"Who knows the plate of Chinese food, the grains are hard", this is an ancient poem in the primary school textbook, called "Mercy Nong", the author is Li Sheng. But few people know what kind of person he eventually became in history.
Li Shen lost his father at an early age and was taught by his mother to learn the scriptures. When he was young, he witnessed the peasants working hard all day long, but they still did not have enough to eat, and with indignation and sympathy, he wrote the "Compassion for Farmers" that has been recited through the ages. At the age of 34, he entered the priesthood and was an assistant teacher. After leaving Beijing to Jinling, he entered the shogunate of Li Kai. After several ups and downs, Li Shen eventually became the prime minister above ten thousand people under one person.
According to ye shi records, Li Shen became an official and "gradually became extravagant", which was very inconsistent with his ideas when he was young. The cost of his meal was as high as a few hundred yuan. I especially like to eat chicken tongue, and there is a plate for each meal. A plate of chicken tongue requires the slaughter of more than three hundred live chickens. At that time, the dead chickens in the Li family's backyard were piled up, and there were many private prostitutes in the family, and if there were guests, he would choose several domestic prostitutes to accompany them. The literati of The same era as Li Shen all scorned him.
Extravagance is not the biggest stain on Li Shen's life, and after his discovery, he still likes to play official and unrighteous. Before becoming an official, he often went to a terran uncle named Li Yuanjiang, and every time he saw Li Yuanjun, he would respectfully call him "uncle". However, after he became an official, Li Yuan, in order to curry favor with him, took the initiative to reduce his grief and anger, calling Li Sheng a "brother" and a "nephew". Li Sheng was not happy until Li Yuan would call himself "Grandson", and he reluctantly accepted.
Coincidentally, an inspector surnamed Cui and Li Shen had the same branch of jinshi. One day, he made a special trip to visit Li Sheng, and as soon as he stayed in the inn, the servants got into a fight with the local people. When Li Sheng learned about it, he asked who the domestic servant was. The domestic servant confessed honestly, but he did not expect that he would still sentence the servant and the people to capital punishment. At the same time, he also found Inspector Cui and said, "We originally met, why didn't you come here to see me?" Cui Patrol quickly prostrated his head to apologize, but it was of no use. Li Shen had him tied up, punished him twenty times, and exiled him. In this regard, people talk about it in private. Why talk quietly? Because Li Shenwei was cruel to Guan, the local people were very afraid of him, and many people even crossed the Yangtze River and the Huai River to escape to other places.
The biggest stain on Li Shen's life was the "Wu Xiang Case" that he handled. Wu Xiang, a lieutenant in Jiangdu County, Yangzhou, was reported for embezzling public funds and forcibly marrying a woman. Li Shen, who was then the envoy of Huainan Jiedu, did not conduct any investigation and immediately ordered Wu Xiang's arrest and sentenced him to death. After the case was reported to the imperial court, the counselor suspected that there was a grievance, so the imperial court sent Yushi Cui Yuanzao to Yangzhou for review. Sure enough, the case was an unjust case. Wu Xiang embezzled not much money, let alone robbed the women, so the sin did not lead to death. However, at the age of 74, Li Shen was bent on going his own way, and in order to curry favor with Li Deyu, the leader of the Li Party, he carried out a retaliatory action and involuntarily ordered Wu Xiang to be executed.
In the first year of the middle school, Tang Xuanzong took the throne and deposed Li Deyu from his position as prime minister, and all the cadres of Li Dang were demoted to Yazhou. Since Wu Xiang's case was an unjust case, it was said that Li Shen was dead, but according to the Laws of the Tang Dynasty, even if he died, ku officials would be stripped of their titles, and their descendants were not allowed to become officials. Therefore, after Li Sheng's death, he was punished by "cutting down the three officials of the gentry, and his descendants were not allowed to be shi".