No one dares to tell the truth, it is a very dangerous thing | Zizhi Tongjian
【Occurrence time】
163 AD
【Tongjian Analysis】
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs controlled the court and constantly used imperial power to suppress political opponents, and Emperor Heng of Han Liu Zhi, another monarch who was greedy for pleasure and ignored the government.
In such a general environment, many people choose to protect themselves and dare not stand up. Because they knew that standing up meant telling the truth, and telling the truth would offend the eunuchs and the emperor. I will definitely not have a good ending if I offend these senior figures. Many of those who dare to come out to tell the truth have been framed and rarely have a good ending.
When we read " Guiguzi ", there is a passage in it that explains the phenomena in troubled times clearly.
"The world is wrong, the scholars have no wise rulers, and the princes have no morals, and the villains are slandered and thieves, and the wise do not use them. The sages hide, and those who are greedy for profit and deception are acted the same. The king and his subjects are confused, and the land is collapsed, and they are attacked, and the father and son are separated, and they are disobedient and rebellious. This is called a flirting and slandering."
In Guiguzi's view, if the world is wrong, there will be various wrong phenomena. In other words, if the world loses the norms, no one will take the norms to heart.
Staff members cannot meet a wise monarch, the prince only values interests, loses morality and ethics, and villains slander loyal ministers and thieves harm loyal and good people. The wise man cannot get everyone, the saint fled from troubled times and hid, and those who were greedy for profit and treacherous man emerged. The king and his subjects are suspicious of each other, and the entire country is about to collapse and fight against each other. In the family, father and son are separated, betrayed, chaotic, and rebelled into enemies. These are all states of social collapse, gaps appear and gradually expanding.
Because the Duke and Mausoleum are the people who have the right to formulate laws, if they have no morality, the entire law will lose its effect. Without regulations, there will inevitably be a power vacuum. All kinds of evil forces will use the power vacuum to grow up quickly.
In " Zhao Gong advised King Li to stop slandering ", he once told a story:
King Li was abused, and the people of the country slandered the king. The summoned an announcement and said, "The people are unable to bear their fate!" The king was angry and got the guard witch and ordered the slander. If you tell me, kill him. No one dares to speak out, and the road is clear.
Zhou Li Wang , Western Zhou , the tenth generation king, tyrannical and unjust.
Under the cruel rule of King Li of Zhou, the people complained and publicly accused King Li of Zhou of his faults.
Zhao Gong, King of Zhou. He said to King Li of Zhou: "The people can no longer bear the king's order."
King Li of Zhou was very angry and summoned a wizard from the Wei Kingdom to monitor and criticize him. The wizard reported to King Li of Zhou in a vain and King Li of Zhou in a vain order to execute them all. After that, the people of the country did not dare to speak and could only communicate with their eyes.
Back to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In 163 AD, the Secretary of Shang Zhu Mu Shang shu told the emperor that the eunuch's crimes were told to him. Zhu Mu believed that there were no restrictions on the people around the emperor before, only eunuchs could serve as the eunuch. It was not until was established in Eastern Han Dynasty that eunuchs were completely appointed.
As the eunuchs become more and more powerful, they can already be on par with all kinds of senior officials, and the administrative power of the country has gradually fallen into their hands.
As one person is enlightened, the relatives and children of eunuchs have gradually penetrated into the center of state power, and the number of people has become arrogant.
Zhu Mu put forward a very radical view, that is, fire all the eunuchs and restore the previous normal system. At the same time, those who are ambitious should also be invited to work in the center.
We can see that Zhu Mu's words are not without reason, but in the political situation at that time, such a concept was basically impossible to achieve.
The government affairs in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, from foreign relatives to eunuchs, were not really in the hands of the monarch.The monarch is also an incompetent monarch who cannot balance the strength of all parties. Either the relatives of the outside world are very powerful or the eunuchs are very powerful. And the stronger party will gradually lose the emperor's attention.
If you want to restore to normal system, you must first clean up all the eunuchs, which is very difficult in itself. Moreover, after the eunuchs have cleaned up, they have to change to a truly capable monarch to master the court. Otherwise, if the eunuchs fall, maybe the relatives of the foreigners will rise. If the relatives of the foreigners fall, maybe there is no end to the civil servants and military officials.
So, we say that although Zhu Mu's idea is good, it is impossible to achieve it. Sure enough, Zhu Mu's letter received no response. It can be known that this memorial, which was full of malicious intentions to the eunuch, was intercepted by the eunuchs and they also knew about it. After knowing it, the next step is to start laying out and clean up such a messenger.
The first time I wrote the book, there was no response, and Zhu Mu continued to do the second time. He seized the opportunity and made a statement to the emperor in person. What I said is about the abolition of eunuchs.
This time, Liu Zhi reacted very much, his face changed drastically, and his mouth was closed. If this description is factual, then we can see Liu Zhi’s inner activities. He knew that eunuchs controlled the government and covered the sky with only one hand, but he dared not speak out and did not dare to resist. Therefore, when Zhu Mudian had a real situation, he did not dare to speak. The people around
are naturally eunuchs, so they drove Zhu Mu away immediately. Zhu Mu had no choice but to withdraw in embarrassment.
This time, it completely angered the eunuch group. They kept using the emperor's name to criticize Zhu Mu. And Zhu Mu is another very strong person. As they kept scolding, they were extremely depressed and unable to resist at all. In the end, they could only die of illness.
Even the Huangfugui , which had a lot of military achievements, could not compete with them in the end, let alone Zhu Mu. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms were divided into three countries. As we said before, it was the Eastern Han Dynasty itself who dismembered the Eastern Han Dynasty. The one who gave birth to , the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the one who fired the first shot of the uprising was also the Eastern Han Dynasty itself.
[Class-bypass]
