Author: Xu Yunhui
"Erzhu Erlu, the people anoint the people' fat." The people are easy to abuse, and the heavens are difficult to deceive. The Northern Song Dynasty poet and calligrapher Huang Tingjian was ordered to write this inscription for the imperial court, which was issued by the imperial court to be engraved as a "ring stone" in various places and stood on the lobby of the official office, always warning officials to take honesty and honesty, self-denial and love for the people as their responsibility, and continued to use it until the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The source of the inscription comes from the "Official Proverbs" of Meng Chang, the last emperor of the Later Shu Dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: "Erqi Erlu, the people anointed the people' fat." Parenthood is not merciful. Specially for the precepts, the body is deeply contemplative. ”
So, has Meng Chang personally put into practice his idea of governing the country with honest government and loving the people?
1. Punish evil and eliminate adultery
In 925, after Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang destroyed Former Shu, he appointed his in-laws Meng Zhixiang as the envoy of Xichuan Jiedu. Meng Zhixiang took advantage of the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and according to Shu, he established himself on his own and proclaimed himself Emperor Jianhou of Houshu in the first month of 934. Before Meng Zhixiang's death, the crown prince Meng Renzan, who had been posthumously ordered to be "sixteen years old", succeeded him and "entrusted government to Zhao Jiliang, Zhang Zhiye (i.e., Zhang Ye), Li Renhan, and so on." ”
After Meng Renzan ascended the throne, he changed his name to Meng Chang. At this time, the generals in the court were all old courtiers who were born with Meng Zhixiang and fought in the country, and Meng Zhixiang had a tolerant and benevolent personality, and he always treated them favorably and connived, making them even more arrogant and arrogant. After Meng Chang ascended the throne, they despised the little emperor in their hearts and ears, and became more and more "arrogant (arrogant, disobedient), more than the law, wu Guangdi house, taking good land, and sending his grave." Among them, Li Renhan and Zhang Ye's uncle and nephew were particularly arrogant.
Meng Chang hid in the background and watched the changes. A few months later, he seized the opportunity of Li Renhan's inflated ambitions to "ask the Sixth Army" to make excessive demands, arrested and killed him, and "and his family." "When the founding hero Li Zhaochao saw Meng Chang, he proud of himself as an old minister, and he went to the temple with a staff, claiming that he was sick and could not worship the king. After hearing the news of Li Renhan's death, Li Zhao immediately lost his temper, and when he saw Meng Chang the next day, he panicked and "released his staff and worshiped." Meng Chang unceremoniously ordered him to retire and demeaned him.
When Li Renhan was ambushed, his nephew Zhang Ye was in charge of the forbidden army. In order to stabilize Zhang Ye, Meng Chang appointed him as the prime minister. Zhang Ye thus misjudged that Meng Chang could do nothing about it, so he became hot-headed, openly set up a prison at home, and used the cruel criminal law to expropriate the people violently, making "the Shu people resentful." Meng Chang and his confidants designed and finally killed Zhang Ye. After that, Meng Chang systematically removed the former courtiers or ordered early retirement, reappointed his own cronies, and completely completed the political reshuffle. Although Meng Chang's move was suspected of excluding dissidents, it was unanimously supported because most of the people he purged were former courtiers who were extremely angry and conformed to the fundamental interests of the people and the majority of the people.
After the new peach replaced the old charm, Meng Chang "began to pro-government affairs". In order to observe the people's feelings and enlighten politics, Meng Chang imitated the Tang Dynasty and set up a letter on the court (the box for the imperial court to accept letters from subjects).
Due to the war and chaos in the Central Plains and the relative peace of Shu, some warlords of the real power faction successively brought land to Hou Shu with their men and horses, and Meng Chang sent troops to open up territory. After years of conquest, Later Shu completely restored the territory of Former Shu. Since then, Meng Chang relied on the natural dangers of Shu Dao and lived an imperial life in Shudi.
Second, diligent administration and talent
At the beginning of his reign, Meng Chang was "quite diligent in government", straightened out the administration of officials, opened up territory, and made "the border not towering." He "persuaded the peasants to pay for their punishments, to rejuvenate culture and religion, to diligently seek healing, and to rest with the people", and built Houshu into the only "domestic Fu'an" paradise among the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
On the basis of the "Nine Classics" of the Tang Dynasty (The Book of Changes, the Book of Books, the Book of Poetry, the Biography of the Left Clan of Spring and Autumn, the Biography of the Ram of Spring and Autumn, the Tale of liang in the Spring and Autumn Valley, the Rites of Rites, the Book of Rites, and the Zhou Li), Meng Chang excluded the Book of Filial Piety and Erya, retained the Analects, included Mencius for the first time in the list of the classics, and published the "Eleven Classics", making a unique contribution to the development of Confucianism.
Meng Chang's literary attainment is very high, proficient in poetry and song, and even became recognized by posterity as the originator of the Spring League. The Spring League began in the fifth dynasty, according to the "Shu Han Zhuan": "Shu did not return to the Song Dynasty a year before the year of the day, Chang Ling scholar Xin Yinxun inscribed the peach rune version in the bed, with its words non-work, self-styled pen cloud: New Year Na Yu Qing, Jia Jie number Changchun. This link thus became the earliest documented Spring League.
In 941, in view of the former Shu's fall due to the corruption of officials, Meng Chang deliberately wrote a 96-character "Official Proverbs" to exhort officials to take honest government and love for the people as their top priority.
Meng Chang has a "benevolent and gentle heart" personality and is particularly cautious about death sentences. Every time the death penalty report is reviewed, every effort is made to extrajudicially grant grace and try to save the life of the criminal. Before the prisoners who were approved to die were about to be executed, Meng Chang would send people to the execution site secretly to observe the execution. As soon as the death row inmates "gave a damn" to their words, they immediately appeared to stop the executions, and immediately handed them over to the division for repeated verification, so that some cases were "unresolved for three or five years." Because of his "kindness and kindness", when he later descended to the Song Dynasty, "from Erjiang to Meizhou, all the people embraced the Tao, and hundreds of people wept bitterly and mourned." ”
If Meng Chang always works diligently and loves the people, he will surely become a saintly monarch who has been famous for thousands of years. However, while Meng Chang was diligent in government and loved the people, he also embarked on the road of corruption and subjugation of the country.
Third, specialize in extravagance
At that time, "the Khitan was in turmoil, and the locust drought in Middle-earth was continuous", and the Later Shu dynasty was peaceful, the four realms were peaceful, the products were rich, the conditions were comfortable, like a gentle township, which gradually consumed Meng Chang's ambitions. Therefore, in the middle of Meng Chang's reign, the "monarchy and subjects indulged" and began to degenerate. Meng Chang was first "good at beating horses, and then for the art of the alchemist's room", and then "more good family sons to fill the harem", in addition to the concubines set up another 12 ranks, the concubines with excellent character and good looks added titles, and the rank was the same as that of the secretary of state. All their expenses were monitored by Meng Chang and paid monthly from the treasury.
Meng Chang especially favored the lady of the country's heavenly fragrance, Mrs. Huarui threw herself into her favor, carefully developed the delicacy "Crimson Sheep Head" to please him, and made a vegetarian food known as "a plate of the month" for his enjoyment. Meng Chang became increasingly extravagant and lascivious, and built a crystal palace in Hechi as a summer retreat. After the completion of this place, it is extremely luxurious: the three nan wooden pillars of the main hall, the agarwood building, the coral window, the jasper household, and the walls are full of glass. Fish tents, green jade pillows, ice mounds stacked on top of each other, raced through the heavens on earth. Meng Chang and Hua Rui are drunk every day in this paper fan every day, and the double stay is dancing and rising.
The "History of Song" summarizes the history of the middle and late period of Meng Chang's reign with the four words of "specializing in extravagance". The degree of Meng Chang's extravagance is jaw-dropping: his urinal pot is made of seven treasures, and the materials of other daily necessities are even more luxurious than gold and jade. Therefore, Song Taizu pointed to the urinal pot in front of his face after Meng Chang became a prisoner of the lower ranks and sighed: "Ru decorates this with seven treasures, what kind of utensils should be used to store food?" If you do it, you won't die! ”
The father and son of the Meng family "raised soldiers in warm clothes for forty years", and after Meng Chang expelled the former courtiers, almost all of them were faint and incompetent. These new courtiers, Wen Tian WuYi, did not know that the sword of Damocles was already hanging high above their heads.
Fourth, the fall of the country to the Song Dynasty
This piece of fat meat in the southwest had already attracted the covetousness of Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, who had sent troops to fight against Later Shu and won a great victory. Later, because Zhou Shizong shifted his strategic goals to the Southern Tang, Later Shu was able to survive. After Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robes were added to the Northern Song Dynasty, he was determined to wipe out Later Shu in one fell swoop, and sent the famous general Wang Quanbin to lead 60,000 elite troops to attack Shudi.
In order to show his determination to solve Hou Shu once and for all, Song Taizu ordered the craftsmen to build more than 500 houses in Bieliang to house Hou Shu prisoners, and ordered the generals: "Where the marching army goes, do not burn the huts, expel the officials, develop Qiu tombs, cut down the mulberry decay, and the van ke city wall, do not kill the captives indiscriminately, and rob the property indiscriminately." Shortly after the troops set out, heavy snow suddenly fell in the capital, and when Song Taizu was wearing a sable hat to inspect, he suddenly said to the left and right: "I am dressed like this, my body is still cold, I am reading the soldiers of the Western Expedition, and I have rushed to the frost and thunder, why should I be worthy of this?" So he took off his sable hat and sent people to Rush to Shudi to give it to Wang Quanbin, and at the same time sent an edict to the whole army, regretting that it could not be rewarded everywhere. The Song army was deeply moved, and all of them fought bravely to be the first, and defeated the 140,000 Shu soldiers defending Chengdu without a fight.
On the other hand, Meng Chang's first trick was to send Wang Zhaoyuan, who was "good at reading military books and promising himself with strategy", to lead his troops to resist. Wang Zhaoyuan came from a humble background, but he was a little clever, and Meng Zhixiang "loved Qihui" and let him serve and accompany Meng Chang to study. After Meng Chang ascended the throne, he promoted him with rocket speed to "tongzhi zhi privy councillor, but the matter is no big or small, and once entrusted, the government treasury jinshu does not ask what it wants." Meng Chang's mother reminded her son many times that "Zhaoyuan is not available, and Chang does not listen." ”
Therefore, when the Shu army "originated in Chengdu", Meng Chang sent the prime minister to practice for him. Wang Zhaoyuan was like a drama, "holding iron ruyi in his hand, commanding the military, and comparing himself to Zhuge Liang." After drinking drunkenly, he braged to the prime minister: "Please tell shengshang that my trip will not only reject the enemy outside the gate of the country, but also lead these '20,000 or 30,000 evil children with carved faces' to take advantage of the victory and pursue, and it is easy to seize the Central Plains!" ”
Wang Zhaoyuan, who was not afraid of flashing his tongue, attacked the Song army, three battles and three defeats, and fled in a daze, leaving the generals to stick to the sword gate pass, abandoning the armor to hide in the people's homes, and finally being hunted down by the Song army and taken to Beijing.
Meng Chang was frightened when he learned that "Zhaoyuan and others were captured one after another", and "sent gold to recruit troops." After the formation of the team, Meng Chang put the heavy responsibility of "leading tens of thousands of elite troops to guard the sword gate" on the shoulders of prince Meng Xuanzhe.
Meng Xuanzhe was even more unreliable than Wang Zhaoyuan, he "never practiced martial arts", while the deputy marshals Li Tingjue and Zhang Hui'an were "cowardly and ignorant." "The three rookies lead tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and they can only turn their subordinates into tens of thousands of fat pigs." The most ridiculous thing is that the prince regarded the expedition as a tourist, "Xuan Zhe left Chengdu, but with concubines, musical instruments and servants for dozens of generations, playing in the morning and night, not sympathetic to the military and government." The troops only arrived in Mianzhou, and Meng Xuanzhe learned that "the Song division has broken the sword gate", and simply fled from the battle, "returning to Dongchuan." What was even more heinous was that he used the excuse of not leaving a grain of grain for the Song army, "so he burned the house and left." ”
The Song army was like a broken bamboo, "The Shu soldiers were in a rout, and the general Shuai Duo was captured." "Meng Chang" was horrified and asked for advice. In view of the decades of arrogance and lasciviousness of the Later Shu generals, "and the encounter with the enemy, we cannot send a target for our eastward direction." Now if the fortress is solidified, who will serve me", he finally rejected the strategy of "gathering and sticking to it" proposed by the veteran general, and in order to avoid the disaster of the people in Shuzhong from being burned again, he sent the prime minister to present the Surrender Table to the Song Army. At this time, only 66 days had passed since The Song Dynasty emperor had decreed that Shu had been written.
5. Insulting wives and mothers
After Meng Chang surrendered to the Song Dynasty, he took his family and demoted officials into Beijing, was named the Duke of Qin, and lived a life of happiness and thoughtlessness with Liu Chan at the end of the Han Dynasty. However, as the king of the subjugated country, Meng Chang was humiliated far more than liu chan.
Lady Huarui, who was favored by Meng Chang, the national color tianxiang, followed him on his way into Bieliang and created a painting comparable to Li Qingzhao's "Picking Mulberries. On the way: "The heart of the first departure from Shu Dao will be broken, and the hatred will be long." Spring is like a year. Smell cuckoos all the time right away. The three thousand palace ladies are all flower-like, and the concubines are the most delicate. This time to go to the Heavenly Dynasty, only fear that the king will favor biased. ”
After entering Beijing, in the face of Song Taizu's request for improvised poetry, Lady Huarui did not hesitate to condense the hatred of the national enemy into a poem and blurted out: "The flag is lowered on the king's city, where do the concubines know in the deep palace?" 140,000 people were disarmed, and not a single one of them was a boy!"
Meng Chang's mother, Empress Li, accompanied Meng Chang to Jingshi, and Song Taizu respected her so much that he repeatedly asked her to be carried into the palace in a palanquin to appease her, expressing his willingness to send her back to Shudi when the conditions were ripe. Empress Li made it clear that she did not want to return to Shu and hoped to return to her hometown of Taiyuan. Because Taiyuan had not yet been restored, Song Taizu stated that once Taiyuan was conquered, he would fulfill Empress Li's wishes.
Paradoxically, meng Chang arrived in Beijing only seven days ago, and inexplicably "died in Tokyo, at the age of forty-seven." Song Taizu held a solemn memorial ceremony for him: "On the fifth day of the abolition of the dynasty, Sufu sent mourning in the Great Ming Hall, gave Shang Shu Ling, posthumously crowned the King of Chu, and Honored Filial Piety", and the official government was responsible for all funeral expenses.
When the strong Empress Li heard the bad news of her son's violent death, she did not shed a single tear, "with wine: 'Ru cannot die in the society, and greed for life to this day.'" So I endure the dead, and I am in Charge. Now that I am dead, I am alive! So the hunger strike began," a few days later. ”
Song Taizu "smelled and hurt", and let her be buried in Luoyang "with Changju". After the solemn handling of the funeral of Meng Chang and Empress Li's mother and son, Song Taizu naturally included Lady Huarui, who had lost her husband and mother-in-law, into the harem.
Throughout Meng Chang's life, his father left him a rich land of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Land of Shu formed a natural barrier for him, the country was rich and the people were rich, and at the beginning of his reign, he could also exert himself to govern, "bowing to the government of the country." However, in the middle and late period of his reign, he fell into the strange circle of food and clothing and lust, arrogance and lasciviousness, "pampering concubines with good fortune, trusting the vulgar materials", and playing a good hand of cards in a sloppy manner. ”
Poetry Jingyun: "There is no beginning, and there is no end to the fresh (no one has no good beginning, but few people can start well and end well)." The reason why Meng Chang sentenced the two people in the period before and after his reign was that he completely forgot his original intention of serving the people by being diligent in government, and threw the "Official Proverbs" that had originally admonished officials to the outside of the cloud of nine clouds, with inconsistent words and deeds, contradictory in appearance, and transformed into a typical two-faced person, ending up with the fate of death and destruction of the country, which made people sigh and ponder. I don't know if Meng Chang's famous words that warned future generations in "Afang GongFu" sounded in his ears before he was violent: "The Qin people do not have time to mourn themselves, and the posterity mourns." Future generations mourn and do not learn from it, and make future generations mourn later generations! ”
【About the author】Xu Yunhui, male, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Yunnan Normal University in 1984 and is now a senior lecturer at Baoshan No.1 Middle School Education Group in Yunnan Province. He has published two monographs and published more than 500,000 words in literary journals at or above the provincial level.
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