Recently, Xiao Fo has been chasing the Northern Song Court Drama "Qing Ping Le", and he likes some ministers who leave the country, such as Fan Zhongyun, but some ministers are very annoying, such as Xia Zhen. Xia Chun inquired about the affairs of the harem as a courtier, and even participated in the harem battles, allowing his concubines to make war wealth - selling grain to Western Xia. However, it was such a person that Song Renzong actually wanted to give him the title of "Wenzheng" after his death.
Speaking of the nickname "Wenzheng", many people have heard of it, after all, the Qing government gave Zeng Guofan the nickname "Wenzheng", and many later generations called him "Zeng Wenzhenggong". After the death of a person, the descendants give an evaluation of the text, but in ancient China, the identity of the emperor and empress and the prince and the minister is not ordinary, so after their death, the title is given by the imperial court to summarize the person's life's contribution to the country.
According to records, the history of the imperial court giving titles to emperors and princes and ministers can be traced back to the early Western Zhou Dynasty Of the Zhou Dynasty, and by the time of King Mu of Zhou, the practice of giving titles to the deceased with higher status had become more common. The name of the name can not be given indiscriminately, the word of the name must be highly summarized the life of the deceased, is a very prudent thing, after all, people have good or bad, words also have, so the name also has "beautiful (shangchen)", "ping 谥", "evil 谥 (下谥)", but every normal person naturally hopes to be praised, the pursuit of "beautiful" is extremely important, especially in the Song Dynasty, "the use of the word for the name contains a strong likes and dislikes, with a completely different value judgment", the Song Dynasty literati doctors especially value their own reputation, right" "Beauty" is extremely sought after, of course, it is very concerned about whether the title chosen by the imperial court for the deceased person is biased. During the Tang Dynasty, the literati were unusually sought after "Wenzheng", and in the Song Dynasty, so the emperor of the Tang and Song dynasties was very cautious when giving the deceased a title.
When Song Renzong deliberately gave the title of "Wenzheng" to Xia Zhen, the opposition in the court was incessant, although the emperor had to follow the provisions of the etiquette law on the one hand when giving the minister a title, but at the same time he would express his likes and dislikes from his own standpoint, it is not difficult to see that Song Renzong should appreciate Xia Zhen more.
However, the hundred officials above the court did not think that Xia Zhen was worthy of the word "Wenzheng" in terms of being an official, "Wenzheng" meant that this person was close to being perfect, and Xia Zhen had a bad reputation among the ministers at that time. He did not govern his family well, and his family affairs were full of storms; he was extremely enterprising, and liked to hand over his colleagues to strengthen his own power; he was not filial piety, and quietly returned to the capital during the period of Ding Worry to prepare for his own uprising... That is to say, Xia Chun has many problems with this person. The ministers gave Song Renzong a number of slurs and opposed the use of "Wenzheng" as Xia Chen's nickname, and among the people who opposed it, Sima Guang reacted particularly fiercely, repeatedly opposing it, "Wen is the highest evaluation among the titles, even if it is the talent of Zhou Gong, it is still unattainable, and Xia Zheng is definitely not allowed to take this title."
At that time, there was a lot of discussion about Xia Renzong's name, believing that its character was adulterous and evil, and if Song Renzong insisted on giving "Wenzheng" to Xia Zhen, then according to the upright atmosphere of the scholars at that time, it was bound to die with Song Renzong, after all, Song Renzong would definitely not demote them to their posts because they opposed this matter, not to mention that the Northern Song Dynasty literati were notoriously fearless, and taking ten thousand steps back, Song Renzong's disposition of them would actually increase their reputation.
Under the pressure of his courtiers, Emperor Renzong of Song chose to back down, changing Xia's title to "Wenzhuang" (文庄), "(Xia Zhen)卒, giving Taishi and Zhongshu Ling." Giving Wenzheng, Liu Changyan said: "The world is evil, and it is not possible to be righteous." 'Change the name of Wenzhuang'.
Reference: Song History Volume 283