During the reign of Emperor Ming, Hu Shining, the crown prince at the time, was a very famous official, and in addition to serving as a shaobao, he also held the position of Zuo Du Yushi. Zuo Du's job was to examine the performance of the hundred officials and evaluate the behavior of the hundred officials, which was related to the promotion of the imperial court ministers, and the power was extremely great. Therefore, even if Hu Shining gave them a bad rating, these ministers did not dare to say anything, after all, Hu Shining controlled the life of these ministers.
At the end of this year, the performance appraisal work began again, when many ministers took the initiative to visit Hu Shining, and even no matter whether it was day or night, the gate of Hu Mansion was endless, and even the guests had to squeeze to enter Hu Shining's home. At this time, some people could not see it, and took the initiative to ask Emperor Xiaozong, not only to appeal for impeachment, but also to suggest that hundreds of officials be banned from entering and leaving Hu Shining's palace, because this phenomenon was too ostentatious and could easily encourage unhealthy trends.
When Hu Shining heard about this, he was calm and self-assured, and took the initiative to explain in front of the emperor, he said: My duty is to examine the character and performance of each minister, if I do not see the appearance of this person, I have not seen their words and deeds, how can I know if he is a person who is upright, loyal, and conscientious? I am now evaluating the performance officers, and if they are forbidden to meet with me, I can only judge by written reports and descriptions of others, which makes it difficult for me to get the real situation.
After listening to Hu Shining's explanation, the emperor recognized his point of view, not only did not blame Hu Shining but also nodded his head in praise, but also tacitly accepted him to continue to open the door to welcome guests.
Hu Shining's self-confidence actually comes from excellent capital
It is reasonable to say that Hu Shining, who evaluates officials, should avoid suspicion, but when he takes the initiative to contact these officials who are evaluated, is he really not afraid that someone will gossip about him behind his back, and even provoke the emperor? After all, if the emperor was angry and didn't give her a chance to explain, then he probably wouldn't even lose his life.
In fact, Hu Shining did have a certain courage and capital in doing so. As a prince Shaobao and Zuo Du Yushi, this position really needs a personality that is just and upright, and he is not afraid of shadow obliqueness, in addition to personality and morality, Hu Shining also has special capital.
In that year, during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, it coincided with a conspiracy by King Ning to rebel. Hu Shining, as a local envoy, found out that King Ning had misbehaved and directly submitted the recital to the emperor. Who knows, King Ning used his own power, not only turned his face and did not recognize people, but also sent people to persecute and assassinate Hu Shining. Fortunately, at that time, the Jinyi guards first caught Hu Shining and went directly to prison for interrogation. In prison, Hu Shining was still humble and unobtrusive, insisting on writing a recital to expose the rebellion of King Ning.
Later, King Ning did indeed rebel, and although he was vigorously suppressed by Wang Yangming and others, he also caused a lot of trouble. After that, Hu Shining was unjustly punished, and the imperial court reused it. Therefore, his personality must be deeply trusted by the emperor. It is precisely because of such history and qualifications that he dares to open his doors so openly.
Is there any merit in Hu Shining's view?
I think that those officials who visit Hu Shining will bring some valuable gifts, and even if he does not accept them, he can get the affection of these officials. From this point of view, although the Ming Dynasty had a clear system of assessing officials, this was also some compensation for the emperor's loyalty to Hu Shining in order to take care of the grievances suffered by him that year. And these capitals are one of the fundamentals that make Hu Shining righteous.
However, according to Hu Shining, there is still a lot of truth in thinking about it now. Whether ancient or modern, to evaluate a person and judge a person, we must not just listen to the dictations and rumors of others to understand how people are, which needs to be personally experienced and clearly judged.
Of course, everyone has advantages and disadvantages, and can not make all judgments through a short contact, let alone label a person based on one-sided words, which is likely to make us make a wrong decision, and even misunderstand others, thus missing the opportunity and leaving a regret experience of looking at people.
Therefore, from many aspects, Hu Shining, as the imperial history of the left capital, is still very wise, and this reason not only allows the emperor to continue to trust himself, but also turns bad things into praise, which can be described as very subtle.
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