Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 890 0885 [Buying fame and reputation]

The gentry had no ability to resist in the face of imperial power.

Let’s give two examples.

In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wang Jixian, an imperial doctor, was favored by Zhao Gou for his superb medical skills, so he went crazy to occupy various counties in Hangzhou.

The gentry whose land was occupied did not dare to let go of anything.

But there were too many favored officials in Hangzhou, so Wang Jixian could only pick up what others left. He felt that he was suffering too much, so he sent people to further prefectures and counties to enclose land, even as far as Xuancheng and Wuhu.

He also used the emperor's name and forcibly purchased the properties of Wang Anshi's descendants at low prices in the name of buying a "royal village".

Those gentry families who were occupied by the land took the opportunity to complain. He did not emphasize that his family had been occupied, but only said that Wang Anshi's descendants had their land occupied, which quickly aroused public opinion among the government and the public.

Finally, the imperial doctor was dealt with by the emperor.

Well, my official position was demoted...

The Wang family, the Chen family, the Hu family, the Hong family, the Yan family, the Huang family, the Xiao family, the Liu family, and the Ouyang family all had to stand aside when meeting the Zeng family.

The subtlety of Wei Liangchen's work lies in his ability to grasp a certain degree of accuracy.

Fengcheng County, Mozhuang (near Zhangshu Town).

In the end, he failed to guard against it, but instead aroused the hostages' thoughts of rebellion.

……

Next, at the Zeng family, Wei Liangchen personally sat in charge, watching the officials and scholars measure the Zeng family's property.

Civil officials are like this, and military generals are also ruthless.

The above two examples both rely on imperial power to fake the power of the tiger.

When this guy becomes a high official, he will occupy more than twenty miles around his father's grave!
Even the benefactor Shao, who borrowed the land to bury his father, had his family cemetery and farmland seized by Zhou Linzhi.

First, if you hold the handle of a knife and dare to kill someone, you must at least act like you dare to kill people, so as to force the wealthy families in Jiangxi to obey their orders.

The hostage (Wu Jie's grandson) returned to Xingzhou and suddenly rebelled while Han Yuzhou was engaged in the Northern Expedition. He also requested the Kingdom of Jin to confer him the title of King of Shu, planning to dedicate the entire Hanzhong to the Kingdom of Jin!
These civil and military officials could only bully ordinary gentry families, and they would overturn if they provoked Wang Anshi's descendants.

It is not clear whether the imperial doctor wanted to occupy the land or the emperor behind it wanted to occupy the land.

Wei Liangchen did not dare to be careless and stayed directly in the guest room of the Zeng family, playing chess and fishing with the Zeng clan chief and clan elders all day long.

And the real imperial power, especially the imperial power holding the handle of the sword, will be invincible as long as it dares to be ruthless.

Let’s talk about Zhou Linzhi at the end of Zhao Gou’s reign. His family used to be relatively poor. When his father died, he had to borrow someone else’s cemetery for burial.

If we look at the number of Jinshi, Zeng Bu's Zeng family is the largest official family in Jiangxi!

As long as they have soldiers in their hands, who among the local gentry would dare to resist?
The Southern Song Dynasty court had lost control of Xingzhou, and it was impossible to change generals. It was useless to divide Sichuan's military power into four parts, and it even reached the point where the Wu family's children had to be sent to Beijing as hostages.

Secondly, the butcher's knife is always hanging above the head, about to fall, which is the most intimidating moment. It would be unsightly if the knife really fell. It might be a relief to kill people with blood, but the whole of Jiangxi would become chaotic, even affecting the imperial court and local provinces.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Linzhi targeted the Qiang family from his hometown. He forced the powerful family to borrow money from him at usury, and lent banknotes that had depreciated wildly, but he asked others to repay him copper coins. He took the opportunity to occupy more than 400 acres of the other party's land, and finally connected his own land into one piece.

A passenger ship went north along the Ganjiang River. Hundreds of people saw it off, watching the ship go further and further away.

Wu Jie, the world-famous anti-gold general, runs Xingzhou (Lueyang) with three generations of his ancestors and his grandson. Except for the military garrisons, almost all the other land in the area was occupied by the Wu family and their generals. Even many military garrisons were occupied by the Wu family.

A brave man wants to go to Beijing to remonstrate with the emperor!
This man's name is Liu Yannian, the nephew of the great scholar Liu Chang.

Who is Liu Chang?

With Ouyang Xiu's talent and learning, he always went to Liu Chang for advice when he encountered problems he didn't understand.

Liu Chang even complained: "This Ou Jiu (Ouyang Xiu) doesn't study all day long, so he always comes to ask me."

At that time, the Sichuan scholar Long Changqi (Wen Yanbo's teacher), who was born in Yeluzi, was in his eighties and came to Beijing to present his life's work.

As a result, Liu Chang was ridiculed and forced to leave the capital. He was also forced to resign from his official position and return the gifts given by the emperor.

Just because Long Changqi questioned Duke Zhou in his writings...

Liu Chang was not satisfied with this, and went to Shu to request that Long Changqi's learning be banned.

Long Changqi's lifelong research results, including dozens of various works, involving hundreds of scholars, were all destroyed by the imperial court.

Make Long Changqi angry to death!
"Ms. sir, we have arrived at the entrance of the lake." the servant reminded.

Liu Yannian landed ashore with a bamboo stick and stayed at the county inn. After a few days, he changed boats and took the Yangtze River.

After two days of sailing, the boat unexpectedly stopped.

Liu Yannian asked about the situation, and the servant came back after asking for information: "There is ice floating on the river, and the government is sending people to break the ice and clear it."

Liu Yannian lamented: "The unreasonable expansion of land and the division of a large family, and the promotion of "Xunzi" into scripture, all these things have been sent to heaven. The vision is a warning to the world, the Yangtze River is frozen, I should die to remonstrate with your majesty!"

Liu is the most proficient in "Spring and Autumn" and firmly believes in the theory of heaven and man's induction.

Stop and go, toss and turn again and again.

After turning from the Yangtze River to the canal, it took a while, but the canal was frozen and no boat could sail.

Liu Yannian could only stay in Huainan and wait for the ice and snow to melt in spring. When the Ming Dynasty was founded, Liu Yannian was an official in Guangxi.

When the small imperial court in the southeast was destroyed, Liu Yannian was ill for another half a year.

After recovering from his illness, he asked someone to seek an official position. After all, he was a Jinshi and had political experience. As long as such officials did not make big mistakes, the Ming Dynasty would be willing to accept them.

But at that time, there were so many people seeking official positions that the Hanlin Academy's idle positions were full.

Liu Yannian waited hard for two months in Kaifeng, and finally found a real vacancy - the county chief registrar.

For Liu Yannian, this official position was simply a living insult.

My father and two uncles are both senior executives of this listed company, and I myself have reached the middle level. The company was acquired, the management was re-appointed, and the new chairman actually asked me to be the small leader of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary?

I'm not serving you anymore!

Liu Yannian returned to his hometown, studied hard behind closed doors, and became more famous than when he was an official.

In the blink of an eye, it was the "three years of rejuvenation of China". Liu Yannian did not go directly to Beijing, but first went to visit Liu Kai, the right governor of Huainan.

"My nephew meets my uncle!" Liu Yannian bowed respectfully.

He is a few years younger than Liu Kai, but he is a generation behind him.

Liu Kai and Liu Ziyu, father and son, were highly appreciated and promoted by Ju Ming. They were direct descendants of the cabinet minister Fang Mengqing.

However, Liu Kai's grandfather had already moved from Jiangxi to Fujian and only returned to his ancestral home regularly to compile family trees.

In every generation of the Liu family, there are people who have moved to other places.

Even the Liu family in Qingjiang, where Liu Yannian lived, moved from elsewhere in the early Song Dynasty.

They are not really a rich family with profound background, at least they are nothing in the Qingjiang area.

Liu Yannian went to Beijing to remonstrate with the emperor, but was treated as a gunman!

The uncle and nephew chatted for a while and talked about many recent developments.

When the conversation was almost over, Liu Yannian said: "Uncle, does he know that the imperial court is checking the acres of land in Jiangxi? Once the land is settled, the land will be divided into acres, and the large families will be divided and moved. My nephew came to Beijing this time to advise His Majesty. "

Liu Kai couldn't understand Liu Yannian's brain circuit, and said: "If the sky falls, there will be tall people holding it up. Many clans in Jiangxi Province don't speak, and the Liu clan in Qingjiang doesn't have many clansmen and property. Why are you rushing to the capital for this?" "

"It is obligatory!" Liu Yannian said.

Liu Kai asked: "Who encouraged you to go to Beijing?"

"No one encouraged me," Liu Yannian explained. "There are students from several wealthy families who listen to me lecture on "Spring and Autumn" all year round. They mentioned this and said that the imperial court wanted to upgrade "Xunzi" into classics. All these things are not It seems that what Mr. Ming did was because there must be a traitor in the court."

Liu Kai advised: "You'd better go home and don't harm the Qingjiang Liu family. Our two families share the same ancestry. Although we have been separated for several generations, we have to recite the genealogy every ten years. The ancestral bond is here, and I I must give you some advice.”

Liu Yannian said: "There is nothing wrong with the equal taxation of each square field and the division of land into acres. I, the Liu family of Qingjiang, are willing to cooperate with the court. However, it is against filial piety and fraternity to move the clan, let alone move to Hunan to reclaim wasteland. What is the crime of the Jiangxi clan? Why are the children being exiled to Hunan in disguise?”

Liu Kai was even more speechless: "The Liu clan in Qingjiang is not large in number. As long as they are subdivided into families, we don't even need to demolish the clan and move them away. Why are you meddling in things that have nothing to do with you?"

Liu Yannian repeated the sentence again: "It is obligatory."

Then, he continued: "What's more, if Xunzi is promoted into scripture, where will Mencius be placed?"

Just as Liu Kai was about to continue to dissuade him, he suddenly came back to his senses and said angrily: "You want to be famous all over the world, so why are you pretending to come to me? Come and see me off!"

Liu Yannian said: "My nephew is very gentle, please ask my uncle to come with me."

"Get out!" Liu Kai was furious.

Other wealthy families don't dare to say or act recklessly, so why does Liu Yannian dare to do so?

Because the Liu family in Qingjiang really didn't have much land, Liu Yannian's father, uncles, and uncles were all the kind of people who bought books when they had money. His father alone bought 20,000 volumes of books and kept them at home.

Sometimes, they even sell land to buy books.

He also collects gold and stones, and has many antiques from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties at home.

The number of tribesmen is not large, and they have migrated out from generation to generation and have gone to other places to spread their branches.

How much land can such Qingjiang Liu family hide?
There is no fear at all of the government inspecting the land, nor of being demolished and relocated.

So Liu Yannian dared to stand up.

He knows that others use him as a gun, but he is willing to be the gun. The emperor would not do anything to him if he went to the capital to cause trouble, nor did he think of overturning the imperial decree.

Not to achieve a result, but to pursue the process of making trouble.

After the quarrel, all the wealthy families in Jiangxi will accept his love for Liu Yannian. All the scholars in the world who oppose the promotion of "Xunzi" will praise Liu Yannian for his pride and regard him as a great Confucian who defended Confucius and Mencius!

Liu Kai figured this out and kicked his distant nephew out!

He looked at Liu Yannian's receding back and said with gritted teeth, "You are just seeking fame and reputation, reading the books of sages in vain! You write articles on morality just to show off to others, how can you be a true Confucian?"

Liu Kai has decided not to return to Jiangxi to continue his family tree in the future.

(End of this chapter)