As the saying goes, "Let me tell you the truth first". But this proverb is used on many occasions, which shows that in some cases, it is not so nice, but it can show that you are more likely to gain the trust of others without taking advantage of others.
Wei Zhi, as an ancient minister who was famous for "giving advice", was a person who liked to say that it was difficult and obedient. In fact, what he said was almost the same as what some people said was nice.
Wei Zhi fought in Wagang Army in his early years, and later took refuge in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, he appeared as a subordinate of the armed forces hostile to the Tang Dynasty. If he took the normal road of promotion, he would never get ahead in his life. However, he chose to be with Prince Li. The prince is the lawful heir to the throne. After the death of the emperor, the prince will naturally become the new emperor. After the prince ascended the throne, there were only three kinds of people who were reused: the court ministers left by the old emperor, the ministers who stepped up step by step according to the promotion path, and the relatives and confidants of the prince. Obviously, he is working towards the standard of the third kind of person, and he really made suggestions and devoted himself to Li. When he competed for the throne, he even suggested preempting and killing, which showed his eagerness.
Unfortunately, Li Shimin was the last one to strike first. Li Shimin launched the Xuanwumen mutiny, killed the prince and Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and became a prince himself, forcing Tang Yuan to abdicate and become the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty. After the battle for the throne, Wei Zhi suffered another failure in his political career. The difference is that the first time he appeared as a fallen general, and this time he appeared as a prisoner.
When escorted to the front of Emperor Taizong, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin asked, "Why did you suggest that Prince Li Xian kill me? Aren't you inciting our brothers to kill each other? "
You know, even if a capital crime can't be cured, the political future will definitely be gone. However, Wei Zheng has a very good coping strategy. In the face of Li Shimin's question, Wei Zhi replied without fear: "If the prince had accepted my suggestion, there would not be such a situation."
The implication is that his suggestion is very correct, but the failure is due to the failure of the prince. This kind of answer seems to avoid the question of Emperor Taizong, but in fact it euphemistically expresses Wei Zhi's meaning: "The so-called brotherhood is just a hypocritical moral slogan. In fact, you didn't kill your brother before you became a prince and seized power? "
Sure enough, Wei Zhi's answer made Emperor Taizong appreciate it very much. He felt courageous and knowledgeable, not only dared to contradict himself face to face, but also his original plan to let the prince commit suicide was really reasonable. In this way, Wei Zhi got rid of the fate of political prisoners and prisoners, got the reuse of Emperor Taizong, and became prime minister a few years later, ushered in the first and last spring of his political career.
This time, Wei Zhi did not show loyalty as before, but directly said to Emperor Taizong, "I hope your majesty regards me as a good minister, not a loyal minister." This is telling the truth, but it is also a clever self-confession. In fact, Wei Zhi took refuge in several masters before and after. According to the standard of "loyal ministers don't serve two masters", he is definitely not a loyal minister, but he didn't hide this. On the contrary, he openly complained to Emperor Taizong and put on another trump card: the virtuous minister. He made it clear to Emperor Taizong that he was a talented person who could run the country and keep the country safe. As long as we follow his advice, the country will be stable for a long time, and Emperor Taizong himself will become a rare good emperor throughout the ages, which is very important to Emperor Taizong. Wei Zhi's words hit the most sensitive part of Emperor Taizong's heart: to be a good emperor.
From the point of view of Emperor Taizong himself, it is no longer proper to be emperor by coup. If you don't do it well again, you will be regarded as a bad tyrant like Qin Ershi and Yang Di by later generations. So Emperor Taizong needed a good minister to help him govern the country. Since Wei Zhi has shown his status as a good minister, Emperor Taizong will naturally regard him with special respect.
Moreover, whether a courtier is loyal or not depends mainly on how many ideas he gave to the emperor and how many practical things he did. For Emperor Taizong, this is the greatest loyalty, but how many masters Kevin·Z had before is not so important. Therefore, relying on the slogan of "Better to be a good minister than a loyal minister", Wei Zhi sought the opportunity to display his talents and eventually became a famous minister who went down in history.
Wei Zhi did a lot of things for Emperor Taizong. The most important thing was to help him formulate some basic national policies after he succeeded to the throne. After the country was stable and the rule was stable, he put forward the principle of being cautious from beginning to end, reminding Emperor Taizong how to maintain it after realizing the rule of Qingming, so that later emperors could inherit this political tradition. In this regard, Wei Zhi really deserves the title of "good minister".
However, in the eyes of future generations, the most important thing for Wei Zhi is to give advice to the emperor, which is a misunderstanding of history. Moreover, the story of Wei Zhi, which was widely praised by later generations, is the most famous one, which provoked the great anger of Emperor Taizong because of his suggestion.
According to historical records, Wei Zhi quarreled with Emperor Taizong in court because of disagreement, which embarrassed Emperor Taizong. Emperor Taizong was very angry. After retiring from the DPRK, he returned to the harem and said, "I must kill this hillbilly Wei Zhi!" Seeing that her husband was so angry, Emperor Taizong's wife and grandson asked why.
When the eldest grandson learned that it was Wei Zhi's suggestion that upset Emperor Taizong, she immediately went into the back room to change the dress worn by the imperial court, and came out to pay tribute to Emperor Taizong, and congratulated him on getting a talent like Wei Zhi who dared to express his correct opinions instead of flattering the monarch. In this way, Wei turned the corner.
What is it actually like? The situation is not so simple. Wei Zhi was already the prime minister of North Korea. Even if Emperor Taizong really wanted to kill him at the moment, he could not really kill Wei Zhi, unless Emperor Taizong himself did it in court. Why? Because there is a provision in the law of the Tang Dynasty that all crimes sentenced to exile or above (including death penalty) must be reviewed after the judgment of the first instance and jointly reviewed by the chief executive of the most important administrative organ in North Korea. With such a set of laws as a guarantee, even if Emperor Taizong wanted to kill Wei Zhi, he had to go through a process of reexamination, but the charge of killing Wei Zhi by Emperor Taizong was definitely not established. Therefore, Wei Zhi will not be sentenced to death for offending Emperor Taizong at all. Because of this, Wei Zhi can calmly and confidently refute Emperor Taizong and express his opinions. Because he knew that he could not die, at most, his impression in Taizong's heart was discounted.
It can be seen that when people evaluated Wei Zheng in the past, those remarks of "integrity" and "disregard for life and death" were superficial, and they failed to see the fact that Wei Zhi expressed his views under the protection of the system and would not be subject to any legal sanctions. It can be said that if there was no such legal guarantee in the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zhi might not talk about Kan Kan as we do today, or even act with the eyes of Emperor Taizong.
The following figure shows the unique survival strategy of the famous minister Wei Zhi:
Wei Zhi said some nasty things. Emperor Taizong accepted Wei Zhi: loyal minister; be written into the annals of history
Emperor Taizong: Ming Jun, Wei Zhi, a virtuous minister who is not afraid of violence, will never accept it.
Emperor Taizong: The master of mediocrity who can be educated cannot be humble.
Wei Zhi's remonstrance and Emperor Taizong's remonstrance.