Gongsun Hong made great efforts in the death of his father Yan.
Gongsun Hong often said, "The trouble with a monarch is that he is narrow-minded, and the trouble with ministers is that they don't know how to be thrifty." Although he is a high-ranking official, he is covered with a quilt made of cloth. Not only that, when he ate, he only had one meat dish at most. Ji An publicly scolded him in court, saying that Gongsun Hong was in the throne and the three princes had generous salaries, but he covered him with a quilt. This was obviously a pretext for fame and a fraud! Facing Ji An's scolding, Gongsun Hong's face was neither red nor white, and showed no change.
So Emperor Wu asked him, is this all true?
Gongsun Hong stepped forward and thanked him: "Everything Ji An said is true. I have a high position and a lot of wealth, but I cover myself with a quilt made of cloth. This is indeed an act of deceiving the world and stealing my reputation. Among the nine ministers, I am the best friend." None more so than Ji An, but now he openly criticized me in court, and he hit the nail on the head. In the past, Duke Huan of Qi took Guan Zhong as his prime minister. Guan Zhong used to be a poor man, but after he became the prime minister, he attached great importance to enjoyment. Looking at the entire Qi State, only Duke Huan of Qi can compare with him in terms of luxury. Because he appointed Guan Zhong, Duke Huan of Qi was able to dominate, which was also an arrogance to the king of Zhou. At the time of Duke Jin of Qi, Yan Ying became the prime minister. Yan Ying was different from Guan Zhong, Guan Zhong was extravagant , He never tires of food, but he never eats more than two kinds of meat dishes at each meal. His wives and concubines never wear silk clothes. What Yan Ying does is to be in line with the common people, and he can share the joys and sorrows with the people, so Qi State It became strong again. Now, I am a censor, but I cover myself with a quilt. This is a wrong move that makes the superior and inferior officials lose their nobility. Ji An is right to criticize. If he were not loyal and outspoken, where would your majesty be? Can you hear these words?"
Gongsun Hong's words can be listened to with a piece of music. No, what he said is better than what he sang. Emperor Wu heard about Tao Taoran and thought that Gongsun Hong was deliberately humble and well-educated, so he treated him even more favorably.
After being dealt a blow by two envoys, Gongsun Hong no longer directly refuted Emperor Wu in every court meeting. Instead, he chose several plans and let Emperor Wu make his own decision. Emperor Wu liked him more, not only because of his honest conduct and familiarity with laws and regulations, but more importantly, Emperor Wu was "a combination of Confucianism on the outside and law on the inside" and "tyranny and Taoism", and Gongsun Hong could always extract arguments from Confucian classics to argue Modified with French laws, it is really practical and beautiful.
One time he and Ji An went to see Emperor Wu together. The division of labor between the two was clear. Ji An raised the question first, and Gongsun Hong explained the question clearly and completely, which made Emperor Wu very happy. Another time, he made an appointment with the minister in advance to make suggestions to Emperor Wu together. As a result, Gongsun Hong came in front of Emperor Wu and found clues from Emperor Wu's face and tone, so he "changed sides before the battle", just picked on Emperor Wu's pleasant words, and sang against several colleagues.
Ji An cursed: "The people of Qi (referring to Gongsun Hong) are cunning and have no true feelings. He originally made suggestions with us, but now he changed his mind at the last moment. It is really hypocritical."
Emperor Wu looked at Gongsun Hong, who said proudly: "Those who know me know that I am a loyal minister, and those who don't know me will think that I am a traitor." Emperor Wu was very happy after hearing this, and he became more affectionate to him from then on. Later, he was finally made prime minister and named Marquis of Pingjin.
In the second year of Yuanshou (121 BC), Gongsun Hong died of illness while in office. His son Gongsun Du inherited the title of Marquis of Pingjin.
Obviously his father did a good job and his son enjoys the blessing!
The predecessors planted trees, and the descendants enjoy the shade!
Next, I will talk about Liu An. What this person did brought to his descendants the exact opposite result of Gongsun Hong.
If the ancestors have no virtue, their descendants will suffer disaster!
Liu An is the grandson of the great ancestor Liu Bang and the son of Liu Chang, King of Huainan. Liu Chang rebelled and was sent to the border by Emperor Wen, so he went on a hunger strike until his death. Liu An's rebellion was not only because he coveted the throne of the emperor, but also because he wanted to avenge his father, and even help his father "realize his dream."
Liu An is a knowledgeable and talented person. He invited talented people from all over the world to be his guests and wrote the famous work "Huainanzi" (also known as "Honglie" or "Huainan Honglie"). "Huainanzi" has a total of twenty-one volumes, which expounds, transforms and develops pre-Qin Taoist thought and has high historical and academic value. The allusion of "a blessing in disguise" comes from this book.
However, Liu An's purpose of editing the book was not simple. Emperor Wu admired Confucianism and accepted Dong Zhongshu's theory of "great unification". This "grand unification" includes political unification, which is to strengthen centralization and weaken local forces. Even ordinary princes and kings would be very disgusted with this, let alone someone like Liu An who was determined to rebel. Therefore, he revised "Huainanzi" and used Taoist ideas as an advocate in order to theoretically and ideologically resist Emperor Wu's advocating Confucianism and unification. The idea of "doing nothing without doing anything" explained and developed in "Huainanzi" was to refute Emperor Wu's "doing something" politics and provide a theoretical rationality for the existence of vassal states.
Of course, the rebellion cannot win with just one book, so Liu An secretly recruits troops day and night, waiting for the opportunity. When Emperor Wu first ascended the throne, he was too eager to implement the new policy of "advocating Confucianism and suppressing the elderly", which aroused the dissatisfaction of his grandmother, Queen Mother Dou, who was fond of Huang Laoism. Liu An chose to enter the court at this time to inquire about news in Chang'an City, fearing that he would miss the opportunity to seize power.
At this time, Emperor Wu's foundation was unstable and very dangerous. Even his confidant and maternal uncle Tian Fu took a wait-and-see attitude. Tian Fu said to Liu An: "The emperor has no son yet. Your Majesty, you are the grandson of Emperor Gao. Your benevolence, righteousness and morality are all praised by the world. Once the emperor has a good and bad son, who will inherit the throne other than you?" Liu An heard this. He was very happy and rewarded Tian Fu greatly. Of course, Tian Fu was also happy to miss Shu, and both of them were making their own plans in their hearts.
Emperor Wu had always been physically strong and powerful, and he was only in his early twenties at the time. How could he have the saying "three longs and two shorts"? It can be seen that there was a smell of coup in the air at that time, and Emperor Wu finally survived this disaster.
A few years later, Tian Fu died. Liu An lost his eyeliner and support in the central government. However, his rebellion plan continued according to the steps without slacking off at all, but at this moment, an accident happened.
Before Wang Quan entered the uterus of Tai Liu Qi, she had a daughter with Jin Wangsun, but she resolutely abandoned the daughter for the sake of glory and wealth. Han Yan, Emperor Wu's favorite, reminded Emperor Wu that he had such a sister, so Emperor Wu mobilized manpower to find her from among the people. The Queen Mother's daughter, Jin Su, has also given birth to a daughter. Out of compensation, the Queen Mother wanted to marry her granddaughter into the royal family, hoping that she would enjoy the same glory as herself. So she was married to Liu Qian, the son of Huainan King Liu An.
Liu An was afraid that Emperor Wu's niece would reveal his rebellion plan, and the family would be dead. Liu An came up with a plan. He asked his son Liu Qian to ignore this "folk princess" and not "enter the bridal chamber" with her since their wedding. Liu An was furious when he "heard" about this, so he locked Liu Qian and the princess in the same room. Of course Liu Qian continued to glance at the princess with cold eyes and refused to get close to her. The princess couldn't bear it anymore and had to ask Liu An to send her back to Chang'an. On the surface, Liu An scolded his son and kept apologizing to the princess, but he still had to give it away, and he chose a few thousand-mile horses to send the princess home.
A crisis was resolved.
However, Liu Qian immediately caused another crisis for Liu An. Liu Qian was good at martial arts and practiced swordplay since he was a child. He always believed that he had no rivals in the world. It happened that among Liu An's guests was a world-famous swordsman named Lei Qui. Liu Qian was so itchy that he always wanted to compete with Lei Bei. But Lei Fei knew the ways of officialdom, so he always refused Liu Qian's competition. He understood that it was not good to win or lose. If he won, Liu Qian would definitely be in trouble with him in the future due to his petty mind; if he lost, he would not be able to gain a foothold in the Huainan Palace from now on. But Liu Qian persisted, and in desperation, Lei Fei had no choice but to agree to the competition.
The sword has no eyes, and Lei Fei accidentally stabbed Liu Qian with his sword. Liu Qian, who lost face greatly, kept Lei Bao in his heart from then on.
Lei was informed of his situation, so he always looked for opportunities to leave Huainan. At a time when Emperor Wu was recruiting warriors from all over the world to fight against the Huns, Lei Jian resigned from Liu An and said he would go north to join the army. Liu An, who was afraid that news of the rebellion would leak out, certainly disagreed. Not only that, he also sealed off the entire Huainan Kingdom and did not allow anyone to leave.
Lei was frightened, so he fled at all costs, came to Chang'an, and complained to Emperor Wu. What Lei was accused of was not Liu An, but Liu Qian. What he accused was not Liu An for treason, but Liu Qian for preventing him from joining the army and serving the country - he believed that Liu Qian was behind Liu An's refusal.
Emperor Wu then ordered Liu Qian to be arrested and brought to Chang'an for interrogation. When the news reached the local area, the magistrate of Shouchun County wrote to Emperor Wu, saying that because transportation was inconvenient, it would be better to interrogate Liu Qian locally. This county magistrate was probably bribed by Liu An. However, the Huainan Prime Minister assigned to Liu An by the imperial court refused to turn a blind eye. He insisted on sending Liu Qian to Chang'an. How could Liu An agree? So evidence of the crime was collected, and a pleading was filed to report the Prime Minister to the court. Emperor Wu sent Ting Wei to take the Prime Minister to Chang'an for trial. When the Prime Minister arrived at the Tingwei Department, he first reported many signs of Liu An's rebellion.
In fact, Emperor Wu had already received sporadic news of Liu An's rebellion at this time, but the current Huainan was not the Wu Kingdom during Emperor Jing's time, and Liu An could not make much noise at all. Emperor Wu, considering the relationship between relatives, left him alone. . At this time, everything was on the table, and Emperor Wu sent a "Lieutenant Hong" to inspect Huainan.
Liu An had received the news a long time ago, and when he arrived in Huainan, he immediately served him with wine and food, so Lieutenant Hong casually walked around Huainan, then turned around and returned to Chang'an to resume his duties.
The matter seems to have been resolved, but the reality is far more complicated than that. Hundreds of officials in the court believed that Liu An had rebelled and wanted to punish him. Even if Emperor Wu wanted to protect him, he couldn't go too far against the wishes of the officials, so he issued an edict to cut off Liu An's two counties.
This completely stimulated Liu An, and he immediately decided to rebel. However, rebellion also requires military advisors. The military advisor Liu An chose for himself was Wu Qui, a descendant of Wu Zixu. He had participated in the compilation of "Huainanzi" and was a versatile scholar in both civil and military affairs. Wu Ban did not agree with Liu An's rebellion at all, because in his opinion, now that the country was at peace and Emperor Wu's prestige was getting higher and higher day by day, wanting to rely on the small Huainan to rebel was simply throwing an egg against a stone.
Liu An couldn't listen to any well-intentioned persuasion at this time. He imprisoned Wu Bei's parents and forced Wu Bei to rebel together. Wu Bei had no choice but to agree to advise him, but he still did not give up his efforts to persuade Liu An. He asked Liu An, "Compared with Liu Bi, the king of Wu at that time, who is richer and whose military is more powerful?" Liu An didn't say anything. He knew that he was not as good as Liu Bi. He also asked, today's emperor is now carrying out a very promising government. In the court, there are many people who need literature, military and military, and there are many talents. In this regard, how do you compare with today's emperor? Liu An glanced at the quilt in the prison, turned around and left. At this time, Liu An may have woken up, but his grandson reported the news of his rebellion to the court.
This grandson's name is Liu Jian, and he is the son of Liu An's eldest son and concubine Liu Buhui. The eldest son Liu Qian was his legitimate son and was deeply loved by Liu An, but Liu Buhai was just the opposite. Liu An was troubled when he saw him and felt uncomfortable. "How can such a guy be my brother?" Liu Qian looked at Liu Buhai and frowned unconsciously, so he would bully Liu Buhai every chance he got. Liu Buhai had long been accustomed to accepting things, so it didn't matter. But his son Liu Jian couldn't stand it anymore, so he reported Liu An's rebellion to Chang'an.
Liu An had no choice but to join forces with Liu Ci, the king of Hengshan, to join forces. How can a hasty rebellion succeed? Soon Liu An committed suicide in despair, and his queen, crown prince and other family members were also annihilated.
