Author: We invite the author to sink the moon and the stars
In the book "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" in the Bright Moon that year, after the fall of Xia Yan, Yan Song became the first assistant of the cabinet, and Xu Jie, who had always been protected by Xia Yan, was targeted everywhere in the court. Especially when Yan Song's power was as strong as the sun in the sky, Xu Jie was even more humiliated and burdensome like a weak grass. When he wanted revenge but had no way out, a nobleman appeared and instructed him: Wait patiently for the opportunity. In the later period of Jiajing, Xu Jie finally defeated Yan Song and became the first assistant of the new cabinet, and looking back on the long road of life, he may also remember the noble Tang Shunzhi who was a literary and martial all-rounder.
Also designated by this nobleman, in addition to Xu Jie, there was Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Wu hero of the Ming Dynasty. In the early years, when the Qi family army was initially established and the resistance against the Wu dynasty was repeatedly defeated, and When Qi Jiguang was at a loss and full of sorrow, Tang Shunzhi handed him a book, mentioning that his way to win was among them. Later, Qi Ji studied day and night, and consulted this "teacher" without understanding the practice, and finally invented a unique anti-Wu divine trick "Mandarin Duck Array", invincible, and became a "god of war" and anti-Wu hero for hundreds of generations.
Mentioning Tang Shunzhi's glorious deeds, perhaps many historians will sigh and sigh: it is worthy of being a historical stranger! Indeed, he not only had remarkable achievements in literature, he was a poet of the Ming Dynasty, and he was also the leader of the "Tang and Song Sect" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and he was also the "teacher" who guided Qi Jiguang in resisting the Wubu Formation militarily, and he was also the third generation of disciples of Wang Yangming's Xinxue, which played a role in promoting the development of "Song Ming Theory". The situation in the Ming Dynasty, such as the rampant eight strands of literature and the frequent disturbance of the territory by the Wokou, was like a nightmare for ordinary people, but for Tang Shunzhi, it was the beginning of the legend.
I. The leader of the "Tang and Song Dynasties" in Ming Dynasty literature
Tang Shunzhi (唐顺之), courtesy name Yingde (Chinese: 唐舜德), was a native of Wujin (present-day Changzhou, Jiangsu), born in the second year of Zhengde (1507) and died in the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing (1560).
Tang Shunzhi was an extremely talented person. In the eighth year of Jiajing, he won the first place in the examination, and when he took the court examination, because of his integrity and unwillingness to cheat, he was admitted with the second place, and at the same time was awarded the official position of "Hanlin Yuan Shujishi". It just so happened that the chief examiner at that time was Zhang Xuan Zhang, a scholar of Libu Shangshu and Wenyuange University, who was very optimistic about Tang Shunzhi and planned to secretly promote him, but Tang Shunzhi resolutely refused and became the chief of the military department. It is reasonable to say that Tang Shunzhi, who has extraordinary talents, should have been in the clouds of his career, but he had no choice but to float in the sea and the people's hearts were devious, and a few years later, something finally happened, and he had to let Tang Shunzhi stay away from the court for several years.
In the autumn of the twelfth year of Jiajing, Tang Shunzhi served as the editor of Hanlin and was in charge of the compilation and proofreading of Ming Shizong's "Records of the Accumulated Dynasties". At the last moment when it was about to be completed, Tang Shunzhi was infected with illness, so he wrote a letter "To Tell the Sick" and ask for an edict to "put it back to the adjustment in an attempt to make up for it." At this time, when some people were red-eyed about Tang Shun, they saw this opportunity to go to Zhang Xuan, the then first assistant of the cabinet, to stir up dissension, saying that Tang had shirked Zhang Xuan's promotion and took up the post of head of the military department in order to stay away from Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan believed, and in order to exclude dissidents, he took advantage of Tang Shunzhi's illness to dismiss him and "never repeat himself" (never again).
It was not until the eighteenth year of Jiajing that Tang Shunzhi was reactivated. In these six years, Tang Shunzhi had a lot of time to study his own affairs. One of the most important things is literature.
The literature of the middle of the Ming Dynasty presented the style of advocating Tang and Song prose, so there was an important literary genre that was the "Tang and Song School". In this genre, the representative figures are Wang Shenzhong, Gui Youguang, Mao Kun and others, and Tang Shunzhi is called the "leader" of this genre by posterity. One might ask whether such an evaluation is excessive. Not really. In history, we are well known as the "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties", and their historical status is given by Tang Shunzhi, which is reflected in the fact that his "Compilation of Texts" collected a large number of Tang and Song texts, and on this basis, Mao Kun compiled them into the "Eight Great Texts of the Tang and Song Dynasties", and officially put forward the term "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties".
In addition, in terms of literary style, Tang Shunzhi also achieved critical innovation and development. He changed the literary proposition of "Wen bi Qin Han, poetry bi sheng Tang" in the early years, tolerated and accepted, criticized inheritance, and believed that articles should have "content and real feeling", and actively affirmed the inheritance and innovative development of Tang and Song Wen. As a literary scholar, Tang Shunzhi's own style of writing is also unique and full of content, and some of his articles are evaluated by the "Biography of ming history" as "folding and folding, and there is a style of everyone", which is clearly reflected in his representative works such as "Zhuxi Ji" and "Mr. Jingchuan's Collected Works".
Tang Shunzhi was not only the leader of the "Tang and Song Sect" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but also an all-rounder who advocated "applying it to the world". Unlike other literati at that time, he only adhered to the field of literature; instead, he had in-depth research in various fields such as astronomy, geography, mathematics, and the art of war. For example, he solved Guo Shoujing's algorithm and made his own achievements in the field of mathematics. Even though after Tang Shunzhi's death, some people smeared it out of selfishness, no matter how much "effort" they tried, they could never erase the brilliance and splendor that Tang Shunzhi had left behind in all aspects of history.
Second, the little-known behind-the-scenes anti-War heroes
Tang Shun's career was deposed twice, and he was reinstated twice. One is the twelfth year of Jiajing, and the other is the thirty-third year of Jiajing.
During the period of being deposed, Tang Shunzhi was not idle at all, especially between the second time he was deposed and reinstated, which lasted more than ten years, in addition to reading a lot of books and cultivating literary sentiments, he also took up weapons, pondered and studied the art of war, and trained into the realm of "one-foot circle gun", laying the foundation for outstanding military contributions in the future.
The second time he was deposed, Tang Shunzhi came to Yangxian Mountain to live in seclusion, closed the door, refused to see guests, and single-mindedly "cultivated" himself. As the third generation disciple of Wang Yangming's Xinxue, he adhered to the ideological principle of "applying it to the world", seriously studied the "Eighteen Martial Arts", especially proficient in marksmanship, practiced hard for more than ten years, and became the "number one gun master" recognized during the Jiajing years. Not only that, he also wrote while practicing, and a "Martial Arts Compilation" is the "Martial Arts Training Secret Book" recorded for many years, including all kinds of martial arts such as sword, gun, sword, and fist, as well as military knowledge such as military training and military training.
Such a strong "cultivation" came in handy when it came time to resist the Wo. Thirty-three years after Jiajing, the situation of the Invasion of Wukou became more and more severe, and Zhao Wenhua, a member of Yan Song's henchmen, was in Jiangsu to supervise military affairs, and he recommended Tang Shunzhi. Tang Shunzhi was originally because of the "resentment and waste of food" because of the Wukou, and at this critical juncture, he also gladly went to Fang Langzhong, a military post, and was ordered to investigate the defense of Jizhou, and the Ming army suddenly pointed out that the Ming army had "lacked training"; then he took up a heavy responsibility, went south to inspect the actual situation of the anti-Wu Dynasty, and relied on his outstanding military ability to boost morale, and won the first great victory of the Ming Dynasty in ten years.
For the Wukou who came to attack Daming at that time, the name Tang Shunzhi was simply frightening. There was even a time when the Wokou raided a village, and the village chief was in a hurry, and found an old man to pretend to be Tang Shunzhi, so he scared the Wokou into a and did not dare to attack. If the Ming Dynasty had always had Tang Shunzhi, a heroic and powerful anti-Wu general, to defend his family and defend the country, Wu Kou would not have been worried, but the disease was entangled with Tang Shunzhi, and as he "high loaded" to inspect military intelligence and lead more and more battles, his condition was also deteriorating. At this time, Tang Shunzhi realized the importance of cultivating a reliable successor.
So in the Daming army, he selected Qi Jiguang, who had little experience at that time, but was loyal and reliable. At that time, Qi Jiguang led the Qi family army to a fiasco in battle. Tang Shunzhi gave him the "WuBian" he had learned all his life, and taught him how to lead the troops to train troops, how to train the "one-foot flower gun" realm, and how to fight and deploy battles. Including the "Mandarin Duck Array" that Qi Jiguang later became famous for his resistance to the Wo, it was the result of Tang Shunzhi's personal dispatch and teaching. After cultivating the heir, Tang Shunzhi returned to the battlefield and chased and beat the Wokou with his last breath, and pursued and killed him fiercely. There was always a belief burning in his heart, and that was victory. The anti-Wu was ultimately victorious, and his "apprentice" swept away the Wokou with the military power of the God of War, and Daming restored the excellent situation of Guotai and Min'an, but unfortunately, this anti-Wu hero behind the scenes could no longer be seen.
Tang Shun was born upright for the country, refused to "pass the joints" for the sake of officials, risked the jiajing Emperor's anger and was deposed, and had to advise him, acting vigorously and vigorously, but his patriotic heart could be learned from the heavens and the earth -- even when he was seriously ill and dying, he "did not have a word and private", and never forgot the state affairs and wars. His exploits in this life should be praised by posterity, but because Zhang Juzheng, who majored in the Records of Emperor Ming Shizong, had a personal grudge with the Yang Ming Xinxue he had inherited, Tang Shunzhi was artificially smeared, slandering him as a Yan Song henchman who was "inflammatory and attached", and stigmatizing his military exploits. It is really chilling that such a hero with warm-blooded patriotic feelings and outstanding contributions to the War is not remembered.
References: Mingyue "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty", Huang Daojing's "Both Literature and Martial Arts, Zhuo Ran Everyone - Ming Dynasty Essayist, Tang and Song Sect Leader Tang Shunzhi", Zhang Lan "Teaching the Anti-Wu Hero of Qi Jiguang, the God of War, Was Smeared After Death"
Further reading:
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Behind the hilarious plot of "Nine Pin Sesame Officials" is a group of "official masters" who are suffering in the Qing Dynasty