Du You and China's first canonical history book

Du You (735–812), courtesy name Junqing, was a Tang Dynasty politician and historian. He successively served as a military officer in Jinan County, the history of Fuzhou, the envoy of water and land transport in Jianghuai, the attendant of Hubu Shilang, the envoy of Lingnan Jiedushi, and the envoy of Huainan Jiedushi, and served as the prime minister of the three dynasties of Tang Dezong, Shunzong, and Xianzong, and was enfeoffed as the Duke of Qi. Throughout his life, Du You's eunuch Hai made outstanding political achievements, and spent 36 years of painstaking efforts to compile the first canonical history book in Chinese history, "Tongdian", marking the history of Qing under the name of the prime minister of the three dynasties who could not be released throughout his life.

The door shade into the shi

Du You was born in one of the prominent families of the Tang Dynasty - the Jingzhao Du family, from the Han to the Tang, the Du family has a generation of figures, the authority is blazing, and there is a folk proverb in Chang'an at that time: "Wei Du in the south of the city, go to the heavens and feet five", which means that the two famous families of Wei Shi and Du Shi have been dressed in luxury for generations, and they are close to the emperor and occupy the scenery.

In the eleventh year of Tianbao (752), Du You entered the army as a door shade and joined the army for Jinan County, and in the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), the Anshi Rebellion broke out, and Du You hurried south from Jinan to Yue Prefecture and went to Ren County. On the way to his post, Du You went to visit Shi Wei Yuanfu in Runzhou, because Wei Yuanfu and Du You's father Du Hop had been friends for many years, so they did not receive him according to the official routine and treated him as a close relative. At that time, Wei Yuanfu was trying a case, encountered many troubles, was full of suspense, twists and turns, and dragged on for a long time and could not make a decision. Wei Yuanfu wanted to take the exam for Du You, so he handed him this difficult case. Du Youshun touched the melon, climbed the comb and picked up the melon, and within a few days of taking over the case, he got the facts of the case out of the water and made a fair judgment, and the people involved in the case were all convinced. Wei Yuanfu was greatly surprised and sincerely lamented that Du You was a prodigious talent.

How can such an excellent talent be lost? Wei Yuanfu asked the imperial court to keep Du You by his side and serve as a judicial officer in Runzhou. Later, Wei Yuanfu was successively transferred to the post of envoy to Zhejiang West and Huainan Jiedushi, and Wei Yuanfu went to the shu imperial court, recommended Du You, requested that Du You be arranged to serve in his own shogunate, and took Du You wherever he went.

In the sixth year of the Tang Dynasty (771), Wei Yuanfu died of illness. Du You was summoned to enter the dynasty from Huainan, first as Gongbu Langzhong, as an envoy to Jiangxi Qingmiao, and then as an envoy to Fuzhou Assassin History, Yushi Zhongcheng, and RongGuan Jingluo. When Yang Yan was the prime minister, he successively served as the envoy of Jinbu Langzhong, the envoy of land and water transport, the envoy of Du Zhijian, and the envoy of Li. At that time, wars were frequent, and the army's food supply mainly depended on Caoyun, and the imperial court gave Du You full authority to preside over all matters of Caoyun.

Because society has been in war and turmoil for a long time since the Anshi Rebellion, by the early years of Tang Dezong's founding, the people were poor, the people's livelihood was poor, even the state taxes could not be collected, the national treasury was empty, and the state finances were stretched. Du You believes that the fundamental way out of the predicament is to carry out reforms, dismantle institutions, and reduce redundant personnel. On the basis of full theoretical arguments, he cited the cases of streamlining institutions and laying off redundant personnel in previous generations to emphasize the importance and urgency of carrying out reforms, and pointed out in particular that when King Mu of Zhou was only a servant, he served as a servant, and now there are servants, langzhong, Shangren, and idle envoys, from the original one post to four posts and four people... There are too many officials, the people in the government are overwhelmed, and things are getting more and more serious, so how can we not reform! However, as soon as the sparse play was played, the stone sank into the sea.

Beng is despised

At that time, the traitorous minister Lu Qi was in charge, doing his utmost to marry and plant bribes and frame him, and the party was in the same position to cut down differences and reject zhongliang. Du You has always been upright and loyal, and he is even more unwilling to be attached, so he naturally became a thorn in Lu Qi's eyes. In the third year of Jianzhong (782), Lu Qi expelled Du You from the Capital Division and appointed him as the Assassin of Suzhou. Du You refused to take up his post on the grounds that his old mother was in the church, and later changed to Rao Prefecture Assassin History.

Lu Qi repeatedly committed evil deeds and slandered loyal subjects, and Tang Dezong finally woke up and demoted Lu Qi to Sima of Xinzhou in December of the fourth year of Jianzhong (783). Lu Qi was ousted from power, and Du You entered the fast lane of promotion. In the first year of the Xingyuan Dynasty (784), Emperor Dezong promoted Du You to the post of Envoy of Lingnan Jiedushi and concurrently served as the Imperial Master. Du You was in charge of Lingnan, and soon organized the people to build roads in all directions, evacuate and renovate houses in the residential area of the market. The three dynasties of Zhu Ya and Li Prefecture guarded the dangerous points and did not return to the imperial court, and Du You waved his division to pacify these two places.

In the fifth year of Zhenyuan (789), Du You was promoted to Shangshu of the Inspection Department and governor of Yangzhou, and served as an envoy to Huainan Jiedushi. Du You organized the local people to excavate Leipi, expand the irrigation area on a large scale, and reclaim the abandoned beaches along the coast as fertile land, which greatly promoted the development of local production, and the accumulated grain reached 500,000 huo, which was arranged in 30 barracks, and the soldiers were strong and strong, and the morale was high.

"Rich Country Security People"

In the nineteenth year of Zhenyuan (803), Du You entered the court and served as the inspector of the school, Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, and served as an envoy to the Taiqing Palace. In the first month of the twenty-first year of Zhenyuan (805), Tang Dezong died, and the crown prince Li Shu succeeded to the throne, for Tang Shunzong, he ordered Du You to serve as Tsukasa Zai, enter the position of Inspector Situ, and concurrently serve as the envoy of Duzhi Salt iron. In August of that year, Emperor Shunzong, who reigned for only 186 days, was coerced by the eunuch Ju Wenzhen and others to take the throne, and proclaimed himself Emperor Taishang, and the crown prince Li Chun succeeded to the throne as Tang Xianzong. Soon, Du You entered the baitu and was made the Duke of Qiguo.

Du You was a famous wealth manager who made outstanding contributions to the imperial court's economic difficulties at that time. For example, he attached great importance to demographics, inheriting and developing the statistical estimation method of Guan Zhong, who had estimated the fiscal revenue that could be increased after raising the price of salt based on the average amount of salt consumed per person; Du You estimated the total number of households in the country based on the national salt consumption at that time to be about 5 million households.

In the seventh year of Yuan He (812), Du You was seriously ill and asked for retirement, but Tang Xianzong still refused to allow it. Du You went to Xianzong four times in succession and resolutely requested retirement, but Xianzong had no choice but to let him serve as Guanglu Doctor and Taibao, but still let him go to the court on the first and fifteenth days of the first month of each month, and send eunuchs to give generous gifts. In November of that year, Du You died at the age of 78, and Emperor Xianzong deposed the dynasty for three days, posthumously awarded the title of Taifu (太傅) and his courtesy name An Jian (安簡).

Writing the General Dictionary

Du You has studied hard since childhood, read a lot of books, and laid a profound foundation of learning. At the age of 17, he entered his career path, served in the four directions, took charge of the prefectures and counties, and successively alternated in many departments such as criminal, industrial, household, yushitai, and duzhi, and had a personal taste and extensive understanding of the political, economic, and military conditions of the society at that time, and had a relatively clear understanding of the gains and losses of the government, especially the drawbacks, and his dedication to learning and rich experience made him a famous politician, historian, and financial manager in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. This provided Du You with a solid theoretical knowledge base and sufficient practical experience materials for Du You to write the General Code.

Du You witnessed the vigorous efforts and prosperity of the Kaiyuan dynasty in the ups and downs of the eunuch sea, witnessed the political decline and social turmoil after the Anshi Rebellion, and prompted him to explore the real causes of historical changes from the perspective of political gains and losses. Du You skillfully took advantage of this advantageous condition, and in addition to busy government affairs, he ate and ate at night, did not release the scrolls in his hands, diligently pursued, spent decades as a day, poured 36 years of painstaking efforts, studied the origin of the canonical system of the past dynasties, put forward his own propositions and opinions, combined the study of the canon system of the dynasties with the actual problems of society, put the learning into practice, and compiled the emperor's monumental work "General Code".

Written in the seventeenth year of Emperor Xianzong of Tang 's reign (801), the Tongdian is a 200-volume book divided into nine codes of food, election, officialdom, ceremonies, music, soldiers, criminal law, prefectures and counties, and border defense, with more than 1,500 sub-items and about 1.9 million words, describing the evolution of the system from the ancient Yellow Emperor period to the last years of the Tang Dynasty Tianbao, of which the narrative of the Tang Dynasty system is particularly detailed.

The Tongdian is the first canonical history book in Chinese history to record the canonical system of the dynasties, and is the pioneering work of the special history of the canonical system, and its advent has made the history of the canon system an important category of traditional historiography. The General Catalogue of the Four Libraries commented that the book was "detailed but not annoying, concise but essential, the original version, all useful practical studies, not comparable to those who ask questions of the disciples".