If someone asks: Do you know the Ming Dynasty's first assistant, Zhang Xuan (cōng)?
Many people will first think: Oh , it is the one who supports the Jiajing Emperor to "recognize his father".
It is said that Zhang Xuan's official luck and prosperity are completely lucky and can drill camps, because he has encountered a "great etiquette dispute". However, if just because Zhang Xuan supported the Jiajing Emperor to "recognize his father", it would be biased to say that Zhang Xuan was a person who could only sneak around and pat his horse and have no ink on his chest. How could a person who made Zhang Juzheng extremely admired be an incompetent person.
Jiangling (Zhang Juzheng) in the "Records of Sejong" to promote Xu Yongjia (Zhang Xuan), the old material technique is similar, so he likes it and admires it.
- "Wan Li Ye Won, Volume VII"
Zhang Xuan, a native of Yongjia County, Wenzhou Province, Zhejiang Province, is a military official.
On February 27, 1531, in the tenth year of Jiajing (1531), Zhang Xuan believed that the "璁" in his name was homophonous with the "熜" in the name of the Jiajing Emperor, and at his repeated request, the Jiajing Emperor gave him the name "Fu Jing" and the character "Mao Gong". The "Zhang Fujing" that appears in the history books refers to Zhang Xuan.
Noon. University scholar Zhang Xuan is suspicious of the imperial secret in his name, please change it. The words on the top are both different and not both, and there is no need to avoid them. Please. Shang Nai gave the name "Fu Jing" and the character "Mao Gong".
- Records of emperor Ming Dynasty, Volume 122
When he was young, he did not pass the examination 7 times, until the sixteenth year of Zhengde (1521), he won the 77th place in the second class of jinshi, and Zhang Xuan was 47 (virtual) years old at that time.
I entered the workplace at the age of almost 50, and according to the current logic, there is basically no future for development. However, Zhang Xuan is a special case, and his promotion speed is comparable to that of a rocket.
In the first year of Jiajing (1522), Zhang Xuan was transferred to Nanjing and served as the head of the Nanjing Punishment Department.
On June 13, the third year of Jiajing (1524), Zhang Xuan became a Hanlin scholar.
In the fourth year of Jiajing (1525), the Jiajing Emperor promoted Zhang Xuan to the position of Zhan Shifu Zhan Shi.
In the fifth year of Jiajing (1526), on the seventh day of the first month of July, Zhang Xuan, who was then zhan shi of zhan shifu and a scholar of hanlin academy, was appointed by the Jiajing Emperor as the right attendant of the bingbu.
In the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), Zhang Xuan was in charge of the Capital Inspection Bureau. On the fourth day of October of the same year, the Jiajing Emperor appointed Zhang Xuan as a scholar of the Rebbe Shangshu and Wenyuange University, and allowed him to enter the cabinet. This year Zhang Xuan was 52 years old.
Zhang Xuan went from a middle-aged new recruit with no background to a cabinet minister in only 6 years.
Two years later, on September 30, the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), Zhang Xuan replaced Yang Yiqing and was promoted to the first assistant of the cabinet.
The Biography of Ming Shi Zhang Xuan criticizes Zhang Xuan for being "sexually ruthless, seeking revenge, and not protecting the good" (that is, loving revenge and liking to take revenge), but also praising him for "being incorruptible, hating the corrupt officials, and for a while bāo jū (bribery) was desperate" (that is, he was very clean).
Today, let's understand through historical materials, is Zhang Xuan a good official or a bad official?
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In the third year of Jiajing (1524), when Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai were appointed by the Jiajing Emperor as Hanlin scholars, 36 officials of the Hanlin Academy, led by Yang Tinghe's son Yang Shen, expressed their reluctance to be listed as officials with people like Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai because Zhang Xuan and Gui Cao supported Jia Jing's honorable parents and went to Jiajing to shu Jiajing.
In the third year of Jiajing, Di Na Guicao and Zhang Xuanyan were summoned as Hanlin scholars. The thirty-six people in the same column said: "The subjects and others are different from the calyx academics, and the discussion is also different. The ministers and others, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xizhi said. Calyx and other holders, cold praise, Duan Yu yu also. Now His Majesty is superior to the calyx generation, and does not regard the words of the ministers and others as right, and the ministers and others cannot be ranked with them, and are willing to give reprimands. "The emperor is angry, he is responsible, and there is a difference in stopping."
- Ming Shi Vol. 192 Liechuan No. 80
Later, the Jiajing Emperor transferred almost all the Shujishi in the Hanlin Courtyard to the local government as officials, and the "History of Ming" said that this was a ghost that Zhang Xuan was behind his back, in order to take revenge on these Hanlin officials who opposed him at that time.
Xuan Chu worshiped the bachelor, Zhu Hanlin was ashamed, not juxtaposed, and Xuan hated deeply. And the attendant Wang Biao said that "Hong Fan" was not the purpose, and the emperor ordered the addition. Xuan Nai asked himself to read the following amount of talent, twenty-two people who changed officials and deposed people, and all the Shu Jishi were empty except for their subordinates and Zhi County.
- Ming Shi Vol. 196 Liechuan 84
So what is the real situation of this matter?
It is recorded in the Ming Shilu that on October 22, the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), the Jiajing Emperor, because of his previous performance in reading Jiang Biao in the Hanlin Academy, was slow in explaining the "Hong fan nine domains", so he released Jiang Tuo as a general judge of the Ningguo Government, and at the same time took the opportunity to order the cabinet to re-evaluate Hanlin officials, retain qualified officials, and transfer all unqualified ones. The first assistant Yang Yiqing obeyed the order, but the number of foreign transfers he picked out at the beginning was too small, and the Jiajing Emperor directly told Yang Yiqing that the previous Shu Jishi had opened the back door to come in, and let Yang Yiqing leave 3-5 people behind the original Shu Jishi.
There are fewer complements outside the Upper Judah, and the fate is more selective, do not mud and be regular, and the internal and external officials are elected to make up for it, and it is in line with the public. Because most of the Shu Jishi selected in the previous years were selfish, he ordered the cabinet to retain three or five people in the examination, and the rest were all assigned to the Ministry of Science and Dao, and the future selection and retention were all like the story.
- Records of emperor Ming Shizong, Volume 81
Zhang Xuan had a relationship with the officials in the Hanlin Academy, but Zhang Xuan did this only to break the practice of "in recent years, the shu jishi and the first jiasu of the jinshi were selected" for the positions of Hanlin and Chunfang.
At that time, those who passed the examination in the imperial examination would be directly awarded hanlin cultivation, and the list eye and tanhua would be awarded hanlin editing. Among the second and third ranked jinshi, those with outstanding literary talents will be selected as Shu Jishi and then enter the Hanlin Academy to study. Others were awarded the titles of Zhishi( Shishi, Imperial History, etc., or to serve as officials of Zhizhou and Zhixian in the localities.
Those who are taught to cultivate, those who are taught to edit and edit, and those who are selected by the second and third grade examinations are all Hanlin officials. Others may be conferred on the ministry, imperial history, chief minister, zhongshu, pedestrian, commentator, Taichang, Guozi doctor, or to the official of the government, Zhizhou, Zhixian and other officials.
- "Ming Shi, Vol. 70, Zhi 46, Election II"
In the early days of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, only half of the ministers in the cabinet were from Hanlin. In the period of Emperor Mingying's Zhu Qizhen, it became a situation of "non-Hanlin not entering the cabinet". In this way, everyone squeezed their heads and wanted to enter the Hanlin Courtyard.
In the early years of Chengzu, there were seven members of the cabinet, and the non-Hanlin people accounted for half of them. Hanlin cultivation is also used in various colors. Since the second year of Tianshun, Li Xian has been selected as a special scholar. From the non-jinshi do not enter the Hanlin, the non-Hanlin do not enter the cabinet, the Southern and Northern Ceremonial Department Shangshu, the Shilang and the Official's Right Shilang, and the non-Hanlin do not serve.
In his "On the Order of the Inspector of the Military Garrison of the Selection and Military Department", Zhang Xuan quoted the words of Hu Shining, the Shangshu of the Bingbu Department: The quality of local parent officials is most closely related to the people. No matter how wise and capable the officials in Beijing are, after all, they cannot go to the localities to do their own work, and in the final analysis, the specific implementers of the imperial court's policies are still those prefects, prefectures, and counties.
The subject also tasted Hu Shining's discussion: The prefect, the prefecture, and the county are all officials who are close to the people, so that if they are not their people, although the superiors have good officials and do good deeds, they cannot really reach the people, so since ancient times, the state has been cautious about this post.
——" Taishi Zhang Wen Gongji, Song Shu Vol. 3, On the Order of the Inspector of the Selection and Military Department of the Guanguan"
Zhang Xuan also agreed with Hu Shining's view, and only then did he advocate to Jiajing that those new people who have achieved good results in the imperial examination and who are capable should first go to the localities for a few years of training, understand and understand the people's sufferings, and wait until they have achieved some results, and then it is not too late to be promoted.
In the future, those who are not in Lizhou County are not allowed to be promoted to the rank of Dao, and those who are subordinate to non-Li County are not allowed to be promoted to Secretary of State. Where the Jing officials have not been outside the five products or below, the Xu officials should also push the shou order to learn about the civil, and so on.
- "Taishi Zhang Wen Gongji, Shu Shu Vol. 6, Heavy Shou Order"
If some people think that Zhang Xuan did this in order to install his protégé into Hanlin, it would be even more unlikely.
During the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Shichen, who served as shangshu of the Punishment Department, mentioned in the "Chibei Occasional Talk" that candidates who were admitted to the imperial examination would naturally become the "protégés" of the current chief examiner. But Zhang Xuan and Huo Tao, the 2, did not pick up this big bargain. When they served as the chief examiner of the examination in the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), they explicitly forbade the candidates to "cultivate the disciple ceremony". That is to say, Zhang Xuan did not let the students who were admitted to that class worship him as a "teacher".
The Tang Dynasty and the five generations of the most important main protégé, especially in the Ming Dynasty. In the Wanli Calendar, the portal is completed, one is a teacher and a student, and it is used for life. However, in the eighth year of Jiajing, Zhang Xuan and Huo Tao took the main examination and abstained from practicing discipleship.
- "Chibei Even Talk Volume 1"
On the fourth day of the fourth month of the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), the Jiajing Emperor formed a small group to prevent the ministers from using the selection of Shu Jishi, and announced that the recruitment of new scholars would be suspended as Shu Ji Shi in this year.
Shang: The choice of Ji Shi was the system of my Taizong, which was inherently perfect at that time, but over the years, every time the minister chose for personal gain, the Municipal Enli Party has since begun, what is the benefit to the country? There is no need to stay now.
- Records of emperor Ming Shizong, Volume 100
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Another achievement of Zhang Xuan was the reform of the imperial examination system.
As mentioned earlier, Zhang Xuan himself failed to pass the examination 7 times, and only passed the 8th examination. Later facts proved that Zhang Xuan's ability to be an official was simply not proportional to his ability to take the exam. Although this experience made Zhang Xuan feel very painful, it also made him doubt whether the imperial examination system at that time could really play a role in selecting outstanding talents. In addition, it was this extraordinary experience that allowed Zhang Xuan to gain insight into the problems existing in the imperial examination system implemented at that time.
The chief examiners of the township examinations in the two capitals (Beijing and Nanjing) of the Ming Dynasty have always been from the Hanlin Academy. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the chief examiners of the township examinations in the local provinces were hired by talented and impartial Confucian officials and Confucians, and from the time of the Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu, the excellent instructors who were recommended to serve as the main examiners. Over time, either the department responsible for selecting the chief examiner began to favor favoritism, so that the chief examiners who were elected were simply not worthy of their names; or the chief examiners who did not have official positions were oppressed by the external curtain officers responsible for promoting and proctoring the examinations in the township examinations, resulting in the decision-making power to read the examinations not in their hands at all. Although officials discovered these problems during the Years of Chenghua and Hongzhi and suggested to the emperor that the imperial court send courtiers to serve as the chief examiners of the provincial and township examinations, they were unfortunately not adopted.
Subsequently, there are those who favor and hire or are not his own, and the superintendent often usurps his office.
In addition, Zhang Xuan found that at that time, the examiner preferred a flashy style of writing, so that the students of the world only studied for the examination and did not learn the real knowledge from books.
Since the worldly master takes the examination as a learning, the teacher and disciple teach each other, but the chī chapter draws sentences, and the Dao pawn does not get the heart.
——" Taishi Zhang Wenzhong's Public Collection, One of the Manuscript Volumes: A Preface to Sending Gan Sizhi back to his hometown"
It can be seen from the "Great Etiquette Controversy" that one of Zhang Xuan's great advantages is that he is not afraid of offending people.
On September 24, the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), Zhang Xuan presented to the Jiajing Emperor a recital entitled "Prudent Subjects", proposing to reform the three ills in the imperial examination at that time:
First, candidates are required to write articles that are mainly practical and concise, rather than talking at length for half a day without talking about ideas. This allows you to tell whether the candidate is really learning what he has learned or if he is just dealing with the exam.
Second, when officials collect the contents of the papers of candidates who have been admitted in the township examination and the examination, they must enter it according to the original text written by the candidates, and it is forbidden to modify or embellish it privately, let alone help them rewrite it. This is also to prevent cheating from happening.
Third, it is required that the chief examiners of the township examinations in each province be served by hanlin and section officials in the capital. This not only ensures the quality of the examiner, but also prevents the children of those powerful people from buying the examiner in advance.
It just so happened that the Jiajing Emperor was also a lord who was not afraid of offending people, so he ordered that in the future, the chief examiners of the provincial and township examinations would be served by officials or jinshi in Beijing, and 2 people from each province would be recommended by the Ministry of Rites. The invigilator may not interfere in the work of the examiners. In the township examinations held in Beijing and Nanjing, in addition to the chief examiner, "the five economic houses are still a member of each department official."
Zuo Shilang of the Military Department of the Imperial Household Bureau, and Zhang Xuantiao, a scholar and scholar, chen "Cautious Subjects" three things. Yizheng style: Please order the chief secretary to take the literary affairs of the school to be plain and elegant, practical, and still make a plan in the "Zhou Li" and "Ritual Rites", so that they can learn etiquette, and then blame the king and the people. Yiming Record: Words and hometowns, will try to record, it is advisable to take the original volume of Confucianism, slightly increase or decrease one or two words, do not have to do their own pen, divide the merits of the school. A prudent examiner: It is advisable to take the provincial and township examinations, as in the case of the two capitals, and choose the Hanlin Section officer as the main examiner, and do not order the power to return to the outer curtain to pre-marry the apprentice, and secretly pass the joints. Shang Shen was kind enough to make the division hold provincial and township examinations. The chief examiner ordered the Ceremonial Department to raise the Capital Official or the Jinshi, two people from each province, to the confession, and the probationary officer was not allowed to participate in the inner curtain. In addition to the main examination of the two Capital Township Examinations, the Five Economics Room still has a member of the Department of Science and Technology.
- Records of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 80
Unfortunately, Zhang Xuan's reform measure of "sending courtiers to serve as the chief examiners of the provincial and township examinations" was only implemented in 2 subjects, but it was abolished because the chief examiner sent by the capital had a dispute with the local supervisors. It was not until the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1583) that Zhang Xuan's reform proposals for that year were translated and implemented.
By the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar, the matters of the science field were decided. The ministerial council repeated Zhang Xuanzhi's remarks, saying: "At that time, because of the slight discontent between the main examination and the etiquette of the superintendent, the second subject was stopped, and now it is advisable to still send the court ministers." ”
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Although the Biography of Ming Shi Zhang Xuan criticizes Zhang Xuan more than affirms, it does not dare to deny that he "holds a special integrity and hates the corrupt officials."
To what extent is Zhang Xuan incorruptible?
To put it this way, those who oppose Zhang Xuan in the DPRK often use the charge of "bending the law for personal gain" to impeach him, but they often fail to succeed. Why? This was not the Jiajing Emperor deliberately shielding Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan once confidently packed a ticket for the Jiajing Emperor in the article "Please Announce the Cabinet": "Although the emperor went to summon the officials, households, and soldiers, and asked them, since I Entered the Cabinet, have I Zhang Fujing opened the back door to promote people, whether there was collusion between officials and businessmen for personal gain, and whether there were any close associates installed in the border defense areas." But if Zhang Fujing had done the same, he was willing to be beheaded. ”
The emperor tried to summon the officials to ask: Since Zhang Fujing entered the cabinet, he has been the master of taking a certain official, promoting a certain official, opening the door for private individuals, and bad ancestor selection method? The official of the Summoning Household Department asked: Since Zhang Fujing entered the cabinet, has he been the master of salt introduction, selling nests and buying nests, being a thief for traitorous merchants, and bad ancestors and storing money? The officer of the Summoning Department asked: Since Zhang Fujing entered the cabinet, he has specifically presided over a certain drill to ask a general to be appointed to a certain town, a certain drill to ask a general to be appointed to a certain battalion, and a bad ancestor to choose the method of generals? There is one here, and the sin should be condemned.
——" Taishi Zhang Wenzhong Gongji , Song Shu Vol. 4 : Please Announce the Cabinet "
Just by leading by example, Zhang Xuan had long hated the greedy ink wind that existed at that time. He wrote some of his essays in "Forbidden Revolution and Greed": "Recently, China's diplomacy has become a trend and greed has become a common practice. Husbands covet to hide adultery, adultery to cause misfortune, and thieves to fear."
In the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), the Jiajing Emperor made Zhang Xuan act as the governor of the capital. On the fourth day of the first month of September, Zhang Xuan passed the official examination and selected 12 incompetent imperial historians.
Zhang Xuan, the left attendant of the Military Department of the Imperial Inspection Bureau, inspected a total of twelve people who were not in charge of the imperial history.
- Records of emperor Ming Dynasty: Volume 80
On the third day of october in the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), in order to further standardize the work style of the imperial historians and avoid favoritism and unjust cases, Zhang Xuan handed the Jiajing Emperor a recital entitled "Affirming the Constitution". He suggested that the Inspector Yushi and the Inspector-General could report to each other and play a role in supervising each other; that when the Inspector Yushi went out to inspect, local officials were not allowed to go out of the city to greet him or serve the Inspector Yushi; that the Inspectorary must complete the task of visiting the counties and states within the prescribed time limit and report to the people on time; that when examining cases, all torture should not be used; when the Inspector Yushi went out on a patrol, everything should be simplified, and not to add to the burden on the people, and so on. The Jiajing Emperor thought that Zhang Xuan's proposal was very good, and asked the inspectors and officials to follow suit, and if anyone violated it, they would be severely punished.
Zhang Xuan, the attendant of the Imperial Household Bureau, asked for a constitutional guideline to be stated, so that the Inspector Yushi could abide by it.
- Records of emperor Ming Dynasty, Volume 81
On the fourth day of October of the same year, although the Jiajing Emperor allowed Zhang Xuan to enter the cabinet as a scholar of the Rebbe Shangshu and Wenyuange University, he still let him enter the government as a capital inspector. Cabinet ministers were also in charge of the affairs of the imperial court, which was very rare in the Ming Dynasty. Shen Defu, the author of "Wan Liye's Compilation", said that only Zhang Xuan and Zhao Zhenji had such a special case.
The head of the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, that is, the Han Yushi Dafu, was called Ya Xiang, and now he was a heavy minister of wind and discipline, and the lord picketed hundreds of officials, and there was no cabinet minister. In this dynasty, there were only two people in the sixth year of Jiajing, Ding Hai Zhang Yongjia (Zhang Xuan), and Longqing four years of Gengwu Zhao Neijiang (Zhao Zhenji).
Zhang Xuan then found that there were more than 20 Yushi, either in Ding You, or on sick leave at home, but they had all exceeded the normal deadline. Zhang Xuan asked the Jiajing Emperor to issue a decree that those people should return as soon as possible to cancel their leave and go to work as usual, and if they did not come within the time limit, they would be removed; if anyone took the opportunity to act as a blessing in the township and over the relevant departments, they would be deposed together. The Jiajing Emperor adopted Zhang Xuan's suggestion and asked those people to hurry back to work for a period of 3 months. If you are sick for a while and a half and you can't get better, you must explain the situation; if you are really sick and cannot be cured, you will directly resign from your official post and go home. Those who neither report on time nor return to their posts immediately shall be punished as guilty.
Zhang Xuanshu, a scholar of the Metropolitan Inspection Institute, Yu Shiding, and more than 20 people who were sick, please go to your post.
Although by the end of the year, Zhang Xuan was no longer in charge of the affairs of the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau, but after his rectification, the work style and discipline of the entire Metropolitan Inspection Bureau were greatly improved.
The capital of the bureau did not end up in age, but for a while the discipline was purged, and the accumulated shortcomings were suddenly changed.
- Records of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 221
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Zhang Xuan died of illness on the sixth day of February in the eighteenth year of Jiajing (1539) at the age of 64.
Earlier, Zhang Xuan was ostracized by many civilian officials because of the "great etiquette dispute". Later, he was keen on reform, rectified the trend of corruption, and offended a large number of people. Coupled with the fact that he had no protégés, naturally few juniors stood up to speak for him.
In the Ming Dynasty, Li Zhen (zhì) once commented on Zhang Xuan in his "Continued Collection": "In the cabinet for ten years, there is no one internal subject, no private yè (yè), and no abuse of a son and nephew." As far as this is concerned, I am afraid that few cabinet leaders can really do it.
(Note: This article is original by [Headline @ Love SlimMing Fish], plagiarism is prohibited, and violators will be investigated!) ）