The teacher won’t tell you, the story of Kuang Heng’s stealing light is actually only half of the book.

About the story of "cutting the wall and stealing light", I must be familiar with it.

probably talked about that in the Western Han Dynasty, there was a child named Kuang Heng who was born in a poor family and couldn't even afford lamp oil at home. However, Kuang Heng did not give up studying because of this. In order to have light to read at night, he drilled a small hole in the wall and read by the candle light through the small hole. It was with this insistence that Kuang Heng moved the neighbors. The neighbors not only did not blame him for piercing the walls of his house, but also lent him the book to read.

Study diligently without candles, and neighbors cannot catch candles with candles. Heng is to draw the light through the wall, and read it with the book reflecting the light.

This story comes from "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes". It is often used by teachers to teach students to be like Kuang Heng, no matter what kind of environment they are in, they must persist in learning.

There is no doubt that this story is very educational. Kuang Heng's hard work should be an example for us scholars.

However, the teacher only told half of the story...

The Kuang Heng in the story is indeed a person in history. As the story tells, Kuang Heng was born in poverty, had no money at home, and did not have good conditions to study when he was young.

But Kuang Heng was not affected by such an environment. He studied very hard and eventually became a famous Confucian and Confucianist master at that time.

However, the Western Han Dynasty was not the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, there was no imperial examination system.

So high learning does not mean you can achieve your ideals.

The talent selection system in the Western Han Dynasty is the supervision system, which is a system of selecting talents from the bottom up. There are many standards, and there are four main ones:

One is that morality is exquisite, and aspirations are innocent; the second is to learn to practice, doctor in Jingzhong; the third is to understand the decrees, which are sufficient to resolve doubts and can be asked by chapter, and the literary history; The fourth day is fortitude and resoluteness, not to be confused by things, to make decisions clearly, and to serve as the third assistant order. All of them are filial brothers and honest.

And knowledge is only one of them, and more importantly, it depends on your character, that is, your reputation. So we saw that the officials of the Western Han Dynasty had some commendable stories when they were young, such as Kuang Heng's chiseling a wall and stealing light, Kong Rong letting pears and so on.

Of course, because this system is essentially an "election", the children of large families often have an advantage. After all, its visibility and reputation are more convenient.

It is for these reasons that Kuang Heng, who was born at the bottom, does not have a good upward path. He was a candidate for nine times, and was finally on the list. He was assigned a post-graduate official position, which is equivalent to today's archivist.

But Kuang Heng had good luck. At that time, the prince Liu Xi, who was later the Emperor of the Han and Yuan Dynasty, admired Kuang Heng's classics very much, so he had a close relationship with Kuang Heng.

is the so-called near the water to get the moon first, Kuang Heng climbed the crown of the prince, naturally prosperous.

After Liu Shi ascended the throne, he was promoted to Kuang Heng. He was transferred from Taiyuan County to Chang'an City. From a young age, he was promoted to a doctor, and became a close minister to the emperor.

Later, Kuang Heng was promoted all the way, from a doctor to a doctor and then to giving, Kuang Heng completed the triple jump, from a scholar who focused on the study of classics, turned into a political figure, in a real sense. Belongs to his official career.

Guishi is a relatively special official position in the Western Han Dynasty. Although the rank is not high, it has the right to remonstrate and discuss politics. It can picket a hundred officials and the emperor directly, which is equivalent to what we know later. Yushi.

This identity gave Kuang Heng an opportunity to make his speech range not only limited to discussing classics with the emperor, but to express his own political opinions.

For such an opportunity, of course Kuang Heng will not let it go. Through the long-term contact with the Emperor of Han Yuan to understand, in addition, combined with the stubborn illnesses that I had seen from the bottom level that were rarely seen in the court.

Kuang Heng directly to Han Yuan EmperorHere comes a set of honest and straightforward advice:

"Reduce the degree of the palace, save the luxury of decoration, test the system, repair the inside and outside, be close to loyalty, and be far from clever." A pure white man, the road of no desire"-"Han Shu Kuang Heng Biography"

In fact, the content is also the usual things, but the key is that others dare not speak and Kuang Heng said it.

Because before Han Yuan Emperor, Han Xuan Emperor Liu Xun adopted a strict rule of law strategy. Kuang Heng's "being a gentle person, retreating to a mean official" is somewhat dissatisfied with the meaning of Emperor Han Xuan's administration. Maybe it is a crime of disrespect.

But Kuang Heng knew the Emperor of Han Yuan very well, he knew that he was gentle and benevolent and Confucian, did not like strict laws, and was good at ethical governance. And in previous discussions, Kuang Heng also knew that after Emperor Han Yuan became the throne, he always wanted to overthrow the first emperor, adopt Confucianism, and promote moral governance. It just suffers from the somewhat unfilial taste, I don't know where to mention it.

Therefore, Kuang Heng's suggestion this time can be regarded as an excuse for Emperor Han Yuan to govern. The Emperor of Han Yuan was naturally extremely happy, so Kuang Heng was promoted again, from the fifth-ranking to the second-ranking doctor Guanglu, specializing in the responsibility of discussion. Its status is very high, second only to San Gong. In the monitoring system, his power is a bit smaller than that of the doctor.

Obviously, Kuang Heng at this time has entered the power center of the Western Han Dynasty.

Of course, this is far from the pinnacle of Kuang Heng. It didn't take long for Kuang very to succeed in becoming a regular, and he was promoted to Yushi doctor, ranking third.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Yushi doctor was actually the deputy prime minister, and it could be said that he was the second in command of the civil servants. The meaning of its existence is more often to take over the prime minister's class.

So in 36 BC, due to the death of Prime Minister Wei Xuancheng, Kuang Heng naturally became the Prime Minister, the prime minister of the country's government affairs, and the minister.

No one thought that the poor boy who smashed the wall and stole the light at the beginning can now rank among the three, becoming a big man under one person and above 10,000.

If the story ends here, it is naturally very inspirational.

However, Destiny likes to make jokes so much, he has reached the pinnacle of his life, Kuang Heng, and also lost himself.

After becoming the prime minister, Kuang Heng is no longer jealous and upright as before. He began to become sleek, cherished feathers, and even greedy money and power.

At that time, the eunuch Shi Xian under the emperor of Han Yuan, self-reliant on the emperor's favor and disturbed the court line. Not only form parties for personal gains, but also fight against dissidents. Moreover, they cleverly set up names, wantonly occupying land, and exploiting the people, causing complaints from the people below.

As the prime minister, Kuang Heng leads all officials and is in charge of state affairs. Shi Xian’s actions should have been discouraged. However, Kuang Heng was afraid of Shi Xian's power, not only did not impeach Shi Xian, but also sheltered him everywhere in order to please him, hoping that he could say something for himself before the emperor.

It is precisely because of Shi Xian's rebellion and Kuang Heng's inaction. In the later period of Emperor Han Yuan's rule, the national power was gradually declining, the government was not correct, and the people were not living.

It is worth mentioning that after the death of Emperor Han Yuan, Emperor Cheng of Han came to the throne. He did not like Shi Xian, so Shi Xian began to lose power.

Kuang Heng discovered that Shi Xian was out of power, and immediately sent a call to impeach Shi Xian, and the ministers agreed. Soon, Shi Xian was dismissed from office. In the end, Shi Xian, who was betrayed by his ally, died on a hunger strike halfway back to his hometown.

I have to say that Kuang Heng has done very well in this matter. Not only did he separate himself from Shi Xian, he also gained popular support and returned to the top of politics.

Shi Xian's downfall, everyone took it first.

The new emperor respects him, the officials obey him, and the people admire him. How high was Kuang Heng's status at that time? His son killed someone, and the people petitioned for him, and even the emperor personally voiced his shelter.

I have to say that this hand crossing the river to demolish the bridge is superb.

But paper can never contain fire. An old official fox like Kuang Heng will always show his tail.

When Kuang Heng was appointed Prime Minister, he was also named Anlehou, with a fief of 310,000 mu. For Kuang Heng, who was born in a poor family, this is undoubtedly a great asset. But the poor and afraid Kuang Heng was not satisfied with the status quo. He relied on his power to expand more than 40,000 mu of land on the original fief. Occupy the land of a large number of people around the fief.

I don’t know when, this incident was stabbed to Emperor Han Cheng. The image of the former emperor and veteran, his teacher, who was once full of Confucianism and Mencius, collapsed in the mind of Emperor Han Cheng. Emperor Han Cheng was very angry, he felt deceived.

As a result, Kuang Heng was severely punished. He was not only dismissed from his official position, but also deprived of all his titles. Kuang Heng was tossed throughout his life, and finally returned to the original point and became a commoner with nothing.

Of course, for Kuang Heng, his fame also disappeared.

Prior to this, Kuang Heng was an absolute idol of that era. He smashed the wall to steal light, studied hard, and eventually became a powerful inspirational story that has affected too many people.

But now everyone knows that this so-called idol is just a thief. The faith in their hearts collapsed instantly, and faith is priceless!

Finally, Kuang Heng, who was lonely and helpless, died of illness at home.

The ending of Kuang Heng is embarrassing. In this regard, I can only sigh: Perhaps character and talent are never the same thing!