In all the dynasties and dynasties, there will be some explicit rules or conventions of the old rules, which are called old systems, stories or allusions in the history books. Some old rules regulate the behavior of officials to a certain extent and to a certain extent, and restrain the abuse of power, and the Song Dynasty has such old rules. The Song Dynasty strictly constrained the power of officials, and officials did not dare to eat and drink in hotels.
Officials do not enter liquor stores
In the Song Dynasty, although the catering industry in Kaifeng was very developed in the capital, and large and small taverns were all over the streets and alleys, officials did not dare to eat and drink in taverns, because once officials were staggered in the taverns, regardless of public funds or private funds, they would immediately be impeached by Yushi, either dismissed or disciplined.
According to the "Guitian Record", Lu Zongdao, the teacher of the prince in the era of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, once came to his hometown, because the wine utensils at home were not complete, he had to change into civilian clothes and lead the guests to the RenheLou Hotel to entertain, mixing among the gentry and high-rollers, dodging and dodging. It just so happened that on this day, Song Zhenzong had an urgent matter to summon him, and when he arrived at the palace late, Song Zhenzong split his head and asked, "Why did you enter the restaurant privately?" He also said: "The secretary is an official, and I am afraid that I will be bombed by the imperial history." "If lu Zongdao hadn't told the truth, he would have had a good attitude towards sin, and he almost lost his hat."
Do not take the taste in the four directions
The princes and nobles of the Song Dynasty and those in power were not allowed to demand local specialties and delicacies from various places, in order to prevent tyranny. According to the "Shao's Records of Hearing and Seeing", Song Renzong was once ill, and the empress wanted to find a specialty in the Jianghuai area, bad white fish, to supplement the emperor's body, but searched all over the capital and found nothing. When she was frowning, it happened that the wife of the prime minister Lü Yijian went to the palace to ask the empress for peace, and the empress remembered that Lü Yijian was from Shouzhou (present-day Shou County, Anhui), and that there might be one in the family, so she said to Lady Lü: "Good food is bad Huai white fish, the ancestral old system, can not take food taste in the four directions, there is no way to cause it." Xianggong Jia Shouzhou, there should be. ”
Song Renzong Zhao Zhen
Lü Yijian's family really existed, and after Lady Lü returned, she quickly sent the bad white fish to the palace, but she fulfilled the empress's wish. It can be seen that an inconspicuous old rule, as long as it is well enforced, can control even the mouth of the supreme emperor.
No one shall kill the doctors and the speakers of the letters
The old rule of the Song Dynasty, which lasted the longest and enforced the best effect, was the oath of Song Taizu, which everyone knew: "You must not kill the scholars and doctors and the people who write the words." "Although this oath is nothing more than an ancestral family rule, it is better enforced than any policy law."
For more than three hundred years before and after the Song Dynasty, it is indeed rare to open a knife to the literati doctors and those who criticize the government, and even many times because of this old rule, they have changed the order and left people under the knife. When Su Dongpo was almost condemned for opposing Song Shenzong's reforms, just as the butcher knife was about to be raised, Song Shenzong suddenly thought of the ancestral admonition that "you must not kill scholars and doctors and people who write and talk about things", and finally had to suppress the anger in his heart, and took the initiative to persuade Yushi to demote Su Dongpo to a demotion. Su Dongpo also picked up a life from Huangquan Road because of this old rule.