Chapter 1265: Beholding Lingshan
After leaving Beichen Hall, Zhang Yuelu did not stop thinking.
Qi Xuansu often said that the more one emphasized something, the more it revealed what was lacking.
The Confucian School had proclaimed hierarchical order for countless years, yet aside from a few families like the Zhangs and the Confucian Sage’s descendants, the Central Plains rarely had noble families lasting a few centuries. However, on the Western Continent, it was common to have aristocratic families spanning a millennium. Who truly upheld a stricter hierarchy?
The Daoist Order emphasized equality, but could it truly exist? Could distinctions of rank and status truly disappear?
One could not possibly equate the Grand Master with an ordinary Daoist believer.
People of the Central Plains valued moderation because they were anything but. In Zhang Yuelu’s view, people of the Central Plains tended to push things to extremes. Back then, during the famine, some commoners sold their children and even resorted to cannibalism. Those at the top could have eased tensions by relinquishing a small portion of their wealth and giving others a chance for survival, yet they refused. They would rather cling to vast riches and await ruin than allow even a crumb to slip through their fingers to the lower classes. To them, giving money to the poor was a sin.
Conversely, resistance was equally extreme. When people rose in rebellion, they sought to eradicate evil completely. Entire clans would be exterminated, reducing enemies to ashes. Imperial treasuries burned to cinders, and noble bones were trampled along the streets.
Neither side left any room for compromise. Thus, reformists who advocated yielding some benefits rarely met a good end. After all, taking away someone’s wealth was akin to killing their parents.
As a moderate reformist, could Zhang Yuelu truly carry her ideals through?
It would be difficult.
In truth, both her proposals and Yao Pei’s were difficult to realize, at least in the short term. By contrast, Qi Xuansu’s and Li Changge’s visions were easier to implement, since a New Continent lay right before them. The two men’s disagreement was merely about the degree of intervention and methods of distribution, with the former being more moderate, while the latter was extreme.
Simply put, Zhang Yuelu and Yao Pei sought solutions inwardly, whereas Qi Xuansu and Li Changge looked outward for answers.