Holding on to the incomplete, describing clinging to the old and incomplete, describing the conservative thinking and refusing to accept new things. The idiom comes from the Eastern Han Dynasty Bangu's "Hanshu Liu Xin Biography", "I still want to hold on to the defects, and I am afraid of seeing the selfish intentions, but I can't serve the righteousness of the public heart." ”
Liu Xin, whose name is Zijun, later changed his name to Liu Xiu, was born in the Western Han Dynasty, he is the fifth grandson of Liu Jiao, the king of Chu Yuan, and the son of Liu Xiang, the minister of the Western Han Dynasty, a scholar, a writer, and the originator of mainland bibliography. Under the influence of his father, Liu Xin began to study the Book of Songs and the Book of Books when he was a teenager, and later studied the Book of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Period of Guliang.
Although Liu Xin was born in a clan and was erudite and talented, his career was not smooth. He was summoned by Emperor Cheng of Han on the recommendation of his ministers, and Emperor Cheng of Han admired his talent very much and wanted to appoint him as a regular attendant. However, at that time, the rise of Wang's relatives and the general Wang Feng was in power, Wang Feng was extremely sensitive to the ministers of the clan, and opposed it on the grounds that the promotion violated the laws of the imperial court.
In the third year of Emperor Heping of the Han Dynasty (26 BC), Liu Xin entered the Tianlu Pavilion with his father and was responsible for sorting and revising the books in the royal collection, which gave Liu Xin the opportunity to come into contact with various rare books and laid the foundation for his future study and creation.
In the process of proofreading the classics, Liu Xin read a large number of secret ancient books, and found the "Spring and Autumn Zuo Biography" (i.e., "Zuo Chuan") copied in seal script, and Liu Xin liked the content of it very much. Therefore, on the one hand, he studied from Prime Minister Zhai Fangjin and Yin Cheng, who had studied the "Zuo Chuan", and asked for advice on the problems and principles in the book, and on the other hand, he discussed and analyzed the "Zuo Chuan" with his father.
At that time, since most of the Zuo Chuan was ancient characters and ancient sayings, scholars studied it more to explain the meaning of the words, and rarely conducted in-depth research on its content. It was not until Liu Xin studied the "Zuo Chuan" that he began to conduct in-depth research on its scriptures, citing classics and citing each other, and then bringing forth the new.
Liu Xin compared "Zuo Chuan" with "The Legend of the Ram in the Spring and Autumn Period" and "The Biography of Gu Liang in the Spring and Autumn Period", which had been included in the official school at that time, and he believed that "Zuo Qiu Ming's likes and dislikes were the same as those of the sage, and he saw the master in person, while the ram and Gu Liang were after the seventy sons, and the details of the rumors were slightly different from those seen in person", so the value of "Zuo Chuan" was far higher than that of "The Ram" and "Gu Liang".
After the death of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, and the Great Sima Wang Mang was in charge of the government. At the beginning, when Liu Xin served as Huangmenlang, he was friendly with Wang Mang, who was also Huangmenlang, Wang Mang knew that Liu Xin was quite talented, so he recommended it to the imperial court, and Liu Xin was therefore appointed as a doctor in the service, and successively served as a lieutenant of cavalry, a lieutenant of Fengche, and a doctor of Guanglu.
After being reused, Liu Xin suggested that scholars should be set up for ancient books such as Zuo Chuan to be taught by doctors. Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty then ordered Liu Xin and the Doctor of the Five Classics to discuss and study the content and meaning of ancient books such as "Zuo Chuan". However, those doctors did not agree to the establishment of academic officials for Zuo Chuan, nor did they want to discuss it in depth, which made Liu Xin very angry, so he wrote a letter to Taichang, who was in charge of the doctors, "Transfer the book to Dr. Taichang", and sharply criticized the doctors' style.
In "Moving Books to Dr. Taichang", Liu Xin reviews the development of Confucian classics from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han Dynasty. He believes that from the time Confucius carried forward Confucianism and wrote Confucian classics, to the Warring States Period, when people attached importance to the art of war and despised Confucianism, the true meaning of Confucianism began to be gradually lost.
It was not until the period of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty that the imperial court abolished the "Book Order", and later from Emperor Xiaowen, some of the collected Confucian classics reappeared, but because of the lapse of too long, many of them have been decayed, scattered, and incomplete, and their contents can no longer be fully known. He believed that in order to truly study the Confucian classics, it is necessary to cite each other from the various editions and fill in the gaps.
In Liu Xin's view, these doctors know that the classics of research are incomplete, "they still want to hold on to the defects, and they are afraid of seeing the selfish intentions, but they have no public heart to obey the righteousness, or they are jealous, they do not consider the truth, they follow each other, and they follow the right and wrong.
It means that these doctors are still clinging to the incompleteness, because they are afraid that others will see through their selfishness of lack of knowledge, and they have lost the public desire to explore the truth, or they are jealous, do not consider the truth, only care about following the same views, regardless of right and wrong, and only follow the voice, suppress the three disciplines of "Guwen Shangshu", "Yili" and "Zuo Chuan", and stubbornly believe that today's "Shangshu" is complete, and there is no need for "Guwen Shangshu" as a supplement, and that Zuo's "Spring and Autumn" should not be disseminated, isn't this sad!
Because Liu Xin's rhetoric was too vehement, instead of being adopted, his proposal was met with collective opposition from the doctors and Confucian officials, and the Great Sikong Shidan also played an impeachment campaign against Liu Xin for slandering the teachings established by the first emperor. Liu Xin offended the ruling minister and was ostracized by the Confucians, so he had to ask to serve in the local government, and was dismissed from office due to illness a few years later.