Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Zu Ting's "On the Fall of Qi" is divided into seven chapters, each of which expounds on the shortcomings of Northern Qi from a different perspective. The article has a rigorous and exemplary structure, and the content is also detailed and rich.

In this opening chapter, it is about the lack of destiny. Zu Ting uses a series of viewpoints such as prophecies, destiny, astronomy and geography to prove that the destiny is in the west rather than in the east. Of course, there are some feudal superstition theories that are far-fetched, but it also reflects Zu Ting's erudition and breadth of knowledge. At least the thousands of books stolen from Chen Yuankang's home were not stolen in vain.

The second chapter is also the richest in content, which is about the foolish ruler and the treacherous ministers. It lists various deeds of Gao Huan and his sons who were not good at judging people and were chaotic in their administration, as well as the bad deeds of the subordinates who were flattering and had no talent or virtue, and belittled the personnel of Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. The deeds of Gao Cheng, Cui Jishu and others were written in this chapter.

The third chapter is about the arrogance of soldiers and the fall of generals, the fourth chapter is about keeping away from the wise and rejecting talents, the fifth chapter is about flattering Buddhism and harming things, the sixth chapter is about frequent border conflicts, and the seventh chapter is about the rampant criminal service. These seven chapters are listed one by one, which can be regarded as criticizing the ills of Northern Qi from all aspects.

Zu Ting is indeed a villain, but his attack power is still not small when summarizing the ills of Northern Qi, so he can be appreciated by the Supreme Emperor, who is willing to ignore his character and appoint him.

These Hebei tribute scholars are dissatisfied with Zu Ting's appointment as an examiner of the tribute examination, but when Zu Ting's "On the Destruction of Qi" was distributed, they all read it and their expressions became solemn.

This article is superior in both reasoning and writing. At least these people present did not dare to expect to write an article that is superior in all aspects immediately, so they all put away their contempt.

Next, Cui Zhancai continued, "The reason why the Supreme Lord announced the talents to be sent to the tribute from various states is to follow the great wish of no one leaving talents uncultivated and the world in peace. Since you have been recommended by your fellow villagers, you must be famous and talented. The reason why the court is setting up the examination is not to measure your talents with a small tool, but to see your talents and interests, so that you can be selected and awarded separately, so that people and things can be matched and complement each other.

Lu Zhongshu and Zusibu are not all in the upper position because of their talents, but because they have encountered things, so they can help you to be heard by the heavens and have your talents heard by the heavens. If you are not good at speaking and cannot use your talents to the fullest, you can also complain to the officials. Apart from this, there is no need to think about anything else, just show your magnificent talents!"

Hearing Cui Zhan's words, everyone looked embarrassed, put away the little thoughts of literati looking down on each other, adjusted their mindsets, and began to prepare seriously for the tribute examination.

The demise of a regime is a big topic, and it is difficult to explain it clearly with just a few words. Zu Ting himself is talented and experienced, so he can make a comprehensive discussion and a summary.

But most people do not have this ability, not necessarily because they are inferior to Zu Ting in talent, but because they lack sufficient knowledge on some issues. For example, in the case of high-level confidential events such as Gao Cheng's assassination, Zu Ting was one of the few people who knew about it, but others, even Gao Cheng's son, had to wait for notification afterwards. When it comes to the malpractices of the high-level personnel in the Northern Qi Dynasty, there is no way to talk about it.

Many things cannot be understood in depth, but they cannot be avoided when discussing the problem. Then they can only be labeled, and then praised or slandered in fierce words, using a more fanatical attitude to replace the verification of the matter itself. He is so anxious, the matter must be true, which is a common psychology of many spectators.

Zu Ting could certainly use his own experience to calmly discuss the shortcomings of the upper echelons of the Northern Qi Dynasty, but other people who had fallen into the lower ranks or simply retired from office did not have such convenience.

Now Zu Ting's model essay is in front of us, and he has already emphasized that the Qi family's major shortcomings are the ruler's stupidity and the ministers' flattery. Unless everyone can put forward a stronger point of view, they can only discuss it in the rut of Zu Ting's article. However, if the argument itself is not sufficient, if you want to surpass Zu Ting's article, you can only use a more intense and extreme attitude and wording.

Under this idea, a group of related articles from Hebei's time have also been published one after another. Hebei has always been a place of talent, with considerable classics, history and literature. The Guanzhong regime was far from being comparable to it before it went south to attack and destroy Jiangling. Now when a group of talented people are discussing and writing articles around a proposition, famous articles have been published for a while.

For example, Li Delin, who was also very famous, wrote a special article about the administration and cruel officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty. The cruel officials of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasty, represented by Cui Xian, claimed to be honest and strict in law enforcement, but in fact they could not influence the will of the superiors or make fair judgments. Therefore, whenever they investigated the nobles of Xianbei, they were often lenient and exempted, but when they investigated the Han officials, they would nitpick, making people tremble with fear and have to curry favor with the powerful in order to protect themselves.

This article is more or less unfair. The main reason why the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasty appointed cruel officials to punish court officials was naturally the double standards of Gao Huan and his son. Li Delin's article put the blame on Cui Xian and other law enforcement officers, believing that if they could not influence the will of the superiors, they should not enforce the law so strictly, thus becoming a tool to suppress dissidents.

However, this view was recognized and supported by Gao Zhongmi and Sima Xiaonan. It can be said that these two people are brothers in distress. Gao Zhongmi fled to the west in large part because of the conflict between him and Cui Xian, and was targeted by Cui Xian. Sima Xiaonan was also humiliated and intimidated by Bi Yiyun, the then Chief Censor, so he finally decided to flee to the west.

In the final analysis, it was the willful abuse of the supervisory power of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, so the correction and improvement of the administration was not effective, but it was outstanding in eliminating dissidents. Several major events between the East and the West were caused by this.

"Cui Xian is indeed a great traitor in Hebei. If it were not for this guy's inability to judge the situation and force me to go to another place, if I were still in Hebei, how dare the Jinyang generals wantonly humiliate my Hebei scholars!"

Although Gao Zhongmi is now in great glory, he is also very angry when he thinks of the difficulties he suffered from Cui Xian in the past. He directly took Li Delin as a confidant and entertained him in the mansion. He sighed repeatedly during the banquet.

But the real offensive power was Xue Daoheng's article on detecting traitors. The whole article pointed directly at Cui Jishu, saying that Cui Jishu was a great traitor at the time. He beat the king because he was favored and dominated the mansion, and harmed the mansion owner because he was afraid of the thieves.

Gao Cheng had no distinction between superiors and subordinates, and no righteousness between monarchs and ministers. He ordered Cui Jishu to beat the Eastern Wei lord, so he was killed by the evil slaves in the future. Cui Jishu did not try to persuade him at that time, but carried out the order brazenly. It can be seen that he was strong and timid. It was also his nature that he hid in the toilet and let the lord of the mansion be hacked and killed outside in the future.

After Xue Daoheng's article was published, it immediately caused widespread discussion. Cui Jishu's three punches on the emperor were just a joke for people to play in later generations, but at present, it was a complete offense and trampling on the authority and dignity of the monarch.

This has nothing to do with whether the Tang Dynasty recognizes the legality of the Eastern Wei. Let alone Emperor Xiaojing, a living person, you write the two words "Emperor" on the ground and urinate on it. No one sees it, but it is still disrespectful if you are discovered.

Especially Cui Jishu, who did this, was born in the Cui family of Boling. Such behavior undoubtedly touched the already delicate relationship between the aristocracy and the imperial power. Did Cui Jishu dare to offend the emperor and father because of his family background, or was he cunning and flattering by nature, and beat the emperor purely out of fear of the Gao family's dominance?

For a time, not only people in Hebei, but also many people in Guanzhong joined this discussion. Most people believed that Cui Jishu's actions were morally corrupt and extremely evil, and some court officials even petitioned the court to deprive Gao Cheng of his title and severely punish Cui Jishu.

This series of calls, no matter what the purpose, undoubtedly shows that the majesty of the imperial power has been restored and rising. Since the rapid decline of the imperial power in the Northern Wei Dynasty, various atrocities such as regicide and expulsion of the emperor have been staged frequently. Although it was specific people who suffered, the authority of the emperor's position itself was also gradually weakened.

At least so far, the reason why the emperor of the Tang Dynasty has a high prestige is not because he is the emperor, but because the current emperor is Li Tai. Therefore, this series of criticisms against Gao Cheng and Cui Jishu, whether it is out of respect for the emperor and restoration of rituals, or simply flattering the current supreme ruler, means that the majesty of the imperial power is gradually recovering, and public opinion no longer allows its wanton blasphemy and trampling.

But then again, since the victim of this incident was Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, who was not recognized by the Tang Dynasty court at all, the court would not give any formal response to this matter, and would only let public opinion criticize it.

But in this way, it undoubtedly created a false impression that the voice of the masses was not echoed and that someone seemed to be deliberately shielding Cui Jishu.

So soon, the criticism against Cui Jishu personally gradually spread to the entire Bo Ling Cui family, especially Cui Qian, the prime minister of the current dynasty, because of his high position and power, he was gradually entangled in criticism. Many people believed that it was because Cui Qian secretly protected his uncle that Cui Jishu did not get the punishment he deserved.

Li Tai's original intention was to criticize and purge the personnel of Northern Qi, but he didn't expect that he would go off track soon after he started, and there was a trend that it would affect the personnel of the Tang Dynasty. For a while, he couldn't help but feel a little bit amused.

Such a situation is inevitable. After all, although the East and the West are old enemies, the personnel connections between them are too close. Whether it is the Xianbei warriors or the Hebei clans, the relationship between them is intertwined and difficult to completely cut off.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Tai did not let the court come forward directly, but chose public opinion criticism. After all, the court cannot frequently launch means such as massacres against the Zhaojun Li family. If it really wants to be implicated, most of his relatives will be cleaned up.

So next, Li Tai ordered the Secretary Wang Bao to go to the Imperial Academy to meet with a group of Hebei tribute scholars, and praised these Hebei tribute scholars with poems and essays. As for the focus, it was mainly concentrated on the importance of the wise in the wild, provoking the contradictions and grievances between the wild talents in Hebei and the people in power.

With the official initiative to lead the rhythm, the effect was immediate. In the following social occasions in Beijing, there were constant excavations and praises of virtuous people. There were endless statements such as "If you were in the temple of Qi, how could Qi's business be so corrupted?" For a time, everyone became Hulu Mingyue. The demise of Northern Qi was entirely due to the evil people blocking you from serving in the court!

When such an atmosphere was created, Zhao Yanshen and other former high-ranking officials of the Northern Qi court were immediately severely criticized. It was precisely because they blocked the passage for virtuous people to serve in the court that the court was filled with evil people and the state affairs were greatly corrupted!

In addition to Zhao Yanshen and other former high-ranking officials of the Northern Qi who were severely criticized, there was another person who was not spared, that is, Wei Shou, the big hand in Hebei.

Wei Shou's history writing was controversial in Hebei. People such as Wang Songnian were even punished for criticizing Wei Shou's "Book of Wei". Some people even lost their lives for this. Wang Songnian and others had to flee Hebei and go to Shannan.

Now Wang Songnian and others are all high-ranking officials in the court, while Wei Shou came to Beijing in a state of humiliation after the fall of the country. How can they let him go? They all launched verbal and written attacks on Wei Shou.

As the relevant discussions became more and more heated, the originally slightly chaotic voices gradually integrated, and formed some relatively unified views on the judgment of the original personnel malpractices of Northern Qi, which also produced a new group, which was called the Three Foolish Men of Qi by the current trend.

These three Foolish Men are Zhao Yanshen, Cui Jishu and Wei Shou. Among them, Zhao Yanshen was in a high position but was jealous of talents and could not recruit talents for the Northern Qi court. Instead, he allowed villains to fill the court. The collapse of Qi politics was probably due to his failure to supervise the selection of people. Although Cui Jishu came from a famous family, he was a treacherous person with no integrity and chastity. He can be said to be the ultimate scum among the literati. As for Wei Shou, he wrote history with a crooked pen, which greatly damaged the style of history. It can be said that he was guilty of a heinous crime!

The three men had different charges, but because they were the most famous and prominent among the old officials of Northern Qi, most of the criticisms against the personnel problems of Northern Qi were focused on them. Although the court did not pursue their crimes too much, the public opinion did not let them go, causing them to be entangled in bad reputation.

A few days ago, Zhao Yanshen was framed by Zu Ting and was captured in Tongzhou. Fortunately, the current supreme ruler was wise and fair and did not punish him, so Zhao Yanshen escaped from prison. After feeling that the politics of the Tang Dynasty was clear, Zhao Yanshen did not rush to leave Chang'an, but chose to stay for a while and socialize with the Guandong currents who came to Chang'an.

After all, although he did not intend to do anything in the political situation of the Tang Dynasty, his children and grandchildren could not follow him and stay in the countryside. They still needed to seek official positions and gain fame.

His family was not a famous family, and he did not have many old friends to rely on. The only thing Zhao Yanshen had was the connections he had accumulated in the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. So he wanted to make further contacts before leaving, so that his children and grandchildren could follow this path to enter the government when the situation became more stable next year.

But because of this delay, Zhao Yanshen did not expect that with the tribute scholars from Hebei entering the court, the public opinion would flood him with negative comments. Every word was as sharp as a knife, which made him feel ashamed and angry.

He wanted to defend himself. After all, the court of Northern Qi was not his one-man show. During the Tianbao Dynasty, Yang Yin and others were in charge of the government, and he really presided over the power of the selection after Gao Yan, the Lord of Qi, came to power. At that time, even Gao Yan could not fully control the court, let alone him, a mere minister. Not to mention, before the fall of Jinyang City, he had been stripped of all his official titles and taken to Guanzhong as a civilian.

But as public opinion became noisy, how could Shi Liu listen to his explanation? In fact, the more he explained, the more angry Shi Liu became.

After all, the old ministers of the Qi family had experienced ups and downs in their official careers and the rise and fall of their official positions due to the changes in power and position, but Zhao Yanshen was not affected by these. He was one of the few confidants who rose all the way and was always trusted by the Gao family father and son. Now that the Northern Qi Dynasty has fallen, Zhao Yanshen said that he had no responsibility, or that his responsibility was not great. Who could accept this explanation?

Seeing the surging public opinion, Zhao Yanshen's family was also very worried, so they wanted to persuade him to leave Chang'an as soon as possible. Zhao Yanshen also felt that the world was difficult, so he planned to leave as soon as possible, but as soon as the family left their residence, someone followed them and kept insulting and preventing the family from leaving. Fearing that something unexpected would happen, they had to retreat again.

As public opinion became more intense, even Sima Xiaonan, who took in Zhao Yanshen's family, was affected. Sima Xiaonan did not want to be involved in the dispute. After a period of silence, he ordered his family to inform Zhao Yanshen and his family to leave their residence.

"Duke Xingyang has been treating us well for a long time. I am sorry that such a rude guest has caused trouble to the master. I should have left earlier to give the master peace. It is really rude to ask the servant to tell me. Please tell Duke Xingyang that I will never forget his hospitality. If we meet again next year, I will thank him even more!"

Zhao Yanshen forced himself to apologize to Sima Xiaonan's servant and ordered his family to pack up and move out. At dawn the next day, when Zhao Yanshen's servant went to the stable to lead the horse, he saw that the man had strangled himself with a rein in the stable.

Compared to Zhao Yanshen's suicide, Cui Jishu's ending was more tragic.

He had originally planned to quietly leave Chang'an to avoid the storm of public criticism, but when he was leaving the house, a group of thugs rushed out from the corner of the street, rushed up and dragged him out of the carriage, and was stabbed to death. His body was thrown on the street and was covered with feces and filth, which was stinking.

The criticism of public opinion did not violate the law, but this kind of street crime was unforgivable. Therefore, after the murder, the court immediately ordered Jingzhao Prefecture to solve the case as soon as possible. After an investigation, Jingzhao Prefecture quickly locked in and arrested the murderer, who was Gao Cheng's son Gao Yanzong and his family slave.

As Zhao Yanshen and Cui Jishu, two of the three treacherous people, died in different ways, the remaining treacherous person Wei Shou was also panicked. In order to avoid a sudden death, Wei Shou disguised himself and left the capital. After escaping Chang'an City, he headed straight south to Xiangyang in Shannan to seek refuge with his nephew, King Jiangxia Li Xun.