It is said that when he becomes an emperor, the world is his alone, and he can do whatever he wants. In fact, in ancient times, the power of the emperor was not as great as we think. Especially before the Tang and Song dynasties, the emperor was subject to the prime minister in his speech and everything he said, and was not completely free.
For example, Zhao Heng, the True Emperor of Song, in order to achieve his own goals, also "paid bribes" to the prime minister. What's going on?
It was the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, in 1007 AD, and one day, the prime minister Wang Dan received a summons from Emperor Zhenzong of Song and went into the palace to accompany the emperor to drink. Wang Dan went happily, and sure enough, the emperor set up a banquet and invited several close courtiers to eat and drink together.
After eating and drinking, the banquet dispersed. Before leaving, Zhao Heng, the True Emperor of Song, left Wang Dan alone and asked the internal attendant to bring out a wine jar. Zhao Heng smiled and squinted at Wang Dan and said--This wine is a good wine that has been treasured by Yuan, you can take it back and enjoy it with your family!
Wang Dan thanked him profusely and took the imperial gift from the True Sect and left.
Back at home, Wang Dan carefully opened the wine jar, did not smell the wine, until he was dazzled by a piece of light - where there was any good wine, it was a jar of dazzling pearls!
Wang Dan was astonished, how could this be, why did the emperor give him so many pearls? Thinking about it, it must be that the emperor wants to do something and needs my support! You know, without the consent of the prime minister, the orders of the Song Emperor could not be issued.
After a while, the chancellor Wang Qinruo visited Wang Dan's mansion and as soon as he entered the door, he said that today's saints are very prominent in their martial arts, the world is peaceful, and the martial arts of Wenzhi are very prominent. We should go up to the emperor and hold the Taishan Sealing Ceremony, otherwise, how can we withstand this grand pilgrimage.
When Wang Dan heard this, he understood the meaning of the jar of pearls, so he also pushed the boat along the water and said—yes, I thought the same thing.
The two will smile, even if it is a tacit understanding.
It turned out that after Emperor Zhenzong signed the Alliance of Yuanyuan in the first year of Jingde, he felt that his face was dull, and he always wanted to find an opportunity to get his face back. Just discuss with the favored minister Wang Qinruo, make some noise, so that everyone can forget the shame of the alliance of the Yuanyuan and show the might of the True Sect.
After deliberating, Wang Qinruo suddenly said that it seems that only by sealing Mount Taishan can we subdue the four seas and boast about foreign countries.
Zhao Heng said that since ancient times, it was necessary for heaven to descend on Xiangrui before he could perform the Great Gift of Sealing Zen!
Of course, Wang Qinruo understood very well that since Zhenzong ascended the throne, there had been no auspicious things in the world.
So what to do? Wang Qinruo's eyes rolled and he whispered to Zhao Heng- "Your Majesty, without Xiangrui, we can make Xiangrui!"
Zhao Heng hesitated for a moment, and finally agreed to Wang Qinruo's approach.
However, Zhao Heng was also afraid that the prime minister Wang Dan would obstruct him, so he first went to do Wang Dan's ideological work, so there was a strange incident in which the emperor gave gifts to the prime minister.
In the fifth year of Jingde, on the third day of the first lunar month in 1008 AD, Zhao Heng went to the early dynasty as usual. Suddenly, the officials of the Imperial City Department came to report that qi yu shengshang, this morning, the gatekeeper found that there was a yellow drapery hanging in the south corner of the left Chengtian Gate of the imperial city, which was more than two inches long, and there seemed to be words on it.
Wang Dan thought to himself, this should be Wang Qinruo's masterpiece, looked at Wang Qinruo, Wang Qinruo smiled at him mysteriously.
Of course, Zhao Heng tacitly said to the group of ministers--Last year, I once had a dream, dreaming that a god said to me, in the first month of this year, there will be three chapters of the Great Zhongxiang Rune, which must be the foreshadowing of the immortals, presumably this yellow veil is the "Great Zhongxiang Rune"!
Wang Qinruo knelt down and said, "The Book of Heaven has come, and I also ask Your Majesty to come and greet you!"
Some of the civil and military officials knew what was going on, and some of them didn't know what was going on, and they all knelt down and bowed down one after another, and followed Wang Qinruo's words and asked Zhenzong to serve the Book of Heaven.
Therefore, Zhao Heng led the Wenwu group of courtiers to the Chengtian Gate, and sure enough, he saw the magical "Heavenly Book" floating in front of the door.
Zhao Heng immediately ordered the altar to be set up to burn incense, and he knelt three times in front of the altar and prostrated himself, pretending to retrieve the Heavenly Book and handing it to Chen Yaosuo, the president of the Privy Council, to read it.
Chen Yaosu opened the book, and sure enough, he wrote a few words of proverb————
Zhao was ordered to be prosperous in song, fu in Heng, juqi, shou in zheng, seven hundred in the world, nine nine ding.
Chen Yao cleared his throat and read the Book of Heaven aloud, and the ministers knelt down again, and the mountain cried out long live.
Zhao Heng knelt down to receive the Heavenly Book, and then sealed the Heavenly Book in a golden box.
This is the official opening of a big drama.
Then, Zhao Heng issued eight more orders in succession.
Feast on courtiers in the palace.
Send people to pay homage to the ancestors of heaven and earth.
The next edict changed the era name to - Da Zhong Xiang Fu.
Amnesty for the world.
All court officials and officials of the capital were promoted and raised
The people of Beijing drank freely for five days.
Reward 1,500 squires with old clothes, tea and other gifts.
A group of Beijing officials were ordered to go to the frontier to reward the generals on the border, setting off a wave of universal celebration.
Subsequently, Zhao Heng, who was full of pride, climbed the Qianyuan Gate and watched the people gather and drink.
Of course, this is all for the sake of the big drama in the back, the Taishan Sealing Zen Ceremony, to pave the way.
It is not enough for the emperor to be unilaterally excited, but also the will of the people to cheer up.
Therefore, in March of that year, at the instigation of Wang Qinruo, officials and people from all over the world went to the table, table, and letter, strongly demanding that Zhenzong seal Mount Zen. 1,200 local representatives from Yanzhou came to The Capital division and submitted a petition in front of the palace gate, and then 840 jinshi grouped a delegation to the capital to petition.
The finale was Wang Dan, the prime minister, and the pearl in that jar was not taken in vain.
Wang Dan led hundreds of civil and military officials, military officers and generals, local officials, squires and patriarchs, and more than 20,000 people from all walks of life to petition Zhenzong to seal Mount Zen in front of the palace gate.
Zhao Heng was able to hold his breath at this time, much more stable than when he was in the Alliance of Yuanyuan.
He had not been in a hurry to take a stand, and waited until the crowd was excited, which called Ding Shu over to discuss. Ding Zhi was in charge of finance, and Zhao Heng asked him if the state finance could afford to pay for the sealing of Zen.
How could Ding Shu sweep away Zhao Heng's xing? He had long since memorized the well-thought-out remarks to Zhao Heng and boasted that at present, the national treasury is full and there is more than enough planning. Hold a Zen ceremony without any problems!
Everything was ready, and Zhao Heng was very happy, so he ordered the ceremony to be held.
So Hanlin Yuan, Wang Dan, Wang Qinruo, Ding Zhi and others were busy, organizing civil and military officials to practice process etiquette in the palace. Inside and outside the palace, up and down, busy and happy.
In May, Zhao Heng sent Wang Qinruo to Mount Taishan to make preliminary preparations for sealing Zen.
Wang Qinruo arrived at Mount Taishan, ready to create a little more atmosphere. Therefore, he sent people from Mount Tai into Beijing to report to Zhao Heng that the great ceremony was imminent, and Xiangrui was continuous. A sweet spring suddenly gushed out from under Mount Tai, and a true dragon appeared on the mountain.
Zhao Heng listened to the great joy, and he asked the visitor to bring a message to Wang Qinruo and say that recently, he had a dream again, and dreamed that the gods told him that he would once again descend the Heavenly Book on Mount Tai.
When Wang Qinruo listened, of course, he knew what to do.
He immediately forged a letter of heavenly descent on a tree north of Taishan Liquan, which was "accidentally discovered", taken off, and sent to the capital.
Zhao Heng also held a grand ceremony in the capital to welcome the Heavenly Book.
Wang Qinruo also joined forces with a group of ministers to present a total of 38,000 Taishan Lingzhi plants before and after, continuing to set off the atmosphere of the drama.
After the preparation of the previous months, finally, in October of that year, Zhao Heng began to seal the Zen Ceremony.
Zhao Heng climbed Mount Taishan on foot, and placed the tablets of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi on the altar and enshrined the "Book of Heaven". Then, recite the Book of Heaven and kneel down and pray. Zhao Heng's big drama is still very well performed.
In the history of the Song Dynasty, there is such a record -
The emperor's face is laid down, the clouds are around the altar, and the moon has yellow light. The gods of the Five Emperors sealed the altar at the foot of the mountain, and called long live from top to bottom, shaking the valley.
Later, Zhao Heng received greetings from his courtiers at the Shouchang Hall of the Pilgrimage Altar. Zhao Heng once again granted amnesty to the world, all the civil and military officials were promoted to the first level, and the retired officials were rewarded with one year of fenglu, and the people of the world were given three days to eat and drink again.
Zhenzong Zhao Heng tossed and turned for half a month in this Zen drama, and after enough drama addiction, he got up and drove back to the palace.
Feng Zen Taishan is generally something that emperors who are very prominent in Wenzhi martial arts dare to do, but Song Zhenzong used this to act and whitewash Taiping, and the result became a big joke!