What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
He is a bright-eyed assistant, a confidant of intimate service, and a helper who can make good decisions. Thousands of years of secretarial career is undoubtedly a key position.
Some people have soared in this post, and some people have fallen into the abyss in this post.
Today, we will talk about Zhang Tingyu, a major minister of the Three Dynasties of the Qing Dynasty. As the kangxi emperor's grand secretary, he was demoted to three consecutive ranks. If you put it in ordinary people, you have been beaten by the waves of power, but he eventually became a heavy minister of the Three Dynasties, which made people look at it.
I. Kangxi's confidant "secretary" from a famous family
Zhang Tingyu, Zi Hengchen, Yan Zhai. Friends familiar with the literary history of the Qing Dynasty may also be familiar with Zhang Tingyu's name. Because he was a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, he was a fellow countryman with Dai Shiming, Fang Bao, Yao Nai and others of the "Tongcheng School". It was probably also Tongcheng Zhong LingYuxiu, Zhang Tingyu's father Zhang Ying also entered high school in his early years, and eventually became a scholar of Wenhuadian University and a rebbe Shangshu.
In the thirty-ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1700), Zhang Tingyu also continued the "power of learning hegemony" of the Tongcheng literati, and entered the high school and began his career as a Shu Jishi. In the spring of the forty-third year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1704), the Kangxi Emperor accidentally asked Zhang Tingyu about the recent situation of Zhang Ying, who had retired, and ordered Zhang Tingyu to write a poem to see if Zhang Tingyu had Zhang Ying's style. Subsequently, Zhang Tingyu, who was better than blue out of blue, not only received personal praise from the Kangxi Emperor, but also was ordered to work in the South Study, the predecessor of the Military Aircraft Department.
After entering the South Study, Zhang Tingyu did not see the sun at both ends, day and night, and spent his days and nights in the gong (in today's words, he is simply a "797" type good cadre).
If there is a payoff, there is a reward: whether the Kangxi Emperor went out hunting, summer vacation or inspection, he took Zhang Tingyu with him, "the poor side is deserted, and Yu (referring to Zhang Tingyu) is obedient to the pen."
However, in the sixty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1722), Zhang Tingyu, who was not at fault, was suddenly demoted by Kangxi to a paper and demoted to three levels. And what is even more confusing is that the degraded Zhang Tingyu not only does not worry about his future, but instead looks calm at home, so that his son almost asks for a doctor for him.
II. The Chief "Secretary" of Yongzheng, who is in charge of the confidentiality
Zhang Tingyu was certainly not crazy. The Kangxi Emperor degraded his officials, not because he did not want to reuse Zhang Tingyu. In fact, it was the Kangxi Emperor who admired him and came up with this unexpected appearance at this juncture.
"For the father, he must wait for the new king to give grace", Zhang Tingyu is said to have told his son at home.
These eight words may be the imagination of posterity, or perhaps the real heart of his time. In any case, this sentence implies a significant reason for his depreciation. The sixty-first year of Kangxi (1722) was the last year of the kangxi emperor's life, and it was also the climax of the nine sons' conquest of the concubine, and it was also the year of the Yongzheng Emperor's ascension to the throne. Whether or not "the father must wait for the new king to give grace" is true or not, it is true that Zhang Tingyu was immediately promoted to a high position after Yongzheng ascended the throne. Therefore, it is indeed reasonable to understand Zhang Tingyu's sudden debasement as the political wealth left by the Kangxi Emperor to his son, and also to protect Zhang Tingyu.
And because he was the son of Zhang Ying, the mentor of Yongzheng, and also a well-known scholar and talented talent in the Manchu Dynasty, Zhang Tingyu developed even better in the Yongzheng Dynasty than in the Kangxi Dynasty. Most of the Yongzheng Emperor's edicts were dictated to him by Zhang Tingyu; Zhang Tingyu was the first person to be allowed to read the Yongzheng Emperor's secret decree; when appointing Zhang Tingyu as the Rebbe Shangshu, the Yongzheng Emperor said: "If you think four times again, you must not be competent"...
III. The Han "Secretary" Who Was Finally Suppressed
For the Qianlong Emperor, Zhang Tingyu was also an important courtier with unusual relations. As early as the first year of Yongzheng (1723), under the arrangement of the Yongzheng Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor officially worshiped Zhang Tingyu as a teacher at the Maoqin Temple. When Yongzheng died violently in the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735) and the throne suddenly hung in the air, Zhang Tingyu was also the first to stand up and take out the secret edict established by Yongzheng and help the Qianlong Emperor succeed to the throne smoothly.
In fact, Zhang Tingyu's situation in the early Qianlong Dynasty was difficult to summarize in terms of a "very popular subject". Because on the second day of his reign, the Qianlong Emperor announced that Zhang Tingyu could enjoy the Taimiao Temple after returning to the west of the crane. This was the first time and the only time that the Han Chinese had this honor in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, it can be said that as long as Zhang Tingyu does not assassinate the emperor and does not betray the imperial court, then he will not end up desolate according to common sense. But the Qianlong Emperor was a person who did not like to play cards according to common sense.
Fourteen years after Qianlong (1749), the Qianlong Emperor suddenly began to find various "strange" reasons to rebuke Zhang Tingyu: colluding with friends; Zhang Tingyu's request to reiterate his instruction to be entitled to the Taimiao Temple annoyed the Qianlong Emperor; Qianlong agreed to Zhang Tingyu's retirement application, but Zhang Tingyu did not personally go to the palace gate to thank him; after the death of the emperor's eldest son, Zhang Tingyu hurriedly returned to his hometown without waiting for the end of the funeral period; even Zhang Tingyu's relatives, The Sichuan Scholar Zhu Quan, had to sit down to take the exam. Under the suppression of the Qianlong Emperor, Zhang Tingyu went from an auxiliary minister and a military minister to a powerless retired minister whose family property had been confiscated.
Throughout Zhang Tingyu's life, he has indeed reached the peak of the Han courtiers in the Qing Dynasty. His qualities of literary thinking, incorruptibility, diligence, flexibility of mind, and good at speculating on the holy will, etc., looked at the entire Qing Dynasty and encountered no opponents. Coupled with the general environment in which the imperial court gradually became just to the Han courtiers during the Kang Yongqian period, Zhang Tingyu became a "tumbler" of the Three Dynasties.
But it is also a pity that he has always been trapped in the environment of the Qing court. When the contradictions between the Manchu and The Han intensified, he, the only Han chinese who was allowed to enjoy the Taimiao Temple, was suddenly pushed to the cusp of the storm. Perhaps the Qianlong Emperor did not want to be a person who did not respect the teacher, but if "punishing" Zhang Tingyu alone could exchange for the good of the political situation, then the Qianlong Emperor, who was the emperor, also had to do it.
Good birds choose trees to rest, and virtuous people choose kings to serve. The fate of the individual is often tied to the chariot of the times. "For the father must wait for the new king to give grace", Zhang Tingyu knew in his heart that his honor and disgrace were blown by the wind of the time sequence, or fought, or gambled, or waited.