Revealing who was the first emperor in history to be honored as Renzong?

The emperor's old butler Song Renzong Zhao Zhen was kind and low-key, but he was born to be an official. He was the fourth emperor of the Great Song Dynasty. We have always evaluated ancient emperors as nothing more than pioneers and martial artists. Extrapolating from this, it may be nothing, so it seems that only Tang Zong and Song Zu said so. In fact, in addition to these professional bloodthirsty people who fought to redeem their weapons, in terms of the current situation of the people living in peace and happiness during the Sungpyeong era, Song Renzong was really good and deserved to be elected as the greatest benevolent monarch in ancient times.

Song Injong was the seventh son of a true sectarian. He is what history calls the baffling "civet cat for a prince". Although his mother was Li Fei, it was the Empress Dowager Zhang Xi'an who assisted him when he became emperor. Empress Dowager Liu was not as brutal as the jokes in history, but was wise and virtuous. She held the curtain for eleven years until Renzong could actually listen to the government, and Renzong was not as sensitive and fragile as the later Guangxu Emperor. With a reign of forty-two years, Renzong was the longest reigning emperor of the Song Dynasty. Due to the long-term influence of his adoptive mother Liu, Renzong was gentle and loyal. Although he was not as skilled in martial arts as Taizong, he was able to assess the situation and recognize people. During his reign, many famous officials stood out. Overall, Renzong was a wise and accomplished monarch who had both simple compassion and strict self-discipline.

Ruling the country with benevolence is the highest state of traditional Chinese culture and a core value of Confucianism. Whether Emperor Renzong got it by chance or by character is hard to say, but his warmth and compassion largely determined the state government's operation. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, the world was peaceful, the borders were stable, the economy was prosperous, science and culture were developed, and the people lived in peace. Among the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, except for two in the Tang Dynasty, the other six were all active during the reign of Emperor Renzong. Lin Yutang once said that this was the best era for Chinese literati. Not only that, of the four great inventions in Chinese history, apart from papermaking, the other three - movable type printing, gunpowder and compass - all appeared in the reign of Emperor Renzong. This was by no means a mere coincidence. It was because of the lenient and clear political atmosphere and kind-heartedness of Emperor Renzong that brought about unprecedented prosperity in society. Song Renzong has been a neglected monarch in history. No other emperor in history achieved such great social, technological and cultural achievements as he did during his reign. Unfortunately, history is always based on success or failure, and Renzong's silent accomplishments have been lost to history.

Praising Renzong and his rule: "In the forty-two years of his reign, officials did whatever they wanted if they were lazy; the criminal law appeared to be lenient, but prison sentences were mostly granted. The country had no ills, but it was not enough to rule the world; there were no villains in the dynasty, but winning that kind of Qi was not enough. For more than a hundred years, the loyalty and fidelity of monarchs and ministers had been the basis for the cultivation of Song San. Sons and grandsons corrected their doings and tamed their descent into chaos. Yue: "Being a ruler stops at benevolence. "The Emperor is honest and innocent. You want to rise before you fall, and look at the essence from the surface. Every sentence in it is a fair assessment of Renzong's great benevolence. During his reign, Emperor Renzong was extremely tolerant of the literati and never opened a word prison. Even when scholars occasionally made mistakes, they were treated as leniently as possible. Shi Baozheng complained bitterly and often splashed spittle on Renzong's face. Emperor Renzong wiped his face with his sleeve and took his advice. Renzong also loved to learn and worshipped the Confucian classics. For the first time, he took out the "History of Song", "Biography", "History of Song" and "Analects" together for his students to study, creating a precedent for the "Four Books".

Renzong lived a frugal life without extravagance and had a high sense of self-discipline. History records that one day, Emperor Renzong was tired and hungry when he was dealing with affairs late at night. He wanted to eat a bowl of mutton soup, but did not say so. The next day, when the Empress found out, she advised him, "Your Majesty works hard day and night, you must take care of your health. If you want to eat mutton soup, just tell the cook anytime. How can you endure hunger? Renzong said to the Empress: "It is customary to ask for a short while at random in the palace. If I had eaten mutton soup last night, the imperial chef would have slaughtered it every night. Killing a few hundred a year is the rule. The number of future butchers is incalculable. Eating a bowl of rice and drinking a bowl of wine is evil and hurtful to me. I can't stand it and would rather starve for a while. "On another occasion, it was early fall, and the officials offered clams. Renzong asked where he got them, and the minister replied that they had been brought from far away. Asked how much it cost, the answer was 28 dollars. Renzong said, "I have often warned you to economize. Now it costs 28,000 dollars to eat a few clams. I cannot eat them! "Renzong's realm is better than the 300 lychees of the famous redheads sheltered by Emperor Tang Xuanzong.

Renzong's benevolence is not fake, much less for show. For example, his attitude toward beauty, Renzong also love beauty. Once, others offered him a group of beautiful women, and Renzong was very moved. When Minister Wang Su advised him not to be mesmerized by beauty, he also showed an attitude that people in general could not part with, but he ordered the eunuchs to send the group of beauties out of the palace and gave each person three hundred dollars. When he finished speaking, tears came to his eyes. Minister Wang Su could not bear it and advised him that since he had accepted the advice, he might as well keep the group of beauties for a while before sending them out of the palace. Renzong knew that this was the minister's way of giving him a leg up, but he said that people have feelings. If we keep them for a long time, perhaps I will not be able to let them go because of my deep feelings. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, he also abolished palace expenses several times and cut some redundant Chinamen out of the palace according to the roster. The emperors of the Song Dynasty, except for the founding emperor Lao Zhao and his brothers, were all men of letters, and they were all very accomplished in literature and art, and Emperor Renzong of Song was no exception. He was not only a benevolent emperor, but also a calligrapher whose calligraphy was no less than that of Zhao Ji. In addition, Renzong was a poet, and 14 poems still exist.

Later generations vilified Injong everywhere. First, they were ill-equipped but failed in the war against Western Xia with mediocre results. But few people thought that as a generation of emperors, everyone wanted to do great things. Once a war brings havoc to the people, few stop to think of the people, not Renzong. The war cost money and the treasury was empty, his first thought was to make peace, and the Western Xia surrendered to the Song. Secondly, the New Deal was aborted. Instead, he promoted Fan Zhongyan as a political advisor to carry out reforms. Although the "Qingli New Deal" lasted only one year and four months and failed due to various complicated reasons, not all emperors had the courage to innovate and reform. The political affairs of Emperor Renzong were not abandoned because of the failure of the reform. During his reign, he issued the world's earliest paper currency, the "Jiaozi" (交子). After the failure of the New Deal, Emperor Renzong learned a lesson and appointed his successor, Wen Yanbo, to continue Fan Zhongyan's ten reforms without moving, finally reversing the economic decline since the Zongzheng Dynasty and ushering in the golden age of Northern Song development.

When the news of his death reached Liao, the brave Liao monarch was shocked. He rushed up to hold Song's hand tightly and wailed, "Forty-two years have passed, and you still don't know about the military revolution." For a time, people on the Song-Liao border cried far and wide, so it was clear that it was not just the Song who benefited. When the news from the palace to the market, a beggar in Kaifengfu was stunned, then cried out and stumbled toward the palace gate. Who knows, there have long been hundreds of people outside the palace gates, wearing hemp and mourning, burning paper money for Emperor Renzong to die. The burned paper money curled up without a single ray of light in the sunlight. Even now, the emperor who could make foreigners and the people under his rule mourn so much. It is evident that Emperor Song Renzong was a very successful emperor who really made the emperor his home.

Song Renzong's Zhao Zhen was the first emperor in history to be honored as "Renzong". Only three Ming emperors in history have been honored by the late Ming literati: Emperor Wen, Song Renzong and Ming Xiaozong. Moreover, even Emperor Qianlong, who was arrogant and self-important all his life, had to admit from the bottom of his heart that apart from Grandpa Kang Xi and Emperor Tang Taizong, the emperor he admired most in his life was Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhen. No wonder in the eyes of most of the Song people, "benevolent rule" is far better than the "rule of Zhengan" and "Kaiyuan Sheng Shi".