Chapter 36 Self-Control: Overcoming Human Weaknesses

Li Shimin's success is of course closely related to the advice and assistance of Wei Zheng, Empress Changsun and others, but we have to emphasize one point, that is—if Li Shimin himself is not a material to be a wise king, no matter how many Wei Zheng and others around him For the Changsun family, no matter how much they "chisel" and "beat", Li Shimin is absolutely impossible to "shine", and the so-called eternal emperor is of course out of the question. Therefore, the key lies in Li Shimin himself. In the second year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin once said to his courtiers: "The ancients said: 'The king is like a vessel, and a man is like water. The radius lies in the vessel, not in the water.' Therefore, Yao and Shun led the world to be benevolent, and people followed it; Zhou led the world to be violent, and the people followed him. What the lower do is according to what is better." (Volume 6)

A king is like a weapon, and a person is like water; what the bottom does is based on what the top likes. Li Shimin's insights can be described as brilliant! If an emperor does not have the potential to be a wise king, no matter how hard others try to help him, it will be useless.To put it bluntly, beating a pile of rocks for 10,000 years can't knock out a gold mine, and putting more feathers on a chicken can't make a phoenix. It can be seen from this that the reason why Li Shimin was able to achieve the achievements and reputation of being an emperor through the ages in the end, in addition to the help of the outside world, he also needed an inner strength of personality.

This power is - self-control. A high degree of self-control that can overcome one's own human weaknesses. As the saying goes: "Heroes are saddened by beauty".Throughout the ages, many strong-willed and successful men are usually unable to resist the temptation of beautiful women.Even though they can conquer the world, they often become weak and vulnerable under the pomegranate skirt of a certain beauty. So, how does Li Shimin, who is the hero of the whole life, behave when facing the beauties? In December of the second year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin hosted a banquet in the palace for the newly appointed servant Wang Gui. At that time, there was a stunning beauty accompanying the banquet.She was the concubine of Li Yuan, King of Lujiang. After Li Yuan was executed for treason, this beautiful woman was "confessed from the palace" and became Li Shimin's concubine.

When the wine was hot, Li Shimin pointed to this beautiful woman and said to Wang Gui: "The king of Lujiang is not a thing. Back then, because he was greedy for her beauty, he killed her husband and took her as a concubine. How can such a tyrannical villain The principle of immortality!" Wang Gui didn't say a word after listening, stood up suddenly, and asked the emperor a question respectfully: "Your Majesty thinks Li Yuan's actions are right or wrong?" Li Shimin said in astonishment: "You still ask about such a thing, right?" Wang Gui did not answer directly, but told a short story to Li Shimin.

This story comes from the book "Guan Zi".During the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi State sent troops to capture Guo State, a neighboring small vassal state.A few years later, Duke Huan of Qi passed by here and asked the local elders, "Why did Guo Guo perish?" The elders said, "Because the king knows what is good and what is evil." , Your ruler is a wise ruler, so how can the country perish?" The elders replied: "The ruler knows what is good, but he does not do it; he knows what is evil, but he cannot change it, so he perishes." After the story was finished, Wang Gui got to the point: "Now, this beautiful woman is still by your majesty's side, and I thought that your majesty agreed with Li Yuan's practice of killing her husband and taking his wife; This beautiful woman is called 'know what is evil, but can't change'!"

Li Shimin laughed loudly when he heard the words, praised him again and again, and then sent the beauty back to his hometown. Confucius said: "I have never seen anyone who loves virtue as much as lust!" I seldom meet people who love morality as much as beauty!But if Confucius, an old man, meets Li Shimin, he will definitely be counted as one. In fact, as a normal man and an emperor who holds great power, a certain degree of lust is not a big problem, but when there is a conflict between lust and virtue, Li Shimin can sacrifice his lust for virtue, which is enough It shows that he does have self-control beyond ordinary people.

If it is relatively easy to release a concubine who is a traitor, then in the following story, Li Shimin's approach is particularly commendable. It was in the eighth year of Zhenguan (AD 634), Empress Changsun found a young girl who was "extremely beautiful and unattainable at the time" for Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and planned to include her in the harem as "Chonghua".This beautiful woman is the daughter of Zheng Renji, the general official of the Sui Dynasty. She is only sixteen or seventeen years old. She is not only beautiful, but also knowledgeable.Taizong himself and the court ministers were very satisfied with this candidate.So Li Shimin immediately issued an imperial edict to determine the date of marriage.But when the envoys in the palace were about to go to Zheng's house to marry the newcomer, Wei Zheng suddenly stood up and ruined this beautiful event.

Because Wei Zheng learned that the daughter of the Zheng family had already been betrothed to the scholar Lu Shuang, he immediately played: "Your Majesty is a parent, caressing the people, you should worry about their worries, and take pleasure in what you enjoy... The daughter of the Zheng family has been betrothed for a long time. Your Majesty takes it without doubt, without any counsel, and spreads it all over the world, is it the way of the parents of the people?" (Volume 2) Hearing this, Li Shimin was greatly surprised, and hastily issued an imperial edict to "deeply responsibly", and stopped the planning of the wedding, and ordered people to return Mrs. Zheng to her ex-husband as soon as possible.However, at that time, the Zuo servant She Fang Xuanling, the Zhongshu Ling Wen Yanbo, the Minister of Rites Wang Gui, and the royal doctor Wei Ting expressed their opposition with one voice.They said: "The matter of Zheng's marriage to Lu Shuang is just a rumor, and it cannot be confirmed. Once the imperial court has done a great gift, it must not be suspended."

At the same time, the scholar Lu Shuang, who suddenly became the emperor's rival in love, was also terrified, and hurriedly wrote a letter to confess: "When Lu's father was alive, he did have contacts with the Zheng family, but the marriage is purely fictional. It's rumored by outsiders." The ministers headed by Fang Xuanling had more reasons this time, so they urged the emperor to get married as soon as possible. However, Li Shimin is still dubious about this.He asked Wei Zheng: "The ministers probably wanted to please me, but why did Lu Shuang himself say that?"

Wei Zheng replied: "I suspect that he may have equated His Majesty with the Supreme Emperor." Li Shimin asked in surprise: "How do you say that?" Wei Zheng said: "When the Supreme Emperor pacified the capital, he once included Xin Chujian's woman into the harem, which was quite a favor. Xin Chujian was the crown prince at the time, and the Supreme Emperor was very upset, so he expelled him from the East Palace and demoted him to be a subordinate official of Wannian County. Xin Chujian was worried about this, and often worried about his life. Now Lu Shuang is the same, he thinks that even if His Majesty can tolerate him today, he will definitely be condemned secretly in the future, so it is not surprising that he confessed himself again and again."

After hearing this, Li Shimin resolutely canceled the wedding, and publicly issued an edict to admit his mistake: "I heard that Zheng's daughter has been hired first, and the matter was not reviewed in detail on the day when the document was issued. This is my fault." No, it is also the fault of the Secretary. Those who grant 'Chonghua' should stop." (Volume 2) In ancient China, it was normal for a man of a little status to have three wives and four concubines, let alone a supreme and wealthy emperor.Judging from the system and social customs at that time, the Six Palaces Fendai and the Three Thousand Beauties were the inevitable privileges of the emperor.No matter which woman the emperor wants to marry in the world, no one dares to say no, and there is nothing unjustifiable in terms of emotion, reason, and law. The matter of Taizong marrying the Zheng family is even more understandable.First of all, the imperial edict has been issued, and all the work in the palace is ready. The emperor's wedding is not a child's play, and it cannot be stopped at any time; It was easy to marry a beautiful woman into the palace along the way; in the end, even Lu Shuang himself stated that there was no such thing as a marriage contract, and Li Shimin certainly had no reason to cancel the wedding. However, to everyone's surprise, Li Shimin finally gave up without hesitation. The emperor's profound understanding of righteousness won praise from the ruling and opposition parties. One of the reasons why Li Shimin made this wise decision is of course Wei Zheng's advice, but the most important thing is undoubtedly his inner self-control at work - he can use reason to overcome his emotions, use morality to overcome himself desire, but also the courage to admit their mistakes to the world.Even if he married this woman, almost no one would say that he was wrong. In this sense, the reason why Li Shimin can become an emperor through the ages is not only because he can conquer the world, but also because he can conquer himself—conquer the common weakness of human nature. As the saying goes: Those who overcome others are strong, and those who overcome themselves are strong.