How bad is Yang Guozhong really How did he cause chaos in the government

Yang Guozhong, a treacherous prime minister during the Tang Dynasty, was one of the main responsible persons for causing the An Lushan Rebellion. Below, the History Encyclopedia editor will provide a detailed introduction to the relevant content.
However, during the Tianbao period, although Emperor Xuanzong of Tang gradually neglected politics and although Li Linfu had absolute power and influence, the Tang Dynasty still continued the prosperity and flourishing of the Kaiyuan era. The per capita grain has reached 700 kilograms, which is equivalent to the level in 1982, and the national strength has reached the peak of feudal rule. So, what did Yang Guozhong do? How bad did he have to be to exhaust such a thick foundation?
Below are three aspects to discuss:
Firstly, chaos
Li Linfu, in order to exclude dissidents, appointed people based on personal connections and served as the Minister of Personnel. Yang Guozhong was no exception, but he was even more inexperienced than Li Linfu. Shortly after taking office, he made a mess of the selection work and even boasted about improving efficiency.
According to convention, there are three steps for the Ministry of Personnel to select officials: first, the Ministry of Personnel should organize interviews and written tests to comprehensively judge candidates based on four criteria: personal, verbal, written, and judgment. Then, a recommendation for appointment should be given, along with explanatory materials such as qualifications and reputation.
Secondly, a “three annotations and three singing” campaign should be conducted, which means three public announcements. If a candidate is dissatisfied with their position or if there are different opinions from various sectors of society, they can raise their concerns and the Ministry of Personnel will make adjustments.
Thirdly, the Ministry of Personnel will submit the preliminary list to the subordinate provinces for review. If there are no objections, it will be submitted to the emperor for imperial approval.
This program is professional and tedious, usually taking about six months to complete. Because the quality of officials directly affects the interests of the country and the people, the court cannot be careless. However, after Yang Guozhong took office, in order to demonstrate his intelligence, strength, and exceptional abilities, he forcefully carried out significant reforms and accelerated the implementation of this system.
He set aside the vast majority of officials in the Ministry of Personnel and only called a few lower ranking officials to his home, and soon drafted all the appointment lists. The procedures of three notes, three songs, and under door sealing and refutation are completely exempted. He notified all the candidates, as well as the palace attendants, the Yellow Gate attendant, the Imperial Secretariat, and officials from the Ministry of Personnel, to be present, and then called each candidate in to ask for their opinions in person. No one has seen this situation before, everyone is confused, and there is not a single opinion. So the appointment decision was announced on the spot!
So, with Yang Guozhong’s acceleration, the official selection that originally took six months to complete was all completed in one day. So, the whole world was in an uproar.
The people of the world are eagerly waiting for nourishment, thousands of officials are eagerly awaiting it, and talented individuals from all over the world are eagerly looking forward to it. With just a few low-level officials and historians, such an important selection for the Ministry of Personnel has already determined the course of events. Where is fairness! Where is the principle of heaven!
Faced with such a hasty system of selecting officials, many famous scholars lost their trust in the Imperial Court. One of them, a Jinshi named Zhang Xuan, was very famous. Others persuaded him to pay a visit to Yang Guozhong, or bribe the several powerful officials. He said, “You are like Mount Taishan by Yang Youyou. I regard it as an iceberg ear. If the bright sun comes out, you will have nothing to lose!” Then he angrily hid.
It seems that Zhang De’s estimation is very optimistic. He was still thinking about the birth of Jiaori, but unexpectedly, the Tang Dynasty did not welcome Jiaori, but the hammer of An Lushan came.
Secondly, crazy
Yang Guozhong had an affair with his cousin Lady Guo, also known as Yang Guifei’s second sister. It was very shameful for such an incident to occur between siblings of the same clan, but Yang Guozhong remained indifferent and even openly flirted with Lady Guo, earning him the nickname “Xiong Hu” in private. Even the old master Ouyang Xiu, who wrote the “New Book of Tang,” cursed him with vulgar language, calling him “like a beast in his practice.
In order to show off his power in front of his cousin, Yang Guozhong had Lady Guo sit behind a screen during the selection process, while he himself shouted and shouted at the officials in front of him. When the candidates entered the hall, no one interviewed, but he heard the chattering laughter of the women behind the screen. Yang Guozhong even pointed to the third rank official who was maintaining order and said to his cousin, “What about me, a purple clothed official?” For a third rank official, this was such a great insult! And Yang Guozhong is such a reckless person.
Once upon a time, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty was He Qizhuang. Song Jing was upright, Zhang Jiuling was graceful, and even Li Linfu was not intimidating and angry, which made An Lushan tremble with fear. As for Yang Guozhong, according to the “Old Book of Tang”, he was a typical young man who achieved success by “shaking his hands and holding his wrists, and giving orders in a commanding manner.
Thirdly, resentment
Resentment refers to Yang Guozhong causing public grievances to boil over. There are mainly three aspects:
One is the war with Nanzhao. In the ninth year of the Tianbao era, a minority group in the southwestern region rebelled in Nanzhao, and the Tang army suffered a devastating defeat. However, Yang Guozhong led the Jiannan Jiedushi, which greatly damaged the face of the prime minister. So Yang Guozhong repeatedly ordered the recruitment of troops from the Central Plains to attack Nanzhao. But the people of the Central Plains have been in peace for a long time, and some are very afraid of the miasma in the south. It is said that if they go there, they will die in nine ways, so no one is willing to volunteer.
Yang Guozhong became anxious and searched for strong men everywhere to gather the number of people. As a result, the combat effectiveness of the troops was low. From the ninth to the thirteenth year of Tianbao, the Tang army suffered repeated defeats, resulting in the loss of over 200000 young and middle-aged people. Due to Yang Guozhong’s concealment of military information, Emperor Xuanzong was unaware of the truth, and the people did not receive any corresponding compensation, which was very tragic. Du Fu described in “The Carriage of Soldiers”: “To give birth to a daughter, one must marry a neighbor; to give birth to a son, one must follow a hundred herbs.
Secondly, after thirteen years of Tianbao and continuous autumn rain for over a month, Emperor Xuanzong anxiously asked Yang Guozhong about the disaster situation. And Yang Guozhong took several very plump wheat ears and said to Emperor Xuanzong, ‘Although it rained heavily, the crops grew well!’ So the court did not provide relief to the people who were suffering, causing them to be displaced and in unbearable pain.
Thirdly, Yang Guozhong’s ability to accumulate wealth is outstanding, which is also the most important reason why Emperor Xuanzong highly valued him. In addition to serving as the Right Prime Minister and Minister of Personnel, Yang Guozhong also concurrently held over forty special envoys, responsible for devising various pretexts and exploiting the people’s wealth to meet the increasing expenses of the royal family. And he himself has also been greedy a lot, living a very enjoyable life.
Legend has it that Yang Guozhong spent money like water, using agarwood as his pavilion and sandalwood as his railing; Warm up with a female servant’s “meat formation”; Carrying women’s music in a “building car”. His mansion is even more magnificent than the palace.
In summary, Yang Guozhong can be said to be so bad that he is in his bones. So, what kind of worldview drives him to do so? In his own words, he said, “I come from a humble family. Once I arrive at the Jiaofang, I don’t know where my taxes and driving will be. However, I can’t bring my name to my name, so let’s be extremely happy!” This sentence can be summarized as: Life is unpredictable, enjoy yourself in the moment. In the words of Madame de Pompadou, the mistress of Louis XV, “Even if the flood were to surge after my death