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[The most amazing Bole in Chinese history, who understood the life of Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty in one breath. Ouyang Xiu's wonderful knowledge of the Song Dynasty]

He once presided over the most powerful imperial examination in Chinese history, with 40 candidates applying for the exam, but the admission rate was only 0.2%. Among these 0.2% were Su Shi, Su Zhe and Zeng Gong, two of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties, the great thinker Zhang Zai, and Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, the founders of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

——"Is Zhang Zai the man who established his mind for heaven and earth, established his destiny for the people, inherited the lost knowledge of the ancient sages, and brought peace to the world for all eternity?"

——"Yes, it's him."

Among them, 9 people later became prime ministers, and 24 people were listed in the "History of Song Dynasty". Looking around the court, most of them were his students. He was the most powerful mentor in the Song Dynasty - Ouyang Xiu.

Next, let's walk into Ouyang Xiu's life in chronological order. Ouyang Xiu was born in MY City, SC Province. When he was 4 years old, Ouyang Xiu's father died of illness, and he had to depend on his mother Zheng for life.

Today, at his uncle Ouyang Ye's house, the upright uncle had an important influence on the young Ouyang Xiu. Although Ouyang Xiu's family was not wealthy, fortunately his mother was born in a famous family in the south of the Yangtze River, was well-educated and well-mannered, and was an educated lady.

He usually used a reed as a pen to teach Ouyang Xiu to read and write on the sand, which is the origin of the idiom "drawing on the reed to teach a child". With the care of his uncle, Ouyang Xiu finally did not miss out on basic education in his childhood.

At the age of 17, Ouyang Xiu began to take the imperial examinations, but failed twice. It was not until the third time that the 23-year-old Ouyang Xiu won the first place in the local and provincial examinations, and passed the Ministry of Rites examination a year later, becoming a hot new star in the officialdom.

Unfortunately, he was too talented and failed to win the first place among the three candidates who won the first place. Although he did not win the first place, Ouyang Xiu also got a good ranking and was appointed as a military official. In the Song Dynasty, there was a custom of choosing a son-in-law from the list, and high-ranking officials in the court liked to choose a good son-in-law from the new Jinshi.

Ouyang Xiu, who was 24 years old at the time, had just passed the imperial examination and was chosen by his teacher as a son-in-law. On his wedding night and when his name was on the imperial examination list, the two most satisfying things in life were accomplished overnight.

But at this time Ouyang Xiu did not know that what awaited him next would be 40 years of bumpy official career with three ups and downs.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the ills of poverty and weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty began to emerge, the gap between the rich and the poor widened, and social contradictions became increasingly prominent. Seeing that the court had more and more redundant officials, Ouyang Xiu's friend Fan Zhongyan began to call for reform.

He attributed social problems to corruption, while Ouyang Xiu saw it more deeply and believed that redundant officials and redundant personnel were the fundamental problem. In the end, Fan Zhongyan's reforms offended the vested interests and he was hit and demoted to Raozhou.

As a member of Fan Zhongyan's faction, the 30-year-old Ouyang Xiu was also implicated and demoted to the magistrate of Yiling County. He was not able to return to Beijing to resume his post until four years later.

In 1043, Prime Minister Lü Yijian retired and returned to his hometown. Fan Zhongyan persuaded Song Renzong to promulgate the Qingli New Deal. Ouyang Xiu, 37, also participated in it. The goal of the Qingli New Deal was to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and to solve the problem of redundant officials and soldiers, so it was inevitable that the pie of the civil service group was touched.

The Qingli New Deal was resisted by a large number of officials as soon as it was announced. Seeing such strong opposition, Song Renzong, who was always soft-hearted, could not help but back off and exiled Fan Zhongyan and his group, declaring the Qingli New Deal a failure. Ouyang Xiu also suffered misfortune and was accused of incest by his niece, which greatly damaged his reputation.

Ouyang Xiu's sister was widowed at an early age, and she took her niece and her ex-wife's daughter Zhang to Ouyang Xiu. According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, unmarried daughters would also receive their father's inheritance as a future dowry.

However, Ouyang Xiu used his niece's property to buy land for his sister Ouyang. After Zhang got married, she was found to have an affair with a servant, so she accused Ouyang Xiu of incest. Although the government found no evidence, it found that Ouyang Xiu had misappropriated Zhang's dowry.

Ouyang Xiu's political enemies took advantage of the situation and drove him out of Beijing and sent him to Chuzhou. The drunkard's interest was not in wine, but in the mountains and rivers. It was in Chuzhou that Ouyang Xiu wrote the famous "Drunkard Pavilion". He then moved to many places and served until he returned to Kaifeng at the age of 43.

A few years later, Ouyang Xiu was framed by his political enemies and banished from the capital for the third time. Before leaving, Song Renzong suddenly regretted his decision and let Ouyang Xiu stay in the capital to rest.

After 20 years in the empire and three times of being exiled, Ouyang Xiu, who was nearly years old, was no longer keen on politics, but focused on writing history. He successively wrote two historical books, "New Book of Tang" and "New History of Five Dynasties", and became the leader of the literary world at that time.

In the imperial examination in 1057 AD, Ouyang Xiu presided over the Jinshi examination as a Hanlin scholar, advocated a plain writing style, and admitted Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong and others.

Ouyang Xiu made outstanding contributions to the Northern Song Dynasty and the entire history of Chinese literature with his outstanding ability to judge people. Later generations called Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi of the Northern Song Dynasty and Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasty.

Although he had outstanding literary achievements, Ouyang Xiu still wanted to make achievements in politics. This would once again involve him in the whirlpool of politics. After the death of Emperor Renzong of Song, the prince Zhao Shu succeeded to the throne and became Emperor Yingzong of Song.

Emperor Yingzong of Song, Zhao Shu, was not Zhao Zhen's biological son, but his cousin. Since all of Zhao Zhen's sons died young, he had no choice but to make him the crown prince. However, after Zhao Shu ascended the throne, the civil service group quarreled over whether his biological father should be called the emperor's father or the emperor's uncle. This was the famous Puyi incident in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Although Ouyang Xiu stood with Prime Minister Han Qi and supported the emperor to honor Yingzong's biological father as the emperor, he was attacked by political enemies and took the initiative to resign. After 18 months of debate, Song Yingzong temporarily won.

But what Ouyang Xiu never expected was that Song Yingzong died after only four years as emperor. The successor Song Shenzong Zhao Xu was not very interested in recognizing who was his grandfather, and Ouyang Xiu's political enemies took the opportunity to retaliate and falsely accused him of incest with his daughter-in-law.

Although there was no evidence, memorials attacking him still flew to the emperor's desk like snowflakes. In desperation, Ouyang Xiu took the initiative to resign and return home.

In 1072 AD, Ouyang Xiu died at home at the age of sixty-six.

——"Ouyang Xiu's bondage is actually called Ouye!"

——"Yes, that's right. His brother's name is Omega and his sister's name is Onii-chan."

——"This is the greatest test of all time. Although the Song Dynasty was not good at military affairs, its civil administration is truly admirable."

[How did the ancients solve the economic crisis? Understand Fan Zhongyan in one breath. Fan Zhongyan Northern Song Dynasty history]

He was praised as the most perfect man in the Northern Song Dynasty. He resisted the Western Xia, produced many heroes, and solved the economic crisis with three tricks. From a poor boy to a famous official, he was admired by later generations for thousands of years.

He was expelled from the capital because he violated the interests of the civil service group. He had ups and downs in the officialdom for more than 400 years. In the end, it was an article of less than words, "Yueyang Tower Inscription", that made him famous through the ages. In this video, let us walk into the life of Fan Zhongyan, a famous official of the Northern Song Dynasty, in chronological order.

Fan Zhongyan's ancestor was Fan Lubing, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. His ancestors lived in what is now SX Province. It can be said that they were a prominent family that had survived for hundreds of years. His father Fan Yong was also an official in Wuyue in his early years. After the founding of the Song Dynasty, Fan Yong also followed the King of Wuyue and surrendered to the Song Dynasty.

In 989 AD, Fan Zhongyan was born in his father's official residence. But the good times didn't last long. When Fan Zhongyan was 2 years old, his father died in the line of duty. His mother, Xie, was poor and had no one to rely on, so she had to take Fan Zhongyan and remarry a man named Zhu Wenhan.

Fan Zhongyan was also given a new name by his stepfather, Zhu Yue. His stepfather Zhu Wenhan's family was very well-off, and he treated Fan Zhongyan as his own son and raised him with great care. However, Zhu Wenhan's other biological sons had some of the habits of dandy boys.

Until he was 23 years old, Fan Zhongyan could not help but persuade his brothers not to waste money, but they retorted: "I use Zhu's money, what does it have to do with you?"

It was not until this moment that Fan Zhongyan knew that he was not Zhu Wenhan's biological son. He was heartbroken and resolutely bid farewell to his mother to go to Shangqiu, Henan to study. After several years of hard study, Fan Zhongyan had read a lot of books and had the ambition to help the world generously, and vowed to make a career.

At the age of 27, Fan Zhongyan passed the imperial examination and ranked 97th, becoming a Jinshi by Han Ru. Because this score was not very high among the Jinshi, Fan Zhongyan was only appointed as a ninth-rank official in charge of prison cases, thus entering the official career.

Although his position was low, he was still able to receive a salary from the imperial court. So Fan Zhongyan took his mother to live with him and took care of her. Two years later, Fan Zhongyan was promoted to a higher rank because of his integrity and uprightness.

Fan Zhongyan took the opportunity to request to restore his surname Fan, but he did not forget the Zhu family's kindness in raising him, and he would benefit the Zhu family's children in the future.

At the age of 33, Fan Zhongyan was transferred to Taizhou West, responsible for supervising the storage, transportation and resale of Huai salt. Xixi is close to the Yellow Sea. The old seawall built in the Tang Dynasty collapsed due to disrepair, causing seawater to flood back, fertile fields were submerged, salt fields were destroyed, and the people lived in dire straits for a time.

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan wrote to the emperor many times to denounce the interests of building seawalls, and suggested building seawalls along the coast to rebuild the seawall. Finally, under Fan Zhongyan's unremitting persistence, Song Renzong decided to appoint him as the magistrate of Xinghua County, fully responsible for the construction project. Fan Zhongyan also accumulated rich grassroots experience.

However, in the complicated official system of the Northern Song Dynasty, grassroots officials like Fan Zhongyan could only work in local areas and it was difficult for them to serve as officials in the court, let alone become prime ministers.

However, the appearance of a nobleman directly changed Fan Zhongyan's fate, turning him from a small local official into a famous official in the future. He was Yan Shu. When Fan Zhongyan was 38 years old, his mother, Xie, died of illness. Fan Zhongyan resigned from his official position to mourn for his mother and lived in Ningling County, Yingtian Prefecture, Nanjing.

At that time, Yan Shu was also banished to Yingtian because he had offended Liu E. When Yan Shu was observing the situation in Yingtian, he heard of Fan Zhongyan's talent and reputation, so he invited him to work in the prefectural school and take charge of the teaching affairs of Yingtian Academy.

During his tenure as the school administrator, Fan Zhongyan was diligent in supervising students, setting an example and advocating current affairs and political discussions. Whenever he discussed major world events, he was fearless and spoke passionately, which completely changed the academic atmosphere of the academy and made Fan Zhongyan famous.

A year later, Fan Zhongyan, who was nearly 40 years old, finally had the opportunity to realize his ambitions. He submitted a ten-thousand-word letter to the court, requesting the rectification of the administration of officials, the elimination of redundant officials, and the improvement of the status of military generals.

Prime Minister Wang Zeng was very impressed with his ten thousand words letter, so he and Yan Shu recommended Fan Zhongyan to the emperor. Song Renzong then summoned Fan Zhongyan to Beijing to work in the Royal Secret Pavilion, responsible for the proofreading and editing of royal books and classics. Since then, Fan Zhongyan has entered the core of the Song Dynasty.

After finally getting into the central government, Fan Zhongyan did not change his upright character and was exiled from the capital several times for speaking out. His friends once advised him to speak less and mind his own business, otherwise he would bring trouble to the people who recommended him.

But Fan Zhongyan said, "I would rather die with a voice than live in silence." When he was 46 years old, Fan Zhongyan was transferred to Suzhou and opened up the land in Nanyuan where he lived to build a school.

At that time, Suzhou was hit by a flood. Fan Zhongyan led the people to dredge the canals, build water conservancy projects, and guide the water of Taihu Lake into the sea. He was transferred back to the capital for his meritorious service in flood control. Fan Zhongyan vigorously rectified the bureaucracy in the capital and eliminated bad policies. Kaifeng Prefecture was solemnly in power, and it was said that the court had no worries because of Fan Jun, and the capital had news when there was no trouble.

Two years later, Fan Zhongyan was dissatisfied with Prime Minister Lu Yijian's control of government, cultivation of cliques and appointment of cronies, so he presented "Chart of Officials" to Song Renzong, sharply criticizing the prime minister's personnel system and persuading the emperor to personally take charge of the promotion of officials.

Lü Yijian was not to be outdone and accused Fan Zhongyan of speaking out beyond his authority, colluding with cliques and alienating the emperor from his ministers. This dispute between Fan and Lü involved many people, and the officials in the court were afraid of the power of the prime minister and dared not speak out.

Finally, Fan Zhongyan was banished from the capital, and no one dared to see him off. Not long after, Lü Yijian was also dismissed from his position as prime minister. Song Renzong finally issued an edict to ban the formation of cliques, which was known as the Jingyou Factional Dispute in history.

In 1039, Li Yuanhao of the Western Xia led his troops to attack the Song Dynasty and defeated the Song army at Sanchuankou. The following year, Song Renzong brought 52-year-old Fan Zhongyan back to Beijing and took him to Shaanxi to take charge of border defense. After Fan Zhongyan took office, he immediately reorganized the military, repaired the fortress, and promoted generals with military talents, such as Di Qing, Cheng Shiheng, Guo Kui, etc., to resist the invasion of the Western Xia.

In 1042, Li Yuanhao led a large army to attack the Song Dynasty. The two sides fought a fierce battle in Dingchuan Village, and the Song army was defeated. Li Yuanhao took advantage of the victory to march south, and Fan Zhongyan led his army to rescue him. Li Yuanhao quickly withdrew his troops, and the Song army was saved from its urgent need. Upon hearing the news, Song Renzong was very happy and said, "I knew Fan Zhongyan could be used."

Finally, due to the lack of national strength, the Western Xia could not withstand the consumption of the long-term war, so it took the initiative to ask for peace with the Northern Song Dynasty. In the end, the two sides reached an agreement, Li Yuanhao became a vassal of the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty paid tribute to the Western Xia every year.

The war with Xixia came to an end, and Fan Zhongyan returned to the capital from the northwest. Song Renzong appointed Fan Zhongyan as the vice chancellor, preparing to implement a new policy to solve the problems of redundant officials, soldiers, and expenses in the Northern Song Dynasty and change the current situation of poverty and weakness.

Later generations called this new policy the Qingli New Policy. Fan Zhongyan proposed ten new policies, the main contents of which were to rectify the administration of officials, develop the economy, and strengthen the military. He wanted to enrich the country and strengthen the army through the new policies, so that the Northern Song Dynasty would regain new vitality.