Yuan Kun of the Song Dynasty said in "The Little Maple Window": Not long after Wang Anshi changed the law, someone found a poem on the wall of Daxiangguo Temple: "The barren lake Pujiao all year round, the poor girl wears a hat and falls into the strip." Anon went to his home in Jingluo Yao, and the vigilant thieves came to attack him. At first, people thought that this poem was written by the husband when he went out and his wife was at home, until Su Dongpo appeared. Su said that this is a poem: the first sentence, the end of the year, that is, December, is the word "green". Barren is the grass growing on the field, which is the word "seedling". Hupu Jiao, for the water, for the word "law". If the three characters are put together, it is the "green seedling method". In the second sentence, the poor girl Dai Lia is "An", and Luo Tuotiao is "stone", and when they are combined, they are "Anshi". In the third sentence, Anon is a Wu dialect, which means "I" is "wrong" here, and Jingluo is the national capital, so it is borrowed as "country", and the combination of the two is "wrong country". The fourth sentence, "robbers" are all thieves of the people, in other words, "** four sentences together are exactly nine words" Qingmiao Fa Anshi mistaken ** people". But it was Wang Anshi, who was "mistaken for the people" in the eyes of the masses, who handed over a good economic answer sheet.
Since the founding of the country, the finances of the Zhao and Song dynasties have not been strong. By the time of Renzong, the imperial court had a deficit of 3 million yuan per year. A few years later, during the reign of Emperor Yingzong, this number rose sharply to 15.7 million. So much so that when Yingzong died of illness in 1067, the imperial court could not even come up with enough money to hold a decent funeral for him. After Wang Anshi came to power, this situation was completely reversed. In the early years of Zhezong, Li Chang, who served as the head of the household department, once revealed to everyone the emperor's family background, "Today, there are more than 56 million yuan of surplus money in Changping, exempted from military service, and the surplus money in the workshop, and the rice and salt money of the Jingshi and the sealing pile money of the Yuanfeng Treasury and 10 million guan."
Even so, Wang Anshi is still not welcomed, and there are people who ridicule and ridicule everywhere. Such a situation existed not only in the Song Dynasty, but also in all dynasties.
Today's evaluation of Zhang Juzheng is becoming more and more objective, and Mingyue said that he was the greatest politician of the Ming Dynasty, and there was no one. But like Wang Anshi, for many years before, Zhang Juzheng was almost synonymous with traitorous ministers. Ming man Shen Defu compared him to Huo Guang and Yuwen in the book.
At the time when Zhang Juzheng lived, the Ming Dynasty was in jeopardy. He used extraordinary means to carry out reforms, so that the dynasty showed signs of prosperity. From an economic point of view alone, the first silver treasury of the Wanli five-year empire received 4.36 million taels of cash, and the annual income of the Taifu Temple (General Logistics Department) managed by the Ministry of War also exceeded 4 million taels that year, and the grain stored in the Jingshi warehouse was enough for 6 years of consumption. In the previous years, the Ming Dynasty had almost no reserves, and vicious incidents such as army mutinies and the killing of governors were often caused by the lack of military salaries. A few years later, the Ming Dynasty won the three major wars of Ningxia Counterinsurgency, Banzhou Counterinsurgency, and Aid Korea to resist the Japanese. You and I both know that fighting a war is to fight for strong soldiers and horses, and to fight for who can burn money better than whom.
It is said that such a person cannot be said to have made great contributions, at least during his life and after his death. However, half a year after Zhang Juzheng's death, the former minister of the humerus was liquidated.
Why is this happening?I'm afraid we have to start with Confucius's "Analects". In the book, no matter whether the old gentleman is good or bad, he has only two poles in his evaluation of people - a gentleman and a villain. The gentleman and the villain are more of a moral level than a judgment at the level of deeds, so readers have always loved to talk about integrity and are ashamed of words and profits. When Mencius saw King Liang Hui, King Liang Hui opened his mouth and said, "Old man, is it any good for our country to come from thousands of miles away?"Mencius's answer is very foolish, why should the king talk about benefits, if there is benevolence and righteousness, there is everything.
Under such a discourse system, what the dynasty needs is people like Sima Guang. Therefore, in the same era as Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui, who later won the fame, said a deafening sentence when evaluating him: "Work to seek the country, clumsy to seek a living", maybe this is the real sadness of Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng.