Liu Zongyuan was not born at the right time, failed to catch up with the Tang Dynasty at the peak of the peak, and the Liu family had already been defeated during the Anshi Rebellion. Originally married to the imperial family for several generations, this family was a large clan, especially in the time of Emperor Gaozong, and there were more than 20 people living in the court. However, in the Wu Zhou period, the fate of the Liu family was to take a sharp turn and be ostracized everywhere, and since then, the clan members who have entered the career should at most become county officials, and no one can enter the court again.
Liu Zongyuan was born after the Anshi Rebellion, and at that time, his own branch was no different from the ordinary people's family. When the rebels attacked, the family fled into the mountains to avoid trouble, and later went all the way to the south to beg for food, and even chai rice was lost. Since the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty had plummeted, and its control over the town had deteriorated, and military disasters had arisen one after another.
If it is an ordinary family, they have to let their children bury their youth in the fields, but Liu Zongyuan's family has a deep cultural foundation, although life is poor, but the mother still starves and teaches her children to read and write. After a few years, the Jianzhong Rebellion caused the Liu family to migrate again, and the continuous military disasters made Liu Zongyuan feel empathy for the suffering of the bottom from an early age, and also made him later desire the stability of the dynasty in thought and literature.
At the age of 20, Liu Zongyuan, who was well prepared, became a jinshi in the imperial examination, and then entered the secretary province as a school secretary, although he was a small official, but he was also a profitable official, and in the same year that he entered the workplace, Liu Zongyuan got married and finally had a stable home in Chang'an.
In the two years since then, Liu Zongyuan has learned about the culture of the officialdom and has been recognized by his colleagues because of his erudition. In the two years of his first career, Liu Zongyuan transferred his posts quite frequently, first going to Jixiandian Academy, and later being transferred to Lantian Wei, this time letting Liu Zongyuan leave the capital and enjoy a few leisurely times.
Two years later, a paper transfer order recalled people to Chang'an to become the inspector of imperial history. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, from a thriving dynasty to a floating matter, hundreds of officials have gone through more than a hundred years of time, and the shortcomings in the official field have been deep.
Over the years, Liu Zongyuan has wandered around the major gates, and he has naturally heard about it, and he has a strong sense of mission, hoping to boost the chao gang and eliminate the accumulated shortcomings. So he and a group of idealistic colleagues became reformers.
Liu Zongyuan and Wang Shuwen were very close at that time, and the two of them converged on ideas, while the other was an active advocate of the New Deal. They believed that the excessive power of the feudal towns and the disobedience to the central government led to continuous wars, and at the same time, the eunuch clique controlled the government and strictly interfered with the operation of politics and must be cracked down.
Thus, thanks to the efforts of this force, there was the Later Yongzhen Reform, a huge new political movement that lasted for 6 months, which did hit the clan and the eunuch clique, but ultimately failed. There was always a price to be paid for in the battles between the old and new factions, and when the old and new factions fought each other, they also affected the highest level, and the reformists were immediately liquidated after Emperor Xianzong came to power.
In the past month, Liu Zongyuan, who was in the first echelon of reform, was demoted to a local assassin, and the demotion of officials was only the first step in humiliation, what Liu Zongyuan could not imagine was that the person had not yet arrived, and on the way, the new edict arrived, demoting him to Sima yongzhou. Chang'an guan was relegated to the deserted and uninhabited Yongzhou in one breath, and this kind of extroversion was definitely not a treatment that ordinary people could enjoy, at that time, Yongzhou was sparsely populated, Liu Zongyuan had no retinue, and only a few relatives who were demoted at the same time went together.
After coming to Yongzhou, several people could not even find the official residence, so they had to stay in the local temple, because the reform moved the cake of the magnates, and during the time when Liu Zongyuan was released, the political enemies in the court still talked about him, afraid that he would rise again.
It is also because there are always people behind him who put cold arrows, so Liu Zongyuan stayed in Yongzhou for ten years, in this decade Liu Zongyuan laughed at life, wrote a lot of famous passages such as needles and evils, such as the six inverse theories, feudal theories, etc., and there are also verses that gently turn the intestines, the old Book of Tang said, "Both are chased away, involved in brute miasma, rugged and rugged." The mourning of the rioters, the writing of love narratives, the movement will be in the text, dozens of articles for the riots, and the people who read them are sad. ”
In the 10th year of Yuan He, Liu Zongyuan was once again remembered, and after returning to the capital, he did not assign an official position, but idled at home. After a month of edicts, he was demoted to Liuzhou as an assassin. At that time, Liuzhou was even farther away than Yongzhou, but after taking office, he did not idle for a day, continued to carry out the great cause of reform at the local level, and implemented the New Deal among ethnic minorities, which was also quite effective in the past few years.
Although Liu Zongyuan's career has not been recorded in great detail, his literary achievements are well known, leaving behind prophecies, poetry and songs, essays, novels and other genres that have been praised by later generations. Perhaps at that time, Liuzhou was poor in mountains and rivers, and the conditions were extremely poor, and Liu Zongyuan died at the age of 47.
Coincidentally, Emperor Xianzong at that time also felt that it was unreasonable to treat a good official in this way, so he sent someone to recall Liu Zongyuan, but unfortunately, before he could act, the news of the death of the person came. Liu Zongyuan's body left hundreds of famous poems, and the literary heroes of the past never skimped on words of praise, for example, Su Dongpo said, "The noble talker is said to be dry outside and anointed, it seems to be light and really beautiful, and the flow of Yuanming and Zihou is also." ”
Reference: Old Book of Tang