The Art of Deception and Adrian's Tale Chapter 27

I was originally a follower of Confucius. When I was young, my father gave me a name that I disliked. I saw in the Book of Rites that Confucius said that Confucianism has modern people living with it and ancient people studying it. The present generation practices it and the future generations take it as a model. So I changed my name to Shikai and my courtesy name to Zongru, which means that I believe in Confucianism. In the year of Guimao in the Guangxu period, I went to Chengdu from Fushun to study. My friend Lei Junyi and I walked a hundred Miles Yang every day. There was nothing to do on the way, so we talked about the current situation and found some classics and history to discuss with each other. He was very indignant about the current affairs and thought that he could shoulder the universe with his iron shoulders, so he changed his courtesy name to Tieya. I felt that Confucianism had many shortcomings. I thought that it would be better to follow myself than Confucius, so I changed my courtesy name to Adrian Li. From then on, my thoughts changed. Every time I read the books of the ancients, I was a little skeptical. Although I did not declare independence from Confucius, the two words Adrian Li were the banner of my independent thinking, which had been established more than 20 years ago.

I saw that all the right and wrong in the Twenty-Four Histories were upside down and confused, so I wrote a book called "The Study of Thick Black", saying that the successful people in ancient times were just thick-faced and black-hearted. In the first year of the Republic of China, it was published in a Chengdu newspaper. I was very skeptical about Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou Gong, and Confucius, so I wrote an article called "My Doubts about Saints". I have never published this article before.

After I wrote these words, I cleared out the Twenty-Four Histories and the case studies of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in my mind, and used the laws of physics to study psychology. I felt that the changes in people's hearts followed the track of mechanics everywhere. From the deeds of the ancients, the current politics, the trivial matters of daily life, my own heart, physics, chemistry and mathematics, ancient Chinese books, Western theories, and all directions, I found that everything was applicable. So I created a conjecture: psychological changes follow the general rules of mechanics. This is my own narrow view, and I don't know whether it is reasonable. I have written an article "Psychology and Mechanics" and I hope readers will give me some advice.

I applied this hypothesis and felt that there were many errors in the current legal system. I studied the school system in the academic community and wrote an article "Discussion on the Examination System" and another article "Plan for the Academic Performance Inspection Meeting", which were published in Chengdu newspapers and printed by the Sichuan Education Department. At that time, my hypothesis had not been published. The article only stated the pros and cons of the current school system, and my fundamental principles were not stated. I would be grateful if you could compare those two articles with this article "Psychology and Mechanics" and give me some advice. I recently wrote an article "Plan for Promoting Civilian Education" and I would also like to ask for your advice.

Since the year of Guimao, I have been asking myself: if the teachings of Confucius and Mencius are wrong, where is the real teaching? I have been holding this doubt in my heart for 24 years before I could find an answer. I am so stupid. I want to explain this doubt and hope that readers can point me in the right direction. I will never be self-righteous. The more severe the criticism, the more grateful I will be. If I am wrong and others are right, I will abandon my own ideas and follow theirs. If you have any advice, please publish it in the newspaper. It would be even better if you can forward it to Mr. Li Chengbo, the president of Chengdu National Public News Agency, or Mr. Zhou Yanxiang, the president of Chengdu New Sichuan Daily.