the new sages. Therefore, the sages do not seek to restore the past, do not follow the law, and discuss worldly affairs in a way that is prepared for them.'"
"The previous text of this sentence says that Han Feizi believed that in the primitive period, Youchao taught people to build houses on trees, and Suiren taught people to drill wood to make fire, so people respected and loved them. However, if in the Xia Dynasty, there were still people using ancient methods to build houses and drill wood to make fire, they would definitely be laughed at by Dayu. If in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there were still people who believed that the first priority of governing a country was to control floods, they would definitely be laughed at by Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou. So, back to this sentence, if there are still people who admire the way of governing a country by Yao, Shun, Tang, Wu, Yu and others, they will definitely be laughed at by the saints today. A true saint will not expect to solve everything by copying the ancient methods, nor will he completely follow the old conventions and habits, but should formulate corresponding laws for governing a country based on the actual situation today."
"Then, I want to ask you, what is Han Sheng talking about?"
No one answered. Everyone stared at Fang Yun with bright eyes, wanting to get an answer.
"The natural disaster is nothing to be afraid of!"
"Ancestors are not worthy of the law!"
"Don't worry about what people say!"
Fang Yun's sonorous and powerful voice rang out in the conference hall and reached the sky!