Words & Expressions

The "Bull-headed Premier" brooked no opposition from any quarter, friends or foes.

bull-headed

adj.  determined to get what you want without really thinking enough about it 愚笨固执的；任性的

brook

v.  not brook sth / brook no sth ( formal） to not allow or accept something 【正式】 不能容忍某事

eg. He would brook no criticism, even from his beloved daughter. 他不能容忍任何批评，哪怕是自己深爱的女儿也不行。

Tseng Pu and Lu Huiching, particularly the latter, who eventually double-crossed Wang Anshih in an effort to supersede him.

double-cross

v  to cheat someone, especially after you have agreed to do something dishonest with them 〔尤指在答应与对方一起做坏事后〕叛卖，出卖

The tragedy of Wang Anshih comes from the fact that he was not in any way self-indulgent or corrupt himself, and that his hand was forced.

force sb’s hand  to make someone do something unwillingly or earlier than they had intended 迫使某人采取行动；迫使某人提前行动

eg.They’re reluctant to sell the house yet but the right offer could force their hand. 他们目前还不是很愿意出售房子，不过价格合理的话也许能让他们出手。

The more important charge of the opposition was that he wanted to "shut up the mouths of all people"; i.e.,muzzle all free criticism of the government.

muzzle

v. to prevent someone from saying what they think in public 使缄默，封住…的嘴；钳制…的言论eg. They made an attempt by the government to muzzle the country’s media 

Promptly, Su Tungpo was cashiered.

cashier

v. to force an officer to leave the army, navy etc because they have done something wrong 开除，革除〔军官的职务)

The bickerings and dissensions at the court now were increased by the peculiar Sung system of government.

bicker

v. to argue, especially about something very unimportant 〔尤指为琐事〕争吵，发生口角(+about / over)

eg. I wish you two would stop bickering. 

They kept bickering over who should answer the phone. 

dissension

n  [C,U]disagreement among a group of people 〔某一团体内部的〕意见分歧，纷争，不和 (+in / within / between / among)

eg.This move sowed dissension within the party ranks. 

 The Labour Party was torn by internal dissensions . 

The letters were long, exhaustive, eloquent and minced no words.

not mince (your) words  to say exactly what you think, even if this might offend people 直言不讳地说，毫不遮掩地说

eg. Tom didn’t mince words and told me straight away that I had failed. 汤姆直言不讳地告诉我说我失败了。

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Excerpts

Su Tungpo was getting hot under the collar.

The relation of the people's support to the ruler may be likened to that of the roots to a tree, oil to the lamp, water to the fish, rice fields to the farmer, and capital to the businessman.

In any political fight the good man were bound to lose, while the bad politicians were bound to come our on top. For good men fought for principles and bad men fought for power, and in the end both would get what they wanted, by the good men's quitting and the bad men's staying.

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Main Ideas

作者在第八章开头的一段话：

本章节探讨了王安石变法中主要的两个问题：青苗法的弊端以及大力排挤反对变法的主要官员。另外，作者也在本章中对于苏东坡的万言书进行的阐述。

这几天读的章节，信息量有点大，需要阅读好多的书本以外的史诗材料，还要集百家之言，形成自己的见地。难~ 但至少在试误中~