A mirage of civil servants.
The hero of this story is Zhang, a native of Tongcheng, Anhui Province, whose name is Cheng Huaiju. At the age of 29, he was admitted to the Jinshi examination, and his father was Zhang Ying, a great scholar in Kangxi Dynasty.
He had a family history when he was a child; After becoming an official, there is also a father who gives advice on how to play court politics every day; He has good talent and calm manners. At first glance, he looks like a minister, almost a prime minister's seed tailored for the Qing Dynasty. Good opportunities are reserved for such people.
At the age of 33, Zhang was appreciated by Emperor Kangxi and was "instructed to serve the South Study Room".
In fact, Zhang's official position in Kangxi is not big, only to the position of assistant minister, which is equivalent to the current deputy ministerial official. His real official career was in the Ye government of Yongzheng.
In the first year of Yongzheng's accession to the throne, he found that Zhang was very capable, so he was promoted to be a minister of the Ministry of Rites, but he was not allowed to go to the Ministry of Rites, but stayed with him to "temporarily assist the government." Therefore, Zhang has been the great secretary of Yongzheng for 13 years.
Later, Zhang became a big official, such as the chief minister of military aircraft, a university student in Baohe Hall, and the Prince Taibao hung in front of the official, also in charge of the official department and the household department. The official department and the household department have the highest status among the six departments-the administrative officials of the official department are in charge of personnel rights; The Ministry is in charge of wealth and financial power. In other words, the two core powers, people and money, are in Zhang's hands.
Zhang has a good personal relationship with Yongzheng. Of course, the emperors of the Qing dynasty had a tradition of putting on a show, and Yongzheng often created some very dramatic scenes, which made historians and recent ministers spread and create "many stories" in succession.
In the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Zhang was sick once and took a few days off. Yong Zhengdi said to the attendants around him, "My arm hurts these two days."
When the attendants asked him why, Yong Zhengdi said, "Why does my arm hurt? Because Zhang is my right-hand man, he is ill now, so I feel my arm hurts. " This incident gave birth to a script, which was circulated everywhere, meaning that the monarch and the minister were in harmony.
In the 11th year of Yongzheng (1733), Zhang took a leave of absence and went back to his hometown to visit his mother. It took him several months to travel from Beijing to Tongcheng. Yong Zhengdi missed him very much and gave him an imperial edict by writing a love letter.
I have been in the throne for eleven years, and the minister of the DPRK has not left for a day. Only Qing is loyal to the monarch and the minister and feels the same. There is still one month left, so I often miss you, but I don't know how to get away from my duties.
It probably means that we have been together for 1 1 year, and we have never been apart for a day. Now that your home is far away, I miss you very much!
This is also a story made up by the emperor for the court to see.
Yongzheng is a notoriously cruel and difficult person in history, but he does have some temperament. He likes to do everything, and if he is good, he will kill you with a knife.
At the end of Yongzheng, there were only two ministers left, one was E Ertai and the other was Zhang.
The same is true between Yong Zhengdi and E Ertai. Once he said to others, "I sometimes trust E Ertai's expertise more than my confidence." It means that I trust him more than myself.
Yong Zhengdi is such a figure. When he died, he put his hands on the bed and looked at the two babies. They all said they would be good friends for life, but this life is over. How can they live forever?
He thought of a trick and wrote an imperial edict before he died, saying that E Ertai and Zhang had the right to enter the ancestral temple after their death.
"Enjoying the ancestral temple" was the highest honor of a minister at that time. Even after his death, he can make a memorial tablet and put it next to the main memorial tablet of the emperor's ancestors in the ancestral hall.
This means that when the later emperors went to the ancestral temple to kowtow to their ancestors, they were also kneeling. It is not bad for a minister to enjoy such an honor.
Zhang can get the immortal sacred object for more than ten years as soon as possible, but he still has some real skills. He is relatively clean, does not collect money indiscriminately, and does not raise a mistress. More importantly, Zhang is diligent and capable.
It is not easy to be the emperor's secretary. When the emperor talks about a meaning, you have to get down on the ground immediately and present it to the emperor in written form. The emperor saw it, which was exactly what I meant, and then gave it to the ministers.
Ordinary people don't say that they can understand others. If they think about it, they may have to think twice. Zhang has this ability. As long as the emperor says something, he can immediately write it on paper and get the emperor's approval. The emperor often has more than a dozen imperial edicts to be issued every day, so his writing and literary talent can be said to be quite simple.
Zhang is also very diligent. He was an official for 50 years and in charge of the military department for 24 years. Every morning, before dawn, he will go to court. "Courtiers are waiting for the leak." He also has a good memory. He knows everyone's place of origin, background, resume and political achievements like the back of his hand, whether it is a government official or a junior bureaucrat, just like a walking dictionary.
In the feudal dynasty, it was not enough for you to be a famous minister. Most importantly, you can't argue with the emperor about what he values most-the names of his descendants. This is too difficult, but Zhang also did it.