A Prime Minister Who Never Read the Book of
Songs(杖杜宰相)
In China's Tang Dynasty, there was a famous
minister. His name was Li Linfu. There is a story about him recorded in history
books.
He entered the central government system of
the Tang Dynasty by currying favour with some powerful ministers. With his
flexible mind and cunning character, he was promoted and later became the Prime
Minister of the Tang Dynasty.
He often framed some upright ministers, so
many ministers hated him.
He was very powerful, so ministers were
afraid to offend him.
He was very narrow-minded, so his ministers
had to be very careful not to offend him.
He had read very little and had no deep
knowledge. Once he made a fool of himself at work.
Once, Li Linfu went to a department
responsible for evaluating the performance of officials for a regular
inspection. He randomly checked several performance evaluation forms for
government officials kept in the department.
After checking several evaluation forms, he
suddenly saw a note on one of the evaluation forms. The note had only two
words, but he had not seen the first word of the two words. He knew the second
character of the two words, but he didn't understand what the two words meant
when put together.
These two Chinese characters are (杕杜). These two words are from the first oldest collection of poems in
China.
The title of this collection of poems is
(The Book of Songs) and there are a total of 305 poems in the Book of Songs.
The poems were written over a period of 500
years, from the 11th to the 6th century BC.
The Book of Songs is a classic book that
all intellectuals read, but Li Linfu had never read it.
These two characters mean a lone pear tree.
This comment in the job evaluation form
means that the official being evaluated does not rely on any faction within the
government. The official being evaluated has his own opinions and is not
influenced by them.
After seeing these two words, Li Linfu
asked an official who was accompanying him on the inspection.
What do these two characters mean? Is this
character written wrongly? Should these two characters be written as (杖杜) correctly?
After listening to Li Linfu's questions,
the official who accompanied Li Linfu on the inspection became very nervous. He
didn't know how to answer Li Linfu so as not to offend or upset him.
The official bowed his head and his face
turned red. After about 30 seconds of silence, the official said
Like you, I don't know the meaning of these
two words. Please forgive me for not being able to answer your question.
This incident later went viral, and Li
Linfu was given a new nickname that mocked him for not having read the Book of
Songs and for being very uncultured.
The literal translation of this idiom is a
prime minister who has not even read the Book of Songs.
This idiom is used to describe people who
are ignorant and uncultured.
Dear friends, what are your feelings or
thoughts after listening to this story?
Do you think that you are a cultured
person? How do you think a cultured person should behave?
I hope this story can give you some new
insights.
杖杜宰相(A Prime Minister Who Never Read the
Book of Songs)
中國的唐王朝有一個著名的大臣，他的名字是李林甫，歷史書上記載了一個他的故事。
他靠著巴結一些有權勢的大臣進入了唐王朝的中央政府的體系內，他憑藉著自己的靈活的頭腦與狡猾的性格不斷的升職，他後來成為唐王朝的宰相。
他常常陷害一些正直的大臣，所以很多大臣討厭他。
他的權力很大所以大臣們不敢得罪他。
他的度量很小所以大臣們要很小心避免觸怒他。
他的書念得很少，他沒有深厚的學識，有一次他在工作的時候出了糗。
有一次，李林甫去當時的一個針對官員的表現進行考核的部門進行定期的巡察，他抽檢了幾份這個部門中存放的對於政府官員的工作評量表。
他檢閱了幾份評分表之後，他突然看到有一份工作評量表中有一個註記，這句註記只有兩個字，但是他這兩個字中的第一個字他沒看過，他認識這兩個字中的第二個字，他不明白這兩個字組合在一起之後是甚麼意思。
這兩個中文字是(杕杜)。這兩個字出自中國最古老的第一本詩歌合輯。
這本詩歌合集的書名叫做(詩經)，詩經中有總共有305首詩。
這些詩寫的時間橫跨500年，從西元前11世紀到西元前6世紀。
詩經這本書是所有知識分子都會念的一本經典書籍，但是李林甫沒有念過。
這兩個字的意思是一株孤單的梨樹。
這份工作評價表中寫的這句評語，表示這個被評價的官員不依靠任何政府間的派系，這個被評價的官員很有自己的主見且不受影響。
李林甫看到這兩個字後，他就問一個陪同著他一起巡察的官員說。
這兩個字什麼意思，這個字是不是寫錯了，這兩個字是否應該寫成(杖杜)才對呢?
這個陪同著李林甫一起巡察的官員聽到李林甫連續問的這幾個問題後，他非常的緊張，他不知道該怎樣回答李林甫才不會得罪並且觸怒李林甫。
這個官員低著頭然後臉色脹紅，大概沉默了30秒後這個官員說。
我跟你一樣都不清楚這兩個字的意思，請原諒我無法回答你這個問題。
這件事情後來被傳開了，李林甫得到一個新的綽號，這個綽號的意思嘲笑他沒有讀過詩經，他非常的沒有文化素養。
這句成語直接翻譯的意思是一個連詩經都沒有讀過的宰相。
這句成語被用來形容一些沒有知識而且沒有文化素養的人。
親愛的朋友，你聽完這個故事有怎樣的感受或有怎樣的想法呢。
你認為你是一個有文化素養的人呢?你認為一個有文化素養的人應該有怎樣的行為表現呢?
我希望這故事能讓你產生一些新的收穫。
出處為舊唐書-卷106-李林甫傳
https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E8%88%8A%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7106