Chapter 50: Lingering Affection

However, Chen Fan was no longer the original Chen Fan.

He and that other Chen Fan had already walked down two entirely different paths in life.

Therefore, he needed to find someone who truly understood the Great Zhou to govern. He lacked the confidence.

Chapter 48

"Since the senior feels this way, why not go to the county and showcase your talents?

Zeng County lies in the heartland of the Great Zhou, remaining relatively stable, which gives one time to govern slowly.

Might not your governing experience be precisely what Zeng County needs?

What Zeng County lacks is precisely a veteran cadre with your wealth of experience!

Even if it doesn't work out, you could still secure a sinecure.

You could pass down your ideas!

You could be responsible for lecturing the officials of the yamen on the strategies of governance!

It would certainly be useful to us!

I implore the senior to emerge from seclusion!"

"Hahaha! Lord Chen, you ask me to pass down my thoughts.

Yet I feel it is hardly appropriate!

For over four hundred years since the founding of the Great Zhou, the nation has steadfastly adhered to ancient principles in its governance.

That the sovereign has perpetually fought to the death against the northern barbarians is understandable enough.

Yet this truly inflicts deep wounds upon the national strength.

The Great Zhou requires new thoughts to enlighten the masses."

"Senior, I do not believe this is a problem at all, is it?

The Great Zhou began enacting new laws a long time ago!

Left Minister Qu Yuan has cultivated a vast number of talents for the country and promulgated numerous new statutes.

There are indeed signs of recovery within the Great Zhou!

The Great Zhou will gradually improve, so there is no need to seek instant success."

"Lord Chen, what would you say is the philosophy behind the governance and laws of the Great Zhou?"

"A combination of rule by virtue and rule by law! Severe criminal codes exist to deter those who commit outrages and wrongdoings.

Yet there are always common folk who harbor unspeakable hardships of their own.

Driven to despair, women struggling to survive may be exploited by others.

A woman might also slay her husband because she can no longer endure his abuse and humiliation.

I frequently encounter such matters when reviewing case files.

Therefore, I believe that sometimes when a person commits an act contrary to the law, they indeed possess their own hidden grievances.

Whether driven by the pressures of livelihood, or through ignorance of the law, these are unintentional transgressions.

We must grant them a degree of leniency, which is why we ought to pardon them appropriately.

If we relied solely on rigid laws, how many innocent common folk would perish unjustly due to these mitigating factors?

And if we relied solely on human discretion, how many ill-intentioned individuals would seize the opportunity to wreak havoc?

Thus, employing human empathy to understand the sufferings of the people, while using the law to punish malicious intentions and deeds,

constitutes a thoroughly correct guiding principle—one that will stand as an eternal legislative philosophy praised through the ages!"

Hearing Chen Fan's words, Wang Shiyu blinked continuously, her eyes filled with a radiant light of admiration.

Perhaps she held similar beliefs in her heart, yet she could never articulate them with such clarity.

Chen Fan assumed that the senior had indeed recognized the necessity of reform within the Great Zhou.

Yet he felt that the legislative philosophy combining rule by virtue and rule by law was entirely correct.

Every legal code reflected these principles to a greater or lesser degree.

They merely manifested in different forms.

He did not understand why the senior posed such a question, for the combination of law and human empathy was inherently faultless.

Yet he knew that when the senior spoke thus, he must harbor profound insights of his own.

Therefore, he expressed his own long-held understanding,

hoping to see how the senior would refute him so that he might learn something in the process.

Indeed, the village chief viewed problems from a remarkably lofty perspective.

"My lord, the concepts of ruling by law and ruling by virtue are undeniably absolute truths.

However, we scholars of the older generation have long had our minds ossified by rigid doctrines.

Although I have realized that my thoughts have grown rigid,

I have maintained a quiet detachment in this village for all these years,

firstly to distance myself from the clamor and draw closer to my original nature, thereby striving better for ultimate goodness;

and secondly, to test at the very grassroots level whether I might break through these ideological fetters.

Yet try as I might, I have been utterly unable to shatter these mental shackles.

Lacking novelty, I have been unable to devise new methods of governance for the Great Zhou.

Moreover, as I am now advanced in years, it is impossible for me to liberate my thoughts any further.

I have constantly searched for a way to rescue the Great Zhou from its decadent state at a single stroke.

Yet the older I grow, the more acutely I feel the limitations of my own abilities.

No matter how many policy essays I write that momentarily seem viable to me,

after a period of time, I myself come to find them inadequate.

I also collect the policy essays penned by the students of the稷下 Academy.

They are no different from me.

Yet they truly possess methods of their own.

My wisdom has been utterly exhausted.

I constantly feel that I cannot break through that ideological barrier.

Time is running out for me, and my policy essays are merely pragmatic,

differing only in minor details from the existing thoughts and treatises of the Great Zhou.

What merits do these ideas possess?

They would only serve to render the thinking of the Great Zhou even more ossified.

Better not to pass them down to the world, but let future generations discover them for themselves when they look back upon history to retrace and reconstruct the past.

They hold no novelty."

Having spoken thus, the village chief let out a sigh and stroked his grayish-white beard.

Chen Fan could well understand this sense of powerlessness.

Marx, the greatest thinker on Earth, was endowed with extraordinary genius

and was simultaneously exceptionally studious, studying seventeen hours a day throughout his university years.

He committed to memory the works of thinkers throughout the ages

and spent forty years writing *Das Kapital*.

It takes ten years to sharpen a good sword.

Yet this man had spent forty years honing his.

Moreover, as the saying goes, a gentleman's nature is not inherently different, but he is good at making use of external things.

Marx stood upon the shoulders of numerous thinkers to perceive the world clearly.

The village chief was likewise a man of profound philosophical thought.

He was already exploring the fundamental governance strategy of the nation.

This had already risen to the heights of philosophy.

Chen Fan felt a slight urge to smile, yet he felt deep sympathy as well.

For philosophy is profoundly abstruse, dealing with the origins of the world.

It requires a vast foundation of science to support it.

Philosophy is the science of sciences, and it can be used to guide us in transforming the world.

Yet here you are, situated in a feudal era, where scientific knowledge is backward,

and cultural thought is insufficiently developed.

The Great Zhou focuses solely on defeating the barbarians, neglecting cultural exchanges with neighboring states.

It is, to say the least, somewhat isolated.

How many thinkers have exhausted their entire lives without ever managing to comprehend certain matters?

Ideological liberation is no easy task.

Chen Fan deeply understood his state of mind.

Throughout the ages, how many individuals have poured their heart and soul into the survival of their country?

Later generations have often judged some of them as merely desiring to leave a pristine name in history.

Yet Chen Fan felt this assertion was fundamentally incorrect.

How many were truly motivated by compassion for the country and its people?

How many possessed genuine nobility of character?

When Liu Bei led the common people across the river, he was branded a hypocrite by later generations.

When Cao Cao massacred tens of thousands in sacked cities, he was hailed as a true hero.

Even though Wen Tianxiang penned the lines, 'Keeping a loyal heart to shine in the pages of history,'

and Xin Qiji wrote lines seeking fame both in life and after death,

Wen Tianxiang did so while standing alone in his resistance against the Yuan, facing imminent execution.

Filled with disillusionment, yet harboring lingering attachments to life and unfulfilled ambitions,

he wrote these self-consoling verses at the very end of his life.

Xin Qiji, weighed down by unfulfilled grand ambitions, sought comfort by reflecting on predecessors who shared his patriotic devotion; he was comforting himself with the thought that at least he might leave behind a fair name in this lifetime.

'To be enfeoffed as a marquis is not my ambition; I merely pray the seas will be at peace.'

Did all the efforts and half-lifetime of running about undertaken by these figures boil down merely to chasing fame and fortune?

Connecting these thoughts in his mind, Chen Fan knew precisely how to offer solace to the village chief.