Chapter 4 The second lecture

In the early days of Song Huizong's accession to the throne, the political atmosphere of the court was originally changed, but what caused him to undergo earth-shaking changes later, making the 25 years of his reign the darkest 25 years in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty?In addition to his frivolous personality, this also has something to do with a person.This person is the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, the "confidant" of Song Huizong in art, the "mentor" in politics, the "good companion" in life, and Cai Jing, the most treacherous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Cai Jing is a very capable person. He was awarded a Jinshi very early, and together with his younger brother Cai Bian, he served as a scholar in the imperial court. He is equivalent to the current deputy director of the General Office of the State Council, so his talent was revealed very early.In addition, among the four great calligraphers of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su, Huang, Mi, and Cai Zhong mentioned above, Cai is this Cai Jing, but his reputation is so bad that "the bones of the world have not been scolded", so later generations use Cai Jing. Xiang replaced him. In fact, Cai Jing's calligraphy is very famous.

When Cai Jing was an official in the capital, every time he entered the yamen office, two yamen servants held white silk round fans to fan him to cool off the heat, and said something in his mouth, "Master, you are sweating profusely, we will give you Fan Fan", especially respectful to him.After a long time, Cai Jing also felt very moved. One day, on a whim, he asked for the white silk fans held by the two yamen servants, and each wrote a poem by Du Fu on them.The next day, when Cai Jing came to work again, he saw that the two yamen servants were completely new in their boots, hats, shoes and socks, from top to bottom, with a happy expression on their faces.Cai Jing asked: "What's the matter with you? Have you gotten rich?" The two replied: "It is true that you have gotten rich. We sold the two fans with your inscriptions for a total of 20,000 yuan!" Cai Jing asked who it was Bought, they say, by some prince.That prince was Prince Duan, later Song Huizong.Duan Wang was willing to pay 20,000 yuan to buy Cai Jing's two inscribed fans, which shows the depth of Cai Jing's calligraphy art.Later Song Huizong became emperor and Cai Jing became prime minister. When the monarchs and ministers talked about this matter, Song Huizong also said with great emotion that the two fans you wrote poems in those years are still hidden in the inner palace. The treasure of fans.

Cai Jingzhong Jinshi was during the reign of Song Shenzong.At that time, Wang Anshi carried out reforms, and Cai Jing advocated the new law, which was very appreciated by Wang Anshi.Later, when Wang Anshi ### lost power and Sima Guang's old party came to power, Cai Jing immediately took advantage of the wind and abolished all Wang Anshi's new laws within five days.Sima Guang was very moved and said, "Why not make everyone obey the law like a king."It means, if everyone in the world follows the law like you, then why can't I do it?After Emperor Zhezong succeeded to the throne, he was more inclined to the new law, so he used Zhang Dun's party to implement the new law, and Cai Jing immediately abolished the old law.In the past ten years, Cai Jing turned his hands into clouds and turned his hands into rain, which shows his political integrity.

At the beginning of Emperor Huizong's ascension to the throne, Jinxian retired unworthily, and Cai Jing was also demoted from Beijing, and went to Hangzhou to work as a vain official.Cai Jing was very unwilling, and often looked west to Chang'an and gave up in tears.How to do it?He took a chance.Emperor Huizong liked calligraphy, painting, antiques and rare treasures, so he set up a supply bureau in Hangzhou, presided over by eunuch Tong Guan, to collect these things for him.At that time, Cai Jing happened to be relegated to Hangzhou, so he went to see Tong Guan and bribed Tong Guan with a lot of gold, silver and jewels.Not to mention the eunuch's political integrity, he stared at Bai Yinzi with black eyes, of course he was very happy.Cai Jing gave some of his calligraphy and paintings to Tong Guan. Of course Tong Guan knew that Cai Jing's calligraphy was of high level, so he accepted his bribe.The two men were like-minded and attracted each other, and they soon became collaborators.Tong Guan instructed Cai Jing and told him what kind of characters and paintings the emperor liked.Because if the emperor likes Li Bai's poems, how can you always write Du Fu's poems for him?They cheated and snatched an ancient painting that Huizong wanted so much, and presented it to Huizong to match his liking.Cai Jing also bribed eunuchs and Taoist priests favored by Huizong through Tong Guan's matchmaking, so that these people could speak well of him in front of the emperor.Therefore, Cai Jing was recalled to the capital soon after, and he jumped three ranks within half a year, and became the prime minister.

As soon as Cai Jing became prime minister, the true nature of the treacherous and evil was exposed.He rejected Zhongliang, eradicated dissidents, dismissed them from office, exiled them to other places, and then took their family property as his own.Cai Jing is not only a big treacherous, but also a big greedy, comparable to He Shen in the Qianlong period, both of whom have accumulated huge sums of money and lived extravagantly.Cai Jing likes to eat two things, one is quail soup, and the other is crab roe buns.He would kill 300 quails for a meal of quail soup, which can be said to be a super killer of wild animals.He treated guests with crab roe buns, and the buns alone cost 1,300 guan for a meal, which was equivalent to the total annual living expenses of 50 middle-class households at that time.There is a book "Helin Yulu" in the Song Dynasty. It is recorded that a scholar in Bianliang, Tokyo bought a concubine.One day, this scholar may have a whim, and he told this little concubine, show me your hand, and I also want to taste the taste of the steamed buns from Taishifu.The concubine said she couldn't, and the scholar was very shocked, saying how could you not?Didn't you turn out to be in charge of making steamed buns in the Grand Master's Mansion?The concubine said that there are dozens of people in the steamed stuffed bun group in the kitchen of Taishi Mansion, and I was only in charge of shredding green onions there.We can imagine how rich Cai Jing is—hiring a beautiful woman to cut green onions!

Cai Jing dismissed all the emperors who advocated frugality in Chinese history as "ugly", which translates to the old hat in today's words.In ancient China, many emperors paid great attention to frugality. For example, Emperor Hanwen, who created the "Government of Wenjing", once wanted to build a terrace. After calculating the required funds, it was equivalent to the annual income of 100 households. Decided not to make it.Therefore, in the eyes of this greedy man who would spend a year's income of fifty middle-class households on a meal of steamed buns, the emperor who was reluctant to build even a terrace was of course an idiot.

The emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty should be said to be more frugal, because Song Taizu was the emperor on horseback.In addition, the emperor of the Song Dynasty is also very interesting, pursuing the tradition of caring for scholars.The happiest dynasty for intellectuals in ancient China was the Song Dynasty.During the 320 years of the Song and Song Dynasties, warriors were the most depressed, while literati were the happiest. The total annual income of the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty is roughly equivalent to three million yuan today, which is equivalent to the total income of 24,000 mu of land at that time.The money for raising soldiers and officials in the Song Dynasty accounted for 70% to 80% of the country's total fiscal revenue.The country's money may have been used to pay officials or support soldiers, so the emperor was very frugal.How thrifty is it?We know that the emperors in history generally started to build their own tombs very early. For example, Qin Shihuang ascended the throne at the age of 13, and he started to build his own tomb when he was still the king of Qin. Mausoleum.If the emperor is not dead, the imperial mausoleum cannot be completed, because once it is completed, it will be difficult to say, and it is time to move in.Think about it, Qin Shihuang started to build the tomb when he ascended the throne at the age of thirteen, and it was not completed until his death. How big is the scale and how much manpower and material resources will be spent!However, according to the regulations of the Northern Song Dynasty, the emperor was not allowed to build the imperial mausoleum while he was alive, and the tomb was only started after the emperor passed away, and it must be completed within seven months. Therefore, the imperial mausoleum in the Song Dynasty was relatively simple.The imperial mausoleums of the Northern Song Dynasty are located in today’s Gongxian County, Henan Province. We can visit them if we have the opportunity.

Song Huizong had a relatively high taste. He loved art and collected things, all of which cost money. With the help of a high-grade prime minister, his taste improved immediately, and spending money was like running water.Why is Cai Jing favored by the emperor?Because this treacherous minister has his own advantages, he can find a theoretical basis for the emperor's extravagance.Cai Jing took two sentences from one of the Four Books and Five Classics, and put forward a theory called "Feng Heng Yu Da".To put it bluntly, the theory is that the emperor must dare to spend money during the Taiping Festival. The more money he spends, the more proof the country is strong.After this theory was put forward, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty was very happy. He thought to himself, so I spent money to show the prosperity of the country, to make Fanbang afraid, not to enjoy myself.

With this high-sounding reason, Cai Jing began to instigate the emperor to make large-scale construction projects, and even cast Jiuding.We know that it was King Yu of Xia who first cast Jiuding, which symbolized Kyushu.Jiuding, as a symbol of the country, has been passed down from generation to generation in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and it has been passed down to the end of Qin Dynasty.In fact, the Song Dynasty did not complete the unification of China. There was the Liao established by the Khitan people in the north, the Xixia established by the Dangxiang people in the northwest, the Uighur tribes further west of Xixia, the Tubo tribes in Tibet, and the Dali Kingdom in Yunnan and Guizhou.The territory of the Song Dynasty was actually the smallest among the central dynasties established by the Han nationality, only about 3 million square kilometers.However, Cai Jing instigated Song Huizong to cast Jiuding to symbolize the unification of Kyushu, and built a bright hall for Jiuding.As a result, after the Jiuding was cast, Song Huizong had something very disappointing when he offered wine to Jiuding.

These nine tripods are all named, one in the center, one in the southeast and northwest, one in the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, and the tripod in the north is called Baoding.When Huizong was offering wine, the tripod in the north suddenly cracked, and the wine inside spilled out. Huizong stayed there at that time.Cai Jing immediately fell to his knees and said, Your Majesty, the cracking of the tripod in the north means that there must be civil strife in the Liao Kingdom. We can take this opportunity to destroy them, and the Song Dynasty will unify the world.An event that is obviously very unlucky, but Cai Jing said that it is not our Song Dynasty that is going to be in chaos, but the Liao Kingdom is going to be in chaos.When Huizong heard Cai Jing say this, he was very happy, and felt that he could never find such a talkative person again. There was a banquet held in the imperial palace, and several jade cups and bowls were displayed. Huizong felt very embarrassed, because the first emperor was so frugal, and these jade wares were hidden in the inner palace, so he dared not use them. what to do?At this time, Cai Jing came out again and told the emperor that when I was an envoy to the Liao Kingdom and attended their state banquet, the emperor of the Liao Kingdom used such jade cups and bowls.They also asked me triumphantly, can your emperors of the Central Plains afford this?So if we don't use this, won't Fanbang compare to it? Where did the jade cups and bowls of the Liao Kingdom come from?It should be an old item of the Later Jin Dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, because the Later Jin Dynasty was destroyed by the Liao Kingdom, and the things in the palace may have been taken away by the Liao Kingdom Emperor.Cai Jing also said something like this to Huizong: "Your Majesty has always been thrifty, and dare not lead Chen. Now that I have this excellent system, and it happens to be a cup for my birthday, who dares to say that it is not suitable for it?" I can't stand it anymore, it's really hard for me to be a courtier.Now that we have these things, we just use them. Compared with Fanbang, who dares to say that they are not suitable for use?However, Emperor Huizong still hesitated. After all, the emperor of Liao Kingdom used jade cups and bowls, but the ministers did not see it, nor did the officials.Cai Jing continued to persuade Huizong: "If you do things properly, why are you afraid of what people say?" It means that as long as things are done right, it doesn't matter what others say!He also said: "Only Pi is for blessing, only for prestige, and only for jade food." "Pi" refers to the emperor in ancient Chinese. For example, the place where the emperor lectures is called "Piyong". It is mentioned in "Zhou Li" that "only the king can't", which means that the emperor's expenses cannot be calculated, and he should spend as much as he should, because the world belongs to him.Therefore, "Your Majesty is rich all over the world, and just eating thousands of square meters of jade, why do you care about mere wine vessels?" After he finished speaking, Huizong said, let's use it.So all the golden cups and jade cups came up, and they became more and more extravagant, and they no longer took these seriously. Song Huizong later went to see the villas of Cai Jing and Wang Fu, and found that each of them was more extravagant than the other, and the degree of luxury was completely beyond his imagination.Huizong thought to himself, all my courtiers are like this, so don't they compare me as an emperor?In fact, if it was in another dynasty, these two traitors would lose their heads.We saw that Emperor Jiaqing listed many crimes when he killed Heshen, but the most important of them are two words-over-control, to put it bluntly, Jiaqing is jealous of Heshen: you are richer than me, and I don’t have many things. Have!In fact, treacherous ministers such as Cai Jing and Wang Fu violated the rules, but instead of being angry, Song Huizong wanted to compare himself with them, and he wanted to do the same.Therefore, Cai Jing was able to instigate the emperor to carry out large-scale construction projects, which completely deviated from the frugal style of the first emperor. In his later years, Cai Jing's eyes were blurred and his teeth were falling out, so he told his nephew, find someone with higher moral character and knowledge to come to the house as a tutor, so that he can teach my grandchildren.So Cai Jing's nephew found a new scholar named Zhang.Zhang Jinshi told Cai Jing's grandchildren, don't learn piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, astronomy and calendar, just learn to run away, and see who can run faster in the future.Cai Jing's grandsons were very surprised when they heard this, and asked why we should learn to escape?Zhang Jinshi said, your grandfather committed many crimes, and sooner or later he will be punished.When the imperial court enacts canonical punishments and all the families are executed, whoever runs fast will not die.When the children heard this, they cried in fright, and went back to tell Cai Jing, our husband said that in the future you will learn the canonical punishment, so that we can learn to escape.Of course Cai Jing was very upset, so he called Zhang Jinshi. When the two of them were eating, Cai Jing sighed, "In fact, you are right, so can you tell me how to avoid this?"Zhang Jinshi also said that you can't avoid this, because you have done too much evil in the past, you can only do less evil now, and accumulate some blessings for your children and grandchildren, so let's practice in the next life.After speaking, he resigned from his teaching position in the Cai Mansion and left.After Emperor Huizong abdicated and Qinzong succeeded, something happened to Cai Jing, and he was demoted from the imperial court. His descendants were exiled, exiled into the army, and decapitated.Cai Jing did many evils, and in the end not only harmed himself, but also harmed his descendants. Cai Jing had been dismissed as prime minister four times. After he was dismissed, why did Huizong use Wang Fu as prime minister?Because this young man is very good-looking.Huizong of Song Dynasty is elegant and elegant, and it is said that he is the reincarnation of Empress Li and an artist, while Wang Fu looks like powder, has a long body, blond hair and golden eyes (maybe he has the blood of Hu people), and is a Jinshi and rank, so Huizong Naturally, he was very fond of him.Wang Fu is a typical villain, even Cai Jing looks down on him.Wang Fu had a colleague surnamed He, whose father served as a minister in the court.Under the recommendation of this colleague's father, Wang Fu's official position was directly promoted from "deputy bureau level" to "ministerial level".Later Wang Fu approached Cai Jing, and knowing that Cai Jing had no special deal with this He Zaizhi, he listed twenty major crimes and went up to impeach his former benefactor.Cai Jing despised Wang Fu's character. Once chatting with He Zaizhi in the imperial court, he asked him what he thought of Wang Fu.He Zaizhi praised him greatly, saying how good this young man is.Cai Jing remained calm and showed him Wang Fu's impeachment memorial.After reading it, He Zaizhi scolded "animal An Ganer", saying that he did not expect Wang Fu to be so insidious! After Wang Fu became prime minister, he and Huizong were like two buddies, laughing and cursing all day long, without the body of a monarch and a minister.He often instigated Huizong to go out of the palace in micro-clothes, and tried every means to guide the emperor to do evil.There was a strict system for the holy driver to go out of the palace and all the officials to accompany him.But they went out of the palace to mess around, of course they didn't want others to know, what should they do?Over the wall.When Huizong climbed over the wall, Wang Fu was at the bottom as a backer.Once Huizong climbed over the wall and came over, maybe he didn't step on him, so Huizong shouted: "Sima Guang, Sima Guang, you raise your back up." Because Wang Fu was the prime minister, Huizong compared him to Sima Guang, the wise minister of the previous dynasty. , so call him Sima Guang.As a result, this Wang Fu also yelled at Huizong: "Emperor Shenzong, Emperor Shenzong, stretch your feet down." If they were having fun like this, they would definitely be angry. Emperor Huizong opened a shopping street in the palace, and he himself dressed in green clothes and a small hat, pretended to be the shopkeeper of the butcher shop, and sold meat for business.Wang Fu dressed up as a beggar, went to the butcher shop and begged the emperor: "Shopkeeper, please do me a favor..." Even if children play house, I am afraid that there is no one who pretends to be a beggar, and he has to pretend to be a general. They do not care to what extent the body of the monarch and his subjects. Wang Fuzhi was very talented and lacked much ability, but he always wanted to be a high official, and even being a prime minister was not enough for him.Once he went to a temple to offer incense, and saw a stele with Cai Jing's inscription inside, and the final inscription was with Cai Jing's official titles: Taishi, Lu Guogong, Shangshuzuo and Zhongshu Shilang, Kaifuyi, Tongsansi, etc. It adds up to a bunch.The official titles in ancient China were very long, with dozens of characters. When the real titles and false titles were added together, the longest one had more than two hundred characters. This is called the festival title.After watching it, Wang Fu said enviously, "I didn't expect Cai Yuanchang to have so many official titles. When will I be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with him?" Yuan Chang is Cai Jing's character.People in ancient times had both names and characters, but it is very vulgar for peers to call others by their names, which is almost like swearing, so they can only use characters, otherwise they are uneducated and uncultivated.It is wrong to call people by their first names in some costume dramas. For example, Lin Zexu’s name is Zexu, and the word Shaomu. "Or "Brother Shaomu".Therefore, Wang Fu called Cai Jing Cai Yuanchang. At this time, someone with good deeds offered advice to Wang Fu: The late emperor made a will, saying that whoever can recover the sixteen prefectures of Youyun can bestow a prince.Isn't Cai Jing just a Duke of Lu?If you can recover the sixteen prefectures of Youyun, you will be crowned king!Wang Fu thought about it, this idea is good, and the opportunity to make a great contribution for this day is right in front of him.It turned out that at this moment, the Kingdom of Jin established by the Jurchens was fighting against the Kingdom of Liao, and it was being defeated steadily. Some people proposed to join forces with the Kingdom of Jin to destroy Liao and take the opportunity to recover Youyun Sixteen Prefectures.This kind of thinking is very unwise. Many people opposed it at the time, but Wang Fu strongly praised it out of selfishness. Wang Fu suggested to Huizong that although Song and Liao have been reconciled for a hundred years, Liao has been very contemptuous of us since the dynasties. "Attacking the weak and attacking the ignorant is the classic of martial arts", we have to fight the weak and stupid, so that we can be considered to be able to fight.If we don't do it now, the Jurchen will be strong, and the land of the Central Plains will no longer belong to me.Huizong agreed, saying that this kind of advantage must be taken advantage of, and he must take the opportunity to attack Liao.However, all the money of the Song Dynasty was spent on raising officials and soldiers, and there was no military expenditure for war with Liao.Wang Fu said, don't worry, I will take care of this matter.He specially set up a support room and ordered the whole country to donate according to the population. As a result, he got 62 million guan in one go.When Huizong saw it, he felt that Wang Fu was really a talent. He was able to get so much money. It seemed that our Great Song Empire was really rich.It is not known whether the 62 million guan were all used for military expenses, and most of them may have fallen into Wang Fu's pocket.But this so-called donation is tantamount to killing chickens and taking eggs. The last copper in the pockets of ordinary people has been squeezed out. The whole country is in an uproar for a while. An abyss beyond redemption. Wang Fu had no long-term strategy, and he was directly responsible for the final demise of the Northern Song Dynasty.In the past, when the envoys of the Song and Liao countries communicated, the Song envoys led the Liao envoys to Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty. Wouldn't it be troublesome for the Liao people to go back and draw a map without knowing the path of mountains and rivers?When entertaining Liao envoys, the food and utensils were also very ordinary, so as not to prevent the Liao people from thinking that the Song Dynasty was rich and coveting the Celestial Dynasty.However, Wang Fu was eager to unite with the Kingdom of Jin in order to be crowned King Jinjue, so he led the Jin envoys to take the main road and arrived in Bianjing in seven days.When he entertained the golden envoys, there were golden cups and jade cups, delicacies from mountains and seas. The Jurchens had just stepped out of the primitive society not long ago. When they saw the magnificence of Bianjing in the Song Dynasty and the exquisite food, could they not be tempted?So there was the idea of ​​​​attacking the Song Dynasty, so it is said that Wang Fu is a great traitor that has never been seen in ancient times. Later, Wang Fu did a particularly embarrassing thing. He told Huizong that there was a Ganoderma lucidum growing on the pillar of his house, and asked the emperor to go to his mansion to have a look. In fact, it was probably dog ​​urine moss that emerged after the rain. thing.After Huizong arrived at his home, he didn't have much impression of Ganoderma lucidum, but found that the back door of his home was connected to the residence of the great eunuch Liang Shicheng.Song Huizong was not stupid, he knew it at a glance, no wonder Wang Fu could always guess his own mind, it was because he made friends with his servants.This is the most taboo in any dynasty.Therefore, after Huizong returned, he issued an edict to let Wang Fu retire from office, that is, to let him retire. After Wang Fu retired, the prime minister who succeeded him was named Li Bangyan, known as the "prodigal prime minister".After hearing this nickname, it is not difficult for us to imagine what this person is like.Li Bangyan has a "famous saying", saying that he wants to "appreciate all the flowers in the world, play all the balls in the world, and be an official in the world".When he was with the emperor, he was full of filthy words and slang in the market, and he sat with advocates and dwarves, completely disregarding the status of the emperor and his subjects.Having fun, she even took off her clothes in front of ministers and concubines, revealing her tattoos.The ministers couldn't stop laughing, and the emperor chased and beat him with a stick. The majestic prime minister actually climbed a tree to hide.The emperor didn't know how to climb trees, so he smiled and asked the eunuch to pass the decree, that's all right, you can come down.However, Li Bangyan imitated a woman's voice and said delicately: "Huang Ying steals her eyes and dare not drop the branch." Then she turned over and got down.At this time, the queen happened to be passing by, and after seeing this scene, she lamented: "If the prime minister is like this, how can the country survive?" This is the civil servant of the Song Dynasty.What about the military officials in the Song Dynasty?