When it comes to the ancient "courtiers", the first thing that people think of should be Wei Zheng. In the 17 years of working with Tang Taizong, this Zhenguan courtier made a total of 264 suggestions, which were all adopted by Tang Taizong, leaving many good stories, and Wei Zheng became the best representative of the "counselors" in Chinese history.
However, such a hard bone as Wei Zheng who dared to "violate Yan Zhizhi" has been found in all dynasties and dynasties, although the number is not much, but the accumulation of thousands of years is also vast, but no one can be as respected and reused as Wei Zheng, but his head was cut off at every turn, and even the three and nine tribes were destroyed. In addition to The factor of Tang Taizong's "Shan Na Ya Yan", what did Wei Zheng have that others did not have?
Looking at Wei Zheng's 17 years of working with Tang Taizong, the reason why Emperor Taizong willingly adopted his advice can be roughly divided into three aspects.
First, first lay the theoretical foundation, that is, let Emperor Taizong understand what is The Ming Emperor and the Emperor, and what is a Good Minister and a Loyal Subject.
Once, Emperor Taizong asked Wei Zheng, what is Ming Jun? What is the Dark Lord? Wei Zheng replied, "Ming Jun all have a common feature, that is, they can open up the way of speech and listen to different opinions; while the common characteristic of The Emperor is that he is closed to the way of speech and partial to listening to and believing. That is, the so-called 'listening is bright, partial belief is dark'. ”
Later, Wei Zheng also mentioned the difference between a good minister and a loyal minister: "A good minister can not only enable the monarch to win the good name of the Ming Emperor, but also benefit himself, and fulu is complete; but the loyal minister can only use the name of the loyal king to let the monarch bear the notoriety of the emperor, and he is also in a different place, and he has a passion for blood, but he lets the country and the family die together." Therefore, Your Majesty must make me a good minister, not a loyal one. ”
As long as Taizong understood this theory, it would also lay a solid foundation for future advice, even if there were some contradictions between the two sides, Taizong would not completely fall out with Wei Zheng.
Second, set a goal and example for Emperor Taizong.
Tang Taizong was a generation of Ming Jun, an idol of countless people, but in his heart, he also had his own idol. He has said many times: "He who is good to him, only Yao Shun's way of Zhou Kong, thinks that like a bird has wings, like a fish has water, if it is lost, it will die, and it must not be earless for a while." With this sentence, it was easy to handle, and the clever Wei Zheng often compared Yao and Shun in his future advice, and naturally tried and tried again.
For example, once When Emperor Taizong was really annoyed by Wei Zheng, he accused him of saying, "Can you please stop interjecting when I speak in the future?" Can't you come down and say it again? I'm also an emperor, can't you give me some face in front of everyone? ”
Wei Zheng blinked and said, "When Saint Emperor Da Shun once said to the courtiers, 'Do you have any opinions to say to your face, don't say them when you are in a meeting, and then come down and talk nonsense.' 'Your Majesty, you want to be a holy prince like Yao and Shun, but you don't let us be Yao and Shun's courtiers. ”
Hearing these words, Taizong's anger naturally dissipated.
This was one of Wei Zheng's main methods of advice. In ancient times, the emperor was the emperor after all, and the wise minister would never confront the emperor tit-for-tat, make the scene stiff, let the emperor not come to the stage, but take a roundabout way, let the emperor willingly accept your advice. However, most of the courtiers in history did not understand or did not want to understand this truth, and at every turn they "committed a straight advice", eager to slap the emperor a few times, and forced him to admit his mistakes, the results of which can also be imagined, not only useless to the advice, but also a threat to their own lives, typical of the wrong country and wrong people.
What is even more frightening is that our traditional education seems to be very respectful of this view, whether it can be done or not is not important, the important thing is that the integrity must not be lost, if necessary, it must be angry and crowned, the eyes are broken, in short, the more tragic the better, it does not matter if the nine tribes are cursed, you are waiting for the history books to leave their names for eternity!
Some people may say that Wei Zheng's good name is because he met Tang Taizong, a good emperor who has never met in ancient times, and it is difficult to say if he meets a faint emperor. There is some truth to this, but also during the Tang Taizong period, there were many courtiers like Wei Zheng, but they were far from Wei Zheng's front and back names, which was very telling.
For example, in the fourth year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong wanted to rebuild the Qianyuan Hall in Luoyang, wrote a recital to Zhang Xuansu in the matter, and spent a lot of time counting the successes and failures in history, and finally said, Your Majesty, you did not go to the advantages of the emperor, but specialized in learning their shortcomings, which is really more excessive than the Sui Emperor! Emperor Taizong patiently read it, glanced at Zhang Xuansu, and said, "You say that I am even more excessive than the Sui Emperor, but what about Bi Jie and Huan?" ”
Zhang Xuansu didn't think about it and replied directly: "If Your Majesty really rebuilds the Qianyuan Hall, he will be as faint as Ji and Huan!" ”
Emperor Taizong was choked by this sentence for half a day, but fortunately, he had not forgotten "concurrently listening to Zeming", so he forcibly endured, ordered to stop rebuilding the Qianyuan Hall, and specially rewarded Zhang Xuansu.
If it ended here, naturally Wei Zheng's cleverness would not be revealed, and just a year after Emperor Taizong rewarded Zhang Xuansu, he proposed to rebuild the Qianyuan Hall. At this time, The Minbu Shangshu Dai Stood Up and said: "Now that the people have just founded the People's Republic of China, the common people can't even eat enough, but His Majesty has built a lot of construction and worked hard to hurt the people's wealth, which is simply too much!" ”
Although Emperor Taizong was not happy, he still obstructed his face, withdrew the order, and rewarded Dai Ji. However, after a while, Emperor Taizong remembered this matter again and continued to prepare to rebuild the Qianyuan Hall...
What's going on? Since Emperor Taizong knew that he was wrong and accepted the minister's advice, why did he have to repent three times and twice? Is this still the Tang Taizong who knew that he was wrong and changed his mind wisely?
In this incident, whether it is Zhang Xuansu or Dai Ji, the way and content of the advice are very common in history, that is, treating the emperor as a primary school student, telling him a bunch of big truths at every turn, and scolding him a few times when his temper comes up. It is conceivable that no emperor likes such advice, even if the wise like Tang Taizong, on the surface, agreed to it, the heart is still not happy, and there are three times and twice to break the word.
We can imagine that if Wei Zheng came to consult on this matter, would Emperor Taizong repeatedly renege on his word? As mentioned at the beginning, Wei Zheng had consulted 264 times in his lifetime, and the proportion of them was adopted by Emperor Taizong was 100 percent, compared with these 264 events, rebuilding the Qianyuan Hall was simply not a matter.
Third, explain the stakes to Emperor Taizong.
In the sixth year of Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty had begun to enter the prosperous world, and as soon as Emperor Taizong expanded, he wanted to go to Mount Tai to seal Zen. As soon as the news came out, the courtiers congratulated each other, and their flexible minds had begun to prepare for packing. Of course, there were also a few sober-minded people who wanted to oppose but couldn't think of a suitable reason, so they turned their attention to Wei Zheng.
At this time, Wei Zheng coughed and said, "Your Majesty, don't be so excited first, I don't think it's time to seal Zen yet." ”
Emperor Taizong had long anticipated that Wei Zheng would oppose it, so he had already prepared his words: "Do you think that before the time of sealing Zen, do you think that my merits are not high enough, my virtue is not respected enough, China is not yet safe, Siyi has not yet served, Niangu has not yet been abundant, and Xiangrui has not yet arrived?" ”
This is the so-called "six virtues". After Emperor Taizong finished speaking, he looked at Wei Zheng triumphantly: "There's nothing to say now, right?" You don't always say that I don't have these "six virtues", do you?
At this time, Wei Zheng said unhurriedly, "Your Majesty has these 'six virtues' that are known to the whole world, and it is no problem to seal Zen at all." However, along the way to Mount Taishan, because the Sui Emperor had no way, there were continuous wars and fires for many years, and there was no one for thousands of miles, although In recent years, His Majesty has ruled the country well and the people's livelihood has gradually recovered, but it is still very depressed. If His Majesty went to zen, the kings and emissaries of many surrounding countries would also follow, and if they saw the depression along the way, what would they think? How can I maintain datang's international image? ”
After these words, Taizong's cold sweat also came down. Originally wanted to borrow the zen to promote the international, but did not expect that it had a counter-effect, quickly canceled! Whoever dares to mention it again will spank him!
This was Wei Zheng's wisdom of counseling. Under the circumstances at that time, if you only used such clichés as "laboring the people and hurting the wealth" to persuade Taizong, the effect was almost equal to zero, then I will tell you about the key stakes in it, so that you can understand that what you are most anxious to show will become the thing that you are most afraid of exposing. Don't say that the wise Tang Taizong is a dimwitted monarch, he will also understand the stakes, and it is only natural that the advice will be successful.
No wonder Emperor Taizong once said with a grin:
"People say that Wei Zheng's behavior is slow, but I feel that his ears are charming."