When it comes to Ouyang Xiu, the most impressive thing left on people is the image of Wenhao, but what is less known is that on the other side of Wenhao, there is also the image of the first bar of the Great Song Dynasty.
In the history of the Song Dynasty, Bao Zheng was just and righteous, and when it came to the ability to intimidate people, he was far inferior to Ouyang Xiu. And Ouyang Xiu, with his sharp pen, rich knowledge, and outstanding talent, has always been invincible in the government and the opposition, and has always been afraid of not agreeing with a word. From the official household chores to the gossip of the officials, once they are spoken by him, few people can be overwhelmed. The literary heroes who can scare people and raise the bar can only make people breathtaking. In today's parlance, Ouyang Xiu was a "king of poisonous tongues", with a knife mouth, angry and unpaid, which made countless colleagues hate him to the bone, fortunately, Song Renzong tolerated him leniently. Even, in the process of intimidating people, killing eight hundred enemies and losing a thousand, pitting himself and his teammates, so he wrote "The Tale of the Drunken Pavilion" when he degraded the official. How Ouyang Xiu became the first bar of the Great Song Dynasty, and look at the three people he feared below.
Yan Shu was a representative of the Song Dynasty's gentle faction, a great politician, an official to the prime minister, famous as a prodigy when he was a child, and then naturally passed the examination for the jinshi, and then went all the way up the clouds, promoted, promoted, promoted... When it comes to the prime minister, there are no troughs, no ups and downs, no setbacks in life, no legendary experience, only peace and wealth, and his life is the most suitable for programming into film and television dramas, only suitable for adaptation into game upgrades.
Although his life was smooth, Yan Shu's personality was not arrogant, nor jealous of Xian's ability, but very gentle, and he was an old and good man, and the "History of Song" commented on him: "He is like a thick and tolerant person, he is particularly happy to recommend characters, he is happy and tireless, and the people of Fang are particularly the best." In 1130, Ouyang Xiu participated in the scientific expedition, sang fourteen, ranked second and first, and the chief examiner Yan Shu later recalled: Ouyang Xiu failed to win the championship, mainly because the sharp edge was exposed, so he wanted to frustrate his vigor and promote his talent. Yan Shu's love for Ouyang Xiu's fists and fists was evident, but Ouyang Xiu said something to Yan Shushi, and beat Old Yan's small face.
In the first year of The reign of Emperor Renzong of Song (1040), Yan Shu became a privy councillor in charge of military work, when Fan Zhong drowned in the northwestern frontier to fight against Western Xia. In the winter of that year, Yan Shu set up a banquet, enjoyed with everyone, and also invited Ouyang Xiu, but Ouyang Xiu was not very happy, and then wrote a poem on the spot, "Yan Taiwei West Garden He Xue Song": "The master and the country are in solidarity, but the joy will be abundant." Mercy must be on the iron armor cold to the bone, more than 400,000 tun border soldiers. The gist of the poem is that we cannot patronize ourselves here for our own pleasure, but also take into account the hardships of the frontier soldiers. At a good wine banquet, such a poem appears, how can the guests and hosts have fun? Yan Shu thought that Ouyang Xiu punched his face in public, and was very angry, and from then on he "blacked out" Ouyang Xiu, who could not speak.
Ouyang Xiu's superior, using the allusion of Kou Zhun's degraded official, gently advised him to restrain himself a little and not to talk all day long, so that he would be degraded, but Ouyang Xiu replied that Kou Zhun's degraded official had little to do with feasting and drinking, but he did not know how to retire when he was old. Ouyang Xiu's words left his elderly boss speechless.
In the third year of the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song (1043), when Yan Shu was serving as chancellor and privy councillor, he took the initiative to recommend Ouyang Xiu to Emperor Renzong of Song as an advisor, but unexpectedly led to further tension between the two. At that time, Western Xia refused to be a vassal and was greedy, Yan Shu advocated compromise and concessions, and appeased Western Xia, Ouyang Xiu believed that his arrogance should be suppressed, and his words were so fierce that Yan Shu "suffered from his (Ouyang Xiu)'s discussion of things and was troublesome, or his face was folded", and yan Shu could not step down many times, and finally Yan Shu could not bear it and insisted on transferring Ouyang Xiu outward.
All in all, Ouyang Xiu and his teacher Yan Shu are at odds, the reason is first, the personality is incompatible, Ouyang Xiu's temperament is straightforward, Yan Shu is sleek and sophisticated, and the second is that there is a disagreement in political opinions, Ouyang Xiu is determined to forge ahead, and Yan Shu Mingzhe protects himself. But no matter what, Yan Shu was always Ouyang Xiu's teacher, and he punched the teacher's face in public and lifted the teacher's bar, which was really shocking. Of course, this pair of teachers and students met many times after that, and Yan Shu often invited Ouyang Xiu when he invited guests to dinner, and the two did not turn against each other.
Ouyang Xiu's "Drunken Pavilion" we have all read in middle school, but few people know the story behind the article, in fact, Ouyang Xiu pit a group of Qingli old ministers.
In order to solve the "three redundancies" of redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses, Song Renzong carried out a reform during the calendar year, with Fan Zhongyan as the leader of the reform, and Han Qi, Fu Bi, Du Yan, Ouyang Xiu, and others formed a leading group for innovation, preparing to reform the maladministration of the Song Dynasty, known in history as the "Qingli New Deal." Among them, Ouyang Xiu was appointed as the Right Yanzheng and worked in the Imperial Household (collectively known as the TaiZhi) as the mouthpiece of the state.
Any reform will more or less touch the interests of others, and the reform of Fan Zhongyan and others naturally makes many people unhappy, so for a time there was a quarrel inside and outside the imperial court, and the struggle between the reformists and the conservatives was in a state of stalemate. As the officials of the Court who escorted the New Deal, they naturally wanted to shout for the New Deal, but as soon as Ouyang Xiu struck, he immediately shook the earth, and the enemies and friends who exploded were all scorched outside and tender inside. At that time, the conservatives accused the reformists of forming gangs, which was a sinister accusation, because Song Renzong hated the ministers to form a party, and he also deliberately issued an edict of "guarding against the party", and the ancient emperors did not want the ministers to form a party. However, in response to the accusations of the opposition, Ouyang Xiu wrote a masterpiece of rebuttals, "The Theory of The Friends Party", saying that the friends party has existed since ancient times, "gentlemen and gentlemen are friends with the same way, and villains and villains are friends with the same interests", we are the party of gentlemen and friends, and you are selfish and selfish little people and friends.
As a result, it is conceivable that after the reformers lost the support of Song Renzong, they were defeated, the members retreated and were degraded, and a vigorous reform ended in vain. Of course, "The Theory of Friends and Parties" is a rare majestic article, and it was later included in the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi", that is, the timing of its appearance was not good, and it was too bad.
When Fan Zhongyan and Du Yan were degraded, Bao Zheng was still relatively silent, while Ouyang Xiu wrote "On Du Yan Fan Zhongyan and Other Strikes", openly defending the reformists. When Gao Ruoner slandered Fan Zhongyun, he wrote another "Letter of Advice with Gao Si", angrily pointing out: Usually, you "are silent, wait for his self-defeat, and then follow it", "it is the foot that no longer knows that there is shame in the world"!
Ouyang Xiu did pit the reformists, but he did support the reformers, and it can only be said that in this process, Ouyang Xiu's political emotional intelligence was not high and too spontaneous.
It is worth mentioning that after experiencing this fierce partisan struggle, Song Renzong had a lingering feeling in his heart and did not dare to mention the reform from then on.
Ouyang Xiu is a pure minister, Bao Zheng is also a pure minister, the two feel sorry for each other, the age difference is only 8 years, so it is logical to become a close friend. Once, when Bao Zheng recommended others, the other person committed an offense, and even the sponsor Bao Zheng was demoted to an official in a foreign country. Ouyang Xiu, who learned of this, immediately wrote to Song Renzong after Bao Zheng made some meritorious deeds, bluntly saying that Bao Zheng was extremely talented and just and upright, and let him return to the DPRK without any harm. Later, Bao Zheng went to Song Renzong's "On Taking Soldiers", proposing that "the source of chaos is to seek the best and get the best of them", and suggested that Song Renzong strictly test the Yin supplement officials and eliminate the unqualified ones. Bao Zheng's suggestion caused a sensation in the government and the public, because the Yin supplementary officials were the way for the children of the magnates to become officials, and Bao Zheng wanted to cut off the official path of the magnates, so he became a thorn in their eyes and a thorn in their flesh. This kind of thing is not easy to handle, it is easy to offend people, and few of the important ministers in the DPRK directly support Bao Zheng, but at this time, Ouyang Xiu came out of the horse, clearly supported Bao Zheng, and even accused Song Renzong of refusing to accept it in person, that he was "refusing to be loyal, sheltering foolish officials, and being tired of holiness."
However, don't look at Ouyang Xiu who supported Bao Zheng's many proposals, but when he was fierce, he shook Bao Zheng to a terrible end.
In the fourth year of Jiayou (1059), Zhang Fangping, who had not been serving as the third envoy (like the Ministry of Finance) for a long time, was rumored to have used his power to buy other people's real estate at a low price, so Bao Zheng, who was the inspector of imperial history, proposed a harsh impeachment, accusing Zhang Fangping of losing his shame and not being suitable for a high position. After Zhang Fangping left his post, Song Qi served as the third envoy, but he took office for less than 20 days, Bao Zheng wrote to Song Qi too many banquets, extravagant and wasteful, did not understand financial management, and Song Qi's brother Song Qi served as the deputy prime minister, and Song Qi was not suitable for serving as the third envoy. Song Renzong considered it again and again, because Bao Zheng served as an official of the Transfer Department, and had served as a governor of the prefecture and county for a long time, and had rich financial experience and political achievements, so he appointed Bao Zheng as the third envoy, and Bao Zheng immediately took office.
Bao Zheng's attitude made Ouyang Xiu very unhappy, so he was discouraged. Ouyang Xiu believed that Bao Zheng had deliberately brought down the two of them so that he could be promoted to the rank of Three Envoys, so he wrote a letter to Bao Zheng in the Book of Removing the Three Envoys, accusing Bao Zheng of "taking two ministers one by one and assuming his own position" as an act of robbing cattle from Qitian. The so-called cattle snatching in the fields is that the people who cultivate the fields rob the cattle because other people's cattle trample on their own fields, indicating that the crime is light and severe, and they seek profits from it. Ouyang Xiu also said that Bao Zheng was "a fierce hand to probe objects, mouth cloud does not want, although he wants to be confident, who believes in it?!" This so-called suspicion is inevitable", which is equivalent to the popular "lips say no, the body is very honest".
The famous courtiers of the Song Dynasty still had a certain degree of discipline, and in the face of Ouyang Xiu's arrogance, Bao Zheng could only remain silent and evade the appointment of the three envoys, and finally Song Renzong still insisted on appointing Bao Zheng after considering it again.
This is the famous Qitian cattle grabbing, and it is also the only black spot in Bao Zheng's life, and the creator is Ouyang Xiu.
Regarding Ouyang's ability to cultivate people, the "Biography of Song Shi Ouyang Xiu" said in a sentence: "The cultivation of things is straight, people regard it as an enemy, and the emperor alone rewards him for his courage." No matter how good the relationship with Ouyang Xiu was, as long as Ouyang Xiu was discouraged, he would almost vomit three liters of blood, so that "people regard it as a vendetta", only Song Renzong could bear it. In the history of the Song Dynasty, the only one who could do this was Ouyang Xiu, not even the famous Bao Zheng.
Of course, in Ouyang Xiu's career, he accidentally injured many people and things, the most painful of which was the tragedy of Di Qing. But no matter what, the Ouyang Xiu of the bar is more cute than the Ouyang Xiu of wenhao.
References: History of the Song Dynasty, etc