Appreciation

Lusheng is the hero in Handan Ji by Tang Xianzu, a dramatist in Ming Dynasty.

Lu Sheng is a humble scholar. In order to realize his ambition of "making contributions, establishing a reputation, publishing pictures, eating while setting the stage, and listening while choosing the sound", he studied hard at the cold window and "read all the books". However, due to the corruption of the imperial examination system and the darkness of the officialdom at that time, although he "learned the art of civil and military affairs and didn't sell it in the imperial palace", he repeatedly failed and "lost the crown of Confucianism for many years", so he was down and out. "In the autumn weather, he didn't wear clothes, brown didn't have brown, and his knees didn't have makeup." He is also indignant at this unreasonable phenomenon. "The academician courtyard doesn't read articles, nor does it have the strength to spend half a piece of paper on fame and fortune, so it goes straight to the giants and your party. High reputation, good luck, for no reason. " Later, he got Lv Dongbin's magnetic pillow and fell asleep. In the dream, he was adopted as her husband by Cui Shi, a rich woman. When Cui Shizhao Lu Sheng went to Beijing to take the exam, he visited his "four relatives" in Jin Yao and paid him to pay bribes in Beijing to "provoke nobles". "Kaiyuan Tian Zi values talents, and Kaiyuan Bao Tong is money". Lu Sheng's paper has already been defeated, but with the strength of "Brother Kong Fang", "When a person is full of honor and knows each other, his literary talent comes first". So he "turned out to be the first in the paper" and finally won the first prize. "He was awarded a bachelor's degree in Hanlin by the emperor and was also appointed as a scholar. He put on his hat and rode on Imperial Street. " "In the past, hunger and cold drove me away, but now wealth and power are oppressing me."

Once he fell into the official career, his original resentment against official corruption vanished, but once he came to power, he aroused his greater greed and desire for fame, and finally he joined the ranks of corrupt officials. For the sake of fame and fortune, he made profits by hook or by crook. For example, taking advantage of the right to control patents, secretly writing imperial edicts, "hazy submission", and getting a pair of crested Xia Dian for his wife. Sacrifice people and money, dig mountains to talk, collect beautiful women extensively, build dragon boats, impress the emperor with the blood of ordinary people and get a little gift. He not only wants the fame and fortune in front of him, but also thinks about the fame and fortune behind him. For example, when he beat off the soldiers and made "frontier defense meritorious service" and returned to Tianshan in triumph, Lu Sheng asked his followers, "Long live the Millennium, generals. Why do you take Lu Sheng as an example? " In order to make his "meritorious service" still be celebrated after his long life, he ordered people to make some contributions to Tianshan Mountain. In addition, even after Xerox wrote the inscription, he was worried about whether his reputation could be passed down from generation to generation. He said: "If the inscription is correct, I am afraid that strawberry moss will rain, stones will crack and slide, and then I will lose my credit." Before his death, he was extremely rich and expensive "Son of son in the shadow, the first animal husbandry, beauty famous horse, the list goes on. Your glory is impressive, and you can't stand the court. " But when he died, he was not satisfied with the fame and fortune he had gained, because he didn't know what fame and fortune was like behind him, so he refused to die. Not only does he want to record his life and achievements in history forever, but he is also afraid of being missed by historians. He said to Gao Lishi, who came to visit, "The important thing is that I have worked hard for 60 years, and the old man knows that I am afraid that the history of President Xiao and Pei will not be compiled completely." Moreover, he had to take care of the gifts behind him and the shadows of his descendants, so he asked Gao Lishi, "Excuse me, old man, where is the gift of the official behind him?" When he learned that "an official will give him a legacy gift", he pushed his luck and asked for "shade" for Lu Yi, the evil son. He won't die until the name behind him is neat.

Although fame and fortune in officialdom brought joy to Lu Sheng and satisfied his desire for fame and fortune, rivalry, intrigue and power struggle in officialdom also brought him troubles and pains. Lu Sheng experienced many ups and downs in his life, sometimes he was promoted, sometimes he was relegated, even put to the guillotine, and sometimes he was pardoned. Just as he was working so hard, he chose a venue in a deserted window and walked around in a sparse field. He met Cui Shi and "suddenly bumped into your door". He won the first prize, and when he was about to climb to the top, he was demoted as Shaanxi magistrate for forging imperial edict, and "climbed the sand with his bare hands and talked about transporting grain by river". In Shaanxi, he was promoted to Cheng in the imperial history, led four envoys to fight in Longyou, Hexi, and recruited General Xi to "carry a knife to Husha battlefield". Soon, due to the establishment of "border affairs", it was promoted to Dingxihou, a food city with 3,000 households, a history of the Ministry of War of Prince Taibao, and the same military affairs. However, just when his luck changed, Yu Wenrong falsely accused him of being a traffic fan, lied about his military exploits, deceived the seller, and was tied to the execution ground and beheaded, "almost killing Yunyang." This sudden disaster made him fall from the peak of his official career to the trough, and then he survived and was sent to the death gate of Guangnan Yazhou. "Only when he is demoted will he suffer." Soon, because of the grievances caused by traffic, he was taken back to North Korea by the State of Qin, worshipped as the prime minister of the dynasty, and jumped from the trough of Guanhai to the peak, "over 80 years old." In this wave after wave of ups and downs, although Lu Sheng's fame and fortune was not damaged in general, it rose every time it fell, and finally reached the highest position among feudal bureaucrats. However, after experiencing the stormy waves in the Guanhai Sea, Lu Sheng was deeply touched by the unpredictable fortunes in the Guanhai Sea: "It's hard to die at dusk." On the way to the execution ground, he was filled with emotion. He wanted to make contributions, so his name was Lingyange. Unexpectedly, Lingyange became Yunyang City, but he had to die if he wanted to be famous. I thought I had been beheaded by military orders, but I was beheaded. This "vanguard troops should come to us". "Looking back at Beijing a few years later, I walked under this bridge of souls!" Looking back on the past and facing the reality, his heart is extremely empty, and this psychological state is exactly what feudal bureaucrats who have been ups and downs in the sea of officials all day.

Moreover, the ups and downs of his career again and again have also made him see that the world is cold and indifferent. In the struggle for official power, there is a life-and-death struggle, there is intrigue, some people plant the blame, some people throw stones into the well, and some people cling to the trend. Lu Sheng was framed by Yuwen Rong, sent to the jaws of death, and his wife was buried in the government, but no one in the civil and military affairs of the Qing Dynasty interceded for him. In Breaking Bad Cliff State, in order to please Yuwen Rong, Cliff State Minister tortured Lu Sheng and tried to kill him. However, when the imperial edict of Lu Sheng's return visit arrived, he immediately turned his face, fawned on Lu Sheng again, and tied himself to Lu Sheng to confess his sins. Instead of punishing him, Lu Sheng felt that he was "unstable", reneging on his words and pleasing both sides. In the face of the cold and warm world, Lu Sheng believes that "this is also the ear of the cold world". "It's the world, it's all bullshit. Some have a glimpse, and some have a stomach. " On the way to Yazhou, I met a tiger, and Lu Sheng hurried to stop it with a broken umbrella in his hand. The tiger took it away and Lu was saved. Afterwards, he said with emotion: "I inadvertently remembered that Huang Luo's umbrella could not cover me, but this broken umbrella covered me;" People who owe money to Manchu can't help but take my life, so they beat the children for my life. "This passage really tells the voice of a feudal bureaucrat who has experienced the ups and downs of Guanhai!

As a scholar, Lu Sheng's character is pedantic and hypocritical. For example, when the emperor gave him twenty-four ladies-in-waiting music, although he had long longed for it, he pretended to be a decent person who was not close to women, quoted classics and published a long indecent statement, saying, "The white-toothed moth is a cutting axe; The warbler is called the owl of life; Fine saliva and viscous body fluids are drugs for rotten intestines, and turning over a bed and jumping on a mat is a paralyzing machine. Laozi said: Five colors make people blind and five tones make people deaf. Therefore, the villain must abstain from color and must quit; A gentleman must abstain from lust, caution and eyes. Like this kind of female music, we can't go near him anymore. " However, when Cui Shi advised him to "write and play a book" and return the female music to the court, he said "no" and took out a classic to explain why it could not be returned, saying: "Liu Yun: I dare not give it away. The so-called disrespect is embarrassing. " Later, because of fooling around with twenty-four female musicians, she became seriously ill, and Cui Shi sued; "How do 80-year-old people fight?" It was like exposing his scar, and he immediately argued, "I just want to take care of my children and grandchildren." Am I hiding it from you for fun? " Obviously, lust and lust caused the disease, but he wanted to make the scandal sound grandiose and cover himself with a fig leaf. He is greedy, but pedantic and hypocritical. Although it was "air knife disintegration" before death, it was unbearable. "beads of sweat roll down and every inch of bone hurts." But he asked his eldest son to take Four Treasures of the Study, "sweep the seats and burn incense. When I write down my legacy and thank the court, I will die of printing. " Cui Shi advised him not to write by himself, and let his son write for him. But Lu Sheng said, "You don't know that my handwriting is Zhong You's calligraphy, which is the emperor's favorite. I wrote a letter and left it to Tang as a treasure on earth. " Before he died, he wanted to please the emperor and leave a name for future generations. This is both extremely greedy and surprisingly pedantic.

Lu Sheng was originally a character in Shen Jiji's legendary novel Pillow Story. The initial description is simple. In Tang Xianzu's works, this character's image is fuller, his personality is more distinct, and he is endowed with the color of the times. All the personality characteristics of feudal bureaucrats at the end of feudal society are concentrated on this image, making it an artistic model of feudal bureaucrats.