Marshal Ye Jianying, who is known as a "Confucian general," has the advantage of being calm whenever he encounters a major event, being able to clearly distinguish right from wrong at the big joint of history, making bold choices, and being meticulous in his planning. When Ye Shuai died in 1986, the eulogy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China said that he "dared to stand up at a major historical turning point and made the right decision without hesitation." What was even more praised were the two sentences given to him by Mao Zedong: "Zhuge is only cautious in his life, and Lü Duan is not confused about major matters." ”
According to relevant documents, Mao Zedong sent Ye Jianying those two sentences in his speech at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on September 24, 1962. The original words were: "Comrade Ye Jianying made an article, which is very sharp, and the big joints are not confused. I send you two sentences, 'Zhuge is only cautious in his life, and Lü Duan is not confused about major matters'. Zhuge Ge, as everyone knows, is Zhuge Liang, and Lü Duan was a prime minister of the Song Dynasty, saying that this person is not confused about major matters. ”
According to Bo Yibo's recollection, around the end of the 1950s and early 1960s, when he talked at a central work conference about Wang Zuo's severed arm in the old play of "being loyal to the country and running around day and night," Mao Zedong interjected: I once gave Comrade Ye Jianying two sentences: "Zhuge is only cautious in his life, and Lü Duan is not confused about major matters." ”
These two sentences, mentioned many times by Mao Zedong, were widely circulated and had a great impact.
"Zhuge is only cautious in his life", Zhuge refers to the Shu Han name Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Zhi's caution is not unfamiliar to everyone, Zhuge Liang's "Former Master's Table" also has the phrase "The former emperor knows that the subjects are cautious, so the collapse of the subjects is also a big thing". Why is Lü Duan in "Lü Duan's big things are not confused"? Most people don't know much about it, but many people only know the name Lü Duan from Mao Zedong's two evaluations of Ye Jianying.
Lü Duan was a native of the early Song Dynasty, literally Yi Zhi, a native of Youzhou, whose grandfather was Lü Yan (吕兖), who was a judge of Cangzhou in the Jin Dynasty, and his father Lü Qi (吕琦), who was an official in the Later Jin Dynasty to the Bingbu Shilang. Lü Duan was in his 20s and supplemented the official with his father's shadow, and successively served as the lord of the country, the secretary of the Taibu Temple, and the Naohiro Bunkan. In January 960, after Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chen Qiao Mutiny and changed dynasties to establish the Northern Song Dynasty, Lü Duan successively served as the prefect of Chengdu, the governor of Caizhou, the privy councillor, and the post-official to the prime minister.
Lü Duan was a beautiful man, and the Song Shi "Lü Duan Biography" used "Posture Andi Xiu" to describe Lü Duan's appearance.
Mao Zedong commented that Lü Duan was not confused because of an incident in 995 AD, that is, the first year of Emperor Taizong to Dao. At that time, Emperor Taizong Zhao Guangyi wanted to make Lü Duan the prime minister, and at this time the chancellor was Lü Mengzheng. Song Taizong and Lü discussed, and Lü Mengzheng said that Lü Duan was confused and could not be a face. Song Taizong replied: "Small things are confused, and big things are not confused." Determined to let Lü Duan be the prime minister, he composed a "Fishing Poem" at a palace banquet: "If you want to bait the golden hook deep, Shifanxi must ask the angler." "To show his determination to let Lü Duan as a phase." A few days later, Lü Mengzheng had to hand over his position and give way to Lü Duan. Lü Duan was indeed an official in office, had a general understanding, and repeatedly insisted on his own ideas in the face of major issues of right and wrong, often making Song Taizong "hate the late appointment."
After Lü Duanguan was promoted to prime minister, his power fell to the world and he was not condescending. At that time, he had the same reputation as a famous courtier, Kou Zhun, who also had the qualifications to be a minister. After Lü Duan entered the government, he was worried that Kou Zhun was upset, so he asked Emperor Taizong to issue an edict and let Kou Zhun, who was in the governor's affairs, go to the government affairs hall with him to discuss matters, and was approved by Emperor Taizong. Later, Emperor Taizong personally issued an edict one day: "From now on, the writing of the zhongshu must be carefully considered by Lü Duan, and it must be heard." This shows the degree of Trust that Emperor Taizong had in Lü Duan.
One year, the chancellor Li Weiqing was replaced by Emperor Taizong from the position of privy councillor in charge of the national military to serve as the imperial historian in charge of supervising the hundred officials. Therefore, Li Weiqing took advantage of Lü Duan's illness to rest at home, and did not have the opportunity to go to court to sue Lü Duan for a bad situation. After the matter reached Lü Duan's ears, Lü Duan did not think so, neither went to confess to the emperor, nor did he go to Li Wei to settle the account, but said lightly: I have done the right thing all my life; I sat up straight, did not do anything sorry for people, and what kind of gossip am I afraid of? This calm mentality of not worrying about people is also considered to be "confused".
When Lü Duan had just been serving as a suffragan (deputy prime minister), he passed in front of the civil and military officials, and a small official, because he usually heard many rumors of Lü Duan's "confusion", was very unconvinced by him, and came in a very dismissive tone: This person has actually become a deputy prime minister? Lü Duan's entourage felt very unfair and asked for the man's name to see what it was for. Lü Duan stopped and said: Don't ask, you have to say it when you ask him, I will know it when he says it, and as soon as I know, I will never forget this kind of person who openly insults me. Deliberately retaliating against me is certainly not going to happen to me, but if something involves him in the future and bumps into my hands, it will be difficult to be fair. So, still don't know the good. For Lü Duan, this kind of gentleman who does not think evil and pretends to be confused is a noble realm that reflects self-cultivation, but in the eyes of the world, it is naturally regarded as "confused" again.
Lü Duan's "confusion" also reflects his non-property. Not only was he very honest for the officials, but he never embezzled or accepted bribes, and even the share of the money he deserved often gave some money to take care of others. There was a friend in his hometown, Feng Dao, whose son was paralyzed in bed due to illness, and Lü Duan gave him a part of his silver every month. Because of his incorruptibility and good charity, after Lü Duan's death, his two sons actually had no money to get married due to difficulties in life, so they had to mortgage their property to others. When Emperor Zhenzong learned of this, he was very moved, and spent five million dollars from the expenses of the palace to redeem the property, and also rewarded a lot of gold, silver and silk, and paid off the old accounts for the Lü family. With the dignity of the prime minister, the descendants are so poor that they are so "confused" in the eyes of ordinary people.
Lü Duan's "confusion" of indifferently dealing with his own fame and fortune is indeed valuable. He experienced the three dynasties of Taizu, Taizong, and Zhenzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, and was a very capable person, with unique insights and outstanding achievements in internal affairs and foreign affairs; Zhao Pu, the founding prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, once commented on Lü Duan: He was not happy to receive praise, he was not afraid when he encountered setbacks, and he had the arrogance of a prime minister. Liu Jixing believes that what really made Lü Duan shine in the annals of history was because he was "not confused about major events," which was mainly manifested in his handling of two things at that time.
The first is to properly arrange Li Jiqian's mother and carry out a psychological war against Li Jiqian. Li Jiqian, a member of the Dangxiang clan, had submitted to the Northern Song Dynasty, then rebelled against the Song And repeatedly harassed him on the northwestern border. During a battle with the Song army, he failed to protect his mother, who was captured by the Song army. After this news reached the imperial court, Emperor Taizong wanted to execute the old lady in order to punish those who opposed the imperial court. At that time, Kou Zhun was serving as the privy councillor in charge of the national military, and Emperor Taizong summoned Kou Zhun alone to discuss the matter with him, and prepared to kill Li Jiqian's mother on the border with great fanfare.
When Kou Zhun returned from Emperor Taizong, passing by the prime minister's office, Lü Duan guessed that he might want to discuss important matters with him, so he said to Kou Zhun: I don't need to know about the daily affairs on the border. If it is a military affair, I am the prime minister, you should tell me. Although it was not a major military affair, Kou Zhun also told him as it was. Lü Duan said: It seems inappropriate to do this, please suspend the handling, I will go to the emperor to talk about it. He came to Emperor Taizong and said a reason: Once upon a time, when the Chu and Han dynasties were fighting, Xiang Yu grabbed Liu Bang's parents and wanted to cook them in a pot before the battle, but Liu Bang said that if you must cook, then share me a cup of broth and drink it. People who do great things will not worry about his parents, let alone barbarian rebels like Li Jiqian? If His Majesty kills the old lady today, will he be able to catch Li Jiqian tomorrow? If he can't catch it, it can only form a grudge and strengthen his rebellious heart.
Emperor Taizong felt that what he said was very reasonable, so he asked him: Then what do you say should be done? Lü Duan said: It is better to properly resettle the old lady in Yanzhou (Yan'an, Shaanxi) and carry out a psychological war against Li Jiqian, although it may not be possible to surrender, but his mother is always in our hands. Emperor Taizong said goodly: Thanks to you, you almost missed the major affairs of the country. Later, Li Mu died of illness in Yanzhou, while Li Jiqian was killed by an arrow during an attack on Tubo in 1004, and his son submitted to the Song Dynasty. Lü Duan's foresight in this matter has received very good results.
The second was that Prince Libao (Emperor Zhenzong of Song) succeeded to the throne. In 997, Emperor Taizong of Song became critically ill. Because in the process of alternating between Taizu and Taizong, there was an ancient mystery of the "sound of candle shadow axes", so during the sensitive period of Taizong's illness, Lü Duan accompanied the prince (Song Zhenzong) to visit Taizong's bed every day. The favored eunuch Wang Ji'en, fearing that the crown prince would not be good for him after succeeding to the throne, first colluded with the empress, and then secretly colluded with Li Changling,the governor (vice chancellor), Li Jixun (in charge of the imperial forest army), and Hu Dan (in charge of drafting the edict), in an attempt to support Zhao Yuanzuo (Emperor Taizong's eldest son), the king of Chu, and a palace coup was in full swing. As soon as Emperor Taizong gasped, the empress immediately sent Wang Ji'en to summon Lü Duan, planning to force Lü Duan to agree to make King Chu king. In fact, when they first began to plan, Lü Duan had already heard about it, and now when he heard the empress summoning other people's palaces, he knew that the situation might change, so he decisively locked Wang Ji'en in his own study, sent people to guard them strictly, and then the palace was seen. Sure enough, the empress raised the question of the King of Lichu to him, and Lü Duan unceremoniously pushed back: Emperor Xian had already made it clear to the crown prince when he was there, how could we not listen to him? Since Wang Jisi, the key figure in the plot, had been controlled, the empress had no idea for a while. Lü Duan struck iron while it was hot and led his ministers to jointly protect the crown prince (later Emperor Zhenzong of Song) to succeed to the throne. After Song Zhenzong ascended the throne, he sat on the main hall and hung a curtain to accept the worship of the courtiers, and His Highness Lü Duanpingli did not worship, first let people roll the curtains, walked over to confirm that he was the prince, and then demoted the ranks, and led the courtiers to worship long live. This shows how shrewd he is in his big things. Then, the few elements who committed the rebellion were sent to other places, which completely quelled the dispute and ensured the smooth transfer of the supreme power of the Great Song Regime.
Lü Duan experienced three generations of emperors in the Northern Song Dynasty in his lifetime, and in the 40 years of eunuch life, he was almost untouched, and finally the soft landing was able to die well, which is rare in the feudal dynasty of "accompanying the king like a companion tiger". This is inseparable from his way of doing things that are not confused about the overall situation and the big issues, but can "confuse" things on issues that concern personal interests. (Liu Jixing)
