Chapter 25 Chapter 24 The Second Persecution

In the autumn of the eighth year of Yuanyou (1093), the two women died successively.One is Madam Su Dongpo and the other is the Empress Dowager, both of whom can be said to be his mysterious patron saints.Not long after they passed away, Su Dongpo's fate changed completely.Mrs. Su passed away on August 1, and the Empress Dowager passed away on September 3.When his wife died, Su Dongpo's happiness reached its peak. She died at the right time, so she didn't have to spend the most miserable years of her life with him.Su Dongpo returned to Beijing from Yangzhou, and served as Minister of the Ministry of War for two months and Minister of Rites for ten months;Mrs. Su once accompanied the queen to pay homage to the imperial mausoleum, and enjoyed all the honor and favor of a noble lady.The children are all married and stay with her.Su Mai was thirty-four years old, Su Xi was twenty-three years old, and Su Kuo was twenty-one years old.The second son married Ouyang Xiu's granddaughter.Mrs. Su's funeral was very grand.Her coffin was placed in a Buddhist temple in the western suburbs of the capital, and the husband and wife were buried together ten years later.Su Dongpo's sacrificial oration for her is well worded, elegant and simple.The article said that she was a good wife and mother, and treated her ex-wife's son as if she were her own.He said that she shared the ups and downs of his life with satisfaction.He vowed to be buried in the same grave as her in the future.A hundred days later, Su Dongpo asked Li Gonglin, a famous artist, to draw a portrait of ten Bodhisattvas and sacrificed it to her. He also asked monks to perform rituals to bless her with safety in water and land, so that she could ascend to the western world.

The Empress Dowager—Shenzong's mother, Zhezong's grandmother—was really Su Tungpo's patron saint.As soon as she died, Su Dongpo was in bad luck, and other high officials in her regency also suffered disaster one by one.The wise old lady has long felt that the political situation will change, because her grandson grew up beside her, and she knows him too well. He is a young man who loves literature and art. He is rash in other aspects, has a bad temper, and is easy to be a villain. dominated by.He had a bad feeling for his grandmother, which may have been deliberately instigated by Wang Anshi's party members.

Ten days before the Queen Mother died, Fan Chunren, Su Ziyou and other six ministers went in to see her. "I probably can't recover," said the Queen Mother, "I can't watch you for a long time. You should try your best to serve the little emperor." The minister is about to resign, and the queen mother asked Fan Chunren to stay.So Zhezong asked others to retreat, leaving only Fan Chunren and Lu Dafang. It was rumored in the court that the Empress Dowager rebelled and wanted to make her own son emperor. The Empress Dowager asked, "The Emperor is young, and Shenzong entrusted him to rule the country in his old age. Have you ever seen me take special care of the Gao family in the past nine years?"

"No," Lu Dafang said, "The Empress Dowager has never treated her natal family favorably, and the country is the most important thing in everything." "That's right," said the Queen Mother with tears, "that's why I couldn't see my son and daughter when I was dying." She didn't send her son to be an official in the capital. "The Empress Dowager will recover," Lu Dafang said, "Please listen to the doctor's advice. You shouldn't talk about these things now." "No," said the queen mother, "in front of you today, I want to say a few words to the emperor. I know that many ministers will fool him after my death. Grandson, you should be careful." She turned to Lu Dafang and Fan Chunren and said: "I think after the death of the old man, you should resign and go back to seclusion. The little emperor will use a new man."

She asked the attendants if the ministers were invited to dinner in the palace, and she said to Lu Dafang and Fan Chunren: "Let's go to dinner now. On this day next year, please remember your old age." As soon as the queen mother died, Su Dongpo was transferred to leave Beijing.He asked for a transfer and was sent to the most troublesome area.He commanded the military region in western Hebei, served as the commander of infantry and cavalry, and his yamen was in Dingzhou (now Dingxian County) near Beiping.According to the Song Dynasty system, military generals are all civilian officials, with generals serving as deputy heads.Su Dongpo's tenure was not long, but he proved that poets and painters can also command the army.The military and government are corrupt, the soldiers are underpaid, the clothes are torn, the food is poor, and the barracks are in a mess.Greed is rampant, and military discipline is lax.Officers and soldiers drink and gamble, and come for everything.This kind of army must flee before the battle.Su Dongpo started to repair barracks, rectify discipline, dismiss corrupt officials and punish them, and improve soldiers' clothing and food.

Some soldiers saw Su Dongpo punishing corrupt officials, so they came to report to their superiors.Su Dongpo said: "It's nothing to do with you, I will handle it myself. If a soldier can inform the officer, what kind of military discipline is there?" The informer was also punished.He attaches great importance to his commanding dignity.He put on his military uniform, held a review, and ordered the lieutenants to be ranked according to rank.General Wang Guangzu is a proud veteran who has led troops in this area for a long time and feels his power is threatened.Refuse to participate in the review.Su Dongpo strictly ordered him to attend, and the veteran had no choice but to obey orders obediently.

The tragedy of a dynasty is that the queens must successively produce kind, intelligent, and capable sons, grandsons, and great-grandchildren in order for the royal family to retain power for a long time-this is an unsafe assumption that humans have never heard of in biology.Geniuses do not beget geniuses, and sooner or later a wise monarch will give birth to evil and stupid offspring.The country's peace, well-being, and even the course of history depend entirely on the occasional changes in a family's genetics.Nature does not allow a family to monopolize intelligence, so Louis XVI is not like Louis XIV, and George III is not like George II.Thanks to these two neurotic kings, the French Revolution and American Independence were able to succeed.

The eighteen-year-old little emperor who is now enthroned is a womanizer and often plays truant.Yuanyou scholar once wrote a letter to the little emperor and the queen mother, accusing him of being obsessed with women and ignoring his studies, which planted his dissatisfaction with Yuanyou scholar.The emperor had twenty court ladies serving him in his daily life, which was in line with the palace system.Later the emperor told Zhang Dun that one day he suddenly discovered that ten court ladies had been dismissed and replaced by new ones.A few days later, the other ten left again. Before leaving, he said goodbye to him. He saw tears in the eyes of the maid, as if she had been sternly interrogated by the Queen Mother.

Now the little emperor is particularly dissatisfied with the two ministers, and I have to explain why.Liu Anshi almost died, and Fan Zuyu died in exile.Something happened four or five years ago.One day Liu Anshi hired wet nurses for his sister-in-law, but found none.Liu Anshi waited for a month without any news, and angrily asked the old lady of the helper shop why she couldn't find anyone. "My lord," said the old woman, "I have done my best. The inner court wants ten wet nurses, and I will send them today." "Nonsense!" Liu Anshi was taken aback, "The emperor is not married, what does he want a wet nurse for?"

The old woman explained that the officials at the East Gate strictly ordered her to keep the secret.Liu Anshi didn't believe it.He wrote a short note to his friends in the inner court, confirming that there is such a colleague?So Liu Anshi wrote a letter to the queen mother and the emperor, besides talking about other things, he also said: "It is popular among the people to ask for a nurse in the palace. Your Majesty is rich in spring and autumn. When you are at the end of the day, you will be pro-female. I heard it for the first time. I don't think so." Believe it or not, more and more people have spread it over the past few months, and there must be a reason for what you say." He warned that if the news spread, the common people would definitely be unhappy.

Another minister, Fan Zuyu, wrote a letter to the emperor: "This autumn, I heard outsiders say that your majesty has been close to the harem. My sincerity is so stupid that I can't help but be confused. Your majesty is fourteen years old this year. How is it that you are close to the time of womanizing? How can you not Love the Eucharist?" The rumor is said to be based on a misunderstanding.One day after the imperial court, the Empress Dowager asked Lu Dafang to stay and said to him: "An Shi wrote a letter about looking for a wet nurse in the palace. Although the intention was good, he didn't know the inside story. The wet nurse was not found by the emperor, she was there to serve her. A little princess who is still breastfeeding. He has always been with me, sleeping in the inner hall. I think this rumor is groundless. I asked the maid, but found nothing. Please ask An Shi not to write a letter about this matter. " "Liu Anshi is the admonisher," Lu Dafang said, "According to the regulations, the prime minister cannot meet with the admonisher in private." "Then how do we convey our will to Anshi?" the queen mother said. "I often see Fan Zuyu in Jiying Hall. I'm about to visit him and tell him to tell An Shi the queen mother's will. They are fellow villagers." "Fan Zuyu also wrote a letter to discuss this matter," said the Queen Mother, "You also told him not to mention it." The message reached Liu Anshi's ears, and he said to Fan Zuyu, "This matter affects the behavior of the emperor, how can I keep my mouth shut. You are a close minister of His Majesty, so you should speak up." "I said so." Fan Zuyu replied. Both believed that the nanny's matter might have been a misunderstanding, but they should continue to make political arguments.Liu Anshi not only offended the emperor.During the Queen Mother's regency, he opposed the pardon of Zhang Dun, which also aroused the hatred of the murderer. On the other hand, Zhang Dun, Su Dongpo's former friend, took advantage of the little emperor's preference for women. He was later accused of "defeating the emperor's morality by advocating female sex, and using strange skills to seduce his heart." He knew that the emperor favored "Liu Beauty", dislike queens.It is impossible for us to talk in detail about the life experience of this waste queen who escaped the disaster of Jingkang, which can be written into a good novel.I will only briefly mention that the queen was accused of witchcraft.Someone threw a Taoist spell through the window into her room, and was discovered by investigators in due course.Under torture, the court ladies had no choice but to confess that they saw the queen insert a thin needle into the heart of Concubine Liu, which is a Taoist way to hurt the heart of the enemy.Thirty court ladies were almost flogged to death; the case was not heard according to normal court procedures, but was carried out entirely in the palace.The queen was demoted to a nun.Only then did Concubine Liu say that her chest pain had stopped.She was promoted to empress, and the little emperor was very happy.But later Empress Liu committed suicide and died. The fate of the dynasty and the peace of the country depended on the descendants of the Song family to be such a person.Several cunning ministers manipulated eighteen-year-old boys, causing irreparable national chaos. The big slogan of the new government is "Shaoshu" (restore the style of the ancestors), which is justified in the eyes of the Chinese.The emperor was determined to return to Shenzong's economic policies.Obviously, under this slogan, the ministers during the Empress Dowager's regency would all bear the death penalty of undermining the former emperor's achievements.This shows disloyalty to the former emperor.In Su Dongpo's criminal record, this charge appeared again and again.Although Shenzong's mother testifies—both the young emperor and the ministers were present—that Shenzong had long since regretted his mistakes, and while the ministers could remind the young emperor of what the empress dowager had said to him, the label could be used to discredit opponents of the New Deal. In the early summer of the first year of Shaosheng (1094), Zhang Dun became prime minister on the recommendation of "San Mian Yang".To convince the little emperor that Yuanyou's courtiers were his enemies, Zhang Dun could not just accuse them of overthrowing the former emperor.These guys are smart politicians.They must make the emperor resent the Yuanyou Party members.The emperor's most personal pain is that someone and his grandmother conspired to take his throne.They fabricated the conversations of the dead, intimidated the officials of the inner court, and finally created unwarranted rumors of rebellion. During the Regency of the Empress Dowager, Zhang Dun and the Cai family brothers lost power.Cai Que was so resentful that he spread the legend that the queen mother sought to establish her own son.The crime was revealed, and Cai Que died in exile.Now that the Empress Dowager is dead, the rumors have revived and become a major political issue. Now they accuse Sima Guang and Wang Gui of conspiracy.Apart from two fabricated conversations, no other evidence was found.The dead can neither confirm nor deny.It is said that Sima Guang once discussed this idea with Fan Zuyu. Fan Zuyu was exiled abroad. If he was cross-examined in detail, he would definitely deny it.The impression that the Queen Mother wanted to depose her grandson had already been created.One of her two personal secretaries is Chen Yan, who has been exiled to the south.They convicted him behind his back and sentenced him to death.Another secretary was taken to the capital.Zhang Dun dealt with him.Zhang Dun tortured him, asking him if he wanted to die, or to prove that she was plotting to overthrow the little emperor as the queen mother's personal secretary. "My God, I can't accuse the Queen Mother of false charges!" He refused to give in, and the investigation was discontinued.But Zhang Dun and the Cai brothers had caused him to be suspicious of Sima Guang and the Yuanyou Party members in the emperor's heart. "Is this the case with all ministers Yuanyou?" the emperor asked. "They have this plan," Zhang Dun said, "but they have no chance to realize it." The big "conspiracy" to overthrow the emperor was unveiled.The little emperor filled his chest with anger.They even said that they would drive the queen mother's spirit card out of the royal ancestral hall, but fortunately the little emperor still had a little sense and didn't approve it.He said to Zhang Dun: "Do you want me to never enter Yingzong's ancestral hall?" Orders of dismissal, exile and imprisonment came down one after another.In addition to Su Dongpo, more than 30 Yuanyou ministers were demoted and exiled.The severity of the punishment was unprecedented.Zhang Dun's chance for revenge came.He had been imprisoned during the Queen Mother's regency, and now he is madly revengeful.The guy who Su Dongpo predicted would kill is now in power.He crossed the single-plank bridge over the hundred-foot abyss without changing his face, and he always dared to do anything.He once had an affair with the concubine of the "uncle of the family" in the capital, and jumped out of the window in a hurry, crushing pedestrians on the street, but the case was not officially investigated.During Wang Anshi's administration, decent scholars resigned due to protests, but Zhang Dun rose step by step. Zhang Dun paid homage to his prime minister in April, and immediately helped the old party member back to his high position.These are not simple characters, all known for their cruelty and treachery. "Three-faced Yang" is his good friend.Cai Que is dead, but others are still alive.The double-faced Huiqing came back to be an official, but her reputation was too bad in the past, so she didn't make much progress.Another confidant of Wang Anshi, Zeng Bu, also came back.The Cai brothers, the treacherous ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty, entered the center of the political theater and pushed the country to the road of destruction with tyranny.If there is a period in Chinese history that can be called an era of brutality and chaos, it is Cai Jing's government.He built a beautiful paradise for the emperor, and wrote the most terrible page in Chinese history, because the royal paradise does not need the people to pay so much miserable price.Every strange stone and every strange flower in the garden has sacrificed a few lives.Reading Huizong and his ministers' poems praising this garden, rockery, clear stream, and strange stones, we can't help but feel chills down the spine, feeling unprecedented tragedy in the history of Chinese literature.The tragedy is that the author doesn't know this. Wang Anshi deposed the opposition back then, compared with the persecutors this time, it is like a child's play.Sima Guang and Duke Lu are dead, and they will not be at peace in their graves.The deceased was stripped of his posthumous title and official title twice.This is not enough.Zhang Dun persuaded the emperor to dig Sima Guang's grave, smash the coffin, and flog the corpse for public display to warn all disloyal subjects.In the eyes of the little emperor, Sima Guang became a symbol of treachery, disloyalty and evil in the Yuanyou era.When going to court, everyone expressed their approval, except Xu Jiang who did not speak.The little emperor looked at him and asked him to stay after retreating. "Why don't you speak?" the emperor asked him. "I think it's useless, it will leave a stain on the government." Xu Jiang replied. The order was not passed, and Zhang Dun did not get what he wanted, but other punishments were realized.Sima Guang's family property was confiscated, the official titles and salaries of his children were cancelled, the cemetery built for him by the government was ordered to be demolished, and the inscriptions erected by the Empress Dowager were smashed to pieces.Others suggested burning Sima Guang's.Some people objected, saying that the first emperor had personally written the preface for this book.This irrefutable argument seems to suddenly return to the old idiot's mind, so the standard history books before the Song Dynasty were not robbed.Zhang Dun wanted to "whip the corpse" of Sima Guang, but insisted on severely dealing with his family.Zeng Bu often advised Zhang Dun and the Cai brothers not to go too far.He said: "We should not deprive ministers and grandchildren of official salaries and set a bad example. Don't forget that our descendants may encounter this situation in the future. Moreover, the families of Sima Guang and Han Wei have enjoyed government salaries for nearly ten years. It would be too inhumane to take it suddenly." "No," Zhang Dun said, "It's only been a few years since Han Wei resigned." "It's been six or seven years," said Zeng Bu. "Besides, he has only been in power for a short period of time. If you insist on punishing the descendants, then only punish Sima Guang and Duke Lu. But I think we There is no need to punish the family. It is enough to cut off the title of the dead." "What's the use of that?" Zhang Dun said, "Even if the corpse is whipped, it won't do them any harm. How can they feel when they are demoted after death? The only real action we can take is to severely punish their descendants." "You have to be satisfied with that," Zeng Bu said, "but we should really think about it. I just think we shouldn't set a precedent." Zeng Bu speaks from experience.Zhang Dun later reaped the consequences.He ruthlessly persecuted the Su brothers and prevented them from having a comfortable house during their exile.Ziyou was demoted to Leizhou and was forced to move out of the official residence, so he had to rent a house from the common people.Zhang Dun took the opportunity to sue the Su brothers for illegally occupying the house.The higher-ups sent people to investigate, but fortunately Ziyou produced evidence of legal renting.Later Zhang Dun was demoted to the same area, and this time it was his turn to rent a house.The people in the city hated him, so they said, "How dare we rent a house to you? We used to rent a house to the Su brothers, and almost got into trouble." Zhang Dun is not crazy—he just wants to get revenge, and he is afraid that the opposition party will be alive and have a chance to come back.Except for Han Wei, all the ministers were dispatched to the south or southwest. Some were exiled to the army, some served as wine supervisors, and the lightest served as prefects.Wen Yanbo, the patriarch of the four dynasties who had always been indisputable, was demoted at the age of ninety-one and died a month later.Lu Dafang, Fan Zuyu, Liu Zhi and Liang Tao all died in exile.Liu and Liang died within seven days. At that time, Zhang Dun sent two envoys to persuade many ministers to commit suicide. Everyone believed that they were killed by others.Zhang Dun's hatred was so strong that he ordered Liang Tao's body not to be transported back to his hometown Zu Ying for burial-this is the cruelest thing in the Chinese mind. Zhang Dun hated Liu Anshi the most, and Liu Anshi once prevented others from pardoning him.The government sent an envoy to the south to execute Chen Yan, the queen mother's personal secretary, and Zhang Dun asked him to see Liu Anshi, who had been relegated to the south, and persuaded him to commit suicide.Liu Anshi is a good man, but the envoy refused to do so.Zhang Dun failed to achieve his goal, so he dealt with a local businessman, asked him to be a tax collector, and asked him to kill Liu Anshi.The merchant was already on his way, hastening to carry out his murderous mission, thinking he had no time to escape.When the Liu family heard the news, they wept together, but Liu Anshi remained calm and ate and drank as usual.At midnight, the businessman came and vomited blood and fell dead at the door.Liu Anshi later died in full life. In the dark scene of persecution, Fan Chunren's character is like a bright light.Su Dongpo went to Beijing with his father and younger brother in his early years. He took a break in Jiangling on the way and met Fan Chunren, the son of the famous minister Fan Zhongyan.They are always friendly and respect each other.But not as close as Fan Zhen and Fan Zuyu's family.Fan Chunren's record as an official is flawless, he is the son of a famous father, and he is also one of the two ministers who accepted the Queen Mother's will.The little emperor knew his reputation, so he was safe and sound.In April, more than 30 people including Su Dongpo were exiled, and Fan Chunren asked to be dismissed from office.Seeing that he was determined, the emperor allowed him to live in seclusion at his home near the capital.Zhang Dun wanted to exile him too. "He is one of the traitors," Zhang Dun said. "Chunren is loyal to the country," said the emperor, "he is not a member of the Yuanyou party; he just wants to retire." "He resigned to protest, which shows that he is a traitor of Yuanyou." Zhang Dun said. Fan Chunren didn't stay at home for long.Therefore, Prime Minister Lu Dafang is not a good leader, but his political achievements are not bad. He is now seventy-one years old, suffering from old illness and has been exiled for more than a year.By Confucian standards, this matter is too inhumane.No one dared to speak for him, but Fan Chunren did.His relatives and friends advised him not to be too fussy. He said, "I am nearly seventy years old and half-blind. Am I willing to go into exile for thousands of miles? But I can't talk about this matter. I know my future fate, but I still want to talk about it. "He wrote a letter asking for the pardon of the old prime minister, but he was also demoted to the south. The old gentleman went on the road happily, and his filial family accompanied him.Whenever his child said bad things about Zhang Dun, he stopped him.Once the boat capsized and he was dragged ashore wet: he turned to his children and joked, “Do you think Zhang Dun is to blame for this too?” He could barely see, but lived happily with his family.After Zhezong died, Huizong repeatedly showed his kindness and reward.The imperial court sent an imperial doctor to take care of him and asked him to go back to be the prime minister, but he refused.At the time of the amnesty, more than a dozen of his family members died of poverty and illness, and he also died on the way back to the north. Of course, the four Sumen scholars also suffered.The exiled people had no peace, they were repeatedly demoted and transferred from place to place.The imperial court set up a special agency to rectify Yuanyou party members, and no one was spared.This institution is responsible for filing and classifying all official communications from the May of the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085) to the May of the Yuanyou period of Shaosheng (1094).Anyone who speaks against Wang Anshi's financial policies is considered to be defaming Shenzong.They investigated carefully and punished 830 officials successively, and there were 152 volumes of classified files.Finally, the persecution reached its climax with the "Yuanyou Party Monument" mentioned in the first chapter. Ziyou was dismissed in March.He has always opposed the "Shaoshu" policy, but the process of his dismissal shows the fatuous character of the little emperor.Citing historical examples, Ziyou said that successive emperors often modified the measures of the previous emperor.Among them, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was cited as an example, because the prestige of China in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reached as far as Turkic places.At that time, Zhang Dun had not paid homage to the prime minister, and an official surnamed Li wanted to replace Ziyou.He told the little emperor that it was an insult to compare the former emperor to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.The little emperor knew nothing about history, so he actually believed his words, so he demoted Ziyou and transferred him to Ruzhou as the prefect.A few months later, Ziyou was transferred to Gao'an again.