What is the "Zhu and Tang Symphonies" case?

The great Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi and the scholar-official Tang Zhongyou suddenly started a lawsuit in the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty and criticized each other, which seemed to be irreverent. Public opinion between the government and the opposition was suddenly in an uproar, and people were speculating about the reason. After analyzing various factors, I still can't figure out the reason.

In the ninth year of Chunxi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty (1182), an impeachment case occurred that shocked both the government and the public. Zhu Xi, the official official of tea and salt in Changping, Liangzhe East Road, was impeached by six consecutive memorials, impeaching Tang Zhongyou, the magistrate of Taizhou. The illegal things are said in strong words and the evidence is complicated. Not to be outdone, Tang Zhongyou chided in his defense, and in turn accused Zhu Xi of committing fraud and violating the law. There was an uproar in public opinion in both the government and the public, and the scholar-bureaucrats were discussing one after another, either respecting Zhu and suppressing Tang, or praising Tang and denouncing Zhu.

When Song Xiaozong received Zhu Xi's impeachment petition and Tang Zhongyou's defense, they exposed each other's "illegal behaviors" that were common among scholar-bureaucrats at that time, such as sleeping with official prostitutes, private craftsmen, and doing business for profit. Waiting for a while, it was difficult to distinguish right from wrong, so he had to ask Prime Minister Wang Huai. Wang Huai only commented lightly: "It's just a matter of scholars competing for leisure." In the end, the court had to "event the matter" and did not incriminate Tang Zhongyou, but just dismissed it. It was just a matter of making some prison appointments to Jiangnan West Road in the Tang Dynasty.

Tang Zhongyou, whose courtesy name is Yu Zheng, was born in Jinhua, Wuzhou (now part of Zhejiang). He was quite talented. He was a Jinshi in the 24th year of Shaoxing (1154). He served successively as a professor of Jiankang government, secretary of the provincial government, and Zhixinzhou. , know Taizhou. He wrote tens of thousands of books on current affairs, and in terms of scholarship, he focused on Confucian classics. His representative works are the sixteen volumes of "Illustration of the Emperor's History", the 150 volumes of "The Interpretation of the Six Classics", the "Interpretation of the Filial Piety Classic", and the "Nine Classics". Most of them have been lost, but it shows that Tang Zhongyou was also a scholar-type official with a Jinshi background, and scholars called him Mr. Zhai. Zhu Xi was a Jinshi in the 18th year of Shaoxing (1148). He wrote many books and was already a master of Neo-Confucianism. So, why did these two learned men criticize each other and start this public case?

It had only been one year since Zhu Xi was promoted to the official office of tea and salt in Changping, eastern Zhejiang, and he impeached several corrupt officials in succession. For example, he impeached Shaoxing government officials for instructing Mi Keqin to steal more than 4,000 shi of official rice for relief work; he impeached Li Yi, the governor of Quzhou, who concealed the disaster, lied about political achievements, and levied excessive taxes; The prosecution and release were false, and they also impeached Zhu Xiji, the county lieutenant who relied on his power to annex land and reduced the amount of food and rice during the rice relief period. He also impeached Wang Zhizhong of Jiangshan County and Wang Pigang of Ninghai County for dereliction of duty... As a supervisor, you should supervise The administrative behavior of local officials is Zhu Xi's responsibility, so it is reasonable for Zhu Xi to also impeach Tang Zhongyou in Taizhou for his illegal activities. Moreover, after careful investigation and intense interrogation, Zhu Xi obtained a large amount of evidence of Tang Zhongyou's illegal behavior in Taizhou, and hundreds of people were implicated in the case. Based on the status and situation of Zhu Xi and Tang Zhongyou at that time, it is impossible for Zhu Xi to fabricate Tang Zhongyou's crimes out of thin air. In other words, most of the crimes mentioned in Zhu Xi's Six Paths Memorial are facts. So, why can't it be a normal official administrative behavior?

Perhaps because both Zhu and Tang were celebrities in the academic world, they were involved in lawsuits and received several memorials, which aroused people's special attention and led to various speculations. It is generally believed that the conflict between Zhu and Tang was mainly caused by their differences in academic opinions. In terms of Neo-Confucianism, many of Tang Zhongyou's views were contrary to Zhu Xi's, and some were even diametrically opposed. Tang Zhongyou and Prime Minister Wang Huai were from the same hometown and were related by marriage. Wang Huai once promoted Zheng Bing to be the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and Chen Jia to be the Supervisory Censor, so that the two men worked together to attack Zhu Xi's Taoism, which was the forerunner of the Qingyuan Party's ban on pseudo-study. Tang Zhongyou also had a good relationship with Zheng Bing and others. He also followed Wang Huai in opposing Taoism, which naturally created a rift with Zhu Xi.

Some people think that Lu Zuqian had disagreements with Tang Zhongyou when they were in the same book club, and Zhu Xi always protected Lu Zuqian and deliberately suppressed Tang Zhongyou, so the seeds of discord between the two were sown. In fact, it was normal for scholars at that time to have differences in academic opinions. For example, Chen Liang and Zhu Xi were friendly, but they were incompatible with each other in terms of academics. The two had many "debates over justice and interests". Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan, and Lu Zuqian also had fierce academic debates in the form of correspondence or seminars, but they still got along with each other as always.

Therefore, when the relationship between Zhu and Tang developed to the point where the two politically attacked each other and even became life-and-death, there must have been other related reasons.

Zhou Mi's "The Wild Words of Qidong: The Complete Symphonies of Zhu and Tang Dynasties" believes that Tang Zhongyou usually relied on his talent and arrogance and insulted Zhu Xi. However, Chen Liang was highly respected by Zhu Xi, but he often had conflicts with Tang Zhongyou. Once, Chen Liang traveled to Taizhou and fell in love with an official prostitute, so he asked Tang Zhongyou to redeem her official status so that he could get along with her. Tang agreed. Tang Zhongyou met this prostitute at a gathering and said, "Do you really want to follow Chen Guanren?" The prostitute was asked and didn't know how to answer, but Tang went on to say, "Then you have to be prepared to endure hunger and cold." ." The prostitute seemed to understand after hearing this and looked very resentful. From then on, when Chen Liang went to the prostitute's house again, he could no longer see the flattering look she had before. Chen Liang knew that he had been tricked and betrayed by Tang Zhongyou, so he went to see Zhu Xi. It happened that Zhu Xi was appointed as the supervisor of Liangzhe East Road and asked: "What bad things did Xiao Tang say recently?" Chen Liang took the opportunity to provoke: "Tang Zhongyou said that you can't even read, how can you be the supervisor?" Zhu Xi listened. , feeling unhappy, with new and old grudges welling up for a while, he asked for another inspection on the pretext that there was an injustice in the department. When Zhu Xi arrived in Taizhou, Tang Zhongyou was slow to greet him again, and Zhu Xi believed Chen Liang's words even more. So he immediately confiscated Tang's official seal and handed it over to the accompanying officials. He began to collect various deviant and illegal behaviors of Tang when he was an official in Taizhou, and wrote a memorial to report to the court.

The main reason is that Chen Liang was the instigator. Chen Liang, named Tongfu (or Tongfu), was born in Yongkang, Wuzhou (now part of Zhejiang). He was well-read in history and military art, and he wrote thousands of words. His political commentaries were powerful and his lyrics were heroic. He also liked to talk about border fortress strategies. , scholars call him Mr. Longchuan. He wrote to Yique several times, discussing current affairs, opposing peace talks, and advocating resistance to Jin Dynasty. He was hated by others or falsely accused, and was imprisoned several times. However, after being released from prison, his ambition became stronger. In the fourth year of Shaoxi's reign (1193), he was ranked first in the imperial examinations and was awarded the official title of Jiankang Prefecture, but he died before doing so. With his bold temperament, would he do the above-mentioned intolerant and petty behavior? At the same time, Zhu Xi would also make a joke to Tang Zhongyou: "How can you be a supervisor if you don't even know how to read?" Are you just gnashing your teeth in hatred? Modern scholar Wang Guowei asserted in "Human Words": "Many novels written by people in the Song Dynasty are not trustworthy...the public cases of Zhu and Tang Dynasty are probably not trustworthy either."

However, some scholars pointed out that Chen Liang was instigated There are still clues to be found. In a letter written to Zhu Xi in the 10th year of Chunxi's reign, Chen Liang revealed: "Last year's actions were a 'shock' for the September 4th Incident... As for what people do to me, they are often out of consideration. Although The saint cannot help but notice. Although the cunning villain has the power of his brothers and sisters, he is still afraid that he will be supported by others, so he will use it even more intimately! Everyone thinks that all the wrongs he has done in his daily life will be repaid, the secretary (referring to him). Zhu Xi, how could this be done by this generation? Liang had never been able to tell people right or wrong in his life, and Tang and Zheng Nai were so suspicious of each other that they were worthy of Tian Guang's death!" On the other hand, it refutes the "Lun of Things" claim that Zhu Xi avenged all the "grievances" caused by Tang Zhongyou's "Xiangqu", pointing out that Zhu Xi would not be instigated by Tang's "Xiangqu". On the one hand, he also tried his best to defend himself, confessing that "as for what people have done to me", "Liang has never been able to tell people right or wrong in his life." Judging from this, Tang Zhongyou did suspect that Chen Liang was the instigator. So, did Chen Liang instigate it? What kind of untrue remarks were made about Tang Zhongyou? We still don't know what prompted Zhu Xi to finally take this extreme measure.