Daming Yuanfu

Precedents, this is a good thing, especially the examples made by the ancestors or ancestors. For children and grandchildren, that is the ancestral system, which can be copied and used without worrying about gossip.

This is like Western case law, whose basic principle is "following precedent", that is, when a court hears a case, it must take the precedent of the previous court as the legal basis for the trial and decision.

To be more specific, if you encounter the same or similar cases with the issues that have been dealt with in the effective judgments of this court and the higher courts, if there are no new circumstances and no more sufficient reasons can be put forward, you must not do so. Judgments that are contrary or inconsistent with past judgments, until some future day the Supreme Court makes a different judgment in another similar case.

China is different from the West in that statute law has been the mainstay for a long time, but when some legal provisions on which statute law relies are lacking, it is very common to act on the basis of existing cases, such as case law.

As far as the Ming Dynasty is concerned, if the ancestral system established by Zhu Yuanzhang did not have clear restrictions or requirements on a certain issue, then the subsequent emperors would often act according to the precedent of the "ancestors".

So obviously, at this moment, once Shen Yiguan's proposed Feng Chan is successfully advanced, the emperor will leave Beijing sooner or later, and at that time he will definitely appoint a supervisor in accordance with the Ming practice.But now, both the empress and the eldest princess of Yongning clearly believe that the most orthodox method should be adhered to: the prince supervises the country.

But here lies the problem - Daming does not have a prince yet.In other words, the real intention of the queen and princess is to say: it's time to establish a prince.

Queen Mother Li's political wisdom is not very high, but she can still see such obvious things.Just now, the reason why she was ambiguous and sloppy was not because she didn't understand what the queen and her own daughter were saying, but because she was unwilling to intervene in this matter.

Why are you reluctant to intervene?In the final analysis, this matter has something to do with high pragmatism.

Since the collapse of the first emperor's mountain mausoleum, Empress Dowager Li had doubts about Gao Yushi several times. Although most of them were instigated by people around her, in any case, she suppressed Gao Yushi several times. This is an indisputable fact .

However, the slap in the face is that while these crises were resolved by Gao Yushi, the people around the Empress Dowager Li fell down one after another. Solved one problem after another.

In this way, it seems that the suppression of Gao Yushi several times was very inexplicable.To put it nicely, it means that the queen mother is deceived by the villains around her; to put it in a bad way, it means that the queen mother does not distinguish between loyal and villainous, and it is difficult to distinguish the virtuous and the foolish, and she does all kinds of stupid things that are harmful to the court.

So after three or five times, Empress Dowager Li felt that she couldn't hold back her face. In addition, the emperor had been in power for many years and had established his own authority. Therefore, no matter whether she was active or passive, she could not help delegating power, and almost completely gave up. Intervention in government.

Delegating power isn't easy.In essence, all people, regardless of gender, have a desire for power. Once a person has gained power, it is very difficult, even against human nature, to give it up easily. Queen Mother Li is no exception.

However, on the one hand, Empress Dowager Li's face was greatly damaged because of the problem of "being wronged and highly pragmatic" just mentioned, and on the other hand, it was also because of the unusual vigilance and rejection of harem meddling by the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, which eventually led to Empress Dowager Li choosing to take the initiative. Decentralization, and she has been very cautious since then, and she is unwilling to directly intervene in the government affairs-even if she will influence the emperor in a very rare period.

But here is one thing I have to say: Although the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty was very sensitive to the interference of the harem, because the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to "governing the world with filial piety", in fact it still gave people with the status of Queen Mother Li the special power to intervene in politics at any time.

The source of this power is very simple: filial piety.

In this way, a question arises, why did Ming Dynasty attach so much importance to "filial piety"?To put it more broadly, why do most dynasties in China attach so much importance to filial piety that many dynasties have repeatedly emphasized that they "govern the world with filial piety"?
The word "filial piety" in early Chinese bronze inscriptions is the shape of a child (in the shape of "Zi") supporting the old man to walk under the hand of the old man, and the original meaning of "filial piety" is expressed by supporting the old man.

The character of filial piety has the meaning of official script from the Chu bamboo slips of the Warring States period. The bamboo slips of the Qin tomb in Sleeping Tiger Land in the Qin Dynasty and the silk script of the Mawangdui Han tomb in the early Han Dynasty directly inherited the shape of the character of filial piety in the Chu bamboo slips of the Warring States period. , hair, body, and hands were combined and simplified into "耂" (the prefix of "old"), and finally evolved into the official script of the Han and Wei dynasties and today's regular script.

In "Shuowen", the shape of Xiaozhuan characters in seal script is directly inherited from the shape of Xiaozhuan characters in Jinwen of Western Zhou Dynasty, while the shape of Xiaozhuan characters in seal script unearthed from Qin and Han relics is slightly later than that of Xiaozhuan characters in "Shuowen".Therefore, from the literal point of view, the original meaning of "filial piety" is to serve parents wholeheartedly.

Filial piety in a narrow sense is what people usually call "filial piety" to parents and elders.Of course, although it is in a narrow sense, it actually includes several concepts and is a comprehensive system.

The ancients believed that the lowest level of "filial piety" refers to providing parents and elders with material living materials such as clothes and food, and "raising them loyally with their diet", that is, satisfying the basic material needs of parents.In other words, it is the most basic support for parents.

Filial piety, which is one level higher than support, is "respect", that is, respect from the heart from children and juniors to parents and elders.It is not easy to achieve this. "Book of Rites Jiyi" said: "It is possible to raise, but it is difficult to respect."

The so-called "respect" by the ancients has many contents, such as morning and evening Dingsang - the empress empress goes to the queen mother of the two palaces twice a day to pay her respects, which evolved from this.Of course, there are many other things, such as talking with the elders in a low voice; if the parents are sick, the children's clothing, food, shelter, transportation, emotions, etc. must be changed accordingly;

In addition, younger generations often cannot directly point out the mistakes of their parents and elders, let alone forcibly correct them, but need to use appropriate methods to persuade them, which is also an extension of filial piety;

"The body and the skin, the parents do not dare to damage, this is the beginning of filial piety" ("The Book of Filial Piety·Kaizong Mingyi Chapter"), paying attention to protecting one's body is also filial piety;
"If you haven't changed your father's way for three years, you can be called filial piety" ("The Analects of Confucius Xueer"), inheriting the will of parents is also filial piety;

"Standing up and practicing the Tao, making your name known to future generations, to show your parents, the end of filial piety" ("The Book of Filial Piety Kaizong Mingyi Chapter"), making contributions by oneself shows a higher level of filial piety to parents.

All of the above are just "filial piety" in a narrow sense, while "filial piety" in a broad sense not only refers to filial piety to parents and elders, but also includes a series of important ethical and moral principles in ancient China: loyalty to the king, respect to duties, trust Treat friends and so on.

"Book of Rites: Ji Yi" puts it very clearly: "It is not filial piety to be loyal to the emperor. It is not filial piety to be disrespectful to officials. It is not filial piety to be untrustworthy to friends. It is not filial piety to fight Chen without courage."

Especially the item of loyalty to the king. In feudal ethics, "loyalty and filial piety" are often mentioned together, so the concepts of "filial piety" and "loyalty" are often confused or even confused.

In this way, the fundamental purpose of feudal dynasties to "govern the world with filial piety" is to use feudal ethics to maintain the relationship between monarchs and ministers and to maintain the feudal ruling order. Therefore, many feudal dynasties regard "governing the world with filial piety" as their governing program.

The ancients said that "the family and the country are one body", which means that the family and the country cannot be separated. For the emperor and the emperor, the country is the family, and the family is the country.

China's unique social structure, which is different from that of the West, makes family ethics also applicable in the political field. This is the social system basis for ancient China to implement "governing the world with filial piety".

The whole world is one family, and the Son of Heaven is not only the supreme political ruler, but also the head of the family, the parents of the people in the world.In this way, "governing the world with filial piety" makes sense.On the surface, it is talking about filial piety, but in fact it is "loyalty" to the country and the monarch.This is why the emperor called the people of the world "the people".Since you are a "son", whether you are a "subject" or a "subject", you should obviously be filial to your "parents", so loyalty and filial piety are perfectly combined.

Therefore, "loyalty" and "filial piety" are inseparable: the father guides the son, so the son must respect his parents at home; the king guides the ministers, so the ministers must be loyal to the monarch in the country.This is the so-called filial piety at home, loyalty to filial piety, "junjun, ministers, father, son, son", orderly and insurmountable, constituted the basic norms of interpersonal relationships in feudal society.

To put it bluntly, "governing the world with filial piety" is just a superficial article, and the real purpose is to subtly influence the private goods of "loyalty".If everyone is a loyal minister and a filial son, then the world will naturally be peaceful, and the dynasty will naturally be passed on for thousands of years.

Some people may still be entangled, and even think of the "loyalty and filial piety" plots in many film and television dramas, but in fact, we can see that in any "loyalty and filial piety" stories, in the end, you must choose to be loyal rather than filial .

The reason is simple: loyalty to the emperor is great filial piety, and its priority is higher than honoring parents.This is the concrete manifestation of the true purpose of "governing the world with filial piety".

The truth is this truth, but there is often one person in the world who is special on this issue, and this person is the Queen Mother.

Since the emperors in Chinese history are almost always "lifelong" [Note: There are still some special circumstances, such as Li Yuan in the early stage of Li Shimin's succession, Qianlong abdicated in name after 60 years as the Supreme Emperor, etc.], so when a person becomes After the emperor, there is often only one person he needs to be filial to, and that is his mother-the queen mother.

The highest expression of filial piety for the people of the world is loyalty, but the emperor, as the "Son of Heaven", is responsible to "Heaven" in name and responsible to "Sheji" below, but in fact he has no specific object of loyalty, so he just What remains is filial piety in the narrow sense—that is, filial piety to the Queen Mother.

In this way, the empress dowager has a peculiarity unique in the whole world: she can restrain the emperor with filial piety.Unless the emperor is such a jerk that he doesn't care about the world's perceptions, he will often only be obedient to the many restrictions imposed on him by the empress dowager.

Of course, at this time, if you have to give an example of Zhao Ji's relationship with Yingzheng, that would be boring.At that time, the Qin State had basically no sense of Confucian ethics, and the queen mothers of the Qin State were everywhere.Ying Zheng didn't kill Lao Ai and his half-brothers in anger because his mother had a lover - that was actually a power struggle. [Note: Due to space issues, this topic will not be expanded. ]
In short, both the empress and the eldest princess knew the special nature of Empress Dowager Li, so even though judging from the current situation of the court, it is basically a foregone conclusion that the emperor's son Chang Hao will be established as the prince, but they still want to put pressure on the emperor through Empress Dowager Li, so that The matter of setting up the crown prince should be completed as soon as possible, so as not to have long nights and dreams.

Obviously, it is unlikely that the queen, who has always been generous and insensitive to politics, will suddenly become so active and eager. Considering that the eldest princess Yongning also happened to appear here with Empress Dowager Li, the figures behind the two of them are self-evident up.

Today's scene was undoubtedly directed by Gao Pragmatic.

But fortunately, with Queen Mother Li's political level, it can only be seen that the queen and the eldest princess hope to establish Chang Hao as the prince as soon as possible, but it is not enough to find out that Gao Pragmatic is behind all this.

Empress Dowager Li was silent for a moment, sighed, and said: "The Ai family didn't want to get involved in these matters. After all, the emperor has done a good job over the years. Regarding the matter of the country, the Ai family believes that he also has his own considerations..."

Both the queen and the eldest princess just looked at the queen mother, but they didn't interrupt. After all, the queen mother said, "I didn't want to intervene"—in other words, I had to intervene now.

Sure enough, Empress Dowager Li continued: "However, Aijia also understands what you mean. The struggle between the country and the country has lasted for too long. Now that the Ming Dynasty is revived, even foreign court officials have begun to propose that the emperor go south to Mount Tai to enshrine Zen. It has indeed come to a time when it must be determined."

Empress Dowager Li looked at the queen and said: "The Ai family also heard today that Mr. Wang's resignation has been approved, so Gao Rixin must be the person who will succeed him as chief assistant.

Gao Rixin has insisted for so many years that he must wait for you to give birth to the emperor's son before he can establish a reserve. Now that everything is ready, then the establishment of Chang Hao as the crown prince will not encounter much resistance in the outer court.

The Ai family returned the great power to the emperor many years ago, and now all they can do is follow the trend... Empress, the Ai family will agree to you today, as long as Gao Rixin, as the chief assistant, asks for the appointment of Chang Hao as the crown prince, then the Ai family will This is naturally supported here.As for the rest, the Ai family can't and doesn't want to, do you understand? "

The queen immediately stood up and saluted, saying: "The queen mother's admonition, how dare my son not obey it? Since everything is done according to the queen mother's order."

Empress Dowager Li nodded, then suddenly glanced at Princess Yongning again, and said, "Yao, do you think Gao Rixin is willing to invite Chang Hao to be the crown prince?"

The eldest princess was startled, but smiled on her face: "Look at what my mother asked, how can my daughter know what Elder Gao Ge thinks? But didn't the empress also say that, Elder Gao Ge has always insisted that the crown prince should be the first son, so this The second emperor already has a son, how could he not be willing to submit to the imperial court?"

Mrs. Li nodded expressionlessly at the back, as if she had lost her interest in talking, and asked the queen again: "Is there anything else the queen wants to do?"

This sentence obviously had the meaning of an order to chase away guests, so the queen got up and said modestly: "I'm disturbing the queen mother, I have nothing else to do... I will leave."

Empress Dowager Li nodded slightly and said nothing more.
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PS: I didn’t get stuck watching political videos at Station B, but it took 17 minutes to log in to the Qidian Writer’s Zone and publish this chapter.I am convinced by this server.