The victim of emperor Han Ling's betrayal of the official, Cui Lie, a lieutenant who lost face when he bought an official

▲ Emperor Ling of Han, selling officials and lords to save money for private houses

In 178 AD, the Han Ling Emperor set up the "West Residence" institution to publicly betray the official. According to the different grades of Feng Lu, they are sold at different prices, such as the price of 2,000 stone official seats is 20 million, and the price of 400 stone official seats is 4 million. According to the quality of the purchaser, the discount is fifty percent or only one-third of the money; according to the size of each place, the difference between the rich and the poor, different prices are set; the rich pay cash purchases at one time, and if the poor people arrive first, they will be repaid at twice the price; emperor Ling also privately instructs his cronies to sell senior positions in the imperial court, such as the secretary of state, and the price of the three public secretaries is ten million, and the price of the nine secretaries is five million.

In 185 AD, according to the custom at that time, when a court official was promoted or held a new official position, he had to go to the West Garden to negotiate and pay the money before he could take office. It is equivalent to a variety of "so-and-so sponsorship fees" that can also be seen in today's society, which are called "military aid fees" and "palace repair fees". According to the market situation at that time, the Taishou of the big county had to pay 20 or 30 million, and the rest of the official ranks had different prices. At that time, there were also some honest people who did not follow the trend of the time, who asked for resignation and did not go to the post, but there was no room for negotiation, and they forced you by any means to obediently pay for your post.

At that time, the Hanoi man Sima Zhi was the new julu Taishou, and the imperial court forgave him as a clean and honest official, and only handed over three million, and according to the market conditions at that time, the position of Taishou had to be handed over at least twenty or thirty million, and the imperial court was still quite "reasonable", and reasonably set the price according to different people and different conditions.

However, Sima Zhi, who was straight, had a conscience, and was not in the flow, did not appreciate it, and sighed a long sigh and said:

"I can't bear to cut off the people for the sake of the people's parents and to demand the times."

Later, he asked for his resignation, but the imperial court did not approve it, and on the way to his post, he wrote a letter bluntly stating the various maladministrations of the imperial court, and then committed suicide by taking poison. The Han Ling Emperor was shocked to receive his recital and temporarily stopped the "sponsorship fee" levied by the West Garden.

In March, Situ Yuan Kui was dismissed from his post and appointed Ting Wei Cui Lie, one of the Nine Secretaries.

At that time, if an official wanted to serve as the most honorable third duke, he had to hand over his belongings to the West Garden through eunuchs or the Cheng clan, the nursing mother of the Ling Emperor. Duan Xi, one of the famous "Liangzhou Sanming", also ascended to the throne of the Three Dukes in this way.

Such a person with outstanding military achievements has no choice but to go with the flow, and it is really a person who can't help himself in the rivers and lakes. Duan Xi, a "hero" who had made countless military achievements on the frontier battlefield, joined the crowd and became a lackey of eunuchs and suppressed the patriotic movement of Taixue students. In the dilemma of whether to resist or compromise with the forces that controlled the government at that time, he cowardly chose the latter, which was also something that Duan Xi was criticized by posterity.

Cui Lie was made a superior through the emperor's nursing mother Cheng Shijin to become a superior. On the day of the official appointment, the Ling Emperor personally attended, and hundreds of officials came to attend. Emperor Ling said to his cronies, "I really regret that I didn't adhere to the principle, I could have sold for ten million." Mrs. Cheng, the nursing mother, continued next to her: "Cui Lie is a celebrity in Jizhou, how can he use money to buy officials!" Thanks to my mediation, he is willing to come up with so much, you should be satisfied! "Good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles, this kind of thing spreads particularly quickly, and there is a lot of discussion about Cui Lie's matter, and from then on, Cui Lie's reputation immediately plummeted."

In fact, the nursing mother said a sentence is very correct, cui lie family is very famous in Jizhou. His grandfather was a literary scholar of the same name as Ban Gu, the author of the Book of Han, and also served as the chief of the great general Dou Xian; he was a famous agronomist and literary scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and an official to Wuyuan Taishou.

People talked a lot, and inevitably some words flowed into Cui Lie's ears, and their hearts were definitely not a taste. One day he pretended to be a fake and casually asked his son Cui Jun.

Cui Lie: "When I am the Third Duke, how can the people of the world talk about me?" "

Son: "When my father was young, he had a very good reputation, and he served as a taishou and a court lieutenant, and many people thought that you would be an official to the third duke. On the contrary, after becoming a third duke, everyone thinks that you have a copper smell. "

Cui Lie was annoyed and ashamed, and held up his crutches to beat his son, Cui Jun fled in a daze, and Cui Lie chased after him and scolded.

Cui Lie: "Father fights and runs, is this the way of filial piety?" "

Son: "Shunzi is to his father, the small staff is hit, and the big staff is fleeing, this is not filial piety." "

Cui Lie felt ashamed and stopped. Even my son said this, can you not be ashamed? It was a shame. A person who has lost the moral bottom line has no shame, but Cui Lie has this shame, indicating that he still has some conscience. The subsequent performance is enough to show that Cui Lie's heart and eyes are not bad, but like most ordinary people, he just follows the current.

In April 187, he was made a lieutenant and removed from office in November of the same year. In 190 AD, he was imprisoned for his son Cui Jun's active participation in the crusade against Dong Zhuo and imprisoned in the prison of Youfu Fengguo County. His son Cui Jun was then the Taishou of Xihe Commandery (西河郡) in Renhe Prefecture. In 192 AD, after Dong Zhuo was destroyed, Cui Lie was released from prison as a lieutenant of the city gate, and in June, Dong Zhuo's subordinates Li Dai and Guo Feng led an army to attack Chang'an City, and other officials held the city, and finally could not resist the heroic martyrdom.

Although he lost all his face, he eventually defended his dignity with actions. On the other hand, he was the victim of emperor Han Ling's betrayal of the official Qijue.