History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 964 Chapter 963 Taizu's Past 3
"Not in harmony with each other"

Zhao Kuangyin not only wanted to weaken the power of the warlords, but also the power of the prime minister. In terms of how to disintegrate the power of the prime minister, Zhao Kuangyin also did a lot of homework. As mentioned in the previous article, Zhao Kuangyin used the weakness of the "three prime ministers" to weaken the power of the prime minister. In this process, Zhao Kuangyin also had an alternative plan, which was to promote one or several new people with old qualifications and high reputation but shallow foundation, and use them to gradually replace the "three prime ministers" so as to weaken the power of the prime minister more easily and unhindered. The reason is the same as the powerful ministers or eunuchs who arbitrarily deposed and supported a weak and easy-to-control puppet emperor. Zhao Kuangyin needed a puppet prime minister.

Coincidentally, there was a man who had caught Zhao Kuangyin's eye. This man was indeed very eager to become prime minister and would do anything to become the prime minister. However, he relied on his strength to make Zhao Kuangyin determined not to appoint him as prime minister.

This person is Tao Gu, who appeared many times in the previous article, such as being fooled by Han Xizai's beauty trap in the Southern Tang special topic.

Mr. Tao Gu's lifelong pursuit was to be in the prime minister's position. However, along the way, he left behind a string of contemptible scandals in history:
Tao Gu's background was quite tragic. He was originally the son of an official, and his father was a governor. Unfortunately, he lost his father at a young age, so Tao Gu had to follow his mother to remarry and began his childhood life under the care of others. The life of relying on others trained him to be good at observing people's words and expressions, and he had an almost crazy pursuit of promotion, wealth, and success.

In the Later Jin Dynasty, he finally succeeded in getting on the shore and entering the system. In order to climb up the ladder, he submitted his articles to the then Prime Minister Li Song to recommend himself. Li Song and another Prime Minister He Ning both admired his writing style, so they jointly recommended him to the court. Tao Gu eventually entered the palace that intellectuals dream of - the Hanlin Academy, and soon added the title of "Zhi Zhigao" and became a close minister of the emperor.

However, he soon had a conflict with his colleague, An Shenxin, the governor of Yanzhou, and was demoted to the position of Junior Minister of Rites. Tao Gu did not give up, but became more courageous and never gave up. He finally won the trust of the court with his solid talents and was appointed as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat again, returning to the core of power.

Up to this point, his story was still a relatively inspiring and positive example. But soon, the style of the story began to change suddenly.

After Liao destroyed the Later Jin, Tao Gu tried to escape in disguise but failed. He was captured by the Liao army and forced to go north. Tao Gu was unwilling to work for the "Taijun" and was even more unwilling to immigrate to the desert grassland and die in a foreign land. Just when Tao Gu was disheartened, Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang died of illness in Shahulin, and the Liao army fell into chaos. Tao Gu decisively escaped from prison and wisely joined Liu Zhiyuan of Hedong, who had just proclaimed himself emperor, and was appointed as Jieshizhong.

The Later Han Dynasty lasted only three years, and the real power was held by the "military generals" such as Yang Bin, Shi Hongzhao, Wang Zhang, and Guo Wei. The civil service group was basically Liu Zhiyuan's direct descendants from Hedong, such as Su Fengji, Su Yugui, Dou Zhengu, etc. In the political reshuffle of "a new emperor, new ministers", Liu Chengyou also relied on the power of the "small uncle's clan", which has been detailed in the previous article.

In short, it is very difficult for a small town test-taker from the previous dynasty like Tao Gu, who is neither a direct descendant of Liu Zhiyuan in Hedong nor a confidant of Liu Chengyou in the Eastern Palace, to obtain an upward path.

In the political struggle of the Later Han Dynasty, Li Song, an old official of the Later Jin Dynasty, was excluded by the new nobles of the Later Han Dynasty, such as Su Fengji. Li Song was forced to stand aside and stayed at home on the pretext of illness. During this period, Li Song received a piece of news that made him extremely sad. The person who took the lead in slandering him turned out to be Tao Gu, whom he had promoted. Li Song sighed, "Tao Gu was only a judge of Shanzhou at the beginning. I recommended him to the central government. I didn't expect him to repay kindness with resentment. I don't understand how I offended him. Alas!"

Of course Li Song did not offend him, but Tao Gu wanted to flatter Su Fengji, who was in power, so Li Song became Tao Gu's token of allegiance to Su Fengji.

Soon, with the help of pioneers such as Tao Gu, Su Fengji successfully overthrew Li Song and executed Li Song's entire family.

One day, Li Fang visited Tao Gu on business, and Tao Gu suddenly asked, "Do you know Li Song?"

Li Fang replied, "Of course I know him, he is a distant uncle of mine."

Tao Gu then said with great pride: "Well... I played a big role in his death!"

Li Fang couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, which soaked his clothes.

Li Fang is not the only one who would be terrified. He framed his benefactor to the point of having his entire family executed, but he was not ashamed of it but proud of it. He did not cover it up, deny it, or make excuses for it, but instead boasted about it as a great achievement! What does it mean to be completely conscienceless and to be devoid of humanity? Is it the decline of morality or the distortion of human nature?

During the reign of Chai Rong, Tao Gu participated in the "Battle of Gaoping". During this period, Tao Gu keenly caught an opportunity for promotion. At that time, Hanlin scholar Yu Chongliang was taking care of his sick mother in his hometown and did not report for duty immediately, so Tao Gu made a slanderous statement to Chai Rong, saying that Yu Chongliang was waiting and watching.

The Battle of Gaoping was discussed in detail above. On the surface, it was a direct military contest between the Later Zhou and the Northern Han. In fact, it was Chai Rong's internal political investigation and the rapid establishment of a new power system with Chai Rong as the core. Simply put, it was a small test of the new emperor and new ministers. At this juncture, "looking back" was a very dangerous accusation, and the starting price was the extermination of three clans.

As expected, Chai Rong was "quite suspicious". Yu Chongliang submitted a petition to explain his situation, hoping that the emperor would understand. Chai Rong was relatively kind and allowed Yu Chongliang to continue to serve his mother at home. However, Yu Chongliang's official career ended there, and he was never summoned by the court again. It was not until decades later when Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi, ascended the throne that he was re-employed. However, only one year later, Yu Chongliang died of illness.

Tao Gu's slanderous words ruined Yu Chongliang's political career. After kicking Yu Chongliang out, Tao Gu naturally replaced him as a Hanlin scholar.

Afterwards, Chai Rong assigned two essays to his ministers: "On the Difficulties of Being a King and the Difficulties of Being a Minister" and "Strategies for Peace on the Border". In this essay test, only Wang Pu, Dou Yi, Yang Zhaojian and Tao Gu advocated going south to conquer Huai River. Among them, Wang Pu first proposed the national strategy of "first south and then north, first easy and then difficult", which won special praise from Chai Rong. These four people also entered Chai Rong's list of key personnel to be trained and became the candidate pool for prime minister.

Choose three out of four. The probability of becoming prime minister is 75%.

So the question is, how can we increase the probability of becoming prime minister from 75% to 100%?

Answer: Eliminate a competitor.

The history books clearly record Tao Gu's attack on Dou Yi, "he pushed Dou Yi away, and thus Yi lost his position as prime minister." Obviously, after Yu Chongliang, Tao Gu successfully blocked Dou Yi again.

Why Dou Yi? What about Wang Pu and Yang Zhaojian?

Wang Pu was an old official of Chai Rong and a direct descendant of the emperor. He was Chai Rong's chief think tank (the secretary of the Jiedushi) during the Guo Wei period. Yang Zhaojian was from an official family and the great-grandson of Yang Sifu, the prime minister of the Tang Wuzong period. His grandfather Yang Shu was the Minister of Punishment of the Tang Dynasty, and his father Yang Jing was the Left Counselor of the Later Liang Dynasty. He himself passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the reign of Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty. He and Zhang Zhaoyuan worked together on the "Mingzong Shilu", and were highly praised by Shi Chonggui and Chai Rong successively.

Dou Yi was originally an aide to Jing Yanguang, who was the war criminal who instigated the "Jin-Liao War". He was a recognized typical example of a person who brought harm to the country and was primarily responsible for the demise of the Later Jin Dynasty.

Obviously, Dou Yi was the weakest of the three, which might be why Tao Gu only targeted Dou Yi. Of course, while "repelling" Dou Yi, he might also be equally supportive of Wang Pu and Yang Zhaojian.

While framing and squeezing out potential competitors, Tao Gu also flattered those in power without any limit, such as Wei Renpu. Wei Renpu was a meritorious official of Guo Wei in establishing the Later Zhou Dynasty. He was highly regarded by Guo Wei and Chai Rong, and served as Privy Counselor and Prime Minister successively.

Tao Gu told Wei Renpu that he also had a grandfather with the surname Wei, and that you were his uncle (he said he was from the Wei family and treated Renpu as his uncle). Whenever and wherever he saw Wei Renpu, Tao Gu would kneel down and kowtow respectfully to greet his uncle (every time he saw him, he would bow down to him). Even Senior Lu Bu would sigh that the waves behind push the waves ahead, and each generation is better than the previous one.

During the Chenqiao mutiny, Tao Gu's shameless face was exposed. Yes, he was the one who wrote the abdication edict in advance and presented it to Zhao Kuangyin at the critical moment, asking for credit. After that, he thought he had made contributions to Zhao Kuangyin and regarded himself as a founding hero of the Song Dynasty. He was complacent and thought that becoming the prime minister was a sure thing.

What he didn't know was that his flattery backfired, and Zhao Kuangyin was very disgusted with his despicable behavior of selling out his master for personal gain.

During the Song Dynasty, Tao Gu continued to act on his own and falsely accused Li Fang, the Imperial Censor. He also dragged his good friend Zhang Zhaoyuan to help him give false testimony and frame Li Fang together. As mentioned in the previous article, Zhang Zhaoyuan was so angry that he lost his composure in front of Zhao Kuangyin and loudly accused Tao Gu of deceiving the emperor. As a result, Zhao Kuangyin was angry at Zhang Zhaoyuan for being disrespectful in front of the emperor. Zhang Zhaoyuan submitted his resignation letter in grief and anger, and then retired. He was never able to get a job again until his death.

Tao Gu also ruined Zhang Zhaoyuan's official career.

The top civil official in the early Song Dynasty changed from "Zhou San Xiang" to Zhao Pu. His uncle Wei Renpu lost power, so Tao Gu turned to lick Zhao Pu. Coincidentally, Zhao Pu also hated Dou Yi, which gave Tao Gu an opportunity to suppress Dou Yi even more unscrupulously. In fact, Zhao Kuangyin had always wanted to appoint Dou Yi as prime minister, but due to Tao Gu's persistent slander and other reasons, Dou Yi was not able to be appointed prime minister until his death.

In the fourth year of Qiande (966), Dou Yi died of illness. Zhao Kuangyin was extremely sad and sighed to the sky: "Why did the heaven take away Dou Yi so quickly!"

The more Zhao Kuangyin regretted Dou Yi, the more he disliked Tao Gu. In March 968, the results of the imperial examination were released. Wang You, the chief examiner, released a total of ten successful candidates. Among them, Tao Gu's son Tao Bing ranked sixth. The next day, the clever Tao Gu came to thank Zhao Kuangyin.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Kuangyin frowned and said to the people around him, "I heard that Tao Gu was a bad father to his son. How could his unlearned son pass the imperial examination? What's the fuss?" He immediately gave a temporary task to the Secretariat, asking them to arrange a re-examination to check whether there was any bad behavior such as using backdoors, relying on connections, or making introductions.

The results of the re-examination came out, and it was confirmed that Tao Bing was truly talented and had once again met the passing standards.

This should have been a happy result, but Zhao Kuangyin seemed somewhat unwilling and disappointed, even angry, and issued an edict saying that the imperial examination must be fair, open and just, and must not be subject to favoritism or fraud; officials at all levels must urge their children to study hard; if there is any fraud, it must be investigated thoroughly; from now on, all children of officials who take the imperial examination must be re-examined by the Secretariat and subject to key supervision!
In fact, we can't blame Zhao Kuangyin for discrimination. Tao Gu had a history of bribing examiners to get in through the back door. Tao Gu once helped his son Tao Chu to "make a call". Tao Chu's writing was not good and did not meet the standards at all, but he passed the ability test smoothly because he had a good father. He was soon reported, and the two main persons in charge were demoted and sent out, and Tao Gu was also fined two months' salary. That time was an internal ability test for civil servants, not an imperial examination, so the punishment was lighter.

So when Zhao Kuangyin saw that Tao Gu's other son was named on the list of successful candidates, he had a preconceived idea that Tao Gu must have fallen into his old habit again.

The historical records describe Zhao Kuangyin's attitude towards Tao Gu in three words: "always despised him". Zhao Kuangyin had been disgusted with him for a long time. Zhao Kuangyin certainly knew Tao Gu's infinite desire for the position of prime minister, but how could such a shameless, despicable and dirty villain be qualified to be the prime minister? Whenever talking about the candidates for prime minister, Zhao Kuangyin would always pass Tao Gu first.

After a while, Tao Gu lost his patience and ordered his followers to fan the flames in front of Zhao Kuangyin. One day, Tao Gu's followers took the opportunity to praise Tao Gu to Zhao Kuangyin, saying that Tao Gu had been in the Imperial Academy for a long time and had drafted many imperial edicts from the Later Zhou Dynasty to the present dynasty. He was brilliant in writing and had made great contributions!
Zhao Kuangyin smiled coldly and said, "Official documents all have templates. The so-called drafting of the imperial edict by the Hanlin academician is nothing more than taking the previous template and slightly changing a few names. It is what people call copying. What kind of achievement is that?"

After Tao Gu heard about this, he did something in anger and did not know whether he would live or die. He actually wrote a poem on the wall of the Hanlin Academy:

"Official positions must be obtained from birth, and writings will not be used when they are not needed.

It's laughable that Hanlin scholar Tao is copying the same thing year after year."

Some sources roughly say that this is Tao Gu's self-deprecating poem, which is superficial. If we want to make a big deal out of it, he is criticizing the imperial carriage, that is, satirizing the court and insulting the emperor. The meaning of the poem is very simple, which means that you don't have to be talented to be an official, as long as you can copy others. If translated into the Deyun version, it means that even a dog can do it if you are given a cake. So the history books say that his poem "has a lot of resentment".

Zhao Kuangyin was very angry and "decided not to use him", and Tao Gu finally ruined his official career.

Of course, the fact that Tao Gu was tricked by Han Xizai using beauty to deceive him during his visit to Southern Tang was also considered to be one of the reasons why he was not reused.

Self-righteous, morally corrupt, snobbish, and pretentious... In short, Tao Gu is a typical person who has talent but no morals. Such a person can be approached but not loved; can be pampered but not trusted.

Thanks to old friends "Yang Kui" and "Jiang Hu Liu Bai" for their monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)