Miasma, what exactly is it? The ancients talked about the discoloration of "miasma" and avoided it. Is it a poisonous cloud between the mountains and swamps, or is it the smell of a monster in the legendary dense forest? But one person replied domineeringly, "You are all wrong." Miasma is the person, those who are corrupt and corrupt, they are the real miasma in this world.
In March 1963, the famous scholar Guo Moruo came to Guilin, he climbed the Banyan Tree Building of the Ancient South Gate, pondered for a long time in front of an inscription, and wrote a seven-law poem after recording the whole text: "The four walls of the Banyan Tree Building are chen, and Mei Gong miasma says that people are vigilant. More than nine hundred years ago, in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zou Hao, a famous minister who was relegated to Zhaozhou in Guangxi for his outspokenness, also stood in front of the same inscription and wrote a commemorative poem, saying: "Although the five miasmas are not stained when they are written, one is left behind." "What inscription touched the depths of their hearts?
"Five Miasma Theory", this Northern Song Dynasty anti-corruption warning masterpiece has been praised by successive generations and has been handed down for nearly a thousand years. This article is only four hundred words, and the sentences are as sharp as a dagger, which cuts to the heart of the officialdom. The article, titled on the theme of the miasma in the south, fiercely attacked the criminal acts of corrupt officials and corrupt officials at that time, and painfully expounded one by one the five kinds of official miasma of rent, the miasma of prison, the miasma of food and drink, the miasma of goods and wealth, and the miasma of modesty.
The author of the "Five Miasma Theory" Mei Zhi, the character Gongyi, was a native of Xinfan, Chengdu (now part of Xindu County, Sichuan). He was a jinshi in the fifth year of Emperor Renzong of Song (1027 AD) and served as a scholar of Longtuge. The "History of the Song" records more than a dozen good officials in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Mei Zhi is listed among them. The history books evaluate him as a quiet temperament, like to compose poetry, and many aphorisms. At the same time, Su Dongpo once praised him as a "deacon bone fish", and Ouyang Xiu also praised him for being "cautious and studious". In historical records, Mei Zhi was once loved by Emperor Renzong of Song, and when he left the capital for Hangzhou, Song Renzong personally wrote a poem for him to bid farewell.
"Best Know Hangzhou"
The land has the beauty of lakes and mountains, the first state in the southeast.
The dissection of the symbol is declared, and the resignation is only flowing.
Temporarily out of the discussion of the column, far away from the worries.
Follow the good and diligent customs, and come to listen to the songs.
Zheng Zhaohui, professor of the College of Literature of Guangxi University: Emperor Renzong of Song greatly appreciated Mei Zhi's official character and style, saying that he was decent in his words and deeds.
The brightest moment of Mei Zhi's career was probably in the second year of Jiayou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1057 AD), when he co-hosted a famous imperial examination with Ouyang Xiu, Mei Yaochen and six others as a scholar of Longtuge and the Third Class Academy. This is an exam of great significance in history. Ouyang Xiu was the main examiner, and Mei Zhi was the deputy chief examiner, and they reformed their literary style and selected the future great literary heroes Su Shi, Su Rui brothers, and Zeng Gong and other rookies in one fell swoop through this examination. Not only that, in the days when the examination was locked, these six examiners also formed friendships, sang and sang poems to each other, and wrote more than one hundred and seventy poems, compiling the famous "Rebbe Singing and Poetry Collection" in the history of literature. But unfortunately, Mei Zhi's own poetry has been lost to this day.
His career rose and fell several times, and in the early years of Jingyou (1034 AD), Mei Zhi was sent to Zhaozhou (昭州, in present-day Pingle County, Guangxi) as zhizhou. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the Lingnan area has often been used by the imperial court as a place of exile for degrading officials. In the eyes of the ancients, Lingnan's hot and humid climate and toxic miasma can kill people invisibly, and officials are relegated to this place, not only the political life may be over, but even the natural life is likely to end. Zhaozhou (present-day Pingle County, Guangxi), where Mei Zhi went to, was considered one of the places where miasma was most rampant in ancient times.
The Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin wrote a poem "Zhaozhou" when he was in the time of Zhaozhou Dai County, depicting the local barbaric scene.
《Zhaozhou》
Spring in Guishui is still early, and the Zhaochuan River is just west.
The tiger is the official, and the ape goes up to the stagecoach and cries.
Rope rotten gold sand well, loose dry milk cave ladder.
The sound of the countryside is terrible, and it is still drunk as mud.
But Mei Zhi believes that the miasma in nature is not terrible, and the corrupt habits of officials are the real "miasma". After arriving in Zhaozhou, seeing that many officials were afraid of contracting miasma, indulging in drunken dreams and death behind closed doors, and not caring about the well-being of the people, Mei indignantly wrote a famous warning article with profound meaning, "The Five Miasma Theory", denouncing the corruption and corruption of these officials, and he believed that the most serious problem was not the so-called natural miasma, but the problem of the morality of officials.
As an official, Mei Zhi personally went deep into the people and did a lot of practical things for the local people. He found that the residents of the city had difficulty drinking water, so he personally led people to investigate everywhere, and later dug a well in the city to solve the residents' rush to fetch water. Today, the people of Pingle still call this well "Meigong Well". In order to facilitate the rest of the masses, Mei Zhi built a pavilion on the Phoenix Mountain, the highest mountain in the ancient city of Zhaozhou, and the people also named this pavilion Meigong Pavilion in honor of him.
Jin Jinhua, chairman of the Guangxi Pingle County Federation of Social Sciences: Mei Zhi was in front of Mei Gongting, and carved his "Five Miasma Sayings" and Ten Love Poems ("Zhaotan Ten Loves") on the stele for tourists to read, so the people also called this pavilion Ten Love Pavilion.
"Ten Loves" is a five-sentence poem of "Ten Loves of Zhaotan" given by Mei Zhi to Zhaozhou, which describes the ten beautiful scenes and customs of Zhaozhou in Mei Zhi's eyes: the water of Zhaozhou, the people of Zhaozhou, the music of fine wine, the path of musical instruments, the Taoist temples of temples, the moon fruits, etc. When writing Zhaozhou Road, Mei Zhi did not forget to ridicule the Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin, deliberately writing "Political Toothless Tiger Fighting, Mo Xinyi Mountain Poem." Such a verse means that now Zhaozhou Taiping is accessible, and it is not at all as bad as Li Shangyin said. In the last poem, Mei Zhi tasted a variety of delicious fruits and then "traveled to the eunuchs for two years, full of Lingnan spring." The sentence summed up his happy mood in Zhaozhou.
From "The Five Miasma Theory" to "Ten Loves of Zhaotan", Mei Zhi, who has a clear love and hatred, has put her hatred for the accumulated shortcomings of the officialdom and her love for the landscape and people of Zhaozhou into her works. Since its publication, the Five Miasma Theories have been widely praised by people. Many upright officials took it as a motto, calling it the "official medicine stone."
More than 150 years later, in the first year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1190), Guangxi jing slightly appeased Zhu Yiyan to select one of the passages of the "Five Miasma Theory" and inscribed it later, asking the famous calligrapher Shi Mi to write "MeigongLong TuMiao Saying", which was engraved in the conspicuous place in the hidden rock of Guilin's famous scenic spot known as the "Guihai Stele Forest" to warn the latecomers. This stone carving is 193 cm high, 120 cm wide, and the diameter of the text is 3.3 cm, which expresses its content with a dignified and solemn lishu, which is a precious historical relic that condenses the ideological value and calligraphy art, and is respected and loved by literati and calligraphers of all generations. Most of the calligraphy styles of the Song Dynasty are still elegant, but this stele does not use xingshu or xingcao, but uses Lishu.
Professor Tao Yimei, vice president of the School of Chinese Painting of Guangxi Academy of Arts: Because Lishu is a very solemn font, there is a stable temple atmosphere. The "Five Miasma Theory" was originally intended to promote righteousness and advocate clean and honest articles, so it was expressed in the solemn style of the Lishu. However, the characteristics of this stele are different from the Han Dynasty, horizontal and vertical, the font shape to the vertical trend to take the momentum, unlike the characteristics of the Lishu to the horizontal, but also take the law Yan Lugong is Yan Zhenqing, although it is said to be a lishu, there is also the taste of Kai.
According to Ouyang Xiu's letters to his friends, Mei Zhi died around the sixth year of Song Jiayou (1061 AD). Although he wrote many poems in his lifetime, only more than twenty of them can be passed down to this day, ten of which are the "Ten Loves of Zhaotan" that remained in Zhaozhou. His masterpiece "The Theory of Five Miasmas" has had a far-reaching impact on future generations, and the "five miasmas" listed in the article, which compete with the people for profits, are unjust in prison, extravagant and hedonistic pleasures, encroach on the people and accumulate wealth, and have an unhealthy work style, are still a good medicine for civil servants to reflect on themselves and standardize their own code of conduct. In today's Guilin City and Pingle County, Guangxi, in Mei Zhi's hometown of Xinfan, Sichuan, and in Wushan, Hangzhou, where Mei Zhi was once an official, there are inscriptions from LongYinyan that have been reproduced from Long Yinyan, and commemorative activities for Mei Zhi, making it part of the construction of an anti-corruption and honest government culture in the new era.