If you fight with the dragon for too long, you will become a dragon yourself; if you stare into the abyss for too long, the abyss will stare back.
Prelude
1 In 1380, the 13th year of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Weiyong, the Prime Minister of the Left, was executed.
Zhu Yuanzhang personally convicted him of: rebellion and liaison with Mongolia and Japan.
But the "crime" that Zhu Yuanzhang did not mention was that the position of prime minister constrained his imperial power, making him unworthy of being an emperor.
After killing Hu Weiyong, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation and abolished the central administrative agency-Zhongshu Province. The officials of Zhongshu Province and the prime minister naturally disappeared.
Zhu Yuanzhang clearly ordered in the "Ancestral Instructions" that in the future, when his descendants become emperors, they are not allowed to establish prime ministers. If any minister dares to petition to establish a prime minister, he will be punished immediately and his whole family will be executed.
Not only that, he also stipulated that eunuchs in the palace were not allowed to read or write. Because illiterate people cannot participate in politics.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's vision, the world belongs to the Zhu family and the emperor alone. The greatest threats to imperial power in the past dynasties were nothing more than powerful ministers and eunuchs. He wanted to get rid of these two potential forces in one fell swoop and let his descendants succeed him once and for all.
However, the desire for dictatorship is endless, but the energy for dictatorship is limited.
After deposing the prime minister, Zhu Yuanzhang was completely overwhelmed by daily affairs inside and outside the court. Even a person like him couldn't stand it, so he had to set up the fourth auxiliary officer to help handle political affairs. His offspring will surely have a harder time.
When Zhu Di was in office, the cabinet officially appeared. During the Ren and Xuan dynasties, San Yang (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu) entered the cabinet to assist the government. Although he did not have the title of prime minister, he already had great power.
From the period of Ming Yingzong to Ming Wuzong (1435-1521), the power of eunuchs increased, and several powerful eunuchs appeared. The powerful eunuch and the powerful minister are always at the two ends of the balance of power, rising and falling one after another.
At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang’s institutional design has completely failed.
However, among the three forces of the emperor, the cabinet, and the eunuchs, the imperial power is the final winner and will also be the final loser.
Hard to win
Mr. Ai previously talked about the 45-year cabinet power struggle during the Jiajing Dynasty. After many years of forbearance, Xu Jie finally overthrew Yan Song in 1562 and became the last chief minister of the cabinet during the Jiajing period.
After Xu Jie took over as the first assistant, he took some flexible measures, boasting that "returning the power and blessings to the Lord, returning government affairs to the officials, and sacrificing punishment to reward the public opinion" . In fact, this is a self-revolution against the autocratic power of the chief minister of the cabinet since Xia Yan and Yan Song, and puts the chief minister in a position that reassures the emperor and all officials in the court.
He also took the initiative to convene cabinet colleagues to draft imperial edicts together. The source of power of the
cabinet is actually the transfer of part of the imperial power through "vote power" (drawing up edicts for the emperor). It was not easy for Xu Jie to take the initiative to share the "voting power" with his colleagues. No wonder people at that time praised him as the "famous prime minister" after he became the first minister.
This fits his personality very well.
Xu Jie has the characteristics of a Jiangnan person, who is good at overcoming strength with softness and winning with softness. He had worked with Yan Song for many years, and he always tolerated and catered to him. Even when the court officials scolded him for seeking the skin of a tiger, he endured it. There is no absolute chance of winning, so never take action.
Emperor Jiajing asked him for advice in his later years, how to distinguish between good and bad people?
Xu Jie replied resolutely, A great traitor looks like loyalty, and a great deceit looks like trustworthiness.
1566, the forty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign, Xu Jie recommended the Imperial Academy's Jijiu Gao Gong and the Ministry of Personnel Guo Pu to the cabinet.
In Xu Jie's view, Gao Gong (1513-1578), a native of Xinzheng, Henan, was a capable politician and an official in the palace of the crown prince Zhu Zai. It was only a matter of time before he joined the cabinet, so why not just be a favor.
But after reviewing the situation, Gao Gong did not appreciate Xu Jie's win over. The confrontation between the two was advanced because of this.
When Jiajing died, only Xu Jie was present in the cabinet, and Gao Gong, Guo Pu and others were not present. When drafting the posthumous edict, Xu Jie bypassed other cabinet members and invited his valued disciple Zhang Juzheng, a Hanlin scholar, to participate secretly.
When the emperor's edict was issued, the emperor himself had already ascended to heaven. Only God knows whether the content of the posthumous edict represents the emperor's final will or the will of the drafter.
Jiajing's posthumous edict deeply reflected on the bad government he had ruled for decades, abolished all Taoist activities in the palace, and re-appointed a group of deposed officials. Anyone who has read the edict will not think that this is the final awakening of the willful Emperor Jiajing, but can be 100% sure that this is Xu Jie's liquidation of many years of government affairs through Jiajing's mouth.
All the officials in the imperial court applauded these new policies. For a time, Xu Jie, the chief minister of the cabinet, was very popular.
Gao Gong, Guo Pu and other cabinet colleagues became increasingly resentful of Xu Jie. For such a big thing as drafting a posthumous edict, Xu Jie bypassed his colleagues and instead invited a disciple to participate. Isn't this obvious enough?
1567, the first year of Longqing, after the new emperor Zhu Zaihe succeeded to the throne, the cabinet suddenly expanded to six people: Xu Jie, Li Chunfang, Gao Gong, Guo Pu, Chen Yiqin, and Zhang Juzheng.
After Zhang Juzheng participated in drafting the imperial edict, he soon joined the cabinet. Historians believe that this is because Zhang Juzheng, like Gao Gong, was an official in Zhu Zaiye's mansion, but more importantly, it was the recommendation of the chief assistant Xu Jie.
Among the six people, Xu Jie and Gao Gong couldn't deal with each other, and the fight between the two began.
It was first reported by Yanguan and Like to Hu Yingjia that Gao Gong had derelict in his duties by sneaking home during Jiajing's serious illness. Because Hu Yingjia and Xu Jie were from the same hometown, Gao Gong believed that the report against him came from Xu Jie's instigation.
Gao Gong later seized on Hu Yingjia in another incident and demanded that Hu Yingjia be dismissed from his post. As soon as the results were announced, officials in Beijing believed that Gao Gong was seeking personal revenge and compared him to Cai Jing, a powerful official in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Gao Gong, who was deeply involved in the storm of public opinion, quickly instigated officials to impeach Xu Jie and shifted the focus of public opinion. The charge was that Xu Jie allowed his son to roam the countryside.
Soon, rounds of impeachment and counter-impeachment were carried out among the officials, and the court was in chaos.
Yanguan in the late Ming Dynasty, as a group, were participants in many major political events. They were also indispensable political thugs in high-level power struggles. From the perspective of system design, this is an "organ" for small officials to control high officials. Because once the official impeaches an official, no matter how high the official's position is, he must resign as soon as possible. As for whether to comfort him or not, the decision lies with the emperor.
In this melee between officials and officials, three cabinet members, Gao Gong, Guo Pu and Xu Jie, resigned one after another. Both sides in the fight suffer losses.
At this time, Xu Jie realized that the new emperor did not express his resignation as usual, but instead approved his resignation application. This shows that the new emperor does not need him, the chief minister of the previous dynasty, to "rely on the old and sell the old" again.
At this moment, Xu Jie clearly confirmed that his political life was completely over.
Before leaving the capital, Xu Jie made a final entrustment to Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Juzheng later wrote in a letter to Xu Jie that during this parting, "I couldn't stop crying"; he also said "A man who pledged his life to the country and his close friends only dedicated himself to death and died, so what can he say?" .
Xu Jie did leave the political center forever, but Gao Gong made a "comeback" two years later. This battle with Xu Jie was really difficult to win.
1569, at the end of the year, Gao Gong unexpectedly returned to the cabinet.
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Zhang Juzheng teamed up with Li Fang, the eunuch and eunuch, to plan Gao Gong's reinstatement in order to suppress the new Zhao Zhenji who had joined the cabinet.
Zhao Zhenji was expelled from Beijing by Yan Song in 1550. Although he was a new member of the cabinet this time, he was older than anyone else, so he behaved arrogantly. Zhang Juzheng may have thought that he was too inexperienced to compete with him, so he once again introduced Gao Gong, a powerful former colleague and mentor Xu Jie's rival, as a "sharp weapon" against Zhao Zhenji.
After Gao Gong returned, the cabinet indeed set off a new round of fighting.
We all know that when the industry boss fights with the second-in-command, the third-in-command is often injured. History is also the same. Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji were at odds, but the first person to quit the cabinet was the centrist Chen Yiqin. He could not afford to offend anyone, so he had to offend himself and leave. Later, the good gentleman Li Chunfang also left.
It seems like a repeat of the power struggle between Gao Gong and Xu Jie. Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji once again mobilized their public speaking resources to impeach and attack each other.
Zhao Zhenji was defeated and was very angry before leaving Beijing, saying that no one could compare to Gao Gong's arrogance.
By the end of 1571, four people had left the cabinet, leaving only Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.
Gao Gong feels that his time has finally come. He forgot about the danger that always lurked around him.
Two tigers fighting
When the two remaining people in the administrative center of the empire faced each other, Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582) sensitively felt the embarrassment after the squeeze of power, and the arrogant Gao Gong still had a long aftertaste Enjoy the taste of victory.
The history book's evaluation of Gao Gong is that is capable but has no capacity for .
After he regained control of the cabinet, he still resented Xu Jie's suppression of him, especially the fact that Xu Jie did not allow him to participate in the Jiajing imperial edict. Therefore, when he was in power, he overturned all Xu Jie's policies and even declared that the Jiajing imperial edict was "the ministers pretending to entrust the imperial edict", completely ignoring that Zhang Juzheng was also a participant in the Jiajing imperial edict.
Zhang Juzheng could only endure it silently. His current situation and state of mind are quite similar to Xu Jie's situation and state of mind when Yan Song was in power.
In his early years, during the power struggle between Yan Song and Xu Jie, Zhang Juzheng couldn't stand the forbearance and inaction of his mentor Xu Jie, so he wrote angrily and scolded Xu Jie for being a peacemaker who only wanted to retain his position. Later, he took sick leave and returned to his hometown in Jiangling to express his dissatisfaction with the government.
Three years later, Zhang Juzheng returned to the capital, but he was a changed man.
He has realized that compared with Xu Jie's political wisdom, his impulse three years ago was simply a clueless young man.
In order to achieve great things, you must first give up your reputation and not be afraid of what others say.
Song Confucian Zhu Xi once said, "A truly great hero emerges from a cautious and humble position as a general. If his energy and blood are arrogant and angry, he will not be able to use them at all." Zhang Juzheng has a desire for power, but he even wants to be a hero who saves the world after gaining power.
At this time, he had to endure the air pressure from the high arch and lower his posture very low.
Although he and Gao Gong are close friends.
The two have almost the same political experience. They worked together in the Imperial College for many years, and later served together as lecturers in Prince Yu's palace. Gao Gong is 12 years older than Zhang Juzheng and has always been Zhang Juzheng's immediate boss. They once climbed a mountain together and agreed that one day they would go to the pavilion to pay homage to the prime minister, and they would work together to help people in danger and relieve chaos.
Zhang Juzheng has very complicated feelings towards Gao Gong. He greatly admired Gao Gong's ability, so after Gao Gong resigned, he was still willing to plan his reinstatement. Even though the rift between them later became clear, Zhang Juzheng was still able to support Gao Gong's policies with the overall situation in mind.
Under the leadership of Gao Gong, a reform situation called "Longqing New Deal" emerged. Most of the reforms implemented by Zhang Juzheng after taking power in the early years of Wanli were based on Gao Gong's policies.
Power is the essence of all struggle, and it is also the essence that cannot be expressed. What's more, the power struggle in the cabinet is always carried out under the overlooking of the imperial power. Whoever reveals his coveting of power will die an ugly death.
Therefore, cabinet power struggles are carried out in visible personnel disputes or political differences.
The special thing about Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng is that they have the same political views and ideas, and they are both politicians who are "loyal to the country." In addition, the only difference that the two can put on the table is their attitude towards their former chief assistant Xu Jie.
After Xu Jie returned home, Gao Gong planned to launch a liquidation. Later, taking advantage of Hai Rui's opportunity to rectify the land annexation by wealthy households in the south of the Yangtze River, Xu Jie's two sons joined the army. As for Xu Jie himself, with the help of Zhang Juzheng and others, he was finally exempted from accountability.
In this regard, Gao Gong was quite suspicious of Zhang Juzheng. Once, he directly asked Zhang Juzheng, saying that there were rumors that you had received 30,000 taels of silver from Xu Jie's son. Is this true? After Zhang Juzheng pointed to the sky and swore, Gao Gongcai said that this was a misunderstanding.
After that, Zhang Juzheng was under pressure from Gao Gong and did not dare to interact openly with Xu Jie.
1572, Longqing Emperor Zhu Zaiyu suddenly died of illness.Before his death, he urgently summoned cabinet bachelors Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, as well as Gao Yi, who had just joined the cabinet, to enter the palace, asking the three to devote themselves to assisting the ten-year-old crown prince Zhu Yijun.
The three ministers hope for each other and are willing to help the young master to overcome difficulties together.
The unity here is not only a request to comfort the late emperor, but also the practice of the civil servant group against the eunuch group.
Because, within half a month of the new emperor Zhu Yijun's accession to the throne, major changes occurred in the personnel of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Feng Bao, the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch who had been suppressed by Gao Gong, was suddenly announced to be promoted to the eunuch of the palm, becoming the top eunuch in the palace.
In the past history of the Ming Dynasty, there has always been a subtle confrontational relationship between the cabinet and the eunuchs. If the cabinet is strong, the eunuchs are weak; if the eunuchs are strong, the cabinet is weak.
Seeing that the personnel affairs of the Chief of Ceremonies were beyond his control, Gao Gong naturally elevated his personal dissatisfaction to the will of the entire cabinet. He angrily pointed out that the personnel changes in the chamberlain were caused by someone bullying the new emperor because he was young, ignorant and acted indiscriminately. He regarded his struggle with Feng Bao as a struggle between the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, claiming that he would work hard to expand the power of the cabinet.
Among the three cabinet members, Gaoyi Mingzhe protected himself and did not express his position; Zhang Juzheng expressed his support for Gao Gong after receiving Gao Gong's notification.
Gao Gong was full of confidence and mobilized officials to attack Feng Bao collectively. The most important accusation is that every time the new emperor visited the court, Feng Bao stood by. Should the civil and military officials worship the emperor or a eunuch?
Before the storm came, Zhang Juzheng left the capital on the grounds of inspecting the tomb of Emperor Longqing. After returning to the capital, he still used illness as an excuse to "recuperate" at home and did not participate in the vigorous "anti-Feng movement." When the
incident came to an end, the new emperor summoned all officials to gather.
As the emperor ascended the throne, everyone looked up and saw Feng Bao still standing next to the little emperor. At that moment, Gao Gong trembled all over, and he knew that he had lost.
Feng Bao read out the emperor's edict in public, and sternly scolded Gao Gong for "taking power and governing well, and being powerful and independent". Gao Gong was deprived of all official positions on the spot, ordered to leave Beijing immediately, and deported back to his hometown.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that the high arch "fell to the ground and could not rise", and Zhang Juzheng "tucked it out".
Later, Zhang Juzheng and Gaoyi jointly signed a plea for Gao Gong.
The shrewd Gao Gong quickly realized that his defeat was ultimately at the hands of the person who supported him and pretended to plead for him.
Zhang Juzheng showed infinite regret and sympathy for Gao Gong's departure from beginning to end. However, he teamed up with Feng Bao behind the scenes to bring down Gao Gong's conspiracy, but he could not escape Gao Gong's eyes. It's just that when they were alive, no one broke through this layer of paper. Later, when Zhang Juzheng reached the pinnacle of his power, he stopped by Gao Gong's hometown to visit him. The two of them lamented the time they spent together, and even wiped each other's tears when they were emotional.
However, in the eyes of politicians, the mobilization and display of emotions is nothing more than tricks.
Zhang Juzheng has long been trained to be a typical Machiavellian, who will not hesitate to use all despicable means in order to achieve a noble goal.
After Gao Gong resigned, Zhang Juzheng once again joined forces with Feng Bao, hoping to kill him by creating an unjust case of hiring a murderer to assassinate the emperor. Later, it failed, and Gao Gong, who was poor and sick, saved his life.
As an old politician, Gao Gong is also an old fox. In the days when he lost power, he deeply understood the necessity of cooperating with political performances. In fact, he never forgave Zhang Juzheng until his death.
Before his death, Gao Gong left a hand and recalled the political affairs he participated in and wrote "Last Words on the Sickbed" , which contained many criticisms of Zhang Juzheng's character and conspiracy. This memoir was published in due time after Zhang Juzheng's death, and became the trigger for Emperor Wanli's determination to liquidate Zhang Juzheng.
Until his death in 1582, Zhang Juzheng ushered in the peak of his personal power in the first ten years of the Wanli Dynasty. During the ten years he served as the chief minister of the cabinet, he created the most prosperous period in the history of the Ming Dynasty. And he, the first assistant, was also the most powerful first assistant in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Having said that, all powerful officials in history, no matter whether they were loyal or good or evil, did not end well. Zhang Juzheng's ending was already written before his death.
Epilogue
After Zhang Juzheng's death, the adult Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun launched a general liquidation against Zhang Juzheng.
Gao Gong had been dead for four or five years at this time, but his memoirs were published at this time, no sooner or later, and became a catalyst for the emperor to make up his mind to deprive the Zhang family of power.
No one thought that Gao Gong would complete his revenge in this way.
Just like the crime Gao Gong was convicted of back then, Zhang Juzheng's biggest crime can be summed up in one sentence: the authority of overwhelms .
Only this one can get to the core and sore spot of imperial power.
Although Zhang Juzheng did not forget to be cautious when he was proud, he ultimately failed to insist on leaving the throne and returning the power to Wanli during his lifetime, which resulted in negative consequences after his death. The charm of power is also its danger.
The tragedy is that, as Huang Renyu said, "Zhang Juzheng's absence has caused our huge empire to lose its center of gravity, make its steps unstable, and eventually stumble and fall into the abyss."
Zhang Juzheng's wealth for ten years was only enough for Emperor Wanli and his successors to ruin for half a century.
In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), four years before the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhang Juzheng family was fully rehabilitated. The rivers were declining, the country was ruined, and the family was destroyed. Emperor Chongzhen sighed endlessly: "It is better to be saved than to be saved."
From Xu Jie to Gao Gong, and then to Zhang Juzheng, despite the ruthless struggle for power, they all have a common goal Bottom line: Being an official is about doing things. By the time of the Chongzhen Dynasty, 50 cabinet ministers appeared in 17 years. The emperor's suspicious nature remained unchanged, but the nature of the cabinet's support of the country had completely changed: being an official was just for the sake of being an official, nothing more. The mission of Zhou Yanru, the first assistant, was to deceive Chongzhen when the country was in chaos, and we won the war again.
When the cabinet was filled with people like Zhou Yanru, the entire Ming Dynasty had already suffered a complete defeat and was full of losers.
Yes, no snowflake is innocent when it comes to an avalanche.
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