Around the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, Qing tan became a fashion.
What is "clear talk"? Formally, it resembles today's salons and debates. In terms of content, it mainly revolves around the metaphysical issues in Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi and Zhou Yi, such as whether the fundamental of the world is "have" or "nothing"; whether "dreams at night" are because "day has thoughts"; whether language can fully express meaning... In short, it is an elegant activity that makes people "unaware of the calendar".
It is said that the Qing talk itself is not a bad thing, but in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, when there were internal and external troubles, this wind of Qing Talk became more and more flavorful. A group of court stalwarts led by Wang Yan, when they should have saved their lives, relied on "clean talk" to deceive the world and avoid the truth, and finally extinguished the last bit of hope of the Western Jin Dynasty. And Wang Yan, the leader of the Qingtan, was also charged with the crime of "talking about the wrong country".
National male god Wind and dust foreign objects
Wang Yan was once a national male god who dominated the Weibo hot search list.
He came from the famous Langya Wang clan, and since childhood he was brilliant and eloquent. When he was 14 years old, his father, the general of Pingbei, often had official affairs to be submitted to the Beijing Division, but he was unable to get a reply in time, so he sent someone to explain the situation to Yang Hu, the prime minister, and ask for a reply. In the face of the high-powered prime minister of the country, the young Wang Yan's expression was clear and clear, and his expression was not humble or profane, and everyone present was amazed.
Wang Yanmin was studious, proficient in Lao Zhuang, and good at expression, so in that era when Qing Talk was prevalent, he quickly became famous and became a generation of Qing Talk leaders. In addition, Wang Yan was handsome in appearance, and according to the "New Sayings of the World", he was white and beautiful, personable, and "among the people, like pearls and jade among the tiles", the national male god deserved it.
In addition to his life, talent and appearance, he was praised by the world, and his noble character was also highly respected by the times. He was enthusiastic about charity and generous in spreading money, and in order to show his disdain for money, he also restrained himself and never mentioned the word "money". In order to test him, his wife filled his bed with coins. Wang Yan woke up in the morning and could not get out of bed, but in his impatience, he did not forget the "rules", shouting "Lift but block!" (Later, "A block" also became another name for money)
Wang Rong, one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest", called him many times, praised him as a "foreign object of wind and dust", and said that he "did not see his comparison in the world, and was asked for among the ancients".
Avoiding the truth is the three caves of the cunning rabbit
In 273 AD, when the Liaodong War was in turmoil, the 17-year-old Wang Yan was recommended as the Taishou of Liaodong because of his outstanding eloquence and proficiency in the art of vertical and horizontal. But Wang Yan did not take office, and from then on, he never asked about the world again, and sat all day to discuss the Tao. When his cousin Yang Jun wanted to marry his daughter to him, he said that he was ashamed of it, and pretended to be crazy and stupid, and finally escaped. Later, with his family lineage and fame, he soared in the DPRK, and young people across the country rushed to imitate him.
However, people only saw Wang Yan's side. In fact, he has another side, that is, a delicate and self-interested speculator who avoids the real and the virtual.
In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the political situation was turbulent, and Wang Yan had already laid out many retreats for himself——
He had several daughters, one married Jia Mo, a nephew of Jia Nanfeng, one married to Sima Song, the crown prince, and one married Pei Xiao, the brother-in-law of Sima Yue, the king of the Eastern Sea. While returning to the crown prince, while forging a party, he did not forget to win over the powerful Sima Zong' relatives. Through his daughter's marriage, Wang Yan bought multiple insurances for himself, even if the royal family fought against the sky, he could turn the danger into a disaster.
Although several of Wang Yan's brothers also regarded themselves as celebrities, each one of them had military power and wealth. Wang Yan appointed his brother Wang Cheng as the Assassin of Jingzhou and his brother Wang Dun as the Assassin of Qingzhou, and revealed his intentions to the two: "Jingzhou has the solidity of Jianghan, Qingzhou has the danger of bearing the sea, you two have heavy troops to control the two places, I stay in Luoyang in the middle to respond, it can be described as the three caves of cunning rabbits." At the same time, he also sent another brother, Wang Dao, to assist Sima Rui, the king of Langya, out of the town of Jianye. In the complicated rebellion of the Eight Kings, the brothers traveled around the forces of all sides, and they were at ease, and one by one they soared.
In the midst of the chaos, these backbones of the court are not thinking about how to rectify the chaos and save the people, but how to deceive the world and steal their names and retreat from the whole body, which is really regrettable. The Western Jin Dynasty became more and more torn under their corrosion.
Selling out the country and seeking glory
At a time when the imperial family of the Western Jin Dynasty was fighting endlessly, the northern nomads had quietly risen, and the country was soon caught in internal and external troubles. In March 311, Sima Yue, the last king of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, died in fear. The crowd elected Wang Yan, the commander of the Taifu Army.
In view of the turbulence of the situation, Wang Yan was afraid to be afraid, and he resigned: "When I was young, I had no intention of becoming an official, and with my family lineage and seniority, I gradually reached this position. Today's stakes are high, so how can an inappropriate person take over as commander-in-chief?" Someone asked rhetorically, "You are the first soldier in the world, who dares to take over if you don't take over?" ”
Wang Yan could not shirk it, so he had to take office.
In April, the Hu leader Shi Le led an army to break the Jin army. Wang Yan led an army of 100,000 to be taken prisoner of Shi Le.
Shi Le was born a slave and had little reading, so he admired the famous men. He asked Wang Yan to sit down and humbly asked the reasons for the rise and fall of the Jin Dynasty.
Wang Yan has been rolling over the sea for decades, going through three dynasties, holding important positions all over the place, and is as precious as a family treasure to the dprk. Moreover, talking is his best skill, so as soon as the conversation box is opened, it will be gushing endlessly. However, when it came to the gains and losses of the Jin Dynasty, he began to excuse himself, saying that he had no intention of participating in the affairs of the world since he was young, he only wanted to do some learning, and he was forced to come out as an official, and the mistakes of the Western Jin Dynasty had nothing to do with himself... Finally, in order to curry favor with Shi Le, he took the initiative to persuade Shi Le to claim the title of emperor.
Shi Le was furious and said, "Your reputation has spread all over the world, you are in a prominent position, you were used by the imperial court when you were young, until you had white hair, how can you say that you did not participate in the affairs of the imperial court?" The great chaos in the Jin Dynasty is precisely because people like you are used. Shi Le was furious and pushed the wall to crush him to death.
The death of the Western Jin Dynasty was naturally not the fault of Wang Yan alone, but it is undeniable that the Qingtan faction represented by Wang Yan acted as a catalyst for the collapse of the dynasty.
Before wang Yan died, he left a lament: "Although I am inferior to the ancients, if I had not pursued vanity and worked hard to do things for the world, I would not have reached today's point." This dying confession has also become the best footnote for Wang Yan to "talk about the wrong country".
There are many criticisms of the scourge of qing talks--the Book of Jin says, "There was a Jin Dynasty from the Middle Dynasty, up to Jiangzuo, Mo Bu revered Hua Jing, Zu Shu Xuanxuan, so that the charter was abolished, the famous religion was decadent, the Five Hu competed with each other, and the Erjing followed by the fall of Xu." The "Zizhi Tongjian" Hu SanSheng Note also said: "The scourge of Qing Talk, up to Yongjia, Liu and Jiangzuo, is still not yet there." Gu Yanwu, a thinker of the Qing Dynasty, distilled "talking about the wrong country" into "empty talk about the wrong country"...
In the final analysis, what they criticize is a kind of exaggeration that sits and talks and does not do practical things.
Talking about life and talking about ideals is important, and it is beautiful to look at the stars and see the moon, but don't forget that what can really change your destiny is to "roll up your sleeves and work hard"!