Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

In January of the second year of Song Jiayou (AD 1057), another scientific examination began.There were countless scientific examinations in the Song Dynasty, and countless scientific examinations in Chinese history, but in terms of status, this one is unparalleled. The premise is literary. In the history of Chinese literature, it is known as the "Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". Among the six people in the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Song Dynasty, four of them gathered in this scientific examination. This one has no successor.Another one was actually in the capital at that time.It's just that he is too maverick to play with these ordinary people.

Leaving aside this fairy who "doesn't hide his eyes from the clouds, but only because he is at the highest level", let's talk about these four people.Among the four, Ouyang Xiu was the head at that time, and he was the chief examiner.This is an opportunity for history. Starting with the collection of Han Yu’s anthology that has been deeply rooted in his mind since he was a child, he has been 50 years old in his life. He has matured. His mastery of literature and history has allowed him to truly understand what kind of "body" is. It is enough to intercept the "Tao".

This is a fundamental point. Before this scientific investigation, it can be said that the cart before the horse between the body and the Tao.To put it plainly, literati all over the world are capable of paying attention to rhetoric, and whoever can embellish is everyone.In this way, all the articles are full of extremely elaborate dangerous rhymes and strange characters, and everyone competes to see who can play tricks that have never been seen before. As for the purpose of the article, no one cares about the ultimate question of why articles appear in this world.Ouyang Xiu was a great master at that time, pay attention, he was not a great master, he was very angry.He has been advocating the restoration of ancient prose. Like the ancients, the first priority of an article is to make things clear.

It must be beneficial to the country and the folk customs. The article is by no means a fashion show, and the scientific research is not a catwalk. This is to be passed on to all generations, not just a momentary stepping stone! With this in mind, he walked into the Gongyuan, looking for a candidate that met his requirements, and he found it.This is really a strange number, the vast China, with a territory of thousands of miles, the Song Dynasty has been founded for a hundred years, and the prosperity of culture and education has never been seen since the writing, but the person who can communicate with him is actually in the far-off border of Xibi. Land - within the territory of Sichuan.

At that time, Sichuan was an authentic area of ​​old, young, frontier and poor, rich in wealth, and culturally even more so.Several times throughout Sichuan, before this scientific examination, there were only two Jinshi. One was in the Tianxi period of Zhenzong (AD 1017-1021), a Zhongju surnamed Sun.The other was born in the second year of Renzong's Tiansheng. His surname is Su, and his name is Su Huan, from Meishan.It was in this year that when the local people in Meishan were celebrating the birth of a new Juren, a 17-year-old boy became silent.He is Su Huan's third brother, Su Xun.

Su Xun is a happy young man. In the previous years, playing was the whole of his life.At this time, he was shocked, the glory of the second brother, the smiling face of his father, awakened something in him, fame, is it such a good thing?He started to read again.Note that it is a new one.This person's ingenuity is unquestionable, but he is just playful, and this alone has created his life's depression. When he was 17 years old, he studied hard, Su Xun really worked hard.Three years later, the next scientific examination began, and he passed the provincial examination in one go, following the path his brother had walked, and heading towards the legendary prosperous imperial capital.At this time, he firmly believed that the world belonged to him, fame belonged to him, and everything belonged to him.But in the end... he failed.

At that time, he just felt a little frustrated, or a little surprised, why didn't he pass the exam?There is no sadness in being angry.He knew that he was still very young, he was only 20 years old at this time, and he just had to take the exam again. I am so smart, I will definitely succeed.So he packed lightly and returned to his hometown. On the way back, he took a full view of the land, mountains, rivers, lakes and seas.His vision has broadened and his mind has become broad. Sadness also came quietly at this time. His original intention of studying is for fame, which has always remained the same throughout his life.But his character was on another track.He is energetic, stubborn, and extraordinarily courageous.If these qualities are condensed in a person, it is doomed that he will not be obedient.Especially not listening to those who he considers inferior to himself.

At this time, he was 20 years old. Before that, he was just a boy in a haze. He could believe in books, memorize by rote, and desperate for fame.If he can pass this exam, he will go down the road of wealth and honor smoothly.But he failed the exam, and returned to the natural world, which is hard to say. His mind is growing, and knowledge is selectively accumulating according to his nature. No matter what others taught him, he would be in the same situation. This is his personal misfortune, but it is the luck of the entire Chinese literary history.History can prove that the growth of every extraordinary person has a process of self-awakening and self-improvement.

There are no great men who are mass-produced in classrooms. Su Xun strolled all the way back to Sichuan, he saw the world beyond Jianmen, and also had the first setback in his life, all these changed his mind, the amazing thing is that these changes were beyond his imagination.He was tired of books, and those "knowledge" such as rhythm and tacit meaning used to test his fame no longer aroused his interest. He became a weirdo in the local area, young and young, he didn't do farming, business, or study. Sometimes he was alone in a daze and didn't speak, and sometimes he cheered and drank with a large group of wandering teenagers, as if no one was around.More often he travels to the mountains and rivers, visits lakes and seas, and thinks deeply. If he hadn't gotten married during this period, he would really be like a fairy in the world.

This kind of life has been going on for nearly 4 years, and the good times are finally coming to an end.His mother was suddenly ill, and the treatment was ineffective.Only then did he feel sad. "The child wants to support but does not wait for the relatives", this is the greatest pain in life, and Su Xun's pain is deeper.He never thought that his mother would leave so early, so he hasn't started "raising" yet! He wanted to honor his mother, so he couldn't wait to grab the books he had thrown away back then, fame, no matter what, he had to get fame quickly!From then on, from the age of 27 to the age of 39, for a total of 12 years, he studied hard day and night.As it said in the book: "Su Laoxun, twenty-seven, started to get angry and read books."

In the past 12 years, he went to Beijing twice to rush for the exam, and each time he left full of ambition and returned in a daze.He really doesn't understand, is he really that stupid?Why did those people he didn't like get high in the rankings, but he kept wasting time and time again. At the age of 39, he failed in the scientific examination again. He was full of depression, and there was no way to resolve it, and he went to the mountains and rivers again. A historical opportunity appeared, blessings never come without double, and disasters never come singly. Just as he was heading to Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi to seek spiritual comfort, his old father finally passed away. Su Xun traveled thousands of miles to the funeral, staggered home, and thought about the death of his parents in the past 12 years, and he was nearly 40, but he had achieved nothing!At this point in life, I wish I could harm myself to be a little happier. One day, he lost all hope and threw the articles he had written over the years into the brazier one by one in front of his father's spirit.Scientific research, fame, I don't want to think about it anymore in this life... A miracle appears at this moment. Only when all thoughts are disillusioned can we come to peace, throw away everything in the past, and suddenly a new world appears.During Su Xun's filial piety, he was bored and read all the thousands of volumes of ancient books in his home. Those books are the uninterrupted light of civilization of the Chinese nation since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.This beam of light was ignited by Confucius, who was inherited by Mencius more than a hundred years after his death, followed by Xunzi a few decades later, Yang Xiong more than two hundred years later, and Han Yu more than a thousand years later.It has been nearly 300 years since Han Yu to Song Dynasty. There were frequent wars here, and no one can revive the prestige of Chinese language. The emptiness and expectation of more than three hundred years are pursued by some people in the prosperous world, like Ouyang Xiu; there are also people who are silently thinking in a corner of the west, like Su Xun. Abandoning the shackles of fame and fame, he returns to the basics, and also walks forward along this road. He is destined to reach the same goal as Ouyang Xiu.But the same text has different fate, and different people have heard about it.He walked this way too slowly, too tired, too silent. From the age of 39 to the age of 46, he was looking forward to the ray of hope in his life.He no longer thought about going to Beijing, but finally a celebrity from the capital came to Xishu.This is a capable, knowledgeable, practical talent.What is especially rare is that this person's growth experience is somewhat similar to Su Xun's, which allows them to have a common language. Fate smiled on him. At this time, Su Xun was completely different from before. When he was young, he was free from impetuosity and became deep and reticent. At that time, he was full of exam-taking style, replaced by understanding, insights and solutions to everything in the world. He became a great Confucian.The so-called great Confucianism must not only be proficient in a hundred classics, but also be self-contained, inwardly able to reflect on oneself, outwardly able to solve problems for the world.Articles written with such insight and mind are the authentic system of Chinese Confucianism from Confucius to Han Yuxing. If you think about it carefully, you will find that Su Xun's life is just like the fate of the country in the Song Dynasty. Is it accidental or inevitable?There are so many coincidences that make people think deeply, shake their heads and smile wryly. Like the dawn of his life. Around the fifth year of Huangyou (AD 1053), Su Xun established his own academic system, and several of the most important articles in his life had been written.But it is located in the frontier, no one cares about it, and it seems that it is going to die in the village, and it will be unknown for the rest of its life.Don't worry, the outside world is very exciting, suddenly there are swords and wars everywhere. Nong Zhigao rebelled.Afterwards, the reputation of Ghost Face Marshal Di Qing was sung throughout the south. He won the First World War and flew over the dangers of nature. His name was missed all the way to the Southern Song Dynasty.Stop, may I ask who can connect such a big event with a bumpkin in the Meishan area? The thing is so strange, this is actually Su Xun's spring.Nong Zhigao fled to Dali, and there were rumors afterwards that he would fight back, and his breakthrough was Sichuan, which is adjacent to Dali. One spreads ten, ten spreads a hundred, rumors can kill people, and even cause a sensation in the world.In the end, even the bigwigs in Kaifeng couldn't sit still. In addition to mobilizing heavy troops from Shaanxi to Sichuan, they also sent a capable man, Zhang Fangping, the envoy of the former third division. Zhang Fangping, courtesy name Andao, was born in Henan.As an official, this person managed to be under the jurisdiction of the two governments, but he was not a Jinshi. If you want to say where the knowledge comes from, he is much better than Su Xun.It is said that in the ranking of literati in the Song Dynasty, if the standard of cleverness and strong memory is used, he ranked second.He is only slightly inferior to Su Xun's son, the great genius Su Shi who was born in the world. He can see ten lines at a glance and never forget.I once borrowed the "Three History" from others and returned it within 10 days, and I can firmly remember every sentence in it.As for why it is so strong, it is also a last resort.His family is too poor, life is a problem, if he wants to study, he can only borrow it, the reality forces him to memorize it quickly and firmly. To put it simply, Zhang Fangping stabilized the situation in Sichuan. After grasping both the military and the government, he also paid attention to culture. He discovered Su Xun and paved a road for Su Xun to Kaifeng, the imperial capital. Zhang Fangping wrote a letter to Ouyang Xiu.This letter is not trivial. According to research, it is one of the few letters between Zhang and Ouyang, who were originally enemies. Zhang Fangping was Lu Yijian's confidant back then, and Ouyang Xiu was Fan Zhongyan's "clique". For decades, they had exhausted their means and fought to the death, but as long as they returned to literature, they became modest gentlemen again, with a warm heart.This is incomparable to the civil servants of the later Shenzong, Zhezong, and Huizong years. From some point of view, they are all gentlemen. Su Xun left Meishan two years later and came to the capital.This is the third time he has come to Beijing, this time is different from usual, he almost immediately became a miracle.In a short period of time, he established contacts with top officials and famous ministers in the capital.For example, Ouyang Xiu, Yu Jing, Tian Kuang, Wen Yanbo, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others all received his articles and letters. Without exception, everyone liked his articles, but smiled and said nothing to his people. Su Xun wondered, did he do something wrong?Looking back and thinking about it, he came to the capital for a purpose. Confucianism is a world-oriented one. If you are poor, you will be good for yourself, and if you are rich, you will benefit the world.He saw all kinds of problems in the Song Dynasty in reality, and wanted to do something for the people of the world. These ideas and even the solutions were clearly expressed in the articles and letters. So why did the celebrities in the court ignore him? Such was his fate, he came at an inopportune time.If it had been 15 years earlier, the war with Xixia had started at that time, and the Song Dynasty had broken all stereotypes and bad habits, and would have adopted any useful idea. He appeared at that time, and it was not difficult to win fame; but 15 years later, not to mention the current emperor is sick. Among them, in the Qingli New Deal in the early years, there were already express regulations that leapfrog promotion of talents was not allowed, and the hierarchical system has been unbreakable since then. Everyone is in the system, what kind of sage do you have to be to make you an exception? What's more, his specific methods are too tough.For example, in the letter to Han Qi, he asked Han Qi to kill a group of lazy soldiers, and the morale of the army was immediately lifted.Is the method right? Yes, that's what Di Qing did.But that was against the enemy, and it was still a time of peace.And today's Han Qi is no longer the young man in the Northwest. kill?Han Qi is as noble as the wings flying in the sky, as condensed as the ice and snow on the top of a snow mountain, and no longer does those rough jobs. Another example is the letter to Fu Bi. He opened his mouth to criticize him. From the Qingli period until he took office this time, he did not make any achievements and did not save any sympathy. No matter how cruel he was, he did not save the current prime minister any face. Are you out of your mind?No, the reason for doing so was taught by Mencius. Mencius said: "If you talk about a great man, you should despise him." This is the code of conduct of Mencius throughout his life. For example, when he imitated Confucius when he traveled around the world and lobbied King Hui of Liang, he could turn around and say, "... It's not like a gentleman." Words. You don't look like you are expected to be an emperor. It can be said that he acted recklessly and did not take the king seriously. It can be said that he violated the highest purpose of Confucianism-the monarch, minister, father, son, and son.No matter whether he is a saint or not, there is absolutely no reason to despise his superiors like this. But he did it, and to put it bluntly, it was a last resort.During the Warring States period, and all subsequent war-torn periods, only such means can be used to convince those in power.An example is how Zhuge Liang persuaded Sun Quan. Speaking of this, we can see the huge flaw in Su Xun's knowledge.It is true that he is a great Confucian, and his writing surpasses that of the ancients, and it is true that he was unique at the time.But there is one thing, he is a great Confucian, and it can be accurately summed up that he is a great Confucian in the pre-Qin period.He is self-taught, and has been brooding in Shuchuan, and he has thoroughly studied the top thoughts of the pre-Qin era, but he is even farther away from the real society at that time.The result, much like the confessions of a lonely warrior. After the samurai lost to a man, he spent ten years behind closed doors looking for the opponent's flaws.Ten years later, it finally dawned on me that I was confident that I could defeat my opponent.But when I thought about it again, I was so depressed that I was dying.Understand that the gap between yourself and the other party is farther than it was back then. What he found was the weakness of the opponent ten years ago. Has the opponent not improved in the past ten years?But his own entry was still ten years ago! Su Xun was like this, using pre-Qin theories and styles to practice in the Song Dynasty more than a thousand years later, the result could only be rebuffed everywhere, and he was still at a loss, leaving a bad impression on the entire power class without knowing it.To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the luck of his sons, and it happened that Ouyang Xiu was in charge of this scientific examination, it would be possible for the father and son to return to Sichuan in desperation! But this can't be blamed on him. When Confucius and Mencius traveled around the world, did they get any good fruit to eat?Confucianism itself has major irreconcilable and irreparable flaws, and it has not been perfected in the era of the founders.To study history is to face up to what happened in the past, like looking for the root of a disease, to find the problem, so as to avoid it in reality. This is the reason for the existence of historical learning. Instead of becoming a storybook that reminisces about the glory of ancient times and lets modern people live in dreams to ease the unsatisfactory mentality in front of them. Having said that, I might as well say a few more digressions.About the meaning of the word Daru to reality.In other words, whether the Chinese nation, whether it is ancient or modern, needs them or not. First of all, as the theory of a hundred schools of thought, or the origin of human civilization, the existence of Confucianism is definitely an epoch-making product, and it is the cultural foundation of China, which is independent of the forest of nations in the world.It's positive, it's amazing. But there is one point, there is a big flaw in Confucianism that cannot be justified even today.For example, it is part of the WTO, and it has to solve specific problems that arise in the world, such as military affairs or economics.That's when something went wrong, and now we know that every problem needs to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and a solution must be found in reality. In many cases, problems appear with the progress of the times, so the solutions are the same. Innovation and research are required to emerge.It's like the relationship between a new virus and a new vaccine. But under the rule of Confucianism, the solution is not to study in reality, but to find annotations and answers in the books of the ancients.This is why when people look at various ancient Chinese documents, they often start with "ancient people's cloud".Everything depends on how the ancients and the old Shenzong solved it, and then we all copy it. Will this work? ! This is the root cause of modern China's backwardness. When you understand this, you will understand that, as the requirement of the progress of the times, great Confucianism has long been a waste.Not only in the 21st century, even in the Northern Song Dynasty more than a thousand years ago, Su Xun met his deadly opponent, that is, Wang Anshi, the Minister of the Three Deficiencies, who later said that "heavenly changes are not enough to be feared, Shenzong is not enough to follow the law, and people's words are not enough to be sympathetic." At this time, Wang Anshi was ordered to return to Beijing to serve as a herding judge, responsible for raising horses all over the country.They met each other at Ouyang Xiu's house, and they looked at each other disliked when they first met. They both have the same stubborn temper, the same talent and arrogance, and happen to be the same self-taught.Where else can you find such an ideal enemy? Old Su and Wang Anshi became enemies, and even Da Su and Xiao Su later had a long-term feud with Wang Xianggong.Of course, this is all something for later. After talking about the Great Confucianism, let’s move on to the subject of the scientific examination. The scientific examination in the second year of Song Jiayou (1057 AD) finally started.The person who can almost represent the entire brilliant culture of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi and Su Zizhan, was finally born.