History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 977: Three Prime Ministers of Wu and Yue (Part )

【Three Prime Ministers of Wu and Yue】

Shen Song
In the second year of Emperor Zhaozong's reign (895), many major events took place in China. For example, Li Keyong of Hedong annexed Youzhou; Zhu Wen of Bianzhou provoked the "Three Zhus War"; Yang Xingmi of Huainan sent a private letter to Emperor Zhaozong, asking for the formation of a "Pig Killing Alliance"; Dong Chang of Zhejiang usurped the throne; the "Hezhong Heritage Case", a flood washed away the Dragon King Temple, and a family wanted to kill another family; Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu, Han Jian and other Guanxi groups staged the "Three Towns Invading the Palace", and Emperor Zhaozong was forced into a short exile...

Each event was enough to rewrite history, but they were all concentrated in that year. In comparison, the imperial examination that year should seem so insignificant, but it was so unwilling to be lonely that even if it was a grain of sand, it would stir up waves in the long river of history.

In February of that year, the results of the imperial examination were announced, and 2 people passed. Emperor Zhaozong of Tang was very happy because this was an important support for his "civilian route". However, a group of failed candidates were indignant and filed a petition to the emperor, saying that the examination was unfair and the chief examiner accepted bribes! The failed candidates even named the new champion, Zhang Yixian, and said that he bribed the chief examiner Cui Ning.

Emperor Zhaozong was furious. The vassal states were ambitious and the eunuchs were all-powerful. The newly-appointed Jinshi were Emperor Zhaozong's hope to turn the tide, and you dared to cheat on this. How could that be tolerated? So he called on his top picks Lu Jian and Feng Wo to conduct a re-examination of the 25 newly-appointed candidates.

In order to strictly screen out those who are not qualified, Zhaozong deliberately increased the difficulty of the test questions and shortened the test time. In a word, I will kill you!

As soon as the news came out, half of the 25 people peed. Quite a few people did not dare to enter the examination room and found various excuses, such as Lu Geng.

Student Lu Geng first used the excuse of being unwell and unable to take the exam, "Report, I am impotent..."

——It doesn’t matter. The court very considerately prepared a sedan chair for him to carry him in.

Student Lu Geng was very clever and said he wanted to go home to visit his parents. "I miss my mother. Our dynasty governs the world with filial piety. Is it possible that we still..."

——It doesn’t matter, just bring his mother over here…

Lu Geng was really at his wit's end, "My father is Li Gang!"

His father was Lu Wo, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. In the end, it was Comrade Lu Wo who came forward to plead for his son, "We were wrong, we give up... Can we become good people?" Lu Geng gave up the re-examination and went home.

I would like to add here that Lu Wo seems to have an inextricable relationship with the imperial examination:
1. Admission into the system.

Lu Wo once ran into Emperor Xuanzong of Tang who was on a secret visit while shopping. Seeing that he was elegant and dignified, he guessed that he must be a high-ranking official, so he politely avoided him. Emperor Xuanzong was very surprised, so he took the initiative to talk to him, "Handsome guy, what's your name?"

Whether it was out of vanity or because his dream was too strong, Lu Wo bowed and said, "Jinshi Lu Wo."

When he heard that he was a Jinshi, Xuanzong was very happy. It turned out that people who had read books were different. So he asked to read his works. Lu Wo immediately picked up his pen and gave him some poems. Xuanzong carefully put the manuscripts away, put them in his sleeves, and rode away on his white mule, "Jinshi Lu, see you later."

After returning, Xuanzong could not wait to open the manuscript of the poem and nodded repeatedly, "Good, well written!" Then he ordered the prime minister to check this Jinshi named Lu Wo, give him monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, rewards, and quality three consecutive times, and by the way, check what position he currently holds, meaning to promote and reuse him.

The prime minister checked the personnel files for a long time, and the more he checked, the more confused he became. "Your Majesty, how old is Comrade Lu Wo this year? I have searched back for nearly a hundred years, and I have not seen any Jinshi named Lu Wo..."

Xuanzong was so wise and intelligent that he understood it immediately and said, "Then tell the Ministry of Rites to immediately make an exception and hire this person." The emperor personally selected him and sent him into the system.

2. Five Elements lack imperial examinations
Impersonating a Jinshi or an official is a serious crime punishable by death. However, Lu Wo, who pretended to be a Jinshi, was not convicted, but was directly appointed to the State Council... The prime ministers could not help but ask him privately, "What is your relationship with the emperor? Which princess did you marry?"

"I confess, I tell you everything..." He spilled the beans, confessing everything at once, hoping to get leniency for his honesty. "This is the whole truth, I... I'm just bragging..."

"No, you are not bragging, you are really awesome!"

During his years in the system, Lu Wo has always been humble, cautious and low-key. At the same time, his talent has been fully recognized by the officials. Later, the famous Lu Xie became the prime minister, and a new story began.

Lu Xie, the internet-famous prime minister at the beginning of the book, is the strong supporter of the fierce general Gao Pian in the court. Lu Xie has always had a knot in his heart, that is, his family is uneducated. Lu Xie was born in the Fanyang Lu family, which is a genuine noble family in China, one of the "forbidden marriage families", and a real "rich family". It's just that for a long time, no member of the Lu family has been the chief examiner, because "Knowing the Imperial Examination" requires not only solid knowledge, but also a unique vision, that is, it requires a thousand-mile horse and a horse scout. Jinshi who passed the imperial examination and entered the Hanlin Academy are the elites among scholars, and "Knowing the Imperial Examination" is the elite among the elites.

At that time, Lu Xie, Wang Duo, Zheng Ting and others were political enemies and attacked each other. Lu Xie had never known the imperial examination, which became a handle for Wang Duo and others to make fun of Lu Xie. Lu Xie was very depressed until he found Lu Wo. So Lu Xie promoted Lu Wo to "know the imperial examination" that year to break this cultural curse. What year was that? It was the first year of Guangming (880), when Huang Chao invaded Chang'an. That year Lu Wo knew about the imperial examination, but that year there was no imperial examination.

The last time Lu Wo had a chance to take the imperial examination was when his son Lu Geng took the exam. He finally got his son on the list through connections, but was caught by Emperor Xuanzong.

In a word, the biggest fate between Lu Wo and the imperial examination is that there is no fate. If there is a little fate, it is not that there is no fate at all.

Excluding Lu Geng who abstained from the exam, another 24 people participated in the re-examination. The results were announced: people including Zhao Guanwen, Wei Shuo, and Shen Song passed. Among those who failed, four were so ignorant that they were "banned from taking the imperial examination for life." The chief examiner Cui Ning was also demoted because of this.

Zhao Guanwen was the first number one scholar in Guangxi; Wei Shuo became prime minister in the Later Tang Dynasty, but failed in the political struggle and was demoted and executed; and this Shen Song is our protagonist today.

Shen Song was born in Fujian. His grandfather, Shen Lu, was a judge in Dali during the Tang Dynasty and was awarded the title of Fei. His father, Shen Chao, was the magistrate of Changxi County in Fuzhou. When Shen Song was born, a big snake fell from the beam of the house in front of the bed. The snake tilted its head and looked at the newborn baby affectionately for a long time before reluctantly leaving. On the seventh day after birth, according to local customs, the newborn had to be bathed. Just as the bathtub was filled with hot water, it suddenly rained and blew. With a loud thunder, the bathtub broke.

People say that this child is not an ordinary person.

After passing the imperial examination, Shen Song did not stay in the capital, but returned to his hometown in Fujian. Why did Shen Song not stay in the capital? Because even the emperor did not stay in the capital: Li Maozhen led his troops to invade the capital, and Zhaozong was forced into exile, and then Zhaozong was held hostage by Han Jian; Zhu Wen of Bianzhou recommended Zhang Jun as prime minister, but Li Keyong strongly opposed Zhang Jun's appointment as prime minister, "Your Majesty, if you appoint him as prime minister in the morning, my Hedong troops will arrive in the capital in the evening"; Yang Xingmi of Huainan asked the emperor to move the capital to Yangzhou; Wang Jian of Xichuan asked the emperor to move the capital to Chengdu...

In such a vibrant and booming situation, what could Shen Song do if he stayed in the capital?

Shen Song set out from Chang'an and returned to Fujian via Jianghuai. When passing through Huainan, he was warmly invited by Yang Xingmi to stay, but Shen Song declined. Then he came to Hangzhou and was warmly invited by Qian Liu again. Shen Song finally chose Qian Liu and became one of Qian Liu's important think tanks. After that, most of Qian Liu's letters and memorials were written by Shen Song.

When the court granted Qian Liu the title of Jiedushi of Zhenhai Army, Qian Liu asked Shen Song to draft a letter of thanks. In the letter, Shen Song boasted about the prosperity and wealth of western Zhejiang. Qian Liu was very happy after reading it. However, another think tank, Luo Yin, shook his head after reading it and strongly objected. He said that the court was corrupt and the powerful officials were demanding bribes from local governors. It was most taboo to show off wealth at this time and we must cry poor!
Qian Liu then asked Luo Yin to draft one, and in his memorial he described the western Zhejiang region as follows: "Deer and elk roam freely in cold weather, and cattle and sheep do not go down when the sun sets." In the end, Qian Liu adopted Luo Yin's memorial.

One day not long after, Qian Liu got a beautiful singing girl and showed her off to everyone at a banquet. Everyone praised her and said that she was as beautiful as a fairy. Luo Yin also said that she was simply Chang'e who had descended to earth.

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Song said, "That's wrong. Compared to her, Chang'e is uglier than her."

Luo Yin glanced at him and sneered, "You speak as if you have seen Chang'e."

The fish has taken the bait! This is what Shen Song was waiting for.

Shen Song stroked his beard and said leisurely, "I have been to the Moon Palace twice, how come I haven't seen it?"

"Chan Gong Zhe Gui" literally means to pick osmanthus flowers in the Moon Palace. Later, it was often used to describe passing the imperial examination. Now it is more widely used to describe brilliant achievements in a certain field. Shen Song played a double entendre, implying Luo Yin, because Luo Yin failed in the examinations many times.

So some people say that Luo Yin and Shen Song were enemies who disliked each other. In fact, according to historical records, the "conflict" between the two was more like flirting and joking between colleagues, and did not escalate into a life-and-death struggle. When Luo Yin died, his epitaph was written by Shen Song. The words between the lines reveal the respect of the younger generation for the older generation and the regret and remembrance between close friends.

When Li Cunxu proclaimed himself emperor and changed the reign title, Qian Liu asked Shen Song about the lifespan of the Later Tang Dynasty. Shen Song said that one could tell from the reign title that the dynasty would be short-lived. The "同" in "通光" had three surrounded structures on top, and was not fully enclosed like the character "国", which indicated that the dynasty would "fail to establish a country". Furthermore, there was only one ear in the character "同", which meant that there would not be another emperor in their family.

Three years later, Shen Song's predictions all came true, and Qian Liu began to look at him with even greater respect.

After Qian Yuanguan succeeded to the throne, he set up the "Selection Institute" to recruit talented people from all over the world as a talent pool for the country, and the person in charge was Shen Song. Shen Song became the soul of Qian Yuanguan's civil service group and helped to establish a feudal bureaucratic system with Comrade Qian Yuanguan as the core.

Shi Jingtang of the Later Jin Dynasty named Qian Yuanguan the "King of Wuyue" and established a state. Qian Yuanguan appointed Shen Song as prime minister. Only ten months later, Shen Song died of illness at the age of 76, leaving us prematurely.

Thanks to old friends “江刘白” and “楚柳芙风” for their monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)