History of Tang Dynasty: Liu Rui Countermeasures! The contradiction between the eunuch dictatorship and the imperial power and the scholar in the middle and late Tang Dynasties
preface
In the dream of the three more, it is the chessboard of the world, born small, and can never escape the fate of becoming a chess piece, although it is a kind of ephemera, but in the dream is also a million heroes, there are also waves.
cause
Emperor Wenzong of Tang ascended the throne: In 826 AD, after Emperor Wenzong of Tang ascended the throne, the imperial examination was opened.
Li Ang of Tang Wenzong (November 20, 809 – February 10, 840)
outcome
Liu Rui's countermeasures to leave Chang'an: In 828, Liu Rui did not pass the examination for the jinshi, and could only leave Chang'an.
▲ Liu Rui (stills) (?) —848)
disposal
1. Examination of the Imperial Examination
Nowadays, Chinese students will be sad about the college entrance examination, which is an examination of great significance in life, a test of more than ten years of hard study, and a choice for the future of their lives.
For this reason, the college entrance examination can be described as a very important examination in our lives, and in ancient times, there was also an equally important examination, that is, the imperial examination.
The imperial examination originated in the Sui Dynasty, and the invention of the imperial examination gave the children of the Hanmen the opportunity to enter the imperial court as officials, and no longer let the power of the imperial court be controlled by the rich family.
▲ Emperor Wen of Sui
Therefore, the people of the world have been studying hard for ten years in order to wait for this examination. The imperial examination is different from the college entrance examination, which is once a year, but once every three years.
However, there are also exceptions, the imperial examination is to select talents to serve the country, so the imperial examination is also decided by the emperor, if the emperor wants to conduct another examination, it will also be possible.
When the emperor held a temporary meeting, various officials recommended local talents to go to Chang'an for examinations, which was not easy to come by.
During the reign of Emperor Wenzong of Tang, Emperor Wenzong wanted to select useful talents again, so he temporarily held an imperial examination, and Liu Rui was among them.
▲ Tang Wenzong
2. Speak up
The ancient imperial examinations were not like the examinations of foreign languages, ancient languages and mathematics like the college entrance examinations today, especially this kind of temporary convening of the emperor, basically the examinations were all major national events.
This time, Liu Rui caught up with Xianliang Fangzheng's direct advice, which was a major matter of discussion of the state and was also highly valued by the emperor.
Liu Rui's favorite thing is to discuss national affairs with his partners in his spare time, so this time the examination questions are exactly what Liu Rui is good at.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty was already in power more than the eunuchs, which was seen by the people of the world, and it was also the most unwilling of the people, so Liu Rui wrote a special article on the matter of eunuchs controlling the government.
In this article, it is specifically aimed at eunuchs, and Liu Rui said that if you want the imperial court to be politically clear, you must first deal with the eunuch dictatorship, and the eunuchs arbitrarily deposing the emperor has endangered the imperial court and endangered the foundation of the country, so he also asked the emperor not to be swayed by eunuchs and make changes as soon as possible.
Moreover, the eunuchs not only intervened in the matter of deposing the emperor, but also intervened in political and military issues, and if the eunuchs were allowed to continue like this, the country would probably perish in the hands of the eunuchs.
Liu Rui explained passionately, and when it came time to hand in the papers, Liu Rui was full of confidence, after all, he had to be talented, capable and capable, plus the topic of this time was exactly what he understood, so Liu Rui was very confident.
The officials who approved the scrolls were also surprised to see Liu Rui's volumes, because Liu Rui really wrote the voices of the imperial court and even the people, and everyone was naturally very dissatisfied with the fact that the eunuchs were in power, that is, no one dared to mention it.
▲Former residence of Liu Rui
3. No officialdom
Tang Wenzong was able to have today, but also rely on the help of eunuchs, so Tang Wenzong could become emperor, which is also the reason why Tang Wenzong was too indulgent to eunuchs.
However, it was precisely for this reason that Tang Wenzong knew very well that he could not deal with eunuchs for the time being, because their power was too great, the emperor had just ascended the throne, and the seat had not yet been secured, so he could only let the eunuchs go on a rampage in the imperial court.
The eunuchs' power is too great, which also leads to many people daring to be angry and dare not speak, and at the same time, although the people who enter the Chang'an scientific expedition know the harm of eunuchs, but for their own career, almost no one dares to offend the eunuchs, and no one writes about eunuchs.
And Liu Rui's article stood out among many examination papers, because Liu Rui dared to criticize eunuchs, and he also wrote talented and written, so many people admired Liu Rui.
But the eunuchs were different, they saw this article, afraid that Liu Rui would be targeted after entering the imperial court, so they decided not to admit Liu Rui, but they did not stop Liu Rui's article from circulating.
When the examination results were announced, people looked at Liu Rui's rank with great anticipation, but found that there was no name on the list, after all, there would be no ranking if they attacked eunuchs.
This also angered the people, many people scolded the eunuchs for playing with power, relying on the power of their own hands to cover the sky, not to admit Liu Rui, but in the era at that time, people scolded at most, there was no way to compete with eunuchs.
And the emperor also saw this article, but his own throne was helped by eunuchs, so it was impossible to eliminate eunuchs now, and liu Rui could only be excluded from the list.
Liu Rui saw the difficulties of the imperial court and saw the eunuchs in power, so he could only leave Chang'an discouraged, because he had never been able to enter the imperial court because of eunuchs in his life.
▲ The image of the eunuch in the film and television drama
brief summary
Liu Rui's departure from Chang'an reflected that the Tang Dynasty in the middle and late Tang Dynasty was already in power by eunuchs, but it also left a foreshadowing for Tang Wenzong to eliminate eunuchs.
【References】
1. The Complete Book of The Four Libraries
2. Su Weiwen Anthology