Ancient learning and modern use | Ouyang Xiu's "Theory of Friends and Parties", what is the cleverness in the eyes of today's people?

The Northern Song Dynasty writer Ouyang Xiu, who served as an official to the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, participated in the affairs of the governor. When Fan Zhongyan and others' New Deal ideas were attacked and suppressed by conservative political opponents, Ouyang Xiu used an article entitled "On The Party" to let the then emperor Song Renzong read it and was also moved. So, today, what can we learn from Ouyang Xiu about his brilliance?

From Baidu Encyclopedia

The first clever point, before Ouyang Xiu, mentioned that the word "friend party" was mostly derogatory, the disaster of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Cattle and Li Party Struggle in the Tang Dynasty, and so on. But the protagonist we talked about today, Ouyang Xiu, he tried to stand out from the crowd and was unique. In the concept of partisanism, its connotation is deepened, and it is written that the partisan party is also divided into small people who value profits and gentlemen who are like them. The monarch should "retire the hypocrites of the villains, and use the true friends of the gentlemen, then the world will be governed", which means: to repudiate the false friends of the villains, and to appoint the true friends of the gentlemen, and the whole country can be governed. This is precisely the first clever point of Ouyang Xiu's "Theory of Friends and Parties", which is innovative and bold.

The second clever point is that Ouyang Xiu cites the scriptures in the article to argue his views. From Yao Shun to the Shang Zhou and Han and Tang Dynasties, various ingenious stories, summed up, suggest that the monarch can distinguish the difference between the friends of the gentleman and the villain, and when he is united with the friends of the gentleman, it is impossible not to prosper. The author's views are clear, advancing layer by layer, and unconsciously causing people to think deeply.

The third cleverness, ostensibly writing about the partisans, is actually defending Fan Zhongyan's New Deal. This is a very vividly worded article, using a lot of comparative sentences, and extremely convincing and combative. Now the writing of political articles is of great reference value.

Having said all this, the original text is as follows, please enjoy:

The saying of the courtiers and friends has existed since ancient times, but fortunately people can distinguish between their gentlemen and villains. It is natural that all gentlemen and gentlemen take the same path as friends, and villains and villains take the same benefit as friends.

However, the courtiers are said to be villains without friends, but gentlemen have them. Why? The villain's favor is profitable, and the greedy are also rich. When they share the same interests, the Temporary Party regards them as friends, and the hypocrites, and when they see the benefits and compete for the first, or when the benefits are exhausted, they are thieves, although their brothers and relatives cannot protect themselves. Therefore, the subject is said to be a villain without friends, and he is temporarily a friend, a pseudo-friend. Not so with a gentleman. The morality of the keeper, the faithfulness of the deeds, and the honor of the despised. With self-cultivation, we benefit from each other in the same way; in the country of things, we help each other with one heart; and we are always the same, and the friends of this gentleman are also the same. Therefore, he who is a man is a king, but when he is a false friend of a villain, and uses the true friend of a gentleman, then the world will be ruled.

At the time of Yao, the villains worked together, and the four people such as the donkey pocket were a friend, and the gentleman eight yuan and eight Kai sixteen people were a friend. Shun Zuoyao, the friend of the four fierce villains, and the friend of Jinyuan and Kai Junzi, the great rule of Yao's world. And Shun himself is the son of heaven, and the twenty-two people such as Gao, Chu, Ji, and Qi are listed side by side in the dynasty, which is more beautiful and more pushed, and all twenty-two people are a friend, and Shun uses them, and the world is also ruled. The Book says: "There are billions of ministers, but billions of hearts; Zhou has three thousand ministers, only one heart." "At the time of the silk, hundreds of millions of people had different hearts, and it can be said that they were not friends, but they were destroyed by the country. The subject of King Wu of Zhou, three thousand people are a big friend, and Zhou is used for xing. When the Later Han Dynasty offered the emperor, he took all the famous people in the world and imprisoned him, and he was regarded as a party member. And the Yellow Turban Thief rose up, the Han Room was in chaos, the rear repented, and the party members were released, but there was no salvation. In his later years, Tang Zhi gradually became a friend of the party. And when Emperor Zhaozong was in charge, he killed the famous people of the dynasty, or threw himself into the Yellow River, saying: "The clear stream of this generation can be thrown into the turbid stream." And Tang sui died.

The lord of the husband's previous life can make everyone not be friends with different hearts; he can forbid good people to be friends, like the emperor of Han; he can kill friends of Qingliu, like the world of Tang Zhaozong; but all of them are chaotic and destroy their country. It is more deserving of beauty and not self-doubt, just as Shun's twenty-two subjects, Shun also does not doubt and uses them; but later generations do not slander Shun as deceived by the twenty-two friends, but call Shun a wise sage, so that he can distinguish between a gentleman and a villain. In the world of Zhou Wu, three thousand people of his country were a friend, and since ancient times, there were many and large friends, no more than Zhou; but Zhou used this to prosper, although there were many good people, they did not tire of it.

Woohoo! The traces of the rise and fall of chaos and the rule of chaos can be judged by those who are kings.