introduction
According to the wind, a Taiwan counselor wrote a statement: "When Xia Chun was in Shaanxi, he was cowardly and refused to do his best. Once, when I went to patrol the border, I placed my maid under the tent of the Chinese army, which almost led to a military trove. Yuan Hao had once exchanged three thousand dollars for Xia Zhen's head at the border, and even the enemies had such contempt for him. Later, he did indeed preside over military affairs unfavorably. At first, Lü Yijian was afraid of his personality and refused to be included in the same column. Now that His Majesty is diligent in government affairs, and the first to use deceitful and unfaithful ministers, why should he seek treatment? ”
Xia Chen was the commander sent by the Northern Song Dynasty to the northwest to preside over the battle against Xia, but he always did things passively, got by and did not work well, and his court ministers were all there for all to see, and at that time, Yushi Shenmiao also spoke very thoughtfully, saying that Xia Chenyin was dealing with internal servants and foreign special aircraft, and once he succeeded, it would be "treacherous party to get a plan", and Emperor Renzong's power would probably be unprotected.
At that time, the officials in the imperial court repeatedly spoke, and Xia Zhen was also anxious to rush to Beijing. The two groups competed with each other, and when the officials heard that Xia Chun was almost there, they were even more eager to stop Emperor Renzong and prevent Xia Chun from entering the dynasty. At this time, Yu Jing had already returned to the central government and served as an advisor, and he said: "Before Xia Zhen was tired of illness, now as soon as he heard that the emperor had summoned him, he immediately relaxed and abandoned him to Beijing. If the decision is not made early, Xia Zhen will definitely insist on entering the meeting, weeping in front of Emperor Renzong, and explaining it left and right, then the holy listen will be confused."
At the critical moment, Gongchen, the governor of The Imperial History Platform, Yushi Zhongzhong, also wrote a very word to Emperor Renzong, counting down a total of eighteen times before and after the officials, Emperor Renzong dismissed Xia Zhenxiang and let him return to the town as an envoy of the Zhongwu Army, with Du Yan, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council and the attendant of the Ceremonial Department, as the Privy Councillor. Xia's resignation set the stage for his future attacks on the New Deal.
Why was the resistance of the court forces to Xia Chun so strong? First of all, Xia Chen's previous military and political leadership was indeed unfavorable, at least because of this, many soldiers felt that their ability was not good. During the Qing Dynasty, the undecided internal political shortcomings of the northwest war were highlighted, and the incompetents were not enough to calm the situation and change the evils, and Xia Zhen obviously could not meet the expectations of Shilin. Second, Xia Chun has always shown himself as a conservative scholar-doctor, a relatively passive and scrupulous scholar-doctor in politics, and this temperament is not commensurate with the innovative style of the entire Qingli era.
In addition to Xia's privy councillor being replaced by Du Yan, on the fourth day of the third year of the celebration calendar, Emperor Renzong finally ordered Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, two ministers who had made a lot of contributions to the northwestern campaign against Xia, to go to Beijing at the same time as privy councillors. Although this is an expression of position and attitude, from the perspective of actual results, Renzong's approach cannot be said to be very well considered.
At that time, Fu Bi made a statement, believing that the northwest was in trouble, and at the same time summoning Han and Fan, who were quite intimidating in the Western Xia, to return to Beijing was not conducive to controlling the war situation in the northwest, after all, at that time, there was a song in the northwest that "there was a Han in the army, and the heart of the western thief was cold; there was a fan in the army, and the western thief was frightened and frightened." Fan and Han played a vital role in stabilizing the military's heart and controlling the war situation in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, Fu Bi believed that only one person should be recruited to enter Beijing after the two people were given the post of Privy Councillor and deputy envoy, and the other should be left to guard the border. This was indeed the case later, fan Zhongyan and Han Qi were still very concerned about the situation in the northwest after returning to Beijing, and Fan Zhongyan also asked him to be sent back to the northwest front several times.
After the Shilin leader Fan Zhongyan and the Nengchen Han Qi entered the dynasty, the young advisor Cai Xiang was also promoted to secretary and advisory. In addition, the demoted scholars and masters in the Jingyou Party Council all returned to the imperial court, and Ouyang Xiu and Yu Jing served as advisors. Although Han Qi had not participated much in the party discussions and party struggles at the time of JingYou before, he had always had a close relationship with the innovators and was a fellow innovator.
For example, Han Qi had strongly recommended Ouyang Xiu's deeds to Emperor Renzong. When Emperor Renzong did not like Ouyang Xiu at first, Han Qi told Emperor Renzong that Ouyang Xiu was Han Yu of the Northern Song Dynasty, and that Han Yue was highly respected by Shilin and had a very high reputation, and the world expected him to be the prime minister, and as a result, the Rulers of the Tang Dynasty did not use him. Although Han Yuren did not necessarily supplement Tang, because the ruler did not comply with Shilin's voice, "the talkers still think that it is slanderous." Ouyang Xiu, like Han Yu, if His Majesty did not use him, "I am afraid that future generations such as Tang will slander the country", and advised Renzong to "why not try it to know the world in the future", then give Ouyang Xiu a chance to verify his talent! Emperor Renzong later did indeed activate Ouyang Xiu.
In July of the same year, at the recommendation of the advisors Yu Jing, Cai Xiang and others, when the former Suffragan Wang Ju was deposed, Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the Governor of the Senate. At this point, the personnel adjustment at the central decision-making level in the three years of the Northern Song Dynasty was basically completed, which was dominated by reformist officials, and it was completely a weather of reforming the government. A careful analysis of the political situation and position of these people and the interpersonal relationship between them will reveal the reason why Fan Zhongyan, as the deputy prime minister, eventually became the actual leader of the Qingli New Deal.
The chancellor Yan Shu was indeed a man who loved the sages, he himself was a prodigy who was praised by Kou Zhun, and he liked to promote the rank of a powerful man when he was in power, and there were many outstanding earth masters in the world at that time, such as Fan Zhongyan and Kong Daofu, all of whom came from his disciples, and he was also the father-in-law of Fu Bi. However, Yan Shu was also a relatively conservative and important person, although he was similar to Fan Zhongyan's age and had close contacts, but his political views were not completely compatible. The Privy Counsellor Du Yan was the father-in-law of Su Shunqin, the talented son of the Pavilion, and this kinship determined that he would not stand against the reformers.
However, as an old politician, he did not appreciate the frivolity and radicalism of young advisors such as Ouyang Xiu, Du Yan was more protective of the reformists, but he was not a friend, and Jia Changchao, the governor of the government, was still dissatisfied with him, so Du Yan could not become the mainstay of the reform group. As for The Prime Minister Zhang Dexiang, although he did not openly oppose the New Deal, he was personally very negative about the New Deal, and Zhang Dexiang himself was promoted to zhishiguan by Lü Yijian in the fifth year of tianxi (1021), so even if he had no hostility to the New Deal and the reform itself, he would not explicitly support the reformists, and even if his political attitude may be similar to Lü Yijian, his later comments on the Qingli New Deal will prove this.
Therefore, although there were several highly respected scholars above Fan Zhongyan, Fan Zhongyan became the actual presiding officer of the political reform of the Renzong Dynasty. Due to the smoothness and inaction of the chancellor Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu, instead, during the reign of Emperor Renzong, the suffragan government affairs replaced the chancellor to a certain extent, and played the function of managing the affairs of the middle book. Although "in a society governed by man, institutional regulations are sometimes relative, they constrain the exercise of power in the exercise of human behavior within a general framework." However, in some periods, "the difference in political style and personality, the strength of talents and abilities, the closeness of relations with the emperor, and the degree of trust, all of these factors affected the exercise and exertion of the actual power of the governor.".
The change in the authority of the Governor in this specific period was objectively created by Yan Shu and others, and it was also won by Fan Zhongyan's personal ability. Although Zhongyan was concerned about the military affairs of the northwest, he also had the courage to give up his own and others for the government.
It should be added that Fan Zhongyan's support for the theory of discourse in Geshen was mainly from young officials with new ideas in the pavilion and the Taizhi community. He persuaded Emperor Renzong, "It is advisable to search for Shiyan widely and overhaul Wang Du in order to consolidate his original time also." At this time, Fan Zhongyan was fifty-four years old, just in middle age, and most of the officials who followed him were only forty years old, and the entire Qingli New Deal group was composed of middle-aged and young officials. There are pros and cons to such a combination, with young faces full of vigor and passion, which is in line with the temperament of reform; young officials are too radical and lack of stability, and the stimulus of speech to conservatives is too strong, revealing that they lack sufficient political experience, especially Ouyang Xiu, Su Shunqin and others. This also laid the groundwork for the failure of the New Deal in the future.
The most conspicuous of fan Zhongyan's recommended people are Su Shunqin and Sun Fu, the former being a young talent with radical ideas, and the latter being a scholar who Zhongyan supported in the past and is now a generation of Confucian and Taishan schools.
Regarding Su Shunqin, he was a descendant of Su Yijian, the famous minister of the early Song Dynasty, the family of the Su family and the family of Wang Dan of the Zhenzong Dynasty and the family marriage of Han Yi, the governor of the Jing Dynasty, Su Shunqin was also Du Yan's son-in-law, and this family relationship was involved in a series of political forces, and Wang Dan's young son Wang Su was the advisor at that time, and Han Yi was also a person who was once elected by Fan Zhongyan. From this we can see that although interpersonal relations cannot play a decisive role in people's political stance, to some extent, Su Shunqin's joining the innovation group will probably play an extraordinary role in promoting the growth of the political strength of the entire innovation group, so Su Shunqin dared to write to Fan Zhongyan during the New Deal period criticizing Zhongyan's administration as less, saying that Fan Zhongyan was "less sincere and weak, not sharper than in that year", "the things that were set up, did not fit the crowd", and "had the name of the high world, but did not see it as a matter of the high world".
Later, the failure of the Qingli New Deal was also related to Su Shunqin's suffering, and being blamed by others implicated many forces, especially Related to Du Yan. Therefore, Su Shunqin can be described as Xiao He of the Fan Zhongyan Group, and the success is also with him, and the defeat is also with him.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Su Shun drinks and promotes ancient Chinese, looking at the literary ecology of his life era, Su Shunqin was not born at the right time, he once said that he had "studied literature for ten years, and the language was reversed", but he still insisted on ancient writing in adversity. Later, Ouyang Xiu said that if Su Shunqin had not died early, his people would have made great achievements in the Guwen Movement.
epilogue
Regarding the New Deal, like many political movements in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign dynasties, it also has a programmatic article. The appearance of this box of articles comes from the Opening of the Heavenly Chapter Ofe by Emperor Renzong in September of the third year of the Qing calendar, which was about the time when Ouyang Xiu asked Emperor Renzong to summon Zhongyun and Han Qi to "exchange views" in may of the third year of the Qing calendar, which played a role, in short, at this time, Renzong had firmly believed that the disadvantage of the state was that "customs were fixed but not changed", and only change could save the shortcomings.