2022 is Wang Anshi's1000th birthday. For a thousand years, the controversy surrounding Wang Anshi seems to have never stopped. Is he a "great man in the world" or the culprit of "the disaster of Jingkang"? What kind of legacy did he leave to future generations, and to what extent did it affect the course of China history after the Song Dynasty? In order to clarify the above problems, the paper Private History specially launched the topic of "Wang Anshi in the Millennium" and invited many scholars of Song history to show readers the true face of Wang from literature and philosophy.

Wang Anshi's images in historical narrative are philosophers, thinkers, scholars and writers. He carried out Xi-Ning Reform and advocated "Gong Jing's new learning". His poems focused on the refinement of rhetoric, and ancient prose was one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties. This image is very serious.

However, it is such a big family, but it frequently appears in ancient jokes and becomes the protagonist. Today, there are about dozens of jokes related to Wang Anshi. Some of the most famous passages are also widely used in various jokes. These stories are not made up by later generations, and almost every one can be found in the notes of Song people. It is these jokes that outline the image of Wang Anshi, a person who is not so consistent with the official history.

Literary talent: a lively scholar-bureaucrat

"Jokes Collection" especially favors Wang Anshi's jokes related to "coincidence", which reflects his astute literary talent and that of the scholar-officials at that time. Scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty all had outstanding literary talents. During banquets and leisure time, they will play some language games, such as pairing, guessing riddles and reciting poems. Some interesting examples will be handed down, recorded in the "notes" made by people at that time, and then used as material by some joke books in the Song Dynasty and later.

Wang played a riddle: "The time to draw a circle and the time to write a square are short in winter and long in summer." Ji Fu explained: "There is a kind of fish in the East China Sea, which has no head and no tail. Except for the spine, this is the mystery." (Wandering around)

Ji Fu's word changed from Wang An to Ning's man of the hour. Both Wang Anshi's answer and Lv Huiqing's answer are "Heaven", and the beauty lies in solving riddles.

Wang enjoys tasting wine with guests, and likes to pick China people and talk about birds. Yan Yun: "Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, but knowing." For a long time, unpaid Father Gong Liu suddenly said, "Can I choose words from sentences?" Because he made the order, he said, "sell, don't sell, sell." Everyone laughed. ("High Five Record")

This story is that Wang Anshi gave the guests a difficult problem at the banquet. He wanted to pick out the sentences that can be used as onomatopoeia (that is, bird language) in the classics as the wine list. This needs to be very familiar. Even better, Liu Ban also accepted this wine order. Although Confucian classics are doctrines, Wang Anshi might as well make fun of them. This shows his knowledge and the demeanor of a scholar-bureaucrat.

Wang often quotes Liu in the book: "Read here, solve here, and say here." . What is right? Ji Sun replied, uncover the truth, uncover the truth, monk uncover the truth. An Shi smiled: (Liu's Overview of Ancient and Modern Tan)

In this joke, Wang Anshi quoted the first couplet of Shangshu as a sentence, and Liu Faxian's last couplet of Shangshu was written by the ancients. In these stories, Wang Anshi is often the person who puts forward difficult problems and is the "joke" in cross talk. "Teasing" is already wonderful, and "holding" is often an epiphany, which shows outstanding talent and elegant taste in the game and embodies the demeanor of a scholar-bureaucrat.

But sometimes, wang anshi is not kidding, just vividly said:

Wang Zhen defended Jinling and retreated to the middle of the mountain. One day, Lu Yu and Fu joined the family to avoid it. When the old man saw the man wearing a medicine cage, he told him that he was ill. Give the medicine immediately. The old man paid a wisp of twine and said, "xianggong" can give it to Xiangpo. Gong Jing accepted it with a smile. (Xiangpo and Kuching Tan Jian don't rhyme)

Wang Anshi in this story has stopped. On this day, after Wang Anshi retired to the village with a medicine cage, the literati in the Song Dynasty applied medicine to the neighborhood, which was one of their favorite occupations. It may be collecting medicine or taking medicine nearby. On the way, Wang Anshi met his younger brother Wang Anli, who was a prefect in Jinling at that time. In order to avoid him, Wang Anshi hid in a private house and drugged the sick old lady of this family. In return, the old woman said, "Xianggong can give it to Xiangpo". "Xiangpo" is a word invented by an old woman who doesn't know how to address Wang Anshi's wife according to Xianggong. Wang Anshi did not correct the old woman because she used the wrong word, but smiled and accepted the twine. This has created an image of a scholar-bureaucrat who is still close to the people even in opposition.

From the above jokes, we can see a lively Wang Anshi, who has both literary talent and grace, similar to the ideal personality of a scholar-bureaucrat. But in another joke, Wang Anshi's image is not so perfect.

Zi Shuo was lost, but he was laughed at for hundreds of years.

Among Wang Anshi's jokes, the most frequently quoted and widely circulated joke is Confucius.

Zi Shuo is a book written by Wang Anshi to explain Chinese characters. Today, it has not been completely seen, but it was once very popular. This is because after Wang Anshi came to power, "new learning" became the content of the imperial examination, and Zi Shuo became a must-read for all scholars in the world. From Wang Anshi's own preface to Zi Shuo, we can know that he attaches great importance to his Zi Shuo and regards this book as a supplement to Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi. Lu You, a great poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, recorded in Notes on the Old Learning Temple that Zishuo used to be an outstanding school, which produced works such as Zishuo Jie, Zishuo Pian, Zishuo North Bamboo Slips and Zihui, but it was only "recently abandoned"-by the early Southern Song Dynasty, Zishuo had been abandoned.

It is such a short-lived "Zi Shuo" that has become a hot topic in Wang Anshi's jokes. Among these jokes, Confucius was a joke between the scholar-officials and Wang Anshi at that time. The following two jokes are from the joke book Springboard Special, which is a collection of Su Dongpo's jokes:

Dongpo heard about the new achievements of Gong Jing's Zi Shuo, and said in a play, "What's so funny about taking a bamboo whip horse as a pawn instead of a bamboo whip dog?" The male asked again, "What evidence is there to prove that this word comes from nine birds?" Bo Yun: "The poem says:' I am in Mulberry, and my son is seven years old.' And mom and dad, exactly nine. "Male readily listen to it, over time, only to realize its banter.

Dongpo tasted the word "slope" and asked what Gong Jing meant. Gong said, "Slope is the skin of soil." Dongpo said, "But what about the bones of water?" Gong Jing was silent.

The former story is found in Gao Man Lu of the Song Dynasty, and the latter story is found in He Lu, both of which are made fun of by Su Dongpo by borrowing Wang Anshi's Shuo Wen Jie Zi. The content of the joke needs extra explanation. The dog under the bamboo forest is a variant of the word "smile", which is not common today. These two stories were widely copied by later jokes because they were related to Su Dongpo and Wang Anshi, two "red men" in the Song Dynasty.

Master Shifu tasted the drama Jing Gong Yun: "A deer travels faster than an ox, and Niu Qiang is in the deer. The cover is based on Sanlu, and Sanniu is a cockroach, but the text is the opposite. Why? " Laugh without answering. ("Sanlu Embarrassment" and "Escape to Leisure" are all ridiculous articles)

"Ben" is a variant of "Ben" and "Xun" is a variant of "thick". This article asks Wang Anshi how to explain the meaning of the two words "Yi" and "Xun" by explaining Chinese characters in Zi Shuo. This "Bachelor Master" is Wang Anshi's friend Wang Jie, whose views are different from Wang Anshi's. This contrast made him a frequent figure in Wang Anshi's jokes.

This embarrassing story is recorded in many notes of the Song Dynasty, but not all the protagonists are Wang Jie. It is regarded as the discovery in Lu Shui Yan Tan Lu, the invention of Liu Ban in Tan Cong in the Back Mountain and Shaw, and the head of Su Dongpo in Historical Records. Nights in the Mountains, a joke book in the Ming Dynasty, adopted historical proverbs, while Tanzhuan in ancient and modern times adopted the proverbs in Houshan Dialect and Shaoting Houlu.

These jokes are combined into one in A Survey of Ancient and Modern Times edited by Feng Menglong, and they are collectively called Zi Shuo, but those funny examples may have been discovered by others, not by Wang Anshi. However, these examples are all derived from the logic of Zishuo, which shows that some methods of interpreting Chinese characters in Zishuo are very unreliable, especially ignoring the principle of "six books" and understanding many pictophonetic characters as cognitive characters, which is suspected of literal meaning.

Zhang Wenqian asked, "Sima Jun bluntly said that Wang was ignorant. What is it? " An Daoyun: "A virtuous man only needs to read and speak." Wen Qianyun: "Zi Shuo is only two or three points unsatisfactory." An Daoyun said, "If so, there are seven or eight points in the first step." Qian Wen laughed: (High-five Record)

In this article, we can see the direct criticism of Zi Shuo by the scholar-officials at that time. In addition to Zi Shuo, later jokes also included many people's understanding and literary criticism of Wang Anshi at that time, such as the following two jokes:

Wang Anshi said to Su Dongpo: "The Great Sage of the Yangtze River, the official to Wang Mang, will be falsely accused by future generations, and Qin Meixin Opera is also the work of a busybody." Dongpo said, "Exactly, I'm a little suspicious, too. I am afraid that there is no Yangtze River cloud in the Han Dynasty. " Zan: The discussants of the world say that the world is round and endless, and Dongpo is still a joke. It is said that there was no such person in the Sui Dynasty, which made people feel in a trance, fearing that there was no Wang Anshi in the Song Dynasty. ("Laughing Praise")

Ji's poem says: cicadas sing in the forest, and Yin Gong Mountain is more secluded. Wang said in a word: a bird is more secluded than a mountain. Valley said with a smile: This is an iron hand. ("Into Iron", "Ancient and Modern Tan Jian")

In the previous story, Wang Anshi talked about Yang Xiong to Su Dongpo, saying that with Yang Xiong's talent, he should not take refuge in follwed in the last days. I'm afraid these things were framed. This shows Wang Anshi's personality of boldly questioning and not being satisfied with the theory of success. But his assumption is too bold and lacks basis. Su Dongpo didn't directly refute him, but reduced to absurdity and directly threw out a "Yang Xiong's denial"-maybe Yang Xiong doesn't exist? In this way, Su Dongpo implied his own point of view: doubt should be based on rationality, otherwise it is ok to be suspicious again. This story shows Wang Anshi's boldness and Su Dongpo's humor.

In these jokes that slightly mock Wang Anshi's knowledge and literature, Su Dongpo seems to be Wang Anshi's sworn enemy forever. In some stories, the other protagonist may not be Su Dongpo, but it is circulating and becomes Su Dongpo again-people like to watch Su Dongpo lift Wang Anshi's leverage. This is of course because of their considerable academic and literary status, and also because they are in the opposite position in the world.

Wang Anshi and his new law have some jokes with relatively direct views and positions. Su Dongpo also flashed occasionally in it. But whether Su Dongpo is really hostile to Wang Anshi personally for some reason is actually worth pondering.

The new law in the joke

Dongpo received a guest one day and gave an order with the guest to prove a story with two hexagrams. One man said, Meng Changjun has 3,000 guests at his door, so many people follow him. A cloud: Emperor Guangwu crossed the Hutuo River, but Ji Ji was in trouble. A cloud: Liu Kuan's maid has dirt in her clothes and a young family. Dongpo cloud: Niu Sengru and his son cut the small beast first, and then cut the big beast. Guy? Gong Jing and his son. (A Night in the Mountains)

The name of this divinatory symbol can be found in the wine book of the Song Dynasty. Summarize a period of history with two hexagrams-that is, a "story". Judas, mortal, auspicious, unfortunate, family, small animals and small animals in wine order are all divinatory names in the book. In previous jokes, Su Dongpo usually played some harmless jokes with Wang Anshi, which was pleasant, but in this case, the words and emotions were fierce. At present, the earliest source of this matter can be found in the song dynasty, a lost article, Tuyu Collection. However, with Su Dongpo's tolerance, even if he is different from Wang Anshi's political views, he doesn't look like a person who would casually curse Wang Anshi for being beheaded. More importantly, monks and nuns in history have not been beheaded. If so, it does not meet the requirements of the "story". Therefore, even if there is such a thing, the words "act before acting" in the wine order may have entered in the process of circulation. As for the comparison between Niu Senru and Wang Anshi's father and son, it is more likely that the recorder embellished it himself-Niu Senru is also a famous scholar in the Tang Dynasty, and his identity and role are indeed similar to Wang Anshi's.

Because this joke actually damaged Su Dongpo's image, many people think this story is not credible. For example, this article is not included in Tunes and Jokes edited by Wang Shizhen, which describes Su Shi's quips. Shen Ming Changqing quoted this joke in Volume III of Shen Shi Daily List, and then said, "... because of scalpers. The speaker attached Sue to his father and son. If Gong Jing heard this, wouldn't he gnash his teeth? ...... The enmity in the world is cleverly constructed by evil megaphones. " It is inferred that this will be framed by a nosy person. In the Qing Dynasty, Volume III of Liu Tingji talked about this sequence in the garden and criticized "too revealing". The notes are all written in the name of Dongpo, and there are many stories about Dongpo. This joke rarely appears in the jokes after the Ming Dynasty, probably not only because of its low credibility, but also because the harsh remarks of "chop the big beast first, then chop the small beast" make it difficult for readers to accept.

However, after all, Wang Anshi was a man of the hour in the Northern Song Dynasty. So there are still many new laws and satires against him in the circulated jokes, such as the following:

Cheng Shimeng tried to invite Wang to say: Gong lives in the world, and at the same time, I am fortunate to be the epitaph of Gong, which will be immortal; Only the public is proud of Xu. Wang asked: Who is the first official? Cheng Yue: No, I'm afraid I won't be here for a long time. I want an epitaph in advance, and I will engrave it when I die. After Wang Kan's death, Zhang Anguo was sent to borrow grass and cried in front of the coffin, saying, "It's a pity that you have no children. Now that you are the monarch, you are willing to die and ask for a public heir. " Jingshi sneered: "Cheng Shimeng was born and died quickly, but Zhang Anguo was willing to support him for life." (A Night in the Mountains)

Wang is the prime minister. Every birthday, courtiers present poems to celebrate his birthday. Guang Luqing Gong Shen was not idle in reading, so he put the birds and pigeons in a big cage, opened the cage, praised a pigeon and a bird, and kowtowed to wish him a hundred and twenty years old. Sometimes Mrs. Frontier fortress was ill, and Yu Hou cut shares and offered them, and sometimes he laughed and said, Yu Hou cut shares for his wife, Qing Dynasty and the Prime Minister. ("Split Shares", "Ancient and Modern Tan Jian" Rongyue Department)

Both of them satirized the ugly behavior of flattering Wang Anshi at that time. The story about Cheng and Zhang is contained in Biography of Sushui, while A Farewell Answer is quoted from the record. Judging from The History of Song Dynasty, Meng Chuan, a Normal School Student, it seems that he has no talent for governing the country, and it seems that he should not flatter himself to this extent. But Sima Guang's record was heard from Su Yan, and there may have been such rumors at that time.

There are also some scenes in the joke where the scholar-officials fought with Wang Anshi because of the new law, such as the following:

When Wang first took part in politics, he regarded the hall as nothing. As soon as he promulgated the new law, he glared at the public and said that this generation can't sit and read. Zhao Qingjian, a politician, said, Your words are lost. What books were there to read in Rugao, Wei Xiao, Ji and Qi? Public silence. (Don't Read, Serbian Department of Ancient and Modern Tan Jian)

Wang is the prime minister and talks about water conservancy in the world. One person offered suggestions and said, "It is of great benefit to set 800 miles of water in Liangshan Lake as a field." . Fu Jie was thoughtful with joy and said, "If you are good, where is the water?" ? Father sat comfortably, Xu said, don't dig a lake of eight hundred miles beside him. Jay just smiled and stopped. ("Gong Fu plays on the lake" and "One night in the mountains")

Wang went out of Jinling and went to town. In those days, migratory locusts were found in every county in Jiangdong from north to south. King Guan Bai was outside the city, and Gong Liu's father followed, but he couldn't catch up with him. He saw a book screen on the sofa, because books are never given: young crops help farmers, and people are full of grievances. Only locusts are partial to Germany, riding across Jiangdong with wagons. (Micro-words Department of Cao Meng's Sense of Virtue and Ancient and Modern Tan Jian)

These jokes can be found in the literature of the Song Dynasty. Don't Read is from Xiao's Listening Record, Gong Fu's Mocking the Lake is from Su Shui Ji, and Grasshopper's Moral Sense is from Shilin Guangji. The popularity of these stories in the Ming Dynasty means that ordinary scholars in the Ming Dynasty generally did not have a high evaluation of Wang Anshi's new law. Wang Anshi was opposed by many literati in the process of political reform, but he always insisted on implementing the new law, which led to the outside world thinking that Wang Anshi was stubborn and unwilling to change, so Wang Anshi's jokes often emphasized his intolerant character, such as the following:

Gong Jingzhai is the place where he lives, and there is Xie Gongdun. Gong Fu said: My name is the same as my surname, and my house is in my eyes. I come to the dock when I go to work. I shouldn't be surnamed Shang. People argued with the dead about the boundaries of the land. When Gong Jing was in Korea, he argued with people about the new law every day, which was not only a struggle, but also a sexual struggle. ("Ancient and Modern Tan Jian" Bitter Sea Department)

These deeds can be found in Zhou Ping Ketan. This story highlights Wang Anshi's unyielding character. Qian Zhongshu mentioned in "Tan Yi Lu" that Wang Anshi likes to imitate his predecessors to make sentences, which is unconventional (as mentioned earlier, Wang Anshi deliberately turned "one bird does not sing a mountain more secluded" from "Yin Gong Shan is more secluded" and led to "iron", which is a typical example). In his comments, he said: "The public is fighting for the law, while the opposition is fighting for the pier. Therefore, South Korea and Mo Ye have to compete with the ancients for the benefits of new words. The so-called "wild" is this. There is a "Temple of the Mid-Levels" in "Warning Story", which is also based on this image.

Wang Anshi sculpture

Behind Wang Anshi, the struggle between the old and new parties did not stop, and the new law was praised again during the Chongning period, which led to new materials for joke books in the Ming Dynasty:

At the beginning, it was worthy of publicity to worship Ning and build Bi Yong and order Gong Jing to seal Shu Wang. A few days after Zhao Chuang made the statue, he asked Cai Bian and Fang Xuan to talk about things and promote Anshi above Mencius. Excellent taste is because Confucius is sitting in the imperial drama, while Meng Yan and An Shi are waiting for him. When Confucius was ordered to sit down, An Shi put Mencius in the first place, and Meng Ci said: The world is the best, and the nobility is one of them. The duke is the only one, and the "xianggong" is the true king, so why be modest? So I lowered my face. Yan said: I am also an ordinary person in an obscure alley. I have never had a career in my life. I am a famous Confucian, and my status and appearance are different. I've resigned too much. Anshi was placed on it, and the owner could not sit down and abdicate. An Shi was afraid, but he dared not hand over the cloud. Reciprocating failed, was driven out, indignant, arm in arm with Gongye Chang came out from the memorial hall. At that time, I was embarrassed and said to Xie, what is the crime? This is an accusation: you don't rescue your husband at all, but take care of other people's daughters. Its meaning is also ridiculous. (Micro-words Department of An Shi Pei Xiang and Ancient and Modern Tan Jian)

The joke tells such a story: Ten years after Wang Anshi's death, he was able to enjoy Confucius during the Chongning period, and Cai Bian, Wang Anshi's son-in-law, demanded that Wang Anshi's position be listed above Mencius, which caused the irony of the opera actors at that time. Opera actors pretend to be "abdicated": Mencius and Yan Hui gave way to Wang Anshi one after another, and finally even Confucius planned to give way, which made Luz unbearable. He dragged Gong Yechang out and accused Gong Yechang: When you are the son-in-law of the master, why are you not as good as Wang Anshi's son-in-law?

The controversy about whether Wang Anshi is qualified to obtain Confucius was recorded in the Southern Song Dynasty. The text of this joke is roughly the same as that recorded in Hong Mai's Yi Jian Zhi Zhi in the Southern Song Dynasty. Hong Mai said that because of this play, Cai Bian's idea didn't come true. However, historians in York think this statement is wrong in detail. At that time, Wang Anshi had actually surpassed Mencius. Huang Daily went one step further, saying it tried to make Wang Anshi surpass Yan Zi and even replace Confucius. It can be seen that Wang Anshi's sharing of Confucius has caused great controversy behind it, and this joke is the aftermath of the controversy.

Few of these jokes in the new law directly attack Wang Anshi. Most of the ugly images in the story are not Wang Anshi, but Wang Anshi's followers. Although Wang Anshi's personal image is stubborn, it is not. This view of Wang Anshi was confirmed in the Northern Song Dynasty. Scholar Cheng Hao thinks that "introduction is cruel, everyone thinks it is impossible, and strengthening is beneficial. When a gentleman goes, the people who use it are all cheap, so it harms the world. So many gentlemen didn't use it against them. As soon as it slows down and listens to it, the villain can take advantage of it without any gap, and its harm will not be so great. " (Shao's Lu Wenjian, Volume 15), this refers to Wang Anshi's stubborn personality, which led him to be surrounded by "villains". The villains' acting style was mean and extreme, and the deviation of the new law could not be corrected reasonably, which had a negative impact. At that time, many people thought that Hao Cheng's statement was a very fair and objective view.

Informal: Wang Anshi's Hygienic Habits

There is a very unique joke, which is Wang Anshi's personal funny health habit story, and it has also been copied into the joke set:

Gong Jing, Yu Yu and Xi Ningzhong are in the same house. One day, when I was serving in court, I suddenly saw a louse from Gong Jing. It brought me to his beard and smiled at it, but it didn't know. When the imperial court retired, it appealed to the public and the public ordered the followers to go. Yu Yu said, "Don't take it lightly, you need to offer a word to praise the merits of lice." Gong said, "How?" Yu Yu smiled and replied, "I have been there many times and I enjoy it." Gong Jing also dismissed him. (Ode to lice and Wandering are all ridiculous articles)

Mrs. Wu is her wife. She loves cleanliness and is not liked. Public begging for Jiangning, private official rattan bed. If Wu doesn't return it, the official will ask for it and dare not speak. Wu saw it and gave it back. I tried to give my niece a dress for my eldest daughter, and suddenly there was a cat lying next to me. The lady put her clothes under the bathroom and left them alone. She was never with anyone. Qi Huangong doesn't wash and dress all day, and his clothes are covered with lice. It's a perfect match for all ages. ("Ji Jie", "Ancient and Modern Tan Jian" Weird Department)

Wang's face is yellow and black. He asked the doctor, and the doctor said, "This stain is not a disease." When bathing beans, ask the king to wash them. The king said, "black is born, so what is the use of bathing beans?" ("Black Face" and "Ancient and Modern Tan Jian" Committee)

Among the above three jokes, one was quoted the most and spread the most widely in later joke books, and similar contents were also published in Joke, Night Talk in the Mountain, Harmonious History of Snow Waves, Overview of Ancient and Modern Times and Collection of Thoughts. It also became a ritual and was used in poetry. Liu Kezhuang, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem about lice: "A sharp mouth is good for fish, and you are bold and wise. I am close to the leader and the game is a must. " He was afraid that others would not understand this allusion, so he added: "I have to travel many times before I can do business with Jing." Yunfu Group Jade, a reference book used to write poems, contains the entries of "green bearded lice" and "ode to lice" in Yunfu Collection, all of which are allusions. In this joke, Wang Yuyu took advantage of Wang Anshi's embarrassment. In the joke, he secretly praised the wit and open-mindedness of the gifted scholar, showing the literati's informal demeanor. In this story, although Wang Anshi's hygiene habits are worrying, his image is basically positive.

The second joke shows the life scene of Wang Anshi and his wife, centering on the family affairs of the literati. The protagonist of the story is Wang Anshi's "Xiangpo", and the description of his movements and demeanor is vivid and full of comedy, not to mention that there is a cute cat that annoys Xiangpo, which really makes people laugh.

The third joke of this story, in the version of Dong Xuanlu, is that Lv Huiqing said that washing your face with coriander (coriander) can get rid of the black, and Wang Anshi said that "natural black is given, and coriander is given as it is"-today's beauty remedies will say that coriander contains photosensitizer, which will make people easy to get black when eaten in large quantities. If so, Gong Jing is lucky. This joke not only shows Wang Anshi's aversion to cleanliness, but also highlights his stubbornness. What Wang Anshi said here is a parody of "being born with virtue and devoted to it", which seems to imply that Wang Anshi's self-expectation is to become a character like Confucius.

Wang Anshi gives the impression that personal hygiene habits are poor. On the one hand, there are indeed many records about Wang Anshi's hygiene habits in the notes of the Song Dynasty. On the other hand, I'm afraid it's also because of the famous ancient prose "Argument on Rape" that he created a "villain" who talked about "poetry" and "book" because of clothes, dogs and dogs. In ancient times when information dissemination was underdeveloped, it is conceivable that many people would be curious about whether Wang Anshi really didn't like clean people because of reading On Rape. Driven by this curiosity, Wang Anshi's jokes about hygiene habits have become popular and colorful, which is also understandable.

How do jokes "forward"

Wang Anshi in Shilin jokes is always inextricably linked with his official career, which is a major feature of Wang Anshi's jokes. Most of the stories of these jokes are recorded in the notes of the Song Dynasty. Later, all kinds of records have similarities, and there are also notes of their own "inventions." Every time the story is "forwarded", some new content will be added to represent the notes' own views. This leads to different records and different interpretations of the same story.

For example, the story of Gong Shen's birthday for Wang Anshi was interpreted differently by predecessors. Earlier records in Dong Xuan directly stated that the Palace God was a person who was "eager for progress" and "stubborn". However, in the Ming Dynasty, when this story was included as a joke in A Summary of Ancient and Modern Talks, Feng Menglong added another comment, saying that Gong Shen was admonishing and satirizing Wang Anshi, implying that he had "done too much homework or caused a lot of trouble". Perhaps because he was worried that this assertion was not convincing enough, Feng Menglong cited another example, saying, "Dali in the Tang Dynasty admired Yao Chong's illness very much, and set up several birds, holding them one by one and letting them go, saying that he hoped the public would recover soon. Yao hates it. " I think Gong Shen is imitating the Tang people and satirizing Wang Anshi. Although Feng Menglong also thinks that what Wang Anshi did is not desirable, after his explanation, Gong Shen's motivation actually took a 180 degree turn, from a teenager to a gentleman, from a courtier to a loyal courtier. In fact, according to the records in A Record of Dong Xuan, even traffickers and pawns were sought after in Wang Anshi's mansion at that time. It may not be true to interpret Gong Shen's behavior as a deliberate imitation of Cheng Jingqi.

Another example is the story of "Sanlu Embarrassment". It is said that this phenomenon was discovered by Wang Jie, and we know that Wang Jie can laugh at Wang Anshi's friend, which is harmless. In Talk in the Back Hill, this joke comes from Liu Ban, who often satirizes the new law in front of Wang Anshi, adding the meaning of criticizing the current abuses. Liu Ban said that "Sanniu is the best, Sanlu is the worst, and it is so difficult to change that all rights can be rejected", and "Houshan Talk" explained that this "right is issued. Leapfrog employment was called "dispatching right" in the appointment of official positions in Song Dynasty. After this explanation, humor turned into satire.

When the story was "forwarded" by history, the emotional tone changed again:

"Wang He and Zaixi Ningzhong wrote Zi Shuo, which is the best in the world. Dongpo was in the museum and met him one day because he saw it. He said,' The Prime Minister is very poor, and some people dare not know. What he is afraid of is eternal attachment, scholars carry on the family line, and some are invincible. Gu used it in the word "Kun" The body of an ox is stronger than that of a deer, and the journey of a deer is faster than that of an ox. There are three words today, but one meaning is the opposite. Why? Gong Jing has nothing to answer, so far it has not changed. Therefore, the inner-party crusade was immersed, and the fall of Huanggang was a disaster for Gai Bute. "

This is a joke version extracted from a mountain night talk in the Ming Dynasty. This version holds that Su Dongpo embarrassed Wang Anshi with the words "awkward" and "embarrassed", which led to Wang Anshi's antipathy to Su Dongpo, and his subsequent demotion was also related to this matter. However, considering that Wang Anshi turned a blind eye to Qiantang Collection during his reign, which led to Wutai Poetry Case, the so-called personal feud between Wang Anshi and Su Shi may be just an outsider's imagination. Coupled with Wang Anshi's evaluation, after the rapid decline of the Southern Song Dynasty, the records in the history books are probably not true.

Wang Anshi, the author of the joke book, has such rich joke materials, thanks to the conscious note writing of Song people, which makes a large number of anecdotes in the ruling and opposition parties preserved in his notes. This is not only related to the prosperity of literati culture in Song Dynasty, but also related to the "joke consciousness" of Song people. These special joke collections, such as Cohabitation for Easy Solution, Good Jokes Collection, Opening Face, Falling Down, Laughing at People, History of Harmony and Zhang Zhangji, all appeared in the Song Dynasty. There are also some quotations in the Selected Works that set special titles for the paragraphs, such as "He Jue" in Fan's Wandering, and "Wild Drama and Adventure" in Tan Zui Weng. These jokes are preserved because they reproduce Wan Shuo in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, there are Lu's Laughing Forest, Drama Collection, Funny Collection, Laughter in the Woods, Luna Collection and Talking about Evil Records. , mostly lost, can only be found in the description.

The "forwarding" of these anecdotes will inevitably lead to some changes in the story, especially those related paragraphs. However, these "forwards" also promote the preservation of the story. If it were not for the enthusiasm of the ancients to preserve these anecdotes, many anecdotes in the ruling and opposition parties might have disappeared. With the passage of time, the meaning of jokes has become less important. What is more touching is the words and records of stories with flashing knowledge and wit, as well as those funny characters. Wang Anshi has a poem praising Mencius, saying:

It's hard to move, but I want to see the weather vane.

Why not the world is too pedantic, so there are people who comfort the lonely.

This may also be used to describe Wang Anshi himself in the joke.

Editor in charge: Peng Shanshan

Proofreading: Xu Yijia

The above is related to the 77-year-old name of WeChat, which is about sharing in the Song Dynasty. I saw the head portrait suitable for snake man, I hope this will help everyone!