According to Wang Xijue, this poem was "probably written for the two of us." If this is indeed the case, then it is indeed a bit "too deceptive", especially in the view of Shen Shixing and Shen Yuanfu.
Gao Pragmatic wanted to levy commercial taxes in Jiangnan. Shen Yuanfu was not very angry, let alone angry about it. Why did he become furious after reading a mere poem?
Because this poem just hits the key point of Shen Yuanfu.
However, this poem is not Gao Pragmatic's original work. It comes from two ministers during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty.
During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, a couplet circulated in the capital: "The mediocre Prime Minister Cao, the crying Master Dong." At a glance, ordinary people would think that the superficial meaning of this couplet should refer to Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Because Cao Cao was the prime minister in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and Dong Zhuo also served as an official to the Grand Master. They are all famous figures, especially among the people.
However, in fact, Prime Minister Cao and Taishi Dong in this couplet refer to two important court ministers during the Jiaqing period: Cao Zhenyong and Dong Gao.
Cao Zhenyong was a veteran of the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang dynasties. He had a prosperous official career and was a highly respected official. He reached the rank of bachelor of Wuying Palace and the foreman of the military aircraft minister. He basically reached the pinnacle of Han ministers.
When Cao Zhenyong was an official, he was famous for his six-character secret: "Kowtow more and talk less." Later, he died of illness at the age of 81. After his death, he received the posthumous title of "Wen Zheng" and became one of the only eight "Wen Zheng" in the Qing Dynasty in the past three hundred years.
Dong Gao was an important official of the imperial court during the Qianlong and Jiaqing years, and he reached the rank of bachelor of Wenhua Palace and minister of military aircraft. Since Qianlong, the Baohe Dian Grand Scholar no longer awarded people, and the Wenhua Dian Grand Scholar became the de facto chief minister of the cabinet. Therefore, there is no need to say more about Dong Gao's status at that time.
Dong Gao died of illness at the age of seventy-nine. After his death, he was given the posthumous title "Wen Gong". Emperor Jiaqing came to pay his respects in person and wrote an imperial elegiac poem for him: "Only articles can be passed down to sons and nephews, and no money can be used to buy a farm." This is to praise Dong Gao for his honesty and integrity. Only his articles were handed down, but he did not leave any money to buy the farm.
From this point of view, these should be two very powerful people. So where does the couplet "Mediocre Prime Minister Cao, crying Grand Master Dong" come from? Speaking of which, this was related to the Tianli Sect's attack on the Forbidden City.
In the eighteenth year of Jiaqing, the Tianli sect spread in Zhili and Henan launched uprisings one after another. In September of that year, a group of about 200 Tianli believers was sent by leader Lin Qing to sneak into the capital. With the help of several eunuchs, they invaded the heavily guarded Forbidden City and reached as far as the Long Zongmen.
However, Emperor Jiaqing was not in the Forbidden City at that time, because before that, he happened to visit the Rehe Chengde Summer Resort in the name of hunting.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were not nearly confined to the capital like the emperors of the mid-Ming Dynasty, especially those after Zhengde. They are always running around, and their reasons are varied. The Qing emperors of the Qing Dynasty had always dismissed the excuses used by civil servants in the Ming Dynasty to restrict the emperor's travel, such as huge expenses, backlog of state affairs, intrusion on the people, etc.
Such a major event happened in the capital, and the news came quickly. When Emperor Jiaqing received the news, he was on his way back to the capital from Rehe. When he heard that the capital had undergone tremendous changes, he panicked for a moment and didn't know what the situation was in the capital. He suddenly lost his mind and immediately asked the princes around him. the minister asked.
Many princes and ministers accompanied Emperor Jiaqing to the Chengde Summer Resort in Rehe. Most of them suggested staying temporarily and waiting for the next development of the situation. Only Dong Gaoli asked Emperor Jiaqing to return to the capital: "This is to cause chaos, and the prisoner has arrived!" Dong Gao said that he was so excited that he burst into tears... This level of performance will definitely win a small gold in future generations. People, high pragmatism may not be so good at acting.
So where is Cao Zhenyong at this time?
Jiaqing did not take Cao Zhenyong with him when he visited Chengde Summer Resort in Rehe. Cao Zhenyong stayed in the capital at this time and was responsible for handling important military and political affairs.
However, although this Duke is responsible for handling important military and political affairs, his ability to respond may not be reliable. When a group of Tianli believers suddenly attacked the Forbidden City, Cao Zhenyong was surprised and panicked, and did not come up with effective solutions. Surprisingly, Jiaqing's second son Minning and a group of princes and grandsons were quite calm and rushed out of the upper study with shotguns and waist knives to fight, which bought valuable time for the Qing army to counterattack and avoid greater losses.
Soon, the Qing army put down the uprising of the Tianli believers, and Cao Zhenyong calmed down, and the entire capital returned to peace.
Everyone is well aware of the performance of two important court officials, Cao Zhenyong and Dong Gao, in the uprising of Tianli believers. Therefore, not long after, an unknown person in the capital compiled a couplet to satirize them: "The mediocre Prime Minister Cao, the crying Grand Master Dong."
At that time, Cao Zhenyong served as co-organizer of the University and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Dong Gao was promoted from the University of Wenhua Palace to the position of Crown Prince and Grand Master.
This couplet spread a lot among the government and the public, and finally reached the ears of the two parties involved, Cao Zhenyong and Dong Gao. What’s interesting is that these two people may have been possessed by Li Chunfang, or they may have developed the magical power to do things in front of them, but they were not angry. Instead, they said half self-deprecating and half self-defeating: “It’s not easy to cry at this moment of mediocrity. "
After this incident, if someone saw Dong Gao and called him "Grand Master" in person, Dong Gao would definitely refuse with a smile and say, "It is not good to have a low surname."
This sentence is easy to understand: the reputation of "Master Dong" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is really bad. Who wants to be related to him? Just like the saying "People after the Song Dynasty were ashamed to be named Hui, and I am ashamed to be named Qin when I go to my grave."
It was not until Dong Gao died of illness that he was granted the title of Taifu by the Jin Dynasty, and the saying "Crying Taishi Dong" gradually disappeared. However, the old couplets disappeared and new jokes came out. As Dong Gao and Cao Zhenyong died of illness, another piece of poetry "Yijianmei" came out in the capital, which is the one that appeared in the previous article.
Cao Zhenyong received the posthumous title of "Wen Zheng", and Cao Hao received the posthumous title of "Wen Gong". However, since "Wen Gong" is not as good as "Wen Zhong", Gao pragmatically changed "Wen Gong" in the original text to "Wen Zhong".
This change makes it even more clear that they are deliberately mocking "the two of us" - they are divided into two parts, one is "Wenzheng" and the other is "Wenzhong". It is simply pointing at the nose and mocking.
Shen Shixing was so angry that the practices mentioned in this poem could be blamed on him almost word for word. Especially when he and Wang Xijue both guessed that it was Gao Pragmatic's handwriting, one sentence particularly irritated him.
"The minister is taking care of the economy, don't show off his extraordinary achievements, and don't talk about loyalty."
The "economy" here refers to "managing the world and benefiting the people", which is exactly what a "minister" should do, and the minister is "calm" and measured, which is what Shen Shixing has always done, and he often tells people around him.
There is nothing wrong with the first half of the sentence alone, but the problem lies in the last eight words: Don't show off your miraculous skills, don't talk about loyalty.
In the past two years, Shen Shixing often talked to people intentionally or unintentionally about the principle that "those who are good at fighting have no great achievements." Although Wang Xijue was not in the capital, he was a famous person in the world. He often discussed Taoism with others in Suzhou, and often expressed similar views. .
If the two of them said this just because they were jealous of Gao Pragmatic's "wonderful achievements", then it would actually be a bit unfair. Jealousy is not without it, but it is indeed not all.
The two of them are the pillars of the Psychosomatic School. When Gao Pragmatic repeatedly performs extraordinary feats, they must of course encourage and comfort the officials within their own faction to prevent them from being irritated by Gao Pragmatic. Otherwise, whether they are jealous or even reckless, they will also Or feel ashamed and give up the fight, which is not what they want to see.
It's just an internal talk, and you don't have to take any responsibility, so what does it mean? But Gao Pragmatic's move today put this fact on the table, not only implying that these things were not secret at all, but also making them known to the world.
This is like having an injury in your private parts that you were ashamed to mention, but now it is exposed in public. Is it intolerable?
Even Shen Yuanfu, a prime minister with such a demeanor, couldn't help but cursed "Shu Zi", which shows how cruel he was.
Gao Pragmatic's move, to put it crudely, is like showing off "I control ten women at night" in front of the eunuch. Not to mention it can make people angry to death, it can make the dead person crawl out of the coffin and pretend to be dead.
If you don’t “show no miraculous merits”, you won’t be able to accomplish miraculous feats. To me, accomplishing extraordinary feats is as easy and comfortable as drinking a sip of cold water, but for you it is as difficult as climbing to the sky, so you can only say that the grapes are sour if you can't eat them.
This is not bullying others too much. What is bullying others too much?
Wang Xijue was probably angry yesterday, so he didn't fly into a rage at this moment. He waited for Shen Shixing's angry breathing to subside a little, and then he said, "Yuan Fu endured the humiliation and bore the burden. He has a big plan, and Xijue understands it. However, Once the words are sung, I am afraid that people all over the world will misunderstand them, and especially those who are worried...I am afraid that the younger generation of my school will not be able to understand Yuan Fu's good intentions when they hear them. When the time comes..."
At that time, the foundation will be shaken. Shen Shixing can naturally hear the implication of such simple words. Not only could he hear this meaning, but he could also hear another meaning.
Wang Xijue was dissatisfied with his current "bearing humiliation and bearing the burden", or at least he disagreed with it, but he was the chief minister after all, and he had just recently joined the cabinet, so he didn't want to appear too dominant.
Shen Shixing sighed and asked: "In Yuan Yu's opinion, we can only accept the move this time?"
"Of course!" Wang Xijue's face was extremely solemn: "Yesterday we took a step back, today we take another step back, and tomorrow we take another step back... When will we be able to retreat step by step? In my opinion, the only way is to fight against each other and never give in. , so that the young son of the Gao family can know that I have someone who is willing to learn from me, and I will not give him half of it. In this way, as long as his evil plan does not succeed this time, if he wants to encroach like this in the future, he will have to consider the consequences and think twice."
This statement itself is not unreasonable, and Shen Shixing also agrees. The reason why he does not agree to a head-on confrontation is that he has always been worried about another issue.
The civil service power in Gao Pragmatic's hands is not superior to that of the Xin School, but he still has a helping hand: the nobles and the emperor are on his side.
Honorable nobles usually cannot participate in these national policy issues, so they can be ignored for the time being, but the factor of the emperor cannot be ignored. In fact, this factor is still a decisive factor - as long as the emperor insists, no one can do anything.
Yang Tinghe was so powerful at the time, wasn't he eventually driven home by Shizong to retire? Once the emperor no longer cares about face, the civil servants have no restrictions on him - especially when he has other civil servants available.
It was not Zhang Cong, Gui E and others who were at fault. Shizong might not have been able to do anything to Yang Tinghe back then, but now that there was - and there would definitely be - the emperor still kept his word.
Today's court is not what it was back then. The Shi School has always played the role of Zhang Cong and Gui E, and is far more powerful than Zhang Cong and Gui E. The Xin School wants to imitate Yang Tinghe, but its waist is far inferior. Yang Tinghe hit hard.
Therefore, Shen Shixing is always worried about losses. A fight with Gao Pragmatic seems to be elated. In the battle between the ruling and opposition scholars, there is a high probability that the Xin School will be dominant. But so what? Gao Jingshi launched this Dinghai Jingcha offensive for the emperor. Once he might face failure, the emperor would probably be even more uneasy than himself.
No matter what the outcome of the Beijing investigation is, the final decision rests with the emperor. Do you expect the emperor to choose to cut off his own arm? No need to think about it.
Therefore, even if you listen to Wang Xijue's opinion and have a head-on confrontation with the Reality School, the final result will probably be a loss for the Heart School, whether it is a big loss or a small loss. This is certainly something Shen Shixing, the de facto party leader of the current-centred school, does not want to see.
However, Wang Xijue's words also make sense. It is indeed impossible to retreat step by step. Gao Pragmatic's current aggressive momentum must be curbed. Otherwise, he will be uncontrollable even before he joins the cabinet. What will happen if he joins the cabinet in a few years? Wouldn’t it happen again that the spectacle of cabinet ministers suppressing the chief minister during the high-profile restoration period would happen again?
After wandering and hesitating for a long time, Shen Shixing sat back down and asked Wang Xijue: "Apart from the arrangements that have been made before, does Yuan Yu have any good advice for me?"
Wang Xijue said: "There is no good strategy, and there is no need for a good strategy." He said solemnly: "What we are doing this time does not necessarily mean we will win, nor do we necessarily have to win. As long as we don't give in, the Beijing Chariot will be plunged into huge controversy. Even if the goal is achieved.”
Shen Shixing was a little surprised. After thinking about it, it seemed that his previous words had changed Wang Xijue's view. He no longer insisted on ending the Jingcha quickly and overwhelming Gao Pragmatism in the Jingcha. Instead, he lowered his expectations and just showed the Xin School's unwillingness to give in.
Shen Shixing appreciated Wang Xijue's change, which was also in line with his previous stance of "setting up a monument and setting up a banner for the righteous path of the world. Don't let people with lofty ideals think that their knowledge will be lost and they will have no way to commit themselves to it."
"In that case, let Yuan Yu go ahead and do it." Shen Shixing nodded solemnly: "Your Majesty, I will say whatever I need to say and do whatever I need to do."
Wang Xijue let out a sigh of relief, stood up, bowed his body, and said no more, "Thank you Yuanfu, Xijue is leaving." After that, he turned around and left.
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