Zhang Tingyu (張廷玉), courtesy name Hengchen (衡臣), was a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, who was deeply trusted and relied upon by Yongzheng, and was the only one of the Han ministers of the Qing Dynasty who deserved to enjoy the Taimiao Temple. However, during the Qianlong period, Zhang Tingyu was beaten by Qianlong and almost deprived of the honor of enjoying the Taimiao Temple. Then, why was Zhang Tingyu beaten by Qianlong's body skinless, and why did Qianlong treat Zhang Tingyu like this?
The author believes that this has to be found from both Zhang Tingyu himself and Qianlong:
From Zhang Tingyu's point of view, first of all, Zhang Tingyu's interpersonal relations are not good enough, and he has a deep contradiction with Ortai. Unfortunately, Ortai was a Manchu, Qianlong himself trusted the Manchus even more, Zhang Tingyu did a good job, after all, he was also a Han Chinese, and the difference in race was always a knot in Qianlong's heart. In addition, Zhang Tingyu was Qianlong's father Yongzheng's confidant, not exactly Qianlong's confidant, and under ortai's occasional incitement, Qianlong's trust in Zhang Tingyu faded day by day. Most importantly, Zhang Tingyu and Ertai involved not only the interpersonal relationship between the two people, but also the position and handling of many of their followers, and the discord between the two people eventually gradually turned into Zhang E's party struggle. Although Qianlong did not get angry, he had been doing peace with the mud, but this did not mean that he did not have mustard in his heart.
Again, Zhang Tingyu is a relatively stubborn and stubborn person, and he is easily emotional. Under the influence of this personality, Zhang Tingyu will inevitably have some skirmishes with Qianlong. And Qianlong's personality in modern terms is a person who feels very good about himself, he often paints inscriptions for the name, but unfortunately lacks composition knowledge, etc., coupled with the fact that the words are not good enough, Changsheng destroys the artistic conception of the whole painting, but he does not know himself, and he still mentions it happily, which is also a point that he is criticized by posterity. Such an emperor who was so confident that he was even a little conceited, it was inevitable that he would be dissatisfied with Zhang Tingyu's somewhat "thorny" personality. Although it did not break out on the spot, with the accumulation of dissatisfaction, this was also an important reason why Qianlong spared no effort to clean up Zhang Tingyu in the later period.
In addition, Zhang Tingyu in the later period also had a little suspicion of relying on the old and selling the old. Qianlong thirteen years (1748), just after the New Year, everyone is still immersed in the celebration of the festival, Zhang Tingyu suddenly wrote a letter to want to return to the hometown, Qianlong is naturally kind to persuade each other, Zhang Tingyu only gave up. Another year later, Zhang Tingyu mentioned the old matter again, and Qianlong reluctantly agreed to his wish to beg for bones. If that's the end of the matter, it can be considered a great joy for everyone. However, Zhang Tingyu was also confused, worried that if he retired in this way, he would not be able to enjoy the honor of enjoying the Taimiao Temple, and even reminded Qianlong not to forget, and even wanted a promise from Qianlong. This is infuriating Qianlong, the former emperor praised you is indeed your honor, but you are grinning at the current emperor to ask for it is a bit wrong.
Although Qianlong was not happy, he still endured it, and the next day he wrote a poem and agreed to his request. Zhang Tingyu was so happy when he learned that he forgot his form, and such a great grace did not come to thank him personally, but only instructed his son to thank him on his behalf. Qianlong was furious and urged Fu Heng and Wang Youdun to write an edict for Zhang Tingyu to play back. Who had thought that before the edict had been issued, Zhang Tingyu would come to the Inner Court himself to thank him. What happened, it turned out that Wang Youdun was Zhang Tingyu's protégé, and he had reported to Zhang Tingyu in advance. Cleverness was mistaken by cleverness, and Zhang Tingyu's move undoubtedly exposed his own eyeliner at the military plane. Seriously, this is forming a party for personal gain. And how could such a suspicious emperor as Qianlong tolerate it? With this as the fuse, Qianlong began a comprehensive liquidation of Zhang Tingyu.
Let's look at Qianlong's perspective. In fact, although Zhang Tingyu was wrong, the punishment given to him by Qianlong in the later period was really heavy. Another important reason for this result is the use of the Imperial Heart Technique. "One heavenly son and one courtier", the truth of this sentence must be understood by everyone. And as we said earlier, Zhang Tingyu was Yongzheng's confidant, a vassal of Yongzheng's legacy, and not Qianlong's true confidant, so it was inevitable that Qianlong would cleanse Zhang Tingyu in order to personally promote his own cronies. And Yongzheng's trust and appreciation of Zhang Tingyu is also self-evident, and even gave him the honor of enjoying the Taimiao Temple, it can be said that Yongzheng gave Zhang Tingyu all the glory that he can have as a "human subject". And "when the moon is full, it loses, and when the tide rises, it falls", and the same is true for the way of officials. When you reach the top, you will inevitably go downhill. When a person has nothing to reward, all that is left is punishment.
There is also the partisan struggle between Zhang Tingyu and Ortai that we mentioned earlier, and Qianlong played the role of peacemaker in the middle. But Qianlong is not a fool, why are you willing to do this work with thin mud? The biggest reason is still for the sake of separation of powers and checks and balances in order to control the group of subjects. Later, Ertai passed away, and the E-Party group was leaderless and its strength was greatly reduced. At this time, Zhang Tingyu not only lost his political value of balancing power, but also appeared to be particularly "outstanding". The reason for the gun to shoot the head bird is not difficult to understand, no one helped him to bear the firepower together, and most of Qianlong's liquidation naturally fell on Zhang Tingyu's head.
Zhang Tingyu's tragic ending not only allows us to deeply understand the phrase "character determines success or failure", but also understands the restrictiveness and backwardness of imperial power in feudal autocratic society. A life of caution and diligence, but ended up in such a sad end!