Speaking of the name Fang Qiao, perhaps everyone will sound strange, but if Fang Xuanling is mentioned, everyone will think of it: the founding father of the Tang Dynasty, and Du Ruyi's name. "Xuan Ling" is the character of Fang Qiao, whose ancestral home is QiZhou and is one of the most notable politicians of the Tang Dynasty.
Many friends have attributed all the credit for the "rule of Zhenguan" to Li Shimin, in fact, this prosperous world is also inseparable from Fang Qiao's efforts, it can be said that Fang Qiao is the greatest in the creation of this prosperous world.
Like most of the most brilliant courtiers, Fang Qiao showed a superhuman literary talent from an early age, talented, well-read, and good at writing. When Fang Qiao was eighteen years old, he stood out in the examination room, and became famous at a young age. In addition to his talent, Fang Qiao has had a very keen sense of politics since childhood.
As early as the prosperous period of the Sui Dynasty, Fang Qiao had already seen from various clues that the Sui Dynasty was about to collapse.
According to the Old Book of Tang, in 617 AD, that is, the thirteenth year of the reign of the Sui Emperor, Li's father and son rebelled against the Sui in Taiyuan, and Li Yuan's second son Li Shimin was dispatched to the Weibei area to fight the main force of the Sui army. On this occasion, Fang Qiao chose to abandon the dark and cast the light, resolutely and resolutely broke away from the ruling city and became a staff general under Li Shimin.
Li Shimin, who was in the entrepreneurial period, was thirsty for talent, he had long heard of Fang Qiao's name, and now, seeing fang Qiao take the initiative to join Li Tang, he was overjoyed and appointed him to join the army as the marching office of Weibei Province. In the major affairs and small affairs of the army, Li Shimin must first consult Fang Qiao, and over time Fang Qiao has become the mastermind of the Qin King's palace.
"Xuan Ling also thinks that he has met a confidant, and he has exhausted his heart and soul to know everything." The encounter of the wise lord gave Fang Qiao the opportunity to display his ideal ambitions, and in order to repay Li Shimin, Fang Qiao devoted himself to Li Shimin from the day he surrendered to Tang and wholeheartedly helped Li Tang fight in the country. Whenever the Tang army won a battle, the generals would often fight for the spoils of war, but Fang Xuanling never cared about these yellow and white things, and only considered how to expand the strength of the King of Qin and recruit all kinds of heroes.
In addition, Fang Qiao also had the ability of Soma, and Du Ruyi, a civil servant under Li Shimin, came to the Qin King's Palace through Fang Qiao's strong recommendation, and finally, became a pillar of the country with the same name as Fang Qiao. When Li Shimin conquered the world, the careful Fang Qiao also devoted himself to collecting the people's sentiments of various states and counties, as well as books published by the Sui Dynasty, and drawing a blueprint for the future Li Tangjiangshan. All of this shows Fang Qiao's extraordinary foresight and wisdom.
In May of the fourteenth year of Daye, Li Yuan finally got his wish, usurped Sui instead, and changed the name of the country to Tang.
Fang Qiao was appointed as the Imperial Household of the Qin Dynasty for his meritorious service, and was given the title of Marquis of Linzi. With the elimination of external troubles in the Li And Tang Dynasty, the internal contradictions between the father and son of the Li clan gradually became prominent, and the power struggle between father and son and brother became more and more intense, mainly focusing on the struggle for imperial power. Li Shimin, as the second son of Gao zu and the greatest contributor to Li Tang's foundation, was far above the crown prince Jiancheng and the fourth prince Yuanji.
As Li Shimin's prestige grew, the suspicion of the crown prince Jianjian and the fourth prince Yuan Ji became deeper and deeper, believing that Li Shimin would one day usurp imperial power and threaten the position of the prince and the fourth prince. Therefore, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji colluded with each other and formed a political alliance, intending to put the second prince Li Shimin to death.
At this point, an infighting in the Li Tang royal family was inevitable.
Because Fang Qiao and others were blessed by Li Shimin's cultivation, Fang Qiao and other Qin palace ministers stood firmly behind Li Shimin in this political struggle. As the conflict between the princes intensified and reached an irreconcilable point, Fang Qiao took the initiative to find Princess Changsun of Qin's elder brother Changsun Wuji to discuss countermeasures, and the two had the same views on the matter of the sons taking the concubine, and immediately after the two of them met Li Shimin and suggested that the King of Qin "obey the affairs of the Duke of Zhou, the Outer Ning Huaxia, and the Inner An Sect Society".
So, what is "doing the work of the Weekly Communiqué"?
The implication was that it was hoped that the King of Qin would follow the example of the Duke of Zhou and eliminate the uneasy elements, including Li Jiancheng, so as to achieve the purpose of Annei and stabilize the Li Tang Dynasty. Soon, the two men's suggestions were responded to by Li Shimin, and a group of aides led by Fang Qiao and Changsun Wuji plotted a grand plan in the Palace of Qin, intending to launch a palace coup to wipe out Li Jiancheng's clique. In the sixth year of WuDe, Li Shimin led his soldiers to brazenly launch the "Xuanwumen Rebellion" and killed his two brothers under the sword.
Although Fang Qiao did not directly participate in the war in this coup, he always looked at the overall situation behind the scenes, and almost all the battle plans were all from Fang Qiao's hands. Soon after the coup d'état, Li Yuan took the initiative to cede imperial power, and Zen was located in the second prince Li Shimin. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he changed his era name to Zhenguan for Emperor Taizong of Tang. In 629, Fang Qiao, who had worked hard and meritoriously, was appointed as Shangshu Zuo's servant and temporarily acted as the prime minister.
In the following twenty years, Fang Qiao always performed the post of prime minister, and co-managed the government with Du Ruyi, who he guaranteed. In terms of the cooperation between Fang and Du in the political arena, Fang Qiao is good at strategy, And Du Ruqian is good at judging, and the political styles of the two complement each other and cooperate closely. In addition, Fang Qiao was unanimously praised by the Manchu Dynasty for his rigorous style and upright character, and the foreign court ministers at that time highly praised Fang Qiao.
Moreover, Li Shimin even gave Fang Qiao a high evaluation of "talent and algae Han, thinking into the gods of the machine, being an official and encouraging the festival, and offering to forget the body". Even the Yanguan clique, who could not tolerate sand in their eyes, praised Fang Qiao's personality and political ability, and Wang Jue, a courtier with the same name as Wei Zheng, once commented on Fang Qiao: "Diligently serve the country, know everything, and the subject is not as good as Xuan Linghei." The author believes that Wang Jue's evaluation is very pertinent, and it is also the most appropriate and appropriate evaluation of Fang Qiao's political career.
It is reasonable to say that a generation of sages like Fang Xuanling, who has not leaked everything, should have had a smooth political career, but this is not the case. Fang Qiao has experienced three ups and downs in the official arena, among which there are many details worth playing.
The Zizhi Tongjian details three crises in Fang Qiao's political career:
The first time was in 636, the year of the death of Li Shimin's original wife, Changsun Shi. When empress dowager Changsun was sick in bed, Fang Qiao was criticized by Li Shimin for the first time and was suspended from his post and went home to reflect. After hearing about this incident, the Eldest Sun Clan said to her husband: "Fang Qiao has done his best for His Majesty and has always been watertight; for the confidential affairs of the DPRK, Fang Qiao has never revealed a single word to the outside world. Therefore, if there is no other reason, I hope that His Majesty will not embarrass him. ”
The second time was in 646 AD, Fang Qiao once again angered Long Yan because of a trivial matter, and was driven home to face the wall. To this end, many ministers of culture and military affairs wrote letters to intercede for Fang Qiao, and Chu Suiliang mentioned in the song chapter: "Fang Qiao has followed His Majesty since the time of Li's army, made extraordinary achievements in the pacification of the world, participated in the decision-making in the subsequent Xuanwumen Incident, and planned the political pattern for His Majesty in the early years of Zhenguan. If you talk about the merits of the courtiers, no one can get out of the house. Such a pillar of the country, if he had not done anything to raise troops and cause rebellion, should not have been expelled from the imperial court. Even if Fang Qiao is old and is no longer able to do anything about the government, His Majesty should properly arrange for him to return to his hometown for the elderly and treat him with courtesy. The subject believed that His Majesty should not deny the credit of a founding father for some minor transgression. ”
The day after the courtiers wrote the letter, Li Shimin recalled Fang Qiao to the imperial palace.
After some time, Fang Xuanling was inexplicably driven home, but this time, no more details were recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian. Perhaps Li Shimin was looking for steps for himself, and it wasn't long before Li Shimin claimed that he was going to drive to the Furong Garden. When Fang Qiao heard the news, he immediately ordered someone to clean up at home, because he guessed that Li Shimin would definitely visit Fang's house during his trip.
Sure enough, driving to the Furong Garden was just a cover for Li Shimin, and he did "by the way" to the Fang Mansion after visiting the garden, and then, "by the way", he took the wrong Fang Qiao back to the palace, as if this storm had never happened.
The author really can't figure out, with Fang Qiao's cautious personality, what kind of pigtails he has been caught in Li Shimin's hands. According to historical records, Fang Qiao did not leak anything for people. Fang Qiao's son Fang Yi'ai married Li Shimin's daughter Princess Gaoyang, and Fang Qiao's daughter married the King of Han, and Fang Qiao naturally became a relative of the emperor. However, Fang Qiao was well versed in the most reasonable saying that He would benefit from the loss of Qian, and when Li Shimin intended to appoint Fang Qiao as the "Young Master of the Prince", Fang Qiao voluntarily refused to be promoted and applied to be transferred from the political center.
Li Shimin was extremely dependent on Fang Qiao, he did not approve Fang Qiao's recital, and issued an edict ordering Fang Qiao not to take office soon, and Fang Qiao had no choice but to concurrently serve as the prince's master. When the crown prince was preparing to pay homage to Fang Qiao, Fang Qiao excused himself and did not receive the ceremony. After the people at that time heard about this incident, they all praised Fang Qiao's character and felt that Fang Qiao was a person who was sensible and sensible. In the era of absolute monarchy, Tang Taizong's way of taming people was a must, an art for rulers to manipulate their courtiers, and a means for later emperors to follow suit.
Enwei and Shi, that is, the colloquial "carrot and stick". Li Shimin must always feel his absolute control over the imperial power and show his authority to the people of the world. Throughout the ages, countless ministers have taken the wrong path on this issue, and those who have made great achievements and shocked the lords such as the nian tang yao have died on the emperor's bottom line. Fang Qiao knows Li Shimin's bottom line, knows when to stop at the right time, and how to retreat bravely, so that he can walk idly in the uncertain political arena.
If the relationship between kings and subjects is regarded as a game, then only those who understand and abide by the rules of the game will coordinate and synchronize between kings and subjects. It is precisely because Li Shimin and Fang Qiao both understand this rule that there are one of the few peaceful and prosperous times in history- the rule of Zhenguan.
Resources:
[Old Book of Tang", "New Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian"]