Author: Tang Baomin, a special scholar invited by our side
Liu Ji, zi Bowen, Yu Yue Wencheng, the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty outstanding military, statesman, literary scholar, the founding father of the Ming Dynasty, for assisting Zhu Yuanzhang to complete the imperial cause, the creation of the Ming Empire and the world famous, Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly called Liu Ji "my son Fang Ye", known for his clever calculations, strategizing and strategizing. Sadly, such an ancient hero who was like a god ended up being poisoned.
How did it come to this? Is it Liu Ji's greed for fame and fortune, and he does not know how to retire after success? Non-ye, as clever as Liu Ji, naturally understood the principle that it is advisable to retreat first in the depths of grace, and twice took the initiative to resign from the official post, following the example of Zhang Liang of the Han Dynasty, retreating bravely, planning to be a free idle person, so as to avoid the open guns and dark arrows of the official field, but he could not hide from it, and the disaster of killing himself was inevitable, which was extremely sad.
As early as the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, Liu Ji had experienced two ups and downs in the official field, which made him see through the darkness of the official field and be discouraged, so he decided to return to the hidden rivers and lakes, so he sent love to his friends, indulged in wine and song, and began a free hermit life.
At this time, there was a person who appeared and broke Liu Ji's secluded life, and this person was Zhu Yuanzhang. After Zhu Yuanzhang attacked eastern Zhejiang, he admired Liu Ji's talent, and at the same time, in order to win over the world's scholars, he took the initiative to summon Liu Ji and ask him to go out of the mountains to become an official. After all, Liu Ji was too deeply infiltrated by Confucianism, and the ideal of supporting the world in his heart had not all disappeared, and when he was re-aroused by the leading figure Zhu Yuanzhang, he resolutely abandoned the idea of seclusion, was born again, and became a courtier by Zhu Yuanzhang's side.
After that, he gave advice to Zhu Yuanzhang and made great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's rise to the top of the world, and on many major strategic issues, Zhu Yuanzhang won victories precisely because he followed Liu Ji's advice.
Liu Ji understood the principle of "flying birds are exhausted, good bows are hidden; cunning rabbits die, and running dogs are cooked", so soon after the founding of the country, he took the initiative to submit an application to Zhu Yuanzhang to submit a tribute to Shi, planning to return to the hidden mountain forest again. However, when the world was in the making, just when the employment was made, Zhu Yuanzhang did not agree to let Liu Ji go, and gave him a yushi zhongdang.
This official belonged to the three leaders in the Imperial History Terrace, and had no real power, so Liu basically could go to work every day and walk through the motions, and he was happy to be at ease. However, Liu Ji advocated ruling the country according to law and advocating strict law and discipline for officials at all levels, which as a result offended some people and made everyone resent him. There was no big problem in offending ordinary people, but Liu Ji later offended Li Shanchang, the current prime minister, and the prime minister was very angry, and the consequences were very serious!
It turned out that Li Shanchang had a close confidant named Li Bin, a middle-level cadre in Zhongshu Province, and when this person was found to have committed serious violations of discipline, Liu Ji was ready to cut him down, but this person was protected by Li Shanchang, who advocated making big things small and small things small. However, Liu Ji's upright nature did not allow him to do so, and he sent someone to send the fold of the matter to Kaifeng, and the emperor said: This person (referring to Li Bin) has committed a terrible crime, and if he does not kill him, he will not be able to carry out the construction of a clean and honest government, and we have already sentenced him to death, so please do a death penalty review and approval. Because Zhu Yuanzhang was in the field and did not understand the personnel involvement here, he approved it according to the rules.
Liu Ji got the death penalty review order, and immediately took down Li Bin, who was participating in the rain prayer ceremony, and straightened out the law on the spot. This annoyed Li Shanchang, so as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang returned, he filed a complaint against the evil man first, impeaching Liu Ji, saying that he had committed great disrespect by killing people in front of the altar. Seeing that the prime minister had begun to impeach Liu Ji, the gang that usually held a grudge against Liu Ji rushed up and wrote to impeach Liu Ji, and Liu Ji was in an embattled position, and the danger was imminent.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not pursue the crime of impeaching Liu Ji by Li Shanchang and others, but a few days later, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly talked to Liu Ji and asked him why there was no rain for a long time. Liu Ji said that the reason why it did not rain was because the wives of tens of thousands of fallen soldiers lived in barracks; some craftsmen died and were not buried, so they were gloomy. Zhu Yuanzhang agreed with Liu Ji's analysis and adopted his suggestions. But a few days later, it still did not rain, so Zhu Yuanzhang summoned Liu Ji and counted him down fiercely. Liu Ji was such a clever man that he took the initiative to make a request to "return", Zhu Yuanzhang agreed, and Liu Ji ended his official career and went home to retire.
It is reasonable to say that Liu Ji did not do anything wrong in the matter of killing Li Bin, so why did Zhu Yuanzhang let Liu Ji lay off his post? The main purpose is to balance the contradictions in all aspects. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was relying heavily on li shanchang, the prime minister, and Li Shanchang was the leader of the Huaixi clique, and if Liu Ji offended Li Shanchang, it was equivalent to offending the entire Huaixi clique. After Zhu Yuanzhang weighed the pros and cons, he had to sacrifice Liu Ji.
After Liu Ji returned to his hometown, he wanted to retire well and live a leisurely life, but zhu Yuanzhang remembered him again. Before Liu Ji left, he gave Zhu Yuanzhang several pieces of advice, one of which was to let Zhu Yuanzhang concentrate on eliminating the remnants of Meng Yuan. However, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was in control of the country and was full of pride, failed to pay attention to Liu Ji's suggestion at that time, and as a result, the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan who fled back to the desert became a major problem on the northern frontier.
Zhu Yuanzhang realized that Liu Ji was indispensable; coupled with the gradual disappointment in Li Shanchang, he remembered Liu Ji's goodness again, so he gave Liu Ji a handwritten letter, which wrote, Ai Qing, you have not returned after such a long vacation, I miss you very much! Now that the world has been unified, you should come back immediately, and we will jointly create the great cause of the Ming Dynasty! I said these words out of sincerity!
After Liu Ji received this book, he was naturally grateful and immediately set off to return to the Beijing Master to repay the grace of the Saint Shang. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was already very dissatisfied with Li Shanchang and planned to remove Li Shanchang and replace him with Liu Ji.
However, Liu Ji was very sober, and under the situation that the Huaixi clique was in power at that time, even if he became the prime minister, he was unable to compete with those people, so he insisted on not accepting it, and urged Zhu Yuanzhang to continue to appoint Li Shanchang as a minister, saying that Li Shanchang was good at reconciling officials of various ministries; saying that if the house wanted to change the top beams and pillars, it would have to find a big tree to change, and my small tree could not support it. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Liu Ji's attitude was very resolute, so he had to give up.
In this way, Liu Ji returned to the center of power and once again became Zhu Yuanzhang's humerus minister. But he was not satisfied, but always reminded himself of the opportunity to retreat. After doing this for four years in Hongwu, seeing that the situation under the heavens had stabilized, and that Wang Wenyang, Hu Weiyong, and the like had entered the center of power, they feared that they would be framed by them in the future, so they had the idea of retiring again, so they resigned to Zhu Yuanzhang again. Zhu Yuanzhang retained a bit, but Liu Ji's attitude was very firm, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to agree.
Liu Ji returned to his hometown for the second time, this time, he really planned to retire completely, no longer asked about any official grievances, just wanted to linger between the mountains and rivers, drink and talk about poetry, write books and papers, "towards the green mountains and twilight lake", and be a free master.
Some people admired Liu Ji's great name and came to see him, but Liu Ji always tried to refuse. Although liu ji has returned to his hometown and become an authentic grass dweller, Zhu Yuanzhang, who is suspicious by nature, will not rest assured of himself, and if he does not avoid suspicion, if he meets this person today and that person tomorrow, he will give people the suspicion of forming a party for personal gain, so that the disaster will not be far away.
It is reasonable to say that there should be no danger for liu ji to be cautious everywhere, to live every day trembling and walking on thin ice, right? However, despite this, Liu Ji was not able to escape the disaster, because someone was still thinking of him, and this person was none other than Hu Weiyong, the last prime minister in Chinese history.
The reason why Hu Weiyong was angry with Liu Ji was because of a conversation between Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Ji, when Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Ji discussed the issue of the selection of the prime minister, during which they talked about Hu Weiyong, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked: "How is Hu Weiyong a person?" When Liu Ji saw Zhu Yuanzhang ask about Hu Weiyong, he immediately showed a disdainful look on his face and said, "This little calf will break the plough with a rudder." This means that Hu Weiyong is just a calf, and giving him such a burden will spoil His Majesty's affairs."
Hu Weiyong therefore hated Liu Ji to the bone, and deliberately wanted to find an opportunity to take revenge on Liu Ji. He secretly instructed his cronies to frame Liu Ji, saying that Liu Ji had built a tomb for himself in a piece of land with "royal spirit" and had a disobedient heart. After Zhu Yuanzhang received this impeachment, he immediately issued a decree to exempt Liu Ji from his pension; Liu Ji, seeing that the situation was not good, immediately went to Beijing to plead guilty, and stayed in the capital to relieve Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicions about himself. However, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude was not clear, neither punishing Liu Ji nor comforting him, and ignored him. Liu Ji was worried and seriously ill, and Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news and sent someone to send him back to his hometown, and a month later, Liu Ji died.
Regarding the cause of Liu Ji's death, there is a theory that Liu Ji was poisoned by Hu Weiyong, and in the fourth year after Liu Ji's death, Yushi Zhongcheng Tujie wrote a letter exposing that when Liu Ji was seriously ill in bed, Hu Weiyong sent a confidant doctor to visit and prescribed a pair of medicines.
This section of the public case, to the Ming history expert Wu Han, has a new conclusion, Wu Han after many studies, came to the conclusion: "Liu Ji was poisoned, out of the conspiracy of Ming Taizu. Hu Weiyong had a grudge against Liu Ji and was unconsciously used by Ming Taizu. ”
This bold proposal, just imagine, so many heroes have been killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, can he let Liu Ji go? I thought that his desire to kill Liu Ji had long been there, but he hadn't found a proper excuse. It just so happened that Hu Weiyong had a festival with Liu Ji and wanted to punish Liu Ji, so Zhu Yuanzhang decided to kill Liu Ji by hu Weiyong's hand.
Liu Ji already knew the depth and shallowness of the official field, and he also knew the truth that trees would attract wind and officials would invite disasters, so he always wanted to emulate Zhang Liang of the Han Dynasty, retire after success, return to the mountains and forests, stay away from the center of the storm, and be a master of leisure. However, this simple wish could not be fulfilled, and he ended up being poisoned.
In fact, even without Hu Weiyong's harm, Liu Ji would not be able to end well, because Zhu Yuanzhang would always find an excuse to get rid of him! This is the objective cause of the tragedy of Liu Ji's life, if you find the reason from Liu Ji himself, it is the Confucian idea of helping the world that harmed him, and China's traditional knowledgeists are not satisfied with just talking about poetry papers, do not want to be just intellectuals in the pure sense, always think of "learning to become a literary martial art, selling it to the emperor's family", with the ideal of the heavens and the earth, wanting to save cangsheng from water and fire, and realize their political ambitions.
He Qiaoyuan once recorded such a detail in the book "Famous Mountain Collection": "The ji decision is towards Jiankang, and the doubts are unresolved, and the ji mu fu clan knows: 'Since the ancient decay and chaos of the world, there is no auxiliary Allah, and it is all returned to the world?' I think that in the chaotic world of politics, it is difficult to have a good ending. Unfortunately, Liu Ji did not listen to his mother's advice and insisted on going out to the mountain to assist the Ming Emperor, and as a result, he was unfortunately hit by the Fu clan. Liu Ji failed to become Zhang Liang's second in the end, and although he repeatedly evaded, he still could not escape the fateful ending.
This was both his own tragedy and the tragedy of that era, the fate that he could not escape under such an imperial and autocratic power structure.
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