Northern Song Although it was the peak era of ancient Chinese social and cultural prosperity, it was also full of continuous political struggles. There are political disputes between the two sides of the struggle, and there are also flirting struggles. The most surprising thing is the political struggle caused by the former flirting comrades turning against each other. This is the political struggle between the Prime Minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, Fu Bi and Han Qi, and the struggle between them has also become the focus of discussion among history enthusiasts. Fu Bi and Han Qi were once comrades-in-arms during the Qingli New Deal period, but they turned against each other during the Song Yingzong and stood opposite each other in many political turmoils, and seemed to have to put the other party to death. This chapter analyzes the changes in the relationship between Fu Bi and Han Qi, and see how their relationship has moved from comrades to mortal enemies?
Fu Bi and Han Qi were both famous ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty, and were both prime ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty. They had an extremely important influence in the development of the history of the Northern Song Dynasty. Both of them were Jinshi during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song. They started as local officials. With their excellent political achievements, they were selected as one of the main team members of the Qingli New Deal. Although the Qingli New Deal ended in failure in just two years, Fu Bi and Han Qi have appeared on the stage of history and become one of the most popular political stars in the center of the Song Dynasty. During this period, Fu Bi and Han Qi were the right-hand men of famous ministers Fan Zhongyan, and had close relationships with Prime Minister Yan Shu, and became the closest comrades in the new policy team. Therefore, after the Qingli New Deal, they were valued by Zhao Zhen and were fortunate to be appointed as prime minister during the Jiayou period and become political partners.
However, after Song Renzong Zhao Zhen passed away and Song Yingzong Zhao Zhong ascended the throne, these two close comrades from the Qingli period stood opposite and became opponents of political struggle. Especially in the " Puyi dispute " initiated by Zhao Zhongshi in order to posthumously enfeoffed his historical status to Zhao Zhongshi, Fu Bi stood in the camp of two systems and Taiwan censors against Zhao Zhongshi, and fought against Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu, who supported the Puyi dispute, and fell into an endless political whirlpool. Therefore, many friends who are familiar with this history are puzzled by this. Why did their former close comrades-in-arms and prime ministers finally reach the point of turning against each other? What exactly happened between the two? Is their relationship taking a sharp turn and finally embarked on the road of hostility?
To explain the above problem, it actually starts with the problem of the difficult childbirth of the crown prince during the Jiayou period of Song Renzong. Because of the difficulty of retiring a son of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, the difficult situation of the crown prince of the Song Dynasty was difficult to give birth. As Zhao Zhen became old, the crown prince of the Song Dynasty became a political hidden danger to the court. In order to avoid the political crisis of the emperor's sudden death and the crown prince ascended the throne, the court officials at that time proposed to adopt the royal family's sons of Zhao Song and Zhao Zhen as the heirs. After discussion, Zhao Zhen's cousin Zhao Yun asked 's son Zhao Zongshi to be selected and was recommended by the prime minister's team at that time as Zhao Zhen's emperor's heir, on the grounds that Zhao Zongshi was taken to the palace to raise him when he was young. This recommended prime minister team is led by Wen Yanbo , while Fu Bi is the Grand Secretary of the Jixian Hall.
At that time, the prime minister team did a lot of work to promote Zhao Zongshi to become the crown prince, especially during Zhao Zhen's crazy illness, and he made every effort to promote the establishment of the crown prince. As mentioned in the previous article, Zhao Zhen was actually pretending to be sick to oppose the Crown Prince and delaying the handling of relevant government affairs, but Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi used this as an opportunity to forcibly promote the Crown Prince. Fu Bi even secretly connected with the eunuch Zhang Maoze around Zhao Zhen, and sent a message to Empress Cao through him, hoping that the empress would also support the establishment of Zhao Zongshi as the crown prince. Although this matter was finally abandoned under the political operation of Zhao Zhen's joint removal and fighting, Fu Bi's achievements in supporting Zhao Zhongshi cannot be ignored. However, after Zhao Zongshi ascended the throne, there was no quota for Fu Bi to be transferred to the ministers of Long and rewarded him.
Zhao Zongshi's reward was not only not the quota for Fu Bi, the second minister, but also the quota for Wen Yanbo, who first promoted Zhao Zongshi as the emperor's heir, which made many people feel dissatisfied at the time.The emperor ascended the throne to reward his subordinates and ministers was a hidden rule of the feudal court. In order to vigorously promote Zhao Zongshi, the two prime ministers who even offended Zhao Zhen were not on the list, which was completely incompatible with the political rules at that time. Judging from historical records, the key to this situation is Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu, who happened to be Fu Bi's comrades during the Qingli New Deal. How things have changed to this point still starts with the fact that Fu Bi and Han Qi work together to become prime ministers.
After the mad incident of Song Renzong Zhao Zhen, the then prime minister's team was impeached by court officials one after another. The main members of the team, including Prime Minister Wen Yanbo, were forced to dismiss the prime minister, but Fu Bi stayed because of Zhao Zhen's attention. Zhao Zhen reorganized the prime minister's team, Fu Bi was promoted to the Grand Secretary of Zhaowenguan and supervised the National History, and Han Qi was appointed as the Grand Secretary of Jixian Palace. According to the rules of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Grand Secretary of Zhaowenguan was the prime minister and the Grand Secretary of Jixian Palace was the second prime minister. Fu Bi and Han Qi became the new prime minister partners. Three years later, Fu Bi's mother passed away. According to the rules of the court, he needed to resign and mourn. Therefore, Han Qi succeeded to be the Grand Secretary of Zhaowenguan, Zeng Gongliang replaced Han Qi as the Grand Secretary of Jixian Palace, and Ouyang Xiu served as the official position of Deputy Prime Minister, General Secretary of Political Affairs.
According to the "Longchuan Biezhi" by the great writer Su Zhe , before Fu Bi left his post and mourned, he discussed the process of returning to the court with Han Qi. According to the Song Dynasty system regulations, officials could continue their original official positions after mourning, but the position of prime minister was relatively special, so there was no way to force the regulations. Especially when Fu Bi was the prime minister at that time, he was the number one official in the world. How could he continue to do it after mourning? If Fu Bi finished mourning, would his successor Han Qi return to his post as prime minister or what? This matter cannot be handled, so Han Qi rejected Fu Bi's suggestion. At that time, someone also made suggestions to Han Qi during Fu Bi's mourning, asking him to take a step back when Fu Bi's return, but Han Qi decisively refused.
court officials, including Su Che, all believed that in order to dominate the power of the prime minister, Han Qi deliberately blocked Fu Bi's path to return to the court, so the two had a rift. This statement is very well-founded. After Han Qi became the prime minister, he did a lot of things that blocked Fu Bi's official career. For example, after Fu Bi mourned, Song Renzong wanted to transfer him to Political Affairs Hall again, but was stopped by the three prime ministers, Han Qi, Zeng Gongliang and Ouyang Xiu. Song Renzong wanted to transfer Fu Bi to Privy Council as Privy Council, but Han Qi recommended Ouyang Xiu to serve as Privy Councilor, hoping to block Fu Bi's return. Although Fu Bi returned to serve as Privy Councilor, he had no real power, and the court and military and political power were completely controlled by Han Qi and his followers. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Song Dynasty, Sima Guang and Lu Hui impeached Han Qi, and mentioned that he had formed a large number of gangs and tyrannical power.
In order to dominate the government, Han Qi not only excluded and suppressed Fu Bi, but also suppressed former prime ministers who supported Zhao Zongshi as the emperor's heir, such as Wen Yanbo, Liu Han and other former prime ministers. Therefore, after Zhao Zongshi ascended the throne, he was rewarded with the relocation of Long Zhichen, and clearly affirmed the "decisive achievements" of Han Qi, Zeng Gongliang and Ouyang Xiu, but excluded former prime ministers such as Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Liu Han, and Wang Yaochen, who were the first to promote Zhao Zongshi. The return to the central government of the court was blocked and the decisive achievements were erased. How could Fu Bi give up? Therefore, his relationship with Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu deteriorated and eventually developed to the point of never stopping. The "Pu Dispute Controversy" initiated by Song Yingzong Zhao Zongshi became an important event in which their conflicts broke out completely, and also completely broke up the relationship between the two.
Because Zhao Zongshi is not Zhao Zhen's biological son, his status as emperor has been questioned by many members of the royal family. Especially before Zhao Zongshi ascended the throne, he had never even been the full-time official position of Kaifeng Prefecture, nor was he appointed as the crown prince, so there were some shortcomings in the process of ascending the throne. He ascended the throne in the name of the emperor's heir and needed to perform the imperial examination ceremony on Zhao Zhen, which means that Zhao Zhen was his father in terms of etiquette and law, and his biological father, King Pu Zhao Yunrang, needed to stand aside. Such various etiquette and law problems made Zhao Zongshi very embarrassed. In order to reverse the situation, Zhao Zongshi raised the issue of Puyi .This issue is essentially a recognition of the historical status of King Pu Zhao Yunrang. He only recognized Zhao Yunrang as the imperial examination, while Zhao Zhen was the imperial examination.
This matter is completely incompatible with the rules in terms of etiquette and law of the feudal dynasty, and morally it is also a night of breaking up bridges, so it was opposed by the ministers of the two systems led by Wang Gui and Sima Guang and the two systems of Jian . In order to stabilize the power of the prime minister, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu turned a blind eye to Zhao Zongshi's foul operation and stood in the camp of support. In order to suppress the voices against Pu's rebellion, they even demoted and deposed ministers in large quantities in order to achieve the goal of dominating the government. In this process, Fu Bi stood on the side of Sima Guang and others and actively joined the camp against Puyi. The political struggle between the two sides was very fierce. Because Fu Bi was the Privy Councilor, although his power was undermined by Han Qi, his status was relatively special, so he played a very important role in the Puyi dispute.
Later, although it was because Ouyang Xiu persuaded Empress Cao to withdraw from the battle that Zhao Zongshi won the Puyi dispute, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu completely offended officials all over the world. The two of them controlled the government and suppressed opposition ministers and were criticized by thousands of people, and were almost nailed to the pillar of shame in history. Shortly after the Puyi dispute subsided, Zhao Zongshi died, and the one who ascended the throne was Zhao Xu. Zhao Xu had originally opposed Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu's autocracy. After taking office, he secretly organized the overthrow of the political structure of the two who dominated the government. Because these two people offended officials all over the world in the Puyi dispute, and now there is no support from Song Yingzong, officials in the court and the opposition impeached Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu, and even fabricated an affair between Ouyang Xiu and his daughter-in-law.
During this process, Zhao Xu wanted to worship Fu Bi as prime minister many times, but Fu Bi refused to worship Prime Minister three times and tried his best to release him. Fu Bi's decision to retreat as a step forward made Zhao Xu decide to dismiss Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu. So shortly after Han Qi was dismissed from prime minister, Fu Bi was appointed as prime minister again, Wu Kui, who was affiliated with Wen Yanbo, replaced Ouyang Xiu as the chief political affairs. Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu began to dominate the government for thousands of years since the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, finally ended. Although Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu were pulled down from the position of prime minister, Fu Bi was still unwilling to accept it. He also organized the literary world to suppress the reputation of these two people. For example, the "Luoyang Elderly Association" he and Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang and others are typical representatives, which almost ruined Ouyang Xiu, the former literary leader.
Ouyang Xiu had just passed away, but Fu Bi set up the "Luoyang Elderly Association" with great fanfare. This organization is nominally a cultural organization established in Luoyang , but in fact it is a political alliance formed by Fu Bi and his followers. Luoyang is the Xijing of the Northern Song Dynasty. Its political status is very important and represents the mainstream direction of the national literary world. Ouyang Xiu was the leader of the literary world and one of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song dynasties. He led the ancient Chinese movement during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty. Fu Bi held the "Luoyang Elderly Association", which not only took place in the recent days after Ouyang Xiu's death, but also included celebrities in the literary world of the Northern Song Dynasty such as Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang, Cheng Yu , Shao Yong , but only missed Ouyang Xiu's closest ally Han Qi, and did not mention any words of Ouyang Xiu. He completely regarded the former literary leader as nothing, and his derogatory intention was obvious.
To sum up, although Fu Bi, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu were comrades-in-arms during the Qingli New Policy, with Fan Zhongyan's death, the conflicts between them gradually emerged and eventually developed into enemy rivals in political struggle. Their participation in the Qingli New Deal was not to support Fan Zhongyan's reform measures, but to have obvious political speculative purposes. When they took power, they all began to fight for the power in their hands and the interests of their families, completely abandoning their oath for the country and the people during the Qingli New Deal. In particular, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu completely ignored the ethics of officials and the court system, dominated the government for their own selfish interests, abused their power, and provoked rounds of political struggles. After being excluded and suppressed, Fu Bi also formed a large number of gangs to fight back, and eventually formed a situation of turning against each other and becoming enemies.
