The Rise of the Cold Gate in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 154
Are you curious about Wang Xizhi?

Wang Xizhi was born in a superb family like the Wang family in Langya, he was taken care of by the political madman Wang Dao, he was loved by the military madman Wang Dun since he was a child, and he is also the son-in-law of Xi Taiwei. It is not easy to be in the center, and with a little brains, it is easy to get the position of Sangong.

A thousand more than 600 years later, when people mention Wang Xizhi, most people know him from the "Lanting Collection Preface" written by the "Lanting Collection Preface" in the ninth year of Yonghe, Kuaiji Shanyin Lanting.
However, Wang Xizhi's achievements in politics are only worshiping the general of the right army and serving as the internal historian of Kuaiji, and he can barely be regarded as a senior official of one side.

Why is this?
In fact, in the era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi's super background was stronger than we can understand. Even the crown prince was bleak in front of him. about.

Huan Wen married the princess, tried his best to take over the Yu family's stall, destroyed Cheng Han, and went through two deliberate northern expeditions before gaining the confidence to fight against the aristocratic family.

Xie An, on the other hand, desperately raised his prestige, lived in Dongshan, and in order to keep Xie's political capital - Yuzhou, he buried Xie Shang, Xie Yi, and Xie Wanshi successively. Finally, he had to leave the mountain because he was afraid of Huan Wen and eased the relationship with Huan Wen. The world-famous Xie An's first job was to go to the West Mansion to serve as Sima, and he was ridiculed by the world for a while.

Not to mention Sima Yu, who was the last card of the Sima family. He watched the emperors being abolished one by one, being toyed with by the aristocratic family and Huan Wen in applause, but there was nothing he could do. In the end, Huan Wen forced him to the throne. After eight months in office, he died of grief and anger.

Wang Xizhi was much luckier than his contemporaries, but he had no achievements in politics, and he didn't know if he had a treasure mountain.

Wang Shu's father, Wang Cheng, was a generation of talkers, indifferent to fame and fortune, known as the No. 1 scholar in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty, and overwhelmed Wang Dao and Wei Jie, but for Wang Shu, it was of no use, and he died early , after the funeral, the family was poor. Wang Shu, who was 15 years old, lived with his mother, served filial piety, had an introverted personality, and tended to be dull. He was once considered a fool. After 30 years old, he gradually became known to the world, a typical late bloomer. .

Wang Xizhi’s father, Wang Kuang, also died early. This is similar to Wang Shu, but he was brought up by Wang Dun. He had contact with famous scholars since he was a child. .

Zhou Wei was the uncle of Zhou Shi, the wife of Wang Xizhi's elder brother Wang Jizhi.

At this time, Wang Shu was still unknown, and he was only fit to stay in the corner, sitting on the ponytail, looking enviously at his distant relative Wang Xizhi, who was loved by thousands of people.

When Wang Shu was in his thirties, he was finally promoted by Dao Wang. The first official position he held was the county magistrate of Wanling (probably Xuancheng). In the end, he did something ridiculous, or he was used to being poor since he was a child. The blatant corruption and bribery amounted to more than 300 more than [-] times, and was jointly impeached.

Director Wang, who was busy wiping his buttocks, sent someone to give him a hard reprimand, and reprimanded him: "Your father is very great, he is the best in the world, and you are his son, so why worry about things outside of you, ruining his reputation?"

The upright Wang Shu replied sternly: "My family has been poor for a long time, and I will definitely not commit crimes in the future."

Wang Xizhi has always looked down on Wang Shu, a distant and poor relative, and even always thinks that Wang Shu has a brain problem, but anyone with a normal mind will never be able to do the following two things.

First, Prime Minister Wang Dao held a big banquet at home and invited people to eat. As long as Wang Dao spoke, the guests would definitely applaud. Only Wang Shu only cared about eating and did not flatter a word. Just eat but don't talk?"

Wang Shu stood up, bowed and responded, "It's neither Yao nor Shun, so why are they both right?"

Second, Wang Shu has a quick temper. Once he had to poke an egg with chopsticks, but the round egg couldn't hit it. Wang Shu was so angry that he overturned the plate and tried to step on the egg, but was caught by the clogs. It was stuck in the middle, but it didn't break, and Wang Shu, who was still puzzled, took the egg and bit it with his mouth, and then spat it out fiercely, just to relieve his anger.

Therefore, when Wang Xizhi found out about Wang Shu's corruption, he ridiculed him in front of his friends, saying that it was nothing more than a thousandth of his father's, and that he was ashamed to have the same surname as Wang.

Wang Shu learned that Wang Xizhi scolded him, but he didn't care about it. Since then, he has worked hard to govern. Although he has served as a prominent official, he has always practiced the principles of integrity and never corrupted him. The house has not changed for many years, which shocked the world.

As Wang Shu's reputation grew, his official position became higher and higher, and most of them were admired by the world, but Wang Xizhi looked down on him even more, and his hostility grew. He not only despised Wang Shu's character, but also thought of him It's just pretending to be stupid.

However, the two did not have much contact, so Wang Shu ignored Wang Xizhi's hostility and did not respond. He did whatever he wanted until his mother passed away, so he had to resign from his position as the internal historian of Kuaiji and go home to attend the funeral and observe filial piety.

It was Wang Xizhi who came to take over the position of internal historian of Kuaiji. As a colleague, distant relative, and successor, Wang Xizhi should go to mourn Wang Shu's mother because of emotion and reason.

However, Wang Xizhi mentioned many times that he would go to Wang Shu's house to express condolences, but he never went there. Whenever Wang Shu heard the sound of drums and horns outside, he thought Wang Xizhi was coming, and hurriedly ordered his servants to clean the house, but every time very disappointed.

So once, when Wang Xizhi came to visit suddenly, Wang Shu heard about it, put on his clothes and came out to greet him, but when he saw Wang Xizhi passed the door and refused to enter, he turned his head and left, so as to humiliate Wang Shu.

Three years later, Wang Shu's filial piety period expired, and he was appointed by the imperial court as the governor of Yangzhou. Wang Xizhi, the internal historian of Kuaiji, was under his control. Wang Shu toured the counties and counties under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou, bypassing Wang Xizhi, the internal historian of Kuaiji.

Wang Xizhi was not angry, and wrote to the imperial court requesting that Jiangji County be separated from Yangzhou and establish Yuezhou as a separate state, which was ruthlessly rejected by the imperial court. Before the case.

Therefore, Wang Xizhi resigned resolutely and was not affected by this anger.

Wang Xizhi's political wisdom is more than inferior to that of the late bloomer Wang Shu. It is not only reflected in his disdain for Wang Shu, but also in his inability to see the current situation clearly and randomly intervening in suggestions. The "sage of calligraphy" is often described as "Wang Xizhi does not follow the trend, sticks to his heart", but in fact he is farting, which is clearly written in history books.

In the fourth year of Yonghe, Wang Xizhi was invited by Yin Hao to serve as the general of the army. Yin Hao was the governor of Yangzhou at that time and assisted Sima Yu, king of Kuaiji, to take charge of the government.

However, Wang Xizhi believed that internal harmony can lead to external security, so he advised Yin Hao and Huan Wen not to have conflicts. The problem was that the imperial court wanted to use Yin Hao, and it was clear that it was to counter Huan Wen. Yin Hao would not listen, and immediately released Wang Xizhi.

In the eighth year of Yonghe, Yin Hao was forced by Huan Wen to organize the Northern Expedition. Wang Xizhi wrote twice to dissuade him. At the same time, he also wrote to Sima Yu to suggest that he should do what he could, but was not adopted.In fact, Yin Hao and Sima Yu didn't want to go to the Northern Expedition, but they were forced by Huan Wen to have no way out, so they just bit the bullet and went into battle.

At that time, Zhao Chao was in chaos, which was a good time to pick up bargains. Therefore, Huan Wen proposed the Northern Expedition, and the imperial court had no reason to reject it.

Wang Xizhi's suggestion was not clear in thinking and wrong in strategy. He could put forward better suggestions for the Northern Expedition, but it must not be dissuaded, and he did not see the unspeakable suffering of Sima Yu and Yin Hao.

In the second year of Shengping, Xie Yi, governor of Yuzhou, passed away. Huan Wen wrote to the imperial court to succeed his younger brother Huan Yun, but the imperial court was naturally unwilling. The two sides played a game, and finally chose Xie Wan, the Xie clan, to succeed him.

Wang Xizhi wrote to Huan Wen, thinking that Xie Wan had no talent and could not afford the important job in Yuzhou. It is the consensus of the noble class.

Not to mention that Yuzhou is the place where the Xie family thrives and is the political capital of the Xie family. How does this make Xie An think to himself?Where is Xie An's face?

Therefore, Wang Xizhi's political line was very unclear, which attracted collective resistance from the gentry class. How could the court give such a high position to such a person who abandoned the interests of the gentry at any time and confessed to Huan Wen?
So much so that Wang Xizhi was resigned by Wang Shunong and went home. No one was willing to speak out for him. It was not unreasonable for Xi Su to become more and more disappointed with Wang Xizhi. Later, when Xi Chao, Xi Tan, and Xi Yin became prosperous, Wang Xizhi came to please him again, but Xi Chao directly rejected him without giving him any face.

Wang Xizhi had seven sons, except for the eldest son Wang Xuanzi who died early, none of them had brilliant achievements in politics. He had six sons, but they were not as good as Wang Shu's first son, Wang Tanzhi.

Therefore, Wang Xizhi started with a good set of cards, but played poorly. His political achievements were far inferior to those of his contemporaries, such as Huan Wen, Xie An, and Wang Shu. This shows that his political wisdom is worrying.

This article is my personal understanding of Wang Xizhi. The title of "Sage of Calligraphy" is indeed resounding enough, but it does not mean that Wang Xizhi is a perfect person. Everyone has shortcomings. I think Wang Xizhi sticks to his heart and is not disturbed by common things. Therefore, I cannot accept the remarks of senior officials.

In my opinion, Wang Xizhi is a person without political wisdom, but he does not hide his title of "Sage of Calligraphy" through the ages.

Today, we may not remember that in the Battle of Feishui, 500,000 Beifu soldiers overthrew the [-] army of the former Qin Dynasty, and it was Xie An who continued his life for the Eastern Jin Dynasty for decades;
We may not remember the national hero Zu Ti, who crossed the river in white clothes, hit the oars in the midstream, danced at the sound of chickens, and devoted his whole life to the Northern Expedition;
We may not remember that more than 30 years old entered the Beifu army, but "swallowed thousands of miles like a tiger" and hit Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty south of the Yellow River;
But he still clearly remembered who the "Sage of Calligraphy" Wang Xizhi was.

(End of this chapter)