The journey of a husband and a gentleman is to cultivate oneself quietly, to cultivate virtue with thrift, not to be indifferent and to have a clear mind, and not to be quiet and far-reaching. - Introduction
Frugality is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, Sima Guang once said: "Establish a name with frugality, and defeat yourself with extravagance." "After reading the national celebrities of the previous generation, the success was caused by thrift and thrift, and the reason should be the same.
The ancient ministers should understand the importance of frugality, as the monarch's planning think tank, they play the role of sharing the problems of the monarch and governing the country together, which is naturally much better than the treatment of ordinary people.
Extravagant ministers are commonplace, especially the powerful ministers are deeply loved, and naturally like to show off. In the liao shengzong period, there was such a frugal prime minister, who was diligent and frugal all his life, devoted himself to serving the country and the people, and held a high position as the prime minister, but the degree of eating and wearing formed a huge gap with the status of the prime minister.
This prime minister is Zhang Jian, and his frugality is known to everyone. What is even more interesting is that in order to test him, Emperor Xingzong of Liao once ordered someone to secretly burn a hole in his imperial clothes, but a year later he was surprised to find that the hole was still there.
Interpreting the Dream Liao Saint Sect
In 962, Zhang Jian was born in a family of eunuchs of the Liao state, from a small family, well-off, eating and wearing, full of poetry, Liao Shengzong ruled for fourteen years, Zhang Jian with junior high school knowledge with the first grade to obtain the title of Jinshi Gong.
Later, Zhang Jian was transferred to the post of Yunzhou shogun, he was frugal by nature, although he was raised from a young age, he was never arrogant, and he was a famous local gentleman and sage. At that time, the emperor of Liao Shengzong Yelü Longxu was the sixth emperor of the Liao State, who reigned for forty-nine years, exerted great efforts to govern and worked hard to rejuvenate the country, so that the national strength of the Liao State reached its heyday.
Unlike other ethnic minority emperors, Liao Shengzong treated them equally, and he did not engage in ethnic discrimination or suppress the Han chinese. On the contrary, he was humble and earnest, actively recommending the study of Han culture, and even more reusing and promoting Han people.
Legend has it that in a certain year after Liao Shengzong succeeded to the throne, Liao Shengzong had a strange dream in which four people served him, and only gave two mouthfuls of food every day, and when he woke up, Liao Shengzong was greatly puzzled, and he thought that this must be something implied by heaven.
After some thought, Liao Shengzong finally summed up the word frugality, which coincided with Liao Shengzong's trip to Yunzhou, and local officials would offer treasures to welcome him, and Yunzhou was remote and had no treasures to offer.
So the local official said: "There is only one treasure in Yunzhou, that is, Zhang Jian." As soon as Liao Shengzong heard that this person had a frugal word in his name, which coincided with his dream, he immediately became interested and immediately summoned Zhang Jian. After the emperor talked freely, Liao Shengzong was even more strange to find that Zhang Jian was a rare intelligent talent, and he was even more courteous.
And Zhang Jian also smoothed down from this, and his career became smoother, because of his outstanding ability, Liao Shengzong was particularly important to him, at that time, there was a contradiction between a minister named Wu Shuda and Zhang Jian, and Liao Shengzong directly promoted zuo cheng in order to support Zhang Jian.
Ten counties of the Song Dynasty were captured
During emperor Xingzong of Liao's reign, Zhang Jian was highly valued and deeply trusted by Emperor Shengzong of Liao, and was the crown prince. On the third day of June 1031, Emperor Shengzong of Liao died, and the crown prince Yelü Zongzhen succeeded to the throne for Emperor Xingzong of Liao, who continued the policy of his father's father and his former subjects and still used Zhang Jian very much.
Before his death, Emperor Shengzong of Liao personally instructed Emperor Xingzong of Liao: "Zhang Jian is trustworthy. For his sake, he even degraded the minister Wu Shuda. Although he held the favor of the emperor, Zhang Jian was not arrogant and arrogant, he had no one in sight, he was calm and low-key, only used one dish a day in his diet, did not extravagant and wasteful, wore more coarse cloth clothes in his clothing, and opposed Ayara brocade.
Not only that, Zhang Jian has a compassionate heart, and has a sense of responsibility and ambition of "establishing a heart for heaven and earth and establishing a life for the people". Most of his servants were sent by him to the relief of the people of Li, while he himself had a clean sleeve and did not leave any savings.
When Emperor Xingzong of Liao ascended the throne, it was the heyday of the Liao State, and with the strong national strength left by Emperor Shengzong of Liao, Emperor Xingzong of Liaoxing believed in Buddhism, was extremely extravagant, and was full of ambitions for the Great Song Dynasty. Once the Great Song Dynasty was not inferior in the above table, and Emperor Xingzong of Liao was furious and decided to raise troops against the Song Dynasty.
Zhang Jian was well aware that the Great Song and the Liao had been friends for many years, and if they started a war at this time, they would inevitably lose both sides and endanger the people. So he urged Emperor Xingzong of Liao to cease war, analyzed the stakes, and when Emperor Xingzong calmed down, Zhang Jian further offered advice: "Your Majesty wants the city of The Great Song Dynasty, and only needs to send an envoy to accountability." ”
At that time, the Great Song was fighting with the Western Xia, the Song Dynasty had been poor and weak for many years, at this time the Liao State came to insert a foot, Song Renzong had no time to take care of himself, helplessly, in order to avoid the situation of the attack, Song Renzong had to agree to the requirements of the Liao State and sent ten counties to Feng.
The emperor tempted, and the ragged prime minister
Zhang Jiangui was the prime minister of a country, but he often wore old robes and old clothes, and his frugality was abnormal, which was famous among the ministers, and Liao Xingzong did not dare to believe it after listening to it, although Zhang Jian was deeply trusted by Liao Shengzong, it did not mean that Liao Xingzong completely trusted him.
At this time, Emperor Xingzong of Liao summoned Zhang Jian to the palace to discuss state affairs, although it was said that the drunkard did not mean to drink, and Emperor Xingzong of Liaoxingzong actually tried to test whether Zhang Jian was as frugal as the rumors. During the discussion, Emperor Xingzong of Liao had already ordered the close little eunuch to quietly burn a small hole in Zhang Jian's clothes with a fire fold when Zhang Jian was not paying attention.
Afterwards, Zhang Jian did not notice it, he respectfully withdrew, and in the blink of an eye it was another year, as if this matter did not exist at all, on this day, Liao Xingzong suddenly remembered that he had burned a small hole in Zhang Jian's clothes, and it was time to verify.
This matter can not be clear, he called Zhang Jian over, ordered people to quietly observe in secret, take a closer look, and sure enough, the small hole in the clothes still exists, Liao Xingzong was surprised, thinking that he really met a virtuous person, he asked Zhang Jian why he did not change his clothes.
Zhang Jian only replied that as the prime minister, he should lead by example and could not be extravagant and wasteful. Emperor Xingzong was impressed and admired, and immediately rewarded Zhang Jian greatly, ordering people to open the treasury and let Zhang Jian enter to select his favorite rare treasures.
But Zhang Jian was not at all moved, but the emperor's order could not be disobeyed, and he finally just went in and selected a few batches of cloth of average color and left. After repeated trials, Liao Xingzong finally believed that Zhang Jian was really thrifty and unusual.
brief summary:
In 871 AD, Zhang Jian died at the age of ninety-one, such a high life expectancy has a certain relationship with his frugality and tranquility, he was inseparable from frugality all his life, torn clothes were not thrown away, single-mindedly for the people, is a real prime minister, with the heart of the world, high moral integrity.