What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Yao Guangxiao gave Zhu Di a "white hat", and Zhu Di naturally wanted to repay this great hero. After he ascended the throne, he ranked Yao Guangxiao at the top of the reward for meritorious deeds, and wanted to give him a high-ranking official, but Yao Guangxiao refused, and only accepted the position of a monk Zuo Shanshi (an official in charge of monks' affairs), a minor official from Liupin.
Portrait of Yao Guangxiao
Yao Guangxiao's position was low, and he could only be ranked behind the ranks of officials when he was in the upper dynasty, and Zhu Di was very uncomfortable with his heart, and felt ashamed of this courtier, so he disregarded his humility and resignation, and forcibly granted him the official position of Zhengerpin (at that time, the highest official position of the wenchen was Zhengerpin). Zhu Di talked to Yao Guangxiao and never called him by his first name, but called him a young master and expressed his respect.
In the face of Zhu Di's favor and love, Yao Guangxiao did not get carried away, but was more low-key and introverted than before, and he was full of strategy, of course, he knew the truth of "cunning rabbit death, lackey cooking". He carefully managed the affairs of the Buddhist hall, meticulously handled the affairs that Zhu Di explained, and never mixed with Zhu Di's family affairs. For example, on the issue of Li Chu, which has attracted the attention of the government and the public and has a huge impact, he, the first strategist, never expresses any opinion, and is much lower than that of The Great Ming Caizi Xie Jin and others. In addition to wearing official clothes in the upper court, he spent most of his time in the temple wearing black monk clothes, thinking about and planning some major events in the imperial court, so he was called "the black-clothed prime minister".
Stills of Yao Guangxiao and Zhu Zhanji
Yao Guangxiao did two far-reaching events in the Yongle Dynasty, one was to revise the history of the book. The most influential are the Yongle Canon and the Records of Taizu. Both of these books were first revised under the auspices of Xie Jin, a talented man of the Ming Dynasty, and after completion, Zhu Di felt that there was still a deficiency, so he asked Yao Guangxiao to preside over the re-repair. On the basis of the work of Xie Jin and others, Yao Guangxiao must personally organize relevant personnel to check for omissions and fill in the gaps, and accurately proofread and survey. After arduous efforts, Yongle has completed more than 20,000 volumes of yongle canons covering a large number of contents such as scriptures, histories, zi, collections, hundreds of families, astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medicine, bu, monks, and Taoism, which is a treasure of world culture. In the fifteenth year of Yongle, the re-revision of the "Records of Ming Taizu" was completed, and the content of the whole book was greatly expanded and enriched, and it was also more systematic and perfect, which is the three revisions that can be seen now. The above two books cost Yao Guangxiao a lot of painstaking efforts, and two months before the Ming Taizu Shilu was written, Yao Guangxiao had passed away at the age of 84.
Zhu Di stills
Another major event of Yao Guangxiao's work was the construction of the city of Beijing. According to Zhu Di's strategic concept of "the son of heaven guarding the gate of the country", the city of Beijing will replace Nanjing as the new capital of Daming, and a large-scale expansion and reconstruction project must be carried out to meet the needs of Kyoto. This was a difficult and complicated but particularly important task, and Zhu Di entrusted it to Yao Guangxiao, who was most trusted. Yao Guangxiao lived up to his trust, from 1406 began to plan the relocation of the capital, the construction of The Inner Province, until 1421 officially moved to Beijing, after 15 years of hard work, Yao Guangxiao played the role of chief designer, and played a great role. The Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, which was conducive to controlling the political situation of the whole country, and was a landmark event of great significance in Chinese history, and its influence on China's political, economic and cultural formation has continued to this day.
In view of Yao Guangxiao's great contribution and low-key introversion, Zhu Di wanted him to grow his hair and play a greater role, Yao Guangxiao resigned; Zhu Di gave him two beautiful women and a luxurious mansion, Yao Guangxiao still refused to accept, still wearing a monk's robe, living in a monastery, living his own maverick "alien" life. In fact, his heterogeneity is precisely his wisdom and charm, he does not seek material desires, does not seek to reach, naturally helps to eliminate the suspicion of the emperor. He had the world in mind and used his life's learning and painstaking efforts to participate in the creation and development of Yongle Shengshi. It can be said that Yao Guangxiao lived his life in the way he liked, did not change himself, but changed the world!