The main reason why Gao Pragmatic, who came to the Hanlin Academy for the first time, was deeply impressed by Zhao Zhigao, in addition to his image as a doormat in historical records, is that he was one of the stars on the Wuchen Branch Gold List in the second year of Longqing. .
The word "stars" used here naturally does not mean the "stars" of later generations, but refers to the numerous talents and bright stars in this field.
The Wuchen Branch Gold List in the second year of Longqing is a highly valuable subject among the many gold lists in the Jialong and Wan Dynasties. There are quite a lot of powerful people coming out of this department. There are four chief assistants in the cabinet that Gao Pragmatic can immediately think of. They are Wang Jiaping, Zhao Zhigao, Shen Yiguan, and Zhu Geng. Their gold list rankings are Wang Jiaping and second place. Name, Zhao Zhigao ranked third in the first class (Tanhua), Shen Yiguan ranked 56th in the third class, and Zhu Geng ranked 75th in the second class.
The most amazing thing here is Shen Yiguan. As a rule, those who were ranked 36th in the top three in the Ming Dynasty's Jinshi list rarely entered the cabinet. However, Shen Guanguan's ranking had reached the 56th in the top three, and he was still able to enter the cabinet. This shows his brilliant methods.
In addition to the four future chief assistants, there are also three other pavilion elders, namely Zhang Wei, Chen Yubi, and Yu Shenxing. As for Luo Wanhua, the number one scholar in the undergraduate program, there are even more senior officials at the ministerial level.
Among them, Zhang Wei and Chen Yubi have become the lecturers for this time when the prince leaves the cabinet to study. To a certain extent, they can be regarded as the prime minister from now on.
But the strange thing is that Zhao Zhigao and Wang Jiaping ranked higher than Chen Yubi and Zhang Wei on the gold list, but they did not become officials.
Of course, there are sometimes many reasons here, but Gao Pragmatic guessed that in addition to the personal abilities of the officials, there must be shadows of important officials in the court behind the selection of the prince. Therefore, Zhao Zhigao, who is the most popular person, and As a result, Wang Jiaping, who was ranked second in the second division, lost this great opportunity.
Zhang Wei's ability to stand out must be due to Li Chunfang, his teacher and mentor; Chen Yubi's situation is a bit more complicated. Given Chen Yiqin's personality, it is unlikely that he would come forward to recommend his son. Most likely, Gao Gong and other ministers felt that Chen Yu Your Majesty met the qualifications in all aspects, and his father Chen Yiqin was a neutral faction in the cabinet, so they all wanted to fight for it, so they were happy to give him a favor. Whether Chen Yiqin appreciated it or not, there was no need to offend him anyway.
The situation of Zhao Zhigao and Wang Jiaping is not as good as the two of them. Logically speaking, their tutor is also Li Chunfang - she is the examiner. However, Li Chunfang may not have ordered the papers for them personally, so the master of the room is someone else, and most of them are noble officials who are in the Hanlin Academy or the Imperial College. They do not have enough real power to compete with the cabinet bosses for the right to recommend. .
Therefore, there are people in the court who are good at becoming officials!
As for Yu Shenxing, this person is also very interesting. He was a student that Zhang Juzheng valued very much. Historically, Zhang Juzheng had taken great care of him. However, when the Liu Tai case broke out and the love-stealing case entered the climax, Yu Shenxing urged Zhang Juzheng not to Go your own way. What's even more cruel is that after Liu Tai was arrested, no one in the whole court dared to visit him, but Yu Shenxing decisively went to visit him. As a result, Zhang Juzheng was severely punished, and he also jointly asked Emperor Wanli to take back his life, so that Zhang Juzheng called Yu Shenxing to him and asked, "I'm not kind to you, why do you repay me like this?"
As a result, Yu Shenxing replied: "It is precisely because you are not kind to me that students have to do this. Taking love is against the ancestral system and against the rules. You are the leader of hundreds of officials and should be a model for the world." But it is obvious that he has a taste of power. Zhang Juzheng couldn't listen.
Later, Zhang Juzheng was liquidated after his death, and Wanli ordered his family to be searched. Under such circumstances, Yu Shenxing did not avoid resentment and wrote to Qiu Shun, who was in charge of the matter, asking him to take care of Zhang Juzheng's eighty-year-old mother and underage son. After much thought, Qiu Shun finally listened to this advice and reserved a residence and enough land for Zhang's mother to support her in her old age. Yu Shenxing was praised by both the DPRK and the Central Government.
When Gao Pragmatic was thinking about the dispute between Xu Jie and Gao Gong, many of the historical materials he relied on came from Shen Xing's "Gu Shan Bi Chen" for no other reason: Gao Pragmatic believed that Yu Shenxing's moral integrity was far better than that of Wang Shizhen .
Of course, the reason why Yu Shenxing's ethics gained Gao Pragmatic's trust is not just because of these two things. After all, both of these things may have been done deliberately in order to gain a good reputation - what Gao Pragmatic himself did. Raising hope is actually very similar to these things.
His true appreciation and even admiration for Shenxing's integrity was due to Yu Shenxing's performance during the national dispute: At this time, Wanli's eldest son Zhu Changluo was already nine years old and was born from a concubine - but this concubine was originally just a palace maid. At that time, Wanli was just a temporary rise, but unexpectedly, it became dark. In fact, Wanli did not like this concubine and her son. What he wanted was the second son of the emperor born to Concubine Zheng.
But in the Ming Dynasty, status was extremely important. "With direct descendants, there is no direct descendants" has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Wanli himself was also a beneficiary of this idea. If the queen had no children, there would be no direct descendants, but it was not the second son of the emperor born to Concubine Zheng who would be the first to establish the throne. Wanli could not express this idea clearly, so he delayed establishing a crown prince.
The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were naturally very anxious when they saw that the emperor's eldest son was growing up and could not study in his rightful place. Therefore, since the seventeenth year of Wanli, people have constantly raised the issue of establishing a reserve, and asked Wanli to build the East Palace as soon as possible.
Yu Shenxing, as the Minister of Rites, was of course obligated to do this. He sparsely remonstrated, and his words were quite fierce. Wanli was very angry, and repeatedly issued strict edicts. You must be careful to "threaten the emperor with the East Palace."
Yu Shenxing replied: "The matter of registration is the responsibility of the ministers. If I don't say it, I will be derelict in my duty. Please make a decision quickly. I would rather abandon my official position and return home." His attitude was extremely tough and he was not willing to compromise at all, because Yu Shenxing From a practical point of view, principles are principles, and issues of principle are non-negotiable.
Of course Wanli was even more unhappy. He scolded Yu Shenxing for being "suspicious" and "confused the country's foundation", and dismissed all officials from the Ministry of Rites and Dai Lu. It happened that at this time, the Shandong Township Examination question leak incident occurred. As the Minister of Rites, Yu Shenxing was the main leader of the scientific examination, but he only had certain leadership responsibilities. However, Yu Shenxing still took the blame and resigned without hesitation. .
In September of the 19th year of Wanli, Yu Shenxing's resignation was approved by Wanli, and Yu Shenxing returned to his hometown. He stayed at home for more than ten years, and the government and the public recommended him to leave the mountain many times, but Wanli disagreed. It was not until the thirty-fifth year of Wanli that the Eastern Palace was established and the country's foundation was decided. When the court recommended cabinet ministers, Yu Shenxing ranked first among the seven candidates. Wanli saw that the situation was unstoppable, so he ordered him to serve in the cabinet as his former official, Prince Shaobao and Dongge University Scholar. But at this time, Yu Shenxing was seriously ill and could only go to Beijing to see him. A few days later, he died at the official residence in Jinghua at the age of sixty-three. After Yu Shenxing's death, he was given as Taibao to the crown prince and his posthumous title was Wen Ding.
