China knows everything for 5000 years

Chapter 52

Zhu Yuanzhang had a total of 26 sons and 16 daughters. One son died young, and the eldest son was made the crown prince. The remaining 24 sons were all named kings, and they were given territories, and they were asked to set up official offices and guards in the fiefdoms.

There are too many heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world, and these people are very talented.In order to win them over, Zhu Yuanzhang made them princes and marquises.Among these heroes, there were 7 people who were made public, Wei Guogong Xu Da, E Guogong Chang Yuchun, Han Guogong Li Shanchang, Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong, Song Guogong Feng Guosheng, Xin Guogong Tang He, Wei Guogong Deng Yu.These people and Zhu Yuanzhang were born and died, and they have gone through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, so they should be named Duke.But there is another person whose credit is not inferior to these people, he is Liu Bowen, Zhu Yuanzhang also admires Liu Bowen very much, and wanted to make him a public.But Liu Bowen resolutely refused, but returned to his hometown to enjoy his old age.Zhu Yuanzhang did not forget Liu Bowen's achievements and gave him a lot of money.Zhu Yuanzhang conferred 28 more marquises, all of whom had made great military exploits.

After Zhu Yuanzhang was appointed Duke and Marquis, he was very worried, so he set up a special agency "Jin Yiwei" to monitor the activities of the ministers, and Jin Yiwei could report directly to the emperor.Because of the establishment of this agency, subsequent emperors followed suit one after another, and the spy agency became more and more rampant.After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he adopted a series of policies to ease class conflicts, stabilize social order, and develop agricultural production.These measures enabled the people to live in peace and prosperity, and contributed to the recovery and development of the economy in the early Ming Dynasty.

After Ming Taizu founded the country, he immediately went north. Eight months later, Yuan Dadu was captured, followed by 8 years of martial arts, and finally completed the great cause of the unification of the country.From then on, the territory of the prosperous Ming Dynasty stretched from the sea in the east, including Taiwan and its nearby islands, to the South China Sea islands in the south, to Yunnan and Tibet in the southwest, to Lake Balkhash in the west, to the desert in the north, to the Onon River in the northeast, and beyond the Xing'an Mountains. North, and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

●The meritorious officials were buried in the building of meritorious officials
After Zhu Yuanzhang came to the throne, some founding fathers were inevitably arrogant. Because these people made great contributions and had power in their hands, this made him very uneasy.Therefore, he decided to kill all those ministers who were determined to go their own way, arrogant and arrogant, and held great power.Zhu Yuanzhang knew that these heroes were very prestigious and he could not do it easily, so he ordered the construction of a hero building and designed to murder all the heroes.

The founding heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang in the South and North Wars and conquered the country did not know the truth, and they were all deeply moved and praised the emperor for his wisdom.Liu Bowen was so worried that he came to the palace, met Zhu Yuanzhang, and begged, "Now that the king's business has been accomplished, and the responsibility of the minister has been exhausted,? I hope to resign and return to the land." Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly failed to persuade him to stay, so he took out a lot of gold and silver and gave it to Liu Bowen, and sent it out of the palace in person. outside.Liu Bowen left the palace and came to Xu Da's mansion to say goodbye to him.Parting, Liu Bowen shook Xu Da's hand and said: "I hope you will keep in mind one sentence: on the day of the celebration banquet in the building of meritorious officials, you must follow the emperor closely and never leave."

After the hero building was completed, Zhu Yuanzhang decided on a date and invited some powerful heroes in Beijing to come to the banquet.The banquet was open and lively.Xu Da usually drinks a lot, but today he dared not drink too much, and kept watching Zhu Yuanzhang's every move.When he was enjoying the wine, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly stood up and walked towards the door, Xu Da hurriedly followed.Zhu Yuanzhang found someone behind him, looked back and saw that it was Xu Da, so he asked, "Why did the prime minister leave?" Said: "Is it true that the emperor will not leave any one behind?" The two of them had just walked a few hundred steps, suddenly, there was a loud bang, tiles and tiles of the hero building flew up, and the flames shot up into the sky.

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately sent someone to arrest the murderer, but many ministers knew what was going on.It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang set up this poisonous plan to burn the building of heroes in order to protect the world forever.It was still Liu Bowen's ingenious calculation, who saw through Zhu Yuanzhang-you can share adversity, but you can't share wealth.

●Hu Lan's Prison Plants in the World
Hu Lan Zhi Prison refers to the "Hu Weiyong Case" and "Lan Yu Zhi Prison" in the early days. The two prisons almost killed all the heroes and generals in the early Ming Dynasty, so that they implicated the whole world.

Hu Weiyong, a native of Dingyuan in Huaixi, is the old friend of Zhu Yuanzhang.In 1370 A.D., Hu Weiyong entered Zhongshu Province as a political adviser.Under the recommendation of Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong was promoted to three ranks in a few years, and he was officially worshiped as Zhongshu Zuocheng, Youchengxiang and Zuochengxiang.In 1377 AD, Hu Weiyong had become No. 1 under the emperor, an extremely human minister.He was the first and only "civilian" prime minister in the Ming Dynasty, and Hu Weiyong lived alone for 4 years.Zhu Yuanzhang has a clear understanding of Hu Weiyong's treacherous minister's method of repaying personal grievances by taking advantage of the monarch's likes and dislikes.At the beginning of 1380 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang arrested Hu Weiyong on the charge of "abusing power and perverting the law", sentenced him to death, and his whole family was also beheaded.Chen Ning, the doctor of the censor, and Tu Jie, the censor Zhongcheng, were killed in the same case.However, "using power and perverting the law" does not constitute a capital crime. In order to make the case an iron case, Zhu Yuanzhang upgraded Hu Weiyong's charges to adultery with Japanese pirates and conspiracy to rebel.

The Hu Weiyong case became a lead. In the following 10 years, Zhu Yuanzhang used this as an excuse. More and more accomplices were investigated, and countless heroes were killed unjustly.Ten years after the Hu Weiyong case broke out, in 1390 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang started killing on the pretext of discovering clues that Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong conspired together.The 77-year-old grand master and Korean prince Li Shanchang was given to death, and more than 70 people in his family were executed together. Only Zhu Yuanzhang's biological daughter, Princess Lin'an, her husband, Li Shanchang's eldest son Li Qi, and their two sons were left behind. Perhaps the only exception in the Zhu Yuanzhang massacre.In 1390 A.D., Zhu Yuanzhang presided over the compilation and promulgated the book "Records of Revealing Traitors" based on the so-called "elimination of traitors".But the real end of this party prison was in 1392 AD, when Jingning Hou Yesheng sat in Hu Weiyong Prison and was finally arrested and killed.The prison lasted a total of 12 years, killing more than 30000 civil servants and military generals, including a state prince and 21 princes.

The case of Hu Weiyong wiped out the power of civil servants in Huaixi Group, leaving only the power of generals.For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang launched the Sapphire Prison.

Lan Yu is also from Dingyuan in Huaixi, and he is brave and good at fighting. Zhu Yuanzhang thinks highly of him.Canonize her daughter as concubine Zhu Chun, king of Shu, and marry the emperor.In the Hu Weiyong case, someone accused him of conspiring with Hu, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not ask.Lanyu attacked the Northern Yuan Dynasty and won a big victory. Zhu Yuanzhang compared him to Wei Qing in the Han Dynasty and Li Jing in the Tang Dynasty, and named Lanyu Duke of Liang.But he privately accepted Princess Yuan as his concubine, and Zhu Yuanzhang was dissatisfied.After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Lan Yu became more and more arrogant. She raised several thousand slaves and family servants in her own manor, ran amok in the countryside, invaded the people's fields, and committed all kinds of evil.The censor came to ask questions, but was also whipped and expelled by him.In addition, Lan Yu returned from the Northern Expedition and arrived at the Xifeng Pass. Before the customs officials opened the gate, she led her soldiers to destroy the pass and enter.All kinds of evil deeds made Zhu Yuanzhang intolerable.

The process of this second massacre was roughly similar to that of the Hu Weiyong case, except that Zhu Yuanzhang was old at this time and time was not waiting for him, so the killing was more rapid.In 1393 AD, Lan Yu was accused of treason and was immediately arrested and imprisoned. On the third day, she was executed by Ling Chi and wiped out the three clans.Some scholars were also killed as traitors just because they were Lanyu's tutors, or because they wrote paintings for Lanyu.In the following two months, his accomplices were investigated again, and as many as [-] people were killed.These include Yiguo Gong (Founder Chang Sheng), Thirteen Hous (Jingchuan Hou Cao Zhen, Heshou Hou Zhang Yi, Bo Kehou Zhu Shou, Dingyuan Hou Wang Bi, Huining Hou Zhang Wen, Shenyang Hou Chahan, Xuanning Hou Cao Tai, Cao Xing, Marquis of Huaiyuan, Huaikou, Marquis of Xiliang, Hanxun, Marquis of Dongping, Sun Ke, Marquis of Quanning, etc.), second uncles (Dongguan Bo Herong, Huixian Bo Sangjing), and more than ten governors.Of course, the main target of pursuing the Blue Party is Xunchen.Many of the Xunchen who were convicted had worked with Lan.Some people have already died, but Zhu Yuanzhang's law is retrospective, so the descendants of the deceased are implicated and punished.At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also promulgated the "Record of Rebellious Officials" to announce to the world.

The two cases of Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu were known as "Hu Lan's Prison" in history, and a total of more than 5 people were killed.By the time of Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he had almost killed all the heroes and generals who founded the country.

Unjust prisons flourish, and there are even more absurd things.One year during the Lantern Festival, Zhu Yuanzhang saw a picture of a woman riding a horse with a watermelon in her arms. The horse had big feet.Empress Ma is from Huaixi, Huai and Huai are homophonic, he was furious, thinking that this was a deliberate mockery of Empress Ma's big feet, so he massacred tens of thousands of so-called lawbreakers among the officials and people in the capital.In addition, there were several other unjust prisons, which also killed tens of thousands of people.As a result, almost all the heroes and veterans were killed.The courtiers who survived said goodbye to their families whenever they went to court, because once they went to court, life and death were uncertain.

Zhu Yuanzhang's indiscriminate killing also set a bad example for future generations.The precedent was set and later generations followed suit. Ming Chengzu Zhu Di used extremely cruel means to kill the courtiers of Emperor Jianwen, which cannot but be said to be influenced by his father.

●Strange and weird text prison
After Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang unified the country, he felt that he didn't have much knowledge, and maybe the literati would take the opportunity to ridicule him.Therefore, he paid great attention to the speeches and memorials of the ministers, and pondered over and over again. If he felt that some places were sarcasm and cursing him, he would kill them mercilessly, causing many weird literary inquisitions.

People in ancient times paid great attention to their origin.Although Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor, his background was not good.When he was a child, he grazed cattle, became a monk, and later participated in a peasant uprising.He was very jealous of people mentioning these things, thinking it was a shame and unworthy of his status as emperor.In the early Ming Dynasty, whenever there were festivals, when the emperor celebrated his birthday, when he conferred the title of empress and established a prince, officials inside and outside the court would present the "Congratulatory Form" to express their congratulations.One day, Xu Yikui, a professor of Hangzhou prefecture, wrote a "Congratulatory Table" for the prefect of Hangzhou.This was originally a good word to praise the emperor, but Zhu Yuanzhang became furious after reading it, and cursed: "How dare this poor Confucian scholar insult me ​​like this!" Looking at each other from behind, no one could see what went wrong.Zhu Yuanzhang explained to them: "'Guang' means 'bald', which is calling me a bald monk; 'sheng' means 'monk', which is also mocking me for being a monk; 'Ze' and 'thief' The pronunciation is similar, and this is scolding me for participating in a peasant uprising and being a thief. Do you think such a villain should be killed?" After hearing this, the ministers were all stunned and speechless.Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to behead Xu Yikui for public display.

This kind of literal prison is really hard to guard against, and many ministers have died one after another because of a few words.A man named Xu Yuan wrote a "Longevity Congratulations Biao", and he was beheaded because of two sentences in it: "The body is dry and the law is good, and the algae is peaceful".Because Zhu Yuanzhang believed that the sound of "Fa Kun" is the same as "Fa Kun", which means he used to shave his hair and become a monk;Poor Xu Yuan originally wanted to say a few words of flattery, but unexpectedly lost his head.There was also a preceptor (teacher) of Huaiqing (in present-day Henan) who was killed because he wrote the words "Looking at the emperor's door from a distance". "门" and "非" have the same pronunciation, and they are also suspected of mocking the emperor.

All the officials were terrified.Those with the same meaning should be beheaded, and those with similar pronunciations should be beheaded!Later, the minister in charge of etiquette suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, all the courtiers are ignorant and don't know what words should be taboo. Can you formulate a fixed format for all the courtiers to follow?" Zhu Yuanzhang adopted his proposal. Opinion.In 1396 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered someone to write the format of the congratulatory form and promulgate it to the world.If the officials encounter something to celebrate thanksgiving, just copy a copy according to the format of the congratulatory form.But the literary inquisition did not stop there, and many officials were killed because of typos.There is a magistrate named Lu Xiong in Yanzhou, Shandong, who gave Zhu Yuanzhang a memorial.I don't know whether it was Lu Xiong's carelessness or the scribe's carelessness in copying, so he mistakenly wrote the word "Chong" as "Gun".Zhu Yuanzhang was furious after seeing it, and cursed viciously: "This traitor is so lawless, he told me to get out!" In this way, the head of a state official moved again.

Zhu Yuanzhang launched a literary prison, and once officials were implicated, it would be difficult to save their lives.Literary inquisition had a very bad influence on the politics of the Ming Dynasty.

●North and South compete for scientific research

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was determined to restore the system of imperial examinations in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.In 1370 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang began to hold provincial examinations in various provinces across the country.In February of the following year, a general examination was held in Nanjing, and 120 Jinshi were admitted.Together with those who were admitted in the general examination, they were immediately awarded official positions, took office immediately, and served as court officials.This year was the first imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty.Later, the imperial court promulgated the "Certificate of Imperial Examination", and the imperial examination system was finalized. Although many regulations were different from those of the previous generation, the old system was still inherited at the general examination level, and free competition across the country was implemented.In 1382 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang established the imperial examination system as a permanent system and promulgated specific imperial examination rules.Another development of the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty was to stipulate the form of the examination paper—the eight-legged essay, which was followed from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, and became the "stepping stone" for literati to enter official positions.After the formation of the eight-legged essay system for selecting scholars, many examinees spent their entire lives studying "eight-legged essays." This phenomenon was often ridiculed by the world in the Ming Dynasty.The content of the examination of the eight-part essay is mainly "four books and five classics". This limited examination content is an important reason for restricting the performance of candidates.

When Zhu Yuanzhang smugly used the system of imperial examinations to recruit talents from all over the world, due to the differences in economic and cultural development between the north and the south in the early Ming Dynasty, the event of "south and north candidates competing for scientific examinations" occurred that shocked the whole country.

In the general examination in 1397 AD, the chief and deputy examiners Liu Sanwu and Bai Xindao selected 52 tribute students from hundreds of candidates across the country, among which Song Cong was the number one tribute student, and reported to the emperor.After the emperor has seen it, he will try to publish the list.The officials in charge of the Gongyuan copied the list of Gongsheng students on the yellow list and posted it at the gate of the Gongyuan.As soon as the yellow list was posted, there was an uproar among the public, causing disputes.All the candidates from the north on the yellow list failed, from the No. 1 Song Cong to the last Liu Zixin, all of them were from Jiangnan?pregnancy.In the next imperial examination, Chen from Minxian County, Fujian Province was selected as the champion again, and the northern candidates became more and more dissatisfied.They believed that because Liu Sanwu and Bai Xinwu were both from the south, they deliberately suppressed the northern talents and protected the southerners.This statement was quickly recognized by most of the northerners, and the crowd was indignant.They smashed the high-hanging yellow list with clods of mud, and then gathered some unsatisfied students who were also dissatisfied, and rushed to the Ministry of Rites in a mighty manner.The Ministry of Rites received a report accusing Liu Sanwu and others of stealing fellow villagers, and hurriedly invited Jinyiwei to suppress the parade of candidates.However, the situation became more and more troublesome. The northern candidates who had not yet left the capital organized demonstrations again, and wrote a large number of copybooks and pasted them all over the streets and alleys of Nanjing.Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely furious, and decided to personally question Liu Sanwu, the chief examiner.Liu Sanwu said: "Under the cruel rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the people in the north were living in dire straits, and the successive years of wars had greatly devastated the local culture and education. Over the years, it is an indisputable fact that the essays of the northern exams are far inferior to those of the southern exams. There will be a situation where the south is superior and the north is inferior."

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat dissatisfied with the southern landlords and intellectuals, and because the country wanted to strengthen the defense of the northern border, the north was at the time of employing people.The Jinshi selected for this subject were all from the south, so he was a little undecided.Therefore, he ordered Zhang Xin, the minister of the Imperial Academy, to preside over the review of the examination.After more than 20 days of examination papers, Zhang Xin reported to Zhu Yuanzhang: "There is indeed a huge gap between the scores of candidates from the north and the south. Even Liu Zixin, who is the last one, is much higher than the outstanding ones in the north. The test papers of the northerners can only be ranked It is the 53rd place and cannot be changed again." After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he thought that Zhang Xin deliberately showed him the test paper with poor grades, and he was furious, and ordered the Ministry of Punishment to arrest Liu Sanwu, Zhang Xin, and Bai Xinwu immediately. They were interrogated and asked to tell the truth about the trial.After several days of interrogation by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the three of them still refused to change their words.The officials of the Ministry of Criminal Justice had no choice but to use the skills they had used in the Hu case and the Lan case to extract confessions by torture. They also put hundreds of family members of the two into prison, and finally found out a large-scale "fraud for personal gain" involving more than 600 people. Group, reported to the emperor.

Zhu Yuanzhang clearly knew that it was an unjust case, but in order to appease the anger of the scholars in the north, he wrote in his imperial pen Zhu Zhu, saying that Liu Sanwu and Bai Xinbo were the Blue Party, and Zhang Xin was the Hu Party, with the intention of rebelling.Liu Sanwu was exiled into the army because of his advanced age; while Zhang and Bai were executed by Ling Chi, dozens of ministers involved in the case and those implicated were either killed or exiled.This year, all the Jinshi selected were abolished, and the number one scholar in the department was sentenced to death for bribery.At the end of April of this year, more than 20 examiners were kidnapped to the execution ground for law enforcement.In May, Zhu Yuanzhang personally reviewed the papers and selected 61 Jinshi from the northern scholars, the first was Han Kezhong from Hebei, and the second was Ren Boan from Shandong.Since then, the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty have been divided into north and south lists to select scholars.As soon as the news came out, the whole country cheered, and the "North and South List" case was concluded.This is the famous "North-South List Controversy" case.None of the 52 people on the southern list were from the north, and none of the 61 people on the northern list approved by Zhu Yuanzhang himself were from the south.

##No.20 The Rise and Fall of Great Powers in Five Series
●Zhu Yunwen’s Jianwen Reorganization
In 1398 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang died.In the same year, he was buried in Xiaoling Mausoleum on the [-]th day of the fifth lunar month, posthumously titled Emperor Gao, and the temple title was Taizu.

(End of this chapter)