Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 714 Xiao Song's Romance
Li Yu was not stupid, or rather, he was a person who could write those well-crafted and sophisticated words because he had a delicate mind.

It can only be said that from the beginning to the end, he really had little interest in governing the country, especially after he encountered obstacles in the initial implementation of some policies to reform corruption, he easily saw the huge force behind the resistance.

So he simply focused all his energy on poetry, which was what he was most interested in.

And it is not difficult to guess one's own destiny based on the few words and phrases of later generations.

Most likely, she was locked up in Bianliang by this good brother of the official, and could only express her sorrow with poetry all day long.

At this moment, seeing the end of the era, Li Yu felt his heart agitated.

The south of the Yangtze River is China, and the northern Yanyun is also China. The famous poets of the early Tang Dynasty all traveled thousands of miles to compose majestic poems.

Li Yu had been famous for his literary works, but now that his fate was about to change, he did not want to leave to future generations the image of a scholar who only acted like a child.

Li Bai and Du Fu were both extremely talented, but who has ever seen a unified country rise in the midst of chaos?

Now, such an opportunity is before him. If Emperor Zhao can establish a unified Song Dynasty, then he, Li Yu, will surely enjoy the reputation of a powerful Song Dynasty and be praised by future generations!

[After the fall of the Song Dynasty, what is somewhat interesting is the experiences of the Southern Song royal family.

Among them, there were those who knew how to "follow the will of heaven", such as Zhao Yuqian and Zhao Yurui.

Zhao Yuqian was originally a professor in Ezhou. After the fall of Ezhou, he surrendered to Boyan and served him. He also advised Boyan to win the hearts of the people and not to be bloodthirsty. Later, he was summoned to Dadu to meet Kublai Khan. After a pleasant conversation, he became a Hanlin scholar of the Yuan Dynasty. He died of illness after serving for 27 years and was posthumously named Wenjian.

What's special about Zhao Yurui is that he is the tenth-generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin and the biological father of Song Duzong. After surrendering, he was granted the title of Duke of Pingyuan County and lived out his life in Dadu.

Other legendary figures include Emperor Gong of Song and Zhao Mengfu.

Zhao Mengfu was the 11th-generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin. He was originally a military officer in the Southern Song Dynasty. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, he retired. Seven years later, he was recommended by the ministers of the Yuan Dynasty to serve in the government. He served in five dynasties and was promoted to the rank of Hanlin scholar. Zhao Mengfu was proficient in calligraphy, painting, and poetry. His calligraphy had the "Zhao style", and he was known as one of the four masters of regular script together with Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu Gongquan. His paintings of landscapes, flowers, and birds were all exquisite and his techniques were comprehensive, which created a new style in the painting world of the Yuan Dynasty. His poetry and prose were known for his "round red text", and he could be said to be quite versatile.

In view of this, people at that time praised Zhao Mengfu as the "crown of the Yuan Dynasty", which Zhao Da probably never imagined in his dreams.

Emperor Gong of Song was even more legendary. As his country suddenly fell, he could not express Li Yu's lament of "leaving the temple in a hurry", nor would he have Chongzhen's anger of "You are not the king of a fallen country, but your ministers are all ministers of a fallen country", because Zhao Xian ascended the throne at the age of four and was only six when the country fell. What would he know?

After surrendering to the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Xian was granted the title of Duke of Ying, and when he was sixteen or seventeen years old, he married a Mongolian princess and became her royal consort. However, when he was eighteen years old, Kublai Khan, perhaps worried that Zhao Xian's identity as the king of a fallen country was too sensitive, slapped his head and said: You should go to Tibet to study Buddhism.

So Zhao Xian, who had just been married for two years, left Dadu and began to try to attain enlightenment.

The Zhao family of the Song Dynasty was famous in history for being not very good at being emperors, but they were quite outstanding in other industries.

Zhao Xian only started to come into contact with Sanskrit sutras at the age of eighteen, but he soon began to show his talent. He successively served as the abbot of Sakya Monastery and translated "Abhidharmakosha", "Nyāya-śāstra", "History of the Wish-Fulfilling Tree" and "The Feast of the Sages", leaving a significant mark in the history of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

In fact, the fifth patriarch of Sakya, Phagpa, took the initiative to serve Kublai Khan and created a new Mongolian script for him. He was named the national teacher and the imperial teacher by Kublai Khan, and was in charge of the General Administration Office, managing the political and religious affairs of Tibet. In essence, a regime that combined politics and religion was formed. In essence, this place was half of Kublai Khan's back garden. Kublai Khan threw Zhao Xian here for easy control. As a result, no one expected that Zhao Xian convinced the Buddhists in Tibet with his profound Buddhist cultivation. Later, in the late period of Emperor Yingzong of Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Han officials were appointed. In order to be on the safe side, he directly ordered the death of Buddhist master Zhao Xian in Hexi.

Later, during the reign of Emperor Xuande, a Sakya Buddhist scholar in Tibet compiled the "Collection of Sino-Tibetan History". Perhaps out of sympathy for Zhao Xian, or to promote the power of religion, the book recorded Zhao Xian's great wish at the time of his death:

"I have not rebelled and been killed. I hope I can seize the Mongolian throne in my next life." Due to this wish, he was reincarnated as the Han Chinese Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and indeed seized the throne.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was a monk at the beginning, very cool!
However, this statement is nothing compared to the arrangement of unofficial history at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty.

From the beginning when Yuan Mingzong went to Zhao Xian to pray for a child, to later when Yuan Mingzong fell in love with Zhao Xian's wife and gave birth to a posthumous child, there are many different versions of the story, but one thing in common is that Yuan Shundi was Zhao Xian's biological son.

Moreover, the posthumous title of Emperor Shun of Yuan was given to him personally by Zhu Yuanzhang as a compliment, which made people imagine:

After the father was reincarnated, he gave his son a honorific title, which shows his affection and love for his son!

All I can say is that unofficial history may not be authentic, but it is certainly wild enough.

After writing this absurd thing, looking back, how should we evaluate the Song Dynasty?

As the only separatist regime recognized as orthodox, and as a dynasty that some scholars believe reached the pinnacle of Chinese culture, the Song Dynasty certainly has its merits.

The influence of the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which merged into a main cultural framework with Neo-Confucianism as the main and Taoism as the auxiliary, continues to this day.

The economy, science and technology, and maritime trade all flourished and made great progress. On this basis, the education system improved rapidly and even explored the limitations of the imperial examination system. The number of feudal mega-cities also grew steadily, and nursing homes that cared for vulnerable groups began to appear. These precedents and achievements are of great reference significance to later generations.

Of course, there is also the "sharing the world with the literati" that scholars in the feudal era talked about most. Although it has its limitations, it did ensure the complete collapse of the classical aristocratic class. The inability of Liao, Jin and Mongolia to adapt to the sinicization of the country was essentially the ideological friction between the classical aristocracy and the core culture of equal rights for reading in the new Song Dynasty.

But of course, while making progress, Song Kai also did no less bad things than his achievements. The Three Changes of the River caused harm for thousands of years, and he implemented harsh laws and punishments; the gentry groups took the stage and did even more harm; the frivolous rulers and ministers controlled the naive officials, showing the shamelessness and incompetence of the ruling class, and so on and so forth.

This was an era of extremely sharp contradictions, and it is also an era that every survivor of the Song Dynasty misses.

Wang Yanwu, who asked Wen Tianxiang to die, never served the Yuan Dynasty in his life. In his later years, he wrote a poem "Qinyuanchun" to miss the Song Dynasty which belonged to the new gentry.

This style is completely different from the passionate and heroic spirit of the Han Dynasty and the majestic and majestic atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It is full of gentle and circuitous singing.

Today's historians are more polite and give the evaluation of "The Romance of the Two Song Dynasties", just like the theme of our last two issues, but in fact, I personally think that if we look at the entire two Song Dynasties, "The Romance of the Small Song Dynasty" is more appropriate.

The real elegance of the Two Song Dynasties was when Di Qing went into battle alone, when Wang Anshi carried out reforms with great enthusiasm, when Su Shi went boating with ease, when Yue Fei attacked Huanglong directly, when Xin Qiji looked at his sword by lamplight, when Cao Youwen died for his country, when Meng Gong arranged the battle formation, and when Wen Tianxiang was full of noble spirit.

It is not in the light-clothed, silk-fanned flower vendors' voices, the seven-treasure carriages of princes on the streets, or the peach blossoms and swallows flying across the river, or a cup of tea after a drunken glass of wine. 】

(End of this chapter)