Chapter 21 5. All civil servants are fatally injured

Speaking of Li Shangyin, no one is unfamiliar with him. He was a famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty, and he was called "Little Li Du" together with Du Mu. In "Three Hundred Tang Poems", Li Shangyin's poems accounted for 22 poems, ranking fourth in number, and his status in the poetry world is unshakable.Yang Yi, a child prodigy in the Song Dynasty, admired him very much. He learned from Li Shangyin's beautiful carvings and sonorous tones, showing elegant artistic characteristics. It is called the "Xikun Style" school of poetry, which had a great influence on the literary world in the early Song Dynasty.A careful study of Li Shangyin's life as an official was aggrieved. He would rather live a worthless life than die tragically.

Li Shangyin lived in a time of decline and chaos, and unfortunately caught up with the famous "Niu Li Party Struggle" in the Tang Dynasty.In the days when eunuchs were monopolizing power in the late Tang Dynasty, the eunuchs were divided into two factions, the "Niu Party" headed by Niu Sengru and the "Li Party" headed by Li Deyu, and the internal conflicts and struggles of the ruling class lasted for more than forty years. Most of the "Niu Dang" are poor scholars who came from the imperial examination and had a humble family background. Most of the "Li Dang" came from aristocratic families with prominent families.The two ways of becoming an official are different, one depends on the imperial examination, and the other depends on grace.The imperial examination was invented in the Sui Dynasty and implemented in the Tang Dynasty. The emergence of the imperial examination broke the monopoly of the elites, and a large number of poor people entered the ruling class of the empire. As a result, the contradiction between the two escalated, and the "Niu Li Party Struggle" broke out.Li Shangyin's official career was involved in it, resulting in a lifetime of frustration.

Li Shangyin claimed to be a descendant of the royal family of the Tang Dynasty. In the late Tang Dynasty, this political identity was meaningless and did not help his official career. He was not much different from ordinary civilians.Li Shangyin had a classmate named Linghuxiao, whose father was the famous Linghuchu, who was then Zhongshu's servant Tong Pingzhangshi.Linghu Chu is an important representative of the "Niu Party" and has a teacher-student friendship with Li Shangyin.Soon Linghuyu won the Jinshi examination, but Li Shangyin failed.The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were far less fair than those in the Song Dynasty, and it was difficult for candidates with no foundation and background in the court to pass the exam.The helpless Li Shangyin asked his classmate Linghuyu for help, hoping to use his father's political influence to help him.Master Linghu and his son were very powerful. Under their operation, Li Shangyin passed the Jinshi examination in the second year of Tang Wenzong Kaicheng (837). He was 24 years old at the time. ".Unexpectedly, when Linghu Chu passed away the next year, a big tree collapsed.

At that time, Jingyuan Jiedu envoy Wang Maoyuan admired Li Shangyin very much, hired him as an aide, and said that he could betroth his daughter to him as his wife, but Li Shangyin couldn't stand the temptation and left in a daze.Wang Maoyuan has a close relationship with Li Deyu and is regarded as a member of the "Li Party".Li Shangyin became Wang Maoyuan's son-in-law, so he was naturally also a member of the "Li Party".People at that time were so shameless about what Li Shangyin did, and everyone agreed that he betrayed his teacher and was ungrateful.In China's traditional moral concepts, "loyalty and filial piety" are the most important, and the problem suddenly became serious.After all, the power of love is greater than everything else. After marriage, Li Shangyin's happiness is in a mess, but sooner or later he will pay it back when he comes out.In the fourth year of Kaicheng (839), Li Shangyin took the official examination and passed it smoothly.Not long after working, he was kicked out of the center and went to the local county to serve as a county captain. Because of the conflict between the death row commutation and the superior leadership, Li Shangyin resigned.It doesn't matter, now is the time when the "Li Party" is gaining power, so Li Shangyin firmly supported Li Deyu's political views when he was transferred back to the secretary province again. The saddest thing is that the father-in-law also died during this period.Tang Wuzong died, Tang Xuanzong came to the throne, Prime Minister Li Deyu and others were quickly squeezed out of the center, and the "Niu Party" came to power.

After the mourning was over, Li Shangyin came out of the mountain again, and things had changed, and he began a staff life that lasted more than ten years.First, he followed Zheng Ya to work in Guilin. Within a year, Zheng Ya was demoted and Li Shangyin lost his job.In desperation, he returned to Chang'an from faraway Guilin, hoping to find a job. Li Shangyin wrote a cover letter to his classmate Ling Huxuan with the cheek.At this time, Linghuxiao was already in the class of ministers and executives, and it was easy to promote him, but Li Shangyin had moral problems, and I believe no one could bear such an unforgettable betrayal, so Linghuxiao flatly rejected him.Li Shangyin had no choice but to pass the exam to obtain the position of county lieutenant. He was a county lieutenant ten years ago, and he really didn't have much enthusiasm for doing it.Fortunately, Lu Hongzhi, the Jiedu envoy of the Wuning Army, hired him as an aide, and Li Shangyin gladly went there. Only a year later, Lu Hongzhi died of illness, and Li Shangyin lost his job again.Fu Wushuang's misfortune never comes singly, and his wife Wang passed away in the next year.Under the double blow of unemployment and loss of wife, Li Shangyin was depressed, but fortunately he was hired by Jiedushi, so Li Shangyin went to Xichuan to join the shogunate and spent four years.At this time, it was over half a hundred years old, and when Li Shangyin had no hope of career promotion, God suddenly gave him a chance.Li Shangyin was transferred to the capital to serve as a Yantie pusher. This position was in charge of the national finance, and the salary was much better than that of the staff, but Li Shangyin was dismissed within two years of working.Not long after returning home, he died of depression at the age of forty-five.

Li Shangyin does not have so many obvious literati common faults, but his personality is as hazy as his poems, which is his biggest shortcoming.Literati have obvious weaknesses, but also have glorious advantages. You can be unrestrained, arrogant, and proud of your talents, but the principles must not be broken.The highest state of life for the Chinese is "circle on the outside and square on the inside". Like a coin, the surface is smooth. In fact, everyone has principles and bottom lines in their hearts, especially politicians. Breaking the bottom line will inevitably lead to offense.Many literati have sharp edges and corners on the outside, but no distinction on the inside. Such people are too nonsense to be officials, and they are absolutely unpopular, because "betrayal" is the most serious moral problem in the traditional sense of official career.Political enemies will look down on you, party members will despise you, when the world criticizes you, history will belittle you, and the biggest problem is when literati make this mistake.

There is a folk proverb that says "be careful to sail the boat of ten thousand years", which aims to warn people to think twice before acting, to plan for the worst, and to work hard for the best. Chinese officials are inherently lacking in predictability, and they are too optimistic when encountering things, so they can be perfunctory by "responding to all changes with the same change", and the prevention and aftermath work is not done well.Literati are very obvious in this aspect when they are officials, and it is one of the common problems of literati, which can be exposed to the sun.The complex of taking the handling of government affairs for granted is particularly serious, which will definitely lead to unrealistic, even laughable generosity.

"Song Barnyard Banknotes" records that when Yang Shuxian knew Jingzhou, he boasted that he was very talented and felt very great.At that time, there were frequent incidents of tigers hurting people in the area under its jurisdiction. At that time, the environment was basically in the original ecology, and it was not surprising that white-fronted and eye-catching tigers appeared.The strange thing is that instead of sending anyone to capture it, Mayor Yang thought about it and wrote an article called "The Essay on Precepting the Tiger", which gave orders to the tiger, meaning to calm down and not come out to cause trouble.Mayor Yang ordered his masterpiece to be engraved on the cliff where tigers infested.A miraculous thing happened. As soon as this article was published, there were no reports of tigers hurting people in the local area. Yang Shuxian was really proud.Soon, Yang Shuxian was transferred to Yulin. Due to the fierce local folk customs, Lao Yang wanted to use "Jie Hu Wen" to teach the common people, so he entrusted Jingzhou clerk Zhao Shouji to copy some "Jing Hu Wen" on the cliff. As soon as the adults were transferred, the tiger reappeared, and the tiger king killed all the craftsmen he sent without giving him face. This is a naked satire on "Jie Hu Wen".

How should a tiger appear?Yang Shuxian put forward his own method based on subjective assumptions. This ignorant approach is very dangerous.Literati often make this mistake, especially when criticizing other people's articles, blindly finding faults, even a little bit of flaws will be viewed under a magnifying glass.It is normal for literati to be too ideal, because they need the support of imagination when creating works.However, officials who are too ideal are administrative incompetence, which is extremely dangerous. A wrong decree will cost the lives of many people. In addition to the above-mentioned common problems of literati, there are many other common problems, such as high-sightedness and low-handedness, not enough food, dark heart, clinging to dragons and phoenixes, not seeing others become popular, etc., each of which is a fatal injury to literati.Such as Mi Heng, Yang Xiu, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, Li Shangyin, etc., God endowed them with extraordinary literary and artistic talents, which does not mean that they can be done once and for all.Everyone has their expertise and shortcomings, and it is impossible to expect every official to be a generalist.Officials who are full of literati's sour smell, at best, they are icing on the cake, and they play the role of embellishment of imperial literati.The emperor didn't want them to have any political achievements, and creating poems and songs was their greatest political achievement.Most of the literati or officials with literati temperament failed to be officials because they did not position themselves properly, did not know what role they played in the officialdom, and moved forward in a swaggering way. Their official career was like a blind man riding a blind horse, and he was in danger .