In the third year of the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (658), Yu Suiliang died with regret in Aizhou (now Thanh Hoa, Vietnam) at the age of sixty-three. However, his tragic fate did not end with his death.
After Chu Suiliang's death, Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian did not intend to let him go like this, not only did they not give him posthumous honor, but also deprived him of all his official titles; A year later, he exiled his sons Chu Yanfu and Chu Yanchong to Aizhou, and killed them on the way.
A generation of loyalty, just burying their bones in a foreign land!
One
In November of the first year of Wude (618), Li Shimin defeated Xue Rengao, who had seized Longxi, and sent him to Chang'an to be beheaded, and the Western Qin Dynasty perished. After Xue Rengao's death, his old department was absorbed by Li Shimin, and Chu Suiliang, who was only 22 years old, was among them.
At the beginning, the young Chu Suiliang did not have a brilliant performance; It was not until the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638) that the 42-year-old Chu Suiliang began to show his prominence. That year, the great calligrapher Yu Shinan died, and Chu Suiliang was recommended to Li Shimin by Wei Zheng because of his good calligraphy, and became the "servant" of the emperor's side.
Since then, Chu Suiliang has only entered Li Shimin's sight. Six years later, Chu Suiliang began to participate in the decision-making of the court as a squire of the Yellow Gate, and officially entered the inner circle of power in the Tang Dynasty.
Chu Suiliang was lucky in the first half of his life, he met an ancient emperor who was able to show his talent and ambition.
Because Li Shimin is good at following advice, and the atmosphere of the whole court is strong, Chu Suiliang has always regarded Wei Zheng as an idol and wants to become a courtier like Wei Zheng through the ages.
In private, Chu Suiliang had a good relationship with Wei Zheng, and Wei Zheng also compiled his experience into a book and gave it to Chu Suiliang to study.
After Wei Zheng's death, Chu Suiliang took on the burden of Zhenguan's first adviser without hesitation.
Two
In the tenth year of Zhenguan (636), Chu Suiliang served as the living room, and was specially responsible for compiling the "Living Note" to record the emperor's words and deeds.
This is a book used to record the words and deeds of ancient Chinese emperors. Before this, the emperor was not allowed to check the "Living Note", and because of this, the historian dared to truly record the emperor's words and deeds.
One day, on a whim, Li Shimin wanted to know how the historians wrote about themselves, so he asked Chu Suiliang to read "Living Note".
Chu Suiliang will definitely not do it, how can the emperor work after doing this! He knew very well that as soon as this precedent was opened, the historian would not dare to truly record the emperor's mistakes in the future, so why should the historian be needed?
For himself and for the sake of future historians, Chu Suiliang decisively rejected the emperor's request; This is an act of resistance to the decree, and other emperors would have pulled it out and cut it a long time ago, but fortunately he ran into Li Shimin.
After being rejected, Li Shimin was not angry, but asked curiously: "If I say something bad or do something bad, it will also be recorded?" ”
Chu Suiliang said: "Where the duties of the ministers are, I dare not remember ......"
Although Li Shimin was a little unhappy, he did not blame Chu Suiliang, but paid more attention to Chu Suiliang.
In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan (641), Li Shimin wanted to go to Mount Tai to seal Zen, and Chu Suiliang advised Li Shimin to suspend Zen on the grounds that the sky was unlucky. Li Shimin felt that it made sense and agreed, and promoted Chu Suiliang to a counselor.
From then on, whenever there was a major event in the court, Li Shimin almost had to consult Chu Suiliang. Chu Suiliang officially entered the inner circle of Datang's power.
Three
In April of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), the former crown prince Li Chengqian was deposed due to rebellion, and the position of prince was vacant.
At this time, the selection of the crown prince in the court was mainly focused on Li Tai, the king of Wei, and Li Zhi, the king of Jin.
Li Shimin was more inclined to Li Tai, the king of Wei, so he revealed his thoughts to Chu Suiliang, wanting to gain Chu Suiliang's support.
Originally, Li Shimin was full of expectations, he felt that Chu Suiliang should understand himself, who would have thought that Chu Suiliang would be a critic when he opened his mouth, he told Li Shimin not to make mistakes again, to think deeply.
At the beginning, Li Chengqian rebelled, and a big reason was that the emperor favored Li Tai, the king of Wei; Now you have to repeat the same mistakes again, make the same mistake, and put Li Zhi, the king of Jin, in a dangerous place, if Li Tai really becomes the emperor, then Li Zhi and Li Chengqian still have a way to live?
You read that right, Chu Suiliang, as a courtier, is criticizing Emperor Li Shimin fiercely! If this were to be replaced by other emperors, no number of heads would be enough to cut off.
Li Shimin not only did not cut off Chu Suiliang's head, but also patiently listened to Chu Suiliang's advice.
Obviously, Li Shimin listened. Although he didn't say it, he never mentioned Li Tai as the crown prince again.
Later, Li Shimin also said to the ministers around him: "If I set up Li Tai, it will be the position of the prince that can be managed." From now on, if the prince loses his way, the vassal king will watch the camp. ”
Because Chu Suiliang firmly supported Li Zhi, coupled with his personality of daring to give direct advice, he was listed as an auxiliary minister by Li Shimin, and assisted the new emperor together with the eldest grandson Wuji.
Four
According to Li Shimin's assumption, his "benevolent and weak" son, with the assistance of such a minister who dares to give direct advice, it is no problem to sit firmly in the country. He also didn't expect Li Zhi to expand his territory, as long as he guarded Li Tang's country.
It's just that Li Shimin couldn't have imagined that as soon as the "benevolent and weak" Li Zhi ascended the throne, the first person to do it was Chu Suiliang.
In the first year of Yonghui (650 AD), less than a year after Li Zhi ascended the throne, Chu Suiliang, as the prime minister, was accused of forcibly buying the land of his subordinates at a low price.
On the same day, Gaozong Li Zhi dismissed Chu Suiliang as prime minister and demoted him to the history of the same state. That's right, a conviction is not even required to be tried. The dignified prime minister and the minister of Tuogu were kicked out of the court by the new emperor in this way.
Why is Li Zhi so anxious to deal with Chu Suiliang?
As the saying goes, there are three fires for a new official to take office, let alone a new emperor. As for why the first one was burned to Chu Suiliang, the main reason is that Chu Suiliang is too upright, Li Shimin likes ministers who admonish, it doesn't mean that Li Zhi will like it.
Besides, who told you Chu Suiliang to let people catch the handle, then it's no wonder Li Zhi!
However, Li Zhi only tried his hand this time, and only a year later, he recalled Chu Suiliang back to the Ministry of Ministers and the Three Grades of Tongzhongshu, and worshiped him as the prime minister again.
Li Zhi understood that at this time, he was not capable of bringing down the Changsun Wuji Group, and it was far from the time to move Chu Suiliang.
So, will Chu Suiliang learn a lesson from this incident? Obviously not, but more radically.
Five
In the sixth year of Yonghui (655), Li Zhi planned to abolish the original Wang clan and set up Wu Zetian as the empress.
The old ministers led by the eldest grandson Wuji did not agree, and they united to make a statement to Li Zhi in the court, hoping that Li Zhi would give up this idea.
Seeing that Li Zhi couldn't listen to the "advice", Chu Suiliang simply let it go, took off his official hat on the spot, put the official wat on the steps, and kept kowtowing to admonish.
He's going to die!
If the emperor does not accept his advice today, he will really die on the top of the main hall. It's just that Chu Suiliang didn't understand this trick during the Tang Taizong period, but unfortunately it was not only useless on Gaozong Li Zhi's side, but it would also bring trouble to himself.
Seeing that his head was broken and his face was bleeding, Chu Suiliang still didn't give up, and he was in an unending posture.
This angered Li Zhi, who doesn't care if you are the prime minister or the minister of Tuogu, and asked someone to forcibly pull him out of the hall on the spot. Wu Zetian, who was sitting behind the curtain, was even more powerful, and scolded directly, why didn't he cut down this thief!
After this incident, Chu Suiliang not only failed to stop Li Zhi from "abolishing Wang Liwu", but also pushed himself into the abyss of tragedy.
In October of that year, Wu Zetian was canonized as empress, and Chu Suiliang was once again dismissed from the court and was demoted to Tanzhou (now Changsha) and then to Guizhou (now Guilin, Guangxi).
Not long after arriving in Guizhou, Chu Suiliang was falsely accused of rebellion and was relegated to Aizhou (now Thanh Hoa, Vietnam). In the end, Yu Suiliang died in Aizhou with regret at the age of sixty-three.
Six
Chu Suiliang can be reused in the Taizong Dynasty, but it is a different scene in the Gaozong Dynasty. He wanted to learn Wei Zheng, but he couldn't learn the essence of Wei Zheng; He also didn't have the good luck of Wei Zheng to meet an emperor who was good at admonishment.
ultimately led to a tragic ending, Chu Suiliang's death is a typical "once a son of heaven and a courtier". There are very few people who have been able to break this curse.
So, why is there a phenomenon of a son of heaven and a courtier?
To be honest, if the new emperor is not willing to change the old ministers, the cost is indeed a bit large. It's just that, whether in terms of political opinions, work style, or interests, the new emperor must eliminate the disobedient old ministers.
As soon as the new emperor ascends the throne, he can retain the policies of the previous emperor, which is very rare. The difference is just whether the old policy will be reversed sooner or later.
Those old ministers left behind by the old dynasty were not only the makers of the policies of the old dynasty, but also the executors, and they also benefited from it, so they were naturally unwilling to abandon them casually, which conflicted with the new emperor's proposition.
The new emperor is often more passionate about reforming the evils, but the old ministers often think that they can just keep the original interests. Reform will inevitably harm the interests of the old ministers, and conflicts cannot be avoided.
Li Zhi's ascension to the throne and the contradiction between the eldest grandson Wuji group is actually the contradiction between the interests of the imperial power and the Guanlong group.
If the new emperor's ideas can be recognized, it is possible that they will be reused; If it is not recognized, either it has the ability to change the emperor, or it will be abandoned by the emperor.
Whether it is in terms of personality or experience, the new emperor's style of doing things is often completely different from that of the old emperor, and even because he has been suppressed by the old emperor, he especially hates the old emperor's style of doing things after succeeding to the throne.
In this case, if the old minister can't adjust his style of doing things to cater to the new emperor, he will inevitably not be reused by the new emperor. If you're lucky, you can get a good ending, but if you don't get it right, you'll be wiped out.
The most important point is loyalty, and the new emperor will instinctively reject or even suppress the old ministers, and promote and reuse his subordinates when he was the crown prince, because they are afraid that these people will be disloyal to him.
Those old ministers who can survive many dynasties are either good at seeing the wind and steering, or they know how to retire in time. The probability of being able to meet an emperor like Li Shimin through the ages is extremely low, regardless of the age and quantity.