In 1079, the 44-year-old Su Shi took on a case. This case was not only a turning point in his life, but also caused a major change in his writing style. It almost killed him. For a great writer like him, , is deeply loved in the court and among the people, and has many fans. How could he be involved in a beheading case?
In 1079, Su Shi had just been demoted to Huzhou. He liked this place very much, reciting poems and painting every day, and enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and something happened just three months later, in July 1079. On the 28th, the Yushitai invited him to drink coffee (the Yushitai is equivalent to the company's inspection team). According to the "Book of Han? Biography of Xue Xuan and Zhu Bo", there are cypress trees in the Yushitai, and thousands of wild crows live on them, so it is called Yushitai. Shitai is called "Wutai". Why was Su Shi invited to drink coffee by Yushitai?
On August 18, 1079, Su Shi was sent to Yushitai Prison. The case was tried by Yushitai himself, and the evidence they presented was Su Shi's collection of poems, so this case was historically regarded as It is called "Wutai Poetry Case".
The people who proposed to examine Su Shi were Supervisory Yushi Shu Yu and Yushi Zhongcheng Li Ding. These two people were promoted by former Prime Minister Wang Anshi during the political reform period. So why did these two people target Su Shi? We have to start with Wang Anshi’s reform.
During Wang Anshi's reform, the court formed two factions, the "new and the old", which supported and opposed the new law. Su Shi was the backbone of the "old faction". He did not support Wang Anshi's reform and often wrote poems and articles to ridicule. The members of the "New Sect" hate him deeply and want to get rid of him as soon as possible.
He Zhengchen, the censor, took the lead and wrote to Emperor Shenzong, accusing Su Shi of slandering the new law in his poems. However, Shenzong ignored the matter and just handed the memorial to Zhongshu Province for processing. In the end, this The matter was settled, which made the new-school people very unhappy. At this time, Su Shi had just arrived in Huzhou to take office. He wrote a letter of thanks for taking office in Huzhou to express his gratitude. As usual, Su Shi only had to do a routine thing and write that he had no merit in the past, but he had been favored by the emperor many times, and this was a blessing. However, Su Shi wrote: "Fu Nianchen is stubborn and despicable. Knowing that he is stupid and unfit for the time, it is difficult to pursue new people and accompany him. If he is old and does not cause trouble, he may be able to shepherd the small people." The term "new advancement" in Wang Anshi's mouth refers to incompetent juniors who are suddenly promoted. In the past crony battles for the New Deal, this term had a fixed representative meaning.
Su Shi said that when he was a local official in his 40s, he would no longer cause trouble. Does this mean that people who serve as officials in the court will inevitably cause trouble? Censor Zhongcheng Li Ding, Shu Yu and others felt that they had caught solid evidence, so they immediately went to court to impeach Su Shi again.
In the memorial to impeach Su Shi, Shu Quan analyzed his poems line by line to Emperor Shenzong: Didn’t the emperor implement the green seedling method? He said? Win children with good pronunciation, and they will be strong in the city for a year and a half. ?; When the emperor reorganized the administration of officials, he said: "If you read thousands of books without reading the laws, you will lead the emperors Yao and Shun but have no skills?" Doesn't the emperor want to develop water conservancy? He said: If the East China Sea knows its purpose, it should be taught to reject salt water and turn it into a mulberry field. Doesn’t the emperor want to implement a salt ban? He said, "Is it because you have forgotten the taste after hearing it? You will eat no salt for three months?"
After Shu Yu's deliberate analysis, these verses immediately became incompatible with Shenzong's new law. At this time, Shenzong was having a headache with the advancement of the new law. And when Shu Yu fanned the flames like this, Shenzong suddenly became angry about it. Su Shi was extremely dissatisfied, so he ordered Yushitai to open a case to investigate the matter. This is the origin of the "Wutai Poetry Case".
It can be seen from this that the "Wutai Poetry Case" is not about which poem or lines of poems, but the Yushitai's targeted attempt to settle accounts with Su Shi.
Regarding the "Wutai Poetry Case", we can't help but ask:
First: Why did these people frame Su Shi?
Second: Is Wang Anshi directly related to all this?
Third: How did Su Shi escape the censorship of the Yushitai?
Who is the mastermind behind the scenes? How did Su Shi successfully save himself by using "Deathly Poetry"? How did Su Shi's fans plead for him? Who is the biggest fan among his fans? Friends who want to know the answer can follow me and I will take you to know more unknown stories in the "Wutai Poetry Case".