[Daily reading poem] Bai Juyi: "Three thousand resentful women went out of the harem, and four hundred death row prisoners returned to prison." "Release death row inmates to go home for the New Year, return as scheduled after the 400 Death Row Day, Li Shimin: all are exempt from death!"
The Tang Dynasty is a dynasty full of humanity, whether it is the ordinary years, or the New Year festival, we will still feel the prosperous weather and heart-warming details of the time through historical facts.
Bai Juyi, a realist poet of the Tang Dynasty, left us with many reverie historical moments.
Bai Juyi (772~846), also spelled Lotte, was a native of Taiyuan and born in Xinzheng, Henan. He was one of the most famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, and his representative poems include "Long Hate Song", "Selling Charcoal", "Pipa Line" and so on. Bai Juyi also advocated the Xinlefu movement with Yuan Shu, leaving behind many popular narrative poems, and his fifty poems "Xinlefu" have an epic style.
As a feudal literati, he would definitely make a gesture towards the imperial deeds. In the Seven Virtues Dance of Xinle fu, he highly praised the great achievements of Tang Taizong Li Shimin:
Seven German Dances, Seven German Songs,
Passed down from WuDe to Yuanhe.
Yuan and Xiaochen Bai Juyi,
Watching the dance and listening to the song knows that it is happy,
Happy finally made his own business.
Emperor Taizong raised a volunteer army,
Bai Xu Huang Ding Two Jing.
Capture Dou SihaiQing,
Twenty has four achievements.
Nine times out of twenty is the throne,
Thirty to five to peace.
What is the speed of the theory of achievement?
Speed in the push heart to put the belly.
The remains of the dead are scattered,
The hungry sell their sons and share the ransom.
Wei Zheng dreamed of weeping in the middle of the night,
Zhang Jin mourned and cried.
Three thousand bitter women released from the palace,
Four hundred death row inmates returned to prison.
…………
Indeed, Emperor Taizong of Tang made great contributions to the prosperity and development of the early Tang Dynasty. As the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, because his succession to the throne was somewhat "wrong", after sitting on the emperor's throne, he had to redouble his hard work to dissolve the "sin" in his heart.
After Tang Taizong came to power, he made people honest and capable, knew how to make good use of them; opened up the way of speech, respected life, exercised self-restraint, and humbly accepted advice; and adopted policies such as taking agriculture as the foundation, practicing strict economy, recuperating, reviving culture and education, and perfecting the examination system, so that a stable situation appeared in society; and vigorously calmed down external troubles, respected the customs of border tribes, stabilized the frontier, and finally won the ideal situation of great rule over the world. Because its era name was "Zhenguan" (627-649), the history is called "Zhenguan Zhizhi". The reign of Zhenguan laid an important foundation for the later heyday of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, pushing the traditional Chinese agricultural society to its heyday.
In addition to the major affairs of governing the country, Li Shimin, who killed his brother and forced his father, also spent a lot of effort on the image project of being close to the people in order to save his influence. For example, in Bai Ju's poem
"Three thousand resentful women out of the harem, four hundred death row inmates returned to prison"
, that is, there is a historical source.
The emperor's harem is definitely a mysterious place, the staff is mainly female, in addition to the emperor's big and small wives, there are all kinds of management and service personnel (palace women) who serve the palace, they all entered the palace at a young age, isolated from the outside world, no relatives of their own, let alone looking for their own love. Once upon a time, many palace ladies were like this in the old death palace. The Middle Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Shu's "Palace"
"The ancient palace is rare, and the palace flowers are lonely and red." The white-headed palace lady was there, sitting idly and saying Xuanzong."
, is the best example. However, Li Shimin did not dominate the youth of the palace women in the palace to the end like other non-emperors, but at the right time, gave them a new way out.
In the second year of Zhenguan (628), Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered the release of more than 3,000 palace women and ordered them to "ask for the couple" and let them find their own happiness and start a family on their own.
People can understand having feelings for the people around them, and Li Shimin also has amazing actions for death row inmates who are sitting in prison and waiting to be decided.
In the sixth year of Zhenguan (633), the waxing moon is approaching, and the snow is drifting in the sky, and there is peace on earth. Tang Taizong Li Shimin was in a very good mood, and in the face of the prosperous scene of the traffic on Chang'an Avenue busy with the New Year, he suddenly thought of another type of person---- death row inmates in prison, what were they thinking at this moment?
Therefore, Li Shimin had a sudden whim and drove to the prison outside Chang'an City to inspect. At that time, there were nearly 400 death row inmates across the country, all concentrated in DaliSi Prison. After entering the cell, Tang Taizong had zero-distance contact with the death row prisoners, and talked with the prisoners with the dignity of the emperor. In the face of the emperor's warmth, those courtiers and evildoers who once killed people without blinking an eye were all full of repentance, and everyone said that they had committed capital crimes, and that they had more than enough to die and were not wronged. Each one confessed to the guilt well and thought that their sentence was fair. Tang Taizong was very touched after hearing this, so he said to the death row prisoners: "I have made a gentleman's covenant with you, it is winter, let you go back for the Spring Festival, reunite with your family, and after the autumn harvest next year, we will gather here again." The four hundred death row inmates listened, and they were stunned there, and did not react for half a day, and then, one by one, they wept with gratitude and went home happily for the New Year. After the autumn of the following year, all the death row inmates returned on time, not a single one less. As soon as Tang Taizong was happy, he pardoned them for their capital sins.
("Xin Wei, the emperor's relatives were prisoners, and when he saw the deceased, Min Zhi, even if he returned home, he would die in the autumn.") Still the death row inmates of the world, all of them are dispatched, so that they can come to the Capital Division. See Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 197. ）
Tang Taizong's move not only did not condone the crime, but on the contrary won the hearts and minds of the people. At the end of the Zhenguan period, it is said that there were only a dozen death row inmates in the country, and at that time the population of the country was at least tens of millions, and such a low crime rate at least proves that the power of human nature is much stronger than that of prisons.
Bai Juyi, who can find such material, as a realist poet, certainly will not miss it, so he has the good sentence that has been passed down to this day: "Three thousand complaining women are out of the harem, and four hundred death row prisoners return to prison." ”
The emperor can have such boldness and power, and others may not be able to imitate it. However, there are exceptions to this.
For example, there is a 23-year-old contemporary figure of Bai Juyi, Lü Yuanbing, who is the assassin of Puzhou, who also did a great good deed left by Qingshi.
Lü Yuanyi (749–820), courtesy name Jingfu. A native of Dongping, Yun Prefecture (present-day Dongping County, Shandong). In the early years of Tang Dezong's construction, he was elected as a xianliang and served as a lieutenant of An Yi and a judge of Changchun Palace. After quelling Li Huaiguang's rebellion, Emperor Dezong issued an edict ordering The Prince of Hebei To stay with Lü Yuanyi to assist him. Soon, he was appointed as the imperial attendant of the temple and the right secretary wailang. Zeng Guan, who was a servant of the official department, changed to a guest of the crown prince due to illness, and posthumously presented the official Shangshu.
During the Spring Festival of the first year of Emperor Dezong of Tang's reign, Lü Yuanyi, who was then the assassin of Puzhou, went Chinese New Year's Eve to check on the prisoners held in the prison. The prisoners are also human, the Spring Festival is coming, they also miss their families, seeing the presence of Lord Shi Shi in person, the prisoners in prison asked Lord Lü: "Our parents are still at home, tomorrow is the New Year, but unfortunately they can't greet them for the New Year." As he spoke, the prisoners burst into tears. Lü Yuanbing was very sympathetic to them, announced on the spot that they would be relieved of their torture equipment, let them go home for the New Year, and agreed with these people that they must return to prison to continue serving their sentences in the next year.
At that time, the officials guarding the prison came forward to dissuade Lü Yuanyi, saying that "thieves must not be indulged." Lu Yuanbin said: "I treat them with a loyal heart, and there will be no problem." "When the holiday was over, when the agreed time had arrived, all the prisoners really returned, and none of them were delayed.
The additional gain of Lü Yuanbing's move was that many outlaws deeply felt that he was a good person and did not want to be an enemy of him, and never committed crimes in Puzhou from then on.
Why does Lu Yuanbin have such self-confidence? Because he saw the hearts of the prisoners, there was also ethical affection, and from them he saw that the conscience of these people was not broken, and he could completely persuade them to be good according to the situation. Therefore, he would be relieved to let them go home for the New Year, reunite with their families, and feel the joy of heaven, so that the guilt and the idea of rehabilitation in the prisoners' hearts would be even stronger.
Because Lü Yuanping is willing to believe in the goodness of human nature and dare to let the prisoners enjoy the happiness of the Spring Festival, it is really possible for the people to enjoy the carefree joy of the Spring Festival. This is the real charm of the Tang Dynasty, which is a civilization that is more fascinating than poetry.