Original text/ Dong Yuanben (Suqian, Jiangsu)
[Press] "Dong Yuanben History" is written in historical chronological order, each article is about 2000 words, but this part is more than 3300 words. This is the second part of "The Period from Emperor Zhongzong of Tang to Emperor Xuanzong (705-756)", and the original rights and interests are protected by the headline rights protection mechanism and the national rights protection supervision system.
(Illustration 1: Tang Palace Restoration)
In the pre-Qin period, Bao Shuya made Xianguan Zhong a Qi Xiang, and he was willing to be Guan Zhong's assistant, and the two jointly governed the State of Qi, contributing to the great cause of Qi Huan's public domination of the world. During the Western Han Dynasty, there was a beautiful talk about Cao Sanji following Xiao and "Cao Sui Xiao Rules". There is a similar story in the early days of Tang Xuanzong, which is the allusion to the "accompanying food prime minister" in the Old Book of Tang. Lu Huaishen (?) -716) and Yao Chong (651-721) were both prime ministers, but Yao Chong's political achievements were remarkable, and Lu Huaishen was a role to accompany the meal, and he did nothing, so shiren gave him the nickname of "accompanied by food prime minister". "Accompanying prime minister" later became an idiom to satirize those officials who were in their positions and did not seek their own government. However, Yuan Ben felt that Lu Huaishen was wronged, and Yuan Ben questioned the claim in the history books that Lu Huaishen was Yao Chong's "companion to the prime minister".
In the spring of the first year of the new century (713), Tang Xuanzong succeeded to the throne, and soon after, he secretly eliminated his aunt Princess Taiping and her clique, who were proud of helping Tang Ruizong and Tang Xuanzong's father and son seize the power of Wei, and achieved a degree of centralization far beyond that of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Within a few months, the powerful young Tang Xuanzong adjusted the upper echelons of officials one after another and created a bureaucratic team loyal to himself. With Liu Youqiu as the left servant of Shangshu, Zhang Shu as the Zhongshu Ling, Yao Chong as the Bingbu Shangshu, Ziwei Ling, and Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin, Lu Huaishen as the official Shangshu, HuangmenJian, and Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin, and Wei Zhigu as the Hubu Shangshu and Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin. These people were all heroes who assisted Tang Xuanzong in killing the Weihou group and the Taiping Princess Group, and all of them were appointed to the position of prime minister, among them, Yao Chong and Lu Huaishen had the greatest power, and Lu Huaishen claimed to be less capable than Yao Chong, and often pushed Yao Chong' military affairs and related political achievements that they should jointly undertake, as if he was just a dragon runner, and he accompanied Yao Chong's idle meal in the phase, so people called Lu Huaishen "accompanying the prime minister".
(Illustration 2: Tang Sancai, a cultural relic of the Tang Dynasty)
Examining Lu Huaishen's political achievements, combined with the current situation before and after Tang Xuanzong's succession to the throne, and Yao Chong's experience in that period of history, Yuan Ben did not agree with lu Huaishen's title of "food companion chancellor".
First of all, Lu Huaishen participated in the government diligently and had considerable political achievements before Tang Xuanzong succeeded to the throne.
Lu Huaishen served as a zhongcheng in Yushitai during the Jinglong period (707-710) after Emperor Zhongzong of Tang's restoration. The Imperial Household Is the Institution that Accepts the Gongqing Gongzhang and pickets the Hundred Officials, with the Imperial Counselor as the Chief, whose status is equivalent to that of the Prime Minister, and the Imperial History Zhongzhong is the first adjutant of the Imperial Household, from Sanpin, equivalent to the Deputy Prime Minister. During the three years (710-712) when Emperor Ruizong of Tang succeeded Emperor Zhongzong, Lu Huaishen was reappointed as a military attendant, and his status was still equivalent to that of deputy prime minister. Lu Huaishen's tenure as vice chancellor was not a man of few things.
When he was in charge of the imperial history, Lu Huaishen successively assisted Tang Zhongzong in doing three major things related to rectifying the administration of officials: First, he opposed the "parachuting" of officials, Lu Huaishen pulled the net to investigate, and all local officials who were promoted after less than four years of office were returned to their original posts; second, they selected capable officials, and the members were idle groups in the imperial court, from which Lu Huaishen selected a number of foreign prefectures and counties with both ability and political integrity; third, he checked out those who had been dismissed from their posts for corruption and perverted the law and then "returned to the pot" to serve, and Lu Huaishen dismissed them all and returned them to the township. Lu Huaishen's practices were easy to offend people, and the political situation during the restoration of Tang Zhongzong and Tang Ruizong was extremely unstable, and most of the ministers were afraid of taking the wrong side, while Lu Huaishen was active and enterprising, and there was a danger of offending the magnates and even the imperial family, but he still did so.
During his tenure as a military attendant, Lu Huaishen had two major political achievements: First, he advocated adopting a policy of huaijue against the Turks, Lu Huaishen sent envoys to the Turks, met with the Turkic Khan Mo Sip, actively mediated the relationship between the Turks and the Tang court, and in the second year of Jingyun (711), prompted Mo Si to submit to the Tang Dynasty, and the Turks became the vassal states of the Tang Dynasty. Second, in response to the adverse impact of the changes in the court over the past few years on the local ruling order, Lu Huaishen assisted Tang Ruizong in adjusting the local military organization, dividing the world into twenty-four governors, and in order to prevent the governors from becoming bigger militarily, he also supervised the governors with ten orders. As the deputy commander of the Bingbu, there were two Bingbu Shilang, Lu Huaishen and Cui Riyong were the same Bingbu Shilang, but Cui Riyong was on the one hand dependent on Princess Taiping, on the other hand, secretly currying favor with Princess Taiping's political enemy Tang Xuanzong (then Tang Ruizong's crown prince), and had no psychological politics at all, and was eventually demoted to the title of Assassin of Changzhou after Tang Xuanzong succeeded to the throne. Cui Ri's use of inaction is even more in contrast to Lu Huaishen's promising.
Secondly, Lu Huaishen did not do nothing after paying homage to him.
As chancellor, Lu Huaishen served as the governor of Huangmen Province in the early tang dynasty ,during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (the first two years were the acting Yellow Gate Supervisor). Tang Xuanzong divided Zhongshu Province into Ziwei Province and Huangmen Province, which was responsible for the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, Officials, and Households, and was in charge of the key departments of internal affairs, finance, civil affairs, land, election of officials, examiners, and justice. As the chief official of Huangmen Province, Lu Huaishen was diligent. During his three-year term with the Yellow Gate Supervisor and the Yellow Gate Supervisor before his death, Lu Huaishen had three major achievements.
Lu Huaishen assisted Tang Xuanzong in cleaning up the ideological problems of the eight years after The restoration of Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong of Tang, and denigrated officials whose political views fluctuated around during that period, such as Shi Wei'anshi of Qingzhou after Tang Xuanzong's succession, Wei Sili, the crown prince's guest, Zhao Yanzhao, and Li Zhao, the head of the Punishment Department, and a new group of officials who highly supported Tang Xuanzong rose to the top and strengthened the centralization of power.
Lu Huaishen suggested and participated in the presiding ceremony, and Li Longji was given the title of "Emperor Xuanzong to the Great Sage of the Dao Dynasty". Lu Huaishen also wrote to Tang Xuanzong, asking Tang Xuanzong to establish a state frugally, and Tang Xuanzong heeded Lu Huaishen's advice and issued an edict stipulating: All gold and silver utensils in the palace should be destroyed and recast as instruments that could be used in the imperial court; half of the harem women were dismissed and married to concubines.
In order to strengthen the imperial court's control over the border areas, Lu Huaishen assisted Tang Xuanzong in setting up the Youzhou Jiedu envoy of the military administration of the six prefectures of the Khitan residential area, and the ambassador of the Longyou Jiedu of the military and government of the twelve prefectures of the general longyou. Lu Huaishen also actively organized grain and grass from Jiangnan to support the self-defense war launched by the Tang Dynasty against Tubo in the second year of the New Century (714).
(Illustration 3: Tang Dynasty Big Wild Goose Pagoda)
Since Lu Huaishen has always been dedicated and has made great achievements before and after he became prime minister, why do people think that he has done nothing and called him Yao Chong's "food companion prime minister"? This is indeed related to Yao Chong.
Yao Chong's seniority far exceeded that of Lu Huaishen. As early as the first year of the Banzai Tongtian Dynasty (696), a few years after Wu Zetian became emperor, Yao Chong, who had already been worshipped by Wu Zetian as a Xia guan shilang, equivalent to a deputy prime minister. Two years later, Yao Chong was worshipped as a fengge attendant, and later concurrently served as the head of the Xiang Dynasty, and the xiang king was Tang Ruizong, that is, the father of Tang Xuanzong, and it can be said that from then on, Yao Chong was a close confidant of Tang Ruizong and Tang Xuanzong's father and son. Within five years of Emperor Zhongzong's restoration, Yao Chong was demoted, but after Tang Ruizong succeeded to the throne in the first year of Jingyun (710), Yao Chong was immediately re-worshipped and appointed as the three provinces of Shangshu and Tongzhongshu Menxia; after Tang Xuanzong succeeded to the throne in the first year of the first year of the first century (712), Yao Chong was again worshipped as Ziwei Ling. Before Lu Huaishen's death, compared with Yao Chong, who had been the deputy prime minister and prime minister for more than ten years, Lu Huaishen only served as the deputy prime minister and prime minister for eight years, of which two of the three years were acting prime ministers.
More importantly, Lu Huaishen served as Yao Chong's assistant for a long time, and his political achievements were often recorded in Yao Chong.
After Tang Ruizong was restored to the throne, the old chancellor Yao Chong, who was appointed as the Shangshu of the Bingbu and Zhongshu Ling, yao Chong, recommended Lu Huaishen as one of the two bingbu attendants, and Yao Chongyou was benevolent to Lu Huaishen. The political achievements that Lu Huaishen achieved during his tenure as a soldier were the result of Yao Chong's vigorous support, Yao Chong's prominent position and old politician, as a deputy, Lu Huaishen's political achievements were of course those of the bingbu, and the military department's was of course that of Yao Chong' shangshu of the bingbu.
Yao Chongben was the chief official of Zhongshu Province, the most important province in the "Three Provinces" during the tang Ruizong period. After Emperor Xuanzong of Tang succeeded to the throne, Zhongshu Province was split into Ziwei Province and Huangmen Province, and Yao Chong and Lu Huaishen were appointed as the chief officials of the two provinces, Ziwei Ling and Huangmen Supervisor. Huangmen Province is responsible for the affairs of the Ceremonial Department, the Bureaucracy department and the Household Department in the six ministries, and ziwei province is also responsible for coordinating the affairs of the six ministries in addition to the affairs of the military department, the punishment department and the ministry of works, that is to say, although the same is the prime minister, the authority of the Ziwei order is higher than that of the Yellow Gate Supervisor, Lu Huaishen is still Yao Chong's deputy, not to mention that Lu Huaishen did not change from acting Yellow Gate Supervisor to Yellow Gate Supervisor until one year before his death. It can be said that although Zhongshu Province was demolished into Ziwei Province and Huangmen Province, all the affairs of Zhongshu Province in the early days were mainly responsible for Ziwei Province, and Ziwei Ling was Lu Huaishen's benefactor and highly respected old prime minister Yao Chong, and Lu Huaishen's political achievements were of course Yao Chong's.
On the other hand, Lu Huaishen was a low-key person and had many worries and hesitations for the government, while Yao Chong, on the other hand, was a high-profile person, had the courage to take responsibility for the government, and cut through the iron, invisibly he covered up Lu Huaishen's brilliance and "embezzled" Lu Huaishen's political achievements. For example, in the spring and summer of the fourth year of the new century (716), when there was a locust plague in Yanzhou, Qizhou, Qingzhou, Mizhou and other places in present-day Shandong, Yao Chong wrote his comprehensive locust control plan to Tang Xuanzong, but Lu Huaishen believed that the locust plague was providence and opposed the control of locusts. Lu Huaishen said to Yao Chong in front of Tang Xuanzong: "Killing too many insects, hurting and angry. Yao Chong angrily rebuked Lu Huaishen: "This matter chong has already made up his mind, please don't repeat it, if killing insects causes disaster, although you and I are the same prime minister, please accept it alone!" Seeing that Yao Chong's intention to control locusts was so resolute, Lu Huaishen not only stopped restraining himself, but also apologized to Yao Chong, and accompanied Yao Chong's deep command of the locust control in the disaster area.
(Illustration 4: The Court Life of the Tang Dynasty Reflected in the Murals of the Mogao Caves)
In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the Duke of Qi Huan wanted to worship the sage Bao Shuya as a phase, and Bao Shuya recommended that his ability to be the duke of Qi Huan was stronger than his own Guan Zhong, and he was willing to do guan Zhong's deputy post, thus achieving the Spring and Autumn hegemony of the Duke of Qi Huan, and posterity not only always praised Bao Shuya's high style and bright festival, but also never thought that Bao Shuya had no political achievements. In the early days of the Western Han Dynasty, the world was tired, Han Gaozu took Xiao He as the minister, Cao Seng served as the minister of the princely state of Qi, because Cao Shan's governance of the State of Qi was very successful, Xiao He often borrowed Cao Shan's method of governance, Cao Gan was objectively Xiao He's deputy, after Xiao He's death, Cao Shan succeeded to Han Xiang, all policies were based on Xiao He's earlier formulation and did not change, when people called it "Cao Sui Xiao Rules", in fact, "Xiao Rules" originally contained many "Cao Rules", because of this, posterity did not think that Cao He did nothing. Yao Chong, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Huaishen, Yao Chong's deputy, Lu Huaishen, out of gratitude and respect for Yao Chong, reported everything to Yao Chong, and his own political achievements were also deduced to be Yao Chong's personal efforts, Lu Huaishen's for Yao Chong, some aspects like Bao Shuya for Guan Zhong, some aspects like Cao San's for Xiao He, how can people call Lu Huaishen Yao Chong's "food companion prime minister"?
【Extended reading headline original article Dong Yuanben History】The first article from Emperor Zhongzong of Tang to Emperor Xuanzong:
Dong Yuanben 's Treatise on the History of the (177) Merriam-Webster Painting Scoop
(Illustration 5; Author Dong Yuanben in late spring 2021 in Suqian, Jiangsu)
【About the Author】
Dong Yuanben, born in 1971, is a traditional culture scholar, a higher education worker, and a well-known writer on the Internet.
At the beginning of the century, he did writing work in the competent education authorities, and then resigned to establish a well-known higher education self-study examination training institution in Jiangsu Province, and then founded a full-time characteristic department in a college, all specializing in Chinese language and literature, training more than 4,000 undergraduate graduates in more than ten years, the training deeds were repeatedly reported by "China Education News", "China Examination" magazine, "Xinhua Daily" and so on, and were twice introduced by the "Jiangsu Self-study Examination" magazine, and the deeds were also included in the "Jiangsu Education Yearbook" in the form of proper nouns. Suqian City Yearbook", large-scale dictionary "Chinese Centennial Characters" and so on.
During the period of running the school, he has been in the front line of teaching, and has been working tirelessly, in 2016, jielu downtown became a freelance writer, mainly writing literary and historical papers, cultural essays, poems, etc., and has published more than 3 million words in various media. At the beginning of the century, some educational papers won the first prize of the People's Daily Publishing House's Special Essay Contest and were selected into the "Complete Book of Modern Education Management Theory and Practice Guidance"; in recent years, nearly 60 literary, historical and philosophical papers have won the Toutiao Qingyun Project Award, and won the titles of Toutiao "Qingyun Winner" Gold Medal, Toutiao "Creator of High-quality and In-Depth Long Article Selection Channel" and so on.
(Editor: Dong Yao)