The Change of the Great Song Dynasty, 1063-1086
Text/Zhang Jiahong
Zhao Dongmei's "Changes in the Great Song" is based on the 23-year-long history of the Song Dynasty around 1063 to 1086, spanning the four emperors of Song Renzong, Song Yingzong, Song Shenzong, and Song Zhezong, taking Wang Anshi's transformation of the law during the Song Shenzong period as the specific background, taking Sima Guang's political resume as the main clue, always caring for the past and thinking about the future direction of the Song Dynasty with the present.
Compared with Wang Anshi, who was full of vigor at that time, Sima Guang seemed worried. Zhao Dongmei's portrayal of his state of mind can be described as vivid, "he watched as the most beautiful things in the political tradition of the Great Song Dynasty, like the sediment on the banks of the Yellow River, were rapidly draining." This is called "change" also. What good things are missing? Since it is a loss, it can be seen that this "change" is not a sharp and cliff-like one, but a gradual and gradual accumulation of bit by bit.
Counselor Li Chang criticized the Green Shoots Law, and among the criticisms was that "the most excessive, even let an kind and kind people pretend to borrow money, can not get real money, but have to pay two points of interest." Wang Anshi seized on this sentence and asked Li Chang to explain which state and which county had the extreme practices he criticized, and to explain them clearly. However, according to the Song Dynasty system, counselors could "hear things about the situation" and "just correct mistakes, and the words can be said in a relatively vague manner, without having to explain the source of the criticism information." In spite of the old system and the opposition of the ministers, Emperor Shenzong of Song issued an edict ordering Li Chang to analyze. Because of Zheng Xia's relocation case, the Chancellor's Office lost the final approval power and became the emperor's senior secretary. The prime ministers, Wang Jue and Cai Qi, were once fined by Shenzong for minor transgressions, and each time they were fined, they had to go to the palace gate to give thanks. "The prime minister fined the palace gate Xie En, which has never happened since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, and everyone feels ashamed." Zhao Dongmei believes that this is the arrogance of the emperor, which makes an invisible barrier erected around the emperor, "shielding those who are really talented in governing the country and the criticism that is to the point." Song Pengnian, the young secretary of the Taifu Dynasty, suggested that "the senior generals of the forbidden army in the capital should be fully staffed", and Wang Chen, a member of the Water Department, suggested adding a doctorate of "Spring and Autumn" in Taixue, and both were convicted for "overstepping their duties". To prohibit "overstepping one's duties" is to block the mouths of the masses and make officials become unthinking machines. Zhao Dongmei wrote bitterly: "A country with a blocked road and refusing to criticize is like a person with closed eyes, covered ears, running barefoot, and the road ahead is full of thorns and obstacles, can it not be harmed?" ”
The more times the quantity changes, the more qualitative changes will occur. A quantitative change is exactly a detail. The emergence of quantitative changes, when the human body was in the bureau, did not think that it was inevitable. However, the qualitative changes brought about by quantitative changes can be clearly seen by later people. It is these details that are carefully captured by the author that support the thick, unique and vivid "Changes of the Great Song Dynasty".
In the Song Dynasty, imperial power, xiang power, and the supervision power of the advisors were mutually restrained and restrained. In order to limit the monopoly of either party. If the speech power of the counselor is arbitrarily interfered with and controlled by the imperial power and the xiang power, the imperial history will lose its meaning of existence, and its right to criticize the government will become a decoration. It was also a practice in the Song Dynasty to encourage dissenting voices and let people have an open debate on one thing and express their opinions. However, during this period, it was not uncommon for people to be convicted of words. Not only the counselors, but also the officials who have ideas dare not speak out, over time, who will pay attention to the dilemma of the imperial court and the future of the country? "The greatest political secret that Shenzong learned from Wang Anshi was to unify thinking and centralize power." In this way, order is the most important principle from becoming an official. As long as the central orders can be carried out to the letter, it does not matter whether it will harm the interests of the people. The blind flattery of the officialdom has become a habit. If the people are insignificant in the hearts of the hundred officials, such a scene before the imperial court can be imagined.
In Zhao Dongmei's view, it is precisely the many details in these twenty-three years of history that have accumulated into a certain height and depth, changed some of the original systems and examples of the Song Dynasty, and determined the later direction of the Song Dynasty. The most typical is the emperor's monopoly.
The Change of the Great Song Dynasty is written in the Song Dynasty with Sima Guang as the core. In Zhao Dongmei's view, "Sima Guang is a person who is too square, his resume is simple and clean, just like the earth illuminated by the noonday sun, and he can't find a shadow." Morally, Sima Guang can be said to be flawless.
On major issues of principle, proceeding from the angle of maintaining political stability, national peace, and the people's peace of mind, Sima Guang did not give in to any step and contended for every inch of land, and did not hesitate to offend Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi. What he was trying to do was not a high-ranking official, Houlu, but a policy that he believed was correct and beneficial to the country and the people. His opposition to Wang Anshi's change of law does not mean that he is completely conservative. What he insisted on was the immutable spirit of tolerance and dissent, such as the frivolous and meagre decrees that he had once had, and the spirit of tolerance and dissent. He does not deny that reform is necessary, he opposes the indisputable reversal. Faced with the fall of a group of villains against the bookstore for compiling the Zizhi Tongjian, the fifty-five-year-old Sima Guang chose to be patient, "not to wait and wait", not to defend, not to resist, and never to provoke his opponents in any way. According to Huang Tingjian, who later participated in the proofreading work before the printing of the Zizhi Tongjian, he flipped through the hundreds of volumes and saw that Sima Guang's annotations on them were upright in every word, and the so-called "words are like his people." According to the Song Dynasty system, the issuance of feng lu was suspended for 100 days. When the time came, Sima Guang immediately did not receive Feng Lu. But what day was he not at work? Even though the empress dowager personally ordered the normal distribution of Feng Lu, Sima Guang believed that "when you set an example for hundreds of officials, how dare you abolish the character?" "Therefore, it insists on not taking it."
This book can be regarded as a biography of Sima Guang, in which the author truly and vividly reproduces the true state of mind of the eunuch and the compilation of the history book. During his reign, he was honest and outspoken and righteous, he was worried and ambitious when he was in the wilderness, and he devoted himself and waited silently when he compiled the history books. It not only made me change my previous vague and old understanding of Sima Guang, but also gave me a more real and full understanding of the history of the Northern Song Dynasty. Only when people are alive can history be rich and vivid. In addition to the protagonist Sima Guang, Song Shenzong, Wang Anshi, Han Qi, Fan Zhen, Ouyang Xiu, Lü Huiqing, Liu Shu, Lü Gongzhuo, Han Chen, Su Shi, Su Rui and other supporting characters also have different degrees of appearance.
"The text narrative strives to be 'smooth' and smooth, and the selection of content adheres to the basic principle of historiography of 'having a point of material to say a point', and the basis of historical materials and academic discussions are buried in the annotations, so as not to impress the reading experience of ordinary readers." When I read the preface, I did not stop before this sentence. After reading this book, I feel that this statement is true. Reading it, such as reading a storybook, has the flavor of a joke, but it must be based on evidence, typically speaking with historical materials. Strictly observing the way that words must be based, supplemented by necessary imagination, the historical materials are strung together into a river that shines under the sun. History ripples, comes alive, vividly, and fully unfolds in every detail. In short, it is a highly readable scholarly work. Reading this, I can't help but think of Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of The Wanli Calendar" many times. Both books are equally easy to read and readable. This contrast has nothing to do with doctrine, but only out of one's own reading experience.
(The Change of the Great Song Dynasty, 1063-1086, by Zhao Dongmei, Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, June 2020.) ）
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