In the winter of the first year of the Jianyuan Dynasty (140 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "commanded the emperor and the imperial history... The princes are wise and the wise are outspoken and outspoken. ”
-- Selecting talents who are good at outspoken advice, many scholars in the world are eager to try.
There was a man in Pingyuan County (平原郡, in present-day Lingcheng District, Dezhou, Shandong), who introduced himself and wrote a resume of 220,000 words to the emperor.
At that time, there was no paper, it was written with three thousand pieces of bamboo, it took two people to lift it, and it took Emperor Wudi of Han to see the bamboo jane for two months.
The man introduced himself and said, "Chenshuo has lost his parents and has raised his brother and sister-in-law." Thirteen years of study, three winters of literature and history are fully used. Fifteen learn fencing..."
I lost my parents when I was a child, and I was raised by my brother and sister-in-law... Twenty-two years old this year, he looks like "eyes like beads, teeth like shells"
Say that you are as brave as Meng Ben, as incorruptible as Uncle Bao, as agile as Qingji...
Fully qualified to serve as a minister of the Son of Heaven.
Speaking of himself flawlessly, Emperor Wu of Han felt that he was bragging.
Therefore, he issued an edict and ordered him to temporarily serve as a candidate for the throne, with a low salary.
He waited for a long time at the bus office, and the coils in his waist had already been spent, and he felt that he had been tricked by the emperor.
He planned to see the emperor, so he came to the gate to look for an opportunity, and accidentally saw a few dwarfs who raised horses for the emperor, and suddenly he was thinking about it.
He frightened a few dwarfs and said, "You people cannot farm, you cannot march and fight, you cannot govern the people as officials, you are useless, you are wasting clothes and food, and Your Majesty intends to kill you all." ”
The gnomes cried in horror.
He went on to say, "When the emperor comes, you will prostrate yourselves and plead!" ”
After a while, the emperor came over, and the dwarfs prostrated their heads and cried.
Emperor Wudi of Han asked them what they were doing, and the dwarf reported what had just happened to the emperor, and Emperor Wudi of Han knew that he was playing a ghost, so he summoned him.
Emperor Wudi of Han asked, "You are quite big, why do you want to scare these dwarfs?" ”
He replied slowly, "The minister really had to do it, these dwarfs are less than three feet tall, and I am more than nine feet tall, but I get the same feng lu as them, a bag of rice, two hundred and forty copper plates." If what the minister says is useful, please treat Your Majesty with courtesy, and if it is useless, let the minister go back to the house, and stop wasting the grain and rice of Chang'an City! ”
Emperor Wu of Han laughed after hearing this, and immediately ordered him to wait for the edict at the Golden Horse Gate, so that he could approach the emperor from then on.
He is Dongfang Shuo.
Emperor Wu of Han liked to play a game called archery, that is, to put something into the Ou and Lu, and then let everyone guess what it was, which could also be used to divinate the auspicious.
One day, Emperor Wu of Han put a lizard into a spittoon and asked the ministers to guess, but many people did not guess it.
Dongfang Shuo pleaded, "The subject is proficient in the I Ching, please let the minister guess it." ”
So Dongfang Shuo put out a lot of kinds of gua elephants, and then said slowly and logically: "Say it is a dragon but has no horns, say it is a snake but has no feet, either a gecko or a lizard!" ”
Emperor Wu of Han was amazed, it was simply amazing, so he rewarded Dongfang Shuo with ten silk horses, and every time he shot up, Dongfang Shuo could guess it.
Therefore, he received the weight of Emperor Wu of Han and was soon promoted to Taizhong Doctor.
Dongfang Shuo, a witty and humorous person throughout his life, liked to use some funny language to advise the emperor not to build a large number of civil engineering, stay away from villains, and so on.
Emperor Wu of Han was often fooled into being dizzy, and when he understood it, he also obeyed the words of Dongfang Shuo.
Although Emperor Wudi of Han listened to Dongfang Shuo's advice, he could not help but get a little bored.
"Shuo tasted drunk in the temple, and the small relics were on the temple, impeached and disrespectful."
One day, Dongfang Shuo got drunk, urinated on the ground in the main hall, was impeached, and Emperor Wu of Han demoted Dongfang Shuo on the charge of "disrespect".
Dongfang Shuo spent his whole life witty and joking, but in his later years, he advised the emperor in the Eight Classics: "Poetry Jingyun: 'Camp green flies, stop at the flies.' Gentlemen, no believers in rumors. Slander is reckless, and the four countries are confused'--I hope That Your Majesty will not listen to rumors and stay away from villains. ”
Emperor Wu of Han was accustomed to listening to Dongfang Shuo's roundabout advice, and he also adopted many of them, but this time he did not listen to the advice.
Emperor Wudi of Han said to his ministers, "How has this old thing spoken in a serious way lately?" ”
Soon, Dongfang Shuo died of illness.
Emperor Wu of Han did not adopt Dongfang Shuo's dying advice and listened to the rumors of the adulterous Yu, which eventually led to the "scourge of witchcraft", and tens of thousands of people, including the crown prince Liu Zhao, and the empress Wei Fuzi, died.