The "Wutai Poetry Case" was a literary inquisition that occurred in the second year of Yuanfeng. The imperial censors Li Ding, Shu Quan and others excerpted sentences from Su Shi's "Huzhou Xie Shangbiao" and previous poems to slander the New Deal. Su Shi was arrested on charges. Su Shi's poems did indeed ridicule current affairs, including problems in the reform process. But this matter is purely political persecution.
Introduction to the whole story of the Wutai Poetry Case
Wutai refers to the Yushitai. During the Han Dynasty, there were many cypress trees and crows in the mountains outside the Yushitai, so people called the Yushitai Wutai. , also jokingly refers to the censors as crow's mouth.
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi opposed the New Law and expressed his dissatisfaction with the New Deal in his poems. Since he was a leader in the literary world at the time, allowing Su Shi's poems to spread in society would be detrimental to the implementation of the New Deal. Therefore, with Shenzong's acquiescence, Su Shi was arrested and imprisoned in Wutai for four months. Every day he was forced to explain the origin of the poems he had written and the sources of allusions in his words.
Since the Song Dynasty had a custom of not killing scholar-bureaucrats, Su Shi was spared death, but was demoted to Huangzhou Tuanlian.
In March of the second year of Yuanfeng (1079), Su Dongpo was transferred from Xuzhou to Huzhou on the shore of Taihu Lake. He wrote "Huzhou Thank You", which was actually just a routine matter. He briefly stated that he had no political achievements to speak of in the past, and then recounted the emperor's great kindness. However, he added a few words of complaint at the end:
"Your Majesty knows that When he is stupid and unfit, it is difficult to follow Xinjin; if he is old and does not cause trouble, he may be able to shepherd the small people. "
The "Qi" in the sentence refers to himself, and he refers to himself as the opposite of "Xinjin". To say that he does not "make trouble" is to imply that the "new" person "makes trouble". Due to objective circumstances, ancient literati were always accustomed to being very subtle in their condemnation and sentence making, and readers also developed a habit of instinctively seeking the meaning between the lines. For example, the "newcomers" in the Yushitai. In June, He Dazheng, the supervisory censor, cited the words "new advancement" and "making trouble" in his memorial, labeling Su Shi as "fooling the court and being arrogant". It was obviously Su Shi who was mocking them, but they said that Su Shi was fooling the court. Substituting one thing for another is the usual skill of little people. There is also a little background here. During Wang Anshi's reform period, the conservatives and the reformists fought fiercely. The leaders of the two factions were the two prime ministers Sima Guang and Wang Anshi. Because the former's long letter to the latter contained the word "trouble", so " "To cause trouble" has become a idiom to attack the reform; "Xinjin" is Su Shi's derogatory term for the newcomers introduced by Wang Anshi. He once said in the book "Emperor Shang Shenzong" that Wang Anshi "recruited new and brave people in order to All quick results", the result is that "the number of sincere people has decreased recently, while the number of skillful people has increased." Later, it was Lu Huiqing, a "smart person" who had supported Wang Anshi, who betrayed Wang Anshi and made him dismiss from the prime minister.
The imperial court's communiqués were published on a regular basis, which was equivalent to today's official newspapers. Su Shi's writings attracted attention as usual. This expression of gratitude made those "newcomers" a laughing stock in the minds of readers. When they became angry, they would definitely retaliate against Su Shi. At the same time, it was also a step to use the new law to seek personal gain and attack dissidents.
But just relying on one or two sentences in "Huzhou Xie Shangbiao" is not enough. It just so happened that the "Qiantang Collection of Yuanfeng's Xu Zizhan Scholars" was published at that time, which provided the newcomers of Yushitai with an opportunity to collect materials. Supervisory Yushitai Li Xing Shult；Ugt;[font color=#0000cc]?[/font]lt;/Ugt;("Tan" is removed from "Wu", pronounced "gall") After four months of painstaking research, I found it After reading a few poems by Su Shi, I impeached him and said:
"As for those who harbor evil intentions, look forward to resentment, slander and curse, but have no moral integrity, there is no one like Shi. Your Majesty will give you money (referring to Qingmiaoqian) is a poor person in his profession, so he said, "If you win children with good pronunciation, you will be strong in the city for half a year." Your Majesty has learned the law and tested the county officials with lessons, so he said, "Reading thousands of books but not reading the rules will lead to Jun Yao and Shun knowing no skills." When your Majesty promotes water conservancy, he says, "If you know your plan in the East China Sea, you should teach people how to turn saline-alkali land into mulberry fields." Your Majesty wants to ban salt, so you say, "How can you forget the taste after hearing the Shao? You will eat no salt for three months." Others He touches things and responds to what he says, and all of them are dominated by ridicule.
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The examples he cited are that the two sentences “win” and “how is it” are from “Five Wonders of Mountain Village”; the two sentences “East China Sea” are from “Watching the Tide on August 15th”; “Reading” Two sentences came from "The Story of Actors". However, after being taken out of context, the sentences were put on the line.
Immediately, Li Yizhi, the doctor of the Imperial Academy, and Li Ding, the censor Zhongcheng, came forward. They listed Su Shi's crimes and claimed that they must. He was beheaded for being rude to the court. Li Ding gave four reasons to explain why Su Shi should be sentenced to death. He said: "Su Shi had no academic knowledge at the beginning, and he gained a great reputation by accident. He accidentally studied in a different subject and ended up in a Confucian school. "It went on to say that Su Shi was eager to obtain a high position, and out of dissatisfaction, he ridiculed the powerful. Again, the emperor had been tolerant of him for a long time and hoped that he would change his ways, but Su Shi refused to obey. Finally, although the poems written by Su Shi were absurd It is superficial, but it has a great influence on the whole country. "I am preemptive in enforcing the law, and my duty is to correct people. If the crime is not tolerated, how dare I stop it?" Your Majesty, Fuwang, has cut off his will from heaven and implemented the constitution in a special way. This is not only to suppress his stubbornness, but also to uphold his loyalty and good heart. His likes and dislikes are clear, and his customs are reformed. "This Li Ding was exactly the guy who was called "worse than a beast" by Sima Guang for concealing his father's death. Su Shi also ridiculed him for being "unfilial." Although the children wanted Su Shi to die, Emperor Shenzong was unwilling to kill him and only agreed to arrest him. He also disagreed with Su Shi being imprisoned for the night on his way to Beijing.
At this time, Wang Shen, a good friend of Su Shi, who had printed Su Shi's poetry collection, heard the news and quickly sent someone to give it to him. Su Che sent a message from the south, and Su Che immediately sent someone to tell Su Shi. Huangfu Zun, the emperor's envoy sent by the imperial court, also set out at the same time, but Su Che's men arrived first. Su Shi knew the news and immediately asked for leave, leaving Zu Tongxuan to act as the prefect.
When Huangfu Zun arrived, the people in the prefecture's office were in a panic, not knowing what would happen. Su Shi did not dare to come out, so he discussed with Tongpan, who said that it would be useless to avoid the imperial envoys, and it was best to do so. He should be greeted with formal rank. So Su Shi put on official clothes and boots and met the official Huangfu Zun.
Su Shi spoke first: "I know that offending the imperial court in many ways will undoubtedly be punished by death. It is not a pity to die, but please let me go and say goodbye to my family.
Huangfu Zun said calmly: "It's not that serious." "The soldiers were ordered to open the official document and read it. It turned out that it was just an ordinary official document, which exempted Su Shi from being summoned to Beijing as the prefect. Su Shi was asked to set off immediately. When Su Shi returned to see his family, the whole family burst into tears. Su Shi smiled and told them a story to comfort them:
“During Song Zhenzong’s time, the emperor wanted to visit the real Confucians among the forests and springs. Someone recommended Yang Pu to come out. Yang Pu was really unwilling, but he still set off for the capital under escort to meet the emperor. The emperor asked: 'I heard that you can compose poetry? ’ Yang Pu replied: ‘I don’t know. ’ He wanted to hide his talent and knowledge, and refused to be an official until death. The emperor asked again: "Did your friends give you a few poems when they gave them to you?" ’ Yang Pu replied: ‘No, only Zhuo Jing composed one. ’ The emperor asked again: ‘Can you tell me what poem it is? ’ So Yang Pu read out the poem his wife had written before leaving: Don’t be greedy for wine and don’t indulge in poetry. If I catch the general today, I will lose my scalp this time. "
After hearing the story, the family members felt a little relieved.
Everyone in the prefecture's office was so frightened that they were all hiding. Only the Wang brothers and Chen Shixi held a banquet to say goodbye. But the people came out to see the prefect set off, and the county records recorded that the people were in tears. When Su Shi passed by the Yangzhou River and Taihu Lake, he wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the water. He didn't know what crime he would be charged with, and he was afraid that his case would implicate many friends. Thinking again, if he really jumped into the water, he would cause trouble for his younger brother. Otherwise, future generations would not see Chibi Nostalgia and Chibi Fu. The family burned most of his correspondence and manuscripts with friends, and the family went to Suxian, Anhui. The Yushitai sent people to search their luggage for Su Shi's poems, letters and other documents. Later, Su Shi found that only one third of his manuscripts remained.
Su Shi on July 28th. He was arrested and sent to Yushitai prison on August 18. On the 20th, he was formally interrogated.
Su Shi first reported his age, lineage, place of birth, and the year he passed the imperial examination. Previous official positions and people he recommended as officials. He said that since he became an official, he had two demerits. When Ren Fengxiang was sentenced, he was punished for not attending the autumn official ceremony due to disagreements with his superiors. Eight pounds of red copper.
Another time when he was in office in Hangzhou, he was fined eight pounds of red copper because a petty official misappropriated public funds and failed to report it. "In addition, there is no bad record."
Initially, Su Shi admitted that the "Five Wonders of Mountain Villages" written by him during his trip to the villages near Hangzhou, "Winning children's pronunciation is good, and they spend half a year in the city" was a satire on Qingmiao Fa, "Isn't it Wen Shao's explanation of forgetfulness" "Taste, the last three months have been eaten without salt" is a satire on the salt law. Apart from this, the rest of the text has nothing to do with current events.
On the 22nd, the Yushitai interrogated him about the meaning of the two sentences in "Watching the Tide on August 15th": "If the East China Sea and the East China Sea know their own ideas, they should be taught to rebuke the land and turn it into a mulberry field." He dragged him to On the 24th, he was forced to follow Shu Danding's tone and said that he was "sarcastic about the difficulty of water conservancy in the imperial court." As for the theme of the poem "The Actor's Rules" that goes against the "emerging laws of the imperial court", it was not explained until the 28th.
By September, Yushitai had copied a large number of poems sent by Su Shi to others from all directions. More than one hundred poems were presented during the interrogation, and thirty-nine people were implicated, among whom Sima Guang was the one with the highest official position. The year after Wang Anshi resigned as prime minister (1077), Su Shi sent Sima Guang a poem called "Du Yuan Yuan": "What does Mr. Du do on his own? He is cultivated by looking from all directions. Children recite the truth of the king, and soldiers know Sima. Mr. smiles with his hands on his hands, and he becomes mute over the years." It created public opinion for Sima Guang's return to power. The Yushitai said that this poem satirized the new law, and Su Shi confessed: "This poem says that people all over the world hope that Sima Guang will be in power and edify the world, and he will ridicule Sima Guang to see that he will not be in power. He also said that all children and soldiers know their surnames, and they will eventually enter the country. He used his words but was silent, hoping to attack the new law based on what he said before."
Although "the crime was found guilty", the new law had been abolished at that time, so he could not be convicted based on this crime. The punishment was severe, so Yushitai looked for him again. I found the poem "Two Poems of Harmony and Reply to Huang Tingjian" which denounced "new advances", and the poem "Tangcun opened the canal, supervising the service in the rain" which criticized "troublemaking". The former was made in harmony with Huang Tingjian, and the latter was sent to his friend Wang Shen.
The poem "Harmony" says: "Jiagu is lying in the wind and rain, and the acanthus is waiting for me. The front of the array is full of abbots, and the jade food is miserable and dull." Su Shi himself explained that the first four sentences are to ridicule the present. The villain despises the gentleman, just like the acanthus seizing the good harvest. The later meaning is that the gentleman and the villain each have their own time, just like the mosquitoes and flies in the summer moon, and they will stop by autumn. It is said that Huang Ting is as strong as a "flat peach", and it will be late to use it; compared with " "Bitter plum", all life is useless. Another quote from the Book of Songs (The Book of Songs) says: "I am worried quietly, and I am angry at the crowd of small people." They all ridicule those who are in power today as villains. Su Shi cleverly uses words such as "quietly" and "愠" to hide the meaning of "small group". If it weren't for the author's explanation, not many people would know the secret.
The poem "Tangcun" says: "If you are an official and don't do anything, you will be envious of your ministers. If Hu doesn't come back, he will stay and feel ashamed of Yuanming. The salt issue is urgent, who can help farming?" Xixiao stirred up the wind, and the sky rain helped the officials. People were like ducks and pigs, and they dismounted on the deserted embankment and looked around at the lake. Sheep fight. Although it is humiliating to return to the fields, how can we lose our way in the mud? I would like to send a message to my friends in the mountains, be careful not to get tired of quinoa soup." Su Shi also admitted that he was indeed dissatisfied with Yanguan's opening of the Salt River in the Tangcun area. "It hinders farming", "there are several miles of sand in the middle of the river" and it is not suitable to open the river, "it is not for farming but to work farmers", "working in the mud, the hard work is just like that of ducks and pigs", etc. It is also a crime to speak upright when someone accuses you.
These poems and essays presented to Huang Tingjian, Wang Shen and others immediately became news that caused a stir in the government and the public. Shu Dan and others took the opportunity to add insult to injury and encouraged the Vice Prime Minister Wang? to report Su Shi's "Double Cypresses Where the Scholar Wang Fu Lives" poetry. The poem goes: "Awe-inspiring people dare to deceive each other. It's not surprising to fly straight into the sky. The root reaches the nine springs without any bends. Only the dragon in the world knows it." Wang? Falsely accused: "Your Majesty's flying dragon is in the sky. Shi thought he didn't know himself, so he asked for it. Why are the hidden dragons in the ground not willing to surrender?" Shenzong replied calmly: "How can the poet say this? Why did he chant (Mu Hui) for me?" Soon, the jailer asked Su Shi (Mu Hui). ), Su Shi cleverly replied: "Wang Anshi's poem 'All the people in the world look at the rain, and they don't know where the dragon is.' This is the dragon." The jailer smiled knowingly. Those who claimed to support Wang Anshi's reform even said that Wang Anshi said "the country" Panlong" has also been forgotten.
Some of the accusations against Su Shi are very far-fetched. The poem about Mu Hui just now is an example.
There is also a mention in the preface of "Qiju Fu" about eating the bitter seeds of Qiju. The censor believed that the author was directly satirizing the poverty of the people throughout the country, especially the meager salary of officials by the imperial court. "Those who are born blind do not know the sun" is a satire on the ignorance of the imperial examination candidates. It is a satire on the candidates who are not familiar with Confucianism and only know Wang Anshi's annotations on the classics in "The New Meanings of the Three Classics".
For most of the accusations, Su Shi frankly admitted that he criticized the New Deal in his poems.
In the poem to Wang Shen, there is a line about sitting and listening to "the moaning of the whipping ring", and also saying, "There is no way to save the famine and you will die." He also mentioned that "the tiger is difficult to conquer" is for politics A symbol of greed, in Li Chang's poem, he indeed said that in Mizhou, he was "picking up abandoned children in the city" and saw corpses of men, women, and babies starving to death on the roadside. At that time, he was indeed "for the sake of the county." joyous". In the poem to Sun Jue, there is a line that says that the two agreed not to talk about politics. It was really an agreement at a banquet that whoever talks about politics will be fined one drink. The poem to Zeng Gong said that he hated those little politicians who were "as loud as a cicada". In his poem to Zhang Fangping, he compared the imperial court to "a deserted forest full of chaos" and a "wasted swamp where frogs indulge in prostitution", and also said that he "wanted to cover his ears". In the poem to Fan Zhen, he bluntly refers to "little people", while in the poem to Zhou (left "fen", right Baoer, bin), he implicitly compares those in power to "night owls". When his friend Liu Shu resigned from office and left the capital, Su Shi wrote two poems to him:
"I dare to complain to the Qing Dynasty, and I directly complain about my ways and Jundong. Sitting and talking is enough to make Huainan afraid, and I will know where I am when I return." In the sky in the north of Hebei Province, there is no need to be frightened by a single crane at night, and the male and female of the birds cannot be distinguished."
"The great shortcut of benevolence and righteousness, the poems and books are as beautiful as the one in the pavilion, and the wheat is green and green. How old is the rat? Gao Hong is in the dark. He is mad and needs to wake up."
The last sentence of the previous poem is taken from the Book of Songs. , which is equivalent to saying that there is only a group of crows in the court, and it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad. The latter song expresses his disdain for the villain's struggle for power and position. These will undoubtedly anger the Yushitai group. In addition, they are here to persecute Su Shi, so the latter's life in prison will not be easy.
Su Shi wrote "The Story of a Child in Prison" and said, "My heart is like a deer when I dream about the clouds in the mountains, my soul is flying like a chicken, and my life is like a chicken." It is extremely miserable. The interrogators often insulted him all night long. Under great mental pressure, Su Shi wrote the tragic poem "I will be brothers with you for generations, and we will have unfinished causes in the next life." That time, his son Su Mai was about to leave the capital to borrow money elsewhere, and left the meal delivery matter to a friend, but he forgot to tell his friend that there was an agreement between father and son: only vegetables and meat would be delivered. If he heard bad news, he would only deliver food. Fish to go. Coincidentally, this friend just sent smoked fish. Su Shi was shocked and wrote two farewell poems to his brother.
On October 15th, the Yushitai reported the trial status of Su Shi's poetry case. It compiled tens of thousands of words of Su Shi's confession materials and found out the list of people who collected Su Shi's satirical writings, including Sima Guang, Fan Zhen, Zhang Fangping, Wang Shen, Su Che, Huang Tingjian and other twenty-nine ministers and celebrities. Li Ding, Shu Yu, Wang Yu and others wanted to put Su Shi to death and then quickly, but Shenzong was hesitant for a while. Taizu had already made an oath not to kill ministers except for treason and conspiracy.
At the same time, upright people also came to the rescue. Prime Minister Wu Chong said bluntly: "Your Majesty takes Yao and Shun as the law, and it is appropriate to belittle Wei Wu. However, Wei Wu is so suspicious that he can tolerate you. Your Majesty can't tolerate Su Shi. Why?" Wang Anshi, who had resigned as prime minister and retired to Jinling, wrote a letter saying: "An Do you want to kill talented people in a holy world?" Even Empress Dowager Cao, who was seriously ill, intervened: "In the past, Emperor Renzong was very happy when his virtuous people came back, and said: 'I am now the prime minister of Taiping for my descendants.' Gai Shi and Is it right to kill him?" Su Shi was not convicted of a serious crime. Those who rescued him in front of and behind the scenes were indispensable. Otherwise, China would have lost a lyricist, poet, painter, and calligrapher who would shine through the ages. Artistic genius.
However, the people at Yushitai are also acting frantically, and they are ready to wipe out all the opponents of the new law. Li Ding wrote a petition asking the Queen Mother not to pardon those involved in the case during the national mourning. Shu Yu was even more ruthless. He petitioned that Sima Guang, Fan Zhen, Zhang Fangping, Li Chang and Su Shi's five other friends be executed.
On November 29, the imperial edict was issued, and Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou and served as the deputy envoy of Tuanlian, but he was not allowed to leave the area without permission, and he had no right to sign official documents. With this result, Li Ding and others were greatly disappointed.
Among those implicated, three received heavier punishments.
The consort Wang Shen was stripped of all his official titles because he leaked secrets to Su Shi, frequently interacted with him, and failed to hand over Su Shi's poems in time during the investigation. Next was Wang Gong, who was incidentally dealt with by the censor and sent to the northwest. The third one is Ziyou. He once petitioned the court to pardon his brother, and he was willing to return all his official positions to atone for his brother's sins. He did not receive any serious slanderous poems, but due to family ties, he was still demoted and transferred to Gao'an, served as wine supervisor in Junzhou.
Others, Zhang Fangping and other high officials were fined thirty catties of red copper. Sima Guang, Fan Zhen and Su Shi's eighteen friends were each fined twenty catties of red copper.
The poetry case is finally settled. Su Shi wrote two more poems on the day he was released from prison. One of them is: "I have been tired of writing all my life, and my reputation will not get tired of going here. Even if the horses are left behind, there will be no cockfights in the east of the city." If it were written by Yushitai The people checked and found that he had committed the crime of disrespect to the emperor again. The "young chicken" refers to Jia Chang. When he was old, Jia Chang told people that he had won the favor of the Emperor of Tang for his cockfighting when he was a boy, and he served as a juggler in the court. Ministers and actors, this can be extended to mean that the villains in power in the court are jesters and actors in the court, which is another slander!