In November of the first year of Yongchang (689 AD), Wu Zetian issued an edict to change the "Zhou calendar". and changed it to "Zaichu". The month (November) is the first month of the year, December is February, followed by push, and October is December. In other words, the beginning of the book became the new year of the new month. Since then, the history of the Tang Dynasty has entered the era of Wu Zetian, and the Empress Dowager also gave herself a new name - Wu Shu, which means that the sun and the moon are volleyed and called "曌".
After Wu Zetian came to power, in order to suppress the Guanlongshi clan, he began to win the support of the Hanmen clan, which opened the first palace test in China's feudal history. This is the beginning of the palace examination in the history of China's imperial examination, and the "Zizhi Tongjian" also praises it. On February 24 of the first year of the first year, Wu Zetian opened a wise and good Fangzhengke in Luoyang, summoned people from all over the world to fight against it, and held a palace examination. Wu Zetian, in the capacity of the empress dowager, personally went down to inquire about the scholars. This imperial examination lasted for several days, and it was also the most far-reaching one, and it also became a model for future emperors.
In this countermeasure, the 23-year-old Shushi Zhang said that he stood out. In his policy, he severely rebuked Wu Zetian for using cool officials and attacking the ministers for no reason, it can be said that Zhang said that he really dared to write ah, but Wu Zetian was not angry. She was greatly moved by Zhang's countermeasures. To say that Zhang is no less talented than the former Luo Bing King. When Zhang Shuo's article was designated as the world's first policy, he asked people to post the policy article to Shangshu Province, so that the group of officials who drafted edicts for the emperor on a daily basis could study it well. Look at what people write, and then look at what you write.
Zhang said that he became famous in one fell swoop, and in the next thirty years, Zhang said that he was the three prime ministers of the Xuanzong dynasty, and made an immortal contribution to the "beginning of the new century and prosperous era", although Zhang said that he later opposed Wu Zetian's proclamation as emperor, but Zhang said that he was always grateful to Empress Zetian, because he knew that he was from a cold family. If it weren't for the empress's promotion, he wouldn't be able to get out in his life, of course, the empress's ability is also very admirable to Zhang Shuo. This is also why after Wu Zetian's death, Zhang said that he strongly urged Wu Zetian to be buried with Li Zhi according to the etiquette of the Empress Dowager.
But here we are not talking about Zhang Shuo, but another cold prime minister with the same background as Zhang Shuo, when promoting Zhang Shuo, Wu Zetian's secretary Shangguan Wan'er said to the empress: "This person is talented, no less than His Majesty's former benefactor, he can be of great use after training." Wu Zetian said: "What to experience, after the experience, the water horn is also smoothed, and it is directly promoted." Then he sighed and said: I hope he is not that person, talented but not virtuous. Who is this benefactor who makes Wu Zetian obsessed.
Let's pull the time back to December 6, the eleventh year of the Great Tang Zhenguan, which is undoubtedly the darkest year for Li Shimin, in this year, the death of Empress Xue Shi and his wife is undoubtedly a major blow to Li Shimin. On the day of the funeral, Duan Zhixuan and Yu Wenshi led the army out of Suzhangmen and escorted the coffin to Zhaoling for burial. At this time, civil and military officials dressed in filial uniforms, lined up to watch the funeral procession, and the atmosphere was solemn and solemn.
At this time, Xu Jingzong, a 45-year-old Zhongshushe, was also holding his breath and showing a sad face, after all, it was not his daughter-in-law who died, just pretending to be on the line, but it was a routine and something should happen, which suddenly blew a strong wind at this time, scraping the hat of an official (the great calligrapher Ouyang Xun) and just scratching on the head of another official.
It stands to reason that there is nothing ridiculous about this, but Xu Jingzong didn't know which nerve was touched by this matter, and suddenly laughed, laughing unscrupulously, and he was happy. On such a serious occasion, when the first wise queen of the Great Tang Dynasty came out of the funeral, Xu Jingzong actually dared to laugh presumptuously, and showed eight teeth. Xu Jingzong's move undoubtedly slapped Li Shimin in the face, and was a serious provocation to the Great Tang Weiyi, which is tolerable and unbearable.
Xu Jingzong, Ziyan ethnic group, from Hangzhou Xincheng. The son of Xu Shanxin, an attendant of the Ministry of Rites of the Sui Dynasty, although he is a typical second-generation official, he is from the Han clan, and Xu Jingzong became famous as a teenager. During the Sui Dynasty, he was a mid-show talent, and later served as a shuzuo. The Sui dynasty Youtunwei general Yu Wenhe staged a coup d'état and killed Xu Shanxin. Xu Jingzong begged to avoid death. After Xu Shanxin was killed, he defected to the Wagang army, and Xu Jingzong was appointed by Li Mi as a secretary (secretary) because of his outstanding literary style. After the defeat of Li Mi's army, he fled to the Tang Dynasty with Li Mi and took the post of Supplement Lianzhou Bechai, to be honest, Xu Jingzong's literary level was really level, and he was soon learned by Li Shimin, the king of Qin at that time, and then entered the Qin royal mansion to ask for his talents to learn to be one of the eighteen bachelors (similar to consultants) of the Qin royal mansion, among these eighteen people, there were later prime ministers Fang Xuanling, Du Ruxi, Shang Shu Chuliang, Yu Shinan and others, Xu Jingzong can be in the same room with these people, which shows that the ability and insight are not ordinary people.
At one point, Li Shimin asked Xu Jingzong: "I see that among the courtiers, you are a very virtuous one, why do people always say bad things about you in front of me?" Xu Jingzong was not afraid at all, and replied: "Spring rain is as expensive as oil, farmers like it to moisturize their crops, pedestrians hate it for making the road slippery." The bright moon illuminates the four directions, the talented and beautiful admire its poetry, and the thieves hate its lack of darkness. God can't do it all, let alone I'm an ordinary man? Then he said: "Life is seven feet, beware of three inches of tongue; There is a dragon spring on the tongue, and there is no blood in killing. "Wonderful, wonderful, that's the perfect saying.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne after the change of Xuanwumen. Xu Jingzong served as a writer and supervise the history of the country in Zhenguan for eight years, and soon moved to Zhongshushe. It can be said that although Xu Jingzong is outstanding, Li Shimin is not optimistic about Xu Jingzong, and a big reason is that Xu Jingzong is not from the Guanlong aristocracy, plus he is a general. Official positions are naturally not high.
Empress Changsun and Li Shimin had a good relationship, and since the death of Changsun, Li Shimin has never been made empress again. And just when the whole country was saddened, Xu Jingzong, a member of Zhongshushe, actually laughed and laughed so happily, to say that at this time, Li Shimin had the heart to kill. And Xu Jingzong was also stupid at this time, he knew that he should not laugh, Xu Jingzong was now worried not about whether the official position was there or not, but whether his head could move.
The next day, the imperial history stage played, impeaching Xu Jingzong's outrageous behavior at the empress's funeral, it was really disrespectful, please punish it, in order to set an example, my Tang is a country of etiquette, if this matter is not punished, lest other countries laugh. Immediately, the official letter of the official HR, Xu Jingzong, demoted Chang'an, and became the governor of Hongzhou as Sima. From the five grades of the imperial court, the Zhongshushe people Wupin Jing official was suddenly demoted to a local idle petty official, it was really a hard work for half a life, and he returned to the pre-liberation with a smile. Xu Jingzong knew that his life was over, and it would end here, which was a huge political crisis for the ambitious Xu Jingzong.
Fortunately, the second lord, Tang King Li Shimin, had a generous temperament. Lingtang's smirk does not seem to be a big deal now, fortunately, the ability is there, just knock on it, and a few years later, Xu Jingzong returned to the central government, appointed to the matter, edited the national history, and was still a five-grade official. And his contemporaries Fang Xuanling and Du Ruxian are both prime ministers, even if Wei Zheng, who was together in Wagangzhai, is also the best official residence, in contrast, his own mix is indeed a little miserable.
In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Xu Jingzong participated in the completion of the writing of the "Wude Shilu" and "Zhenguan Shilu", and was named a Gaoyang County man, with 800 dan gifts, and a substitute inspector of the Yellow Gate Attendant. After Li Zhi was crown prince, Xu Jingzong moved to the right of the crown prince. This is the subordinate official of the crown prince Li Zhi, which is undoubtedly a key step in Xu Jingzong's political resume, which contains a huge amount of political information, but apparently, Xu Jingzong is not aware of this. In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin died, the crown prince Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, Xu Jingzong was still editing the national history, and he was still working as a secretary, and his political future could be described as very bleak. But opportunities are for those who are prepared, when the opportunity is in front of you, do you dare to break in, breaking through is naturally a high-ranking official has to do, if you can't break through, it is crushed bones.
At this time, Li Zhi is making a divorce, he wants to abolish the daughter-in-law Empress Wang arranged for him by his father Li Shimin, and wants to establish a woman called Wu Meiniang as the empress (everyone knows the specific situation, I won't say more), Li Zhi's move was naturally resolutely opposed by the auxiliary minister, his uncle Sun Wuji, as well as Chu Suiliang, Han Yu, etc., because this woman once served the emperor and was four years older than you. How can such a woman mother the world, Li Zhi, what do you think, there is an Oedipal plot.
The internal reason for this is the game between the imperial power and the Guanlong clique, and furthermore, this is the Hanmen and the Shi clan fighting for power, and both sides are now fighting for the emperor's support. Since Empress Wang was an agent of the Guanlong Group, what qualifications did Wu Meiniang, who was naturally from a cold family, have to become an empress. At this time, Li Yifu stood up and took the lead in expressing his support for Wu Zhaoyi as empress. As the first person to publicly support Wu Zhaoyi, Li Zhi naturally wanted to set a benchmark and immediately promoted Li Yifu to be a Zhongshu attendant, and afterwards Wu Zhaoyi specially sent people to offer condolences, giving Li Yifu's daughter-in-law a limited edition LV (Shizai, Pearl Yidou) wind vane is obvious, as long as you support the emperor, you can become a high-ranking official.
The power of role models is infinite, and Xu Jingzong immediately realized that his opportunity had come. He created public opinion above the court and said a famous saying that has been passed down through the ages: "The poor farmer who farms the land has collected a few loads of grain, and he wants to change his daughter-in-law, not to mention the son of heaven who is rich in the world?" What does this have to do with other people, what is there to nag? ”
Xu Jingzong was promoted by Li Zhi to Shangshu because of this sentence and the great public opinion. In October 655, Li deposed Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu as concubines, and established Wu Zhaoyi as empress. The edict to canonize the empress was written by Xu Jingzong, a shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, when Xu Jingzong was 63 years old. At this time, Xu Jingzong became the backbone of the post-party. Xu Jingzong advocated meritorious service after the establishment of martial arts, moved to the middle school, and supervised the study of national history. In the following year, Jin made Gaoyang Commandery Duke and granted the Zhongshu order, and Xu Jingzong finally entered the cabinet to worship the prime minister and became the core bureaucrat of the Tang Dynasty. Got a taste of high power.
At this time, Empress Wu began to take action against Changsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang and other old ministers. In 659, someone said that the prime minister, the emperor's own uncle Changsun Wuji, wanted to rebel! Li Zhi naturally didn't believe it: "Uncle will definitely not rebel. In order to clarify the facts, Li Zhi ordered Xu Jingzong to fully investigate the case, and after Xu Jingzong's careful investigation, Changsun Wuji really wanted to rebel, hoping that His Majesty would put the law of the country first.
Li Zhi was helpless, and directly issued an edict to cut off Changsun Wuji's official post and exile him to Qianzhou. A few months later, Changsun Wuji hanged himself. Xu Jingzong was ruthless enough, this time because of the merit of exposing others for conspiring against him, after the proposal of Empress Wu and the approval of Li Zhi, in February of the second year of Long Shuo, Xu Jingzong became the right minister (the new law changed the Zhongshu order to the right phase), and added Guanglu Dafu. In the following year, he worshipped the young master of the prince, and with the three products of the East and West Taiwan, he still supervised the history of the country. At this point, the 71-year-old Xu Jingzong's official position and status were no one in the dynasty to compare with.
To be fair, Xu Jingzong's talent is extraordinary. He worked as a secretary for a long time, wrote edicts for the emperor, developed his habit of being thoughtful, and controlled the major events of historical revision for many years. Capable and capable, and want to lead what they want, such a person naturally has to do what a high-ranking official has, and it is extremely glorious.
Later, when he was older, Empress Wu specially approved that when Xu Jingzong and Li Ji went to the dynasty, they could ride ponies from the forbidden gate to the introspection. This is a special treatment. Li Jina's founding military general, Tuo Gu heavy minister, Xu Jingzong, a "courtier", so the treatment is really a miracle. In 672, at the age of 81, Xu Jingzong died and was able to die.
Li Zhi ordered a three-day strike to mourn, canonized and posthumously presented as the third division of Kaifu Yitong and the governor of Yangzhou, and the civil and military officials went to Xufu to weep and mourn, naturally did not dare to laugh, Li Zhi ordered Xu Jingzong to be buried in Zhaoling - Zhaoling is the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang, which is equivalent to entering the Eight Treasures Mountain. But why Li Zhi didn't let Xu Jingzong accompany him is difficult to understand.
But what is unexpected is that as soon as Xu Jingzong died, someone impeached Xu Jingzong for corruption, lustfulness, power grabbing, and incompetence, and attacking Xu Jingzong was actually hitting Li Zhi. The Ministry of Rites gave Xu Jingzong's political pacification the nickname "Miao" (later Qin Hui was an assessment), Li Zhi naturally refused, issued an edict and reconsidered, and the Ministry of Rites changed the old leader to "Gong", which means that there was a mistake, but knew that the mistake was corrected. Li Zhi agreed. In short, Xu Jingzong's life is worth it.
I am the clear water and empty stream, the watchman of history. Looking forward to your attention and comments.