Sima Chi and Sima Guang, the father and son's relationship with Luoyang

Historically, Sima Guang's fame was great, and the Zizhi Tongjian he compiled was known as the emperor's textbook. The Zizhi Tongjian was compiled by Sima Guang in Luoyang, where Sima Guang also had a du paradise, so the people of Luoyang were more familiar with Sima Guang. In fact, Sima Guang's father, Sima Chi, was also a very talented cultural man, and he had two relationships with Luoyang.

Speaking of Sima Chi, he had a great influence on Sima Guang's life. Sima Chi claimed to be a descendant of Sima Fu, the King of Anping in the Jin Dynasty. Sima Fu's descendant Sima Yang was a general in the Eastern Crusades and was buried in Anyi Lanhuiqu (安邑澜洄曲, in modern Xia County, Shanxi). Since then, Sima Chi has become a native of Xia County for generations. Sima Chi's ancestors to his grandfather for five generations did not become officials due to civil strife at the end of the Tang Dynasty. His grandfather Sima Zheng became an official and was given the title of Crown Prince Taibao after his death. After his father Sima Xuan became an official, he was given the title of Crown Prince Taifu. Sima Chi lost his father at an early age, when his family was quite wealthy, with hundreds of thousands of yuan in wealth. But Sima Chi concentrated on studying and gave all the family property to his uncles and uncles.

The "History of Song" records that when Sima Chi first entered the capital to enter the imperial examination, his family members sent a letter to inform him that his mother had died of illness before the examination. The friend of the same window received the letter first, afraid of affecting Sima Chi's examination, and hid the letter. Sima Chi had a premonition that something was wrong at home and could not sleep at night. The friend had no choice but to give him the letter. After Sima Chi was convinced, Haotao cried and rushed home.

In the second year (1005) of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Sima Chi took the exam again and passed the examination in one fell swoop. He was first granted the master book of Yongning County (present-day Luoning County). The main book is the ancient official name, which is the subordinate of the chief official at all levels who is in charge of the clerical work. The main book of Yongning County is equivalent to the current county secretary.

Historically, Yongning County (Luoning County) is located in the mountainous area of western Henan, the middle and upper reaches of the Luohe River, known as Kundi in ancient times, which was the official road connecting the east (Luoyang) and west (Xi'an) two capitals in ancient China, and its geographical location was very important. In the eleventh year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (487 AD), The county was established as Yongning, tang Wude changed its name to Yongning in the first year (618 AD), and in the second year of the Republic of China (1913 AD) it was renamed Luoning to the present.

Luoning has a long history, splendid culture, Zhong Lingyu Xiu, people are brilliant. Luoning's territory is like a spirit turtle looking forward to the dawn, and it is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. The Cangjie Zitai and the Luoshu Provenance Stele are all within the territory of Luoning County, showing a long history, and dozens of Yangshao and Longshan cultural sites highlight the rich heritage. Generations of troublemakers and scholars have shed many precious poems here.

Sima Chi was the first official of Yongning County, who was very incorruptible and rode a donkey to and from work. Sima Chi was proud of his talents and was not humble to the county order, and later left Yongning because the county order said that he was bad, and was demoted from the main book to the county lieutenant to Jiande, and later to Pi County (pi county, Sichuan). In Pi County, there were rumors in the society that the border guards rebelled, and the rich people fled with their families and gold and silver, which frightened the county order Lu Qiu (two-character surname) MengSong to say that something had happened to the government, and the main book said that the official business was shelved. Sima Chi was entrusted with the task of administering the county's administrative affairs, and while doing a good job in preventive work, he calmed the people's minds and received praise from above. In March of the third year of tianxi (1019), Sima Chi was transferred to Zhengzhou as a defensive judge. At this time, Kwangsan Zhi County was absent and was renamed Kwangsan Zhi County. In October of that year, the third son was born, named Sima Guang.

In sima chi's second year in Guangshan, the imperial palace built a large number of civil engineering projects and ordered the counties of Gwangju (present-day Huangchuan) to complete the task of handing over moso bamboo within three days. At that time, all counties in Gwangju did not produce moso bamboo, and the task could not be completed within three days. The knowledgeable Sima Chi knew that only Huangzhou (黄州, in modern Huanggang, Hubei) produced moso bamboo nearby. He asked his superiors to relax the daily limit, and ordered his subordinates to go to Huangzhou overnight to buy moso bamboo and hire local vehicles to send them to Kaifeng overnight. As a result, only Gwangsan was the first in Gwangju to complete it. This matter had a great impact on the DPRK at that time.

After the expiration of Gwangsan's term, Gwangju Zhizhou Shengdu recommended Sima Chi to the imperial court as a secretary to the provincial writer Lang to supervise the Anfeng liquor tax. Later, he was transferred to Xiaoxi (present-day Anhui) as Renzhi County. In the third year of Tiansheng (1025), Liu Ye was appointed prefect of Henan (Luoyang), and he asked the emperor to transfer Sima Chi to serve as Silu to join the army. A year later, he was promoted to the position of Left-behind Si Tongju of Luoyang, Xijing.

In the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty, the military generals of the feudal towns were monopolized, and the world has always been in a scuffle, and the centralized power has never been consolidated. After Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robe was added, the Northern Song ruling clique took a wise move to relieve the military generals of their military powers in order to solve this big problem. Thus there is the famous story of "a glass of wine to release the military power". After the military generals were relieved of their military powers, they often went out as courtiers to guard the prefectures and counties, and the official name was "Quan Zhi Jun, State Affairs". "Quan", which has a temporary meaning, means that it can be removed at any time, and from the name, attention is also paid to correcting the malpractice of the father and son of the clan town. At the same time, in order to prevent the officials of the prefectures and counties from falling behind, they also set up a general judgment in the prefectures and counties, and as a deputy post, they jointly handled political affairs with the Quan Zhijun and the state affairs, and their duties were: "Whether any matter of soldiers and civilians, Qiangu, Hukou, enlistment, and prison litigation can be adjudicated and executed with the Shouchen Tong." There is also a duty of the general judge: "Whether the officials of the ministry are good or not and the ministry is abolished, they must be heard." ”

Song Taizu created the post of "general judge" in order to strengthen the supervision and control of local officials and prevent zhizhou from overly exercising authority and specializing in making a big decision. The general judgment is directly appointed by the emperor to assist the state administration, and can be regarded as the deputy of the zhizhou, but has the power to report directly to the emperor. The orders issued by Zhizhou to subordinates must be signed together with the judgment to take effect, and the name of the judgment is also due to the fact that the upper and lower official documents are signed with Zhizhou. The election of the general judgment was initially selected by the imperial court to serve as a Beijing official, and later it was changed to be played by the superintendents such as the transfer envoy, the system envoy, and the lifting department. Except for the prison state, all matters that are judged by soldiers and civilians, Qiangu, Hukou, conscription, and prison litigation may be adjudicated, but they must be implemented by signing a document with Zhizhou. Tongju is a central official who combines administration and supervision. It played a role in mutual restraint with Zhizhou, and the establishment of tongjue strengthened the centralization of power in the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the capital, and Luoyang was Xijing, which is now called the sub-center. There is a left-behind division in Luoyang, Xijing. Around 1027 CE, Sima Chi was appointed as the retainer of Luoyang. Sima Chi's son Sima Guang later retired to Luoyang and volunteered to serve as the Imperial Historian of Xijing.

Sima Chi did not stay in Luoyang for a long time, and the imperial court appointed him as the governor of Kaifeng Province. Later, Emperor Renzong of Song promoted him to the position of Zhizhiyuan. Sima Chi wrote to the chancellor many times, and Emperor Renzong inexplicably said to the chancellor: "Everyone else likes to be promoted, but only Sima Chi is humble and humble, which is really precious." Therefore, Sima Chi was forced to add the title of governor of the Zhishiguan and the prefect of Fengxiang.

Later generations' judgment on Sima Guang's coffin was a word for "sincerity." Sima Guang's integrity in life should be influenced by his father. Two of these events had a great influence on Sima Guang. One thing is that Sima Guang was about five or six years old, once, he wanted to peel the walnut, he would not do it, his sister wanted to help him, he could not remove it, the sister left first, and then a maid used hot soup to smoothly peel the hu core for him, and when the sister returned, she asked: "Who helped you do it?" He deceived his sister by himself, and his father reprimanded him: "How dare a boy lie?" Sima Guang did not dare to lie from then on, and when he was older, he still wrote this matter on paper and encouraged himself until he died, and did not dare to lie. Shao Yong's son Shao Bowen had seen this piece of paper. Chen Hongmou, a Qing dynasty man, said: "Sima Guang's life was based on sincerity and non-deception. ”

Another thing was that during the reign of Governor Fengxiang, Sima Chi committed the crime of deceiving the king, which taught Sima Chi a deep lesson, and thus had a great influence on Sima Guang's later education and influence. As a piece of history, it is a story of Sima Chi's appointment as the prefect of Fengxiang and Chen Cangshi Guwen.

People who love calligraphy know that the Chen Cang stone drum is one of the national treasures of the nine major towns in China, and is praised by Kang Youwei as "the first antiquity in China". In 627 AD, in Beisaka, Chencang Mountain (present-day Shigu Mountain, Baoji City), Fengxiang Province, Shaanxi Province, an old shepherd found 10 strange granite boulders. These huge stones are shaped like drums, round and square, narrow on the top and large on the bottom, about 3 feet high, and slightly convex in the middle, with a strange appearance. What is puzzling is that when the dirt on a large rock is removed, a large number of mysterious words are revealed, and the penmanship is strange, and no one can read it. As a result, rumors were scattered and strange theories arose. More villagers smelled the wind, burned incense and bowed down, and were amazed by the gods. Since then, Chen Cang has suddenly become very lively. Literati and inkers have come to see the end, and expand the words on the stone, looking for famous scholars to study, and more large households to solve puzzles. But the mystery of words has not only not been uncovered, but has become a god through folk rumors. Chen Cangshigu re-emerged from the Caomang River and Lake during the Anshi Rebellion.

When the Northern Song Dynasty unified the world, the country's economy and culture recovered and achieved great development in just a few decades. One day, when Song Renzong consulted the historical archives left by the previous dynasty, he accidentally discovered a legendary chronicle about the stone drum, and became deeply interested in the Chen Cang stone drum that had been lost for a hundred years. Song Renzong was a famous calligrapher and painter in Chinese history, and he did not hesitate to use the high-ranking official Houlu to make talented people in the world search and find the whereabouts of Chen Cangshigu.

When Sima Chi, then the prefect of Fengxiang, heard the news, he tried his best to find the legendary 10 large stones and try to fall for the king's favor. After several twists and turns, Sima Chi finally brought the Chen Cangshi Drum, which had disappeared for a hundred years, to the light of day. Unfortunately, only 9 stone drums were found, and there was still no trace of the original stone drums that had been lost as early as the end of the Tang Dynasty. The impatient Sima Chi performed the trick of painting snakes and secretly sent craftsmen to collect similar stones overnight to falsify them. Soon, he imitated a fake "original stone drum" with reference to the stone drum Takumoto. This move really allowed him to receive praise from Emperor Renzong for his qigong.

Unfortunately, the well-educated Song Renzong and the famous scholars who were ordered to come quickly identified the forged stone drum. Sima Chi was rewarded for his first Jianqi gong, but was also demoted for forging and deceiving the king. Sima Chi later served as the prefect of Tongzhou and Hangzhou, and was demoted to the post of prefect of Juzhou. He died at the age of 62 as prefect of Jinju. After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of Duke of Wen and given to Him as a Taishi.

Sima Chi has been studying intently since childhood and has a personal knowledge. He met Song Renzong, who loved talent, appreciated his talent, and was promoted. Throughout Sima Chi's life, his eunuch road was still smooth, but there were occasional small twists and turns. Sima Chi's life had a great influence on Sima Guang.