Chapter 32 Jiuwutai Poetry Case

The second year of Yuanfeng (1079) was Su Shi's darkest years.This year, he was transferred to be the prefect of Huzhou, which was his fourth post since he left the capital in the third year of Xining (1070).Previously, after his tenure in Hangzhou expired, he was transferred to Mizhou prefect, after Mizhou his term expired, he was transferred to Xuzhou prefect, and after Xuzhou's term expired, he was transferred to Huzhou prefect. According to the usual practice, when officials are transferred, they must express their gratitude to the emperor politely, and the content is nothing more than polite words such as thanking the Lord Long En.Su Shi is different. In his own words, his attitude towards life is that he hates evil like hatred. When encountering evil things, he "eats like flies and spits it out." , there will be more opportunities to leave people with a handle, not to mention that there are still many people staring at him with wide eyes, eager to pick out some material from him to repair him!This time, because of his bad temper, Su Shi was left behind.In his thank you form, he has this sentence:

Your Majesty knows that his life is not at the right time, so it is difficult to follow Xinjin.If you observe that he is old and does not make trouble, he may become a humble man in the pasture. Here Su Shi compares himself to the "Xinjin", saying that he does not "make troubles", which is to imply that the "Xinjin" people "make troubles".Due to the objective environment, ancient literati were always used to being very subtle in their sentences and sentences, and readers also developed a habit of instinctively seeking the meaning between the lines. In June, He Dazheng, the supervisory censor, smelled a certain smell in Su Shi's thank you form, so he extracted the words "new" and "problem" from it, and gave Su Shi the title of "fooling the court and being arrogant". hat.Obviously Su Shi was satirizing them, but they said that Su Shi was fooling the court.Changing positions is just a common trick of villains.

Regarding the origin of "Xinjin" and "Shengshi", there is also a background. The term "Xinjin" is Su Shi's derogatory term for the newcomers recommended by Wang Anshi. He once said in the book "Shang Shenzong Emperor" that Wang Anshi "recruited new and brave people to achieve quick results." There are fewer people who are sincere and humble, but more people who are clever and advanced.”Later, it was Lu Huiqing, a "skillful scholar" who had supported Wang Anshi, who betrayed Wang Anshi and made him dismissed. The word "problem" comes from a letter written by Sima Guang to Wang Anshi.Sima Guang held objections to Wang Anshi's reform. He once wrote a long letter to Wang Anshi, in which he accused the reform of "provoking trouble". Therefore, the word "causing trouble" became an idiomatic term to attack the reform.

Su Shi's thank you table is published in full in the regularly published court newspaper. He is a celebrity, and his handwriting should attract people's attention as usual.After the thank you list was published, those "newcomers" naturally became the laughing stock in the readers' minds. Li Ding, the censor Zhongcheng, is a villain who must take revenge.Back then, Sima Guang scolded him as inferior to a beast because he concealed his mother's death. Su Shi also alluded to him in the poem he gave to Zhu Shouchang, so he has always held a grudge against Su Shi and has been waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.He smelled a smell from Su Shi's thank you form, and immediately impeached Su Shi, accusing Su Shi of using the "thank you form" as a name for ridiculing the reality of the court, arrogance, venting his dissatisfaction with the new law, and demanding that Su Shi be severely punished.

However, one or two sentences on Su Shi's thank you form alone are not enough to overthrow Su Shi.Coincidentally, a book called "Yuanfeng Xutian Su Zizhan Scholar Qiantang Collection" was published at that time, which provided the newcomers of Yushitai with the opportunity to collect evidence of Su Shi's crime.After painstaking research, Shu Quan, the supervisory censor, found several poems by Su Shi and took them out of context as evidence to impeach Su Shi. Su Shi was demoted to Hangzhou because he was dissatisfied with the new law. He successively served as the prefect of Mizhou, Xuzhou, and then the prefect of Huzhou.During this period, he wrote a lot of well-known poems according to his feelings. Poems can be lyrical, and poems can express aspirations. In his poems, Su Shi will inevitably express his inner voice and express his dissatisfaction with the new law promoted by Wang Anshi. , and then ridicule the government.

Li Ding and others collected these poems by Su Shi and took them out of context as evidence of Su Shi's crime against the court. For example, the two sentences of Yong Qingmiao: Win children's voice is good, a year and a half strong in the city. Two sentences from the lecturer: Reading thousands of volumes without reading the law will make Jun Yao and Shun ultimately useless. Two sentences about water conservancy: If the East China Sea knows its intentions, it should be taught to denounce the brine and change the mulberry fields. Two lines of chanting salt ban: How can it be that Wen Shao Jie forgets the taste, and there is no salt in the food in March recently.

Two lines of chanting the juniper tree: There is no song from the root to the nine springs, only the stinging dragon knows it in the world. These verses were all written by the poet according to his feelings, and they did not really have any disrespectful thoughts, slandering the emperor, and they were still recited for a while at that time.However, Li Ding and Shu Yu insisted on using these lines as evidence that Su Shi satirized the imperial court and attacked the new law.In particular, the chanting of the juniper tree, "The root reaches the Jiuquan without music, and the world only knows the stinging dragon" is even said to allude to the emperor. They said: "The emperor is like a flying dragon in the sky, but Su Shi wants to face the stinging dragon under the Jiuquan. There is nothing better than this!"

Zhao Xu was also deceived by slander for a while, thinking that Su Shi was really a rebellious minister.An imperial edict was issued to remove Su Shi from his post on the spot, arrest him, escort him to Beijing, and hand him over to Yushitai for interrogation. "Wutai" is another name for Yushitai. "Hanshu? Zhu Bozhuan" records that there are many cypress trees in Yushifu (Taiwan), and there are often thousands of crows perched on the trees. Wu".Therefore, later generations called Yushitai "Wutai". Since Su Shi was convicted of poetry this time, it was created by several censors, and he was tried in Yushitai Prison. Yushitai has been called "Wutai" since the Han Dynasty. It is called "Wutai poetry case".

Li Ding wanted to put Su Shi to death. He selected an official named Huangfu Zun to go to Huzhou to convey the imperial decree to remove Su Shi from his official position, and then escorted him to Beijing for trial.The censors asked the emperor for instructions, saying that Su Shi had to spend the night in prison every night on his way back to the capital.Zhao Xu did not agree to Yushi's request, because he had no intention of killing Su Shi from the beginning to the end. Since the case was charged, he must act according to the law, but he was more willing to give Su Shi a chance to explain.

Su Shi had a good friend Wang Shen, the son-in-law, who printed the "Yuanfeng Xutian Su Zizhan Scholar Qiantang Collection". His younger brother Su Zhe sent a letter, and Su Zhe immediately sent someone to tell Su Shi.This can be said to be a race between messengers. The imperial envoy took two yamen servants from Yushitai and his son to Huzhou to arrest Su Shi.In Jingjiang, the trip was delayed for half a day due to some incidents. As a result, the envoy sent by Su Zhe arrived in Huzhou first.When Su Shi heard the news, he asked for leave immediately, and Zu Tongpan took over the post of prefect on his behalf.

When Huangfu Zun arrived in Huzhou, the people in the prefect's office panicked, not knowing what would happen.Su Shi didn't dare to come out either. He discussed with the judge, who said that it would be useless to avoid the court envoy, and it was better to greet him according to the etiquette and appear with an official rank.So Su Shi put on official clothes and boots, and met the official messenger Huangfu Zun. One of the two officers was holding an official document from Yushitai, and the other was carrying a package. The sword in the package could be seen faintly. Their faces were indifferent, and the atmosphere was very tense.Su Shi opened his mouth to break the deadlock, saying that he knew that he had committed a heinous crime and would undoubtedly die.He asked to go home and bid farewell to his family, and then went to Beijing to subdue the law with his mission. Huangfu Zun said lightly: "The matter is not so serious yet!" Zu Tongpan said humbly, "Please show me the official document." After Huangfu Zun found out the identity of Zu Tongpan, he ordered the accompanying yamen servants to formally hand over the official documents of Yushitai to Zu Tongpan.Zu Tongpan opened it and saw that it was just an ordinary official document, which removed Su Shi from his post and summoned him to Beijing, and asked Su Shi to leave immediately. Huangfu Zun agreed to Su Shi's request to bid farewell to his family. When Su Shi returned to see his family, the whole family cried.Su Shi smiled and told a story to comfort them: In the era of Song Zhenzong, the emperor wanted to seek real great Confucianism among Lin Quan.Someone recommended Yang Pu to come out.Yang Pu was really unwilling, but he still set off for the capital under the guard to meet the emperor. The emperor asked, "I heard that you can compose poetry?" Yang Pu replied, "I don't know how to do it." He wanted to hide his talent and learning, because he didn't want to be an official until death. The emperor asked again: "Did your friends give you some poems when they sent you off?" Yang Pu replied: "No, only Zhuo Jing wrote a poem." The emperor asked again: "What poem is it, can you tell me?" So Yang Pu read out the poem written by his wife before leaving: Don't be down and out and greedy for wine, and don't be crazy about poetry. Take the general to the palace today, and ruin the old scalp this time. After listening to this poem, Mrs. Su burst into tears and smiled, feeling a little at ease.It is not known whether this story really existed, or whether it was compiled by Su Shi to comfort his family. When Su Shi bid farewell to his family and set off on the road, the people in the Huzhou prefect's yamen were all terrified and dodged, but the common people came out to watch the prefect set off.Later, according to Su Shi's recollection, the emperor's arrest of the prefect was like arresting a thief. Some people say that Su Shi wanted to commit suicide on the way to Beijing, and when he was crossing the river in Yangzhou, he had the idea of ​​jumping into the river to commit suicide.He didn't know what crime he was going to be convicted of, and he was worried that many friends would be involved in the case, and his younger brother Su Zhe would also be involved, because Su Zhe had tipped him off in advance.After thinking about it again and again, he finally gave up the idea of ​​suicide and arrived in the capital safely. After Su Shi entered Beijing, he was imprisoned in the Royal Prison at Yushitai. Su Shi was arrested at the end of July and was imprisoned in the Royal Prison at Yushitai on August 18. After Su Shi was imprisoned, on the one hand, he had to be interrogated at any time, and on the other hand, he was asked to explain the problem by himself. The censors were not idle either, they collected evidence of Su Shi's crime everywhere.By September, more than 100 poems sent by Su Shi to others were copied from all directions, and they were presented for review during the interrogation. Thirty-nine people were implicated. Su Shi has confessed to most of the charges, admitting to criticizing the New Deal in his poems. During Su Shi's trial, there were also many people who came to the rescue. Prime Minister Wu Chong made a statement, saying that His Majesty took Yao and Shun as an example and despised Wei Wu Emperor Cao Cao.Although Cao Cao is very suspicious, he can tolerate you Heng. Could it be that your majesty can't tolerate a Su Shi? Fellow practitioner Wang Anli also defended Su Shi. He said that since ancient times, magnanimous masters would not punish people with words. Now that it is so busy, it is inevitable to be a little disappointed and resentful. It is also normal to chant the wind and sing the moon, and complain.If you were convicted and imprisoned, or even beheaded, for writing a few poems, I am afraid that people in later generations will say that your majesty has no tolerance for talents. Wang Anshi and Su Shi had different political views, and Su Shi was demoted from the capital because he opposed Wang Anshi's reform.When he heard that Su Shi had been convicted and imprisoned, he even wrote to Zhao Xu, saying that it was not appropriate to kill celebrities in the Holy Dynasty.It can be seen that Wang Anshi is a gentleman, but it is a pity that the people he uses are all villains. When Su Shi was in prison, an interesting thing happened. Su Shi was in prison, and his son Su Mai went to deliver prison meals to his father every day.Since the father and son could not meet each other, they secretly agreed that they would only send vegetables and meat at ordinary times, and if there was bad news about the death sentence, they would send fish instead, so as to make early psychological preparations. One day, Su Mai was busy and couldn't go to deliver meals, so he entrusted a friend to deliver meals for him, but he forgot to tell the friend the secret code he had agreed with his father.It happened that the friend made a plate of braised fish.When Su Shi saw it, he was shocked, thinking that he was doomed to die. In grief and indignation, he wrote two desperate poems to his younger brother Su Zhe: The Holy Lord is like the sky and everything is spring, and the little ministers are foolish and forget themselves. Pay off your debts before the end of a hundred years, and I will be exhausted if you lose ten. It is a green hill where bones can be hidden, and he is alone in the heavy rain. To be brothers with Jun Shishi, and to tie up the unfinished cause of the next life. Baitai's frosty night is desolate, and the wind and moon are low. The dream revolves around the clouds and mountains, the heart is like a deer, and the soul is like a chicken. The real gentleman with the rhinoceros horn in his eyes is ashamed of his old wife in his clothes behind him. Where is the hundred-year-old spirit wandering? Tongxiang knows where to be buried in the west of Zhejiang. Su Shi made it very tragic in his first poem. He said that after his death, his family of ten depended on his younger brother to take care of him, and his lonely soul and wild ghost lay alone on the barren mountain listening to the rain and the weeping wind.He said that he and Su Zhe are brothers forever.He also expressed in the poem that the emperor's kindness is great, and he has received so much kindness that he can't repay his gratitude, which is really ashamed.He also said that he had nothing to complain about this time, it was all his own fault. Su Zhe received his elder brother's deadly poem, and wept at his desk, distraught.He immediately wrote a letter to the emperor, hoping to redeem his brother's crime with his official rank. Su Shi's detention and trial caused a lot of noise in the court, and the empress dowager Cao also knew about it. On this day, the Empress Dowager was ill, so Zhao Xu went to the palace to greet her.The Empress Dowager asked about Su Shi with concern. She asked Zhao Xu: "I heard that Su Shi was arrested and imprisoned by the imperial edict, and handed over to Yushitai for interrogation. What crime did Su Shi commit?" Zhao Xu replied: "Su Shi resented the court and slandered the emperor's father. He committed the crime of disrespect." The Empress Dowager said in shock: "Really? Why did Su Shi do this? Is there any evidence?" Zhao Xu replied: "Of course there is evidence. The Yushitai's censor even put up four memorials, all of which were impeachment of Su Shi." "Which poems are they?" asked the Empress Dowager. Zhao Xu recited a few lines of Su Shi's suspected attack on the new law. After hearing this, the Empress Dowager said compassionately: "Can this line of poetry be used as evidence? With such unreasonable evidence, can Su Shi be deemed disrespectful and should he be executed?" The Empress Dowager coughed lightly a few times. , went on to say, "Literati recite poems based on temporary feelings, not prejudices; even one or two sentences that satirize the government are also the attitude that poets should have. There are 300 poems, many of which contain ironic meanings. The ruler cannot reward the poet for his loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, and improve everything, but he must be convicted and sentenced to death. How can this be the reason for the ruler to be cautious about prisons and pity talents?" Seeing that the empress dowager was a little unhappy, Zhao Xu said that the censors had impeached Su Shi, and he had to issue an edict to intervene in this matter. The Empress Dowager said: "At the beginning, when the Su Shi brothers first entered the academic department, your grandfather Emperor Renzong admired their talents and learning very much. He once said to us happily: 'I have got two good prime ministers for my descendants!' Su Shi, if you are not jealous of talent, you are holding grudges, you are the emperor, you can't let others lead you by the nose!" The empress dowager's words obviously had the meaning of reproach, and these few words became the last words of the empress dowager. On October 13th, the censors made a summary of the case and sent it to Zhao Xu for review.Just at this time, the Empress Dowager died of illness, and Zhao Xu had to deal with the funeral of the Empress Dowager, so he delayed Su Shi's case. Zhao Xu has a lot of affection for the Empress Dowager, and usually deliberately pleases the Empress Dowager, and the Empress Dowager loves the grandson emperor very much. Sometimes Zhao Xu will wait at the gate of the palace when Zhao Xu retires late. , personally taking care of his meals, the relationship between the grandfather and grandson has always been very happy. Although the empress dowager has a prominent status, she never exceeds the etiquette.By convention, the family members of the royal harem are not allowed to enter the palace to visit. The empress dowager has a younger brother named Cao Yi, who was once a member of Tong Zhongshu's family. Zhao Xu often asked the empress dowager if he could take him into the palace.However, the Empress Dowager said that the patriarchal clan cannot be abolished, and that Cao Yi has already surpassed himself by becoming a dignitary. He is not allowed to interfere in all state affairs, and he is not allowed to enter the palace.Therefore, there is a wall separating the inside and outside of the palace, and Cao Yi has never crossed this wall. When the Empress Dowager was seriously ill, Zhao Xu reported to the Empress Dowager Ming that she would take Cao Yi into the palace to visit her sister. After a few conversations, Zhao Xu got up and wanted to leave, so that the siblings could talk alone.The empress dowager said to Cao Yu: "This is not a place for you to stay for a long time, go with the emperor!" Zhao Xu wanted to persuade the Empress Dowager to let Cao Yi stay for a while. The Empress Dowager knew what he meant, and before he could speak, she smiled and said, "Go! Letting him enter the palace is already an exception. Don't stay too long, lest the courtiers discuss it." Knowing his grandmother's temper, Zhao Xu had no choice but to leave with Cao Yi who was reluctant to let go. In the last ten days of the Empress Dowager's life, Zhao Xu kept his clothes untied and waited all night without any tiredness.When the Empress Dowager was dying, she asked the court lady to take out a bunch of sealed memorials from the box, and handed them to Zhao Xu, saying: "I will open it after I die, just to let you understand the old things in the past, and you must not cure them like this." Remember the sin of man." Zhao Xu accepted it with tears in his eyes.Empress Dowager Cao took up a pen and wrote the four characters "fraternal love and close to the people", and bestowed on Zhao Xu, saying: "These four characters are worth a thousand words of a will!" Zhao Xu hurriedly knelt down to accept it, sobbing and said: "I respect and obey Yi's decree!" After hearing this, the Empress Dowager passed away with a smile. After the death of the Empress Dowager, Zhao Xu opened the bunch of memorials and saw that they were the opposition memorials of some ministers when Emperor Renzong established Emperor Yingzong.Zhao Xu is more grateful to the empress dowager for saving his father, and at the same time has a better understanding of the contradictions in the court.He obeyed the Queen Mother's last order and did not punish those ministers. After the death of the Empress Dowager, she was honored with the posthumous posthumous title of Cishengguangxian. During the funeral of the Empress Dowager, Su Shi stayed in prison waiting for the sentencing.A few years later, he told his friends that when he was waiting for the outcome of the case in prison, a very mysterious thing happened. Su Shi recalled: "After the interrogation, one night, the evening drum had already been beaten, and I was about to sleep, when I suddenly saw a man walk into the cell, without saying a word, threw a small box on the ground as a pillow, and lay on the ground. I fell asleep. I thought he was a prisoner, and I left him alone. I lay down and fell asleep. About four o'clock, I felt someone push my head, and the person said to me: 'Congratulations! Congratulations!' I rolled over I asked him what he meant. He said: 'Sleep peacefully, don't worry.' After that, he left mysteriously with the suitcase." Friends asked who the man really was. Su Shi recalled: "The thing is like this. Just after I was impeached, Shu Quan and several others tried their best to persuade the emperor to kill me, but the emperor had no intention of killing me at all, so he secretly sent an eunuch to observe in prison. The eunuch entered After I got into the cell, I fell asleep and my breath was like thunder. He reported to the emperor after he returned that I slept very deeply and quietly. The emperor said to his courtiers: "I know that Su Shi has a clear heart!" This may be the later The reason for being pardoned and relegated to Huangzhou." The death of the empress dowager is a national mourning, and the country will always give amnesty when there is a national mourning.Therefore, according to law and custom, Su Shi should be pardoned.Those censors originally wanted to take advantage of this poem case to wipe out the opponents. If they were amnesty, their hard work would be in vain.In Li Dingzuo's last book, those prisoners who may be eligible for pardon shall not be pardoned.Shu Yu went further and requested that Sima Guang, Fan Zhen, Zhang Fangping, Li Chang and five other friends of Su Shi be executed. In fact, Zhao Xu admired Su Shi's talent, and he didn't intend to execute him. He just wanted to warn those officials who opposed the reform, which had political implications. He was ready to pardon Su Shi. Knowing that the emperor wanted to pardon Su Shi, Wang Gui once again used Su Shi's two lines of poem "The root goes to the place where there is no song in the nine springs, and only Zhelong knows it in the world".He said: "The two lines of Su Shi's poems are obviously evidence of disobedience. If you don't give severe condemnation, how can you serve as a warning to future generations?" Zhao Xu didn't think so, he told Wang Gui not to be picky, and the two lines of Su Shi's poems were chanting junipers, which had nothing to do with him. Wang Gui was a little anxious, and said bluntly: "Su Shi really has the heart of disobedience, His Majesty must punish him seriously and not let him go!" Zhao Xu became a little unhappy, and said irritably, "Are you trying to make people in later generations say that I can't accommodate talents?" Wang Gui was too frightened to play any more. Shu Yu also played the conversation between Wang Shen and Su Shi, the captain-in-law. Zhao Xu didn't listen to their slander at this time. On November 29, the imperial decree was issued, and Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou to serve as the deputy envoy of the regiment, but he was not allowed to leave the area without authorization and had no right to sign official documents.With such a result, Li Ding and others were greatly disappointed. Among those implicated, three received heavier punishments.The son-in-law, Wang Shen, was stripped of all his official titles because he leaked secrets to Su Shi and had frequent contacts with him. He did not hand over Su Shi's poems and essays in time during the investigation.Followed by Wang Gong, who was dealt with by the censor and sent to the northwest.The third is Su Zhe. He once asked the court to pardon his elder brother, and he was willing to return all his official positions to atone for his elder brother. He did not receive any serious slanderous poems, but due to family ties, he was still demoted. Gao An, Ren Junzhou Liquor Superintendent. Zhang Fangping and other high officials were fined 30 catties of red copper, while Sima Guang, Fan Zhen and eighteen other friends of Su Shi were each fined 20 catties of red copper. On New Year's Eve last year, Su Shi was released from prison and spent more than four months in prison. When he walked out of the prison gate, he stopped, sniffed the fresh air in the air with his nose, and his face was relaxed and happy.He was such an old habit that he wrote two more poems that day.The poem said: "But the wine glass is like a dream, and the poetry pen is like a god." Another poem is: I have been tired of writing in my life, and my reputation is never tired of going here. The plug will belong to his Japanese horse, and the east of the city will not fight young chickens. In these two poems, there are at least two sentences, if they are examined by those censors, they will again commit the crime of disrespect to the emperor. It's fine if you lose your horse, because it's not bad luck to lose your horse, and it's not good luck to find it again.In other words, people never know what is good luck and what is bad luck.However, "Young Chicken" refers to Jia Chang.When Jia Chang was old, he told others that when he was young, he was favored by Emperor Tang because of cockfighting, and he served as a jester and actor in the court.This point can still be extended to refer to the villains in power in the court, jesters and actors in the court, and slander. After Su Shi finished writing this poem, he threw his pen on the ground and said with a big laugh, "I'm really hopeless!"