Few middle-and high-ranking literati in the Southern Song Dynasty were impeached carelessly, and their fate was nothing more than "begging for a shrine" or "leaving their posts to worship a shrine". This is naturally a setback for a scholar-bureaucrat who is bent on making contributions, but it is also a good retreat for those who are not too eager to pursue career advancement or are unable to pursue it. For example, Zhu, a great scholar, has not been an official for a long time, and often shouts "Please pay homage" verbally, because "paying homage to the shrine" is really a better choice for him: since he can't get a good job, I might as well go back to my hometown to give lectures and get some money from the country.
Due to the proliferation of Ci Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty, many literati with unsatisfactory official career were familiar with the retreat of "please Ci", which naturally brought economic pressure to the Southern Song Dynasty court. Therefore, historians' evaluation of it is negative. For example, Mr. Liang Tianxi, a Hong Kong scholar, thinks that it not only causes financial burden, but also has many negative effects on the official style and governance: (1) The party worships the shrine and the party disaster intensifies; (2) Corrupt officials worship shrines, and gathering people has become an atmosphere; (3) Dereliction of duty and temple, the government is getting worse; (4) Mistakes and temples have greatly changed the style of scholars. These conclusions are credible. On the other hand, the memorial service system also has its positive significance, especially its influence on the literary and academic development of the Southern Song Dynasty, which should be positively evaluated and fully estimated.
Mr. Liang Tianxi said: "Although the Neo-Confucians in the Song Dynasty, like Zhu Wengong's generation, lived in temples, that is, there were occasional scholars who opened academies, but there was no one in a thousand miles." Obviously, he saw the positive significance of the ancestral temple system, but he still deliberately avoided it because he stood on the economic and political standpoint and did not discuss it. Objectively speaking, the widespread implementation and even flooding of the Cilu official system has helped a group of talented people to leave North Korea and become an elite group living in the local area, which has been expanded unprecedentedly. At the same time, it also provides a good living environment for these literati who can't show their political ambitions, which has the nature of social welfare. This kind of welfare allows them to have more time and basic economic security, and can concentrate on studying and studying poetry relatively calmly. Because there is also a "free residence" in the Cixi system, they also have a very free space for personal activities and thinking and creation. In other words, the word law system ensures the material foundation, creative time and free atmosphere of a group of literati who are politically frustrated but have real talents and practical learning, and provides favorable conditions for them to concentrate on writing and playing poetry.
We can make a short list of some literati who visited in the Southern Song Dynasty: Zhu, Ye Shi, Zhen, Wei Liaoweng; Lu You, Yang Wanli, Xin Qiji, Liu Kezhuang. The first four are famous neo-Confucianists, and the last four are famous writers. Living in a shrine is an important period in their lives, and it is the main stage for them to write books and talk about poems. It is no exaggeration to say that their achievements in life benefited from the memorial service system.
Let's talk about the familiar Master Q of Zhu Lao. Zhu Zi invited temples many times in his life, which is easy to find in historical documents. When he was allowed to renew his ancestral home again, he said happily at the beginning of his letter with Liu Zicheng: "My brother has nothing to do when he comes back, and he has to help his ancestral home, so he doesn't have to get food and clothing again." Dumen studied and had a good time. "Its complacent state can be imagined. Cilu's money is not much, but it is enough to ensure a basic life. I am afraid that many of Zhu's works are "nourished" by Ci Lu.
Lu You also talked about Ci Lu many times in his poems. The so-called "seventy-one Weng worries about his heart, and he sits there to support the elderly" ("seventy-one Weng Yin") is precisely this money that supports his old age. He also wrote a poem "Miscellaneous Poems in the Mountains", which said: "The people in the temple are not crowned, and the mountain garden is three acres wide. For a hundred years, I actually looked at the place where I was always worried and everything was gone. The red flower diameter means getting drunk late, and the moon is dizzy for spring cold. My history has been forgotten, and it depends on my son. " This poem says that Cixi left him a rich state without a job, during which he could enjoy country life peacefully.
Liu Kezhuang once said in a poem "Answering a Friend" that "it's as cold as autumn in prison, and you can't relax yourself by poetry" ("To Weng Ding"). Writing poems to relax the depression of not being an official reflects the pain of life under the word road system, and it is also an excellent opportunity for poetry creation. Ignoring the concept of kindness made literature the theme of his life. Moreover, many friends of Liu Kezhuang, such as Lin and others, also live in the temple, which gives them the same time to form a choir together, which greatly promotes the exchange of poetic art and the collision of poetic thoughts.
From this point of view, the redundancy of the official system in the Song Dynasty really cost the court a lot of money. However, due to the fact that most of the recipients of the money are middle and senior scholars, among them, there are many "lucky dragons and auspicious birds", so it is very likely that not all of this expenditure of the state finance is made by Shui Piao. Instead of pocketing corrupt officials' money, we might as well "invest" some money in literature and academics. In the meantime, although some uneducated people benefited from it, they played the role of "nurturing scholars" and made contributions to cultivating great thinkers and writers. If nothing else, from Zhu's comforting words, it seems that we should also give a smile to the criticized word law system.