But Zhang Zi thought that those who had the title of Confucian scholar were not necessarily true Confucianists. So there were not many, but too few Confucian scholars in the state of Lu.
He said, "I hear that those Confucian scholars who wear a round top headgear(帽子) are familiar with meteorology(氣象狀態(tài)) and the order of nature; and those who wear square shoes know geography; those who bear a jade(翡翠) are good at making decisions. The people who have feat and abilities do not necessarily wear the scholar's costumes. And those who do wear the scholar's costumes do not necessarily have feat and abilities. If your majesty do not believe what I said, you could just issue an order saying, 'whoever who wears scholar's costume but has no feat and abilities will be executed!' and see if there will still be some people wearing scholar's costume." Duke Aigong of the state of Lu adopted his suggestion.
Five days after the order was issued, you could not find any people wearing the scholar's costume in the streets of the state of Lu any more.
魯哀公為自己的國家是儒家的發(fā)源地,并擁有眾多的儒生感到自豪和驕傲。
而莊子卻認(rèn)為有儒生稱號的人并不意味著這人一定就是儒家,魯國的儒生不是多了,而是少了。
他說:“我聽說,儒生中戴著圓頂帽子的,能通曉氣象天時(shí);穿著方形鞋子的,能明曉地理;身佩玉炔的,遇事能夠決斷。有技藝、有本領(lǐng)的人士,英語小故事不一定要穿儒士的服裝;穿儒士服裝的,也不一定有技藝、有本領(lǐng)。您如果認(rèn)為我的話不低,不妨號令全國‘沒有真實(shí)技藝和本領(lǐng)卻穿著儒士服裝的,處以死刑!’看看是否還有人穿儒服裝”。魯哀公同意了。
下令五日之后,魯國穿儒服的人在街頭一下子就沒有了蹤跡。