To say that the most loyal and honest emperor in the history of our country must be the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhen of Song Renzong. Throughout his life, he was generous and kind, not to mention killing, not even daring to kill an ant, and people who did not know would think that he was an abbot in the temple.
Because of his kindness to others and the treatment of others like a spring breeze, Song Renzong never had a war with the Liao State in the 42 years since he succeeded to the throne. Even after the death of Song Renzong, the Emperor of the Liao State wept even more bitterly, as if his relatives had passed away, and also established a spiritual seat for Zhao Zhen in the ancestral hall of the Liao State, a person who could be kind enough to let the enemy countries do such a thing, in the past, perhaps only Zhao Zhen was alone.
In addition, in the late spring of one year, Zhao Zhen was walking in the royal garden, and after walking for a while, the attendants around him found that Song Renzong always looked back at a place, but did not say anything, and everyone was puzzled and did not dare to ask. After returning to the palace, Zhao Zhen hurriedly said to the palace maid, "Hurry up and get me some water to drink, I am dying of thirst."
The palace maid was curious, so she asked Zhao Zhen what he had just done outside, and why he had endured his thirst until now that he wanted to drink water. Zhao Zhen replied, "I looked back many times, but I didn't see the attendant on duty in charge of the tea, and it was inconvenient to ask, because if I wanted to ask, the attendant would inevitably be punished, so I returned thirsty." "It is amazing that an emperor can think so much of his subordinates.
On another occasion, when he was in the imperial court, Bao Zheng directly quarreled with him at the imperial court, because he opposed Zhang Guifei's uncle to serve as an envoy to Xuanhui. The two quarreled incessantly, and Bao Zheng's spitting stars flew into Zhao Zhen's face, which was an extremely rare scene in any dynasty. What was even more outrageous was that Zhao Zhen only brushed away the spit with his hand, but there was no way to save the bag.
Later, When Princess Zhang Guifei consulted her uncle Xuanhui envoy, Zhao Zhen said without anger, "You only know your uncle's Xuanhui envoy, do you know that Bao Zheng is a royal history?" "Why Zhao Zhen is so afraid of Bao Zheng, the reason is that he was once the prince who was replaced in the Tanuki cat replacement case, and Bao Zheng was the chief judge of this case."
The most classic is this time, according to the "Second Journey Outer Book, Rumors miscellaneous". Song Renzong once accidentally got his teeth ripped off by sand while eating. If this matter is on The body of Stall Cixi, it is estimated that the imperial dining room will be killed by her from procurement to the back kitchen. However, Zhao Zhen did not react at all, but carefully said 12 words to the concubine on the side- "Don't speak people." This capital offense is also a sin. ”
What does that mean? Just don't tell anyone that I was eaten with sand. It was a capital offense, and if others knew about it, the cooks would be dead. Seeing this, readers should understand how benevolent this Zhao Zhen is.
Mercy has the benefit of benevolence, and during Zhao Zhen's reign, the work of civil rule was quite in place, and it was the most vigorous period for the development of literature and art in the Song Dynasty. The simplest example can be shown that in Jiayou's second year of the imperial examination, the examiners were Ouyang Xiu, Mei Yaochen, Wang Jue and Fan Zhen, each of whom was a well-known literary master of the Song Dynasty.
The candidates who took the test were even more powerful, Su Shi, Su Rui, Zeng Gong, Zeng Bu, Zhang Huan, and so on, each of which was a figure who could carry the literary beams of the Song Dynasty.
Kindness also has the disadvantage of benevolence, and the piece of martial rule has obviously become a shortcoming. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, the Song army was often beaten by Li Yuanhao of Western Xia, and his nose and face were swollen, but fortunately, in Western Xia, he did not dare to vigorously march into the Central Plains, and only dared to harass at the border. During Zhao Zhen's reign, he did not attach importance to the development of the military, which was the main reason for the low combat effectiveness of the Song army.
However, on the whole, as an emperor in a peaceful era, the achievements of Zhao Zhen of Song Renzong were still remarkable. In particular, his character of being so loyal and honest, benevolent and kind to others everywhere has been relished by the people of later generations and passed on as a good story. After all, in the entire ancient history, the only person who could treat the emperor like a commoner, and truly achieve the goal of making the emperor like water, was Zhao Zhen.