History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 966: Taizu's Past 5
"Wildlife Defenders"

Before Princess Yongqing got married, she used to wear a gorgeous embroidered skirt. The embroidered skirt is a kind of craft that twists the feathers of blue-feathered sparrows into embroidery threads. It is very expensive and is called a "bloody luxury".

When Zhao Kuangyin saw her, he immediately asked her to change her clothes and ordered her never to wear such clothes again.

Princess Yongqing was very disdainful and retorted: "It's just a piece of clothing, it didn't cost a few feathers!"

Zhao Kuangyin patiently explained that because of your special status, your every move will be imitated by other noble ladies, and then dignitaries, wealthy businessmen and even ordinary people will follow the trend, which will push up the price of green feathers. Merchants will kill green feather birds in large numbers for profit. Aren’t you the culprit who started this evil business? As a princess, you must be careful!
Princess Yongqing felt very ashamed and quickly said that she knew she was wrong and would be more careful in the future.

No buying, no killing. Boycott fur, ivory, rhino horn, emerald feathers... Protecting the ecology starts with Zhao Kuangyin.

"It is better to have one person rule the world than to have the world serve one person"

Zhao Kuangyin recovered the two lakes, Sichuan, and Lingnan, and took in many kings of fallen countries. He witnessed their outrageous extravagance and corruption with his own eyes, so he paid special attention to diligence and thrift, and often used the kings of fallen countries as living negative examples.

One day, the Empress and Princess Yongqing had dinner with Zhao Kuangyin. During the meal, the two half-jokingly accused Zhao Kuangyin of being too stingy and shabby, saying, "You have been the emperor for so many years, and the world is stable and prosperous, it's not excessive for you to have a golden sedan chair."
Zhao Kuangyin smiled and said, "I have the wealth of the world. Not to mention a golden sedan chair, even if all the palaces are made of gold and silver, I can afford it. But - the people's blood and sweat, how can I squander it like those kings who lost their country? The ancients said, let one person rule the world, don't let the world serve one person!"
"Standardized Palace Examination"

In March of the sixth year of Kaibao (973), ten newly-qualified Jinshi and twenty-eight candidates from various subjects came to the Lecture Hall to express their gratitude to the emperor. Zhao Kuangyin re-examined them on the spot and found that two of them were obviously unqualified, so he cancelled their test scores on the spot. One of the two was Wu Jichuan, who was a fellow villager of the chief examiner Li Fang. Zhao Kuangyin was very angry about this and thought that Li Fang was partial and cheating. While he was angry, a candidate suddenly beat the drum to appeal, reporting that Li Fang "made inappropriate choices" and had used backdoors and connections.

Zhao Kuangyin asked Hanlin scholar Lu Duosun, who said that this was already a hot topic (he had heard of it). Zhao Kuangyin then asked the Imperial Academy to summon all the failed candidates of this exam, a total of 360 people, and conducted a preliminary interview with them. 195 people were selected to enter the next round of written examinations. After Zhao Kuangyin personally conducted the palace examination, 26 Jinshi and 101 other candidates were finally born, all of whom were awarded the title of Jidi.

It can be seen how many talents were buried by Li Fang, the Hanlin scholar who was in charge of the imperial examination! Li Fang was demoted to the position of Shaoqing of the Ministry of Rites, and the other examiners were also punished to varying degrees. In addition, from then on, the "Palace Examination" was designated as a regular examination, and random checks were changed to mandatory checks to resolutely prevent similar incidents from happening again.

In February of the eighth year of Kaibao (975), Zhao Kuangyin re-examined the candidates in the Lecture Hall. Before the re-examination began, Zhao Kuangyin told the candidates that in the previous imperial examinations, there were bad phenomena of fraud by the rich and powerful, which made it difficult for poor children to get a chance to change their fate. Now, I will personally check to ensure fairness, so that the poor carp with real talents and knowledge can have a chance to jump over the dragon gate. The candidates bowed their heads and thanked the emperor for his wisdom!
After the results were announced, 30 people were admitted as Jinshi and 34 people were admitted as other subjects. Among the failed candidates, two people were granted the pass by Zhao Kuangyin and were granted the "Three Transmissions" status. These two people were Lin Song and Lei Shuo. Why? Because these two people were from Jiangnan. At that time, the Southern Tang Dynasty had not yet fallen. They were still considered "foreigners". Zhao Kuangyin thought that although they were in the enemy country of Huaiyi, they had the heart to be assimilated. They "returned by secret means" and risked their lives to come to our Celestial Empire to participate in the imperial examination. This was really precious, so he directly "recommended" them into the system.

"Only corruption is allowed, but not rebellion"

Zhao Kuangyin vigorously promoted the line of literati governing prefectures and counties, and was in a dilemma when selecting the military commander of Xichuan, because Shu was "far away from the emperor" and the roads were rugged and dangerous, which was very suitable for separatism. Moreover, it had just been recovered and the mass base was relatively weak. It might be difficult to suppress the ground with Confucian scholars, and it might be afraid of repeating the mistakes of Mingzong to use military generals. Zhao Kuangyin's solution was to find a civil official who understood military affairs, so he asked Zhao Pu for a suitable candidate. Zhao Pu recommended Xin Zhongfu, the governor of Pengzhou and the left assistant censor.

Xin Zhongfu was a man of both civil and military talents. He was the chief think tank (secretary) of General Guo Chongwei during the Later Zhou Dynasty and assisted Guo Chongwei until he died. Xin Zhongfu was not only wise but also good at archery. It is said that Guo Chongwei once had a written test of archery with him, and Xin Zhongfu was superior. Guo Chongwei even humbly asked him for advice on archery. This is like Kong Ming plus Yun Chang.

In 968, Xin Zhongfu was the governor of Pengzhou. At that time, the city's greening work in Pengzhou was not in place, and there were few trees on both sides of the road. Xin Zhongfu planted willow trees on both sides of the road to provide shade for pedestrians. The people called these willow trees "Buque Willow" to commemorate this public servant. During his tenure, he had a good reputation and was appreciated by senior officials such as Zhao Pu.

Zhao Kuangyin personally interviewed Xin Zhongfu and first tested his archery skills. The hard bow that the imperial guards had to struggle to pull was just like a child's toy in Xin Zhongfu's hands. He also asked him to try on heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms. After Xin Zhongfu put it on, he felt as light as a swallow and flew. Zhao Kuangyin nodded with satisfaction and immediately appointed him as the commander of the Xichuan Army. He also painted a big pie for him: "Do you know Wang Ming? He has already taken the leadership position of the governor. As long as you work hard, you will soon become a governor or something." Xin Zhongfu bowed his head and thanked him.

After Xin Zhongfu left, Zhao Kuangyin said something from the bottom of his heart to Zhao Pu:
"During the Five Dynasties, the local governors were cruel and ruthless, and the people suffered from their misfortunes. I have now selected more than a hundred Confucian officials to govern the major fiefdoms. Even if they are all corrupt, they are not as corrupt as a single military official."

Later generations summarized it as "One hundred corrupt civil officials are not as harmful to the country as one rebellious military general." In fact, this cannot accurately express Zhao Kuangyin's original intention. His original intention was not "one hundred" but "all". It doesn't matter if all officials in the world are corrupt.

So some people took his words out of context and misinterpreted what Zhao Kuangyin meant. For example, when recounting "Water Margin", they would blame Zhao Kuangyin for the situation where officials forced the people to rebel for a hundred years, saying that Emperor Taizu had been treating corrupt officials with unlimited laissez-faire at the beginning of the founding of the country, so by the time of Emperor Huizong of Song, corrupt officials were as numerous as cattle hairs and the people were living in misery...

Taking things out of context is the natural enemy of history.

The above are Zhao Kuangyin’s original words, and everyone should be able to understand his original meaning.

Did Zhao Kuangyin really turn a blind eye to corruption? Just kidding. Just look at the "Records of Emperor Taizu" and see what happened to corrupt officials.

Thanks to my old friend "江湖留白" and book friend "历史修改者" for their monthly ticket support! I just came back from a business trip to Malaysia. After a short rest, I have to go on business trips to Shengzhou (Nanjing), Youzhou (Beijing) and other places. I may also go to Pakistan later... It will definitely affect the update, but I still say that eunuchs can't be eunuchs, and they can't be eunuchs in this life.

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(End of this chapter)