I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 7 The daily life of the imperial censor, reading newspapers and drinking tea for impeachment

Autumn of the fourth year of Qingli.

On September 23, at the fifth watch, the sky was slightly bright.

Su Liang started from home, crossed Zhouqiao, and headed west. He passed by Lujia Baozi Shop and bought two buns.

Walking and eating, it took about two-quarters of an hour to arrive at Yushitai Yamen.

The stigma is gone.

Of course he has to go to work normally.

The director of the Yushitai is Yushi Zhongcheng.

It has three jurisdictions: Taiyuan, Dianyuan and Chaoyuan, which are under the jurisdiction of Shi Yushi, Dian Zhongshi Yushi and Supervisory Yushi.

However, some people work part-time and do not work at Yushitai.

The procuratorate where Su Liang is located has six supervisory censors. The only ones currently in Bianjing are Liu Yuanyu and Bao Zheng.

There were two people in the censorship line, one was Su Liang and the other was named Zhou Yuan.

The rest include the chief bookkeeper, prosecutor and related officials.

At this moment, all the court officials were attending court, and those in the Yushitai were all petty officials and staff.

……

Yushitai procuratorate.

It is a dilapidated compound with eight houses.

There are towering cypress and locust trees in the courtyard, with many bird nests built on their branches, mostly crows.

Once in the yard.

You can smell a strong fragrance of books and ink.

Su Liang walked into a house of about [-] square meters on the east side.

There are two workstations in the house, one in the east and one in the west. There is a tea table in the front, and the rest of the room is filled with books, periodicals and reports.

Next to the tea table.

Another supervisory censor, Li Xingzhou Yuan, was making tea.

Zhou Yuan, whose courtesy name is Zixiong, is 37 years old.

At the beginning of this year, I was transferred from the local government to Bianjing. I didn’t have much background in Bianjing, but I still wrote good articles.

"Hey, brother Jingming is back!"

"A "letter of self-incrimination" has become famous in Bianjing City, and it is still unscathed after being framed like this. It's amazing!"

Su Liang smiled helplessly and said: "Brother Zixiong, don't tease me, I'm just lucky enough to keep my official position."

The relationship between the two was not close. After chatting for a few words, Su Liang poured a pot of tea and sat down at the workstation.

Su Liang's daily official duties can be summarized in four words: reading newspapers and impeachment.

It seems simple, but it is actually quite complicated.

He needs to read the public relations papers submitted by the officials every day and sort out some gossip handed in by the officials.

Sometimes, we even have to deal with the Taishen resignation handed over by Shangguan and go to other yamen to retrieve some case files and books.

Su Liang needs to dig out impeachable content from a large amount of information.

Then write a chapter and write a memorial to the central government or the emperor.

To use the terminology of an office worker in his previous life: Impeaching Zhang Shu is Su Liang’s work performance.

The more impeachment chapters you write, the better.

The faster he will be promoted.

Zhou Yuan, who lives in the same room, can write at least ten articles of impeachment in a month, which is one piece every three days.

But the content written is basically trivial.

such as:

An official sneezed out of etiquette during a court meeting.

An official's domestic servant relative was involved in a lawsuit.

A certain official's office went to Goulan to listen to music and so on.

……

The Song Dynasty paid attention to rumors and reports.

As long as the censors heard the news, they could write anything without explaining the source.

However, most of this information was suppressed by Zhongshu or Yushitai.

So trivial!

But it can buy Zhou Yuan a good reputation as "diligent".

This is exactly what he wanted.

Win with quantity first.

As long as a Yushitai official has established a good reputation, he will be promoted very quickly.

Wang Gongchen relied on the accumulated achievements of the impeachment memorials to firmly occupy the top spot on the censorship stage.

Su Liang sat at his workstation.A pot of tea in the morning, a meal at noon, and another pot of tea in the afternoon.

Until I got off work at dusk, I still couldn't dig out a single impeachment content from the official documents hanging above my head.

He really didn't want to write about those trivial things.

After going home.

He wrote to his wife Tang Wanmei, who was far away in Yangzhou, and asked her to take a boat to Bianjing.

The two of them spend less time together and more time apart.

Now that Su Liang is stable in Bianjing City, he naturally wants to bring his wife here to see the prosperity of Bianjing City.

……

Five days later.

Su Liang still has not written the first chapter of his Taiwanese admonishment career.

Those official reports are too trivial.

It's not worth his while.

In the afternoon, the sun shines brightly.From time to time there were a few birds chirping.

Su Liang was flipping through some folk tabloids when a loud voice suddenly came from outside.

"In September of our Taiyuan, the most people wrote 27 chapters and the least... was actually zero. I have been a supervisory censor for the past two years, and this is the first time I have seen this situation. The censorship is An important yamen that admonishes the monarch, supervises the world, and corrects violations is not a place where some people sit and eat nothing, drink tea and live their lives!"

Su Liang stood up and looked out the door.

The speaker was Liu Yuanyu, the supervisory censor.

He spoke loudly in the courtyard and faced Su Liang's room. Anyone with a discerning eye would know at a glance that he was talking about Su Liang.

Liu Yuanyu is a master of impeachment.

In April this year, he set a record of one impeachment per day due to his opposition to the New Deal.

Zhao Zhen was so angry that he was half dead, but there was nothing he could do.

When the censor writes an impeachment memorial, no matter what point of view he holds, it is a reflection of professionalism.

He also kept a copy of his impeachment memorial.

I intend to frame it into a book when I am old and pass it on to future generations.

After saying that, Liu Yuanyu stood there, looking towards the room where Su Liang was, to confirm whether the latter had heard it.

What he meant was obvious.

Su Liang had been employed for nearly a month, but he had not written a single chapter. This was an embarrassment to the Yushitai.

Coupled with the case of entering the court, Su Liang was in the limelight, which made Liu Yuanyu very dissatisfied.

His character is a bit like that of Gongchen, the Prime Minister in the royal censor, who must retaliate for his anger.

And there is a kind of mysterious self-confidence that "in the whole court, I am the only one who is the gentleman".

Zhou Yuan on the side looked at Su Liang who stood up.

"Brother Jingming, Liu Yushi has always been like this. He likes to express his opinions in the courtyard and criticize others. Everyone is not surprised. Don't take it to heart."

Su Liang smiled faintly and strode out.

On the hall of the Great Song Dynasty.

The so-called keeping a low profile and keeping a low profile are all aimed at those husbands.

Small officials must show their sharpness, otherwise it will never be possible to get ahead.

In particular, Taiwan's admonishment officials were responsible for impeaching prime ministers and ridiculing kings.

Once the reputation of cowardice spreads, resignation is not far away.

However, Su Liang did not go to Liu Yuanyu to argue.

Instead, he looked up at the bird's nest on the top of a cypress tree and said loudly: "These damn crows are still making noise at noon. They are really annoying!"

Refers to Sang curse Huai.

Use the way of the person to treat the person's body.

Liu Yuanyu was so angry that his lips trembled, and he didn't think of how to refute.

He immediately threw up his sleeves and left.

Bao Zheng in another room happened to hear the two talking and couldn't help but smile brightly, and then went about his own business.

Immediately, Su Liang also returned to the room.

Zhou Yuan said with a smile: "You...you have been in Taiwan to remonstrate for nearly a month, and there is indeed no impeachment chapter. If there are too few memorials at the end of the year, I am afraid someone will put your shoes on."

"Thank you, Brother Zixiong, for reminding me. I'll think about what I can write."

Su Liang was originally empty-headed.

But when the censor Liu Yuanyu shouted, he suddenly knew what he was going to write.

……

Note: In the Song Dynasty, there were two main ways for the admonishment officials to speak: small matters were reported to the court, and major matters were reported to the court (interviews with the emperor).

(End of this chapter)