When the name Yan Liben is mentioned, I believe that the first reaction of most people is a famous painter. Indeed, in the history of ancient Chinese painting, Yan Liben was one of the top ten great painters who could rank in the top ten. His "Step Map" is listed among the top ten famous paintings in China, and is now collected in the Palace Museum as the treasure of the Forbidden City.
But what many people may not know is that the real Yan Liben in history actually has many other identities in addition to the identity of the painter. Moreover, compared with his rest of his identity, the identity of the painter is simply not worth mentioning.
Yan Liben was born in Chang'an in 601, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui. Yan Liben's family lineage was extremely prominent, his grandfather was the actual founder of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Tai; his grandfather was Yuwen Yong, the emperor of Northern Zhou. Friends who are familiar with the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties should know how good these two really are. Later, after Yang Jian usurped the throne of Northern Zhou, Yan Liben and his family did not suffer much impact. Moreover, Yan Liben and his father later became the guardian commander of the crown prince Yang Yong.
Unfortunately, Yang Yong was not very angry, and was later beaten down by Yang Guang. Because of Yang Yong's affairs, the Yan family was greatly affected. Yan Liben and his father and mother were even confiscated as official slaves for a time. But later, relying on the operation of the family background, he quickly became a civilian, and then relied on joining the army to fight, gradually restored his knighthood, and finally achieved the position of junior prisoner in the palace.
It is worth mentioning that according to the analysis of historical materials, before Yan Liben and his father served as the young supervisor in the palace, his previous junior supervisor in the palace was most likely the later Tang Gaozu Li Yuan. This position is generally held by a close person close to the emperor. Li Yuan is Yang Guang's cousin, and it is not surprising that he can hold this position. And Yan Liben and his father Yan Bi were originally Yang Yong's cronies before, and they were still able to sit in this position and become Yang Guang's cronies, which must be many legendary stories that are not recorded in the history books.
When Yan Liben was born, it was when the Yan family suffered a great disaster and his father and mother were relegated to civilians. However, as Yan Liben gradually grew up, the situation of the Yan family gradually improved. In addition, it is probably because of this period that the Yan family suffered, and Yan Liben and his father lost their official position and had nothing to do. Therefore, when Yan Liben was very young, his father began to teach him to draw.
Yan Liben and his family, since his grandfather's generation, have been very good at painting. Later, his father was able to be favored by Yang Yong and Yang Guang successively, and his superb painting skills were also one of the reasons. Under the influence of his father, Yan Liben also embarked on the road of painting and began to master this skill that helped him leave his name for eternity.
History proves that the ability to really survive is often not learned in school, but passed down from family to family.
However, when Yan Liben was thirteen years old, his father died. After the death of his father, the Sui Dynasty began to gradually chaos, and civil unrest broke out everywhere. Fortunately, at that time, the Yan family had been living in Chang'an, but it was not greatly affected. However, a few years later, Li Yuan raised an army from Taiyuan and then attacked Chang'an all the way into Guanzhong. Then Yang Guang died in Jiangdu again, and the Sui Dynasty was completely destroyed.
In 618, Li Yuan officially ascended the throne in Chang'an. This year, Yan Li should have been in Chang'an, and he had just turned eighteen.
Although the dynasty has changed, the Yan family's family lineage is still not to be underestimated. Therefore, after Yan Liben became an adult, he was able to smoothly enter the army as an official. Coincidentally, after Yan Liben entered the army, he happened to be assigned to the then Qin king Li Shimin and became the governor of Li Shimin's command.
In the following years, although Yan Liben did not make any great contributions, he was also considered to have run before and after Li Shimin's command, without merit and hard work, and gradually gained Li Shimin's recognition. In the ninth year of Wu De, when Yan Liben was 26 years old, the Xuanwumen Incident broke out, and then Li Shimin ascended the throne as emperor. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, Yan Liben also followed the official into the knighthood, and later successively served as the chief lord LangZhong, the punishment department attendant, and the general as a young supervisor.
Compared with those famous courtiers during the Zhenguan years, Yan Liben's talent was naturally not outstanding. However, as the world gradually became peaceful, the Yan family's heirloom painting talent began to gradually play a role. In ancient times, there was no camera, and even if an emperor like Li Shimin wanted to leave a portrait, he could only rely on painting. Moreover, some major events that happened in ancient times, people also like to record the pictures of that time in the form of paintings. Therefore, although the skill of painting was not respected and recognized by the mainstream literati at that time, if it could really be particularly good at painting, it would also be very popular.
It is precisely because of this skill that Yan Liben was favored by Li Shimin and gradually became Li Shimin's royal painter.
In the tenth year of Zhenguan, Yan Liben painted portraits of the six warhorses that Li Shimin had ridden in the name of Li Shimin, and then carved them on stone, which is the famous 'Zhaoling Liujun'. Today, when we go to Tang Zhaoling, we can still see these six horses, which were actually painted by Yan Liben at the beginning.
In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Tubo sent an envoy, Lu Dongzan, to Chang'an to ask for relatives. The princess who later asked to go back was princess Wencheng, who was famous in history. Such an important thing, Li Shimin naturally wanted Yan Liben to record this picture. This painting is one of the top ten famous paintings in the Palace Museum today, "Step Map".
In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, in order to commend the merits of the heroes, Li Shimin evaluated twenty-four meritorious heroes, which is the twenty-four heroes of the famous Lingyange in history. To this end, Li Shimin deliberately built a Ling Yan Pavilion, and at the same time asked Yan Liben to paint a painting for each of the twenty-four people. Unfortunately, Ling Yan Pavilion was later destroyed in the war, and these paintings were not left behind, if they were left to this day, they would definitely be national treasures.
Twenty years after Zhenguan, Li Shimin decided to repair the Cuiwei Palace outside the city because he hated the hot summer weather inside Chang'an City. Although Yan Liben was not proficient in architecture, painting and architecture were originally connected in ancient times, so this task naturally fell to Yan Liben. Later, Yan Liben participated in the repair of the Cuiwei Palace, which was deeply liked by Li Shimin, and finally Li Shimin died here.
From these experiences of Yan Liben, it is not difficult for us to find that Yan Liben's life, for a long time, relied on the ability to paint and made a living. Moreover, here we have to say one more thing: Yan Liben actually has an older brother named Yan Lide. Like Yan Liben, Yan Lide is also deeply rooted in the essence of family tradition and proficient in the way of painting. However, later, Yan Lide's way of pointing skill points was different, and he did not devote himself to painting like his younger brother Yan Liben, but was distracted by clothing design and architectural construction. The tombs of Li Yuan and Li Shimin's father and son were all designed and supervised by Yan Lide. Even the Cuiwei Palace was actually built under the auspices of Yan Lide.
To put it simply, the two brothers are responsible for the construction of the brother, and the younger brother is responsible for the decoration, which can also be regarded as covering the entire industrial chain.
After Li Shimin's death and Li Zhi ascended the throne. Within a few years, his brother Yan Lide died, and there were no heirloom works left behind, so his fame was small. Yan Liben lived longer, coupled with the identity of the former courtier, and then lived more moistly.
During the Yonghui period, Yan Liben was promoted to the post of envoy of Henan Province. Compared with the status of 'painter' during the Zhenguan period, Yan Liben now obviously has more real power. During his tenure as the deposed envoy of Henan Province, although Yan Liben did not make any particularly outstanding achievements, he influenced the fate of the Tang Dynasty decades later due to an unintentional move.
During his tenure, Yan Liben was responsible for the merit assessment of local officials. During the examination, Yan Liben met a grassroots official who was still very young at the time. When he saw this young official, Yan Liben's eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "I am a painter, and for me, there are two kinds of people under the heavens. One is what I want to paint, and the other is what I don't want to paint. You're the kind of person I want to draw you down the first time I see you. ”
In the eyes of Yan Liben at that time, this young official, although his official was low, was also very young. But the calmness revealed in the eyes is impossible to ignore, and it is definitely a young man who can be used as a pillar of talent. Therefore, after this evaluation, Yan Liben not only gave this young man a high praise. After returning to Beijing, he also strongly recommended this young man.
Later history proved that Yan Liben was still relatively accurate in seeing people.
This young man's name was Di Renjie.
We won't say much more about Di Renjie's story, but basically everyone knows it anyway. Many years later, it was precisely because of Di Renjie's words that Wu Zetian decided to return the throne to the Li family instead of passing it on to the Wu family. In a sense, everything that happens decades later, the original source, actually goes back to Yan Liben. Without Yan Liben's strong recommendation, I am afraid that there would be no later famous Di Renjie.
Of course, if that were the case, we probably wouldn't have the phrase 'Yuanfang, what do you think' today.
After returning to Beijing on this outing, it was not long before Li Zhi gave Yan Liben another important task. At that time, the monk Xuanzang, who had returned from a study tour in India, was actively translating scriptures and had already made great achievements. In order to praise Xuanzang's merits, and also to place the Buddha statues and scriptures that Xuanzang brought back, Li Zhi decided to build a pagoda to house these things. This pagoda is the famous Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an today. The task of building the Big Wild Goose Pagoda naturally fell on the head, and the illustrations and Buddha statues on the Big Wild Goose Pagoda were also written by Yan Liben.
After the construction of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, it coincided with the death of his brother Yan Lide, after which Yan Liben took over his brother's class and became a master of the Tang Dynasty, and then promoted to Shangshu of the Ministry of Works. After more than ten years, Yan Liben was promoted again to the post of Right Minister, and two years later he was promoted to Zhongshu Ling, which is what we normally call the prime minister.
Three years after his promotion to chancellor, in 673, Yan Liben died in office at the age of 73.
After reading Yan Liben's story, we can't help but get an inspiration: it is really important to master a craft as a person. No matter at any time, a strong technology is always the ability to settle down. In the legend of the Water Margin, there was finally a good man with a skill, and basically survived. But those good guys who have no technology are dead in the end.
And like Yan Liben, being able to master a top family heirloom craft is not only worry-free in the future, but also very helpful in his career. It is not impossible for one not to pay attention and become a prime minister by craftsmanship.