Li Linfu is the face, and whoever hopes that his merits will be superior to his right and that he will be forced by his position, will do everything he can to go; especially those who are jealous of literature, or yang, are good with them, and they are willing to say and fall into the shadows. It is said that Li Linfu "has honey in his mouth and a sword in his belly." —— "Zizhi Tongjian"
Li Linfu was a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Li Longji, and he was a man of different appearances, jealous of his ability to be an official, especially sparing no effort in suppressing the literati, and many people believed that he was the first criminal who led to the decline of the Tang Dynasty. But Li Longji took a special fancy to him and made him the prime minister for 19 years, is this only because he is also a member of the royal family, or is there another reason?
A good wind relies on its strength and borrows it to go up to the clouds
Li Linfu's ancestors were the same as Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, so he was considered a clan relative, but because his family was in the middle of the road, he did not have a good education (Camel believed that he did not want to learn), so the initial position was only a court guard. But he is not a person who is satisfied with the status quo, on the contrary, he is very ambitious. Through his family connections (uncle Jiang Jiao), he became the prime minister Yuan Qianyao, and thus obtained a promotion, because he was sleek and skillful, and slowly he hooked up with Li Longji's favorite concubine Wu Huifei. (Li Long's gene is a lesson from Wu Zetian's predecessors, and there is no empress, so although Wu Huifei is only a concubine, she has a very high status.) ）
Being Wu Huifei's confidant alone did not meet his goals. With some special talents such as his "good music rhythm", he soon became good friends with Wu Sansi's daughter. Later, through Wu Sansi's daughter, he took Li Longji's most admired eunuch Gao Lishi (Gao Lishi was originally from Wu Sansi's family). Later, he got a lot of inside information from Gao Lishi through him, some of which he used himself to win Li Longji's favor, and some of which he used as a human favor to win over others, and Han Xiu, the important minister at that time, often helped him in the court because he had accepted his human feelings.
With the help of three forces (Han Xiu in the court, Gao Lishi at the emperor's side, and Wu Huifei in the harem), Li Linfu's career became extremely smooth. All the way from a low-ranking officer, he slowly sat in the position of prime minister that only a noble civilian official could sit on.
Only seek immediate benefits, regardless of the name behind him
Under normal circumstances, those who have not obtained benefits will often oppose those with vested interests, and those with vested interests, in order to protect their own interests, will spare no effort to suppress those who may affect their own interests. Li Linfu, who became prime minister, obviously belonged to vested interests, so in order to protect his own existing interests, on the one hand, he actively supported Li Longji's leadership, and on the other hand, he also adopted many means to suppress dissidents.
He himself was not from the class, so in order to prevent the talents from the class from affecting his status in the future, he worked on the selection of personnel so that the truly talented people could not be elected to the imperial court. The two setbacks of du fu, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, were both influenced by Li Linfu, who on the one hand prevented talents from entering the imperial court at the source and reported to Li Longji that he was a "wild and unavoidable minister."
The Tang Dynasty was founded by martial forces, relying on military generals to overthrow the rule of the Sui Dynasty, so after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, there were many restrictions on military generals, such as selecting loyal and reliable people to lead the border army, and regularly arranging for these generals to rotate, and generals without cultural education could not enter the center only by military merit ("
The prime minister treats things on behalf of heaven, and if there is a person who then grants it, it is not allowed to reward merit
"New Book of Tang"), but at this time, Li Longji had the intention of expanding his territory and intended to promote the border generals, and Li Longji was always on the lookout for the princes in order to stabilize his position.
Therefore, for the sake of his own stability, Li Linfu made the bian general Niu Xianke the prime minister (positioned below Li Linfu), and let the foreigners command the border army for a long time (An Lushan was). As for the power of the crown prince, Li Linfu also actively suppressed it, and the crown prince Li Ying, Li Yao the Prince of E, and Li Ju the Prince of Guang all died unjustly at the hands of Li Linfu. In his later years, Li Longji was obsessed with the harem, and li Linfu entrusted most of the political affairs to Li Linfu, and in order to make Li Longji feel at ease in the harem, Li Linfu could monopolize power for a long time, and he warned the counselors to obey and obey orders, not to write to advise at will, and to use his power to suppress those who did not listen.
brief summary
Li Longji was a generation of wise lords in the first half of his reign, very accomplished, and his knowledge and ability were very comparable, and what Li Linfu did could never have been so smooth if he had not met Li Longji's wishes and obtained his acquiescence. Therefore, Camel believes that the reason why Li Linfu was able to be the prime minister for 19 years was not because of Li Linfu's origin, but because he had the ability and willingness to fulfill Li Longji's unspoken wishes, which was very similar to the great corrupt official of the Qing Dynasty.
References: Zizhi Tongjian, New Book of Tang, etc
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