As one of the few famous generals of the Northern Song Dynasty, Di Qing's life can be used as both an inspirational model and a victim of the tragedy of the times. In him, you can see what kind of height a small person can reach after continuous efforts. It can also be seen that in the big times and the big environment, if you choose the path that is contrary to the times, no matter how good and hard you work, the tragedy is already doomed.
Born into poverty, Di Qing joined the army as a criminal, he repeatedly defeated the Western Xia invasion, quelled the rebellion of Nong Zhigao, and achieved great military achievements in his life, and the highest official rank achieved the privy council, which was the highest official of the Privy Council, the highest military institution of the Song Dynasty. During the Two Song Dynasties, few people could hold this official position as a military general. It can be said that Di Qing achieved the ceiling of a military general in the Song Dynasty, which emphasized literature and light martial arts, which can be called legendary.
Di Qing's character and personality are also very good, he is meticulous, cautious, courageous and strategic, and his opponents are also very good, and he is deeply loved by the soldiers. Emperor Renzong of Song also admired him, calling him "Guan Zhang of The Transformation" and pushing him out of public opinion to serve in the Privy Council.
However, such a person was repeatedly attacked and impeached by the civilian bureaucracy, and finally removed from his official position as privy councillor, and soon after he died of depression at the age of 49.
Di Qing
From Di Qing's desire to be the Governor of Weizhou, to the appointment of deputy envoy to the Privy Council, to the promotion to the position of Privy Councillor, every time there would be a courtier who would jump out to oppose and form a group to say bad things about him, and the reasons were basically the same.
To say that Di Qing was born into the ranks, vulgar and despicable, and that the ministers of the DPRK were ashamed to be with him; to say that he was a military general, and to be such a big official would lead to the contempt and contempt of the barbarians from all sides; and the heavy use of military generals would destroy the law of the ancestors. He even opened his eyes and said nonsense, saying that Di Qing, who had made great achievements in battle, could not fight a war, and had no merit to take.
This last reason is really amazing, let anyone feel very outrageous, you are not equivalent to saying that Kobe Bryant can't play basketball, Messi can't play football?
After Di Qing became the Privy Councillor, this wave of people could not sit still, and in order to pull him off the horse, they did everything they could to spread all kinds of gossip.
For example, some people say that they saw the dog in Di Qing's family grow dragon horns; Di Qing's family emitted a strange light at night, which was also the case before The Later Liang Taizu Zhu Wen became emperor in the Five Dynasties period; others said that they saw Di Qing wearing a yellow robe in the Xiangguo Temple, which was a trespass, when the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin yellow robe was added, Di Qing also wore a yellow robe, and his wolf ambitions were clearly revealed.
Di Qing in the TV series "Qing Ping Le"
These rumors all implied that Di Qing had a disobedient heart and wanted to rebel, so many people began to play, demanding that Di Qing be removed from his position as a privy councillor and drive him out of the capital, including wen Yanbo and Ouyang Xiu.
As a result, Song Renzong could not bear the pressure, and dismissed Di Qing and rushed to Chen Prefecture to become Zhizhou. But this matter is not over, the prime minister Wen Yanbo will send eunuchs to Di Qing's house every month to greet him, twice a month, the thunder does not move, making Di Qing particularly afraid, as soon as he hears that the people of the imperial court are coming, it is like a bird of fright, worried about whether the imperial court is going to further punish him, under this huge mental pressure, less than half a year, Di Qing will be depressed, and a generation of famous people will fall.
Why did Di Qing have such an encounter? Why did the civilian-official clique attack Di Qing so viciously and frequently? Speaking of this, I believe that everyone has a number in mind, because Di Qing is a military general, but he was born in the Song Dynasty, which emphasizes literature and light martial arts. Xiao Hong, a female writer in the Republic of China period, said: "The greatest misfortune and pain in my life are all because I am a woman", and the biggest misfortune and pain in Di Qing's life is because he is a military general.
Di Qing's tragedy is not only his personal tragedy, but also the tragedy of all the military generals of the Great Song Dynasty, and the root cause of this tragedy is the policy established by the Song Dynasty to respect literature and suppress martial arts, and emphasize literature over martial arts.
We all know that the Song Dynasty emphasized literature over military force, attached importance to civilian officials, and belittled military generals. In fact, not only that, in the Song Dynasty, the emphasis on literature and light force was not just a simple policy, it was a set of perfect Song national policies, ancestral family laws, and the foundation of the country designed from the perspectives of ideology, laws and regulations, system design, and social atmosphere.
The first to determine this policy was the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, and later strengthened by the Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi, which was inherited and continuously developed by the future emperors of the Song Dynasty.
Song Taizu and Song Taizong felt the situation of the division of the feudal towns since the late Tang Dynasty, and also personally experienced the chaotic world of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which had a very great impact on their psychology. For more than 70 years, there have been more than a dozen countries and dozens of emperors. At that time, the whole social atmosphere advocated force, morality was degraded, and the sanctity of the emperor was gone, so that some people shouted: Heavenly Son, soldiers and strong horses should do it, rather have a kind of Yes!
What is divinely granted by kings, what is blessed, and what is based on the people, I do not believe it, it is all nonsense. As long as I am strong and strong, I can become an emperor, who is strong and who is reasonable, even The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin himself came to power through a mutiny.
It is precisely because of this that Zhao Kuangyin after coming to power is very afraid, what is he afraid of? He was afraid that others would also rely on force to overthrow him, and he was afraid that the Song Dynasty would become the sixth generation after five generations. Therefore, in order to avoid the emergence of this situation, the national policy of advocating literature and suppressing martial arts and emphasizing literature over military force has been released.
Song Taizu said: "The prime minister needs to use a reader" and "wants the military minister to read as much as possible." He vigorously practiced civil rule and avoided the dictatorship of military generals. Professor You Biao, professor of the History Department of Beijing Normal University and an expert in the study of Song history, said that the purpose of Song Taizu's advocacy of civil rule was not simply to improve the status of the civil servants, but more to rebuild the ruling order, reverse the unbalanced civil-military relations during the Five Dynasties period, and straighten out the way of honoring and inferiority and honoring the monarchs, so as to consolidate the Great Song Dynasty.
In order to implement civil rule, it was necessary to select a large number of literati, so the Song Dynasty began to expand the number of scholars. Don't look at the imperial examination system was arose during the Sui and Tang dynasties, but it was really carried forward in the Song Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, only a few dozen people were admitted to each examination, and the official positions awarded were not high. By the time of Emperor Taizong of Song, he began to expand the number of students admitted to each examination to several hundred, and also granted higher and more important official positions.
In order to encourage people to read and take the examination, Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong also specially wrote a "persuasive poem", and the famous sentences that everyone has heard are "there is a golden house in the book" and "there is a Yan Ruyu in the book" that come from here.
As a result, the literati who were born in the imperial court gradually began to occupy most of the official positions in the imperial court, and even military attachés such as privy councillors and slightly appeased envoys were also held by literati, and military generals could only serve as their deputies and were subordinate to civilian officials. The Song Dynasty scholar group began to form and control the power of the imperial court, so Wen Yanbo could justifiably say things like "the emperor and the scholar rule the world together".
After years of development, in the song renzong period, the entire social atmosphere changed, and the value evaluation standards of society underwent a fundamental change, and the evaluation of a person's status and reputation in society no longer relied on military merit, but on cultural level. The status of martial artists in people's hearts is constantly declining, and they are even despised and despised by people. "A good man is not a soldier, a good iron is not a nail", it is said that this saying came from the Song Dynasty.
Di Qing pleaded with Han Qi because of the old general Jiao Yong's offense, saying that Jiao Yong had military merit and was a good boy, and asked Han Qi to let him go, but Han Qi did not give Di Qing any face, saying: "The person who sings outside the Donghua Gate is a good child, is this a good son?" Then, in front of Di Qing, he killed Jiao Yong. Although this sentence is saying Jiao Yong, Di Qing, who is also a martial general, after listening to it, his heart is estimated to be very unpleasant.
Han Qi
The Northern Song Dynasty minister Yin Su even said: "Although the generals of the Yuandengdi restored hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the thistle, and the strong ones were captured in the poor desert, the triumphant song was returned, and the JieTai Temple was dedicated, and his glory was also unattainable." ”
These words are difficult for you to hear during the Han and Tang Dynasties, when people attached importance to civil rule, but did not give up force, "Why don't boys take Wu hooks and charge Guan shan fifty states." Please go to ling yan pavilion for the time being, if a scholar is a ten thousand households? ”
Therefore, it is conceivable that Di Qing, who is a military general and has also made great achievements in battle, will naturally be ostracized by the civilian official clique in such an environment, which in addition to worrying that Di Qing will threaten the ruling interests of the civilian clique, but more importantly, in order to maintain the national policy of advocating literature and suppressing martial arts and emphasizing literature over martial arts, which has been formulated since the founding of the Song Dynasty.
For example, Ouyang Xiu, who was a Hanlin scholar at the time, attacked Di Qing the most fiercely, and even slandered and insulted Di Qing. He gave Song Renzong several copies of the recital and asked Song Renzong to remove Di Qing from his position as a privy councillor. The central meaning is that Di Qing, as a military general, became the highest commander of the country's highest military organization, in charge of the military power of the imperial court, and was deeply loved by the generals.
Ouyang Xiu
Why did Ouyang Xiu attack Di Qing like this? What vendetta and what resentment? In fact, the two of them have neither a personal grudge nor a conflict of interest.
Ouyang Xiu did this only to maintain the existing system of using literature to control the martial arts in the imperial court, and he believed that the military generals holding military power was not a good thing for the country and the emperor, and the chaotic world of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a bloody lesson. The "History of the New Five Dynasties" is Ouyang Xiu's major, he is very clear about this history, he saw too many examples of military generals at that time holding heavy troops, not listening to the central orders, and even raising troops to rebel. I believe he can understand very well why Song Taizu and Song Taizong had to go to great lengths to implement the national policy of emphasizing literature over military force.
The chancellor Wen Yanbo also suggested that Emperor Renzong of Song remove Di Qing from his position as a privy councillor, and Song Renzong defended Di Qing, saying that Di Qing was a loyal vassal. Wen Yanbo said directly: Wasn't Emperor Taizu a loyal vassal of Zhou Shizong at that time? But the military intelligence, so there is a change in Chen Qiao. Song Renzong did not speak after listening. It is estimated that Wen Yanbo said in his heart, did your grandfather not have a number in your heart when he came to power?
Hiroshi Fumihiko
Di Qing found Wen Yanbo and wanted to argue, and Wen Yanbo directly said: Without him, the imperial court is suspicious. I don't care if you're loyal or not, whether those gossip is true or not, and I don't listen to your arguments, but as a military general, you hold military power and run the Privy Council, this is a fact, this is enough, the court doubts you, you have to step down. In the end, Di Qing was deposed from his position as a privy councillor, and half a year later, he was depressed.
The national policy of suppressing literature and emphasizing literature over martial arts did indeed make the Song Dynasty basically not have any rebellion and dictatorship of military generals, and the Song Dynasty did not appear short-lived, becoming the sixth generation after five generations, and also caused the prosperity of science and technology and culture in the Song Dynasty, Mr. Chen Yinke said: "The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years, and it was created in the world of Zhao and Song." Unfortunately, overcorrection also made the Song Dynasty weak in force, repeatedly lost foreign wars, and the people gradually lost the style of martial arts.
When Song Taizu and Song Taizong were formulating the national policy of advocating literature and suppressing martial arts, emphasizing literature and emphasizing literature over martial arts, later Song Dynasty monarchs may not have thought of the negative consequences of this when they implemented and deepened this national policy, but in order to consolidate their own rule, they still resolutely did so. It can only be said that all the gifts of fate have been secretly marked with prices, and what can achieve you can still destroy you.
I just don't know whether these people, when desperately defending this system, thought that the Great Song Dynasty that they had painstakingly managed would encounter such a catastrophe and humiliation as the Jingkang Revolution in the future, and from then on, not to mention the recovery of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, the restoration of the old frontiers of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and even the large areas of land north of the Huai River would no longer be owned by themselves, and finally they could only survive in the southeast half of the rivers and mountains.