In ancient China, whenever there was a chaotic world, the benevolent lord was always very few. In particular, in the five dynasties and ten kingdoms where "the people's livelihood has been the most tragic situation since China" (Qian Mu), although there are countless emperors in the north and south of the world who have sung and sung me, only Li Siyuan of the Later Tang Dynasty and Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty can be praised by later generations. However, there is one person whose deeds are not inferior to the above two people at all, and it can even be said that without him, there would be no series of reforms by Zhou Shizong later, and it would be impossible to have the prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty, but today it is rarely mentioned - this is the founder of the Later Zhou, Zhou Taizu Guo Wei. Although he was born into the army, believed in force, and fought a piece of heaven and earth with his fists in the chaotic world, it was this person who sat on the dragon chair for less than three years (February 951 to the first month of 954) not only worked hard to eliminate all kinds of accumulated shortcomings since the end of the Tang Dynasty, but also opened a window of hope for the people who were deeply in the water, and also used his broad mind to set an example for future generations of benevolent kings.
01
He was tolerant of his enemies
Regarding the history of Guo Wei's development, I think everyone is familiar with it. This soldier, who was once a mess, will be pushed to the center of the stage of history because of the storm. However, on the way to the highest power, Guo Wei paid a heavy price - his family was murdered by political enemies, and even the infant was not spared. However, after his yellow robe was added, facing the Kaifeng Yin Liu Ba, who ordered the massacre of his family, although he experienced a fierce ideological struggle, he finally killed only Liu Ba and pardoned all his relatives. Even for Su Fengji, who forced him onto the road of rebellion, Guo Wei spared his family, not killing one, not even going to prison. At that time, even if Guo Wei cut these two people off the door, public opinion would not have anything to say. But he did not raise the butcher's knife of revenge with supreme authority. Later, Guo Wei also specially promulgated a law that one person who was guilty, his nine ethnic groups were innocent, and strictly prevented the people from sitting down. In the past, the property and land of lawbreakers confiscated by the government were all returned to their families, so that they could have the capital to live. This instruction makes us read it hundreds of years later, and we can also feel the strong human touch.
Although Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, who later painted the gourd and added the same yellow robe, was praised as a benevolent prince by countless literati in later generations, for those who had given him unpleasant memories, Old Zhao did not let go of anyone, and the most unfortunate thing was to be humiliated in public. If it weren't for Pan Mei's death, he would even have killed Zhou Shizong's four young sons to avoid the consequences. Emperor Xuan of Han was also a Renjun who was talked about by historians, but he did not spare a single member of the Huo family when he liquidated Huo Guang, the "Emperor Taishang". They are all facing the enemy, are these benevolent monarchs dwarfed by Guo Wei?
02
To the people, he loved them as a son
Guo Wei's "benevolence" is not only reflected in his magnanimity toward his enemies, but also in his performance in treating the people and the people of the world. It can be said that Guo Wei really broke his heart in order to let the people who had been plagued by the war live a stable life.
Guo Wei comes from the bottom of society, and he deeply understands what the people need most in the chaotic world. To this end, when he had just seized the power of the Later Han Dynasty and had not yet ascended the throne as emperor, he ordered the forbidden direction of tribute to the central government. After ascending the throne, he also decreed that not only rare treasures, but all local products could not be paid tribute. Guo Wei, who was born in hardship, understood that none of these tributes were not soaked with the blood and sweat of the people. He once said: "Rise from the cold, prepare for hardships, suffer from the chaos of time, once you become an emperor, how dare you be generous and self-serving to the sick people?" ("Zizhi Tongjian Hou Zhou Ji" is extremely rich but does not forget the people, which is quite rare.)
In addition, Guo Wei told the states to properly resettle the people displaced by the war, and the government gave land and crop seeds to the landless, and reduced taxes for three years so that they could safely engage in production. For those hungry people who did not want to eat in other countries in the Zhou Dynasty, Guo Wei asked all border checkpoints to be released. We must know that in the years of war and chaos, all kinds of heroes tried their best to plunder the population as much as possible, because there were soldiers when there were people, and only when there were more people could they have combat effectiveness. But Guo Wei did not do this, he knew that forcing the people to stay would only make his people lose their hearts and minds faster. Some people say that his move is to buy people's hearts and minds, and it is a political show. We don't rule out that Guo Wei had this idea, but at that time, many people didn't even bother to do this show. Moreover, the show is also worthy of people's respect, right?
Not only for his own people, but also for the people of the enemy country, Guo Wei also treated them with sincerity. Southern Tang and Zhou were enemies, but after the disaster in Southern Tang, Guo Wei immediately ordered the border areas to trade with the people of Southern Tang and allowed Southern Tang to buy Zhou's grain and clothing. Just like he did with his enemies, Guo Wei did not care about the lives of these people because they were enemy people. Some people said that this move was beneficial to Tang and not to Zhou, hoping that he would take back his life. But he lamented that the enmity and resentment between countries concerned the people!
03
To the country, he bowed to the best of his ability
When Guo Wei led the army in the past years, he would hold a book and read hard whenever he had spare time. He knew that it was impossible without culture, and that although force was supreme in a chaotic world, not everything could be settled by force. Therefore, he had great respect for the talented scribes, and he treated them as guests of honor and let them teach their own knowledge. Even after his arrival in the Ninth Five-Year Plan, he still humbly and heavily entrusted himself with talented civil servants, changing the ugly image of the military regime since Later Liang with actions, and successively promoted a number of able ministers such as Wang Pu, Fan Qian, Wei Renpu, and Wang Pu, many of whom still played an important role in the political arena in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. He often said to these ministers: "Growing up in the military, he did not understand learning, nor was he proficient in the grand plan of governing the country and the country, and those who were beneficial to the country and the people would go directly to the book and say things, and never just write some useless words that whitewashed taiping." ”
With Guo Wei's efforts, the next week showed signs of going abroad to become rich and strong in a very short period of time. Although the days did not take a holiday, Guo Wei was not able to make houzhou produce more transformed changes than later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han. But it was his dragonfly-like move that activated the lifeless and decaying political atmosphere since the end of the Tang Dynasty, which opened the curtain for the vigorous reform of Zhou Shizong and set the tone for the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.
It is worth mentioning that until the moment before his death, Guo Wei was still worried about the country. He repeatedly instructed his heir Chai Rong that when he was buried, he would not want any funeral goods, wear paper clothes to the funeral, make a coffin out of tiles, and not repair the underground palace and not stay behind. He understood that without such an exhortation, he did not know how much national resources would be spent and how many people would be exhausted. For a long time afterwards, Guo Wei's tomb was preserved intact. Because people know that there is nothing of value in there.
Born in a chaotic world and raised in the military, Guo Wei used military strength as the support for his own power, took the later Han Dynasty and replaced him, and was a representative figure of the military dictatorship in the Five Dynasties period. However, it was this big boss who relied on his fist to fight the world, but with his own benevolent heart, he reversed the chaotic situation of northern society since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and put the traumatized Central Plains on the road to stability. His benevolence laid the foundation for China's long-term war and chaos to turn to unification, and his benevolence made the Central Plains Empire show signs of prosperity and national strength, and his benevolence laid a solid foundation for the cause of Zhou Shizong and Song Taizu. However, it is precisely such a figure who is absolutely one of the best in the ancient ranking of renjun, but it is rarely mentioned, which is indeed very undeserved.
Planner: Fish and Sheep History Producer: Fish Boy
Author: Lin Sen Production: Eat hard disk bar, developed mosquitoes
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