"Wei Zheng Who Dare to Speak Out" talks about several things

The Literary Prison during the Hongwu Period The emergence of the Literary Prison originated from the civil-military struggle in the Hongwu Dynasty. At the beginning of the founding of the country, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty adhered to the famous saying "You can conquer the world immediately, but you cannot rule the world immediately", and began to recruit a large number of literati to formulate regulations such as court rites, regulations, criminal laws, military systems, household registration, schools, etc., making the early Ming Dynasty have the atmosphere. The administration was clear and clear, and the status of literati in Taizu's heart also increased. As a result, those Huaixi military generals who followed him in the early days suddenly became dissatisfied, thinking that we had fought hard to create the world, so why should we let those literati with no great military achievements take charge? So he came up with a strategy to suppress the literati. One day, they selected a few eloquent people and went to report the scholar's case to Taizu. At first, Taizu persuaded them with the principle of "quelling chaos with force and governing the world with letters." These people expressed Weiwei, and after Taizu made a grand statement, he carefully said: Your Majesty's words are indeed good, but the scholars cannot be completely trusted. These people rely on their talents and knowledge, and will often use veiled words to sarcastically slander them if they are even slightly dissatisfied. Although His Majesty is very kind to them, can he guarantee that everyone will be satisfied? After saying this, Taizu was a little unsure, so he asked them if they could give an example. This question played into the speaker's mind, so he immediately said: Do you know about Zhang Jiusi (the nickname of Zhang Shicheng, one of the heroes in the late Yuan Dynasty) who is good at writing, right? His love for literati is no worse than yours. He has high-ranking officials, generous salaries, BMWs and fragrant cars. But when he proclaimed himself king, he asked the literati to give him an official name, and he got the name Shicheng. Taizu thought for a while and said: This is a good name. Treating people with sincerity is exactly in line with his behavior. The speaker smiled and said: It seems that His Majesty has also been deceived by these bad-hearted scholars. Did you know that there is a saying in "Mencius" that "a scholar is a sincere villain". It can be read as "Shicheng villain". Look, isn't this a different way of calling someone a villain? Poor Zhang Shicheng had been called a villain for half his life, and he was still kept in the dark until his death. Taizu immediately ordered someone to check "Mencius" and found this sentence. From then on, he began to pay attention to whether there were any suspicious words and phrases in the memorials of civil servants, and later expanded to poetry manuscripts. The above story comes from "Xianzhong Ancient and Modern Records" written by Huang Pu during the Jingtai Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty. Although it cannot be determined that this was the cause of the literary prison during the Hongwu period, it can be proved that there was indeed a literary prison at that time. In fact, the real reason for the literary prison lies in the thoughts of Ming Taizu himself. He set up the Literary Prison for two purposes: 1. To attack the literati who disobeyed the Ming Dynasty; 2. To have extreme personal inferiority and self-esteem. The first one is somewhat reasonable from the perspective of maintaining rule, but the second one is completely a sign of mental illness. To put it bluntly, he is a pervert. Let’s look at the first one first. As one of the few civilian emperors in history, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was inevitably despised and hated by the literati and officials who judged their superiority based on family status. Therefore, many people disdained to cooperate with him, let alone be his ministers. A typical example is a man named Xia Boqi and his nephew. In order to show their determination not to serve in the Ming Dynasty, they even cut off their fingers. Later, after they were captured in Nanjing, Taizu asked them: Where did you hide during the troubled times? Bo Qi replied: When the Red Bandits (the nickname for the Red Scarf Army) were causing trouble, I took refuge in the mountains on the border between Jiangxi and Fujian. Taizu himself was born in the Red Scarf Army, and what he was most taboo about was someone mentioning "red bandits" or "red thieves" in front of him, so he immediately became furious: I know you are resentful and dissatisfied with my world. Therefore, when you said "red bandits", you clearly meant something different and used the topic to insult me. Okay, wouldn't you rather chop off your fingers than surrender? Then there is no need to surrender! I will show your uncle and nephew's heads to the public to warn those arrogant people! Under the instruction of Ming Taizu, the Xia family's uncles and nephews were taken back to their place of origin and executed. After that, Yao Run, Wang Mo and others from Suzhou had their homes confiscated and executed because they refused to serve as officials. These are all recorded in "History of Ming Dynasty·Criminal Law Chronicles". After such a bloody storm, the literati became timid. Many people had no choice but to apply for the draft and came to Nanjing, but they still refused to become officials. Among these people, the experience of Yang Weizhen, a literary master of the Yuan Dynasty, is the most typical. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty·Biography of Yang Weizhen", he was named Lianfu and named Tieya. He was a native of Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) and was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Taiding (1327 AD), Emperor Taiding of the Yuan Dynasty. Shi Yuan was promoted to the general manager of Jiande Road. After the Red Turban Rebellion, he took refuge in Fuchun River. His humanistic reputation spread all over the world, and he was especially good at poetry and prose. He was called "Iron Cliff Style" at that time. When he was conquered for the second time in the third year of Hongwu (1370 AD), he was already 74 years old.

Facing the local officials who came to urge him, he politely refused by writing the poem "Old Woman's Guest Ballad", comparing himself to the dying old woman in the poem who could not remarry. He also clearly told Taizu that if he forced me to serve as an official for two North Korea had no choice but to jump into the sea and commit suicide in order to save his whole name. Taizu saw that he was old and thought that he could not be threatened with death. Moreover, because of his great reputation, if he really forced him to die, it would damage his "holy virtue", so he had to give up. In addition to survivors of the Yuan Dynasty like Yang Weizhen, those who refused to compromise with the Ming Dynasty were also literati who had served in the late Yuan Dynasty. For example, Wang Feng, a native of Jiangyin, served as Zhang Shicheng's staff. After Shicheng's defeat, he lived in seclusion in Wujing (near today's Suzhou). In the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1383 AD), he was conquered and refused to obey. Fortunately, he had a son who was an official in Nanjing, and he was released after begging hard. The matter can be found in "History of Ming Dynasty·Biography of Dai Liang" attached to "Biography of Wang Feng". These may be the surviving ministers of the Yuan Dynasty, or the literati of the old tribes of heroes, such as Yang Weizhen and Wang Feng, and there are many others who rely on their integrity and do not serve in the two dynasties. For example, Ding Henian, a poet of the Hui nationality, considered himself a Yuan minister because of his family background, and evaded conscription and wandered in the mountains until his death during the Yongle period; Chen Liang, a Changle native, considered himself a Confucian scholar of the Yuan Dynasty and never served in office; Zhang Yu, a Luling native, considered himself a Yuan minister. He refused the recruitment of Zhang Shicheng and Ming Taizu successively. When Taizu saw that he was old, he said "You can take your time" and released him. He then called himself "the old man who can take your time" and lived a cautious life; Yang Weizhen's fellow villager and student Zhang Xianshi and Zhang Shicheng , Shicheng was destroyed, Zhang Xian kept his name anonymous, and died in Baoguo Temple in Hangzhou in his later years. The deeds of these people, except Zhang Yu, are all recorded in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Yu's affairs can be seen in his own "Collection of Leisure Old Man". Seeing that these literati were unwilling to join him, one can imagine Ming Taizu's dislike of literati. And once this kind of disgust interacts with the hidden illness in the heart, surly behavior will inevitably break out. This is the second one we are about to mention. The most direct and effective way to convict a person, especially a literati, is to find faults and excuses in the words he wrote. Once these words accidentally touch a sensitive nerve, they will immediately distort them according to their own personal thinking, extend the original meaning infinitely, and achieve the purpose of incriminating people. This is a common feature of literal inquisition. Based on his life experience, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty naturally set a forbidden zone in his heart that could not be offended. Because he had been a monk when he was young, any word he saw that contained words like "light" or "bald" that were close to the characteristics of a monk would violate his taboos. Even the word "monk" was equally dazzling. Later, it was promoted to the outside world and the homophonic word "生" was also included in the category of taboo. Furthermore, he started out in the Red Turban Army. As mentioned before, in Yuan Ting's view, the Red Scarf Army was "red thieves" and "red bandits", so Taizu also hated people mentioning "thieves" and "bandits" in front of him. Later, even the word "ze" was was affected. All of this reflects Ming Taizu's inferiority complex based on his humble background. From a psychological perspective, when low self-esteem goes to extremes, self-esteem will swell and reach another abnormal peak. This change also shows a clear context in Taizu. In order to increase their prestige, the founding emperors of the past dynasties of China would try every means to find an ancient person with the same name as their ancestor to show their legitimacy, and Taizu was not exempt from customs. The book "A Brief History of the Ming Dynasty" tells this story: When Taizu was discussing with the literati on revising the Yuzhen genealogy, he planned to recruit Zhu Xi, a great scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, as his ancestor. Just at this time, a local official named Zhu from Huizhou came to see his Majesty. Taizu thought that Huizhou was Zhu Xi's hometown. If he could bring this man into his family, it would undoubtedly be a very powerful proof of his origin. . So, he asked the other party hopefully if he was a descendant of Zhu Wengong (Zhu Xi's honorific title). The man did not know the holy will and was only afraid of committing the crime of deceiving the emperor, so he answered truthfully no. At this time, Taizu couldn't help but feel frustrated. He thought that even a small official would not pretend to be his ancestor, let alone being the emperor. Besides, my family has nothing to do with Huizhou in the south of the Yangtze River for several generations. It would be ridiculous if a discerning person saw it if they forced a marriage. So he recognized his relatives and went to bed. The inability to recognize relatives did not mean that Taizu gave up his desire for his own dignity, so his eyes turned to Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, who was from Huibei University. An idea struck him, and he simply said bluntly that he was from a humble background, and like the emperor of the Han Dynasty, he was a self-made hero who had no roots in his ancestors.

Since then, all imperial edicts and speeches have specially added titles such as "Huaiyou civilians", "Jiangzuo civilians", "everyman", "from the fields" and "from a humble background" to themselves, highlighting that they conquer the world entirely by relying on their own abilities. , step by step from the bottom to the dragon position. However, such words can only be said by himself. If anyone dares to say more, severe punishment and a tragic ending will be waiting for him. Ming Taizu's judgment on whether writing was prohibited was entirely based on his own political interests and cultural level, and he would not put himself in the writer's shoes. This is also completely consistent with the characteristics of literal prison. Below, some of the more famous literary prison cases in the Hongwu Dynasty are listed for illustration. 1. Those who caused trouble because of taboo words: (1) Zhejiang Fu Xue professor Lin Yuanliang wrote the "Xie Zeng Salary Table" on behalf of the Haimen guard. This official thank-you article contained the words "doing it will uphold the constitution"; Beiping Fu Zhao Boning was taught by the school to make the "Congratulations on Wanshou Biao" for the capital, which is a seal to congratulate the emperor on his birthday. It includes the sentence "We should follow the descendants and grandchildren"; This is a celebration form, and the phrase "Yi governs the world" appears in it; Guilin Prefectural School taught Jiang Zhi to make a "Zhengdan Congratulations Form" for the chief envoy and case inspector, and there is "Jianzhong will do it"; Lizhou Xuezheng Meng Qing made a "Hello Winter Solstice Table", which contains the words "holy virtues set the standard". All of the above were originally flattering articles in the nature of "praising the saints", but they became sinful just because they were tainted with the word "ze" which is a homophone for "thief". (2) Changzhou Prefecture taught Jiang Qi to make the "Zhengdan Congratulations Table" for the prefecture, which contains "wisdom leads to knowledge". It is a sin because "sheng" and "monk" are close. 2. Those who get into trouble because of the pronunciation of words: (1) Lu Rui, a tutor at the Huaiqing Mansion, wrote the "Thanks for the Gift of Horses" for the Mansion. There is a sentence in the "Looking at the Emperor's Gate from afar". The original meaning is to look at the door of the emperor's palace in the distance and express his feelings. The heart of an emperor. But it was understood as "the emperor is not". How could the emperor do anything wrong? Slander the Holy King and kill him. (2) The "He Zhengdan Table" written by Jia Zhu from the Xiangfu County School contains the words "Get Fa Xiangwei" in it. "Que Fa" is interpreted as "get rid of hair", and getting rid of hair means baldness. Isn't this a change of method? Is it insinuating that Taizu was a monk? What to do if you don't die? (3) Lin Yun, the tutor of Bozhou Prefecture, wrote a banquet note from Xie Donggong for this state. There is a sentence in "Shi Junfu Yibanjuelu". "Shi Junfu" is understood to mean "killing the king's father", killing the king's father. Isn't it rebellion? (4) Xu Yuan, the academician of Weishi County, ordered Xu Yuan to make a "Congratulations on Wanshou Biao" for the county. There is a sentence in it, "The body is decorated with Kun, and the algae is decorated with peace." "The algae is decorated with peace" was misinterpreted as "the peace is lost early." What a vicious curse it is to cause the country to lose peace early! (5) De'an Prefecture taught Wu Xian to make a "Congratulations to the Grand Grandson" for the house. This was a congratulatory form when he appointed his eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen as the grandson of the emperor in the 25th year of Hongwu (1393 AD), because there was a sentence in it. In "If there is a way in the world, I hope to worship Qingmen", "youdao" is interpreted as "there are thieves", and Qingmen is considered to be a Buddhist temple. Now it becomes a satire on Taizu's experience as a monk and joining the red scarf The army is a thief. (6) Although the deaths of the above people were unjust, they did not deserve the teachings of Chenzhou Zhouxue. In the "Congratulations on Wanshou Biao" he wrote for Honshu, the sentence "lives for thousands of years" was suspected to be taboo, but people were picky about it and found it again. No problem. However, Taizu still refused to let him go, and finally went to Fusi City with those in front of him. The above two categories of people who suffered fatal disasters are all recorded in Volume 32 of "Twenty-two Historical Notes", "Disasters of Writing in the Early Ming Dynasty" cited in "Records of Strange News from the Government and the Unknown". As for those who caused misfortune because of the meaning of the sentence, it is recorded in Xu Zhenqing's "Jian Sheng Ye Wen" as follows: Xu Yikui, a professor of Hangzhou Fuxue, made a "Longevity Congratulations Table" for the government. There is a line in the "Longevity Congratulations Table" written by Xu Zhenqing: "Under the light of the sky, there are born saints. After the above introduction, readers can also see how taboo this sentence is. "Guang", "Sheng" and "Ze" all violated Taizu's taboos. With these consecutive readings, a clichéd eulogizing sentence turns into "Scolding the bald man in front of the monk", which also satirizes Taizu. The red scarf is the past of the thief. The author himself did not need to be polite when Taizu was angry. He could not escape with a sharp knife on his neck. Even the officials of the Ministry of Rites were angered and severely reprimanded. They were so frightened that they quickly went to court to plead guilty and asked Taizu to issue an edict stating taboos to warn the people. Therefore, in the 29th year of Hongwu (1397 AD), Liu Sanwu, a Hanlin scholar, and Wang Junhua, a scholar from Zuo Chunfang and You Zanshan, formulated a "Form of Celebration and Gratitude", which was a standardized format that taught everyone how to write a seal to the emperor. . All congratulatory forms should be copied according to this content, and then just write your official position and name. It is the saying: There is a huge copy of the world's articles, just to save one's life and not to write articles. This is another big joke caused by Taizu's abnormal psychology.

However, there are so many evil spirits hidden behind such jokes that no one can laugh. In addition to finding faults in the writings and chapters that he could see, Hongwu's literary inquisition also gradually extended to the daily life words, deeds and writings of the literati. Liu Chen's "Deeds of the Early Years of the Kingdom" records that Chen Yanghao, a minister of Qian Dynasty, wrote a poem: "There is a concubine in the south of the city, crying for her husband every night." This kind of ordinary poem about the grievances of conscripts, like the Tang poem "Poor bones by the Wuding River, just like the people in the spring boudoir's dream", fell in the eyes of Taizu, but turned into an evil intention that shook the morale of the army, so Chen Yanghao was demoted. He fled to Hubei, but he still felt angry and ordered him to be thrown into the water and drowned (just like Han Lin'er was killed). Similar incidents can be seen in many books such as "Peng Chuang Lei Ji", "Excerpts of Xia Xia Xian Ji", "Gu Rang Za Lu", "Jing Zhi Ju Poetry" and "Ming History·Gao Qi Biography", etc., which record the case of Wei Guan, the prefect of Suzhou, because it will The government office was built on the site of the former Prince Zhang Shicheng's palace, which was hated by Taizu. Then he received a secret report that the four words "tiger perched on dragon and pan" were included in the sacrificial inscriptions written for the new government office. , so he ordered Wei Guan to be beheaded and abandoned in the city. Taizu felt it was not enough to kill Wei Guan, so he placed the butcher's knife on the neck of Gao Qingqiu, the author of the memorial text. According to the original biography of "History of the Ming Dynasty", Qingqiu was his nickname, his name was Qi, and his courtesy name was Jidi. He was from Changzhou (now Suzhou, Jiangsu). His poetic style is vigorous and his talents are lofty. Together with Yang Ji, Zhang Yu and Xu Ben, he is known as the "Four Heroes of Wuzhong". In the first year of Hongwu (1368 AD), he was called to become an official and participated in the compilation of "History of the Yuan Dynasty". When he wrote "Shangliang Wen" for Wei Guan, he had already become an official and lived in Suzhou. Logically speaking, he was a scholar who collaborated with the Ming Dynasty and was famous for his talents. Even compared to Yang Weizhen, he should not be trapped in literary prison. However, as the saying goes, this moment is the same as that moment, not to mention that this was not the first time that Taizu was dissatisfied with him. As early as when Gao Qi was editing for the Hanlin Academy, Taizu suspected that the sentence "The little dog barked through the flowers and shadows in the sky, who came from the palace at night" in his "Picture Poems on Palace Maidens" was ironic. Keep it in mind. Now, the old debt has not been settled and the new debt has been resurrected. Taizu did not care whether he would be known as "harming the virtuous" and simply cut off the matter. After Gao Qi's death, his poetry collection was also banned. It was not until the early Qing Dynasty that anyone dared to publish it. Gao Qi's case was called "the unjust prison in the early days of the country" by later generations. If these people who were killed by Taizu for finding trouble were deplorable, then the death of a Rifu monk who took the initiative to put his neck under Taizu's knife was not only laughable, but also had nothing to say. This monk did not meditate and recite sutras well, but in order to please Taizu, he insisted on "advancing despite difficulties" and wrote a "hymn" dedicated to Taizu. When Taizu saw two of the sentences, "Jinpansuhe came to the special realm" and "He was ashamed of his virtue and praised Tao Tang", he immediately ordered the death of this blind monk. Because in Taizu's view, the word "Shu" can be separated into "Evil" and "Zhu". Isn't this accusing my Zhu family of being bad? That "no virtue praising Tao Tang" is simply calling me "immoral". Tao Tang was the virtuous king Yao in ancient legends. He used Yao to allude to my position as emperor, but he also said that I was "immoral" and his heart was worthy of death. When I read this story from "Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories", I couldn't help but laugh or cry. I wonder how the readers felt? Later, the scope of the literary inquisition was expanded to include typos in the official official records of the court. Lu Xiongshang, the magistrate of Yanzhou, expressed that the word "Yan" on his official seal was mistakenly engraved with the word "Gun" and requested a correction. As a result, Taizu mistook the word "gun" for the word "gun" and hated Lu Xiong, thinking that he wanted to "go away" himself. How can it be tolerated to insult the Holy Lord with clever words? As a result, not long after, Taizu used Hu Weiyong's "party case" to kill Lu Xiong. He didn't know how to read, but he killed others. Such a black humor was recorded in "Excerpts from Shuidong's Diary". Did Taizu Jiuquan also feel that his face was shameful? The emperor's taboo often quickly turns into a national taboo. Therefore, in the third year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty promulgated a series of taboo characters, prohibiting civilians from using heaven, country, monarch, minister, saint, and god in their names. , Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou, Qin, Han, Jin and other words. In the twenty-sixth year, Taizu, Shengsun, Longsun, Huangsun, Wangsun, Taishu, Taixiong, Taidi, Taishi, Taifu, Taibao, Dafu, Daizhao, doctor, imperial doctor and eunuch were added. , high official, doctor's words. Doctors and imperial doctors are aimed at folk doctors, while Taizhao is aimed at people who are engaged in the industry of hair combing. Therefore, doctors in the Ming Dynasty could only be called doctors, healers, and healers. If anyone sees the title doctor appearing in a film and television work set in the Ming Dynasty, it will be ridiculous for their ignorance. As for the practitioners, it was renamed "plastic surgery" at that time. I don't know if they are the ancestors of the modern plastic surgery industry. These are also records from "Excerpts from Shuidong Diary".

In the eyes of later historians, the era that can be officially called the Literary Prison was the thirteen years from the 17th to the 29th years of Hongwu. During this period, hundreds of thousands of people were killed due to various writing-related incidents. many. From ministers to civilians, it covered almost all strata and occupations of society at that time. Its wide involvement, large number of deaths, and far-reaching influence are also rare in Chinese history. During the thirteen years of Hongwu Literary Prison, only one person survived. In fact, there was the North and South Bang case in the 30th year of Hongwu, which was also an extension of the literary inquisition. The unlucky ones were Liu Sanwu and Bai Xintuan, the other examiner who drew up the format of the greeting card in the 29th year. On the day when the results were released, from Song Cong, a native of Jiangxi, who came first in the imperial examination, to those who came second in the middle, they were all from the south, and all the northerners were from Luosunshan. There was an uproar among the candidates from the north, which triggered a court case. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his attendant Zhang Xin to check the test papers, but still no one from the north was admitted. Zhu Yuanzhang was also dissatisfied with Zhang Xin. Later, someone accused Zhang Xin of deliberately taking unqualified papers for reading at the request of Liu and Bai. Taizu was furious and killed Bai Xintu, Zhang Xin and other examiners. Liu Sanwu was spared death because of his old age and was sent to the army. The champion Song Cong was also exiled. After that, Taizu personally proctored the exams and admitted 61 people, all of whom were from the north. This is the famous North-South List Case, also known as the Spring and Summer List Case. It was certainly wrong for Liu Baizhang and others to discriminate against northerners, but Taizu went too far later. In fact, the reason why he had a harsh attitude towards this case was because he was not interested in drinking, but because he was dissatisfied with the Huaixi Group headed by Li Shanchang's exclusion of dissenters. It is also a preview of the Li Shandao case that will happen in the future. Zhu Yuanzhang's low self-esteem made the Literary Prison unprecedentedly brutal. The development of the Literary Prison reached its climax in the Ming Dynasty, including thieves, bandits, etc., and was later extended to the homophones of "ze", "生" and so on. Will it really snow when Dou E dies? It is not impossible to analyze the background of the global climate anomaly in the 14th century. Some novels say that it was just a sudden change in climate caused by resentment after death. Fortunately, Dou Mo did not cultivate into Yuanying. However, the Yuan Dynasty was able to allow this kind of satirical work to be passed down, and the author himself did not suffer. to arrest and imprisonment, it can be seen that there was no literary prison in the Yuan Dynasty. It is not that the Mongolian nobles were proficient in Chinese culture. Yuan Wenzong himself was proficient in Chinese, proficient in calligraphy and painting, and even drew a very excellent city planning map by himself. Not to mention the knowledge of Hudula, a great poet of the Yuan Dynasty. Among the operas of the Yuan Dynasty, there are already 24 consecutive volumes of "Journey to the West". From the time Xuanzang's father Chen Guangrui rushed into the water to the four masters and apprentices who returned to the Tang Dynasty to learn Buddhist scriptures, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Monk Sha, and the image of Tang Monk were already complete. Although Wu Chengen's novel of the same name from the Ming Dynasty cannot be regarded as plagiarism, it is at least based on this drama. Many stories don’t need to be original at all. This is much better than the Ming Dynasty. Based on the power of Mongolian conquest, the overseas trade of the Yuan Dynasty reached areas that the Song Dynasty could not reach, with more than 100 trading countries (the Song Dynasty had less than 80). Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was an era of unprecedented openness, and the achievements of Chinese science and technology in the Yuan Dynasty were by no means inferior to those of the Tang and Song Dynasties. If the Yuan Dynasty could last longer, then the achievements of this dynasty would be more prosperous than those of the Tang and Song Dynasties. The Song Dynasty has arrived, and the literary inquisition of this dynasty is gradually upgrading. It is no longer the small attacks of the previous era, but is now carried out with great fanfare and enthusiasm, with people howling and horses roaring. The literary prisons of the two dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty were one caused by party strife and the other by power and traitors. The response became more and more intense. The crony fighting in the Northern Song Dynasty heated up the iron pot of politics and made the emperor sweat profusely. In addition, the country was troubled and wars continued, and the voices of scholar-officials fighting for power became louder than the waves. The emperor was neither strategizing nor controlling well. He did not have enough wisdom and energy to deal with these chores. The seventy-two concubines in the three palaces and six courtyards were waiting for him to cure sexual hunger, with their longing eyes. It seemed like a red lantern was inviting him to Yunyu Wushan Mountain. State affairs? right? You go and fight for it. In the Northern Song Dynasty, when the country was founded on Confucianism, the imperial examination had a great development. The imperial examination was a measure to promote talents since the Sui Dynasty. It was already the third dynasty. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty naturally attached great importance to the imperial examination, and so did the literati in this era. The spring breeze was triumphant and high-spirited. They were hard-tempered and high-spirited, and there were more discussions. In this way, cliques emerged and factions became numerous, changing the uprightness of the Taizu and Taizong period. During the Zhenzong period, the decadent luxury was as smelly as the garbage all over the streets. That is to say, two factions grew up on this soil. One faction was headed by Prime Minister Kou Zhun, and the other was headed by Ding Wei, the right admonishment official. This battle was a battle related to the safety of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the face of the Khitan invasion, Wang Qinruo, the counselor and political advisor, advocated that the emperor should escape to the south of the Yangtze River. Kou Zhun strongly opposed it, but Ding Wei strongly agreed. Zhao Heng, a not so wise emperor, naturally agreed.

As a result, the good guys could not defeat the bad guys, Kou Zhun was squeezed out of the phase, and Ding Wei, the villain, gained power and ascended to the phase, and was named the Duke of Jin. He colluded with the eunuch Lei Yungong and monopolized the government, which was really abominable. What is also worthy of congratulations is that after Renzong ascended the throne, he was demoted to the position of Yazhou Sihu and joined the army. It's a pity that Kou Zhun was dismissed as prime minister and then demoted to Leizhou Peninsula. Many times, good guys cannot defeat bad guys. This is not a law, but it is almost a rule. Renzong Zhao Zhen came to the throne. Although his wisdom was richer than that of Zhao Heng, he could not suppress the rise of cliques. The dangers of cliques, the disadvantages of cliques and the advantages of cliques. Ouyang Xiu's "On Cliques", a master of essays, can be said to be heartfelt, proposing that a gentleman Friends with the same ideals are friends, and villains are friends with the same benefits. It points out that when governing a country, we must get rid of the hypocritical friends of villains and use the true friends of gentlemen. The momentum and combat effectiveness of this article were highly praised by literati at that time and later generations. This article added fuel to the flames of party strife and spread to later generations. Some people used it as an ideological weapon in later party strife. Until the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng solemnly wrote a new "On Clique" to refute Ouyang Xiu's arguments. There are cronies gathered by villains and cronies organized by gentlemen. The former harms the country and commits all kinds of evil; the latter benefits the country and punishes traitors and suppresses evil. So as the monarch of a country, does he use cronies of villains or cronies of gentlemen? The monarch has to look at his own interests. I want to see which of the cronies has pleasant words and which one is more loyal to the emperor (of course he can only see the superficial side). The struggle between the two factions is naturally a fierce battle between evil and good. The good party uses written works to create public opinion to attack the evil party, and the evil party uses the other party's offensive words to create a literary inquisition to fight back. It also picks up the other party's private writings and uses despicable means such as out-of-context and paraphrasing. . Ouyang Xiu's "Remonstrance with Gao Si" and Fan Zhongyan's vigorous remonstrance against Renzong's abolition led to the two men being demoted, which became the first stage of the evil party's literary prison in the Northern Song Dynasty. The perpetrators were the evil Prime Minister Lu Yijian and the vicious and powerful Privy Privy Council. Xia Song, the literary prison they created became a powerful weapon, used to deal with upright ministers. It is really blind that such vicious methods are always successful. Literati are full of pride when they do things, and their articles are like bursts of steam that want to stimulate the cumbersome machine of politics. They are passionate about politics, so they consciously write poems and essays to fight for politics and serve the staunch and honest party. From a certain perspective, literati using literary works to devote themselves to politics is a harm to literature itself, creates a certain degree of hindrance to the development of literature, and is also a ruthless destruction to the literati themselves. The incident of "Taili Shengde Poem" written by Prince Zhongyun Shijie during the reign of Emperor Renzong opened the way for the subsequent literary injustices of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. It is sad to say that the literary prison is always accompanied by the danger of the literati and the rise and fall of the national destiny. Fan Zhongyan was demoted due to the disaster of the Qingli New Deal. The failure of the Qingli New Deal was mainly caused by the lack of support from the Northern Song Dynasty. And precisely because the Qingli New Deal was not widely implemented, the Northern Song Dynasty suffered from a combination of poverty and weakness. People are looking for a way out, chasing the light of dawn in the dark night, and then, a giant steps between heaven and earth. Wang Anshi's name was proudly displayed on the stage, and the clarion call for reform was loud in the dynasty. Lu Huiqing, Zeng Bu, Zhang Dun (the person I least want to associate with because he harmed Su Shi), Deng Wan, etc. all became The gunmen who charged into the battle of the reformists. Where there are shock factions, there are conservative factions. With the support of the Empress Dowager, this regiment attacked the reform faction. The historical trend is indeed remarkable, isn’t it? Zheng Xia made this trend come out, and he was indeed very powerful. As soon as he presented a picture and wrote a letter, he chased Wang Anshi out of the position. Zheng Xia originally followed Wang Anshi closely, but later gradually alienated him because he was dissatisfied with the new law. The people in the Central Plains suffered greatly from the drought. Zheng Xia painted the tragic scenes he witnessed into a "Picture of Refugees", and wrote another Qin Shu to report to Shenzong, urging Shenzong to open warehouses to help the poor. Shenzong obtained the picture and the sketch, and read it repeatedly. , was deeply moved, and quickly opened a warehouse to provide disaster relief, and abolished eighteen provisions in the new law. Shenzong's determination to reform was shaken. Seeing that it was difficult to implement the new law, Wang Anshi asked to be dismissed. The reform faction had no master. Lu Huiqing, Deng Wan and others were panicked and ran to Shenzong wailing. Finally Shenzong changed his mind and did not abolish the new law. Now it was Zheng Xia's turn to be unlucky, and the Yushitai sentenced him for being good at delivering horses. Unwilling to accept defeat, Zheng Xia drew two more pictures, one depicting the deeds of Wei Zheng, Yao Chong, and Song (jing), and the other depicting Li Linfu and Lu Qi, with the general title of "Pictures of Upright Gentlemen and Evil Crooks" Lu Hui'an, who had the upper hand, saw that Zheng Xia had used Li Linfu and Lu Qi to insinuate him, so he impeached Zheng Xia for slandering the current affairs, and handed him over to the trial of the new legalists such as Yushi Zhongcheng Deng Wan and Zhizhihao Deng Runfu. The result was that Zheng Xia was He was removed from the post and put in charge of Tingzhou.

When criminal law officials were exiled in the Song Dynasty, "reorganization" was the second level of punishment, with the lightest being "relocation" and the most serious being "custodial supervision." Although Zheng Xia was "educated", their side was not afraid. Yang Zhongxin, an official at the Yushitai, gave a copy of "Memories of Famous Officials" to Zheng Xia to express his respect. Lu Huiqing knew that he was naturally angry and instigated Zhang (zao), the censor's miscellaneous officer, falsely accused Zheng Xia of abusing Shenzong. In this way, Zheng Xia's crime was more serious and he was punished more severely. He was "custodial" in Yingzhou. Lu Anguo originally wanted to put Zheng Xia to death, but he was not executed. We have to thank Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, who established the rule not to kill literati and officials, and swore to hide it in the Ancestral Temple. After Emperor Zhezong Zhao Xu succeeded to the throne, Empress Dowager Gao took over the administration and the conservatives gained power. Zheng Xia was recalled to the court. Zhe Zong was in power, the reformists gained power, and Zheng Xia was exiled again. When Huizong Zhao Ji was first established, he wanted to reconcile the two factions, but Zheng Xia was recalled. Cai Jing took power, the conservatives lost power, and Zheng Xia was exiled again. The literary prison of serving the monarch tortured an upright minister to death. Zheng Xia's career was full of drama and confusion. The honor and disgrace made him restless in his life. And he happened to become a victim of the struggle, and finally died of poverty. It is really pitiable. It's sad. Literary inquisition in ancient China had to bring up the "Wutai Poetry Case". Its rise paved the way for Su Shi's career of being relegated. In the fourth year of Xining (1071), Su Shi took the post of judge in Kaifeng Prefecture. In response to the emerging reform trend, he proposed nine words for the salvation policy: "Kind people's hearts, strengthen customs, and preserve principles and disciplines." In fact, this nine-character statement will win the hearts of the people no matter which dynasty it is in, but as the prime minister, Wang Anshi is extremely dissatisfied. Something that made Wang Anshi even more angry happened again. It was during the Jinshi examination in Kaifeng. It was Su Shi who took the exam. He asked: "Jin Wu defeated Wu with dictatorship, Fu Jian defeated Jin with dictatorship and died; Qi Huan appointed Guan Zhong exclusively. "But Ba, Yan Kuai appointed his son exclusively and failed, doing the same thing but achieving different results". Su Shi used this incident to insinuate that Wang Anshi encouraged Shenzong to act arbitrarily and exclusively. Naturally, it was the people who suffered, and the state affairs were ruined. Wang Anshi saw that Su Shi was treating him like this, so he instigated the imperial censor Xie Jingwen to collect materials to impeach Su Shi, and tried every means to attack him. It is not difficult for a person to deliberately expose others and find out their faults. Su Shi has become the target of evil forces, so it is not difficult to find "bad deeds" in him. Under the secret envoy of Wang Anshi, Censor Zhongcheng Li Ding collected more than 60 words and phrases that slandered the emperor and the court from dozens of poems by Su Shi, and involved Su Che, Sima Guang, Zeng Gong, Huang Tingjian and others. One of Su Shi's "Mountain Village Quatrains" reflects the shortcomings of the salt method: The old man at seventy has sickbed his waist, and he is ashamed of the sweet bamboo shoots and ferns in the spring mountains. How can it be that you have forgotten the taste after smelling it? There is no salt in the food in the mountains these days. The shortcomings of the green seedling method are reflected in the following: The stick and quinoa are wrapped in rice and gone in a hurry, and the money changes hands in a blink of an eye. Winning children's voice is good, a year and a half strong in the city. With so many "vivid misdeeds", the evil forces have gained a lot. Under the coercion of the jailer, the great writer had no choice but to give an explanation. So the evil forces were overjoyed and confident of victory. In the case of "conclusive evidence", Shenzong issued an edict to arrest Su Shi. In prison, he only admitted that among the more than 60 poems collected, only "Mountain Village Quatrains" was about current events, and the other poems were not satirical at all, let alone slandering the emperor. How could the hateful forces care about his defense? If you don't admit it, you will be tortured even more. In the helpless situation, you have to admit it and be willing to obey the law. He felt that there was no hope of seeing the light of day again. Facing the limit of his life, he thought of his brother Su Che. It was so painful that his brothers and sisters were about to say goodbye forever. He was imprisoned in the cold prison and in the dim light, he wrote a poem to his brother Su Che with tears. Qing: The Holy Lord is like the sky haha~~ I wish you good luck