It is still necessary to provide some information from time to time, otherwise many plots will not be clear about the internal connections.
For example: Why did Zhang Jiuling target Niu Xianke? Is it just because he disliked him?
Well, since Niu Xianke was a minor official, it was normal for Zhang Jiuling to look down on him.
Then why did Zhang Jiuling look down on Zhang Shougui and want to prevent him from becoming prime minister?
Ordinarily, before Zhang Jiuling resigned as prime minister, Zhang Shougui's qualifications, popularity, and military achievements were already sufficient. Why did Zhang Jiuling want to stop him?
This reason can also explain why he looks down on Niu Xianke.
Therefore, when looking at history, one cannot just focus on the fragments recorded in history books. We should not let the ancients or historians dictate the pace. We must find the answer from the context of historical facts.
Without further ado, let’s get down to the practical stuff.
Let’s first take a look at the prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty from Kaiyuan to Tianbao. They are divided into “groups” because they are usually replaced together, and their terms are generally 3-4 years (with some exceptions).
The first group: Zhang Shuo (this one will be worshiped as Prime Minister later), Liu Youqiu, Wei Zhigu, Lu Xiangxian, and Guo Yuanzhen.
These people were in the transitional period of the first year of Kaiyuan, and they were not in power for more than one year. Because the political situation was undecided at that time, they were not included in the analysis.
Group 2: Yao Chong, Lu Huaishen
Yao Chong: Born as a handsome man, he is a veteran.
Lu Huaishen: Getting a Jinshi degree is almost like soy sauce.
There are no financial management officials among them, but there are elders (Yao Chong) trained during the Wu Zhou period.
Group 3: Yuan Qianyao, Song Jing, Su Ting
Source Qian Yao: Jinshi and the rank.
Song Jing: passed the Jinshi examination
Zhang said: Veteran officials during the Wu and Zhou Dynasties
There are no financial management officials, but Yuan Qianyao is just a prime minister and basically does nothing.
PS: "A good man deserves his talent, how can I be a good man?" This is what Yuan Qianyao said, but now it can be inferred that it is not that Lao Yuan does not want to recommend Li Linfu, but that he is a subordinate in the central power structure Status, making wisecracks is just to cover up one's own powerlessness.
Group 4: Zhang Jiazhen, Su Ting, Yuan Qianyao, Zhang Shuo
Zhang Jiazhen: Jinshi of Ming Dynasty, veteran of Wuzhou
Su Ting: passed the imperial examination, and Wu Zhou entered officialdom in his early years.
Zhang said: A veteran trained during the Wu and Zhou Dynasties.
There are also no financial management officials.
Group 5: Li Yuanhong, Du Xian
Li Yuanhong: Enyin started his career and was the great-grandson of Duke Ying Li Can.
Du Xian: passed the Ming Jing examination and has decades of local experience.
Group 6: Xiao Song, Yu Wenrong (short), Pei Guangting
Xiao Song: Menyin entered the officialdom, and his ancestor was Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming of Liang.
Yuwenrong: Menyin entered the officialdom, he was the grandson of Yuwenjie in the service, and he was a professional financial management official.
Note that he is the first professional financial management prime minister since the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and he vigorously promoted Li Linfu.
Pei Guangting: The middle family room of the Pei family in Hedong, where he became an official in the shade of the door.
Group 7: Han Xiu (short), Pei Yaoqing, Zhang Jiuling, Li Linfu
Han Xiu: He was promoted to an official position (the imperial court opened a special subject for selection), and he was a professional admonisher.
Pei Yaoqing: Passed the Tongzi Examination (equivalent to becoming an official in Mengyin). He has strong overall ability and focuses on financial management.
Zhang Jiuling: Jinshi, representative of Ci ministers, partial admonishment ministers.
Li Linfu: He entered the official position in the shadow of his family, with strong comprehensive ability. Officials in the administrative department focus on financial management.
Group 8: Li Linfu, Niu Xianke
Niu Xianke: Born as a grassroots official, rich in experience at the grassroots level, and a leader in officialdom.
Group 9: Li Linfu, Li Shizhi
Li Shizhi: Men Yin becomes an official, and Bian Jiang becomes a prime minister.
Group 10: Li Linfu, Chen Xilie
Chen Xilie: Entering the official position in the shadow of the door, making soy sauce
Group 10: Chen Xilie, Yang Guozhong
Yang Guozhong: A junior official came to power (nepotism), and Li Longji thought he was good at managing money.
The above is a preliminary summary, but it can actually be subdivided.
The following is my personal analysis:
Before Yuwen became the prime minister in the 14th year of Kaiyuan, the financial problems of the Tang Dynasty had not yet broken out. Therefore, among the people who entered the prime minister's position, there were Ci ministers who were Jinshi and others, there were also practical people who were gradually rising in the local area, and there were also veterans who were trained during the Wu Zhou period.
The power structure is actually one-time rule, and most of them have prime ministers who play a role in the affairs. Li Longji was involved in politics more often, and the power of the prime minister was relatively loose.
Since the fourteenth year of Kaiyuan, the financial problems of the Tang Dynasty have become an issue that the prime ministers have to consider. Pei Yaoqing, Li Linfu, Niu Xianke and even Yang Guozhong, their financial management ability is one of the main factors in worshiping the prime minister.
Therefore, the meaning of existence of Ci ministers like Zhang Jiuling and financial management officials like Li Linfu are completely different, and even contradictory to each other.
This is the first contradiction in the Central Committee of the Tang Dynasty: the contradiction between the traditional Confucian scholar-official bureaucrats and the financial management bureaucrats who emerged due to the situation. Moreover, this contradiction is often irreconcilable.
The thoughts of Confucian bureaucrats (taking Zhang Jiuling as an example) are that the people are more important than the emperor, a small government should reduce financial expenditures, reduce the size of officials, reduce the central government's interference in local affairs, reduce the cost of the legal system, and focus on the rule of virtue.
Yes, the legal system requires costs, and the costs are not low. In the case of ancient powerful people who basically did not abide by the law, the role of rule of virtue may not be smaller than that of the rule of law. This is the objective limitation of the feudal era.
There is nothing much to say about the thinking of financial management officials. Just one sentence: Find ways to increase central finance!
To increase finance, we must take it from the people, increase taxes, and open new institutions. Big government is inevitable.
At this time, a major problem Li Longji encountered was: if the status quo of Datang was to be maintained, financial management officials like Li Linfu must be reused. If the various shortcomings of the Tang Dynasty were to be reformed, Confucian officials like Zhang Jiuling must be re-employed.
However, what is regrettable is that if we look back and analyze from now on, even if Zhang Jiuling is in power for 20 more years and kills Anlu Mountain in advance, he will not be able to change the substantial disintegration of the grassroots society of the Tang Dynasty:
The foundations of the government army and land equalization system no longer exist, the administrative reform that treats the symptoms but not the root cause cannot be continued, there is no original solution to the sharp contradiction of land annexation (such as the method of fighting fire with fire as in the Northern Song Dynasty cannot be implemented), and the economic problems caused by the growing capital , ecological imbalance.
If Zhang Jiuling continues to be in power for twenty years, there is a high probability that his reputation will be ruined. This principle is just like if Li Linfu died of illness after being prime minister for four years, he would be famous in history.
Li Longji could also see this. The reform of the Tang Dynasty was hopeless, so he could just survive. When you close your eyes, it will be dark, and if you don't leave Chang'an, the world will be peaceful.
The fall from favor of Zhang Jiuling and others is inevitable. There is no hope of what they can do; they cannot do what Li Longji urgently needs.
Okay, let’s go back to what we mentioned at the beginning: Why did Zhang Jiuling prevent Niu Xianke from ascending to the throne? Is it just because the other party lacked ability?
I don't think that's the case, at least not entirely.
From the perspective of future generations, Yan Tingzhi's ability will never surpass Niu Xianke, and his merits will be even less. I spent a long time looking for historical materials to find out what achievements Yan Tingzhi had.
So why did Zhang Jiuling recommend Yan Tingzhi to be prime minister?
First, both of them were imperial examination scholars; second, both of them were poets and wrote good articles. In other words, they are comrades in the trenches and naturally become friends.
Zhang Jiuling said that Niu Xianke "didn't know how to read", which didn't mean that the other party couldn't read, but that Niu Xianke couldn't write lyrical articles and his literary quality was very low. By comparison, Yan Tingzhi's literary accomplishment is several orders of magnitude higher, right?
Therefore, it was Zhang Jiuling's ideal to form the pattern of civil servants governing the country during the Renzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty. It cannot be said that there was anything wrong with his idea, because hundreds of years later, this pattern was really realized in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Zhang Jiuling has grasped this historical trend of dismantling aristocracy, lowering the upper limit of aristocratic rights, and lowering the threshold for political participation.
But it cannot be said that his ideas are without problems, because this central political structure has had a very serious, negative, and long-lasting impact.
Niu Xianke is not allowed to be prime minister because he is not a person who comes from the "rules of the game" and this gap cannot be opened. The "rules of the game" in Zhang Jiuling's mind were the imperial examinations.
For the same reason, he opposed Zhang Shougui becoming the prime minister from Jiedushi, because Zhang Shougui became the prime minister as a border general (this was the tradition of the early Tang Dynasty).
Zhang Jiuling hopes to create a central group of traditional literati circles composed of people who came from the imperial examination. This is his ideal.
So even if Niu Xianke were replaced with a brain like Xiao Fang, Zhang Jiuling would still oppose it. Of course, if Niu Xianke continues to work in Hexi and becomes the Jiedushi after being admitted in the imperial examination, he can also be accepted by Zhang Jiuling and others.
Li Longji believed that Zhang Jiuling was "a party member" and he really didn't accuse him unjustly. The ambition of the party formed by Zhang Jiuling (he may not realize it himself) is so great that it almost spans hundreds of years of evolution of the civilian political structure.
Looking at this point, Li Longji did not kill him purely because he was short-sighted and not wise. Of course, this was also Zhang Jiuling's luck.
This is the second contradiction in the Central Committee of the Tang Dynasty: the clear factional contradiction between officials who came from the imperial examination and "miscellaneous" officials such as Men Yin who became officials (including low-level officials and border generals who became prime ministers).
Suppose, if An Lushan came to Chang'an to become prime minister, would he rebel? The answer is definitely not, although there will definitely be people in the Youzhou Group who will take over and rebel.
Zhang Jiuling suppressed the generals and became prime minister. In fact, the feudal town would rebel sooner or later.
Moreover, this contradiction did not disappear because of the Anshi Rebellion. Instead, it was reflected in the "Niu and Li Party Struggles" during the Xianzong period of the Tang Dynasty. Things like chicken feathers in one place are the continuation of this kind of struggle.
That’s why the title of my book is “Elegy of the Prosperous Tang Dynasty” because the old structure of the prosperous Tang Dynasty is really hopeless and full of contradictions from the inside out.
I wanted to write this book as a benchmark for historical literature from the end of Kaiyuan to the An-Shi Rebellion, and the historical context is very in-depth. Under this premise, try to ensure the smoothness and excitement of the plot.
Then even if I come back to read this book ten years later, I still feel that it has merits. When I read it for the second and third time, I will not feel that it is insulting to my intelligence and made up, and it will not turn into a book that makes me vomit because of the passage of time. Spicy chicken.
This is the direction of my efforts.
