October 1 of each year is a special day, a national jubilant "National Day", and a long-lost small holiday.
However, what many people don't know is that on this day, China gave birth to a "first-class figure between heaven and earth".
After his death, the title of Wenzheng was the highest evaluation of a person in ancient times, reaching the three immortal realms of "meritorious service" to deserve such a special honor.
He is our "old acquaintance", but definitely not Zeng Guofan, because the year is not right.
Coincidentally, Zeng Guofan was particularly stupid when he was a child, and one day he endorsed the book, which happened to be the work of this "first-class person", and there was a thief lurking on the beam, ready to wait for Zeng Guofan to fall asleep before committing a crime.
However, Zeng Guofan had not carried it from night to day, and as a result, the thief found himself sleeping on the beam all night, and he was very angry.
The thief came down from the beam and scolded: "Why are you so stupid, listening to your repeated chanting, I will recite, is not 'celebrating the fourth year of the calendar, Teng Zijing who guarded Baling County...', what is so difficult about this?" ”
Zeng Guofan's clumsy performance when he was a child made us understand that "diligence can make up for clumsiness", but today we want to talk about the author of his recitation of masterpieces.
I believe that everyone already knows that he is Fan Zhongyun.
01
An extraordinary teenager born to the "light"
"Before the world is worried and worried, after the world is happy and happy", Fan Zhongyan left this sentence in the famous "Yueyang Lou" through the ages, which has set an insurmountable spiritual benchmark for Chinese scholars and readers.
But Fan Zhongyun, who walked out of the life of "Wang Bomb", when he was just born, he caught a card that could not be rotten anymore.
He was still in ignorance, his father died, and his mother took him to remarry into a family surnamed Zhu.
Perhaps it was his mother's good life style that affected him, Fan Zhongyun knew how to be diligent and thrifty since he was a child, and seeing the extravagant and wasteful habits of the Children of the Zhu family, Fan Zhongyun couldn't bear to preach to them.
Who knows, the children of the Zhu family are impatiently paying back: We are spending our own money, and you are not our family's people!
It doesn't matter if you are kind enough to touch a nose of ash, the key is that Fan Zhongyun knows that he is not born to Zhu's father.
This inevitably has the feeling of sending people under the fence and leaning on people's noses.
Fan Zhongyan made up his mind to change his destiny, and at that time, the most effective way was to read books and refer to the imperial examination.
He bid farewell to his mother and went to Ying Tianfu to study.
The life of studying is very hard, Fan Zhongyun only cooks a bowl of thick porridge every day, divides it into four pieces after it is cold, takes two pieces in the morning and evening, mixes a few pickles, and continues to read after eating. This is the famous "cutting porridge and breaking the teeth".
The second-generation classmates around him really couldn't bear it, and brought him a rich meal, but he smiled and refused: If I eat this delicacy, how can I bear to eat chaff in the future?
Self-discipline and self-control are the instincts of the strong.
When Song Zhenzong came to yingtian to do things, many students wanted to see the emperor's style, only Fan Zhongyun sat down to read, he said: "Sooner or later, one day, the emperor will take the initiative to summon me, and then are you afraid of not seeing me?" ”
However, in this case, what if it cannot be achieved?
Fan Zhongyan did not self-hypnotize like today's success speakers, but said very realistically: "If you are not a good look, you are a good doctor."
The bumpy origin did not make Fan Zhong complain about the heavens and the people, but in his heart, he bred a heart of worrying about the people and serving the country.
The hearts of the truly strong are always born of "light". Fan Zhongyan wrote freely when he was studying hard, "But if Sven Tian has not died, why should Jian Song complain about Shan Miao." ”
02
Ning Ming died, not silently
Fan Zhongyan's efforts were rewarded, and he not only passed the entrance examination, but also entered the center smoothly.
Because of a coincidence, the emperor at that time remembered him.
Song Renzong had been on the throne for a long time, and Empress Liu was still "hanging the curtain and listening to the government", and none of the ministers dared to break the silence and persuade the empress dowager to return to the emperor.
But Fan Zhongyun dared!
Empress Liu was furious and demoted Fan Zhong to other places.
When others encountered this situation, they could not help but feel depressed, but Fan Zhongyun went with the flow, and in other places, he built water conservancy and persuaded farmers to teach, and did a good job.
Three years later, when Empress Liu died and Emperor Renzong of Song was pro-government, he remembered Fan Zhongyan, who had spoken for himself, and summoned Fan Zhongyun back.
At that time, seeing that Song Renzong had cleaned up some of the ministers who were originally dependent on Empress Liu, some opportunists who tended to be inflamed and attached to the situation attacked the late Empress Liu.
However, Fan Zhongyan, who was just and righteous, stood up to speak for the empress.
Fortunately, Emperor Renzong was a man of understanding, and Fan Zhongyan's request for Empress Liu to return the government and maintain Empress Liu seemed contradictory, but in fact, Fan Zhongyun's every advice was focused on the family and the world, had nothing to do with selfish interests, and only for the overall situation.
As a result, Emperor Renzong's favor for Fan Zhongyan increased again.
His friend Mei Yaochen wrote a poem "Lingwu Fu" to Fan Zhongyan, persuading Old Fan not to be too upright in the court, to learn to report good news and not to report worry, and to close the "crow's mouth".
"Hardcore" Lao Fan immediately replied with a song of the same name, "Ling Wu Fu", expressing that although everyone did not like the dumb voice of the crow, he would insist on justice and adhere to the truth no matter what, and domineeringly replied: "It is better to die than to die in silence!" ”
This is 740 years before the American Patrick Henry said the classic "don't be free, rather die."
03
Real politicians
Judging from Fan Zhongyan's attitude toward Empress Liu, there is no concept of "taking sides" in his mind, only the idea of "standing right".
This makes him in the official arena, adversity is greater than good.
He wrote to impeach Lü Yijian, and the selection of talents was unfair, and Lü Yijian demoted him to other places.
Many years later, he returned to the court, and Song Renzong asked him to reconcile with Lü Yijian, saying: "The subjects discuss the affairs of the state, and Yu Yijian has no regrets. ”
I have always been right about the public and the private, not wrong, not apologizing.
When he was a magistrate in Shaanxi, Fan Zhongyan showed his military ability as a civilian official because he was on the front line of the war with the Western Xia.
He reformed the military system, promoted famous generals such as Di Qing and Zhong Shiheng, and also built city defenses on the border step by step, and formed other Qiang tribes.
The Western Xia people originally gathered troops under the city of Yanzhou, where Fan Zhongyan was located, and seeing Fan Zhongyan's deployment, they no longer had the idea of fighting Yanzhou, saying, "Now there are tens of thousands of soldiers in the belly of Fan Zhongyan. ”
At the Battle of DingchuanZhai in Song and Xia, the Song army was defeated, and after Li Yuanhao, the lord of the Western Xia Kingdom, won the victory, he marched south and forced Pan Yuan, and Guanzhong was shaken.
Fan Zhongdrown in a critical moment, led six thousand troops, rushed to the front line, Song Renzong heard about it, the hanging heart only put down: "If Zhong drowned to help, I have no worries", no accident, the Western Xia army immediately withdrew from the border plug.
Later, Song Renzong was determined to reform, and the first personnel appointment was to transfer Fan Zhongyan back to the central government and appoint officials to participate in the government affairs (deputy prime minister).
In the emperor's mind, Fan Zhongyan was a very suitable reform leader.
Fan Zhongyan's lifelong ideal, the pursuit of a good face, can be realized at this moment.
Seizing the opportunity, he put forward ten reform guidelines, taking those with vested interests, clarifying the rule of officials, and bearing the brunt of it.
Fan Zhongyan was rude to the corrupt and corpse-eating officials, and every time he saw the investigation report against these officials, he took down this official with a big stroke of a pen.
Fu Bi said that it was easy to hook him up, but do you know that his whole family is crying? Fan Zhongyan did not soften his heart, and replied that it was better for a family to cry than to cry all the way (a local administrative unit of the Song Dynasty, equivalent to the current province).
As a result, a considerable number of big bureaucrats, magistrates, and royal magnates secretly began to collude and organize forces to plan to eliminate Fan Zhongyun.
Less than a year after the "New Deal for the Celebration of the Calendar", fan zhongyan and other reformers were expelled from the capital and died prematurely.
The ideals of a generation have since been lost. This was the most depressing moment in Fan Zhongyan's life.
Two years after the failure of the reform, the 58-year-old Fan Zhong drowned in Dengzhou (Fan Zhong drowned in Yueyang Lou, an article written through a painting sent by Teng Zijing), and wrote the world-famous "Yueyang Lou Record", expressing the lifelong pursuit of "not to be happy with things, not to be sad with oneself", "to worry about the world before the world, and to be happy after the world".
In the official arena of fame and profit, many people care about personal glory and wealth, and only a few people really cherish their homeland and the people, and the latter is the real politician.
04
epilogue
The same reformers, Wang Anshi, Zhang Juzheng and others have mixed reputations behind them, while Fan Zhongyan is "famous and flawless", which can be called a perfect person.
Fan Zhongyan once said that being an official "cannot be without public crimes, and private crimes must not be committed."
In today's parlance, politically we must uphold principles, not be afraid of offending our superiors and the emperor, and not be afraid of being guilty, while our personal conduct must be innocent, and we must never be corrupt and pervert the law and give people control.
There are few people in the world who can reach this realm! Therefore, Fan Zhongyan was able to write a high wind and bright festival of "Youlan in the depths, all day long from Qingfen".
As the movie "No Questions Asked" said: "What is missing in this era is not perfect people, but the sincerity, justice, fearlessness and sympathy given from the bottom of one's heart!"
Let's enjoy a song by Fan Zhongyan again:
Su mucha nostalgic
Blue clouds, yellow leaves, autumn colors and waves, cold smoke on the waves. The mountains reflect the slanting sun and the water, and the herbs are merciless, and they are even more outside the slanting sun. Dark souls, reminiscents, night and night unless, good dreams leave people to sleep. Mingyue Lou rested alone, and the wine fell into the intestines, turning into tears of lovesickness.
Are you all homesick? I know! Did you buy a ticket home?