As mentioned earlier, the youngest prime minister in Chinese history, so which is the oldest prime minister in Chinese history?
At this time, some people may nominate Jiang Taigong, but in fact, the oldest prime minister is Zhang Cang of the Western Han Dynasty, who was already eighty years old when he was the prime minister.
Zhang Cang was born at the end of the Warring States period, and when he was young, he used to study under Xunzi, and was the same brother as Li Si and Han Feizi.
However, his talent in politics was not as high as that of the two brothers, but his extensive reading of books and the omniscience of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting made Zhang Cang the imperial history of the Qin Dynasty, specializing in the four-square documents.
Portrait of Zhang Cang
However, when he took office, Zhang Cang made a mistake, although now we do not know his specific mistakes, but according to the strict laws of the Qin Dynasty, Zhang Cang estimated that there would be no good end, so Zhang Cang rushed to Liu Bang's hands in order to save his life and became his right-hand man.
After Zhang Cang joined Liu Bang's account, he was reused, and this erudite Xunzi descendant also played an extremely important role in the battles of the Han army.
He followed Liu Bang to pacify Nanyang and became the first hero of the Han army to enter Xianyang, and then he also contributed to the battle to pacify the Three Qins, which made Zhang Cang one of the ranks of the heroes of the early Han Dynasty.
However, compared with those heroes who followed Liu Bang from the beginning, Zhang Cang was slightly deficient in both merit and qualifications.
Therefore, in the political arena in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Cang did not hold an important position, but was sent to a local post, he successively served as the shou of Changshan County and the acting minister of state, and also participated in the action of quelling the rebellion of Zang Di, the king of Yan, and Zhang Cang was only then made a marquis by Liu Bang and joined the ranks of nobles.
Stills of Emperor Wen of Han
After Liu Bang's death, the political arena of the Han Dynasty entered the Lü hou era, and her authoritarianism made the ministers in the DPRK except the Lü family tremble with fear, and as the Lü family's power grew, the ministers did not dare to oppose it, and could only try their best to please Lü Hou.
Lü Hou has a well-known story that her son Liu Ying was crowned monarch after Liu Bang's death, so she was named Lü Hou, and after she gained political power, she had a great influence on the imperial family at that time.
At a banquet, the monarch Liu Ying ceded the throne to his elder brother King Qi, who was also an orthodox king of blood and had a good relationship with his younger brother Liu Ying, so he did not think much about sitting on the noble throne, and this seat, the king of Qi almost lost his life.
The image of Lü Hou in film and television dramas
It turned out that Lü Hou saw this scene, she had already squeezed out the Liu family, this King of Qi actually sat in the position of his son, and she was immediately angry, she thought that Liu Ying gave him the throne, because he wanted to show benevolence and righteousness, but you did not have a clear seriousness about your own status, and sat directly without prevaricating, not in accordance with the rules.
So Lü Hou ordered someone to bring a bottle of poisonous wine, hoping to take this wine to the king of Qi and let him drink it to kill him.
Just when she was about to get up, the King of Qi saw her and came to toast her step ahead of her, this move made Lü Hou feel overwhelmed, and after the two of them repeatedly pushed and shoved, Lü Hou had no way to spill the poisonous wine on the ground, and the King of Qi reacted to Lü Hou wanting to take his life.
In order to save his life, the King of Qi endured the pain of cutting love and gave one of his own Chengyang Counties as a gift to Lü Hou, and she was willing to give up, and through this incident it was enough to see Lü Hou's heart being fierce.
The image of Liu Ying in film and television dramas
At this time, Zhang Cang, who was serving outside, also happened to be far away from the dispute, and did not fall into the palm of Lü Hou's hand, saving his own life.
After Lü Hou's death, her authoritarianism was also greatly improved in the imperial court, and Liu Ying, together with several old ministers, elected Liu Heng to succeed him as emperor, and finally Zhang Cang returned to the central government to take up the post of chancellor.
This work is actually a bit similar to today's archivist, plus the director of the audit bureau, who deals with documents all day long, and Zhang Cangben is an expert in this regard.
Although he was already an old man in his seventies at that time, he still handled the relevant affairs in an orderly manner, which made Zhang Cang gain the appreciation of Emperor Wen of Han.
When Emperor Wen of Han was four years old, the old minister who was then the prime minister died, and Emperor Wen of Han wanted Zhang Cang, who was highly respected and respected, to succeed him as the prime minister, and Zhang Cang at this time was already eighty years old.
Emperor Wen of Han was worried that Zhang Cang was old and that the pressure of the imperial court's heavy affairs would affect his body, so he asked Zhang Cang if he was willing to assume the position of prime minister, and Zhang Cang thought that although he was old, his health was still good, and he also had a passion for fighting with Emperor Wen of Han, so he agreed to Emperor Wen of Han's request.
After Becoming Prime Minister, Zhang Cang was still able to do his own work well, and he also compiled the ancient Chinese mathematical classic "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", summarizing the mathematical achievements of the Warring States Period and the Qin Dynasty, and also helping Emperor Wen of Han set up the calendar. It also clarified the rhythm and made great contributions to the improvement of the ritual music system of the Han Dynasty.
Nine Chapters of Arithmetic
Although Zhang Cang's performance on political issues was not outstanding, he was not only not at fault in his career as prime minister, but also achieved a lot, so he sat in the position of prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty for fifteen years, and he was already a ninety-five-year-old man at that time.
When Zhang Cang formulated the calendar before, it was proposed that the Han Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty were in the same period of water virtue, so the country should be respected by black.
Later, a Lu guoren named Gongsun Chen came out, who said that under his calculations, the current era should be Tude exuberant, and the Han Jing Emperor did not understand this matter very well, so he let Zhang Cang look over.
But Zhang Cang was very confident in his calculations, so he did not carefully read Gongsun Chen's recital at all, and told Emperor Jingdi of Han that it was now the Water Virtue Period, and what he said was correct, and That Gongsun Chen was just a commoner, and should not believe what he said.
As a result, after a period of time, a yellow dragon appeared, which was regarded as a manifestation of Tude's exuberance at the time, and the facts proved that what Gongsun Chen of the Lu state said was correct, but due to Zhang Cang's social status and influence, Emperor Jingdi of Han did not punish him.
Zhang Cang also knew that he had indeed made a mistake, and without the face to continue to face other colleagues, especially the Han Jing Emperor, he gradually withdrew from politics, but because of his respected status, he was still the prime minister at that time.
It was not until an official elected by Zhang Cang had a problem of corruption and bribery, implicating Zhang Cang, that emperor Jingdi of Han deposed Zhang Cang as prime minister.
It is reasonable to say that Zhang Cang, who served as prime minister at such an advanced age and can still work in this position for more than ten years, should be a legendary figure in Chinese history, but now when we mention Zhang Cang, we will only remember one of his anecdotes.
It is said that in his old age, Zhang Cang's teeth had all fallen out, and there was no similar to dentures in that era, in order to ensure his health, he began to drink human milk, which may also be an important reason why he lived for more than a hundred years.
But the scene of an old man lying in the arms of a young girl and sucking is still unacceptable, and Zhang Cang has become a typical example of disrespect for the elderly.
Statue of Zhang Cang
Therefore, Zhang Cang, who should have been famous for his legendary experience and historical contributions, lived in the memory of the people with a completely different image.
The events recorded in those history books have thus become "cold knowledge", which makes us think more about the character image in history, the image you know best is not necessarily real, and if you want to uncover the whole picture of history, you have to rely more on patient research.
Welcome friends to leave a message to discuss