Zhao Mengfu (f incarnation), a native of Xing Wu, Zhejiang (now Huzhou, Zhejiang), was a famous calligrapher, painter and poet at the end of Southern Song Dynasty and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, and was called "the crown of Yuan people".
He is knowledgeable and versatile, and his literature and art have created a generation of ethos. Together with Ou Yangxun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan, they are called "four masters of regular script", and their handed down works include Ode to Luoshen, Paying Attention to Jiang Tu, Drinking Horses in Autumn Suburbs and so on.
Zhao Mengfu was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province on September 10th (1254 10 October 20th), following Zhao, the son of Qin. The fifth ancestor was Song Xiaozong's father, Xiu 'an Wang Nuo Zhao Ziluo, and the fourth ancestor was Wang Chong Zhao Bogui. Because Xiaozong gave Zhao Bogui a mansion in Huzhou, his descendants became Huzhou people.
Zhao Mengfu's great-grandfather Zhao Shizong, his grandfather Zhao Xijian and his father Zhao Yu were also officials of the Southern Song Dynasty, and their official titles were quite high. Mother Li, mother Qiu. Grandpa died young and had no children, so his grandmother took him as an heir. Zhao Mengfu is the seventh son of Zhao and Chen. When he was eleven, his father died and his biological mother supervised him.
Reuse in Yuan Dynasty:
In the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty (1286), Cheng Jufu, an imperial envoy of the Yuan Dynasty, was sent to visit more than 20 Song Dynasty ministers who lived in seclusion in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhao Mengfu was the first person, and was introduced to the palace to see Kublai Khan of Yuan Shizu. Kublai Khan was very happy to see Zhao Mengfu brilliant and radiant, just like a fairy middleman, so he sat on top of you.
At that time, the imperial court had just set up Shangshu Province, and ordered Zhao Mengfu to draft letters for promulgation. After reading the imperial edict, Kublai Khan praised it greatly: "I said what I wanted to say." The imperial court called hundreds of officials to the punishments department to discuss the formulation of criminal law. Everyone thinks that anyone who takes bribes to 200 yuan's banknotes should be regarded as a capital crime.
Zhao Mengfu thinks that the punishment is too heavy, because the banknote law has depreciated sharply in the decades since it was founded, and it is not enough to use devalued banknotes to decide people's life and death. Some people think that he is young and a southerner, and he doesn't understand the national conditions of the Yuan Dynasty. He was accused of opposing the conviction of paper money in order to hinder the popularization of paper money. Zhao Mengfu also rightfully retorted, pointing out: "Criminal law is a matter of life and death and must be weighed separately. I was asked to participate in the deliberation, and I dare not say nothing.