In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, several prime ministers came from cultural families, such as Fan Qian, Li Xun, Li Fang, and so on. The Li Fang family is the most famous of its Chinese, and it has been passed down for three generations, and the people are envied.
Li Fang (924-996), a native of Raoyang (present-day Raoyang, Hebei) in the Northern Song Dynasty. His father, Li Chao, was a former Jin Gongbu Langzhong (後進工部郎中) and was also a scholar of Jixian DianZhi (集贤殿直學), so he was made an official at a very young age in Li Fang. Later Hanxing, Li Fangzhong Qianhu Branch Jinshi, then known as Shuangke Zizi, heralded a promising future. Feng Dao, a famous minister of the Five Dynasties and known as the "Tumbler", was very important to Li Fang, and appointed him as the Right Pick Relic and the Jixian Hall to be in charge of the revision of the imperial court's orders. In the later zhou, he was appreciated by Sejong for his literary style. He also appeared in the "Xiangguo Temple WenyingYuan Collection", which was a collection of inscription poems by Li Fang and a group of talents at that time, such as Hu Meng and Cui Song, in Kaifeng Xiangguo Temple, and Sejong saw it and said, "I have long known Li Fang as a person." So he was promoted to the history of the museum to repair and judge the museum, and entrusted the heavy responsibility of repairing history to Li Fang, which can be described as an important use.
The Northern Song Dynasty was established, and Li Fang changed the new dynasty. During the Reign of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, Li Fang served as a minister to The Zhongzhong and Zhongshu Sheren, and was jealous of the chancellor Lu Doxun and was repeatedly deposed. During the reign of Emperor Taizu, Li Fang did not do much except to preside over several imperial examinations.
Emperor Taizong was established, and Li Fang had to be reused again, first he was appointed as a hubu attendant, and he was ordered to study the "Records of Taizu Shilu" with Hu Meng and Li Mu, and because he accompanied Song Taizong on his tour of Taiyuan, he was appointed as the Shangshu of the Ministry of Works and a concurrent undertaker, and immediately transferred to the Rank of Civilization Hall. The old ministers Zhao Pu and Song Qi were retiring in old age, and Emperor Taizong visited the court, and his fame and seniority could not exceed that of Li Fang, so he worshipped Li Fang as a counselor and governor (deputy prime minister) and also supervised the revision of national history. When Emperor Taizong took over the throne of his brother with his younger brother, there was a lot of criticism in feudal society, and when Li Fang revised the "Records of Taizu Shilu", he proposed that the "Records of The Times and Politics" (that is, the complete records of the emperor's daily dynastic politics) should be read by the emperor first and then handed over to the relevant units for storage. Its purpose was to prevent the records that were unfavorable to the emperor from passing on, and all the previous records of the emperor were not allowed to be seen by the emperor. This move is too big for Emperor Taizong to like. However, Li Fangwen had more than enough talent, insufficient political ability, and was the prime minister for many years, facing the repeated invasions of the Northern Liao State, the domestic armament was abolished, and repeated battles were defeated, while Li Fang only knew how to write poetry and endowments, sing and drink with a cadre of literati, and drink and feast games. At the beginning of the duangong (988-989), a commoner named Zhai Mazhou beat a drum and went to court and sued Li Fang, saying that he was incompetent and delayed in feasting. As a result, Li Fang was deposed and "severely reprimanded." After a few years, he was reinstated as prime minister. In the third year of Chunhua (992), the Northern Song Dynasty encountered a great locust plague and a major flood that had not been encountered in a hundred years, and the people did not have a good life. The following year, a number of relatives in Li Fang's family died, so he resigned from his post. In the fifth year of Chunhua (994), the old minister Li Fang retired at the age of 70. After retirement, Li Fang still often accompanied Wang. In the second year of Qiandao (996), Li Fang fell to the ground because of a ceremony at a court meeting, and died more than a month after returning home, at the age of 72.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, in view of the lessons learned by the warlords during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the imperial court did not trust military attaches, and had the performance of emphasizing literature and light weapons, so Li Fang and others were able to serve as civilian officials and served as zaizhi. Li Fang was originally a literati and historian, and governing the country and the people was not good at it. During his tenure as chancellor, the Northern Song Dynasty was defeated by the Liao, and the country was not prosperous. Of course, all the faults cannot be said to be caused by him alone, but among the prime ministers, he is the least familiar with political affairs, so he has become the target of everyone. Song Taizong commented on Li Fang, saying that he had not done anything harmful to heaven and nature during his tenure, and that he was a good man and a gentleman. This clearly means that Li Fang is a mediocre official.
But Li Fang also has his own superiority. He was a man of "kindness and forgiveness, and did not remember the old evil" (History of the Song Dynasty, vol. 265), had the strength of a prime minister, and was very able to unite people. Former Minister Lu Doxun often said bad things about him behind his back, and he didn't know anything until Emperor Taizong clearly told him: Lu Doxun often said in front of me that you Li Fang was worthless, and he was only shocked, and he still had a close relationship with Lu Doxun, and people obeyed his measurements.
Li Fang was a humble man, and he mostly feasted with his colleagues in his own garden and beautiful house, and after retirement, he also found several old servants over the age of 70 to play together every day, to emulate the "Nine Elders of Luoyang" in the Tang Dynasty. When he was the prime minister, someone came to apply for a job, and he always scolded the useful person in person, and when he returned home, the appointment letter of the imperial court was over; for the unusable person, he always praised him and asked him to go back and wait for the news, and the result was a sea of mud cattle and people. It can be seen that he neither takes credit nor hurts people. He is also not as loyal as Fan Qian, and he is very good at figuring out his intentions. Emperor Taizong's trust in Li Fang was not only satisfied with his performance in the cultivation of the records, but Li Fang also did a good job in ordinary times, such as often singing praises to Emperor Taizong and praising virtue, and not being greedy when he was an official.
Li Fang was a scribe, and his writing style was like the personality of others, "Mu self-styled, easy to understand, articles are shallow and easy to understand". All his life, he wrote and drafted documents for the imperial court, and as a result of his overwork, he became a "palpitation" disease, which may be a serious heart disease in today's view.
Li Fang had both literary talent and high positions, plus he was approachable, so he united a group of scribes around him, as if he were a generation of Wenzong. The two famous books of the Song Dynasty, the Taiping Imperial Records and the Taiping Guangji, were completed by him and contributed a lot to the inheritance of ancient Chinese culture.
In the Song Dynasty, wenzhi was promoted and books were widely searched, showing a kind of "prosperous cultivation of classics" weather. During the Taiping Revival (977-984), Emperor Taizong of Song ordered Li Fang to lead the compilation of a large-scale book. Li Fang was well known among the literati, and gathered hundreds of scholars, fought hard for three years, and finally compiled a large-scale book, named "Taiping General Category", a total of 1000 volumes, divided into 55 parts, 4558 categories, a total of 2579 kinds of cited books, which was a large-scale book collation work at that time. Emperor Taizong was so pleased that he personally examined the book, so he renamed it the Taiping Imperial Records and became widely known in the world.
At the same time as compiling the Taiping Imperial Records, Li Fang also took advantage of his work to repair a novel book with a class of colleagues, named "Taiping Guangji", which contains 500 volumes and more than 400 kinds of citations. In addition, Li Fang, Xu Xuan, Song Bai and others worked together to revise a literary collection "Wenyuan Yinghua". The book imitates the "Selected Works" revised by Xiao Tong, the prince of Liang Zhaoming, with a total of 1,000 volumes, starting from Xiao Liang and descending to five generations, and includes the deleted works of more than 2,000 literary writers during this period in the volume, which can be continued with the "Anthology of Literature", which is a very precious literary collection.
These three books, with a large volume and informative information, have preserved a large number of ancient books and materials, and are the most important treasure house for future generations to study the culture before the Song Dynasty, with extremely high historical value, and Li Fang has also been proud of the ages. In addition, Li Fang has a collection of 50 volumes.
Li Fang had four sons: Li Zongne, Li Zongjie, Li Zongchen, and Li Zongyu.
Li Zongne (947-1002), Yu Da debate, known for his literature. First, Yin Supplement was the fourth chamber chief, and then he was selected by the officials. When Bian Guangfan, the chief official, saw that he was young and thought that he could not write an article, he said to him: "If you can write a six-word poem, I will let you be sentenced." Li Zongne easily wrote a six-character poem, and showed a lot of contempt for the meaning of the six-word poem. Bian Guangfan was greatly surprised and asked him to write an article, and he wrote it again. On the second day, he was promoted to the secretary of the province, and on the third day, he was promoted to the position of Guozi Supervisor.
Li Zongne was also good at calligraphy. When Emperor Taizong was not emperor, he and Li Fang often wrote poems and songs to each other, and there were hundreds of poems before and after, each of which was copied by Li Zongne in duan letters. Emperor Taizong read his manuscript and declared it good. Li Zongne was also proficient in etiquette, and the university scholar Lü Duan presided over the scientific examination of the Academy of Rites, and often pulled Li Zongne along as an examiner.
Li Zongne participated in the compilation and revision of the book "Divine Doctor Universal Salvation Party".
Li Zongchen (963- 1012), Yuchangwu, was the wisest of Li Fang's sons. He was able to write articles at the age of seven, which is a talent. He thought it was a shameful thing to rely on his father to become an official to make up for it, so he took the imperial examination and entered the high school, and chose the official school scrivener, which was the so-called "right way to come", and his promotion was very fast. In the following year, he was promoted to secretary Lang, Jixian School Manager, and Fellow Practitioner. After Emperor Zhenzong succeeded to the throne, the officials worshiped the people of juju and participated in the revision of the Records of Taizu.
Li Zongchen is proficient in music theory. In the second year of Jingde (1005), he was appointed as a Hanlin scholar and sentenced Taichang Da Le and advocated the Second Bureau. At that time, the court musicians were passed down from generation to generation, and the imperial court did not supervise, which led to the phenomenon of indiscriminate counting again, and even some musicians "held their instruments and did not know their voices". After Li Zongchen, who was proficient in music, took office, he examined the musicians one by one, and within a day, he eliminated more than fifty people who were mixed in, and then rearranged the band and repaired the instruments. Later, more than 20 lessons were learned in this regard, and the previous one was given to Zhenzong. Zhenzong admired Li Zongchen's erudition and down-to-earth style.
Li Zongchen was also proficient in etiquette. The Liao state sent envoys to Tokyo, and Li Zongchen was appointed as the embassy companion. Since the signing of the "Alliance of The Abyss", this is the first formal diplomatic exchange between the two countries, and all the etiquette systems are unprecedented. Li Zongchen worked from the suburbs to drink, and set the etiquette system one by one, which has since become the standard. Later, many of the ceremonies of the imperial court, such as "the imperial family affairs, the martial election, the entry of officials, the cabinet ceremony system, the guidance of the ministers, the tributary court", etc., were decided by Li Zongchen alone.
In the third year of dazhongxiangfu (1010), Li Zongchen served as the right counselor. Zhenzong said to him: Hanlin Academy is the land of Qinghua, the past events of the former sages are enough to set an example for future generations, you and your father have managed the Hanlin Academy, you must know a lot, I hope you can write it.
Li Zongchen wrote the book "Miscellaneous Records of Hanlin", which specifically recorded some rules and regulations, etiquette and customs of the Hanlin Academy.
Li Zongchen was also good at calligraphy, and unlike his elder brother Zong Ne, he was good at calligraphy.
Li Zongchen's personality is most similar to that of his father Li Fang, who served in the Three Pavilions and the Second System (史館, 知制诰), and Li Zong also held this position, and it was only a matter of a few years. Li Zongchen was also known for his manners and elegance, and his family collection of books amounted to more than 20,000 volumes, and he was knowledgeable and knowledgeable. He treated people and people with kindness, and history said: "Diligently receive the class of scholars, no one is virtuous, and he is exhausted, and the rewards are allocated to the rear, but he is afraid that he will not be able to do so, so that everyone will look up to them." (History of the Song Dynasty, vol. 265)
Li Zongchen was also known for his filial piety. He was filial to his stepmother Fan Shi, took great care of his two widows and nephews, and loved his brother Li Zong, cared for each other, and gave up the quota of the imperial court to his younger brother's family first.
This kind of near-perfect ethics made all the officials from Zhenzong down to ordinary officials have high hopes for Li Zongchen, believing that it was only a matter of time before Li Zongchen succeeded his father. He did not want to be jealous of the talents, when he was 49 years old, he fell ill because of his mission to the outside world, and died without treatment, which made the world regret. Zhenzong said: "I am a general in the xiang family, and the only people who can achieve both high prestige and successors are Li Fang and Cao Bin's two families, Li Zongchen is expected by everyone, I am about to give great use, unfortunately he has a short life, which makes me sad." ”
During his lifetime, Li Zongchen wrote a lot of works, including monographs such as "Xiyuan Collection", "LeLuo", and "Internal and External System", and 60 volumes of anthology were handed down. He also participated in the compilation of the "Continuation Classic", "The Great Zhongxiang Fu Feng Zen Fen Yin Record", "Zhulu Tujing" and so on. He also wrote "Family Biography" and "Tanlu", both of which were widely circulated.
Li Zongchen had three sons: Li Zhaotong, Li Zhaoshu, and Li Zhaoshi. Among them, Li Zhaoshu can inherit the family style.
Li Zhaoshu (李昭述), also spelled Zhongzu , was intelligent and studious since childhood, and took Yin Supplement as the secretary of the provincial school scrivener, and then summoned him to study in the Tuyuan, and was given the title of secretary of the tuyuan. Later, he served as a transshipment envoy in Hebei. At that time, the garrison in Jiangling (present-day Jingmen, Hubei) rumored that the corn in the warehouse was rotten and inedible, and in order to use this as a call to conspire, Li Zhaoshu ordered people to take corn to cook, eat it for his own subordinates, and exchange his official salaries for these corn. Without moving the sword soldiers, this scourge was eliminated, and the imperial court regarded it as a subject. Later, I learned that in Tanzhou, the local local bandits hated the fierce and cruel supervision army and wanted to rebel, but when they saw Li Zhaoshu, they all said that a loyal elder like Li Gong, how can we be sorry for him? After Li Zhaoshu heard about it, he disposed of the supervisor and resolved the matter. The two affairs were played together in the imperial court, and he was promoted to the posts of Langzhong of the Punishment Department and the Right Counselor. Later, he has been able to do Shang Shu Right Cheng all the way. The people also expected him to enter the picture, but he, like his father, fell ill and died of a violent illness when all was well. Because he was an official with many virtues, the people praised him, and after his death, he was crowned as the Rebbe Shangshu.
The Li family, with a big family, lived in Qiqingli in the north of Kaifeng City, and the seven generations did not separate families, which was a good story at that time. When Li Zhaoshu was in charge, because he had long served as a transport envoy (an official in charge of money and grain), his family was slightly richer, but he still maintained the family law and did not divide the family.
Li Zhaoshu's political achievements are outstanding, and his literary talent is not very famous. The one who could inherit Li Zongchen's literary talent was his nephew Li Zhaoyuan.
Li Zhaoyuan (李昭遘), courtesy name Fengji, was the son of Li Zongjie,Li Zongjie(李宗诲), the second brother of Li Zongchen. Li Zongzhi died early, and Li Zongchen raised his widowed sister-in-law and nephew, so Li Zhaowei was most like Li Zongchen. Li Zhaoyuan was famous for his talent since he was a child, and The great literary scholar and historian Yang Yi at that time came to his home and saw Li Zhaosui, so he asked him to write a poem to observe his talent. He was very literate and well-written. Yang Yi sighed and said, "There are no miscellaneous trees under Guilin, and it is not a lie." (History of Song, vol. 265) That is to say, Li Zhaoyuan was influenced by Li Zongchen and was also a talent.
When Li Zhaoyuan grew up, he became an official with Yin and served as the director of Jixian Academy. Hou Guan went to Tianzhang Pavilion to be made and knew Zhengzhou, and died in office.
The Li family, since Li Fang, has been a sage for generations and is an excellent representative of the northern family clan. However, the north has gradually lagged behind the south, and Lee's boom can be described as just the sunset. Since then, there have been few cultural families in the north
Key references
History of the Song Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore Punctuation.
Zizhi Tongjian, Zhonghua Bookstore Punctuation.
Taiping Imperial Records, 1960 photocopy by Zhonghua Bookstore.
Taiping Guangji, Punctuation edition of the People's Literature Publishing House, 1959.