History can't bear to look at the complete collection

Chapter 121 The Famous Minister's Alternative Face 5
"Blue Sky" is Hai Rui's mask

Hai Rui is an upright official with the same reputation as Bao Zheng in history.Since there were not many honest officials in the history of the Ming Dynasty, Hai Rui in the Ming Dynasty was particularly rare.

Hai Rui is indeed an upright character.When he was an official in the capital, facing the fatuous emperor and the decadent government, he resolutely bought a coffin and put on a death sentence.His famous memorial titled "Zhi An Shu" can be described as "unprecedented in history". Emperor Jiajing was so angry that he threw Hai Rui into a prison, but at the same time he had to admit Hai Rui's loyalty. Afraid of enduring the eternal infamy of killing loyal ministers.After Hai Rui was released from prison, he was greeted by the middle and lower officials of the Sixth Department of the Central Committee and the people of the capital.But Hai Rui's two sons were unfortunately killed by the plague while he was in prison.

When Hai Rui was a high-ranking official in Suzhou and Nanjing, he launched a massive campaign to eradicate corruption and promote integrity.One month after he took office, more than 100 corrupt officials were sent to the Ministry of Criminal Justice in Nanjing.In one county, more than 10 people were arrested, including magistrate, county magistrate, chief secretary, and Dianshi, and almost all the officials in a county government were arrested.Faced with all kinds of threats and temptations, Hai Rui remained unmoved, and finally completed the task of returning the land from the township officials to the people.But Hai Rui paid a very heavy price. His last son was strangled to death by the avengers and thrown into the Suzhou Creek. His wife Wu also hanged herself because of grief.Later, Hai Rui was also dismissed because he offended the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty.

When Hai Rui was an official, he cared for the people and helped them eliminate harm and seek profit, while he himself lived a very poor life.When Hai Rui passed away, his belongings were only eight taels of silver, a piece of rough cloth and a few sets of old clothes, which were not enough for the funeral.With the help of his colleagues, his coffin was able to be transported back to his hometown.When Hai Rui's coffin passed by the Qinhuai River, people on both sides of the river voluntarily put on mourning and cried to see him off. The procession of seeing him off was hundreds of miles long.The market in Nanjing has been closed for several days. Only cloth shops and painting shops are open. Every family in Nanjing buys white cloth and black gauze to dress Hai Rui in linen and mourning.The hands of the painters were all swollen, but Hai Rui's head portraits were still in short supply.

Today, in the hearts of the people, Hai Rui is still a symbol of justice, a well-deserved Hai Qingtian.However, no one is perfect and no gold is pure gold, and Hai Rui is not perfect.

First of all, in terms of case-solving skills, Hai Rui can't fully see the details and predict things like a god.For those suspicious cases, he did not carefully investigate them, but "rather than his elder brother, he would rather his younger brother; rather than his uncle, his nephew; rather than his poor man, he would rather his rich people; rather than his foolishness, he would rather his stubbornness. Rather than Qu Xiaomin, I would rather Qu Xiaomin; when it comes to arguing about appearance, I would rather Qu Xiaomin than Qu Xiaomin."Judging from the spirit of the rule of law today, no matter who is wronged, it is unfair.Hai Rui's "two evils are the lesser", and the way of handling the case without mobilizing various criminal investigation methods to investigate to the bottom is not in line with the spirit of fairness.

Secondly, when dealing with the issue of contracts, although modern laws require written contracts, the Ming Dynasty did not require them.In disregard of the national conditions and laws at the time, Hai Rui unilaterally emphasized formalism and required the settlement of disputes to be based on written contracts. This was undoubtedly a blow to the illiterate farmers.Because farmers seldom use written contracts to create loan relationships.As a result, I don't know how many people lost the land on which they lived and lived under Hai Rui's seemingly fair judgment.Hai Rui himself admitted that the redemption he approved only accounted for 1/20 of all mortgage loan cases.As a result, under Hai Jui's rule, tenants did not dare to pay rent to landlords, and borrowers did not dare to pay back to lenders.The normal economic order was disrupted.

The most depressing thing is Hai Rui's family tragedy.Ming Yao Shuxiang’s "Jianzhibian" records: "Hai Zhongjie has a five-year-old daughter who eats bait. Zhongjie asked who to get the bait from? The girl replied: Tong Mou. Zhongjie said angrily: How can a woman be allowed to suffer Child bait? It’s not my daughter. If she can starve to death, she will be called my daughter. The daughter will weep and refuse to eat. The family members try their best to eat, but the soldier refuses and dies in seven days.” Hai Rui had a daughter who was five years old. Aged, eating cake.Hai Rui asked her, where did the pastry come from?The daughter replied: It was given by a servant.Hai Rui said angrily: "How can my daughter eat the servant's food? You are not my daughter! If you starve to death, you can be called my daughter." The little girl cried and stopped eating.The family tried every means to get her to eat, but she refused to eat. A week later, the little girl starved to death.

Although Hai Rui is an admirable and upright official, the overly serious ethical thought and the imprint of the times formed by him under that social condition are worthy of our deep consideration.Although we cannot accuse the ancients of following our perfect requirements, we can sum up the experience and lessons of our predecessors from these imperfections.

(End of this chapter)