"Pavilion Chief Xiaowu" is a new historicist novel, set in the political situation in the last years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, telling the story of a young official who is familiar with the laws and regulations gradually ascends to the position of Jing Zhaoyin, and then becomes involved in the rebellion of Prince Wei......
In the first four years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was a robbery case in Yuzhang County, and when many old officials were helpless, Xiao Wu, the head of Qingyun Pavilion, solved the case. It turned out that the robbery case actually involved King Guangling, the son of Emperor Wu. Because King Guangling was the son of Emperor Wu, Emperor Wu specially issued an edict to pardon him, but King Guangling did not give up, and colluded with Zhu Anshi, a Jingfu ranger, in an attempt to kidnap Yuzhang Duwei and steal hundreds of thousands of strong crossbows, so that he could change day by day...... But this kidnapping was also resolved by Xiao Wu and captured Zhu Anshi, what he didn't expect was that Zhu Anshi's capture actually made Xiao Wu know about the affairs of Prime Minister Gongsun He's family, and Gongsun He also sent his subordinates to kill Xiao Wu. When his life hung by a thread, Xiao Wu was rescued by Liu Lidu, the daughter of King Guangling, and thus embarked on the road of escape. On the way to escape, Xiao Wu and Liu Li both secretly fell in love, and unexpectedly learned that the king of Changyi had already coveted the throne and tried to disturb the five southeastern counties in order to cause a shock in the court......
A year later, Gongsun He's affairs were revealed, Emperor Wu killed in Chang'an, but Xiao Wu was able to enter the court as an official, and then became an embroidered messenger, Yuzhang Taishou, and married Liu Lidu, and soon moved to Beijing Zhaoyin, but it was not a smooth road to greet Xiao Wu: first his parents were killed by unknown people, and then offended his favorite minister Jiang Chong and was imprisoned, Liu Lidu was forced to commit suicide by poison in order to write for Xiao Wu.
Emperor Wu had long had the intention of abolishing the prince, and allowed Jiang Chong to do anything wrong in Chang'an, pointing the finger at Prince Wei. In order to take revenge, Xiao Wu participated in Prince Wei's rebellion and killed the traitor Jiang Chong. But Prince Wei's rebellion was finally suppressed by Emperor Wu, and Xiao Wu knew that he could not survive in the world, so he committed suicide in the tomb of his beloved wife Liu Lidu.
>> Creation Talk:
The struggle of civilians
- Why did I write "Pavilion Chief Xiaowu"
Strong man and tiger spirit
Adam Smith once said, "Before the invention of firearms, human civilization was always destroyed by barbarism." He cites as an example the destruction of Rome at the hands of the Germanic barbarians in the north. In the East, the same thing happened over and over again. When the barbaric Qin State incorporated all the Eastern Rites and Pleasures into its territory with the power of devastation, later historians reminisced with great emotion, weeping and heartbroken, thinking that they had found another example of civilization being brutally conquered, just as the Western Zhou Dynasty had been overthrown by the iron hooves of the dogs hundreds of years earlier. It is true that in terms of the definition of civilization, the race of the Qin State is indeed more Hu, and the social system of the Qin State is indeed more barbaric than that of the six eastern countries, and the Legalist perspective and the Confucian compassion are indeed very different, although from a certain point of view, Confucianism also had the reputation of "killing without seeing blood".
When the Shang Dynasty changed the law, the nobles of the Qin State lamented, the slaves cheered, they threw away the hereditary shackles on their bodies, and they could be free by their own bravery, even titles, official positions, and land, as long as they killed enough enemies on the battlefield. In the eyes of the people of the six eastern countries, this is nothing less than a shameless change. Because it finally completely took off the coat of etiquette and civilization that had been draped on its body since the Zhou Dynasty, and jumped naked into the gladiatorial arena of "the more people killed, the more glorious", it initiated the "first-class club" system, which made the monarchs of the six eastern countries unable to swallow their tongues. Regardless of whether the Confucian intellectuals wanted it or not, the Qin Dynasty, which was still the country of the first meritorious, finally relied on this "shameless" system to bring people's subjective initiative into full play.
However, this vast glory was only a flash in the pan, and the first emperor, who thought that he could pass on the country to eternity, had just collapsed, and the powerful Qin Dynasty collapsed in an instant. This made later generations of Confucian scholars feel very emotional, and found an excellent evidence: tyranny can only be noisy for a while, and long-term peace and stability must rely on Confucian benevolence. You can win the world on horseback, but you can't rule the world on horseback. This remarkable example made the Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasty completely emboldened to denounce the Legalists in front of the emperor, and although the emperor was embarrassed, he was helpless. Confucian benevolence is a good thing, but the rulers will not fail to see the shortcomings, and they will not be unaware that Confucianism has also had a bloody lesson in the past: Song Xianggong was defeated and died for the so-called benevolence and righteousness, and Shen Sheng, the prince of Jin Xiangong, died for the so-called benevolence and righteousness. As a result, the secret essence of Legalism, the superficial decoration of Confucianism, this set of systems finally implemented with difficulty.
The Han Dynasty finally became a truly powerful dynasty, which, like the Qin Dynasty, completely defeated the harassment of the northern nomads, and caused the Xiongnu, known as the "Pride of Heaven", to fall apart, and then fled to Taixi. It was able to recruit many nomads for its use, its army once crossed to the vast Western Regions, its name embroidered on the fiery red flag, rippling like waves in the west wind of hunting, so that the monarchs of the 36 countries of the Western Regions were terrified, but it did not "die twice" like the Qin Dynasty, and ruled the world for 400 years. Zhang Taiyan said that after the Eastern Han Dynasty, the vigorous atmosphere of the Han nation was gradually lost, and it was repeatedly persecuted by foreign races. How can it do that?
In my opinion, that is the efficiency of its administration, but it is not completely inhuman. If the Qin Dynasty was an efficient regime, we have to believe this. Because before it unified the world, the envoys of the six countries visited the Qin State and returned with great relief: the efficiency of the Qin State was so high, and the officials were so diligent that today's affairs would never be delayed until tomorrow, and there would never be redundant documents on the several cases of the officials. Such a country is destined to shoulder the heavy task of unifying the world. But the high efficiency of the Qin Dynasty developed to the end, but at the expense of human nature, in addition to the practical "science and technology" books, it burned the books of other princes and hundreds of schools, the Legalists were set to one, and the emperor was the supreme master. It abolished countless ethical practices, and while it did hinder the passage of government decrees and was detrimental to long-term peace and stability, it played a potentially important role in another aspect of society. The Han Dynasty took advantage of this potential role and maintained its rule long enough. Of course, in essence, its own set of laws is still a copy of the Qin Dynasty, whether it is the superficial laissez-faire of the early Han Dynasty or the exclusive respect for Confucianism after the middle of the Han Dynasty, it is the superficial phenomenon of dynastic politics, in fact, Legalism still occupies a dominant position. As Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty said: "The Han family has its own system, and it is supposed to be a tyrant, so why use Confucianism?" Only the Legalists' "reward and punishment" and "comprehensive verification of the name and truth" can make the Huanghuang Han become a mighty tiger on the East Asian continent, and can defeat the Xiongnu, a country of bows galloping in the Mongolian steppe and the yellow sand desert. The cavalry and archery tribe that has terrified countless countries and tribes on the earth for thousands of years has finally been defeated by the Han of the agrarian country that has relocated to the land, which is really an outlier in the world civilization. It convinces people that in the age of cold weapons, civilized farming peoples were not necessarily ravaged by nomadic barbarians, and the two Han people were role models. If the nomadic people, such as the Xiongnu, are the wolves of the steppe desert, then the strong man is a fierce tiger on the entire East Asian continent! The tiger roars in the valley, and the beasts are terrified. The ferocious wolf finally howled and screamed bruised under the fierce claws of the tiger. If the regime established by the Central Plains Dynasty has always had this kind of tiger spirit, why did it cry and cry again and again under the iron hooves of the nomads in the north? Obviously, this is a problem of the system. What kind of system there is, what kind of folk customs there is, and vice versa.
Unspoken and explicit rules
As we all know, when civilization reaches a certain stage of development, its people will increase their worries and be greedy for life and death. A gambler with nothing to sacrifice except his body. But even if he refused to sacrifice his body, he would not have been honored or rich. Therefore, he is prone to make a desperate gamble, because if he loses, he has little to lose, and if he wins, his fate is completely changed. Therefore, the sharp soldiers of the six eastern countries could not resist the thunderous attack of the Qin prisoners, and those people were a group of gamblers who had nothing to do, and what they were looking forward to every day was to loot east of the Guguan Letter. It's a bit like the Huns who went south to plunder all the time. The dynamics of the two are quite different, and in some ways they are strikingly similar.
The Xiongnu were a people who revered the strong and the strong and abandoned the old and the weak, so the good food and good goods obtained by looting should first be distributed to the able-bodied. If they can eat and drink well, they will have the strength to launch another raid. It is not easy for us to accuse them of barbarism and shamelessness, because all the civilized nations of the world may have started their lives on this. The policy of the Qin State at that time was quite similar, it almost abandoned the Confucian culture of old age, and also despised the old and weak. The so-called "poor and strong sons will be divided", that is, when the son is older, he must live separately from Lao Tzu, because the system of conscripting soldiers according to households enables it to have a more adequate source of soldiers. If the old father wants to borrow farm tools from his son, he may be abused by his daughter-in-law. In the eyes of later generations of Confucian scholars, this was simply unimaginable disobedience. Like the Xiongnu, the Qin State once divided the soldiers into three teams, one group of women, one team of old and weak, and one team of strong soldiers. When the two armies faced each other, the women and the old and weak who acted as the vanguard probably quickly died under the dense rain of arrows from the other side, and at the same time, the opponent's arrows were exhausted. Under the ashes, the winner is decided. And the only thing that can bring people's subjective initiative into play to such a point is the Legalist system.
What exactly is the Legalist system? Why does it enable a farming nation to have such a vigorous and courageous style? It is because of its "reward and punishment" and "comprehensive verification of the name and truth." When Shang Ying set up a reward of fifty gold and encouraged the peasants to carry a piece of wood from the south gate to the north gate, the foundation for the success of the Qin state had already been laid. Who would have imagined that such a simple act could make a commoner with a family surrounded by four walls suddenly have five times the wealth of a middle-class family? The credibility of a government to its citizens is more important than anything else. This inspired the wriggling and poor Qin people, who knew that as long as they did what the government demanded, they would be rewarded with what the government had promised them, because it was based on fine laws. The Han Dynasty inherited this style of the Qin Dynasty, and judging from the unearthed Han Jane, the refinement of the law in the early Han Dynasty even exceeded that of the Qin Dynasty. A political era called "pure and inactive" in the history books is not an era of laissez-faire. If its "unspoken rules" were as ubiquitous as the dynasties of later generations, it would not have been able to manage such a huge country more effectively with far fewer officials than later generations, and its tentacles would have extended all the way to such a distant frontier; it would not have such a powerful fighting force; it would not have formed such a popular custom of making heavy promises and ignoring life and death. In the same way, it will not leave behind such mournful and moving five-character poems that decipher life and death, which are different from the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty because it is mixed with sorrow in the boldness. Of course, it is not enthusiastic and unrestrained, but it is the kind of impassioned. So the latter is probably a more sour emotion to read, and this kind of joy that is not pure seems to give people a permanent and indelible impression.
Whether it is from the Book of Han or from the unearthed Han scripts, we can see that the implementation of the Han Dynasty's laws and regulations was harsh and serious. Therefore, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty pardoned his favored retainer Master Father Yan, he was opposed by Zhang Tang, and the reason for his stubborn argument was that once such an illegal pardon precedent was set, the future generations of the Han Dynasty would be incurable, so Emperor Wu could only watch the Lord Father Yan be wiped out. When Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty wanted to exterminate the thieves who stole the artifacts of Emperor Gao's temple, Zhang Shizhi, the court commander, was only willing to sentence the thief to death, and said that "the law is like this", although Emperor Wen was angry, but after discussing with the Queen Mother, he could only recognize that Zhang Shizhi's verdict was correct. When the flying general Li Guang committed suicide in anger, he could only get moral sympathy, and in the eyes of the Legalists, he should have gone to the shogunate to confront him. No one can be extrajudicial because he once frightened the Huns. He has never been rewarded by the marquis, not because "Wei Qing is undefeated because of God's luck, and Li Guang has no merit", because he really has no real great merit. Although his younger brother Li Cai was mediocre, he was actually named the marquis and worshiped the prime minister, and he was promoted one by one according to the records in the merit book. Otherwise, with Emperor Wu's eloquence and strategy, why should he be thicker than Li Cai and thinner than Li Guang? It was the Legalist "explicit rules" rather than "unspoken rules" that made the Han Dynasty strong and made Chen Tang dare to issue an inspiring shout: "Those who commit a strong Han will be punished even if they are far away!" Of course, although the laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty were unimpeded, there were times when they were blocked, that is, when there was an obvious conflict with the emperor's will, that is, when the "explicit rules" and "unspoken rules" collided, and the "explicit rules" had no choice but to give in. Although we can't help but regret it, it is already a very rare thing for the feudal dynasty of 2,000 years ago.
The struggle of the common people of the Western Han Dynasty
No matter what dynasty it is, if the court and the people do not have a channel of communication, then it will be difficult for the court to maintain long-term stability. Therefore, Qian Mu praised the imperial examination system, believing that it was a warm and affectionate bridge between the official and the non-governmental. His praise, while a bit fleshy, is not without a bit of merit. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the feudal imperial examination system has given the lower classes of people access to the temples, so that the people will not be completely estranged from their government. But before the Sui and Tang dynasties, especially in the Han Dynasty, what did the lower classes rely on to enter the temples to vent their passions and win their honor? Because the Han Dynasty was a country governed by Legalists. The law is the first, just as Tingwei, who was the "president of the Supreme Court" at that time, ranked second among the nine kings, the law has a pivotal position in the imperial court, and it is closely related to the rise and fall of the country. Therefore, the society under the rule of this dynasty will have a cookie-cutter history of struggle, just like the way we now change our destiny through the college entrance examination or other means of struggle. Of course, in addition to being familiar with the laws and regulations, the people at that time also had a condition for becoming officials, that is, they had enough family property. There are also some similarities between this and Western politics. However, when the creed of "being an official for a thousand miles is only for money" is widely recited, if the vast majority of officials have this attitude, this politics is indeed not far from decay. In his famous book "On Democracy in America," Tocqueville declared that the salary system had created professional civil servants and swept away the creed of the aristocracy to govern for the sake of honor. The same is true of the East. When the feudal aristocracy gave way to the salary system, being an official was not just for honor, but for money. The Han Dynasty is not far away, so it still retains some of the style of aristocracy. When a man of wealth comes to be an official, he may not be too greedy for ink and will not exploit the people under his rule too much. However, it is impossible for the government to give all its officials a fiefdom, so it is obvious that there is an element of profit-seeking in the officials, although the Han law is very cruel in dealing with corruption.
Xiao Wu, the protagonist of my novel, is such a person from a poor family. If it weren't for the policy change of the Han Dynasty, he would not have had the opportunity to become an official at all, but I am still willing to write him as a person with ideals. Young people always have the majority of ideal colors. He studied the law hard, did not miss all fleeting opportunities, and dared to gamble, and finally succeeded in being promoted from a small pavilion chief to a county magistrate, and entered the ranks of middle-level officials. But his fate does not seem to be good, and he inadvertently offends the prime minister and runs his way around. Fortunately, with his proficient knowledge of laws and regulations, he gambled successfully again and was promoted to the prime minister, and then Yuzhang Taishou and Jing Zhaoyin. It's just that he was overconfident later, didn't know what to do in the legal struggle, and entered the ranks of the political struggle, and finally withdrew and was defeated. But his life experience is very typical in the Han Dynasty. It is not my intention to simply take a random character and describe his legendary life. That's not what I was trying to do. I don't want to write a legendary novel that is just good-looking, I want to write about the typical life of a typical person in the Han Dynasty, whose identity is typical in the Han Dynasty, and he is the most basic official in the Han Dynasty society under the rule of law. He was included in a class with a huge base like ants, which laid the foundation of the rule of the Han Dynasty, but was also a breeding ground for ministers and generals in the Han Dynasty, especially since the late Western Han Dynasty. The direction of his struggle is the direction of the poor people of the Han Dynasty. They seem to have something in common with the struggles of the "Haotou Poor" students in today's society and the white-collar workers in batches of "tofu block" office buildings.
On the surface, it seems that I wrote the novel "Pavilion Chief Xiaowu" for fun, but this answer actually did not convince me. Why don't I love other dynasties but the Han Dynasty? I think in addition to the "public words" that I have said to you above, there is also my personal preference for this period of history. First, I love the quaint and simple style of the "Book of Han"; second, subconsciously I love its majestic vigor and the vitality of abandoning the weak, its historical scenery that is not far away, and still preserves the simplicity of the real folk customs of the feudal era; of course, there is also the style of the rangers and righteous officials who survive in it and do not hesitate to kill themselves...... All of this makes me often read, think, and write, and I am not full of emotion.
In short, the story I am telling is not recorded in history, but it is entirely a history of "possibility". It seems to be a cluster of lost historical events, hidden for more than 2,000 years, and finally revealed to the world today. Just as the Book of Yi Zhou is to the history of the Zhou Dynasty, in a sense, "Pavilion Chief Xiaowu" can be regarded as a "Book of Yi Han" written for the general public to read in the Book of Han.