Chapter 28: A Talented Man Who Loves Money Like His Life
As soon as this statement came out, everyone was shocked, Gu Tai's heart skipped a beat, and Zhao Qiang also took a breath of air: Gao Shiqi? The most talented person during the Kangxi period increased his corruption charges?
"Only when you get a strange scholar can you know the path to learning." [] When you first see a strange scholar and get an ancient poem, you can tell at a glance the era.
It will be a great help to me in learning."
In the early years of Kangxi, there were many elite Han officials, including famous ones such as Gao Shiqi, Zhang Ying, Chen Tingjing, etc. However, the one with the most complicated life and the most anecdotes passed down was Gao Shiqi. Kangxi's words about Gao Shiqi were once read by later generations.
regarded as a lifelong role model, they were all proud of Gao Shiqi's energy efficiency, and Gao Shiqi, like Xu Wei during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, became a talented man talked about by the world. Zhao Qiang still remembers the interesting "The minister is a dog" to this day.
of jokes.
It is said that when Gao Shiqi was appointed as the Minister of Rites, he walked with Mingzhu and Yu Zhuguo, who were the ministers at the time, to enjoy the flowers. When they reached their destination, they suddenly saw a dog blocking their way. Mingzhu asked deliberately: "Is this the Minister of Wolf?"
dog".
Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this, because the only person in the group was Gao Shiqi, the minister, so the "servant is a dog" should naturally belong to Gao Shiqi. Everyone thought that Gao Shiqi would be embarrassed at this time, but he unexpectedly replied: "
It is a dog. There are two differences between wolves and dogs. You can tell by looking at the tail. If the tail is drooping, it is a wolf, and if it is upright, it is a dog. Furthermore, what does it eat? Wolves only eat meat, while dogs eat meat when they encounter it, and when they encounter feces, they eat it.
Shit." He scolded Mingzhu and Yu Guozhu in a flash. They knew that he was like this, so they were not annoyed, but laughed.
In addition to this passage, what Gao Shiqi left behind for future generations to talk about is his "Five Seats". According to legend, when Gao Shiqi was fifty-five years old, he was given a gift of gold by Kangxi and returned to his hometown. After returning to his hometown in Yuyao, Zhejiang, he spent his leisure time
Suddenly, I had a whim and wanted to travel. So I transferred to Yangzhou. Unexpectedly, because of my habit of spending a lot of money, I spent all my money. However, this was not a problem for Gao Shiqi, who had a quick mind. He found
A local acquaintance taught his son privately for a salt merchant. The salt merchant had three sons, and the two eldest ones both ran storefronts. The younger one was still young, so he hired Gao Shiqi to teach his son a few words so that he could be able to do so in the future.
Account book. So I didn’t take him seriously.
The Autumn Festival arrived in a blink of an eye, and it was the salt merchant's birthday. The salt merchant sent out invitations and invited the local county magistrates, county magistrates, as well as various salt shop owners, famous Jin gentry in Yangzhou, relatives of the seven aunts and eight aunts,
Dozens of banquet tables were set up in the courtyard, with more than 200 people attending. Firstly, they came to celebrate birthdays, and secondly, they also talked about business during the banquet.
We were arranging seats at that time, and the chief hadn't decided yet. Gao Shiqi happened to come from the backyard. When the salt merchant saw him, he said hello and said, "The chief has reserved it for you! It's not easy for you to teach children for half a year, and he is such a person."
, please take a seat!” The salt merchant originally thought that Gao Shiqi would be embarrassed to sit down and must be humble, but unexpectedly, Gao Shiqi showed no humility and sat down, calmly wiped his hands with the tablecloth, served the tea and drank it.
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At this time, the house was full of guests. There were two current officials at the table, a gentry who had served as a master in the government, and the rest were all rich and powerful people with great hands and eyes. I saw a skinny poor man sitting there.
After seeing the chief, everyone felt as if they had eaten flies, wiped their eyes, rubbed their noses, yawned, coughed, and made all kinds of weird looks. Yancheng had already changed color, and was full of fame, but they were already sitting there, in front of so many people.
People couldn't help but tell him to leave, so he smiled dryly and invited everyone to sit down and drink. Gao Shiqi was the first to drink.
At first, the guests were too embarrassed to say anything, so they just looked sideways. Seeing that Gao Shiqi was not ashamed, and looked at everyone as if he were the same, they became more and more impatient. After drinking for three times, a salt merchant finally couldn't bear it and covered his face.
Zhuang asked Gao Shiqi: "Old sir, how many times have you sat in the chief position in your life?"
"Five times." Gao Shiqi licked his lips and said, "When my sister got married, I sent her to my brother-in-law's house on behalf of my father. We hosted a banquet and I sat at the head table."
Everyone burst into laughter, and someone joked: "My father-in-law, I can sit at this table! What about the second time?"
"Entered school at the age of thirteen, went to the countryside at the age of sixteen to take the examination, and won the first place, Jie Yuan." Gao Shiqi glanced at everyone with a smile and said: "There is a deer singing banquet in Nanjing Gongyuan, and I will be the chief." He said this.
After saying this, everyone felt as if they had been hit suddenly. They sat there dumbfounded, and for a moment it became a cries of cries. I don’t know who it was, and he was so panicked that he threw the bowl on the ground and smashed it into pieces. All the guests listened quietly.
Gao Shiqi spoke, but no one dared to interrupt.
"At the age of 20, he entered the capital alone and became a teacher in the Mingzhu Mansion of the famous prime minister. He was favored by Emperor Kangxi and became a scholar of Confucianism. He was awarded the title of first-class scholar. The imperial court held a banquet in Yuan Pavilion. The emperor personally accompanied him.
This is the third time that I have been holding the pot and urging wine, but I have been in the chief position for the third time." Gao Shiqi raised three fingers in a leisurely manner and said: "After the second time, I served as prime minister for twenty years, and also presided over the revision of "History of the Ming Dynasty".
I was honored as a bachelor of the Yuan Pavilion, the Minister of Housing, and the Taibao of the Crown Prince. He returned to his hometown with honor at the age of fifty-five. On the day when he returned the money to the mountain, the emperor led all the officials to hold a farewell banquet in the Ti Ren Pavilion. This seat is still my first chief. This is
The fourth time." Then he stood up with a smile and said: "The fifth time today, you can rest!" After saying that, he walked away. At this moment, everyone had left the table, everyone's face was as pale as stone, and everyone was dumbfounded.
Zhao Qiang is not sure whether these two jokes were really done by Gao Shiqi, but the theory of five seats must be wrong, because the "History of the Qing Dynasty" clearly remembers that Gao Shiqi, a poor scholar, went to Beijing with his father.
After his father died, he sold calligraphy to make a living. Later, Zha Shenxing was promoted to Imperial College. It was by chance that he fell into the eyes of Kangxi, and he became famous from then on. He was not from a Jieyuan background.
However, most of the history that the world knows is not recorded in the official history. The sources are nothing more than unofficial histories of the Ming Dynasty, anecdotes and novels written by that person. Only this kind of "second history" can attract the interest of the world. But there is one thing that Zhao Qiang is sure of.
Yes, Gao Shiqi was a miscellaneous man. He was not good at poetry and painting, but he was also an expert in medicine and farming. His attainments in law were especially famous. However, when he first became an official, he was quite honest.
After the year, he also began to accept bribes. But since he was a "reader" with a certain moral character, his method of accepting bribes was also different. Perhaps he was concerned about his reputation and did not want to be exposed to the "smell of copper". Gao Shiqi's method of accepting bribes
He was different. His method of accepting bribes was to only accept antique paintings, and he especially liked fine paintings by ancient people and celebrities. Because Kangxi particularly liked painting art, Gao Shiqi sometimes bought some of the artworks he accepted in addition to collecting them for himself.
Except for this, most of them were contributed to Kangxi. This is probably one of the reasons why Kangxi also favored him since he stayed in a high position for more than ten years until he was dismissed.
It is an indisputable historical fact that Gao Shiqi supplied Kangxi with a large number of paintings and works of art, which were recorded in many historical documents of later generations. However, later generations have discovered many controversial collections from the "high-quality paintings" collected by Kangxi. Some of them can almost be traced.
It was determined that they were fakes, which showed that Kangxi's appreciation ability was really limited. But where these fakes came from has always been a mystery. It was not until a descendant of the Gao family discovered an account book by Gao Shiqi in Beijing that this long-standing problem in the collection was revealed.
It turns out that Gao Shiqi was the main supplier of fakes collected by Kangxi. There are a large number of such records in the account book: "In a certain month of a certain year, I purchased several pieces of a famous family hall or banners for two taels of silver.
Come on, great joy."
To please the emperor with such a small amount of silver to purchase such a precious art masterpiece, if it was not taken by force, there is only one explanation, that is, the "art masterpiece" purchased by Gao Shiqi and delivered to the emperor was actually a fake, and the account books recorded
Most of these are controversial collections. In this way, Gao Shiqi really deserves to be called a "talented scholar". He is so extraordinary in flattering him, and he can actually coax the emperor into thinking with some fakes. It's amazing, it's really amazing.
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The reason why Gao Shiqi stepped down was related to Mingzhu. He first bit Mingzhu, and after crossing Mingzhu, he was impeached by Shandong Yushi Guo. The charge of Gao Shiqi's impeachment was that he accepted Hufang Bridge tiles worth 8,000 silver from Lai Yuziyi in the capital.
He bought more than 60 houses in the name of his confidant and bought a large amount of real estate in Xiejie outside Shunchengmen, and sent more than 400,000 taels of bribes to his confidants. He bought thousands of hectares of land in his hometown of Pinghu and built a garden house in Xixi, Hangzhou.
These items are worth more than one million taels of silver, which can also prove Gao Shiqi's huge corruption and his dark heart. However, Kangxi wanted to protect him and make him stable while he had served him for decades.
For the rest of my life, the friendship between the king and his ministers was not an ordinary one.
Such an important figure in the early years of Kangxi actually traveled with him for more than half a month. Zhao Qiang was obviously shocked and scolded himself for his poor eyesight for not thinking of Gao Shiqi from the surname Gao. In fact, it is not his fault.
How could he have imagined that the aloof Gao Shiqi would leave the customs in civilian clothes? This is as incredible as the Premier of the State Council appearing in his own farm.
"Sir, please forgive me and spare me. Magistrate Liu did not make a big mistake. Please be kind and let him go. In this case, Gao will not say anything more." After some careful consideration, Gao Shiqi decided to step in and stop Gu.
Tai's evil deeds.
Gutai's head was stunned by the appearance of Gao Shiqi. He knew the importance of Gao Shiqi to the emperor, but now he was bumped into him. This situation was really going to get bigger. He was stunned at the moment.
I don’t know what he said to Gao Shiqi. When the thin man on the side saw this, he felt excited, swallowed his throat, and suddenly walked to Gutai’s side and said to Gao Shiqi: "How can Gao Shiqi, who is a bachelor, be like you, a member of the market?
Don't be ashamed to talk so loudly here, I think you are probably a fake!"
"Huh?" Gao Shiqi was stunned when he heard this. The other party actually said that he was a fake. This was so ridiculous: Okay, since you have taken care of this matter, you will take care of it to the end. Now you have to take out the official CD from Wansi's package to prove it.
When he was about to get his identity, he saw Eunuch Chen snorting and taking a few steps forward carelessly. He casually took out a sign from his arms, stretched it forward and waved it left and right: "The leader of our Jingren Palace."
Eunuch Chen Shuangxi, we have a card as proof, and we can prove that this is indeed a senior scholar. If Sir, you don't believe it, just check the brand in our hand."