Since ancient times, there have been many examples of kings and ministers who knew each other well. They supported each other and became wise kings and wise ministers praised by later generations. Li Si is to Qin Shihuang Yingzheng, Xiao He is to Han Emperor Liu Bang, Zhuge Liang

Since ancient times, there have been many examples of kings and ministers who knew each other well. They supported each other and became wise kings and wise ministers praised by later generations.

Li Si is to Qin Shihuang Ying Zheng, Xiao He is to Han Gaozu Liu Bang , Zhuge Liang is to Han Zhaolie Emperor Liu Bei, and of course Wei Zheng is to Tang Taizong Li Shimin.

Wei Zheng's real name is Wei Zheng. However, in order to simplify writing, later generations often write it as Wei Zheng. However, the name is just a code name, and the specific word is not important. What is important is what deeds he did that can be remembered in history.

Wei Zheng was an outstanding politician, thinker, writer and historian in the early years of the Tang Dynasty . He was an extremely famous and talented minister in history.

In the feudal period when imperial power was supreme, the emperor dominated everything. If you disobeyed the emperor's authority, your life would be in danger, so this also led to the emergence of many flattering villains in history. They wanted to please the emperor, and that was absolutely Be able to do what you like.

However, Wei Zheng was not such a person. He was a critic who dared to speak out and admonish the emperor.

But good advice is offensive to the ears. If you hear too many offensive words, you will naturally feel disgusted. It seems that Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was an exception.

In our impression, Tang Taizong was a good emperor who could listen to unpleasant words. He even boasted in front of his ministers many times that Wei Zheng was his "mirror".

At the beginning of the 17th year of Zhenguan, Wei Zheng passed away. Li Shimin was so sad that he immediately announced that he would abolish the court for five days and ordered all officials at home and abroad to attend his funeral. In order to praise him, he even ordered the prince Li Chengqian to honor him in Xihua Hall. To mourn, later when ranking the heroes of Lingyan Pavilion , Wei Zheng also ranked fourth.

Wei Zheng seemed to have become the pinnacle of civil servants by receiving such an honor, and Li Shimin was praised by history books for it. But many people don't know the tragic ending after Wei Zheng's death. His tombstone was pushed down and smashed by Li Shimin, and history teachers did not want to say more. explain.

So why did Li Shimin take Wei Zheng's tombstone to vent his anger? Is this just the way he praised Wei Zheng?

Li Shimin smashed Wei Zheng's tombstone

Compared with those who followed Li Shimin to conquer the world in the early days, Wei Zheng's political composition was very complicated. He initially followed Li Mi to participate in the Wagang Uprising, but was not reused.

After Li Yuan raised his army, he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. At that time, he did not expect that Li Shimin would launch a coup, so he did his best to assist the prince Li Jiancheng. Later, after the Xuanwumen coup, Wei Zheng began to assist Li Shimin.

What it was like when Wei Zheng assisted Li Jiancheng, there are not many records in the history books, but after Wei Zheng joined Li Shimin, he began the glorious path of committing Yan Zhijian.

Li Shimin did not accept Wei Zheng's advice with humility. Sometimes he was also annoyed. After all, he was the emperor, and he would make himself very angry. Therefore, Li Shimin once said to Empress Changsun :

Sooner or later, Kill the country bumpkin Wei Zheng.

However, under the comfort of Empress Changsun, Li Shimin did not really kill Wei Zheng, but still kept him by his side and let him supervise his words and deeds.

In the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, Wei Zheng was seriously ill. Li Shimin often sent people to visit him, and even invited the imperial doctor from the palace to treat him. However, Wei Zheng died the next year.

Li Shimin burst into tears and gave him the posthumous title of Sikong, posthumous title Wenzhen, and let him be buried with Zhaoling . After the Lingyan Pavilion was built, Wei Zheng also ranked fourth, and the Wei family became famous for a time.

However, it didn’t take long for the Wei family to experience hardship, because Li Shimin not only canceled the marriage between Princess Hengshan and Wei Zheng’s son, but also knocked down and smashed Wei Zheng’s tombstone. The Wei family was in panic all day long.

The reason why Li Shimin had such abnormal behavior has been speculated by future generations, but there are two theories that are more reliable.

It is disadvantageous for Wei Zheng to recommend talents.

As important ministers of the imperial court, they have to share the emperor's worries, and recommending talents is their obligation as ministers.

As a critic, Wei Zheng naturally had to shoulder this important task. Wei Zheng recommended two people to Li Shimin. The first was Du Zhenglun , and the second was Hou Junji .

Wei Zheng repeatedly recommended these two talents to Li Shimin, saying that they were highly talented and capable, and were more than enough to serve as prime ministers. Since Wei Zheng had already mentioned the power of these two people, Li Shimin naturally could not let them go. After all, he wanted to establish a virtuous king. image of.

Therefore, after Wei Zheng passed away, Li Shimin vigorously promoted these two people to show the world that he was a person who loved talents and would obey the recommendations of his officials.

But what Li Shimin didn't expect was that these two people had dirty intestines in their stomachs.

Du Zhenglun had a bad mind. While holding an important position, he secretly leaked the forbidden Chinese language and was demoted from the capital. Later, he was involved in Li Chengqian's rebellion case and was exiled.

Hou Junji was a famous general in the Tang Dynasty, and he was also a general who followed Li Shimin in all directions. He also contributed a lot in the Xuanwu Gate incident , and was later named one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion by Li Shimin.

Logically speaking, there is no problem in recommending such a person, but this Hou Junji was exposed to be directly involved in Li Chengqian's rebellion case, and was sentenced to death.

The two people recommended by Wei Zheng were both related to the rebellion case, which forced Li Shimin to rethink Wei Zheng's thoughts. He believed that Wei Zheng was actually an accomplice in the rebellion case. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?

Wei Zheng's cleverness

Recommending talents was a big mistake. This was not enough for Li Shimin to smash Wei Zheng's tombstone. However, when Li Shimin had problems with Wei Zheng, he discovered Wei Zheng's cleverness.

We all know that Wei Zheng is known for his straightforward remonstrances. Since he went to remonstrate with Li Shimin, he naturally felt that Li Shimin did something wrong. This is actually understandable. After all, no one is perfect.

But what Li Shimin couldn't accept was that Wei Zheng actually compiled all his suggestions and advice, and showed them to Chu Suiliang, the historian at the time.

Maybe many people think there is no problem with this, but in fact there is a big problem here, because the historian wants to record every word and deed of the emperor. Wei Zheng will show his suggestions and suggestions to the historian, which will obviously allow the historian to record his own shortcomings and mistakes. .

What made Li Shimin even more angry was that some of his privacy details about his life style were also recorded by Wei Zheng, such as Li Shimin's marriage and concubinage. Wei Zheng also did his part to prevent Empress Changsun from looking for a talented and beautiful person for Li Shimin. A woman from the Zheng family.

Li Shimin cared very much about the image in history books. We can still find signs that the history of the early Tang Dynasty was deleted in history books. Therefore, Wei Zheng's move of compiling his opinions into a book and presenting it to historians made Li Shimin even more disgusted.

When a person is disliked, there are naturally many people around him who would add insult to injury, and those ministers who had been impeached by Wei Zheng took the opportunity to speak ill of him in front of Li Shimin.

Therefore, people speculate that under the cross-influence of these two incidents, Li Shimin's accumulated anger against Wei Zheng for his long-term reprimands could no longer be suppressed, and finally led him to smash Wei Zheng's tombstone.

It can be seen from this that Wei Zheng and Li Shimin are not as harmonious as we think. Their union is only due to political needs. It is precisely because Li Shimin needs someone to help him establish a positive image that Wei Zheng became a critic.

References: "Old Book of Tang", "New Book of Tang", etc.

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