In February 497, Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei arrived at Pingcheng and interrogated Mu Tai, Lu Rui, and other rebels, who confessed to the rebellion. Mutai Lurui and others plotted a rebellion against the relocation of the capital, and were arrested in failure. In the end, MuTai and his cronies were executed, and Lu Rui was given death.
It is said that Emperor Xiaowen's handling of this major case of rebellion was very normal, but Sima Guang did not think so.
Originally, Lu Rui, Li Chong, Yu Lie, and others had all been given edicts by the emperor to avoid death, but now Lu Rui was still given death.
Sima Guang therefore commented that this was the monarch's promise to tempt them to commit crimes with his unbeliefactory promises, and then considered this to be the greatest mistake in the imperial court's criminal system.
Why did Sima Guang react so fiercely to this matter?
Sima Guang was a representative of the conservative faction and took the lead in opposing Wang Anshi's change of law. Because Emperor Shenzong of Song supported the change of law, Sima Guang was politically frustrated and turned to Luoyang behind closed doors, concentrating on writing the Zizhi Tongjian. Therefore, the conclusion is obvious: Sima Guang's criticism of Emperor Xiaowen's execution of Lu Rui was to argue for his own conservative position against change; to say that it was useless, he wrote his views into the book.
When Lu Rui and others were promised not to die, I believe that the emperor was sincere, and that to be good to them was to be good for the society; now that Lu Rui was executed for rebellion, the emperor also really wanted to think about the society.
Is it that the emperor does not talk about credit? Non also. The situation has changed, which is the need of political struggle. Emperor Xiaowen was vigorously moving the capital to Sinicize and change customs, but these important ministers were working in the opposite direction, and if this situation was tolerated, then more people would follow suit. The situation was stronger than the people, and this momentum against Emperor Xiaowen had to be stopped, so Lu Rui, who took the lead, had to be executed to kill a hundred people.
Sima Guang's viewpoint is rigid in form, and in today's parlance, it means that we cannot proceed from reality and cannot seek truth from facts.
The monarch promised to avoid death, and it must be the joint efforts of the monarch and the subject to achieve a very good goal. Now that the courtiers have rebelled, the courtiers have not followed the monarch's goals, and the premise of avoiding death has been lost.
Because the sinicization of the capital was in violation of personal interests, Lu Rui rebelled, so how could this situation require the emperor to fulfill his promise to avoid death?
Statue of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei
Analyzing a person's point of view, one must not ignore his position. Sima Guang, as a political conservative, opposed all change.
At the same time, Sima Guang only blamed the monarch for perfection, not requiring his courtiers to be loyal to their duties, I am afraid that he was secretly criticizing Song Shenzong and criticizing him for supporting the change of law.
Sima Guang always opposed the change of law in all respects, and even discarded the territory seized during the change of law. This stubborn position limits his actions and is the context in which we analyze his views.