Ruism

“Heaven will instruct the master like a wooden-clapper bell (to awaken everyone to the Way)” — Analects 3.24

## Details

### Notable Members

Thirteen Tribulation Immortals
Tyrant Song

Ruism is a lineage founded by the amazing Holy Man during the Ancient Antiquity Era.

## Terminology

In the Chinese language, the character *rú* 儒 meaning “scholar” or “learned” or “refined man”.

The character *rú* in ancient China had diverse
meanings. Some examples include “to tame”, “to mould”, “to educate”, “to refine”. Several different terms, some of which with modern origin, are used in different situations to express different facets of Ruism, including:

* Chinese: 儒家; pinyin: *Rújiā* — “*ru* school of thought”;
* Chinese: 儒教; pinyin: *Rújiào* — “*ru* religion” in the sense of “ru doctrine”;
* traditional Chinese: 儒學; simplified Chinese: 儒学; pinyin: *Rúxué* — “Ruology” or “ru learning”;

* Chinese: 孔教; pinyin: Kǒngjiào — “Kong’s doctrine”;

The use of the term “Confucianism” has been avoided by some modern scholars, who favour “Ruism” and “Ruists” instead. Robert Eno argues that the term has been “*burdened... with the ambiguities and irrelevant traditional associations*”. Ruism, as he states, is more faithful to the original Chinese name for the school.

## Social Morality And Ethics

Ruism ethical codes are described as humanistic. They may be practiced by all the members of a society. Ruism ethics is characterised by the promotion of virtues, encompassed by the Five Constants (五常; *wǔcháng*), elaborated by Ruism scholars out of the inherited tradition during the Han dynasty.

The Five Constants are:

* *Rén* (仁, benevolence, humaneness);
* *Yì* (義/义, righteousness or justice);
* *Lǐ* (禮/礼, proper rite);
* *Zhì* (智, knowledge);
* *Xìn* (信, integrity).

These are accompanied by the classical Sìzì (四字), that singles out four virtues, one of which is included among the Five Constants:

* *Zhōng* (忠, loyalty);
* *Xiào* (孝, filial piety);
* *Jié* (節/节, contingency);
* *Yì* (義/义, righteousness).

There are still many other elements, such as chéng (誠/诚, honesty), *shù* (恕, kindness and forgiveness), *lián* (廉, honesty and cleanness), *chǐ* (恥/耻, shame, judge and sense of right and wrong), *yǒng* (勇, bravery), *wēn* (溫/温, kind and gentle), *liáng* (良, good, kindhearted), *gōng* (恭, respectful, reverent), *jiǎn* (儉/俭, frugal), *ràng* (讓/让, modestly, self-effacing).

## Decline of Ruism

The Ruism and the Nine Serenities World were arch-enemies. Back in the days, after the Ruism Holy Man was defeated in the Vying for the Heavenly Way VIII, the Eighth Nine Serenities Ruler used its one time chance to return to the present world and to use Heavenly Way’s authority to personally lead an attack that almost wiped out the entire Ruism. As such, Ruism—who were at the peak of their momentum back then—started to decline.

Ever since that, every three years, the Eighth Nine Serenities Ruler will sent Demons of the Nine Serenities to attack Ruism. These attacks almost destroyed Ruism many times, reducing Ruism influence significantly. After going through a long dark age, Ruism slowly started to recover. But, each time the Ruism was showing signs of recovery, the Demons of the Nine Serenities would look for them and launch a powerful attack, crushing them again before they could recover their strength.

More than 300 years ago, Ruism decided to withdraw from the world due to the continuous raids, and rarely appeared in front of others since then. Only after several hundred years had passed did they recover some of their power.

According to True Monarch Eternal Fire, less than 1% of ancient books the Holy Man left behind, and less than 0.1% Holy Man’s magecrafts survived to the current era.

## Changing Heaven

### Battle of White Cloud Academy

Battle of White Cloud Academy was a battle between Ruism and Demons of the Nine Serenities that took place in August 2019.

A previously unknown Third Stage cultivator called Tyrant Song was considered by Ruism’s upper echelons as the biggest contributor in the battle. He was rewarded with one authentic sutra, one immortal residence and ten Ancient Heavenly Court’s fragments. Ruism also publicly announced his achievement to the masses.

### First Battle of Ruism

The Battle of Ruism was a series of skirmishes fought by Ruism against the forces of Nine Serenities and Ancient Heavenly Court in November 2019.

Ruism recovered the golden bodies of Wenzi, Yanzi, Chizi and Yuzi from Heavenly Emperor, in exchange of Ancient Heavenly Court fragments. The exchange was done with Tyrant Song as the middleman. Afterwards, a grand funeral was held in the Golden Lotus World for them.

### Return of the Thirteen Tribulation Immortals

After Wenzi, Yanzi, Chizi and Yuzi were resurrected, they returned to Ruism. They have been passing the legacy and inheritance to the current Ruism.

## Known Magecrafts

* «*Ruism’s Vajrapani Body*»
* «*Gentleman Travels for Ten Thousand Miles*»
* «*Heavenly Bodies Moving Without Rest*»
* «*Far-flung Realms As Next Door*»
* «*Pregnancy Gaze*»
* «*Knowledge is Strength*»
* «*Compressed Space Explosion Secret Technique*»

## Notable Members

### Holy Man

*Main article: Holy Man*

“*I’m still amazing when cultivating, doth thou knowest otherwise?*„

Holy Man was the founder of Ruism.

### Thirteen Tribulation Immortals

*Main article: Thirteen Tribulation Immortals*
The Thirteen Tribulation Immortals were the Holy Man's most outstanding disciples. Each one of them was honoured as the founders of Ruism.

After the Destruction of Ruism, Daozi was the only known survivor among the Thirteen Tribulation Immortals, with the rest were killed in the battles against the forces of the Nine Serenities. However, there are rumours that some of them survived and have been protecting Ruism in secret.

Bodies of four of them was obtained by the Heavenly Emperor prior of the establishment of the Ancient Heavenly Court. Four of them were exchanged with Ruism for Ancient Heavenly Court fragments in return. Tyrant Song acted as the intermediary for the exchange.

It was finally confirmed that four of them survived until the present era. However, they suffered grave injuries and has been spending most of their time recuperating.

### Tyrant Song

*Main article: Tyrant Song*

“*A drop of water in need, shall be returned with a spring in deed*„
— **Daozi to the members of Heavenly Way Must Step Down Alliance**

Tyrant Song was a previously unknown cultivator who suddenly showed up and rescued Ruism against the machinations and frontal attack of the Eighth Nine Serenities Ruler.

After the Battle of White Cloud Academy, Tyrant Song was publicly known as the ‘*Saviour of Ruism*’. As thank-you gifts, Ruism gave Tyrant Song the «*Holy Man Scripture*» and eleven grotto-heaven and blessed lands. Ruism also ready to go through fire and water to fulfil any of Tyrant Song’s request.

“*It doesn’t matter whether Tyrant Song is the reincarnation of my master or not. The more important thing is what All Heavens and Myriad Realms think of him.*„
— **Daozi to the members of Heavenly Way Must Step Down Alliance**

During the Battle of Ruism, Tyrant Song transformed into the *Really Amazing* Holy Man by channelling the latter’s lingering obsession with the help of Shadow Holy Land. The transformed Tyrant Song then fought against a doppelgänger of the Eighth Nine Serenities Ruler. This transformation and battle was seen by Ruism disciples and due to this, Tyrant Song was rumoured to be the reincarnation of the Holy Man himself.

As of 01st January 2020, it can be said 99.9% of Ruism disciples believed it. Those who actually knows the truth about Tyrant Song’s real identity, such as Daozi and Eternal Fire, decided not to tell anyone else about it.

### Parents of Tyrant Song

As Ruism disciples firmly believe that Tyrant Song is the reincarnation of Holy Man, his family are the entire Ruism’s family.

### The Tyrant’s Younger Sister

As Ruism already missed ‘*Reincarnation of the Holy Man*’ Tyrant Song’s childhood, they absolutely can’t afford to miss the Tyrant’s little sister’s childhood. Therefore, Song Shuyu was an existence that Ruism must protect wholeheartedly.

## Notable Locations

### Ancient Heavenly Court Fragments

After the Ancient Heavenly Court was destroyed, Ruism collected many of the fragments. As for the big ones, Ruism are still researching them. On the other hand, those that were either too small or incomplete don’t have much research value. For this reason, Ruism decided to secretly move them all over the world, transforming them into small grotto-heaven and blessed lands (洞天福地; *dòng tiān fú dì*) and allowing the disciples to use them as a residence or practising place.

On behalf Ruism, True Monarch Eternal Fire transferred the ownership ten of these small grotto-heaven and blessed lands to Tyrant Song, as part of Ruism thank you gift for the latter’s help during the Battle of White Cloud Academy.

### Golden Lotus World

Golden Lotus World was a rare treasure obtained by Ruism. Once the Gentleman Golden Lotus grows and matures, it will gain the ability to create a minor world. The minor world would be located amidst the ‘main world’, but also separated from it, becoming a mysterious and abstruse ‘Realm Within the Realm’.

### Solitary Holy Pond

Solitary Holy Pond (圣寂池; *shèng jì chí*) was a secret location of Ruism originally known only to the Thirteen Tribulation Immortals only. It will only be revealed once the Myriad Books Mountain was overturned. It contains the legacy of the Holy Man. Its location was revealed to Song Shuhang by Coloured-Glass Scholar on 10th August 2019.

### White Cloud Academy

White Cloud Academy (白云书院; *Bái Yún Shūyuàn*) is the main academy of Ruism. Once every three years, White Cloud Academy’s White Cloud City will host a grand meeting. The participants would be Ruism disciples from all over the world, as well as guests from various places.

## Trivia

Ruism was translated by Godbrandy as Erudite School at first and later on changed into Scholarly Faction.

## Links and References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eno, Robert (1990). *The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery* (1st ed.). State University of New York Press. ISBN 079140191X.
2. ↑ Juergensmeyer, Mark (2005). Religion in Global Civil Society. Oxford University Press. p. 70. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188356.001.0001. ISBN 0195188357. “*...humanist philosophies such as Confucianism, which do not share a belief in divine law and do not exalt faithfulness to a higher law as a manifestation of divine will*.”
3. ↑ Runes, Dagobert D., ed. (1983). Dictionary of Philosophy. Philosophical Library. ISBN 0802223885. p. 338
4. ↑ Chapter 1362
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 730
6. ↑ Chapter 1319
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 790
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Chapter 853
9. ↑ Chapter 2907
10. ↑ Chapter 744
11. ↑ Chapter 189
12. ↑ Chapter 369
13. ↑ Chapter 2486
14. ↑ Chapter 1981
15. ↑ Chapter 1982
16. ↑ Chapter 1983
17. ↑ Chapter 1984
18. ↑ Chapter 1985
19. ↑ Chapter 2953
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 2891
21. ↑ Chapter 787
22. ↑ Chapter 1961
23. ↑ Chapter 1969
24. ↑ Chapter 3146
25. ↑ 1 Chapter Epilogue 1
26. ↑ Chapter 781
27. ↑ Chapter 638
28. ↑ Chapter 722