Part 2 The Feast of the Golden Age: The Game of Scepters (158)
Song Jing has a strong personality. The advantage is that he can avoid evil tendencies, but the disadvantage is that he easily offends people, and he only offends those who are quick-witted and good at taking shortcuts. For example, there was a phenomenon at that time:
' First, envoys from the imperial court often brought goods to the capital, and when they returned in the spring, many of them moved to official positions. Song Jing played all the tricks to correct his shortcomings. ’
As mentioned earlier, the Chaoji envoys are mainly the governors, deputy governors, governors, governors, and chief historians of various places. These people go to the central government for a meeting at the end of the year and move around with money. By the time the meeting is over, they are almost done, and one by one they are promoted on the spot.
Song Jing had served two terms as governor-general and seven terms as governor, so he knew all about this bad habit. After taking power, he determined to rectify it and issued a new rule: all the envoys who came to the meeting would have their cadre adjustments frozen, and they would all go back where they came from. Now, not only was it impossible to suddenly run for office, but the big shots in the court also lost an opportunity to collect gifts together.
People who are good at exploiting the camp, including the famous people in front of the emperor mentioned earlier, are not many in number and have a lot of energy. Keeping this group of people under control will be of great benefit to the atmosphere of the officialdom. Therefore, the history books talk about Song Jing's "uprightness". The basic idea is to make government affairs transparent and to eliminate luck. This is a good remedy for the shortcomings of human governance in society.
" Zi Zhi Tong Jian " commented on Song Jing: " Dare to offend Yan Zhijian, I am very respectful and afraid of him. Although I don't agree with him, I still obey him." When Empress Jiazhen became prime minister, she sighed loudly when she read the case in the hall and saw his threatening words and earnest discussions. ’
The prime minister who succeeded Song Jing was named Zhang Jiazhen. I looked through the files of the Prime Minister’s Office ( Political Affairs Hall ) and sighed while reading: Song Jing is really fierce in giving opinions!
From the first year of Kaiyuan (713) to the eighth year, Yao Chong and Song Jing were in power one after another, each for four years. Back to the original question: What is the difference between them in these eight years? There are probably two differences between
. The first point of
is more obvious. It is a historical consensus and is called to bring order out of chaos.
" Old Tang Book ": " Yao, Song Jingwu, and Wei Erhou, political chaos and punishment for prostitution ", " New Tang Book ": " This day is the reason why the Tang Dynasty envoys are reviving." 'The Tang Dynasty experienced a relatively chaotic period from the Wu Zetianrevolution to Zhongzong and Ruizhong, with not only the struggles of the Li family, the Wu family, and the Webster family, but also the dynasty's middle age. Difficulty - As the country has been established for a long time, there are many shortcomings. If the chaos is not corrected in time, it may turn from prosperity to decline and go downhill early.
Xuanzong worked hard to govern, coupled with Yao Chongshan's solution to the problem, Song Jing's firmness and prudentness, and the combined efforts of the emperor and his ministers, they guided the ship of the Tang Dynasty back to the correct channel from the dangerous shoal full of crises. The second point of
is different, which is less obvious.
Correcting chaos is at the service level, or the actual work level, and Yao Song's greatest contribution is at an abstract level, or the retreat level: they worked hard to create an environment that maintained the emperor in a near-perfect state. The core of the
dynasty is the emperor. The emperor is also a human being, and he is the one who says "I am the best in the world." Anyone placed in that position will easily indulge themselves. Historically, Yao and Song were called prime ministers. Whenever the two of them came in to see each other, they would always pick him up, and when they left, they would see him off at Linxuan. When Li Linfu became the prime minister, although he was more favored than Yao and Song Dynasty, his courtesy was extremely humble! ’
On the surface, it is a difference in etiquette, but in fact it reflects a psychology and a state: whether the leader lowers himself or puts himself higher; whether he restrains himself or lets himself go. The departure of
Yao Song represents the end of a stage, that is, Li Longji has gone from a relatively perfect state to a less perfect state.
It is difficult to do things, and it is even more difficult to do things that make leaders uncomfortable. I think this is the most brilliant thing about Yao and Song, and it is also the secret of their ability to become a generation of wise prime ministers.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Li Longji once commented on the prime minister. When talking about Song Jing, he said: ' He was famous for his straightforwardness. ’ said that Song Jing was hypocritical and eye-catching. What does this mean? It shows that Li Longji has been forced to be a wise king all day long, and he has long been impatient.
This can also be seen from the dismissal of Song Jing.
Yao Chong dismissed the prime minister because his son and subordinates accepted bribes, and Song Jing dismissed the prime minister because of two things:
One was that the law was too strict. At that time, some officials who violated disciplines were dissatisfied with the results and clamored for appeals all day long. Song Jing was very annoyed and instructed the relevant departments to look at all these people (a bit like Shuanggui now), and said: Those who accept the punishment honestly will be released. Those who insisted on appealing were kept in detention. At that time, more than 300 people were detained.
This approach can hit some "thorns", but it is indeed not in compliance with the regulations.
The second thing is to deal with counterfeit currency.
This is a long-standing problem. Copper coins were also used in the Tang Dynasty, but inferior and counterfeit coins were repeatedly banned. Basically, official efforts to crack down on counterfeit coins were unsuccessful. The situation here is very complicated. It can be said that experts can write a thick book. The key points are two points, which is what Mr. Lu Simian said: ' addition and painting. ’
Tang Kaiyuan Tongbao
First, there was too little money, which was caused by copper and casting; second, there was an overflow of counterfeit money, which was caused by not enough real money and also by management. In short, the entire problem of and in the Tang Dynasty has not been solved.
But Song Jing didn’t know. He wanted to solve this problem. His idea was very simple: strictly enforce the law and destroy bad money.
Facts have proved that it is difficult to solve economic problems simply by administrative means. Song Jing and his men acted vigorously and resolutely, which can also be called simple and crude: they set a time limit and went door to door to collect bad money. As a result, not only was it ineffective, but everyone hid their money, causing prices to skyrocket and the people to complain.
As soon as these two incidents came out, Song Jing took leadership responsibility and was removed from the position of prime minister. " Jing was dismissed as Kaifu Yitong Sansi " and was promoted to the National People's Congress for retirement.
These two things are not matters of principle, they are deviations in work, which can be big or small. Li Longji replaced him. Firstly, it was a working method: the prime minister should not be in charge for too long and must be rotated regularly; secondly, he also wanted to change him. To change the atmosphere, after all, he has been the emperor for almost ten years. The two veteran cadres, Yao and Song, not only respect him in appearance, but are also always constrained in doing things. It’s time to relax!
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