Chapter 2199: Renzong Chronicles 8: The "Cloud of Suspicion" over the Chancellor's Dismissal

During his more than five years in power, with full enthusiasm and loyalty, Fan Zhongyan carried out reforms covering politics, economy, military, and many other aspects of the empire.

Of course, in essence, Fan Zhongyan's various policies and measures were only improvements, only corrections of the deviations and errors in the course of the great ship of the Great Han Empire, while the empire's deeper and fundamental problems often proved beyond his reach.

Especially when it came to institutional issues, it became even more difficult—endless troubles and resistance from both inside and outside the court pressed in upon him. At the same time, as an elite bureaucrat of the Great Han Empire era, Fan Zhongyan himself was also an extremely loyal maintainer and consolidator, which fundamentally doomed his struggle.

He did many things, actions large and small, but as for results, one could only say they failed to satisfy public opinion.

All reform is essentially a redistribution of resources, and this was destined to infringe upon the entrenched and deeply intertwined vested interests of the empire's rent-seeking class. And this was destined to invite hostility and resistance.

In fact, after taking power, the ideas for reforming abuses and the series of specific policies and measures Fan Zhongyan proposed were far weaker in both scope and intensity than the various reforms of the Shizu, Taizong, and even Shizong periods—in many areas they were merely scratching the surface.

However, the difficulty of implementation and the opposition and attacks encountered were equally beyond imagination. Therefore, in the increasingly difficult days of governing the state, Fan Zhongyan often pondered one thing: why did the things he advocated—reform measures concerning official governance, rule of law, commercial law, salt administration, land, taxation, and so on—merely consolidate and perpetuate the established laws of the ancestors, yet the result was universal opposition and halting progress?

One should know that Fan Zhongyan's governing philosophy and ideas could be said to distill the essence of the three reigns of Shizu, Taizong, and Shizong. The many policies and measures he promoted never exceeded the scope of the numerous reforms of those three previous reigns, and in influence and intensity, they could hardly compare—even Emperor Shizong, known for his caution and conservatism, had made many breakthrough innovations.

Compared to them, what Fan Zhongyan did had little novelty; many policies were just old tunes replayed, or even direct copies of ancestral governance. Yet even so, things often went contrary to his wishes.

Thus, during Fan Zhongyan's tenure, the most bizarre spectacle appeared in the court of the Great Han Empire. The "Fan Faction" raised high the banner of "ancestral institutions," seeking to correct the empire's governance errors and abolish abuses, while while the "Conservative Party" equally brandished the "laws of the succeeding reigns" to criticize and attack, determined to uphold the orthodox court principles and ancestral systems.

And both sides could find accurate and powerful legal justifications in the governance of the "Three Emperors," and could even find old edicts in the empire's voluminous archives.

Although from Shizu, Taizong, Kangzong to Shizong—these four reigns—many policies and concepts were consistently maintained with strong continuity, it was also common and frequent for succeeding monarchs to perfect and reform systems on the basis of their predecessors, especially during the Taizong period.

Using the laws of the succeeding reigns to refute the Founder's institutions—this set of tactics was played extremely skillfully by the empire's nobles, and every storm and controversy was accompanied by struggles over power, status, and interests.

The only thing worth being thankful for was that the Great Han Empire, with its hundred years of accumulation, no matter how fiercely they fought, no one dared to break the existing political rules. The basic decency among the nobles was preserved, struggles left room for maneuver, remaining in a rational, balanced state.

And this state had been maintained for decades—even during the fiercely contentious Kangzong reign it was so. This constraint, akin to an unspoken rule, was clearly of great positive significance for the stability of the empire's governance.

One point should be mentioned: as time passed, in the Zhengtong reign more than forty years later, both court and country—whether nobles and bureaucrats or civil officials and literati—held Emperor Taizong in increasingly higher regard.

Under the critical pens of civil officials and court historians, Emperor Taizong Liu Yang's status and historical evaluation were on a gradual rise, and by the Zhengtong reign, they were nearly on par with Emperor Shizu.

On Emperor Shizu's body, adorned with his glorious achievements and accomplishments, there were inevitably stains of misdeeds, but even if the historian's pen were a knife, it was not something these civil officials and court historians of the Great Han Empire could blacken.

Delete the line '(continuation of the previous line)' entirely; the sentence is already complete in the preceding paragraph, so nothing replaces it.

Thus, the way they could reduce Emperor Shizu's "sacredness" was to erect another new deity, and in terms of virtue, prestige, and achievements, Emperor Taizong Liu Yang was chosen.

Of course, Emperor Taizong was well deserving—his significance to the Great Han Empire must be discussed at the height of history. If Emperor Shizu was the true founder of the empire, then Emperor Taizong's role was to consolidate and strengthen the foundation. It was precisely through his unremitting correction of governance, clarification of laws, and abolition of abuses during his reign that the "Yongxi Prosperity" came to be, enabling the Great Han to traverse the empire's hundred years in a strong and stable manner.

Inheriting from Kaibao above, opening the way for Jianlong below—this was the evaluation of Emperor Taizong summarized by generations of imperial historians and famous ministers. And in the Zhengtong reign, as the Jianlong era gradually receded, Emperor Taizong's standing in the hearts of subjects (mainly referring to the empire's nobles) rose ever higher.

There was only one reason for this result: apart from Emperor Taizong, they could not find another person to "compete on stage" with Emperor Shizu.

For Fan Zhongyan, from the minor matter of banning officials from riding sedan chairs, to the medium matters of salt and iron rectification and tea and sugar monopolies, to the major matter of land surveying—not a single thing could be accomplished smoothly.

Especially the latter: after entering the Zhengtong era, the empire's land annexation accelerated uncontrollably once again, accompanied by year-on-year decreases in land tax revenue, and the corresponding tax measures became delayed, untimely, and ineffective.

For this reason, in the eighth year of Zhengtong, Fan Zhongyan formally launched another comprehensive survey of the nation's farmland acreage. This decree was highly controversial even within the court, and in the localities it caused an uproar.

Countless meritorious nobles and high officials ran to Emperor Liu Weizhen to complain, but in the end, it was pushed through due to Fan Zhongyan's insistence. For this, Fan Zhongyan selected a large number of court officials and "pure stream" scholars to go to various circuits and prefectures for supervision and inspection, but the results were clearly poor.

In the end, this policy measure vital to national welfare ended in failure. The data reported by the localities—not a single circuit, prefecture, or county was accurate—was even nearly 10 percent less than the figures in the registers at the end of the Jianlong era.

A bizarre yet real phenomenon: in less than ten years, the Great Han Empire's registered land had decreased by over ten million mu, as if devoured by a terrifying gluttonous beast.

After lasting nearly two years, the land survey was finally completely halted by an order from the Hall of State Affairs, and the various "survey commissioners" were recalled. Then, many of them were impeached and prosecuted for corruption, bribery, dereliction of duty, and perversion of justice, dragging Fan Zhongyan into a very embarrassing situation as well.

What Fan Zhongyan wanted to do and attempted to do was not essentially different from the previous emperors and ancestors—even the purposes were similar and consistent. But why did everything end in failure? In the final analysis, his authority was insufficient.

Fan Zhongyan's reputation was very high, his abilities strong, and his moral conduct even more admired by the world. But for the empire's true ruling class, the sacrificial meat of the Great Han was not for you, Fan Xiwen, to divide.

To be honest, some policies and measures required the "Three Emperors" of the empire to promote, implement, and supervise with great boldness and perseverance. Although Fan Zhongyan was appointed Director of State Affairs, the support he received from imperial authority was very meager.

After all, Emperor Liu Weizhen believed in "governing by doing nothing." And Fan Zhongyan's character "yan" (淹, meaning "to drown") ultimately drowned in the empire's noble class, unable to extricate himself.

After four years in power, after repeated failures and setbacks, Fan Zhongyan had already gained some insight into all this and had changed some of his ways.

The tenth year of Zhengtong was a critical juncture. In this year, due to years of drought in the Hebei region, the Great Han Empire finally erupted in a rebellion that caught everyone off guard: the Wang Ze Uprising.

Fan Zhongyan had no choice but to shift his energy from "self-revolution" to "suppressing revolution." At the same time, due to the change in his mentality, he was no longer so "eager for quick success," or rather, his goals had changed.

He no longer attempted to touch the interests of the deeply entrenched imperial nobles; he simply did his utmost, within the scope of his abilities, starting from his moral loyalty, to do practical things for the sovereign and the state.

But this change,

for other noble classes and political groups, was somewhat too late. The contradictions accumulated over several years had no room for easing—unless Fan Zhongyan stepped down.

Before taking power, Fan Zhongyan was a great sage renowned throughout the world, universally respected, supported by many. But after entering the Hall of State Affairs, as policy after policy and conflict after conflict unfolded, more and more people abandoned Lord Fan.

In official governance, his strict measures and high standards for the selection, cultivation, and dismissal of officials, as well as in the imperial examinations, offended the nobles, bureaucrats, and academic cliques. His move against the hereditary yin-privilege system thoroughly enraged the meritorious nobility.

In taxation, the series of measures strengthening state control over salt, iron, tea, sugar, and land made the rent-seekers deeply resentful.

In military affairs, his proposals to bring civil officials into the Bureau of Military Affairs, cut military spending, and reduce troop numbers offended a large swath of military power that was not limited to military nobles.

Therefore, by the eleventh year of Zhengtong (1052), although Fan Zhongyan still sat in the position of Director of State Affairs, his seat was becoming increasingly unstable. Voices of opposition rose both inside and outside the court, while within the palace, the Emperor's attitude remained as "composed" as ever.

Fan Zhongyan was not without premonition of all this, but all he could do was attend to the duties of his position, hold fast to his post, and wait for the day of his dismissal.

And that day was indeed not far off—in early summer of the eleventh year of Zhengtong. The Wang Ze Rebellion, which had lasted over a year, was finally pacified by the imperial army. After Deputy Commissioner of Military Affairs and Bandit-Suppression Commissioner Shi Yuansun and Hebei Pacification Commissioner Jing Yanbo returned to court, while reporting their victory, they also reported a very important matter to the Emperor.

During the interrogation of Wang Ze's accomplices, a secret matter came to light: when Wang Ze's rebellion was ravaging prefecture after county and gathered a hundred thousand followers, he had told those around him that they had risen up to survive, that all the court officials were despicable, and that if they could fight their way to Luoyang, they would honor Lord Fan as king.

Any sensible person could see how foolish and baseless such a rumor was, but on this matter, most of the empire's high officials collectively became "blind" and "deaf." And so, the famous Chancellor Fan was dismissed from office in this manner.

Of course, face was fully preserved—Fan Zhongyan voluntarily retired due to old age.

But no matter what, being attacked in this way and leaving the court under such circumstances was an immense humiliation and blow to Fan Zhongyan. In that very year, he died of illness in the "Fan Estate" in Suzhou.

And "Fan Zhongyan's dismissal" later became one of the great unsolved cases of the Zhengtong reign. The mystery lay in the fact that apart from the reports of Shi Yuansun and Jing Yanbo, there was no evidence whatsoever regarding the so-called words of the rebel leader Wang Ze—yet it had genuinely driven out a Director of State Affairs who had held power for many years.

How many people and how many forces were maneuvering behind this, no one could say, but it must have involved a large number of the empire's nobles.