#历史开讲 #
As the saying goes, climbing high will fall heavy!
In 1565, Yan Song, the 85-year-old "Prime Minister of Qingzi" of the Ming Dynasty, was raided and copied more than 30,000 taels of gold and more than 3 million taels of silver, and there were countless treasures and curios.
The chief assistant of the cabinet, who had once been powerful and powerful, finally couldn't stand it at this moment, and he "plopped" on his knees in front of the official Shangshu Xu Jie, and begged in a trembling voice: "Can you leave me some money as a severance pay for my servant?" ”
Yan Song's hair was white, and his voice was full of tears, and the officials in charge of the confiscation present were all moved, and they all moved their hearts of compassion and looked at Xu Jie.
In fact, this is Yan Song secretly reminding Xu Jie: I used to treat you well, for the sake of carrying you on the premise, you have to leave me some pension money.
However, how could a person like Yan Song, who covered the sky with one hand, called for wind and rain, attacked dissidents, and was ruthless in the court, treat his slaves kindly? Therefore, how could the shrewd Xu Jie not hear the extraneous tone in Yan Song's words?
However, Xu Jie politely refused Yan Song's request on the grounds that "the emperor decides". Yan Song sent the real work of "Qingming Shanghe Map", and Xu Jie's heart moved: The famous paintings coveted by the world were forcibly taken by Yan Song?
Of course, he really wanted to own this rare treasure, but shrewdly, he thought to himself: If I accept this painting, will it not be true? After finally overthrowing Yan Song's father and son, if he commits the crime of cheating now, will he not seek his own death? ”
Therefore, Xu Jie immediately sent people to carefully search Yan Mansion, and after searching the "Qingming Shanghe Map", he handed it over to the Jiajing Emperor along with Yan Song's family property.
After Yan Song was confiscated from his family property, he was ordered to take a few pieces of clothing and a few taels of silver and set out on the road back to his hometown. The ancients often said that when the clothes returned to his hometown, Yan Song was confiscated and returned to his hometown, and this taste must be extremely uncomfortable for Yan Song.
Fortunately, the Jiajing Emperor remembered that he had served him for many years, and left him an ancestral mansion and a few acres of thin fields, so that Yan Song would not live helpless for a while.
But later, in order to make a living, Yan Song had to sell the ancestral home and field in the second year after returning to his hometown. After the money was spent, he lived in the ruined temple to beg for a living, and sometimes wandered to the cemetery to steal tribute for a bite to eat, and the evening scene was indeed bleak.
When Yan Song was 87 years old, he died in poverty and illness. After his death, he had no money to buy a coffin, and only wrapped the body in a broken straw mat for burial.
How beautiful it used to be, how miserable the evening scene was!
Why did Yan Song, the once powerful and invincible prime minister, end up in such a bleak evening? Let's take a look at the historical truth.
One: The talented "Prime Minister of Green Words"
Yan Song, born in 1480, from Fengyi County, Jiangxi, Ziweizhong, No. Jiexi, gifted and intelligent since childhood, can recite the history of books and write wonderful texts at the age of 8, and is known as "prodigy" because of his unique language.
Yan Song was 19 years old in the township examination, 25 years old in the palace examination junior sergeant, 26 years old as Hanlin editor, returned home to recuperate for 10 years due to illness, and was promoted by fellow townsman Xia Yan to serve as a shangshu of the military department at the age of 56, and then entered the cabinet, and then served as the chief assistant of the cabinet.
Yan Song is very talented in writing, especially his calligraphy is very profound, and his writing is very beautiful. And because of the good green words, good calligraphy, list books, inscriptions, etc. calligraphy art is extremely high, the poetry is beautiful and gentle, and the writings are very rich, so it is called "the prime minister of green words".
As the saying goes, the text is like the person. Yan Song can be called a beautiful man at that time, he has a slender figure, sparse eyebrows, and a handsome air. His son Yan Shifan looks completely different, and although Yan Shifan is smart, he is short and disabled.
When Jiajing ascended the throne, in order to crack down on the old courtiers and the imperial power and eliminate the previous dynasty's government, he created the famous "great etiquette" dispute in history, that is, there was a dispute with the old courtiers led by Yang Tinghe and Mao Cheng about who should be the imperial examination. In 1524, Jiajing finally reluctantly agreed to call his biological father Emperor Gongmuxian, and the dispute over "great etiquette" ended.
Soon, during the ceremony of sharing the temple for Jiajing's biological father, Yan Song specially wrote "Ode to Qingyun" and "Ode to the Great Gift Completion" for Jiajing, which was greatly appreciated by the emperor because of his extraordinary writing. After that, Yan Song rose straight up and rose one after another.
What is a "green word"?
It is the sacrificial articles written by the words to incinerate the heavens, and these articles are written on Qingteng paper with a vermilion pen, hence the name Qingzi. At that time, Jiajing had no intention of political affairs, was addicted to Taoism, and was keen on alchemy, medicine and immortality, and every time there was a fasting in the palace, he ordered the ministers to write sacrificial articles to burn the heavens.
"Qingzi" began in the Tang Dynasty, where Taoism flourished, but it flourished in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, there was no shortage of courtiers who invited favors with green words and continued to rise, the most famous being the talented Yan Song. In fact, these two words are a great irony for people who are not on the right path to promotion.
In the twenty-third year of Jiajing (1544), the 65-year-old Yan Song was promoted by Jiajing to be the first auxiliary minister of the cabinet, and Yan Song began his 20-year official career of being in charge of state affairs alone, and was ridiculed as the "prime minister of Qingzi".
Although Yan Song was old, he stayed in the West Garden where Jiajing practiced Taoism every day, often serving by Jiajing's side, and did not even return home.
Being so loyal to the emperor reminds people of the red people around Qianlong. The two have similar experiences and generally the same ending.
However, a companion is like a tiger. If you want to be favored by the emperor, you must be willing to pay. Jiajing advocated Taoism and pursued immortality, and Yan Song "tasted urine" for the emperor more than once, and the pain was predictable.
Two: the hardship behind the "urine tasting officer"
As the saying goes: what is good at the top, will be bad at the bottom.
In order to pursue immortality, Jiajing pays attention to both cultivation and taking pills. He listened to the words of Shao Yuanjie and Tao Zhongwen, and practiced in the West Garden all day; I also listened to the words of the two and used the menstrual blood of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl to refine pills.
It is said that after Jiajing takes it, it is very effective, which is actually too far-fetched. Some literati also learned to refine pills in order to curry favor with the emperor, and even bribed Yan Song, who was in a high position, hoping to be summoned by Jiajing on the grounds of refining pills.
The secret recipe of the elixir refined by the Wuxi literati Gu Ke is very strange: using the urine of a child boy and a girl, removing its head and tail, adding gypsum to smelt, like a salt solution, it is called "autumn stone", claiming that it can aphrodisiac and immortality.
Jiajing was overjoyed, and after taking it, it was considered effective and greatly used on him. At the beginning, he was appointed as the right tongzheng, and then he rose all the way, from Shangshu of the Ministry of Work, to Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, and then to the prince Taibao, so quickly promoted, it is staggering!
Gu can learn
But after the "autumn stone" was refined, of course, he did not dare to give it to the emperor first, and Gu Kexue needed to take it himself and try it before giving it to the emperor, so Gu Kexue was given a very interesting nickname "urine tasting official" by people.
Of course, there is far more than Gu Kexue who is willing to be a "urine tasting official", and there is also a big person, that is, the famous and high-ranking Yan Song, who is also a veritable "urine tasting official".
To this end, Akito also wrote this allegorical poem:
Elixir Jindi Baihe Zhen, Immortal Jade Liquid Character Changchun.
Zhu Yiqing came out of the Gao Xuan Hall and first gave Yi Bai Chen.
"Divide the white-haired minister" refers to Yan Song.
Yan Song often accompanied the emperor, and this "glorious task" of tasting urine naturally fell on him. Jiajing will also let Yan Song taste urine, and then Yan Song will find out what the medicinal properties are. He learned the lesson of his ancestor Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, when Zhu Jianshen was careless because of taking pills, his qi broke the dragon vein, and he was killed, he must not be careful.
In ancient times, the king told the subjects to die, and the subjects did not dare not die.
Yan Song was happy for Bo Jiajing, and after each pill, he would record in detail the results of taking the pill and how he felt after taking it. But often walking by the river, where there are not wet shoes, the kind of elixir of ancient charlatans is also very harmful to the body.
Once, after Yan Song took a pill, his whole body itched, hemorrhoids were large, and blood in his stool did not stop, and he almost lost his life. It can be seen that the life of the "urine tasting officer" hangs by a thread, and it is really not easy.
Yan Song sacrificed his life to try the medicine, which greatly moved Jiajing and relied on him even more. Since then, Yan Song's officials have become larger and larger, their jurisdiction has become wider and wider, and their greed has skyrocketed more and more, simply reaching the point where power is tilted to the opposition and covers the sky with one hand!
Three: 20 years of authoritarianism, but the evening scene is desolate
In 1536, Yan Song took charge of the Ministry of Rites, responsible for examinations, diplomacy, sacrifices, banquets, etc., and became the object of "filial piety" flocked by countless scholars. In fact, the Ministry of Rites is not a clear water Yamen, but Yan Song can get a lot of oil and water from it.
When Yan Song was the chief assistant of the cabinet, the road to wealth was more unimpeded, and he mainly controlled the officials and the military department, which were nicknamed "the civil and military stewards of the Yan government", and the official position became a tool for Yan Song's father and son to accumulate wealth.
His son Yan Shifan was even more bizarre, marking each official position with a price, such as the prefecture sentenced 300 taels of silver, the general sentence was 500 taels, and all commanded 700 taels, and even set the position of chief of the Criminal Department at a price of 13,000 taels and sold it to Xiang Zhiyuan, for which Xiang Zhiyuan was named "Xiang Wansan" by man and machine, which echoed Shen Wansan, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty.
The amount of property that Yan Song's father and son greedy added up to was shocking, and it was said that their family's broken gold amounted to more than 13,000 catties.
Yan Song had deep roots in the imperial court, and he took in more than 30 godsons, and those bloodless officials defected to Yan Song in order to find a backer for themselves. Yan Song controlled all departments of the imperial court with his godsons, so that the power of the imperial government was firmly controlled by him.
Yan Song also did not care about the great threat of hostile forces in the north to the Ming Dynasty, in fact, after all, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty had been harassing the Central Plains. Later, the northern Mongol Tatar tribes became strong and posed a strong threat to the Ming Dynasty.
Yan Song turned a deaf ear to this, did not take any action, neither trained troops nor prepared for war, but wantonly greedy for military salaries, no matter how the border guards lived or died.
In 1550, the Tatars demanded that the Ming Dynasty open up border trade, known in history as the "Change of Gengxi". Jiajing hurriedly sent Qiu Luan to defend Beijing. Unexpectedly, Yan Song was afraid that he would lose the battle and it would be difficult to make friends, so he ordered Qiu Luan not to engage Tatar, and as a result, more than 100,000 Ming troops did not fire a single arrow, watching the enemy burn, kill, and plunder, and robbed a large amount of property, etc., Qiu Luan himself colluded with the enemy to negotiate peace with the other party.
(Qiu Luan)
Qiu Luan's behavior aroused the public indignation of the ministers, especially Yang Jisheng, a member of the military department, who was more vocal in opposition, he was upright and indignant at Yan Song and Qiu Luan's humiliation of power, so he went to Jiajing and opposed the peace.
Jiajing also agreed with Yang Jisheng, but could not forbid Qiu Luan's rhetoric to talk about the many benefits of peace, so he demoted Yang Jisheng to Lintao, Gansu Province as a pawn and petty official. Although Yang Jisheng was belittled, he went to that poor and backward place to concentrate on doing practical things for the people.
After Jiajing agreed to make peace with the Tatars, he found out that he had fallen for the enemies and the Tatars. After the Ming Dynasty opened border trade with Tatar, it quickly became a scumbag, often invading the border, and the Ming Dynasty did not get any benefits, but could not bear to be disturbed.
Before Jiajing could surrender his guilt, Qiu Luan was scared to death. Jiajing Fangzhi had wronged Yang Jisheng and released him to be transferred back to the capital for reuse.
Seeing this, Yan Song wanted to pull Yang Jisheng, but unexpectedly, Yang Jisheng took the opportunity to expose Yan Song's 10 major crimes to Jiajing, and all of them had evidence. It is also said that Yan Song's five traitors in the imperial court: spies, minions, relatives, slaves, henchmen and other five traitors have always traveled to the emperor's side to deceive the emperor.
This fold is enough to kill Yan Song!
(Yang Jisheng)
Yan Song ran to Jiajing to spread rumors about how Yang Jisheng was disloyal to the imperial court. Jiajing listened to Yan Song's words again, and beat Yang Jisheng to 100 court staff and sent him to the heavenly prison. But after he was imprisoned for 3 years, he did not investigate any incriminating evidence, Yan Song originally wanted to release him, but he was worried that Yang Jisheng would always be a great threat to him after he came out, so he prodded Jiajing to execute Yang Jisheng.
Yan Song originally thought that if he got rid of Yang Jisheng, he would be able to sit back and relax. But although Jiajing fainted in the later period, he was not an extremely faint emperor, Yan Song controlled the imperial government for many years, and all departments were his henchmen and minions, etc., and over time, Jiajing also became tired of him.
One day, Jiajing asked Lan Daoist to help him, and Lan Daoist had already hated Yan Song's behavior, so he used the mouth of the immortal to tell Yan Song's various crimes and persuaded Jiajing to get rid of Yan Song, saying that it was the meaning of the immortal, but Jiajing still couldn't make up his mind.
Zou Yinglong
When Zou Yinglong learned of this, he decided to start with Yan Song's son, Yan Shifan, and asked the emperor to punish him. Jiajing exiled Yan Shifan to Guangzhou and ordered Yan Song to resign and return home. However, Yan Shifan ran back to his hometown halfway, built a mansion, bullied the people, and later colluded with the Wok to rebel.
Jiajing was enraged and ordered Yan Shifan to be arrested and executed.
Yan Song was reduced to a commoner and ransacked his home, and then there was the scene at the beginning of the article, he vainly tried to keep some money for retirement, but was rejected by Xu Jie.
The son died and the home was ransacked.
Yan Song had to pick up a few clothes and take some money to return to his hometown. After that, he lived in the mountains and begged for a living, and died of poverty and illness at the age of 87, and had no money to bury after his death, only with a broken mat shroud, and no one to pay homage.
This once powerful and invincible courtier ended up in such a tragic end, many people are embarrassed.
If God wants it to be destroyed, he must first make it crazy.
Yan Song was a famous traitor in history, and when Jiajing was addicted to Taoist power, he held the imperial government for more than 20 years, and he was once prosperous. But in everything, he abused his power, persecuted Zhongliang, formed a party for personal gain, and was finally spurned and destroyed by the world!
The sins of heaven are forgivable, but the sins of man cannot be lived!
However, for Yan Song's evaluation, later generations received mixed reviews, and some people said that Yan Song's loyalty to the king and love the people, knowing people and making good use of them, also played a certain positive role in the development of the Ming Dynasty. However, Yan Song is loyal or traitorous, and I believe that history will have a fair evaluation.
What do you think? Welcome to leave a message.
(The pictures in the article come from the Internet, if invaded, they will be deleted)