Chapter 21 Chapter 21 The Iceberg Law of Officialdom

In the Song Dynasty, the prison officer in charge of point-raising in the west of Beijing went to the countryside for inspection. When he arrived at a county town, Zhang Bohao, the county captain, came to greet him.The prison officer saw that Bohao was young, so he picked out many faults, reprimanded Zhang Bohao loudly, and ordered Zhang Bohao to dismount and walk.After overcoming his prestige, the prison officer returned to the guest room of the inn. At this time, an attendant told him quietly: "The Zhang Bohao you scolded just now is not an ordinary person. Don't look at his official, but he is Tao Yushi of the capital. Son-in-law, if you yell at him, if you get angry with him, tell his father-in-law about your future..."

The prison officer was taken aback, and immediately ordered someone to call Zhang Bohao again.When Zhang Bohao arrived, the prison officer laughed loudly, greeted you outside, and said, "Young man, when I was on the road, I heard that you are very capable. I still didn't quite believe it, so I deliberately tested you. It is the hero who came out of the youth, under the authority, the color of the words does not change, the future of the young man is limitless, limitless..." After speaking, he immediately typed a report, expressing that he would recommend Zhang Bohao's promotion to his superiors.

The prison officer in the Song Dynasty reacted fairly quickly, but he was not the only one in history to show his power without asking the truth, causing trouble and causing trouble. In the Song Dynasty, there was also a prison officer—mostly the prison officer who stabbed Lou Zi, because the official information of this position was not very good—he went to a county to inspect the work, and when he went to the place, he saw, um, there was a military officer , with a gray beard, a stooped waist, and gasping for breath when taking a step, he is actually an old man in his seventies and eighties.At that time, the prison officer became angry, and said to the prefects and prefects present: "How do you do your work here? This military officer is so old, can he catch thieves, or is he missing a coffin board? Like At his age, can he still be able to do the job of a military officer?"

The Zhifu and Zhizhou at the scene half-closed their eyes and said nothing. On the contrary, the old military officer became angry and yelled on the spot: "You think I love this job? Are you forced by my unsatisfactory nephew? I I said I would not do it long ago, but my nephew insisted on letting me do it, causing me to suffer today’s humiliation, and I will never end with him..." Upon hearing this, the prison officer knew that something was wrong, so he hurriedly asked the prefect quietly: "This old man's Nephew, which one is it?" The magistrate told the prison officer: "This old man's nephew is Zhang Dexiang, the current prime minister."

As soon as this remark came out, it almost didn't scare the prison officer to death.Fortunately, all the officials have a good ability to turn the rudder according to the wind, so the prison officer laughed loudly and said: "Look, I said it a long time ago, even though you are a little older, but you have a strong body." Ah, you are tougher than young people, have you taken some health-preserving medicine?" The old man said: "Why do I take medicine when I have nothing to do? I have never taken health-preserving medicine." The prison officer didn't change his face, and continued to laugh loudly: "It's amazing to be so healthy without taking medicine..."

These two prison officials were both nameless people in history, so it doesn't matter if they make mistakes.But Jia Dao, a famous poet in history, also made the same mistake. In detail, although Jia Dao was brilliant, his life was down and out, and he never had the chance to show his ambitions, which has a lot to do with this matter.The incident happened when Jia Dao was young, when he lived in Fagan Temple, reading behind closed doors every day, writing poems and practicing calligraphy.One day, Jia Dao was reciting poems in his room when suddenly a man walked in, dressed in gorgeous clothes, with white and tender hands and face.When the man came in, he saw Jia Dao's poems, picked them up and rummaged through them.Because Jia Dao was poor, he hated ignorant playboys the most. He saw that the man had no education at all. Jia Dao became angry at the time, and snatched the manuscript from the man face to face, and looked at him sideways. , said in a disdainful tone: "Young man, didn't your parents teach you manners? This is poetry, is it something you can understand?" Being humiliated by him so much, the visitor blushed, He went out without saying a word.

Then Jia Dao continued to read and write poems. While he was reading, a monk poked his head in from outside the door and asked him, "What did the emperor tell you when he came to your room just now?" "What?" Jia Dao was taken aback. "What emperor? I didn't see it. Just now, an ignorant playboy came in." The monk waved his hand hastily: "Don't talk nonsense, what an ignorant playboy, that is the current emperor." It turned out that the then emperor Xuanzong of Tang came out of the palace in low clothes and came to Fagan Temple. When he heard the sound of poetry reciting, he came to have a look.

Knowing that he scolded the emperor and missed the opportunity to climb the dragon, Jia Dao was discouraged at that time.According to the history books, although Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty did not blame Jia Dao for this, and even granted him a small official position as chief registrar, Jia Dao's life was depressed and unsuccessful, which had a lot to do with this incident. These three stories reveal a hidden law in officialdom: the iceberg law. In the officialdom, it seems that everything is in front of you, clearly and clearly, but at any time, what you see is only a part, and there are more complicated personal connections, more secret factional struggles, and more Unspoken ambiguous personal relationship, not to mention the unknown interest structure.All these things are hidden from your sight, just like an iceberg floating on the sea, what you can see is only one-tenth of the iceberg, and nine-tenths of its huge volume is all Hidden in the ever-changing sea water.Therefore, once a ship sailing on the sea finds the shadow of an iceberg in the distance, it has to turn around in a hurry.Otherwise, the iceberg that you see is still far away from you, but the huge ice body hidden under the water has already slammed into your ship silently.

There is a saying in official circles, that is, the more you say, the more mistakes, the less you say, the less mistakes, and it is not wrong to say nothing.The most experienced officialdom people are usually calm and expressionless, not showing the slightest expression between happiness and anger. It is not because these people are so deep in their hearts, but because they have suffered losses and stumbled, and they know how to say casual and unintentional words. , I didn't know which evil star was provoked, and there would be endless troubles at that time. It's not because your official position is not high, you need to be careful if your official position is not high, even if you are high above, if you are a little careless, you will inevitably suffer disaster.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Zeng Bu was the prime minister. At that time, in order to build the mausoleum, Song Qinzong ordered Zeng Bu's son Zeng Yu to be in charge of the project records, and also sent his old family member Wen Yi as the envoy to be responsible for the construction of the post road.But Wen Yi didn't have any skills, the bridge he built was wobbly, and when he walked on it, there was a "boom", and the pillars of the bridge broke.Seeing this situation at that time, Zeng Yu couldn't help asking: "Where is the envoy Dundi?" Wen Yi happened to hear this sentence, so Wen Yi stood up angrily and shouted: "I am here, What's the matter?"

Although Zeng Yu's father was the prime minister, he knew that Wen Yi was Song Qinzong's most trusted family member, so he didn't say anything else.But Wen Yi hated Zeng's family to the core and vowed to kill the family. Taking advantage of Song Qinzong's trust in him, he strongly recommended the traitor Cai Jing as prime minister. His father and son were killed in prison.Fortunately Song Qinzong found out about this and ordered Wen Yi not to embarrass the Zeng family father and son, but he did not criticize Wen Yi for this matter. From officials to prime ministers, Zeng's father and son could be said to be in power, but because of a careless remark, they almost lost the lives of all the family members. It can be seen that in this officialdom, it is better to do wrong things than say wrong things. There is some truth to it.