What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
One man attains the Word, and the chicken and the dog ascend to heaven. If there is a high-ranking official in a family, it is absolutely to burn high incense, Guangzong Yaozu. If a family can produce two high-ranking officials, and both have achieved a dynasty prime minister, it is absolutely burning two pillars of high incense, the ancestral tomb is smoking green smoke, and the ancestors are glorious twice.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were two brothers who had achieved the position of prime minister of a dynasty, and they did not know how their parents were cultivated. They are the two brothers Cai Jing and Cai Bian, both of whom have left their names in history, but one is a good name and the other is indeed a name.
In the play Cai Jing
Cai Jing was one of the powerful ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty, who was fierce and cunning, dancing with power, and was good at controlling others with wisdom. In front of the emperor, he was good at guessing the intentions of the master, and specialized in spying on the master's ideas in order to get the exclusive favor and stabilize his position. He always told the emperor that there was no need to stick to customs, but to exhaust the financial resources of the four seas and nine states to provide for his own enjoyment. Song Huizong was not stupid, knowing that Cai Jing had been seducing himself, but sometimes he had to use him, so he repeatedly rebelled against Cai Jing, and Cai Jing's status also rose and fell several times. In order to restrain Cai Jing, Emperor Huizong of Song even chose people who were incompatible with Cai Jing to fight against him. Whenever Cai Jing was about to be removed from office, he would run to the emperor to plead, kneeling and prostrating his head, without any shame.
Cai Jing was also very selfish and unrighteous, so that father and son were not in harmony and brothers were not in harmony. In his later years, he used his family as an official office, and those who sought to be promoted gathered under his family's door, as long as the money was sent to the throne, no matter who it was, he could get an official to be a pawn. In his eyes, the laws of the country are useless. With such a person in a high position, the chaos of the country can be imagined, which eventually led to national turmoil, and Cai Jing was also known as one of the "Six Thieves" in later generations.
Cai Bian
Cai Bian was also the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, or the younger brother of Cai Jing, and the two were admitted to the Jinshi together, but Cai Bian left a good reputation in the future generations. When he was the chief of Jiangyin County, natural disasters occurred at that time, and the peasants basically ran out of grain production. However, the local rich people were rich and unkind, and they took advantage of the lack of happiness to lend grain to the commoners, although it was said to be "borrowed", but the interest rate was twice as high as usual, making huge profits. Cai Bian sympathized with the people's suffering, vigorously promoted Wang Anshi's Qingmiao Law, and resolutely opened a warehouse to borrow grain from the people, which solved the people's urgent needs, and also stopped the arrogance of the lawless rich and the peasants from suffering from exploitation by usury.
Wang Anshi
This practice of Cai Bian was known to Wang Anshi, the prime minister at the time, and he was even more heavily weighed by Wang Anshi, not an ordinary instrument, Wang Anshi promised his daughter to Cai Bian, he was also a step to the heavens, after all, good people have good rewards.