Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹), courtesy name Xiwen, was a Northern Song Dynasty thinker, politician, military, literary scholar, educator, and calligrapher. In the spring of the eighth year (1015) of the Northern Song Dynasty, after the twenty-seven-year-old examination for the jinshi, he joined the army as Guangde Si li. Fan Zhongyan served as an official in Guangde for three years, and developed a deep affection for Guangde, in addition to "governing prisons and being honest and self-disciplined", in view of the lack of literary style in Guangde at that time, he also paid attention to the cultural and educational undertakings of Guangde. His due diligence, honesty and self-discipline have always been praised by the people of Guangde.
In Fan Zhongyan's life, he worried about the country and the people. Many of his most reasonable sayings contain extremely valuable political ideas and wisdom, including the sentence "If the state is not thrifty, how can the living beings show their sustenance?" ", for the generations to advocate frugality of the wind of reference. Many people do not know that what happened in this famous saying is related to Guangde, who was once an official.
In April of the second year of the Ming Dynasty (1033), Fan Zhongyan was summoned to the imperial court and appointed as the Right Counselor. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, he paid more attention to the counselors and set up a separate court, and although the counselors were small, like the prime minister, they were the most able to directly "influence the Son of Heaven" and "rule the world with the Son of Heaven". Fan Zhongyan, who was in Luoyang at the time, suggested that he send envoys to pacify Jiang, Huai, and Jingdong.
In the same year, there was a great drought in Jiangsu, Huaihuai, and Jingdong, and the locust plague became the most serious, especially the Guangde Army. Fan Zhongyan repeatedly went to the rescue and suggested that the envoys be sent to rescue the disaster, but there was no reply. He took an opportunity to tell Emperor Renzong in person about the grass and locusts eaten by the starving people of the Guangde Army (in present-day Guangde, Anhui) and Taiping Prefecture (in present-day Dangtu, Anhui).
Yesterday, the ministers went to the border of Taiping Prefecture, and the volume appeased the inspection meeting of this department, and Qian Zhongfu, the judge of the Guangde Army, and Wen Zongxian, the chief bookkeeper of Dangtu County and the lieutenant of Jiaxiang County, said that they went to the townships to check the drought, stole the poor people who ate many herbs and called them Wu Ming, and took the locusts to dry, plucked their wings and feet and cooked wild vegetables, and there was no one else to eat. The grain and rice supplied to the southeast of the subject are six million stones per year, and as for the treasury of the government, they are all from the people, and the people are difficult to eat in the year of hunger, if the country is not thrifty, why should the living beings be Zhaosu? The subject took the previous piece of grass and sealed it, and prostrated himself to declare the six palaces and clan relatives, and suppressed luxury to help the difficulties. Still begging for the secret to cut the building business, the back garden, the Wensi Yuan, the grain and materials court, the inspection of the ancestral dynasty, the number of fees per year is higher than today, when it is extravagant and frugal, and it is very fortunate to see the saint Ci Special descend into the end! (Fan Zhongyan's "Fan Wenzheng Collection Supplement, Volume I, Song Discussion")
From Fan Zhongyan's recital, we can see that in order to let the ruler understand the truth that "if the country is not thrifty, why should the living beings show the Su", he suppressed luxury by asking the emperor to eat Xuanwu grass for the concubines, the clan and the foreign relatives to see. Such a thing is probably only done by Fan Zhongyan.
Author: Xu Houbing, the picture comes from the network, if there is infringement, contact to delete, thank you!