Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Clarification on the farce of "Wild Man"
Well, I am almost writing about this background, so it is necessary to mention it, otherwise it may be controversial.

After all, some historical novels are written randomly without research, which really confuses the audience, so it is necessary for me to conduct detailed research.

As for evidence research, it means to present the facts first, then reason. Facts come first, evidence comes first; conjecture comes last, then imagination.

What is false is false. The more you argue the truth, the clearer it becomes. If it is true, you must say it loudly and shout it out!
I won't say "This is what is written in "New Book of Tang". As a novelist, I don't need to reverse the verdict of certain historical figures. Whatever Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang said, I will follow them, as long as I feel happy. "

I will not have such an irresponsible writing spirit.

Writing a book is being a human being.Or even be a person first, then make a fuss.If his body is not straight, how can the things he writes be straight?It is the responsibility of the author of historical novels to tell the history that readers don’t know so that they can understand the truth!

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First, let’s talk about what the “Wild Man” farce is all about.

In the sixth year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty Li Longji wanted to create a prosperous age like the "Reign of Zhenguan" and extend the "Kaiyuan Prosperous Age" to the entire Tang Dynasty.For his own vanity, he wanted to compete with Taizong everywhere, so he issued an edict: All talents with skills from all over the world can be gathered in the capital to participate in the court's selection.

However, when the prime minister Li Linfu was afraid of the imperial examination, those talented people accused him of his dereliction of duty and sins in front of the emperor, so they reported to the emperor that among the talents who came to participate in the imperial selection this time, all the talents were not up to standard. People cannot be called talents. If such a person is brought in front of the emperor, I am afraid it will insult the emperor's ears and eyes.He deliberately made things difficult for the talents who came to take the exam. He went through all the poems, songs, and poems, and after screening, no one was selected.

Li Linfu immediately reported the matter to the emperor and expressed congratulations, claiming that "there are no virtuous people left in the wild."Nowadays, Long Live has attracted all the talents from all over the world to the court, and there is no one left among the people.Then Brother Ji actually believed it!
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As for the matter, it was probably this matter, which was very consistent with the aesthetics of the literati and officials of the Song Dynasty. It was recorded in "New Book of Tang" and "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", and it also nailed Li Linfu to the pillar of shame.

But, this matter, well, how should I put it, although it cannot be 100% falsified, there is a high probability that it was made up by people from the Song Dynasty.

See what Zizhi Tongjian said.

"Zi Zhi Tong Jian": If you want to seek scholars from all over the world, you must be able to master one skill or above and reach the capital.Li Linfu was afraid that the grassroots people would counterattack and denounce his evildoers... so he ordered the county chiefs to practice more intensively. Those who excelled would be sent by name to the Provincial Party Committee Secretary for reexamination, and the censor Zhongcheng would supervise them... Those who arrived were all tested in poems and poems. In terms of Fu and theory, no one came close.Lin Fu went to express his congratulations to Ye Wuyi Xian.

The saying here is "there is no one who can succeed".That is the evidence of "no wise man in the wild".

"New Book of Tang" has a similar statement, so I won't give an example.

So where is the original source of this historical material?In fact, both "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and "New Book of Tang" were copied from a section of Yuan Jie (Du Fu was also included in this examination).

The person involved, Yuan Jie, said this in "Yu You": In Tianbao Dinghai, there was an imperial edict to conquer the world's scholars, and all those who had an art were selected by the capital. The prime minister, Jin Gong Lin Fu, thought that there were many people in the grass and wild fields, so he was afraid of leaking the opportunity at that time. ... So the person waiting for the system was ordered to take an examination of the Chief Minister, and the Yushi Zhongcheng would supervise him, and he would be tested as an ordinary official (such as the official department's examination of poems, poems, essays, and strategies). Since there were no ordinary people who had no rank, he expressed his congratulations to the master. I think there are no virtuous people left in the wild.

The saying here is "There is no ordinary man who has no rank."After removing those words with different order, there are two more keywords: commoner!

So let’s explain again, what does “commoner” mean?

The summary is: someone who has never been an official (but strongly implies that he is qualified to be an official).

For example: Li Bai's poem "Gift to Cui Sihu Wenkunji" contains "Buyi serves Danchi, and the secret is grass and silk." Not only does he say that he is a commoner, but he also strongly implies that he has the qualifications to be an official, but his talent is not recognized. .

Therefore, the word "commoner" appearing in ancient texts often refers to those who are qualified to be officials and is a metaphor for "unappreciated talents."It does not mean that you can be a "commoner" if you are not an official.This was the pride of later scholars and officials.People who are not ordinary people become officials. For them, this is unfair.

It's a kind of "political correctness".

If you are a big businessman, you usually wear silk and satin.Then you are indeed a "commoner", but you are the kind of "fake commoner" who is not qualified to appear in articles by scholars and doctors.The contrast here is very clear.

Yuan Jie just said that this time, none of the ordinary people who were qualified to be officials but had never been officials were successful.

Sima Guang and Ouyang Xiu wrote the history books in this way, deliberately removing the word "commoner". It is probably clear what they wanted to express.

So, is it true that no one was admitted this time?In fact, anyone who doesn’t regard Li Longji as a fool knows that it is absolutely impossible!
You can think that Brother Ji is bad to the core, but how can you question Brother Ji’s IQ!
Then, other historical materials recorded that someone was indeed admitted to the imperial examination this time.

There was a man named Xue Ju who passed the Jinshi exam in the ninth year of Kaiyuan. He came back to take the exam and passed the exam... Well, at that time, people who drove in the opposite direction did indeed appear. Xiao Fang's story is based on this person. I I have said that the ridiculous stories I write are all based on prototypes, and I don’t dare to randomly set up scenes.

There was also a minor official who had never taken the imperial examination before and was a county lieutenant in a remote area. He was Zhang Zhi, the lieutenant of Luoxian County in Hanzhou.

There are only two people recorded in historical data, and there are many others that are not recorded. It cannot be ruled out that there are more.However, there is no historical record, which was normal at the time and cannot mean that the winnings were small.

In the 21st year of Kaiyuan, the only person who passed the examination today was Li Shiyu (many talents).

"Taiping Yulan" in the first year of Tongtian and the second year of Chang'an also recorded that only one person passed the exam.

So as a commoner, was he subject to discrimination in the imperial examination?The answer is that they are indeed discriminated against. Even before the Anshi Rebellion, there was a situation where students were not admitted, except for the "wild and talented" this time.

such as:

In the 15th year of Kaiyuan, the winners of the imperial examination strategy were Xiao Liang, the lieutenant of Lantian County, Cao Liangshe, the right guard, and Zhang Qi, the son of Zhuguo of Pizhou. They were all serving officials. Three of Zhongshu's generals reported to Xuanzong:
The emperor said to Yuan Qianyao, Du Xian, Li Yuanxian and others: "I...so every time I think about searching for people, I am afraid that there will be no talent left in the grass, and I will not be able to reach it. As for Jiwei Weizuo, without being recommended, he even competes with Brown Yi." Going forward is not my intention."

Therefore, only Zhang Qi was selected as the subordinate, and I dismissed all the others.

At that time, the prosperous age of Kaiyuan was at its peak. However, Ji Ge wanted to choose commoners, but no one among the commoners could be selected. As a result, he could only aggrieve those non-officials, and only one person was retained.Why didn't the civilian scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty sympathize with these "non-commoners" who had been hit and then killed inexplicably?

These historical materials also prove from the side that it was a bumpy road for literati at that time to go back to take the imperial examinations (such as Gao Shi).There are a lot of people doing this.

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What do you mean by saying so much?

It’s the background of a historical novel. If you can strive for authenticity, then you should try to put as much effort into it as possible.If changes are made due to "creative needs", then we must focus on the big and let go of the small, and grasp the main pulse of history. What can be discarded can only be the details, not the main body!

Li Linfu is indeed extremely selfish, but he should be innocent in the "Wild No Ones" incident.In other words, he didn't have to fight with those "people in common clothes" and risk "deceiving the emperor".

No normal person would do this kind of work with minimal (or even no) returns and extremely high risk.The scholar-bureaucrats who wrote history books in the Song Dynasty had very crooked buttocks. Before listening to what they said, you had to think through it first and analyze it based on human nature and original data, or you might have different answers.

For example, Ouyang Xiu's version of "killing three sons in one day" is nonsense. How could Prince Li Ying be manipulated and fooled by Concubine Wu Hui?As expected, he was slapped in the face by the Zhang Jiuling Shinto Monument later.Anyone who copies this example as a historical background will also be slapped in the face.

If Li Linfu is really portrayed like this, it would be treating a historical figure as a fool. To put it more seriously, it would be historical nihilism.

Again, I, the author, will not treat readers as fools. No matter what the score of this book is, this is my principle.Readers pay to subscribe to my books so I don't mess around.

(End of this chapter)