Seeing that the emperor's wedding date is approaching, the ministers also consider that the time is a little urgent, the itinerary is a little cramped, and the emperor's honor guard is too disturbing to the people, and there are many things at the end of the year, everyone goes to accompany the sacrifice, and the court has to be paralyzed. And the little emperor also said that there are many old ministers in the court, and the daily carriage and horses are tired, and even the body of the sacrifice is unbearable, so everyone also got off the donkey and held a meeting to discuss, thinking that this is also in line with the etiquette law, and the queen mother also approved the emperor's invitation, and handled the year-end sacrifice and the temple together.

Of course, this is also a tacit thing for everyone, the ministers know that accompanying the sacrifice is a hard job, not only go out early and return late, and the ceremony is lengthy, just get up and kneel down can be tired and half dead, why not be lazy if you can be lazy; As for what the little emperor thinks, they also know very well that one is worried about money, and the other is also impatient with these rituals. In that case, why bother yourself!

It means this, but this reason is unspeakable, so naturally we have to find a high-sounding reason. Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhongshu Province and Shangshu Province and Lin'an Mansion jointly issued a document to inform the people: due to the initial decision of the world and the heavy state affairs, in order to save the country and not disturb the people, His Majesty decided that the year-end festival should be simple, and the ceremonial guard should be reduced by 30%, and it will be held together with the temple. After consulting the classics, the way of heaven is in line with the people's will, and the etiquette is in harmony, and the queen mother is approved!

"Read less and be bullied!" Zhao Hao couldn't wait to slap himself in the mouth, and he suddenly realized that he was tricked by those old fritters.

To be exact, he was used, and it turned out that according to the custom, the Empress Dowager issued an edict, and when the Taichang Temple chose the auspicious day, the scholar wrote the memorial text, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites told Zhao Yu about the etiquette and rules, and he figured out some things from the mouth of the officials of the Ministry of Rites. His good mood that he had just been complacent about his plan was also swept away in an instant, and he couldn't help but secretly hate why he didn't read more books when he was a child, so that he repeatedly fell into the pit.

Speaking of suburban worship is to worship heaven and earth in the suburbs, and it is also a national grand ceremony for ancient Chinese emperors to worship heaven and earth, but due to the evolution of history, the suburban worship system itself has been constantly changing in the process of its development. The pre-Qin period was the original heyday of the suburban ritual system. The Qin and Han dynasties were a period of political maturity. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the political division of China and the invasion of ethnic minorities, the suburban ritual system was empty and documented. This was the period of decline of the suburban worship system. The Sui and Tang dynasties were a period of restoration and re-establishment of the suburban ritual system. The Five Dynasties and the Two Song Dynasties were periods of political variation in the suburban ritual system.

From a formal point of view, since the Han Dynasty, the suburban ritual system has been infrequent in worshipping heaven and earth every year, or combining or parting. Before the opening of the Tang Dynasty, the holding of suburban ceremonies was not customized, and it was also incorrect. In the middle of Tang Kaiyuan, it was determined that there was a regent for every year, just like the three generations of old classics. The gift of the suburbs, the Tang system: the winter solstice mound every year, the first month of the Xin Qi Valley, the Mengxia Pheasant Ceremony, the season and autumn enjoyment, where the four sacrifices to the God of Haotian; The pro-worship will also set up the emperor's throne.

However, the Song Dynasty did not inherit the Tang system, especially in the pro-suburb system. First of all, the time of the suburban sacrifice is not in accordance with the Tang system, and the time is not customized, until the year of Zhenzong is changed to a three-year ritual and becomes customized. And when it came to Zhao Hao, it was the first time in the eight years since he succeeded to the throne that he held a suburban festival, but he was not a precedent, but the emperors of the Great Song Dynasty had already broken the rules.

The change of the sacrificial system of the Great Song Dynasty should have originated from the emergence of the Mingtang system, and it was accidental. In the second year of Emperor Renzong's reign, a suburban sacrifice should be carried out, but because the sun is obscure, it should be avoided for the sake of the prime minister, Song Zhen, the prime minister, invited Ji Qiu to feast in the Ming Hall. Zhao Yu felt that Renzong must also be like himself to see that there was a hole to drill, so he was lazy, and ordered the ceremony of the southern suburbs of the ancestral hall on the winter solstice of that year, and sacrificed to the Ming Hall, which gradually became a system, so that the suburbs of the Song Dynasty went from the outside to the indoor, and the Ming Hall gradually became an important ritual system in the suburbs.

It is important to know that the suburban ritual is a ritual that concretizes the Confucian idea of the Mandate of Heaven, and the suburban ritual is a major national ceremony that has to be practiced in all dynasties of China, and obedience is an important basis for Confucian governance. For the change of etiquette, the Song people can naturally feel it strongly. Su Shi, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites at the time of Zhezong, put forward the view that Song rites were "not Zhou rites", and pointed out:

"The ancients, the one-year-old worships the heavens two, the Mingtang enjoys the emperor one, the four o'clock greeting the qi five, the earth sacrifice two, and the temple four. These fifteen are all sacrificed by the Son of Heaven. And the sunrise, the setting moon, the four looks, the mountains and rivers, the five rituals of Sheji and the group of small rituals, etc., are also pro-worship. This weekly rite also". In the Song Dynasty, the Son of Heaven was "three years old and one suburb". "The gift of the husband and the week, the pro-sacrifice is as much as the other", 'today's ceremony, the pro-sacrifice is so little"; "The ancients took the worship of relatives as a common ceremony", and "in this world, the worship of relatives is a great gift".

Recommending the temple and sacrificing to the ancestors is second only to the sacrifice of heaven and earth. Even the Song people themselves said: "According to the gift of the hundred kings, the history is different, and the heaven and earth are worshiped in the suburbs, God is worshiped in the Ming Hall, and the ancestors are in the Taimiao, which is not easy for all ages." According to the regulations of the Zhou ceremony, there are two sacrifices in the temple: one is the main sacrifice, which is enjoyed immediately and is also the sacrifice; The first is to sue for sacrifices, that is, for major events in the country, to sue the temple; All of them are performed by the lord himself.

However, since the Han Dynasty, the ritual system has been abolished. For the sacrifice of the suburban temple, many people do not walk in person. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it was customized: when the three years old were in the suburbs, the first two days enjoyed the Taiqing Palace and the Taimiao, and the next day there was something in the southern suburbs. Because of its system, the Song Dynasty enjoyed the Jingling Palace on the first day, the Taimiao Temple on the second day, and the suburban altar or Ming Hall on the third day.

If this is the case for the sacrifice, what about the main sacrifice? According to the Song Dynasty system, the Taimiao year to four Mengyue and Ji Dong Fan five enjoyment, Shuowang recommended food to recommend the new, three years to Mengdong, five years to Mengxia", but the Song Dynasty is a regular sacrifice, although the great gift, also ordered to have a regent. In October of the fourth year of the Ti Dynasty, Weiren Zong Jiayou personally performed the ritual once. The Song people were a little dissatisfied with this.

Fu Bi said in "Shangrenzong Beggar's Ritual of Worship": The national dynasty worships sacrifices, strict but not blasphemous. Every three years old, the Son of Heaven will personally perform the worship in the southern suburbs, which can be described as a gift in the way of worshipping heaven. Alone in the temple, only send the minister to take the line, enjoy the time, the pro-worship is not said, the lack of the history of the country to enjoy the temple, the majority of the suburbs before the sacrifice. but this is a sacrifice"; Cai Xiang also criticized Renzong: "The Zhou system, there are nine gifts of relatives at four o'clock." Today's temple view is a year old again, did not recommend the temple, not the first to teach the public opinion! "It is better to visit the temple than to recommend the temple, which is indeed against the traditional patriarchal spirit.

Zhao Yu felt that since the Confucian scholars felt the change in the etiquette system, why did they not resolutely oppose it, but adopted a compromise attitude? Of course, he would not believe that the changes in the sacrificial system were only superficial changes, and that there must be something deep in them. As long as a modern person has studied politics for a few days, he knows the truth that the economic base determines the superstructure, so he feels that 'li', since it is an important part of the superstructure of China's feudal society, is closely related to the development and change of the social and economic base.

Sure enough, under Zhao Hao's various inquiries, the official gave a vague answer, but in his explanation, he quoted a sentence from Renzong in response to Cai Xiang's criticism, which said: "There is an ancestral temple in the suburbs at the age of three, and it reaches the world." If you do it yourself, then people will have a heart of appreciation. I worship the three saints in the forbidden place, and I dare not slack off." This is really a groundbreaking statement - the emperor did not want to, but did not dare to preside over the main sacrifice in person. Because of the high cost of the worship, he did not dare to go! All in all, in one sentence - it's all due to lack of money.

For the emperor's personal worship, it is not only to get some tribute, the royal driver to worship in person, and spend a little money, in fact, there are three things to do: one is the suburbs and the fourth is pardon; The shadow of the two; The three are rewarded in person.

Zhao Yu still knows about the 'four amnesties', one is the permanent amnesty, and the scope of pardon is except for the ten evils, fighting, robbery, murder and killing for himself, and arson, official offenders who are bending the law and stolen to death, and the rest of the crimes are pardoned; The second is amnesty, where the amnesty reaches the world, and the miscellaneous offenders are released from the following capital crimes. and even the forgiveness of unforgivable sins, and the removal of them; the third is Qu pardon, but all the way or a state, or another Beijing, or Jinnei; The fourth is the sound of virtue, then death and exile are demoted, and the rest of the sins are released, and occasionally the sins are released.

On this issue, the main function of Zhao Hao's reckless amnesty in the suburbs is to alleviate class contradictions. In fact, from another point of view, the large-scale implementation of amnesty also reflects the unprecedented intensification of class contradictions. Because the Song Dynasty had been imposing heavy taxes, it created a large number of peasants, merchants, and small and medium-sized landlords who had lost their ability to repay, making them criminals.

This not only intensified the class contradictions, but also lost the support of the people and the basis for ruling. And in order to alleviate this increasingly acute contradiction, there is no other way than pardon, and in turn to give the incapacitated a chance to breathe and regenerate. And putting this on the occasion of personal worship undoubtedly directly shows the mercy of the Son of Heaven, and can also anoint the emperor.

Yinzi is actually a perverted hereditary system, which can be found everywhere in Chinese history. However, taking it as a political addition to the pro-worship system, the pro-worship shadow has undergone an essential change in the Song Dynasty. This is the reflection of the political ideology of the ruling class, which is dominated by scholars and doctors, in the system of pro-worship, and also the reflection of the idea of feudal privilege in the system of pro-worship.

However, the views of the Song people on this issue are generally in favor of limitations, unlike the obvious opposition of the views of "outskirts and forgiveness". Even if the shadow is one of the main factors causing redundant officials, the bureaucracy is the biggest vested interest in this system, and naturally no one will really oppose it, otherwise it will be attacked by the masses.

As for the personal worship reward, it is a reward for the officers and soldiers of the army. This is an 'old practice' that originated in the Tang Dynasty, but the scope of rewards is limited, only for guards and honor guards. However, in the Five Dynasties period, the scope of military appreciation was greatly expanded. In Zhao Hao's view, it can actually be regarded as a political condition for the exchange of privileges between the emperor and the army, and the reason why the Song Dynasty continued to maintain this system was purely due to the heart disease left by Taizu Zhao Kuangyin after usurping power and seizing the throne.

In fact, it was the successive mutinies of the five dynasties that left an indelible shadow on Zhao Kuangyin, and his generation of Zhou Lisong was also established after the long-term war situation in the five dynasties, which made him form this embarrassing situation of being unbearable and unstoppable on the issue of rewarding the army, but it also gradually solidified, formed a system, and became the main political content of the emperor's personal worship.

The cost of rewarding the army was huge, which led to the fact that after the southern crossing, when the suburban worship was the year, because of the lack of use, the suburban worship had to be stopped, and only the Mingtang was enjoyed. Some people will wonder if the emperor is stupid, can't he transfer the expenses in the name of the imperial court? But Zhao Yu will say, you are stupid! In fact, in his view, the nature of sacrifice as a religious activity has changed by this time, and some political additions that were originally used as religious activities—forgiveness, shadowing, and rewarding—have gradually become the main content.

Therefore, it is not so much a religious event as a political activity borrowed from religion, and a national ceremony used by the emperor to enhance personal superstition. Moreover, placing this on the occasion of pro-worship is also a reflection of the political characteristics of the further strengthening of feudal absolutism in the suburban worship system. All favors are given in the name of the emperor, which undoubtedly enhances the status of the emperor. However, due to the excessive solemnity, the status of the permanent worship has declined, and the status of the pro-worship has risen, and at the same time it has caused a financial crisis for the country.

After pondering this matter, Zhao Hao also figured out one thing, what ancestral family law cannot be changed. Even the traditional rituals that have been inherited in the same vein are constantly evolving and alienating in practice, and how can the eternal family law be used as an excuse to hinder their own innovation, and the reason why it is so is precisely because their own actions have harmed their interests.

"They've got a good plan!" And this time his own sacrifice was carried out in the name of the emperor, of course, the expenses were also from the inner treasury, which can be said to be worse for Zhao Hao's already empty wallet, which had to make him suspect that this was another pit, if he lost the ability to control the country's finances, he would inevitably ask the court for money.

At the moment, Zhao Hao felt that he had walked into the minefield, and he had to be careful with every step, and the slightest mistake would explode under his feet, and he didn't know what would collapse, but he was definitely injured. And he also understands that this is just the beginning, and as the situation develops, the struggle between the imperial power and the relative power will become more intense, but it will not be transferred by his will.

Zhao Yu also knew that if he wanted to be the emperor, he would not be able to get rid of the whirlpool of political struggle, and he would continue to fight, so he responded to the sentence that life is endless, fighting with the sky is endless, and fighting with people is endless......