What did the Eastern Han Shang Shu Lang Zhongchang say to the Assassin Gao Gan?

What did the Eastern Han Shang Shu Lang Zhongchang say to the Assassin Gao Gan?

Throughout the ages, there have been many expositions summarizing the laws governing the rise and fall of political power, the most famous of which is the New Book of Tang. Book 115 mentions: "Yu and Tang sin against themselves, and their prosperity is also bold; the death of the sinner and the sinner is also abrupt." The gist of this is that King Xia Yu and King Shang Tang were very modest and cautious, and often reviewed Bai's mistakes, so the country soon prospered; The King of Xia And King Shang were very self-conscious, often blaming their own sins to others, so the demise of the regime was very sudden and rapid. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shangshu Lang Zhongchangtong's exposition on the cyclical law of regime change, although not very famous, is of great value for discussion.

This discussion by Zhong Changtong is recorded in Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian. In the Fifty-Seventh Han Dynasty. The original text is as follows: "In the beginning, Shanyang Zhongchang traveled to the prefecture to study, too high-level, did good things, and visited the world. The general saying is Gan: 'The king has ambition but no male talent, and a good soldier cannot choose people, so he is deeply disciplined for the king.' 'There are many people who are not pleased with the unified words, and they are all gone.' Killed, Xun Yuju was unified as Shang Shulang. He is the author of the Changyan (昌言). His words to control chaos are slightly known: "Those who have the destiny of Haojie, those who have not begun to have the division of the world, there is no division of the world, so the warriors rise up." The wise men of the horns are poor, the wrestlers are all negative, the form is unbearable, the momentum is not enough to re-establish, but the first is to tie the neck, and I am the ear. And at the time of succession, Haojie's heart is extinct, the aspirations of the soldiers and the people are determined, and you have a permanent home, and you are respected in one person. At this time, although the foolish people dwell in it, they can still make grace with heaven and earth, threaten the ghosts and gods, and thousands of Zhou and Kong have no horns and no sacredness, and millions of people and millions of people have nothing to do with their courage. The foolish lord of his heirs, seeing that the world does not dare to contradict it, claims that if the heavens and the earth are immortal, he will run to his selfishness, employ his evil desires, declare adultery among his subjects, commit adultery from top to bottom, abolish government, and abandon and forget people. Those who trust their loved ones, and those who do their best to speak, and those who spoil the nobles and longfengs, do their best to be concubines and concubines. So to boil the world's fat ointment, to cut off the marrow of the people, to complain and be bored, to cause chaos, to disturb China, to invade and rebel, to disintegrate, to go away, those who used to be my nursing children and grandchildren, now they are all my blood-drinking revenge. As for those who are lucky to migrate, those who are still not enlightened, are not rich and noble, unkind, and indulging in foolishness and evil! Survival is iterated by iterative, chaos is cured from now on, and the Heavenly Dao is always a large number. ’”

The gist of this passage is as follows: At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhongchang Tong, a Shanyang man, came to Hezhou for his study tour and visited Gao Gan (Yuan Shao's nephew, who surrendered to Cao Cao after the Battle of Guandu and was appointed by Cao Cao as the Assassin of Hezhou). The high-ranking cadres gave him high treatment and consulted him on his views on world affairs. Zhong Changtong said to Gao Gan: "You have great ambitions, but you have no great talent, you like to make friends with people, but you will not choose talents. Gao Ganxiang regarded himself as a high talent and did not like Zhong Changtong's words. As a result, Zhongchang tong left Gao Gan. Gao Gan died (Gao Gan rebelled against Cao Cao, Cao Cao personally led the army to attack him, Gao Gan was defeated, and on the way to escape was captured and killed by Wang Yan, the governor of Shangluo County), Cao Cao's adviser Xun Yu elected Zhongchang Tong as Shang ShuLang, and Zhong Chang tong made a book called "Chang Yan", which talked about the matter of curing chaos and ruin, and roughly said: "Hao Jie, who was ordained by heaven, did not have the fame of the world from the beginning. It is precisely because they do not have the fame of the world, so people who use war to fight for the world have risen. The exhaustion of wisdom and the exhaustion of fighting strength are all lost, and when the situation can no longer be counterbalant, and the forces can no longer be contested, these people who are vying for the world begin to restrain themselves and submit to those who have won the world. By the time the descendants of those who have won the world inherit the throne, the ambitions of the heroes to fight for the world have long since vanished, the hearts of the people of the people have been stabilized, the homes of the nobles have been established, and the honor of the Ninth Five-Year Plan is the only one. At this time, even if the inferior fools were in the supreme position, they could still make his mighty imperial grace like heaven and earth, and his mighty style was like a ghost god, even if there were thousands of Zhou Gong and Confucius, they could no longer implement their holy virtues, and millions of Meng Ben and Xia Yu (all warriors) could not exert their courage. Those stupid monarchs who followed, seeing that there was no one in the world who dared to disobey their holy orders, thought that their throne, like heaven and earth, would not perish. Therefore, they indulged their hobbies, inflated their evil desires, and the monarchs and courtiers openly enjoyed sexual pleasures, and the upper and lower levels jointly committed evil, abolished the government and government, and abandoned talents. Those who are trusted and close are all adulterous and flattering villains; those who are favored and honored are all the families of concubines and concubines. When it came time to boil up the world's anointing grease and squeeze out the marrow of the people, the people did not have a good life, and complained; disasters and wars and chaos rose at the same time; China was in turmoil, and the Four Yi rebelled; the imperial court suddenly collapsed, and the general trend turned away in a flash. The stupid monarch is still wondering: How come all the children and grandchildren who were once raised by me have now become enemies who drink my blood? As for those who are still unable to become enlightened because their fortunes have changed and the times have gone, are they not the result of being unkind because of their wealth and ignorance caused by indulgence? The existence and demise of dynasties are therefore constantly changing, and the peace and war under the world are repeated in this cycle, which is the law of the natural operation of heaven and earth.

In the mid-1940s, a certain public and a certain democrat also talked about the cyclical law of the rise and fall of the regime. The democrat believes that the rise and fall of the regime is roughly due to the fact that either "political slackness" or "death of the people", or "seeking glory and humiliation", all dynasties and dynasties have not jumped out of this cyclical law. But a certain gong said with confidence: "We have found a new road, we can jump out of this cyclical law, this new road, that is, democracy." Only when the people supervise the government, the government does not dare to slacken off, and only when everyone rises up and takes responsibility will no one die in the government. "Although it is reasonable, it is not easy to do, especially after changing from opposition to governance.

What Zhong Changtong is talking about here is the reciprocating cycle law of the world from chaos to rule and from rule to chaos. The world is in chaos, the masses rise together, the strife and chaos, and the intelligence is compared, until the wisdom is exhausted and cannot be opposed, and the world will settle down. The winner is the king, the loser is bowed, the haojie is ambitious, and the people's minds are stable. When society is stable, production develops, and life is comfortable, the people will be grateful, and the flatterers will sing praises and praises. Because the trumpet is louder, the ruler will be proud and complacent, thinking that he is the wisest and most correct. Because there is no power under the heavens to compete with it, the ruler will think that he is the greatest and the country is the most stable. Because there are people around him who are applauded, the ruler will be satisfied, indulge his selfish desires, and inflate his evil thoughts; he will openly enjoy sexual pleasures and do evil from top to bottom; he will kiss the villain, the gentleman will be far away, he will believe in adultery, and he will abandon the virtuous. If this continues, disasters will come, wars will arise, and a chaotic world will come again. Zhong Changtong believes that this is the law of social operation.

As for whether it is a law or not, it can be analyzed and discussed by politicians and philosophers. But prosperity comes from thrift, and defeat comes from extravagance, which is certain. No matter how strong the political power, no matter how powerful the power, no matter how superb the skill, if it is corrupted, it will definitely lead to extinction, and there is no way to cure it. Is this a rule? I don't know. But it must be the truth.

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