In fact, every dynasty can find one or two ministers who dare to scold the emperor. For example, Hai Rui of the Ming Dynasty is one of them. But compared to other dynasties, the Song Dynasty was undoubtedly very special. The ministers of this dynasty scolded the emperor whenever they disagreed, but the emperor just swallowed his anger in the face of their scolding. The reason why the emperor of the Song Dynasty was so lenient to his ministers was mainly because Song Taizu had made an oath "not to kill the person who wrote the letter."
Under the influence of this oath, the Song Dynasty gradually formed a situation where the emperor and scholar-bureaucrats ruled the world independently. Under this situation, the ministers of the Song Dynasty had more restraint on the emperor, and the emperor naturally had to be more tolerant of their outspoken advice. It is said that one year during the reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty, he issued an edict to seek advice because of abnormal celestial phenomena. As a result, a minister named Yu Gu wrote a letter to scold him after learning about it. In the excerpt of the letter, Yu Gu scolded Song Guangzong for being ineffective and his political achievements were far inferior to Song Renzong.
Song Guangzong was naturally very angry after seeing this news. He wanted to demote this minister to a remote state, but he was opposed by other ministers in the court. The ministers responsible for writing the punishment edict went on strike and refused to draft Yu Gu's punishment edict, so that Song Guangzong had no choice but to cancel the punishment against Yu Gu.
In the entire Song Dynasty, Song Guangzong was not the only emperor who was scolded by his ministers, and Yu Gu was definitely not the only one who was scolded by his ministers. However, in the end, not many Song Dynasty officials were beheaded for scolding the emperor. The reason was because of the uniqueness of the Song Dynasty's national policy. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, there was not just one courtier who scolded the emperor but was able to avoid execution. There was a group of ministers.