The Song Dynasty is a dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the long river of Chinese history, a dynasty of the Lower Qiyuan Dynasty, which was founded for more than three hundred years, and was divided into the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, which was an era of unprecedented prosperity in economy, science and technology, foreign trade, etc., and the only dynasty that died without civil strife.
Moreover, from the founding emperor Zhao Kuangyin began to "emphasize literature over martial arts", and even established a rule of "not killing soldiers and doctors". After Emperor Taizong of Song ascended the throne, Zhao Guangyi elaborated on this: "The ills are like rat nests, which cannot be completely cured, only the most serious parts need to be solved." ”
First, the tolerant Song Dynasty
Lü Mengzheng, as the prime minister, also said: "In the disguise of a villain, we honest officials naturally know it, but we as gentlemen have a little generosity in our hearts, and we have passed." High-ranking officials like Lü Mengzheng said this, which shows how tolerant and generous the policy at that time was for civilian officials.
Such a policy is well-intentioned, in order to broaden the word, but the disadvantages of doing so far outweigh the benefits. Thus, starting from Zhao Heng, the Song Dynasty court began to be corrupt inside and outside the court, and the high economic development also provided convenience for the extravagant life of officials. However, in the system at that time, except for committing the crime of rebellion, officials who committed mistakes would not be punished substantially, but would only be degraded, and degrading like this would be equivalent to demotion and deduction of wages, and would have no effect at all on changing the corrupt atmosphere of officials.
Second, the prime minister from the Han kiln - Lü Mengzheng
Among them, the above mentioned prime minister Lü Mengzheng, in the historical record is a clean and honest and patriotic official, as the two dynasties of Taizong and Zhenzong, he was outspoken to the superiors and generous to the subordinates, and has always been a very decent image.
His great-grandfather Lü Tao was the chief of Mo Prefecture in the late Tang Dynasty, and his grandfather Lü Mengqi was a hubu waiter, the largest official title in the family before Lü Meng was the prime minister. Lü Mengzheng's father, Lü Guitu, was a Liupin Qijulang who was responsible for recording the emperor's daily life and state affairs. However, Lü Mengzheng's father had a large number of wives and concubines, and he did not have a good relationship with Lü Mengzheng's mother, and finally even drove Lü Mengzheng's mother and son out of the house. So Lü Mengzheng and his mother spent nine years of hardship and hardship in a stone cave in Luoyang's Longmen Mountain.
Lü Mengzheng's "Han Kiln Fu" was done when he became the teacher of Song Zhenzong, who was still the prince at that time, describing his experience of not wearing a body in the culvert and not eating enough, one of the sentences "The sky has unpredictable storms, people have bad luck" was praised by posterity, using historical facts from ancient times and his own experience to tell the prince about the impermanence of life, and the prince was also greatly touched after listening to it.
Fortunately, Lü Meng was in the second year of the Taiping Revival (977), passing the examination and entering the imperial government as an official, although Lü Mengzheng was expelled from the Lü family, his identity as a Lü family member still played a great help to his future career.
Third, a clean and honest official has a life of integrity
After Lü Meng was an official, during a visit to the court, a person said directly to Lü Mengzheng's face: "Can this person also join us in the discussion of politics?" Lu Mengzheng was not angry at all, and calmly walked past the man.
Everyone thought that the man's behavior was very excessive, and they wanted to go up and question this person, and they were upset with Lü Mengzheng, but they were stopped by Lü Mengzheng, who said: "If I argue with him, then I will definitely remember the appearance he looked when he despised me, and if I ignore him, I will not have anything to lose, and I don't have to worry about it." Lü Mengzheng's magnanimous approach was really called a real "prime minister who can hold a boat in his belly", and such a practice also spread among officials, allowing him to gain a good reputation.
As a famous Qing official in history, Lü Mengzheng also refused many times to send gifts to people who asked him to do things. Lü Mengzheng is such a rare talkative prime minister, naturally there will be many people who want to go through Lü Mengzheng to seek a bright career path, some of them once gave Lü Mengzheng a mirror, and bragged that this is a rare treasure, which can shine within three hundred miles.
Hearing this, Lü Mengzheng smiled and said, "If my face is so big, naturally I don't need such a valuable treasure." As soon as the visitors heard this, they knew Lü Mengzheng's gentle refusal, so they had to leave in disgrace.
Another person wanted to dedicate a precious yantai to Lu Mengzheng, saying that the most peculiar thing about this yantai was that it did not need water, but only needed to breathe at the yantai to wet it. Lu Mengzheng also jokingly said: "Even if I only need to spend a bucket of water a day to polish ink, it will not cost much silver, and I can still get this money." ”
Fourth, the mistake of a bowl of "chicken tongue soup"
The person who sent the Yantai heard Lü Mengzheng say this, and he could no longer say anything to ask him to do things. It is such a person who is honest and honest with officials, but has a particularly extravagant eating habit. Lu Meng was drinking a bowl of chicken tongue soup every day and killing at least a hundred chickens every day, but Lu Meng was not aware that his habit would cost so many chickens.
Until one time when Lu Meng was walking in the backyard, he suddenly saw a small mound in the corner of the wall, so he asked the next person next to him who was piling up the small mound, and the person next to him replied: "Xiang Ye, this is the chicken feathers you eat every day." ”
Lu Mengzheng immediately replied, "Nonsense, how can I eat so many chickens in a day?" The next person said: "Although you don't eat so many chickens every day, you have to drink chicken tongue soup every morning, and a chicken only has one tongue, and a hundred chickens can make that bowl of chicken tongue soup." Hearing this, Lü Mengzheng was immediately dumbfounded, not thinking that he would consume so much chicken in a bowl of chicken tongue soup every day, so from then on, Lü Mengzheng changed this bad habit.
We can't blindly evaluate Lü Meng as a bad official just by killing a hundred chickens a day in order to drink a bowl of chicken tongue soup, because Lü Meng is unaware of his wasting chickens, and he immediately corrected it after learning the truth. Therefore, we should look at a person from the attitude of a person to the mistakes they have made, some people are angry and obsessed after learning their mistakes, but being able to face up to their mistakes and actively correct them is also a quality worth learning.
Another minister, Kou Zhun, was also an official who made great contributions to the country when he was in power, but since he became an official, he also began to live a luxurious life, he liked to drink and have fun, feasted on guests and for the sake of face, did not use kerosene lamps at night, but ordered candles, just to pursue the luxury of candlelight.
In this way, Kou Zhun is a waste of money and is very unworthy of our learning. It is conceivable that under such a social atmosphere, how a country can maintain long-term peace and stability, and eventually it will only lead to extinction. Economy is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, whether it is when you are poor or rich, you should develop a good habit of not wasting. Proud of thrift and thrift, ashamed of extravagance and waste.