Kou Zhun was a generation of famous ministers of the Song Dynasty, after Emperor Zhenzong ascended the throne, a great war broke out in Song and Liao, the Song Dynasty was in danger, and under the situation of the Manchu Dynasty's wen and wu seeking peace, the prime minister Kou Zhun tried his best to defy the public opinion and forced the new emperor Zhenzong to march in person. Kou Zhun presided over the frontier wars, defeated the Liao army, forced the Liao state to make peace with the Song Dynasty, and the two sides made an alliance of Liaoyuan.
With such a meritorious achievement, Kou Zhun's position in the hearts of Song Zhenzong and the people of the world can be imagined, and he not only became the emperor's most trusted prime minister, but also became a sage who has been revered by the world for thousands of years.
However, even such an outstanding name Kou Zhun could not withstand the power of "black powder", and he finally fell into the hands of Ding Shu, was demoted out of the capital in a daze, and finally died lonely in Leizhou, which was thousands of miles away from his hometown.
So, who is Ding Zhi?
In fact, to say, Ding Zhun is still "pink to black" to Kou Zhun, he once regarded Kou Zhun as an idol and respected him very much, but one of the things that Kou Zhun did made Ding Zhun hate Kou Zhun from then on.
Ding said that the image of this person is very complicated, the first half of his life can be called a capable official, but in the second half of his life he became a traitorous villain who brought calamity to the country and the people.
Ding Zhi was gifted and intelligent, and from an early age he had the title of genius, he was widely involved in literature and poetry, piano and chess paintings, celestial divination, all of which were well known, and people praised him as "Wen Chai Han (Yue), Liu (Zong Yuan), poetry like Du Fu". It is said that Ding Zhi has the ability to never forget, no matter how many words of the article, he can remember it as long as he reads it once.
Ding Zhi's father, who was an official, did not "hurt Zhongyong", and he found a famous teacher to teach Ding Shu carefully, and cultivated Ding Shu into a famous talent.
Ding Zhi later participated in the imperial examination, and in one fell swoop, he entered the DPRK as an official. Emperor Zhenzong of Song heard of Ding's fame, so he was very appreciative of Ding, and often summoned Ding to answer. Ding Zhi replied every time, his thinking was quick, his reaction was extremely fast, and his answers were often humorous and interesting, which made Zhenzong laugh.
Once Song Zhenzong and the concubines were fishing together, and after half a day of fishing, they did not catch a single fish, Zhenzong's face was unhappy, and the courtiers around him did not dare to come forward, and the atmosphere became more and more solemn. At this moment, the young Ding Zhi stepped forward to give a poem: "The warbler frightens the phoenix and wears the flowers, and the fish is afraid of the dragon's face and catches late." Song Zhenzong listened to Long Yan Dayue and praised Ding Zhicai for thinking about people.
From this point, it can be seen that Ding Zhi has outstanding ability and the ability to figure out the Holy Will, but at this stage, Ding Zhi has still done a lot of practical things to benefit the country and the people.
Ding Yu has a very good set of management, he is good at adjusting manpower and allocating resources, which is very rare in the group of scholars. During the great Zhongxiang fu years, the palace caught fire in the palace, and the fire was very large, burning many palace rooms. Zhenzong let Ding Zhi preside over the reconstruction work, which was originally a huge project, to first clean up the ruins, and then transport materials, but also to design and construct, a set of down often costly, labor and money hurt the people.
However, Ding Yu skillfully used the resources to the maximum, first digging a ditch in front of the palace, burning the excavated soil into bricks, and then diverting water into the ditch to act as a canal to transport materials; the original ruins were all used to fill the ditch and restore the road after the construction was completed. In this way, it not only speeds up the reconstruction of the palace, but also saves material manpower, reflecting the management wisdom of Ding Zhi. The history books record that the construction was "three in one fell swoop, and the provincial cost was hundreds of millions of dollars.". ("Dream Creek Pen Talk")
In addition, Ding Shu also has a lot of political achievements in other fields. At that time, the relations between the ethnic minorities in the southwest and the Song Dynasty were becoming increasingly tense, and the Liao army in the north was looking at the tiger and preparing to take advantage of the chaos to go south. Ding Zhi was ordered to go to the southwest to suppress the rebellion, and after his arrival, he did not use force at the first time, but negotiated with the ethnic minorities in the southwest. Taking advantage of the shortage of salt and grain among ethnic minorities, Ding Yu proposed bartering with them and exchanging materials for horses. Ding Also brought in food, vigorously provided disaster relief in famine-stricken areas, and recruited refugees into the army. Soon the civil strife among the ethnic minorities stopped and the southwest stabilized. Ding zhi let the troops of refugees practice all day, and the Liao army thought that the Song army had long been prepared, so it abandoned the plan to invade the south.
Judging from Ding's political achievements, it can be seen that he has excellent ability in the field of governance, and he often uses political wisdom to achieve his goals at a very small cost. Because of this, Song Zhenzong attached great importance to Ding Shu and constantly promoted him, and finally made him the deputy prime minister.
At this time, Kou Zhun was the prime minister, and Ding Zhun had a good relationship with Kou Zhun, who was both Ding Zhi's superior and Ding Shu's idol and friend. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ding is a "fan" of Kou Zhun.
At first, Kou Zhun also appreciated Ding Shu and thought that he was a capable official, but with the continuous rise of Ding Shu's official position and the expansion of power, Kou Zhun began to realize the other side of Ding Shu.
Ding Zhi is intelligent and quick-witted, and is good at guessing the Holy Will, so he is destined to be not the same kind of person as Kou Zhun. Ding Zhi also made many achievements at the beginning, but since he became prime minister, he began to pander to the holy will regardless of principle. Zhenzong liked the palace, and Ding Zhi wrote to ask Zhenzong to build a large number of buildings and expand the palace. Zhenzong was interested in Taoism and immortality, and Ding Zhi called himself the Dao Immortal Queen, deceived the emperor, and offered the turtle to the emperor as a rui beast.
Ding Shu constantly gave Zhenzong bad ideas, causing the people to work hard and hurt their wealth, and the people's resentment boiled over, so that people called Ding Shu and the other four traitors the "Five Ghosts" together.
Ding Shu still had great respect for Kou Zhun in his mind, but Kou Zhun no longer looked down on Ding Zhun who had done such a dirty thing. Once when the courtiers went to a banquet, Kou Zhun drank soup and soiled his beard, and Ding Yu rushed forward to stroke it. In the eyes of outsiders, Ding Shu was originally kind, but Kou Zhun hated others' flattery the most, so he mocked Ding Shu on the spot, mocking him as a sneaker.
Kou Zhun taunted Ding Zhun in front of everyone, making Ding Shu very unable to come to the stage, Ding Zhun has since "turned black", has a grudge against Kou Zhun, and began to oppose Kou Zhun. Coinciding with the discord between Kou Zhun and Empress Liu, who was favored by Emperor Zhenzong, Ding Yu joined forces with Empress Liu to attack Kou Zhun.
Emperor Zhenzong was seriously ill and could not preside over the government, and the power of the court fell into the hands of Empress Liu, who together with Ding Yu concealed Zhenzong, degraded Kou Zhun again and again, degraded him from the capital, and exiled him to Leizhou.
Ding said that the great revenge was repaid, and the power was tilted towards the opposition, and the scenery was unlimited. However, the cycle of cause and effect, retribution is not happy, and after Empress Liu took control of the regime, Ding Zhi became a thorn in her eye again. Ding Zhi, who had lost his value, was relegated to Yazhou by Empress Liu, and he passed through Leizhou on the way and wanted to visit Kou Zhun. Kou Zhun closed the door and did not see it, but still sent a steamed whole sheep, Ding Zhi was in tears, Fang knew that he was narrow-minded. But it was too late, and both Ding Shu and Kou Zhun finally died lonely in exile, leaving behind a tragic story.
Resources:
History of the Song Dynasty
"Dream Creek Pen Talk"