The emperors in Chinese history, the most famous, in addition to the Qin Emperor Han Wu, Tang Zong Song Zu, on the good reputation, the great name, the high reputation, is not the Song Renzong Zhao Zhen. He ascended the throne at the age of 13, died at the age of 54, reigned for 42 years, was the longest reigning emperor of the Song Dynasty, for 42 years, for the government of leniency, for the king of the leniency, for the people of leniency, the continuous development of political economy and culture, especially cherish the talent as fate, the award to lead the backward to spare no effort, so that many intelligent and poor children stand out, together played the cultural and technological chapter, the Song Dynasty's cultural prosperity to the peak. Zou Zhi, a great poet of the Ming Dynasty, once commented on Song Renzong: "The heroic lord of Song, no renzong", gave a very high evaluation. So, what kind of person was Emperor Renzong of Song?
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" > the benevolent Song Renzong, known as the "first benevolent prince in the ages"</h1>
Song Renzong's benevolence is very famous, some people call it "the first benevolent king in the ages", although it seems to be too prestigious, but with his supreme status, and the authority of life and death, and looking at some details of his work and life, you will find that this is not excessive.
For example, as an emperor, Song Renzong was full of reverence for heaven and earth and nature. One night, he was hungry at work until late at night, and he especially wanted to eat roast lamb, but considering that the people were always moved by the needs of the palace, he was worried that after he ate roast lamb at night, the people would kill sheep every day, so he put up with it. The next day, I chatted with the close attendant about this matter, and the close attendant said why didn't I let people do it? Renzong said, "If I can't bear the momentary hunger, it will cause endless killing, which is a violent thing." "When you need it, the first thing you think about is the reverence for the nature of heaven and earth, and there are very few such emperors."
For example, he was extremely kind to the attendants and servants around him. Once eating, eating and eating, suddenly a sharp pain in the teeth, biting into the sand, the waiter quickly asked what was going on, Renzong said that he had bitten the sand, and then quickly said to the waiter, Don't say that I have bitten the sand at dinner, otherwise it will be bad for the cook.
Once, he was walking in the royal garden, and when he came back, he quickly said to the maid, "Bring me water to drink." The maid said while pouring water, is there no water outside? Isn't there a waiter who manages tea? After Renzong finished drinking, he said that I looked for it several times when I was walking, but I didn't see the attendant on duty, and it was not good to ask others, otherwise the attendant would be punished for this, so I had to endure thirst and return. An emperor, everything is not based on his own convenience and needs, but first considers the consequences of others, for the sake of others, which is very rare.
Song Renzong was not only kind to his attendants, but also surprisingly generous and tolerant to his ministers and readers. For major state affairs and the appointment and dismissal of personnel, he adopted the open procedure of court deliberation. Once, he wanted to promote his favored Zhang Meiren's uncle Zhang Yaozuo as an envoy to Xuanhui, first proposed with the prime ministers, and then brought it to the court for public discussion, and as a result, as soon as the promotion plan was proposed, Yushi Baozuo stood up against it, saying that no matter the reputation and merit, Zhang Yaozuo could not be promoted and reused in this way, this is "super plucking", moreover, Bao Zheng was indignant when he opposed it, and his attitude was very passionate, and when he spoke, he splashed Song Renzong's face, making him ashamed and annoyed, however, in the face of Bao Zheng's opposition, As emperor, he had to swallow his anger and abandon this proposal. Back at the harem, Zhang Meiren rushed forward to inquire, and Song Renzong said angrily, "You only know that you want to declare the emblem envoy, don't you know that Bao Zheng is a royal history?!" "He is like this, not domineering, not arrogant, not relying on power to oppress people, and even less bullying others."
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" > cherish talents, and most of the most famous literati on the Song Dynasty talent list have been discovered, favored and reused by him</h1>
Song Renzong loved Cai and was hungry and thirsty. He first discovered talent in the imperial examination. The Song Dynasty attached the same importance to the imperial examination as the Tang Dynasty, and was the most prosperous in the Renzong Dynasty. Many of the most famous literati of the Song Dynasty entered their careers through the imperial examination during the Song Dynasty, and then slowly became famous and became famous throughout the ages. Like Su Shi, the Su Brothers and Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Song Qi, these literary superstars, like Fu Bi, Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, Fan Chunren, these famous courtiers, like the theorist Cheng Hao, wrote the "Four Sentences of Hengqu" - "Establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, continue to study for the saints, and open up peace for the world", like scientists Su Song and Shen Kuo, like the painter Wen Tong, and the calligrapher Cai Xiang, all of whom were talents discovered and used by Song Renzong through the examination, like Liu Yong, who was originally a prodigal son who walked through fireworks and Willow Lane. Song Renzong personally criticized Liu Yong in the imperial examination because of Liu Yong's sentence that "youth is all paid, endure the floating name, and change the shallow low singing" and went to the shallow low singing, why should he float his name", but in the end, Song Renzong personally named him, so that Liu Yong, who was nearly fifty years old, successfully passed the pass, was admitted to the jinshi, and entered the career path.
The second is to promote talents at work. The Song Renzong dynasty was the dynasty with the largest number of famous courtiers in the Song Dynasty, like Han Qi, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Fan Chunren (Fan Zhongyan's son), Bao Zheng, Cai Xiang, and Su Song, who became famous ministers after some experience through the examination of Emperor Renzong of Song, and those who were not Yan Shu, Fan Zhongyan, Zhong shiheng, Di Qing, and others who were not admitted to the Jinshi in the Song Renzong Dynasty, they were either famous ministers or famous generals, and they were all famous for a while. Moreover, if you look at the above list, you will find that the famous "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties", in addition to Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty, the six members of the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Rui, all appeared in the Song Renzong Dynasty, of which except for Su Xun, who was not admitted to the Jinshi, the other five were all Jinshi admitted by Song Renzong through scientific examinations, and you can't say that this has nothing to do with Song Renzong.
In addition, Song Renzong also promoted talents in the "Enyin". The Cihai's interpretation of "Enyin" is: "In the event of a court celebration, the descendants of officials and sons entered the Guoxue to study and enter the Shi. This system began in the early Song Dynasty as an extension of the door shade system. This system of "beginning in the early Song Dynasty" was used frequently and widely when the benevolent Song Renzong became emperor, and many celebrities were not admitted to the jinshi, but through the "Enyin system" they entered the career path and realized their life ambitions, like the master of science Zhou Dunyi, and the great poet Mei Yaochen, who was called "Oumei" with Ouyang Xiu, all entered the shi through "Enyin" in the Renzong Dynasty, and Song Renzong was really "benevolent" to the bone.
Therefore, Emperor Renzong gave many people favors with his kindness, so that many people were grateful to him and never forgot. And his name of benevolence is also known to the world, the common people regard it as a god, according to Shao Boweng's "Shao's Records of Hearing and Seeing", after The death of Emperor Renzong, "the capital went to the market to cry for several days, although the beggars and children burned paper money and cried before Ouchi." At the same time, "The soldiers and civilians in the city (Luoyang) and even the women and children wept in the east at dawn and evening, and the paper smoke covered the sky, and there was no light in the sky." When the Song Dynasty sent the news of Emperor Renzong's death to the Liao Kingdom, it was said that "the people of Yan Province wept near and far", and even the Liao Daozong Yelü Hongji, who had been an "old enemy", could not help but cry out loud: "Forty-two years I did not know the soldiers. That posture, which is like a mourning concubine, is the best footnote to Emperor Renzong's reputation as "the first benevolent prince in all eternity".
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" > Song Renzong was the most benevolent emperor in China, but this "benevolence" was endless</h1>
There are too few "renjun" in Chinese history, which makes Song Renzong so dazzling and famous throughout the ages.
It is also true that the emperor has the supreme authority in his palm, and in a word, he can kill and decide to kill but in a single thought, and he can do such a thing as Song Renzong, who not only fears the nature of heaven and earth, but also cares for the literati and doctors, and even pays attention to and respects the lowly status of the servants and slaves. Therefore, his benevolence seems extremely rare, and because of this, so many outstanding talents have appeared in a spurt, achieving a cultural "brilliant starry sky", and the Ming Dynasty literary scholar Li Yan believes that Song Renzong was a dynasty: "Ju Gong is born in the first generation, especially for a thousand years." This is where Song Renzong's real merit lies.
However, after I browsed through the 40-volume History of the Song Dynasty and the Notes on the Whole Song Dynasty (edited by Fu Xuanchun et al.), after I immersed myself in the history of the Two Song Dynasties for more than a decade, after I wrote and published nearly 200 historical essays about the Song Dynasty, and after I repeatedly searched for the reasons for the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, I one day finally lamented that the Song Dynasty's policy of "ruling the world with the literati and doctors" really had its hidden crisis side, and what is remarkable is that at the same time, I felt more and more. Song Renzong, the only "benevolence" among emperors, really has a "boundless legacy" side. That is to say, although Song Renzong was a "benevolent prince", he was not a particularly outstanding politician, let alone a first-class politician.
In China, since qin shi huang, "hundreds of generations have practiced qin political law", basically the emperor and monarch are all one word. Since The First Emperor of Qin, there have been hundreds of emperors and kings, including Ming Jun, Ming Jun, Ren Jun, and Tyrant, but there are very few emperors who can really be called politicians. Of course, a true politician should be benevolent, but benevolence alone is far from enough, and the most shining place of a true politician cannot be benevolence, but should have ideals, foresight, open-mindedness, determination, right and wrong, rules, benevolence instead of the benevolence of women, courage instead of the courage of a puppet, determination instead of the judgment of the mud, vision instead of the eyes of a well frog.
Song Renzong has many advantages, but his advantages are often accompanied by shortcomings, lurking in the aftermath. Take his "benevolence":
Benevolent and unbroken: Song Renzong was also once a fierce emperor, which was the case when Fan Zhongyun was reused to open the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar". There were several problems in the Song Dynasty that had always affected the stability of the korean situation and the development of the country, and these problems had already appeared since the Song Zhenzong dynasty and had been exposed in the early years of the Song Renzong. First, the income is too small, the second is that there are too many redundant personnel, and the third is that the armament is too weak. Income is small, and the financial income is not enough. There were many redundant personnel, and the imperial court was overwhelmed. The armaments are weak, the old lose the war, they have to "spend money to buy peace", they have to exploit the people, and the court and the people are even more overwhelmed, forming a vicious circle. When this problem had accumulated in the Renzong Dynasty, Song Renzong decided to reform it, and the fire would be transferred back to Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi, who were fighting against the Western Xia in Yanzhou (present-day Yan'an, Shaanxi), and appointed Fan Zhongyan as the Governor of the People's Republic of China (Deputy Prime Minister), presided over the reform, and opened the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar". The so-called reform is actually to prescribe medicine for the above three problems, which are nothing more than three ways: finding money, reducing personnel, and strengthening the army. With the support of Emperor Renzong of Song and with the cooperation and help of Han Qi, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu, and others, Fan Zhongyan put forward a series of reform measures such as "Ming Dethronement, Jinggongju, Suppression of Luck, Selection of Officials, Jun gongtian, Hou Nongsang, Xiu Wubei, and Qin Enxin" and began to carry out reforms. Although Fan Zhongyan's reform measures are far from being as comprehensive and in-depth as the "Wang Anshi's reform of the law" measures, and far from touching the pain points of vested interests, any reform is a readjustment of interests and will more or less affect the vested interests of those with vested interests. "Or luck" is aimed at those who rely on "enyin to enter the army", not only for those who are not worthy of the position, but also against the behavior of "enyin" indiscriminate rewards, and offend a number of officials. The purpose of "choosing an official" is to clarify the rule of officials, and it involves the examination and dethronement of local officials, and anyone who steps down as a result will hate Fan Zhong to the bone and offend a batch. Therefore, these officials who had been affected by their future and interests besieged Fan Zhongyan by filing a complaint, impeaching himself in the imperial history, rumors and false accusations, and all available effective means, because Song Renzong was kind and his ears were soft, and everything three people said "no" he would stop or stop. Therefore, after the officials slandered Fan Zhongyun and the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar", Song Renzong, who only wanted to calm things down, called off the reform and transferred Fan Zhongyun away from Kyoto, and his rat-like, yellow and repetitive personality was exposed in the incident, a reform that could change the national fortunes of the Song Dynasty and at least alleviate the difficulties of the imperial court, just in Song Renzong's seemingly "benevolent decision" but actually "benevolent and unbroken" decision, everything ended hastily, as usual.
Benevolence and unscrupulousness: Any mature and excellent politician, in the process of governing the country, must be the most law-abiding and most obedient, and if he cannot do so, he will be chaotic, and if he is not decent, he will be distracted. Song Renzong was indeed "benevolent", but he was "benevolent and indiscriminately rewarded", and during his reign, the money and goods he used to reward Wenchen every year amounted to a million dollars, and Zhao Yi's "Twenty-two Historical Notes" volume 25 said: "The Song system, in addition to Lu gifts, there are sometimes favors. Li Xun was ill and gave 5,000 taels of silver; Wang Dan, Feng Zheng, and Wang Qinruo's pawns were all given 5,000 taels of silver. Sima Guang, who was then an advisor, felt that it was inappropriate to indiscriminately reward such a favor, and he wrote three times to persuade him: "The state is worried, the Chinese and foreign countries are embarrassed, and they should not be dedicated to the story of Qianxing." If the gift is not resignable, it is advisable to allow the attendants to enter the tomb of the mountain. This means that at this time of internal and external difficulties and financial constraints, it is not advisable to over-reward, but it is really necessary to allow ministers to donate the reward money for the construction of mountains and mausoleums. However, Emperor Renzong of Song rejected Sima Guang's offer and continued to give generous favors. The emperor is the head of a country, any decision he makes is almost national, the overall situation, his reward behavior is the same, for all officials, involving fairness, involving the hearts of the people, once the reward is abused, there will be unevenness, which will break the rules, chaos the people's hearts, the result will bring the clinging of the villain and the galloping wind of the career, "the crying child has milk to eat", it is easy to cause the phenomenon of "only seeking people, not plotting", leaving endless harm.
Benevolence and good name: If you speculate about Song Renzong with such an "unworthy" idea, he is an emperor with a very good name. Of course, to tell the truth, Song Renzong did attach great importance to the imperial examination, and he recruited countless talents through the triennial examination of the imperial examination, so that his dynasty was full of talents and brilliant stars, resulting in a rare phenomenon of "talent spectacle" in history. However, for the absorption of talents, Song Renzong was too "eclectic" in his approach. For example, at that time, a son in Chengdu presented a poem to the prefect, which included: "Burn the broken sword gate to the boardwalk, And Nishikawa is not a clean kun", which means that as long as you guard the sword gate pass and burn it into the Chuanbi Trail, you can divide one side and compete with the imperial court. This was naturally a trick for the examinees to take the "shortcut" because they tried repeatedly, but this "anti-poem" frightened the prefect of Chengdu, and he quickly tied up his son to Beijing and asked Song Renzong to punish him. After understanding the situation, Song Renzong smiled and said, "This is just a ridiculous thing that Lao Xiucai did in a hurry to seek an official, and it is not enough to punish the crime." He could be arranged to go to a remote county and serve as a sihu to join the army. On the one hand, it reflects the clarity and transparency of Song Renzong's heart, and on the other hand, it also reflects his tolerance and generosity and relaxed attitude toward speech, but at the same time, it also reflects the "indiscriminate reward" bred by his "good name", handling things casually and without rules. This is true on a case-by-case basis, and it is also true for him in decision-making. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, the policy of scientific examination stipulated that candidates who had passed the age of sixty could no longer participate in the imperial examination, and even if they passed the examination, they could not be awarded officials, and in the hands of Song Renzong, the policy was adjusted to: As long as they reached the age of sixty, whether they passed the examination or not, all officials were awarded. This not only brings about the problem of falsely reporting the age (the age of officials is often divided into "real year" and "official year"), but also brings about the problem of chaos of rules and the increase of redundant personnel.
Therefore, behind the "benevolence" of Song Renzong, there are also sediments under the clear water and sludge under flowers, which cannot cover up the ugliness of the united states, and the phenomena of "good intentions to do bad things" and "good people doing bad things" are not isolated cases. Moreover, the reason why Song Renzong has the reputation of "the first benevolent prince in the ages" is actually closely related to his "benevolence" and "kindness" of giving preferential treatment to literati doctors, because history is recorded by literati after all. Cai Dongfan commented on Song Renzong in his book "The History of Song": "Renzong's control of China and foreign countries is not unclear, but it is lost to softness... Emperor Renzong is called benevolence, and I am called the benevolence of women, not the benevolence of the Lord. ”
Although the words are straight, they are the words of the knower.