With the army backing him, Song Qingshu began a full-scale counterattack.
He first purged Prince Yi's remaining followers. A whole series of officials implicated in Prince Yi's rebellion were removed. Since Prince Yi had always been closely connected to the Four Great Families, many officials from the Jia, Shi, and Xue factions were swept up as well.
Of course, Song Qingshu still left some room for maneuver. He did not touch those at the very core of those families, lest they decide to fight to the death.
Even so, he cleared out many of their branches, leaving a great number of posts vacant. Song Qingshu took the opportunity to promote old officials from the Han faction.
Naturally, to avoid Han Tuozhou's former fate, he followed Li Shouchong's advice to "recommend worthy men" and vigorously courted those from Jianshan Academy.
He first abolished the ban on learning, restored the official positions of Zhao Ruyu, Lü Zuqian, and other ministers dismissed during Han Tuozhou's rule, posthumously granted Zhu Xi official rank and titles, summoned fifteen veteran officials such as Lin Dazhong and Lou Yue back to court, and appointed many Neo-Confucian scholars, including Yang Jian and Li Xinchuan. He even lavishly rewarded and promoted great scholars like Zhen Dexiu and Wei Liaoweng, who had once impeached him.
He then specially bestowed posthumous titles upon the Neo-Confucian scholars Zhu Xi, Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, and Zhang Zai, who did not meet the usual requirements for such honors. Their titles were respectively Wen, Yuan, Chun, Zheng, and Ming, thereby elevating the standing of the Neo-Confucian school and winning the support of its scholars.
Thus, although Song Qingshu had married two Princesses at once and committed all sorts of acts that went against Neo-Confucian ideals, favors received could not be ignored. The Neo-Confucian