In December 49 BC, Emperor Xuan of Han completed his legendary life; In the last stage of his life, what he was most concerned about was not his great achievements, but whether the crown prince Liu Zheng, as the prince, could bear the heavy responsibilities of the future; Can Xiao Wangzhi, the crown prince who he valued and reprimanded, be a reliable entrustment to Emperor Xuan before his death?
In the eyes of everyone, the crown prince Xiao Wangzhi is undoubtedly the best candidate for auxiliary government, his family background is prominent, he was diligent and studious when he was young, and was known as the great Confucian of Chang'an. However, when he met Huo Guang for the first time, there was a conflict because of Huo Guang's rules.
Xiao Wangzhi thought it was a naked humiliation, and even planned to leave. After Huo Guang heard about it, in order to show his thirst for talent, he decided to make an exception to give Xiao Wangzhi a chance.
In the end, Xiao Wangzhi was able to meet Huo Guang.
According to Huo Guang's assumption, my dignified auxiliary generals of the Han Dynasty have made an exception for Xiao Wangzhi, you should praise me as "Corporal Lixian", right? Who knows, Xiao Wangzhi did not take the usual path, and after seeing Huo Guang, he made a merciless accusation against Huo Guang, accusing Huo Guang of disrespecting intellectuals and not having the mind of Zhou Gong!
Huo Guang was so angry that his mouth was crooked! In the end, Wang Zhongweng and others, who were summoned by Huo Guang at the same time as Xiao Wangzhi, were all awarded official positions of various sizes; Only Xiao Wangzhi, who played with personality, was sent to see the city gate!
For more than ten years since then, due to Huo Guang's existence, Xiao Wangzhi's officialdom career has not been very smooth! In 68 B.C., a generation of powerful ministers Huo Guangxu died. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty knew that the Huo Guang family had already had a deep foundation in the Han Dynasty, and if he made a rash move, the success or failure was unknown!
Therefore, he was not in a hurry to attack the Huo family; Instead, while continuing to "reuse" Huo Guang's heirs and nephews, he was silently waiting for the change in the court situation. However, Xiao Wangzhi, who has been hanging for so many years, can't wait.
In the third year of the Dijie (67 BC), that is, in the summer of a year after Huo Guang's death, a very large hailstorm fell in the Guanzhong area, and Chang'an, the capital division, was particularly badly affected.
Xiao Wangzhi, who is very knowledgeable, believes that these disasters are completely fulfilled by the prophecy of the Confucian classics that "when the country is in chaos, there will be demons". Therefore, he quoted a lot of scriptures and classics and wrote to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty: expelling the Huo Guang family.
Rising from the predicament, Xiao Wangzhi became the right-hand man of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty. He bravely challenged the Huo Guang family and was promoted to the rank of senior officials of the Han Empire in one fell swoop. However, he was not satisfied with his appointment as the Plain Taishou.
He believed that his talents should be displayed in the center of the government, not in the outside world. So, he wrote to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty and expressed his dissatisfaction. His famous sayings and aphorisms, such as "if there are no contestants in the court, they do not know what is wrong, and if there is no master in the country, they will not hear the good", "all the officials will be sent out to make up for the county officials, and the so-called people who are worried about the end and forget their roots are also", which fully showed his conceit.
However, Emperor Xuan of Han did not bother with him, but instead recruited him into the Shaofu to manage the royal finances.
Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty wanted to let Xiao Wangzhi serve as the Taishou of the Plains to examine whether he had the talent to be the chief assistant. Later, he appointed Xiao Wangzhi as the number one leader in the Jingshi region, hoping to further observe his ability.
However, Xiao Wangzhi did not understand Emperor Xuan of Han's intentions and believed that he was being degraded, so he refused the appointment. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty had no choice but to convey it through his inner servants, so that Xiao Wangzhi understood that this transfer was for temporary training.
As for Xiao Wangzhi's tenure as Jing Zhaoyin, he once opposed letting people who had committed petty crimes provide food from their families to solve the food problem, and he believed that the monarch should teach the people to respect morality instead of pursuing profits.
However, this proposal was too idealistic in the context of the frontier crisis at that time.
Although Xiao Wangzhi is not useless in terms of being an official, he is always easy to look at people unpleasantly, and this time he has set his sights on Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty's life-saving benefactor, Bingji, who was the Xiangguo of the Han Dynasty at the time.
When he said that the problem of the Han Empire was that the three dukes did not do business, Emperor Xuan of Han was furious. Although Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty did not punish him in the face of the famous Confucian, he still deprived him of his actual position and only gave him the position of prince and concubine.
Xiao Wangzhi, who had been taught a lesson, finally became honest, and he made full use of his Confucian nature to successfully train the crown prince Liu Zheng into a "moral gentleman".
Xiao Wangzhi, a person who pretends to be high and sticks to morality and etiquette, eventually fell into trouble because of these qualities. He ignores the villain's conspiracy, which leads to his own imprisonment and eventually suicide.
All this proves that sticking to moral etiquette can make people unable to deal with real problems, and ignoring the machinations of villains can get people into trouble. Therefore, we must be flexible, not blindly adhere to moral etiquette, and at the same time be wary of the villain's conspiracy.