Chapter 6 Lecture Four: The Merry Son of Heaven

Surrounded by treacherous officials such as Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and Wang Fu, Song Huizong gradually embarked on the road of extravagance.In the records of later generations, there are many stories about Song Huizong's extravagance, and there are endless books. Song Huizong had a hobby, which was to collect strange stones and trees.This hobby of his caused a national uproar, which was to transport Hua Shi Gang.We know that there is a story about "The Outline of Wisdom Tribulation and Birth", what does this "outline" refer to?In the Song Dynasty, the goods transported in bulk were called "gang".During the Huizong period, ten ships were organized into a group to transport all kinds of strange stones and famous trees from other places to the capital in bulk, which was called "Hua Shi Gang".At the beginning, the act of transporting Huashigang did not disturb the world to the extent that it was only transporting stones from the southeast region to the capital.Song Huizong admired these rare stones and trees very much. As long as he took a fancy to any stone, he would reward the person who transported the stone with high officials and rich salary.The emperor's move turned into a silent order.As a result, a large-scale transportation of Hua Shi Gang, which was disastrous to the country and the people, was set off across the country.

According to historical records, someone found a huge boulder in Taihu Lake, which was more than two feet in length, width and height. It was necessary to build a large ship to transport it from the Taihu Lake Basin to Bianliang, Tokyo.After the huge stone arrived in Beijing, due to the limited height of the city gate, the stone could not enter the city, and finally the city gate was demolished to bring the stone in.Later, someone found a bigger stone in Taihu Lake. When this big stone was transported to Beijing, the freight alone cost 8,000 guan, nearly two hundred middle-class households' annual living expenses.After the stone was transported, Huizong was so happy to see it that he autographed the stone and gave him a jade belt.Another time, someone found an ancient pine tree near today's Shanghai, like a nine-curved dragon, with a very strange tree shape.The ancient trees are intertwined and luxuriant. If they are transported, they have to be dug up together with soil clods and rockeries. Therefore, they are very large and cannot be transported by canal, but by sea.As a result, the transport ships encountered a storm at sea and all sank, causing countless losses.

It was Zhu Xi, one of the six thieves, who presided over the transportation of Huashigang.In order to transport a boulder, he now built two large ships.After the stone arrived in the capital, Emperor Huizong liked it very much. He rewarded each laborer who participated in the transportation with a gold bowl, and awarded Zhu Xi the title of Jiedu envoy.And this stone was named Pan Guhou by Huizong.In the order of rank in ancient times, under the king are the Duke, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Nan.At the beginning, King Wu of Zhou entrusted his sons with meritorious officials, and the descendants of Jiang Ziya who made the most contributions were enshrined as Marquis of Qi, but Song Huizong was so happy that he made a stone a Marquis.Such indiscriminate rewards, what would those soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect the country on the battlefield think?Are we not as good as a stone in the eyes of the emperor?

The transportation of Huashigang lasted for more than 20 years, which was a kind of plunder and a real disaster for the people of southern China.For more than 20 years, more than 100,000 stones were transported to Bianliang, Tokyo.Among them, the shipping cost of the most expensive stone cost 300,000 guan, which is equivalent to the annual income of 10,000 middle-class families.But in the process of transporting these stones, how many people died, how many ships were sunk, how many bridges were demolished, and how many city gates were demolished, but it is impossible to count.Corrupt officials and ministers took advantage of the emperor's preference to blackmail the people and expropriate them wantonly.Whether it's high mountains, deep valleys or rapids, whether it's cities or rural areas, as long as the stones and trees of anyone's family are worthy of fun, the family will suffer.These yamen servants rushed in like wolves and tigers. Once the yellow seal was pasted on it, it became a royal property, and the owner had to watch it carefully. If there was any damage when they came to pick it up, it would be a crime of disrespect.The crime of disrespect, in ancient times, could be punished by Ling Chi, that is, to be cut to death with a knife, and these are only for a stone and a tree.Therefore, if the owner does not give the official a little favor, the official will deliberately knock off a corner when carrying it, and then frame it as the owner's intentional damage, and accuse it of disrespect out of nothing.In addition, these officials who transport stones will force the people to demolish the walls and houses on the grounds that the walls of the houses hinder the transportation, regardless of the life and death of the people.

The government's unlimited oppression has aroused the resistance of the people.In the southeast region where Huashigang was the most troubled, the Fangla uprising broke out.According to records, there were two million followers in the Fangla uprising, and the rebel army captured the officials of the Song Dynasty, cut open their stomachs, dug out their hearts, boiled human oil and lit sky lanterns. The cruelty of the criminal law is beyond our imagination.The Chinese have always been self-conscious, and generally do not do things too extreme. The uprising army will do this, which shows how much pain Hua Shigang has caused to the people, and how much the people hate this matter.So even the official history books have to admit that there was a reason for Fang La's rebellion, and it was really the government forcing the people to rebel.

Song Huizong collected so many rare stones and trees in order to build a garden in Kyoto called Genyue.Gen is a hexagram in the eight trigrams, and its orientation is northeast. Gen Yue was built in the northeast direction of the imperial palace.Why did Huizong build gardens in the northeast of the palace?It turned out that after Emperor Huizong succeeded to the throne, he had been childless all the time. A Maoshan Taoist told him that it was all because of the low-lying terrain to the northeast of the palace.Therefore, Huizong ordered people to raise the northeast direction.Soon, Queen Wang became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Prince Zhao Huan, who later became Song Qinzong.After that, the other concubines began to give birth to him like a competition, and they gave birth to more than 30 princes and more than 30 princesses.Among the ancient Chinese emperors, Song Huizong probably had more sons.In this way, Huizong favored Taoist priests even more, and believed that the northeast direction of the imperial palace was good, so he wanted to build Genyue here.

Song Huizong was incapable of governing the country, but his artistic taste was still quite high.Even those who belittle Song Huizong have to admit that this Genyue is the culmination of Chinese classical gardens.Genyue is purely a place for the emperor to play. It is not like the Yuanmingyuan, the Summer Palace and other buildings, and the palaces where the emperor lived, but it is completely imitating the Jiangnan style with white walls and black tiles. There is a shopping street.Entering the gate, there is a straight royal road, with Taihu stones that cost a lot of money to transport on both sides.The main peak of Genyue is entirely made of Taihu Lake stones, 150 meters high, and is planted with exotic flowers and famous trees.It is worth mentioning that there are two things stored on the mountain, one is realgar and the other is calamine.The role of realgar is to avoid snakes, rats and mosquitoes; the beauty of calamine is that when it rains, the stones will emit smoke when they meet water, and the clouds will steam and the clouds will glow, just like a fairyland.In sharp contrast to this fairyland on earth, there is the hell on earth ten miles away from Biancheng, where the country is devastated, the people are hungry and full of food, and it is the peasant uprising in Songjiang in the north and Fangla in the south.But Song Huizong couldn't see these at all. All he could see was the bustling Bianliang City, and even his imperial palace and his Genyue.We, the artist emperor, wandered carefreely in this fairyland-like garden, agitating his artistic inspiration, and only thought of the paintings in his pen and the poems in his heart.

In addition to rare stones and famous trees, there are many rare birds and animals in Genyue.It is said that there are thousands of sika deer alone, as well as cranes, golden pheasants and various water birds, and other animals are also readily available. The entire Royal Wildlife Park.It's okay to talk during the day, but every night, there is a sound of birds and beasts.Think about it, in a majestic capital city, with such a wild animal park, you have to listen to the calls of animals every night. Isn't this a place where animals live together?The people in the capital felt that this was no different from a copper camel with thorns, a sound of subjugation and an ominous omen.After Song Qinzong succeeded to the throne, the Jin people besieged Bianliang, Tokyo, and the people had no food to eat. The emperor had to order the opening of Genyue, and the animals in the garden could be killed at will to satisfy their hunger.You know, it was very difficult for ordinary people in ancient times to eat meat. Only officials could eat it, and ordinary people could only eat whole grains.It's a good thing now, meat is on, and all kinds of rare birds and animals such as sika deer and red-crowned cranes are eaten by the people.And those Taihu stones were used to block the city gates, smash gold soldiers, and act as stones.These stones, which had been transported with huge sums of money, were wasted in vain in the end, and the entire garden was destroyed.

After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wan Yanliang, the fourth emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Hailing King, moved the capital from the distant Shangjing (now Acheng, Heilongjiang) to Beijing.After moving the capital, he ordered to remove the Taihu stones from Genyue and transport them to Beijing to build his own garden, which is today's Qionghua Island in Beihai Park.A Hui businessman contracted the demolition project. It is said that the realgar that was dismantled at that time was more than 100,000 catties.As a result, the businessman made a fortune, which can rival the country.We went to Qionghua Island in Beihai Park today. On the north slope of the White Pagoda near the Wulong Pavilion, we can still see many exquisite Taihu Lake stones, which are small, exquisite and very cute.And when it rains, there are still stones emitting smoke, which is indeed like a fairyland.These stones are the old things of the Song Palace ### a hundred years ago. It can be said that every stone does not know how many lives were sacrificed, and how many blood and sweat of the people came to this place.

In addition to searching for strange stones and building Genyue, Song Huizong also had another bad deed, that is, the whole country worshiped Taoism.Song Huizong believed in Taoism, and it reached the point where it could not be added. Taoism is a native religion in China. It was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is a religion formed by the combination of traditional Chinese Taoist thought and immortal alchemy.Since the Han and Tang Dynasties in ancient China, the three religions of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism have gradually merged into one.Strictly speaking, Confucianism is not a religion, but a kind of thought.The difference between the three schools of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism is that Confucianism cultivates nature, which means self-cultivation and self-cultivation.Confucius said, "If you don't know life, you will know death." It means, don't ask me what happens after death, don't talk to me about ghosts and gods, I don't care about those things, I just care about people's character when they are alive.The purpose of Taoism to cultivate one's life is to prolong one's life, to become an immortal, and to ascend in the daytime.Taoists say that people cannot die, but people can become immortals through cultivation.Whether a person can become a fairy, anyway, we can't see it, so we have no way of knowing.After Buddhism entered China, it advocated an ultimate humanistic care.Buddhist thought says that after death, the soul will be reincarnated, asking what will happen in the next life.The sage taught with Shinto, and the emperors in ancient China generally supported all religions.In fact, Taoist thinking is often the same as that of the emperor.

The law is the most suitable, because the emperor is most concerned about two things: first, the chair I am sitting on should not be taken away by others, so no one can rebel; How can I live longer, it is better to live forever.Taoism believes that people can cultivate into immortals and live forever.In this way, the emperor naturally liked Taoism very much. As we mentioned earlier, a Taoist priest suggested that Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty raise the northeast of the imperial palace so that his descendants would prosper, and it really came true.As a result, Huizong favored Taoist priests even more, so he recruited Taoist priests with Taoism.According to legend, a Taoist priest named Wang Laozhi handed Huizong a big envelope as soon as he saw him, saying that I don’t want to say anything else, you should take a look at this first.Huizong opened the envelope and saw that inside was a love poem he wrote to his concubine in his early years, which was said to be very obscene.Huizong was stunned for a moment, thinking how could this Taoist know this, and felt that he really had supernatural powers, so he reused Wang Laozhi, who was called Mr. Wang at the time.After Mr. Wang fell out of favor, another Taoist priest named Wang Zixi was favored by Huizong, and he was called Mr. Xiao Wang.It is said that Wang Zai had never seen the emperor's beloved concubine in the past, and he cured the concubine's eye disease only by practicing in the palace, so he was even more favored by Huizong.However, neither of these two Taoist priests received as much attention as a demon Taoist named Lin Lingsu.This evil way deceived the monarch and harmed the country. It should be said that the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty had a lot to do with him. When Lin Lingsu was young, Su Dongpo once showed him a portrait, saying that he would be rich in the future.However, Lin Lingsu never had a chance to be rich, so he gambled, but he lost badly.The creditor came to collect the debt, but he couldn't repay the debt. In order to relieve the creditor, he broke his face and disfigured himself.Therefore, Lin Lingsu's image is half like a skeleton, and half like a normal person.We can think about it, such a face does not feel like ordinary people, so it was recommended to Song Huizong. When Lin Lingsu had an audience with Huizong, he said in a mysterious way as soon as they met, "It's so strange. I met Your Majesty when I was serving the Jade Emperor in heaven.After Huizong heard this, he also played tricks, saying yes, I see you familiar, I still remember when you rode a blue cow, where did your cow go?We know that the patriarch of Taoism is Lao Tzu, and it is said that Lao Tzu rode a green bull across Hangu, so people call Taoist priests Ox-nosed Taoists.Lin Lingsu replied brazenly: "I'm raising it in a foreign country, and it will come soon." It means that I put it in a foreign country to raise it, and it will come soon.Not long after, the Goryeo Kingdom paid tribute to the green cattle, and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were shocked, thinking that Lin Lingsu was really a fairy from the sky. Lin Lingsu succeeded in deceiving her, and became more courageous.He said to Huizong, Your Majesty, do you know who your predecessor is?You are the son of God, King Yuqing of Shenxiao Palace, who witnessed the poisoning of the Central Plains by the religion of Jin Di (Buddhism), so God sent you to save the suffering people of the Central Plains.I am a fairy named Zuo Hui who was in front of the Jade Emperor, and I came down to earth with you.Lin Lingsu was still talking nonsense in the court hall. He pointed at Cai Jing, saying that this is Zuo Yuan Xianbo, and pointing at Wang Fu, saying that this is a Wenhua official who served the Jade Emperor all those years ago.At that time Song Huizong's favorite Concubine Liu Gui was said by Lin Lingsu to be Jiuhua Yuzhen'an Concubine, a fairy descended from the sky.Even the two great eunuchs Tong Guan and Liang Shicheng were said to be gods in the sky.When the foolish monarchs and courtiers heard this, they thought it was great, no wonder we get along so well, it turns out that we are one family in the sky. Emperor Huizong believed that Lin Lingsu was really a fairy, with the ability to reach heaven and earth, so he granted Lin Lingsu a Taoist priesthood, and often asked Lin Lingsu to give ### lectures.Lin Lingsu opened ### in Bianliang, Tokyo, claiming that the audience who came would be rewarded with 300 Wen per person. Now the city of Bianliang is really deserted, and the common people get a piece of blue cloth, wrap their heads around, and pretend to be Taoist priests to listen He taught the Fa.Every time Lin Lingsu opened ###, she spent as much as one million RMB today.So, does Lin Lingsu really understand Taoism?In fact, Lin Lingsu didn't necessarily understand Taoism. What he spoke were all market slang words, which the emperor was used to. Hearing these market slang words at first glance, he felt that they were relatively new.Moreover, it is said that Lin Lingsu's speech is quite humorous, and he can make everyone laugh out loud when he talks about things in simple terms.In this way, Lin Lingsu's prestige is getting higher and higher.It is said that Lin Lingsu has 20,000 disciples under his command, and he travels to compete with the prime minister and the prince, and he is known as "Two Mansions of Taoism".In the Song Dynasty, "Two Mansions" refers to the East Mansion and the West Mansion. The East Mansion is the prime minister, and the West Mansion is the privy envoy.Lin Lingsu's status can be compared with the prime minister and privy envoy, which shows how powerful he is.Therefore, many treacherous villains came to bribe Lin Lingsu in order to seek official positions. Song Huizong believed in Taoism, and felt that it was not enough to cultivate Taoism and make statues of gods. He told the Taoist Secretary that I was originally the son of the Jade Emperor. one time?Therefore, the Daolu Department canonized Song Huizong as the leader of the Taoist Emperor.Those who are good at the top will be worse at the bottom.When the ministers saw that the emperor believed in Taoism, they fell in love with him one after another. They did not wear court clothes, but Taoist robes.So every time I go to the court meeting, I see everyone with yellow crowns and feather fans in front of the Daqing Hall, and the whole court is filled with smoke and mist.We know that in ancient Chinese history, many emperors admired Buddhism and worshiped Taoism. Emperor Wu of Liang sacrificed himself to Tongtai Temple three times.When the ministers of the Liang Dynasty went to the court, they found that the emperor had disappeared. After asking, they found out that the emperor had become a monk. The ministers had no choice but to donate money to the temple to redeem the emperor.In this way, Tongtai Temple has been resplendent, but the people who were constantly looted could only rebel in the end.It can be seen that the emperor's admiration of Buddhism and Taoism will bring disaster to the people of the country. Song Huizong was greedy for pleasure, and it was not enough to practice alchemy, reciting poems and painting in his luxurious palace, so he began to think about beauty.During the reign of Emperor Huizong, there were nearly 10,000 court ladies in the palace.Let's say that there were three thousand people in the harem of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, but it was nothing compared to Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty.Huizong had so many concubines, but he still didn't feel satisfied, saying that he was tired of seeing all the beauties in the palace.At this time, the traitor Gao Qiu gave Song Huizong an idea, saying that we should go shopping in the street. I heard that there is a famous prostitute in Bianliang City, Tokyo, named Li Shishi.Of course Song Huizong went there with pleasure.Gao Qiu led Song Huizong to meet Li Shishi. Seeing that Gao Qiugui was a Taiwei, Li Shishi was so respectful to this strange guest, so he knew that this person's status was unusual, so he tried his best to flatter him.Song Huizong was very happy, and stayed at Li Shishi's place until dawn before returning to the palace reluctantly. Li Shishi's father was the owner of a dyeing house. When she was three years old, she was fostered in a Buddhist temple. Because she called Buddhist disciples teachers at that time, she was named Shishi.After Master Li grew up, her father was sentenced for a crime. She was lonely and helpless. She was adopted by a woman surnamed Li who ran a romantic place and became a prostitute.At that time, it was not enough for famous prostitutes to be beautiful, but also to have a bit of artistic accomplishment. Li Shishi had been fascinated by her since she was a child, and she was good at playing piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, so her fame spread far and wide.When we met our artist emperor, the two became close friends in art. The emperor's visit to a brothel is against etiquette and disgraceful.Therefore, although Song Huizong still wanted to see Li Shishi again, it was inconvenient to go because of etiquette.Therefore, the traitor Wang Fu suggested to Huizong, why don't you dig a tunnel directly to Li Shishi's house?Huizong was very happy to hear that, and quickly ordered someone to dig a tunnel from the palace to Li Shishi's house.From then on, Huizong often went to Li Shishi's place by taking advantage of the night, wearing a green robe and a small hat, and taking a few eunuchs with him.Meanwhile, an interesting thing happened. Before Li Shishi met Song Huizong, he had many friends, including the famous poet Zhou Bangyan.One day, while Song Huizong was ill, Zhou Bangyan came to visit Li Shishi.Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door and sat down, he heard that Song Huizong had come to Li Shishi's house despite his illness.Zhou Bangyan panicked, thinking that the emperor was coming, and I would not be able to run in time, and it was even more inappropriate for the emperor and ministers to meet each other, so he quickly hid under the bed.At this time, Song Huizong entered the door.The emperor had enjoyed delicious food and wine at Li Shishi's place, and enjoyed the singing and dancing of beauties. Seeing that it was getting late, he said that I was going to get up and drive back to the palace.Li Shishi persuaded Song Huizong to say that it is already three o'clock at night, and the horse is slippery and frosty. Your majesty's dragon body is important, so don't leave.Song Huizong probably had something to do that day, but he left in the end.After Song Huizong left, Zhou Bangyan crawled out from under the bed, wiped off his cold sweat and sighed, how dangerous it was.We thought that Zhou Bangyan was a literati with a temperament, and maybe his personality was a bit frivolous. In addition, he was a little jealous when he witnessed the intimate behavior between Huizong and Li Shishi, so he wrote a poem, including what he saw and heard under the bed just now. .There are a few lines in the poem: "It's already three o'clock in the city, and the horses are slippery and frosty. It's better to stop, because few people walk." Later, Song Huizong came to meet Li Shishi again and asked her if she had any new songs to sing recently.We know that lyrics were the popular songs at that time, and they could be sung by composing music.Li Shishi sang the lyrics that Zhou Bangyan filled in.As soon as she finished singing, Song Huizong's face changed, thinking, isn't this what Li Shishi said to me at that time?So, who is the author of this poem?Li Shishi knew that he had made a slip of the tongue, but he didn't dare to hide it, so he had to say that Zhou Bangyan wrote it.In this way, Zhou Bangyan will be in trouble.After hearing this, Emperor Huizong was sullen, shook his clothes and brushed his sleeves, stood up and went back to the palace.Within a few days, Emperor Huizong told people around him to find fault with Zhou Bangyan and see if there were any obscene words or songs in his lyrics.People around thought, this is too easy, just find a song.Why do you say that?The lyricists of the graceful school generally wrote about two eternal themes—life and love, so they were often criticized at the time and accused of being obscene and pornographic.Song Huizong took a look at the "evidence" presented by the left and right, and scolded, such a person is still worthy of being an official?So Zhou Bangyan was demoted from the capital.In fact, Emperor Huizong had nothing to say about the crime he wanted to impose, and he was not much better than Zhou Bangyan.It is extremely absurd that the emperor would compete with his ministers to be jealous because of a famous prostitute. Since Song Huizong got acquainted with the famous prostitute Li Shishi, he indulged in pleasure all day long and ignored the government.Let's borrow a sentence from the book, "The spring night is bitter and the day is high, and the king will not go to court early from then on."It is conceivable that the emperor would go to the brothel at night and come back at dawn. Does he still have the energy to go to court early?As the saying goes, fire cannot be contained in paper, and the matter of the emperor's visit to a brothel soon became an uproar in the entire Tokyo city, and some upright officials in the court could not stand it. At that time, a small official named Cao Fu wrote a memorial to Huizong, saying that the emperor must not do this, are you worthy of the ancestors of heaven and earth?Huizong Longyan was furious, and he couldn't get angry, so he asked Prime Minister Wang Fu to interrogate Cao Fu.Wang Fu reprimanded Cao Fu, saying, "You are a petty official. Is this what you should say?"Cao Fu answered neither humble nor overbearing: No matter the small or high official, the heart of loving the king is the same.One sentence choked Wang Fu back.Wang Fu asked the two deputy prime ministers Zhang Bangchang and Li Bangyan next to him, saying, have you heard of such rumors?The two quickly replied that none of us had heard of it.So, Wang Fu said to Cao Fu, "We who are prime ministers have never heard of it. How did you hear about it, you little official? Aren't you insulting the Holy Majesty?"At this time, Cao Fu probably also gave it up, and replied generously, you have heard about it and pretended not to hear about it. People like you are not worthy of being a prime minister at all, and the country's death will be in your hands.Wang Fu became angry with embarrassment, so he threw Cao Fu into prison, found a chance to send him out, and finally persecuted him to death.As a result, no one dared to mention this matter in the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty. In such a situation where traitors and sycophants are in power and loyal to the ears, Song Huizong, a romantic emperor, lingers all day long in the beautiful scenery, reciting poems and painting, and enjoying himself with a group of sycophants, but he does not expect that a catastrophe of national subjugation is imminent up.