Sang Yi is a native of Qiu Yong County, Kaifeng Prefecture. His brother Sang Yi is famous for taking the Jinshi exam. Sang Zhou also took the Jinshi exam, but failed twice, so he traveled back and forth between Ruzhou and Yingzhou, gained several hectares of abandoned fields in Longcheng, and quit the imperial examination to try his best to cultivate.
Due to the bad years, there are many thieves in counties and counties near Ruzhou. Sang Yi found the county magistrate and said to him, "I want to be a leader and patrol the traitors in the countryside." After the county magistrate agreed, Sangyi summoned the rural teenagers and warned: "A thief can't do it. I can't stand you here! " The teenagers promised again and again.
The father's son died and didn't go into the coffin. At night, the thief took off his clothes. Father Li was afraid and had no other son, so he dared not complain to the county government. His son's body was naked and could not be buried. After hearing these words, Sang Yi sympathized with Li's father. He suspected that the young man had done it. Go to Wang Sheng's house to see his box in the evening, and don't let him find it.
The next day, I met Wang Sheng and asked her, "You promised not to steal anything. Isn't it you who stole my father's son's clothes? " The boy changed his face. Sang Yi immediately pushed it to the ground and tied it up. When interrogating a thief, Wang Sheng testified against a teenager. Sang Zhou immediately asked the able-bodied man to guard Wang Sheng. He ran to catch the boy and sent him to the county together. Both of them have been punished by law.
Sang Yi has been to Tancheng. When I met a county commandant who was about to go out to catch a thief, I called Sangyi to drink. After drinking, Sang Yi accompanied him to travel. When he got to the place where the thief was hiding, the county commandant was a little scared, pretended not to see it and went over.
Sangyi said, "Here's the thief. Where are you going? " Dismounted and killed several thieves alone, and tied them all up. I also heard that there were dozens of thieves in Xiangcheng, so I went alone with my sword, killed several thieves and tied up the rest. As a result, the thieves in the county near Rucheng disappeared, and the transfer of Jingxi brought the matter of Sangzhou to the court, so the court appointed Sangzhou as the city guard.
During the Tiansheng period, there were many thieves in the counties of Henan, and the transfer made the court transfer the governor of Mianchi. In ancient times, Gansu was a dangerous place with many mud mountains, while qinghui Mountain was very steep and difficult to walk, and was occupied by thieves. An evil thief named Wang Bo hides in this mountain, and often goes out to the nearby county to do evil. At this time, what happened to Wang Bo was known to the imperial court, and the imperial court called the police to arrest him.
Soon, Sang Yi arrived here, checked and forged the court's announcement, and showed it to Sang Yi, preparing to recruit Wang Bo. Mulberry clothes are true, and there is no doubt that they are forged. He secretly scouted Wang Bo's hiding place, went deep into the thief's lair to woo him, and slept with Wang Bo for more than ten days. He let the heirs believe in themselves and go out together.
On the contrary, the patrol intercepted the mountain pass with soldiers, and Sangyi himself almost didn't escape. Sang Zhou said: "The patrol was named. I'm afraid I won't get credit for doing so." I gave Wang Bo a patrol inspection, asking him to take credit and stop talking about his career. After the police arrested Wang Bo and escorted him back to Beijing, the court learned about the actual situation and dismissed the police for crimes.
Sang Zhou worked as a commander in Tancheng for more than a year, and was appointed as the duty officer of the right class and the inspector of Yong 'an County. At the turn of Ming Dow and Jingyou, a plague of locusts occurred early in the morning, and thieves gradually increased. There are twenty-three thieves, and there is no way to catch them. The Privy Council summoned Sang Yi to Beijing on a fast horse and gave him the names of 23 thieves he wanted to catch. Sang Yi mused, "Thieves are afraid of my name. When they hear that I'm going, they will run away. It is not easy to catch them when they run away. I should show them my fears first. "
Sangyi got there, closed the gate of the barracks and warned the officers not to leave the barracks alone. After living for a few days, the military attache didn't understand his intention, and repeatedly asked for the results, but he was never allowed. After a while, one night, Sang Zhou and several soldiers dressed as thieves came out to find the place where the thief had passed. When people entered their homes, they all ran away, except an old lady who stayed and gave them something to eat like a thief.
When you come back, close the military door again. Three days later, I took my utensils to the old man's place for dinner, and gave the rest to the old woman. When the old woman regarded them as real thieves, she gradually approached her, talked to her and mentioned thieves. The old woman said, "When they heard that the mulberry boat was coming, they began to get scared and ran away. I also heard that Sang Zhou refused to come out after closing the camp gate, knowing that he was not worth being afraid of, and now he is back. So-and-so is somewhere and so-and-so is somewhere. "
Sang Zhou thoroughly found the whereabouts of the thief. After three days, I went there again, gave the old woman a generous gift and told her the truth: "I am Sang Zhou, please ask the old woman to help us understand the truth, and don't reveal it." I'll be back in three days. " After three days, Sangyi went again to inquire about the facts that the old woman knew in detail.
At dawn the next day, he deployed sergeants, some soldiers caught thieves somewhere, and some Israeli soldiers caught thieves somewhere. Among them, the particularly strong thief rode his own fast horse, and the foot soldiers didn't keep up. Only four knights followed him, and then they met the thief. Sangyi personally killed three people. 23 thieves were arrested in one day. Only 28 days later, Sang Yi returned to Beijing to report to me.
The Privy Council official said to him, "Give me money and I will give you the position of housekeeper." Sang Zhou said: "I don't want to get an official position through bribery. I am poor and have no money!" " Even if there is, it must not be done. "Officer great anger, conceal meritorious service, temporarily exempt from errands, send third-class hospital arrangement. As usual, Class Three detained him.
Before I could leave, I happened to meet a Liao rebellion in Jiaotoe, killing the sea patrol. Zhaozhou and Huazhou all called the police, but they couldn't calm down after several trips to the army. So the court ordered Sangguai to kill the traitor. When he returned to Beijing, he was appointed as a cabinet minister.
Sang Zhou said, "I didn't do this action alone. My position is higher than mine. I tried my best to help them. " Now he stays there, and I'm back. I gave him a big reward, but he was very light. Won't you suspect that I covered up their credit and showed up myself? Accepting such a reward will only make me feel ashamed. "
I will give the reward of the imperial court to the boss and show me the draft. I said to him, "If you give it to others, the court will definitely not agree, and you will only be laughed at because it is regarded as a good name and a deception."
Sang Yi sighed: "I also thought of this. However, to observe a person's quality, we should judge according to his behavior. What's the point of being laughed at? " If you want to avoid being famous, don't do good deeds. "I feel very ashamed after listening to it. In the end, he gave his meritorious service to others and didn't listen to advice. Although Sang Zhou took part in the imperial examination, his cultural level was not high, but he did everything ethically, and many of them did.
When Sang Yi lived in Qiu Yong, she was hit by a flood. The grain in two warehouses is ready to be transported away. When he saw people running to avoid the flood, he gave up the food and transported it by boat. Seeing the poor harvest of the people, they called the villagers together and cooked for them with their own food until they finished eating their own food.
Sangyi likes to dance sword and iron Jane. He is better than several people and has great courage and strategy. I am often shy when I meet people, as if I were shy. He is not too tall, but after his own practice, he also looks very dignified; He has a stutter. People met him by chance, but they didn't know him. In fact, he is both strong and brave.
Ouyang Xiu of Luling said: People have courage and strength, but few people can understand and use courage. People like Sang Zhou can be called brave. It can be said that he can do something without profound knowledge, which is a kind of nature. I like to write biographies, especially the biographies of Sima Qian. The people he writes are all strong-willed people with extraordinary integrity, and all scholars like to read such books. I want to learn his brushwork, but I wonder why there are so few people like Sima Qian now.
I suspect that Sima Qian is only good at exaggerating with magnificent writing style, and ancient people are not necessarily like this. We didn't know there was such a person until we knew about Sang Zhou. Sima Qian's article did not deceive future generations, but we just didn't know it. What Sang Zhou has done is magnificent, but I doubt whether my articles can be read as well as Sima Qian's books. Let's write down the story of Sang Zhou in order.
Introduction and appreciation of works
Biography of Sang Mi is a biography created by Ouyang Xiu, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The biography omits the introduction of Sang Zi's origin, lineage and official career, as well as the story of his ultimate resistance to Xixia and his death for his country. Instead, it focuses on his noble qualities such as courage and wit, meritorious service and refusal to reward in the process of catching thieves. The article also wrote that the governor cheated Sangzhou, officials demanded bribes, and Sangzhou rewarded them, exposing the corruption of official administration from the local to the imperial court in the Song Dynasty, and "thieves were everywhere", which objectively reflected the social reality at that time.
The author deliberately chose the endless strange plots that can best express the character and talent of the characters to highlight Sang Zhou, a strange man. His writing style is quite similar to Historical Records, which has a strong artistic appeal. This kind of writing between official history and legend has a great influence on later works. Song Lian's Qin Shilu, Wei's Biography of Big Tie and other biographies of Ming and Qing Dynasties all intentionally imitate this article in conception.