Historical Story of Ming Dynasty (I): Guo Huan Case
Guo Huan, one of the four important cases in the early Ming Dynasty, happened in the 18th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1385), which was an official corruption case. In order to hunt down and implicate the little rich people all over the country, countless people have been robbed of their property and ruined. The people hated this, and Zhu Yuanzhang put Wu Yong and others to death in order to calm people's grievances.
At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Ming Taizu attached great importance to the political style after the founding of the People's Republic of China, even to the point of overcorrection. On the one hand, he advocates honesty and requires officials at all levels to abide by the law, be honest and love the people. On the other hand, officials who break the law will be severely punished. If an official commits corruption, he will be punished by peeling. Before the case broke out, there were empty sound cases and Hu cases. In order to solve the problem of officials' corruption, Ming Taizu gradually adopted the method of extra-judicial punishment, which became more and more serious, and set up a Royal Guards to strengthen the monitoring of officials. He once lamented: "I only don't know morality, and the way to control the royal family is exhausted!" .
1385, Ming Taizu suspected that Zhao, then the secretary of propaganda and deployment in Peiping, and the secretary of the provincial court had cheated with the assistant minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and ordered an investigation. In March of the same year, Yu Min and Ding Tingju reported that they used their powers to collude with corrupt officials such as Zhao, Zhao and Wang Daoheng. These matters are as follows:
One is to embezzle the tax revenue of Taiping, Zhenjiang and other governments and reduce the annual income of the court.
Second, autumn grain in western Zhejiang was embezzled. Autumn grain in western Zhejiang should have turned over 4.5 million stones, while Guo Huan only turned over more than 2 million stones.
Third, when collecting taxes, find an excuse to collect various taxes, such as water money, grain money, treasury money, Buddha money and so on. , to enrich themselves.
Guo Huan and others embezzled more than 24 million mangokus of grain. To this end, Ming Taizu is determined to seize the opportunity to wipe out corrupt officials nationwide.
Wu Yong, the criminal department, was ordered to interrogate the case, involving 12 chief secretaries of the country, including Zhao Xie, the minister of justice, Wang, the minister of war, assistant minister of war and Mai Zhide. A total of 24 million tons of refined grains were lost. "Since about six assistant ministers, seven million people have been stolen, and the words are straight, and tens of thousands of officials in the province have died." In order to recover the grain, it turned into a national outcry, and the rich children lost everything, which is known as the "Guo Huan case". Finally, Ming Taizu killed Wu Yong, the trial and punishment division, in order to calm people's grievances, and claimed that there were more than 20 million mangokus in the converted stolen grain. "I was afraid that the people wouldn't believe me, so I wrote seven million ears."
When Guo Huan's case was recorded in Criminal Law II of Ming Dynasty, it was said that Guo Huan was an assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty suspected that Zhao and other officials of Beiping Second Division conspired with Huan for profit. Starting with six assistant ministers, they all died, stole seven million yuan, and even tens of thousands of provincial officials were killed. Ming Taizu sighed in "Dabao": "Throughout the ages, there have been many people who have taken bribes and perverted the law, but not many have gone so far!" Thousands of people were killed in the Guo Huan case and the previous air printing case. This is a manifestation of Ming Taizu's excessive emphasis on punishing corruption, which made the officials of the Ming Dynasty wary of fear. At that time, people said: "Although county officials live in poor mountains, they are all scared when they go to the capital, Vandory, as if the gods are above them." Because of the wide coverage of the Guo Huan case, many officials suffered injustice, which greatly reduced the goal of destroying the government.
The Second Historical Story of Ming Dynasty: Empty Seal Case
The air seal case occurred in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), which was caused by the blank seal of official documents. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the case and executed hundreds of relevant officials. This is indeed an unjust case, but its influence and scope are rare.
Every year in the Ming Dynasty, local people were sent to the household department to declare the financial revenue and expenditure accounts, and all accounts must be completely consistent with the audit of the household department before settlement. If there is any inconsistency, it must be rejected and re-recorded, and it can only be completed with the seal of the original local competent department. Because the traffic was not developed at that time, and the road was long, it would take a lot of time if it needed to be sent back for reconstruction. Therefore, officials who go to the household examination have blank books stamped in advance for use. This was originally from the existing practice of the Yuan Dynasty ("In the Yuan Dynasty, officials printed documents first, and then the books were called" empty printing "). Since the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the phase has not changed. Chronology of Chinese and foreign history) has never been explicitly prohibited. Cambridge's History of China in the Ming Dynasty explains that money and grain will be lost during transportation, so the figures received from the delivery to the Ministry of Commerce will definitely not match. Officials can't predict in advance how much they lost on the road, and only when the Ministry of Commerce is about to declare will they know the difference. Therefore, officials in Beijing are used to filling in the actual figures of Beijing with empty printed documents. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, was furious when he learned about it. He thought it was a felony of collusion between government and business, and ordered all relevant officials to be punished.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that every department, state and county should send accountants to the household department every year to report the income and expenditure accounts of local finance and the number of all money valleys. The figures of government and accounting department, accounting department and accounting department must be exactly the same. Any slight mistake will be refused to be rebuilt and stamped with the official seal of the original yamen. Being far away from the Ministry of Finance, in order to avoid going back and forth, officials of provincial offices kept blank account books with official seals in advance and filled them in at any time to prevent refutation. The blank household registration book is covered with a seal, which is not used for other purposes, and the household department never interferes. In the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), Ming Taizu was furious when he learned of the air printing, and ordered it to be strictly dealt with. Those who keep seals from the ministers of the Ministry of Housing to various places will be beheaded from the second left, with a staff of 100, and exiled to the frontier.
The number of people involved in the Indian Airlines case and the Guo Huan case may be based on "Ming history? Criminal law yearbook. The Chronicle of Criminal Law mentioned that the Guo Huan case "involved tens of thousands of dead people" and that "the punishment in the Second Prison (air-printed case and Guo Huan case) was too heavy". 40,000 cases were also punished in the air printing case and the Guo Huan case. Fang Xiaoru mentioned in "Ye Chuan" that when the empty seal case happened, "all the major seal collectors and famous officials were arrested in the imperial prison. There are hundreds of prisoners. Brother Shili is also in prison in Henan time and space. "Brother Shili is Zheng Shiyuan, a former Tongzhi in Huaiqing Prefecture, Henan Province, and now he is a Huguang supervisor. Zheng Shiyuan may be one of the "more than 20 generations of provincial and ministerial officials". Zheng Shili wanted to go to college at the beginning of his crime, but in order to avoid being suspected of saving his brother, he waited until Zheng Shiyuan was released from prison to dare to go to college, just to defend the death row inmates who stayed in prison. At the end of Ye Zhengchuan, it is mentioned that Zheng Shili failed, but Zhu Yuanzhang still "killed the empty seal". Zheng Shiyuan was an official in Huguang, but he was imprisoned for working in Henan, indicating that Zhu Yuanzhang arrested the official according to the signature on the air-printed document. Therefore, the number of people arrested is actually only a few hundred. At the end of the full text, there is no mention of making arrests after these hundreds of people. Some of these hundreds were not executed, but exiled. So the number of victims will not exceed hundreds. Generally speaking, tens of thousands of people are probably inferred from several other major cases. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, there were not many officials in the class, only a few of them handled blank seal documents. If calculated by tens of thousands of people, the number of officials should be seriously insufficient, causing difficulties in government operation and local management, which is unlikely to be Zhu Yuanzhang's wish.
The third historical story of Ming Dynasty: the change of Renyin Palace
The rebellion in Renyin Palace took place in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, and the maid-in-waiting attempted to assassinate Emperor Jiajing of Shizong of Ming Dynasty, which was a failure. Because it happened in the year of Renyin, it was called "Renyin Palace Change".
At that time, Zhu Houzong, Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, wanted to live forever by "sucking wind and drinking dew". The ancients also used the custom of insolating banana leaves. Several kinds of bananas can be planted in the garden. Every morning, the broad leaves will be covered with nectar. When you are thirsty in the morning, you can feel sweet and refreshing by smoking a few tablets, and it is said that you can prolong your life. This was only used by the ancients when the environment was not polluted, which is not desirable for today. Today's morning dew already contains a variety of heavy metal particles. Unfortunately, Emperor Sejong Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty did not understand this method. This man is almost crazy about practicing immortality. In order to collect nectar for drinking, maids were ordered to collect dew in the imperial garden in the early morning, which caused a large number of maids to fall ill, so they performed the Change of Renyin Palace. Yang and other maids almost killed the emperor with yellow silk Buller.
At this time, one of the timid maids was afraid and reported to the queen Fang. Queen Fang arrived, surrendered to the maid-in-waiting, ordered beheading, and the first offender was executed in. In addition, even Duan Fei, who served Emperor Jiajing at that time, was beheaded. Because it happened in the year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing (in the 21st year of Jiajing, AD 1542), it was later called "the palace change of Emperor Renyin" by historians.
"Biography of Empress Sejong of Ming Dynasty" records: "Maid-in-waiting Yang and others tried to kill the emperor, but were rescued by Lai. ..... It's evening, and the emperor stays in Duan Fei Palace. Jin Ying and others waited for the emperor to go to bed, and they set up the emperor's neck, which was mistaken for a fast knot. My colleague Governor Zhang Jinlian didn't leave. After he left, he rushed to the group and Sudi. " The records of the Ming Dynasty are basically the same, except for Yang's nine maids' names: Jizhou Doctor, Xing Cuilian, Yao, Yang, Guan Meixiu, Liu Miaolian, Chen Juhua and Wang Xiulan. The above is recorded in the official book. Private works include Z Ryan's Zhou Zai. Zhang He was in charge of punishments at that time and saw the case with his own eyes. Here, the original transcript of the interrogation confession of the punishments is as follows to show the truth:
Zhang Zuo of the prison army titled "Killing: On October 21st of Jiajing 21st, I received an imperial edict (the order of the Queen Fang):" Just ask! " Yang, a maid of honor, vowed, "On the 19th of this month, when Wang and Assistant Cao were lighting a lamp in the East Room, the businessman said,' Just do it and die in our hands!'" (There may be a word "he" missing before the word "hand", which refers to Zhu Houzong, who deliberately avoided it when recording the confession. ) Yang, Su Chuanyao, Xing Cuilian said in the audience that if it is Yang Yuxiang, just go east, untie the fine etiquette flower rope, and always rub one. At midnight on the 22nd, he handed the rope to Su Chuan Medicine, and Su Chuan Medicine was handed over to Yang Jinhua to tie a condom, and they laid hands on him together. Yao (in Shandong) pinched his neck. Yang said to him,' Hold your neck and don't relax! Xing Cuilian handed Yao a yellow silk rag and covered her face. Xing Cuilian presses her chest, Wang presses her body, Su Chuanyao holds it in her left hand, Guan Meixiu holds it in her right hand, Liu Miaolian and Chen Juhua press her legs, and Yao and Guan Meixiu pull the noose. Zhang Jinlian saw something bad and went to call the queen. Yao gave a punch. Wang Xiulan asked Chen Juhua (as a hair) to blow the lamp. Chen Furong, the chief brand, said, "Zhang Jinying made Furong light the lamp. Xu Qiuhua, Deng Jinxiang and Huang put out the lights. "Furong ran out of the sign to call the supervisor and took all the prisoners away."
This essay is much more detailed than the official book, and the hands-on situation and tortuous process of the incident are vivid. But there are also deliberate fabrications and false accusations, mainly because Fang Hou was jealous of Cao Fei's favor and took the opportunity to make her one of the masterminds. As a result, Cao Fei was executed in the year, along with Wang Yi and the maids. As the saying goes, "imperial edict" really means this, because at this time, Zhu Houzong was hit hard and "too ill to speak". Another biography of Queen Sejong Fang (a collection of ancient and modern books, Miyamoto) records: "The princess really doesn't know, so it is difficult to spoil the old." After the emperor took the title. In November of the 26th year, the palace caught fire. After the official (eunuch) for help, the emperor should not, after the collapse. "Although this is a private fight between concubines and concubines, it is necessary to expose it in order to find out the inside story.
Zhu Houzong was strangled and out of breath. Doctors are afraid of being convicted and dare not use drugs. However, Imperial Hospital risked Xu Shen's life. "Adjust drugs, prescribe drugs at the right time, and be silent at the wrong time (after seven or eight hours). After a few liters of purple blood, he can speak. " Afterwards, Xu Shen was "blessed", but soon became seriously ill, knowing that it was difficult to recover. He said to his family, "When I went to the sun, I changed my palace. If it doesn't work, you will commit suicide, so you will be frightened, which is beyond the treatment of drugs and stones. " ("Shi Ming Wu Jiechuan attached Xu Shen"). The chief executive of the hospital was scared to death and was seriously nervous at that time. Fang Hou took advantage of this mess to falsely preach the imperial edict. Because of Cao Fei's unjust death, Zhu Houzong often felt that the palace was haunted. He once asked Xu Jie, the cabinet minister: "Renyin (the twenty-first year of Jiajing) has undergone great changes and there are people who are wasteful." The next step replied, "He was born in a expensive family and was wronged. He can do nothing! " (Jing Japan: "National History Only Doubts" Volume 7) This spectre refers to Cao Shi.