Daming Yuanfu

At this point in the discussion of the cabinet ministers in the south verandah, Liu Ping finally brought the emperor's call, calling for all the cabinet ministers to come to the imperial court immediately.The elders in the pavilion looked at each other in twos and threes, guessing that the emperor must have found a reason to help Concubine Zheng get out of the incident.But whether the reason the emperor asked can achieve the effect he wants, we still have to go first to know.

Not long after, the six cabinet ministers returned to Xinuang Pavilion again to ask for an audience, and Chen Ju welcomed them in according to oral instructions.As soon as they entered the door, the courtiers smelled a smell of medicine, and after a quick glance, they found a silver-rimmed porcelain bowl on the table next to Yuta, and there were still medicine stains in the bowl.

Under the leadership of Wang Jiaping, all the ministers greeted the emperor first, and said some words of blessing and comfort, but the emperor didn't react unexpectedly, he just said flatly, "I know the kindness of all my loves." , turning the topic to the event itself.

Gao Wushi noticed that Zhu Yijun's complexion was indeed a little pale at the moment, but his mental state did not look too bad, and even his eyes looked a little sharp from time to time - but for some reason.

"I'm sorry, dear dears, but it's all right now, dear dears, you can rest assured." Zhu Yijun glanced around at the cabinet ministers, and said calmly: "Today's matter, there was an accident, this is just after the consultation and negotiation between the imperial physicians I don’t want the foreign court to have other speculations on this matter in the future, and I don’t want any rumors to arise among the people.”

Huh?
Gao Wushi was a little surprised, and thought, is the emperor planning to forcefully suppress this matter like this?If this is the case, I'm afraid the final development of the matter may not satisfy you.

You must know that it is quite easy to persuade the cabinet ministers about things like this, but the officials of science and Taoism are not as easy to talk to as the cabinet ministers. Although you are the emperor, if you don't come up with a convincing reason, these How can the officials give in easily?
Hey, people are following the emperor Taizu's will, relying on arrogance for food.Forcing the speaker not to speak?Such a tough job, even your grandpa Sejong Emperor Jiajing overturned the car!

Obviously, this truth is not only understood by the high-level pragmatic, but which of the elders present don't understand?
Sure enough, Wang Jiaping, the chief assistant, immediately expressed his objection, saying: "From ancient times to the present, gossip is the enemy of the imperial court. The emperor is cautious about it, and the minister thinks that there is nothing wrong with it. However, there are only a few ways to control rumors in the past dynasties. It is useless or even harmful, that is, the mouth of the people is better than that of Fangchuan; the best thing is to 'listen to songs on the road'. I hope your majesty will be careful, think about it, and encourage it."

In fact, Wang Jiaping's words were a bit exaggerated, but this is the habitual practice of civil servants.Not only the civil servants are used to it, in fact even the emperors are used to it, I don't know if this is some kind of successful pua.

The reason why Wang Jiaping's remarks are really exaggerated is that he secretly changed the concept here, and equated the "rumors and rumors" in the emperor's mouth with "prophecy" and "nursery rhymes".

You know, once it is equivalent to "prophecy" and "nursery rhymes", it will be a big event.Of course, his concept of sneaking is indeed very hidden, especially in the "feudal dynasty" era like Daming.

The word rumor originally meant popular folk songs or proverbs, that is, folk songs or folk proverbs.With the development of society, this meaning is gradually derived to refer to unfounded rumors or words fabricated out of thin air.In ancient times, there were roughly two ways to spread rumors: prophecy and nursery rhymes.

Therefore, although Wang Jiaping's words are exaggerated, the relevance and directionality are indeed correct, and it is difficult for the emperor to think of vetoing such relevance and directionality.

Prophecy is a term used by fortune tellers to predict good and bad.

In ancient times, science and technology were underdeveloped, and people were full of curiosity about many things, but they couldn't find the power and mechanism of things, so they often entrusted solving puzzles to wizards who were engaged in divination.Whether it is the weather or national events, many decisions will be made by divination.Of course, most of the results of divination are proved to be wrong in the end, so these results of divination are also rumors.

Nursery rhymes are a relatively more controllable way of spreading. Some people with ulterior motives will compile rumors into the form of nursery rhymes in order to achieve their own goals, and teach children to sing them widely, thereby deceiving people's hearts.

In addition to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Li Ru said that "there is a Han in the east and a Han in the west. It will be easy if the deer walks into Chang'an." The examples that people in the Ming Dynasty are more familiar with happened together in the A strange event at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

It is said that in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, the society was in turmoil, and peasant armies from all walks of life revolted one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang also participated in it.In the 15th year of Yuan Shun Emperor Zhizheng, a nursery rhyme suddenly spread on the streets of Dadu: "There is a gust of yellow wind and a gust of sand, and there are no homes for thousands of miles; the snow disappears when you look back, and the three-eyed monk blinds the horse."

The three-eyed monk refers to Zhu Yuanzhang who used to be a monk, and the horse refers to the Mongols, because the Mongols often call themselves the horse nation, and "blinding the horse" means that the Mongols are almost finished.Having said that, it is obvious what the rumormongers intend to do.

From the above two ways of spreading rumors, it is not difficult to see that wizards and peasant soldiers are the two main groups of rumors spreading in ancient times, and besides these two, there are also common people and emperors—or those in power.

The reason here is actually very simple. Since Dong Zhongshu, the ancient Chinese firmly believed in the theory of "relationship between heaven and man". Because they did not understand the laws of nature, whenever there was a natural disaster, some of them would even attribute it to the punishment of God. And the rumors born from it spread like wildfire.

For example, in the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty to Zhengzheng, a rare heavy rain fell in the southern region. This heavy rain lasted for more than 80 days, causing huge floods and famine.At this time, rumors suddenly spread that the dragons hiding in the ground came out one after another taking advantage of the heavy rain, and there were so many of them, they were sent by God to clean up the people on the ground.

Just such a rumor convinced many knowledgeable and experienced people at that time.

Zhu Yijun himself experienced a famous rumor, but this is somewhat inaccurate, because this rumor actually happened during the reign of his father, Emperor Longqing.

In the first year of Longqing, there was a rumor that the imperial court would go to the south of the Yangtze River to select beautiful women to enter the palace. In the second year, the rumors were not alleviated, but intensified. It was even said that widows had to accompany beautiful women to Beijing.

For a while, no matter rich or poor, anyone with a woman of the right age in the family will get married with one word, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.Later, according to "Zi Tao Xuan Miscellaneous Records", a family hired a craftsman to sew a wedding dress for their daughter. When the wedding dress was ready and ready to get married, they found that their son-in-law had been snatched away by another family.

In desperation, the family simply betrothed their daughter to the craftsman.It can be seen how eager families with daughters were to get their daughters married at that time.

In addition to these girls of the right age, even widows are also getting married one after another. There is a poem at that time that describes it like this: "It is ridiculous that a group of chaste women also follow the imperial edict to have sex." However, it turns out that these are just It's groundless, but it's a pity that it's too late for people who know the truth. Many girls know that the other party's age is much older than themselves after they get married. Some married unreliable husbands, and were even sold into brothels later. It's really embarrassing Sigh.

As for the emperor spreading rumors, everyone is familiar with this.What Liu Bang's mother dreamed of intercourse with the gods by the lake, so she gave birth to Liu Bang; One night, I dreamed that a god gave an elixir to her and told her to take it. When Zhu Yuanzhang was born, the house was filled with red lights, and the neighbors thought that there was a fire, and they rushed to put out the fire... This is all the well-known emperor's self-disinformation. .

So, when rumors spread everywhere, what measures did the rulers take to govern?As Wang Jiaping said just now, "there are only a few ways to control rumors in the past dynasties."

The first is to crack down on those who create and spread rumors through harsh laws.For example, during the period of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Li found wizards in Weiguo to listen to the masses, and if he found any unfavorable words, he would kill them-this is the allusion of Wang Jiaping's saying "defending the mouth of the people is better than defending the Sichuan".In the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang also ordered: "Those who dare to speak poems and books abandon the market, the past is not the present, and those who slander with rumors will be punished."

However, Wang Jiaping also commented on this kind of treatment just now: "The most useless and even harmful."

In fact, when the society was stable in all dynasties of China, the handling of rumors would be slightly relaxed, and "opening up the way of speaking" has become the most common practice.

For example, after Emperor Wen of Han came to the throne, he rectified the government and issued an edict to abolish the crime of slander and gossip.He also specifically explained in the imperial edict that the imperial court set up banners for promoting good words and wooden plaques for discussing right and wrong and accusing mistakes.

However, the current law stipulates that talking about right and wrong will be regarded as spreading absurd remarks and punished as a crime. This will make the officials unable to speak out what is in their hearts, and the emperor will not know his fault. This is not advisable, so He wants to repeal this provision.

In addition, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty also explained to the people in the imperial edict that the people sometimes invited each other to assemble and curse the emperor, and the officials thought it was treason; if he had other remarks, the officials thought he was slandering.However, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty believed that this was only because of Xiaomin's ignorance, and he was sentenced to death for ignorance, which he thought was very undesirable.

At the end of the edict, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty also emphasized that "since now, those who have committed this crime should not be punished", that is, they will not be punished.It can be said that there is indeed a reason why the mausoleum of Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty did not dare to dig even the green forest and red eyebrows.

As for what Wang Jiaping said in the end to curb rumors, "the best person is to 'listen to songs on the road'." This method is also the old method of the Han Dynasty.

What I'm talking about here is actually to crack down on corruption by adopting the public opinion in the rumors.According to the "Book of Wei" cited by Pei Songzhi in "Three Kingdoms·Wei Wudi Ji", Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty once issued an edict that "the imperial edict of the three governments to play the state and county politics is invalid, and the people who make rumors will not be dismissed", which means to let Sangong reported those officials whose political performance was so poor that the common people made ballads to criticize them, and dismissed these officials.

Obviously, this is different from the Qin Dynasty's strict system for dealing with rumors. The Han Dynasty's approach is that it must not be killed with a stick, but should be regarded as a mirror for understanding society.Therefore, in the Han Dynasty, "raising rumors" became an important duty of local officials, and the imperial court stipulated that officials should "listen to songs on the road".

All in all, the meaning of Wang Jiaping's remarks is that when facing rumors, the rulers first need to correct their attitude.

There is no doubt that the wild spread of rumors will inevitably panic people and cause social unrest.But in the face of this situation, if the rulers can correct their words and deeds, calm down and understand the basis of the rumors, and then explain the ins and outs of the matter to the people seriously, the rumors can be alleviated to a certain extent.

For example, during the period of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, due to frequent earthquakes, floods, solar eclipses and other phenomena at that time, rumors spread among the people, but Emperor Cheng did not severely crack down on this. He reprimanded a group of inaction officials, improved politics at the same time, and sent officials to tour the world to explain the situation to the people.

What is the final result?While eliminating rumors, it also has a certain positive effect on social governance.This is a very good precedent, and because the Han Dynasty performed very well in this regard, Wang Jiaping regarded the Han Dynasty's method of "listening to songs on the road" to deal with rumors as "the best".

Zhu Yijun didn't expect that his words would lead to a lesson, and what's worse, he couldn't refute the lesson.He originally planned to use his posture to calm down the courtiers first, and then bestow favors on the courtiers, so that the courtiers would accept the conclusion that "what happened today was just an accident", and then they would be able to suppress the foreign court when they left the palace. After discussing with the people, the possible suspicion of Concubine Zheng Huanggui in this matter was finally removed.

It didn't come to fruition, although his plan seemed to be okay, it's a pity that Wang Jiaping didn't follow it at all.Although Wang Jiaping, the Chief Assistant, has done a bit of a dismal job as a polished commander, his character is very tough—especially in the aspect of "ruling the country with morality", which is the most persistent aspect of Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism.

This is like singing. If the first sentence is out of tune, how can you continue singing?
Zhu Yijun was furious in his heart, but couldn't find a way to remedy it all at once, and couldn't help being so angry that his eyes went black for a while.

His temples on both sides twitched, suppressed his anger and glanced at the ministers again, and saw that almost all of them had serious faces, as if the emperor would not listen to the persuasion, and the world would be in chaos by tomorrow morning at the latest. It was to make him angry.

However, since it is "almost", there are exceptions.Zhu Yijun found that although Gao Yushi also looked serious, but at the same time he was frowning deeply, looking at his left hand worriedly.

Only then did Zhu Yijun remember that he was still holding a cloth handkerchief in his left hand, and the cloth handkerchief had blood stains from the corners of his mouth that he had just wiped.

Practicality is worrying about me!It's really a wind that knows the strength of the grass, and a tough one that knows the honest minister.It seems that if we want to solve this crisis, we still have to find a way to get pragmatic support... But, how can I persuade him?
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