Liu Chan in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a comatose king, not only greedy for pleasure, but also repeatedly obstructed Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, so angry that readers itched their teeth and sighed how Liu Bei gave birth to such a thing. However, Liu Chan in history never did these things, on the contrary, he gave Zhuge Liang great trust.
First, Zhuge Liang self-denial
In general, emperors and courtiers are natural enemies. The emperor wants to regain power, while the courtiers want to defend their interests, and even want to remove the emperor from his horse and replace him himself. The most typical are Liu Xie and Cao Cao. Liu Xie tried to take Cao Cao down through conspiracy more than once, but all the tricks were solved by Cao Cao one by one. In the end, Liu Xie could only accept fate and cede the world to the Cao family.
Because of the previous situation, many people today discuss Zhuge Liang and Liu Chan, always feel that Liu Chan, as the emperor of Shu Han, will regard Zhuge Liang as a political enemy, and always overly "contradict" their relationship. But according to historical sources, their situation is far more complicated than everyone thinks.
This matter must first be said to return to Liu Bei, who could not afford to fall ill after the Battle of Yiling, and the crown prince Liu Chan was only sixteen or seventeen years old. Liu Chan, who lacked political experience, was clearly unable to handle state affairs directly, and Liu Bei had to find a leader for the country who also had to ensure that he always supported the emperor.
Liu Bei finally decided to entrust the orphan to Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, and he asked his son to treat Zhuge Liang like a father. Zhuge Liang has since held supreme power in Shu Han. However, unlike other powerful ministers, although Zhuge Liang was a powerful minister, he did not operate a private business. This is quite rare. And it should be noted that this is not only to say that Zhuge Liang did not usurp the heart, but also did not use his power to gain any benefits for the family.
Let's see what everyone else does when they take power. Take Cao Shuang, the powerful minister of Cao Wei, after Cao Shuang took the throne, he immediately arranged for himself a marquis of Wu'an County, with 12,000 households. The group of heroes who shed their blood for the country did not have 10,000 households.
Not only that, Cao Shuang also made his younger brother Cao Xi the leader of the army, the highest-ranking military attaché of the Cao Wei forbidden army. He also made his younger brother Cao Xun a general of Wuwei, which was also an important task for the forbidden army, and Xu Chu served as a general of Wuwei that year. The younger brother Cao Yan is a scattered horse constant attendant. Sanqi was a close minister of the emperor, a senior adviser to the court, and was also responsible for reviewing the affairs of the presentation of the Shang Shu on weekdays. It is generally believed that loose riding is an early form of Menxia Province among the three provinces.
Cao Shuang not only gained a lot of economic benefits for himself, but also gave his younger brothers an excellent political future. And this is almost the basis of Quan Chen, and even Cao Shuang has relented. Thinking of the family of Liang Ji, the "general of the Eastern Han Dynasty", Cao Shuang is really a small witch compared to it.
There are seven of the Liang family's large sons alone, and Liang Ji himself has 30,000 households. Under the management of Liang Shang Liang Ji's father and son, the Liang family had served as many as 57 high-ranking officials such as Jiuqing, General, Henan Yin, and Captain.
There are many similar families in the two Han Dynasties. In feudal society, it is common for a person to be willing to promote his clan after gaining power, even if he is not a powerful minister, as long as he holds a certain amount of power. But how did Zhuge Liang do it?
Zhuge Liang's younger brother Zhuge Jun only became Captain Changshui all his life! Captain Changshui was one of the five colonels of the Northern Army, and during the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was a relatively idle position and did not have much power. Liao Li, a famous scholar of the Shu Han dynasty, also complained that Zhuge Liang had arranged him too low because he had been transferred from the attendant to Changshui.
As everyone knows, Zhuge Jun, as Zhuge Liang's own brother, only became a captain of Changshui, which is rare in the world. Compared to Sima Yi's immediate arrangement of his younger brother Sima Fu as Shangshu Ling, Zhuge Liang's arrangement of his younger brother was extremely restrained. Not to mention that Sima Shi also gave all the power of military power to his younger brother Sima Zhao when he died, and Zhuge Liang did not give power to his younger brother Zhuge Jun when he died, but donated all his family property to the state.
Not only that, but Zhuge Liang's knighthood is not high. At that time, the rank of marquis was subdivided into three ranks, in order, the county marquis, the township marquis, and the pavilion marquis. As the name suggests, different specifications of the princes eat different sizes of the territory. And Zhuge Liang is just a township. However, many people think that Wuxiang is actually a county, but according to the available historical data, there is no doubt that Wuxiang Hou should be a township marquis. This matter will be filled in the hole later when the video is released.
Zhuge Liang led his army into Shu to divide the counties, and then marched south to the southern and central counties. In fact, according to Zhuge Liang's achievements, even if he did not use his power, he was named a county marquis and deserved it. But Zhuge Liang didn't do that.
Second, Zhuge Liang did not influence Liu Chan's authority
Such restraint of his own courtiers is simply an outlier in the world of power. What is even more exaggerated is that Zhuge Liang does not even restrict Liu Chan's power. Normally, all the powerful ministers had to compress the emperor's authority to maintain their rule, but this was not the case with Zhuge Liang.
Although Zhuge Liang had a long grip on Shu Han politics, it did not mean that Liu Chan lost power. Strictly speaking, the executive power was actually only one of the many powers of the emperor. And Zhuge Liang protected Liu Chan's authority as much as possible, especially so that Liu Chan's right to torture and reward him all the time.
There are examples of this. Hu Shi, the wife of the Shu Han general Liu Yan, entered the palace for a pilgrimage, but she stayed in the palace for a month before returning home. Hu was very beautiful, so Liu Yan thought that Hu was taken in by Emperor Liu Chan, and he wore a big green hat at home. In order to be angry, Liu Yan arrested Hu and beat him with his shoes, and threw Hu out of the house.
Hu reported Liu Yan to the government. Logically, such cases should be downplayed, and even the government may not accept them. However, at this time, Liu Chan felt that he had lost face, and he ordered Liu Yan to be arrested and imprisoned, and soon executed Liu Yan on the bizarre reason that "the face of a person who is not a wife is not a place to be followed".
At this time, Zhuge Liang was still alive, and Liu Yan was the highest-ranking military attaché in Shu Han, Liu Chan said that the execution would be executed, and there was no need to notify Zhuge Liang at all, and no one in the dynasty dared to have any objections, and later Zhuge Liang did not say anything. Judging from this matter, as long as Liu Chan's thoughts, he can reward or punish any minister, which is much more important than administration.
Let's just say that administration is actually a chore. If the emperor wanted to control the administration, he had to be careful and had to approve a large number of documents every day. Therefore, there are many real power emperors in Chinese history who are greedy for pleasure, and will leave government affairs to ministers to do, and they will engage in small hobbies. These emperors always held the power of punishment, so no one could shake their position, which was almost the case with Liu Chan.
In fact, with Zhuge Liang's prestige in China, if he wanted to limit Liu Chan's power, then Liu Chan's situation would easily degenerate into the same situation as Liu Xie and Cao Xin. But Zhuge Liang didn't do that. Zhuge Liang did not have any idea of running a private business, so power would inevitably return to Liu Chan's hands after his death, and if Zhuge Liang restricted Liu Chan's authority too much, it would not benefit Liu Chan's future rule, let alone Shu Han's political stability. It is not difficult to see Zhuge Liang's love for Liu Chan.
Third, Liu Chan's attitude towards Zhuge Liang
Wei and Wu also had a situation where young lords ascended the throne, and their auxiliary ministers either fell out or were bent on running private shops, and even usurped the dynasty. In this comparison, Zhuge Liang is even more valuable. Zhuge Liang took care of him so carefully, how could Liu Chan not know? Therefore, he did not regard Zhuge Liang as an enemy, but really relied on Zhuge Liang as Mount Tai.
This manifests itself in many places. For example, Liu Chan never raised objections to Zhuge Liang's decision-making, nor did he secretly stumble. The history books say that at that time, Liu Chan himself said, "The government is by the Ge clan, and the sacrifice is the widow." ”
After Zhuge Liang's death, Liu Chan mourned for Zhuge Liang for three days. And Li Liao, who hated Zhuge Liang, said at this time: Lü Lu and Huo Yu may not have a rebellious heart, and filial piety is not good for the king who kills his subjects, and he is afraid of his subjects and his power, so he is born of treachery. Bright body and strong soldiers, wolf care, 'the five major are not on the side', the minister is always in danger. Today, the light is martyred, the Gai clan is complete, the Xirong rests, and the size is celebrated.
This means that Li Liao believed that even if Zhuge Liang did not have the heart to rebel, he had great prestige and military power, so he often worried about the safety of the monarch. Now that Zhuge Liang is dead, the Liu family can be saved, and the war can be stopped, everyone should be happy about this.
Obviously, Li Qiao took this opportunity to show loyalty to Liu Chan, but he took Liu Chan's pulse wrong. If it is other monarchs, seeing the death of the courtier, even if it does not occur on the surface, the heart will rejoice. However, unexpectedly, Liu Chan's anger was that Li Qiao was about to be imprisoned and killed.
When Zhuge Liang died, his son Zhuge Zhan was only seven or eight years old. Generally, after the death of a courtier, the heirs are to be liquidated. Even if they are reviled by the clan, they must be hidden in politics. But Zhuge is in a very different situation. Liu Chan not only did not hide Zhuge Zhan, but also vigorously reused Zhuge Zhan.
Liu Chan married his daughter to Zhuge Zhan, and made Zhuge Zhan a riding lieutenant as his close minister. Later, Zhuge Zhan successively served as a general in Yulin Zhonglang, a lieutenant in the shooting sound, a squire, a shangshu servant, and a general in the army, and his promotion was like riding a rocket. In the fourth year of Jing Yao, the thirty-four-year-old Zhuge Zhan official Baiwei, a pingshang clerk, with a rank of 2,000 shi, was the highest-ranking official in Shu Han at that time except for the great general Jiang Wei, and can be said to be the prime minister of the new era of Shu Han.
In fact, Zhuge Liang's promotion is considered fast, but even if it is Zhuge Liang, the promotion is not as fast as Zhuge Zhan, and Zhuge Liang was not so powerful when he was thirty-four years old. Looking at the entire Three Kingdoms period, there are few second-generation officials who dare to compete with Zhuge Zhan in terms of the speed of promotion. And Zhuge Liang has been dead for many years, and Liu Chan's pro-government has been for a long time, Zhuge Zhan can rise so quickly, obviously inseparable from Liu Chan's special care.
The reason why Liu Chan took such care of Zhuge Zhan, of course, was not because of how high Zhuge Zhan's talent was, in fact, Zhuge Zhan was a mediocre talent, and Liu Chan was purely because he was grateful for the virtue of his father Zhuge Liang.
Imagine having a super butler who takes care of all your household chores and even works for you, and he doesn't covet the family property in the slightest, you just need to lie down and enjoy, who doesn't like this fairy life? But precisely because Zhuge Liang managed everything, it also made Liu Chan lazy.
In the future, Liu Chan always wanted to push government affairs to ministers, and if there were no trusted ministers, he would push government affairs to close eunuchs, which directly caused the situation of Huang Hao's dictatorship and caused the political style of Shu Han to deteriorate rapidly. Sure enough, children can't get too used to it.