Influenced by the image of some contemporary film and television works, there is a lot of understanding of Di Renjie, the famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. In many film and television works, Di Renjie is an image of high wisdom and strange plots. In the right history, although Di Renjie is different from the image in film and television works, in general, his life is still very legendary.
But in real history, Di Renjie's ending has had a very dramatic scene.
According to historical records, Di Renjie was a clean and honest official during his lifetime, and was widely loved by the people. Moreover, Di Renjie promoted a large number of excellent courtiers and indirectly planned the future Shenlong coup d'état, allowing the Tang Dynasty to return to the hands of the Li family. Therefore, the Li family royal family was also very grateful to Di Renjie, and continued to posthumously seal it after his death.
But the drama is that it is such a Di Renjie, who is loved by the people, but also smashed the ancestral hall by the people.
The reason why there is such an irony happens. That's a long story.
To put it simply, there is actually only one reason, that is, Di Renjie was pit daddy.
Di Renjie experienced a legend in his life, and he entered the shi with the imperial examination, first serving as the judge of Bian Prefecture, and later as the governor of Fa Cao and Dali Temple. These positions are all related to the adjudication of cases. This is also the reason why, in many of our film and television works today, Di Renjie will appear in such an image.
It is said that when Di Renjie was the head of the Dali Temple, he adjudicated thousands of backlog cases in one year, involving 17,000 people. However, in so many cases, none of them have been wrongfully prosecuted later. I have to say that this is also a miracle.
Such an outstanding Di Renjie was naturally favored by the emperor, and soon, he was promoted again, and the Ren Du Zhi Lang Zhong (equivalent to the later Hubu Shilang).
But at this time, the history of the Tang Dynasty began to come to a turning point.
As we all know, Wu Zetian, the empress of the Tang Dynasty, began to gradually grasp power during Li Zhi's reign as emperor. Later, after letting his son ascend the throne, he still held the power alone, and later deposed his son and became emperor himself.
When Di Renjie was promoted to Du Zhilangzhong, it was the period when Li Zhi began to gradually delegate power and Wu Zetian began to gradually take power. For Wu Zetian's rise to power, Di Renjie at that time did not make any excessive reaction, but instead respected the later female emperor very much.
At that time, Wu Zetian also attached great importance to Di Renjie. Under Wu Zetian's arrangement, Di Renjie was promoted repeatedly, and finally achieved the position of Pingzhangshi of Tongfengge Luantai, that is, the prime minister during the Tang Dynasty. But the good times did not last long, and only a year later, Wu Zetian began to appoint cool officials to junchen. Under the false accusations of Lai Junchen, Di Renjie was directly demoted to PengZe to do the county order.
From the prime minister to the county order, this gap is undoubtedly very large. However, at that time, Di Renjie did not have any complaints, but continued to be a good official in the position of county commander. After Peng Ze made a county order for two years, the situation in the north was unstable because of the Khitan rebellion in the north. At this time, Wu Zetian remembered Di Renjie again and sent Di Renjie to Wei Prefecture in the north to do the history of assassination.
During the Tang Dynasty, Wei Prefecture is today located at the junction of Henan, Shandong, and Hebei provinces, and has jurisdiction over present-day Daming, Wei County, Qingfeng, Fan County, Xin County, and Yanggu.
I have to say that Di Renjie was really famous at that time. Not only in the Tang Dynasty, but also in the Khitans. Upon hearing that Di Renjie had come to Wei Prefecture to do the history of assassination, the Khitan simply retreated.
During his two years in Weizhou, Weizhou was quickly restored. In order to thank Di Renjie, the local people built ancestral halls for Di Renjie and wrote inscriptions.
Later, under the attention of Wu Zetian, Di Renjie returned to the center and served as the prime minister. During his tenure, he promoted a large number of famous ministers, including Zhang Kam-chi. These famous courtiers, after Di Renjie's death and Wu Zetian's aging and gradually unable to handle government affairs, launched the Shenlong Coup, so that Li Xian, who had been deposed at that time, once again ascended to the throne.
It can be said that without Di Renjie's arrangement, the famous ministers who later led the Shenlong coup basically had no possibility of coming to power. Therefore, many people in later generations also said that the Shenlong coup was actually the backhand left by Di Renjie after his death.
In general, Di Renjie's life is quite legendary, and it can even be almost perfect.
But if this is the case, why did the destruction of The Di Renjie Ancestral Hall happen?
In this matter, we will talk about Di Renjie's son.
Di Renjie had three sons, Di Guangsi, Di Guangyuan, and Di Guangzhao (also known as Di Jinghui). These three sons, the first two sons, Di Guangsi and Di Guangyuan, all inherited the merits of Di Renjie, and later became very good officials.
Only the youngest son, Di Jinghui, was very different from Di Renjie. Talent is very general, but the old father is also the imperial court Zaifu, high authority, naturally some of the meaning of a clumsy child.
Therefore, after Di Jinghui entered the army, Di Renjie was afraid that Di Jinghui would be unstable, so he specially thought about it and sent Di Jinghui to Wei Prefecture to join the army as a sigong. This position is actually smaller than the county order.
In this place of Weizhou, Di Renjie had done the history of stabbing in those years, and he had a strong foundation. The local people also had a good feeling for Di Renjie, and also built an ancestral hall for Di Renjie. Therefore, Di Renjie felt that after Di Jinghui arrived in Weizhou, he was only a small official, and it should be easier to be an official.
But Di Renjie never expected that his young son could cause trouble more than he thought.
After Di Jinghui arrived in office, he used Di Renjie's power to do evil in the local area. Greed and tyranny have caused people's resentment to boil over. The local people were furious and sent all their anger to Di Renjie. Destroy all the ancestral halls that were originally given to Di Renjieli!
When Di Renjie learned of this, he was immediately furious. Of course, his anger was not directed at the people, but at his own young son. He quickly transferred Di Jinghui back and severely punished him, and finally got the forgiveness of the people of WeiZhou.
From this incident, we can also see that Di Renjie is indeed a very clean and honest official. Even as Zaifu, in the face of his younger son's mistakes, he still did not cover up, but severely punished.
The title of a generation of famous courtiers, placed on Di Renjie, is indeed appropriate.