Text: Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
Editor|Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
[Preface]
Chen Shunyu, a native of Wucheng, Huzhou, was a jinshi in the sixth year of Qingli, and a talented and Mao Ming in the physical department in the fourth year of Jiaku, and was listed as the first Xining in June of the third year because of his opposition to the Qingmiao Law, and was impeached and demoted to the prison Nankang Military Liquor Tax.
Chen Shunyu's long-term tenure in local office and seclusion have been greatly evaluated by different literatures, and there are many contradictory descriptions of his personal political experience.
Judging from his personal evaluation and relevant historical materials, through the analysis of Chen Shunyu's image, we can reflect the split of the political consciousness of the scholars in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty.
What was the split in political consciousness among scholars in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty?
【Chen Shunyu's political experience】
What really made him famous was the four-year examination in Jiaku, which in the Northern Song Dynasty was a difficult examination mainly for officials, and the Song people called it "Dake".
The third class is the actual highest class, but only a few people such as Su Shi and Wu Yu really enter the third class, so most scholars regard the Chinese system as a very high honor.
But what is strange is that different historical sources have diametrically opposite evaluations of Chen Shunyu, the biography of "History of the Song Dynasty" highly praises him, Su Shi cries for the text, and "Continuation of the Governance of Tongjian" severely criticizes him for being repeated.
From the relevant historical materials, we can see that the self-impeachment and abandonment of officials and seclusion are the main reasons for the different impressions of Chen Shunyu among scholars.
The two involve Chen Shunyu's political experience, and the specific time of abandoning the official position, the above two historical materials are relatively vague, and there are many contradictions in other historical materials.
Chen Shunyu actually served less than three terms, and was still a junior official in the second year of He, and it was ten years since he was a jinshi, and then according to the position of Mingzhou observation and promotion official he held in the middle system of Jiakun in the fourth year, it can be inferred that his first seclusion was very likely to be in the Huangkun period.
However, the position of Mingzhou Observation and Push Official can be regarded as both a high-ranking official and an ordinary official, so according to the record of "Zhiyuan Jiaweizhi", Guanglucheng is likely to be Chen Shunyu's first Beijing official.
It is also more likely that Chen Shunyu's identity has been tested as Guanglu Cheng, but it is recorded in "Chen Lianyu's Secretary System" that Chen Shunyu was personally tested by the emperor and became a Beijing official.
Then its first Beijing official should be the author of Zuolang, this article is a book, more formal, "Zhiyuan Jiahe Zhi" should be wrong, and we also know that Chen Shunyu from the author of Zuolang to the secretary of the middle, should be less than three years.
Chen Shunyu's political career after the middle school was more complicated, and under normal circumstances, Chen Shunyu was less likely to abandon his official position and live in seclusion during this time.
Chen Shunyu should have been promoted to secretary in advance, so in the period from the fourth year of Jiaku's middle school to the eighth year and five years of Jiaku, the official has been promoted twice, from the author Zuolang to the doctor of Guozi.
However, Dr. Guozi is the official appointed by those who have no background, and Chen Shunyu is both a jinshi and a middle system, so he should be promoted to Dr. Taichang according to the rules, and the rapid promotion should be a reward, and it seems to be a punishment not to be promoted in the order of those who have a background, and the position of Dr. Guozi here is incomprehensible.
In addition, when Zheng Qing recommended Chen Shunyu, he said that he was "preparing for the forbidden forest", which should be when Zheng Zheng was a bachelor of forestry in the early years of Xining, and the edict of the eighth year of Jiadi was called "and exempting distant officials", and it was geographically consistent with Nanyang County, Dengzhou.
If Chen Shunyu had held this position from the eighth year of Jiaku to the early years of Xining, then the comparison between the previous Kuaiyi promotion and the stagnation of Zhinanyang County is a bit unreasonable.
The phrase "drowning in scattered places" seems to mean that Chen Shunyu was in a state of seclusion or semi-seclusion at this time, so Dr. Guozi knew Nanyang County, Dengzhou, and it may be Zheng Zheng's former official name Chen Shunyu.
It is different from "Mingzhou Guoxian Zhenguo Chan Yuan Records", when Chen Shunyu stepped down as Mingzhou Observation and Push Officer, it should be normal to write similar articles, but in the fourth year of Zhiping, if Chen Shunyu was in Nanyang County, he wrote an article about Anji Lingfeng Palace, which is obviously a bit abnormal.
The "Records of the Virtue and Politics of the Shen Gong Ancestral Hall of the Hangzhou Prefect" was also written in the first year of Zhiping, from which it can be inferred that the main time period of Chen Shunyu's second seclusion should be in the Zhiping period.
Chen Shunyu's last official who was clearly recorded was to know Shanyin County as a Tuntian member wailang, and then he was convicted and demoted during this office, and the main body of Chen Shunyu's political career ended in Xining for three years.
[Chen Shunyu: The Tragedy of the Times]
However, there are still a few questions that are still unclear, such as when Chen Shunyu lived in seclusion after being demoted in Xining for three years, and whether he has made a comeback?
The second question is about the year of Chen Shunyu's death, many Song humanities are different, Su Shi said that Chen Shunyu died two years after the two parted, according to the seven years of the two meeting in Xining, Chen Shunyu should have died in Xining nine years.
However, Liu Yizhi said that "the death of the public covers the first year of his birth", and Liu Yizhi was born in 1078, which should be the year of Yuanfeng, and the term "Yuanfengzhong" does not know what to say.
But Su Shi is a friend of Chen Shunyu, Liu Yizhi is just his grandson's classmate, and the Qing Dynasty is even more distant from each other.
Through the combing of Chen Shunyu's political career, it can be seen that his sinking of subordinates with high talent is not only a personal tragedy, but also a tragedy of the times under the guidance of the political system.
【The Split of Political Consciousness of the Scholars and Doctors in the Middle and Late Northern Song Dynasty】
Chen Shunyu lived in the later period of the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, and the first half of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty was a period when the politics of scholars and doctors in the Northern Song Dynasty shifted from relative stability to violent turmoil.
Previously, the politics of scholars was dominated by a small number of political elites who had a deep understanding of the political traditions of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the reform could be carried out relatively smoothly without harming the overall political status of the scholars.
Even carried out political struggles, forming a new political pattern of "ruling the world with scholars", especially in the period of Song Renzong, after nearly a hundred years of development, the overall political status of the Northern Song scholars group has been greatly improved.
Among them, the elite group occupies important positions in the central government, and on the one hand, they participate in political activities as a group and influence political trends.
On the other hand, with its higher political status and more advanced political consciousness, it suppressed and influenced the general middle and lower class scholars, making the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty present a stable and orderly posture.
In this posture, the group of scholars as a whole and the monarch constructed a political model that was close to "agreement".
However, as the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty deteriorated, the rulers had to push forward with reforms, which in turn had to touch the basic principles understood by the scholars and were contrary to the consensus of the political elite.
A large number of scholars and doctors who did not possess a sense of elite politics poured into the central government and participated in the fundamental reform of the political power.
In this context, the points of divergence in the political consciousness within the group of scholars were infinitely intensified, and the external manifestations of this process of change were party disputes or mutual attacks between the old ministers and the "new entrants".
However, in fact, the inherent contradiction should be indiscriminately rooted in the fact that at the beginning of the establishment of the bureaucratic politics of the Northern Song Dynasty, the different principles of the scholar politics dominated by the elite group and the bureaucratic politics prescribed by the rulers were the real reasons for the fierce hedging within the Northern Song Dynasty scholar group and the eventual political collapse.
As a two-sided character in the whirlpool of contradictions, Chen Shunyu's political experience confirms this change.
【Chen Shunyu's political career】
We can divide Chen Shunyu's political career into two parts, one is the selection period before the central system, and the other is the Beijing Dynasty official period, the early stage is generally calm, and the later period is full of contradictions, aiming at the center of contradictions.
Looking through the "Duguan Collection", you can find that Chen Shunyu and Wang Anshi had a lot of exchanges, such as several "Shangshi Picture Books", and "He Wang Jieqian sent Anfengzhi County to repair Shaopo" with Wang Anshi's poems.
However, these materials are all from Chen Shunyu, and they concentrate on his attitude towards Wang Anshi in the later part of his political career, but it is Wang Anshi's "Sending Chen Shunyu to Return to the East", which can quite reflect Wang Anshi's attitude towards Chen Shunyu in the early and middle stages of his political career:
The sages made a plan for Weiyang Palace, and Gechuan was the only old man.
Qu Xuemu is a year-end Han Xiang, and talks about Zhou Gong on weekdays.
Jun is now in the prime of life, and I want him to see the merits.
I heard that it was really intentional, and the gift chat was like the style of the ancients.
The poem is full of words of joy and encouragement, which shows that the relationship between Wang Anshi and Chen Shunyu at that time was at least ordinary friends, even if it was not very close.
The fuse of the rupture of the relationship between the two was Chen Shunyu's self-impeachment in the previous book, in which Chen Shunyu prefaced the importance of the green seedlings, and then analyzed the various deviations from the original meaning of the law change and the difficulties in the implementation process from the perspective of the magistrate.
Chen Shunyu's opinions on the Seedlings Law were mostly based on his familiarity with local politics, and he pointed out many loopholes in the specific implementation of the Seedlings Law.
These opinions were not issued specifically for the new law, but were practical suggestions on the basis of practice, and at that time, at the beginning of the implementation of the new law, Wang Anshi seemed to be right to denigrate Chen Shunyu.
However, combined with Chen Shunyu's political career, it can be seen that he was still a long-awaited elite when he was the secretary, but he was stagnant for several years in Nanyang County.
seems to confirm that he is "overbearing and ruthless, and the official is quite rough", Wang Anshi's bad impression of him may have begun to accumulate at this time, and Chen Shunyu's capricious style has also made it a topic of conversation in Beijing.
Liu Yizhi has admiration for Chen Shunyu, so it is unlikely that he deliberately fabricated and slandered, and in the relevant records, Chen Shunyu and Lu Yu and others agreed not to come back after leaving Beijing, and then not only regretted the green seedlings, but also very likely to come back as a foreign official of the capital.
Due to the effect of the gathering with Lu Zhi and others, it may indeed cause the above rumors, Liu Yizhi was born late, and I don't know if the rumors are normal.
So we can probably also know that Chen Shunyu seems to have had a moral stain before being demoted, and Wang Anshi may have had a bad impression, but it is not serious, otherwise he would not agree to Chen Shunyu's edict to test for the museum.
The situation also necessitated the denunciation of Chen Shunyu's opposition to the Seedlings Law, but Chen Shunyu's remorse after being degraded should have deepened Wang Anshi's disgust, and Chen Shunyu's tragedy did not end there.
The tragedy of Chen Shunyu lies not in the sinking of his own or his family, but in the fact that all his actions were carried out under the guidance or influence of the political system, reflecting the irreconcilable contradictions in the political tradition of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Mr. Wu Zhengqiang's view of this is very instructive, he said that after the collapse of the uniform land system, not only was the state unable to control the distribution of land in the countryside, but the rural power had no reason to rise to the power of the political power.
The folk customs of the rural society are also detached from the ideology of the state, thus forming the phenomenon of the separation of the monarch and the people, and the separation of the government and the people.
Because it did not conform to the Confucian ideal of social ethics, the scholars of the Song Dynasty had various worries and dissatisfaction with this relationship between the monarch and the people.
Therefore, they put forward various plans for the integration of the monarch and the people, and Mr. Wu Zhengqiang was keenly aware of the social situation of the separation of the monarch and the people in the Northern Song Dynasty, as he argued in the "Rationalization of the Imperial Examination", the imperial examination system was not an effective means of integrating the monarch and the people.
The scholar group and the nomadic class it represented were separated from society and attached to the imperial power, and under the influence of the "law of the ancestors", it had a huge differentiating effect on the scholars.
This state of "external detachment and internal tearing" made the scholar group exist abnormally in the political pattern of the Northern Song Dynasty, and this state also made the party struggle that broke out during the Xifeng period and the ensuing unrestricted internal friction almost the inevitable outcome of the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty.
[The obvious dynastic phenomenon of the separation of the monarch and the people in the Northern Song Dynasty]
Mr. Wu Zhengqiang has discussed in detail the separation of the monarch and the people in the Northern Song Dynasty, and on the basis of the separation of the monarch and the people, the tearing of political consciousness within the scholar group is particularly serious.
The History of the Song Dynasty and the Chronicles of Career Officials clearly mark the completely different migration channels for those with and without origin, and the former is obviously more preferential than the latter.
However, in fact, a group of scholars and doctors who are in the middle of the school or have a completely different and more priority promotion channel, and these people often have a higher starting point, and will soon be edicted to take a position in the hall or enter the Taiwan to accumulate political capital.
In one fell swoop, he stepped into the core political circle, coupled with the many dispatches he assigned, which helped to deepen the understanding of the political tradition of the Northern Song Dynasty, so that many famous ministers who were praised by later generations and had the consciousness of political subjectivity came from this.
However, not all scholars and doctors who meet this condition belong to the elite group, and a large number of ordinary scholars or scholars from various disciplines are mostly ups and downs in the selection stage, and even if they are successfully re-elected, it is difficult to enter the core political circle.
Moreover, their political careers lacked the opportunity to understand and even improve the political traditions of the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as the separation from society, so they could only choose to further demand political status and personal power.
Although they belonged to the same group of scholars, they were very different, from the promotion path to the political consciousness and the place of residence, and this rift was almost established at the same time as the stable rule of the Song Dynasty.
These two groups of scholars with different political ideologies also play their due role in their respective political environments, the former as the political elite and the latter as the general political group.
For the emperor, although the political elite group played an increasingly important role in the process of continuous development, it took a more collective and active attitude to participate in the construction and improvement of the "law of the ancestors".
But the fragmentation of the scholar community itself makes it difficult for them to condense into a powerful political bloc from the top down.
[Peeping at the leopard in the tube, looking at the Northern Song Dynasty doctor from Chen Shunyu]
This inherent contradiction not only highlights the different meanings of the "law of the ancestors" as a political agreement and a governing technique, but also declares the absolute victory of the "ancestral law" as a governing technique.
Chen Shunyu can be described as a contradictory synthesis of the deformed state of the scholar group and its internal tornness, and he has obtained a university degree, but it is difficult to enter the political core.
cares about political effectiveness and does not hesitate to write a book to impeach, but he regrets the green seedlings, is repeated, often reclusive but comes back many times.
Whether it is from the perspective of scholars, the separation from rural society, or from the perspective of one side of the scholars, the similarities and differences between the political elite group and the general political group.
Even from the perspective of the meaning of the "law of the ancestors", Chen Shunyu shows the different characteristics that should belong to both sides of the contradiction.
In addition, his person appeared at the critical time point when various internal contradictions were about to erupt, so Chen Shunyu's experience was like a miniature model of the complex internal contradictions of the Northern Song Dynasty scholars.
The study of his individual is conducive to us to get a glimpse of the whole leopard and examine the various internal contradictions and characteristics of the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty scholars.