History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 749: Huainan Mingjun
【Huainan wise ruler】

From a homeless child to the throne, Xu Zhigao's life was full of legends. It was an absolute underdog counterattack, but history's evaluation of him was mixed.

For example, his road to usurping power, "plotting against his family at home and his country abroad", "several times more than Cao and Ma", in a word, he was unfaithful to his former master Yang and to Xu's upbringing. Especially his cruel treatment of Yang's descendants was simply outrageous.

However, to be honest, the Yang family could scold him, the Xu family could scold him, but the people should still be grateful to him. In other words, Xu Zhigao might not be a good minister or a good son, but he was a good emperor and a good leader.

Let’s first take a look at Xu Zhigao’s internal affairs:
1. Eliminate the false and retain the true, and overthrow all evil spirits

After Xu Zhigao proclaimed himself emperor, his ministers, as usual, flattered him by presenting him with honorific titles. Since the Tang Dynasty, it has become popular to give honorific titles to living emperors. Some emperors even changed their honorific titles several times during their lifetime. Usually, when they ascended the throne or at the New Year, the prime minister would take the lead and the ministers would sing praises for the emperor. The words in the honorific titles they presented became longer and more disgusting.

When the ministers wanted to present me with honorific titles, Xu Zhigao decisively refused and issued a special red-headed document (edict): From now on, you are not allowed to give me any honorific titles!
Conferring the title of emperor was a way for civil and military officials at the central government to flatter the emperor, while presenting auspicious signs was a way for local officials to flatter the emperor. At that time, more than a dozen counties were ready to present auspicious signs. When Xu Zhigao got the news, he immediately stopped them in a red-headed document to break the feudal superstition.

From Xu Zhigao to his grandson Li Yu, throughout the Southern Tang Dynasty, no one received honorific titles or auspicious signs during his lifetime. Therefore, later generations praised Xu Zhigao, saying that he did not engage in formalism, was pragmatic, and possessed the most precious pragmatic spirit of emperors.

2. Kindness, respect and frugality, say no to hedonism and extravagance

After Xu Zhigao became emperor, he advocated hardship and simplicity and opposed extravagance and debauchery. He released many palace maids, released the rare birds and animals in the palace back to nature, and strictly prohibited any more offerings.

According to historical records, "there were only a few old and ugly maids left and right in the palace, and their clothes were simple and plain." Only a few old and ugly women were left as palace maids, and their work clothes were also simple and plain ordinary clothes;
"He was frugal by nature, always wearing straw sandals and using iron basins. In the hot summer months, his bedroom was covered with green kudzu curtains." He wore straw sandals, used iron basins to hold things... everything was the same as that of ordinary people;
Xu Zhigao's "imperial palace" was the old office building in Shengzhou. The provincial party committee building was renamed the imperial palace without any major construction or renovation.

The candles in Xu Zhigao's bedroom were made of the cheapest oil, the Chinese tallow tree seed oil, which was produced in abundance in Huainan. Xu Zhigao gave it a friendly nickname, "Wujiu", which could also mean "Wujiu" or "Wujiu Grandpa".
Xu Zhigao's desk lamp stand (the iron man holding a candle on the desk) is only five feet high. It is said that this five-foot small bronze man was originally an item in the Yang family's stable and was called "Bronze Di". Now it was placed on Xu Zhigao's desk at work. How frugal.

3. Reduce taxes and levies, and cherish the people’s strength
Xu Zhigao encouraged people to engage in agriculture and sericulture, reduced taxes and levies, vigorously developed the economy, and promulgated and implemented many decrees to encourage production and operation and to open up wasteland. For example, if a person reclaimed 80 mu of wasteland, he would be rewarded with coins and exempted from land rent and taxes for five years.

In 941 AD, Xu Zhigao sent people to re-evaluate the land in the territory and set different tax standards according to the fertility of the fields, rather than a simple, crude and irresponsible one-size-fits-all approach. Later military service and corvée labor were also based on this measurement. This system was used until the Song Dynasty.

There are also records that when the Southern Tang Dynasty collected land rent and taxes, the government took the initiative to give a 15% discount, that is, only eight and a half acres of tax were collected for every ten acres of land to cover the deficit of barren land. This was equivalent to a policy grant to alleviate poverty and help the needy.

In order to whitewash the situation, an official lied about his achievements and paid 10,000 dan of grain in taxes at the end of the year, which was 10,000 dan more than the normal level. If it were a normal emperor, he would have praised the official, but Xu Zhigao said, "The yield per mu will not lie. There is a certain number of mu of land and grain. If the officials did not make up excuses and levy heavy taxes, how could there be such a large surplus?" From then on, officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty no longer dared to rely on exploiting the people to please the emperor.

4. Care for low-income people
Xu Zhigao understood the suffering of the people and issued government subsidies to the elderly, the poor, and the widowed in the capital area, with two hu of rice per person. Although it is not much, and it is not a nationwide poverty alleviation, it is better than nothing. After all, emergency relief does not help the poor. The idea of ​​solving poverty should be to create a working environment, provide jobs, stop fighting, and reduce taxes and levies, rather than giving away two barrels of oil and a bag of rice and flour during the New Year and other festivals. 5. Work hard to govern, promote benefits and eliminate harm
Xu Zhigao was diligent in government affairs and a typical workaholic. As the king of a country, he had to work overtime. His work time squeezed out his entertainment and leisure time. Historical records record that he "diligently attended to government affairs, continued painting at night... and no longer feasted..."

The boss worked so hard that he forgot to eat and sleep, so of course he couldn't stand his employees slacking off at work. He couldn't stand ministers who were passive and unenthusiastic, so whenever someone made a mistake or had a negative attitude, they would be severely punished.

Xu Zhigao took the lead in deepening the reform, simplifying things, and promulgated "Shengyuan Shanding Tiao", a total of thirty volumes.

6. Be observant

Xu Zhigao also set up a large and efficient intelligence system. Although the history books do not describe its structure and operation mechanism in detail, there is a vivid example that can reflect the excellent work of the intelligence system:
On one occasion, an eunuch was ordered to go to Mount Lu to offer sacrifices. After returning, he reported his work to Xu Zhigao, saying that he attached great importance to the task assigned by the organization. Since the day he received the imperial edict, he has given up meat and has been a vegetarian until today.

Xu Zhigao smiled and said that when you were on a business trip, you secretly bought a fish from a certain place on a certain day of a certain month, and you secretly bought meat from a certain place on a certain day of a certain month. You cut it into large pieces and had a barbecue meal with relish. Why do you say that you have always been a vegetarian?

The eunuch broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this. He quickly knelt down, admitted his mistake, and kowtowed to beg for mercy.

Xu Zhigao laughed, waved his hands, and ignored it.

From this short story we can see that the spies during Xu Zhigao's time were omnipresent, and no one's small actions could escape Xu Zhigao's eyes and ears.

However, Xu Zhigao was very cautious in the use of intelligence agencies. He only regarded it as a tool to understand the outside world. It did not develop into the East Factory, West Factory, and Jinyiwei that we are familiar with, nor did it develop into a brutal machine for spies to extort money and frame loyal people.

7. Prohibit relatives and eunuchs from interfering in government affairs

Xu Zhigao fully learned the lesson of the decline of the powerful Han Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and ordered that relatives of the emperor’s wife and the harem should not assist in government affairs, and eunuchs should not interfere in government affairs. This became the "ancestral precept" of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Until the demise of the Southern Tang Dynasty, there was no phenomenon of relatives of the emperor’s wife interfering in government affairs or eunuchs usurping power.

However, Xu Zhigao attached great importance to the civil service system, which left a fatal root of trouble for the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Southern Tang Dynasty did not fall because of foreign relatives or eunuchs, but because of literati. This is a later story.

Thanks to Xu Zhigao's unremitting efforts, the Southern Tang had bumper harvests year after year and the treasury was full, laying a solid material foundation for the next leader (Li Jing)'s external expansion.

Next, let’s take a look at Xu Zhigao’s diplomacy:
(End of this chapter)