However, this Sima Guang is a man with mixed reputation in history.
Because he opposed the "political reform", he was criticized by the reformists and abandoned it. After death, I have to play the alignment of the emperor's "digging graves and cutting coffins". Some people even say that he is "the best disguised sinner, and he laid the curse of the demise of the Song Dynasty".
People who appreciate him say that he always has ordinary people in his heart, and opposing political reform is right and wrong. Although his thoughts are stubborn and old-fashioned, there are ordinary people in his heart, saying that he is a "loyal man, filling the world and crossing the ancient times."
Why do you love him and hate him? This article will talk about the AB surface of Sima Guang.
Whether it is good or evil, please comment on it.
Sima Guang is the second generation official, born in 10 19. When he was born, his father Sima Chi was appointed as the magistrate of Guangshan County (now Guangshan, Xinyang, Henan). At the age of six, he began to read and write. At the age of seven, he could recite Zuo's Spring and Autumn Annals, and at the same time he could understand the main idea of the book. The first time I met Sima Guang in the world was when he was seven years old-Sima Guang smashed a jar.
The story of Sima Guang smashing a jar is a household name. In legend, he is clever and alert. As a helpless child, he smashed the jar in an emergency and saved his little friend.
Ma Weidou, an antique collector, thinks that Sima Guang didn't really smash the jar. The reason is that it can hold a water tank the size of a child, which was not built in the Song Dynasty. In addition, there is a layer of hard enamel inside and outside the water tank, which is difficult to break with stones with the strength of children.
What Sima Guang really broke was an urn filled with water.
In fact, the history books also say that Sima Guang didn't smash the jar. "History of the Song Dynasty" records:
A group of children were playing in court. One climbed the urn and his foot fell into the water, so everyone abandoned it. As long as the urn is broken with a stone, the water will burst and the child will live.
As for why the urn is a jar, the reason may be that later generations think it is easier to smash the jar than the urn.
The origin of the name "Zi Tongzhi Sword" is the same as "In view of the past, there is money to rule the Tao". This book is actually an imperial book for emperors.
Why did you write this masterpiece? The direct reason is that Wang Anshi lost in the court battle and was excluded by the court, which enabled him to spare a lot of energy to write books.
In the fourth year of Xining in Song Shenzong (107 1), Sima Guang left Beijing to retreat to Luoyang on the grounds of "no finance" and "no military training". In Luoyang, he named his garden "a unique paradise". In the next ten years, he knows nothing about the world, and it is possible to compile Zi Tongzhi Sword.
Through unremitting efforts, this masterpiece was completed on 1084.
Zi Tongzhi Jian is a chronological masterpiece, which records the history from the Warring States to the Five Dynasties 1362.
The book contains the causal context of dynasty changes, including the general plan of governing the country by emperors and generals, as well as the wisdom crystallization of sages and the way of dealing with people.
Zeng Guofan rated it as "a book of sages that shocked the world"
Mao Zedong said with emotion: I have read this book for seventeen times. Every time I read it, I benefited a lot. A rare good book ... "
The clock was set back to 1067. This year, Song Shenzong, who was only 19, succeeded to the throne.
Facing the situation of poverty and weakness in the Great Song Dynasty, the hot-blooded new emperor came up with the idea of reform, innovation and enriching Qiang Bing. Under the recommendation of Han Wei who joined the army, Wang Anshi, then a lecturer of Hanlin Bachelor, entered Song Shenzong's field of vision.
After learning about Wang Anshi's reform thoughts, Song Shenzong decided to appoint him as a counselor, and promoted him as prime minister in the second year to start the reform work.
In order to show his determination to reform, Wang Anshi also issued an oath that "Heaven never fears anyone, ancestors never learn anything, and people never learn anything".
Any kind of reform will always meet with all kinds of opposition and obstruction, and Wang Anshi's political reform is no exception. The reform touched the interests of big landlords and officials and businessmen in the implementation process, and the implementers of this new law deliberately misinterpreted the policy in the implementation process, resulting in the new law harming the interests of the people to some extent. Therefore, although the reform has achieved certain results, it has encountered increasing resistance.
In order to make the political reform go smoothly, Wang Anshi cleaned the ministers of the DPRK with the acquiescence of the emperor, and those who opposed the political reform were used. The ministers of the DPRK and China also divided into two factions around whether to support the political reform, which also laid a curse for the later factional struggle.
For example, in the proposal, Lu Chenghui denounced the top ten mistakes in the political reform, and Wang Anshi instigated Zongshen to demote him; Later, Cheng Hao, Fan and other officials who did not support political reform were also dismissed.
Sima Guang invited himself to stay away from the imperial court and settle in Luoyang because of his "political disagreement" with Wang Anshi.
In this way, "Wang Anshi's political reform" went upstream and persisted intermittently for more than ten years.
1085, Emperor Zongshen died and Zhezong succeeded to the throne. Under the supervision of Empress Dowager Cixi, Sima Guang was appointed as the prime minister.
As he had long been dissatisfied with the political reform, Sima Guangfu began to completely abolish Wang Anshi's political reform as soon as he took office.
According to the ancestral system, in order to show respect for the first emperor, the succeeding philosophers should "not change their father's way for three years", and Sima Guang advised Empress Dowager Tai to "change her mother into a son, not a son as a father." This method bypassed the legal system of ancestors and was completely abolished by the recent political reform.
Wang Anshi was in Jinling, and heard that all his policies were abolished. After crying bitterly, he fell ill and died that year.
Sima Guang also passed away at the age of 68.
After Wang Anshi's political reform, the national strength and military strength of Dasong were improved in Zongshen period, and a large amount of land was recovered in the confrontation with Xixia State.
In the fifth year of Xining (1072), in July, Wang Shao, a border official in Qin Zhou (now Tianshui, Gansu Province), led the army to defeat the Qiang and Xixia armies, won the battle of Xihe, recovered the five states of Xihe, Hehe, Taohe, Min, Dang and Tuo, and extended the border for more than two thousand miles.
However, after Sima Guang came to power, he thought that the land occupied before was the result of the active offensive strategy adopted during the political reform, which was wrong. These lands are "the old land of Xia State" and should be returned to Xia State. It is said that the occupied land is "stolen goods" and must be returned.
Judging by today's values, this statement is completely a "virgin bitch" school!
In order to stop the fainting crowd, he also made up a set of rhetoric: if those lands are not returned, Xia people can take them back by force. Isn't this a war, a disaster for the country and people?
This decision caused constant controversy, and the chairman of the Privy Council accused Sima Guang of treason in person. Sun Lu, an official stationed in the northwest, said: "If Lanzhou is abandoned, then Xizhou will be in danger; If Xizhou abandons, Guanzhong will shake. "
Seeing the ministers' resolute opposition, Sima Guang finally chose to compromise, but he still gave the four villages of Anjiang, Jielu, Futu and Mizhi to Xixia.
Ironically, the Xixia kingdom, which tasted the sweetness, harassed Dasong more and more, until Song Zhezong came to power and the reformist Zhang Dun launched again. Zhang Dun ordered tens of thousands of Song Jun in Shaanxi to divide their troops and attack more than 50 ways. At the same time, nearly 700,000 troops concentrated on the northeast border of Xixia, and were divided into 30 attacks. Nearly a hundred troops attacked in many ways, and Xixia was convinced. From then on, Xixia bowed to Dasong.
Because he hated Sima Guang's conservative thought and "traitorous" behavior, Zhang Dun, who acted in extreme ways, even "tricked" Song Zhezong into chasing Sima Guang's posthumous title and "dug a grave and cut a coffin".
1 100, Zhezong died, and Hui Zong reached the summit. Twenty-seven years later, the Jingkang Revolution ended the Northern Song Dynasty.
Chen Ruqi, a scholar in Ming Dynasty, described the change of Jingkang: "The disaster of Jingkang began with Fu Jie (Wang Anshi), but I think it actually started with the strategist (Sima Guang). Non-monarchs can really harm Jingkang, and those who provoke Jingkang are also real. "
It can be seen that Sima Guang misunderstood the country.