Chapter 14 History of Luoyang Talented Scholars

Human affairs always reflect the sky, at least that's how the ancients wrote their histories. On the last day of November in the second year of Emperor Wen's Yuan Dynasty (178 BC), the celestial phenomena suddenly changed, and the originally clear day suddenly fell into darkness, which turned out to be a solar eclipse.Half a month later, on the fifteenth day of December of that year, a solar eclipse occurred for the second time on the territory of the Han Dynasty. The ancients believed that solar eclipses and lunar eclipses were bad omens, especially for the emperor, as the son of heaven, changes in the sky often meant instructions from the gods.The solar eclipse is a symbol of danger, and Liu Heng felt that it was because God felt that he had not done well as an emperor.In order to make up for his mistakes, Liu Heng issued an imperial edict that year:

"I heard that the common people are all born in the sky, so the heaven set up the emperor to manage them. If the emperor does not respect benevolence and deal with things unfairly, the heaven will send disasters to warn the emperor. In November this year, my big man A solar eclipse occurred, and this is the warning from the heavens. I think there is no more terrible disaster than this! I am a person with little ability. I am alone. The ministers are nothing more than my arms and legs. I have failed to raise the people well, and I have damaged the brilliance of the sun, moon and stars. I am too immoral.

"After reading my edict, please tell me all my mistakes, whether it is a mistake in behavior or a mistake in thinking. At the same time, please recommend a lot of virtuous and upright people to the court to assist me. All the officials We also have to reflect on ourselves and see if we have fulfilled our duties. In addition, I will lighten the tax in the future to benefit the people." The core of Liu Heng's edict is a "Decree for Seeking Talents", hoping to recruit talents from all over the world to assist him. However, Liu Heng did not start recruiting talents in the second year of his ascension.As mentioned above, Liu Heng has been committed to cultivating his own power since he took the throne, so as to fight against the central group of heroes.

In the first year before Emperor Wen, Wu Gong, the prefect of Henan County, was appreciated by Liu Heng because he ranked first in the country in the performance assessment that year. Liu Heng also heard that this person was originally a fellow of the Qin Dynasty Prime Minister Li Si. He often learns from Li Si and is an excellent grammar official, so he was recruited to the central government as a court lieutenant. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the rise of a new political star was related to this Duke Wu. In Luoyang County, the county seat of Henan County, there lived a young talent named Jia Yi.At the age of eighteen, this man was well-known in the village for his poetry and literary talents. When Wu Gong was in office, he recruited Jia Yi as a scholar because he was promoted as a scholar.Now that Wu Gong has become a Ting Wei, he naturally wants to recommend talents to Liu Heng according to Liu Heng's wishes, so Jia Yi was recommended by Wu Gong.Liu Heng recruited Jia Yi as a doctor, that is, Liu Heng's entourage and staff, with a rank of more than six hundred stones, and was under the jurisdiction of Taichang, who was in charge of national etiquette affairs.

At that time, Jia Yi was only in his twenties, at the age when he was full of vigor and sharpness, and he rushed to answer every question Liu Heng arranged for the doctors to discuss.When the old scribes next to him were still at a loss, Jia Yi had already started talking endlessly, which made the old people very ashamed, but Liu Heng was very happy, and promoted Jia Yi to become a doctor in the imperial court in just one year .Although he is still the entourage of the emperor, Jia Yi has been promoted to three levels in a row, surpassing the three levels of 600 stones, 800 stones, and 800 stones. The most beloved.

What is so good about Jia Yi?The main reason is that he is proficient in the two books "Guo Yu" and "Zuo Zhuan". The spread of the study of "Zuo Zhuan" recorded in the history: "Shen Chuan Wu Qi, a Weiren, passed on to his son Qi. Qi passed on Duo Jiao from Chu. Jiao passed on Yu Qing from Zhao, and Qing passed on the name of Gou Qing from the same county. Kuang Zhang Cang, Wu Wei, Cang Chuan Luoyang Jia Yi." (Lu Deming's "Classic Interpretation·Records") That is to say, Jia Yi got the true biography of the study of "Zuo Zhuan".In addition, we should also notice that Jia Yi’s teacher, Zhang Cang, was serving as the imperial historian of the Han Dynasty at this time, and later worshiped as a chancellor in the fourth year of Emperor Wen’s BC. Jia Yi’s promotion may have something to do with his support.

In addition, according to Wei Zhao's "Guoyu Explanation": "...After the chaos of the Qin Dynasty, it was quiet and restored, Jia Sheng and Shi Qian, quite a summary." Jia Yi should also be proficient in the study of "Guoyu". Scholars in the early Han Dynasty often spent their entire lives studying one scripture, but Jia Yi studied two books at the same time, which shows that he is extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, and a talent. However, Jia Yi's problem also lies in his familiarity with the scriptures.We often see that novelists reproduce themselves as they write novels.For example, in Gu Long's novels, the personalities of the characters in different works are similar. This is because people always find it difficult to detach themselves from the things they are familiar with, and they like to talk about the places they are familiar with in everything they do.Jia Yi is familiar with Confucian classics, so he cannot think about problems without the contents of the scriptures.Once a person becomes a nerd, he has no future and can only circle around within the scope of inherent knowledge.This is the case for Jia Yi. In fact, he doesn't have many practical insights into politics.

However, Jia Yi's enterprising demeanor can temporarily cover up his lack of political talent.The fledgling Jia Yi is determined to help Liu Heng change his ways. He believes that the world has been harmonious for more than 20 years since the founding of the Han Dynasty. .These five points are to help Liu Heng deal with internal affairs. At the same time, Jia Yi wants to use this to re-plan all aspects of the Han Dynasty. The so-called "correcting the new moon" means using a new calendar. The history of China started from the Xia Dynasty, and each dynasty had its own calendar. Every time the dynasty changed, the calendar had to be changed to echo the change of the destiny.However, because Liu Bang acquiesced in the "Han Cheng Qin system", and because he himself was a big bastard, when Shu Suntong set up the new national etiquette for him, he asked Shu Suntong to delete the complex and simplify it, so Shu Suntong probably forgot To set up a new calendar, so that October was still the beginning of the year in the early Han Dynasty. Like the Qin Dynasty, this did not conform to the rules after the establishment of the ancient new dynasty.

"Changing clothes color" is to change the color of Yuma costumes during court meetings and ceremonies.Because the Qin Dynasty described itself as the virtue of water according to the theory of the five elements, the Qin people advocated black.However, the Han Dynasty destroyed the Qin Dynasty and established itself, it should be Tude, and Jia Yi designed based on this to make the people of the Han Dynasty respect yellow. The "legal system" is to amend the various systems of the country. "Law" is not enactment. According to Wang Xianqian of the Qing Dynasty, "law" has the meaning of repairing and regulating.The decline of the political situation in the early Han Dynasty was mainly due to the inheritance of the imperfect political system of the Qin Dynasty. Jia Yi's move was intended to revive the government and let the Han Dynasty fundamentally get rid of the shadow of the withered political situation of the Qin Dynasty.

"Determining official names" and "promoting rites and music" are to formulate new official names and etiquette systems.The system has been changed, so there should be changes in official positions and etiquette, which is in line with the "legal system". In addition to the above five points, Jia Yi also put forward the suggestion of "using five in number".On this point, historians have always had different opinions. Yan Shigu quoted Zhang Yan's note saying: "In the Han Dynasty, according to Tude, the number of Tude is five, so five is used, which is also called the seal. If the prime minister says 'the seal of the prime minister', if the seal of the ministers and the ministers is less than five characters, use '" It's enough." Chen Zhi, a great historian of the Qin and Han Dynasties, also believed that "the number of five" was "referring to the use of five characters in the official seal. In the early Han Dynasty, the official seals were all four characters. Jia Yi's proposal was not adopted. It was used by Emperor Wu. officially switched to ".

According to Zhang and Chen, "Numbering with five" means that all official seals must have five characters. Before that, the official seals of the Han Dynasty only had four characters. However, it is obviously inappropriate to regard "counting five" only as the number of words printed on official seals.According to Mr. Han Zhaoqi, "counting and using five" can also be expressed in various aspects such as ritual vessels and official seals, and "earth" ranks fifth among the five elements. Didn't Jia Yi want to describe the Han Dynasty as earth virtue? "Counting with five" can be matched with Tude theory. In the end, it can only be explained in general according to the records in "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang" that "(Qin) numbers are based on six, talismans and crowns are all six inches, and public opinion is six feet, six feet are steps, and six horses are riding". "Numbers use five", which should mean that the number five is used as the number to regulate the etiquette system and other aspects. Jia Yi put forward these six points with only one purpose: to completely overthrow the model of "Han inheriting the Qin system".Although Jia Yi's thinking was correct, Liu Heng did not follow his advice.The history books say that "Emperor Qianqian did not let it go" (Volume 13), that is, Liu Heng was very modest and kept saying that he was not capable enough, so he did not implement Jia Yi's plan in the end. However, the author believes that Liu Heng's refusal of Jia Yi's proposal was not out of modesty.As mentioned earlier, Liu Heng was a vassal king in his early years, and he also had a lot of contacts with the vassal kings throughout the process of launching a coup d’etat and ascension to the throne. Therefore, as soon as Liu Heng ascended the throne, he first took the issue of the kingdom, recruited and surrendered the South Vietnam Kingdom, and divided the princes.Compared with the kingdom issue, the internal affairs reform is actually more difficult to implement, because it involves the internal issues of the Liu family.After all, "Han inherits the Qin system" is a rule set by Liu Bang, and if Liu Heng wants to abolish these systems, it means publicly denying the policies of Liu Bang's period.Not to mention that this is not in line with the ideology of the ancients, such an open and clear approach will inevitably be strongly dissatisfied by the hero group, and Liu Bang set up these systems to protect the interests of the hero group, and the hero group has an extremely strong personality worship for Liu Bang At this time, it is not yet ripe to start dealing with internal affairs. It can be seen that although Jia Yi's political enthusiasm is very high, the enthusiasm cannot make up for the lack of vision and talent after all. Jia Yi's political EQ is low enough to apply for the Guinness Book of Records.At this time, he still didn't know that his rough and unthought-out cynical speech had already laid the groundwork for his future tragedy.