【Six Ministers Carrying the Coffin 2】
These six people have different personalities. Except for carrying the coffin of the Tang Dynasty this time, it is difficult to accurately summarize them with the same label. However, history is fair and ruthless, and the label "Tang Dynasty coffin bearer" is enough.
In the "New History of the Five Dynasties" compiled by Ouyang Xiu, these six people were specially compiled into one volume - "The Biography of Six Officials of the Tang Dynasty". In it, Ouyang Xiu bluntly expressed his point of view: There will be no gentleman after the fall of the Tang Dynasty!
"When the Tang Dynasty fell, the wise men and gentlemen perished with it, while the rest were cowardly, dangerous, cunning, profit-seeking and traitorous people."
This may sound a little extreme, but this is Xiu Ye's character. He is a sweet-tempered, sentimental, steely straight man. This is what makes Xiu Ye so generous and lovely as a relocation poet. When we hold the scroll in hand and read these words, we can imagine this picture: Ouyang Xiu was furious and said to the six ministers carrying the coffin: "Please don't get me wrong, I am not targeting anyone, I mean, everyone here (finger pointing) China maps) are all rubbish!
Anyone who was still alive in the fourth year of Tianyou's reign in the Tang Dynasty (907) was a bastard, and all the good people were dead.
The "good people" in Xiu Ye's mouth refer to the scholars who died in the "Three Luoyang Tragedies" represented by the "Baimayi Disaster", such as Pei Shu, Cui Yuan, Dugu Sun, etc.
Xiu Ye pointed out that although Pei Shu and others were unable to continue their lives for the Tang Dynasty, they would never "exile the Tang Dynasty and survive alone", and would rather die in the Tang Dynasty than live in an ignoble existence.
There are several stories related to the "Six Ministers", which can show the image of the "Six Ministers" in the minds of future generations.
Qiu Yuan, a poet of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote:
"The name is not included in the biography of the Six Ministers, but the appearance is worthy of the biography of the Nine Elders."
This is a birthday poem. At that time, the great poet just celebrated his 70th birthday, and Qiu Yuan sent him a poem as a gift. The first half of the sentence uses the allusion "Liuchen", and the second half uses the allusion "Nine Lao" to echo.
There are five interpretations of "Six Ministers":
1. Six ministers who discussed medicine with the Yellow Emperor in ancient times, including Qi Bo, the main participant in the "Huang Di Nei Jing", the "ancestor of traditional Chinese medicine" and the "medical sage";
2. Six ministers of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, including the famous minister Yi Yin who assisted Shang Tang;
3. The sixth rebel ministers in the early Han Dynasty, including Han Xin;
4. Six ministers of the Tang Dynasty who annotated "Selected Works".
"Selected Works" is the earliest existing collection of poems and essays in my country. It was jointly compiled by literati organized by the eldest son of Emperor Wu of Liang during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It contains more than 700 poems and essays by more than 130 authors over about 800 years since the Zhou Dynasty. The selection of materials is rigorous and pays attention to rhetoric. Most of the works selected are elegant works, basically classics handed down from generation to generation. After all, they are spearheaded by the prince, created by the palace, and of royal quality, so they are worth owning.
Since its inception, it has been regarded as a literature textbook by literati and a required reading subject, and has been circulated for more than a thousand years.
When the great poet Du Fu's youngest son celebrated his birthday, Du Fu once wrote a poem as a gift to him as a lesson. In the poem, there is a line: "If you are familiar with the selected literary theory, you will not look for colorful clothes." Du Fu warned his son to read "Selected Works" thoroughly and carefully, and not to do anything improper that would make a fool of himself!
Lu You, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, also had a proverb in his works that "a poor literary anthology is only half a scholar" which has been passed down to future generations.
"Selected Works" is indisputably a monument in the history of literature.
Li Shan, Lu Yanji and other six people in the Tang Dynasty wrote annotations for "Selected Works", that is, "Six Ministers' Annotations on Selected Works", which is the most representative and longest-lasting annotation among the many versions of "Selected Works".
5. The six sycophants in the late Tang Dynasty, the "professional team" mentioned above.
So which allusion is borrowed from "Six Ministers" in "The Legend of Liuchen whose names are not included", and how should it be explained?
The birthday boy who was given the poem, Fang Hui, insisted that he was the "six ministers who carried the coffin". He believed that Qiu Yuan was slandering himself, comparing himself to the likes of Liu Can and Xue Yiju, and calling himself a treacherous minister.
Fang Hui said to the people around him: "He said that I was one of the six traitors in the late Tang Dynasty. Didn't he imply that the current emperor is Zhu Wen? How dare you call the emperor Zhu Wen? How brave!" So he went to sue the official and wanted to kill him. Qiu Yuan.
There are many more stories about Fang Hui, which have nothing to do with this book and will not be expanded upon. Let’s just talk about the “birthday poem incident”.
If we have to take the quote out of context and just focus on "The Biography of the Six Ministers whose names are not included", Qiu Yuan is indeed hard to argue with. But as long as you have a little knowledge of poetry, you will combine the second half of the sentence and use rhetorical techniques such as duality, antithesis, and intertext to deduce the true meaning of the entire sentence.
There is another allusion here - "Nine Elders", which refers to nine historical celebrities headed by Bai Juyi, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi had a bumpy official career and was demoted many times. He retired to Xiangshan in his later years and was known as "Xiangshan Jushi". He often visited Xiangshan Temple with literati and poets, climbed high to overlook, recited poems and composed poems, and cultivated his sentiments. People at the time respectfully called them the "Nine Elders of Xiangshan". In order to commemorate them, later generations built the "Nine-Lao Pavilion" in Xiangshan Temple. There are sculptures of the Nine-Lao Zun in the pavilion, and Xiangshan Temple has therefore become a holy place for literati.
Fang Hui is also a poet, so it is obvious that Qiu Yuan is singing a hymn to Fang Hui. The meaning of this poem is to praise that his level is comparable to that of the six ministers who annotated "Selected Works", and that he is comparable to Bai Juyi and other "Nine Elders of Xiangshan". ” Same thing.
But for some unknown reason, Fang Hui took it out of context and insisted that Qiu Yuan was using the "six ministers who carried the coffin" to mock the emperor and wanted to sue the officials and kill him.
Maybe...there is naked hatred only between peers.
Fang Hui's friends came to stop him one after another. If he couldn't stop him, he would have to kill him. There was something wrong with him morally!
At this time, Qiu Yuan found a friend, Hou Zhengqing.
Hou Zhengqing came to visit and inquired about Fang Hui, saying that I heard that Xiaoqiu had offended you recently. Why? Is it because they are rising stars and non-mainstream, which makes mainstream veterans like you lose face?
Fang Hui smiled coldly, "This man has moral problems. I want to go against the three customs. He dares to compare the current emperor to Zhu Wen and is seeking death!"
Hou Zhengqing asked for the poem that was used as evidence, read it, and said with a smile: "Xiao Qiu only mentioned 'six ministers', and did not mention the current emperor, let alone Zhu Wen. Comparing the emperor to Zhu Wen, this It’s you who said it.”
Fang Hui's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly grabbed the evidence and tore it into pieces, "You were just joking with him, don't take it seriously." From then on, he did not dare to bring the matter to court again.
The "birthday poem incident" was settled in this way, and Qiu Yuan's poem was lost as a result, leaving only the sentence "The name is not included in the biography of six ministers, but the appearance is worthy of being passed down to the stele of nine elders".
Although the author Qiu Yuan did not intend to use the allusion of "six ministers carrying the coffin", Fang Hui became furious when he heard "six ministers", thinking that he had been greatly insulted. The contempt and scorn of "Chen". You are only six ministers, and your whole family is six ministers!
There is another little story:
Gu Yanwu, a great scholar in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, said in his poem "Wang Guan Valley":
"Considering those six ministers, they are as shameful as those with crowns and clothes."
The era when Gu Yanwu lived was the period when the Ming Dynasty fell and the Manchus entered the customs. Gu Yanwu devoted himself to studying how to save the country and wrote books such as "A Book of Benefits and Diseases for the Counties and Countries of the World". Before the book was completed, the Ming Dynasty fell and the Qing army went south. His mother went on a hunger strike and died for the country. She left a suicide note, ordering Gu Yanwu not to be a Manchu official.
Gu Yanwu was the enemy of his country and his family, and actively devoted himself to the great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. After the failure, he began a long escape career. During this period, almost all the gifts Gu Yanwu carried were books. read more, walk more.
Gu Yanwu was knowledgeable, but he adhered to his ancestor's orders and swore not to serve as a Manchu official. In the thirteenth year of Kangxi's reign, his friends recommended him to become an official. He wrote back: "I have the sword and the rope, so I die soon!"
The following year, the imperial court decided to compile the history of the Ming Dynasty and once again invited him to go out to compile the history of the Ming Dynasty. Gu Yanwu sternly refused, saying, "What does a seventy-year-old man ask for? He deserves death. If he must be forced to do so, he will die with his own life."
He refused to die again and again, and his loyalty and integrity made even the rulers of the Qing Dynasty admire him.
Comrade Gu Yanwu looked through history and read this period of history in the late Tang Dynasty. It was easy to resonate with him. Combining the actual situation and his own beliefs, he naturally splashed ink and shouted from the bottom of his heart: "Look at the six ministers, shame and crown." Shang Lie".
As a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, it is a great shame and humiliation to strive to be an official of the Qing Dynasty without saving the Ming Dynasty! This is the same as the "Six Ministers Carrying the Coffin", a bunch of dressed-up beasts!
Two short stories are enough to illustrate the historical image of "six ministers carrying the coffin".
Regardless of whether the "six ministers carrying the coffin" were willing or forced, in short, the six of them will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history forever, reviled forever and infamy for thousands of years.
