In "Yongzheng Dynasty", there is such a very strange plot, which is always interesting:
Emperor Yongzheng wanted to kill Li Fu, and all the ministers in the court knelt outside the main hall to plead for mercy. In the main hall, Laosan Aixinjueluo Yinzhi was also pleading with Emperor Yongzheng, saying that in the worst case, I, the prince, would no longer want to take Li Fu's life, but Yongzheng ignored him.
Later, Prince Bao Aixinjueluo· Hongli also came to the palace to intercede for Li Fu. He knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing. He also kept pleading, begging Emperor Ama not to kill Li Fu. Fu, Emperor Yongzheng still ignored him.
At this time, the third Yinzhi said again: "With a biological son and me as a biological brother, the face is finally enough, right? I don't want the grace of not kneeling in front of the emperor..." Then he and Hong Together with , kneeled on the ground.
At this time, Emperor Yongzheng slowly turned around, slowly took out an edict from his sleeve, handed it to Prince Bao Hongli and said: Take it and save Li Fu. Hongli was overjoyed and immediately took the edict. Without even saying goodbye, he immediately walked out of the hall to rescue Li Fu. At this time, the third child Yinzhi complained, since you had prepared this edict of pardon a long time ago, why did you take it out just now?
Yes, since Emperor Yongzheng had prepared to pardon Li Fu a long time ago, why did Hongli kowtow countless times without relenting? As soon as the third son Yinzhi knelt on the ground, Emperor Yongzheng immediately asked Hongli to rescue Li Fu. ?
In fact, this plot is a fabricated story based on the most famous real event during the Yongzheng Dynasty - Tian Wenjing and Li Fu's mutual participation incident...
1, such a capable person.
Speaking of the mutual impeachment incident between Tian Wenjing and Li Fu, we have to talk about the other protagonist of this story—Tian Wenjing.
Tian Wenjing did not have a good reputation in history. Most people called him a cool official. Just how cool he was was mostly related to his affairs in Henan. As the later Emperor Qianlong said, Since Tian Wenjing Since he became the governor and governor, he has been demanding and demanding, and his subordinates have resumed their will. Exploitation has become a common practice, and the people of Henan have been deeply troubled..
It is incredible for an emperor to make such a harsh evaluation of a feudal official who was highly praised by his father.
In fact, when Tian Wenjing was in the Yongzheng Dynasty, he was really an extraordinary existence. He was one of Yongzheng's "three model governors". The other two were Governor of Zhejiang Li Wei and Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Ortai . Yongzheng paid special attention to Tian Wenjing, so much so that after Tian Wenjing's death, Emperor Yongzheng even ordered that Tian Wenjing be buried near his imperial mausoleum.
In "Yongzheng Dynasty", Tian Wenjing looks like he is in his thirties. In fact, in history, Tian Wenjing was already over 60 years old when he gained the favor of Emperor Yongzheng. He was definitely a late-blooming representative of the courtiers.
Tian Wenjing in history was probably not very good at studying, so he only had the status of a supervisory student, which meant that he had not passed the scientific examination, and was nothing more than a person who promoted people or Jinshi. He only studied once in the Imperial College . This status In that era where the number one scholar in the scientific examination was the norm, there was indeed something wrong.
Therefore, Tian Wenjing should have a grudge about this, after all, he does not have a formal diploma.
In the 22nd year of Kangxi, Tian Wenjing was appointed as the county magistrate of Changle County, Fujian as a supervisor, and later the magistrate of Ningxiang County, Shanxi. After that, he was not promoted to the magistrate of Yizhou, Zhili Province until the 44th year of Kangxi. After working as a county-level cadre for more than 20 years, he finally became the magistrate. However, he only stayed in this position for a year before he was transferred to the capital as a member of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which was also considered a deputy department-level cadre.
Tian Wenjing worked in this position for more than ten years. In the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi's reign, he was promoted to cabinet minister, equivalent to a senior secretary at the department level. He was already 56 years old.
In the following years, he successively served as a doctor in the Ministry of Justice, a censor of supervision, etc. When Emperor Kangxi died and Emperor Yongzheng came to the throne, Tian Wenjing was 61 years old. According to the truth, after struggling all his life, Tian Wenjing left as a supervisor. By now, I should be satisfied, after all, I have reached retirement age.
However, in this year, something happened, and Tian Wenjing's identity began to reverse.
In the first year of Yongzheng's reign, for some unknown reason, Tian Wenjing was attracted by Emperor Yongzheng and sent him to Mount Huashan to offer sacrifices. But in this year, a disaster occurred in Shanxi. Ask the court for disaster relief.
So Emperor Yongzheng asked Deyin, the governor of Shanxi, about the disaster in Shanxi. Deyin replied that there was no disaster in Shanxi.
At this time, Tian Wenjing returned to the capital to offer sacrifices and went to the palace to see Emperor Yongzheng. He told Emperor Yongzheng that when he passed by Shanxi to offer sacrifices, a serious famine occurred in Shanxi and a large number of hungry people died of starvation. Carry out relief operations and allow the disaster to develop.
Emperor Yongzheng was shocked and greatly appreciated Tian Wenjing's outspokenness. He immediately ordered Tian Wenjing to go to Shanxi to take charge of disaster relief as the acting chief envoy of Shanxi.
This appointment became an important turning point in Tian Wenjing's career. From then on, he skyrocketed and was out of control.
After Tian Wenjing arrived in Shanxi, he teamed up with local officials to quickly control the disaster. At the same time, facing the corruption and procrastination in Shanxi's officialdom, he carried out drastic rectification and vigorously promoted officialdom. He quickly clarified the long-term accumulation of official duties and eliminated them. The original chronic diseases have changed the appearance of Shanxi officialdom.
The changes in Shanxi made the ambitious Emperor Yongzheng ecstatic. He sighed: "Why has no one praised such a capable person so far?"
2, the pioneer of Emperor Yongzheng's reforms.
In fact, the situation in Shanxi is just a microcosm of the Qing Dynasty at that time. In the later years of Emperor Kangxi, the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty was unclear and corruption became increasingly serious. After Emperor Yongzheng came to power, he was determined to reform.
However, his reforms were blocked by all walks of life inside and outside the court, especially the Manchu and nobles.
The appearance of Tian Wenjing and what he did in Shanxi gave Emperor Yongzheng hope. In the first month of the second year of Yongzheng's reign, Emperor Yongzheng, who was full of expectations for Tian Wenjing, ordered that Tian Wenjing be transferred to Henan as the chief envoy. In August, he would act as governor of Henan, and in December he would be appointed as the actual governor.
Tian Wenjing's talents were completely stimulated.
He checked the deficits in Henan and adopted the "examination and pursuit method" implemented in Shanxi. He brought all the officials who had been found to be in debt to Kaifeng and conducted rigorous interrogations one by one to find out where they were in office and where they were from. property, and then the committee members went to inspect and verify it, and ordered it to be sold to make compensation. The shortfalls of those who have resigned must also be traced to the end.
He said to those who had illusions: "Those who speak earnestly and listen to them are despised, and they are willing to be disobedient. If there is no change of appointment, they are impartial." Soon, Huang Zhenguo, the magistrate of Xinyang Prefecture, and Fu Zhicheng, the magistrate of Guangshan County, etc. A group of greedy and lawless officials were quickly dismissed from their posts and investigated, and Henan's officialdom was completely new.
Tian Wenjing's vigorous rectification in Henan achieved immediate results. In less than half a year, the deficit of the Chief Treasurer was made up, and Henan's finances basically improved.
At this time, Tian Wenjing also became a capable minister and official in the eyes of Emperor Yongzheng. In July of the fifth year of Yongzheng, Tian Wenjing was specially awarded the governor of Henan by Emperor Yongzheng, and was awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of War. In May of the sixth year of Yongzheng, Tian Wenjing was awarded the title of Governor of Henan. Governor of Shandong, this position was specially created for him and there is no fixed rule.
Tian Wenjing, who is over 60 years old, expressed his gratitude to Emperor Yongzheng for his kindness in knowing him. He wrote: " I am a mediocre person, but I am very humble." I am sincere and do not dare to show any mercy.”
From these words, we can see Tian Wenjing’s grateful mood. As the saying goes, a scholar will die for his confidant. Therefore, he spared no effort to implement the New Deal for Emperor Yongzheng. A series of reform policies that could not be implemented elsewhere were fully implemented in Henan. Implementation.
Waste envy returned to the public policy: In response to the behavior of various local governments in collecting additional taxes in the name of smelting silver ingots and losses in money and grain transportation, Tian Wenjing required all levels to implement the reform policy of Emperor Yongzheng. The local government will return all consumption and to the province. Except for part of it to make up for the local deficit, the rest will be used as money to support officials, increase their income, and reduce corruption and bribery; The tax policy resulted in the poor without land and income having to pay taxes, and the rich with land and income not paying taxes, and the resulting negative consequences of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Tian Wenjing resolutely implemented Emperor Yongzheng's policy. He advocated that the capitation tax be spread into the acres of land and levied together with the land tax, that is, the tax should be collected according to the amount of land owned. This immediately stimulated the enthusiasm of farmers and severely hit the interests of the landlords.
Faced with these landlords. The gentry ensued in passive confrontation and concealed the transfer of land. Tian Wenjing implemented strict supervision and required the private sector and states and counties to report truthfully. In the first year, more than 2,500 hectares of hidden land were discovered, achieving good results.
It can be said that without Emperor Yongzheng, it would be difficult to have the prosperous Qianlong era. After Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng tried his best to push the Qing Dynasty forward again
. A set of data can illustrate that in the early days of Yongzheng, the population of the Qing Dynasty was only 100 million. In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, the year when Emperor Yongzheng died, the population of the Qing Dynasty tripled and soared to 300 million. This proves that Under the rule of Yongzheng, the country was peaceful and the people were safe, and the society was developing stably. Therefore, the population multiplied rapidly.
This population began to lay the foundation for China to become a country with a large population. This can also be seen from this. The policies are indispensable, because people began to dare to have children.
And all this, without Tian Wenjing's role as a pioneer in Emperor Yongzheng's reforms, without Tian Wenjing being fearless and not afraid of offending officials and scholar-bureaucrats, at the age of more than 60 years old. , working all day long to ensure the smooth implementation of the New Deal in Henan and setting an example for other provinces. It is hard to imagine whether Emperor Yongzheng's reforms would have been successful.
Some people say that Tian Wenjing is a cruel official and is demanding of people. In fact, we can. Imagine how a reformer can carry out reforms if he does not have an iron fist and faces strong resistance. Moreover, these reforms still offend the interests of the existing bureaucratic gentry and Manchu aristocrats. We can imagine how difficult it would be to implement them. How great the difficulty is. We can also imagine what would have happened to Tian Wenjing without Emperor Yongzheng's full protection.
Emperor Yongzheng once clearly expressed his love for Tian Wenjing in his reply to Tian Wenjing: " I am such a man, such a temperament, and such an emperor. If you ministers can live up to me, I will never live up to you again. Wait and do it. "
" Don't shy away from anything, go boldly, Paul will always be safe. "
Tian Wenjing's iron fist and the successful case of tough implementation of reforms enabled Emperor Yongzheng to promote various reforms throughout the country. Therefore, in history, Tian Wenjing was a cruel official, while Emperor Yongzheng was a ruthless emperor.
3, the arrival of Li Fu.
After talking about Tian Wenjing, let’s take a look at Li Fu.
Different from Tian Wenjing, Li Fu's reputation in history is much better. He was a child prodigy. He was able to write poems at the age of ten. He established a poetry club with Mr. Li Zhong at the age of twelve. He ranked first in the Jiangxi Provincial Examination at the age of twenty-nine and ranked first in the Jiangxi Provincial Examination at the age of thirty. He became a Jinshi at the age of three, was selected as a Shujishi, and was born in Kejia with a decent son of eight hundred.
Because he served as the deputy examiner of the examination, he has a lot of fans and students under his command, and he is like a leader of scholars, which is the so-called leader of the Qing school.
Because of this, Emperor Yongzheng also paid special attention to him. There was no way, this was a force, including those who opposed Emperor Yongzheng's reforms also wanted to capture this force, such as the "Baye Party" , this is what Emperor Yongzheng least wants to see.
In fact, although Emperor Yongzheng attached great importance to Li Fu and gave him important responsibilities, Li Fu had a conservative attitude towards Emperor Yongzheng's reform policies. For example, he was relatively supportive of Emperor Yongzheng's policy of returning natives to exile. I am quite resistant to the policies of that everyone works as a cadre, , and the gentry working together as Servants. Especially in , gentry working together as Servants, is simply opposed.
Therefore, when Li Fu was the governor of Guangxi, he implemented the policies of Emperor Yongzheng relatively well. During that period, he investigated and punished the former governor of Guangxi Chen Yuanlong and others for embezzling more than 824,700 taels of silver donations, and obtained the approval of Emperor Yongzheng. commends .
In August of the third year of Yongzheng's reign, Li Fu was appointed as the governor-general of Zhili. In this year, Li Fu passed by Henan and saw Tian Wenjing's reform policy of integrating gentry and gentry into responsibilities, and he suddenly became furious.
Image of Gentlemen in the Qing Dynasty
At that time, because Henan Province was located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, with sedimentation and riverbed elevation, the Yellow River was prone to flooding and disasters. As the governor and governor of Henan, Tian Wenjing made the management of the Yellow River a top priority. Therefore, Every flood season, the Yellow River embankment must be reinforced.
Due to the problem of insufficient manpower, Henan began to implement the policy of "the gentry working as errands and paying the grain as one". Therefore, the scholars and gentry who did not have to participate in hard labor had to go to the river embankment, otherwise they would have to pay to hire people to replace them. This The promulgation of the policy aroused strong dissatisfaction among the gentry in Henan. Coupled with Tian Wenjing's care during the implementation process, a student strike occurred in Fengqiu, Henan.
There was no way. Originally, the gentry class was enjoying the privilege of being exempted from corvee and taxation granted by the court. You deprived them of it all at once. No one could bear it. So, with the support of some gentry, the students began to Stop taking the exam.
In the second year of Yongzheng's reign, only 23 of the more than 130 scholars in Fengqiu County took the exam. When the Kaifeng Prefecture academy was taking the exam, the scholars who were on strike began to gather in crowds to block the gate. Not only did they not take the exam themselves, but they also prevented others from taking the exam. candidates, forcibly snatched and tore up the test papers of a few candidates.
This behavior was connived and even secretly supported by officials from Henan Province.
Tian Wenjing asked Emperor Yongzheng to deal with this strictly and beheaded the two leaders in public, ensuring the smooth implementation of the integrated work of gentry and gentry. With sufficient manpower and careful governance, it not only ensured the safety of life and property of the people on both sides of the Yellow River , also played an important role in the smooth flow of water transportation.
Emperor Yongzheng greatly commended Tian Wenjing for this, "The river work was in order, the embankments were firmly guarded, the river floods were stable, the years were prosperous, the collar was fearful of the law, he led his subordinates upright, the place was peaceful, and everything was done impartially and cleanly, and he refused to have personal relationships, which was a real achievement. "
" However, Li Fu was completely opposed to this result, because Li Fu was one of these people with a scientific background, and it was not easy to get into one of the privileged ones. Who can bear it if reforms bring them back to their original shape? What's more, I am still the leader of these scholars. If I don't advocate "justice", who will?
So, in the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, he impeached Tian Wenjing, saying that Tian Wenjing, as a feudal official, had humiliated scholars and harmed the people. Tian Wenjing immediately impeached Li Fu, pointing out that Li Fu and the impeached Huang Zhenguo were on the same list. Jinshi, they colluded with each other to oppose the New Deal.
After such a commotion, everyone in the country knew that there was Tian Wenjing, who treated scholars harshly, which suddenly pushed him to be the opposite of all scholars, officials and gentry. Originally, Tian Wenjing offended many people because of his reforms. Now, he has turned officials across the country The gentry were all offended and truly became a lonely minister.
In the same year, Zhejiang Road Supervisor Censor Xie Jishi impeached Tian Wenjing for forming a party, running a business, betraying divine grace, and committing corruption and lawlessness. There were ten major crimes in total, which were exactly the same as those used by Li Fu to impeach Tian Wenjing.
At this time, Emperor Yongzheng originally wanted to reconcile the relationship between Li Fu and Tian Wenjing, but Xie Jishi's impeachment suddenly made him wary.
4, Emperor Yongzheng’s last thoughts.
Xie Jishi's sudden attack touched the sensitive nerves of Emperor Yongzheng. He recalled the scene when all the officials impeached Nian Gengyao, and also recalled the time when all the officials recommended Eighth Prince Aixinjueluo Yinshu. The scene made my head numb, and the cronies represented by the Qing faction appeared again.
He made a quick decision.
issued an edict that severely rebuked Li Fu, Cai Jue, Xie Jishi and others for forming a party for personal gain, interfering with state affairs, and framed ministers. At the border, Li Fu was convicted of 21 crimes, dismissed from his post and handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for interrogation, and sentenced to prison twice.
However, Emperor Yongzheng did not really want to kill Li Fu. For this character, he wanted to leave him to his son. He had offended the scholars in the world, and his son Hongli wanted to be a peaceful and prosperous emperor. The support of this Qing faction leader is needed.
Thus, there is the plot of "Yongzheng Dynasty" at the beginning. Although this plot is fictional, it reflects the psychology of Emperor Yongzheng at the time and certain historical facts to a certain extent.
Emperor Yongzheng handed Li Fu's edict to his own son and asked him to win over scholars all over the world. As for the third elder brother and Prince Shuocheng Yinzhi, he seemed to have seen through his hypocrisy a long time ago. It is to take away his power and truly surrender to himself.
In history, Prince ChengYinzhi complained privately that he lacked condolences for the death of Thirteenth Prince Prince Aixinjueluo Yinxiang, and was deprived of his princely title and imprisoned in Yong'an Pavilion in Jingshan.
As for Tian Wenjing, even though he was later in danger due to the famine in Henan when he was in his 70s, Emperor Yongzheng still fulfilled his promise to him and tried his best to protect him. He knew that without his protection, this lonely minister who worked hard and dedicated his whole life for his reform cause would probably not have a good death.
Fortunately, Tian Wenjing died in front of Emperor Yongzheng. On November 21, the tenth year of Yongzheng, Tian Wenjing died of illness at the age of seventy-two, and was given the posthumous title Duansu.
Emperor Yongzheng ordered local officials in Henan to set up an ancestral hall for Tian Wenjing. At the same time, he ordered that Tian Wenjing be buried near Tailing (Yongzheng Emperor's Mausoleum), and Tian Wenjing was enshrined in the Xianliang Temple.
In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng's reign, the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty Aixinjueluo Yinzhen passed away.
After the death of Emperor Yongzheng, his son Aixinjueluo Hongli ascended the throne and became Emperor Qianlong.
Emperor Qianlong promoted Li Fu as soon as he came to power. Similarly, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Tian Wenjing on various occasions many times, describing Tian Wenjing as a complete cruel official. He ranked the three model governors in Yongzheng affairs. " Ertai, Li Wei, and Tian Wenjing were all highly praised by the emperor. In fact, Wenjing was not as good as Wei, and Wei was not as good as Ertai. "
When Qianlong sacrificed his father, Emperor Yongzheng, he showed his disapproval of Tian Wenjing The tomb was dissatisfied, so the tomb was quickly leveled.
Faced with Emperor Qianlong's attitude, those who hated Tian Wenjing and even Emperor Yongzheng began to denounce Tian Wenjing. In order to cater to Qianlong, the governor of Henan Yaltu requested that Tian Wenjing's name be removed from Xianliang Temple and pursued Tian Wenjing's career. offense.
However, Emperor Qianlong did not do this. Although he hated Tian Wenjing, he also knew that without Tian Wenjing, there would be no reform achievements of his father, Emperor Yongzheng, and there would be no support from the Qing faction that he received as a result.
Another reason is that maybe he doesn't hate Tian Wenjing that much.
