Zhang Liang, one of the three masters of the early Han Dynasty, with his outstanding wisdom and strategy, successfully assisted Liu Bang to become the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, and also gained a fan named Su Shi in later generations.
Su Shi also wrote a special article for Zhang Liang, "On staying in Hou", saying that "the so-called Haojie of the ancients will have a festival of superiority", and praised Zhang Liang in the text, saying that he was a real Haojie.
However, in another article titled "Begging to Correct Lu Zhen's Discussion on Entering the Imperial Zhazi", Su Shi said that Zhang Liang's article of wisdom and strategy was inferior to that of the Tang Dynasty's prime minister Lu Zhen, "Fushimi Tang Chancellor Lu Zhen, Cai Ben Wang Zuo, learned to be an imperial master... Wisdom is like a sub-room and Wen is over", which translates to mean that Lu Zhen has the talent of Wang Zuo, and the scholar can act as the teacher of the emperor, and the literary and dialectical wisdom skills are better than Zhang Liang.
Who is this Lu Yan? Su Dongpo, Zhang Liang's little fan brother, was willing to think that he was indeed more powerful than Zhang Liang.
In the fourteenth year of the Gregorian calendar (779), the 38-year-old crown prince Li Shi succeeded to the throne as Emperor Dezong of Tang. Tang Dezong personally experienced the turmoil of the Anshi Rebellion, witnessed the prosperity and decline of the Tang Dynasty, and wanted the Tang Dynasty to change from decline to prosperity again and recreate the Tang Dynasty.
This task was undoubtedly arduous and distant, Tang Dezong thought that the first thing he had to do was to build a talent board that was strong enough, and he thought of Lu Zhen, who was then the inspector of imperial history, for the first time, because when he was still the crown prince, he had already heard of Lu Zhen's reputation, and knew that this person had passed the examination at the age of 18, and there were also good deeds circulated when he was a local official.
Tang Dezong summoned Lu Yan to his side as a Hanlin bachelor, the official position of Hanlin bachelor is greatly famous in history, the most famous is naturally Li Bai, now people almost always say a sentence Li Hanlin when they mention Li Bai, but in fact, Li Bai was not a serious Hanlin bachelor from time to time, but Hanlin to be edicted.
The Hanlin scholar was specially drafted for the emperor to draft important documents, and was a close confidant of the emperor, who served as a minister of the Hanlin scholar, and could usually be promoted to the rank of prime minister. And Hanlin waiting for the edict is mainly to relieve the emperor's boredom, and does not participate in political affairs, so Tang Xuanzong is bored to find Li Bai to write poetry, and Li Bai drinks and plays by himself when he is fine, lamenting that his career is not smooth, if he is a Hanlin bachelor held by Lu Zhen, then he will not worry about his career.
In view of the grand topic of how to govern the country, Lu Yan put forward a total of 6 general suggestions to Tang Dezong, mainly subdivided into observing the people's feelings, examining the achievements of local officials, selecting talents, managing finances, stabilizing the tired people, and reducing officials, and had specific and feasible policies on these six issues, so he was trusted by Tang Dezong, and every suggestion he put forward would be seriously considered by the emperor.
At this time, Lu Yan, as the big red man around the emperor, although he had not yet become the official prime minister, he seemed to be already exercising the function of prime minister, so he was called "internal minister".
There is an old saying called "the first sight makes people happy, the long place makes people annoying", when they first start to get along, it always makes people extremely happy, and they can have a good time like glue, but over time, the shortcomings of the other party will be exposed in their own eyes, and slowly seeing the other party will decide to be bored, Tang Dezong is such a situation for Lu Zhen, because Lu Zhen sometimes rejects his suggestions, so Tang Dezong is very unhappy in his heart.
It was precisely because of this unhappiness in Tang Dezong's heart that although Lu Yan had already reached the standard of prime minister in terms of talent, morality, and seniority, he was still suppressed by Tang Dezong for many years, and it was not until the eighth year of Zhenyuan (792) that he was officially called prime minister.
Lu Zhen received a Confucian education from an early age, dreaming of creating the rule of the saints that Confucius hoped for, and during his tenure, he promised to "live up to the Son of Heaven and live up to what he learned", and was diligent and conscientious. At that time, the atmosphere in the official field was very relaxed, almost every official would accept bribes, Lu Yan was very dissatisfied with this, but he was powerless to change, just starting from himself, resolutely not to accept any bribes, hoping to set a benchmark for the times to learn.
Especially when interacting with local clan towns, Lu Zhen not only did not accept money, but also did not accept small gifts such as local specialties, and made himself very poor.
Therefore, Tang Dezong thought that Lu Zhen was somewhat out of place, and was worried that he would be isolated because he was too unsociable, so he specially sent Gu Shaolin, then a scholar of Hanlin, to pass on the secret instructions: "Qing Zhen is too cautious, and he will never give the Dao gifts, but I am afraid that things will not work." If you can't take all kinds of goods, such as boots and whips, you can benefit. ”
The translation is to say that you are honest and cautious, no one's gifts are rejected outside, do not give people face, only afraid that it is hindered by official duties, you do not accept people's belongings can be understood, but like shoes and other small things, then more or less still have to be collected.
This is very interesting, why did Tang Dezong specifically say that shoes can be collected? Whether Lu Yan once wore a broken shoe was known to him, of course, this is just a guess. In any case, the final result was that Lu Yan was still a clean official who did not covet a pair of shoes, and as a result, he was ostracized by everyone, and finally exiled to the remote area of Chungju, where he studied medicine and treated the sick and saved people for the poor, and died in 805 at the age of 52.
Reference: "Lu Zhen Collection"
"Lu Yan, an Outstanding Politician of the Tang Dynasty"
"Lu Zhen: The Famous Portrait of the Tang Dynasty who Learned to Be an Imperial Teacher"