Chapter 568 Introspection
The teaching time has passed, Deng Guangjian gave up, but Zhao Bing gave up the gift, but he did not move after giving it. Although today's coursework has not been completed, he felt that today's gains are much more practical than those boring preaching. Deng Guangjian currently lacks practical experience, but his theoretical knowledge is extremely rich. He thought that he could change the teaching method in the future. The two of them discussed each other more interestingly than simple preaching, and they could benefit from it.
Looking back on the conversation between the two just now, Zhao Bing also had a headache. In fact, when he was on the boat, he had the plan to rectify the court, because with the current state of the court, let alone restoring the country, it was a problem whether he could survive the enemy's counterattack. But acting rashly would inevitably cause panic, so he needed an opportunity to make everyone realize that it had reached a point where it was necessary to change, so that the resistance could be reduced.
The series of events in Xing Chaosheng at this moment seem like a *******, but Zhao Bing knew that crises often contain good opportunities. Even if he matured in crises, the group grew step by step. He originally wanted to start the plan after he came back, but the situation in the court was not optimistic for him. Deng Guangjian made another move to resign and retire. On the surface, it was just that he was not in harmony with his colleagues, but in fact, it showed that the court officials were deliberately excluding him and wanted to force him to leave him.
According to the usual circumstances, Deng Guangjian was one of the emperor's teachers, who was called the emperor's confidant, and his words and deeds could affect the emperor. Even if the court officials did not rush to curry favor, they should not alienate or exclude him. But they were risking their bad intentions at the moment, but some people thought they were blocking the way or were worried that their conspiracy would be exposed, so they did not want to stay in the court. This also indirectly shows that there were still people in the court who were muddying the waters, hoping to make profits from it.
While this aroused Zhao Bing's vigilance, it also made him reflect on his next steps. Wang Anshi's noble character was not only recognized by most people, but also admired by his political enemies. But why was it considered by the world that he appointed treacherous and slandered the good atmosphere of the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, corrupted the court's principles, and led the Song Dynasty to decline, and was responsible for the fall of the Song Dynasty?
Zhao Bing thought that it was a bit unfair to all the blame on Wang Anshi, but he was indeed responsible for it. The party struggles in the Song Dynasty were flourishing during the Xining reform. Wang Anshi was eager to implement the new policy, and did not hesitate to crack down on dissidents and expel all those who opposed the new law from the North. His radical approach allowed many speculators to see opportunities. They seized the opportunity to vote for Wang Anshi's preferences and were able to promote rocket-like promotion in a very short time. Cai Jing, who had been in chaos for 40 years, was one of them.
But the good times did not last long. After the rebellion of Song Shenzong passed away, his mother, Empress Dowager Gao, ruled the country from behind and quickly dismissed Wang Anshi. Sima Guang, the minister who had been idle for fifteen years, recalled the new Xining law. After Sima Guang came to power, he drastically abolished the new law of Xining. Ministers supported the abolition of Qingmiao, Baojia, Baoma, all-loss, and other laws that harmed the interests of the people, but had different views on individual laws. Some ministers believed that the law of exemption from service was beneficial to the people than the law of service implemented before the reform, and suggested that they be retained temporarily.
Sima Guang stubbornly ordered that the exemption law must be abolished within five days. This greatly hurt his friends Fan Chunren, Su Shi and others. Cai Jing, who was the prefect of Kaifeng at that time, seized this good opportunity to show himself and miraculously abolished the exemption law of more than ten counties in the prefectures within five days. After hearing this, Sima Guang loudly praised: "If every official can execute the government orders as firmly as Cai Jing, what old laws cannot be eliminated?"
In Sima Guang's eyes, the cunning and fickle Cai Jing suddenly became the most policy-level official. In fact, only Cai Jing knew best that the best way to deal with a gentleman like Sima Guang is to fuel his wrong decisions. In today's words, if you want to "left", I am even "left" than you. The magic weapon of "will rather left than right" was very skilled at that time when Cai Jing was very skilled. His coming to power not only drove the upright gentleman out of the court, but also brought the Song Dynasty into a state of doom and abandoned half of the country.
In addition, in Zhao Bing's view, Deng Guangjian, a figure who caused great changes in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, did not mention it, and he dared not say it. But he knew that the "culprit" was the emperors of the Song Dynasty. If Emperor Shenzong had not been the backstage and had not received his support or acquiesced, how could Wang Anshi dismiss Sima Guang, Su Shi and other opposition groups? If he had not been eager to achieve success and vigorously promoted the new law, Wang Anshi would not have been so radical, which led to party struggles and appointed speculators such as Cai Jing, Lu Huiqing, Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu or those who had lost their character.
Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Jia Sidao, and even Chen Yizhong are highly valued, which is also related to the emperors of all dynasties' desire for pleasure, cowardice or debauchery, and gives powerful officials the opportunity to promote "ill" officials. Therefore, it is not difficult to see whether officials are punished or not is the key to the emperor. If the emperor is extravagant and does not care about national affairs, and even does not hesitate to raise tigers to become troubles, and exhausts the world's financial resources to satisfy endless selfish desires, the officials' ** will have a foundation. Whether it is a collapsed method or an official promotion is an inevitable trend.
In addition, neglecting moral cultivation and simple economic supremacy, objectively forming the enjoyment tendency of "everyone looks at money" is also an important factor in inducing layers of temptation. Before the Emperor Shenzong's reign, Zhenzong encouraged officials to establish the concept of integrity from a moral level. He promulgated the "Seven Articles of Civil Affairs" and "Seven Articles of Military Affairs", emphasizing that "cleaning the mind" and "self-cultivation" are the foundation of integrity.
After Renzong ascended the throne, he set an example and strictly disciplined himself every private banquet, but only about ten boxes of common cooked food. An official presented a box of twenty-eight clams to Renzong in order to please the emperor. Renzong asked how much these things were worth. The official replied: "Each one thousand coins are each." Renzong was very unhappy and said: "I always warn you not to be extravagant. Now that you can get a chopstick, I really don't dare to enjoy it." Then he stopped chopsticks and refused to eat this item. Later generations said that there were no villains in the dynasty, but they were not enough to defeat the good. The compassion of the king and his ministers and loyal policies were based on the foundation for the Song Dynasty for more than 300 years.
Chapter completed!