Like Pearl and Jade

Chapter 71

Only those who were in the situation knew how much power there was in gossip—for example, the civil officials that were being attacked right now.

In reality, as civil officials, admonishing the emperor to take consorts was not something that looked good to begin with. No matter the reason or how well they spoke, they could not escape the bad reputation of urging the emperor to give in to his lust.

The empress dowager and the empress could say for the emperor to take concubines, but the officials could not. In history, there had been strong officials that forced the emperor to take consorts. How was he recorded in the history books in the end? There was one situation when the emperor wanted to take consorts, but could not directly say so to the people. Thus he would find a close official to pretend to admonish him, then he would go along and fill his inner palace.

The emperor took consorts in two cases—one was if the ruler was weak and the officials strong, and the other was that he had his own thoughts. If both situations did not occur, yet the subject thought the emperor wanted consorts, going up to admonish him, that official thought his reputation was too good and wanted to stain himself.

Of course, a smart person like Li Guang Ji knew to throw the blame on the empress, but the key was the emperor was not happy for the empress to take the blame. If the emperor was not a coward, who could openly do something that he did not agree with?

If the fuss continued, if the eyes of others, that was the subjects having crooked thoughts.

Originally, when the matter started, some people thought it was not good for the emperor to favor just the empress. But when the news spread that certain imperial censors were lusty and did not respect their wives, the onlookers changed their thoughts. They felt that these scholars looked upright, but were in fact wretched inside.

The scholars were immediately unhappy. Many people came out to say that imperial censors like these were the black sheep. In reality, most scholars were upright and knowledgeable, the examples of gentlemen. To express their positions, they started to strictly criticize these imperial censors. Some people even wrote letters together, saying that these people had no virtue or ability. They were not qualified to be officials, and most scholars disdained to be in the same group as them.

Most of the officials in court right now were left behind from the time of the previous emperor. From the empress dowager to the people, everyone knew what kind of emperor the previous emperor was. They could not go against their conscience and say that he was good. After Jin Yang started to govern on his own, he started to subtly change the structure of the court. The Sima Family had settled and were willing to take a step back, so Jin Yang's control of the court had grown more.

Now, as the scholars righteously criticized certain officials, Jin Yang went with the flow, dismissing some of the worst officials and demoting some of the officials that were involved in the matter. His strong actions were applauded by the scholars and the people. Then the scholars wrote many poems praising his accomplishments, saying that he was not lusty, that he cared for the people, that he had virtue and good character. In any case, he had the good traits that the previous emperor did not have, and he did not have the bad traits that the previous emperor did have.

There was only one theme in these praises: It was so good for Great Feng to have such an emperor. We the people of Great Feng love you, kisses and hugs.

The matter grew so large that even the Li Family was affected slightly. Fortunately, they were an aristocratic family with a longstanding inheritance, and they usually did things that generated goodwill for them, so they were not affected too terribly. But even so, there were still people who said behind their backs that the Li Family were hypocrites.