At first, the ancestral hall was dedicated only to the ancestors of the emperor. Later, with the approval of the emperor, those who made great contributions to the country will also be enshrined in the ancestral hall after their death. For example, Sun Chang Wuji and Li Jing in the Tang Dynasty, Cao Bin and Pan Mei in the Song Dynasty, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun in the Ming Dynasty. This kind of treatment is called "sharing ancestral temple".
Royal ancestral hall
Obviously, enjoying the ancestral temple is a high-standard treatment.
In the nearly 300 years of the Qing Dynasty, 26 ministers enjoyed ancestral temple treatment. Helin in small Shenyang originally had an ancestral temple, but due to the fall of small Shenyang, she withdrew from the ancestral temple. Most of these 26 ministers are Eight Banners nobles, and there is only one Han Chinese. He was a famous minister in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang, who paid homage to the university students in Baohe Hall and worked as the foreman of military aircraft.
Zhang was able to get the treatment of the ancestral temple mainly by participating in the preparation of the Ministry of War and formulating various rules and regulations of the Ministry of War. At the same time, he also took the lead in compiling a number of important documents and historical records, such as Qing Sheng Lu, Ming Shi, History of the Four Dynasties, Qing Zhengdian, and Shi Lu of Sejong. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan made greater contributions than Zhang. Why didn't he get the treatment of the ancestral temple?
Zhang
Zeng Guofan's greatest contribution to the Qing Dynasty was, of course, the establishment of the Xiang Army, and after 10 years of efforts, he captured Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and declared the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. Think at the beginning, the Taiping Army defeated the Qing green camp and the Eight Banners Army, and it took only two years to get from Guangxi to Jiangsu, and only 20,000 troops were dispatched to attack near Tianjin. Without Zeng Guofan, the rule of the Qing Dynasty would be in jeopardy.
From this point of view, Zeng Guofan has the demeanor of "recreating" the Qing Dynasty and forcibly extended the life of this dying dynasty for 50 years.
Zeng Guofan
In addition, Zeng Guofan also led and participated in the Westernization Movement. He built an arsenal, a shipyard and a translation library. In his later years, he led the first batch of formal overseas students to study advanced science and technology in the United States. They studied and lived in the United States for many years, and most of them returned to China, making due contributions to China's modern career in different posts.
1872, Zeng Guofan died when he was the governor of Liangjiang. The Qing court gave him great honors, such as retiring from court for three days, posthumously giving "Zheng Wen" and posthumous title, worshiping Zhao Zhong Temple and Xianliang Temple in Beijing, and establishing special shrines in various provinces. It would be more perfect if Zeng Guofan could enjoy the ancestral temple.
Empress Dowager Cixi did not dare to treat Zeng Guofan's ancestral temple.
The Empress
After the First Opium War, the Qing Dynasty suffered from internal troubles and foreign invasion, and the Eight Banners nobles were unable to cope with it, and even suffered repeated wars and defeats. In this "great change that never happened in 3,000 years", a group of Han Chinese, represented by Lin Zexu, Tao Shu, Zeng Guofan, Zuo and Li Hongzhang, rose in the political arena, which had a growing influence on the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty. Up to Emperor Xianfeng, Emperor Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi and others, down to princes and nobles such as Su Shun and Prince Gong, they all trusted the Han people and entrusted them with an important task.
This situation aroused the suspicion and dissatisfaction of the nobles of the Eight Banners in the Qing Dynasty. Although Empress Dowager Cixi regarded Zeng Guofan as his right-hand man, she did not dare to offend the Eight Banners too much, especially in enjoying the ancestral temple. Because Empress Dowager Cixi repeatedly "listened to politics" and took power as Empress Dowager Cixi, it violated the patriarchal clan system of the Qing Dynasty and dared not violate the patriarchal clan system of the Qing Dynasty in the ancestral temple.
The place where Empress Dowager Cixi listened to politics.
It is an honor to enjoy the ancestral temple, which does not involve actual power. Empress Dowager Cixi does not need to offend the Eight Banners nobles and create new contradictions in this matter.
In fact, Zeng Guofan may not be worthy of the treatment of the ancestral temple.
Zeng Guofan is an intellectual who is familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. He believed in Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism all his life. He was the first and last Confucian in modern times, even meeting the standards of a saint. On the basis of inheriting the style of Tongcheng School Fang Bao and Yao Nai, he founded the "Xiangxiang School", an ancient prose in the late Qing Dynasty. His Complete Works of Zeng is widely circulated and has many loyal fans. Liang Qichao said admiringly, "My name is Ceng Wenzheng Ji, and I have to repeat it three times a day."
Zeng Guofan is not a snob, and it is impossible to try his best to curry favor with and enjoy the treatment of the ancestral temple. After all, the ancestral temple is the place where the Qing emperors worship their ancestors, and it has nothing to do with the Han people. Zeng Guofan, as a minister of Han nationality, would be embarrassed to appear in such a place. If so, the Eight Banners nobles will be unhappy and Zeng Guofan will be dissatisfied.
Zeng Guofan's calligraphy
At the same time, Zeng Guofan was very cautious in his life. When he was a government official and held military and political power, he paid special attention not to get involved in the high-level struggle of the imperial court, and even remained silent when Prince Alcohol wrote to woo him twice. Such an extremely clever person can't be involved in the whirlpool of right and wrong after death, because he deserves to enjoy the ancestral temple.
This is why Zeng Guofan is indeed more meritorious than Zhang, but he did not get the treatment of the ancestral temple.