Reprinted ▼
Zhang was a talented politician in the late Ming Dynasty. He carried out a series of reforms, which made the declining Ming Dynasty strong again, and there was a rare scene of prosperity in the late Ming Dynasty.
But Zhang's self-esteem gradually declined in his later years. He is corrupt and deceitful, eloquent and particularly fond of flattery. Some little people just like what they want and flatter him.
There is a small official named Qiuyue. In order to please Zhang and let him climb up quickly, he thought of a plan and made two gold couplets out of gold and gave them to Zhang. It reads: The sun and the moon are bright, and all countries admire Ming Di; Qiushan is Yue, and the four sides praise Taiyue Xianggong.
This antithesis of couplets is quite neat; Or a combination of words: "sun" and "moon" synthesize the word "Ming" and "hill" and "mountain" synthesize the word "Yue"; This is another embedded couplet; Zhang's name "Taiyue" is embedded in it.
In a sense, the first part is to praise the emperor, and the second part is to praise Zhang. Yue is a mountain, and Zhang is as great as a mountain.
Zhang won this pair of gold medals, not to mention how happy he was, and he was promoted immediately. Later, Zhang's three sons, relying on the strength of Laozi, all signed their names on the gold medal list-they passed the Jinshi exam. Moreover, one who is admitted to the top scholar [the highest level of imperial examination, only takes three places in the first class: the first place is the top scholar, the second place is the second place, and the third place is the flower exploration; In the imperial examination, the three people who won the first place in the examination were also called "Ji" and "Deng Di"; The top scholar was the highest honor in the imperial examination in feudal times, and one of them took the second place. Immediately, someone sent a congratulatory couplet to Zhang, which read: "The Lord is the Prime Minister, and one virtue assists the three dynasties, and the sun and the moon have great merits; Champion second, two people second, learn to be a champion of heaven and man.
The first part is that Zhang was both a prime minister and a teacher, assisting the three dynasties [Zhang experienced Jiajing, Qin Long and Wanli], and his contribution was higher than that of the sun and the moon. The bottom line is that Zhang Taishi's son has been admitted to both, one is the champion and the other is the second. Their knowledge surpassed all the scholars in the world at that time.
Many people were unconvinced at that time. One day, Zhang held a banquet at home to celebrate his son's birthday, and everyone had a good time. Suddenly, someone sent an urgent military message from the Ministry of War. Zhang quickly opened it. There was no information except a note saying "Congratulations to Master".
Then there is a little poem:
Old calf, who loves his son? The wild bird is a phoenix, which deceives you!
The old cow licked her beloved calf with her tongue. Which parent doesn't love their children? Let wild birds pretend to be phoenix, and let a few ignorant sons win the first prize and the second prize is high. This is too deceiving the emperor!
After reading it, Zhang turned pale with anger and immediately sent someone to catch the messenger just now. But the man who pretended to be an emissary has long since disappeared.
Emperor Wanli had great respect for Zhang. He never calls his name when he meets him. He opened his mouth and shut it. Zhu Yijun also personally wrote a pair of couplets for him, which read: loyalty and righteousness can overcome heaven, and benevolence and righteousness will last forever; Zhao Gong holds the sun, and the light of his body spreads in one hundred years.
It means that your loyalty is higher than the sky, and your righteousness can be passed down from generation to generation; Teacher Wang's contribution to my assistance is so remarkable that my good reputation can be spread for hundreds of years. "Take it easy" means "good reputation".
But just after Zhang's death, this "good reputation" spread for less than a year, and he turned his face and denied people. He sent officers and men to clean up the Zhang family and starved a dozen people to death. He also tortured Zhang's sons [who are now dismissed and sent home], forcing them to admit that the money was "at a friend's house". Zhang's son was beaten to pieces. The eldest son couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide. Other sons failed to commit suicide several times, and were later exiled to the frontier as soldiers. Zhang, the hero of Wanli, was finally destroyed by Wanli. On the one hand, it shows the cruelty of feudal emperors, but on the other hand, it is too arrogant and extravagant with Zhang in his later years, which makes people jealous.