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This story is quite famous and is often quoted to prove that Emperor Taizong is "a virtuous man, but a villain". However, most people don't know that this story actually has the following. According to "Da Yu 21", just after Emperor Taizong's words were finished, Yu and he quickly kowtowed and apologized, saying that those ministers always "cover everything" in the court. Your majesty, your old man often hangs his head and has nothing to say. I have the honor to accompany you. If I don't say obedience, how much fun will your majesty have even if he is the son of heaven? Therefore, "Taizong's anger is the solution."
From this story, we may draw a conclusion: even if a person has internal moral pursuit and magnanimity to tolerate the adjustable, it is difficult to get rid of the human weakness based on selfish desires; And this weakness will in turn make its advertised moral pursuit become duplicitous. From this, we will find that those once fascinating moral stories in history often have meaningful "below", and it is these "below" that often expose the suspicious parts of those moral stories.
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According to the second volume of Zhenguan dignitaries, in the fourth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong ordered the repair of Luoyang Gongganyang Hall to prepare for the hunting trip. Zhang wrote an admonition on this matter, saying: to govern the world, "only by being generous and thrifty, thin and collecting it, can it be consolidated forever", and your majesty "will spend more than 100 million yuan to serve the scarred people and attack the disadvantages of hundreds of kings." With this statement, I am afraid it is far more than Emperor Yang. " Although Emperor Taizong was very unhappy, he did not have an attack, but ordered "to stop all work immediately". He also took advantage of the topic and said, "It is better to admire a scholar than to be immune to it."
However, it is recorded in Zi Jian (Volume 193) that the following year, just after the renovation of Jiucheng Palace, Emperor Taizong once again proposed to rebuild Luoyang Palace. This time, Dai Zhou, Minister of Civil Affairs, stood up and said: "There is no chaos, the people are in trouble, and money and food are empty. If it is built endlessly, public and private labor will be wasted! " Emperor Taizong was still very open-minded about coachable, not only praising Dai Zhou for "being loyal to his country and knowing everything", but also promoting him to an official position. However, after a while, Emperor Taizong could not help but order Dou Zhuo to repair Luoyang Palace.
Yao Silian Biography of the New Tang Dynasty records that at the beginning of the sixth year of Zhenguan, after Jiucheng Palace was repaired, Emperor Taizong was anxious to make a tour. The author Yao Silian remonstrated: "It was Qin and Hanwu who left the palace, not Yao Shunyu Tang." Taizong explained: "I am a tourist who has tasted bitterness and illness." Give Yao Silian fifty silks. According to the records in the "Three Great Advices of the Tang Dynasty", Ma Zhou, the censor, also said: "The emperor is still in the hot place, but his majesty has been driven away from the cold place, which is very disturbing." Taizong also praised. However, praise belongs to praise. In the spring of March, Emperor Taizong went to Jiucheng Palace, which is far away from Baoji, and stayed there until October and autumn.
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There are many scattered records in the history books about things like advice when most needed is least heeded, one step at a time and so on. This makes Emperor Taizong, who has been known as the "wise monarch" for thousands of years, somewhat expose his contradictory, tangled and even hypocritical side. Perhaps, to some extent, Emperor Taizong, who is "open-minded and teachable", is just a "moral illusion" of "being a saint inside and being a king outside" concocted by Confucian scholars and Emperor Taizong himself, half deceiving himself and half deceiving others.