Chapter 23 Chapter 23 The Law of Convergence in Officialdom

What is the law of convergence in officialdom? The king of Chu loves thin waists, and many palace people starve to death. This is the simplest description of the law of homogeneity in officialdom. In the history of Chinese literature, the Seven Sons of Jian'an occupy an important position.Among the seven sons, there was one named Wang Can, who had a eccentric habit of learning how to bray like a donkey. When he died, Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei Dynasty, went to mourn the funeral in person and said to the attendees: "When Wang Can was alive, the last I like to hear donkeys bray, but now that he has left us, let us each learn a donkey bray to express our condolences."

After finishing speaking, Cao Pi raised his neck and let out a long cry, "Leading the Donkey".The emperor had already learned how to bray, and the rest of the guests could only come up one by one, and each of them learned how to bray. The Wei and Jin Dynasties were romantic, full of strange things, the emperor took the lead to learn how to bray, and all the subjects, is there any reason not to bark?This social phenomenon of meowing like a donkey is the most typical function of the law of convergence. The law of convergence says: people in the officialdom have a common role impression, you may not like it, but you must never reject it, and you must be consistent with everyone in a certain style or form.If the people in the office are all in suits and ties, but you are shirtless and wearing a pair of big pants, you don't need to be told about it, you will feel awkward.In the same way, if the staff in the organization don't care much about their clothes, but you are well-dressed, even the leaders will think that there is something wrong with you.

In addition to appearance, the law of similarity is more manifested in cultural spirit and values.You have to—you can only—you have to share the habits and interests of most people, otherwise you will look very different and out of place. Usually, the external identification marks of this kind of convergence are mainly the relatively intuitive aspects such as "wine, sex, wealth, and gas", but the internal ones are reflected in the common cultural background and mental state.This means that if someone one-sidedly understands convergence as the convergence of bad habits, then you will probably lose something in the process.

First of all, let’s talk about alcohol. Historically, officialdom has always been a place where alcoholics haunt. This is because officials are not involved in production, but are only responsible for the allocation of resources. They only have power but no sense of responsibility. Therefore, eating and drinking have become an indispensable program model in officialdom.A person who can drink well usually has a high reputation in the officialdom, but if he goes too far in this respect, the loss outweighs the gain. Those who have gone too far in wine culture should be Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.Du Fu's "Song of the Eight Immortals in Drinking" says: "Li Baidou's 100 poems on wine, sleeping in a restaurant in Chang'an City. The emperor can't get on the boat, and he claims to be a minister of wine." The arrogance of this poet alone will make future generations admire endlessly.

But then again, Li Bai's official career was bumpy all his life, and it was precisely this wine that got him wrong.Because this great poetry fairy is addicted to alcohol, he has already suffered from severe alcoholism. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty sent him into the palace, but he was so drunk that he was carried in by someone. Concubine Yang made soup with her own hands, Yang Guozhong, the powerful minister, polished ink, and Gao Lishi, the most popular man in front of the emperor, took off his boots... Think about it for these people, this kind of embarrassing errand is done occasionally, and it is so-so, if Li Bai gets it In order to reuse him, is it possible that everyone will serve him like this every day in the future?

Not to mention Li Bai, even the emperor Tang Xuanzong was embarrassed by such an enjoyment method, and Li Bai's official career can be imagined. Therefore, in the officialdom, alcohol is of course indispensable, but if alcohol causes trouble, it is not a rational choice. Besides wine, sex is the most disturbing thing in officialdom.It should be noted that Confucius once said: "Food and sex, sex also..." It means that lust is a man's nature.Regardless of the officialdom or the workplace, it is a place where ordinary people gather together. A large group of stinky men gather together.

Therefore, if a person behaves too high-mindedly on this vulgar topic, it is tantamount to humiliating others, and there will inevitably be trouble in the future.Fortunately, most of the mistakes made by men in this area are not "not sexy enough", but "too sexy". Xie Jin, a great talent in the Ming Dynasty, once achieved the position of a university scholar. Because there was no prime minister in the Ming Dynasty, a university scholar is equivalent to a prime minister, so Xie Jin can be regarded as expressing his life's ambitions.But once, he went to visit the son-in-law's mansion, and it happened that the son-in-law was not at home. It is said that Xie Jin should turn around and leave at this time. Leaving Xie Jin behind, he sat in the inner room through the curtain, ordering the little maid to serve tea while carefully watching Xie Jin's appearance.

The situation of a woman peeping at a man is very delicate. If Xie Jin was a little more rational and sat upright, so that the princess could see clearly, this matter would be over.After all, he is a famous talent all over the world, does he still care about a woman peeking at him?But Xie Jin, being watched by the princess, suddenly went mad, and asked for a pen and paper on the spot, and wrote a poem, saying: The young man in brocade clothes has not returned home, and the lady in pink is called Cicha.The inner courtyard is deep and no one can see, but the curtain is empty but there are flowers.

Although the poem is elegantly written and interesting, it is full of teasing and teasing of the princess.To put it lightly, the meaning of this poem is to imply that the princess is lonely, and to put it seriously, it means that he is implying that the princess has affection and righteousness for him. No matter whether it is light or heavy, it is a disgrace to the princess matter.So after the princess read this poem, she became angry on the spot, and sued before the emperor. The emperor at that time was Chengzu Zhu Di, who was an extremely gloomy emperor. After hearing the princess's cry, he pretended to be disapproving and reprimanded the princess, saying: "Look at you, you are a royal princess after all, why are you peeking at Xie Jin, a prodigal son?" ? It’s all your fault for bringing shame on yourself, forget it, just pay more attention in the future.”

It sounds like the emperor was very magnanimous and had no intention of pursuing Xie Jin's fault for molesting the princess.In fact, it is not the case. It didn't take long for Zhu Di to find another name, cut Xie Jin from his job as a civilian, and arrested him and put him in prison.After being imprisoned for a period of time, Zhu Di suddenly asked Ji Gang, the commander of Jinyiwei: "Is Xie Jin still alive?" Ji Gang hesitated twice, backed out, and began to ponder the emperor's thoughts, but the more he pondered, the more he lost the point. Listening to the emperor's intentions, he was neither happy nor sad. I don't know whether the emperor wanted Xie Jin to live or Xie Jin. Jin died.If the emperor wanted Xie Jin to live, but he killed Xie Jin silently, wouldn't it be a disaster?But if the emperor wanted Xie Jin to die, but he let Xie Jin live in prison, the consequences would be equally serious.

So how to deal with this matter?After deliberation, Ji Gang came up with a good idea.He went to the prison with wine and vegetables, and after seeing Xie Jin, he tried his best to persuade Xie Jin to drink, made Xie Jin drunk, then stripped Xie Jin of his clothes, threw him in the snow, and froze to death alive.Then it was reported that Xie Jin froze to death in prison because he could not tolerate the cold.With such a treatment, whether the emperor wants Xie Jin to live or Xie Jin to die, he has no responsibility. Although Ji Gang's heart is vicious, but when it comes to investigation, Xie Jin's own behavior is indiscreet, and he has the courage to moles the princess. This is also the fate that geniuses cannot escape.But in the end, when a man encounters this color word, because of his nature, he will inevitably suffer a big loss, so he should be cautious as the best policy to protect himself. Besides money, officialdom is a place to seek money. The ancients said that being an official for thousands of miles is only for money. This is harsh to hear, but it is the truth.But because it is the truth, throughout the ages, all those who have fallen into official careers, nine out of ten are because of this word of wealth.But a gentleman loves money, and he gets it in a proper way.If you lose your level and demeanor, or even be despised by your peers, then you will lose your job, and the time will not be long. In the Five Dynasties, there was An Chongba, the governor of Jianzhou. He was greedy and set his sights on an oil seller in the state, so he called the oil seller every day, and An Chongba sat by himself and let the oil seller Standing and playing chess with him, this game lasted a whole day, the oil seller's legs were weak, and it also delayed the livelihood of the oil seller. In desperation, he had to offer money, and An Chongba accepted it with a smile Next, let the oil seller go. Even worse than An Zhongba, there was a governor named Zheng Renkai in the Ming Dynasty. He was also a governor after all, but he had his eyes on the new shoes worn by one of his servants. He deliberately found an excuse to make the servant crawl. If the yamen servant wants to climb a tree, he has to take off his shoes first.After the yamen servant climbed up the tree, the majestic governor took the opportunity to steal the yamen servant's shoes.The yamen servant couldn't find the shoes after he got down the tree, so he had to tell Zheng Renkai, but Zheng Renkai scolded him: "Is my majestic governor the one who guards your shoes?" The common people don't know much about low-level methods like An Zhongba and Zheng Renkai, and they have only become a joke in the officialdom.This is because officials compete with each other and run on each other. If competitors use such low-level methods, of course it will not be tolerated in the officialdom.And no matter how clever the common people are, they would never have imagined that dignified officials would be so filthy. In fact, the moral law in the officialdom is completely different from that of the common people.For example, in the era of Wu Zetian, because Wu Zetian took over the Li family and replaced him, she kept finding excuses to kill the officials of the Li family and appointed new officials.But the officials sent there were of extremely poor quality, they only cared about making a fortune, and they didn't understand the empress' difficulty in enthroning at all.So Wu Zetian had no choice but to kill these greedy new officials one by one.In this way, Wu Zetian set up a trap for the officials, and often a new official was decapitated less than three months after he took office. So the ministers in the court sat together and talked, and they all said: "The official career is so dangerous, and an official loses his head in less than three months. How can everyone be an official?" At this time, a person interjected: "What is it to kill an official in three months? If you kill an official after only one day, this trick may still work, but even if you have been an official for a full month before beheading, this official Still to do." The officials laughed when they heard this.The reason why the officials laughed was because this sentence reached everyone's heart.Taking money from officials is like moths jumping into the flames, playing with heartbeats. This is the common aspiration of corrupt officials in the world.In officialdom, one must not collude with corrupt officials, but if a person in officialdom cannot adapt to this complicated human nature, it will be difficult to stand firm. The last one is qi. The so-called qi means self-willedness.People in the officialdom, the most taboo is the character Qi.You know, human society is a way of existence in which each other gives up living space. If you let me take a step, I will let you take a step. Even if you refuse to let me, I don’t have to argue with you. I am afraid that I will not be able to swallow my breath, and whenever I am wronged, I will explode into a quarrel. This kind of childish character, at a young level, means self-destructive future; Big trouble coming. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was a military general named Guan Fu, who was brave and good at fighting, and famous all over the world. Once, when he was attending a banquet hosted by the prime minister, he had an argument with his neighbor because of a disagreement. There was a lot of quarreling, and in the end, no one could get off the stage, and the quarrel even reached the seat of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.At this time, Guanfu's political opponents took the opportunity to attack, and in the end, Guanfu was exterminated. If he had known in advance that the consequences of the quarrel would be so serious, he would have dared not say a word even if someone slapped him in the face. In the officialdom, because a little bit of trivial matter may cause unexpected consequences, it is necessary to keep a cool head at all times.It is inappropriate to make a scene like Guan Fu, but it is also inappropriate not to dare to speak up when being bullied by others. So, what should a person do when he is in the officialdom, is the most appropriate thing to do? The law of convergence tells us: on the premise of complying with the laws of interpersonal relationships, you will probably be able to follow the trend, but if there is a "trend" in the officialdom that violates the laws of interpersonal relationships, then this trend will probably It won't last long, you might as well be a maverick, but it will be easier to win the respect of others. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, posturing was prevalent in official circles. Logically speaking, the magistrate did not need to kneel down when he met an official of the governor's level.However, many officials at the prefect level were intimidated by the governor's style, and they would kneel down involuntarily when they saw the governor, so this etiquette quickly became popular in the officialdom, and almost no one could be an exception. There happened to be a little magistrate named Ying Jia, who once went to see a governor with two prefects at the same time. After entering, the two prefects immediately felt weak in their legs and knelt down involuntarily. The etiquette met the boss.Seeing this situation, the governor was very surprised, and immediately reported to the official department, recommended Ying Jia, and called Ying Jia "the magistrate of Shanzi", because everyone on both sides of Ying Jia knelt down, but he refused to do so. Kneeling, the poses presented by these three people are like a word for "mountain". Guanfu in the Han Dynasty was exterminated because of his anger, and Ying Jia in the Ming Dynasty was also "angry", but was promoted instead. It is the result of the "law of convergence" in the officialdom.But those who don't know this law will attribute this phenomenon to human luck.However, as we know, the so-called luck is just that what you do just happens to conform to the basic laws of human society.