Emperor Kangxi’s imperial strategy in selecting his direct descendants in Yueyuehe’s “Yongzheng Dynasty”
Red Clouds
In Yueyuehe’s book “Kangxi Dynasty” and all the The TV series performed in the TV series all vividly describe the emperor's mentality of Emperor Kangxi, who had brilliant achievements such as capturing the emperor, pacifying San Francisco, taking over Taiwan, and quelling the Galdan rebellion. However, in "Yongzheng Dynasty", Kangxi's choice of direct descendant The emperor's mentality is not shown through Kangxi's own inner activities, whether in Er Erhe's writing or through the director's TV lens. The emperor's mentality in Kangxi's choice of heirs is reflected in his voice, smile, appearance and actions, and finally through Prince Yong's Mansion There is a mysterious cripple in the story, or a very powerful person - the talented and ambitious Wu Sidao, who is shown to the readers or the audience through incisive analysis time and time again.
Wu Si’s Taoist aspirations were higher than the sky and his heart was deeper than the sea. In the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, when he was a civil servant, he led 500 candidates to cause a riot in the Gongyuan during the Yingtianfu examination, violating national law. Fortunately, he was rescued by the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, and finally became a staff member of Yinzhen's mansion. He played a crucial step in Yinzhen's path from Yongjun Prince to Yongzheng Emperor. However, as he himself said, The emperor governed with an open mind and used conspiracy; but he planned in a secret room and used conspiracy as the main body, so he could not serve as an official in the court. In the end, he fell under the eternal lesson of "to win the country and seek the death of his ministers" , in order to protect himself, he half-returned and half-hidden.
Let’s not talk about Wu Sidao’s superb ability to assess the situation and make plans. Let’s just talk about Kangxi’s complicated inner activities when selecting the successors of the Qing Dynasty. First of all, the prince Yinreng who had been the prince for thirty years made Kangxi very sad. Yinreng was born to Kangxi's beloved Queen Xiao Yiren. The queen died in childbirth when she was giving birth to Yinreng, so Kangxi was very concerned about this child who was born without a mother. The son is very fond of him, but there is a Dou in the family who cannot help him. First, in the forty-sixth year of Kangxi's reign, the Yellow River burst in Henan and Shandong. During the river management and water transportation, because the state treasury could not come up with money for river relief, Kangxi decided to let the fourth prince Yinzhen, the crown prince's sponsor, pursue the project after the Yellow River was brought under control. Kangxi was in debt to the treasury, but in the process of catching up, the prince, as the crown prince, not only did not provide support, but pushed the envelope when things happened, and sold his official position. Although Kangxi was disappointed, he still remained silent and endured without saying anything, giving the prince the ability to admit his mistakes. opportunity to change. At this time, Kangxi had already had doubts about his future king a hundred years later, but no one was perfect, maybe the prince was temporarily confused?
However, in the 70th year since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, another shocking case of human trafficking occurred. It goes without saying that this case was related to the prince, because since the 40th year of Kangxi, everyone had It was the prince who was in charge of the Ministry of Punishment, and it was also the prince who executed prisoners on behalf of the emperor every year. Such a big life case would not give Kangxi a headache. Therefore, Kangxi's decision to clean up the unjust prisons in the Ministry of Punishment at that time showed that he had cultivated the prince with his own hands. After losing trust, and finally discovering that the prince was involved in this murder case when the eighth prince Yinsi presided over the cleanup, Kangxi's mood began to struggle between the Qing Dynasty and the family relationship between his children, and an unspeakable sadness surged up. In his heart, he said to Prince Yinreng sadly: "I really don't know what to say about you..., and I don't know how to deal with you..." These days, when I close my eyes at night, I see your forehead, ...She is really a virtuous queen! If she had not died, how could you have become like this..." In the end, Kangxi considered the many complicated personnel relationships involving the prince and others, and finally gave up. He was determined to bring this cleanup of the unjust case of the Ministry of Punishment to a hasty end, but at the same time, Kangxi was also very angry at the way that the eighth prince Yinsi used abnormal means to obtain a confession during the trial of the Ministry of Punishment. He thought that Yinsi was a slightly insidious person, that is, in the Here, Yin Si laid the groundwork for his future failure in seizing the throne.
Then, the unsatisfactory prince Yinreng had an affair with Kangxi's concubine Zheng Chunhua in Lengxiang Pavilion. Kangxi discovered it when he strolled over. Kangxi was so angry that his legs softened and he almost fell to the ground. At this time, Kangxi was completely disappointed with the prince, and just when the situation was dark and unpredictable, the fourteenth prince Yinqi, who had always been resentful of the prince, forged the prince's handwriting and falsely named him to stage a rebellion, hoping to completely overthrow him. The prince, Kangxi took the opportunity to depose the prince, but the extremely wise Kangxi also discovered the mystery of the fake handwriting. Therefore, at this time, Kangxi also had unspeakable thoughts about the fourteenth son of the emperor Yinqi who would later become the general king. Therefore, it is completely wrong to say that Kangxi will pass on to the fourteenth son of the emperor.
At this time, the position of crown prince has become vacant, and the proposal to elect a prince is spreading throughout the government and the public. The eighth son of the emperor Yinsi, known as the "Eight Wise Kings", is eager for success and sends people everywhere to canvass votes, and intentionally A charlatan was handed over to Kangxi for his punishment because the charlatan said that the nickname "Mei" of the eighth son of the emperor Yinsi implies "eight, king, big". In fact, these little tricks of Yinsi are self-evident, how can they hide them? He was better than Kangxi, who "knew astronomy from above, geography from below, studied the principles of various schools of Confucianism deeply, and deeply hated the heretics." Therefore, Kangxi just smiled and drove the warlock out.
It can be seen from the above that from the management of water transportation to the trial of major cases of the Ministry of Justice, and then the affair between the prince and Kangxi’s concubine, as well as the forgery of the prince’s handwriting to rebel, whether it was the prince or the eighth son of the emperor Yinsi, As well as the emperor's fourteenth son Yinqi, they had left a bad mark on Kangxi's heart. Kangxi knew it but did not say anything. However, in order not to cause antagonism between father, son and brothers due to the seizure of the legitimate son, or to worry about causing political turmoil. In a moment of confusion, Kangxi had to put the deposed prince back into the position of crown prince.
Then, I don’t know whether it was because of the overt and secret fighting within the red walls and yellow tiles that upset him, or whether it was the flying orioles among the green grass and green water that fascinated him. After having no choice but to restore the crown prince, Kangxi began the journey of his life. During the sixth southern tour, which was also the last, the prince naturally became the supervisor of the state in charge of all government affairs. In fact, this was Kangxi's last test of the prince in desperation.
During Kangxi's southern tour, another shocking incident happened. It turned out that Ren Bo'an, who had served as a chief in the Ministry of Personnel and later patrolled the salt road in Jiangnan, used his previous job to With the convenience of the Ministry of Personnel, he set up a wide range of eyes and ears to collect and spy on the private mistakes of many civil and military officials, and then recorded them in detail one by one, compiled them into a volume, and named it "Hundred Officials' Xingshu". After the prince got this news, He secretly colluded with Ren Bo'an and wanted to use "The Journey of Hundred Officials" to blackmail the officials in the future. After Kangxi got the news, he was shocked by such a corrupt officialdom and felt extremely sad for the prince's behavior. And the prince Instead of returning, he planned a mutiny and attempted to coerce Kangxi into writing an abdication edict, but failed in the end. In the fifty-first year of Kangxi's reign, the prince was again deposed by Kangxi, deposed as a commoner, and imprisoned forever. At the same time, the emperor's thirteenth son Yinxiang was also sent to the clan's mansion and imprisoned by Kangxi for some unclear reasons. In fact, at this time, the germ of choosing the fourth emperor's son Yinzhen to inherit the throne had already arisen in Kangxi's heart, because Yinxiang was Yinzhen's most capable brother, because Yinxiang has the reputation of "The Thirteenth Master of Chivalrous Kings", he is loyal and easy to be impulsive, so Kangxi imprisoned Yinxiang at this time, not only to train him, but also to protect him. In order to make better use of Yinxiang in the future and create conditions for Yinzhen to successfully ascend the throne, this was actually Kangxi's imperial intention.
In the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi's reign, the 60,000-strong army sent by the imperial court to the northwest to quell the rebellion was ambushed by the Junggar tribe and the entire army was wiped out. In order to quell the rebellion, in the fifty-seventh year of Kangxi's reign, Emperor Kangxi appointed the fourteenth son of the emperor Yinzhen, who was good at leading troops, as General Fuyuan and led an army of 100,000 to the northwest. It seemed that the fierce competition for the heir to the throne had an answer. In fact, Kangxi's But in my heart it is not what the world thinks.
At the celebration to celebrate Kangxi's sixty-eighth birthday, the birthday gift given to Kangxi by the fourteenth emperor Yinqi was a sky stone. It is said that this sky stone was a meteor shower that fell from the sky. The word "longevity" was naturally printed on it, but it was turned into a stiff dead eagle by the eighth prince Yinzhen. Faced with this heartbreaking farce, Kangxi not only refused to pursue it, but suddenly killed the fourth prince Yinzhen. Withdrew the mission, and at the same time demoted two capable and upright ministers, Zhang Tingyu, the minister of study, and Ma Qi, the prince's Taibao, and Ma Qi, the bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion. In fact, at this time, Kangxi's determination to further pass on the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, was already firm, but Because in the struggle to seize the rightful son at that time, the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, the eighth son of the emperor, and the fourteenth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, were all relatively prominent figures, and the fourteenth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, was self-respecting. Once the edict was issued, no matter who among the three Any one who succeeds to the throne will inevitably have a tragedy of fratricide. This is what Emperor Kangxi, who ruled the world with "benevolence", did not want to see. Moreover, even when Yinzhen finally succeeded to the throne, Kangxi repeatedly Yinzhen was told to treat his brothers well, so after succeeding to the throne, when the Eight Banners political struggle was the most intense, Yongzheng followed Kangxi's last words even though he couldn't bear it, and did not kill his brothers. However, when Yongzheng later passed the throne to his son Hongli, in order to avoid the tragedy of his own generation's struggle for the right to inherit the throne from happening again, and to clear the way for Hongli to succeed to the throne, he endured extreme grief and killed his son Hongli. , it can be seen that although they were the same generation of emperors, Kangxi and Yongzheng had different imperial aspirations.
When Kangxi was on his deathbed, it was finally time to hand over the heavy responsibility of the Qing Dynasty to Yinzhen. In order to prevent accidents, he went to great lengths to have Longkodo, the nine-door admiral, read out the throne. At the same time, in order to prevent Longkodo from being bribed by the eighth son of the emperor Yinsi or the fourteenth son of the emperor Yinqi and betraying the emperor, Kangxi also gave Longkodo two edicts of conferring titles and granting death, so that Longkodo could loyally support Yinqi. Zhen came to power. It seemed that Kangxi, who ascended the throne as emperor at the age of eight, did have extraordinary scheming.
Of course, Kangxi finally decided to pass it on to the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen. This was not only because of Yinzhen’s long experience and training, his resoluteness and decisiveness in doing things, his ability to take the country’s economy and people’s livelihood into consideration, and his ability to focus on the country, the country, and the country. As early as when Kangxi and his princes and grandsons were hunting at Putian Hunting Ground, Kangxi admired the talents and courage of his grandson, Yinzhen's son, Hongli, at a young age, and once personally trained Hongli. , so once Kangxi is passed to Yinzhen, and Yinzhen is passed to Hongli, then at least the three generations of the Qing Dynasty can be guaranteed to be prosperous. This is what Kangxi considered from the long-term perspective of the Qing Dynasty. This is why Kangxi is different from ordinary people. The emperor's mind.
At the same time, Kangxi finally selected the fourth prince Yinzhen as his successor to the throne. There were extremely complex social reasons, because Kangxi had been promoting benevolent government for the last forty years of his rule, but benevolent government also It brought about irreparable social disadvantages: corruption in government, land annexation, loss of tax revenue, and the serious emptiness of the national treasury, leaving a situation with deep disadvantages. Regardless of the prince's behavior and their respective personality traits, Kangxi found that there was only " Only the cold-faced king "Yin Zhen" could make up for his own mistakes and selflessly refresh the administration and correct the current shortcomings. Therefore, this was also an important reason why Kangxi was unwilling to let the court discuss the establishment of a prince after deposing the prince twice. At that time, Kangxi had already felt We have a candidate for the crown prince.
Yue Erhe's "Yongzheng Dynasty" and the TV series script written by Liu Heping, when revealing Kangxi's imperial intentions in the process of selecting his heirs, most of them were expressed through Wu Sidao's mouth, so they The creation of Wu Sidao, a very important character, has profound meaning. When the fourth prince Yinzhen steps towards the throne in the center of the Zhengda Guangming Palace, which makes hundreds of millions of people bend their backs, there is no doubt that Wu Sidao is an important leading role. When the prince was deposed for the first time, the Manchu Dynasty was discussing the election of the crown prince, and the eighth son of the emperor Yinsi took active actions, Wu Sidao meaningfully told Yinzhen a story: "A big family, the old man gave birth to a large number of sons. Slowly and slowly, the old man gave birth to a large number of sons. , The old man is getting old, and such a big property must be managed by one son. But the housekeeper only has one key, but there are a lot of sons. At this time, only one son stood silently. On the other hand, he only helped the old man with things but never participated in the fight. The old man finally figured out that if he handed the key to any one of these quarreling sons, he would not be able to manage it well. The key was given to the son who didn't fight. This is called fighting without fighting, and if you don't fight, no one in the world can fight with him! '" In fact, Wu Sidao used this very simple story to reveal the entire struggle in the Kangxi Dynasty. It seems that governing a country and being a steward do have many similarities.
Finally, when Yinzhen, Prince of Yong County, became Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sidao, who had stayed in the dormitory of Prince Yong's Mansion for ten years, felt a heavy sense of loss. Since he could After understanding Kangxi's imperial mentality, he would have a better understanding of Yongzheng's imperial mentality due to his special relationship with Emperor Yongzheng over the years, and more importantly, he also mastered some of Yongzheng's conspiracies in the process of seizing the throne. This is undoubtedly A major threat to Yongzheng, who was already the supreme ruler at this time. Obviously Wu Sidao's conspiracy was of no use in the upright palace. In the end, he wisely chose to remain in hiding.
In general, the reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to have a prosperous era of "Kang, Yong, and Qian" that will last forever is inseparable from Kangxi's correct selection of heirs. We can also see from this , Kangxi, who is known as "one emperor through the ages", is worthy of this title. Judging from his imperial mentality, he is indeed a very great and wise emperor of the generation