Comrade | Guevara
At the beginning of the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, emissaries were sent to the Jin Dynasty to negotiate peace and request the return of the Second Emperor Hui Qin, but the latter repeatedly refused, and the emissaries were also taken hostage. Among these Song emissaries stranded in the north, one was later forced to leave the Jin Dynasty and was honored as a national teacher, but he was still loyal to the Song Dynasty in his heart, and often passed on top-secret information to the south, which was a lone hero lurking in the Jin Dynasty. This person was Yuwen Xuanzhong, who was once scolded as a traitor by both the Northern Han and Southern Song dynasties, and was eventually killed by Qin Jun.
01 Conspiring against the state
Yuwen Xuzhong (宇文虚中), formerly known as Yuwen Huangzhong (宇文黄中), was later given the title of Xuanzhong (虚中), courtesy name Shutong ( Uncle Tong ) , a resident of Longxi and an old man of Longxi , a native of Guangdu County , Chengdu Province ( present-day Shuangliu District , Sichuan Province ) , whose ancestors were born in the Northern Zhou imperial family. Yuwen was erudite and good at poetry, and was admitted to the jinshi in the third year of Daguan (1109), and after training in the Hanlin Academy, he was sent to the prefecture and county as an official, and did not re-enter the dynasty until the fifth year of Zhenghe (1115). After that, Yuwen Xuanzhong successively served as a living quartersman, an editor of the National History Academy, a Tongzhi Gongju, a Tongzhi Lang Zhongshu Sheren, and a Xianmo Pavilion to be controlled, which was greatly appreciated by Emperor Huizong of Song.
Portrait of Emperor Huizong of Song
In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), the eunuch Tong Guan took advantage of the Liao-Jin war to decide to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which had been taken by the Liao Dynasty during the Later Jin Dynasty. At that time, Yuwen Xuanzhong was serving as a staff officer in Tong Guan's shogunate, and in order to explore the reality of the Liao Dynasty, he personally walked on the border and found many problems. To this end, Yuwen Falsely accused the commander-in-chief of covering up the lack of financial resources, the lack of training of soldiers, and the shortage of equipment, and opposed the war with the Liao Dynasty, which had maintained a peaceful situation for more than a hundred years, but used it as a barrier to defend against the more dangerous Jin Dynasty and Western Xia.
However, due to the obstruction of wang yi, the chancellor who was in cahoots with Tong Guan, Yuwen Xuanzhong's song table was detained and was not seen by Emperor Huizong of Song at all. As Yuwen Xuan expected, Tong Guan suffered two humiliating defeats in a row in the Battle of Yanyun, and finally relied on the help of Jin Guo to take Yanjing. Afterwards, Tong Guan and Wang Yi did not reflect on him, but retaliated against Yuwen Xuan, reducing him to JiyingDian Cultivation and Zhitan Prefecture. Fortunately, Yuwen Xuanzhong received help from Zheng Juzhong, the privy councillor, and was soon promoted to Zhiqingyang, and in the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), he returned to the court as a ren hanlin scholar.
Children's embroidery
Shortly after Yuwen Xuanzhong returned to Beijing, the Jin Dynasty, which had completely destroyed the Liao Dynasty, used the Song Dynasty's "illegal acceptance of surrenders and unauthorized border challenges" as an excuse, and the second prince Mu Han (Completed Yan Zonghan) and the second prince Hu Libu (Completed Yan Zongwang) divided their troops into two ways to invade the south, with the target directly aimed at Beijing. In the face of the fierce Jin soldiers, the frightened Emperor Huizong of Song, because he did not want to be the emperor of the country, gave the throne to the crown prince Zhao Huan (Song Qinzong) and issued an edict to save people's hearts, and it was Yuwen Xuanzhong who wrote this "letter of repentance" for him.
After Emperor Qinzong of Song ascended the throne, he appointed Yuwen Xuanzhong as a senior scholar of the Senior Government Hall and an envoy of the military before the army, and followed his advice, and began to use the veteran general Zhong Shidao, who had retired to Chang'an, to serve as an envoy to the north of Gyeonggi, responsible for commanding the Qinwang troops outside the capital city, and the troops inside the city were under the command of Li Gang. After that, Yuwen Xuzhong traveled between Heyang, Zezhou, and Longde, arranged a defensive line around Hedong Road and Taihang Mountain, collected the defeated troops in the east of The Bian Dynasty, and handed them over to the command of the famous general Li Mi, who ordered him to lead these troops along the Bian River to the capital.
Schematic diagram of the first and second southward movements of the Jin Army
Under the leadership of Li Gang, the military and civilians of Fenjing repeatedly defeated the siege of the Jin army, but Song Qinzong, under the seduction of the lord and the chancellor Li Bangyan and others, agreed to cut off the land, pay indemnities, and send the prince and the prime minister as hostages in exchange for the withdrawal of the Jin army. However, as soon as Song Jin reached an agreement, the Song general Yao Pingzhong took the opportunity to attack the inseparable army at night, and suffered a crushing defeat on the first day of February in the first year of Jing Kang's reign (1126). Afterwards, huili re-besieged Beijing on the grounds that the Song Dynasty was in default.
In order to explain to Hui Li that Yao Pingzhong's sneak attack on the Jin army was not at his own behest, and that he wanted to see if Zhao Shuo, the king of Kang, who was a hostage, was safe and sound, Song Qinzong decided to send an emissary to Jinying, but the ministers were afraid to go there, and only Yuwen volunteered to go. From February 2 to 7, Yuwen Xuzhong was ordered to send an envoy to Jinying three times, and not only succeeded in persuading Hui Yuan not to withdraw his troops according to the original plan, but also brought Zhao Shuo and Lü Yihao and seven other ministers back to Beijing safely. Afterwards, in order to reward Yuwen Xuanzhong, Song Qinzong promoted him to the privy council of the signing of the book, equivalent to today's deputy minister of national defense.
Portrait of Emperor Qinzong of Song
After the withdrawal of the army, the main battle faction led by Li Gang and Zhongshi Dao was expelled from the imperial court, and Yuwen Xuanzhong was also jealous and framed by the chancellor Tang Ke, and was soon demoted to Zhiqing Prefecture. After Yuwen Xuanzhong left Fenjing, his defense plan was completely burned by the Lord and the Faction, which indirectly led to the eventual fall of the capital. At the beginning of the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Gang served as the prime minister and wantonly belittled the officials who participated in the Song-Jin peace talks during the Jing Kang period, and Yuwen Xuzhong did not escape this fate, and was demoted to the deputy envoy of the Anyuan Army, and was placed in Shaozhou.
02 In the heart of Jinying in Song
In February of the second year of Jianyan (1128), Yuwen Xuzhong ended his nearly two-year exile and was reinstated by Emperor Gaozong of Song and once again served as a scholar of the Senior Palace. The emperor did this not out of appreciation for Yuwen Xuanzhong, but appointed him as a messenger to go to the Jin Kingdom to welcome back Song Huizong and Song Qinzong's father and son. However, Emperor Gaozong of Song did not want to welcome back his father and brother in his heart, he only did so in order to block the mouth of his subjects, and the Jin Dynasty was even less likely to release these two "ace" hostages. It is conceivable that Yuwen's envoys in the void will inevitably be fruitless.
Portrait of Emperor Gaozong of Song
However, out of a strong sense of responsibility, Yuwen Xuanzhong did not return south with other emissaries after the mission was frustrated, but voluntarily stayed in the Jin Dynasty as a hostage, and declared: "I was ordered to come north to pray for the Second Emperor, and the Second Emperor did not return, and the Void could not return." Jin Taizong admired Yuwen's modest integrity, coupled with his dignified appearance and outstanding literary talent, his love for talent was born. To this end, the Jin Dynasty repeatedly persuaded Yuwen Xuanzhong to serve as an official of the puppet Qi regime and let him serve the puppet emperor Liu Yu, but the latter always refused.
However, by the fourth year (1134) of Emperor Gaozong of Song's reign, Yuwen Xuzhong finally gave up his uncooperative posture for many years and agreed to hold an official position in the Jin Dynasty, starting with the Hanlin Bachelor, and finally the official to the special jin, the Rebbe Shangshu, the Duke of Henan County, and the promotion to the rank of Golden Purple Guanglu Doctor. Yuwen was highly regarded by the Jin dynasty and was honored by the Jin people as a "national teacher", not only responsible for writing the order, but also the official system, Lu Ge, fengyin, and tantric system of the Jin Dynasty were all formulated by him in accordance with the regulations of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and even the edicts of the Jin Dynasty to seal Emperor Gaozong of Song were also written by him.
Yuwen Imaginary Stills
Although Yuwen Xuanzhong was very beautiful in the Jin Dynasty, in the eyes of the Northern Han and Southern Song Emperors, his "apostatism" behavior was undoubtedly extremely despicable. For example, the Southern Song dynasty emissaries Hong Hao and Zhu Ben, who had been detained in the Jin Dynasty for a long time like Yuwen Xuanzhong, looked down on Yuwen Xiaozhong's style of doing things, and were full of contempt whenever they mentioned this person. However, the reason why Yuwen Xuanzhong came out of the Jin Dynasty was not because of soft bones and greed for wealth, but because he wanted to use his senior status as a cover to continue to serve the Song Dynasty, which was a typical "curve to save the country".
This is true. After Yuwen Xuanzhong "surrendered" to the Jin Dynasty, he took advantage of his position to get in touch with the father and son of Emperor Huizong of Song, and while taking proper care of them, he often negotiated secret business with Gao Shi, a scholar of Hanlin, seeking a plan to rescue the Second Emperor and send them back to the south (Note: Gao Shi tan was the brother of Empress Gao of Song Yingzong, who was taken captive to the north after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and forced to leave the Jin Dynasty). At the same time, Yuwen Huanzhong also actively contacted the Song Dynasty people detained in the territory of the Jin Dynasty, trying to help them find opportunities to return to the south, and became the leader of the Han people in the north.
The Southern Song Dynasty confronted the Jin Dynasty, the Western Xia and other regimes
In addition to trying to rescue the Second Emperor and the Han chinese trapped in the north, Yuwen Xuanzhong also paid close attention to the military movements of the Jin Dynasty, and once it was found that the latter had the intention of invading the south, he would dissuade them on the grounds of "spending money and labor, expeditioning to the wilderness of Jiangnan, and not enough to enrich the country" (for details, see "Song Shi Yuwen Xuzhong Biography"). At the same time, Yuwen Found that the Han and Khitan people in the northeast were resentful of the loss of the land and the fall of a foreign country, so he secretly allied with them, and once the Song army carried out the Northern Expedition, he would unite them to raise troops in the territory of the Jin Dynasty in response.
03 Destroyed
Yuwen stayed in the north for 18 years, although he was deeply treated by the kings of the Jin Dynasty, but in his heart he always regarded himself as a pure subject of the Song Dynasty, and would never change his mind because of his glory and wealth, and his integrity was admirable. With the passage of time, the northern Han people's perception of Yuwen's virtuality improved greatly, and they no longer scolded him as a traitor, while the Southern Song Dynasty junchen did not completely change their perception of Yuwen's virtuality, but also began to ease the intensity of his criticism. However, just as Yuwen's situation in the void was greatly improved, a massacre of extinctions fell on his head.
Portrait of Qin Juniper in the Eight Phases Diagram
Originally, in the twelfth year of Shaoxing (1142), after the Song and Jin dynasties were finally reached, Wu Shu (完燕宗弼), the patriarch who held the military and political power of the Jin Dynasty, in order to cut off the idea of the Song people who were officials in the north to return to the south, asked the Southern Song Dynasty for the families of these people. After Yuwen Xuzhong received the news, he quickly wrote a letter to the Southern Song Court, asking them not to send their families to the north. However, in order to curry favor with the Jin people, the chancellor Qin Ju went so far as to disregard Yuwen's pleas and arrest all his family members and send them to the Jin Kingdom, thus cutting off Yuwen's way back to Song.
However, Yuwen was not dead-hearted, and 4 years later he negotiated secretly with Gao Shi, intending to contact the northern anti-Jin rebels to kidnap Jin Xizong and force the Jin Dynasty to send the still-alive Song Qinzong back to the Southern Song Dynasty, and they could also use this to return to the south. Before the action, Lieutenant Yuwen Xuan secretly reported the plan to the Southern Song court, hoping that Emperor Gaozong of Song would send troops to respond. However, Emperor Gaozong of Song did not want to welcome back Emperor Qinzong of Song at all, and Qin Ju understood the emperor's thoughts, coupled with the hatred that Yuwen Xuanzhong had repeatedly obstructed the progress of the Song and Jin negotiations, so he wrote to the Jin Dynasty and revealed all the plans to the other side.
Statue of Kim Hee-jong
Jin Xizong was furious after receiving Qin Ju's secret letter, and immediately arrested Yuwen Xuanzhong and Gao Shitan and exterminated the clan in June of the sixteenth year of Shaoxing (1146). In order to increase the suffering of the prisoners, Jin Xizong locked more than a hundred mouths of Yuwen Xuanzhong's entire family, old and young, in a small room, and then burned them alive with a fiery fire, even more tragic than Yue Fei's father and son who were killed on the Wind Wave Pavilion ("The hundred mouths of the old and young were burned to death on the same day, and the sky was obscure." See The Biography of Song Shi Yuwen. Yuwen was 67 years old when he was killed.
Because of Emperor Gaozong of Song and Qin Jun, when the news of Yuwen's extermination reached the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court did not praise and posthumously seal him, and even deliberately created public opinion among the scholars, completely characterizing Yuwen Xuanzhong as a renegade villain, whose deeds were despicable. Because of this, in the official historical records of the Song Dynasty, there is no mention of Yuwen's latent deeds in the Jin Dynasty and the real cause of his death. It was not until Qin Ju died of illness and Emperor Gaozong of Song abdicated that Yuwen's situation was greatly improved.
Portrait of Song Xiaozong
After Emperor Xiaozong of Song ascended the throne, he devoted himself to the Northern Expedition to the Jin Dynasty, and in order to win over the Han people in the north, he specially rehabilitated Yuwen Huanzhong and posthumously gave him the title of Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, with the courtesy name of Su Shu and the title of Ren Yong of the Family Temple. At the same time, Emperor Xiaozong of Song also made Yuwen Shaojie (Yuwen Xiaozhong's grandson) the heir of Yuwen Xuanzhong and promoted him to the Privy Council of Signed Letters. After Emperor Ningzong of Song ascended the throne, Yuwen Xuanzhong was given the title of Shaobao by the Southern Song Court and given the surname Zhao. At this time, it was nearly 60 years since Yuwen Washuzhong was killed.
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