Part of the anonymous painting "Picture of the Elders Winning the Society" in the Ming Dynasty reflects the daily gathering of the members of the "Elders Society" during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the front row from left to right is: Zhang Tao, Zhao Bing, Fu Bi, and Sima Guang.
In "Tolerance and Stubbornness: Sima Guang and the Politics of the Northern Song Dynasty", Professor Zhao Dongmei, a scholar of Song history at Peking University, relies on years of research and accumulation, traces Sima Guang's family lineage, and tells his life experience from his first career to emergence, then to becoming a minister, and even to the high position of prime minister, and then influencing the historical direction of the Song Dynasty. In the small-scale historical writing, Zhao Dongmei pays attention to the large-scale historical context and the spirit of scholars, brings up a crucial period of history in the Song Dynasty, and presents the subtle officialdom ecology, complicated political entanglements, intricate factional disputes, prominent social problems, and even the dilemmas and destinations faced by the times and individuals during this period.
Born in the time of change
Born in 1019 and died in 1086, Sima Guang's life spanned the five emperors of Zhenzong, Renzong, Yingzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong.
In 1038, Sima Guang Jinshi ranked sixth and entered the officialdom. At this time, 78 years have passed since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the army is huge, the cost of raising troops remains high, the officialdom is overcrowded and overcrowded, interest groups are squeezing the living space of ordinary bureaucrats, encroaching on the interests of the people, contradictions are piling up, and grievances are accumulating and fermenting. In the process of Sima Guang's imperial examination, the Kaifeng Prefecture released the first person to protest against the unfairness of the examination, and Renzong had to personally order the cancellation of the admission qualifications of the five prime ministers and the children of the deputy prime minister.
In the same year, the Song-Xia War broke out, and the war hit the Song Dynasty's death hole with the theme of "preventing the threat of the regime from the military" in one fell swoop. After a series of fiascos, the civil officials and Confucian marshals from the imperial examination finally stabilized their positions, kept their territory, and restored peace. Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and Sima Guang's mentor Pang Ji also accumulated the capital of "entering the phase" because of his outstanding achievements. Due to the war, the imperial court had to increase the collection of social resources, social contradictions intensified, and "thieves" were rampant in some areas.
Zhao Dongmei bluntly said that such a problem was not unique to the Song Dynasty, but a common problem in the imperial era. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the 40th year of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and other different stages, the problems faced by any dynasty are different. A striking example of this is the use of people. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the imperial court usually made great efforts to recruit and promote officials. In the seventeenth and twentieth years of the founding of the Song Dynasty, some of the Jinshi who were admitted to the two lists were promoted from ordinary people to prime ministers in less than ten years. Such a "fantastic" experience, Sima Guang's generation, can only be imagined, but cannot be achieved. Even his father, Sima Chi, was Jinshi and the first forty-five years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it took seventeen years to get mixed into the middle level.
Generally speaking, the fate of an individual is difficult to transcend the era in which he lived, and the fate of a generation is closely related to the stage in which the generation is in that dynasty. Sima Guang lived in an era full of contradictions and a rising wave of reform. How to solve problems, resolve contradictions, make the dynasty stable for a long time, and get out of the vicious circle of "dynasty change" is the mission of the elites of that era who dare not forget it a little.
Also reformers
From 1043 to 1044, under the vigorous promotion of Renzong, Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi led a series of reforms with system construction as the core, namely the "Qingli New Deal". This is a reform that "prescribes the right medicine for the case," and it touches the interests of the upper strata.
According to the usual theory, the "Qingli New Deal" failed with the reformers being expelled from the imperial court, but Zhao Dongmei believes that a careful reading of history shows that the outcome of the "Qingli New Deal" is by no means the kind of failure we understand. More than a decade later, the reformers returned to the imperial court, and many reform measures were relaunched, albeit in a lower manner, at a more steady and forceful pace. This shows that reform requires determination and courage, respect for the status quo, and endurance to fight long distances and long distances.
In fact, Sima Guang was a reformer of "this faction". If we do not equate "reform" with "Wang Anshi's reforms" and only use the original meaning of "reform" to "change the old irrational parts of things into new parts that can adapt to the objective situation," then Sima Guang can be called a "reformer." He respected the monarch and the people, and had his reform measures and ideas.
Zhao Dongmei emphasized that understanding the emperor system is the biggest prerequisite for understanding that era, and it is also the key to understanding Sima Guang. Looking at the "imperial system" without prejudice and "neutrally", there are at least two emperors. The first is the "abstract emperor" as a symbol of the imperial court and the state; Second, it is the man on the throne, the "concrete emperor". In an imperial state, the "abstract emperor" has supreme power and authority, is the only subject who can transcend any interests, and is therefore the only supreme arbiter who can be called "impartial" in the political struggle. Of course, whether that specific person on the throne can assume such responsibility is another matter. The inability of a "concrete emperor" to meet the requirements of an "abstract emperor" is an eternal problem of the imperial state.
How to deal with the emperor will determine the fate of the reformers and the success or failure of the reformers. The reason is simple. Confucianism believes in the politics of gentlemen and the rule of virtuous people, so who is qualified to judge the virtuous and foolish characters and distinguish between gentlemen and villains? In the final analysis, there is only the emperor. A prime minister who does not shy away from the discussion of the masses and takes it as his responsibility to select the good and eliminate the inferior is most likely to be attacked by "forming a party for personal gain." The only person who can defend him is the emperor, and the emperor is the most taboo of friends. The stranding of the "Qingli New Deal" and the resignation of Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi are all rooted in this.
The prime minister and ministers do not form a party, and their political views can be different, but they can discuss the country's affairs together, the emperor remains neutral, and the monarch and ministers maintain a minimum of trust among themselves, so that the country can have a way out. Sima Guang already has an accurate understanding of this point, which is written in "The Theory of Fame". It is said that he wrote this article when he was seventeen years old, and Zhao Dongmei believes that Sima Guang's precociousness in thought is undoubtedly admirable.
Things do not turn out the way you want
Wang Anshi got the way of the king, implemented the new law, and promoted the "strong army" with "rich country", the new law became the overriding political correctness, the opposition was excluded and suppressed, "the sky is not enough to fear, the ancestors are not enough to be afraid of the law, and the words of people are not enough to be compassionate", under the guidance of the spirit of "three insufficiencies", the "specific emperor" was released from the cage, the space for scholars to discuss politics was compressed, and the politics of the Song Dynasty appeared "Legalist turn".
As an opponent, Sima Guang had no choice but to retreat to Luoyang, worked as a "historian" for 15 years, and achieved an immortal historiographical masterpiece "Zizhi Tongjian". As a person who is familiar with and respects history, Sima Guang knows that before the Song Dynasty, no dynasty has achieved long-term stability. On the one hand, he made honest historical observations, and on the other hand, he wanted to be a loyal minister of the Great Song Dynasty, and how could he settle down and make his life? From a practical point of view, Sima Guang chose a more moderate way, that is, to persuade and guide the "concrete emperor" to play the role of an "abstract emperor."
From the beginning of his tenure as a ceremonial official, Sima Guang actively participated in criticizing the lack of government in the court, especially the emperor's behavior of interfering with principles with selfish desires. It's just that compared with Bao Zheng's cannon roar and Ouyang Xiu's keen and high-pitched voice, Sima Guang's counseling style is gentle and rational. He always stood in the emperor's position and said what he planned for the emperor, and he was even able to portray the emperor's unwise decisions as a drama of praise and virtue, and finally pulled the emperor back to the right position. Sima Guang's letter of advice was a model for giving opinions, and Sima Guang was recognized by the Song people as the best candidate for supervisors, counselors, and emperors' teachers.
Sima Guang has his own wisdom, but in terms of specific practice, he also has his own problems.
After Sima Guang became prime minister in his later years, he hoped to return to the golden age of the Renzong Dynasty politically, but unfortunately it backfired. The controversy lies in the fact that, on the one hand, he did not investigate and analyze the effects of Wang Anshi's new law, and regarded it as a law that harmed the people, and tried to overturn it completely, which led to confusion in the understanding of the bureaucracy and exacerbated the split; On the other hand, he hopes to promote reconciliation and rebuild a pluralistic politics in which "different opinions stir up each other," but he cannot restrain the Taiwan officials from rejecting and suppressing dissident forces. In the end, Sima Xiangye "had very little insight into the facilities", causing great damage.
The real paradox
Zhao Dongmei said frankly that from a historical point of view, Sima Guang is by no means the best candidate for prime minister. As the youngest son of a high-ranking official, he was blessed by his father since he was a child, and after his father's death, he was taken care of by his mentor Pang Ji. If compared with Wang Anshi, Sima Guang's local work experience and actual administrative work experience are too lacking. What Sima Guang got from his father and mentor was basically a positive officialdom education. This allowed him to maintain a firm belief in moral tenets such as "honesty", "filial piety" and "duty" throughout his life, and also made him at a loss and embarrassed in the face of the "gray area" of realpolitik.
A fatal sequelae is that the Northern Song Dynasty's atmosphere of "allowing people to speak" is gone. Zhao Dongmei believes that Sima Guang's ideal political order is to respect and order, and to attach equal importance to power and responsibility, and at the policy level, Sima Guang, who believes in tolerant politics, will be stubborn, which is a real paradox, that is, the "paradox of tolerant politics". Since then, the dispute of political views and policies of the bureaucracy has evolved into a fierce factional dispute, the party is the same and the different, the interests of the small group have replaced the interests of the state and the nation, and in the end, even the emperor has lost his "neutrality", and no one can consider the problem from the height of the country and the nation, and the Song Dynasty has embarked on the road of no return.
Of course, that's an afterthought. In the hearts of Zhezong and the people, Prime Minister Sima Guang has done a good job. After Sima Guang's death, Zhezong ordered, "Give Taishi and Wen Guogong a first-class dress, and say Wenzheng." Three thousand taels of silver, four thousand horses of silk, and dragon's brain and mercury were given." Zhezong personally wrote the amount of the Shinto tablet for Sima Guang, and ordered Su Shi to write the Shinto tablet for Sima Guang, and gave him 2,000 taels of silver to build the stele for Sima Guang. Sima Guang's nickname was "Wenzheng", which was the most noble nickname a civil official could receive.
After learning the news of Sima Guang's death, "the people of the capital took the initiative to boycott the market and went to the outside of Sima's mansion to pay tribute, and many people pawned clothes to buy sacrifices." Sima Guang's coffin left the capital and was transported to Shushui's hometown for burial. On the eighth day of the first month of the second year of Yuanyou (1087), Sima Guang's funeral was held in the old garden of Shushui, and tens of thousands of people came from all over the world to send the funeral, dressed and wailed. In Kaifeng, someone painted the portrait of Sima Guang and engraved it for sale, and the Kaifeng family almost had a picture, and people from other places also came to Kaifeng to buy the portrait of Sima Guang, and many painters became rich.
For thousands of years, Sima Guang has countless faces. He is the prime minister of Sima Cheng who sympathizes with the people and loves the people in the eyes of the Song people, and he is also the stubborn old-fashioned school known to the contemporaries and the sworn enemy of Wang Anshi's reforms; He is a model of filial piety in ancient times, a gentle and generous friend, a strong and courageous Taiwanese official, and a conservative and steady reformer; He is a politician with noble private virtues, a famous man in history, and a gravedigger full of limitations and tolerant politics...... In Zhao Dongmei's view, the times have given him many labels, and the interpretation of him throughout the ages is somewhat ambiguous or prejudiced.
From Sima Guang and His Times, to The Changes of the Great Song Dynasty, 1063-1086, to Tolerance and Stubbornness, Zhao Dongmei's views on Sima Guang's political image in his later years are constantly changing. At first, Zhao Dongmei thought: "Sima Guang got the high position of prime minister, but he turned his back on his lifelong beliefs, became as domineering as his opponents, no longer tolerant, and no longer sought the coexistence of dissidents." Later, she gradually strengthened her new understanding: "Sima Guang did not betray and turn his back on tolerance in his later years, he was consistent, always pursued the truth in his heart, and hoped to rebuild the politics of tolerance." But this is the kind of Sima Guang, under the specific historical conditions in the early years of Zhezong, but helplessly and reasonably 'inevitably' towards the opposite of tolerance. ”
Sima Guang cared about the common people, pursued the overall interests of the country, and sought to establish a harmonious ruling order between the court and the common people, so he was admired by the people. However, the conflict between his inner moral standards and reality has left his ideals unfulfilled with serious consequences. This is Sima Guang's regret and the regret of the times. (Source: Qilu Evening News)