Li Yan is a strange flower in the field of Chinese intellectual history, he is synonymous with deviance, is a madman Gaqishi, Li Yan's life is tragic, but as Mr. Huang Renyu said: This tragedy is not only his personal tragedy but also the tragedy of the entire era, this solidified and rigid social environment, the role of the individual is infinitely compressed, no matter how strong the individual can only grow into a bush, but is doomed to become a jungle.
Li Zhen belongs to the level of prodigy figures, at the age of 12, he wrote the "Old Farmers and Old Gardens" to refute Confucius's behavior of farming as a "villain", about why Li Zhen was so unfettered by Confucian traditional thought, many scholars believe that it may be related to his family lineage, "Maritime Merchant Theory" was once very popular, people think that perhaps the experience of the ancestors in navigating and trading for many years gave Li Zhen an influence. Some people also say that this is related to Li Yan's Hui identity, but whether Li Zhen is Hui or Han is inconclusive.
Li Yan was seen as a vanguard figure against Confucianism, and throughout his life he lashed out at Cheng Zhu Lixue, arguing that these were mostly false Taoism. As for the Confucian classics and the words of the saints, Li Zhen believes that they are only deified and exalted. Many of his articles ridicule and belittle Confucius, and he simply denies that Confucius was a saint.
Li Yan believes that Taoists are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites, full of benevolence, righteousness, morality, and empty talk, "Yang is Taoism, yin is rich", "profit from deceiving the world", not as good as the small people in the city, this group of people is basically a group of people with different words and deeds. Li Yan advocated utilitarianism and denounced the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and he believed that those who did not manage money could not rule the world peacefully. He opposed the hypocrisy of the Taoists, arguing that selfishness is part of human nature, that all human actions must have utilitarian considerations, that speech and quotient may not be dirty, and that self-proclaimed purity may not be clean.
For the feudal monarchy, Li Zhen's attitude is even more astonishing, and his attitude is even more severe than Mencius's "the people are light for the nobles", Li Zhen's statement is "the emperor of heaven, originally thought to be for the people", the so-called emperor is just to serve the people, so how bold it was in that era, we can probably understand. At the same time, Li Zhen also advocated the concepts of human equality, freedom of marriage and love, and liberation of personality.
It is conceivable that the above earth-shattering theories would be questioned and violently attacked in the society at that time, and the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" said that Li Zhen was not holy, his books could be destroyed, and his name was not enough to defile the simple, deceitful, and harmful to the people's hearts...
In the 30th year of the Wanli Calendar, Li Zhen was arrested by the Ming Dynasty on the charge of "confusing the world and slandering the people", and after being imprisoned, Li Zhen pretended to shave his head, and took advantage of the waiter's inattention to take the mention to separate his throat, and the waiter came back very panicked and asked: Is the monk in pain? Li Yan answered: No pain! 70 Old Man What Do You Want? The blood flowed for two days before Li Yan died.