preface
In China's history, the prime minister spent most of the time under one person and above ten thousand people, and the prime minister advised the emperor. But since ancient times, emperors have been suspicious, and after the power of the prime minister has increased, the emperor's suspicions have become more and more serious day by day.
In the emperor's view, the greater the power, the greater the ambition, so the emperor will try to weaken the power of the prime minister, such as handing over the work that could have been done by one person to multiple people.
After the power of the prime minister is weakened, when the prime minister retires and returns home, who is better than the prefectural order?
Wang Anshi became the prime minister step by step
Wang Anshi has loved reading since he was a child, and when other children were playing and playing, Wang Anshi was already holding the head of reading "The Book of Poetry", "University" and "The Mean", but this did not satisfy Wang Anshi's psychology of studying.
When he grew up a little, when his father was about to travel, Wang Anshi begged him to take him out to meet the world, and although his father felt unsafe, he chose to take Wang Anshi to travel around the country.
It was also this trip that Wang Anshi really experienced the lives of ordinary people, and he did not expect that there was so much difference between the lives of ordinary people and his own.
So he touched the scene, wrote a lot of articles, and also buried his ambition to become an official of the imperial court and change the lives of the people.
When Wang Anshi followed his father into the capital, by chance, Wang Anshi met Zeng Gong, and the two were like mountains and rivers looking for acquaintances, and soon became excellent friends at first sight.
Wang Anshi took out his article to discuss with Zeng Gong, and Zeng Gong found that Wang Anshi's literary style was so good that he had the opportunity to show it to Ouyang Xiu, because such a good article must be discussed with me.
Soon after, Zeng Gong took Wang Anshi's article to Ouyang Xiu's mansion, and as soon as he entered the door, Zeng Gong excitedly said to Ouyang Xiu: "I got a wonderful article.
Let's explore it. Ouyang Xiu was also excited when he heard the good article, and Ouyang Xiu was full of praise after reading it.
In the second year of the Qing calendar, Wang Anshi went to participate in the examination, and Wang Anshi must have been admitted to the Jin Shi And there are records that Wang Anshi should have been a champion, but because there was a sentence in the article he wrote that made the emperor very unhappy, he missed the opportunity to become a champion.
Soon after, Wang Anshi became the judge of Huainan Jiedu, and according to common sense, when his term expired, Wang Anshi had the opportunity to go to the capital.
He became an official in the capital, but he gave up this opportunity, he wanted to show his ability outside the capital, and the result was similar to what he expected.
A few years later, Ouyang Xiu, who was in the capital, heard that Wang Anshi had achieved great political achievements, and remembered that he had read his article a few years ago, and knew that Wang Anshi's ability should not stay in the place, but should enter Beijing to serve the Son of Heaven, so Ouyang Xiu recommended Wang Anshi like the emperor.
Wang Anshi, who heard about this, rejected Ouyang Xiu's kindness, and Ouyang Xiu asked Wang Anshi why, and Wang Anshi replied to Ouyang Xiu: "The grandmother in the family is old.
It's really inconvenient to enter Beijing, so I have to stay at home and serve. When Ouyang Xiu heard this, he stopped persuading.
Once Wang Anshi went to Beijing to report on his duties, it was this debriefing that allowed the emperor to see Wang Anshi's ability, because Wang Anshi took advantage of this debriefing.
He proposed a change of law, which the emperor was not interested in, but he saw Wang Anshi's ability, so Wang Anshi stayed in the capital.
Song Shenzong ascended the throne and learned that Wang Anshi's ability was outstanding, making Wang Anshi his right-hand man, and Wang Anshi did not give up his ideal of changing the law, and constantly emphasized the importance of changing the law with Song Shenzong.
Finally, a few years later, Wang Anshi became the prime minister, and at the same time, Wang Anshi carried out non-stop law change operations, although this law change was beneficial, but attracted many people's opposition, but Wang Anshi still insisted on implementing his own law change.
The law failed, he was deposed as prime minister and returned to the pastoral
In 1074, it was the time for Wang Anshi to change the law, but in this year there was a drought, and the land cultivated by the people could not grow food, and the entire Song Dynasty people were displaced, starving to death and freezing to death.
At this time, those who were already opposed to Wang Anshi's change of law found an opportunity to criticize Wang Anshi, and many ministers jointly wrote to Song Shenzong: "Wang Anshi promoted the exemption of money in the change of law.
The displacement of entire populations in our country, which is not suitable for our country, proves that this approach is harmful. ”
Song Shenzong looked at the chaos in the world into a pot of porridge, and felt that there were indeed many problems with this law change, and the unreasonable provisions in the law change should indeed be abolished, but Wang Anshi was willing to easily give up the law change that he had been planning for a long time.
Wang Anshi came to Song Shenzong and told Song Shenzong: "There is a drought in the world now, which is simply something we cannot avoid.
But the change of law must continue. After listening to it, Song Shenzong also felt that what Wang Anshi said made sense, but the officials of the imperial court obviously could no longer tolerate Wang Anshi's change of law.
They first gave the map of the disaster to Song Shenzong, and then wrote a letter stating the harm caused by Wang Anshi's change of law, demanding that Song Shenzong could immediately abolish Wang Anshi's position as prime minister, but Song Shenzong did not abolish Wang Anshi's position as prime minister.
The officials of the imperial court saw that Song Shenzong was unmoved, and could only think of other ways, so the officials of the imperial court found the empress dowager, who ran to cry that Wang Anshi was in trouble, and Song Shenzong finally deposed Wang Anshi as prime minister.
It was later restored, but he was deposed soon after.
Wang Anshi, who was deposed, could only return to his hometown, and although Wang Anshi was removed from the position of prime minister by Song Shenzong, the Song Shenzong who should have given Wang Anshi was not reduced.
Therefore, Wang Anshi still retired according to the standards of the prime minister, but Wang Anshi, who returned to his hometown, was harassed by the county order of his hometown.
Soon after returning to his hometown, Wang Anshi's son died, which made Wang Anshi grief-stricken, and Wang Anshi's relatives heard about it.
I came to the place where Wang Anshi lived with his own native products and wanted to see Wang Anshi, but this relative liked a clean place and did not want to live in Wang Anshi's home.
Wang Anshi had to send someone to find a temple for this relative and let him live in this temple temporarily, but these two days happened to be the emperor's birthday, and local officials large and small came to the temple to pray for the emperor's blessing and drove Wang Anshi's relatives out.
This relative was angry and directly pointed at the nose of these officials and cursed, but these officials did not want to offend Wang Anshi because they knew that this person was Wang Anshi's relative, after all, in their hearts, the thin camel was bigger than the horse.
But these officials couldn't swallow the scolding, so they handed the matter over to the local county order to solve it, which was simply one head and two bigger.
Silently scolded these officials in their hearts for throwing this hot potato to themselves, but they had to do something themselves.
After thinking for a long time, this county commander decided to send someone to Wang Anshi to understand the matter. What makes people cry and laugh is that the person sent by the county order is a person who does not know a big word, but has a strong sense of justice.
He didn't care whether Wang Anshi was retired as the prime minister, and directly made a mess of Wang Anshi's home, and also put on the appearance that he had to arrest people, not only Wang Anshi's relatives, but also Wang Anshi was helpless, so he came forward to settle this matter.
But unexpectedly, those officials did not adhere to it, and went directly to Wang Anshi's home and told Wang Anshi: "These people do not know that you are retired as the prime minister, and I hope that you have a large number of adults, so don't worry about them."
When Wang Anshi heard this, these people clearly pretended to be confused and angry.
At this time, these officials still felt proud, felt that they had left enough face for Wang Anshi, and also gave the retired prime minister a disgrace, so they left Wang Anshi's home dashingly.
But these officials did not expect that after a few days, Song Shenzong issued an order to remove these officials, and the vacated position was taken by Wang Anshi's cronies, and they did not expect that just a retired prime minister would actually make Song Shenzong so angry.
Retired prime minister and reigning prefectural order
Wang Anshi's incident shows that even after retirement, the prime minister still has rights that cannot be ignored compared with local county orders, even if Wang Anshi is no longer the prime minister at this time.
But it is still possible to contact the emperor directly, and it is self-evident to whom the former prime minister and a local official who he has never met, and to whom the emperor is facing.
To tell the truth, a prime minister who retires to become an ordinary person has no rights, and the reigning prefectural decree has the right to govern the big and small matters of a place, so the actual power of the prime minister is lower than that of the prefectural order.
Historically, after most prime ministers retire, local prefectural orders will choose to respect or even bother the retired prime minister. Of course, it is the influence behind the prime minister, you must know that the prime minister has retired, but the influence has not disappeared.
Walking in the imperial court for a long time naturally allowed the prime minister to accumulate contacts and a complex network of power relationships, so the local county commander would naturally find ways to learn the experience and wisdom accumulated by the prime minister in the imperial court for the sake of his own future, so as to help him go higher.
Moreover, after the prime minister retired, not only the local prefectural order, but even the ordinary people of the local area knew that "this person" was a big red man who once walked in front of the emperor.
So when something happens, they naturally think that the prime minister knows more and will naturally follow the prime minister, so the prime minister has a wide social influence.
epilogue
At the same time, the rights of local prefectural orders cannot be ignored, because even if your retired prime minister has extensive social influence and extensive connections, it is still not as good as prefectural orders with actual rights.
Because the incumbent prefectural order has the right to execute, but the retired prime minister does not, the prime minister can only provide his own opinions and experience for the prefectural order, and the final decision power returns to the prefectural order.
Therefore, the relationship between the retired prime minister and the reigning prefectural order cannot be generalized, and it is necessary to analyze it from different aspects, and not all prime ministers will be respected after retirement.