"A cart of charcoal, more than a thousand pounds, the palace envoy will not be spared." Half a horse of red silk is tied to the bull's head and charged with charcoal. Although this poem is excerpted from the junior high school Chinese textbook "Selling Charcoal", although the number of words is small, it is very word-like, to the point, directly poking at the various corrupt phenomena that existed in the society at that time, which is extremely ideological and realistic.
After reading "Selling Charcoal," the thought of an old man with gray hair being exploited by corrupt officials and corrupt officials without a bottom line cannot help but feel indignant. So whenever I finish reading this poem, everyone is very curious about the life situation of the old man who sells charcoal after being forced to buy and sell.
In broad daylight, the officials of the imperial court brazenly carried out "robbery-style" procurement, and such a frenzied act would not attract the attention of the emperor of the dynasty? Won't it provoke the people to rebel?
Combined with the social environment at that time, in fact, the tragic experience of selling charcoal for the old man mainly had to be blamed on the setting of such a collection system - "Miyaichi".
Miyaichi harms people, so how can the "charcoal seller" live a life?
In the last years of Tang Xuanzong,the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion caused the Tang Dynasty's rule to gradually shift from the peak of prosperity to decline, not only the people were not happy, but the state treasury was also generously lost due to the uprising.
Therefore, in order to save money and alleviate the current situation of the national treasury deficit after the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Dezong Li ordered the establishment of a "palace market" system specifically for the procurement of palace supplies.
What is "Miyaichi"? To put it bluntly, it is a procurement system that collects from the common people from top to bottom the items needed in the palace in the name of the royal family.
At first, the setting of the "palace market" actually worked well, not only to a large extent reduced the royal family's procurement expenses, the people can also get the corresponding compensation and remuneration, the only privilege is that the royal family enjoys the priority procurement right in the transaction, so whether it is for the monarch or the people, the two are still equal transactions.
But the old saying is good: "People's hearts are not enough to swallow elephants", with the migration of time, the rights of officials and eunuchs who are specifically responsible for private procurement are gradually handed over to the eunuchs in the palace, and it is from this time that the "palace city" begins to change its taste.
The eunuchs, who had a small calculation in their hearts, planned to put the royal family's appropriations for procurement into their pockets, so the wanton exploitation of the interests of the people at the bottom gradually appeared.
By this time, the "palace market" had been transformed from a traditional bazaar into a means for eunuchs to plunder wealth, and the "equal transaction" between monarchs and people no longer existed, and even more so, there was a possibility of loss-making transactions.
However, in the face of such a situation, most of the people still dared to be angry, after all, the Emperor of Shangao was far away, and if there was no official report, it was difficult for the emperor in the palace to know the suffering from the people.
However, the eunuchs who often went in and out of the palace could well conceal their eyes. As a result, there was the dilemma of "the emperor does not know, and the people dare not speak."
In contrast, such a situation was undoubtedly an excellent "gold hunting opportunity" for the official eunuchs, so the "yellow clothes and white shirts" led by the great eunuchs became a symbol of "robbery-style plunder".
The "yellow clothes and white shirts" have become the main culprits of the people's lack of livelihood
Why is it said that "yellow clothes and white shirts" will become the culprit of the people's lack of livelihood? In fact, this is mainly due to the color of the clothes worn by the eunuchs.
Since the eunuchs involved in the collection at that time were uniformly dressed in white robes, and the "leader" of the eunuchs, the great eunuch, was dressed in yellow, as long as people dressed in yellow and white clothes and looking for goods appeared in the market, it meant that they might usher in a loss-making transaction.
So at that time, the "yellow clothes and white shirts" became the culprits who made the people unhappy and complained.
According to the poem, the old man in a single robe was exchanged by the eunuch in charge of procurement for a cheap half-horse red aya and a piece of aya in exchange for a thousand pounds of charcoal that had been painstakingly accumulated for a year. In other words, such a transaction is probably someone else exchanging 30 meters of cheap cloth for your family's rations for 2 years.
Such unfair transactions eventually caused the charcoal sellers to lose their chips in exchange for money, and this winter was likely to be difficult to survive in hunger and cold, and the benefits obtained were put into the pockets of the eunuchs.
"Inspection Group" Bai Juyi encountered the "charcoal seller" of the Qing people
However, one thing is still gratifying, if we look carefully at the history of literature, we can search for a trace of "clues" to the happy ending of the charcoal seller.
As we all know, the poem "Selling Charcoal" was made by the great poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty, in fact, in addition to the identity of the poet, Bai Juyi was also an official in the imperial court at that time. The official position is now probably the role of a member of the "Central Inspection Group".
In addition, in order to repay Tang Xianzong's kindness to himself in those years, Bai Juyi was actually very conscientious in his work during his tenure, often reporting the sufferings from the people and the problems in society to the imperial court in the form of letters, in order to advise the emperor and safeguard the will of the people.
Therefore, after experiencing the tragic experience of selling charcoal, how can Bai Juyi, who is a member of the "inspection team", stand idly by?
The final outcome of selling charcoal
Since there is a high probability that the charcoal seller's encounter will be reported to the imperial court by Bai Juyi, this means that this unfair transaction is about to be exposed to the emperor, and the emperor in the deep wall compound is not intended to exploit the people, so if he knows about this, he will definitely give the old man a satisfactory result.
After all, in the society at that time, unfair incidents such as selling charcoal had become a hot topic of great concern to the people, so a reasonable solution to this matter became an important measure to appease the people and strengthen the imperial power.
Moreover, referring to the similar case recorded by the great poet Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty in the "Records of Shunzong", we can speculate that the old man who sold charcoal is likely to have a good ending.
At that time, the old man who sold firewood suffered the same as the old man who sold charcoal and lost his due remuneration because he was forcibly bought and sold by the official eunuchs, and not only that, the officials and eunuchs also asked the old man to personally send firewood to the palace.
Coincidentally, the matter was discovered and reported to Emperor Tang Dezong, so Tang Dezong, who was angry, finally ordered the immediate dismissal of the officials and eunuchs involved, in addition to compensating dozens of silks for the old man who sold firewood. In the face of such a way of handling, it is said that it is an extremely happy ending.
But no matter what, unfair cases such as selling charcoal still abound in the private sector, and many lower-class people are still enduring the exploitation and oppression of feudal officials.
Lucky people like the charcoal seller and the old man who sell firewood are just a few examples, think of other "charcoal sellers"? Do you just have to consider yourself unlucky? Hands over the fruits of their labor to the eunuchs?
In the final analysis, the reason for this situation is the inadequacy of the state system, the emperor is not concerned about state affairs, and the eunuchs and eunuchs are in turmoil among the people, so it is no wonder that the Tang Dynasty began to turn from prosperity to decline, and finally got a fate that was powerless to return to heaven.