The person we want to talk about today is a person of the Song Dynasty who was very accomplished in disaster relief, wind and bone, military, economic and cultural, but who was not well known in the folk - Teng Zongyu.
Fame is actually not small, in the first sentence of the opening chapter of the ancient famous text "Yueyang Lou", it is "Teng Zi Jing who guards Baling County", and the Teng Zi Jing here is Teng Zongyu. Yes, Yue Yang Lou was built by this benevolent brother. Almost all of his life, he was bound to the famous minister Fan Zhongyun, almost sharing honor and disgrace, advancing and retreating together.
Disaster Relief – Treating water with Fan Zhongyan
Teng Zongyu is Fan Zhongyan's fellow scholar and a good friend. After the imperial examination, Teng Zongyi was appointed as the judge of Taizhou. Soon Fan Zhongyan proposed to rebuild the Hanhaiyan embankment and to appoint Teng Zongyu as an assistant to Zhang Lun, the prefect of Taizhou, in water control. In the construction of the embankment project, Teng Zong forgave hardships and stood hard work, and also showed his talent, which was deeply appreciated by Zhang Lun. After the embankment was built, although it was named "Fan Gong Causeway" by posterity, the credit of Teng Zongyu cannot be erased.
Political backbone - Advising Empress Liu to return to power
In the seventh year of Tiansheng (1029), Kaifeng suffered a thunderstorm, and most of the power supply was burned. Teng Zongyu and Fan Zhongyan immediately went to court and advised Empress Dowager Liu E to return to power! At this time, Song Renzong was already 19 years old, and according to the custom, he should have been pro-government, but Empress Liu always refused to delegate power. The actions of Teng and Fan are undoubtedly rebellious dragon scales. You must know that Empress Liu is only one step away from becoming Wu Zetian of the Song Dynasty, and after coming to power, it is not easier to dispose of many prime ministers and clean up Teng and Fan! So a few days later, the two were relegated out of the capital. According to the history books, the hundred officials sent Fan Zhongyun off, saying: "Fan Jun's visit is extremely glorious. Since Teng Zongyu and Fan Zhongyun were advancing and retreating together, why didn't this say that it was for Teng Zongyu to forgive?"
Military - to relieve the crisis in Jingzhou and repel Li Yuanhao
In the fifth year of Jingyou (1038), Li Yuanhao, the leader of Western Xia who had originally submitted to the Song Dynasty, suddenly became emperor and submitted an insulting slow letter. Emperor Renzong of Song was furious and determined to launch a war against Western Xia. However, two years later, Yuan Hao suddenly took the initiative to attack the front border defense of the Song Dynasty, Jin Mingzhai, and beheaded the defender Li Shibin. After the victory, the Western Xia army sent people to invite peace, and on the other hand, it stepped up the siege of Yanzhou (present-day Yan'an), another important border town. Fan Yong of Yanzhou Zhizhou asked for help from the surrounding military towns, and as a result, the Song reinforcements encountered an ambush at the mouth of Sanchuankou, and launched a fierce battle with a strength disadvantage of almost one to ten, and survived for two days. Two days later, the Song general Huang Dehe fled, leading to a major rout of the entire army. This is the famous Battle of Mikawaguchi in history.
After the fiasco, the Song Dynasty decided to take revenge. Therefore, Fan Zhongyan, who was still young at the time, served as Fan Zhongyan as the deputy envoy of Shaanxi Jingluo and the governor of Yanzhou. After his recommendation, Teng Zong forgave Zhenjing Prefecture.
Two years later, in the second year of the Qing calendar (1042 AD), Western Xia again sent troops to attack the Zhenrong army (present-day Guyuan, Ningxia). The guiding ideology of the Song Dynasty border officials was different, Fan Zhongyan wanted to stick to it, while another deputy envoy, Han Qi, advocated going to war. As a result, the Song general Ge Huaimin sent troops privately while carrying out Han Qi's orders, and as a result, he was surrounded by the Western Xia army at Dingchuan, and eventually the entire army was destroyed, and most of the famous generals of Biansai were martyred. This is the famous Battle of Dingchuan in history. After this battle, Yuan Hao's Western Xia army was only more than a hundred miles away from Jingzhou, which Was defended by Teng Zongyu. What was even more dangerous was that Jingzhou was undermanned at this time and was completely unable to resist the enemy's attack.
In the face of the crisis, Teng Zongyu braved the great interference, privately opened the public treasury, and took out money to recruit civilian warriors and ethnic minority soldiers. Within days, thousands of people were recruited. Relying on these newly recruited people, Teng Zongyu finally withstood the attack of the Western Xia, and cooperated with other border towns around him to consolidate the border defense situation. By the time Fan Zhongyan led the Huanqing Road soldiers to support, the crisis had largely passed.
However, it soon caught up with the rare rainy weather in the west, and the morale of the Song army fell to the bottom. In order to boost morale, Teng Zongyu opened the treasury again, took out money to feast on the army, and comforted the families of the fallen soldiers in Dingchuan. The morale of the Song army was revived by this encouragement, and the Western Xia did not dare to continue to invade the territory, and the crisis on the border of the Song Dynasty was lifted.
Celebrating the New Deal – Embark on the Road of Debasement
In the third year of the Qing calendar (1043 AD), Emperor Renzong of Song reused Fan Zhongyan and others to implement a more moderate change, the New Deal of the Qing Calendar. The four articles in the New Deal, "Dethronement, Suppression of Luck, Meritorious Tribute, and Selection of Officials and Chiefs," have seriously violated the vested interests of many conservative officials. However, because the emperor was supporting the "gentlemen" headed by Fan Zhongyan at this time, they did not dare to confront each other head-on, and could only use some means to disintegrate the "gentlemen" from the outside.
Unfortunately, Teng Zongyu became a breakthrough point for conservative officials to crack down on "gentlemen". At the time of the Battle of Jingzhou, Teng Zongyu did not ask the imperial court in advance for recruiting warriors and rewarding soldiers, which was strictly "embezzlement". Therefore, on the accounts of Jingzhou, there is a huge deficit of 160,000 yuan. As a result, many officials said that they must thoroughly investigate the finances of Jingzhou. But in this account, the memory is too detailed, which amount of money was given to the warriors of the foreign race, which amount of money was used to dredge relations, which amount of money was used to purchase utensils, and which money was used to care for martyrs, all of which were clearly remembered. Once it was taken by the imperial historians, it was definitely a melon with a vine, and the plants were very extensive. In order not to implicate others, Teng Zongyu burned the account book. When the Imperial History of asahi arrived, only a pile of ash could be seen. Eventually, under the constant suppression of the conservative officials, Teng Zongyu was demoted to the position of Baling (Yuezhou) Taishou. A few years later, Fan Zhongyan was also belittled, and the Qingli New Deal completely failed.
Culture and economy - Xiuyueyang Tower and other buildings
After coming to Baling County, Teng Zongyu did something very important in the history of Chinese culture - the construction of Yueyang Tower. Because since then, Baling County, which was originally unknown, has become a famous city in China. Among other things, in the contemporary Song Dynasty, there are three popular texts describing Yueyang Lou, namely Yin Su's "Yuezhou Xueji", Ouyang Xiu's "Yanhong Diji", and Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Lou". The publicity effect of these three articles not only brought a lot of tourism economy to Baling County at that time, but even now, locals are enjoying this wave of dividends.
The construction of a tourist attraction cannot explain what is special about Teng Zongyu. However, the process of building the Yueyang Tower is very worth mentioning. According to Sima Guang's "Records of Shuishui", Teng Zongyu did not have the public funds of the Huafu Treasury for the construction of the Yueyang Tower, nor did he engage in apportionment among the people, but instead sent out a list of letters telling those creditors who could not recover their debts that as long as they were willing to transfer some of their debts to the government, the government would help them collect their debts. As soon as this list came out, the people responded in groups, and soon they gathered ten thousand taels of money. Teng Zongyu put the money into the government treasury, but did not set up accounts, but completely kept it himself, as a fund for the construction of Yueyang Tower. Later, the Yueyang Building was completed, and there was still a lot of money left.
Controversy in later generations
Teng Zongyu was one of the able ministers of the Song Renzong period, but in that era when the official party was fighting against each other, it was never as good as picking faults. Therefore, at that time, many people thought that Teng Zongyu was a corrupt official. Even today, some people follow the train of thought of those official thugs to deny Teng Zongyu. In fact, Teng Zongyu's lifelong unexplained money is 170,000 taels of money (160,000 in Jingzhou and 10,000 in Baling County). If you compare some famous figures at that time, such as Kou Zhun, Lü Mengzheng, and even Bao Zheng, who is known for his gangzheng, 170,000 taels are only the money for them to hold several banquets. What's more, although Teng Zongyu's accounts are unclear, the use of these money is very clear. Therefore, the author believes that Teng Zongyu can never be regarded as a corrupt official. Not to mention, the History of Song. His ending is clearly recorded in the Biography of Emperor Tengzong: Zongzong forgave Shangqi, took charge of himself, gave well, and died, and had no remaining wealth.