He was a late Ming Dynasty scholar and a disgraced scholar, and after being captured by Hou Jin, he was highly used by Emperor Taiji; he advised Emperor Taiji, formulated various rules and regulations, and on behalf of Hou Jin persuaded Ming dynasty soldiers to surrender, and made great contributions to Hou Jin's entry into Beijing; after the Qing Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, he sat on the high-ranking official Houlu and was known as the head of the Wenchen. This person is Fan Wencheng.
Fan Wencheng's life is the whole process of Houjin changing from weak to strong and entering the Central Plains. He assisted the four founding emperors of the Qing Dynasty in his lifetime, from a fallen showman to the head of the civil officials, and his resume was very rich. I plan to use three articles to detail Fan Wencheng this person.
Fan Wencheng, born in 1597, is a native of Jiangxi. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the family moved to Shenyang and later settled in Fushun. Fan Wencheng's great-grandfather served as Shangshu of the Ming Dynasty's military department, and his grandfather served as the commander of Shenyang Wei Tongzhi. Fan Wencheng's father, Fan Nan, had a bad career and never became an official in his life. Fan Wencheng has received a good education since he was a child, and he is familiar with the subsets of the history of the classics and the classics of the past. At the age of 18, he took the county school examination in Shenyang and passed the Xiucai examination.
When Fan Wencheng was 21 years old, Nurhaci led an army to capture Fushun. Later, the Jin army plundered in Fushun, not only robbing livestock, gold and silver, but also robbing people. Fan Wencheng was snatched by Hou Jin in this war and became a slave. The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" says that Fan Wencheng and his brother took the initiative to see Nurhaci and were valued by Nurhaci. In fact, this may be the penmanship adopted by the people who wrote the history books to show that the readers at that time were willing to return to the houjin. According to common sense, Fan Wencheng was only 21 years old at the time, neither martial arts nor fighting, and was a nameless and fallen talent. Nurhaci, as the supreme commander of Houjin, could not have seen such a young man. Later facts also confirmed this, and Fan Wencheng was included in the red flag as a slave, and suffered humiliation and torture. In his later years, Nurhaci was extremely repulsive to the Han Chinese, full of suspicion and distrust, and many people who, like Fan Wencheng, were plundered by the Later Jin were killed. In this case, Fan Wencheng's survival is already a miracle.
After Nurhaci's death, Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne.
In order to alleviate the contradictions between the Manchus and the Han, Huang Taiji changed Nurhaci's jealous and suspicious mentality, forbade random killing, forbade abuse, and distributed land to let them live and work in peace and contentment. At the same time, the Han people, especially the Han literati, are reused. Because the Manchu literacy rate is low, and the number of people who understand Chinese is even fewer, I once saw in the Qing Dynasty volume of Bai Shouyi's edition of the General History of China that among Nurhaci's many sons, only Huang Taiji knew Chinese and could read and write Chinese characters. Fighting the world requires military generals to charge, but to rule the world, it needs cultural people, and the drafting of documents, the issuance of decrees, the formulation of systems, and so on, all need cultural people. After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, he set up a literary hall, where the people were all cultural people, and their main responsibility was to help him draft documents, convey orders, and give advice, which was equivalent to his think tank. The people here only obey the Emperor Taiji, but they have no official position. By chance, Huang Taiji saw Fan Wencheng, learned that he was a high-ranking official, and arranged for him to work at the Wenguan.
Fan Wencheng, a person with typical northeastern characteristics, is tall and burly, and is not at all the appearance of a weak scholar Chinese our impression. After he entered the Wenguan, he was arranged to follow Huang Taiji on a expedition. On the battlefield, he will also take up arms and fight. He was also awarded a guerrilla title for his military merits. Gradually, Huang Taiji developed trust in Fan Wencheng.
Fan Wencheng was resourceful and gave many very constructive suggestions to Huang Taiji. In dealing with the Ming Dynasty general Yuan Chonghuan, it is evident that his strategy is superior. Emperor Taiji led a large army to attack Beijing, and Yuan Chonghuan led the Ming army to meet the battle. The two sides do not win or lose. Fan Wencheng offered Emperor Taiji a counter-plot, falsely claiming that Emperor Taiji had a secret agreement with Yuan Chonghuan, cleverly revealing the news to the captured eunuch, and then pretending to let him escape. When the eunuch returned, he reported the news to the Chongzhen Emperor.
After The Jin withdrew, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned and convicted. The crime was fornication and conspiracy to rebel. In August of the third year of Chongzhen (1630), Yuan Chonghuan was executed by Ling Chi, his family was exiled, and all the family property was confiscated. It can be said that fan wencheng single-handedly created this largest unjust case in the history of the late Ming Dynasty.
In the fifth year of Tiancong (1631), Emperor Taiji led troops to besiege The City of Dalinghe, and the Ming Dynasty general Zu Dashou surrendered. However, there were still some Ming troops who were stubbornly guarding the pass and were unwilling to surrender. Emperor Taiji ordered Fan Wencheng to go and persuade him to surrender. Fan Wencheng rode alone and went straight into the Ming Army's big tent and took advantage of the Ming Army. As a result, the surrender was successful, and the guards surrendered. Huang Taiji was very happy and gave him the captured livestock and women.
Later, Emperor Taiji marched on Lin Dan Khan, and Fan Wencheng went out with the army. Due to the leaked news, Lin Dan Khan was exposed in advance, resulting in the Emperor Taiji failing to annihilate him. At the time of dilemma, Fan Wencheng said to Huang Taiji: "I am a teacher who is advancing, and the benefits are going deep; no, the benefits are returning quickly; halfway back, it is useless." Huang Taiji thought deeply. Fan Wencheng also proposed that it would be better to take this opportunity to attack the Ming Dynasty border unexpectedly, so that a large amount of property could be plundered and not returned empty-handed. Emperor Taiji adopted Fan Wencheng's advice, and the Later Jin army went straight to Xuanfu, Zhangjiakou and other places, and plundered on a large scale.
In the seventh year of Tiancong (1633), the Ming generals Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming wrote letters to Emperor Taiji, expressing their willingness to lead their troops and horses to surrender. Huang Taiji was very happy and immediately sent someone to the Camp of Kong Youde to negotiate. Who is this person? This person is Fan Wencheng. Fan Wencheng went to Kong Youde's camp and negotiated various conditions with them before taking Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming to Shenyang to meet Emperor Taiji.
Emperor Taiji changed Yuan Chongde and paid more attention to the role of the civil servants, and he changed the former wenguan to the inner three courts, that is, the Inner National History Academy, the Inner Secretarial Academy, and the Neihong Literary Academy, and appointed Fan Wencheng as a member of the Inner Secretariat Academy, whose main responsibility was to draft state documents and emperor edicts. Emperor Taiji became more and more fond of and reliant on Fan Wencheng, and would consult with Fan Wencheng on all matters large and small.
According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", Fan Wencheng was in charge of the secrets of the imperial court and often had long-term dialogues with Emperor Taiji to discuss major policies. When The Emperor Taiji listened to the minister's report, he would ask, "Does Fan Zhangjing know?" If he felt that the minister's suggestion was inappropriate, he would say, "Why not discuss it with Fan Zhangjing?" ”。 If some suggestions were made by Emperor Taiji that he felt that he still needed to be deliberated, the reporting minister would say that Fan Zhangjing had said the same thing, and Emperor Taiji would gladly agree.
Huang Taiji was very appreciative of Fan Wencheng and obeyed his words. Fan Wencheng was grateful to Emperor Taiji and never forgot the grace of knowing the encounter until death. In the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, the imperial court sent Fan Wencheng to worship the Emperor Taiji's mausoleum. Fan Wencheng lay on the emperor's taiji cemetery and cried bitterly.
Let's write this article here today, and continue to write the second article tomorrow.