Since ancient times, the most important quality of being an official is incorruptibility, and to this day we still deeply hate corrupt officials and have great admiration for clean officials. Both ancient emperors and today's state leaders want their officials to be clean and loving.
But living in this materialistic society, many people are swallowed up by power and desire, unable to protect themselves, and embark on the road of bribery and perverting the law. This kind of scene has existed since ancient times, and people will only say when they encounter this kind of thing: Please be less greedy!
But in the Tang Dynasty, there was a king who let his courtiers be greedy for more money, mainly because he saw that the courtier was too poor to look at it. This courtier was Lu Yan, the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, who was a clean and honest official all his life, not tempted by the world, and became a great Qing official admired by everyone.
Reused by the Emperor
Lu Yan's family was once a well-known and prestigious family in Zhejiang, and later when Lu Yan was born, his family was already in the middle of the road, and when he grew up, his family was even more destitute. Although he was not born in the good times of his family, he never pretended to be self-effacing, but studied very hard.
When he was young, he was deeply taught by Confucianism, which led him to follow Confucian ideas all his life and apply them to his daily way of dealing with the world.
Lu Yan is a very talented person, he has his own unique views on practical matters and politics. From an early age, he aspired to obtain meritorious examinations and become a parent official. Therefore, he was angry and strong, and finally passed the entrance examination at the age of 18, and then after a few years as a county lieutenant, he was dismissed and returned home.
In 779, When Emperor Dezong of Tang succeeded to the throne, he introduced the "Two Tax Laws" to the whole country and set up deposed envoys in various counties and cities, with the intention of unifying the national tax system, and on the other hand, he could also examine the achievements of local officials.
During the period in his hometown, Lu Zhen advised the local deposed envoys, who asked him to use the "Five Techniques", "Eight Plans", "Three Disciplines", "Four Endowments", "Six Virtues" and "Five Points" to manage the local political economy.
These recommendations are mainly aimed at examining folk customs and the achievements of local officials, selecting talents, managing finances, appeasing the poor masses, and streamlining the positions of officials. It can be said that it was a very pertinent suggestion, and then the deposed envoy reported Lu Zhen's suggestion to Tang Dezong.
When Tang Dezong was still the crown prince, he had heard about Lu Zhen's reputation, and after hearing his suggestions, he praised him one after another, so he immediately transferred Lu Zhen back to the capital to serve as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy and often served around Tang Dezong.
And Lu Yan was also very grateful for Tang Dezong's reuse, so he was meticulous and diligent in his work. As the emperor, it is inevitable that there will be omissions, and Lu Yan often gives timely reminders when the emperor is neglected, so that the emperor makes many mistakes less, so he is deeply loved by the emperor.
Officials pay homage to the Prime Minister
When Lu Yan was at Tang Dezong's side, he was mainly responsible for drafting documents and holy decrees. Due to the heavy state affairs, many edicts were dictated by Tang Dezong, and Lu Yan recorded them on the side, but then compiled them into texts. Therefore, it was often seen that Lu Yan was writing a book next to the emperor.
And Lu Yan did not dare to be the slightest bit of slack, but whatever the emperor described, he listed it in great detail. Although there were many ministers in the court at that time, many things tang dezong first consulted with Lu Zhen, which showed that Tang Dezong relied heavily on him.
At that time, everyone in the DPRK and China called Lu Yan "Internal Minister", and although he did not hold a high official position, he had more power in his hands than when he was the prime minister. However, Lu Zhen did not take pride in his achievements, but conscientiously assisted the emperor and became a good story in the court.
Later, the former lieutenant Zhu Zhu rebelled and occupied Chang'an, Lu Zhen and Tang Dezong fled the palace to avoid disaster, and when they traveled to Liangzhou and other places, the two were separated, and Tang Dezong was so sad that he wept bitterly, and said that if anyone found Lu Zhen, he would be rewarded with a reward of 1,000 taels.
Later, after the rebellion was suppressed, they returned to Chang'an together. At this time, Lu Zhen's mother died of illness, and he wanted to resign his official post and go home to guard filial piety. When he was in his hometown, many people came to him with gifts to woo and flatter him, but they were all rejected by him.
As soon as the period of filial piety expired, Emperor Dezong of Tang immediately recalled him to the imperial court and appointed him as a military attendant. At that time, the chancellor Dou Shan was dissatisfied with him and always went to the emperor to falsely accuse him of corruption and bribery. Tang Dezong knew that Lu Zhen's character would naturally not be corrupt, so he dismissed Dou San in one breath.
At this time, the position of prime minister was vacant, and Tang Dezong immediately promoted Lu Zhen to the position of Zhongshu Shilang, that is, the prime minister of the current dynasty.
During Lu Zhen's tenure as prime minister, he worked hard to deepen reform. At that time, social contradictions were seriously divided and almost on the verge of collapse. Lu Yan found the crux of the contradiction, explained the pros and cons to Tang Dezong, and proposed many reasonable solutions.
Later, most of these suggestions were adopted and practiced by Tang Dezong, including reducing taxes, appointing sages, avoiding adultery, stockpiling war materials, training soldiers and horses, and stopping the war. All of this has great significance for the development of contemporary society.
In the situation of continuous rebellion, in order to stabilize the hearts of the army, Lu Zhen advised Tang Dezong to commit his own edict, and also drafted a sincere and moving edict for him. After this edict was promulgated to the world, everyone was moved, and the generals in the army were all touched by it, and even some rebels had to apologize.
Because of Lu Zhen, the crumbling country was gradually turned into a safe place, and he also became the prime minister that everyone admired.
For the official's life
During His tenure as Prime Minister, Lu Yan saw the most in the tens of thousands of good land for the high-ranking officials and nobles, while the poor and ordinary people had no fixed place to live. As prime minister, he was heartbroken whenever he saw this situation, but there were many things he could not do.
The Tang Dynasty was a politically enlightened society, and none of the officials of all walks of life were not greedy, except for Lu Zhen. Although he was a supreme subject, he always disciplined himself strictly, took the world as his duty, and often warned himself: My people are still hungry, what am I not satisfied?
Others say that those who are close to Zhu are close to ink and black, and the people around Lu Zhen are like this, why can he be wise to protect himself? This also has a lot to do with the Confucian thought he learned, and "the upper does not live up to the world, the lower does not live up to the people" has become his life's motto.
Of course, the greed of those officials in the court could not escape Tang Dezong's eyes, but as an emperor, as long as the officials were loyal to their duties, if they were not insatiable, he could turn a blind eye. On the other hand, Lu Yan, who had been the prime minister for so many years, still held that little bit of Qilu and lived in poverty.
Tang Dezong couldn't bear to look at it, so he said to him, "Ai Qing, you should be greedy." However, Lu Yan was not moved, and still insisted on his own conduct.
Soon after, Lu Yan was slandered by Pei Yanling, the attendant of the household department, and coupled with his disagreement with Tang Dezong on political views at that time, he was demoted by Tang Dezong to the position of Chungju Beichai.
During the ten years in Chungju, Lu Zhen rarely went out, and he hid in his study all day to compile the "Lu Family Collection Test Fang" to provide a good reference for future generations of healers to treat diseases and save people.
Later, Emperor Dezong of Tang died, and Emperor Shunzong of Tang recalled Lu Yan immediately after he ascended the throne. However, before the edict could be delivered, Lu Yan drove the crane west at the age of fifty-two. In order to commemorate his bloodshed in the government, Tang Shunzong canonized him as a soldier shangshu with the posthumous title of "Xuan".
When the people next to you are covered in mud, you want to keep them clean and clean, and those people will not be as you wish. Lu Zhen has been called "the most incorruptible prime minister in ancient China", but he still has not escaped the fate of being splashed with dirty water.
It is no wonder that in history, it is rare to clean up officials, and there is a reason why corrupt officials have grabbed a large number of them. Just like Yue Fei, he obviously sacrificed himself for the country, but he could not defeat the arrogant words of the traitorous courtiers. Ming Jun needed Xianchen to assist him, but unfortunately Tang Dezong finally chose to trust others.