Let the Tang Dynasty Fly

Court politics · Dynasty politics · Reform · Power struggles · Law · Medicine

During the Zhenguan era, at a court audience, Wei Zheng once again flew into a rage and stepped forward to memorialize:

"Your Majesty! That Li Hao indulges in strange techniques to bewitch the people, spreads heretical doctrines that go against moral instruction; he promotes commerce and other lowly trades, upsetting the order of noble and base. He lightly stirs up border incidents and gains vast stretches of useless land; he suppresses aristocratic clans and ruins the hopes of the Five Surnames and the gentry. This is intolerable!

"If this villain is not removed, how can the principles of law and order be upheld, and how can the state be stabilized? I humbly ask Your Majesty to draw near the worthy and distance the flattering, so as to set right what the people hear and see!"

Li Shimin said solemnly, "Using copper as a mirror lets one straighten one's clothes and hat; using history as a mirror lets one know rise and decline; using people as a mirror lets one understand gain and loss. I have always kept these three mirrors to guard against my own faults. Now that Li Hao is in court, he is one of my mirrors."

Wei Zheng returned to the ranks and let out a long sigh. He always felt as if he were living in someone else's shadow.