When people talked about time travel in the past, they often liked to choose the Song Dynasty, thinking that this was the best period; if they could pass through the same choice, they would choose the Renzong Dynasty, thinking that this era was clear and political, and the country was prosperous and strong, without external troubles or civil unrest. This is true. It is known as one of the most benevolent emperors in Chinese history, and the posthumous title of Renzong was not in vain.

Emperor Renzong of Song ascended the throne at the age of thirteen and served as emperor for 42 years. Except for the twelve years of Empress Dowager Liu's rule in the early years, he was in power alone for 30 years. In these decades, there were only periodic wars with the Western Xia, and the rest of the days were peaceful. It was an unprecedented period of political, economic and cultural prosperity in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty. During this period, gentlemen were all over the court, and famous prime ministers emerged. Lu Yijian, Wen Yanbo, Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi, Du Yan, Bao Zheng and other officials in the same dynasty, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang also made their mark. Moreover, because Emperor Renzong of Song was tolerant and kind and liked to accept advice, various thoughts were extremely active during this period.

Zhao Bing was also very confused when the Song Dynasty entered its most glorious period in Renzong's affairs, but why did it fall again in a cliff-like manner and quickly go from glory to decline. In addition to a few brief recovery, it was not until the country was destroyed that it could not regain its former grand occasion. However, after becoming emperor, he not only personally participated in the government affairs, but also through continuous learning and experience accumulation, he found that Renzong created historical glory and also left hidden dangers for the country's destruction.

Zhao Bing knew very well that there would be left, middle, and right, and there would be struggles. After Taizu implemented the strategy of governing the country with culture, the new literati class began to rise. These people were full of spirit and showed new characteristics in academic origins, article style, temperament and political style: because they were just starting out, they were less politically concerned; because they mostly worked in the censorship and the museum, they always regarded themselves as pure and exemplary in the court, and formed the characteristics of daring to speak out and desperately trying to deal with things.

Because the new class has a strong human ethics and moral character in its political stance, advocates orthodoxy, advocates fame and integrity, and dares to criticize reality, not only targets the old politicians who follow the rules, but also has relatively independent in the face of the will of the ruler. When internal and external troubles become increasingly serious, the outstanding elements among them naturally become bold political reformers and become the mainstay of reflecting the political traditions and moral concepts of the literati.

Starting with the activities of this group of people in various fields, the consistent "right-literary" policy of the Song Dynasty has since had substantial significance: the scholars and officials, as well as classes who have received humanistic education and are determined to be in the career path, were decisive figures that reflect cultural unity. They were both interpreters of the legitimacy of the dynasty and practitioners who assisted the emperor in implementing moral and ritual governance. In the Song Dynasty, when strong neighbors were surrounded by strong neighbors, the high development of the political development of the scholar-official politics had more realistic significance, which helped to enhance the concept of orthodox state, cultural unity and cohesion. The Song Dynasty used the superior status of cultural traditions to compete with strong neighbors for a long time.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, the self-boasted Fengshan activities had already shown this impulse. After Emperor Renzong, it turned into a more enthusiastic revival of classical traditions by the scholars and officials, which had a profound impact on the politics and ideology and culture of the Song Dynasty. In this context, the scholars and officials advocated the restoration of the ways of the previous kings and the politics of wise men in political practice, requiring officials to pay attention to the people-oriented nature and care about the people's perils, and even advocated that "the people are more important than the king", advocated governing with virtue, and emphasized the self-discipline of officials.

However, the new Jinshi and the doctor also exposed their own weaknesses on the political stage. They spoke more than actions, their goals were more important than means, and their intentions were more than reason. They were conceited and stubborn, and they did their own things; they responded to the same voice and asked each other for each other, and they were easy to form cliques, and they also attracted suspicion from the ruler. At first, they took the party themselves, but eventually they fought with the party, confused right and wrong, and did not distinguish between enemies and enemies. Although they were determined to eliminate villains, they were easily misled by villains. Although they had long-cherished ambitions to take the world as their own responsibility, they also set up many obstacles for their career in office, and ultimately they were difficult to achieve something.

In the minds of people of all ages, fritories are groups formed around personal interests, and there is no morality. People with the same party use any means to fulfill their selfish desires, wantonly frame non-party people, pollute the official atmosphere, and disrupt the order of rule. For rulers, fritories are ominous, and the country will decline when the fritories prosper. Because this concept has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, no matter who is accused of being a fritor, it will not only mean the end of political life, but also morally accused of being a bad reputation. Therefore, attacking political enemies in the name of fritories has always been a terrible weapon in the struggle of bureaucratic political groups.

In this relaxed atmosphere, these new scholars with active thoughts had a new understanding of the "party" and tried to break the shackles, but they did not know that they had opened Pandora's box and released the devil of the party struggle. They proposed that not only villains have party, but gentlemen also have party. The most famous one is Ouyang Xiu. He believed that gentlemen uphold morality and cherish reputations. If gentlemen connect to support each other, they can complement each other in self-cultivation and governance.

Zhao Bing found that it was not only Ouyang Xiu who had this idea, such as Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang, Su Shi, Qin Guan and other famous scholars also had similar remarks. Compared with the previous party struggles, the Song Dynasty was regarded as a clique and paid more attention to moral disputes and tried to reverse traditional concepts and correct the reputation of the cliques. It can be seen that the concept of gentlemen and party has become mainstream in the scholar class, which gave the cliques and disputes during the Renzong period a new content and significance. It was first manifested as a struggle between the new Jinshi and the powerful ministers for their own interests and ambitions, and then evolved into divisions and mutual attacks within the new Jinshi and officials.

Therefore, the efforts of Ouyang Xiu and others not only failed to justify the fritories, but also caused serious consequences. First of all, he not only regarded himself as a fritorian, but also regarded fritorians as the patent of a "gentleman". This means that people's discussions about fritorians are not groundless, and thus led people to conclude that anyone who advocates reform and supports the new policy is a fritorian. Finally, he divided his ministers into gentlemen and villains. Anyone who agrees with his views is a gentleman, and those who oppose them are a villain. This is undoubtedly creating an open atmosphere of division and tension.

These disadvantages were fully demonstrated in the Qingli New Policy and Wang Anshi's reform. Neither opposing sides could transcend the limitations of traditional cognition, which led to these disputes re-entered into the "fight of justice and profit" and the "fight of gentlemen and villains" thinking stalemate, which did not help to achieve the goal of promoting profits and eliminating disadvantages and saving crisis, but also caused the ruling group to fall into endless grievances and grievances, splitting and fighting, and also made the past clarified the official atmosphere with the words of saints of courtesy, righteousness, integrity, integrity, loyalty, filial piety, and moral codes that guide officials' behavior collapsed...

"The so-called new party often acts in excluding dissidents under the banner of upholding the new laws. This is also true within the old party, and the court atmosphere is getting worse and worse, and eventually degenerates into a struggle between the two parties and a pure struggle for interests, which makes the treacherous and slanderous people take the opportunity to autocratize and disrupt the government, resulting in corruption in the administration and corruption rampant situations that are difficult to curb." Wen Tianxiang thought it was authentic after hearing what the young emperor said.

"After the Xining reform, the dispute between the cliques became increasingly fierce. The two parties once reorganized the rule, which changed some important laws and regulations, which made local officials and ordinary people at a loss, and greatly damaged the authority of the court. So when the Jin soldiers invaded in large numbers, the imperial edicts actually lost their appeal and could not organize effective resistance, and finally suffered from the shame of Jingkang. It is reasonable for Your Majesty to blame the struggle for the cliques for a hundred years." Xie Fangde nodded and had to admit that what Your Majesty said was correct.

"Yes, the reform of Xining was opposed by the old party. Wang Jiefu drove all the old party out of the court, but he was still led by Privy Councilor Wen Yanbo, Deputy Prime Minister Feng Jing, Sima Guang, who retreated to Luoyang, and the old prime minister Fu Bi, and the foreign relatives attacked him, so he was dismissed from prime minister. Although he was temporarily regained the prime minister, he was still blocked everywhere and struggling to move forward. As Emperor Shenzong traveled west, Empress Dowager Gao was behind the curtain, Sima Guang and others immediately regained the prime minister. He immediately activated a group of conservative officials such as Lu Gongzhu, Liu Zhi, Fan Chunren, Lu Dafang, and Su Shi. Then the new law was abolished and the court officials in the reform were dismissed. And with the treacherous prime minister Cai Jing entered the court, there was no more gentleman in the court!" Xie Ao sighed and said.

"The dispute between the two parties has caused the court to fall into extreme chaos. It is a pity that the treacherous dynasty, the country and the people, and the gentleman withdraws from the court. It is really sad. Su and Wang were able to shake hands and make peace in their later years and write poems. Although they were ultimately disappointed in their career, they could be more sober and objectively look at each other's strengths, so that they could tolerate each other's shortcomings and then understand themselves. However, understanding the mind and nature can show the style of the two gentlemen, but their tragedy is also sighing!" Zhao Bing also felt sorry.

"Your Majesty thinks the disaster of the cliques continues, and it will continue for a hundred years?" Wen Tianxiang asked.

"I have also thought hard that the party struggle will never be eliminated. Although the current court has passed through the great waves and wash away the sand, there are so many loyal and righteous men, but the shadow of the party struggle still does not dissipate. We still need to be vigilant. I think there are only three reasons for it." Zhao Bing thought about it and said.

"The sages have long said that gentlemen are not partying, and they are familiar with the fact that the cliques in history have caused trouble, but the reason why they have been doing so is nothing more than the word "right". At the beginning of Taizu's founding of the country, his staff were all northerners, so they regarded themselves as masters and united to exclude southerners. In the 50th year of the founding of the country, no southerners became prime minister. Their narrow geographical concept thus influenced the political tendencies of officials and became a potential cause of the dispute between the cliques."

"In addition, the rise of our dynasty's cliques began with gentlemen, but ultimately became worse than villains, which harmed oneself and the people, and never died without ending. Those who claim to be gentlemen also used their own techniques to restrict each other. However, according to the actual results, it did not open up a new political situation, but instead had an extremely bad impact on the ritual and the political atmosphere, seriously interfering with the normal operation of government affairs and the smooth progress of reform, and then evolved into party struggles and fierce struggles."

"In addition, the fierce battles in the officialdom made some scholars and officials discouraged, follow the rules, be cautious, and completely lost their past aura. Those scholars who have not yet entered the official career also imitated them, followed them step by step, lost their ambition and sense of justice, and studied only for being an official, and became an official only for profit. Driven by this consciousness, the books read by literati and officials were all in the books in the field, and the techniques they practiced were all for the art of officials. The so-called words of sages and the policies of the previous kings became a cover, and no one devoted themselves to studying them deeply, which caused the disadvantage of the genre of our dynasty's literary style and the style of scholars becoming increasingly deteriorating."

“In addition…in addition…”

"What else does Your Majesty have?" The three of them said in a slight manner when they heard the little emperor say it, and nodded constantly, but he suddenly hesitated and Wen Tianxiang asked hurriedly.

"..." Zhao Bing was silent for a moment, and it was really hard to say. According to etiquette, he could not say the father's fault, and the ministers could not say the king's fault. To put it nicely, the cause of the disaster of the clique was precisely because of Renzong's excessive benevolence. To put it bluntly, it was caused by his stupidity and cowardice.

Due to the rules set by Taizu, the literati class's right to speak and affairs was supported and guaranteed by family law, and emperors of all dynasties also attached great importance to the right to speak and affairs of the literati. At the same time, the basic personality of the literati was also respected in politics. At least to a certain extent, the political personality rights of the literati and the emperor were equal.

Of course, history has proved that the emperor's political personality rights still need the literati's own sense of loyalty to the emperor to maintain. Therefore, while the imperial power was weakened, the literati strengthened their own sense of loyalty to the emperor. The improvement of political status also made the literati class full of confidence. However, they were eager to realize their political ambitions in actual conditions, but due to different opinions and methods, conflicts arose between themselves.

The royal family also had the responsibility to be inseparable from the failure of the Xining Reform. Shenzong was young and energetic, and was determined to do big things and support Wang Anshi's reform. However, when encountering difficulties and resistance, he began to retreat and compromise. His removal of firewood from the bottom of the pot was equivalent to putting Wang Anshi and the New Party directly on the fire, and also to push the party struggle to climax. After Shenzong died, ten-year-old Zhezong succeeded to the throne, Empress Dowager Gao ruled behind the curtain and quickly drove all the new Party out of the court. She did this only because the reform touched the interests of the relatives and her own likes and dislikes, which would make the last chance of the Song Dynasty revival.

Another thing that made Zhao Bing want to speak but stopped was the right to speak for the literati class to choose "Sijun". Generally speaking, the right to speak for the literati includes politics, thought, military, diplomacy, and employment, especially Sijun. In fact, whether he can participate in the agreement of major events like Sijun is also the fundamental sign of whether the literati and the officials of the Song Dynasty have entered the core of their state power.
Chapter completed!