(The Woman Who Told History – No. 829) Fate is a mysterious thing that no one can control. The last time the author (this no. 826) told the story of a pair of brothers "double elements", although the brothers have a bumpy life, but in general there is still a comedy component, the brothers' lives are still colorful; and the fate of the champions to be talked about today is more tortuous and bizarre. He can be said to be the most domineering one in the history of China's thousand-year imperial examination, the only six yuan and the first yuan of the Ming Dynasty hand-picked by Zhu Yuanzhang, why was he tragically destroyed after committing suicide, and was beheaded by Zhu Di as a "straw man"? Hundreds of years after this incident, it is still lamentable to think about! But why did this domineering leader have such a tragic end in life? Today I will talk to you about this topic.
Before the protagonist appears, let's first talk about what is called six yuan and the first (familiar with it can skip reading). Since the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination has been officially set as three levels, namely the township examination, the hui examination and the temple examination, if all the three examinations are taken first, that is, Xie Yuan, Hui Yuan, and ZhuangYuan Quanzhong, it is called "three yuan and the first". Historically, it is very rare to be able to triple and the first. In the history of China's 1300 years of imperial examinations, there have been millions of people and nearly 110,000 jinshi, while only about 600 people have names and surnames in the middle of the yuan, and even the three yuan in the middle are even rarer. According to expert research, from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were 17 Sanyuan and the first, including 2 from the Tang Dynasty, 6 from the Song Dynasty, 1 from the Jin Dynasty, 1 from the Yuan Dynasty, 3 from the Ming Dynasty, and 4 from the Qing Dynasty.
For more than a thousand years, there have been only two of them, one each of the Ming and Qing dynasties. So the question is, since the examination system is only three levels, where is the six yuan and the first? The six yuan includes the big three yuan and the small three yuan, and the big three yuan refers to the township test, the meeting test, and the temple test. The small three yuan refers to the county examination, the government examination, the college examination, are all examinations to obtain talent, the first of these three examinations is the first place, if in these three examinations are the first place, it is even in the middle of the three yuan, but only the small three yuan. After passing the Xiucai examination, they are eligible to participate in the township examination, and after passing the township examination, they are called lifting people, and the first place in the lifting person is Xie Yuan; then they participate in the examination, and after passing the examination, they are called Gongsheng, and the first is called Huiyuan; finally, the temple examination, which is presided over by the emperor, is called Jinshi after passing the pass, and the first person who enters the shi is called Yuan.
This process is as complicated as today's junior high school, junior high school, high school entrance examination, and then bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In short, your small three yuan and big three yuan all get the first place to be called six yuan and the first. Therefore, this is extremely difficult, and there are only two people in the history of more than a thousand years of examination. One is our protagonist today, Huang Guan in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is Qian Qiao of the Qing Dynasty. These two men should be the most domineering figures in history. But Qian Qi was only in the middle of the 48-year-old, and Huang Guan completed this impossible task at the age of 27, so he is the hegemon of the hegemony, there is no objection.
First, the six titles hand-picked by Zhu Yuanzhang
Huang Guan (1364-1402), also spelled Lanbo, also spelled Shangbin, was a native of Jindun, Qingjiang, Guichi County, Chizhou Province (present-day Chizhou, Anhui Province). His father's name was Huang Gu, who was also from the Shuxiang Mendi, and later fell in the middle of the family road, entered the Xu family in Qingxi, a noble pond, and became a door-to-door son-in-law. Therefore, Huang Guan has been from his mother's surname since childhood, called Xu Guan. In the twenty-ninth year of Ming Hongwu (1396), Huang Guan was invited to play at the imperial court, and the Huang surname was restored after emperor En's permission.
Huang Guan was gifted and studious since childhood, and his teacher was the late Yuan scholar Hanlin To make Huang Yan. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and Huang Yan resigned to Guichi, opened the museum to give lectures, and Huang Guan read from it. At that time, Huang Guanzhi's talent was very much appreciated by Huang Ran. Huang Guan is an authentic bully, no matter what exam he takes since he was a child, he is basically the first place.
In the twenty-third year of Ming Hongwu (1390), Huang Guan entered taixue as a gongsheng. In August of the same year, in nanjing, The first place in the Huangguan examination was Xie Yuan; in March of the following year, he took the examination and was also in the middle of the Yuan; in April of the same year, Huang Guan participated in the palace examination presided over by the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang's examination question was a policy theory, and the theme was about the defense of the frontier. Huang Guan advocated in his policy theory that "tun soldiers are plugged in, and ploughing and keeping, when they come, they are rejected, and if they go, they can be undisturbed in the country, and the border is not worried", this article was deeply praised by Zhu Yuanzhang, so he was appointed by the emperor as the first rank of the first rank! Written by the Hanlin Academy. He was only 27 years old.
Huang Guan created a miracle, he went from Xiucai to Zhuangyuan, and passed six examinations (county examination, prefectural examination, academy examination, township examination, meeting examination, and temple examination) at the county, prefectural and tertiary levels, and won the first place, and was the first consecutive zhongzhong sanyuan and the only consecutive six yuan yuan in the history of the Ming Dynasty. People at the time praised him as "three yuan in the world, six songs in the world.". Huang Guan can be described as domineering to the extreme.
Second, Huang Guan became a minister of the imperial court.
Huang Guan, who has achieved success in his studies, does not hesitate to let go of his career and career. In his prosperous style, the official fortunes were smooth all the way. He was deeply appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor, and in 1396, Huang Guan was awarded the right attendant of the Rebbe (正三品, equivalent to the rank of deputy minister) by Zhu Yuanzhang, and became a minister of the imperial court.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he was succeeded by his grandson Zhu Yunjiao, the Minghui Emperor, who was known as The Jianwen Emperor because his era name was Jianwen. Emperor Jianwen had a generous temperament and did not like to use force, he wanted to emulate Emperor Wen of Han and engage in benevolent government, so he reused the literati, and the four most famous literati he used at that time were The Bingbu Shangshu Qitai, the Secretary of the Taichang Temple and hanlin scholar Huang Zicheng, the Hanlin attendant Fang Xiaoru, and the right attendant Lang Huangguan. These four people are all world-famous talents.
However, Emperor Jianwen's program of governing the country by wen soon collapsed, because his uncle Zhu Di had long been dissatisfied with his succession and had usurper intentions. Zhu Di was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, this man had great ambitions, all-round talents in literature and martial arts, before Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he was named the King of Yan, sat in the north, often participated in wars, and made great achievements for the security of the border. However, after the death of his eldest son, the crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang did not make Zhu Di the crown prince, but instead made Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunjiao the heir to the throne, so that Zhu Di was dissatisfied. So just four years after Emperor Jianwen succeeded to the throne, in 1403, he rebelled and launched a huge battle for the throne between his uncles and nephews, that is, the "Battle of Jingnan". Of course, the last resort zhu Di defeated the weak Zhu Yunjiao, usurped the throne successfully, and he was the later famous Ming Chengzu, known in history as the Yongle Emperor.
However, Zhu Di also had an excuse for raising troops, also under the banner of "Qing Jun's side", who was Qing? Of course, it was the literati around Emperor Wen of the Qing Dynasty, mainly Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, and Zhu Di listed a list of 50 "civilian traitors", of which Huang Guan ranked sixth. Because Zhu Di also hated Huang Guan to the bone.
As early as the first year of Jianwen (1399), when the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao reformed the old system, Huang Guan served as a right attendant and often participated in important state affairs. At that time, Zhu Di, as the King of Yan, was proud of his uncle, and he was proud of his achievements and arrogant attitude, and did not worship the emperor when he entered the dynasty. Fearing his power, the courtiers all shut up and did not dare to speak, but Huang Guan, who had a straight personality, dared to confront Zhu Di in person, and he once publicly said, "The tiger worships the heavens, and the palace performs the courtesy of the king and the courtier; the dragon is hanging on the ground, and the uncle and nephew in the palace are in love." It was to make Zhu Di have to perform the courtesy of the emperor in public, causing Zhu Di to hold a grudge against him.
Of course, as the emperor's important subjects, Huang Guan, Fang Xiaoru and others did suggest to Emperor Jianwen to cut the domain, and Emperor Jianwen did carry out some actions to cut the domain, which touched the interests of Zhu Di and others. Huang Guan also advised Emperor Jianwen to detain Zhu Di, but the emperor was soft-hearted and did not listen to his advice. These became the reasons for Zhu Di's later revenge on Huang Guan.
Third, Huang Guan was exterminated, committed suicide once, and was "beheaded" once.
When Zhu Di's army fought with Emperor Jianwen, the emperor was in a disadvantage, so Huang Guan invited himself to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to recruit troops to relieve the country's crisis. However, he led a group of men and horses to the capital, and when the ship reached Luochaji in the lower reaches of Anqing, the news came that Zhu Di had captured the capital, saying that Emperor Jianwen was dead and that Zhu Di had ascended the throne as emperor. Huang Guan suddenly cried bitterly and lost his voice, knowing that the general trend had gone and was powerless to return to heaven, so he committed suicide by throwing himself into the river and martyring the country with great righteousness.
Emperor Jianwen's heavily used cadres of courtiers, including Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, and Fang Xiaoru (the most miserable he was destroyed), were all brutally killed, some skinned, some under the oil pot; Zhu Di also punished their female dependents to serve as official prostitutes in the sect, and all the men were slaughtered, which was equivalent to being exterminated. Huang Guan's wife was humiliated and committed suicide by throwing her two daughters into the river.
For the Ming Dynasty, Huang Guan was definitely a loyal subject. In fact, very early on, his teacher Huang Yan had already set an example for him. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang attacked the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and when the Yuan Dynasty fell, the loyal minister Huang Yan looked up at the sky and sighed: "I am a Confucian, I have received the grace of the country, and I have been a teacher of the Guanzi, and I have spoken for the forbidden forest." If there is no self-destruction now, how can we see the world's soldiers? So he jumped into a well and committed suicide. At this time, Huang Guan also followed his teacher's loyalty to the country, but the object of their loyalty was different.
After Huang Guan's death, Zhu Di's anger did not subside, and he exterminated the Huang clan and imprisoned more than a hundred relatives and friends. At this point, Zhu Di still did not understand the hatred, and also let people make a straw man, put on Huang Guan's hat, and beheaded him again to show the public. Therefore, Huang Guan can be described as committing suicide once and being "beheaded" once. Before it was over, Zhu Di also asked people to modify the Dengke Record, deleting Huang Guan from the quota of jinshi in that year, and erasing Huang Guan's identity! How cruel do you say this Zhu Di is, and how much hatred is he against Huang Guan? But facts are facts, and history cannot be tampered with? Nearly 200 years later, in the twenty-fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (1596), Huang Guan was finally rehabilitated by the imperial court and rehabilitated as "Wen Zhen", and history gave him a justice.
Life is like a dream. Huang Guan's life can be described as bumpy, no matter the brilliance of the process or the tragic ending, he is worthy of the title of a champion! (Text/One meter warm sun)
References: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of Li Zhai", "Famous Mountain Collection", etc.