Party strife, in ancient history, is a pejorative term that means that officials form parties to attack each other for political gain. The existence of party struggle also shows that the program of the DPRK is a chaotic situation and is not conducive to the stability of the regime, especially in the period of the struggle for the throne, which is most likely to cause a situation of multiple party struggles. For the rulers, this is a situation that they do not want to see. Therefore, successive rulers have explicitly forbidden to form parties for personal gain. However, when the dynasty weakened, party rivalry came into being and was difficult to control. For example, during the Han Dynasty, the dispute between Han Chen and Cao Chen, the final outcome was that the leader of Han Chen, Xun Yu, was cursed, and Cao Pi built the Wei Dynasty Han.
The Tang Dynasty's Niu-Li Party Struggle was caused by the eunuch dictatorship and the corruption and weakening of the imperial court, and lasted for nearly forty years, until the hands of Li Chen, the Tang Xuanzong who was known as "Little Taizong", was truly over. So how did the party struggle develop?
Picture from the Douban TV series "Refusing to Go to Guanyin", Nie Yuan as Tang Xuanzong
<h1>The examination for the selection of talents led to the separation of the two factions</h1>
This has to start from the time when Niu Monks and Children, Li Zongmin, and others were evaluating people, when they criticized the government during the examination, and the chief examiner felt that Niu Monk and Li Zongmin wrote well, so they recommended it to Tang Xianzong. When Li Jifu, the chancellor, knew about this, he was naturally unhappy, because Li Jifu himself was the head of the bureaucratic clique, and it was quite unfavorable to him to tell him about the shortcomings of the government, so he told Tang Xianzong that the two of them had something to do with the chief examiner, and Tang Xianzong listened to Li Jifu's words and demoted the chief examiner. Naturally, Niu Monk and Li Zongmin were not promoted. This incident caused an uproar in the government and the public, and the ministers complained about the cattle monks and children, and denounced Li Jifu for being jealous of Xian's ability. Tang Xianzong was pressured to demote Li Jifu to the post of envoy to Huainan Jiedushi. As a result, the imperial court formed two factions.
However, at that time, it was not the turn of the two protagonists, Niu Monk and Li Zongmin, to enter the scene.
The real formation of factions begins with a jinshi exam. In the first year of Emperor Muzong of Tang's reign (821), Qian Hui, a squire of the Ministry of Rites, presided over the examination of the Jinshi Section, and Yang Rushi was the examiner. Su Chao, the son-in-law of Li Zongmin of zhongshu, Yin Shi, brother of Yang Rushi, and Pei Zhuo, son of The Prime Minister Pei Du, ascended to the throne. Former Prime Minister Duan Wenchang told Mu Zong that there was a cat in the Ceremonial Tribute, and the admission was through "joints". Muzong inquired about Hanlin scholars Li Deyu, Yuan Shu, and Li Sheng, and they all said that What Duan Wenchang had exposed was the truth.
As a result, Mu Zong sent people to retake the test, and as a result, only three of the fourteen people in the original list barely reached the first, and Qian Hui, Li Zongmin, and Yang Rushi were all demoted. Li Zongmin, Yang Rushi, and others were greatly resentful, believing that Li Deyu had deliberately squeezed them out, and from then on, "Deyu and Zongmin were divided into friends and parties, and they fell for forty years."
Niu monks and children, Li Zongmin led by the family of officials with low status through the examination were one faction, and Li Deyu and other officials from the scholar clan formed another faction, and the two sides began to struggle to exclude dissidents and form parties for personal gain.
<h1>Forty years of bipartisan feng shui rotation</h1>
After Emperor Wenzong of Tang ascended the throne, Li Zongmin became prime minister through eunuchs, and cattle monks and children also ascended to the throne with the help of Li Zongmin. Cow monks and children played the role of leaders in the party struggle, and many actions against Li Deyu were planned by him. Li Deyu, who was demoted to the position of Envoy of Nishikawa Jiedushi, took advantage of the surrender of a Tubo general and recaptured the important town of Victoria, and he reported it to the imperial court to ask for credit. However, the cattle monks and children told Emperor Wenzong that Li Deyu's recovery of Victoria was not a great credit, and if this incident made the relationship between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty tense, it would not be good, and he even suggested that Emperor Wenzong issue an edict ordering Li Deyu to return Victoria to Tubo so as not to destroy the harmony of the border.
A few years later, Emperor Wuzong of Tang ascended the throne, Li Deyu became prime minister, and the Niu Dang lost power, and most of them were demoted to the south.
In 846, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ascended the throne, and due to his own unfortunate experience, he rejected all the important subjects of Emperor Wuzong's period, so the Li Party lost power, and the officials of the Li Party were demoted to the Yazhou area. Soon after, Li Minzong fell ill and died.
In 847, the cattle monks and children fell ill and died. Two years later, Li Deyu also died of illness.
During the forty years of fighting, the two parties also had the opportunity to break the ice. In 832, Li Zongmin wanted to resolve his resentment with Li Deyu and recommended him to serve as "Zhigongju". Although Li Deyu was not from the Imperial Examination, he was full of poetry and books and had a high literary attainment, and When he heard this news, Li Deyu was very moved. However, some people in the Bull Party vigorously opposed it, and the matter was not resolved. Because of this incident, Li Deyu felt insulted, and the beams of the two parties became deeper and deeper.
<h1>The Shu clan eventually triumphed, and the crisis of late Tang rule intensified</h1>
The Niu-Li party struggle did not bring the Tang Dynasty the "democratic" atmosphere of the Tang Taizong period, but on the contrary aggravated the crisis of rule in the late Tang Dynasty. Fortunately, Tang Xuanzong ended the Niu-Li party struggle, and the Shu clan, led by Niu monks and children, won the final victory.
The Shu clan stripped the Gate Valve clan of its privileges, and the Gate Valve clan still existed but whose identity was no longer politically influential.
In the past forty years, as the most important active and capable career activists in the cattle party, the cattle monks and children have always played the role of leaders, and the party struggle cannot be separated from the participation of the cattle monks and children. If the cattle monks and children had not participated in this party struggle, perhaps the crisis of rule in the late Tang Dynasty would not have come so early.