introduction
Yang Guozhong, a powerful minister during the Tang Xuanzong period, with nepotism and his own franchise all the way, was finally able to climb to a high position, and at the height of his power, it can be said that he was above ten thousand people under one person. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Jin had a poem "Yang Guozhong" Yun: "It is said that the king favors the jade ring, and accidentally relies on the high class." "After Yang Guozhong gained power, he not only lived a luxurious life, but also constantly tried to mutilate Zhongliang, and was a great traitor who brought calamity to the country and the people.
Tang Xuanzong was dimwitted in his later years, and he only wanted to enjoy the Kaiyuan prosperous world created by himself in his prime years, not only did he include his daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan in the palace as a noble concubine, but also after that, the Yang family alone won the Tao, and the chicken dog ascended to heaven. Yang Yuhuan's three sisters were all summoned to Beijing to be crowned as wives, and their brother Yang Guozhong was also able to rise step by step because he attached himself to these nobles. During the Tang Dynasty's Tianbao period, foreign relations had a very serious monopoly, and Yang Guozhong was one of the iconic figures.
▲Yang Guozhong stills
01
Yang Guozhong, whose real name was Yang Zhao, was the nephew of Zhang Yizhi, Wu Zetian's favorite minister. The word "Guozhong" was given to him by Tang Xuanzong when he asked to change his name in order to show his loyalty to Tang Xuanzong. Yang Guozhong and Yang Yuhuan's sisters and others were not originally close relatives, although he had been an official in the court for a long time, but he only served as a minor official in the local area, and his life was sloppy.
After Yang Yuhuan's sisters were favored, Yang Guozhong seized the opportunity to climb upwards and deliberately greeted these sisters and did everything to please them. Finally, he was able to enter the capital and step into the center of power. Later, in the official arena, he also made all kinds of accusations against Li Linfu, who was in control of power at that time, and the two used each other to form a hill.
▲ Tang Xuanzong, Yang Guifei and Yang Guozhong (first from the right)
Later, in order to balance Li Linfu, Tang Xuanzong connived at Yang Guozhong's growing power, and he and Li Linfu also gradually became at odds. After Li Linfu's death, Yang Guozhong finally became prime minister, holding more than 40 positions at the height of his power. Yang Guozhong was able to curry favor with Tang Xuanzong and the Yang sisters as much as he could, and yang Guozhong paid attention to all the big and small matters that Tang Xuanzong commanded, and did his best to handle them. However, he was not loyal to the king and the country as he said, but simply to maintain his position and enrich himself, so that later the selection of officials in the imperial court was also monopolized by Yang Guozhong.
02
In order to try his best to show his ability to Tang Xuanzong, Yang Guozhong was very successful, exhausted his troops, and during his reign, he used troops on the border at every turn, causing huge losses to both the Nanzhao state and the Tang Dynasty. During Li Linfu's reign, he was still able to suppress An Lushan and others, but Yang Guozhong did not have this ability, and there was a fierce contradiction with the An Lushan clique in order to compete for power. Eventually, it triggered the Anshi Rebellion, and also made the Tang Dynasty turn from prosperity to decline.
▲Road map of the Tang Ping'an History of Chaos
People like Yang Guozhong will give birth to many absurd things as soon as they gain power, and if life is extravagant, it is still reasonable, but many of Yang Guozhong's behaviors make people feel unreasonable. In the "Testament of Kaiyuan Tianbao" written by Wang Renyu of the Fifth Dynasty, there is a record about Yang Guozhong: "Yang Guozhong is loyal to the winter moon, often chooses concubines and fat people, ranks in front, and makes the wind cover." Cover borrows the breath of people to warm up, so it is called the meat array. ”
The meaning of this passage is that when Yang Guozhong is cold in winter, he will let the relatively plump and tall concubines stand in a row in front of him to block the wind and heat, called the "meat array". In addition, when Yang Guozhong set up a banquet, in order to show off his power and wealth to the guests, the food would not be placed on the table, but many maids would each hold a dish in their hands and serve in front of themselves and the guests. This practice is known as a "meat table dish".
▲ Handmaiden stills
03
In Yang Guozhong's eyes, it seems that these concubines and servants are regarded as "utensils", so that heating or serving food, will the effect really be better? It is nothing more than a perverted psychology to show that you are superior. The bad and low-level tastes in Yang Guozhong's human nature are unmistakable in these behaviors.
However, this kind of bizarre absurdity has also been imitated, and two have been mentioned in Feng Menglong's book: Sun Sheng, a high-ranking official of the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Fifth Dynasty, and Du Tao, a Ming Dynasty Hangzhou, who once used "meat plate platform" and "meat screen" respectively. Such a boring extravagant style has even been emulated by later generations, which shows that the "courtesy, righteousness, and shame" of the ancient reading population may not be so important in the eyes of some people.
▲Stills of the Anshi Rebellion
After reading this, I can't help but feel that Yang Guozhong's ending is really deserved. After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Yang Guozhong followed Tang Xuanzong all the way to escape, and was eventually hacked to death by mutinous soldiers in the Ma Songpo Incident, and the yang family sisters who had once been powerful also died in this incident. Although Yang Guozhong can be said to be self-destructive in many acts of injustice, the major disasters brought to the people by him alone can be compensated by this human life.
epilogue
Throughout history, there are many powerful ministers who can be above ten thousand people under one person, but there are really not many despicable people like Yang Guozhong who are both incompetent and talentless. Li Linfu, the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, was also known as a traitor, but Li Linfu's military and political ability was far superior to Yang Guozhong's by a thousand times.
Resources:
"Yang Guozhong"
"Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament"