pjbooks Chapter 87 The Case of the Poem Stopped Under the Carriage Cover
Chapter 87 The Case of the Poem Stopped Under the Carriage Cover
During the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Northern Song Dynasty
Upon hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin was furious.
What's going on?!
All you ever think about is factional infighting!
Is there nothing else to do besides this?
Damn it, what's wrong with this group of intellectuals?!
It's one thing that we couldn't get back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun; we simply didn't have the strength!
Why are they taking things back out again?!
This is infuriating! Damn it! Now I finally understand what Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Shimin, who were furious before, were thinking!
……
"The political strife here is constantly draining Lü Gongzhe's energy. This old minister, who is over seventy years old and frail, specially asked the Empress Dowager to resign. Unexpectedly, he was persuaded to stay, and the Empress Dowager even promoted him!"
"He wasn't the only one tormented to the point of collapse; there was also Su Shi. Although he was favored by Empress Dowager Gao, he was tired of the infighting in the court, and many people were hostile to him, which even implicated Su Zhe's career."
"For these reasons, Su Shi decided to apply for a posting to a distant location, bidding farewell to all the censors!"
"His younger brother, Su Zhe, was not as dazzling as his brother, but his composure and restraint led to his subsequent rise in rank."
"I wonder if Su Shi ever thought of the Wutai Poetry Case back then. Although things have changed and people are no longer the same, the only thing that remains unchanged is people's greed for power."
"The literary inquisitions that these rulers later launched to suppress their political enemies plunged the court into an endless abyss."
A farming expert in the Ming Dynasty: I've been watching for so long, and I'm getting annoyed too, let alone those people in the imperial court!
A young soldier from the Song Dynasty: I wonder what will happen to the Song Dynasty later!
A romantic scholar from the Tang Dynasty: All you do all day long is suppress others, I'm speechless!
……
Lin Ke paused, then her voice rang out again, this time tinged with sorrow.
"In February of the fourth year of the Yuanyou era, the old minister Lü Gongzhe, who had been exhausted from trying to mediate the factional strife, died of illness."
In April, Wu Chuhou, the military governor of Hanyang, submitted a memorial impeaching former prime minister Cai Que for harboring resentment when he took office in Anzhou and for writing poems and articles satirizing Empress Dowager Gao.
"This led to the famous Chegaiting Poetry Case in history."
"Wu Chuhou was an official with outstanding literary talent and practical ability. Because of his effective river management, he was honored with a shrine erected by the people in the Jianghuai region."
"He also had a connection with Cai Que. When Cai Que was young, he studied poetry and prose under Wu Chuhou for a period of time. Therefore, when Cai Que became prime minister, he hoped that Cai Que could recommend him, but unexpectedly Cai Que refused."
"The main reason was that Wu Chuhou opposed the reform, but soon he was valued by Wang Gui and harmed Cai Que's interests in the subsequent political struggle."
"So Cai Que blocked Wu Chuhou's promotion, making him accumulate more than 20 years of seniority. Later, Cai Que was demoted to Anzhou, and he used his position as a leader to make things difficult for Wu. Wasn't that forcing him to become a villain?"
"That's why Wu Chuhou impeached Cai Que."
A soldier from the Ming Dynasty: Even as an outsider, I find Cai Que extremely annoying!
A fishmonger in the Tang Dynasty: No wonder Wu Chuhou targeted such an annoying person. If it were me, I might have just started beating him up!
A scion of a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: Moreover, he deliberately made him endure more than twenty years of hardship; I bet he hates it just thinking about it!
……