The eunuch Tong Guan, who was crowned king

The Shanghai Museum houses a set of Song Huizong's skinny gold body of the Thousand Character Text, which was composed by Zhao Yao in 1104 when he was 22 years old, and the paper used was exclusively provided by the court, which was pale yellow and still well preserved after thousands of years. The calligraphy is "Chongning Jia Shen Shi Xuan and The Temple Book to Give Tong Guan", and it is not difficult to see that this set of "thousand characters" was given by Emperor Huizong of Song to the Northern Song Dynasty eunuch Tong Guan. Tong Guan was one of the "Six Thieves" during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, who rose to the throne by relying on the search for calligraphy and painting for Emperor Huizong, and once held military power for twenty years. In the early spring of 1104, Tong Guan led an army to destroy the Tubo Tsongkha state, bringing long-lost military glory to the Song Dynasty. When he returned triumphantly, Emperor Huizong of Song gave him this set of "thousand character texts" in recognition of his merits. Huizong wrote more than one volume of "Thousand Character Text" in that year, and this volume of "Thousand Character Text" had a reasonable layout and smooth writing, which should be a more satisfactory work selected by Song Huizong.

Not only was Tong Guan the eunuch with the greatest military power in Chinese history, he also created several other "most" in Chinese history. For example, he was the eunuch in Chinese history who held the army for the longest time (twenty years of commanding troops); the first eunuch in Chinese history to send an envoy to a foreign country (Yu Zhenghe went to the Liao State in the first year of The First Year of Zhenghe); the first eunuch in Chinese history to be crowned king (for the recovery of the territory of all Yan, he was crowned the king of Guangyang County); and he was also the only eunuch in Chinese history with a beard.

At that time, there was a folk song circulating in the capital city of Bieliang: "Breaking the barrel and spilling the vegetables is a good world on earth." "Cai" refers to Cai Jing, who is capricious, two-faced, three-bladed, and mercenary." "Barrel" refers to the Great Eunuch Tong Guan, as one of the leaders of the "Six Thieves", Because he presided over the signing of the "Alliance of the Sea" with the Jin people to lure wolves into the house, he became a major sinner who led to Jing Kang's shame, and for thousands of years people cursed him incessantly, and was listed as a "traitor" by the "History of Song". Tong Guan is also mentioned many times in the "Water Margin", which is well known to women and children, writing that he led 800,000 troops to Liangshan po to suppress the Song Jiang rebel army, was ambushed on ten sides, and was killed and fled back to Beijing.

Tong Guan (1054–1126), courtesy name Daofu, was a native of Kaifeng. Tong Guan was burly in appearance, well-dressed, with a beard under his cheeks, and his skin and bones were as hard as iron, unlike eunuchs. When Tong Guan entered the palace, he worshiped under his fellow villagers and senior eunuch Li Xianmen. Among the eunuchs who li xian had many military achievements, he served as a supervisor of the army on the northwest frontier for many years. Tong Guan followed Li Xian in and out of the front line, went deep into the northwest ten times, and was quite familiar with the military, but in the dynasty of Emperor Shenzong, the god of destiny did not favor Tong Guan, and after entering the palace for more than twenty years, he never got ahead. This situation was finally changed after Zhao Tuo became emperor.

When Emperor Huizong of Song succeeded to the throne, Tong Guan was already forty-eight years old. In the name of the imperial court worshippers, Emperor Huizong of Song sent Tong Guan to Hangzhou to set up the Ming Jin Bureau to collect Luo Wen and play with calligraphy and painting. Generally speaking, the inner court worship official is roughly equivalent to the head of the procurement and supply department of the imperial palace, which is not a high position, but a very oily fat difference. Tong Guan was not satisfied with the benefits, but did his best to do this errand in the region, which was very pleasing to Emperor Huizong of Song. Tong Guan was quite generous and generous, but the objects of his righteousness and wealth were those harem concubines, eunuchs, palace women, as well as Daoist priests who could get close to the royal family and close courtiers around Tianzi. In this way, the emperor could often hear good things about him in his ears. More importantly, such a masculine person, but well-behaved, meticulous, has a strong insight into the emperor's psychology, always can predict the emperor's intentions in advance, so he rarely speaks and does things in a wild way, thus pleasing the emperor.

Emperor Huizong of Song appointed Tong Guan as the overseer of the Northwest to quell the rebellion of the Qiang people in Tubo. After the Song army drove to the front line of Huangchuan, it happened that there was a fire in the Taiyi Palace in Bieliang, and Song Huizong was very superstitious, believing that it was a sign of defeat, so he quickly sent a hand message to Tong Guan to prevent him from sending troops. Tong Guan was bold, and after he saw the instruction, he immediately folded it up and put it away. Wang Hou, the commander of the Song army, asked, "I wonder why Your Majesty surrendered his will?" Tong Guan said casually, "Nothing, just urging me to wait for success." As a result, the Song army recaptured the four states in one fell swoop. While the generals were happy, Tong Guan took out the emperor's hand edict at the celebration banquet and passed it on to the generals in the army to watch. Everyone was shocked to see that correction was a great sin against the clan. The Leader will ask him with trepidation why he did this? Tong Guan replied, "At that time, morale was booming, so if the soldiers were stopped, how would they fight in the future?" The Lord will ask, "What if you are defeated?" Tong Guan said, "That's why I didn't show it to you at the time." Defeated, of course, it is up to me alone to take the guilt. Win the battle, everyone has a share. Since then, Tong Guan has firmly established his prestige in the northwest army.

After that, Tong Guan conquered the battlefield, haunted the northwest all year round, presided over the war with the Western Xia, and led the army to fight several victories in a row, the Western Xia national strength could not keep up, the economy was about to collapse, and finally expressed his willingness to lose money and apologize. Tong Guan also received it when he saw it was good, and reported it to Emperor Huizong, who then dismissed the Six-Way Army, "Jiaguan Taifu, and sealed the Prince of Jingguo." Later, under the auspices of Tong Guan, the Great Song went to war against Tubo. A year later, the Song army completely crushed the Tubo forces in the Hehuang region and took control of the southeastern Part of Qinghai and the area north of the Yellow River. In this campaign, the Song army "opened up the territory for more than 3,000 miles, recruited 2,700 chiefs, 700,000 household registrations, fought six battles before and after, and beheaded more than 10,000 levels", completely restoring the homeland of The Divine Sect. Tong Guan was promoted to envoy of Xihe, Lanhuang, and Qinfenglu, and became the highest military and political commander in the Northwest Frontier Region. Later, Tong Guan led an army to retake the northwestern towns of Jishijun and Taozhou. Emperor Huizong of Song became increasingly appreciative of Tong Guan. In 1111, Tong Guanjin was a lieutenant, led the Privy Council, and took over the military power of the whole country. Since then, Tong Guan has been ranked as the third duke.

In the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), Tong Guan, in order to regain the territory of Quanyan, was enfeoffed as the king of Guangyang County, commanded a large army to the frontier, and stationed in Dayuan. At that time, Jin had already destroyed the Liao, and a large-scale army invaded the south. Tong Guan, seeing that the general situation had gone, returned from Dayuan to Bieliang, and did not listen to Emperor Qinzong's order to stay in Fenjing, but accompanied Emperor Huizong on a tour of the south. Therefore, the university scholar Chen Dong and others wrote a letter to impeach Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and other six people for misleading the country and six thieves. Tong Guan's main crime was "to tie up grievances and create gaps" in Liaoning. At this time, Emperor Huizong ascended the throne and Emperor Qinzong ascended the throne. In the first year of Jing Kang (1126), Tong Guan was degraded three times in a row. In July 1126, Tong Guan was demoted to JiyangJun (吉阳軍, in modern Ya County, Hainan) and ordered the overseer Zhang Cheng to bring him to justice on the spot. Zhang Cheng chased all the way to Nanxiong Prefecture, pretending to have a holy will to give tea and medicine, and asked Tong Guan to return to Beijing to serve as Hebei Xuanfu, and he could come tomorrow at noon to pass on the will. Tong Guan believed it to be true, and smiled: "I am still indispensable!". The next morning, Zhang Cheng came, Tong Guan gladly greeted him, knelt down to receive the holy will, Zhang Cheng immediately proclaimed the edict, reprimanding Tong Guan for ten major crimes. When Tong Guan realized that it was too late, he was cut off by zhang Cheng's attaché, dao. On the seventh day of the first month of September, Tong Guan's head was already hanging high in the capital city, and the audience was in a frenzy and sensational.