Brief introduction of Yan Song

Yan Song (1480-1567) is from Jiangxi. Yan Song was a famous courtier in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty. He has been in charge of state affairs for 20 years, during which he committed crimes such as eradicating dissidents, colluding with others, embezzling and selling officials, and corrupting state affairs, and was generally regarded as a traitor by future generations. In addition, Yan Song is also very accomplished in calligraphy, poetry and other fields.

Portrait of Yan Song

Yan Song became a scholar in high school at the age of 25. Unfortunately, he got a serious illness, retired from his post and went home for ten years. Yan Song has been working in imperial academy for more than ten years after his reinstatement. Later, Xia Yan, a courting fellow who won the favor of Jiajing Ming Shizong, was promoted to Nanjing Libu Shangshu on 1532, went to Beijing four years later and became a cabinet college student a few years later.

Sejong was addicted to Taoism, Xia Yan often opposed Taoism, and Yan Song always tried to please the emperor. Therefore, in the eyes of Sejong, Yan Song began to be more important than Xia Yan and was more liked by him. When Yan Song was young, he began to attack and persecute Xia Yan. After several years of hard work, Xia Yan was first dismissed from office and then beheaded, and Yan Song became the cabinet record.

Later, although some ministers were dissatisfied with Yan Song's autocracy, they came forward to list his crimes and hoped Sejong would put him to death. It's a pity that these dissidents have been eradicated by Yan Song, so no minister in the DPRK can be an enemy of Yan Song. So Yan Song was dictatorial for 20 years and did whatever he wanted. And his son Yan Shifan, also by the light of Lao Tzu, did not need the imperial examination to be an official, and his father and son were in power.

Finally, Sejong also slowly became disgusted with Yan Song and his son. It happened that a Taoist around Sejong said Yan Song was a traitor through Fu Ying. So Yan Song was dismissed from office, his son was beheaded, and he died after wandering for two years.

Yan Song's calligraphy

Yan Song was diligent and studious since he was a child, and he kept writing after he became an official, so he also developed a good hand in calligraphy. Yan Song's calligraphy was not only a must in the Ming Dynasty at that time, but also a great calligrapher in the whole history of China. Similar to him, there are Cai Jing and Qin Gui in history, so the traditional saying that "words are as they are" may not be true.

Yan Song's calligraphy

Yan Song has a high official position and is good at calligraphy. Naturally, there are many of his Mo Bao everywhere. However, because later generations identified him as a traitor, and the owner of Mo Bao who owned him may be afraid of getting wind of it, most of Yan Song's calligraphy works have disappeared, and few have been handed down so far. Among them, it can be mainly divided into four categories: list book, inscription, seal and scroll.

The inscription refers to the calligraphy works on the plaque of Gongmen, which are few in number but should be the most famous among Yan Song's calligraphy works. Most of them are in Beijing, such as "Zhi Gong Tang", "Kong Suihuang Throne", "Tai Chi Xianlin" and "Liu Biju".

Besides, there are many places, such as Shanhaiguan's "No.1 Pass in the World" and Shandong Confucius Temple's "Fu Sheng". It is said that there are only two inscriptions, one of which is the word "Manjianghong" next to Yuefei's tomb in Hangzhou West Lake. The seal is Yan Song's own seal. It is said that the scrolls were the most calligraphy works of Yan Song before his death, but they were the least preserved because of their perishable nature, mainly his Thousand-Character Works.

Besides calligraphy, Yan Song also likes the famous Mo Bao. It is said that there are countless paintings and calligraphy works in his family. When he finally raided the house, he found many precious celebrity paintings and calligraphy. In addition, the history book records the story that he killed the original owner in order to rob the riverside scene at Qingming Festival.

How did Yan Song die?

1562, Yan Song was impeached, and Emperor Jiajing of Ming Sejong finally ordered Yan Song to be removed from all his official posts and returned to his original place. A few years later, he was deprived of his official position, demoted to Shu Ren, and all his possessions were copied. 1567, he died of poverty and disease, leaving a tragic ending.

Yan Song was initially dismissed. Sejong didn't want him to die, but he was punished in the end, which led to his final death. And the second depraved curse is on his son Yan Shifan, that is to say, he was implicated by his son.

When Yan Song ordered to go home from office, his son and his henchmen were also sent to the frontier. But soon, Yan Shifan and his party fled back to their hometown privately on the way. Later, Yan Shifan and his henchmen Luo Longwen and others trapped Jiang Yang thieves and other lawless elements and ran roughshod over the village.

Because of this, someone wrote a letter to impeach Yan Shifan, and the two major charges of prosecution were insurrection and Japanese aggression, which Sejong Jiajing hated most, so he was beheaded by Yan Shifan and even implicated in his father Yan Song. It turns out that Luo Longwen, Yan Shifan's confidant, is a relative of an enemy, and their close ties naturally become the handle of people who hate Yan Song's family, even adding a charge of intentional insurrection.

After Yan Song was deprived of his property, he was homeless and penniless, and it was common for him to be seriously ill because of his advanced age. So Yan Song, who had been living in other people's cemeteries, died on 1567 at the age of 87. It is said that he wrote two sentences before he died: "I have been loyal to my country all my life, and I will distinguish right from wrong when I die." After his death, Yan Song was buried without a coffin, and no one dared to mourn. It was not until Emperor Wanli that he was buried.

Where is Yan Song from?

Yan Song is from Qiaojie Village, Fenyi County, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, so his first name is Fenyi. As the hometown of Yan Song, Yan Song has been used as a cultural card to develop tourism, and many relics and cultural relics of Yan Song have been preserved. It is said that there are many descendants of Yan and Yan Song's family in the village.

Hometown of Yan Song

Yan Song lived in his life for 87 years, of which he lived in his hometown at the age of 25 until he entered a high school. Soon after, he retired from his post because of a serious illness and returned to his hometown for ten years. Finally, he was sent back to his hometown before he died. So Yan Song lived in his hometown for nearly 40 years, so he left many cultural relics and relics to his hometown.

It is said that there are hundreds of historical relics related to Yan Song in his hometown. For example, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were dozens of ancient temples in his hometown, true and false cemeteries in Yan Song, and family temples in Yan Song. At the same time, many related legends have been circulated. Qiaojie Village, for example, was originally called Jiexi Village, because a spring water flowed from west to east, forming a pond, which was called Tang Jie. Yan Song's father donated a stone bridge in the local area. Yan Song later called it Qiaojie, so the village was renamed Qiaojie Village.

Yan Song, who is good at poetry, is said to have written more than 1300 poems in his life, including more than 200 poems praising the famous mountains and scenic spots in Jiangxi. Compared with his poems, Yan Song's calligraphy is easier to be remembered. Just as poets like to write a poem to express their feelings when traveling, most literati who are good at calligraphy also like to leave their Mo Bao in places of interest, and many people are willing to ask him for Mo Bao. So in Yan Song's hometown, there are many of his calligraphy works.

There are not many cultural relics found in Yan Song, including two private seals, a scroll, a royal dress, two ivory courtyards and so on.

Yan Song and his son.

Yan Song was loyal to his wife all his life and never took concubinage, so he had few children. According to the records, there are only two daughters and one son, Yan Shifan. As an only child, Yan Shifan was deeply loved by Yan Song since he was a child. He always bullied others and ran amok. In the end, Yan Song's tragic fate was also implicated by his son to some extent.

It is said that Yan Shifan is short and fat, which is quite different from his tall and thin father Yan Song. But he inherited Yan Song intellectually, so he was smart since he was a child. When he grew up, he was familiar with the times and was good at guessing other people's ideas. He was even called the first gifted scholar in Jiajing period. Yan Shifan did not pass the imperial examination, but borrowed the favor of Yan Song, first entered imperial academy, and then directly entered the official position. With the support and promotion of Yan Song, he rose all the way.

Later, because Yan Song was a senior official and served as cabinet records, he was old and had to wait on the emperor, so he slowly handed over the administrative work to his son Yan Shifan. And the official document ticket he wrote catered to the wishes of Emperor Jiajing. In addition, it is said that many of Yan Song's poems praised by the emperor were also written by Yan Shifan. This shows Yan Shifan's cleverness, so father and son were called "prime ministers" at that time.

After the father and son came to power, they became more and more unscrupulous, and Yan Shifan was even more extravagant and extravagant, committing all kinds of evils. Yan Shifan plundered money by selling officials and titles. He is very rich. He hid Jinshan Yinshan in the cellar and once showed it to his father. Yan Song thought there might be a catastrophe. Yan Shifan lived in luxury, with 27 wives and countless maids. It is said that Ximen Qing in Jin Ping Mei was based on him, and there was a story about his beauty jar.

Finally, Yan Shifan was impeached and imprisoned, and was beheaded the next year. Because of him, the beheaded Yan Song was demoted to Shu Ren, and all his belongings were confiscated.

Descendants of Yan Song

Although Yan Song lived a long life, she only had one wife and no concubines, so she had few children in her life, only her son Yan Shifan and two daughters. According to records, Yan Song has only six grandchildren, 1 granddaughter, plus two adopted grandchildren. Coupled with the fall of Yan Song and Yan Shifan's beheading, how his descendants became a mystery.

Hometown of Yan Song

Yan Song's family, his wife died before his downfall, and his son Yan Shifan was later impeached and imprisoned, beheaded one year later and died two years later. As for Yan Song's other family members, there are few official records, but there is no record in the history books that Yan Song was hacked to death with a door, so they probably survived.

It is said that when Yan Song fell and Yan Shifan was beheaded, 27 family members involved were ordered to be sent to the frontier, saying that they pleaded guilty and made meritorious deeds. However, when Zhang and Zhang began to be dictatorial during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Yan Song's political enemy Xu Jie and others died and fell, so Yan Song's descendants began to return to officialdom. For example, Yan Song's second grandson, Yan Shaoting, is said to have been restored by the government to his meritorious service in quelling the Japanese invasion. And his son, Yan Yun, has been a high school warrior ever since. He also made meritorious military service for the imperial court. After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, he did not become an official in the Qing Dynasty. Among the descendants of Yan Song, he is an outstanding and famous one.

However, the record of Yan Song's descendants basically ends with Yan Congyun. Because the Qing Dynasty had just been established, the Han people still had a deep antipathy to the Manchu rule, so they constantly resisted. As a result, the Qing dynasty began to establish a literary inquisition, killing many Han literati who did not obey the rule. In order to ease the contradiction, the Qing court took the Ming Dynasty as an example and designated Yan Song as a traitor. At this point, the situation of Yan Song's descendants can be imagined, and it was probably at that time that they began to live incognito.

The relationship between Yan Song and Zhang

Zhang and Yan Song were both prime ministers of the Ming Dynasty. In their lives, they also have similarities. Although Yan Song has been called a traitor for a long time by later generations, Yan Song and Zhang had similar experiences to some extent.

Zhang and Yan Song are both geniuses. Both of them showed great talent in their youth and entered the officialdom at a young age. The second point is that Zhang and Yan Song are highly accomplished in calligraphy and literature. Zhang's calligraphy is very good, and his poems are also good, while Yan Song's calligraphy attainments are very high, and he is good at writing green ci. The third point is that both Zhang and Yan Song have mentors. Zhang's mentor is Jeff, and Yan Song's mentor is.

Xia Yan and Yan Song are fellow villagers. Xia Yan promoted and reused Yan Song, but Yan Song betrayed and persecuted Xia Yan. Finally, before Xia Yan died, he wooed and trained Xu Jie. Finally, Xu Jie overthrew Yan Song. On the one hand, Zhang's becoming prime minister is the result of his own struggle; On the other hand, Zhang benefited from the struggle against the high arch.

Besides, the fate of both of them is tragic. Zhang was brilliant after his death, but he was persecuted by the opposition party soon after. Ordered a search of Zhang's home and exiled all his family. In the end, there were very few people left at home. In his later years, Yan Song starved to death in the streets and suffered eternal infamy.

However, their different pursuit of politics led to their different evaluations in history. When Yan Song became prime minister, he took advantage of his position to amass wealth and corruption, and became a traitor. Zhang carried out the Wanli New Deal, which made the rule of the Ming Dynasty last for more than 60 years, all of which could not be separated from the contribution of the opening.

Yansong wonton soup

Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan completely monopolized for 20 years during Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty. During this period, the two continued to accumulate wealth by accepting rewards, accepting bribes, selling titles and titles, and using others. That's why Yan Shifan dares to say that the imperial court is not as rich as he is. In the end, the property of the two men was robbed, and half of the money was charged to the border and half was put into the treasury of the inner government.

Tianshui iceberg record

Corrupt officials have a lot of money and their sources are unknown, so most of them like to hide money. However, it is said that Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan have different preferences for hiding money. Yan Song kept a low profile and recycled piles of gold and silver ingots and bars into daily necessities such as pots and pans. Unlike his father, Yan Shifan is much more extravagant. He enjoyed being surrounded by Jinshan Yinshan, so he dug a dozen cellars at home to put gold, silver and jewels.

Shortly after the fall of Yan Song, Yan Shifan was impeached and imprisoned. In the second year, when the case was closed, Yan Song was beheaded, and all their belongings were stolen. It is said that at that time, in order to copy his property, he made a list, because the number was really huge and the number of words recorded was increasing. In the end, a total of more than 60 thousand words became a book. The book is called Tianshui Iceberg Record, which means "The sun rises and the iceberg sets".

According to the record of Tianshui Iceberg, when Yan Song raided his property, he always found more than 10,000 taels of gold, 2,000 taels of silver and thousands of pieces of gold and silver jewelry. As far as Yan Song's gold and silver are concerned, compared with the 2.5 million taels of gold and 50 million taels of silver discovered by Liu Jin, a great eunuch before him, it is really dwarfed, even worse than some of his men.

But unlike uneducated eunuchs, Yan Song is very literate and naturally likes to be arty. He often exchanges money for various paintings, books and other items. Yan Song's natural collections are all excellent paintings and calligraphy, which are rare and rare. The value of these cultural relics is not comparable to that of ordinary gold and silver.

Is Yan Song a traitor?

Judging whether a person is loyal or treacherous is generally analyzed from two aspects: merit and merit. When the two are added together, the merits and demerits are greater than the excesses, and the good is greater than the evil, that is, loyalty and vice versa. However, judging from Yan Song's life, he is not good at these two aspects, so he is a traitor.

Yan Song has been an official for more than 40 years, including 20 years in a high position. Even as a cabinet record, he was on an equal footing with the prime minister and was authoritarian for a while. In addition, Emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong trusted him very much. Yan Song could have made great achievements and made a career to change the chaos of state affairs and the corruption of officialdom at that time. But as far as the known historical materials are concerned, he has made no achievements. Instead of discouraging the emperor from concentrating on political affairs, he encouraged him to indulge in Taoism. Yan Song did many things that endangered the country in his life. For example, Yan Song framed many loyal people, such as Xia Yan who promoted him and Yang Jisheng who impeached him. For example, selling officials and titles, madly collecting money; For example, conniving at sons and subordinates to do evil.

As far as Yan Song's personal character is concerned, there are some controversies in later generations. After all, human nature is complicated. Judging from the evil deeds listed above, Yan Song's moral character should be described as corruption. But Yan Song also has many bright spots: for example, he is diligent and studious, and he has been writing all his life; For example, there is only one wife in life, no concubines, and she has always been loyal to her; For example, I am passionate about my hometown and have built many bridges and roads for my hometown.

No matter whether Yan Song's personal morality is good or bad, at least it is not beautiful, but it is full of evil without merit. Anyway, it can only be called a traitor. On the contrary, although Zhang was autocratic and corrupt, his personal morality was poor, but his political reform was out of the heart of serving the country and he was a loyal minister on the whole.

How did Yan Song's bad reputation come from?

Yan Song was listed as one of the six treacherous court officials in Ming Dynasty by Ming History, and he was always portrayed as a treacherous court official in stories, adapted plays and movies. But in fact, many of Yan Song's comments are wrong and have many advantages. Then how can Yan Song's reputation be so bad?

First of all, from his opponent in the power struggle. Yan Song has been in power for 20 years, uprooting many dissidents and establishing many political enemies, such as Xu Jie. Xu Jie was not only the driving force behind the fall of Yan Song, but also the mastermind who led to the conviction and beheading of his son Yan Shifan. And if he wants to defeat Yan Song and gain more power, he must splash dirty water. Therefore, their accusations and criticisms of Yan Song are often exaggerated and framed.

Followed by the accusations and insults of literati. Scholars need to win fame and seek official positions. Besides writing a good poem and a good article, there is another way to establish one's image of justice by criticizing the wicked, and Yan Song is a good object. Son, among many scholars who scold Yan Song, Wang Shizhen is the fiercest one. In his biography of Yan Song, he was severely criticized. In addition, it is said that the novel Jin Ping Mei, adapted from Yan Song's son Yan Shifan, was also written by him.

Then, he was demoted from the Qing court. Shortly after the Qing Dynasty was founded, the Han people's antipathy to Manchu rule was still deep. In order to make the Han literati obey the rule, the Qing court, on the one hand, promoted literary inquisition, on the other hand, sought similarities with them. In order to alleviate the contradiction, the Qing court took the Ming Dynasty as an example and designated Yan Song as a traitor.

Finally, it comes from the ignorance of the people. Yan Song's stories and novels were circulated among the people, then adapted into operas and put on the stage. People who don't know the truth listen to stories and watch plays, and the image of Yan Song's treacherous court official gradually takes root in people's hearts.