Chapter 111 Process and Results

What kind of person is Qi Xuansu?

It is still hard to say whether he is a bad person or not, but he is definitely not a good person.

Looking at Qi Xuansu's experience, from the Dragon and Tiger Society of Wanxiang Taoist Palace to the killing of his master, he did not offend anyone, but suffered all kinds of injustice. Fengxian Hall did not give him justice, and Beichen Hall did not give him justice. He asked for justice himself.

With such an experience, if he can still recognize the so-called rules, he will be a saint. So he killed Wan Xiuwu without hesitation, instead of thinking about collecting evidence to sue Wan Xiuwu. If it were not difficult to kill people in Taiping Inn, he would not let Yue Liuli go easily.

How could a person who is used to the law of the jungle and the law of the jungle believe in the Taoist priest Huapu? Even if he had to believe it in his mouth due to the situation, he would not believe it in his bones. Qi Xuansu has never been a mysterious saint. He is a small person. Everything starts from his own standpoint. Those who are good to me are good, and those who are evil to me are evil. This may be his limitation, but he has to admit that experience determines people's thoughts.

What is the law of the jungle? That is, after Qi Xuansu suffered injustice, he only hated himself for being too weak, instead of resenting the injustice of the world. After this seed was planted, Qi Xuansu was destined to be unlikely to be a reasonable person.

However, this world is inherently unfair, and it has always been the law of the jungle. If Qi Xuansu was a true man, he would not have killed Wan Xiuwu himself. He would only give orders, and someone would immediately investigate, starting with the many parties involved in the year, with a large amount of witness evidence, to complete the reversal of the case, in accordance with the procedures, and finally the criminals were brought to justice, and all kinds of people who covered up were held accountable.

But Qi Xuansu was not a true man. When he killed Wan Xiuwu, he was just a seventh-grade Taoist who faked his death. Even if he knelt in front of Fengxian Hall for three days and three nights, no one would overturn the case for him. He could only use his own way to seek justice.

To put it bluntly, those with power and influence pursue justice in the process, and those without power and influence pursue justice in the result.

If you have no power but insist on pursuing justice in the process, it will probably take three to five years, endless wrangling, and every step is within the scope of the rules, but the result is nothing.

It is for this reason that the people praise the chivalrous knights in the storybooks. From the perspective of the Legalists, the so-called chivalry is actually the use of lynching. The process is wrong. The knight has no power to judge right and wrong. Everyone has his own justice. Your justice is not my justice. But why do the people like, recognize and strongly praise the chivalrous knights? It is probably because justice is in the hearts of the people, and it is probably because ordinary people are powerless, powerless and poor, and they can't afford lawyers.

If Qi Xuansu was born in Yujing, like countless Taoist priests in the flower garden, he grew up in a civilized environment. Perhaps he would believe in the laws of Taoism from the bottom of his heart, regard it as a criterion, and regard justice as the golden rule. Unfortunately, there is no place for him in the flower garden. He is just a wild grass growing wildly in the wild jungle, all just to live well.

Qi Xuansu, because of his own experience, naturally has great distrust of laws and rules, so when he encounters problems, he always trusts his sword. As for what my justice is not your justice, it is simple. Either let me go to see the King of Hell, or you go to the King of Hell and tell him.

Summer insects cannot talk about ice. How can people from two worlds think alike? Since Qi Xuansu returned to Taoism, he has been fed up with these red tapes. If he had the realm of Qi Niang, maybe he would choose to be Wei Wugui instead of Qi Xuansu.

As for Zhang Yuelu, apart from Qi Xuansu, who is beautiful in the eyes of his lover, I am afraid that few people think that Zhang Yuelu is a good person in the traditional sense. Many people's evaluation of her is: difficult to get along with, skillful, capable, dare to take responsibility, willing to do things, and even add a radical extreme, but there is no evaluation such as iron-faced and impartial, fair and strict.

Zhang Yuelu has said more than once that she is selfish. Although she never covets money, she knows that her subordinate Sun Yongfeng has a lot of gray income that cannot be explained, but she acquiesces to this fact. Because if the water is too clear, there will be no fish. If she wants to have her own confidants and followers, she can't be a moral perfect person.

Although Qi Xuansu said that Zhang Yuelu's heart is bright, Zhang Yuelu directly denied it, because compared with Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu is indeed bright, but in fact, Zhang Yuelu herself knows that her philosophy is not the philosophy of Xuansheng. She has always said that she wants to change the Taoism, not save the people of the world. She knows that her ability is almost the limit. She can't pacify the world and bring peace.

Changing the Taoism is to eliminate contradictions and redistribute interests. Situ Xingluan once commented on Zhang Yuelu, saying that she is a young figure who advocates change. Change will inevitably affect the interests of others. As the saying goes, cutting off someone's wealth is like killing their parents. This is a life-and-death struggle. How can you follow the rules?

What Zhang Yuelu wants to do is to be a powerful minister with mixed reputations, not a moral saint. This is also the limitation of Zhang Yuelu's background. She has no experience at the bottom, and she only sees the evil of the upper class.

However, her experience made her more determined in her thinking. The two major Jiangnan cases ended up in a deadlock. This made Zhang Yuelu understand a truth: procedures are just procedures, just means, and they have nothing to do with right or wrong, nor with justice. They are just a game process, and there is no need to give them the name of justice.

The two major Jiangnan cases have case files that can be checked, impeccable, and no mistakes or omissions in the procedures. What is the result? The result is that the mastermind behind the scenes is at large, and the accumulated problems are getting deeper and deeper.

Although many people oppose the idea that winning is right, they have to admit that this is a fact.

To put it bluntly, the so-called procedural justice is a debate. Zhang Yuelu believed in it in her early years, but she didn't believe it later. Why? Because she suddenly realized why these so-called procedural justices were all cases of powerful people?

She had never heard of an eighth-grade Taoist priest being vindicated through procedural justice, but second-grade Taoist priests were often acquitted because of procedural justice.

Who is constantly advocating procedural justice and belittling outcome justice? They all seem to be people who are proficient in the code?

She also read the case files of the Ministry of Justice. Ninety-nine percent of the prisoners are poor, and eighty percent of the prisoners cannot afford a lawyer. The same case, with or without a lawyer, has a very different result.

Because there is no lawyer, it is impossible to find loopholes in the procedure, so where is the so-called justice?

The so-called procedural justice and outcome justice, no matter which one you choose, are all powerful people getting the so-called "justice", what's the difference?

If you have power, influence and money, you can pursue procedural justice. If you have no money, power and influence, you can just do it.

There is no difference in essence.

Or there may be some progress, but it is definitely not worthy of the word "justice".

Zhang Yuelu does not oppose this legalist thought, but she does not want to take it as a guideline and vigorously defend it, so she only regards it as a means rather than an idea. Even when she chose to help Qi Xuansu, she cleverly used the so-called correct procedure, that is, according to the rules, if Shangguan Jing's case needs to be investigated again, it must first be reported to the Golden Palace, and then the case files can be retrieved from the Beichen Hall, completely cutting off the retreat of Wuxu Palace.

In Zhang Yuelu's view, since all laws must be judged and executed by people, and cannot be separated from human will, there is no essential difference between procedural justice and outcome justice. The two should be carried out in parallel. When it is finally implemented, it should be discussed on a case-by-case basis. It cannot fall into the rut of the legalists, the provisions of the code cannot be made into a sacred text that cannot be changed, and the lawyers cannot be made into the clergy class with the sole power to interpret the sacred text. Taoism is the Taoism of Taoism, not the Taoism of Legalism.

Zhang Yuelu's idea may not be correct, but it cannot be considered wrong in Taoism. Because Taoism is not the Great Xuan Court, Taoism does not directly face the people. Even the lowest-level Taoists are Taoists. As the saying goes, knights break the law with force. This is a group where everyone has the ability to break the law with force. They are not satisfied with food and clothing. They have more needs. If they cannot be convinced, then people like Qi Xuansu are not a minority.

If the idea of ​​governing the people is used to govern Taoism, I am afraid there will be big problems. The people will never rebel unless they can't live. The people are used to enduring suffering. But the Taoists may not be like this. With sharp weapons, they will kill. The Eight Tribes rebelled against Taoism just because of the problem of different ideas. It is conceivable that if the contradictions within Taoism continue to deepen, the lower-level Taoists may not dare to resist the higher-level Taoists, even if there are immortals among the higher-level Taoists.

Immortals have great power. They can turn Yunjin Mountain upside down and execute the abandoned Tianshi Zhang Jingchen, but they cannot kill the lower-level Taoists who are the cornerstone of Taoism.

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