Preface
Li Wei, as a favorite minister of the Yongzheng Dynasty, his rise and fall fate is not only the gain and loss of a person, but also the rise and fall of an era. However, when Yongzheng died and Qianlong was in power, what kind of vicissitudes did Li Wei and his descendants experience?
After the death of Yongzheng and the accession of Qianlong to the throne, the situation in the court changed, and the political power game also unfolded. As a former favored minister, what kind of test will Li Wei and his descendants face under the new imperial power?
Will it continue to be brilliant, or will it plummet? Will you succeed or will you leave in disgrace? Today, let's walk into the legendary story of Li Wei.
Li Wei, who was born as a civilian, how did he enter the official career?
Li Wei was born in a wealthy family in Dashahe Town, Feng County, Xuzhou, where the family has lived for generations, and can be regarded as a local tyrant group. However, it is such a well-born family, but there was an accident in Li Wei's generation.
When he was a teenager, Li Wei was not interested in reading, but was obsessed with dancing guns and sticks, and often made trouble at home, causing a lot of trouble for his parents. Although his family persuaded him many times, Li Wei just refused to correct it, and spent his days wandering and doing nothing. The Li family had no choice but to arrange for him to take over the family business in the future.
Who knew that at this time, a strange fate fell from the sky. In Kangxi's later years, the treasury suffered a big loss, coupled with floods for many years, and the government was in dire need of funds. So the imperial court opened a new way, as long as the rich paid money, they could buy officials for their children to enter Beijing.
Seeing this opportunity, Li Wei's father did not hesitate to pay for his son, and finally won a position for Li Wei as a foreigner from Wupin.
Such an inexperienced and unvalued little official unexpectedly entered the officialdom. However, Li Wei quickly made people impressed.
After arriving in the capital, Li Wei found that this foreigner was actually an idle worker, drinking tea and chatting in the yamen all day long, and he didn't even have anything to do. How can a young man with a vigorous and bright mind be willing to do this? So he spent a lot of money to trust the relationship with others, and was successfully transferred to the position of Langzhong of the household department.
This promotion can be described as unexpected, after all, most people who rely on money to buy officials just want to mix up titles, where can Li Wei be so ambitious? In the Ministry of Households, an important place that undertakes the country's financial power, Li Wei really showed his skills.
Li Wei's ups and downs in the household department
During his tenure in the household department, Li Wei proved his ability. He not only handled affairs conscientiously and responsibly, but also dared to speak out against the relatives of the emperor and the country.
At that time, Kangxi's officials in his later years were very corrupt, and there were cases of imperial relatives abusing power for personal gain and bending the law for bribes everywhere in the capital. But most officials were afraid of these elites and did not dare to openly disobey them.
But Li Wei is a character who dares to speak out. At that time, Kangxi's tenth son, Yinqi, was doing evil in the household department, being overbearing, and forcibly extracting Pingku silver from the tenants, which seriously damaged the interests of the tenants.
Most of his colleagues were silent, but Li Wei stood up and publicly blamed Yinqi for what he had done. Although Yinqi didn't take Li Wei's words seriously at all, Li Wei then took a clever plan, and finally made Yinqi have to stop the act of drawing Pingku silver.
This incident attracted the attention of another prince, Yinxiang. Although Yinxiang had lost Kangxi's trust at that time, he was also a very upright person and admired Li Wei's daring style. After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, Yinxiang recommended Li Wei to the new emperor in due course.
Yongzheng's appreciation, Li Wei's soaring
For this civilian-born but quite talented official, Yongzheng naturally paid great attention to it. Especially after hearing about Li Wei's deeds against Yinqi, Yongzheng was even more appreciative and decisively appointed him.
So, Li Wei began his own rapid promotion path. Yongzheng first promoted him to Yunnan Salt Post Daoist, and in this position, Li Wei once again showed his ability, and it took only one year to put the local salt administration in order.
Seeing this, Yongzheng couldn't help but appreciate Li Wei even more. He promoted Li Wei one after another, first appointing him as the political envoy of Yunnan, and then letting him concurrently take charge of the post of political envoy of Yan, which shows the importance of him.
In less than a year, Li Wei was promoted from the fifth rank to the second rank of the high-ranking official. Such a promotion speed is too fast, but Yongzheng obviously admires Li Wei's ability.
Soon, another important position was placed in front of Li Wei - the governor of Zhejiang. Although this position is higher, it is not difficult for Li Wei. He was as diligent and conscientious as ever, and performed well in Zhejiang's government affairs and salt administration.
Yongzheng soon appointed Li Wei as the governor of Liangjiang, directly responsible for pacifying the forces of the Tiandihui that attacked the rule of the Qing court. Li Wei can be called Yongzheng's right-hand man at this time, and he is listed as one of the three major local officials along with Ortai and Tian Wenjing.
Under the personal command of Li Wei, the Qing army soon dealt a heavy blow to the forces of the Heaven and Earth Society in the Jiangnan region. At the same time, he also vigorously promoted Yongzheng's kindness among the people, and even asked for the resumption of the imperial examination in the Jiangnan region, which had been suspended, which greatly enhanced Yongzheng's prestige among the people.
It can be said that Li Wei not only did an excellent job in the management of government affairs, but also made great contributions to maintaining the rule of the Qing court. Therefore, it is not surprising that Yongzheng appreciates him.
After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, Li Wei's turning point
After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, Li Wei's fate underwent subtle changes. In the early days of Qianlong, he still admired Li Wei and continued to let him hold important positions. Li Wei is still diligent and responsible, and still dares to enforce the law impartially.
During his tenure, he also impeached Zhu Zao and others for their greed for ink, and upheld justice for the upright Fangshi, and the people also honored him as "Li Qingtian" for a while.
However, Li Wei's hard-nosed style quickly aroused Qianlong's dissatisfaction. At that time, it was a critical period for Qianlong to win the hearts of the royal family, and Li Wei dared to publicly impeach Prince Cheng for what he did, which was tantamount to a provocation against Qianlong.
However, Li Wei was obviously also very good at words, and he subtly made it clear that the matter had nothing to do with Prince Cheng himself, and only targeted a few guards who infringed on the interests of the people. Qianlong also realized that he could not act rashly, so he decided to continue to value Li Wei.
But at this moment, Li Wei's son Li Xingyuan cast a shadow on his family style. During Li Xingyuan's tenure as the chief soldier, he wantonly embezzled military salaries and became an out-and-out corrupt official. After this matter was impeached, Qianlong was very angry, and regardless of Li Shiyao's cover, he directly executed Li Xingyuan.
This undoubtedly cast a shadow over Li Wei's reputation. Although Qianlong had appreciated Li Wei before, his attitude towards him has also changed subtly.
The idol incident, the ending of Li Wei
Shortly after Li Wei's death, Qianlong was visiting Hangzhou when he stumbled upon the statue of the god in the West Lake Flower Temple. These statues turned out to look the same as Li Weiru, which couldn't help but make Qianlong suspicious.
After inquiry, Qianlong learned that these statues were specially carved by Li Wei when he was the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and asked craftsmen to carve them according to the appearance of himself and his wife and concubine.
This undoubtedly ignited Qianlong's anger. He believes that Li Wei's move is a fake public benefit, deifying himself and his family, and is an out-and-out "unjust and pure minister". So he immediately ordered the destruction of all these idols, and forbade the people to worship Li Wei again. At the same time, Qianlong also publicly condemned Li Wei, accusing him of "relying on the emperor's favor and being willful and arrogant".
In fact, the reason why Li Wei did this is probably out of consideration for improving his reputation among the people. Because although he did do a lot when he was an official, he was born as a commoner after all, and he was probably worried about being looked down upon. That's why he will find ways to improve his status.
However, in Qianlong's view, this is a great disrespectful act, and he should be punished as a matter of course. As for why Qianlong was so angry, in addition to Li Wei's self-deification behavior, I am afraid it is also related to the ending of his son Li Xingyuan.
Although Qianlong did not hold Li Wei responsible in the end, he was not merciless about Li Xingyuan's corruption and directly executed him.
This undoubtedly also brought a lot of impact to Li Wei. After all, in that era, the behavior of children often affected the reputation of their parents. Although Li Wei was not personally involved, Qianlong was unable to fully forgive him.
Therefore, although Li Wei's ending in the Qianlong Dynasty was far less tragic than Tian Wenjing and Zhang Tingyu, he could not completely escape the fate of being degraded. His life may not be entirely satisfactory, but it is by no means ordinary.
epilogue
Perhaps, for such a historical figure with outstanding personal ability, but encountering unsatisfactory circumstances, we should understand his life with a more tolerant attitude. After all, no one's life is smooth sailing, even if the minister is in power, it is inevitable that he will encounter ups and downs.
As for Li Wei, although he did not escape the fate of being preached by the emperor in the end, his talent and character of pursuing justice are still worthy of our admiration and respect.