Thanks to the TV series Yongzheng Dynasty and the influence of Li Jue as an official, many people are familiar with the character Li Jue, and the image of Li Jue in the drama is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The descriptions of Li Wei's birth and life experience in these two TV dramas are basically the same, and they are all set to be born in poverty and wandering the streets when they were young. Because of coincidence, they worshipped Yongzheng, who was still a prince at that time, gained trust step by step, and finally got reuse and became Yongzheng's favorite minister.
However, the real Li Yu in history, although really a favorite of Yongzheng, is very different from TV series in terms of birth and identity. So, what is Li Wei's real identity? Let's look back at history and see the real Li Yu in history.
Li Wei appeared in the first episode of the TV series Yongzheng Dynasty. At that time, Prince Yongzheng and his thirteenth brother Huang Tianjun were ordered to go to Jiangnan to raise money for disaster relief. Near the Yellow River, they met Li Wei, Gao Fu and Xiao Cui. They are still beggars.
After that, Yongzheng took in these three people. Since then, Li Wei has become a courtier of Yongzheng, and in the subsequent plot, the character Li Wei has also appeared.
Then, was Li Yu in history really once a little beggar who was reduced to begging on the street? The answer is no, the real likui jy is not only not a beggar, but also not reduced to begging along the street. He is a serious rich boy.
According to historical records, Li Jue was born in Fengxian County, Jiangsu Province, which is now directly under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and Li Jue's family is still a small rich family in the local area.
There is no record of how rich he is, but when Li Wei grew up, his first official position was donated with money. From this point, it can be proved that the real family situation in Li Wei is much better than that of ordinary people, at least belonging to a well-off family with no worries about food and clothing.
If Li Jue is really a beggar and his family is so poor that he can't even eat, how can he have money to donate officials?
In addition to this different background, there are some deviations in the interpretation of Li Wei's true cultural level. In the sixth episode of Yongzheng Dynasty, Li Wei, who has gone to Sichuan as a county magistrate, wrote a letter to Yongzheng. The letter was full of typos, and Yongzheng called it a "heavenly book" with a smile.
This setting directly characterizes Li Wei as an illiterate person, but it is not. Although Li Yu was not a well-educated person in history, he also had a certain cultural foundation. The reason for this is that his family is fully capable of supporting his study and study, and that his first office was donated with money, but it was not only rich.
The official donation system in Qing Dynasty began with Emperor Kangxi. At that time, in order to raise money, Kangxi started the system of donating officials because the treasury was empty, but it was the time to fight.
However, although donating officials is paid for, there are still certain cultural requirements. At least in the Kangxi period, at least you had to study. It's just that those officials who were in charge of this matter later only recognized money but not people. The first official position donated by Li Ao is Yuan Wailang, whom we often hear in TV series.
The so-called Yuanwailang is actually just a vacant position, belonging to a Langguan outside the official position, which is equivalent to a backup. His usual job is to assist the official to handle some complicated affairs.
But even a fake job doesn't mean that you can't read, which means that Li Wei is not illiterate. There is also the process of knowing Li Yu and Yongzheng, and the history is different from TV series.
In the TV series, Li Wei met Yongzheng in Huangpan District, then became a servant in Wang Fu, and gradually gained the trust of Yongzheng. First he was sent to work in Sichuan, then he was promoted step by step and finally became a court official.
In fact, when Li Jue donated Yuanwailang, it was in the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi. Soon after he served as Yuanwailang, he entered the court and served as Yuanwailang of the Ministry of War. Two years later, in the fifty-eighth year of Kangxi, he was promoted to be a doctor of the Ministry of Civil Affairs because of his good work performance.
In other words, Li Jue's early appointment and promotion basically had little to do with the prince Yongzheng, and most of them were promoted by their own achievements and abilities.
But it was precisely because of Li Wei's outstanding performance that Yongzheng paid attention to it at that time, which laid a solid foundation for Li Wei's successful career after Yongzheng ascended the throne in the future.
According to records, Li Jue was in charge of managing the treasury when he worked in the Ministry of Finance. At that time, there was a prince who took twelve taels for every thousand taels of silver he received. He also called it "bitter flat silver", which means that these twelve taels are errors, but they actually went into his own pocket.
For this kind of phenomenon, if it is someone else, it will probably turn a blind eye, but Li Wei, who is in charge of managing the vault, expressed his unwillingness. He repeatedly advised the prince not to enrich himself, but he didn't listen.
No way, Li Wei put a cupboard in the corridor of the warehouse. A piece of paper was put on the cupboard, which read "One king wins money", meaning that this is the surplus of the prince. As a result, the illegal income of the prince was made public. Finally, the prince was ashamed and stopped the income.
When Yongzheng learned about this incident, he admired Li Jue, a small official who was not afraid of powerful people, and began to appreciate Li Jue gradually, which gave Li Jue a chance to be promoted to a higher position and make a fortune.
Li Wei was favored by Yong Zhengdi. Li Wei was reused by Yongzheng and became his confidant minister. This is true of both TV dramas and history. So to what extent is he favored?
First of all, the official position has risen rapidly. Before Kangxi's death, Li Wei was still a small doctor, but at the beginning of Yongzheng's reign, he was immediately promoted to the governor of Zhili.
That's not all. Just sealed Zhili Postal Road, Yongzheng was appointed as Yunnan Salt Postal Road before he took office. According to the Qing system, the rank of the card shark of the household department is from five grades, and the postal route of Zhili is from four grades. As for the Yanyou Road in Yunnan, it started from the third grade. In other words, Li Jue was taken to Yongzheng after the death of Kangxi. In less than a year, his official position even jumped several levels.
And this is not the end of Li Wei. Li Jue worked in Yanshidao, Yunnan Province for less than two years, and was promoted to the rank of Yunnan Minister of Public Affairs, with the rank of second class, equivalent to the current governor, responsible for the finance and taxation of Yunnan Province.
Later, Li Wei was promoted like a rocket and became the governor of Zhejiang. By the fifth year of Yongzheng, Li Wei was already the governor of Zhejiang.
In more than five years, Li Wei was promoted from a five-level doctor to a two-level governor. This kind of promotion speed is rare in the whole Yongzheng dynasty.
In the later period of Yongzheng, Li Jue was made the minister of war, concurrently the minister of punishment, and at the same time added the title of Prince of Shaofu. In addition to the rapid rise of official positions, Li Wei's favor is also reflected in Yongzheng's attitude towards him.
As we all know, Yong Zhengdi is a difficult person to get along with, and he is extremely demanding of ministers. There are not many words of praise, mostly words of exhortation, but for Li Jue, Yongzheng likes everything. For example, Yongzheng's evaluation of Li Wei is recorded in the Draft of Qing History. Overall, the evaluation is quite high.
Regardless of his official position or attitude, Li Jue was a very special favorite in front of Yongzheng, and he was reused and trusted by Yongzheng for two reasons.
First, Li Wei is really capable. Judging from Li Wei's resume, the work he did most was related to salt administration. For example, when he was in Yunnan, he served as the post road of Yunnan salt affairs, and later he was promoted to Yunnan, where he was also responsible for salt administration. Including when he first became the governor of Zhejiang, he was also the salt envoy of Zhejiang, responsible for sorting out salt policy and investigating illegal salt.
Salt policy has always been an important part of the income of ancient dynasties, and it is not too much to describe it with lifeblood. So no matter which emperor will attach great importance to it.
After Li Jue took charge of salt policy, he did very well in Yunnan and Zhejiang, especially in dealing with the flooding of illegal salt. Li Jue successively wiped out several salt owls that had plagued the imperial court for many years, and finally made the official salt unimpeded. How can a man who makes money for the country not be loved by Yongzheng?
Besides, Li Jue is good at catching thieves in addition to his work related to salt administration. Around the fourth year of Yongzheng, thieves from all walks of life gathered here in the waters of Taihu Lake at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, burning and looting, which made the merchants and local people in the past miserable.
After Li Jue came to power, he made full use of all kinds of tricks, or infiltrated thieves or wooed differentiation. In a word, he finally swept away the thieves who had been rampant in the local area for many years. At that time, Yongzheng also wrote a special letter, praising Li Wei.
Strong administrative ability is the apparent reason why Li Jue was favored by Yongzheng. After all, such officials will be reused as long as they are not bad kings. Besides, Li Jue has a habit, which is the fundamental factor of his trust in Yongzheng. This habit is that he will repeat it word for word to Yongzheng, whether it is good or bad.
For example, when Li Weichu was appointed as Dianyan Post Road, the King of Iraq (that is, Lao Thirteen), who had always had a good relationship with him, told Li Jue not to live up to his mission and gave him two hundred and twenty pieces of silver as a gratuity.
Once again, Li Wei called Yongzheng every word of the conversation between him and his third son. Although this is only a small matter, which emperor doesn't like such an honest servant? Especially a suspicious emperor like Yongzheng.
There are many similar cases. Every time Li Wei told Yongzheng about his conversations with other ministers and what happened, the more so, the more Yongzheng felt that Li Wei was loyal. Over time, Yongzheng will naturally have great trust in him.
Li Jue's ending Li Jue was a very important figure in Yongzheng period and a celebrity before Yong Zhengdi. In the late Yongzheng period, he was given a shooter's sword, and Yong Zhengdi also arranged for a painter to paint Li Wei.
Not only that, Li Wei was transferred to the Ministry of War in the later years of Yongzheng, and was named Prince Shaofu. At the same time, Yongzheng was allowed to ride into the Forbidden City. Everything shows how favored Li Jue was, but soon after Yongzheng's death, everything changed quickly.
In August 1735, Yongzheng died, and Li Jue cried prostrate in front of Yong Zhengdi's coffin, so that he fainted several times. The succeeding Emperor Qianlong felt the contribution of Li Wei and presented Zhu Chao used by Yongzheng to Li Wei.
Since then, Gan Long has handed over the task of controlling floods in the north to Li Wei. To this end, Li Jue took pains to travel more than 3,000 miles. After field trips, he beat Gan Long one by one. After three years of work, Li Jue finally broke down from overwork and died soon after, at the age of 5 1 year.
By this time, Ganlong's attitude towards Li Wei is acceptable. He was not only "sensitive" in posthumous title after Li Jue's death, but also sent people to Li Jue's hometown to "pay for tea and wine" to pay homage to this official who worked hard for the Qing Dynasty.
However, in the forty-second year of Qianlong, when Emperor Qianlong in the south of China visited the Flower Temple on the west lake, he saw a statue of Li Wei erected by the local people to commemorate Li Wei, and immediately became furious on the spot. As a result of his rage, Qianlong not only made a very low evaluation of likui jy, but also had the statue of likui jy burned on the spot.
Li Yu, once praised by Qianlong, why did Qianlong show a completely different attitude decades later? It's actually quite simple. Father Yongzheng supported what he opposed, which was what Qianlong said in his heart.
This point has been deeply reflected in Qianlong's ruling career for decades. For example, Yongzheng, who trusted Zhang at first, had no good end after Qianlong ascended the throne.
Before Yongzheng died, Zhang was granted the right to share the ancestral temple after his death. However, after Qianlong ascended the throne, it was extremely difficult to implement. Finally, because of this incident, Zhang left a fortune.
There are also princes who participated in the "Nine sons seized the office", such as Yin Gui, the eighth son of the emperor, and Yin Gui, the ninth son of the emperor. After Yongzheng acceded to the throne, they were all convicted and banned.
In the Qianlong period, these ironclad cases were overturned one by one. Emperor Qianlong released these uncles, rehabilitated them and completely overthrew everything his father Yongzheng had set in the past. Therefore, Li Jue, a famous person in Yongzheng period, will naturally become the target of Qianlong's attack.
At the beginning, Qianlong was only because of face, and he didn't do anything to Li Wei. However, decades after he ascended the throne, with the stability of the rule, Qianlong would naturally attack Li Jue.
More importantly, Ganlong was bursting with confidence all his life, thinking that his sandwich skills were unparalleled, but the people did not build a temple for him. A little courtier, Li Jue, was openly worshipped by the people. How can Gan Long, who thinks highly of himself, stand it? So in order to vent their anger, they had to tear down the idol of wei li.
However, whether Li Jue is a good official or a bad official has its own public opinion. As for whether Qianlong is a good emperor, that's different.