It is not difficult for a person to do a good thing, but the difficult thing is to only do good things and not do bad things in a lifetime. If a person can maintain the same discipline throughout his life, and achieve the so-called "according to corruption, never stick", no matter what era, he is a noble person, a person who is detached from low-level interests.
Zhou Dunyi, a famous theorist of the Northern Song Dynasty, said in "The Saying of The Lotus": "The flowers of water, land, grass and trees are very cute. Jin Tao Yuanming loves chrysanthemums alone, since Li Tanglai, the world loves peonies very much; to give the only love of lotuses out of the mud without staining, Mao Qing lian without demon, middle through the outside straight, not vines without branches, fragrant far and clear, pavilions and pure plants, can be viewed from a distance and can not be blasphemed. From then on, "out of the mud without staining, mao qing lian without demon" has not only become a perfect sentence praising the noble character of the lotus flower, but also a symbol of the noble character of man.
In China's history, there have been many corrupt officials, but there are not none of them. On the contrary, there are some feudal officials who can indeed produce sludge without staining, and have been in the official arena for a long time and have a clean wind on their sleeves, which deserves special respect.
During the reign of Emperor An of Jin, Wu Yinzhi was a person who was greedy and not greedy, and who was a high-ranking official and incorruptible. Wu Yinzhi, whose characters are silent, he has been good at reading poetry since childhood, advocating the Confucian way of governing the country, and when he was young, he was high-minded and self-respecting, and his ethics were clean. He once served as the Assassin of Guangzhou, leading the General of Pingyue Zhonglang.
Although he had a certain amount of money, the life in his family was very poor, and he often did not eat for a day, and he could only cook beans every day until the evening, but in spite of this, he would never eat the meals given by others, and did not take anything that was not moral. He later held various high-ranking official positions, but still maintained the quality of frugality. He never used servants, and his wife had to go out on her own to carry firewood and cook on her own fire.
Wu Yinzhi's salary and bonuses were never kept to himself, but were used to distribute them to relatives and clansmen. As a result, his life was so difficult that he did not have a quilt cover in the winter, and sometimes because of the lack of clothes, he had to put on cotton wool and stay at home when washing clothes, so his life was even more miserable than that of poor commoners.
The history books record that the geographical location of Guangzhou at that time was to pack mountains and seas, producing treasures and foreign objects, and if you can store a box of treasures, you can provide for the needs of life for several generations. However, the southern climate is humid and there are many miasmas, and people are afraid to go to Guangzhou to become officials. Only the seekers whose families were so poor that they could not stand on their own feet asked to go there, and the previous assassins sent by the imperial court were greedy for money and bribes.
In any era, there is a need for honest officials, even in the Jin Dynasty, where extravagance was extremely popular. Because corruption fundamentally infringed on the legitimate interests of the imperial court, it classified the wealth of the state as private and violated the policy of the state. Excessive corruption can undermine the country's financial resources, credibility and the implementation of policies, which in turn affects the security of the world. The introduction of a few honest officials and their handling of thorny issues became a weapon for the imperial court to resist corruption.
Determined to change this situation, Emperor An of Jin deliberately appointed Wu Yinzhi, who was known for his incorruptibility at that time, as the assassin of Guangzhou, so Wu Yinzhi was ordered to take office in Guangzhou. He had not yet arrived at the RenShou, but in a place called Shimen twenty miles away from the Guangzhou Administrative Office, he saw a spring of water. One of the entourage told Wu Yinzhi that this spring was called "Greedy Spring", and legend has it that whoever drank the water of greedy spring would have an insatiable desire.
Wu Yinzhi listened, laughed, and he got off his horse and said to the people around him: "I don't believe in such a legend, if you don't see something that can make people greedy, people's state of mind will not be flustered." When I came to take office, I saw many rare treasures along the way, and I already knew why officials would lose their innocence when they crossed the Five Ridges! But as long as we insist on our own discipline, we will not be moved, and what kind of greedy water are we afraid of? What we are afraid of is that our own will is not firm!" When he had finished speaking, he ran to the fountain, scooped up the spring water and drank it, and immediately chanted the poem:
The ancients clouded this water, a drink of thousands of gold. Try to make Yi Qi drink, and in the end it will not be easy.
It shows that he wants to be like Boyi and Shuqi at the end of the Shang Dynasty, stick to discipline and never change his heart. In guangzhou, Wu Yinzhi did fulfill his promise. He was spotlessly clean for officials, more incorruptible and more demanding of himself than elsewhere. After arriving in Guangzhou, Wu Yinzhi "was in the desired place, and he could not change his behavior." According to historical records, he usually ate only coarse rice, vegetables and dried fish. All the drapery clothes are handed over to the outer treasury management, and they never intercept half of the public funds, do not use a public property.
At that time, many people thought that other officials sometimes deliberately showed themselves to be frugal when they took office, but just make a show for others to see, and after a while they will be exposed. But after a long time, everyone knew that he was really a clean official, not a pretentious gesture.
Wu Yinzhi's style is in stark contrast to those of corrupt officials. Those corrupt officials were all tasteful of the mountains and the sea, and the clothes they wore were also very precious, and after those officials saw Wu Yin, they accused him of being a model and regarded him as an outlier. However, Wu Yinzhi did not have the accusations of others and gave up the quality of frugality, and even used his own style to influence others, after a long time, some officials in Guangzhou really had obvious changes, no longer blatantly exploiting the people.
After the expiration of his term, Wu Yinzhi returned to the capital from Guangzhou, and he did not bring anything with him, only a little clothing that he had brought with him when he was worth anything in the past, and his wife Liu Shi brought a pound of agarwood, which was not a thing, but after Wu Yinzhi saw it, he took it out and threw it into the river.
As a result of his example, the corrupt habits in the Guangzhou area have greatly improved, and the rule of officials has gradually improved. The imperial court praised him very much, rewarded him for his honest and honest style, and made him a former general.
Wu Yinzhi lived in the capital, the conditions were very simple, only a few acres of small mansions, fences and dangerous walls are narrow and low, a total of only six huts. Because of the small number of houses and the large population, wives and children are crowded together. Families have to earn a living from textiles and support themselves. His family was often uncountable, sometimes eating a day's worth of grain in two days, always wearing a worn-out cloth coat.
The emperor wanted to give him a cart and cattle and build a new house for him, but he resolutely resigned and did not accept it. Later, he was appointed Shangshu and Taichang, and although his official position was larger, he only used a bamboo canopy as a screen, and he did not even sit on a felt mat. Later, he was promoted to the rank of leader of the middle army, and at the beginning of each month, he received feng lu, leaving only his own rations, and the rest of the whole relief relatives and clansmen, wives and children could not share at all.
Wu Yinzhi had earlier served as the master bookkeeper of the Wei general Xie Shi. Xie Shi was very concerned about Wu Yinzhi's life. Wu Yinzhi's daughter was going to get married, and Xie Shi knew that his family was poor and that his daughter would be very shabby, so he ordered his subordinates to bring all kinds of items needed for the wedding event to help with the operation, and prepared to hold a feast for his daughter in a beautiful way. When I arrived at Wu Yinzhi's house, I saw that the door was closed, the house was silent, cold and clear, and there was no atmosphere of doing happy things, only to see a young man leading a dog to the street to sell. It turned out that Wu Yinzhi wanted to rely on the money from the sale of dogs to send his daughter to marry.
Wu Yinzhi retired from the old age, and until his death, he was praised and rewarded by the imperial court many times, and was required to be given a prominent official position. Although he did not make any outstanding achievements in his life, his clean and healthy discipline made him popular for hundreds of years, set an outstanding example for future generations, and also provided spiritual strength to future generations.
"The cloth is not finished, and the wife is not stained." Wu Yinzhi was an official who did not engage in private property, his diet, residence, and utensils were very simple, and his requirements for material life were extremely low, which exceeded the scope of what ordinary officials could bear.
In the Book of Jin, it is said that "the hidden Qing is unswerving, repeatedly praised, and the deeds and deeds are lost, and the gifts are often given by Youxi, and the honest people are proud.".
Wu Yin later came to the Ten Sages Hall of Guangzhou, which was dedicated to the ten pastors who had the name of Lian Xian from the Han dynasty to the Tang Dynasty and ruled Guangzhou. In one of the four arches in Guangzhou, wu Yinzhi's name is also on the "Hui Ai Fang", which records the famous eunuchs who lived in Guangdong. Legend has it that when Wu Yinzhi returned home, the boat was still a simple outfit when he first arrived. Only the wife bought a pound of agarwood, not the original object, Yin Zhi thought that the source is unknown, immediately snatched over and thrown into the water, became a sandbar, this is the origin of the legend of Guangzhou agarwood sand, agarwood sand is in The west of the chatou island in Shijing Town, Guangzhou City, is a sandbar in the lower reaches of the Liuxi River, also known as Agarwood Island, ancient known as Agarwood Pu.
The extravagant and greedy trend of the two Jin Dynasties was from top to bottom, the emperor took the lead in selling officials and lords, money into the private treasury, one of the seven sages of the bamboo forest, Wang Rong, one of the seven sages of the bamboo forest, did not do practical things as officials, but was good at accumulating wealth, and at night, he often used chips with his wife in the candlelight to calculate family property, and counted money behind closed doors, and those in power took "leaking and swallowing boats" as the ruling philosophy, in essence, "turning a blind eye to one eye", the atmosphere at that time was not ashamed of bribery, Wu Yinzhi's official held an important position, and he usually wanted to ask him to do things, expecting him to match the bridge and climb the Xie clan's high gate In such a big environment, he can clean himself and keep himself clean, and although he is cold and clean to marry his daughter, he is innocent and an official.
The vicissitudes of change, the rise and fall of dynasties, Tang ShiFang Xuanling and other revisions of the "Book of Jin", compiled a "biography of good officials", and searched for those who were known for their honesty and honesty at that time, only eleven people, and hidden names were listed among them. For thousands of years, how many Kings Xie Gaomen have been scattered, and the Jingu Liangyuan has only left a broken well and a decadent wall, and Wu Yinzhi's honesty and self-preservation have been able to flow for hundreds of generations and illuminate the history of Qingqing.
Historical Chronicles: Excavate historical stories in depth and shallowness, folk history, ancient history miscellaneous talks, and narrate ancient and modern.