Throughout Zhang Tingyu's life, he has held many important positions, if the official position of the Qing Dynasty is replaced by the current official position, then he has served as the minister of education, the ministry of culture, the ministry of finance, the ministry of personnel, the organization department and many other departments. At his best, he was even the premier of the State Council.
However, these are only the key words of the official positions he has held, in addition to the fact that he is also the elder of the Three Dynasties, the only Hanchen of the Qing Dynasty who deserves to enjoy the Taimiao Temple. Logically, as long as such a person who is extremely popular does not make mistakes, he will have a good ending. However, I don't know if he was old and confused, in his later years, he changed his previous humble attitude, and even reached out to the emperor for rewards many times, and finally angered the emperor and ended up with a knighthood and an official.
However, after many years, the emperor, who was gradually enriched, seemed to understand the cleverness of Zhang Tingyu's approach, and finally ordered the old minister to enjoy the honor of the Taimiao Temple. However, many people still do not understand where Zhang Tingyu is smart. So today we will explore it.
Zhang Tingyu, a native of Anhui, was born into a family of eunuchs. Because his father was a chancellor during the Kangxi Dynasty, he was very strict about Zhang Tingyu's education. Under the careful guidance of his father, Zhang Tingyu has been reading poetry since childhood, and at the age of 28, he entered high school and successfully entered the road of career.
With his true talent and practical learning, coupled with the help of his father, the young Zhang Tingyu was in a smooth and prosperous state, and soon he was appreciated by the Kangxi Emperor.
However, soon after, the famous "Nine Sons and Nine Sons" incident broke out in history, and Zhang Tingyu finally ushered in the peak of his life because he took the team of the fourth son of the Emperor Yin Chan early.
From the moment Yongzheng ascended the throne, he paid special attention to Zhang Tingyu and gave him the high-ranking official Houlu. However, Zhang Tingyu is indeed a talent, and no matter where Yongzheng puts him, he can make some achievements. Therefore, Yongzheng simply appointed him as the chief military aircraft minister to help Yongzheng deal with various complicated national affairs.
During the 13 years of Yongzheng's reign, Zhang Tingyu made suggestions and suggestions, and successively completed many important systems such as military and songzhang, which made great contributions to the harmony and stability of the Qing Dynasty. To this end, Yongzheng told the new emperor in his dying edict that in the future, after Zhang Tingyu's death, he would be given the temple to be worthy of the temple.
Here is a brief description of the "Taimiao Temple". The so-called "Taimiao" is the imperial family's zongmiao, and "deserved" is that it can be enshrined in the "Taimiao". Because the Qing Dynasty was Manchu, the people who could "deserve" it were either imperial relatives or Manchus with special contributions. As a Han Chinese, it is basically impossible to "enjoy the Taimiao Temple".
Zhang Tingyu was very happy after learning about this, and even a little proud. However, Yongzheng also did one more thing before he died. When arranging the ministers of Gu Ming, in addition to Zhang Tingyu, there was also a university scholar Ortai who was at odds with Zhang Tingyu.
Obviously, although Yongzheng was grateful for Zhang Tingyu's contribution and even promised to "enjoy the Taimiao Temple", he still took precautions in the face of Jiangshan Sheji, leaving Ortai to balance him.
Trusting the Qianlong Emperor naturally understood his father's meaning, and in the years that followed, Qianlong struggled to balance the power of both sides. However, Qianlong's sudden illness in the tenth year of Ortai disrupted Qianlong's deployment, so Qianlong could only re-promote one of the Manchu ministers to confront Zhang Tingyu.
At this time, Zhang Tingyu did not know whether he was confused or looked down on the newly promoted minister, changed his previous humble approach, and began to frequently reach out to the emperor to ask for rewards. The core of the reward is that Yongzheng once promised him to "enjoy the Taimiao Temple".
The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" records that the emperor was overwhelmed by the disturbance so he simply wrote a holy decree to him. The Holy Decree reads:
"Qing has received great favors from the two dynasties, and has been ordered by the emperor to enjoy the Taimiao Temple in the future."
However, Zhang Tingyu, who held the Holy Will, still did not give up, and asked the emperor to write him a letter of guarantee. The Qianlong Emperor had no choice but to write a letter of guarantee.
Zhang Tingyu was very satisfied after receiving the letter of guarantee, so he sent his son to the palace to thank the emperor on his behalf. This time also completely annoyed the emperor, so Qianlong immediately convened a meeting of the imperial court and made a decision to reduce his title.
What Qianlong did not expect was that Zhang Tingyu had only been born for one year, and in the fifteenth year of Qianlong the following year, Zhang Tingyu asked to return to his hometown. This time, the emperor did not save face, and even his only remaining privilege of "enjoying the Taimiao Temple" was abolished.
In this way, Zhang Tingyu slipped back to his hometown and died 5 years later at the age of 84.
However, in these 5 years, the Qianlong Emperor grew a lot, and he gradually understood Zhang Tingyu's cleverness. To this end, he obeyed his father's will and ordered Zhang Tingyu to enjoy the Taimiao Temple.
However, many people still do not understand, why did Zhang Tingyu do this, and what is so clever?
As mentioned earlier, Zhang Tingyu was a very capable person, and he also held many important official positions. However, people overlooked his part-time work as a hanlin yuanguo embassy, where he had an important work called the History of Ming.
If you want to write the "History of Ming" well, you must deeply understand the historical figures, so the life experience of Zhang Juzheng, the famous first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, must be clear to him. I would like to ask how a person as smart as zhang Juzheng would examine his situation at that time after seeing Zhang Juzheng's fate?
Yes, he had to choose to protect himself. Don't look at him like a day in the sky, but when the emperor can't tolerate him, he and his family will suffer. For this reason he chose to defile himself.
First, you can try the emperor's bottom line, and second, you can stay away from the center of power as soon as possible to avoid the tragic situation that may occur in the future. But the self-defilement method he chose was very clever, and he didn't say anything else, but specifically talked about "deserving of the Taimiao Temple".
The cleverness of this is that the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the testament, and he knew that Qianlong was a person who regarded himself very highly and could not tolerate himself being even a little stained. Therefore, he expected that Qianlong would not dare to disobey the testament and deprive him of the "taimiao temple" that he was worthy of.
This trick to ask for directions not only allows him to enjoy it in the last 5 years of his life, but also to get the "worthy of the Temple" he wants after death, if this is not smart, what is it?
And the facts confirmed his idea, and he did get everything he wanted in the end. Although it seems a bit miserable to others.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty