In the fifth year of the Celebration Calendar (1045 AD), the Northern Song Dynasty Kyoto Kaifeng, looking through the annals, this year is commonplace, and nothing has happened to excite the whole people throughout the year. Just when people were suddenly lost, a heavy news suddenly came from the Daqing Hall, completely breaking the life of the Northern Song Dynasty, which had been lifeless for a long time.
For a time, on the streets, between taverns, in inns, in the palace, as long as there are people, you can hear the discussion of this news, it can be said that it is definitely the first headline of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Why can this incident have such a great influence, to the extent of street knowledge, because the "male protagonist" of this news is Ouyang Xiu, the secretary of the emperor, the leader of the literary world, and the grandmaster of the kaitan, and the "female protagonist" is his nephew and daughter-in-law Zhang Shi.
Portrait of Ouyang Xiu
In fact, Ouyang Xiu and the Zhang clan were not related by blood, but were in-laws. Ouyang Xiu had a sister, married to Zhang Guizheng, who had recently lost his wife, and unfortunately, within a few years, Zhang Guizheng died of illness.
Zhang Guizheng had a daughter with his ex-wife, and after Zhang Guizheng died, she became the stepdaughter of Ouyang Xiu's sister. Ouyang Xiu couldn't bear to look at his sister's orphans and widows, living a miserable life, so he took over to live with himself.
When Zhang was 15 years old, he married her to his nephew Ouyang Sheng, and after the marriage, she was still harmonious. Once Ouyang Sheng's concubine had an adulterous affair with Gong Gong, she was discovered and was preparing to punish, and the concubine did not know what spell she used, but she actually pulled Zhang Shi into the water and also had an affair with Gong Gong. After that, the vices are hard to change.
5 years later, Ouyang Sheng returned to Beijing to report for duty, but Zhang Shi did not obey the way of women, and had an affair with his servant Chen Zhi, and was discovered by Ouyang Sheng, so he sued him to the Kaifeng court, and the court arrested Zhang Shi.
At that time, there was no distinction between politics and law, and it was learned by Yang Riyan, the then mayor of Kaifeng City. Coincidentally, Yang Riyan and Ouyang Xiu had an old vendetta. Because Ouyang Xiu had impeached Yang Riyan for corrupting the law, although there may be no solid evidence later, because Yang Riyan did not receive a severe punishment, he and Ouyang Xiu's "Liangzi" were concluded.
When Yang Riyan learned of Zhang's relationship with Ouyang Xiu and his "uncle and nephew", he showed a sly smile and wanted to make a big fuss about it. At that time, the "New Deal for Celebrating the Calendar" implemented by Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others failed, and the leading people were degraded one after another, and Fan Zhongyan was Ouyang Xiu's super idol, who definitely supported the new law, the old party gained power, and Ouyang Xiu was also excluded at this time in the DPRK.
In particular, the counselor Qian Mingyi hated Ouyang Xiu even more, and Qian Mingyi's and Ouyang Xiu's festival was not only because of the different positions of the party struggle, but also because of Ouyang Xiu's "History of the New Five Dynasties" written by Ouyang Xiu, scolding his family's ancestors.
Ouyang Xiu degraded the Wu Yue State Qian clan of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to worthless, completely negating the main political merits of the Wu Yue State Qian clan and leaving them with a reputation for thousands of years. Ouyang Xiu is like this, he praises to the people he likes to death, and scolds the people he hates to death, offending many people.
The advisor Qian Mingyi was a descendant of the Qian clan of Wu Yueguo, so he was eager to peel and cramp Ouyang Xiu. Yang Riyan knew this relationship very well, so he told Qian Mingyi about the case, the two conspired, Qian Mingyi was in the dark, Yang Riyan was in the ming, forcing Zhang Shi to involve Ouyang Xiu, falsely saying that it was his uncle Ouyang Xiu who had an affair with him, not the servant Chen Zhi. In this way, Ou Gong was unconsciously involved in this lawsuit.
Ouyang Xiu was a close minister of Emperor Renzong at that time, and was the most trusted secretary, who was deeply favored by Emperor Renzong, and if he wanted to completely attack Ouyang Xiu, he had to pass the emperor's pass.
The case naturally reached the emperor's ears, and Emperor Renzong was convinced of Ouyang Xiu and firmly believed that Ou Gong would not do such a thing. Qian Mingyi and others were not convinced, so they searched around for evidence, and finally found an old poem written by Ouyang Xiu in his early years: "Jiangnan Liu, Ye Xiao is not shaded." The man is light and the silk is folded, and the warbler is too tender to groan. Leave it to the depths of spring. Fourteen and five, idle to find the pipa. Walk down the stairs of the hall and pay attention when you meet each other. Not to mention today. ”
Yang Riyan and others insisted on taking a seat, believing that this was the "yan word" written by Ouyang Xiu to Zhang. Emperor Renzong was helpless, seeing that he could not force this matter, so he had no choice but to let the court respond to the lawsuit, let the judge Su An Shi Chongzu court, and sent a close attendant Wang Zhaoming to supervise to correct the situation.
Wang Zhaoming read Su Anshi's case closure report, was stunned, felt that the evidence was insufficient, and only by relying on Zhang's one-sided words and an ordinary "beautiful word" describing "Lolita Girl", how could he cure the great sin of public morality in Ou? Ou Gong was a big red man by the emperor's side.
When Su Anshi heard this, he felt that his words were reasonable and did not dare to branch out of prison. In the end, Ouyang Xiu's "peach color incident" came to an end. However, it led to the guilt of Ouyang Xiu's suspected misappropriation of Zhang's property.
According to the laws of the Northern Song Dynasty, daughters also had the right to inherit. The part of the property inherited by the daughter is generally called "inheritance" and is used for dowry.
Before Zhang Guizheng died, he left this part of the property to his daughter Zhang Shi, because zhang shi was still young at that time, and this part of the property was temporarily kept by Ouyang Xiu's sister, and after Ouyang Xiu took them, he took this part of the property to buy the field, and the owner of the property rights of the field was his sister.
Although Ouyang Xiu's crime of adultery with his nephew and daughter-in-law was not established, the crime of embezzling other people's property was conclusively evidenced, so he was demoted to Chuzhou, Anhui, and it was at this time that Ouyang Xiu wrote the famous "Drunken Pavilion Record" in Chuzhou.
After that, he once again realized that the eunuch sea was sinking and floating, like walking on thin ice. A trivial matter in life is enough to make political enemies use as a handle, push themselves into the abyss, and even worry about their lives. After the age of 38, Ouyang Xiu's heart for Shitu Gongming began to slowly fade.
Sending love to the landscape is just a catharsis of a moment's emotions, and it is also another way to understand life. It is not advisable to forget the form when you are proud, and you should not fall into your heart when you are frustrated. Life in the world, unsatisfactory things nine times out of ten, clouds light and light, the sea and the sky, why not care about the mountains and rivers?
Author: We invite the author Hebei Renzi