A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 899: The end of Zhenyuan, the dumb saint, the rise and fall of Neo-Confucianism

The first day of the first lunar month in the twenty-first year of Zhenyuan
It was New Year's Day, and all the royal family members, relatives and officials came to the palace to congratulate Li Shi, except Crown Prince Li Song who was unable to come due to illness.

Li Shi burst into tears and lamented, and never recovered from his illness.

The twenty-third day of the first lunar month
Li Shi died in Huining Palace. His will passed the throne to Crown Prince Li Song at the age of 64. He was posthumously named "Emperor Shenwu Xiaowen" and temple name "Dezong" and was buried in Chongling.

26th
Crown Prince Li Song officially ascended the throne.

Because Li Song had suffered a stroke and could not speak, all important matters were handled by his trusted Hanlin scholars and Eastern Palace tutors, Wang Yi and Wang Shuwen.

Therefore, as soon as he ascended the throne, Li Song issued an imperial decree to promote Wang Yi to be the left palace attendant and the academician of the Imperial Academy, and Wang Shuwen to be the attendant of the emperor and the academician of the Imperial Academy, allowing them to move freely in the inner court.

Wang Shuwen appointed Wei Zhiyi as Shangshu Zuocheng and Tongpingzhangshi.

He also had trusted eunuch Li Zhongyan and beauty Niu Zhaorong serving him.

Even though Li Song was unable to speak due to a stroke, he was still able to control the government through the five people behind the scenes.

The matter of uploading the information had to be known by Wei Zhiyi, Wang Shuwen, Wang Yi, Li Zhongyan and Shunzong's favorite concubine Niu Zhaorong before it could be known by Shunzong.

The same applies to matters issued

Among the five people, Hanlin Academician is in charge of Baima's internal orders, Pingzhangshi is the prime minister, Li Zhongyan is in charge of transmission, and Niu Zhaorong is in charge of oral memorials. One is an internal official and the other is an external official, and they have both positions and powers.

The reason why Li Song was so eager to have five people take charge of confidential matters was not only because of his poor health and fear of changes, but also because he wanted to reform Ding Gu.

Ever since Bai Juyi promoted Neo-Confucianism in the second year of Zhenyuan, the dispute between Neo-Confucianism and Management has arisen, and the debate between the two has been heard everywhere in the court and the public.

As a result, a large number of scholars who studied Neo-Confucianism emerged, most of whom came from humble backgrounds, but there were also some children of aristocratic families.

Li Song was even more deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism. The Prince's Grand Tutor Bai Liping was the leader of Neo-Confucianism in Chang'an. He was also a doctor of the Imperial College and had students all over the country.

After more than 20 years of debate and research, people were surprised to find that Neo-Confucianism could actually help reform the government's abuses.

Confucian classics emphasize saving the world and educating people, but they emphasize writing articles even more, so they are somewhat empty.

However, Neo-Confucianism is different. On the basis of saving the world and saving lives, it pays more attention to practicality and is never reluctant to adopt other theories.

Regardless of personal opinions, as long as it is beneficial to governing the country and saving the people and benefiting the people of the world, it can be used.

This led to the formation of a large number of new Neo-Confucian scholars represented by Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, Cheng Yi, Ling Zhun and others.

In view of the eunuchs' autocracy, separatist regimes, and factional struggles that emerged in the last years of Emperor Dezong's reign, the reformists represented by the students of Science quickly occupied a large number of positions in the court.

Wang Yi and Wang Shuwen also wanted to revitalize the government, so the two sides joined together and prepared to do something big.

This formed a reformist faction with Wang Yi, Wang Shuwen, and Wei Zhiyi in the inner court, and Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, Cheng Yi, Ling Zhun and others in the outer court.

Although Li Song had suffered a stroke and could not speak, he still wanted to restore the Li Tang royal family, so he expressed his support for the actions of Wang Yi and others.

He even took direct leadership many times.

In the first month of Li Song's accession to the throne, the reformists did a number of major things in succession.

First, Li Qi, the governor of western Zhejiang, was dismissed from his post, and officials were selected from the central Ministry of Revenue to manage the finances of western Zhejiang, and they were directly sent to Chang'an, thus transferring part of the financial power from the vassal states to the central government.

The two sides sternly rejected the request of Wei Gao, the governor of Jiannan West Sichuan, and threatened the court to take charge of the three rivers (namely Jiannan East Sichuan, West Sichuan and Shannan West Road).

Third, he punished the brutal and extortionate Jingzhao Yin Daowang Li Shi, and appointed the capable official Du You as the acting prime minister, and concurrently the Duzhi and Salt and Iron Transport Commissioner of various provinces.

He also summoned the demoted wise minister Zheng Yuqing and others back to the capital.

All the harsh taxes were abolished, and it was stipulated that no one could take any other taxes except the two taxes, and no other money or goods could be imported except the regular taxes. The people were also exempted from the rent and taxes they owed, and the people celebrated and the world became clean.

After finishing their work outside the court, the reformists began to face the deep-rooted forces within the court, the eunuchs in the palace.

They planned to start with the military power held by the eunuchs to prevent the eunuchs from becoming desperate and mobilizing the army.

Because of the Fengtian Incident, especially Li Huaiguang's rebellion, Emperor Dezong was extremely wary of the local governors, so he gave the power of the imperial guards to the eunuchs, thus forming a custom.

The eunuchs, with military power in their hands, had no scruples and interfered increasingly in government affairs.

Internally, they set up the Palace Market and the Five Quarters in Chang'an, and under the pretext of purchasing items for the imperial palace and catching tribute birds, they openly plundered and extorted the people. The science student Bai Juyi wrote the poem "The Charcoal Seller" to accuse them of this.

Externally, whenever the emperor sent eunuchs on diplomatic missions to various places, he would require local officials, powerful people, and even military governors to pay tribute in the form of money and goods, otherwise they would slander the emperor.

Therefore, every time the angel went out on tour, countless people would kneel on the roadside to offer him gifts, and he would make millions of dollars in profits.

Therefore, faced with the eunuchs who were becoming more and more rampant and exploiting the people, the reformists first abolished the ban on the palace market and the five-block children who plundered and disturbed the people, and then reduced the salaries of many idle personnel and eunuchs in the palace in order to curb the power of the eunuchs.

Then, he appointed the Right Jinwu General Fan Xichao as the Jiedushi of the Left and Right Shenshen Army in Jingxi, and Duzhi Langzhong Han Tai as his military Sima in order to regain the military power of the imperial army.

However, faced with the reformists' relentless pressure, eunuchs such as Ju Wenzhen, Liu Guangqi, and Xue Yingzhen immediately came to their senses and urgently issued secret orders to the army, requiring the generals not to grant military power to others, thus thwarting the reformists' plans.

Not only that, the eunuchs began their own counterattack.

In March, under the instructions of the eunuchs, Assistant Censor Dou Qun and Chief Censor Wu Yuanheng labeled the reformists as dissidents and attacked them.

At the same time, old eunuchs in the palace, such as Ju Wenzhen and Liu Guangqi, attacked Li Song's eunuch Li Zhongyan, saying that they were newcomers to the palace and that Wang Shuwen and others were forming cliques.

They also used Li Song's illness as an excuse to force him to make Guangling Prince Chun, who was close to them, the crown prince as an external aid.

Faced with the eunuchs' oppression, Gao Ying, who was also the prime minister, did nothing. Jia Dan and Zheng Xunyu claimed to be ill and unable to get up to show their non-cooperation with the reformists.

In May, Wang Shuwen was appointed as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue because he had previously served as the Deputy Envoy of Duzhi and Salt and Iron Transport. The eunuchs recommended him to do so.

Ju Wenzhen and others took the opportunity to strip Wang Shuwen of his position as Hanlin scholar, making it impossible for Wang Shuwen to lead the reform movement.

Wang Yi requested again and again, but was only allowed to "enter the Hanlin Academy once every three to five days." At this time, the situation was already unfavorable to the reformists.

Li Zhongyan was marginalized, Li Song was given some power by Crown Prince Li Chun, and Wang Shuwen was squeezed out of the core confidentiality.

In this way, three important links in the upload process were broken.

At the end of the month, Wang Shuwen resigned from his position due to his mother's death and had to return home to mourn.

The reform situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

In June, Wei Gao, the governor of Jiannan West Sichuan, and Pei Jun, the governor of Jingnan, successively submitted memorials to Li Song and Crown Prince Li Chun, attacking the reformists.

In July, under the instigation of the eunuchs, a rift arose between Wei Zhiyi and Wang Shuwen. Wei Zhiyi no longer obeyed Wang Shuwen's orders, and the reformists split internally.

At the same time, Wang Yi repeatedly submitted memorials requesting that Shuwen be appointed prime minister, but the memorials were withheld and not reported.

He knew that the reformists were doomed and could not do anything, so he claimed to be ill and did not go out.

At this time, the vested interests are more united, pressing forward step by step and advancing triumphantly.

On the other hand, the reformists lost their two core leaders, Wang Yi and Wang Shuwen, one after another, and Li Song was imprisoned in the palace by eunuchs, isolated from the court.

Under this situation of internal and external difficulties, the New Deal reform movement could no longer continue.

(End of this chapter)