Chapter 29 Chapter 29 Official Admonition Five: It Doesn't Matter Whether You Do Things or Not

When young people first enter the officialdom, they have a subjective imagination of the workplace. They think that above the officialdom, their grades are the first. A person without work grades will naturally have no possibility of promotion.This statement cannot be said to be wrong.However, in the officialdom, what plays a decisive role is not the beautiful imagination of any young man, but the objective law of game and competition in human society. In the era of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, two important figures attracted the attention of historians. One was the famous general Zhou Yafu, and the other was Shi Fen.

Zhou Yafu was famous in history for pacifying the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion". His military camp was called Xiliu Camp. Even if the emperor entered, he would not dare to run wildly, but could only walk carefully and slowly.But one day, Emperor Han Jing suddenly summoned Zhou Yafu in the palace and rewarded him with a piece of meat, but he didn't cut it open and didn't prepare chopsticks.Zhou Yafu felt awkward, so he turned around and called the official in charge of the banquet to bring chopsticks. At this time, Emperor Han Jing asked him with a sneer: "Is this way of eating not in line with your mind?"

Zhou Yafu didn't understand what the emperor meant, so he hurriedly stood up and apologized. Emperor Jing sternly reprimanded him to go out, and said: "How can such an aggrieved person become a subject of the young monarch in the future?" Not long after, Zhou Yafu's son bought five hundred armor and shields for the funeral, considering his father's old age.Relying on his father's power, he abused the hired workers who carried things and did not pay them wages. The hired workers were very angry and wrote a report letter to report Zhou Yafu.Emperor Han Jing received the report and immediately arrested Zhou Yafu and put him in prison.When it was time for interrogation, the trial officer asked Zhou Yafu: "Why did you commit treason?" Zhou Yafu explained, "I didn't commit treason. Would I have to wait until today?" Why do you want to buy armored weapons?" Zhou Yafu explained: "Those armored weapons are used for funerals." The officer adjudicating the case was overjoyed and said, "So, you plan to go underground and rebel?"

Hearing the judge's statement that there was no excuse for the crime he wanted to impose, Zhou Yafu vomited blood from his mouth in a rage, and died of rage. A generation of famous generals was so inexplicably wronged and died, but Shi Fen, an official who was a colleague of Zhou Yafu, was on the rise and was full of wealth. Speaking of Shi Fen, he has no education, no literacy, no culture, and he is not like Zhou Yafu who has made great military exploits for the country.So how did Shi Fen gain fame and wealth? According to the above records, Shi Fen's only strength is that he is respectful and cautious, and he is respectful and full of compliments to everyone he meets.This person has been in the officialdom all his life, and he never said a word except to flatter others, and he was promoted quickly because of this.Not only was Shi Fen prosperous as an official, and the sky was rising, the court clearly felt that there were too few flatterers, so they promoted all four of Shi Fen's sons, a father and son with five people, each with a salary of two thousand shi .But apart from receiving high and generous salaries and eating and wiping their mouths, the Shi family is not responsible for any practical work in the court.

However, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty believed that people like Shi Fen were far more reliable than the heroic Zhou Yafu.So after he was mad at Zhou Yafu, he left Shi Fen to his son Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Shi Fen's youngest son, Shi Qing, served as a servant, and his main duty was to drive the carriage for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Once Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went out, he suddenly asked Shi Qing: "How many horses are pulling the cart now?" He counted the horses pulling the cart one by one with a whip, and then replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, there are six horses in total."

Look at this Shi Qing, how many horses are there in the cart? Anyone with a good brain can tell the answer at a glance. He wants to count carefully and earnestly. What reason? There is a reason! It was precisely because Shi Qing had to count several horses before answering, which left a particularly good impression on Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty believed that people like Shi Qing were unusually down-to-earth in dealing with official affairs, especially not daring to be sloppy with themselves. Such talents should be promoted and reused. The meritorious deeds are as great as Zhou Yafu, but he is not tolerated by the court;

To put it bluntly, it is the word game. The ancients used a special term to evaluate Zhou Yafu's social phenomenon: the master of high meritorious service.This sentence means that Zhou Yafu's political opponents in this world are not only the rebels from the Seven Kingdoms, but also Shi Fen's family, colleagues and colleagues in the court, and even the emperor himself.Zhou Yafu's success, not only did not bring benefits to him, but made him a political opponent of everyone, but he was unaware of this, so he was so angry. The success of Shi Fen's family lies in the fact that there are people like Zhou Yafu in the officialdom. When Zhou Yafu was fighting bloody blood with the rebels, Shi Fen was also staring at him nervously, observing the movements of the emperor and his colleagues at any time. Once he found out that Zhou Yafu's meritorious deeds had aroused everyone's jealousy, Shi Fen immediately shut his mouth tightly.

Shi Fen didn't speak, so he wouldn't say anything wrong.He doesn't do anything, so he can do no wrong.When those who are too capable in the officialdom are squeezed out by powerful dark forces, the people left in the officialdom are "old comrades" like Shi Fen who have never made mistakes.It is precisely because he has not made any mistakes, so you cannot blame him. The final winner must be him. But under special circumstances, a person who is reused because he does not do something will also encounter trouble.During the Jingkang period, the golden people went south with iron hoofs, and the imperial court hurriedly selected smart and capable officials to send them to the local area to preside over the military.There was a man from Dongzhou named Xie Xi. He was a man of few words in the court, and all the ministers praised him as capable, so they unanimously elected him as Zhilongtu and Zhihezhongfu.Xie Xi didn’t like to talk anymore, so he had to say a few more words at this time. He explained: “I don’t like to talk. I'm afraid I'll be ashamed if I say something wrong, but just because I don't like to talk too much, you sent me to preside over local military affairs, isn't this nonsense?"

Interpreting and learning about other people and things once again confirms an important law of human society. This law means that when we observe others, we make judgments about what they do and say. These judgments may not be accurate, but Anyway, it is a basis for judgment.However, if a person does not speak or do much, then our judgment will lose its basis, and we will think that the other party is unfathomable because we cannot observe the other party's details.The same is true of the selection system in the officialdom. Whenever a person is promoted, stability must be an absolutely indispensable condition.But as we analyzed, the so-called stability is actually an instinctive conclusion that we can't figure out the depth of the other party.