Zeng Gong befriended Wang Anshi

Tang Xiaomin

Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi are fellow villagers, and the two families are also related by marriage. Wang Anshi's grandmother, Wu' grandmother, Zeng Shi, was the daughter of Zeng Gong's grandfather Zeng Zhiyao. The Zeng and Wang families had close contacts, and Zeng Gong's father, Zeng Yizhan, studied with Wang Anshi's father, Wang Yi. However, zeng wang and wang did not have contact with each other in childhood and adolescence. It was not until the third year of JingYou (1036) that Zeng Gong went to Beijing to take the exam, and he met Wang Anshi, who was in Beijing with his father, admired each other, and formed close friends. This year, Zeng Gong was 18 years old and Wang Anshi was 16 years old.

Wang Anshi first ascended to the throne. Zeng Gongke was not smooth, but he and Ouyang Xiu knew each other very early. He once recommended Wang Anshi to Ouyang Xiu, saying:

"The Friends of Gong have Wang Anshi, who is very ancient and is called his text. Although he had already received the name of the subject, he was now known as Wang Anshi . He is sincere and self-respecting, and does not want to know others. However, such people are not common in ancient and modern times. Now the times are anxious, although impermanent people must not harm, gu is like Anshi, this can not be lost. ”

During this period, Wang Anshi also had a high evaluation of Zeng Gong's article. He once did "Classmate a Song of Farewell" and said: "Gong literature discussion, in a certain friendship tour is not seen in the enemy. ”

Wang Anshi served as the zhi county of Yin County from the seventh year of the Qing calendar, and he had great political achievements. In the second year of the Emperor's reign, the 30-year-old Wang Anshi knew Yin for three years and left his post at the end of his term. After five years of emperorhood, he also sentenced Shuzhou, and his career was relatively smooth. Zeng Gong, on the other hand, did not succeed in participating in scientific expeditions many times, lamenting that he was "difficult and poor and lowly, learning and violating the crowd, and doing less in the world." There is no way to enter the door of the Secretary of State, and he does not dare to deliberately seek knowledge", but this also allows him to "devote himself to the writings of the book, in order to seek the preface of the ancients, and to be happy to be within the blockage", and made great progress in his studies.

Wang Anshi's long-term official experience has given him a deeper understanding of contemporary political realities. Zeng Gong lacked this understanding. In the meantime, Wang Anshi composed "Gifting Zeng Gong":

"Zeng Zi article is nothing, the battle of the river of water and the stars." The coercion is not flattering, and the group of children is slanderous. Don't slander and hurt my children, will there be a great-son emperor. By ordering misfortune to be lowly and die, the day after tomorrow is like Ban and Yang. ”

On the one hand, Wang Anshi praised Zeng Gong's article, and on the other hand, he also saw Zeng Gong's weakness. The last two sentences, "Let the misfortune be unworthy and die, and the day after tomorrow be like Ban and Yang", which is particularly noteworthy. Wang Anshi thought that Zeng Gong might not be able to make a difference politically, but might simply leave a name in history as an outstanding essayist.

Zeng Gong still embarked on a career path. After the scientific expedition and the first, he was appointed to join the judicial army of Taiping Prefecture (太平州, in modern Dangtu, Anhui), and soon after, Zeng Gong was recommended by Ouyang Xiu and was recalled to Beijing, where he served as a Beijing official for nearly 10 years.

In the second year of Xi Ning (1069), Wang Anshi gained the trust of Emperor Shenzong and implemented the new law by participating in the government affairs of the governor. What is Zeng Gong's attitude toward Wang Anshi's "change of law"? This is an unavoidable question. Zeng Gong did not express specific opinions. But he said in the poem "Passing the Introduction to The Occasional": "Heart-to-heart friendship is not suspected, the advice period is supplemented, it is difficult to criticize it straightly, and it is even more difficult to say it." The knower is still restored, and the yo-yo can speak. It can be seen from this that the two had differences on the issue of changing the law, Wang Anshi was proud of the spring breeze, and Zeng Gong asked for compensation for himself, and was appointed as a judge of Yuezhou, and from then on, he served as a magistrate for twelve years.

In fact, before that, Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi had already had ideological differences. In the first year of Xi Ning's reign, Zeng Gong went to "Xi Ning's Turn to The Opposite", worried that Shenzong would be drowned by "evil feelings and heresies" at the "time of changing the system and changing the customs", and advised Shenzong to study more Confucian classics, saying: "The subject thinks that His Majesty has the ambition to change the customs and to be more vulgar than Tang Yu, and then he is in his heart." If you get it from the heart, you are just learning. The subject yu said that His Majesty should look at the "Hong Fan" and "University" chen, and the place where the knowledge of the Tao was not in him; the Guan Fu said, the Zhou Gong's precepts and the scholars were not the right places for the Lord. If His Majesty has the ambition to change the customs and to compare with tang and Yu, then he should be sincere and compassionate, to explain the old learning and promote it, to be in the body of morality, not to take the small knowledge of the mouth and ears, not to rush the near effect of the day and night, to be familiar with it, so that the sacred heart exists, and calmly in the place of self-sufficiency, then everything lies in the reason, and there is nothing that cannot be exhausted. This is completely different from Wang Anshi's idea.

The ideological differences between Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi are also manifested in their views on the Renzong Dynasty. Zeng Gong had a high opinion of Emperor Renzong. As early as the second year of Jiayou, that is, the year of Zeng Gongdeng's first jinshi, he wrote in the "Record of the Quasi-Da Tai":

"Fu non-channel, so the noble people can not travel to jia." There are many good fields, so there are few water drought borers. Its people are happy to cultivate mulberry in order to be self-sufficient, so those who graze cattle and horses in the valley do not reap, and those who accumulate grain in the countryside do not fall, and Yan Ran does not know the vigilance of the drum, and the battle of the summons is also. Since the king is simple and quiet because of his main customs, he can realize his leisure time and enjoy it. The women of the state, happy to be safe and governed, and have the beauty of the tour, will also be happy with it", although it is written in Fuzhou, but this is also the perception of the Renzong Dynasty.

In the eighth year of Jiayou, Emperor Renzong died, and Zeng Gong made the "Preface to fan guan's song", and said:

"He who does not use himself because of man, heaven also." The reason why Emperor Renzong is as benevolent as heaven, as for those who have enjoyed the country for more than forty years and can inherit the cause of taiping, it is only that. Future generations will receive the posthumous text, and on its essence, seeing that it is so up and down, it will surely look down on it, sigh in the reach, and then know the rarity of the time. ”

Zeng Gong had a very high evaluation of Renzong, especially for Renzong, who was able to "accept advice", which left a deep impression on Zeng Gong. He was also very emotional about this. Obviously, Zeng Gong had the ancient political ideal of the harmony of kings and subjects in his heart, and saw the realization of this ideal politics of "upper and lower" in the Renzong Dynasty.

In the third year of Yuanfeng, Zeng Gong was 62 years old, and he still highly praised and deeply missed the government of Emperor Renzong. He said in the Book of moving cangzhou over the que shangdian temple:

Emperor Renzong was lenient and merciful, humble and conceited, cautious in his measures, prudent in his rules, and retreated early, without a single day's slackness. After reigning for a long time, he knew that the sages of the group of ministers were not loyal to the evil, and they chose the ministers of political affairs and appointed them as responsible. However, they listened to and looked at it publicly, so that they knew their feelings and falsities, and when they used their houses, they were all ignorant of the public, so that those who were in charge were also vigilant, and they were not dismissed, and the world thought that they were the body of a vassal. Spring and Autumn are not high, aid and virtue, pass on the only permission, so the day of the world, not Chen a soldier, not a soldier, to abstain from the extraordinary, and up and down, unprecedented in ancient times. His brother's deeds are enough to possess the multitude, and he is not a family but a man who is pleased. With sincerity, the people have the dignity of the father and the relatives of the mother, so the day of abandoning the people, the world hears it, the road sacrifices and alleys cry, and everyone is touched and moved. Those who have gained the depth of the people and have not known its origins, so the temple of the emperor's ancestors is Emperor Renzong.

Although Wang Anshi was an official of the Renzong Dynasty, he was very dissatisfied with the politics of the Renzong period. As early as the second year of Jiayou, Wang Anshi's "Book of Ten Thousand Words of the Emperor" pointed out the decline of the world's uneasiness in The later years of Emperor Renzong: "Gu Nei cannot be worried about the society, and the outside cannot be fearless of YiDi." The wealth of the world is impoverished day by day, and the customs are corrupted day by day." After Emperor Shenzong ascended the throne, Wang Anshi made "A Hundred Years of Nothing to Do", and even believed that the social problems in Emperor Renzong's later years were serious: "The luck of the spirit has not been added, and there is something between the name and the truth." Gentlemen are not expensive, but villains also have to go to the toilet. Orthodoxy is not incoherent, but heresy is also sometimes used", and "although frugality is made, the people are not rich, although they are worried and diligent, the country is not strong." In short, in Wang Anshi's eyes, there were many problems in the Renzong Dynasty.

At that time, people's attitude toward Renzong was not simply an attitude toward a king, but in fact an attitude toward Confucian thought, because what Renzong did, in the eyes of Zeng Gong and others, embodied Confucian thought. To honor Renzong is also to honor Confucianism.

Zeng Gong revered Confucianism, but Wang Anshi did not have a good feeling for the Fa family. His poem "Shang Martingale" said: "Since ancient times, the people have been driven in sincerity, and a word is heavy and gold is light." Today's people cannot discuss martingale, but shangmartin can make the government necessary. "Shows a push for martingale.

In ancient Chinese political thought, there are two most important schools, namely Confucianism and Dharma. Confucianism is characterized by standing on the side of "subjects" and "people", and making demands on the king on behalf of subjects and people. What they emphasized was "virtue", which was mainly a requirement for the king to become a "virtuous king". The characteristic of the Dharma is to stand on the king's side and offer advice to the king. Use their "laws" to help the king control his subjects and people. Because of this, Confucian scholars are very wary of such "laws", and they often focus on the negative or side effects of "laws" and criticize them.

Zeng Gong was exactly like this. In the third year of emperor's reign (1052), Zeng Gong composed the "Preface to Sending Ding Yan":

If the Heavenly Son's minister suffers from the evils of the world, he will be more lawful. The more dense the Fa becomes, the more the evil days become. The present is far away, and there is no way to rule the world.

This is an important difference in the political views of Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi thought about how to strengthen the central government's power. And this is exactly what Zeng Gong is worried about. Zeng Gong believes that "the more dense the law is, the more the evil days are." Obviously, the two Kings of Zeng had very different views on the "Fa." This is also the reason why the two finally disagreed,

People have long noticed this phenomenon of "beginning and ending" in the interaction between Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi. However, most of them regard Wang Anshi's personality and even personality problems as the reason why Zeng Gong alienated him. Song Chen Hu said in the second volume of the "Continuation of the Old Story": "When Jiefu wei was young, he was very happy with Zeng Zigu, and zeng was recommended to Ouyang Gong, who was expensive, but Zi Gu was unyielding, so he made up for nearly twenty years. Yuan Feng was summoned at the end of the year, and every time he went forward to slander Zi Gu and Su Zi Zhan." Yuan RenTuo recorded in the "Song Shi Zeng Gong Biography": "(Gong) Shao traveled with Wang Anshi, An Shi's reputation was not vibrant, and Gong guided him to Ouyang Xiu. and An shi dezhi, so it is different. The Divine Sect asked: How is Anshi like a man? Right: An shi is light and rich, why not be stingy? A: The so-called miserly of the subject is said to be brave and promising, and he is stingy to change his ears. "Qian Daxin, a Qing dynasty, said in volume 16 of the New Record of the Ten Driving Guards: Wang Anshi composed the poem "Han Zi": 'After a hundred years of easy exhaustion, who in the world knows the truth?' Try to exaggerate, poor spirit without compensation. 'Criticize Han Yue. Zeng Gong was dissatisfied with this, and once said: "Jiefu is not the end of the predecessors, and the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu have not seen the non-ear." Mocking Wang Anshi for "too many non-human beings." It is believed that this is also the reason why Nanfeng later alienated Wang Anshi. Zeng Gongdang was dissatisfied with Wang Anshi's practice of lightly meeting his predecessors, but the reason for the differences and alienation between them should be the difference in their thinking and views on major social issues.

In the sixth year of Yuan Feng (1083 AD), Zeng Gong held his mother in Jinling, Wang Anshi boarded a boat to hang him, in the same year Zeng Gong fell ill in Jiangning, Wang Anshi also went to visit, Zeng and Wang still had personal interactions, but that was all, in terms of social and political thinking, the two were already "different ways and no conspiracy".