The Study On Chen Yi And The Factional Strife In Late Northern Song Dynasty

Cheng Yi(1033-1107),whose courtesy name was Zhengshu and came from Luoyang of Henan province,was known as a neo Confucianism scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty.Though Cheng Yi did’t born in the influential and privileged families,there were several officials among his ancestors in the Northern Song Dynasty.Cheng Xiang,Cheng Yi’s father,was born into a family in straitened circumstances.With the help of his cousin,a senior official called Cheng Lin,Cheng Xiang was honored with the captain of Huangpi County.Cheng Xiang has been a local official for a long time although,his academic insight was splendid.He keenly perceived the extraordinary talent of Zhou Dunyi,who was one of his obscure colleagues,his two sons became Zhou’s student hence.It was also during this period that Cheng Yi got the topic of “the happiness of Confucius and Yan Hui”.Later,Cheng Yi was became one of the imperial college students,Hu Yuan,the teacher here,gave him the same topic.Then Cheng Yi set the Thames on fire and came to Lu Gongzhu’s notice,who was the leader of the old factions in the next generation.In his youth,Cheng Yi was fond of politics,even went so far as to wrote thousands of words to calling for reform.Nevertheless he was never one of the bureaucrat,didn’t pass the official examanation even.Under the pressure of the urgent circumstances,he decided to leave and served his father.Cheng Yi and his father and brother all retired to Luoyang on Xining period.Meantime,the factional strife was getting more serious than ever.Wen Yanbo organized an political-cultural association,which was Qiyinghui,with most of the old factions’ officials who had lost their power in the recent polictical struggle.However Cheng Yi had not been an official before,he enjoyed the atmosphere in Luoyang and was appreciated by Sima Guang,Lu Gongzhu and the other leader of the old factions.When the old factions came to power again,they foucsed on Cheng Hao immediately,who was regarded as an experienced bureaucrat.Nonetheless,Cheng Hao unfortunately died before he could took up his post of legal officer.It was a hard decision that the old factions turned to Cheng Yi as his brother’s successor.Soon afterward,Cheng Yi became the emperor’s teacher from a civilian,which was the part and parcel in the political designing of Sima Guang.It was just Cheng Yi became the blasting fuse that the old factions was torn apart by fierce hostilities.As an alternative to his beloved brother,Cheng Yi,was admitted to the court as the emperor’s teacher.It was his inappropriate behavior that gave rise to the dissatisfacion among the court.Though he felt his behavior was just perform his role to discipline political authority.To made matters worse,most of bureaucrats refused to take him as a fellow any more,due to his temperament.Even Sima Guang could’t help complaing about him.The dispute betweed Cheng Yi and Su Shi became the fuse of the split thereafter,the political prosperity is on the decline due to the bureaucrats who was used to the thinking mode " either A or B".As for Cheng Yi himself,he had no other choice but to retire to Luoyang and made a living by teaching.Although Cheng Yi kept himself away from politics and devoted into scholarly study,his old age was full of inevitable punishment in each political struggle,becasue he was already a symbol in politics.As for the Neo Confucianism was also affected and could not be disseminated.