In 1127 A.D., the first year of Jianyan, Chen Dong, the “May Fourth Youth” of the Song Dynasty, was secretly ordered by Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty to be “beheaded in the city” for the crime of gathering people to seek trouble and attempting to subvert the Song Dynasty.
The secret order was only given to Chancellor Huang Qianshan, who fooled Yingtian Prefect Meng Yu and asked him to summon Chen Dong to a meeting. When Chen Dong received the summons, he knew that he would surely die, so he “asked for food and went on his way, wrote in his hand about his family affairs in the district, and drew pictures and words as usual, and gave them to his followers, saying: ‘I will die, and you will return to this to my relatives. (History of Song Dynasty – Biography No. 214 – Zhong Yi 10 – Chen Dong Zhuan, the same below)
He was very calm and applied to the official for a full meal before leaving, and wrote a handwritten letter to deal with the aftermath, with the same handwriting as usual, and said to his subordinates after writing, “After my death, you will give this handwritten letter to my family.
After eating, Chen Dong said he needed to go to the bathroom, and the official had a difficult look on his face, probably because he was afraid of urinating. Chen Dong smiled and said, “I, Chen Dong, do not dare to speak if I am afraid of death, but I am willing to escape death if I have already spoken?”
I, Chen Dong, fear of death is not afraid to speak the truth, both speak the truth is not afraid of death.
Throw the ground, so that today’s back wave did not reach the beach on the ground shame death.
Chen Dong, who is he?
The history of the Song Dynasty: “Chen Dong, the word Shaoyang, Zhenjiang Danyang people. Long ago, he had a great voice, and he was so bold and negative that he didn’t care about poverty.”
The literati of Jiangnan, who had talent and high self-esteem since childhood, had a poor and strong will.
Chen Dong lived in an era when the Song dynasty had long passed the bonus period that later literati aspired to, and the Zhao dynasty was plagued by internal and external problems: the Jin Dynasty was pressing its troops outside, and the powerful minister Cai Jing was dictating the rules of the dynasty inside, so no one dared to say anything. The guests were afraid of being tired of themselves and led away a little”.
No other, not only afraid of being his cynicism, but also afraid of being involved in him.
People who tell the truth, in which dynasty and which generation are so god-awful.
After Song Huizong retired, Song Qinzong reigned, Chen Dong thought the new emperor will have a new weather, “rate of its apprentices Vol Que on the book”, that is, leading students to kneel collectively outside the courthouse door to the emperor’s petition, asking “to kill six thieves”, that is, including Cai Jing, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, Zhu Yi mi ǎn, Wang Chengfǔ, Tong Guan, including the six traitors, and their heads on a nationwide tour, so as to deter other power traitors.
Does it work?
Just a few days after Chen Dong’s petition, Song Qinzong decreed that the “six thieves” in the Zhu Qi dismissal, Wang Shao deputized and expelled from the central, Li Yan given death and copied the family.
Of course, to say that Song Qinzong did so all Chen Dong’s credit, but also too exaggerated. For one thing, Chen Dong’s appeal was endorsed by the majority of the court, dealing with the “six thieves” is the popular will of the people; for another, Song Qinzong also wanted to take the power minister of the previous dynasty to open the knife to establish authority. But no matter what, Chen Dong and his student movement were able to influence the power pattern of the court, which was an indisputable fact.
In the following year, when the Jin army was once again in force and Huizong fled under the hostage of Tong Guan, Chen Dong once again submitted a separate petition, asking for troops to be sent to hunt down Tong Guan and bring him back as a typical example, and again requesting that all the “six thieves” be killed.
This time the petition was also fruitful, because it was not Chen Dong’s opinion alone, and Song Qinzong was pressured to “banish” Liang Shicheng, one of the “six thieves” who had contributed to his rise to power. In the following months, under the repeated suggestions of the ministers and the repeated petitions of Chen Dong, Song Qinzong finally deported Cai Jing, the head of the “six thieves”, as well as Tong Guan and Zhu Tiwei, and finally Cai Jing died in exile in Hainan, Tong Guan was decapitated and Zhu Tiwei was also given death.
So far, in the Chen Dong-headed tai students and the court “body Jian” under the combined efforts of the six powerful ministers led by Cai Jing have all been put to death.
Throughout the dynasties, you have never seen that the words of the student leaders have such a great power.
But these few petitions, for Chen Dong, is only a small test, as the situation in the Great Song is more turbulent, he initiated the “Song version of the May Fourth” of the mega student movement, is booming.
Even if you don’t read history, you should have heard that at that time, the Zhao-Song dynasty was divided between the warring faction and the peacemaking faction. After Cai Jing, the famous “prodigal chancellor”, Li Bang Yan, was the head of the warring faction, while the main warring faction was Li Gang and Seed (Chóng) Shidao (the “old seeds of the minister” that Lu Zhishen had in mind in Water Margin).
In the first month of the first year of Jingkang, because of a small defeat in the defense of Tokyo, Li Bongyan found an excuse to remove Li Gang from the post of Minister of War, and ceded three towns to the Jin state for peace.
The good minister was sidelined, the traitorous minister sold out the country, ceding land for peace, this scenario, how familiar …… is the same as the Paris Peace Conference before May 4. Chen Dong originally did not know Li Gang, only know him as the main war loving Song generals, learned that he was dismissed by Li Bongyan, angry, once again “rate of all the students to voluntarily Xuande door under the petition”.
Although Chen Dong’s petition was only a few hundred words, but every word sobbed blood, pointing out that Song Qinzong had not used the right people, and strongly advocated the use of Li Gang, Repulsive Bongyan, and the last sentence was particularly bold: “The use of the time, can not be examined!
This is simply pointing at the emperor’s nose to scold, how can you be so careless in the use of people, do you have culture or not?
In other emperors, Chen Dong would have been lynched a hundred times, but Song Qinzong did not do so, because Chen Dong was not fighting alone, but “tens of thousands of soldiers and people followed him” (Song Shi – Chen Dong Zhuan). The “Three Dynasties Northern Alliance” says that “hundreds of thousands of people met without expectation”.
Hundreds of thousands may be a bit exaggerated, think about it, the square outside the Xuande Gate, in addition to Chen Dong led the tai students, and the black masses of tens of thousands of petitioners, the situation, which the emperor in his right mind would not dare to move.
So, “the book was heard and the decree was passed to console those who were beside the noon”. Song Qinzong received Chen Dong’s petition, can only keep sending people to console, saying that I will certainly consider your views.
But the emperor so soft to convince is not good, “the crowd is not willing to go, the party raised deng wen drums Laos bad, the clamor to shake the ground”. The Emperor’s voice was heard, and even the Dengwen drums (the drums that are beaten when there are grievances or urgent matters) were broken, and all the people shouted in unison, shaking the ground.
When the masses were agitated, a eunuch came out and said, “The Song Dynasty is too big and complicated for you to use black or white in this way ……” before he finished his sentence, he was torn by the hands of the angry masses.
Really hand tearing. The original text of the Song history – Chen Dong biography: “There is a middleman out, the crowd skinny and limber.” The middleman is also a eunuch; skin and limber, i.e. cut to pieces.
(At this point, please allow me to laugh maliciously and dehumanizingly.
In all mass events, there is always an excess of action. In Li Gang’s own chronicle, Jingkang Zhuangshilu, it is even more serious.
Then killed and wounded more than twenty eunuchs, all of them skinned, although the hair and bones of those who did not survive, but criticized and insulted the Chancellor Li Bongyan …… and other beatings, all scattered and hid.
The two dozen eunuchs were killed, cursed and beaten by the prime minister of the dynasty, compared to these, the burning of the Zhao family building is nothing. However, doing so broke the bottom line of peaceful protests, which would have been suppressed by the military in those pseudo-democracies in the West today.
What did Song Qinzong do? “Then the urgent edict Tseng into, again led the line camp, sent fuzzy oracle, was slightly led to go”. He immediately summoned Li Gang to the court, reinstated him, and then sent him to personally announce the edict to pacify the students, which calmed the storm.
Chen Dong and the tai student movement under his leadership were once again victorious.
The fact that Chen Dong was able to do so was both a hero making the time and the time making the hero.
The Song dynasty was the most dramatic period of the tai student movement since the Eastern Han Dynasty. Before Chen Dong, during the time of Emperor Zhezong of the Song Dynasty, there was a collective petition of several thousand eunuchs to retain a retired old cadre; during the reign of Emperor Huizong, there were also eunuchs such as Li Biao and Chen Chaolao, who submitted a petition to denounce the shortcomings of the imperial government.
Regardless of whether the oath of the Song Emperor “not to kill the scholars” was true or not, it is true that from the mid to late Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, no literati were killed for their words, and the protest movement of the young students, “although the ruler and the minister were honored, no one dared to disobey, and if they disobeyed, the scholars were in an uproar” (Huang Xian (gem “the Song dynasty students to save the country movement” of Deng Zhicheng preface).
The emperor, the prime minister how high and powerful, but also dare not disrespect the views of the students, otherwise, the scholar public outcry.
In the intellectual opinion of the ruler, then bad can not be bad. Therefore, the Song dynasty for more than 300 years, 18 emperors, there are bright rulers and faint rulers, there is no tyrant.
If so, why did Chen Dong still die?
He led the “Song Five-Four Movement”, which scared the new emperor: Song Gaozong.
After the disaster of Jingkang and the captivity of the two emperors Huichin and Qin, Song Gaozong Zhao Gu assumed the throne in Yingtianfu (today’s Shangqiu, Henan Province) and appointed Li Gang, a warlord, as his minister in order to buy the hearts of the people, make a new gesture and secure the throne. In a few days, he summoned Chen Dong, the leader of opinion, to the court, ready to hire him according to his talents.
The new emperor had a new costume, but it did not last long. Song Gaozong’s small calculations, is to move the capital of the southeast to a corner, what regained lost land to welcome back the two emperors, shouting slogans on it. Therefore, the appointment of Li Gang as a minister only two or three months, and then dismissed him, and instead reused Huang Qianshan, Wang Boyan, etc., who supported his partiality. Chen Dong learned that, once again, the arms and cry, “is a letter begging to stay in the platform and remove Huang Qianshan, Wang Boyan. Not reported. Please personally to return to the two saints, ruling the generals do not enter the army of the crime, as a morale; carriage back to the capital, do not fortune Jinling. Not reported again”.
The request to use Li Gang and abandoned Huang, Wang, Song Gaozong can still tolerate; the later “please personally conquer to return to the two saints” and “return to the capital, do not fortune Jinling”, that is really stroking the dragon Lin, the naivety of the literati exposed, and later Yue Fei stepped on the same mine, must die.
Coincidentally, at the same time as Chen Dong’s petition, another named Ouyang Che also petitioned, making the same appeal. Ouyang Che is the body of cloth, probably also fell into the poison of “the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of everyone”, thought that the speech can really change the Great Song, in addition to political appeals, but also directly pointed out that Song Gaozong “palace pampering” (indulge in female sex).
These literati, ah, really three days without a fight, on the room to reveal the tile, actually tube to the emperor’s lower body up, is intolerable which can not be tolerated.
Of course, the emperor contributed to kill the literati, or literati – by Chen Dong suggested the removal of Chancellor Huang Qianshan (a scholar, of course, is also a literati origin). Huang received the petition of two people, “suddenly angered Gao Zong with words, said not urgent to kill, will repeat the drums of the crowd to ambush the que”.
Rather than provoke, it is more like intimidation: “Your Majesty, look, if these people are not killed quickly, that storm of the previous dynasty will recur.”
With a single word, the emperor raised his butcher’s knife.
The scene of tens of thousands of people gathering outside the palace gates to protest with one voice, which Song Gaozong must have seen when he was an imperial brother, was really frightening to the baby. Kill two people to make it not happen again, who does not kill who stupid.
So, there was the scene at the beginning of this article.
According to the “History of the Song Dynasty”, when Chen Dong and Ouyang Che were killed, “know and do not know all for shed tears”. It seems that the quality of the people in the Song dynasty was still good, and did not have a knife waiting to pluck their flesh to eat.
However, what readers of history did not expect was that after killing Chen Dong and Ouyang Che, the “May Fourth Movement” of the Song Dynasty was not extinguished. From the south of the Jin army to the invasion of Yuan and Meng, the Southern Song dynasty, the “May Fourth Movement” with students as the main force was incessant, and even gave birth to many students who were willing to die in the face of the Jin army or Yuan and Meng invaders, the so-called “Song Dynasty Taixue, more loyal and righteous people” is not a saying. The saying “Song Dynasty Taixue, many loyal and righteous people” is not a boast.
What is more unexpected is that only three years after killing Chen Dong and Ouyang Che, Song Gaozong regretted it, according to the “History of Song – Chen Dong”.
The more three years, Gao Zong felt enlightened and posthumously gave Dong and Chul the title of “Cheng Shi Lang”. Dong had no son, but the official had one serving relative, and Chul had one son, so he ordered the state and county to nurture his family. When he passed Zhenjiang, he sent the minister to pay respect to Dong’s tomb and gave 500 coins. In the fourth year of Shaoxing, he also added the minister of the court and the secretary of the cabinet, the next two officials, and gave ten hectares of land.
The posthumous title, give the title, of course, these are only to do vindication gesture. But such a gesture, after all, is considered an account of history. And this kind of account, in the dark and decaying Southern Song dynasty, but also only with three years.
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