During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a Wei Taoist Temple on the east side of Pingjiang Road in Suzhou City, and there was a building in the temple called Donghua Hall, no matter whether it was spring, summer, autumn or winter, wind and rain, every day a young man accompanied by the morning bell and the twilight drum read here, this young man is Shen Shixing.
Shen Shixing, born in the fourteenth year of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1535), died in the forty-second year of the Wanli Calendar of Emperor Mingshenzong (1614), the character Rumo, the number Yaoquan; was the first emperor in the history of the Pingjiang Road neighborhood, and the official to the Mingshen Sect Wanli Dynasty.
Inexplicable and strange origins
According to the "Wumen Table Yin" compiled by gu Zhenzuo, a scholar of Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, Shen Shixing's ancestral residence was in the Mixed Hall Lane on Pingjiang Road. Mixed hall is the bathhouse in the Suzhou dialect, in the old days, Suzhou people have the habit of "leather bag water (drinking tea)" in the morning, "water foreskin (bath)" in the afternoon, and the mixed hall is all over the city, so many small lanes in Suzhou are called mixed hall lane; as for whether the mixed hall lane on Pingjiang Road is also named because of the bathhouse, it is difficult to say, some people have examined the mixed hall lane here because there are many buildings with the name of "hall" nearby, and the people joke: "This hall and that hall are simply mixed halls." Hence the name.
In the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562), Shen Shixing, who had been studying hard in the cold window of Donghua Hall for more than ten years, participated in the examination of the imperial examination and ranked second, and the first was Wang Xijue of Taicang. In the subsequent temple examination, the two ranks changed, Shen Shixing was the first, Wang Xijue was second, that is, Shen Shixing won the title, and Wang Xijue won the Tanhua.
Wang Xijue (1534-1614), who took over the post of prime minister after Shen Shixing returned to his hometown, has had an unclear relationship since the two entered high school, working together for many years, and they are also enemies and friends.
Shen Shixing high school champion, the name on the gold list is Xu Shixing, why not? This involves Shin's origins and family lineage.
Shen Shixing was cautious all his life, talking to people for fear of forgetting, and recording everything in detail, this habit achieved one of his masterpieces, "Summoning And Recording". Shen Shixing was very secretive about his origins and rarely mentioned it in his writings. However, the life of Shin Shixing has been constantly speculated and interpreted for six hundred years after his death, which is extremely legendary and dramatic.
There are at least two versions of Shen Shixing's lineage, the first of which is from Shen Shixing's Genealogical Order of the Shen Dynasty. The "Genealogical Order of the Shen Clan" says that Shen Shixing's grandfather, Shen Qian, the Duke of Dongcheng, changed his surname to Xu in his early years, and his father Shen Shizhang, the character Junmin, the number Gu Yu, married his wife Wang Shi, and succeeded to the Huang clan; Wang shi had a son for Shi Xing.
After Xu Shixing's zhongzhuangyuan, the Xu family made a move that made the world look at it, gave up the supreme glory of the Zhuangyuan family, and agreed to Xu Shixing's return to the surname Shen.
This version is puzzling that since Shen Qian changed his surname to Xu, to Shen Shixing has been surnamed Xu for three generations, why should he return to the surname Shen after Zhongzhuangyuan?
The second version, from folklore and drama commentary, is represented by the bullet "Jade Dragonfly"; the protagonists are The Wealthy Suzhou merchant Shen Guisheng and the nun Wang Zhizhen, who married the daughter of the official Shangshu Zhang Guoxun, and the two had a discordant relationship after marriage. One day, Shen Guisheng went to the Fahua Temple on the incense of the Mating Alley next to tiger hill, and met the beautiful nun Wang Zhizhen, and fell in love at first sight. Unfortunately, Shen Guisheng was blessed and died of illness in the nunnery. Soon Ji Zhen gave birth to a widowed child, named Shen Shixing. The mother-in-law who worked in the Zhizhen Tuo Nunnery sent Shen Shi back to Shen Province, and the mother-in-law abandoned the child in the bridge cave of Shantang Street, was taken back by Zhu Xiaoxi, the owner of the tofu shop, and later sold to Xu Shizhen, the outgoing prefect of Suzhou, who regarded it as if it had already been left and named Xu Yuanzai. Later, Xu Yuanzai took the examination of Zhongzhuangyuan and went to the nunnery to recognize his mother with the jade dragonfly in the swaddling relic. The story is mournful and moving, and it is a classic work of Suzhou bullet words.
It is really difficult to say how much historical truth there is in the second version of Shin's life. The descendants of the Shen clan believe that the "Jade Dragonfly" alludes to the ancestors, which is pure slander. Ancestor Shen Shixing was born of a Buddhist nun, whether it is true or not, it has insulted the reputation of the Shen family, so from the middle and late Qing Dynasty to the 100 years of the Republic of China, the Shen family wrote to the government five times to request the ban on the performance of "Jade Dragonfly". Shen Qi, a descendant of the Shen clan in the early Qing Dynasty, first wrote to the government to request a ban on performances, and the prefect of Suzhou ruled: "In order to honor the sages, it is forbidden to play and sing "Jade Dragonfly". "The formation of the country only Suzhou can not stage "Jade Dragonfly" Qiba situation.
During the Republic of China, the Shen family produced a personal figure, Shen Zhengang, with the character Shi Sheng and the number of Listening zen. This is a combination of humanities and martial arts, and a complex political stance. In his early years, he studied at the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School, studied with Chiang Kai-shek, became a lieutenant general of the Kuomintang, followed Wang Jingwei as a traitor during the War of Resistance, and also rescued important figures of the New Fourth Army.
In 1920, Shen Zhengang became the head of the Police Department of Jiangsu Province, and used his power to order Suzhou to ban the performance of "Jade Dragonfly". In 1931, Shen Zhengang and Shen Tongbao, the patriarch of the Shen clan, jointly sent a letter to the Suzhou Police Station, forcing the authorities to issue an announcement in the Suzhou Ming Pao to ban the performance of "Jade Dragonfly" again.
Later, the bomb artist organization Guangyu She came forward to negotiate and reached a compromise with the government and the Shen family, one was forbidden to perform outside the city in Suzhou, and the other was to change the protagonist of the bullet, Shen Guisheng, to Jin Guisheng.
Historian Deng Zhicheng wrote a book in 1926, "Bone Dong Trivia", which verified that Wang Xijue's descendants wrote "Jade Dragonfly", the intention of which was to blacken Shen Shixing; Shen Shixing's descendants were not ambiguous, and compiled the bullet word "Double Gold Ingots", also known as "Taicang Strange Case", alluding to the marriage of the Wang family. The descendants of the two families have done their best, and for a time Suzhou did not perform "Jade Dragonfly", and Taicang did not sing "Double Gold Ingots".
Moderate and peaceful way of governing
In the thirty-eighth year of the Ming Dynasty (1610), Qian Qianyi high school in Changshu explored flowers. Qian Qianyi (1582-1664), courtesy name, was a pastoral monk. Leader of the Donglin Party in the early Ming and early Qing dynasties, lord of the poetry league, official to the ceremonial department waiter, and later demoted to the Qing. At the age of 64, Qian Qianyi married Liu Ru, a famous prostitute in Suzhou, one of the eight Yans of Qin Huai, and liu ru was 24 years old, and staged a vigorous love drama of old husband and young wife.
Before Qian Qianyi went to Beijing to take office, in the name of his descendants, he visited Shen Shixing, who was idle at home, and asked for advice on the way to govern as an official. Shen Shixing said: "The government has a political system, the cabinet has a cabinet style, the office of forbidden proximity, in the secret do not discuss the thinking, the commission of the tune agent, not can be sad to build white, the name is high." This means that in the official arena, it is necessary to seek perfection, not to rush to achieve quick success, and to pursue the concept of moderate and peaceful governance. Shen Shixing's words are both an admonition to Qian Qianyi and a summary of his own way of governing.
Shen Shixing pursues the concept of moderate and peaceful governance, which has both personal personality reasons and the background of the times. Gu Su of the small bridge and flowing water has created a gentle character of Suzhou people, and the environment under the fence of the shen family for three generations has cultivated Shen Shixing's cautious way of dealing with the world. Shen Shixing described his personality in a letter to an inspector named Gu Chong'an, saying: "Contemptuous and cowardly, good for people and deeply afraid of things." This means that he is weak and timid and afraid of things.
History records such an allusion, which can well explain the character characteristics of Shen Shixing. Shen Shixing, who retired home, wanted to expand his own house, but a shopkeeper selling combs on the side refused to relocate. Shen Shixing did not use his personal rights to buy, but let the housekeeper buy this large number of combs, but any guest who visits The Shen House, will send the comb as a gift, and praise how good this comb is, one after another, the city knows, this shop is prosperous, you must find another shop to develop. The owner took the initiative to come to the store to sell and the Shen family, so that everyone was very happy.
The background of Shen Shixing's reign was that the Wanli Dynasty underwent the famous Zhang Juzheng reform in history, known in history as the Wanli New Deal.
Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582), zishu da, number Taiyue. Ming Jiajing entered the army for twenty-six years, and was the first assistant (prime minister) of the Wanli Dynasty, presiding over the political reform known as the "Wanli New Deal".
The Wanli New Deal reform involved the political, economic, military, water conservancy and other aspects of the Ming Dynasty, the most important of which were the "Examination Law" and the "One Whip Law". The main contents of the "Examination Law" are to lay down redundant officials and redundant personnel, streamline the organization, strengthen the evaluation of officials, and clarify the powers and responsibilities within a limited time and quantitative manner. The main content of the "One Whip Law" is to merge the field endowment, servitude, and miscellaneous levies into one, and levy silver according to mu.
When Zhang Ju was alive, the Wanli New Deal he presided over carried out all-round reforms against the ills of the dynasty that were difficult to return to, and achieved great achievements. A large part of the success of the reform depends on Zhang Juzheng's personal factors, he is decisive, his style is spicy, and more importantly, the Little Emperor Wanli ascended the throne at the age of 10, young and ignorant, the little emperor's biological mother Empress Li fully supported Zhang Juzheng, and the first assistant Zhang Juzheng became the de facto emperor of the Ming Dynasty, which laid the foundation for Zhang Juzheng's successful reform.
Success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He; the failure of the Wanli New Deal also originated from Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng was self-conscious, arbitrary, and failed to handle the relationship with the civilian official clique, and it can be said that he used harsh means to implement the New Deal, offending the big and small officials; what is even more fatal is that he did not straighten out his relationship with the Little Emperor of Wanli, as a teacher, he regarded the Little Emperor as out of the way, and his love was cut to the point of hating iron and steel, so that yan li was too much, leaving a psychological shadow on the little emperor. On the surface, the Little Emperor of Wanli had great respect for Zhang Juzheng, but in fact he hated him to the bone. In the end, because Zhang Juzheng opposed the extravagance of Empress Li's family and the consumption of the treasury silver, especially to stop Empress Li's father, Wu Qingbo, from building a tomb in excess of standards, he also offended Empress Li.
As soon as Zhang Juzheng died, the conservatives of the civilian bureaucracy and the large landlord clique whose interests in the reform had been damaged in the reform attacked together with the Wanli Emperor and carried out a frenzied counterattack against Zhang Juzheng, stripping him of his title, raiding his home, and almost dissecting him in a coffin; his two sons were severely tortured, one committed suicide and the other attempted suicide, and more than a dozen family members were also starved to death.
In the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1583), the year after Zhang Juzheng's death, Shen Shixing became the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the prime minister. Zhang Juzheng's tragic end is a lesson for Shen Shixing. Faced with the torn clique of civil officials and the brutal struggle between reform and counter-reform, Shen Shixing changed Zhang Juzheng's style of conduct and adopted a moderate and peaceful approach to governing in order to reconcile the internal contradictions of the ruling clique.
Shen Shixing took two measures to carry out a struggle, the two measures were: First, the "Examination Law" was abolished. The "Examination Law" has positive aspects, but due to the excessive emphasis on the time limit, this forces officials to do whatever it takes to complete the targets, especially the collection of taxes, and all officials who fail to complete 90% of the taxes are punished, while officials put pressure on the people, increasing the burden on the people and officials. The repeal of the "Examination Law" has eased the pressure and dissatisfaction of the civilian bureaucracy.
The second is to tell the emperor to stop further persecution of the reformists. Only seven months after Zhang Juzheng's death, the liquidation of the New Deal began, and a number of Zhang Juzheng's subordinates and reformers were persecuted. At this time, a cool official named Qiu Qiao appeared on the scene, Qiu Qiao (1516~1585), a character Maoshi, a native of Zhucheng, Shandong, jiajing twenty-nine years into the army, then serving as a squire of the punishment department. In his early years, he was not welcomed by Zhang Juzheng, and he was not reused and was grumpy. The Wanli Emperor knew that Qiu Qiu was jealous of Zhang Juzheng and deliberately sent him to raid Zhang Juzheng's house. Qiu Qiu also knew the master's intentions and took the opportunity to declare a personal vendetta. He sent troops to besiege Zhang Zhao, did not eat or drink, and belatedly starved more than a dozen members of the Zhang family to death. The raiders could not find much gold and silver treasure, so they severely tortured the men, women and children of the Zhang family, and for a time Zhang Zhao became a hell on earth, and Qiu Qiao looked like a living Yama king. Zhang Juzheng's eldest son, Zhang Jingxiu, hanged himself, leaving a testament that reads: "Qiu Shilang, Ren Patrol, Live Yama King!" You also have the thoughts of your parents and wives..., how to endure people so fiercely. His words are pathetic and merciful. The Ren Inspector here refers to the Jiangxi Inspector Ren Yangxin, who is also a cool official who has fallen into zhang.
When the news reached the capital, public opinion was in an uproar. Qiu Qi's superior, Shangshu Pan Jixun, could not bear to look at it, and Shangshu criticized it as "too urgent to govern the prison." ”
Pan Jixun (1521~1595), Jiajing twenty-nine years into the army, famous for the management of the Yellow River. As soon as Pan Jixun said this, he was immediately impeached by Yushi Li Zhi, saying that he was Zhang Juzheng's party, and the Wanli Emperor had deposed Pan Jixun's official. Just when the anti-Zhang movement was in full swing and the reformist officials were trembling and chilling, Shen Shixing made a timely move. He wrote to a group of officials, including Qiu Qi, asking them not to be too harsh, but Qiu Qiu and a group of cool officials and thugs ignored him. Shen Shixing seized that Zhang Juzheng's eighty-year-old mother's family property had been confiscated, and could not survive this point, and then went to the Wanli Emperor to request leniency for the Zhang family. The Wanli Emperor Xu was ashamed in his heart, or unwilling to refute the face of the chancellor, agreed with Shen Shixing's opinion, leaving the Zhang family with an empty house and ten acres of land. As soon as this move came out, it sent a clear signal to the official field of the Ming Dynasty that the anti-Zhang movement should be over.
A struggle was waged against unscrupulous officials; although Shen Shi pursued a moderate and peaceful way of governing, the official arena was the battlefield, and the struggle was still inevitable. The anti-Zhang movement brought a number of officials to the forefront, and Qiu Qi, Li Zhi, and others were promoted to fight against Zhang Juzheng's reform forces. In this way, winning the emperor's favor by impeaching high-ranking officials in the imperial court became a fashion in the Wanli Dynasty, and it was also a shortcut for the rapid promotion of young Beijing officials. At that time, there were many anonymous big-character newspapers in the political arena to catch the wind and catch the shadows, and the officials went online accordingly, and soon the flames of war burned on Shen Shixing's head.
First of all, the officials questioned whether Zhang Juzheng's four sons and three of them had won the Jinshi, and whether Shen Shixing, who was the chief examiner at the time, was catty? Secondly, it was also suggested that the sons of university scholars should not participate in the examination, and the spearhead was directed at Shen Shixing's eldest son, Shen Yongmao. Then, thinking that the emperor chose the address of the mausoleum, he impeached Xu Xuemo of the Ministry of Rites, Xu Xuemo (1512-1593), a famous literati of the Ming Dynasty, whose daughter married Shen Shixing's second son, Shen Yongjia, who was the son of Shen Shixing. What Yan Guan did was the Xiangzhuang Sword Dance, which was intended to be Pei Gong.
In the thirteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, the Gao Qiyu case occurred. Gao Qiyu, Zi Minfu, Sichuan Tongliang people, Jiajing forty-four years into the soldier.
The first is that Yu Shiding impeached Gao Qiyu, the attendant of the Ceremonial Department, and attacked him for presiding over the Nanzhi Lixiang Examination, and the examination question "Shun Yi Yi Feng Yu" was to persuade Zhang Ju to be the right emperor. This crime is too big, which is equivalent to conspiracy. Shen Shi went into the fire and said to the emperor, "Trapping people with such ambiguous problems for capital crimes, and the courtiers are afraid of rumors coming one after another, which is not what the Qingming Dynasty should have." The official Shangshu Yang Wei adhered to the will of Shen Shixing, and Shangshu suggested that Ding Qilu be demoted from the capital, and Wanli agreed.
A group of imperial historians led by Li Zhi gathered together to warm up, impeached Yang Wei, and pointed the spearhead directly at Shen Shixing and the cabinet sub-assistant Xu Guo, intending to overthrow the two and elect their teacher, the third assistant Wang Xijue, to the throne; the wavering Wanli Emperor fell to the side of the officials, stayed in Ding Jilu, and deposed Gao Qiyu. The madness of the officials made the old and good man Shen Shixing unable to retreat, and was forced to rise up to fight, and three of the four cabinet ministers, Shen Shixing, Xu Guo, and Yu Youding, resigned together to protest the Wanli Emperor's decision to retreat. Wang Xijue did not accept the support of the students, but instead supported the three cabinet ministers who resigned, and the Wanli Emperor praised Shen Shixing: "In the middle of the country, we should cherish the national system and cherish talents." Therefore, Wanli changed his decision again, upholding the original judgment and demoting Ding Jialu out of the capital.
Shen Shixing, who had escaped the disaster, took advantage of the victory to counterattack, punished a number of officials, and won the victory in the struggle. The side effect of this struggle was that there was a rift between Shen Shixing and His fellow villagers, fellow countrymen, and colleagues Wang Xijue, who began to part ways, so that the Shen and Wang clans had been in a lawsuit for hundreds of years.
Thanks to Shen Shixing's efforts, the political turmoil caused by Zhang Juzheng's reforms finally slowly subsided, and Shen Shixing abolished a number of new policies that were violently attacked by the bureaucratic landlord clique, satisfied the basic requirements of the conservatives, and protected the reformists from further blows to a certain extent, retaining some of the reform results. When the supreme ruler, the Wanli Emperor, fell to the conservatives, Shen Shixing could only do this. Unfortunately, the failure of the Wanli New Deal directly led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty, which was not only the tragedy of Zhang Juzheng, but also the tragedy of Shen Shixing, and even more the tragedy of the Ming Dynasty.
A monarch-subject relationship in which two lovers are pleased
During the 276 years of the Ming Dynasty, a total of 89 emperors were produced. The Ming Dynasty was not good, and it was definitely a high-risk occupation. Eight of the 89 were demoted; 5 were exiled by the army; 5 were given a cane; 10 were imprisoned; and 1 was even more miserable, and the head was directly cut off by the emperor. The remaining achievements were not great, only Shin Shixing became the first assistant prime minister of the cabinet. The Ming Dynasty prime minister was not good, Zhang Juzheng was a living example, and the Jiajing Dynasty prime minister Xia Yan was even abandoned and died. Shen Shixing sat firmly on the throne of prime minister for eight years and was able to retire with his whole body, which cannot but be said that Shen Shixing has a strong political viability.
Shen Shixing learned the lesson of Zhang Juzheng and consciously straightened out the relationship between the prime minister and the emperor. The contradiction between the imperial power of the phase power runs through almost the entire feudal era, and the excessive power of the phase power threatens the imperial power, often bringing trouble or even killing the prime minister. Shen Shixing tried his best to make the Wanli Emperor eliminate the suspicion of being too strong in power, follow the emperor in everything, basically do not do what the Wanli Emperor is unhappy about, do not say unhappy, that is, disagree with the emperor, but also try to make suggestions as euphemistically as possible, and never overlord the king to force the bow and force Wanli.
When the Wanli Emperor was young, Shen Shixing accompanied Zhang Juzheng as the teacher of the Wanli Little Emperor. Zhang Juzheng taught harshly, and once when Xiao Wanli read the Analects, he read "SeBoru also" as "Se bei Ruye", and Zhang Juzheng shouted loudly, "It is Bo, not back." The little emperor was terrified. Shen Shixing, on the other hand, was gentle and elegant when he was teaching, and yan yuexi, even if the little emperor thought a little desertion, Shen Shixing did not move, just smiled and stood aside, waiting for the little emperor to come back. The Little Emperor of Wanli honored Zhang Juzheng and Mr. Shen Shixing, but the former was more fearful, while the latter was more cordial from the heart.
Unlike Zhang Juzheng in handling the government style of the dynasty, Shen Shixing was always cautious and cautious, taking the will of Wanli as his code of conduct, so the two monarchs and courtiers had a peaceful and harmonious relationship, reaching the level of mutual satisfaction.
The Wanli Emperor hated the red tape of the imperial government, especially the approval of chapters and participation in sutra feasts. Shen Shixing engaged in two innovations, which were very appetizing to the Wanli Emperor. The first is to leave the chapter in the middle, that is, the emperor can neither give instructions to the ministers, nor return them, in a word, put them on the shelf; the middle of the chapter makes the ministers of the upper performance confused, and since then it has become a means for the emperors of successive dynasties not to like the chapter. Another innovation was the presentation of sutra lectures, that is, as long as the feast speakers sent their lectures to the palace, they represented the emperor in the feast.
Figuring out the wanli emperor's intentions and doing things that the wanli emperor was inconvenient to say was also one of the reasons why Shen Shixing and the emperor had a harmonious relationship.
In the fifteenth year of the Wanli Dynasty (1587), the Yellow River broke its banks in many places, and disasters occurred frequently, and the officials responsible for handling the affairs of the Yellow River had neither prestige nor experience, nor were they competent; the Wanli Emperor proposed that the post of governor of the river should be filled by a person who was "old and talented". When Shen Shixing heard this, he immediately understood that Wanli was thinking of Pan Jixun, but three years ago, because Pan Jixun interceded for Zhang Juzheng, Wanli personally ordered That Pan Jixun be cut from his post to the people, so he was embarrassed to mention it directly.
Pan Jixun has a way to control the Yellow River, he proposed the "build a levee bundle of water, with water to attack the sand" eight-character method, that is, artificially improve the speed of the Yellow River to wash sand dredging to reduce the risk of breaking the embankment; he also invented a kind of embankment construction apparatus called "willow stick", that is, with the trunk as the center, wrapped in mud plants, make a huge garden column with a length of 150 feet and a diameter of 20 feet, and use the boat to sink into the river to form the foundation of the embankment.
Shen Shixing understood Wanli's intentions and immediately began to prepare a ladder for Wanli to descend the steps. First of all, to create public opinion, he interpreted the words of the Wanli Emperor as: "The emperor pays attention to the river, pulls out the old people, and when he is in office, he is called proficient in training", orders to record the matter in the case, and forms an office meeting; then instructs his subordinates to propose that Pan Jixun take up the post of "prime minister and military affairs", and the emperor is kind, so that Pan Jixun naturally comes out of the mountain again.
Shen Shixing also had times when he disagreed with the Wanli Emperor, but the moderate and harmonious way of handling things always made the two monarchs tolerate each other and reach agreement, which was quite evidenced by the Dali Temple's Zuo Commentator Luo Yuren's case. Luo Yuren, the eleventh year of wanli, quite a newborn calf is not afraid of the momentum of the tiger, not long after becoming a central court official, the seventeenth year of the Wanli calendar, he threw a bomb at the Wanli Emperor, put on a song called "Wine-colored Wealth and Qi Four Looseness", accusing the emperor of being greedy and drunk day and night, spoiling Zheng Guifei's lust, asking for bribes and greedy money everywhere, and punishing people at will.
Although there are some facts in this article, although there are some facts, most of them are catching wind and shadows, and it is a bit of a waste. The Wanli Emperor was very angry when he saw it, and on the first day of the Eighteenth Year of the Wanli Dynasty, after the worship of the monarchs and courtiers, the Wanli Emperor left Shen Shixing and complained to him, saying that Luo Yuren was complete nonsense, that he was selling his reputation and reputation, and that he should strictly deal with Luo Yuren. Shen Shixing sympathized with Wanli, but did not want to punish Luo Yuren for this, so Shen Shixing painstakingly advised Wanli, and the heavy punishment of Luo Yuren helped him become famous, so the two monarchs finally reached an agreement and let Luo Yuren resign from illness.
Shen Shixing was loyal to the Wanli Emperor, and the Wanli Emperor was gracious to Shen Shixing. History records that most of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were greedy and miserly, and Wanli was no exception; but Wanli often rewarded Shen Shixing, although the rewards were not valuable, often a few tails of fresh fish, two silver, or fresh fruits, folding fans and the like, but the intervals of three forks and five were quite frequent, which showed Wanli's grace to Shen Shixing.
In the nineteenth year of the Wanli Dynasty (1591), the Wanli Emperor reached the peak of his respect for his teacher Shen Shixing, and he intended to grant Shen Shixing the highest title of Civil Servant of the Ming Dynasty; this was a great honor, only Zhang Juzheng had obtained the title of Taishi before his life in the entire Ming Dynasty, Shen Shixing knew the truth of the tree's great trick, and insisted on refusing to accept it, and Wanli gave up.
After Shen Shixing retired and returned home, although Wanli neglected the government and created a miracle of not going to the dynasty for thirty years, he still remembered Shen Shixing who was far away in Jiangnan. Three years after his retirement, Shen Shixing ushered in his sixtieth birthday in his hometown, and the Wanli Emperor sent envoys to live in Suzhou to celebrate the birthday with a striped silver fifty taels and five horses of various silks as a gift. Shen Shixing was grateful to Shu Zero, thanked him, and admonished the emperor in a consistent euphemistic manner; to the effect that the Holy Will was enshrined as a heirloom of the Shen family, and he did not dare to accept the silver and silk satins, because he failed to fulfill his duties as the emperor's teacher and first assistant, so that the emperor's eldest son could not study at the Hanlin Academy as a prince, and a large number of missing officials inside and outside the imperial court were not filled; the implication was implicitly criticizing Wanli for not being able to reserve the dynasty, and Wanli was silent and lost after reading it.
In the forty-second year of the Wanli Calendar (1614), shen Shixing's eightieth birthday, the Wanli Emperor once again sent envoys to Suzhou to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, Shen Shixing died at this time, separated from his student and boss, the Wanli Emperor. According to the Ming Dynasty, "the edict was written to the door and died", and Wanli posthumously sealed the title of Taishi that Shen Shixing had rejected before his death, marking the final end of the two monarchs.
The much-maligned Prime Minister of Taiping
Shen Shixing served as prime minister for eight years, and in these eight years, the Ming Dynasty gradually bridged the rift due to the Wanli New Deal, and there were no major contradictions and conflicts inside; there was no major border war on the outside world, basically in a state of peace, so Shen Shixing can be regarded as a Taiping prime minister; but whether before Or after Shen Shixing's death, his actions were controversial and criticized. The Ming Shi "Biography of Shen Shixing" criticized Shen Shixing: "The outside is afraid of qing deliberation, the inside is favored, the self-preservation is self-respecting, the name is disguised, the humor is unknown, and the obedience is avoided", in a word, the overall evaluation is not high.
Later generations of historians mostly accused Shen Shixing of being moderate and misguided the country, and the most crucial thing was that as a student of Zhang Juzheng, he failed to adhere to the Wanli New Deal after Zhang Juzheng's death, so that the Ming Dynasty fell. In fact, Shen Shixing did not have Zhang Juzheng's courage and courage, nor did he lack the heavenly time and people to persist in reform, and it was indeed difficult for a person with a cautious and cautious personality to turn the tide alone.
Adhering to a consistent and moderate administrative style, Shen Shixing has always adopted a policy of ruling by doing nothing against ethnic minorities, advocating peace and valuing it, using force cautiously, and being known as the lord and faction on the issue of war. In the eighteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1590), the leader of the Mongol Tatar tribe, King Shunyi, led his troops to sneak up on the Ming army patrolling the border, and the general Li Lianfang and his subordinates were completely destroyed. When the news reached the imperial court, the courtiers were in an uproar and advocated sending troops, but Shen Shixing did not think so. Shen Shixing once again carried a secret message to Wanli behind the back of the group of courtiers, counting the reasons for opposing the war, at the insistence of Shen Shixing, the Ming Dynasty did not take the means of large-scale war, but only according to Shen Shixing's suggestion, sent a small army to deal with Larik, constantly harassed his logistical supply convoy, fought and ran, and constantly weakened Rick's strength at the lowest cost, and finally Ellik was overwhelmed and forced to leave.
Dealing with the Jurchen tribe of Liaodong, Shen Shixing, who was in charge of the government, also adopted the method of ruling by doing nothing. As early as the fifteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1587), the Inspector of Liaodong discovered that a Jurchen chief named Nurhaci was constantly annexing the surrounding tribes and expanding the territory; this Liaodong Inspector had a far-sighted vision, realizing that Nurhaci might be a danger to the future Ming Dynasty, and sent troops to encircle and suppress it, and as a result, the division was unfavorable and defeated. A group of officials took the opportunity to impeach, and the two sides attacked each other for this, causing a dispute between the court and the whole court; Shen Shixing, as the first assistant chancellor, once again acted as a peacemaker, playing fifty big plates on each side, and Nurhaci went with him. More than fifty years later, Nurhaci's descendants led the Manchu Qing Eight Banners iron horse to occupy Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty came to an end.
What is most criticized by the world is Shen Shixing's "and thin mud" way of dealing with people, and even being accused of being the head of the rat at both ends, one set of face to face and one set behind the other.
The Wanli Emperor favored Zheng Guifei, and Aiwu and Wu were therefore very fond of Zhu Changxun, the second son of the emperor born to Zheng Guifei, and wanted to make Zhu Changxun crown prince; however, most of the ministers adhered to the Confucian tradition and opposed the abolition of Chang Liyou and advocated the establishment of Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, as crown prince. Around the issue of Li Chu, the Wanli Emperor and the ministers launched a protracted tug-of-war, and Wanli adopted the tactic of dragging to deal with the courtiers. Shen Shixing did not dare to go against the emperor's will, nor did he want to offend the ministers who advocated making Zhu Changluo the crown prince, so he tried to sway the source in the cracks, on the one hand, to follow the emperor's will in front of the emperor, and on the other hand, to agree with the proposition of the emperor in front of the ministers, but it backfired, and the result was that the two ends did not fall apart.
Until the nineteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, the matter of establishing the eldest son of the emperor as the crown prince was still undecided for a long time, and the courtiers urged the Wanli Emperor one after another. The cabinet ministers also urged Emperor Shu to take a vacation at shenshixing, and Xu Guo, who temporarily presided over the cabinet work, signed Shen Shixing's name as the first person to be ZhangShu out of respect for shen shixing. When Shen Shixing learned of this, he secretly gave a secret to Wanli, which meant that zhang shu who advised the emperor to set up a reserve had nothing to do with it, and the emperor could decide on the matter of the crown prince, and should not be affected by people's noise. The matter was naturally dissatisfied with Shen Shixing, and a group of suppressed officials took the opportunity to write a letter listing all kinds of crimes in order to pull Shen Shixing off his horse. One of them is famous, and that is Tang Xianzu.
Tang Xianzu, Zi Yi Still, Hai Ruo, Jiangxi Linchuan people, Wanli Eleventh Year Jinshi, famous dramatist. Tang Xianzu was then the head of the Ceremonial Department, and wrote "On the Auxiliary Minister KeChen Shu" to violently attack Shen Shixing.
Shen Shixing, who had been an official for many years, was faced with a tidal wave of criticism from the crowd, deeply felt the dangers of the officialdom, and suddenly had the idea of retreating from the rapids, and more than a dozen times the Wanli Emperor wanted to resign his official post and go home, And Wanli could not resist Shen Shixing's persistence, helplessly approved, and specially allowed Shen Shixing to use the official stagecoach to return to his hometown; at this point, Shen Shixing took off the official uniform of the Dang Dynasty Yipin, like the heaviness of unloading a shoulder, and in his hometown, Shen Shixing was danqing ink and ink, and his pen was clean, as if he had returned to the era of scholars who were poor in the Wei Taoist Temple.
In the forty-second year of the Wanli Calendar (1614), Shen Shixing died in peace and was buried in Wushan, Suzhou, and the cemetery still exists today, becoming a scenic spot in the scenic area of the upper mountain. (Recommended books in Beijing Sandingjia)
Excerpt from "Distant Back" by Yang Min
Yang Min, born in April 1952 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, university culture, was a civil servant of Suzhou Municipal Government, and is now retired. In his spare time, he devotes himself to the study of local historical figures in Suzhou, and has written and published many literary and historical articles and essays.
"Distant Back" is a collection of biographies about historical figures in the Pingjiang Road Historical and Cultural District, an important tourist attraction in Suzhou, recording the life stories, anecdotes and deeds of these historical figures, whose stories are an important part of the long history of the ancient city of Suzhou. 23 biographies tell the stories of 24 characters, and their distant backs constitute the thick culture and history of the Pingjiang Road area in Suzhou.