It is no longer news that people in the Tang Dynasty like to add gold when writing epitaphs. It is not uncommon for people in the Tang Dynasty to hide evil and promote good, whitewash things and make things out of thin air. The people of the Tang Dynasty themselves also have a clear understanding of this. : "Anyone who writes with ambition and records of beauty should not fail to celebrate the past and use the changes in Yuling Valley so that future generations can see and respect them. Those who do not achieve the title of husband must also imitate the previous rules. The garden is so far-reaching that more than half of the people in the world regard the text as doubtful, because they don’t believe it is true.”
Looking at these epitaphs, we can see that the ancients often paid attention to two things when writing epitaphs: first, keeping secrets for the deceased. , do not expose its shortcomings; the second is to praise the deceased, or even make something out of nothing to add gold to it. Bai Juyi's poem "Qin Zhongyin·Erecting a Stele" mocked this phenomenon:
As moral virtues decline, so do articles. But I saw a stone in the mountain and erected it as a roadside monument.
His honors are known to the Grand Duke, and his virtues are all Zhongni. Again, more is valuable, and a thousand words are worth a thousand dollars.
Who is writing this article? I want to see you when I write it. But those who desire fools will be pleased, but those who do not care for the wise will laugh at them.
How can it be that only the wise sneer, but they are still passed down to future generations to question. The words on the ancient stone and green moss, An Zhi is a shameful word.
I heard that in Wangjiang County, the order of Qu was used to caress the girl. There is benevolent government in the official position, but the reputation is not known in the capital.
When he died and wanted to be buried, the people covered the road. He was not allowed to return to the mountain, so he was buried on the Yangtze River.
To this day, both men and women shed tears when they hear his name. No one erected a monument, only the people in the town knew about it.
The records on the stone tablets are all about people who are as good as Jiang Taigong and as virtuous as Kong Zhongni. Only in this way can they have the chance to be passed down to future generations. However, those who are truly talented and hard-working have not set up monuments to praise them. , we can only let the reputation be submerged in the years, and in the end only the locals know it. Bai Juyi's poem satirizes this trend of showing off one's family status and praising one's virtues in order to erect monuments. Because according to historical records, in order to get a good epitaph for the deceased at that time, people often paid a large sum of money to find someone to write it. The writer was driven by huge profits and did not care about the personality of the deceased. What are the moral deeds? Just to meet the needs, he can write words with great merits and virtues as great as Jiang Taigong and Confucius, which will be ridiculed by sages and make future generations doubtful.
There is a record in the "Old Tang Book·Li Yong's Biography": "Yong is good at talents and has a long stele. Although he was demoted, many people in China and North Korea, as well as in temples and temples around the world, held gold and silk. I went to ask for his writings. He made hundreds of poems and received as much as ten thousand as gifts. It was considered that no one in ancient times had made as much money as Yong."
Li Yong was in the Tang Dynasty. A famous calligrapher in the dynasty, he was especially good at inscriptions praising virtues. Precisely because of his powerful life skills of "getting gold by writing inscriptions", although Li Yong was often demoted, his livelihood was not a problem, and he could even use the writing fees to earn money. To cope with the huge expenses required to make friends and travel.
Liu Yuxi once said in his memorial to Han Yu: "The stele of Gong Dinghou is a symbol of ambition. The price of one word is as much as a mountain of gold." It was mentioned that Han Yu was good at writing inscriptions and often gave them to others through Earning huge royalties from writing inscriptions.
In fact, Han Yu once wrote a tombstone for Wang Yong, so he received "a horse, a saddle, a bit and a white jade belt" as reward. Han Yu also highly praised Han Hong's contribution in "Ping Huaixi Monument", so he received "five hundred pieces of silk" from Han Hong, which was equivalent to 400 guan. However, Han Yu's monthly salary at that time was only 25 guan. The money is only three hundred guan a year, so it can be seen that this kind of writing fee is extremely considerable. As for Han Yu's other "grave flattering" works, they were ridiculed by people at the time. His friend Liu Cha was once very jealous of the retouching fees Han Yu earned from writing inscriptions. He took several kilograms of gold from him and walked away, and even plausibly said: "You This is obtained by flattering the dead, why not give it to me as living expenses."
After Bai Juyi wrote the epitaph for Yuan Zhen, he also received "Zang Huo, Yu Ma, and Ling" worth 600,000 to 700,000 yuan. "Silk, silver saddle and jade belt." Although Bai Juyi was unwilling to accept it because of his friendship with Yuan Zhen, he had no choice but to donate these properties to Xiangshan Temple for the purpose of repairing the temple.
Precisely because the rewards for writing epitaphs are so generous, and driven by such huge interests, the writers of these epitaphs have no choice but to whitewash the deceased and even confuse right and wrong and make things out of thin air.
However, this kind of behavior of "getting gold by writing articles" is always not looked down upon. "Taiping Guangji" records such a story: "The Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Yu, likes to write monuments for others. There are people who send money. , mistakenly knocked on the right door of Wang Weimen, and said: "The great writer is over there."
Even Du Fu once wrote a poem to ridicule people like Li Yong who wrote epitaphs in exchange for huge royalties: " The door is full of greetings, and the stele is illuminated by four descendants. There are coral hooks in the house, and the swords are made of purple swords. "My old friend went to Nanjun to ask for the money for the stele." Live, the order room hangs upside down."
This shows the disdainful attitude of people at that time towards these people who were good at writing epitaphs.
Of course, putting gold on epitaphs is not a habit only found in the Tang Dynasty, but has existed since ancient times. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, someone clearly pointed out this phenomenon of epitaphs being gilded. "Luoyang Jialan Ji" pointed out pointedly: "A mediocre person in life. And in death, the inscription The epitaph is all about the great virtues of heaven and earth, who did his best to bring peace to the people, and who served as kings, Yao and Shun, and as ministers and Yigao officials. Thanks for his uprightness. It is said that he was born as a thief and died as a barbarian. False words harm justice and rhetoric harms reality. "
A person is just a mediocre person when he is alive, but after his death, his inscriptions are full of inscriptions. Collect all the great virtues in heaven and earth and all kinds of good things that living people can do. If this person is a king, then he can compete with Yao and Shun; if this person is a minister, then he has the same political achievements as Yi Yin. It is said that he was a great thief and robber when he was alive, but after his death he could be disguised as a figure like Boyi Shuqi. These are all using false and gorgeous rhetoric to undermine the truth.
There are too many examples in epitaphs of concealing evil and promoting good, whitewashing the world, and making things out of thin air. For example, historical records record that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty Huangfu Deyi fell out of favor very early. During the period when Huangfu Deyi was seriously ill in the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong was busy doting on Concubine Wu Hui, and Concubine Wu Hui was busy framing the prince Li Ying, King of E Li Yao and other princes. Li Yao, the son of Huangfu Deyi, was also panicked because his biological mother fell out of favor and could not speak for herself, but this did not hinder the tombstone General Huangfu Deyi praised him as a peerless beloved concubine:
"I have served you the longest, and beautiful women are rare. When delivering medicine, it must pass through the hand of the emperor, and when you go to bed, you will walk in the sky. Envoy of the Yuezhi, Kong Talking about the fragrance of reviving the soul; the image of the wife of the Han Emperor returning from the end of pain."
When Huangfu Deyi was seriously ill, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty personally gave her medicine to drink every day, waiting for her to sleep peacefully. After that, he lingered at the gate of the palace and refused to leave; after Huangfu Deyi's death, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty still missed her as much as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty missed Mrs. Li. However, in fact, all the concubines who were lucky enough to have the emperor personally serve and take medicine would leave records in the history books like Li Yu's Zhou empress, instead of only seeing the golden words on the epitaph.
What's more, just over a year after Huangfu Deyi's death, Li Yao was killed in the tragedy of Tang Xuanzong's murder of three sons in one day because of Concubine Wu Hui's frame-up. The cruel reality tore into pieces the gorgeous and pale rhetoric of the epitaph, revealing that this unloved concubine may have only wished to see the emperor for the last time before her death.
For another example, the epitaph of Mrs. Wu of Peijun claimed that she was "the second daughter of the late Prince Consort of Zhou Ding, Duwei You and Princess Taiping." She was the second daughter of Princess Taiping and Wu Youji. But according to the fact that Wu died in the 25th year of Kaiyuan at the age of fifty-four, Wu was born in the first year of Sisheng at the latest, and Princess Taiping’s husband was still Xue Shao at that time, so how could she be related to him? What about Wu Youji giving birth to the so-called second daughter?
For another example, the epitaph of Li Wei, the second son of King Wu Li Ke, calls his father Li Ke "the emperor's beloved son" and "favored and special". However, in terms of historical facts, not only did Li Ke have no Any deed that gained favor was just a matter of being demoted from the position of governor many times for minor mistakes such as trampling crops and gambling. He successively cut off 600 households with real seals, leaving only 200 households with real seals. It's so bad. This treatment was the only one among the 14 sons of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
Although it took more than seven months for Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to make Li Zhi the crown prince, he once had a whim and wanted to change Li Ke to be the crown prince. Changsun Wuji, who may have agreed, said that after being refuted, he not only never mentioned the matter again, but also took no protective measures against Li Ke, who was in danger due to failed nomination. Instead, he gave Li Ke a stern warning: " If you don't abide by the law, your fate will be that of Liu Dan, King of Yan in the Western Han Dynasty. Even if you are my son, I can't save you!"
Although some people think that this warning is that Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty is "protecting" Li Ke! , asking him to be more cautious, but as a prince, Li Ke's life is not in his own hands but in the hands of the emperor. It is useless to just warn Li Ke to be cautious in his words and deeds. He can only let the future Emperor Li Zhi knew that he had to treat Li Ke well in order to achieve the purpose of protecting Li Ke.
It is precisely because he understood this truth that Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, left a hand-closing edict to Prince Liu Ying before his death, asking him to take good care of King Zhao Ruyi, whom he once wanted to establish but failed; Tang Dynasty When Taizong established Li Zhi as the crown prince, he repeatedly emphasized that the reason for establishing Li Zhi was to protect his three sons, Li Chengqian, Li Tai, and Li Zhi at the same time. Since Tang Taizong could think of making plans for the future safety of Li Chengqian, Li Tai, and Li Zhi, why didn't he make the same arrangements for the future safety of Li Ke? Come to think of it, if Li Ke was really the "Emperor's beloved son" and "special favored son" as boasted in his son's epitaph, how could he be treated like this?
There is also Wei Siqian, whose father and son are all prime ministers. History books clearly record that his second wife Wang Wan, as stepmother, was very strict with his stepson Wei Chengqing, and often punished him corporally. Wei Sili, Wang Wan's biological son, couldn't bear his mother treating his brother like this, so he took off his clothes and asked to accept the cane on Wei Chengqing's behalf. Naturally, Wang Wan did not agree, so Wei Sili scolded himself. Wang Wan felt sorry for his biological son, so he Wei Chengqing is slightly better.
As a result, in Wang Wan’s epitaph, this typical stepmother who clearly treated her parents and stepsons differently was described as a loving and good mother who treated her stepson as her own: “My former husband’s son The son Chengqing was punished at the age of eight, and was raised by his wife at the age of ten. He was raised and trained, and he was kind and loving. It is rare for people to have clear understanding. Sons of ex-wives are often hated, and filial piety is not enough. This is what I have taught you, and you are well aware of it." This shows the strong trend of gold-plated epitaphs at that time. , has reached the point where it confuses right and wrong and makes something out of nothing.