Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 488: On Being an Official
Chen Yu sat in a seat that was quickly cleared by everyone at the Imperial College, opposite Fang Xuanling. Both of them looked normal, without any sign of dispute, dissatisfaction or resentment.

This surprised the students in the audience.

Correctly speaking, shouldn't these two be arguing?
Why is the atmosphere so harmonious?
During this short period of time, Chen Yu had already figured out why Fang Xuanling appeared here today to give a lecture. He also thought that there should not be any students mentioning "Fang Xuanling"'s lecture to attract his attention where he was, so why did those two students appear?

This must have been done intentionally by "Fang Xuanling" or "Li Shimin".

This is the distinction between friend and foe!

When dealing with enemies, one must be as ruthless as autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, but when dealing with one's own people, one can show a little mercy.

How can we really defeat our own people in "knowledge"? Will our own people still have any face?

You can deny face to your enemies, but you can’t deny face to your own people, right?

Hence today’s debate.

The debate on the way to be an official seems to be a debate between Fang Xuanling and "Chen Yu", but in fact, who doesn't know who Chen Yu's father is? Even if you don't know who Chen Yu's father and grandfather are, you should know which family the "Chen" in Chen Yu symbolizes, right?
The Chen in Chen Yu refers to the Chen of Guandu Chen family.

Chen's children had more experience in officialdom than Fang Xuanling, a scholar from the lower class, so what? What?
There is no shame in losing.

After realizing this, Chen Yu felt more peaceful.

When Chen Yu's emotions had completely calmed down, he heard Fang Xuanling speaking from the opposite side. His voice was very flat, but there was a hint of "appreciation" in his eyes.

"Just now when I said that being an honest official is a good official, I noticed that your expression was different, and most of your subsequent remarks were also derived from this sentence. What do you think about this?"

Chen Yu sorted out his words a bit, and then said: "My thoughts and the way of being an official are mostly summarized from history books and many Chen's classics. They are only my own opinions and do not represent the views of the Chen family."

He gave himself a shield first, then continued.

"My thinking is based on the word 'seeking truth'. So when I look at whether an official is a good official, I first look at the 'results', that is, whether this person has brought peace and stability to the people during his time as an official? Has he made the lives of the people better? Is the place he governs peaceful and the people living and working in peace and contentment?"

“This is the most important reference.”

"Whether one is honest or not is the second criterion for judgment."

"Just now, Scholar Fang said that an honest official is a good official. The reason why I disagree with this is not because I disagree with honest officials. I just disagree with those officials who pretend to be great and famous, and who only want "reputation" and think they are very honest - but in summary, apart from being honest, they have done nothing but empty talk. "

When mentioning this, there was a hint of disdain in Chen Yu's brows.

"Coming all the way from the south, Yu passed through many counties of the Great Tang Dynasty and met countless officials. Among these officials, there are the "honest officials" mentioned by Scholar Fang, but there are also the officials I just mentioned."

Chen Yu criticized bluntly and directly: "For example, when I passed through Hongzhou Prefecture, I met an "honest" official in a subordinate county."

He said with a half-smile: "This official's name is 'Gao Jing'. I don't know what his background is, but in short, he became an adjutant of a prefecture at a young age. He claims to be very honest and never accepts or offers bribes. He thinks he must be a good official."

"But Master Fang, what do you think the people under his rule say?"

Fang Xuanling knew that the people under his rule must not have said anything good about him. If he asked this question, the official named "Gao Jing" would basically be impeached by a large number of censors tomorrow, and some officials of the "Shangshu Province" would probably also be impeached.

Who asked the Secretariat to be in charge of the promotions of these officials?

However, Fang Xuanling still looked at Chen Yu in confusion, and asked with curiosity: "Oh? What do the people under your rule think of it?"

"Do you have a problem with him?"

He asked the question very frankly, which was sure to cause a huge storm, because Gao Jing did have a background, and a very big one - he was not the same kind of person as Fang Xuanling.

Gao Jing’s background is the Hongzhou Gao family. The highest-ranking official of the Hongzhou Gao family in the court is named "Gao Shilian". Gao Shilian himself is the Duke of Shen Guo and the Left Prime Minister of the Shangshu Province.

Chen Yu smiled and did not mention the local people's evaluation of this "high realm". He simply stated some local folk songs: "There is such a local folk song, which has spread all over the country."

"In a high realm, every home is clean. With clean hands, he plays around with government affairs. He doesn't care about the people's hearts. They all say the sky is high, but who says rats can escape from the sky?"

He tilted his head, sang this "folk ballad", smiled and looked at Fang Xuanling and asked: "Master Fang, after listening to this folk ballad, do you think Gao Jing is a good official?"

Fang Xuanling fell silent.

But suddenly someone in the crowd burst into tears. His crying was very restrained at first, but when Chen Yu asked, "Is Gao Jing a good official?", the student could no longer stop crying.

He knelt on the ground, and the students around him looked at him with curiosity.

This. What happened?
I saw that student's face was covered with hideous tears, which flowed down his cheeks and fell to the ground.

"Students ask Master Fang to seek justice for students and the people of Hongzhou Prefecture!"

He raised his head, his face ferocious, "Before that high strategist came to our county, our county was still able to get by. It has been eased under your majesty's policies."

"After Gao Jing came, I don't know what he did. First, he arbitrarily dealt with a kind-hearted man in our county. He said that the kind-hearted man bribed, but when did he ever do such a thing? He just followed the previous county magistrate's corruption, so he didn't dare to speculate on the temper of the new county magistrate, so he sent him a gift."

"The good official ordered his men to throw the good man out of the government office in public. It didn't matter that he was thrown out, but the others thought that the good man had offended the county magistrate, so they began to erode his family property."

"Later, this kind-hearted man went to the county government to file a complaint. The county magistrate, without knowing the truth, thought that he was here to bribe again, so he ordered his men to beat him up and threw him out."

"This kind man was so miserable that he could only hang himself."

He gritted his teeth and said, "Since then, the atmosphere in our county has changed. Although this county magistrate is not greedy for money, other people in the county government are greedy!"

"In just two years, our county had many more poor people. Later, a disaster struck. Although the county magistrate was not corrupt, he had no means to suppress the group of vendors. As a result of the disaster, tens of thousands of people in the county were displaced."

The student kowtowed again, his eyes already bloodshot: "But two years ago, this "honest official", this honest official who caused tens of thousands of people in our county to be displaced, was recognized as "an honest official, a good administrator, and a Class A official" in the assessment of the Shangshu Province, and was directly promoted to the position of Hongzhou Prefecture's Fu Cheng!"

He smiled, his face was sad: "Students have been talking about the incompetence of this official, but whenever they talk about the incompetence of this official, others will talk about his integrity - as if integrity is the most important thing for an official!" "But, is integrity without ability really the most important thing?"

"Students are not speaking for corrupt officials, but does incompetence mean that officials are not bad officials?"

Fang Xuanling listened to the student's complaint and sighed softly, with a hint of regret in his voice. He was also the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, so he looked at the student and nodded, saying, "Don't worry."

"After I return today, I will investigate this matter."

"If upon investigation, it is found that this person is indeed such an official, then I will definitely impeach him at the court meeting!"

He looked angry: "We can also impeach some officials in the Shangshu Province!"

After he finished speaking, he looked at Chen Yu with a wry smile and said, "Nephew, please continue."

Fang Xuanling seemed to sense that he was destined to fail. He slowly closed his eyes, looking a little tired.

Chen Yu looked at Fang Xuanling who seemed to have aged in an instant and wanted to laugh. If he had not seen the student and Fang Xuanling look at each other with a "calculating" look in their brows, he would have really thought that the student was speaking from his heart.

Of course, this must be true because he had indeed heard about it.

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It was just a coincidence that when I was debating with Fang Xuanling about the way to be an official, the student from Hongzhou Prefecture happened to be listening?
There are no such coincidences in this world. People who believe in coincidences are probably dead.

Fang Xuanling probably did this in order to direct the incident to Gao Shilian and keep the fire burning.

So he pretended not to notice and continued, "Then my nephew continued to speak."

"Besides this official, there is another official."

"I didn't see this official in person, but I heard some old stories about him when I stayed in the county to replenish supplies."

It’s the same old thing again!

Many students became curious when they heard the word "old things". The "old things" brought up by this person at this time were probably not good things.

as predicted.

Chen Yu said slowly, "In the second year of Zhenguan, the governor of Jiangling Prefecture encountered the most difficult problem in his life."

"Because in this year, Jiangling Prefecture encountered a "flood" that was rare in a century. The water broke through the dike and washed away almost everything, submerging fertile fields and collapsing houses. When a major disaster strikes, people always feel how insignificant they are under the heaven and earth."

"The same is true for this governor."

"This prefect is not incompetent. When the disaster struck, he made a very decisive decision and made it immediately. As a result, not many people in Jiangling Prefecture died in the disaster."

"But the subsequent events made this governor, who claimed to be an honest official all his life, feel a little embarrassed."

"After a disaster, there are two things to do: first, reconstruction, and second, comforting the people and providing disaster relief."

"Whether it's reconstruction or disaster relief, two things are needed: first, money, and second, food."

"After a disaster, there will definitely be merchants who take risks for the sake of profit, and Jiangling Prefecture is no exception."

"At that time, the price of grain in Jiangling Prefecture skyrocketed by nearly a hundred times. The money that used to be enough to feed a family of three for more than a month could not even feed a family of three for two days at that time."

"This governor is usually very honest, and being honest means that he doesn't have a good relationship with some local merchants or landlords, so he can't borrow food from them."

"But the governor finally found enough food."

"Although this amount of food was not very much, the thin porridge every day allowed the people to survive until the relief grain from the imperial court arrived."

Chen Yu's expression slowly turned cold. "Master Fang, guess where he found the food that could temporarily support the victims, or even be enough to last until the imperial court sends relief money and grain?"

Fang Xuanling's face suddenly turned bitter. He looked at Chen Yu and said, "I have also heard about this matter."

He fell into silence and reminiscence, and finally slowly said: "The man you are talking about should be the son of the current Duke Jiang, Qu Leng, who is now the governor of the Southeast Road."

Chen Yu nodded slowly, indicating his agreement with the answer.

Then Fang Xuanling slowly said, "At that time, Jiedushi Qu directly opened the granary that the court used to supply for wartime needs, and used the grain in it as a guide to quickly stabilize the skyrocketing grain prices at the time. This move also made the local grain dealers very angry. Originally, Jiedushi Qu could have been appointed again after his term expired, but after this incident, he was moved to the southeast road to serve as Jiedushi."

At this stage, the position of Jiedushi is basically a "second-tier" position.

There is no essential right in it, it is just a kind of "honorary" official position.

The person who made this decision was Fang Xuanling himself. After making this decision, Fang Xuanling was chased to Chang'an City and insulted by some extremely angry people.

Chen Yu smiled and looked at Fang Xuanling: "Does Scholar Fang regret it? Do you regret punishing Qu Leng according to Tang law that day?"

Fang Xuanling shook his head slightly.

"I don't regret it, but"

He said with some confusion: "But in fact, everyone, including me, feels that Qu Leng did nothing wrong."

"I made this decision because I was in charge of assessing officials at the time. Qu Leng's behavior did in fact violate Tang law, so I gave him the same Ding assessment."

"From what my dear nephew said, it seems that you do not approve of his behavior?"

(End of this chapter)