In the thirteenth year of the Tang Dynasty (939 AD), Fang Xuanling, the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, who was already in the position of prime minister, was about to usher in another prominent identity of his own——
Prince Young Master
。
"Prince Shaoshi" is an ancient official name, its duty is to teach the knowledge of the prince, to put it bluntly, it is the teacher of the prince, the prince is the prince of the country, is the future emperor of the country, over the centuries, can be the teacher of the prince, are the supreme glory, and Fang Xuanling can be the tang dynasty prime minister as the prince of the young master, which shows that Li Shimin has full trust in him, but also shows that his position in the imperial court is unparalleled.
However, it was this "however" that the plot reversed, according to the records in the "Zizhi Tongjian", when Li Shimin ordered Fang Xuanling to be crowned as the prince's young master, Fang Xuanling's reaction was very surprising.
At noon, he added the left servant to shoot Fang Xuanling Prince Shaoshi. Xuan Ling thought that he had lived in the end for fifteen years, and the male widow loved the female Princess Gaoyang, and the female was princess Han, who was deeply afraid of Manying, and asked for the dismissal of the machine; the upper table was not allowed. Xuan Ling insisted on pleading, and the edict broke the table, but took office.
According to this record, on the surface, Fang Xuanling resigned from the post of Prince Xie as a young master in order to avoid suspicion, what son married a princess, the daughter became a princess, and the Fang family was deeply favored by the emperor, so they did not dare to hold this position again, so as not to be jealous of the people of the world. But if you study that period of history in depth, you will find that there may be another interpretation of this, and when the interpretation is completed, you have to admire Fang Xuanling's cleverness, which is that he can not only create a good image of not coveting a position of power, but also be wise to protect himself and stay away from the internal struggles of the imperial family.
Fang Xuanling's background when he was a young master of the crown prince
At that time, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was booming, although there were many strong enemies around it, but with the repeated victories in foreign wars, the external environment of the new Tang Empire was still very safe, but just when the monarchs were immersed in the joy of victory, a royal infighting was quietly coming, and the two protagonists of this infighting were the two concubines of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin.
Crown Prince Li Chengqian and Wei Prince Li Tai
Although Li Chengqian was the crown prince, his fate seemed to be very similar to that of his uncle, Li Jiancheng, and he did not know when he began to feel that his father snubbed him, and in stark contrast, his younger brother Li Tai, the Prince of Wei, gradually became favored by his father. It was said that there were not many in the palace, but the rumors were also very hurtful, and he had heard more than once rumors that "the emperor was about to depose the prince", because the number of meetings with his father and emperor was getting less and less, and he could not be sure whether the father who had loved him deeply would ruthlessly abolish himself.
But regardless of whether the father emperor will depose himself or not, there is a fact that is true, that is, his younger brother Li Tai, the King of Wei, has indeed been very favored by his father in recent years.
There are two passages in the Zizhi Tongjian that seem to support Li Chengqian's concerns:
Tai is studious, Sima Suxun said Tai, and the ancient sages and kings are all recruited to write books, so Tai Song asks to repair it. So the museum was opened, the time was extended widely, the characters were gathered, and the door was like a city. Tai Yue gave more than the prince
And:
He also ordered Tai to live in the Wude Hall
From these two records, it is not difficult to see that Li Tai is very good at learning, and with the permission of Li Shimin, he began to recruit talents for his royal palace, and for a time the Wei royal palace was in front of the city, and the people who were full of talents in the world flocked to the Wei palace, thinking that the Qin royal palace was just like this, and the monthly expenditure of the Wei royal palace had exceeded that of the prince, in addition, Li Shimin also planned to let Li Tai move into the Wude Palace to live.
It should be known that the Wude Hall is located in the west of the East Palace, where Li Yuanji also lived, it can be said that if Li Tai moved into the Wude Hall, then he would have more opportunities to contact Li Shimin, if the time is long, Li Shimin may not be influenced by Li Tai and have the idea of abolishing the prince.
Judging from the above, li chengqian, the crown prince at that time, was far less favored than Li Tai, the king of Wei, and Li Shimin's various indulgences to Li Tai seemed to be a copy of Li Yuan more than ten years ago, which was simply the same!
However, at that time, almost all the ministers in the imperial court saw the harm of Li Shimin's doing this, but unfortunately, only Li Shimin did not see it, perhaps he also saw it, but he really wanted to find an opportunity to depose the prince, because the prince's performance was getting worse and worse, and even he had sent someone to assassinate his own teacher.
The crown prince hated his book, and ordered the household slaves to serve Xuan Su in the early dynasty, and secretly attacked him with a large horse, and killed him several times
Whether in ancient times or in modern times, killing a teacher is a heinous crime! Therefore, based on the consideration of many factors, Li Shimin may really want to depose Li Chengqian, but whether he has it or not, all his actions seem to tell everyone in the DPRK that he has this idea.
So in this case, Li Shimin suddenly wanted to crown Fang Xuanling as the prince's young master, what is the meaning of this?
Fang Xuanling did not understand, but the only reasonable explanation was that Li Shimin wanted to tell the people of the world through this seal that he did not have the idea of abolishing the prince, after all, Fang Xuanling was his own cronies and the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, if he wanted to abolish the prince, this was tantamount to pushing Fang Xuanling into the fire pit, Fang Xuanling was still very important to the Tang, and even its importance exceeded that of the prince.
However, Fang Xuanling can no longer take care of so much, at this time Li Shimin's ideas and his practices are really difficult to speculate, Fang Xuanling can not completely pin his life on Li Shimin's love for himself, this is almost gambling, and the probability of gambling and losing is too great, through the ages, the example of the capriciousness of kings is still less? Therefore, what he has to do now is how to withdraw from this royal power struggle.
There is a record in the Zizhi Tongjian that after Fang Xuanling had to accept the title, the crown prince Li Chengqian wanted to perform disciple rituals to Fang Xuanling, which was a very normal and necessary practice, but how did Fang Xuanling do it?
Xuan Ling did not dare to return home in a humble way, and people were beautiful when they were at the right time
Fang Xuanling did not dare to see the prince and turned back home when facing the disciple ceremony of the prince Li Chengqian, in other words, Fang Xuanling would rather ignore the prince, regardless of the prince's face, but at that time some people praised him for having a humble demeanor, but if you think about it carefully, it really does not make sense, although Li Chengqian is the prince, he is also his student, the age difference is a generation, belongs to his junior, in the face of such a person, Fang Xuanling has what to humble? This is counterintuitive.
Therefore, the real reason why Fang Xuanling "did not dare to see" was "not daring".
The reason why Fang Xuanling "did not dare" was that the struggle between Li Chengqian, the crown prince, and Li Tai, the king of Wei, was already very obvious, and Li Shimin's ambiguous attitude really made Fang Xuanling unable to understand, as a veteran in the workplace, loyalty is important, but judging the situation is also very critical, and people who do not know how to judge the situation will be eliminated sooner or later.
Perhaps Fang Xuanling was too suspicious and worried, Li Shimin's purpose in sealing him was very simple, that is, he wanted him to educate the prince well, but Fang Xuanling, as a subordinate, did not dare to speculate, especially to gamble with his life, for the sake of safety, he accepted this seal while not normally exercising the duties of the position of "Prince And Young Master", in a word, he first made himself famous, only in this way, in the future struggle, he can become a bystander, without being implicated.
I have to say that Fang Xuanling is indeed a very good workplace master.