Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 169 Compilation of National History and Essential Codes of Three Dynasties

The incident in "Huang Ming Tong Ji" made Zhu Youjian realize that the Ming Dynasty needed an official history book to tell the history since the founding of the country.

Otherwise, if people want to understand the history of the Ming Dynasty, they can only read private history books such as "Huang Ming Tong Ji". The absurd content in these books will also spread. Over time, some people may regard it as real history, causing great harm.

If Zhu Youjian wanted to get to the bottom of things, he had to compile national history. If you don't occupy this position of thought, others will. The imperial court cannot give up this area and allow some absurd content to be spread randomly.

Thinking that the National History Museum had been established, Zhu Youjian convened a standing meeting to deal with this matter the next day. The Ministry of Rites and Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Honglu Temple, Hanlin Academy, Taixue and other institutions under the supervision of the Ministry of Rites attended the meeting.

Lai Zongdao, the Minister of Rites, was dismissed by Zhu Youjian yesterday, and the new Minister Wen Tiren has not yet taken office. This person was resurrected together with Xu Guangqi on November 3, and it is estimated that he will not be able to take office in Beijing until next year.

Therefore, the affairs of the Ministry of Rites are now handled by Meng Shaoyu, the left minister. This person was born in the Meng family in Qixian County and was a descendant of Mencius.

This person's reputation is certainly better than that of Lai Zongdao. Yesterday when the court was pushing, if it weren't for Zhu Youjian, he would be excluded. Meng Shaoyu will most likely become the main recommendation, ranking before Lai Zongdao.

But after Lai Zongdao, the main candidate, was dismissed, Meng Shaoyu was rejoicing at this time. Fortunately, he was not included as a candidate to become the main recommendation, otherwise he, a person who was not in line with the emperor's wishes, would probably have been removed. After all, he once wrote a book praising Wei Zhongxian, and the crime was ready-made.

As soon as today's meeting was held, Meng Shaoyu apologized to the emperor and took the initiative to speak out about his previous praise of Wei Zhongxian.

He knew that he had to take the initiative to talk about this matter, otherwise the thunder would explode at some point. As far as he knew, many officials were eyeing his position and wanted to oust him to vacate the position of Zuo Shilang.

Now that the emperor has just dismissed the minister, he will probably not dismiss him as the left minister. So he took the initiative to speak out during the meeting.

Zhu Youjian was about to use the Ministry of Etiquette, so of course he couldn't leave it unattended. After hearing Meng Shaoyu's apology, he secretly praised this man for his good behavior.

This man took the initiative to plead guilty. He could not dismiss him immediately after appointing him as acting minister.

So Zhu Youjian thought for a while and ordered:

"Meng Shaoyu, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, once sent a book to praise the beauty. He should have been ranked sixth."

"If you take the initiative to plead guilty, and the tendency of subjective rebelliousness is not serious, I will treat you leniently and demote you to the seventh level."

"Removed from all official ranks, reinstated as Tianzhu Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and given the title of Zhengsanzhengzhengshi, still acting as an agent for the ministry."

"The affairs of the Ministry of Rites were still in charge of Meng Shaoyu before Minister Wen Tiren took office."

Meng Shaoyu was immediately relieved when he heard the punishment. His rebellious plot was not serious at all. He just followed the trend and praised Wei Zhongxian so that he could be promoted faster.

Now that the emperor has demoted him from the left minister to the right minister, he is still acting as minister, and the punishment can be said to be very light, or even none. As long as he works well during this period and the court does not elect Zuo Shilang, he will most likely be able to resume his original position and still serve as Zuo Shilang.

This made him more active in doing things and obeying the emperor's orders.

Therefore, after the emperor proposed setting up a publishing office in the Department of Rites and Music to review sensitive content such as history, military affairs, maps, etc. Although Meng Shaoyu knew that people would scold him if this news spread, he still agreed. He also stated that he would take personal responsibility to prevent banned books like "Huang Ming Tong Ji" from being spread.

Zhu Youjian was very satisfied after hearing this, and even felt that it was better to do the right thing than to make the right mistakes. This was a wise saying.

Things like censoring books and banning books are likely to be criticized as suppressing public opinion, so many civil servants are reluctant to do it to avoid tarnishing their reputation.

Meng Shaoyu was able to take the initiative to take over the matter and save himself from embarrassment.

This made Zhu Youjian very satisfied and asked Meng Shaoyu and Jinyiwei to cooperate well in reviewing relevant books.

Then, after Zhu Youjian realized the harm of privately revised history books such as "Huang Ming Tong Ji" but also realized the necessity of their existence, he said to the ministers:
"In the 260th year since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although there are actual records from all dynasties, the content is too lengthy and rarely spread outside."

"I have decided to compile a history of the country based on the actual records of past dynasties. I will make the history of this dynasty authentic and clear, and avoid the dissemination of privately compiled history books such as "Huang Ming Tong Ji"."

"This national history should be divided into a brief history and a complete history, just like the chronicle of China and the chronicle of the world."

"A brief history records brief events, and the content should not exceed three volumes. The full history is based on the specifications of official history, and there is no limit on the number of volumes."

This was an attempt to revise the history of the dynasty, and some officials instinctively wanted to oppose it.

Because the history of a dynasty is usually compiled after the change of dynasties, so that the coffin can be finalized.

This dynasty compiles it by itself, so it is very easy to be influenced, and the content will be distorted.

Maybe it will trigger a political trend because of the recording of a certain person or something.

Therefore, most of them do not agree with the revision of national history.

Some officials even suggested euphemistically that compiling the history of a dynasty would give people a sense of the end of the dynasty. This was really inappropriate and could not compile the history of the entire dynasty. The actual records are already very good and there is no need for additional compilation.

But Meng Shaoyu agreed and found evidence to refute these humanistic theories:

"It has been 260 years since the founding of this dynasty, which has surpassed that of the previous Han Dynasty."

"In the later Han Dynasty, Ban Gu was editing the "Book of Han" and was accused of privately revising the history of the country." "Then he was worshiped by the imperial court as the Lantai Lingshi and was able to complete the "Book of Han"."

"In this dynasty, privately compiled history books such as "Huang Ming Tong Ji" have been circulated. At this time, the history of the country should be revised to correct the world's ideas."

He argued fiercely with those officials who opposed it, explaining the necessity of compiling the history of the country and how to compile it.

Compared to privately compiled history books like "Historical Records" that slandered the emperors and ministers of the Han Dynasty, official history books like "Han Shu" are much better.

So he took the "Book of Han" as an example to show that the imperial court could compile the history of the country and that it was necessary.

Zhu Youjian listened to their argument and improved his ideas. After the officials argued for a while, they ordered:
"The Han Dynasty was able to compile the Book of Han, and this dynasty can naturally compile the history of the country."

"The history compiled in the Book of Han is about two hundred years old."

"The history of the country compiled by this dynasty is also set to be about 200 years ago. By the sixth year of Longqing, it was compiled into the "Chronicles of the National Dynasty"."

"The events during the Wanli, Taichang, and Tianqi years were compiled into the "Chronicles of the Three Dynasties" based on the "Three Dynasties Essential Codes"."

"The content of "Chronicles of Kingdoms" must be separated from "Chronicles of Three Dynasties"."

Divide a national history into two parts to avoid giving people the feeling that the dynasty is over.

Moreover, this can largely prevent "Chronicles of the Kingdom" from involving contemporary people and being interfered with by those people.

After all, many of the current ministers in the court were Jinshi during the Wanli period, and some even held high positions during the Wanli period. It is impossible for the imperial court to revise the history of the Wanli period without involving them.

When the time comes for compilation, these contents will be easily affected, leading to distortion of the history books.

In order to avoid these easily influenced contents from affecting the quality of national history. Now Zhu Youjian has separated this period of history and compiled it into "Chronicles of Three Dynasties".

At the same time, I want to use "Chronicles of the Three Dynasties" to cover the "Essential Code of the Three Dynasties".

Some people heard the emperor's intention and immediately stopped objecting to the revision of national history. Because they wanted to ban "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" and didn't want it to spread.

Not to mention the Donglin Party and officials who tended to the Donglin Party, they were the compilers of the "Three Dynasties Essential Code". After the fall of the Eunuch Party, they also wanted to abolish this book to avoid being held accountable.

They knew very well how this essential code was compiled. The historical materials were screened entirely in accordance with the instructions of the Holy Oracle.

At best, this approach is called Spring and Autumn Calligraphy; at worst, it is a distortion of history.

Therefore, Huang Liji, as one of the chief executives of the "Three Dynasties Essentials", immediately requested the emperor:
"The compilation of "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" has been hasty and contains many omissions and incompleteness."

"I request you to recall the "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" and re-compile the "Three Dynasties Chronicles".

Zhu Youjian immediately agreed and ordered:

"The Essential Code of the Three Dynasties is recalled and will be replaced by the Chronicle of the Three Dynasties in the future."

"The cabinet drafted the imperial edict and compiled the "Chronicles of the Three Dynasties". All contents are based on original materials and cannot be omitted or tampered with."

Directly cover "Three Dynasties Essential Codes", and this book will be treated as if it does not exist in the future.

After all, although the content of this book is somewhat unsavory, it was compiled according to Emperor Apocalypse's edict, and it may really be what Emperor Apocalypse meant.

There is an imperial order inside, and Zhu Youjian cannot directly ban it and destroy it, so he can only cover it.

The characterization of the three major cases in this book is not in line with Zhu Youjian's intention. He wanted to redefine the case of moving the palace and re-establish the rules such as the merit of making a decision and the merit of following the dragon. Then the "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" must be abolished and the three major cases must be re-tried.

At the same time, because Wei Zhongxian framed too many officials with the three major cases. If the Donglin Party members want to overturn their verdict, they will inevitably propose to ban the "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" in the future.

Rather than being forced to ban and destroy it, Zhu Youjian thought it would be better to recall the "Three Dynasties Essentials" and cover it with the "Three Dynasties Chronicles".

This was to avoid the possibility of convicting Huang Liji, Yang Jingchen, Yu Huang and other officials who participated in the compilation when banning and destroying the "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" in the future, which would affect the structure of the court.

This was Zhu Youjian's consideration, and it was also the reason why he covered "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" with "Three Dynasties Chronicles". Huang Liji heard the elegant meaning of Xiange and took the initiative to recall the "Three Dynasties Essential Code".

In this way, the matter of "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" will be concluded with Zhu Youjian.

In the future, if someone proposes to ban the "Three Dynasties Essential Code" and hold the compiler accountable, Zhu Youjian can completely assume that the book does not exist and is already re-editing it.

In the final analysis, Huang Liji and other compilation officials acted in accordance with the imperial edict of Emperor Tianqi. It is impossible for Zhu Youjian to punish them for this, resulting in no one compiling history according to his instructions in the future.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian also thought about the biography of Zige, and ordered that the biographies of Zige heroes and Zige virtuous officials should also be compiled by the National History Museum. These biographical contents must be recorded in the history of the country.

(End of this chapter)