Being at home is not a guest---- meditation in front of Wang Hu's tomb - Lu Shixiong

Many years ago, I stood on the shore of the West Lake, and I was fascinated by the beautiful landscape with light makeup. But the most unforgettable memory remained in front of the Yue Wang Temple, Zhang Huang said, "What is the desire of the country to break the family?" There is my teacher at the head of Xizi Lake, the sun and moon are hanging in the tomb of the clan, and the Inscription poem of Qiankun Half Wall Yue Family Ancestral Hall has aroused a patriotic and generous feeling in me, which still exists in my chest. Today, I stand in front of the tomb of Wang Shangshu, which was rebuilt after the destruction, thinking of Wang Hu's life, words and deeds, and linking the Spiritual Tradition of the Chinese Nation of Advocating Grandeur and Righteousness, I suddenly have in my heart the idea of "being a guest at home and not a guest."

Wang Hu was a jinshi from Hezhou, with a very high rank, "The township test is the fifth place, the fifth place will be tested, and the temple test will be given the second rank of the jinshi." "Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties created the Jinshi Section until it was abolished in the early twentieth century, in the history of more than 1,300 years, because the economy of Jiangnan gradually surpassed the north during this period, the culture also advanced synchronously, when the prefectures and counties around Suzhou, Zhejiang and Anhui could pass the examination for thousands of jinshi every hundred years, the northwest region could only pass the examination for a few per hundred years. In total, there were less than ten scholars from Hezhou (concentrated in the Ming and Qing dynasties), so the northwest region especially cherished this hard-won meritorious name and the resulting benefits. Today, at the end of the twentieth century, the Great Northwest is still an underdeveloped area in the land of China, and Linxia is one of the poorest areas in the Great Northwest. A large part of the students are indignant and hard to read, of course, they have the desire to serve the motherland, but they do not rule out the private desire to jump out of this poor land, so that they can not only make a career, but also improve their living environment. In the Ming Dynasty (1449 AD), 550 years ago, a Hezhou student who had been admitted to the jinshi for many years had already obtained an official position in the capital equivalent to that of a vice minister (Huke Zhishi, vice capital Yushi). As long as he is silent and peaceful at any time, everyone will go up to him, and everyone will not say anything to him, there will be officials to do, and there will be blessings to enjoy. However, he was not, he wanted to express his views uprightly, to shout for the country and the people, and even to carry the coffin to the court, "blood stained the court", and beat the emperor's favorite traitors, which shocked both the government and the public. This move is rare in history, but the country is in trouble, otherwise it will not be able to reverse the crisis. This is a magnificent historical drama performed by Wang Hu at a critical juncture called the "civil change" in history, and at this moment, he has not left any way back for himself. It was also Wang Hu that the imperial court sent him to Lianghuai to control the waters and relieve the disaster, and witnessing the disaster and famine that was full of mourning, he even disregarded the court's precepts to help the victims. In modern parlance, he thinks of "the people are satisfied or dissatisfied.". After the imperial court learned of this, from the standpoint of consolidating political power, it also had to affirm the rationality of Wang Zhu's move.

China's feudal society trained 100,000 jinshi. These jinshi basically all became officials of all sizes, from the feudal officials who came and went in and out, to the Qipin County Order that dominated a corner, and on the road of the Haoshou poor jinshi, most of them recited the sage books and cultivated the grandeur, so as to realize the ideal of self-cultivation and family governance and peace in the world. It is precisely this mighty and upright atmosphere that, in the feudal and autocratic social environment, can still make a large number of intellectuals honest and self-disciplined and enforce the law impartially. Of course, they were loyal to the imperial power, but they often regarded the imperial power and the interests of the state and the nation as the same thing; and then they took the view that "the people are precious, the king is light, and the society is secondary", thus becoming courtiers who are "not guests in the country at home". Wang Hu is a typical representative of this type of courtier. He was iron-boned, daring to face the emperor with death; he stepped forward in Beijing in the midst of the danger of being surrounded by the Wattle Army, and yu Qian "did not hesitate to crush his body and bones.". Later, when his upright deeds were not understood, and his ambitions were difficult to exert, he quietly withdrew from the official arena, preferring to "be alone" rather than collude.

When Wang Zhuzhishi returned to his hometown, he was fifty years old, not too old, but since he retired, he no longer had the heart to retreat into the east and make a comeback. The exaggerated records in the history books say that Emperor Mingxianzong issued a hundred and ten edicts calling for his comeback, but all of them politely refused. During the twenty-three years he spent his later years at home, he left behind a set of quiet, open and fresh poems, and never complained. Without the heart to return to the world, it is not the same as forgetting the country, and many psalms still exude the feelings of worrying about the country and the people from time to time. When I read the "History of the Thousand Years" and the "Six Classics of Eternity" at the window, the swaying bamboo in front of the steps sprouted the ambition of "there are still gu wuzhi in the past few years, and self-improvement is willing to pause". Seeing the pivotal axis that started the grinding, he immediately thought of the role of Zaifu above ten thousand people under one person: "Praise xiang for the successful creation of karma, some small-scale imitation talents." Sometimes his heart is also very contradictory, on the one hand, he "feels the grace of my emperor, and gives him the safety of this residence", only to live a pastoral life of "counting rafters and running itself, leaving a simple and ugly name of Confucianism"; on the other hand, he is not at ease with the major affairs of the state, and he is eager to see the emperor in person, "willing to hide the people to the end." All this is still a continuation of "being a guest in a home country".

Before Wang Hu's death, the people of Huai and Xu thanked him for saving more than 1.8 million hungry people, and praised him: "The parents of those who gave birth to me, and the patrol of those who live me." After The death of Wang Hu, the imperial court gave the crown prince Shaobao, and the descendants revered him as a generation of famous courtiers, Guan Longhaojie. In fact, when he practiced his ambitions, he did not expect to become a famous minister, nor did he expect to erect bronze white stones behind him. However, after his death, both the imperial court and the people gave him unexpected honors. The imperial court gave titles to officials and allocated huge sums of money to build cemeteries, with the purpose of setting an example for the courtiers and encouraging officials to be loyal to the imperial court and not forget the country. A series of life stories were circulated in the people's word of mouth, and out of admiration and gratitude for the good deeds that Wang Hu had done for the people of Li during his lifetime, he hoped that more Qing officials would be loyal to the country and ask for the people's lives. This effect of "being in the home country is not a guest" has been passed down from generation to generation in Chinese history and accumulated into a kind of national righteousness. Like the tomb of Wang Hu, the tombs of Yue Fei and Yu Qian on the banks of Xizi Lake, as well as the countless tombs of loyal martyrs scattered on the land of Shenzhou, have enabled every conscientious person to receive a profound education to carry forward the righteousness of the nation.

The "Cultural Revolution" leveled the tomb of Wang Hu, but the Wang Shangshu in the hearts of the people has not been extinguished and has lasted for a long time. Now the tomb of Wang Shangshu has been rebuilt, and the damaged stone carvings record the vicissitudes of history wordlessly. It doesn't matter whether there is a bone crown in the dome-shaped tomb. I believe that walking into this cemetery, people will experience a spirit, so that when they examine their words and deeds and choose the value of life, they will add a little sense of historical mission or less personal sense of gain and loss.

November 30, 1999