Text: Xinglan Shi said
Edited |
The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of the development of feudal society in the mainland, and during the reign of Li Longji, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the socio-economic and national power of the Tang Dynasty developed to the peak stage.
Yao Chong's character Yuanzhi, whose real name is Yuan Chong, is a native of Kipshi, Shaanxi. Born in the first year of Yonghui of Tang Gaozong, he died in the ninth year of Kaiyuan at the age of 72.
Yao Chong has experienced more than 40 years of career life before and after his life, and there have been three ups and downs. After Tang Xuanzong ascended the throne, in October of the first year of Kaiyuan, Yao Chong was called for the third time as the secretary of the military department, and he was the first of the prime ministers to assist Tang Xuanzong.
Based on his many years of political experience, Yao Chong decisively assisted Xuanzong in implementing a series of reform measures, promoting the good and eliminating the bad, reforming the old and bringing forth the new, and eradicating many malpractices since Tang Zhongzong.
"Shouzuo Xuanzong started to prosper in the middle". As a result, he was praised by the old history as the "minister of saving the time" who "is good at adapting to the affairs of the world".
He was re-elected as the prime minister of three dynasties
Yao Chong, who successively served as the prime minister of the three dynasties of Wu Zetian, Tang Ruizong, and Tang Xuanzong, personally experienced the struggle for power and profit within the central power since the end of the "Wu Zhou" period, and saw the negative impact of the chaotic situation caused by the chaotic political situation caused by the interference of foreign relatives and eunuchs in the imperial court.
It not only affected the normal promotion of civil servants and military generals within the imperial court, but also seriously restricted the social and economic development. Therefore, when Tang Xuanzong decided to appoint Yao Chong as prime minister in the first year of Kaiyuan, he did not immediately thank the emperor for his grace. Instead, he put forward the famous ten reform proposals to Tang Xuanzong.
The specific content is: "The government is benevolent and forgiving, the unfortunate side work, the law is approaching, the eunuch is not with the government, the rent is not made to make foreign contributions, the relatives are not appointed to the Taiwan Province, the ministers are courteous, the ministers have to be criticized for the scales, the taboos, the absolute, the Buddha is built, and the country is warned." ”
These 10 suggestions can be said to be Yao Chong's program for carrying out social reform, in which political reform is the main body and political reform is also used as a breakthrough. Let's analyze the basic situation of Yao Chong's political reform from three aspects.
It was demoted to the history of Shenzhou Thorn
First, it is necessary to establish the principle of "eunuchs do not cooperate with the government" and "relatives do not serve as Taiwan provinces" and strengthen the centralization of power. In the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, the Tang regime was politically chaotic and the political situation was also turbulent. Since the end of the martial arts, most of the emperor's relatives have held important positions in Taiwan Province, and the kings have banned the army.
In order to compete for power, they often collude with court officials and compete for chaos. As a result, coups d'état occur frequently and constantly.
From the first year of Shenlong (705 AD) to the seventh month of the first year of Kaiyuan (713 AD), in just eight or nine years, there were five coups in succession.
Faced with this political situation, Yao Chong was very worried and resolutely demanded that it be stopped. As early as the reign of Tang Ruizong, Princess Taiping intervened in court politics. Song Wang Chengqi, Qi Wang Fan, and Xue Wangye all controlled the state's forbidden army and threatened the central power.
Yao Chong united with Song Jing to "secretly ask the princess to go to the eastern capital, and wait for the kings to be the assassin of the history, so as to calm the hearts of the people". As a result, the mediocre Tang Rongzong not only listened to the advice of Yao Chong and Song Jing, but demoted Yao Chong to the assassin of Shenzhou.
After becoming prime minister this time, Yao Chong did not first consider his personal gains and losses, and once again proposed to Emperor Xuanzong that "relatives should not be appointed to Taiwan Province", so as to suppress the power of the emperor's relatives and relatives.
Yao Chong advised Tang Xuanzong: Yue Lu, a relative of the two Han Dynasty. Wang Mang, Yan Xian, and Liang Yi are good at government affairs, and they have scraped the world of the Liu family, so they should be taken as a warning; And since the Zhongzong of this dynasty, Empress Wei and Princess Taiping have been in turmoil one after another, interfering with the dynasty, which should also be taken as a profound lesson.
For this reason, in the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Tang Xuanzong did not have a large family. According to records, Wang Renjiao, the father of the queen, only served as a general and a sixth servant, and said in history that "Renjiao does not pre-cede the dynasty, but is self-supporting, and accumulates children's wealth."
In the second year of Kaiyuan, Tang Xuanzong also appointed his sons and sisters, who might endanger the imperial power, as the assassins of other states, and stipulated that the kings "do not serve in ministry", and the state affairs were handled by Changshi and Sima.
In this way, they left the central power at home and had no power outside, eliminating hidden dangers and stabilizing their rule. In addition, Yao Chong also tried to limit the power of meritorious officials, and demoted some high-ranking and powerful meritorious heroes to local assassins.
For example, Prime Minister Zhang said that because of "secretly entering and leaving the Wang's house by car", Yao Chong was afraid that he would collude with the kings to plot a change, so he also demoted him to Xiangzhou to be a assassin. Through the above series of measures, the centralization of power was effectively strengthened and the political stability within the imperial court was ensured.
Advocate the principle of compliance with legislation and strict law enforcement, advocate the rule of law in the world, and oppose the formation of indiscriminate use. In the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, after the political stability within the imperial court, Yao Chong vigorously promoted the legal system.
In terms of the legal system, although Yao Chong advocated the rule of law in the world, he opposed the excessive coercion practiced by harsh officials, and opposed the kind of criminal law that put everyone in danger and panicked all day.
During the reign of Tang Wu Zetian, a group of cool officials such as Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen, and Suo Yuanli were appointed, and as a result, many unjust cases and false cases were carried out. When Yao Chong was the prime minister of the Wu Zetian Dynasty, he once asked Wu Zetian to pay attention to this situation, saying:
"Since the vertical arch, those who have been sold to death and broken their homes have all died in vain. The complainant is especially meritorious, and the number of the world is Luo weaving, which is worse than the party of the Han Dynasty. His Majesty ordered his close ministers to go to prison for questioning, and the close ministers did not protect themselves, so how dare they waver? ”
Yao Weiyan said to Wu Zetian repeatedly: From today onwards, the ministers will see that there will be no rebels in the internal and external officials with their small bodies and a hundred mouths. Those who pretend to be rebellious are real, and the ministers are asked to be informed and not reported. He risked the lives of his entire family to oppose the harsh law.
After Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ascended the throne, Yao Chong recommended "benevolence and forgiveness of political ancestors" as the first of the ten suggestions to Xiangzong, hoping that he would rule the world with benevolence and righteousness, and advocated creating a relatively tolerant and harmonious political environment. Opposing harsh punishment and advocating tolerance and harmony does not mean that we do not want the law.
On the contrary, Yao Chong believes that normal law is indispensable, and believes that law is the foundation for protecting the interests of the state and society. Yao Chong advocated that legislation must be based on the purpose of protecting the interests of the people, and law enforcement must start with people close to them, so as to achieve practical results.
In the second year of Kaiyuan, Wang Xiantong, the uncle of Xue Wang Li Ye, relied on power and directly endangered the interests of the people.
However, Li Ye, the king of Xue, defended him, and also asked Emperor Xuanzong to give him leniency, and Tang Xuanzong also thought of family affection, handed over the case to Ziwei and Huangmen for processing, and signaled that it would be dealt with lightly. Yao Chong knew that Emperor Shangsheng said: "The crime of the fairy child is clear, and what the imperial history says is not in vain, and it cannot be connived at. ”
Xuanzong adopted his opinion, which not only dealt with Wang Xiantong, but also made some nobles dare not infringe on the interests of the people, and maintained the solemnity of the law.
We advocate the principle of employing people based on merit and merit, and vigorously rectify the rule of officials. With the strong support of Xuanzong, Yao Chong resolutely rectified the rule of officials, demanded that officials must be honest and self-loving, and be fair in government, and selected and appointed a group of officials with real talents and practical learning.
In selecting officials, he paid special attention to talent, otherwise "although the qualifications for the college entrance examination are deep, those who are not talented will not be taken." Yao Chong greatly appreciated Zhang Jiuling's suggestion of "employing people as talents and serving the general government," and in accordance with this principle, attention should be paid to the selection and use of a number of officials among the local officials.
With regard to the newly selected officials, Yao Chong not only regularly rectified and rotated them, but also attached importance to educating them. He admonished officials to "shrug down the integrity and diligence and plug the door of greed and competition."
To be an official to be clear, he said: "The connotation is modest, the outside is clear, all things cannot be hidden, and all images cannot escape." Not only must we strengthen our self-cultivation and self-love, but we must also be fair, and we must "not be confused by the slightest mistake, there is no doubt about the severity of the mistakes, wisdom cannot be corrected, foolishness cannot be deceived, trust is not deceitful, and public interests are used to destroy private interests."
According to his own experience, Yao Chong proposed to the deceased the five principles that must be followed in the death, that is, the "Five Commandments", which provided the officials with specific moral norms that they must abide by, and laid the foundation for political clarity in the Kaiyuan period.
As for those officials who rely on the care of relatives and friends and have no real talent and learning, Yao Chong resolutely does not promote or use them. In the second year of Kaiyuan, King Shen Chengyi tried to promote his government minister Yan Chuqi to join the army through an abnormal way, and Tang Xuanzong basically agreed to this matter.
At the same time, Ning Wangxian asked for the first grant for his in-law Xue Si, followed by the same clan of the queen Wang, Tang Xuanzong's "former official of the domain" Wang Renchen also hoped to be promoted, for a while, the wind of intercession and entrustment prevailed, Yao Chong thought that this would destroy the normal order of the officials, so he resolutely opposed.
Yao Chong and Prime Minister Lu Huaishen played: "The ministers steal to award the officials, and there is a division of the angeles. ”
Due to Yao Chong's vigorous opposition and arguments based on reason, Tang Xuanzong strengthened his determination to rectify the rule of officials, reversed the bad political atmosphere in the Kaiyuan period, and created a new situation of "hiring people based on talent and appointing people on the basis of merit".
During his tenure as prime minister in the Kaiyuan period, Yao Chong made a lot of efforts to strengthen the centralization of power, rule of law in the world, and rectification of officials, eliminated all kinds of political ills, created a good political atmosphere, and laid a political foundation for the development of the social economy and the arrival of the prosperous situation of the Kaiyuan Dynasty.
Dare to talk about superstition in front of the emperor
Historical facts also prove that in the late Kaiyuan Dynasty, due to the appointment of Li Linfu as the prime minister by Tang Xuanzong, the politics were dark and corrupt, which eventually led to the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline. From the negative side, it proves that the role of Yao Chong's political reform is enormous.
Yao Chong spent most of his life working locally, so he understood the suffering of the people. In the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, after Yao Chong became prime minister for the third time, he handled the daily affairs of the country from a flexible and practical point of view, and solved many thorny problems.
In particular, when dealing with economic issues that are closely related to the lives of the common people, Yao Chong vigorously advocated that the principle of protecting the people and serving the people must be taken as the principle of "going against the grain and the way" or "going against the grain and agreeing to the right of power."
Yao Chong's reform measures in the political and economic fields in the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty had a certain ideological basis, and they were inseparable from Yao Chong's simple materialist thinking and practical and adaptable political outlook.
Once Tang Xuanzong was preparing to tour Luoyang in the east, and the Taimiao that happened to store the emperor's tablet naturally collapsed, and Xuanzong and the ministers were terrified. Xuanzong asked Song Jing and the others, what is the reason for this? Song Jing and others replied that this was the will of heaven, and it was the gods who warned the emperor not to tour Luoyang eastward.
Xuanzong asked Yao Chong again, Yao Chong did not explain the reason for the collapse of the Taimiao from the perspective of God and providence, but studied the architectural history of the Taimiao Temple. Originally, the Taimiao Hall was built by the former Qin King Fu Jianshi, and after the Sui Dynasty to the present, it has been a long time, and the bricks and wood naturally collapsed after decaying. He said to Xuanzong:
"Mountains are decaying, and they are not immune to collapse", let alone houses? The collapse of the Taimiao and the emperor's eastern tour were just accidental coincidences, not the explicit admonitions of some gods.
From this, we can get a glimpse of Yao Chong's materialist thoughts. In addition, from Yao Chong's attitude of doubting and destroying Buddha, we can also see the rudiments of Yao Chong's materialist concept.
Yao Chong believes that believing in Buddha and worshiping Buddha is not a weapon for people to prolong their lives, nor is it a tool to ensure national security.
In addition, Emperor Wu of Liang built Buddhist monasteries, promoted Buddhism, and sacrificed himself to Tongtai Temple three times, but despite this, he was not able to save the fate of the country's demise.
Princess Taiping, Wu Sansi, Empress Dowager Wei and others in recent dynasties are all devout Buddhists, and none of them have been able to avoid the tragic outcome of the family's ruin, so it is not necessary to believe in Buddhism and worship Buddha.
epilogue
In the course of Yao Chong's unremitting efforts to reform, all aspects of social life in the Tang Dynasty saw unprecedented prosperity. Therefore, it can be said that Yao Chong's social reform measures directly promoted the arrival of the historical situation of the prosperous era of Kaiyuan.
Yao Chong's economic reform measures greatly mobilized the people's enthusiasm for production and promoted economic development in the Kaiyuan period.