Chapter 497: Chapter 485: What Is the Pinn
A day earlier.
The ancestral home of the Li Family of Celestial in the East China Region, its vast family enterprise is beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
The level of wealth is enough to bless the offspring for ten thousand years.
The ancestral home is built against the mountain, with buildings radiating outward, including palaces and towers, heavily laden with ancient style.
Within five hundred miles around, it is all private land of the Li Family.
Many of the Li family members grew up here, attending school and entering society for tempering only when they reached a certain age.
This place is the Holy Land of the Li family, the core of their unity.
Being unable to return to the ancestral home at will implies exile and a decline in status for a Li family member.
A few days ago, Young Master Li returned from his travels in the Netherworld Star Realm.
When it comes to Li Daoming, whether blood relatives or servant attendants in the Li family, they all have plenty to say.
The evaluation is not very positive.
Dissolute, willful, disinterested in cultivation, lacking ambition, aimless.
In the eyes of many, he is just a pampered young master who doesn’t strive for progress, squandering countless resources without achieving anything.
The Li family upholds morality as its legacy, managing the household with poetry and books, emphasizing no loss on the Human Path.
If virtue does not fail, then there is no damage internally or externally. Cultivating oneself and the heart, the first step is to cultivate virtue.
This is the family motto established by the Cyan Emperor after experiencing the red dust of the world, comprehending the Taoist Scripture, and understanding the Human Path.
Thus, everyone in the Li family, regardless of age or gender, values moral conduct, and their strictness far exceeds outsiders’ imagination.
Of course, no matter how the Li family adheres to its way of managing the household, an anomaly has still emerged.
That anomaly is Li Daoming.
"Why so many rules? Asking you to cultivate morality is not about turning morality into rules, nor is it that following rules equates to having morality.
A bunch of fools, only inheriting what’s given, without their own thinking."
Li Daoming has never liked the multiple layers of stratification within the Li family, each layer having its rules and treatment.
Nor does he like the family’s moral legacy, because he believes it is wrong to ask people of mundane hearts to adhere to the virtues of a gentleman or even a moral saint.
The ultimate outcome of lacking spiritual embodiment is raising a group of hypocrites.
"Then how do you think such a large family should be managed?"
A middle-aged man walked forth with the bearing of dragons and tigers, it was Father Li.
"Regard morality as a pursuit rather than a norm, commend when it’s practiced, and don’t blame when it’s not," said Li Daoming. "There are rules and regulations everywhere, and the people raised under such conditions are bound to be machines."
"Are you criticizing the Li family for carrying remnants of Neo-Confucianism?" Father Li scolded, "Without moral cultivation, how are we different from beasts!"
In most Li family members’ eyes, the family ethos is exceptionally good, with few others in the world that can compare.
The entire Li family esteems morality, each possessing a moral sense unimaginable to outsiders. They walk the way of gentlemen, pursuing the path of saints.
Moreover, with the immense wealth of the Li family, they need not engage in endless disputes over interests with others, forming a natural barrier against damage to morality.
Therefore, Li family members take immense pride in their noble virtues and character.
"Not so serious, but the legacy of the twenty-first century remains," Li Daoming mocked.
"Then, where do you think the problem with the Li family lies?" Father Li questioned again.
Li Daoming stood with his hands behind his back: "The positioning is wrong. Law is the starting point for humanity, while on the road of pursuing morality, every step forward is happiness and joy, a form of self-improvement.
Living with this mindset, those who possess morality are like being in paradise.
Rather than directly aiming at the ceiling because only a few can and are willing to reach the ceiling.
If positioned at the ceiling, it undoubtedly leads to suffering and misfortune, for everywhere contradicts the utmost goodness and virtue.
One is an upward line, continuously rewarding, and the other is a flat declining line, frequently disparaging.
Like one in a garden admiring flowers everywhere, and another in a swamp afraid to take a wrong step. Heaven and Hell, is there not a vast difference?"
"So, are you denying the family motto set by the ancestors?" Father Li reproached.
Li Daoming’s lips curved slightly, shaking his head: "It’s not me denying; you’ve deviated.
The ancestors only told us that moral character is a good thing, and poetry and books nurture heart and soul, but set no specific rules.
View morality as a treasure, to constrain oneself, to achieve self-transcendence.
If morality is just on the lips, used to constrain others, then it becomes false morality."
"Then what is the difference between the morality you speak of and the current morality of the Li family?" Father Li asked again.
Li Daoming replied: "On the surface, there’s no difference, but the substantial gap is beyond imagination.
One comes from within, viewing morality as a treasure, beautiful upon obtaining it, which is pure gold.
The other comes from outside in, seeing morality as law, not beautiful when attained, met with criticism and punishment when not attained, which is gilded.
From the inside out is one’s own path. Treating morality as rules, as a standard of benefits and punishment, is merely shallow law, not true identification with morality, and damages true morality by confusing the real with the false.
The difference between a true pursuer of the Dao and a parrot is like heaven and earth.
In my view, parroting is an insult to morality! Such spiritless parrots create a large number of sophisticated self-interested individuals who don’t recognize morality but use it as camouflage.
The biggest problem with the Li family is greed, greed for a name in morality, which in itself is harmful to the pursuit of morality.
To change, one must have a tolerant environment.
Be strict with oneself, lenient with others.
Do not use morality as law, be lenient where appropriate, strict where necessary.
Though this may result in many who appear mundane being even more mundane, it will also not stifle soaring talents.
Using morality as law in such an environment only fosters a group of people who appear un-mundane but explode with mundanity in private, real hypocrites, true villains, and true vulgar people."
Listening to Li Daoming’s words, Father Li feels them to be presumptuous.
The path of man, why is external harm not added? Why is the mind untroubled?
To act according to rules, not violating laws, and to uphold high moral character, which is not subject to criticism from others.
This means, among the group, the one least likely to be excluded.
The path of humanity, the smoothest and least harmful route, is virtue and character, namely morality.
No person would deny morality.
You, Li Daoming, are barely past thirty, merely a celestial immortal, what insight or status do you possess to dare criticize morality?
Father Li shouted: "The word morality has already been integrated into the bloodline of the Li Family, the deeds of morality are countless, this is undeniable.
Even though many in the Li Family treat morality as rules, not as the treasure of pursuit.
Yet the majority of the Li Family, influenced by hearing and seeing, possess the highest virtue and character; morality is a natural matter to them.
This education is key to the virtuous enhancement of the entire Li Family, elevating collective interest.
The whole Li Family, even with a few problems, is better than other elite family clans by a hundredfold! Its heritage might become the longest-lasting among them.
A thousand years, ten thousand years without collapse.
This is the result!
You cannot deny the overall benefits for a few drawbacks.
The Li Family is not as strict as you say with treating others; the severity towards you is expectant, but have you ever seen us reprimand ordinary people for not being gentlemen or saints?
Moreover, without this moral education, allowing a tolerant environment, do you think a large group of moral seekers would naturally emerge?
Such an environment is likely to have a moral decline unconsciously, only speaking of the coldness of law.
You may say the rules of the Li Family are too many, with drawbacks.
But to directly call it worthless is foolish.
Just like the Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming, do you know how severe the moral decline was due to the chaos of that era?
The Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming was a product of its time, dealing with the issues of that era, not a cure for all times.
In times of chaos, harsh measures, naturally, appear to be overcorrecting.
Indeed, it has many drawbacks, some parts violate human nature.
But does it have no benefits? No great contributions?
Denying it is politically, culturally, ethically, and morally correct, but blindly denying is the foolishness of a parrot!
Just like the Li Family, managing this way for five hundred years, having numerous effects.
But if times change, and you still use them, if it doesn’t work, directly denying it isn’t your issue?
Inheritance and development, why inherit, why develop, do you truly understand?
To deny the past from the current viewpoint is not the foolishness of past people, but the foolishness of present people.
Do you know, in the today of the twenty-sixth century, how many things continue from the twenty-first century? Do you know how much from the twenty-first century continues from the Middle Ages, even before Christ?
One simplest example is centralization and factional strife, as long as there are people, there will be in any era!
Even in the babble of the New Era, how many things have changed only superficially, how many matters only repeat history, how many people only repeat lives.
Do you really think you can see clearly? Do you really believe you’ve understood?
What is changing, what fundamentally has not changed, do you know?
Mere child, how arrogant you are!"
Father Li’s scolding resonated like the sound of a great bell, full of deafening words, causing Li Daoming to ponder.
This speech seems to be the dialectical thinking.
Respect the emergence of negatives, deeply analyze the positive effects. Things have cause and effect, viewed rationally. Inherit the excellent, reform the defects, adapt to the times.
Li Daoming frowned, suddenly realizing, he only said the Li Family had problems, didn’t deny the entire Li Family, then why was he educated by his father?
Old ginger is spicier, his debating eloquence far surpasses.
Father Li continued: "You are still young, arrogance is understandable, but do not say these things in front of others in the Li Family.
Otherwise, however large the Li Family is, there would be no place for you to reside."
This son at most does not do enough moral deeds, but hasn’t done immoral deeds, nor violated the law willfully.
His own son is merely not good enough, not being good enough isn’t considered a sin, being bad is a sin.
If the Li Family were to wish for his death because he wasn’t good enough, that Li Family would indeed be crazy, truly led by false morality.
"Is this to hit with a stick and then soothe with two fruits?"
Li Daoming took out two Great Cyan Immortal Dates, handing one to his father, and ate another himself.
"The Li Family can refrain from going beyond the bounds, capable individuals who can make an altar in a snail shell are abundant." Father Li wiped the date and took a bite.
After swallowing, he continued: "The complexity of the human path, those within it, cannot unravel it, it can eternally be dialectical.
But the peak of humanity, truly being a moral saint is the easiest path to clear up.
In history, those who made great achievements, generally had no major moral issues.
In a social environment conducive to survival, the most comfortable person is one with no major moral shortcomings.
Therefore, even if the Taoist saint Lao-tzu considers the human path to be minuscule, humankind to the heavenly dao is merely a straw dog.
Yet he spent extensive Chapters writing about the human path for the inheritance of the Taoist Scripture; without talking about the human path, few would read.
The Taoist Scripture, divided into Tao Scripture and Virtue Scripture, a virtue of the human path surprisingly occupies half of the Taoist Scripture, its weight immeasurable.
Of course, writing about the human path is a form of self-analysis and exploration of human self-awareness.
Moreover, morality is the path of the human way, the core path.
Follow the human path, then the Taoist Scripture is inherited; go against the human path, then the masses will point fingers.
We are human, as long as we interact with others, we must conform to the human path, do you understand?"
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