Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1296 The Three Qi Clan

Zu Ting's "On the Fall of Qi" is divided into seven chapters in total. Each chapter explains the shortcomings of Northern Qi from a different perspective. The structure of the articles is rigorous and exemplary, and the content is detailed and rich.

In the first chapter of the book, Zu Ting talks about the lack of Mandate of Heaven. He uses a series of viewpoints such as prophecies, divination, astronomy and geography to prove that Mandate of Heaven lies in the West rather than the East. Of course, there are some far-fetched feudal superstitious theories, but they also reflect Zu Ting's erudition and breadth of knowledge. At least the thousands of books stolen from Chen Yuankang's house were not stolen in vain.

The second chapter is also the most informative, which is about the foolish ruler and the corrupt officials. It lists the deeds of Gao Huan and his sons who failed to judge people and made chaotic decisions, as well as the bad deeds of their subordinates who flattered and had no talent or moral integrity, and belittled the people of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties. The deeds of Gao Cheng, Cui Jishu and others are written in this chapter.

The third chapter is about the arrogance of soldiers and the corruption of generals, the fourth chapter is about keeping away from wise men and rejecting talented people, 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 punishment and labor. The seven chapters are listed one by one, which can be regarded as a criticism of the ills of the Northern Qi Dynasty from all aspects.

Zu Ting was admittedly a villain, but his attack was quite powerful when he summarized the ills of Northern Qi. That was why he was appreciated by the Supreme Emperor, who was willing to overlook his character and appoint him.

These Hebei tribute scholars were dissatisfied with Zu Ting's appointment as the tribute examination examiner. However, when Zu Ting's "On the Fall of Qi" was distributed and they each read it, their expressions became solemn.

This article was of high quality in both reasoning and wording. At least none of the people present dared to hope that they could immediately write an article that was superior in all aspects, so they all put away their contempt.

Cui Zhancai then continued, "The reason why the Supreme Emperor has announced the invitation of talented people from all states to submit tribute is to follow the great wish of leaving no one unworthy in the wild and bringing peace to the world. Since you have been recommended by your fellow villagers, you must be talented people whose names are known all over the world and cannot be concealed by the dust. The reason why the court is setting up the examination is not to force you to measure your talents and abilities with a small tool, but to fully see your talents and interests, so that we can select and appoint you accordingly, so that people and things can be matched and complement each other.

The Lu Zhongshu and the Zusi Department are not all in a high position because of their talents. They are all here because of the opportunity. They are here to help you all. If you are not good at speaking and cannot use your talents to the fullest, you can also complain to the authorities. Apart from this, there is no need to think about anything else, just show your talents to the fullest! "

Hearing what Cui Zhan said, everyone looked embarrassed, put away the little thoughts of looking down on each other in their hearts, adjusted their mindsets, and began to prepare seriously for the upcoming imperial examination.

The demise of a regime is a huge topic, which is difficult to explain clearly in just a few words. Zu Ting himself is very talented and has rich experience, so he can give a comprehensive discussion and a concise summary.

But most people do not have such ability, not necessarily because they are inferior to Zu Ting in talent and learning, but because they lack sufficient knowledge on some issues. For example, in the case of 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 in the high-level personnel of Northern Qi, they have no way to talk about it.

Many things cannot be understood in depth, but cannot be avoided when discussing them, so one can only label them, and then use fierce words to praise or slander them, using a more fanatical attitude to replace the verification of the matter itself. He is already so anxious, so the matter must be true, which is a common mentality of many onlookers.

Although Zu Ting could calmly comment on and criticize the personnel malpractices of the Northern Qi upper echelons based on his own experience and knowledge, others who had fallen into low-level officialdom or simply retired from office did not have such convenience.

Now Zu Ting's essay is in front of us, and he has already emphasized that the Qi family's major drawbacks are the incompetent rulers and corrupt officials. Unless everyone can come up with a stronger point of view, they can only discuss it in the same way as Zu Ting's essay. However, if the argument itself is not sufficient, if you want to go beyond Zu Ting's essay, you can only use a more intense and extreme attitude and wording.

With this idea in mind, a number of related articles from Hebei have been published one after another. Hebei has always been a place of many talented people, with impressive classics, history and literature. Before the Guanzhong regime went south to attack and destroy Jiangling, it was far from being comparable. Now, when a group of talented people are discussing and writing about a proposition, famous articles have been published at once.

For example, Li Delin, who was also very talented, wrote a special article about the administration and cruel officials in the Northern Qi Dynasty. The cruel officials of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasty, represented by Cui Xian, claimed to be upright and strict in enforcing the law, but in fact they could not influence the will of their superiors or make fair judgments. Therefore, whenever the Xianbei nobles were investigated, they were often lenient and exempted, but when the Han officials were investigated, 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 used cruel officials to punish court officials was naturally the double standards of Gao Huan and his sons. However, Li Delin's article puts the blame on law enforcement officers such as Cui Xian, arguing that if they could not influence the will of the superiors, they should not enforce the law so harshly, 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 arbitrarily abused supervisory power of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties that had a poor effect on correcting and improving the administration of officials, but was very effective in eliminating dissidents. Several major events between the East and the West were triggered by this.

"Cui Xian is indeed a great villain in Hebei. If he had not been unable to judge the situation and forced me to leave, if I had remained in Hebei, how could the Jinyang generals dare to wantonly humiliate the people of Hebei!"

Although Gao Zhongmi is now in great glory, he is still very resentful when he thinks of the difficulties he suffered from Cui Xian in the past. He directly regards Li Delin as a close friend and entertains him personally in his mansion. He sighs repeatedly during the meal.

But what was really offensive was an article about detecting traitors written by Xue Daoheng, which pointed the finger at Cui Jishu throughout the article, saying bluntly that Cui Jishu was a great villain of the time, who beat the king because he was favored and dominated the palace, and harmed the lord of the palace because he was afraid of the powerful bandits.

Gao Cheng had no distinction between superiors and subordinates, or between the ruler and his subjects, and ordered Cui Jishu to beat the ruler of Eastern Wei, which led to the evil servant killing him the next day. Cui Jishu did not try to dissuade him at the time, but brazenly carried out the order, which shows that he was physically strong and timid, and it was also his nature that he hid in the toilet the next day and let the ruler of the palace be hacked and killed outside.

After Xue Daoheng's article was published, it immediately aroused widespread discussion. Cui Jishu punched the emperor three times, which was just a joke in later generations, but at present, it was a complete offense and trampling on the authority and dignity of the king.

This has nothing to do with whether the Tang Dynasty recognized the legality of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Let alone Emperor Xiaojing, who was a living person. If you wrote the word "Emperor" on the ground and urinated on it, it would be fine if no one saw it, but if you were discovered, it would still be disrespectful.

  Especially since Cui Jishu, who did this, was from the Bo Ling Cui family, such behavior undoubtedly further touched the already delicate relationship between the aristocracy and the imperial power. Did Cui Jishu dare to offend the emperor and his 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 domineering authority?

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

This series of calls, no matter what their 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 puppet emperors have taken turns to take power, and various atrocities such as regicide and expulsion of emperors have frequently occurred. Although it is specific people who suffer, the authority of the emperor's position itself is also gradually weakened.

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

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

However, this undoubtedly created the illusion that the public's voice was not being echoed and that someone was deliberately shielding Cui Jishu. Therefore, the criticism against Cui Jishu soon spread to the entire Bo Ling Cui family, especially Cui Qian, the prime minister of the time, who was gradually surrounded by criticism because of his high position and power. Many people believed that it was because Cui Qian secretly protected his uncle that Cui Jishu did not receive the punishment he deserved.

Li Tai's original intention was to criticize and purge the Northern Qi personnel, but he didn't expect that things would go astray soon after they began, and there was a tendency for them to affect the personnel of the Tang Dynasty. For a moment, he could not help but feel 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 relationships between them are complicated and difficult to completely cut off.

This is one of the reasons why Li Tai did not let the court come forward directly, but chose to criticize through public opinion. After all, the court could not frequently launch means such as massacres against the Zhaojun Li family. If they really wanted to punish them, most of his relatives would also be punished.

Then, Li Tai ordered the Secretary General Wang Bao to go to the Imperial Academy to meet with a group of Hebei tribute scholars, and praised them highly in poems and essays. As for the focus, he mainly focused on the importance of talented people in the opposition, and stirred up the conflicts and resentments between the Hebei opposition talents and those in power.

With the official taking the initiative to lead the pace, the effect was immediate. In the subsequent social occasions in the capital, there were constant excavations and praises of the deeds of the virtuous, and there were endless statements such as "If you were in the court of the Qi family, how could the Qi family be so corrupt?" For a while, everyone became like Hulu Mingyue, and the demise of Northern Qi was entirely due to the evil people who prevented 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 fiercely criticized. It was precisely because they blocked the passage for wise men to serve in the court that the court was filled with evil and the state affairs were greatly corrupted!

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

Wei Shou's compilation of history was controversial in Hebei at that time. People like Wang Songnian were even punished for criticizing Wei Shou's "Book of Wei". Some even lost their lives for it. Wang Songnian and others had no choice but to flee Hebei and rush to Shannan.

Now Wang Songnian and others are all high-ranking officials in the court, while Wei Shou came to the capital in a desperate situation after the fall of his country. There is no reason to let him go, and they began to criticize Wei Shou verbally and in writing.

As the relevant discussions became more and more heated, the originally somewhat chaotic arguments gradually became integrated, and some relatively unified views were formed regarding the original personnel malpractices of the Northern Qi Dynasty. This also gave rise to a new group, which was called the Three Villains of the Qi Family by people of the time.

  The three villains were Zhao Yanshen, Cui Jishu and Wei Shou. Zhao Yanshen held a high position but was jealous of talented people and failed to 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 negligence in selecting people. Cui Jishu was born in a famous family but was a sycophant with no integrity and chastity. He was the ultimate scum among the literati. As for Wei Shou, he wrote history with a distorted pen, which greatly damaged the style of history. He was a heinous crime!

The three men had different crimes, 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, 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 the political clarity of the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Yanshen did not rush to leave Chang'an, but chose to stay for a while and socialize with the Guandong celebrities who came to Chang'an.

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

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

But because of this delay, Zhao Yanshen did not expect that as a group of tribute scholars from Hebei entered the court, he would be bombarded with negative comments from the public. Every word was as sharp as a knife, making him feel ashamed and angry.

He wanted to defend himself. After all, he was not the only one who had the final say in the Northern Qi court. During the Tianbao period, Yang Yin and others were in charge of the government. He was actually in charge of the selection of officials after Gao Yan, the ruler of Qi, came to power. At that time, even Gao Yan could not fully control the government, let alone him, a mere official. Not to mention, before the fall of Jinyang City, he had been stripped of all his official titles and taken to Guanzhong as a captive.

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

After all, no matter how much it is said, the old officials of the Qi family have experienced ups and downs in their official careers and their official positions have risen and fallen due to the changes in power and positions, 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 can accept this explanation?

Seeing the overwhelming 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 life 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 them, trying to stop them from leaving. Fearing that something unexpected would happen, they had to retreat again.

As public opinion became more intense, even Sima Xiaonan, who had taken in Zhao Yanshen's family, was affected. Sima Xiaonan naturally did not want to be involved in the dispute. After being silent for a while, he ordered his family to go and notify Zhao Yanshen's family to leave their residence.

"Mr. Xingyang is deeply grateful for our old friendship and has hosted us in this mansion for a long time. I am really sorry for being such a rude guest and causing trouble to the host. I should have left earlier to give the host peace. It is really rude to ask the servant to tell him. Please tell Mr. 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 prepare to move out. At dawn the next day, when Zhao Yanshen's servant went to the stable to get the horse, he saw the man hanging himself with the reins in the stable.

Compared with 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 in his carriage, a group of thugs rushed out from the street corner, dragged him out of the carriage, and stabbed him to death. His body was thrown on the street, covered with feces and urine, and it stank terribly.

The criticism from the public did not violate the law, but the murder in the street was unforgivable, so after the murder, the court immediately ordered Jingzhao Prefecture to solve the case as soon as possible. After some investigation, Jingzhao Prefecture quickly identified and arrested the murderer, who was Gao Cheng's son Gao Yanzong and his servant.

As Zhao Yanshen and Cui Jishu, two of the three treacherous men, died in different ways, the remaining treacherous man, Wei Shou, was also in a panic. In order to avoid a violent death, Wei Shou pretended to leave the capital, escaped from Chang'an, and headed south to Xiangyang in the south of the mountains to seek refuge with his nephew, King Jiangxia Li Xun.

(End of this chapter)