Chapter 77 Chapter 77 Yang Wanli: Life Beyond Poetry

When it comes to Yang Wanli, a great poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, we will think of his popular and rural poems, "The little lotus just showed its sharp horns, and the dragonfly stood on its head a long time ago", "The lotus leaves are boundless in the sky, and the lotus flowers are red in the sun." ", "The child hurriedly chased the yellow butterfly, flew into the cauliflower and had nowhere to find it", so we took it for granted that he was portrayed in our minds as a rural hermit like Tao Yuanming, but this is not the case. Although Yang Wanli did choose to resign and live in seclusion in his later years, judging from his life experience, he is definitely not a Song Dynasty Tao Yuanming who only loved to write poems and drink alcohol.

Fight against gold 1127 AD was the eventful year when the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty just settled down. Yang Wanli happened to be born in Jizhou, Jiangxi Province (now Jishui County, Jiangxi Province) in this year. The foreshadowing has already been laid. In the 24th year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, 27-year-old Yang Wanli became a Jinshi and embarked on an official career. Yang Wanli was first appointed as the Sihu of Ganzhou, and then transferred to Lingling County, Yongzhou as the county magistrate. Here he met a person who had a great influence on his life-Zhang Jun, a famous prime minister in the Southern Song Dynasty and the anti-golden commander.What needs to be explained here is that there was Zhang Jun and Zhang Jun in the Southern Song Dynasty. The former has always been the main combat faction, and he is the Bole of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong. Yue Fei was killed.

At that time, Zhang Jun was living in exile in Yongzhou because he was excluded by the Zhuhe faction.Yang Wanli, who was full of patriotism, had the honor to meet the anti-golden commander whom he had always admired and revered, and became his student, receiving his encouragement and teaching.He used "Cheng Zhai" as his pen name to remember his teacher's teaching of "sincerity and sincerity". Yang Wanli not only has the enthusiasm of patriotism and resistance to gold, but also has a complete strategy for Anbang to resist insults in his chest. In the spring of 1167 AD, Yang Wanli, who had completed his three-year filial piety for his father, came to Lin'an, the capital city, to wait for a new appointment from the imperial court.During this period, he successively met with the deputy privy envoy Chen Junqing and the privy envoy Yu Yunwen (also a famous anti-gold general), and discussed "Thousands of Considerations". "Thousands of Considerations" is divided into "the way of the monarch", "national power", "governing the original", "talented", "discussing the prime minister", "discussing generals", "discussing soldiers", "controlling officials", "selecting methods", " A total of 30 articles, including "Criminal Law", "Redundant Officials", and "Civil Affairs", profoundly summarized the historical lessons since the "Jingkang Difficulty", boldly criticized the corruption and incompetence of the imperial court, and proposed a set of policies and strategies for revitalizing the country, which fully demonstrated Yang Wanli's political talent.After reading it, Yu Yunwen admired and said: "There is such a person in the southeast! A certain Chuchu, recommending two people together, should be the head of this person."

Yang Wanli advocated the war of resistance all his life, and always opposed to kneel down to negotiate peace.In the many "books", "policies" and "zhazi" written by the emperor, he repeatedly stated the country's benefits and illnesses, tried his best to avoid the mistakes of surrender, and his patriotism was beyond words.Faced with the loss of the Central Plains and the situation where the country is half full, he resolutely criticized the capitulation faction's proposal of abandoning the two Huaihe Rivers and surrendering the Yangtze River to protect the country.

Yang Wanli was loyal to the anti-golden cause and never forgot, so he has always been full of reverence and admiration for his teacher and anti-golden commander Zhang Jun. In March 1188, Song Xiaozong adopted the suggestion of Hanlin scholar Hong Mai (the author of "Rongzhai Essays"), and used Lu Yihao (a controversial prime minister in the early Southern Song Dynasty) and others to accompany Gaozong Temple, that is, to accept the ceremony with the first emperor. Yang Wanli strives to enjoy such honorable treatment for the emperor's subjects, and Yang Wanli strives to enjoy such honorable treatment for the famous general Zhang Juncai. He criticizes Hong Mai for not distinguishing between loyalty and traitors, and "pointing at a deer as a horse". He just called him the stupid Qin Ershi, so he yelled: "Why is I the master of Wanli?" and drove the great poet away from the prince (at that time Yang Wanli was the Minister of Shangshu Province and concurrently served as the servant of the Eastern Palace) to the remote I went to Juanzhou (now Gao'an, Jiangxi).It wasn't until Xiaozong abdicated the throne to the prince, that is, Song Guangzong, that Yang Wanli, the former prince's teacher, returned to the capital.

plead for the people Yang Wanli has a pure heart for the country, and loves the people like a child for the people. He has been working hard to practice the great ambition of "being an official and benefiting one side". In 1170 AD, when Yang Wanli was promoted to the magistrate of Fengxin County, he happened to encounter a severe drought, and the people's lives were very difficult.Yang Wanli saw that the prison was full of impoverished people who could not afford to pay the rent and tax, but the treasury was still empty. He knew that the government officials were exploiting a lot, so he immediately ordered the release of all the "prisoners" in the prison, and strictly prohibited arrest, Whip the people, and then send a notice to every household, reduce the tax amount, and relax the deadline.The common people took the initiative to pay rent and tax, and within a month, all the rent and tax owed were paid off.

Although Yang Wanli only served in Fengxin County for half a year, he has made a lot of achievements and won praise from the people by virtue of his political philosophy of not disturbing the people. Yang Wanli valued the people, sympathized with the people, pinned the fate of the country on the people, and pointed out that the bureaucrats sucked the bones and squeezed the people, which would inevitably arouse the people's anger, hatred and resistance.Therefore, during his tenure as an official, he always adhered to the principle of not disturbing the people and not being greedy for money and property, and reminded the emperor to "use money sparingly, collect taxes sparingly, and build people's hearts. This is the way to rejuvenate the country when the people become rich and then they will be peaceful."

Yang Wanli is upright and upright, criticizes the evils of the times, has no scruples, pleads for the people, and dares to act, so he has never been reused, but he doesn't care about it, because in his inner balance, the benefit of the people is far away. Much higher than the position of senior officials. In fact, Yang Wanli regards officialdom and wealth as a pair of shoes and is ready to throw them away at any time.When he was working in the Beijing Palace, he prepared in advance the traveling expenses for returning home from Hangzhou, locked them in a box, and hid them in the bedroom.Such a high-spirited person who is not in love with wealth and wealth and "promotes every day" is in stark contrast to those people who are struggling to get promoted and worry about gains and losses all day long.

When Yang Wanli resigned from the post of deputy envoy of Jiangdong Transshipment, he should have "a surplus of money and tens of thousands of dollars".After retiring, he hid himself above Nanxi in his hometown, where he lived in just a few old houses that could shelter him from the wind and rain. The poet Xu Ji at that time couldn't help but wrote a poem praising him as "clear as water, but poor with gold". . The reason for Yang Wanli's retirement is also closely related to the fate of the people. At that time, the imperial court wanted to issue iron coins in the counties in the south of the Yangtze River. Yang Wanli thought that this policy would be inconvenient to the people, so he refused to obey the order.Seeing that his ambition could not be fulfilled, Yang Wanli refused to take up the post, and returned home by "begging for a temple official (no actual official position, only receiving salary, which is equivalent to retirement)" on the grounds of old age and sickness. He learned from the sage Tao Yuanming in his hometown Jishui. The hermit has never been an official since.

Die worrying about the country We all know that when Lu You was an octogenarian, he "adopted to defend Luntai for the country", and in the middle of the stormy night, "the iron horse and ice river fell into a dream", when he passed away, he still felt "but sad that Kyushu is not the same", and told his son to be in the Wang Shi When the Central Plains was set in the north, "Family sacrifices are never forgotten to tell Nai Weng". In his later years, Lu You was still worried about state affairs, and he did not forget the Northern Expedition. He "screamed up to the sky" and "vigorous and fierce." Yang Wanli (the other two are Fan Chengda and You Miao), who are also "Four Great Poets of Zhongxing", didn't feel the same way?

Although Yang Wanli wrote in "Answer to Shen Zishou Shu" after returning to his hometown to live in seclusion, he said that leaving the officialdom was "like a sick crane out of a cage, like a rabbit thrown into a forest", but even though he was "far away from the rivers and lakes", deep down in his heart, he had always been Concerned about the safety of the country and the well-being of the people. Yang Wanli was the teacher of the current emperor Song Guangzong, so Emperor Guangzong called him to Beijing several times after he retired, but he always "resigned and refused to go".The reason why he did this was not that he was unwilling to contribute to the country and be loyal to the king, but because he was extremely disgusted with Han Yuzhou, the powerful minister who was arbitrarily acting in the court at that time, and felt that he was powerless to fight against him. Han Tuozhou is a person with great ambition and talent, and a boastful talker. Once such a person takes power, he is likely to harm the country and the people, and harm the community. Therefore, Yang Wanli hates Han Tuozhou, who is in power.Han Tuozhou built a private garden, South Garden, and asked Yang Wanli to write it down. Yang Wanli refused, leaving behind a solemn oath that "the official can be discarded, but the memory can't be done (he retired with a job)". In 1206 A.D., Yang Wanli was already an octogenarian, and his relatives knew that his aging body could no longer withstand the emotional ups and downs, so he dared not tell about any major events that happened in the court. He was afraid that he would not be able to bear the accident for a while. However, unfortunate things still happened. On the seventh day of May, a nephew of Yang Wanli's clan who was working outside came home to visit his relatives, so he stopped by to visit him.The nephew didn't know that his family had been hiding important military and political affairs from the old man, so he talked about Han Tuozhou's Northern Expedition as reported in the Dibao (equivalent to the current party and government organ newspaper). Yang Wanli cried out angrily when he heard this. : "The treacherous officials acted recklessly, and this is the end!" Because he expected that Han Yuzhou, who wanted to win by chance, would be defeated like a mountain, harming the country and harming the people (later facts proved that Yang Wanli's judgment was completely correct).The worried old man Yang Wanli tossed and turned that night and stayed up all night. The next morning, old man Yang Wanli was still not in the mood to eat. He just "sat in the study" without saying a word. Later, he wrote in his handwriting: "Han Yuzhou's treacherous ministers monopolize the Yuan Lord, mobilize troops and remnants, and plot to endanger the society. My head is like this , There is no way to serve the country, but loneliness and anger!" Then he wrote fourteen words to bid farewell to his wife and children, and died at the age of 80.