Chapter 38 (Thirty-eight) Difficult to tolerate fire and water

Before Liu Bei Tuogu in Yong'an, he had carefully arranged a structure of auxiliary ministers who were "bright, upright and strict".But after Liu Bei's death, Li Yan not only failed to play the role of assistant minister, but was deposed and exiled eight years later. Why?Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University will give you a wonderful taste of the Three Kingdoms - It's hard to tolerate fire and water. Mr. Yi Zhongtian once mentioned in a previous program that Liu Bei sent troops to attack the state of Wu in order to avenge his relatives, but he was defeated in the battle of Yiling and died in Yong'an soon after.Before he died of illness, Liu Bei carefully arranged his funeral, leaving behind a "bright, upright and strict deputy" structure of assistant ministers, that is, with Zhuge Liang as the leader, and the minister ordered Li Yan as the deputy, to jointly assist the young master Liu Chan.

From this arrangement, we can see that in Liu Bei's mind, Li Yan is also an important minister of the Shu Han.But after Liu Bei's death, Li Yan not only failed to play the role of assistant minister, but was also deposed and exiled eight years later.In the last episode, Mr. Yi Zhongtian mentioned that the military and political power of the Shu Han was in the hands of Zhuge Liang, and the young master Liu Chan was only the emperor in name.Then, we are faced with a sharp question: Why did Zhuge Liang do this?Does he want to monopolize power and exclude dissidents, or is there another reason?Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University is a guest of "Hundreds of Lectures", and will give you a wonderful taste of the "intolerable water and fire" of the Three Kingdoms.

In the last episode, we talked about the first relationship Zhuge Liang dealt with, which was the relationship between him and Liu Chan.In this episode, we will talk about how Zhuge Liang handles his colleagues. Among Zhuge Liang's many colleagues, the most important person is Li Yan.Why is Li Yan important?Because they are both Gu Ming and subject to the edict. "Three Kingdoms • The First Master's Biography" records very clearly that before Liu Bei's death, "Tuogu was appointed by the prime minister, and Li Yan was appointed by the Shangshu as his deputy." Strictly vice.Moreover, "Use Li Yan as the guardian of the central government, and unify the internal and external military." There is another sentence, which is recorded in "Three Kingdoms • Li Yan Biography".

Such a support structure or auxiliary minister structure is very similar to the situation of the Jiangdong Group after Sun Ce's death.Who did Sun Ce rely on?Chang Shi Zhang Zhao; and then?Zhou Yu was in charge of the central guard army, and he was in charge of all affairs together with Zhang Zhao, the chief historian.So we can take a look at the comparison of these two structures.On Sun Ce's side, Zhang Zhao was the chief historian, and Zhou Yu was the central guard; on Liu Bei's side, Zhuge Liang was the prime minister, and Li Yan was the central guard.Both Chang Shi and the prime minister are civil servants in charge of administration.Both the Zhonghu Army and the Zhongduhu are military officers in charge of the military.That is to say, on Sun Quan's side, Zhang Zhao is the leader, Zhou Yu is the deputy, Zhang Zhao is the writer, and Zhou Yu is the team; on Liu Chan's side, Zhuge Liang is the leader, Li Yan is the deputy, Zhuge Liang is the writer, and Li Yan is the military.Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao are in charge of all affairs together, and Li Yan and Zhuge Liang are under the same will, how similar are they.What is this indicating?It shows that in Liu Bei's mind, Li Yan is his Zhou Yu, or he hopes that Li Yan can play the role of Zhou Yu back then.Could Li Yan's status be unimportant?

Then we have to ask, did Li Yan play the role of Zhou Yu?No.Not only did Li Yan fail to play the role of Zhou Yu, but after eight years of Liu Bei's tuogu, he was deposed as a commoner and his reputation was ruined.This leaves a mystery, which should be said to be a great mystery in the history of Shu Han. The abolition of Li Yan should be a major event of the Shu Han regime during the Three Kingdoms period.Zhuge Liang's deputy, Li Yan, an important minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, not only failed to rise to the top in the officialdom, but also ended up in exile.This can be said to be a political earthquake in the Shu Han political arena, and there must be something to ponder behind it.If we want to analyze the reasons behind the scenes, we must first understand the ins and outs of the matter. First of all, we need to know why Li Yan was abolished?How was he dismissed?

We're going to analyze this mystery in this episode.To analyze this mysterious case, we must first answer why and how Li Yan was abolished.The thing is probably like this. In the ninth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty, that is, in 231 AD, Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan to attack Cao Wei in the north, and ordered Li Ping to transport the army rations alone.Who is Li Ping?It was Li Yan, who had changed his name to Li Ping at this time.In order to make it easier for our audience to hear, we don't use his new name Li Ping in this episode of our TV program, we collectively call him Li Yan.Li Yan arrived in Chengdu at this time, and was appointed to act as an agent of the government affairs of the prime minister's mansion, and was responsible for urging Zhuge Liang to supervise the transportation of military rations.But in summer and autumn, heavy rains fell from the sky, and the grain transportation was not good, and the food and grass could not be transported to the front.At this time, Li Yan, also known as Li Ping, sent someone to tell Zhuge Liang that if the food and grass could not be transported, should he withdraw the army?Zhuge Liang agreed.Because we know that the food and grass go first before the soldiers and horses are moved, and the battle cannot be fought if the food and grass cannot be transported, so Zhuge Liang withdrew his troops.Then as soon as the news of Zhuge Liang's withdrawal reached Chengdu, Li Yan deliberately pretended to be a fuss and said: Hey, why did the prime minister withdraw his troops?There is a lot of food and grass, why did he come back?Then he sent another report to Liu Chan, saying that the prime minister's withdrawal was a fake, a fake retreat, and the purpose was to lure the enemy into deeper.After Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu, he found that Li Yan was messing around there, so Zhuge Liang showed all the letters written by Li Yan with him. The saying in "Three Kingdoms·Li Yan Biography" is: "The book shows the handwriting before and after, and the book is sparse." It means how to write the first letter, how to write the second letter, and how to write the third letter. It was written by Li Yan himself, and I showed it to everyone.How about this?Li Yan has nothing to say. The "Li Yan Biography" says: "I am sorry for my guilt." What does it mean?The reasoning is poor, confessed frankly, bowed his head and pleaded guilty.Then after Li Yan pleaded guilty, Zhuge Liang acted as the queen master, abolished Li Yan as a commoner, and exiled him to Zitong.

Therefore, Li Yan has not been on the political stage of the Shu Han for a long time, so many people do not know that this character is actually a very important figure.As for the process of Li Yan being abolished, the plot is suspicious.Why suspicious? The first point is that the motive of the crime is unknown, that is, we don't know why Li Yan did this. The saying in "Three Kingdoms" is twelve words like this: "Resolve the responsibility of not doing it, and show the guilt of not making progress." What does it mean?It was because he couldn't transport his own military supplies, and he wanted to shirk his responsibility and blame others.Then the phrase "responsibility for not taking care of oneself" makes sense. "Showing the guilt of not advancing" is to deliberately show that Zhuge Liang did not want the Northern Expedition, and was timid and afraid of trouble to withdraw his troops.This doesn't make much sense, because Li Yan's statement to Liu Chan made it very clear that the prime minister didn't dare to fight, but that he retreated in a false way, in order to lure the enemy to go deep. You can't say that this lure the enemy to go deep was planted by Zhuge Liang. .So the motive for the crime is unknown.

The second point is that the modus operandi is clumsy.Just using such a set of rhetoric that doesn't match the preface and the afterword, can you frame Zhuge Liang?That Zhuge Liang is too easy to frame.Moreover, if you have such a contradictory statement, if you intend to frame Zhuge Liang, then you can only pass it on orally, how can you keep the handle?Handwritten letters, don't you think that in the future Zhuge Liang will show all your handwritten letters for everyone to read?Couldn't Li Yan even think of this?suspicious. Third, there is only one side of the story.That is, we cannot find any statement by Li Yan himself in our current history books.

Therefore, Mr. Tian Yuqing, a professor of Peking University, said that Mr. Tian gave an eight-character evaluation of Li Yan's actions in this case: "too perverse and unreasonable."Moreover, Mr. Tian also said that he doubted that there were other articles in it.I think Mr. Tian's suspicion is very reasonable.We know that ancient Chinese politics was a kind of secret politics operated in a black box, and the published materials were often not the truth of the matter.We also suspect that there is something deeper behind this case, which we have no way of knowing now. But this is not too important, why?The first one is that Li Yan is indeed "exhausted in speech and love", and really has nothing to say. I believe this is definitely true.Second, Zhuge Liang did not act alone to depose Li Yan. Instead, he joined forces with more than 20 ministers in the court at that time to sign a letter, proposing to abolish Li Yan.For those who signed this form, let's talk about a few familiar names, Wei Yan, Yang Yi, Deng Zhi, Liu Ba, Fei Yi, Jiang Wei, these people are from different factions.People from different political factions jointly wrote a letter to abolish Li Yan. It should be said that Li Yan committed a relatively big case.As a result, Li Yan was deposed as a commoner and exiled to Zitong.Three years later, that is, the twelfth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang passed away. After Li Yan heard the news of Zhuge Liang's death, he fell ill and died.

Based on what Mr. Yi Zhongtian said above, we can see that this is a mystery, and it can even be said to be an important mystery in the history of the Shu Han.In this political turmoil, is it Zhuge Liang who is playing tricks and repelling dissidents, or is Li Yan fighting for power and profit and destroying himself?To find out the truth of the matter, we need to look at the comparison of power and status between Zhuge Liang and Li Yan after they became Tuogu ministers, and we also need to look at Li Yan's performance before he was abolished.Through these two things, what kind of mystery can we see?

We know that Liu Bei Tuogu was in Yong'an, which is now Fengjie in Chongqing, and he summoned Zhuge Liang and Li Yan from Chengdu to Tuogu.After Tuogu, Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu, and Li Yan stayed in Yong'an.After Liu Chan succeeded to the throne, Zhuge Liang made him Marquis of Wuxiang.Li Yan granted him the title of Marquis of the capital; and if he was a fake festival, he would be awarded the Shangfang Sword; adding Guangluxun would be to give him another honorary title.In the fourth year of Jianxing, Li Yan was promoted from general Fu Han to former general.General Fu Han is the miscellaneous general we mentioned in the previous episode, and the former general is the famous general mentioned in the previous episode, who has been promoted from an associate professor to a full professor.In the eighth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty, Li Yan was promoted again to General Hussars, and later returned to Chengdu.Then it should be said that from Liu Bei Tuogu to Li Yan being deposed, this person has been promoted step by step. But how?In fact, he is inferior to Zhuge Liang in every way.Let's also look at a table, which is a comparison of the power and status of Li Yan and Zhuge Liang after Liu Bei Tuogu.How about Zhuge Liang?Returning to Chengdu, presiding over the government, "Political affairs are not big or small, and salty depends on the bright."How about Li Yan?Stay in Yong'an, far away from the imperial court.So what is the result of this?It is Zhuge Liang who has the final say on the major and minor matters of this dynasty.As for Li Yan, he was unable to participate in government affairs, and it was difficult to assist the young master. He alienated the official relationship and lost the opportunity to perform.Because he has been outside for a long time, far away from the political center, he was gradually forgotten and abandoned by the political center.This is the first point.The second point is that Zhuge Liang led Yizhou Mu as a prime minister; as for Li Yan, Li Yan once asked to be a governor after he became a former general, but he was not approved.The third point is not as good, Zhuge Liang opened the government to manage affairs.I have repeatedly emphasized that there is a big difference between opening a government and not opening a government. Opening a government means having its own independent office system and independent power, but Li Yan does not have it.Moreover, Li Yan made this request, but it was not approved.So on the surface, Li Yan is promoted step by step, but in fact he is not as good everywhere. Therefore, the relationship between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang is peaceful on the surface, but actually alienated from each other.Zhuge Liang wanted to make a northern expedition and transfer Li Yan's army, but Li Yan didn't go or send troops.Not only did he not send troops, but he also made a request, saying that I would be the governor of Bazhou.If it is not approved, it may be nothing.Later, when Zhuge Liang wanted to march west, he ordered Li Yan to send troops to Hanzhong, but Li Yan refused to go.Li Yan said, I want to open a mansion, saying that now that Chen Qun and Sima Yi have opened a mansion on Cao Wei's side, aren't Chen Qun and Sima Yi the ministers of Gu Ming?Minister Gu Ming can open the mansion, you are Minister Gu Ming, and I am also Minister Gu Ming, why can't I open the mansion?Again not approved.Of course, Zhuge Liang backed down a step and said, let’s do this, you come, you come to Chengdu, and Jiangzhou will be handed over to your son, Li Feng.Because Li Yan came to Jiangzhou from Yong'an later.This is such a relationship between the two of them. Based on such a relationship, scholars have drawn quite different conclusions.One school of opinion, represented by Mr. Yu Mingxia, condemned Li Yan.Mr. Yu's original words were that he said that the above materials prove that Li Yan is a cunning, selfish, insidious, cruel, and evil person who does not put state affairs first.As for Zhuge Liang, taking the overall situation into consideration, he gave way again and again, while Li Yan was insatiable and greedy.He was promoted from a miscellaneous general to a famous general, and he was not satisfied. He wanted a piece of Bazhou to be the governor, and later asked for the opening of the government. He asked for officials and power again and again, which is very bad.So self-destruction deserves it, that's one school of opinion. The other faction, represented by Mr. Yin Yungong, believes that Li Yan's proposal to become the governor of Bazhou and later to open the government is an aboveboard and righteous way to protect his legal rights and interests, and it is a rights protection action.why?Because he is the minister of Gu Ming who received the will, since we are both ministers of Gu Ming, why can you open the mansion and I can't open the mansion? Isn't it okay for you to take Yizhou Mu and me as the governor?What's wrong?Mr. Yin Yungong believes that the contradiction between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang is mainly because Zhuge Liang does not allow others to get involved in the highest power.Mr. Yin said that Zhuge Liang was a person, and he used 12 words to evaluate him: he has a strong desire for power, a strong heart for power, and is good at playing power. He is a master and veteran of playing power.The so-called forbearance is just a gesture. When Li Yan accidentally sent him to the door, I'm sorry, he hit the bottom with a stick. These two conclusions are based on the same historical fact, and they have no dispute about this historical fact itself, and their views are completely opposite. Faced with the same historical facts, experts have come to different conclusions.What happened between Zhuge Liang and Li Yan, I am afraid that the person concerned knows best in his heart.We can't go back to the Three Kingdoms era to experience history, but we can think about it from another angle, and we can find motivations from historical facts.First of all, we have to ask, why did Liu Bei arrange a structure of one minister and one deputy?Starting from here, maybe we can find the real reason why Li Yan was deposed. This must start with Liu Bei Tuogu, because we have to figure out when Liu Bei Tuogu, why do we have to arrange Zhuge Liang as the leader and Li Yan as the deputy?If Liu Bei didn't arrange it like this, wouldn't it be fine later? Why did he arrange it?I think Mr. Tian Yuqing is the most reasonable on this issue.Mr. Tian believes that Liu Bei's Yong'an Tuogu is actually a far-sighted consideration. To figure out Tuogu's true intentions, one must first figure out the particularity of the Shuhan Empire.What is its particularity?There was originally a power in Yizhou, which was composed of two types of people: one was a bureaucrat from Yizhou, that is, he was from Yizhou and became an official in the Eastern Han Dynasty. This was a power; One is the local tyrants, surnames, and clans in Yizhou.These two forces are collectively referred to as local forces, and they are all composed of Yizhou people.In addition to the local forces, there are also foreign forces, and the foreign forces are divided into two groups: the first group was brought by Liu Yan and Liu Zhang when they entered Shu, because Liu Yan and Liu Zhang were foreigners, and they brought a group People, we can call this group of people the Dongzhou Group; after Liu Yan, Liu Zhang and his son took over the power of Yizhou, Liu Bei came again, where did Liu Bei come from?From Jingzhou, Liu Bei also brought a group of people, which we call the Jingzhou Group.Then let's take a look at this table to make it clear that there are three forces: one is Liu Bei's cronies, we call it the Jingzhou Group; one is Liu Zhang's old department, we call it the Dongzhou Group; and the other is the local gentry, We call it Yizhou Group.The Yizhou Group was in Yizhou a long time ago, Liu Zhang's Dongzhou Group came later, and Liu Bei's Jingzhou Group came later.What does this say?That is, the Liu Bei Group is a foreign force that came later, the Liu Zhang Group is an external force that came first, and the Yizhou Group is a local force that was originally here. These three forces are mixed together. What is the result of mixing them together?It was Liu Bei who proclaimed himself emperor, with a weak foundation, and coupled with the defeat of Yiling, the country was shaken.When Liu Bei was alone, the biggest worry of the Shu Han regime was not Cao Wei or Sun Wu, but within itself.This is what Liu Bei is most worried about.And what is Liu Bei's idea?The first rule is to come from behind and not to be reversed.We, the last foreign force to come, must dominate, and this cannot be shaken.Under this premise, with me as the main force and compatible with the three parties, try to integrate the other two forces as much as possible.Therefore, Liu Bei's national policy at this time should be a few words like this: consolidate the status of new people, stabilize the emotions of old people, coordinate the relationship between old and new, and eliminate the boundaries between old and new.In this way, the Shu Han regime can last for a long time.So when we look at this table again, it becomes clear that for the Shu Han regime, the Jingzhou Group composed of Liu Bei’s cronies must be the main body of the regime, the Dongzhou Group formed by Liu Zhang’s former minions is the object of unity, and the Yizhou Group formed by the local gentry must be the main body of the regime. object. It is for this reason that Liu Bei created such a structure of auxiliary ministers with Zhuge Liang as the principal and Li Yan as the deputy.Because, who is Li Yan?Li Yan happened to belong to this system, and he was an object of solidarity with the system of Liu Zhang's former Dongzhou Group.Li Yan was from Nanyang, Jingzhou. He was from Jingzhou and worked under Liu Biao.Later, after Cao Cao went south to capture Jingzhou, Li Yan was unwilling to join Cao Cao, so he went west to Shu and joined Liu Zhang.Then when Liu Bei led troops into Shu to seize Liu Zhang's territory, Li Yan surrendered to Liu Bei again.In other words, Li Yan was among Liu Zhang's former minions and had the closest relationship with the Jingzhou Group.On the one hand, he is close to the Jingzhou Group, and on the other hand, he is from the Dongzhou Group.Or in terms of the relationship between subject and guest, old and new, he is the old man and the host, and he has a particularly good relationship with the newcomer and the guest.In addition, I am very capable, so it is perfect to choose him as a deputy. This is what Liu Bei thought when he was alone. Mr. Yi Zhongtian's analysis made us suddenly realize that Liu Bei entrusted Gu Zhuge Liang as the principal and Li Yan as the deputy at the end of his life, which is a well-designed political arrangement that keeps all parties balanced.Ordinarily, this painstaking arrangement could have maintained the internal stability of the Shu Han regime.So, back to an old question that we have been running through this episode, why was Li Yan abolished again?Mr. Yi Zhongtian analyzed earlier that it was not Zhuge Liang's problem, nor Liu Bei's funeral arrangements, so the only thing left is to find the reason from Li Yan himself.Does Li Yan have a problem? But Li Yan has a problem.What's the problem?The first one has a high self-esteem and is difficult to work with. This person has a bad personality.At that time, there was a famous proverb called "It's hard to get married, Li Linjia". What does it mean?Let’s just say that Li Yan has dragon scales in his belly. What are the characteristics of these dragon scales?You can only touch along, you can't do it backwards.So Li Yan is not easy to get close to or work with.This is the first question.The second one is to imitate Su Zhang and face Qin Muchu.What does that mean?It is he who swings back and forth between the newcomer and the old, host and guest, that is, foreign forces and local forces, and even sows dissension a little bit.For this reason, when Zhuge Liang impeached Li Yan, he combined the newcomers and the old ones.Why join?That is to say, there is no conflict between us newcomers and old ones, so don't sow discord.This is the second question.The third question is to support the self-respect of soldiers and fight against courtesy.Li Yan stayed in Yong'an, and later went to Jiangzhou, which is now Chongqing, and then he didn't leave there.Then he built his own city there, expanded his army, and asked to set aside five counties to form a separate state.Originally, the Shu Han had only one state, which was Yizhou; he wanted to create another state, called Bazhou.In Zhuge Liang's view, he provoked two principles: the first principle is the principle of coming from behind, that is, we newcomers, our Jingzhou Group must occupy the dominant position of the Shu Han regime, this cannot be shaken, and he provoked this principle ; Second, he provoked the principle of unity, because he was actually engaging in division.Therefore, Zhuge Liang must pull out this nail. Originally, when Liu Bei arranged for Li Yan to be his deputy, he hoped that he would act as an intermediary and act as a lubricant.As a result, instead of acting as a lubricant, he became a thorn in the middle.Then the thorn must be pulled out.Considering the overall situation, starting from the long-term security, stability and unity of the Shu Han regime, such a nail must be pulled out.Therefore, we can speculate that Zhuge Liang may have wanted to pull out this nail a long time ago, but he was just waiting for an opportunity.Well, since Li Yan made such a low-level mistake, I'm sorry, please go home and retire. So in addition to these reasons, I think Zhuge Liang has another reason, that is, he wants to rule Shu according to law.Because what Zhuge Liang took over was such a stall, such a regime divided into layers and composed of three forces. Such a regime has internal contradictions, internal crises, and hidden worries.Then to unite these three groups of people, Zhuge Liang believes that there is only one way, which is to rule Shu according to law.What does it mean to rule Shu according to law?That is, no matter how close you are, whether you are a newcomer or an old man, whether you belong to the Jingzhou Group, the Dongzhou Group, or the Yizhou Group, everyone is equal before the laws of the country.We all follow the rules, we have a bowl of water, so that everyone can be convinced.Zhuge Liang's very important thoughts and actions during the period of ruling Shu according to law. In order to truly realize the rule of Shu according to law, truly enforce the law fairly, and strictly reward and punish, Zhuge Liang also deposed some people who belonged to his side, and even killed his favorite people, such as Ma Di.Everyone is familiar with the story of Zhuge Liang beheading Ma Su with tears, but there are actually profound reasons behind this story.So should Ma Di be killed, should Ma Di be killed?Why did Zhuge Liang cry when he killed Ma Di?Please see the next episode - Lost Arm.