In June of the eleventh year (450) of the Eleventh Year (450) of the Taiping Zhenjun of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a prison cart slowly ran over the caishikou of the capital City of Pingcheng. Through the dust that had been raised, the people saw an old man with white hair in his prison cart and said, "Isn't this Situ Cui Hao?" ”
Yes, this death row prisoner was none other than Cui Hao, who was already seventy years old, and Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao personally issued a death order against him.
The elderly Cui Hao was obviously frightened by the terrible scene in front of him, and he was so frightened that he did not say a word. He was escorted to the execution ground, and dozens of Xianbei soldiers unzipped their pants and peed on his body. Cui Hao screamed in fright, and the shouts could be heard by pedestrians outside the stadium. Soon, the shouting stopped abruptly, and a Han courtier who had served the Three Emperors of Joseon had his head rolled to the ground...
Cui Hao was born into the Cui family of Qinghe (清河, in present-day Qinghe, Hebei). As the leading family clan in the north, the Qinghe Cui clan did not move south with the current in the chaos of the late Jin Dynasty, but chose to stay in the north. In order to win over the Han people in the north, after the establishment of the minority regime, they have recruited the children of the clans stranded in the north to join the army. Qinghe Cui's door is high and prestigious, and it is naturally the focus of the "united front target."
Cui Hao's great-grandfather Cui Yue and grandfather Cui Qian served as officials in Later Zhao and Former Yan, respectively. His father, Cui Hong, first served as an official in Former Qin, and after the fall of Former Qin, he was displaced. Cui Hong once intended to defect to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, running all the way south, only to be detained by the rebels at Mount Tai. Later, Cui Hong was appointed by Hou Yan. Tuoba Xianbei rose up and attacked Later Yan's Hebei Prefecture. Cui Hong was serving as the Internal History of Gaoyang at the time, and abandoned his official position and fled after the large army suppressed the territory. Tuoba Jue, hearing of The reputation of the Cui clan of Qinghe, sent cavalry to pursue him, but caught up with Cui Hong and dragged him into Northern Wei as an official.
Cui Hong's experience is simply a history of the tribulations of the northern clan. A life of hardship has taught him a low-key and cautious style. Cui Hong did not make enemies in the Northern Wei court, nor did he cling to the magnates. In his later years, Tuoba Jue often reprimanded the chancellor, but Cui Hong was safe and sound, and finally was awarded the title of Duke of Baima, which had a lot to do with his personality.
Cui Hao is the son of Cui Hong, the Duke of White Horse. He had not experienced the ordeal of his father and had grown up in a relatively stable environment. Cui Hao read a lot of books from an early age, liked literature, and entered the army at the age of twenty, becoming an official at Tuoba Jue's side. After Tuoba Jue's death, Tuoba Si, who had ascended the throne, trusted him and gave him the title of WuChengzi, often asking him to teach him the scriptures for himself. Cui Hao was favored and was able to travel with Tuoba Si in the same car and participate in military secrets, which made the Xianbei nobles envious. When Tuoba Tao was made crown prince, the eldest grandsons, Xi Jin, and An Tong were left assistants, and Cui Hao, Mu Guan, and Qiu Dui were the right bows. Except for Cui Hao, these six auxiliary ministers were all humble nobles. After Tuoba Si's death, Cui Hao was soon ostracized by the Xianbei nobles and removed from his post. However, in the process of handling administration and conquest, Tuoba Tao increasingly felt the need for a minister who was proficient in the Han system and good at planning, and he could not do without Cui Hao. Cui Hao gave Tuoba Tao many good ideas on attacking Rouran, destroying Bactria, conquering Hexi, and dealing with relations with the Southern Dynasty. The Northern Wei Dynasty imitated the Han etiquette system, and Cui Hao also played an important role. The Book of Wei says: "Imperial court etiquette, Youwen Ce edict, military state record, all about Hao." "It seems that gold shines everywhere.
Once, Tuoba Tao received hundreds of Gaoche chieftains who had returned, pointed at Cui Hao, and said, "Look at him, he is thin, he can't open his bow, he can't lift a gun, but he has a belly full of armor soldiers." These victorious battles have all been credited to his guidance. Tuoba Tao also ordered all shangshu to have a military plan that could not be decided, and to ask Cui Hao first, and then implement it. In addition to his trust in governing the country, Tuoba Tao was also very close to Cui Hao in life. From time to time, he went to Cui Hao's house to ask questions, and did not say hello beforehand. In a hurry, Cui Hao could only entertain the emperor with home-cooked food. Tuoba Tao didn't care at all, and he ate happily every time. Similarly, Cui Hao was allowed to enter any part of the palace, including Tuoba Tao's bedroom.
The emperor trusted his ministers to such an extent, which was rare in ancient and modern times. Then, since Cui Hao held the power of the imperial court, and Tuoba Tao was extremely close to him, how could he be beheaded and shown to the public?
This has to be said from the two aspects of the serious ethnic antagonism in the Northern Wei Dynasty at that time and Cui Hao's flamboyant and upright style.
When Tuoba Tao destroyed the Buddha, the person who instigated him to order the destruction of the Buddha was Cui Hao, who was the official to Situ.
In doing so, Cui Hao has both the "public will" to eliminate the expanding Buddhist forces and increase the wealth of the country, as well as the "selfish heart." He himself was a firm believer in Taoism and had a close relationship with Kou Qianzhi, the leader of Northern Taoism at that time, and also introduced Kou Qianzhi to Tuoba Tao. At that time, the Northern Wei Dynasty went up to the prince and the secretary of state, down to the ordinary humble people, and there were countless Buddhist believers. Because Buddhism was introduced to the Central Plains during the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was long regarded as Hu religion. The Xianbei people consider themselves to be Hu people, and since they are Hu people, they should believe in Hu religion. Cui Hao had a fondness for Taoism, which was native to the Central Plains, and was determined to destroy the Buddha. After the rise of the wave of exterminating Buddhism, a large number of Xianbei nobles were unwilling, and they did not dare to oppose Tuoba Tao, so they aimed the spearhead of the attack at Cui Hao.
In fact, Kou Qianzhi had reminded Cui Hao that his high-profile and determined destruction of the Buddha would offend many people. Cui Hao just wouldn't listen. He grew up in the family of an official eunuch, did not experience the tribulations of his father's generation, and after entering the army, he basically had a smooth sailing, and did not know the truth of being a vigilant politician, on the contrary, he knew everything, said everything, did things vigorously, and rarely paid attention to the ideas of his colleagues. Coupled with the harmonious relationship between the monarch and the subject, the official position is long, and the two major shortcomings in Cui Hao's heart are magnified: one is the high profile and vanity of the reader, and the other is the sense of superiority of the children of the family. Let's take a look at how these factors fermented and eventually sent Cui Hao to the guillotine.
The Taiyuan Wang clan was a first-class clan in the north alongside the Cui clan of Qinghe, and crossed south in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty. In the last year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Huilong, a disciple of the Taiyuan Wang clan, returned from Jiangnan to the north. Cui Hao's younger brother envied Wang Jia mendi and wanted to marry his daughter to him. Some people suspected that Wang Huilong was not a member of the Wang family, and Cui Hao, who was proficient in genealogy, personally went to verify it, and when he saw Wang Huilong's prominent nose, he immediately smiled and said, "This is the real Wang family, it must be a noble species." "It turns out that the Taiyuan Wang clan has a physiological characteristic, and the generations have been out of the rosacea. After Passing Cui Hao's "appraisal", Wang Huilong was respected by the officials and people in the north. Cui Hao also repeatedly praised Wang Huilong for his handsome appearance to the xianbei princes in the court. He did not know that it was a taboo to praise the descendants of the Han people in the Northern Wei court established by the Xianbei people. Sure enough, Situ Sun Song was very unhappy to hear this, and ran to complain to Tuoba Tao, saying that Wang Huilong was just a general who had escaped from the south, and Cui Hao praised the southerners for "dwarfing the motherland" and "contemptuous of Xianbei". Tuoba Tao was furious and summoned Cui Hao to a scolding. Cui Hao quickly took off his hat and prostrated his head, self-criticizing for a long time before calming Tuoba Tao's anger.
Self-blame and self-blame, Cui Hao did not really realize his mistake from the bottom of his heart, and soon returned to his old ways.
In the fourth year of shendi (431), northern Wei recruited a group of han clan descendants to serve as officials. Fanyang Luxuan, Boling Cui, Bohai Gaoyun, Taiyuan Zhang Wei and so on all responded positively to Pingcheng. Cui Hao wanted to "rectify the flow of goods and distinguish the surnames", and planned that the imperial court would come forward to divide the rank of the clans, as a criterion for selecting officials, and there was a point to restore the taste of the Nine Pins in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. This plan was obviously beneficial to the Han clan to take power, but Lu Xuan (Fanyang Lu), who was also from the clan and was a relative of Cui Hao, advised him: "The reform of the system depends on whether the time is ripe." How could the Xianbei people, who were already in power, easily give way to the Han people? Cui Hao did not listen to it, and publicly proposed this plan, and further proposed the division of the feudal towns, hoping to restore the princely system in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Of course, in Cui Hao's mind, most of the princes who split the land and sealed the land to various places were the descendants of the Han clan. The Xianbei magnates naturally resented such a policy: Isn't this to seize our power and let the Han people take power?
When Tuoba Tao was in the northern liang, the crown prince Tuoba Huang stayed in the prison state. Cui Hao was pampered and arrogant, and he was arrogant and arrogant, and offended the prince thoroughly. More seriously, Cui Hao recommended dozens of Han chinese people from Ji, Ding, Xiang, You, and various prefectures to be appointed as county guards. Crown Prince Tuoba Huang disagreed, saying that the appointment of officials should come step by step, and could not be promoted to Taishou immediately, and that there were still many outstanding talents in the imperial court waiting to be appointed. It should be said that Tuoba Huang's opinion is reasonable. However, Cui Hao was stubborn and insisted on doing as he pleased, which offended more humble officials. Gao Yun, the attendant of the Zhongshu, saw the situation and said to Dr. Guan Tian of the Eastern Palace: "Cui Gong is afraid that he will not die well, he will not admit his mistakes in death, and he will also confront his superiors, so how can there be no accidents!" ”
All the dissatisfaction and contradictions eventually broke out when Cui Hao presided over the revision of the history of the Northern Wei state.
Until the time of Emperor Taiwu, the Xianbei people and the Northern Wei Dynasty did not have their own history books. Therefore, Tuoba Tao asked Cui Hao to preside over the revision of the history of the country as a Situ, with the assistance of Gao Yun, the Zhongshu Waiter Lang, zhang Wei, and others. This is a major event in the ideological and cultural field, and Tuoba Tao attaches great importance to it, and specially summons the members of the revision team to a meeting and says: The history of the country must be well written and must be "recorded according to the facts." Cui Hao understood this requirement as seeking truth from facts, so he collected the information of the Xianbei people, and did not shy away from it, and compiled the National History of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the National Record, which involved the historical facts of the killing, brutality and cruelty of the Xianbei ancestors, and the chaotic relationship between men and women.
Cui Hao did this, there was nothing wrong with it. After all, Tuoba Tao demanded "actual records", and the purpose of the revision of national history was to leave accurate information and educate future generations of rulers, which was regarded as "internal reference reading". If the content is filtered clean and sings praises, what is the internal reference? At this time, the vanity and bravado of the literati in Cui Hao's body were exposed, and he did not limit the "National Record" to internal reference reading, but publicized it, so he made an unforgivable mistake.
Here's the thing: Shi Minzhan and Xi Biao, who were involved in the revision work, wanted to pat Cui Hao's ass, so they suggested that the "National Chronicle" be engraved on a stone stele to publicize this cultural event. Also engraved were the Five Classics annotated by Cui Hao. Previously, Cui Hao had annotated books such as the Book of Poetry, the Book of Shang, Spring and Autumn, the Book of Rites, and the Zhou Yi. In addition to his daily opportunities, he spent only three years to complete the annotation of so many "academic books", and the quality of the books can be imagined. Min Zhan and Xi Biao cleverly raised Cui Hao's rough quality works to a high level, saying that the Five Classics annotated by Confucian scholars before were not as high as Cui Hao's works, and not only should these works be engraved together with the Guoji, but also the book suggested collecting the old notes on the Five Classics in the Northern Wei Dynasty, with Cui Hao's annotations as the standard.
Gao Yun knew and was worried. He told Lang Zongqin: "I am afraid that the suggestions of Min Zhan and Xi Biao will cause disasters to the Cui family, and we will also suffer." ”
However, Cui Hao was dazed, and unexpectedly accepted all the horses of Min Zhan and Xi Biao, and ordered the "National Record" to be engraved.
Soon, a forest of steles appeared three miles east of the Temple of Heaven in Pingcheng. The entire stele forest is one hundred and thirty steps in circumference, engraved with the "National Record" and the "Five Classics" annotated by Cui Hao, and it took three million people to complete it, which is worthy of a huge "cultural event".
Trouble came right away! If the "National Chronicle" is only circulated in a small area, even if a small number of humble and powerful people are dissatisfied with the content of the straight book, they will not find an excuse to attack Cui Hao, after all, Cui Hao recorded the facts. But now, Cui Hao exposed the objective but disgraceful early history of Xianbei to the public, and he did not shy away from it, which attracted a lot of discussion from onlookers. The Xianbei nobles found an excuse to attack Cui Hao.
A large number of humble nobles were furious—they were indeed very angry, and they went to Tuoba Tao to complain one after another, accusing Cui Hao of deliberately "violently promoting national evil." Tuoba Tao did not expect Cui Hao to swell to such a point that he had privately published "internal readings" on the Tongqu Square. He was also furious and quickly ordered the arrest of Choi Ho and his secretary Lang and examined for their guilt.
Tuoba Tao was very angry, and the situation was very serious.
Gao Yun, who had always disapproved of Choi Hao's approach, was also involved in the revision of the National Record, and his name was also on the blacklist to be arrested and investigated. Prince Takumi is a student of Gao Yun and is determined to save him. Tuoba Tao was angry, Tuoba Huang did not dare to intercede for the teacher, so he summoned Gao Yun into the palace to protect him, and the next morning took him to see Tuoba Tao. Along the way, Tuoba Huang instructed Gao Yun: "For a while, no matter what Your Majesty asks, the teacher can only continue according to my words." Gao Yun did not know and asked, "What the hell happened?" Tuoba Huang couldn't say two words clearly, but just pulled Gao Yun to see Tuoba Tao. Tuoba Huang preemptively said: "Zhongshu Waiter Gao Yun is in the palace, cautious, although he is colleague with Cui Hao, but everything is decided by Cui Hao." Please spare his life. Tuoba Tao summoned Gao Yun to the front and asked, "Was the Chronicle of the Nation written by Cui Hao alone?" Gao Yun realistically explained the division of labor among the people, and frankly admitted that he had compiled more than Cui Hao. Tuoba shook his eyes and stared at him in a hurry, but Gao Yun was not moved, and did not shy away from telling the truth. Sure enough, Tuoba Tao was furious and said, "In this way, your crime is worse than Cui Hao's, how can I spare your life!" Tuoba Huang hurriedly covered up for Gao Yun: "Gao Yun's status is low, and he was already frightened when he saw His Majesty, and all he said was nonsense." Erchen asked carefully, and the "National Record" was written by Cui Hao alone. Tuoba Tao asked Gao Yun again, "Is this indeed the case?" Gao Yun frankly said something: "The subjects are poor in learning, and His Majesty has not abandoned them, and has entrusted him with the heavy task of compiling and revising the history of the country." However, in the process of revision of history, the crime should be exterminated. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince once taught him and wanted to save my life, but in fact he did not ask the minister about the history of cultivation beforehand. The minister is telling the truth and does not dare to lie. After listening to him finish, Tuoba shook his eyes and thought: It's over! No, Tuoba Tao admired Gao Yun's honesty and frankness, and spared him from punishment.
Cui Hao was not as lucky as Gao Yun. Cui Hao was taken into the palace and severely interrogated. He was a scholar, old and rare, and he was already trembling with fear, and he couldn't even speak clearly, let alone defend himself. The humble nobles in charge of the trial naturally convicted him heavily.
Tuoba Tao got the final case file, and the grumpy man was furious again, ordering Gao Yun to draft an edict to exterminate all the one hundred and twenty-eight people involved in the revision of history—most of them were Han clans. After Gao Yun was commanded, his heart was like a knife, and he could not write a word for a long time. The pen in his hand can affect the lives of thousands of people in dozens of clans in the north! The eunuch came several times to urge the edict, but Gao Yun really couldn't bear it, so he asked to see Tuoba Tao and write it later. Seeing Tuoba Tao, Gao Yun said, "If Cui Hao commits other crimes, the minister will not know." In terms of violating taboos alone, Cui Hao's sin does not lead to death. Tuoba Tao was furious and ordered the samurai to pull Gao Yun down and behead him. It was the prince Tuoba who was beside him who pleaded in every way, and even knelt down and prostrated his head to beg for Gao Yun's forgiveness. Tuoba Tao slowly suppressed his anger, felt that the condemnation was indeed too heavy, and agreed to pardon most of the people's people and punish only the criminal himself. Tuoba Tao pointed at Gao Yun and said to the crown prince, "If this person had not provoked the fire, thousands of people would have died." ”
Gao Yun not only escaped the ghost gate once again, but also saved many people. He finally lived to be ninety-eight years old before he died, a rare long-lived old man in ancient times.
Cui Hao was eventually killed for the crime of "violently promoting national evil" in Xiu Shi. In addition to the Qinghe Cui clan and the officials involved in the revision of history, there were also the Fanyang Lu clan, the Taiyuan Guo clan, and the Hedong Liu clan who were related to the Qinghe Cui clan. Cui Hao had tried his best to strengthen the power of the Han clan in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but now this force was bloodily slaughtered.
Because of the large number of people implicated in Cui Hao's case, the Northern Han clan was terrified, and many people suspected that the Northern Wei court used Cui Hao's Xiushi case to suppress the Han forces. In addition, some people think that Cui Hao is "in Cao Ying's heart in Han", but in fact, he has been deliberately seeking benefits for the Han people, and was discovered by Tuoba Tao before he beheaded him through the matter of repairing history. Others unearthed evidence of Cui Hao's conspiracy to recover. For example, in the second year of Shenrui (415), a famine occurred in the Northern Wei capital of Pingcheng, and some people suggested moving the capital to Yicheng, where grain production was stable. Cui Hao objected on the pretext that the Xianbei people were easy to go to Hebei and were unsatisfied, and there were diseases, deaths, and injuries, and on the pretext that Yecheng was far from the northern border, and if Bactria and Rouran invaded and rescued difficulties, they insisted on fixing the capital Pingcheng. Did he not want the Xianbei barbarians to settle in the land of China? For example, when Liu Yu was in the Northern Expedition to Qin, Cui Hao vigorously opposed northern Wei sending troops to attack the Han army, and fully supported the Northern Wei crusade against other ethnic minorities, but as long as it involved the Southern Expedition or the fight against the Han army, Cui Hao always opposed it. Of course, such an explanation is more colorful. It is said that Cui Hao was a Han spy hidden deep within the Northern Wei Dynasty, and there is a lack of ironclad evidence.
On the contrary, Cui Hao was outstanding in the institutional construction of the Northern Wei unified north and the Northern Wei court, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was the founding father of the Northern Wei. Soon after the execution of Cui Hao, Tuoba Tao regretted it and lamented that Cui Hao "died a pity".
Cui Hao can be said to be the last historical official in China who dared to write the history of the country in a straight line, and the historians after him wrote history books for themselves and their families' names in the attitude of "keeping secrets for His Holiness", and none of them dared to record the emperor and his affairs according to the facts.