Chapter 51 3. The officialdom show of "disaster comes from the mouth" and "speak the truth"

When Kou Zhun was excluded, Wang Qinruo, Chen Yaosou, Ding Wei and others formed a united front with Cao Lili. Among them, Wang Qinruo's official career is worth pondering.He is the first southern prime minister since the founding of the Song Dynasty, that is, a scholar from the south of the Yangtze River.Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin once left the ancestral precepts and did not use southerners as prime ministers ("Daoshan Qinghua"). How did Wang Qinruo overcome the patriarchal gap of "ancestral precepts" and achieve "the prime ministers have been sympathetic since the state the "person"?His way of being an official is worth studying.

Wang Qinruo, courtesy name Dingguo, was born in Xinyu (now Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province), Linjiang Jun, Jiangnan West Road.Wang Qinruo is short in stature and not good-looking, but he is very talented and showed his amazing talent very early on.When Wang Qinruo was humble, his family was in a difficult situation. When he saw someone from a sacrificial society, he went to ask for sacrificial meat.Everyone asked him, who are you to sacrifice meat?Wang Qinruo said I was a scholar.Everyone asked again, what are your skills?If Wang Qin said he could compose poetry, then write one!Wang Qinruo took a piece of black charcoal and wrote a poem on the pork skin: "The dragon brings the evening smoke back to the cave, and the geese drag the autumn colors over Hengyang." The poem is very well written, with a chic mood and a strong sense of picture.When people saw that Wang Xiucai had a trick, they gave them to eat.Later, this poem was seen by Song Zhenzong, and he was very impressed and said: "Luoluo has a noble spirit."

In the third year of Song Taizong's Chunhua (992), Wang Qinruo was a Jinshi. Later, he successively served as the Bozhou defense promotion officer, the secretary of the provincial secretary Lang, the supervisor of Luzhou tax, the Taichang Cheng, and the judge of the three divisions.Wang Qinruo has no background, and southerners like him are actually quite difficult to mix in the court.In history, there are the ancestral precepts of the Taizu, but in reality there are regional conflicts among the scholar-bureaucrats in the Central Plains. If you want to succeed in the officialdom, you must have a super IQ.The first time Wang Qinruo came to prominence was to speak out, and the leader Song Zhenzong remembered him as soon as he spoke.At that time, Wu Bingu was the judge of the Duzhi Division of the Third Division. This department was similar to the Accounting Division of the Ministry of Finance today, and was responsible for national expenditures.He pointed out that since the Five Dynasties, there have been too many folk debts, prisoners, etc., and the people's diseases are almost insurmountable, and this matter should be studied and studied.Wang Qinruo ordered the officials to make this into a system file and submit it to the government.

Song Zhenzong was very surprised when he saw it, and asked: "The first emperor didn't care about evil?" The implication was that Song Taizong didn't know these things?Why didn't the first emperor deal with it, but left it in our dynasty?Wang Qinruo explained: "The first emperor knew it well, and I will keep it with your majesty to accept it." Wang Qinruo's words hit the point, he can best guess the monarch's mind, this is his trump card in the officialdom.The new leader didn't know when he first came up, so the historical legacy of the previous dynasty was mostly regarded as a mess.Wang Qinruo simply said that of course the late emperor knew that if he didn't deal with it, he would let the leader handle it, so as to buy the hearts of the world.The language has puns, which not only answer Zhenzong's questions, but also maintain the political image of the late emperor.Everyone can speak, so why do cross talks, talk shows and other language arts come into being?People mostly rely on language to communicate with each other, so speaking has become a skill and knowledge.It is very obvious in the officialdom that disasters come out of the mouth, and there is also a word.History has proved countless times that misfortunes come from the mouth, but little is said, because the former is a manifestation of stupidity, and the latter requires superb wisdom.Song Zhenzong was very happy to hear Wang Qinruo's explanation, and immediately decided to clear up more than 10 million debts in the world, and released more than 3,000 prisoners and criminals.Because of this, Wang Qinruo was highly regarded by the emperor. He was promoted to You Zhengyan and Zhi Zhi Gao, and was called a Hanlin Bachelor.The first two official positions don't matter anymore, the key is the Hanlin Bachelor in the back. Anyone who has a little understanding of Song history knows that Hanlin Bachelor is usually the incubation base for prime ministers.Being a Hanlin scholar may not necessarily make you a prime minister, but to be a prime minister, you must first be a Hanlin scholar.Although there are no express regulations, the official rules of the Song Dynasty were like this.Wang Qinruo took a step closer to the high-ranking official Houlu, and the next step will be handed over to Mo Kan.

"Luo Zhi Jing Gu Rong": "Officials have no fixed masters, and they can change to please their masters." Official positions have no fixed masters, so officials must use their intelligence to please the monarch.In the ancient Chinese monarchy society, the emperor had the final say, and the emperor had the final say. Sometimes the officials were honored, dignified, frustrated or aggrieved, all because of his words.Although the Song Dynasty tended to be "republican", it was still an autocratic monarchy after all, and these things inevitably existed in this system.Therefore, "Luo Zhijing · Gurong" also said: "Glory and favor have a beginning, and few have an end; good and bad are impermanent, and the wise are less likely to suffer. Honor and favor are fate, and then do good after seeking them; good and bad choose people, and carefulness will eliminate mistakes." Translated That is to say, there is a time for a great career to start, and of course there is an end time. Few of them can always be favored and valued by their leaders.Good and bad in officialdom are impermanent, and there seems to be no rules to follow, which requires wisdom to avoid or reduce disasters.Glory and greatness are not predestined by fate. The phrase "sometimes in fate must be there, and there is no time in fate to force it" is for the mediocre.On this point, "Luo Zhijing" is more materialistic and objective, and it proposes that if you want to be a dignitary, you need careful planning to be successful.It is true that being in a position of grace is usually accompanied by danger, which needs to be handled carefully to avoid disaster.If Wang Qinruo has won the attention of the leaders, his official career promotion is surprisingly fast, it can be said that he is flat, and disasters will come naturally.

When Wang Qinruo was doing a temporary job in Quanzhi Gongju, there was an examinee named Ren Yi, who got his ranking by bribery and served as Linjin county lieutenant.Later, this matter was brought to the central government by Chang Defang, a citizen of Heyin, through some unknown means.Ren Yi didn't have much talent, and he didn't take the Jinshi exam, so he took the slanted route of becoming an official, and other subjects could reduce people's attention.Ren Yi learned through inquiries that Wang Qinruo, the chief examiner, had a close relationship with the monk Hui Qin, so he indirectly bribed the chief examiner through Hui Qin.Ren Yi gave Hui Qin three hundred and fifty taels of silver, and the monk was an eye-catcher for money, so he kept one hundred taels as an intermediary fee and gave Wang Qinruo two hundred and fifty taels.At this time, Wang Qinruo was "locked up" (locked up in the examination room for the imperial examination) and isolated from the outside world.

The imperial examination mechanism in the Song Dynasty was sound. In order to prevent cheating, the system of enclosing and transcribing was implemented.Mi Feng is to paste the candidate's name on it.Even if the name cannot be seen, the font is still recognizable, so there is another transcription, and the scribes of the pavilion will re-copy the candidates' examination papers.The papers presented to the chief examiner had the same font, avoiding the possibility of cheating.At the same time, work on the chief examiner. During the imperial examination, there was one chief examiner and several deputy examiners (Quan Tongzhi Gongju) to disperse the power of the chief examiner.The chief examiner is a kind of temporary assignment, and those who are selected as the examiner must "lock up" and cut off external contact.Huang Tingjian used to be the chief examiner during Song Zhezong's Yuanyou period, and was "locked up" for 44 days, and there were longer.Therefore, it was impossible for Huiqin to see Wang Qinruo, so he told Wang Qinruo's wife, Mrs. Li, about the bribery.Mrs. Li asked her servant Qi Rui to write the candidate Ren Yi's name on his arm, and took the opportunity of delivering the meal to tell Wang Qinruo about the money.Wang Qinruo acquiesced, and finally got such an opportunity, several hundred taels of silver was regarded as a sky-high price, and if he didn't take it for nothing, he wouldn't take it for nothing.During the fifth exam, Qi Rui took the opportunity of delivering tea soup to meet his master and servant. Wang Qinruo told him to go get the money quickly, and he promised to get it done.

The boss of Yushitai Yushi Zhongcheng Zhao Changyan was in charge of the case and quickly arrested Qi Rui, Ren Yi and other related suspects.Once you make a move, you must make a whole mess of meat and vegetables.Zhao Changyan suggested that Qi Rui is Wang Qinruo's slave, so the government officials must be arrested.Zhao Changyan had little ambition, and he was vigorous and resolute. He was a senior figure in the Taizong Dynasty, and Kou Zhun spoke very highly of him.Lao Zhao maximized the matter, and this kind of corruption and bribery is not enough to bring down Wang Qinruo. If he captures the officials of the palace and tortures other things, then things will be much easier.Song Zhenzong personally asked Wang Qinruo, is there such a thing?Wang Qinruo replied, I don't have a servant like Qi Rui in my house, and I don't know any monk Hui Qin.You can get rid of it directly, as the saying goes, "Because of your relatives, don't tell my relatives; for the sake of punishment, you should also abandon my relatives" ("Luo Zhijing·Controlling the Enemy").At critical moments, in order to keep yourself, you can sacrifice everything.Song Zhenzong nodded, since it has nothing to do with Wang Qing, then this matter has to be discussed separately, and the decision will be made by Xing, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, Yan Chenghan, an internal servant, and others in Taichang Temple.

Zhao Changyan's plan suddenly came to nothing, the person in charge changed, and the location also changed.Yushitai was an important judicial department in the Song Dynasty, dedicated to detaining and interrogating high-level political prisoners.Now the case is going to be heard at Taichang Temple, which is in charge of etiquette at the Ancestral Temple. It is obvious that Song Zhenzong blocked it for Wang Qinruo.Zhao Changyan had nothing to do, so he had to be tried by Xing.Bribing the examiner during an exam is a serious crime and there must be a result.Not sure who gave the order, Ren Yi insisted that his brother-in-law Zhang Jia knew Hong Zhan, another examiner, visited him once, and gave him 200 pomegranates and 100 pings of charcoal.The money was given to the monk Huiqin, but I don't know which one was bribed in the end. Poor Hong Zhan was caught and used as a scapegoat.The brother-in-law that Ren Yi said died long ago, so there is no proof of his death.The final result was that Hong Zhan, the examiner, should be executed for his crime, and he was expelled from public office and exiled to Danzhou.Ren Yi was sent to the Zhongjing Army to do hard labor.Zen Master Huiqin, who was over seventy years old, was fined ten catties of copper and beaten with one hundred sticks.There is no record of Qi Rui's outcome in the historical materials. According to Ren Yi's confession, this matter has nothing to do with Qi Rui.

Wang Qinruo evaded in time and saved the day. Hong Zhan became the scapegoat, filled with anxiety and indignation, and died before reaching the place. He was forty-one years old.Thanks to the emperor's favor, Wang Qinruo not only protected himself wisely, but also became a bigger and bigger official. He successively served as the appeasement envoy of Xichuan, the doctor of Zuo Jianyi, and the political counselor in the fourth year of Xianping (1001).It's too cold at the top, and when Wang Qinruo's official career is going smoothly, he meets the strongest opponent in the officialdom-Kou Zhun!