◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Organizer of Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences
There are academic ideas EXPLORATION AND FREE VIEWS
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
The atmosphere is majestic, showing the wind and clouds of the late Northern Song Dynasty
Colorful pen and ink, engraving complex historical giants
"Cai Jing's Ups and Downs"
Author: Chen Xingeng
Writers Press
March 2022
Cai Jing is a rare and peculiar figure in Chinese history, who served as the prime minister of the late Northern Song Dynasty for more than 18 years, and was a major minister who had a major impact on the political, economic and artistic development of the late Northern Song Dynasty, but because of the "difficulty of Jing Kang", he was criticized and scolded, and Zhang Juzheng, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, even denounced Cai Jing as the head of the "Six Thieves" in his book "Emperor Jian Tu shu". Cai Jing is also a recognized calligrapher in the history of Chinese art, and Mr. Qi Gong gave a high evaluation in the final sentence of the book, believing that his calligraphy achievements were "the pioneer of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty". How to evaluate the "Cai Jing New Deal" implemented by Cai Jing after Wang Anshi in the late Northern Song Dynasty is also an academic problem that needs to be studied in depth.
For a long time, Cai Jing's labeled and facial image of "traitor" has existed in various historical books. The author of this book has extensive history books, hooked and explored the shadows, picked up gold in the sand, fully absorbed the latest research results of the historical circles, placed Cai Jing in a complex and vast historical context, and tried to objectively and subtly present the complex political ecology of the change of imperial power and the struggle between friends and parties in the late Northern Song Dynasty, as well as the rich and diverse personality elements of Cai Jing and his people, analyze their multi-dimensional and multi-faceted spiritual maps, and return the original appearance of historical figures to give more mirrors and thinking to today's people.
Chen Xingeng, a native of Hai'an City, Jiangsu Province, now lives in Shanghai. He once served as the deputy director of the reporter department of the People's Liberation Army Daily, the president and editor-in-chief of the Literary Daily. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a director of the China Reportage Literature Society, a director of the Shanghai Writers Association, and a visiting professor of Shanghai University. He is the author of more than 10 novella collections such as "Lonely Island", short and medium-length reportage collections "Youth Station", "Icebergs Under the Sea", long-form reportage "Click on Future War", "Awakening on the Ruins", "Red Tragedy", "Memoirs of thieves", cultural criticism essay collection "Fast Talk Collection", "Who is the Culprit of Murder Literature", "Each Hit Fifty Big Boards", "Beauty Like a Jade Sword Like a Rainbow", etc. His works have been included in the Military Literature Department since the founding of New China. He has won various journalism and literature awards. In recent years, he has devoted himself to the writing of non-fiction works of literature and history, and has published a long biography of historical and cultural celebrities, "Sword Soul Rhyme: Gong Zizhen Biography", a collection of historical and cultural essays "He Talks About Elegance", and "Cai Jing's Sinking and Floating" as the third historical biography.
During the reign of Zhenghe, Emperor Huizong of Song instructed Wang Ximeng, who was only eighteen years old, to paint a picture of a thousand miles of rivers and mountains, which was given to Cai Jing. Cai Jingbaozhi: "Zhenghe three years leap April 1, Xi Meng was eighteen years old, used to be a disciple in painting, summoned into the forbidden Chinese library, a number of paintings, did not work, knew that its nature can be taught, so he taught it, personally taught his law." Not more than half a year old, but in this way. Shangjiazhi, because of the gift of subjects. Kyo said that the world's corporal was just doing it. ”
—— "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" Cai Jing inscription
Qi Gong gave a high evaluation to the calligraphy achievements of Cai Jing, Cai Bian and Mi Fu: "The pen posture jing bian is as clean as possible, and the Jin Dynasty is proud of Song Xian. A thought of yun mud judging virtue and art, so he called Po Gu to pass it on to people. Note: "In the Northern Song Dynasty, Cai Xiang, Ouyang Xiu, and Liu Chang were one, inherited but not developed." Su and Huang were one and the same, refusing to accept the old cage, and making a big new idea without violating the ancient law. Ercai is a case, the posture is gathered and scattered in the opening, and the pen is seen in the vigor, and the posture is fully spoken in the law, which is actually called a giant among the Song people. ”
——Qi Gong,"On the Hundred Absolute Sentences of the Book"
Why write Cai Jing
In "The Face of the Novel", Foster divides the character image of the novel into two categories: one is "flat character", with distinctive characteristics and easy to identify; the other is "round character", with a diverse personality and difficult to identify. This book is not a novel, and Cai Jing is not a fictional character, he is a real "this one" in history. So, to borrow Foster's classification, does Cai Jing belong to the former, or does it belong to the latter?
In my opinion, he is a composite of the two. Its characteristics are so simple that they can be summed up in one sentence; their complexity may not be clearly described even if you write a book. Therefore, I dare not say that this "Cai Jing Ups and Downs" has fully presented the richness and complexity of Cai Jing and his people.
When writing "Cai Jing's Ups and Downs", I always think of Stephen Zweig's "Portrait of a Political Figure". In his early years, I read this book and his other influential collection of historical nonfiction works, When the Stars of Humanity Shine. Portrait depicts a controversial politician, Joseph Foucher, who was active in French politics from the 18th to the 19th centuries.
However, choosing to take the ups and downs of Cai Jingshi's eunuchs as a clue and present the political ecology of the late Northern Song Dynasty at the same time, in order to write a book, is not because of the trigger of Zweig's works, but in recent years, when he continued to read the relevant historical books of the Song Dynasty, he suddenly burst out of his brain. I think that Cai Jing is too intriguing to chew, and so far there is no informative non-fiction text describing this person's image, which makes people sigh. In the collection of historical materials, although I found several texts about Cai Jing published a few years ago, I was disappointed after reading them. Its novelization, facialization, and simplification make this kind of text neither the tension of pure fiction narrative and the texture of language, nor the rigor and reliability of historical facts—wandering in the fictional and non-fiction gray areas of non-donkey and non-horse, which is exactly what I do not like.
Since I couldn't find the ideal text, I also gained a little confidence in my writing.
Cai Jing, a historical figure, is obviously not of interest to the current writers - he is not a great man who can become a model of the times. Most writers disdain to paint a portrait of a controversial figure who seems to have been firmly nailed to the column of historical shame. This person has irreplaceable cognitive value and literary research value in ancient and modern times, and every Chinese can find his own shadow from him. In your cells, it's hard to clear the genes he inherits. This has nothing to do with the family, region, or era environment in which you were born, but with a deep-rooted cultural soil.
Cai Jingqi and Zweig's Joseph Foucher have many striking similarities.
Zweig described it in Portrait of a Political Figure: "Joseph Foucher, one of the most powerful figures of his time and one of the most peculiar figures in history; his contemporaries lacked affection for him, and later generations were even more unfair to him." All parties and historians, as soon as his name is mentioned, vent their hatred to the end of their pens: "a natural traitor, a despicable schemer, a slippery reptile, a master of the seller's glory, a shameless and vulgar spy, a morally depraved clown..." But almost no one has seriously examined his personality. Zweig said: "Purely out of interest in the science of mind, I wrote the story of Joseph Foucher very suddenly as a contribution to the biology of the Kwon sorcerer. The Magician is an extremely dangerous spiritual race in the world in which we live that has not yet been fully studied..."
The simple analogy between Cai Jing and Fu Xie obviously ignores the uniqueness and complexity of their respective differences. Chinese historians and literati always like to label and faceted characters, such as non-"loyal" or "adulterous", non-"gentleman" or "villain". In fact, in the long corridor of history, no number of famous and prominent figures can distinguish the two as clearly as the Chu River Han Realm. Cai Jing's complexity lies in the fact that he is both "adulterous" and "male". I understand "rape" and "male" as two separate words. He can embody "adultery" to the extreme, beyond ordinary "adultery"; he can also exert "male" to the extreme, beyond the ordinary "male". This "xiong" can also be interpreted twice: there is both the meaning of "the extreme of adultery" and the meaning of "xionghao". His "adultery" may have only hastened the fall of a dynasty. In the long river of time, the harm was very short; his "male" may have been passed on by posterity, and it continues endlessly, and we still enjoy his wisdom and creation. For example, he built nursing homes (for the elderly, widows, the poor and sick), Anjifang (medical clinics), Leaky Zeyuan (burial cemeteries for the poor), xingnu, medicine, calligraphy and painting, in this regard, it can be said that he has expanded and extended Wang Anshi's transformation method, and his innovations in these fields may be greater than those of some of the great heroes that we often talk about. There is also his art of calligraphy, which also occupies an indelible place in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Cai Jing's most criticized crime is, of course, a heavy blow to the political enemy YuanYou, so that they no longer have the opportunity to turn over. But this party's act of fighting against differences did not start with Cai Jing. It was precisely the Yuanyou party members who listed the first list of the Qing Party in the late Northern Song Dynasty after YuanYou's victory; it was also when they implemented the Yuanyou reformation that they deposed Cai Qing, the most core figure of the law-changing faction at that time, to Lingnan Xinzhou, and set a precedent for the Northern Song Dynasty to demote the zaifu-level ministers to the land of Lingnan Miasma. The New Party had tortured Su Shi by fabricating the "Wutai Poetry Case" with poetry, while the Yuanyou Party members fabricated a more outrageous "Che Gai Ting Poetry Case" and deported Cai Qing to Lingnan Xinzhou, resulting in Cai Qike's death and exile. From this work, we can see that in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the methods of fighting between friends and parties became more and more cruel and despicable, and both sides had a relationship that could not be escaped. From this, we can also see that chinese literati are more "hateful", more "fierce", more "deceitful", more "poisonous", and more "black" than each other because of the struggle for interests, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. It was in this environment of mutual vicious fighting that Cai Jing became a sinner and adulterer who was hated by the world and scolded by the ages. To hold the party accountable for the crime of fighting each other, how can Cai Jing be allowed to carry it on his shoulders? In the vicious struggle between the New Party and the Yuanyou Party, the reason why later generations gave more compassion to the Yuanyou Party members was because there were several famous and famous great people among the Yuanyou Party, such as Su Dongpo, who was born with poetry, and Sima Guang, who was immortal in the historical work "Zizhi Tongjian". In addition, the "Jingkang Difficulty" has humiliated everyone in the New Party (not only Cai Jing), and even sage-level capable subjects such as Wang Anshi have been "villainized" for thousands of years. But from a political point of view, it is difficult to argue between the two factions. The Shangfa faction has a clear political stand, while the Yuanyou party members lack the backbone that can really govern the country and manage its finances.
Therefore, it is necessary for us to carefully examine the traces of historical figures in the fog-filled and complex historical context, so that we can draw a little more objective and fair conclusions. Is it a very valuable thing for the author to use a book to make a dialysis of the spiritual map for such a strange and complex historical figure, and to water a statue cast in iron for him? Let him stand on the side of the thoroughfare in his costume, his eyes wide open, and look at every pedestrian. Let the wind and rain blow, let the world spit and scold, let the naughty boy climb, let its rust crawl all over the vines...
But he does not fall easily, he has a super anti-lodging ability.
His eyes can be wide open in the face of the hot sunlight.
Here I would like to give special thanks to two contemporary Song historians who have never met so far: first, Dr. Yang Xiaomin, her "Research on the Political Situation of Cai Jing, Cai Bian and the Late Northern Song Dynasty" provided me with the original guidance and historical clues for my interpretation of Cai Jingqi, and the second is Dr. Zeng Li, whose "Cai Jing Chronology" is an essential reference for my desk when writing Cai Jing. It can also be said that without these two academic works, this "Cai Jing Sinks and Downs" would not have been born. Without the basic research they have done, even if the author sits on the cold bench for many years, he may not be able to write the current "Cai Jing Sinks and Downs". Of course, there are many ancient and modern historians who need to be thanked, and the sources of historical materials are detailed in the text, and their names are not listed here.
After the completion of the first draft, in June 2021, the author made a special trip to Visit Fengting Town, Xianyou, Fujian, the hometown of Cai Jing, and was warmly received by many local Cai Xiang, Cai Jing researchers and Cai's descendants. They provided me with many of the books they had researched and written, which enriched my understanding of the life of Cai Jing. Thanks together! I wrote a special article on this trip, "Thousand Autumn Meritorious Sins in the Hearts of the People", which I used as an "afterword". Interested readers should stay tuned.
Before writing the book, I had the honor of asking Professor Dong Zhiqiao, an expert in ancient literature and ancient Chinese linguistics, and the critics Ren Fukang and Li Jianjun to help review the finger fallacies, and benefited a lot. It is the Spring Festival, which occupies their precious rest time, and I am deeply grateful!
Actually, why should I write Cai Jing? Those who have read the book can understand naturally; those who do not understand, no matter how much I talk about it here, still do not understand. Then let it drift with the wind like a boat, whether it is floating into a big river or drifting into a reed, will make the author feel a kind of satisfaction.
The first draft of the book was all written with a pen and a stroke. It's not that there's a retro-minded writing habit, but it's about reducing the amount of time your eyes are glued to your computer screen and making your eyesight decline more slowly with age. With the accumulation of desk manuscripts, the image of Cai Jingqi has become increasingly rich in the author's heart.
Cai Jing's life was once as vigorous as a fiery cooking oil; it was also like a salted fish hanging on the wall, and it was actually resurrected with blood when it met the water;
Cai Jing's life, exactly like a climber of Mount Everest, climbed, climbed, and finally reached the top, but suddenly suffered an avalanche, and was suddenly buried in the ice cave at the bottom of the valley;
Cai Jing's life, once flourishing like a cluster of flowers, full of heaven and earthly bliss, but in the end, he was violent and desolate, and almost became a wild ghost with no return;
Cai Jing's life is composed of black, red and white, and artists recognize that this combination of three colors is a perfect match for impacting vision, they are not clearly defined color blocks, but you have me, I have you;
……
A great drama of the late History of the Northern Song Dynasty and the life of Cai Jing, here you slowly open the curtain.
There is academic thought There is thoughtful scholarship
Focus on China
Uphold a humanistic stance
A platform for humanities and social science scholars
Welcome to "Explore and Argue" Together