Today's introduction to you is a minister in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, whose name is Li Dongyang, the character Binzhi, and the number Xiya. His more peculiar experience is that after becoming an official in the dynasty, he once submitted his resignation to two emperors in total, a total of 19 times, the emperor not only did not approve, but also let him hold important positions in the imperial court for a long time, resulting in his establishment of the dynasty for 50 years, of which 18 years entered the cabinet, becoming a very famous cabinet chief assistant at that time.
Li Dongyang
Let's review the story of Li Dongyang's extraordinary life experience.
One. As a teenager, he studied hard and entered the army with good results in scientific examinations
Li Dongyang, born on June 9, the twelfth year of orthodoxy (1447), was born in Xihu, Xuanwu Lake, Beijing, with his ancestral home in Huguang Chaling (now Chaling, Hunan), and his family was born in the ranks of the army, and his father was 31 years old when he was born.
Li Dongyang was very intelligent from an early age, and when he was just 3 years old, he could make calligraphy with a diameter of one foot, and was called a prodigy, and emperor Ming Jingdi heard about it and gave him a reward after he summoned him for examination. After that, Li Dongyang studied more diligently and seriously, and when he was 8 years old, Emperor Jing ordered Li Dongyang to enter Shuntianfu as a child prodigy.
Li Dongyang, who entered Suncheon Province and received a good education, went exceptionally well in the next imperial examination. In August of the sixth year of Tianshun (1462), he participated in the Shuntianxiang Examination, Zhongju; the next year he participated in the Huihui Examination, ranking 185th; in the third year of the Temple Examination, Li Dongyang won the first place in the second division, was elected to serve in the Hanlin Academy, and from then on entered the career.
Two. Chenghua period due diligence, Koji period into the cabinet, due to illness please resign
Li Dongyang, who successfully entered the army with good results in the imperial examination, at the beginning of his political career, that is, the Chenghua Dynasty of Emperor Mingxianzong, his promotion was not smooth, basically after nine years of appointment, and he worked as a lecturer for a long time, but he still did not enter the key departments.
Portrait of Li Dongyang
However, the young Li Dongyang did not care about the promotion of official positions, he insisted on doing his own work well, and also participated in the revision of the "Records of Emperor Yingzong"; and there were personal works such as the "Manuscript of the Southern Journey" and the draft of "The Text of Mr. Mengquan of the Sacrifice of The Uncle". With a broad heart and rare political maturity, he calmly faced the reality.
In the leap month of the first year of Hongzhi (1488), Emperor Xiaozong of Ming summoned Li Dongyang to serve as a repair official to revise the Records of Emperor Xianzong. After three years, the Compilation of the Records of Emperor Mingxianzong was successful, and Li Dongyang was credited with the compilation of the Records, and his position was promoted to the position of Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. And since then it has been reused by Emperor Xiaozong.
In the eighth year of Hongzhi (1495), Li Dongyang and Xie Qian were appointed to join the cabinet to participate in the advance of the aircraft and began to enter the cabinet. Li Dongyang did not live up to the trust of the emperor, and he and Xu Pu, Liu Jian, and Xie Qian were appointed as presidents to revise the "Great Ming HuiDian"; with the title of Prince Shaobao, Libu Shangshu and a scholar of WenyuanGe University, he was responsible for teaching the crown prince to go out of the cabinet to study.
Just when Li Dongyang was full of ambition and ready to do a big job, he did not expect that he was overworked and suffered from hemorrhoids, dizziness and other diseases, so that it affected his normal work. In the fourteenth year of Hongzhi (1501), in March, Li Dongyang applied for resignation on the grounds that he was ill and could not work, but the emperor did not allow it. Later, in April and May, he went to the court twice to ask for his resignation, but the emperor still did not allow it. This shows that Emperor Xiaozong at this time was already inseparable from Li Dongyang.
Li Dongyang stills
Li Dongyang had to continue his work with illness, and in addition to serving as the official of the temple examination volume many times, the "Daming Huidian" that he had participated in compiling had also been written; he also requested with Liu Jian and Xie Qianshangyan to compile the "General Records of the Past Dynasties", which was approved by the emperor.
In recognition of Li Dongyang's merits, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming gave him a gold robe and a red python robe. In the two years from the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504) to the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), Li Dongyang asked Emperor Xiaozong five more times for physical reasons to resign, but none of them were approved. During the reign of Li Shu Hongzhi, Li Dongyang submitted a total of 8 resignation reports to the emperor, but did not receive the grace of Emperor Xiaozong.
Three. After Zhengde 11 times of resignation, he had to tell the old man to return to his hometown
In May of the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), Emperor Xiaozong of Ming summoned Li Dongyang, Liu Jian, and Xie Qian to the Qianqing Palace to receive Gu's orders. When Emperor Xiaozong of Ming died, Emperor Mingwuzong took the throne. In July, Li Dongyang was promoted to the rank of Prince Fu with Xie Qian for the merit of counseling the Crown Prince.
Li Dongyang again submitted his resignation to the new emperor, and Emperor Mingwuzong, who had just ascended the throne, did not agree with his father. Not only that, on August 13 of the same year, Li Dongyang and Xie Qian were awarded the title of Grand Master of Guanglu and The Crown Prince, and the Emperor also gave Li Dongyang the commandment of his own body and great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and wives. In December, he was ordered to revise the Records of Filial Piety.
Ming Wuzong stills
Throughout the Zhengde period, Li Dongyang submitted a total of 11 resignation reports to Emperor Wuzong of Ming, the first 4 of which were still due to his physical reasons and his gradual trust in Emperor Wuzong' traitors; the last 7 times were entirely because the eunuch Liu Jin controlled the government, and he was really unable to support himself and could not return to heaven.
At the beginning of Emperor Wuzong's reign, Li Dongyang was jointly ruled by Liu Jian and Xie Qian, and the imperial court was still clean and upright, but as Emperor Wuzong began to allow the eunuch Liu Jin to act recklessly, Liu Jin gradually controlled the government, and the atmosphere of the imperial court declined, and on February 23 of the first year of Zhengde (1506), Li Dongyang, Liu Jian, and Xie Qian began to request collective retirement in order to resist Liu Jin's chaotic government, and Emperor Mingwuzong did not approve it.
In February and October, they resigned to the emperor twice, and the last time, the emperor only approved liu and Xie to leave their posts, but left Li Dongyang alone. Li Dongyang was very helpless, he could only support the overall situation independently, endured physical discomfort, and stayed behind to fight tit-for-tat with the "Eight Tigers" headed by Liu Jin.
In the case of independent support for the situation in the future, although Li Dongyang was a cabinet scholar, he was approachable and made friends, and in politics he adopted a more tolerant attitude, he could get along well with shilin or eunuchs, foreign relatives, etc., and for the sake of the needs of the struggle strategy, he often did not express his personal opinions lightly.
Liu Jin stills
Through arduous efforts, Li Dongyang succeeded in saving the lives of Liu and Xie, and also protected the famous minister Yang Yiqing and others from persecution by powerful ministers. While resolutely fighting against the powerful ministers, Li Dongyang also insisted on doing his part for the imperial court.
In the second year of Zhengde (1507), Li Dongyang compiled the book "General Records of the Dynasties"; in April of the fourth year of Zhengde (1509), the book "Records of Filial Piety" was completed. He also contributed ideas and suggestions for quelling the rebellion of the civil unrest in Ningxia, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi and other rebels, so that the imperial court could smoothly quell the rebellion.
However, Li Dongyang felt more and more that he was unable to support himself alone, and that he was chaotic about the "Eight Tigers", and Wuzong's fainting was really powerless to return to heaven. Therefore, in the six years from October of the first year of Zhengde (1506) to October of the seventh year of Zhengde (1512), Li Dongyang submitted 7 more resignation applications to Emperor Wuzong, but none of them were approved.
It was not until December 27, 1512, the seventh year of Zhengde (1512), when Li Dongyang pleaded for retirement again on the grounds of old age and illness (the 12th time), that the emperor granted permission and gave Li Dongyang the honor of Li Dongyang, and ordered Li Dongyang to be given the treatment of eight stones of the moon eclipse, and Enyin and his nephew Li Zhaoyan were made Zhongshu Sheren. On December 30, Li Dongyang officially retired after he was relieved.
The first assistant of the cabinet is Li Dongyang
On July 20, the eleventh year of Zhengde (1516), Li Dongyang died of illness. Emperor Wuzong of Ming posthumously presented Li Dongyang with the posthumous title of Wenzheng(文正).
In addition to his outstanding political achievements, Li Dongyang's literary and calligraphy achievements are also relatively rich. He is a representative of the Chaling poetry school, and his personal works include "Huailutang Manuscript", "Huailutang Poetry", "Yan Dialogue" and other descendants.
In short, Li Dongyang, a minister in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, once submitted his resignation to the two emperors a total of 19 times after becoming an official in the dynasty, and the emperor not only did not approve it, but also let him hold an important position in the imperial court for a long time, which shows that he can work diligently for the country and the people, and his contribution is not small, and the emperor cannot do without him. Therefore, he was allowed to establish the dynasty for 50 years, of which 18 years he entered the cabinet and became a very famous cabinet chief assistant at that time.
Li Dongyang's spirit of overcoming illness and persisting in making contributions to the country and the people deserves people's praise; his fine style of daring and being good at fighting against the powerful is even more worthy of our admiration. We should maintain a strong physique, do our own work well, resolutely resist unhealthy trends, wage a protracted struggle against the anti-party and anti-social evil forces, and make lifelong contributions to the prosperity of the country and the strength of the people.
Li Dongyang painting
This article is original by "Lao Wu Kan Guoxue Now Use", welcome to pay attention, learn together, and make progress together!