Text: Xinglan Shi said
Edited |
During his four-year political career as an official in Liuzhou, Liu Zongyuan practiced some of his ideas of political governance, and was respected by the local people of Liuzhou and his successors.
After taking office, in view of the various political, economic, social and cultural shortcomings in Liuzhou, through the implementation of cultural reforms based on Confucian culture and supplemented by Buddhist culture, with the idea of "people-oriented governance" as the mainstay, a series of people-oriented governance measures to improve people's livelihood and liberate slaves and maids were implemented, and the people's production, life and way of thinking were changed.
Introduce Buddhist ideas and improve people's customs
Liu Zongyuan (773-819), whose ancestral home was Hedong (present-day Yongji, Shanxi), was not only one of the eight great writers of the Tang and Song dynasties, but also one of the politicians of the middle and late Tang dynasties. Liu Zongyuan was considered a tragic figure in the imperial court, that is, he belonged to the reform failure faction, and was twice demoted to the point of being relegated to Liuzhou to assassinate the history.
During the period of serving as the assassin in Liuzhou, Liuzhou belonged to the land of the Southern Barbarians, with great differences in customs and customs, and the language, culture and customs were not the same. However, he truly realized his political ideas and political propositions through his post as a powerful assassin, and achieved his political goal of entering the WTO with great urgency.
As soon as he arrived in Liuzhou, Liu Zongyuan presented the "History Table of the Removal of Liuzhou Thorns" to Emperor Xianzong Li Chun, saying that he would conscientiously publicize and prudently carry out the orders of the imperial court, and make every effort to govern the locality, so that "the imperial style is no different from the world, and the prosperity is inseparable from Huayi." ”
During his tenure in Liuzhou, he reformed the pros and cons through the implementation of a series of effective measures, and finally promoted the wild and backward Liuzhou to "have a good business, no public rent, and return to the four places, and be happy to prosper." ”
Liu Zongyuan was guided by the Confucian idea of "moral government". "Taking the way of Xingyao, Shun, and Confucius, and benefiting the Yuan Yuan as the business" is Liu Zongyuan's main idea of governing the locality, that is, inheriting and developing the people-oriented thinking of Confucianism, and advocating the long-term peace and stability of the country through various people-oriented governance measures.
The specific measures include: First, after he took office as the assassin of Liuzhou, in view of the backward culture of Liuzhou, the fierce folk customs of people killing, looting, fighting and committing violence, Liu Zongyuan propagated the Confucian idea of "etiquette and governance" in an educational way, that is, he began to repair the damaged Confucian temple, and carved the stele of "Liuzhou Wenxuan Wang's New Temple Tablet" to remember it.
Since Tang Xuanzong Li Longji posthumously crowned Confucius as the queen of Wenxuan, the status of Confucianism as "orthodox thought" has been established. Under Liu Zongyuan's reform, Liuzhou also became a place of governance for the implementation of "Confucianism" ideology. The second is to promote the Confucian idea of "benevolent government".
For example, Liu Axe of the Song Dynasty once wrote in his article "Liu Zihou Liuzhou Temple": "Zihou is not inferior to others, and he governs it with the art of benevolence (local affairs of Liuzhou)." The people have struggled in court, and Zihou has gone straight away, and he can't bear to do it according to the law. ”
So that the people told each other: "Too much is not cowardice, but the one who truly loves me." The third is to strengthen the legal system and administrative management, and promote the idea of "benevolent governance" that supplements Confucianism with the rule of law.
Through these measures, Liuzhou's backward style has been improved, the economy and society have developed, and Liuzhou has been promoted to create a "people who are ugly and based on Confucianism." filial piety to the father and loyalty, and etiquette and righteousness".
In addition to advocating the orthodox ideas of "etiquette" and "benevolent government" of Confucianism, Liu Zongyuan also educated the local people by preaching the Buddhist idea of "goodness". The ethnic minorities in the Liuzhou area have been superstitious about ghosts and gods since ancient times and are easy to kill, despising education rather than benevolence, righteousness and morality.
The local people do not seek medical treatment when they are sick, but superstitious ghosts, witchcraft, and indiscriminately kill livestock in order to eliminate disasters and solve problems, just as "the beginning kills small animals; If not, the animal will be killed; and if they do not, they will kill great animals." As a result of this custom, the local population has been declining, the fields have been abandoned and barren, and livestock have become difficult to reproduce.
In this case, if etiquette and morality are used to reverse people's existing deep-rooted primitive and backward ideology, it will have little effect; If punishment is used to restrain people, people will seek advantage and avoid harm, and instinctively run away in self-defense.
Only Buddhist monks who observe and disseminate Buddhist teachings can conform to the psychology and customs of the common people and play a role in assisting education. So he presided over the restoration of the Dayun Buddhist Temple, which had been burned down for nearly a hundred years, and asked the monks to "beat the chime and drum".
Apply the Buddhist idea of abstaining from killing and the morality of being kind and willing to give, guide the people to get rid of the bad habit of killing animals indiscriminately, educate the people, and develop education at the same time.
Liu Zongyuan believed that Buddhism could guide people's spiritual beliefs, but he did not believe that Buddhism was omnipotent, and the fundamental way to make people less sick was to improve medical technology. It shows that Liu Zongyuan's use of religion to assist in educating the people is a means, and he resolutely advocates scientifically seeking solutions to problems.
Uchii water intake, improvement of civil life
On the political front, Liu Zongyuan implemented a series of policies to benefit the people to improve people's livelihood. Taking well drilling as an example, when Liu Zongyuan arrived in Liuzhou, it was very difficult for the local people in Liuzhou to use water for their daily life, but the people of Liuzhou never dared to dig a well because it was superstitious that drilling a well would destroy feng shui.
People often use a kind of clay pot with a large belly and a small mouth to get water from the river. The river banks are steep and difficult to get water, and in the dry season, the road is even longer. On rainy days, there are countless people who fall due to slippery roads on the way to get water.
People complained about the difficulty of getting water, but they were also confused by superstitious beliefs (the local people believed that drilling wells would destroy the so-called "dragon veins", bad feng shui), and after all, they did not dig wells to get water.
Liu Zongyuan was very concerned about the people's suffering, in March of the second year in Liuzhou, Liu Zongyuan and Tankang monk, deputy general Mi Jing and others after investigation and site selection, ordered to dig a well by the city moat, which lasted for one month, found a large number of springs and reorganized water sources, and solved the drinking water difficulties of the people in Liuzhou in one fell swoop.
This move by him has promoted the people of Liuzhou, who have never dared to dig wells, to dig several wells in succession, and has prompted the people of Liuzhou, who have grown up carrying water for many years, to drink clean and sweet groundwater, thus solving a major event in the lives of the people of Liuzhou.
For example, in order to promote local development and production, Liu Zongyuan organized idle laborers to "open up a number of acres of land and a number of trees."
30,000 bamboo poles, 100 furrows, and a number of fields". Through a series of social reform measures implemented by Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu later wrote the "Liuzhou Luochi Temple Tablet" after his death:
(After Liu Zongyuan's tuan) so the people have a business, the public has no rent, and the flow is four returns, and the life is prosperous. There is a new house in the house, and there is a new ship in the step. The pond garden is clean, pigs, cows, ducks and chickens, fat and rich. The word is strict with the father's edict, the woman is obedient to the husband, the marriage and burial, each has its own law, the elder brother is the elder, and the prime minister is filial piety. ”
Through Liu Zongyuan's series of reform measures to reform the social pros and cons, the weather of the city of Liuzhou has changed with each passing day.
Moreover, Liu Zongyuan implemented a series of measures similar to drilling wells, which not only changed the way of life of the local people in Liuzhou to drink water and get water, but also changed the way of thinking of the local people, which is conducive to promoting the spread of Confucian culture.
Liberation Slaves,Reform
In terms of politics and economics, Liu Zongyuan reformed the slave and maid trend that was prevalent in Liuzhou at that time. The emancipation of slaves and slaves was essentially opposed to the slave production methods that remained in the feudal society in minority areas.
It is conducive to emancipating the productive forces and promoting the development of social, political, and economic industries. At that time, there was a cruel custom in the Lingnan area of "holding money hostage with men and women, redeeming them from time to time, and the children were not slaves and maids", that is, using children as collateral to borrow money.
That is, if the agreement cannot be repaid when it expires, when the interest accumulates to the same as the principal, the mortgaged children will be confiscated and will become the slaves of the creditor forever. Under the exploitation of the big landlords and usurers in Liuzhou, most of the working people could not pay their taxes and debts, and were forced to use their children as collateral, and they were unable to redeem them when they expired, and finally became slaves.
Seeing this situation, Liu Zongyuan made up his mind to reform the maladministration, issued a decree to "reform the law of the township", and formulated a set of rules and regulations for the release of slaves and maids, that is, those who had become servants could be paid according to the time, until the wages were sufficient to offset the principal and interest of the loan, and the creditor could be required to return the personal freedom of the pledged person and return home to reunite with his relatives.
This measure was implemented in the Liuzhou area, and in just one year, thousands of slaves and maids were freed. As a result of the effectiveness of this measure, the observer envoys who have jurisdiction over other prefectures in Guangxi have also extended Liu Zongyuan's practice to other prefectures in Guangxi, thus increasing agricultural productivity and further promoting the development of local agricultural production.
This practice is just like the abolition of slavery in modern America, but Liu Zongyuan's practice is more reasonable and feasible in the context of the monarchy, and it is conducive to the interests of both creditors and slaves. At the same time, these measures have also greatly promoted the development of the local economy through the system of currency lending and circulation and labor time.
Liu Zongyuan organized the local people to build a large number of livelihood projects that are conducive to economic development and ecological development. At that time, Liuzhou was located in the "land of the Southern Barbarians", and the development of political, economic, cultural, social, ecological and other undertakings was seriously lagging behind.
At that time, there was a large area of wasteland outside the city of Liuzhou City, and Liu Zongyuan practiced it, and as a "parent official", he called on and organized idle laborers in the countryside and neighborhoods to open up wasteland, plant trees and vegetables, and encourage the development of local production.
Under the organization and leadership of Liu Zongyuan, the arable land area of Liuzhou has increased substantially. At the same time, Liu Zongyuan also embarked on a series of measures conducive to the improvement and development of the local ecological environment, for example, in order to improve the ecological environment of the city, Liu Zongyuan organized officials and people to reclaim, plant trees, and build roads.
Soon after Liu Zongyuan took office, he climbed the Liuzhou City Tower and recited the poem "The high-rise buildings in the city are connected to the great wilderness, and the sea and the sky are boundless", expressing his regret for the desolation of the land. So, in the Dayun Temple, a number of acres of land were cultivated, a number of trees were planted, 30,000 green bamboos were planted, and 100 vegetable fields were planted.
He went to the Liujiang Riverside, personally participated in the tree planting activities, planted a batch of willow trees, greened the city, and wrote a poem: "Liuzhou willow thorn history, plant willow willow riverside." For another example, he also led the administrative officials and all the members of the state government to "plant 200 yellow mandarin oranges by hand" in the northwest corner of Liuzhou City.
It opened the prelude to the cultivation of willow trees and fruit planting in Liuzhou at that time. As a result, the area around Liuzhou presents a beautiful social scene of "fragrant oranges everywhere, green willows in rows", "willows waiting for Zehui, and flowing forever".
Finally, his concept of ecological civilization also penetrated into the construction and planning of the city, that is, during the reign of Liu Zongyuan, the sanitary environment of the streets and alleys was renovated, a large number of temples and pavilions were built, and a number of natural and cultural landscapes were built.
Liu Zongyuan only served as the magistrate of Liuzhou for four years, and in the outlying places, he made some political achievements, but because of the officialdom strife, he still buried his talent for governing the world, which could have rivaled literary achievements.
After his death, the local officials of Liuzhou, Xie Ning, Ouyang Yi, and Wei Zhong, built the Luochi Temple for him in the third year to worship, and asked Han Yu, who was then the head of the household department, to write the "Liuzhou Luochi Temple Tablet" for him to praise his political achievements.
Song Huizong responded to the declaration and request of the local officials of Liuzhou "because of the feelings of the people", and named him Wen Huihou; Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty crowned him as the Marquis of Wenhui Zhaoling; Emperor Taiding of the Yuan Dynasty crowned him as Wenhui Zhaolinggong and so on.
epilogue
Liuzhou Yuan's humanistic governance ideology and political ambition have been realized in Liuzhou, and it has promoted the good development of ethnic minority areas, which can be used as a reference for later managers. Just as Liu Zongyuan expounded in his "Lingnan River Journey", "From now on, it is not a matter of worry, how can Hua be allowed to wait for the passing years", which shows that he is loyal to his duties and worries about the country and the people.
He practiced a series of innovative management ideas advocated by him, promoted the development of local production, and maintained the stability and unity of the country. His governance ideas have improved people's customs and livelihoods, changed people's way of thinking, optimized the urban ecological environment, and most importantly, his local governance is based on the concept of "people-oriented", which is of epoch-making significance.