Chapter 95 Li Zhuyu (Part 1)

When Confucianism was in power, the world was ruled by loyalty and filial piety.

After Taoism replaced Confucianism, although loyalty and filial piety were overturned, no suitable replacement was found. Taoism is not a legalist, so it is not good to rule the world by law. Taoism talks about inaction, but how can the world be ruled by inaction? Therefore, since the revival of Taoism, many Taoist sages have been committed to solving this problem.

Finally, a consensus was reached within Taoism to replace "loyalty and filial piety" with "morality" from the five thousand words of the Supreme Taoist Ancestor.

In the era of Confucianism, people were often labeled as "disloyal and unfilial", while in the era of Taoism, people were labeled as "unrighteous and immoral".

However, this "morality" is not the "benevolence, righteousness and morality" of Confucianism.

Confucianism talks about principles and regularities, which is actually the order of hierarchy, so the monarch is the principle of the ministers, the father is the principle of the sons, and the husband is the principle of the wife.

Taoism wants to oppose Confucianism, so it naturally cannot talk about principles and regularities, so Taoism talks about equality.

The Supreme Taoist Ancestor said: "Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and treat all things as straw dogs."

Nanhua Taoist Lord said: "From the perspective of Taoism, there is no distinction between noble and humble things."

Heaven and earth treat all things equally, and there is no distinction between noble and humble things.

For this reason, the Daxuan court abolished the status of slaves and military personnel, and no longer made specific restrictions on scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. The Taoist sect strictly prohibits Taoist priests from treating Taoist people as slaves, and does not allow personal dependence in the master-slave relationship. At the same time, it also abolished the kneeling ceremony, the system of multiple concubines, etc.

In the past, children had to kowtow to their parents, kowtow to their superiors, kowtow to their teachers, kowtow to their friends' parents and elders, and even kowtow to each other when discussing friendships. Now, it is all saved, just stand and salute. So when Qi Niang scolded Qi Xuansu, he just stood up and listened with his hands down. In the past, he had to kneel and listen.

Of course, there is no absolute equality in the world, only relative equality, so there is still a grade system within Taoism, and many new systems can only be implemented in Yujing. Outside Yujing, it is still influenced by Confucianism. It is still very difficult for Taoism to completely erase the traces of Confucianism for thousands of years with a 200-year reform.

This has two consequences.

The first consequence is that Confucianism still has a great influence, especially after Xuansheng untied Confucianism in order to suppress Buddhism. In terms of attitude towards Confucianism, there has always been a dispute between two lines within Taoism. One is to completely de-Confucianize, and the other is to unify the three religions. The two sides are arguing, which gives Confucianism a certain degree of room for maneuver.

The second consequence is that "immorality" is an extremely serious crime within Taoism. For example, the third-grade Youyi Taoist who was demoted for abusing servants would not be considered a big deal if he was placed outside Taoism, but within Taoism, it cut off the career of a high-grade Taoist. For example, visiting prostitutes is a romantic and elegant thing for Confucian people, but it is a moral issue for Taoist people.

Now Qi Xuansu is about to become a fourth-rank Taoist priest, no longer an unknown person in the past. Such a fast promotion speed is too eye-catching, which will inevitably offend others, or offend someone without knowing it. You must be especially careful in this regard. If you are accidentally accused of "immorality", your future will be ruined.

There is no need for any clever schemes for such things. Find a young and beautiful female Taoist priest to have some connection with Qi Xuansu, and then find a pen holder to write two empathetic articles, ignore the facts, make a big fuss about private morality, create public opinion in Yujing, and use public opinion to force decision-making, so that a young talent with a promising future can capsize in the gutter and never recover.

Therefore, Zhang Yuelu kept telling Qi Xuansu along the way, which was nothing more than being careful, careful, and careful again.

At this time, the two had boarded the flying boat back to Yujing. Of course, it was not a report. At this time, the Jinque meeting had not yet ended. It would take at least half a month to get a result after two days of discussion.

The two were going to transfer from Yujing to Longmen Mansion. Because they came to Jinling Mansion for official business, they did not need to spend money on the return flying boat. They only needed to buy a boat ticket to Longmen Mansion.

This return trip was smooth and arrived at the port outside Yujing City smoothly.

Zhang Yuelu went home by the way, and Qi Xuansu did not go back with him, but went to buy a boat ticket.

Although Zhang Yuelu was not the kind of woman who liked to let men pay, this time Zhang Yuelu accompanied Qi Xuansu to attend the class reunion, so Qi Xuansu consciously bought tickets for two people.

As a result, Qi Xuansu only had the last 100 Taiping money left. He could not blame Qi Niang, otherwise Qi Niang would say that he had a wife and forgot his mother. He could not tell Zhang Yuelu clearly, because Zhang Yuelu had personally handed him the silver for the past few months. He could not explain where the Taiping money went. He could only swallow his bitterness and could not say anything.

Qi Xuansu took two boat tickets and sat on the bench in the waiting area. He was bored and took out the book "Ghost and Fox Legend" and flipped through it.

Chapter title "Painted Skin"

The story is not complicated. A scholar met a beautiful woman of unknown identity, took her home, and had fun every night. Later, a ghost-catching Taoist priest told the scholar that he had met a ghost. The scholar half believed and half doubted, and at night he lay outside the woman's window and peeked in. He saw an ugly and ferocious evil ghost in the room painting a human skin, and the portrait on the human skin was the woman.

The scholar went to the Taoist priest for help in horror, but was still cut open by the evil ghost. The Taoist priest used a peach wood sword to kill the evil ghost, and the scholar's wife, under the Taoist priest's instruction, asked a crazy monk for help. The old monk asked his wife to hold his spit. The scholar's wife did so, and returned home and spit the spit into the scholar's mouth. The scholar then grew a heart and came back to life.

Qi Xuansu subconsciously touched his chest. Apart from anything else, he also changed his heart. And this story is undoubtedly a warning to men not to be deceived by beauty, so as not to be harmed by evil ghosts in human skin.

Just then, a woman walked towards Qi Xuansu. She was not wearing a middle coat, only a waist, and a jacket, revealing a white area on her chest, which was quite a legacy of Shengqi.

Although it was summer, it was still cold on the top of Kunlun. The woman dressed like this, which was undoubtedly very eye-catching, attracting the attention of many passers-by.

The woman looked around, walked straight towards Qi Xuansu, and then sat at the other end of the bench where Qi Xuansu was.

Qi Xuansu, who had just been warned by Zhang Yuelu, looked at the glaring words "Painted Skin" again, and suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

It wouldn't be such a coincidence, right?

Qi Xuansu closed the "Ghost and Fox Legend" in his hand and wanted to leave.

The woman opened her red lips and said, "I have heard of the great name of Qi Zhushi for a long time. Today, I see that he is indeed extraordinary."

Qi Xuansu stopped and looked at the woman carefully. She was about 25 or 26 years old, with a melon-shaped face, phoenix eyes, willow-shaped eyebrows, and a tall figure. She was even better than Zhang Yuelu.

When the woman saw Qi Xuansu looking at her, she stretched out her hand to lift the black hair beside her temples, revealing a piece of snow-white wrist with a red rope tied on it.

"I haven't asked you." Qi Xuansu said cautiously.

The woman smiled and said, "Beichen Hall, Li Zhuyu."

Qi Xuansu asked, "Are you from the Li family?"

"Yes, but I am just an unnamed adopted daughter, so there is no generation order." Li Zhuyu said.

Qi Xuansu had heard about the large number of adopted sons and daughters of the Li family. Generally speaking, the more important adopted sons and daughters would still be ranked according to their generations. For example, Li Minghuang, who abandoned Zhang Yuyue, was an adopted son, but he got a generational character. Another example is Li Qingnu. Although he is of the "Ming" generation, he cannot be compared with Li Minghuang, so there is no generational character in his name.

Qi Xuansu was secretly surprised that Beichen Hall was well-informed. He returned to Yujing and they knew about it right after he returned. He was worthy of being the top three halls.

However, Qi Xuansu did not show it on his face and asked again: "I wonder what Miss Li can do for you?"

Li Zhuyu's eyes narrowed into crescents and answered the question irrelevantly: "In Beichen Hall, the file of Qi Zhushi was originally only one page, which was no different from the file of Tiangang Hall. It was nothing more than a graduate of the Wanxiang Dao Palace in the Bingzi year, and his master passed away. But now it has been compiled into a three-inch thick book, especially Qi Zhushi survived the disaster, which makes people even more curious."

Qi Xuansu's heart was lifted.

His experience was indeed a bit outrageous. It's not that Zhang Yuelu couldn't see the strangeness, but she chose to believe Qi Xuansu. The people of the Li family would not be polite to Qi Xuansu. Even if Qi Xuansu had no problem, they would make some fuss about it, not to mention that Qi Xuansu's background was not clean.