Biography of Su Xuan
Su Xuan (498-546), known as Lingxuan, was a native of Wugong County, Jingzhao County (now Wugong County, Xianyang City). Famous ministers of the Western Wei Dynasty.
Maxima who has done his best and died
Su Sui was born in a famous family, his ancestors all served as officials, and his father served as the Taishou of Wugong County.
Su Sui has been a keen learner since she was a child, well-read, knowledgeable, and especially good at mathematics. His talent is well known in the family.
Su Sui's cousin Su Rang was transferred to other places to serve as the assassin, and Prime Minister Yu Wentai served him as a pawn, and when he parted, he asked that if the Su family had outstanding children, he must recommend them to the imperial court. Su Rang didn't even think about it, and his cousin Su Sui's name blurted out. Since then, Su Sui has become the attendant officer by Yuwentai's side.
Su Xuan has served for more than a year, and Yuwentai has never had an in-depth understanding of him. The colleagues who work with Su Sui like to consult him when they encounter problems that cannot be solved at work, and they can all get satisfactory answers. The format of the documents exchanged between the government and the government was also determined by Su Sui.
Once, Yuwentai discussed official business with the minister Zhou Huida, and Zhou Huida didn't know how to reply for a while, so he went out to find helpers. Zhou Huida summoned Su Sui to ask, and Su Sui immediately gave an answer.
Zhou Huida reported to Yuwentai with the answer, and Yuwentai was very satisfied. When he learned that the idea came from Su Xuan, Yuwentai was very happy and immediately promoted him.
Once, the ministers accompanied Yuwentai to Kunming Pond to watch fishing, passing by the ruins of a Han Dynasty warehouse on the way. Yu Wentai wanted to know the story of this site, but the ministers around him couldn't tell it, and someone proposed to ask the erudite Su Sui.
Su Sui was instructed to answer, explaining the ins and outs of the ruins in great detail, and Yu Wentai was very happy and further inquired about the origin of the creation of heaven and earth and the rise and fall of dynasties. Su Sui is very eloquent and responds fluently. Yu Wentai listened fascinated and came back without watching the fishing.
That night, Yuwentai left Su Xuan to talk all night and ask about the way to govern the country. Su Xuan spoke freely and elaborated on the methods of Confucianism and Legalism in governing the country. At first, Yu Wentai was still lying down listening, but then he tidied up his clothes, sat straight and listened, and unconsciously moved to the front of the seat. The two chatted all night, and Yuwentai didn't feel tired at all.
The next day, Yuwentai said to Zhou Huida: "Su Sui is a genius, I will arrange for him to participate in political affairs." Therefore, he was immediately appointed as the highest subordinate official of the Prime Minister's Office to participate in adjudicating confidential matters. Since then, Yuwentai has trusted Su Sui more and more.
One year, Gao Huan, the prime minister of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, divided into three routes and attacked the Western Wei Dynasty. The generals of the Western Wei Dynasty advocated dividing their troops to fight, but only Su Sui and Yu Wentai agreed that they should concentrate superior forces against one of them.
In the end, Yuwentai concentrated his forces and stormed the main force led by the famous general Dou Tai of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, defeated Dou Tai and captured him alive.
In the early days of the establishment of the Western Wei Dynasty, the strength was far inferior to that of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and Yuwentai had always had the dream of enriching the country and strengthening the army, but there was no good way for a while. Su Sui drafted the "Six Edicts", the themes of which were to govern the mind and body, educate and educate, make the best use of the location, promote the virtuous, compassionate prison lawsuits, and all serve as the governing program of the imperial court and the policy guidelines of local officials.
Yu Wentai attaches great importance to the "Six Edicts", not only reading it often, but also ordering officials of all sizes to learn to memorize it. The implementation of the "Six Edicts" played a great role in changing the social atmosphere of the Western Wei Dynasty, reforming politics, and developing national strength, and created conditions for the Northern Zhou Dynasty, which replaced the Western Wei Dynasty, to unify the north, and even the Sui Dynasty to unify the whole country.
In addition, Su Sui also wrote the "Great Message", which changed the flashy literary style since the end of the Three Kingdoms, and at the same time, changed the official system of the Western Wei Dynasty according to the "Zhou Li".
Su Sui lives a frugal life and is dedicated to the public. All the officials he recommended were competent. Yuwentai has a heart-to-heart for him and has never been suspicious. Sometimes, when Yuwentai went out to inspect, he asked Su Sui to handle political affairs with full authority, and signed his name on the blank official document in advance and handed it to Su Sui for urgent use. When he came back, he just glanced at the results. Su Sui said to Yu Wentai that the way to govern the country should be to love the people like a loving father and educate the people like a strict teacher.
Su Sui is grateful to Yuwentai for his kindness, and he is busy with government affairs until the second half of the night every day, no matter how big or small the affairs are, he is very clear. Because of overwork, Su Xuan fell seriously ill and died at the age of forty-nine. After Yuwentai heard the news of Su Xuan's death, he couldn't help crying.
In order to respect Su Sui's ambitions during his lifetime, Yu Wentai ordered a thin burial. On the day of the burial, Yu Wentai led his ministers to walk outside the city gate, personally holding a wine glass to pay tribute, and said: "Su Shangshu's life and deeds are unknown to his wife, children, and brothers, but I know them all. Only Su Shangshu understands my heart, and I also understand his heart. I was about to calm the world together, but I didn't expect to leave me!" After speaking, he cried loudly again, and the wine glass fell to the ground.
Yu Xin's biography
Yu Xin (513-581), Zizishan, was a native of Xinye County, Nanyang County (now Xinye County, Nanyang City, Henan Province). He was a writer during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
A palace poet who went from the south to the north
Yu Xin was born in a scholarly family, and his ancestors have been recommended as Xiucai for seven consecutive generations, and five generations have written anthologies to pass down, and there is also a literary scholar. His grandfather once refused an offer from the Southern Qi Dynasty, and his father, Yu Beiwu, was a high-ranking official in the Liang Dynasty and was also a well-known literary scholar.
Yu Xin has been very smart since he was a child, well-read, and proficient in "Zuo Chuan". When he grew up, he was eight feet tall, burly, and behaved differently from ordinary people.
At the age of fifteen, Yu Xin was summoned to the East Palace and became the lecturer of the crown prince Xiao Tong. Later, Xiao Tong died of illness, and Emperor Wu of Liang canonized his third son, Xiao Gang, as the crown prince.
Yu Shouwu served as the prince's chamberlain, in charge of clerical work, and when Yu Xin was nineteen years old, Yu Shouwu still served in the East Palace. The father and son served in the East Palace at the same time, entering and leaving the palace, and the grace and courtesy they received were enviable.
In the middle of the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, the society was stable and prosperous, Xiao Gang was in the East Palace, and a group of literati gathered around him, describing court life with poetry, and gradually formed a "palace style poem".
"Palace style poems" inherited the Yuefu of the Han Dynasty, wrote about the interaction between men and women in imitation of ancient times, pursued gorgeous rhetoric in form, chanted women in content, and styled Qiman, which was a new poetic style in the Southern Dynasties. Yu Xinqing served in the East Palace in middle age, and created a large number of "palace poems", which were as famous as another genius Xu Ling. People also call this kind of poem "Xu Yu style".
In 548, the "Hou Jing Rebellion" broke out, and the rebels approached the capital city of Jiankang (present-day Nanjing). Xiao Gang ordered Yu Xin to lead more than 1,000 civil and military officials to camp at Zhuquehang (present-day Confucius Temple in Nanjing).
When the rebels occupied Jiankang, Yu Xin hurriedly led the army to retreat. When the palace was also occupied, Yu Xin went west along the Yangtze River, fled to Jiangling, and defected to Xiao Yi, the king of Xiangdong. Soon, Emperor Wu of Liang was killed, and Xiao Gang, who had not been on the throne for a long time, was soon deposed, and the world was in chaos. In 552, Xiao Yi put down the rebellion and proclaimed himself emperor in Jiangling as Emperor Yuan of Liang.
Emperor Liang Yuan was talented and very talented, so he valued Yu Xin very much. Two years later, Yu Xin sent an envoy to the Western Wei Dynasty on the orders of Emperor Yuan, and soon after arriving in Chang'an, the capital of the Western Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei army captured Jiangling, and Emperor Yuan of Liang was killed. From then on, Yu Xin was left in Chang'an as an official by the Western Wei Emperor.
After another two years, Yuwentai, a powerful minister of the Western Wei Dynasty, died of illness, and his nephew Yuwen supported Emperor Xiaomin and established the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Emperor Xiao Min admired Yu Xin very much, and Yu Xin successively held important positions, and later served as the assassin of Luozhou (now Luoyang City, Henan Province).
Yu Xin is very familiar with the old rules and regulations, and handles official affairs concisely and strives to be clean. By the time Emperor Wu of Zhou reigned, the Southern Liang had been replaced by the Chen Dynasty, and the relationship with the Northern Zhou was quite harmonious, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty was asked to return more than a dozen literati who were stranded in the north, such as Yu Xin and Wang Bao. Emperor Wu of Zhou was reluctant to let Yu Xin and Wang Bao go, so he left these two people behind and let the other southerners go.
Since then, Yu Xin has stayed in the north. The emperors of the Northern Zhou Dynasty were all fond of literature, and Yu Xin was very courteous because of this. Not only did the emperor value him very much, but other clan vassal kings and ministers also befriended him, and many epitaphs of princes and nobles were written by Yu Xin.
At that time, only Yu Xin and Wang Bao received such an honor, and no other literati did. Yu Xin lived until the establishment of the Sui Dynasty before his death at the age of sixty-nine.
Yu Xin's literary creation experience is divided into two periods, with the forty-two-year-old envoy to the Western Wei Dynasty as the boundary. In the early Liang Dynasty, most of the time the world was peaceful, and most of his poems were "palace poems" that catered to the court nobles. Although this kind of court literature is easy to reveal the poet's education and literary talent, it is not suitable for expressing personal beliefs or sentiments.
Later, Liang Jianwen advocated new changes, and Yu Xin's creation began to break the stereotype, opening up the way for later Tang poetry and legal fu. His early contributions to the diversity of poetic forms were highly recognized by later generations.
Yu Xin was detained in the Northern Zhou Dynasty in the later period, and experienced the change of the country, and his heart was extremely shocked, and he wrote a large number of works expressing his nostalgia for his homeland, and his style became sad and vigorous, his emotions were more sincere, and his artistic achievements were very high.
When he first arrived in the north, the literati in the north looked down on him, until he took out the article "The Fu of the Dead Tree", and no one dared to underestimate him. Yu Xin compares himself to a dead tree in "The Fu of the Withered Tree", expressing his homesickness and feeling the life of displacement. The whole article is full of anger, and the words reveal a sense of desolation and indignation.
Yu Xin has made outstanding achievements in poetry, fu, and literature, and has become one of the most famous poets from the south to the north, and finally achieved the literary attainment of "the victory of the poor north and the south". Later generations compiled Yu Xin's works as "Yu Kaifu Collection".
This article is excerpted from "Twenty-four Histories Read Now, Language and History Are Progressing" - the seventh volume of "Book of Zhou", which is officially authorized to be published, welcome to continue to pay attention.