Wei Zheng was born in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and did not officially enter the government until his later years. Since then, he has been like a flat boat, drifting forward on the turbulent rivers, changing owners several times and changing power five times.
Debasement, exile, ups and downs, all kinds of hardships failed to crush his ideals and ambitions. In the end, he regained his wisdom and courage under Tang Taizong.
People often pay attention to his wonderful performances during the Zhenguan period, but often ignore the hardships before the age of forty-seven. It was the tempering of the first half of his life that made his thinking of governing the country more and more mature, and later shined in the Zhenguan period.
So, what did Wei Zheng experience before his career? What kind of philosophy of statecraft does his wisdom contain?
Retention period
It took 36 years for Wei Zheng to enter politics from his birth, and it was not until he was established that he first touched the edge of politics. This period was the stage of Wei Wei's knowledge accumulation, he was not willing to be unknown, but also suffered from the lack of opportunity to continue to study, learn the art of vertical and horizontal, and lay a solid foundation for his life.
Wei Zheng lost his father when he was young, and although his family was poor, he never stopped studying. Wei Zheng's father, Wei Changxian, mentioned in a letter to his relatives that "the ancestors of servants, the inheritance of Confucianism, the way of training servants as sons, and the festival of servants as kings", and Wei Zheng's grandfather Wei Yan was the assassin of Gwangju in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Wei Changxian "resigned from illness and left his post" during the Wuping period of the Northern Qi Dynasty (570-576), and then he no longer entered the court as an official, died at the age of seventy-four, and his grave was in the north of Linhuang County. Linhuang County and Guantao County in the Sui Dynasty were within the jurisdiction of Wei Prefecture, and it is not known how long Wei Changxian lived here.
Wei Wei was born a few years before Wei Changxian's death, and should live in Linhuang County with his father. Wei Zheng's parents were all eunuchs who studied and died, but the family education still had a certain impact on Wei Zheng when he was young.
Wei Zheng not only has a family heritage, but the great Confucian Wei Shui during the Northern Qi Dynasty can also have a profound impact on the young Wei Zheng. Wei Zheng was influenced by Wei Shu's thought at an early age, and Wei Shui, one of the "Three Talents of the North", was known as the "Glory of the Country" during the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Wei Zheng developed the habit of reading well when he was young, and he was also influenced by the local atmosphere in Hebei. During the period of Emperor Wen of Sui, Confucianism flourished in Hebei, and there were many literati such as Wei Tang and Wang Tong, and many people came from thousands of miles to study.
Moreover, the Yanji area has been a rich place since ancient times, the Yanji area is called "Tianfu" in the history books, Yanzhou and Jizhou are in the north of Hebei, Huaizhou and Xiangzhou are in the south of Hebei, the climate in Hebei is pleasant, the crop growth environment is good, and the Sui Wendi reigned during the light reduction of the endowment, and the four seas are rich.
Cangqiao knows etiquette when he eats, and knows honor and disgrace when he has enough food and clothing. The people in Hebei are wealthy and have a good style of study, and Wei Zheng, who grew up in this environment, also has the conditions to study and travel and receive a good Confucian education.
In addition to the only few records about Wei Wei's youth in the history books, other people's works can also see records of Wei Zheng's reading and traveling.
Turbulent periods
The ancients said: "Thirty and stand." Wei Zheng has long passed the age of his establishment, and he is eager to make contributions and show his ambitions.
Although Wei Wei, who was in a turbulent period, was full of talent and learning, his career was quite difficult, because the last years of the great cause were the time when all forces were competing for the Central Plains.
During this period, Wei served as a staff member under Li Mi and Li Jiancheng respectively, assuming the dual responsibilities of staff secretary and text secretary, and was an auxiliary staff to Li Mi and Li Jiancheng, helping to deal with the daily affairs of the two, and did not have direct contact with the official affairs of the imperial court, so its nature was close to that of a "private secretary".
From August of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Wei Zheng followed Li Mi, but Li Mi only paid attention to Wei's words and not his people, especially after Li Mi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zheng was in a state of obscurity.
Wei Zheng was not a confidant in Li Mi's camp and was not reused, especially in the records of Li Mi and Wang Shichong's battle at Luokou, it was found that Wei Wei did not have the right to speak directly to Li Mi, and his strategy needed to be transmitted to Li Mi's ears through the mouth of Zheng Cheng, a long history, and Wei Zheng's status in Li Mi's camp can be seen.
Wei Zheng was unwilling to remain unknown from then on, so he "asked himself to settle in Shandong, and gave the secretary Cheng, and drove it to Liyang" to find another way out.
There is no direct record in the history books of the reason why Wei Zheng invited him to settle in Shandong, but judging from the events that happened around the first year of Wude (618), there are two factors.
On the one hand, because Wang Shichong, Zhu, Yu Wenhua and others had their own spheres of influence in Shandong at that time, Xu Shiqin also went out of Liyang because he offended Li Mi.
On the other hand, Li Mi used Shandong as a base before he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, so there were many old Li Mi departments in Shandong, and Wei Zheng had followed Li Mi for more than a year to understand his specific situation and appease the old departments of Shandong.
Before Li Yuan sent Wei Zheng to pacify Shandong, he had already ordered Li Shentong, the king of Huai'an, to be the ambassador of Shandong Province to pacify the Shandong Province, and to control the Shandong army, with Cui Minhui, a member of the Shandong Wang, as the deputy envoy, and Li Mi also invited him to Shandong in November to collect his old troops.
Shandong Prefectures were the place where the princes had to fight at that time, and Wei Zheng seized the opportunity to invite Shandong out of many considerations, and had a very accurate grasp of the situation.
Glory period
Tang Taizong Li Shimin was an emperor with great talent and strategy, knowing people well and being as fast as a stream. After the Xuanwumen Change, Li Shimin ascended the throne and appeased the courtiers left behind by the hidden prince Li Jiancheng, including Wei Zheng.
Wei Wei's official rank in the Zhenguan court has been on the rise, during which there is neither derogation nor laissez-faire officials, and has always served in the central administrative organs, both in the center of power, and in the information center, with the right to "sign", at this time as a public secretary, Wei Wei plays a role in the supreme ruler's staff assistance, and his position is very important.
Wei Zheng's starting official position in the Zhenguan Dynasty was the quick doctor, and the highest official position in his life was the prince and the prince, from the first product, he was posthumously presented as Sikong after his death, one of the three dukes, and the name was "Wenzhen".
There are three special time nodes: the first is in the second year of Zhenguan (628) to worship the secretary and supervisor, "participating in the government affairs" officially entered the political power center of the Tang Dynasty: the second is the seventh year of Zhenguan (633) on behalf of Wang Qi as a servant, becoming a close minister of the Son of Heaven: the third is in the eighth year of Zhenguan (634), specially entrusted with the post of supervising the imperial history, with the right to supervise hundreds of officials, and at the same time can directly make quick comments on the emperor's personal life and political gains and losses.
After Li Jiancheng was executed for rebellion, Tang Gaozu established Li Shimin, the king of Qin, as the crown prince, and Li Shimin granted the official position of the chief bookkeeper of Wei, whose main responsibility was to sort out documents and picket copywriting for the prince. Although the grade was very low, Wei was still a subordinate official of the East Palace at this time.
The prince's subordinate officials are a family of their own, and the successive dynasties are basically compared to the central bureaucracy, and the Zhan Shifu in the Tang Dynasty is compared to the prime minister and Shangshu Province, and the Zhan Shifu is the fourth-level official in the Zhan Shifu, and his official quality will rise sharply after the prince ascends the throne.
After Tang Taizong ascended the throne, he worshiped Wei Zheng as the five-rank quick discussion doctor, and the emperor of the Tang Dynasty met with his ministers on the New Hope Day to conduct formal pre-imperial decision-making meetings, that is, regular participation, and the participants of such meetings were generally officials above the fifth rank.
Wei Wei's official character determined that he could participate in the central decision-making meeting at the beginning of the Tang Taizong Dynasty, Wei Zheng's character was well-informed and pragmatic, although his behavior of changing hands many times violated the principle of "loyal ministers do not matter to the two masters" of the ancient scholars, but this also showed his character characteristics of not being bound by secular etiquette.
Whether a good minister chooses the lord to serve, and a good bird chooses a tree to perch, and whether the monarch has the wisdom of people and the ability to govern the country is an important condition for his choice.
Tang Taizong is eloquent and broad-minded, willing to appoint Wei Zheng regardless of his previous suspicions, to provide him with a platform to give full play to his talents, and to repay the peach, Wei Zheng is also willing to repay him with his talent.
conclusion
Wei Zheng had a great influence on the current dynasty and later generations with his outstanding wisdom in governing the country and his unique character charm, among which, in the Tang Dynasty, especially Chu Suiliang and Wu Jing were representatives, Chu Suiliang was greatly influenced by Wei Zheng's political wisdom, and many of his political opinions were inherited from Wei Zheng.
Wu Jing was influenced by Zhenguan's deeds to compile the book "Zhenguan Political Leaders", in which only the Q&A between Tang Taizong and Wei Zheng accounted for as much as a quarter.
Wei Zheng's descendant Wei Wei was favored by his ancestor Wei Zheng during the Yuan and He years, and there were even tests on the topic of Wei Zheng's reputation as a "human mirror" in the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, and there are countless such examples. After the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zheng's influence did not diminish in the slightest, and he was a model for imperial scholars to learn.
Wei Zheng's political quality not only had an impact on the Tang Dynasty, but also had a great influence on later dynasties, especially Wei Zheng's outspoken character, which was a benchmark for future generations of scholars to realize their political ideals.
During the Ming Dynasty, Liu Su, a scholar, believed that Wei Zheng "had great ambitions, was not ashamed of small sections, was well-versed in books, and was quite clear about the art of kingship", Wei Zheng's personal qualities and academic accomplishments were praised and recognized by later generations of scholars, and the value contained in his philosophy of governing the country was also valued.
Zhao Yi was a historian in the Qing Dynasty, and he greatly appreciated Wei Zheng's character of "speaking out and admonishing", and believed that "those who give direct advice in Zhenguan are the first to recommend Wei Zheng".
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