Su Zhe mistook the revival of the Great Song Dynasty, and the literati brought disaster to the country
Confucius once mentioned in the Analects that a sentence can determine the rise and fall of a country, and if the king says something wrong and no one refutes it, then the country is almost doomed.
While there was some truth in Confucius's views, it turned out that the words of the literati also had the power to determine the fate of the nation. For example, in the Northern Song Dynasty more than a thousand years later, Su Zhe wrote an article that was enough to bring down the country.
The historical background of Wang Anshi's reform lies in the serious problem of "three redundancies" in the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, redundant personnel, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses. These phenomena led to the continuous increase in financial expenditures, and the army's combat capability was low, so it could only continue to expand its troops, which seriously affected the national strength of the Song Dynasty.
In order to solve these problems, Wang Anshi during the Song Dynasty adopted a series of political, military, and economic reforms, hoping to achieve prosperity and strength of the Song Dynasty by changing the status quo.
Although his reforms caused some controversy, their original intention was to improve the poor and weak conditions of the Song Dynasty, which deserves our recognition.
On the issue of reform, Wang Anshi implemented a series of policies, such as the Qingmiao Law, the Law on Exemption from Military Use, and the Law of Equal Losses, aimed at increasing fiscal revenue, reducing the burden on the people, and curbing land annexation by powerful landlords.
Although these reforms faced obstruction from the old forces, Wang Anshi showed strong determination and courage, advocating that "the heavens are not afraid of change, the ancestors are not enough to be afraid of the law, and the words of people are not enough to be compassionate", firmly believing that reform is the way out for the country.
However, the old-fashioned forces were represented by Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Su Zhe and others, who insisted that the law of their ancestors could not be changed, advocated adhering to the policy set by Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, when he founded the country, and resolutely opposed the change of the law.
This struggle between the reform party and the conservative party finally unfolded in the court of Song Shenzong, which affected the future direction of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the court, the two factions had different views and did not make concessions to each other. During the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi gained his trust, the reform was implemented, and the New Party gained the upper hand for a while. In order to weaken the power of the old party, the new party member Zhang Dian and others suppressed the old party members, including the great writer Su Dongpo.
However, after the death of Song Shenzong, Zhezong ascended the throne at a young age, and the Empress Dowager Xuanren ** ruled the government. She was a supporter of the old party, and after coming to power, she used Sima Guang, restored the old system, and all members of the new party were demoted.
After the death of the Empress Dowager Xuanren, Song Zhezong, who was only 17 years old, took power in person and reactivated the members of the new party. Over the next 50 years, the two parties will alternate in power, with the old party repealing the new laws and the new party reforming the old laws.
Gradually, the struggle between the old and new parties was no longer a collision of ideas, but a battle of wills, and they attacked and denounced each other, which led to the chaos of the Northern Song dynasty. They only know how to attack each other, regardless of the suffering of the people, which has caused many unfortunate incidents.
In the ninth year of Yuan You, Empress Dowager Xuanren died, and the young Song Zhezong finally seized his own power.
Song Zhezong admired his father Song Shenzong very much, and in order to inherit the policy of Shenzong, he decided to change the era name to "Shao Sheng", this saint, of course, is Song Shenzong. In order to achieve Shaosheng's goal, Song Zhezong recalled the degraded New Party representative Zhang Dian and tried to continue to implement the reforms.
However, Su Zhe, a representative of the old party, objected to this, and he was not only promoted to prime minister by the Empress Dowager Xuanren, but also had a very large influence in the court. Su Zhe wrote a letter criticizing Song Shenzong's support for reform, and blamed Song Zhezong for his father's mistakes, arguing that Zhezong, as a son, should correct his father's mistakes, rather than blindly follow them.
He also compared Song Shenzong to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, believing that his changes could lead to the destruction of the country, which was saved thanks to Empress Dowager Xuanren's abolition of the new policy. This view sparked strong opposition from Song Zhezong and Empress Dowager Xuanren, and eventually, Zhezong expelled the high-ranking prime minister from the capital, despite the opposition of his courtiers.
Although Su Zhe was demoted, the power of the old party still cannot be ignored. The content of his recital won the support of the old party, which led them to start blocking the change. The old and new party and government, which were suppressed during the Yuanyou period, are now active again in the Shaosheng period, and even intensified, to the point where they cannot be cleaned up.
Su Zhe is one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, with outstanding literary talents and good character. However, he was in the whirlpool of partisan strife, and he couldn't help himself. His "Xiongwen" was originally to persuade Song Zhezong to stop the new policy, but in the end it became a political tool, which raised the original silent party struggle again, and finally extinguished the hope of the revival of the Great Song Dynasty.
And he himself became the first victim of the Shaosheng party struggle.