Chapter 22 Chapter VII Internal Contradictions of the Ruling Class III. Literary Inquisition

Another aspect of the internal contradictions of the ruling class was the struggle of some literati of the old landlord class against the subordinate relationship of the new imperial court.Their class stance was very firm, and they believed that the rebellious poor peasants could not be emperors and rule the landlords, so they refused to cooperate with the new dynasty. These literati harbored a deep hatred for Emperor Zhu, who had made his fortune from the Red Army.A typical example is the uncle and nephew Xia Boqi, a Confucian scholar in Guixi, who cut off his fingers, vowed not to be an official, and was arrested in the capital.Yuan Zhang asked them: where did they live in chaos in the past?He replied: When the Red Bandits were in chaos, they took refuge between Fujian and Jiangxi.Yuanzhang was furious: I know that Boqi is angry, and he will think that it is wrong for me to take the world.Especially Bo Qi said: "Er Bo Qi said that when the Red Bandits were in chaos, he intended to be angry with him."Today, pointing out that it is not for my use, Yi Xiao ordered his family to lose his family, so that the crazy and foolish people will follow suit.The special commissioners escorted them back to their hometowns and executed them.Suzhou natives Yao Run and Wang Mo also refused to be officials in the new dynasty. They were both sentenced to death and their entire family was lost.

Some literati were afraid of Yuanzhang's severe punishments and laws, and they were often beaten or even beheaded. They refused to be recruited by the new dynasty.For example, Yang Weizhen, a native of Shanyin, Zhejiang Province, was named Tieya.Hongwu was conscripted in the second year, but he refused to go.Three years later, she was urged by the local officials to go on the road, and wrote "Old Guest Women's Ballad" to express her ambition, to the effect that the dying old woman could not remarry. If the emperor didn't forgive her, she had to jump into the sea and commit suicide.Because of his great reputation, Yuanzhang should not force himself too much.Weizhen lived in Nanjing for a few months, so he asked to go home.Song Lian presented a poem saying: Not subject to the emperor's five-color edict, white clothes are declared until white clothes are returned.Wang Feng of Jiangyin called himself Ximaoshan, Zhang Shicheng was in Wu, and his younger brother Shide used every trick to persuade Shicheng to descend to the north to Yuan to reject Western Wu.Shi Cheng died and lived in seclusion in Wujing.In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, he was confiscated for his literature. Thanks to his son, who was an official in the court, he kowtowed to the emperor and begged, so he was released.There are also those who can't resist and are forced to become officials, such as the famous Qin Yubo who lived in Shanghai in order to avoid chaos. I can't stand it, I'm afraid I will regret it!The situation was so serious that Qin Yubo had no choice but to enter the court.

There were also other literati who had served as officials in the Yuan Dynasty or Soochow Wu, and they were determined not to be officials in the New Dynasty.For example, Ding Henian, a poet of the Hui nationality, used his family background as an official, escaped from conscription, studied Buddhism in his later years, and died in Yongle.Changle Chen Liang thought he was a Confucian student in the Yuan Dynasty, but he failed to recruit repeatedly in the early Ming Dynasty, and he never became an official for life.Zhang Xian of Shanyin learned poetry from Yang Weizhen, served Dongwu as the capital of the Privy Council, and when Dongwu died, Xian changed his name and surname, and sent food to Baoguo Temple in Hangzhou to die.When Zhang Yu of Luling was in Yang Wanzhe's town in Zhejiang Province, he served as a judge of the Privy Council of Wai Lang Xing, a member of the left and right divisions. Zhang Shicheng wanted him to be an official, but he refused to thank him.Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to come out. Seeing that he was too old, he said, "It's free."Put it back, and call yourself the free old man.Be careful and afraid of getting into trouble, and never talk about current affairs. There is a poem that explains his situation:

In the early years of Hongwu, from the side of the sun, he ordered Xu to return the old and the poor.The pool and hall are all paid to the people at that time, but the pen and inkstone are kept for leisure.Liu Ling Dou Nei Wine, Yang Liuchun at the head of Xizi Lake.Seeing people chopping wheels is only sleeves, listening to people chatting is only jaws. In short, in the early Ming Dynasty, except for some literati who were born as big landlords such as Liu Ji and others who had joined the emerging ruling group, literati who were born as small and medium-sized landlords could be divided into two categories: one type relied on the protection of the new dynasty and was ruled by the new dynasty They are determined to cooperate with the new dynasty, they will do whatever they want, and they even try their best to gain profits, want to get promoted and get rich, change their families, and glorify their ancestors. This kind of people accounts for the vast majority, and they are the main force that Zhu Yuanzhang relies on in his rule. Government officials at all levels The main source; the other type is those who have deep hatred for the Red Army, and of course resist the new dynasty and refuse to cooperate.Although there were not many people in this category, they had considerable influence on society and politics at that time.

Zhu Yuanzhang used severe punishments to deal with these feudal literati who were unwilling to cooperate, and specially formulated a law: If you lead the land to the shore, you must be a king's official.The scholar-bureaucrats in Huanzhong are not used by the emperor, they are taught from outside, and it is not an offense to punish them and lose their families.Huanzhong scholar-bureaucrats are not used by the king, the way is to kill. Some literati refused to be used by Yuanzhang, so Yuanzhang used special laws, prisons, the death penalty, and even a set of weapons to confiscate their families and exterminate their families to force them to become officials.On the one hand, some people are unwilling to cooperate, and on the other hand, the new government must force them to come out to cooperate. This has launched a long-term bloody struggle within the ruling class.

Some feudal literati were dissatisfied with Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, and Zhu Yuanzhang also hated these people for daring to resist, and tried every means to suppress them. This opposition became more and more obvious.In the course of the struggle, Zhu Yuanzhang paid special attention to the details of writing and the taboos of his own life experience, and was picky, which caused the literary prison in the Hongwu era.The so-called taboo has a very broad meaning.For example, Zhu Yuanzhang lived a poor life and became a monk since he was a child.A monk is characterized by a bald head and shaved hair. Therefore, not only is the word bald a taboo for him, but the word monk is also very eye-catching. up.Another example is that he was a soldier of the Red Army in his early years. The Red Army was called the Red Thief and the Red Bandit by the Yuan Dynasty government, landlords, and bureaucrats. A thief is a bandit, and by extension, even the character Ze, which is similar in shape and sound to the word thief, looks angry.

Many taboos on writing are part of Zhu Yuanzhang's inferiority complex.The opposite side is manifested in the background of buying and selling.As usual, the founding emperors of all dynasties would draw famous people with the same surname in ancient times as their ancestors. Zhu Yuanzhang's father and grandfather were both tenant farmers, and his maternal grandfather was a wizard. They were all humble figures in feudal society and had nothing to boast about.It is said that when he was discussing with his civil servants about the revision of the jade (family tree), he originally planned to use Zhu Xi, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty, as his ancestor.It happened that a Dianshi from Huizhou, surnamed Zhu, came to see him. He planned to pull the family, so he asked: Are you a descendant of Zhu Wengong?This little official didn't know the details, and was afraid of lying and causing trouble, so he had no choice but to say no.When he thought about it, the mere official history officials refused to pretend to be other people as their ancestors, and they had never heard of any relationship with the Zhu family in Huizhou for several generations. Joke, how to make it?I had no choice but to give up this idea, and instead of being a descendant of a famous Confucian, I looked up to his fellow emperor Han Gaozu, simply emphasizing that I have no foundation and did not start from the foundation of my ancestors. As soon as I start writing, I always insert my original Huaiyou commoner, or Jiangzuo commoner, as well as ordinary people, from the fields, and humble backgrounds. The strong sense of inferiority is expressed as self-esteem, and self-esteem is the same as that of Han Gaozu. Said, showing off that he fought with bare hands without an inch of land, and credited the achievements of the Red Army's great uprising in his own name.These two different psychology seem to be contradictory, but in essence they are consistent.However, even though he often shows off himself, he is afraid of others to say so, and he thinks that he is digging his foundation, and the result will be another bloody case.

The three local officials, prefects, county magistrates, and officials of the health office, as usual, are written by school instructors on festivals, emperor’s birthdays and royal celebrations. Although they are all clichés, they are all praises. Zhu Yuanzhang likes reading very much.He was not a narrow-minded person, nor would he be picky about writing. After crossing the river, he recruited a large number of literati from the landlord class to do a lot of things for him.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many systems and regulations such as court instruments, military guards, household registration, and schools were produced by literati, which made him pay more attention to literati, thinking that literati must be used to govern the country.The literati gained power, and the princes of the Huaixi Group, who had a lot of military exploits, were not convinced. They thought that the generals would bleed the world, but let this group of plague scholars be in charge. They complained to the emperor many times, but they ignored them.The princes discussed an idea, and one day they reported to Zhu Yuanzhang about the literati. Yuanzhang was still the same old way.Someone said: You are right.But literati can't trust too much, otherwise they will be fooled.Ordinary literati are fond of sarcasm and slander, making sarcastic remarks.For example, Zhang Jiusi pampered literati all his life, good mansion, high salary, a small banquet every three days, a big banquet every five days, and praised the literati to heaven.After becoming a prince, he needs to be given an official name, and the literati named him Shicheng.Yuan Zhang said: "Okay, this name is good."The man said: no.I was fooled! In the book "Mencius" there is: a scholar is an honest villain.This sentence can also be read as: Shicheng is a villain.How could he know how to call Zhang Shicheng a villain.It's really pitiful to be called a villain for half your life and not understand it until you die. , Yuanzhang listened to these words, looked up "Mencius", and sure enough there was this sentence.From then on, I paid more attention to the notes submitted by my subordinates, and only considered the disadvantages. Sure enough, there are monks and thieves in many places, and they seem to scold him deliberately. .The development of the struggle for power between military commanders and civilian officials made him confront some uncooperative landlord literati, and increased his doubts about the motives of ordinary literati in using words. He used his own political standards and cultural level to read various genres. Writing, in a fit of rage, ordered the literati who made these writing to be killed.

Famous examples of literary inquisition, such as Lin Yuanliang, a professor of Zhejiang Province, wrote the "Xie Zeng Salary Table" for Haimen guards, and there is a sentence in it; One word of writing; Lin Bojing from Fuzhou prefecture taught the etiquette of writing "He Dongzhi Biao" for the inspector; Guilin prefecture taught Jiang Zhi to write "Zhengdan He Biao" for the second envoy; Zhou Xuezheng Meng Qing wrote the holy virtues of "He Dongzhi Biao" for the government, and Yuan Zhang recited all the rules as thieves.Changzhou prefect Jiang Zhen wrote "Zhengdan Congratulations Biao" for his prefecture, which contains wisdom and knowledge, and new characters are read as monks; Huaiqing prefectural preceptor Lu Rui wrote "Thanksgiving Horse Biao" for his prefecture, which has a long-term perspective Difei, Difei is read as Difei; Jia Zhu, a teacher of Xiangfu County, wrote "Zhengdan Hebiao" for this county, taking the method Xiang Wei, and the method was read as Qufa; Notes ", You Shi Junfu uses the term Ban Juelu, Shi Junfu is pronounced as the father of the lost monarch, and it is said to be a curse; Weishi County taught Xu Yuan to write the "Longevity Congratulations Table" for the government, which is a body and a law. It is even more serious to decorate the horoscope of Taiping, and it is even more serious. Fa Kun is a loser, and decorating Taiping is to lose Taiping early; Door.Two sentences, it is said that there are robbers, of course Qingmen is a temple for monks.Ordered the execution of all those who made the note.Even Shouyu Qianqiu, who learned from Chen Zhouzhou and wrote "He Wanshou Biao" for Honzhou, couldn't read the tricks, so he was killed.

Jiang Jinggao, the instructor of Xiangshan County, was arrested and sent to the capital to be executed in the city by mistake.Professor Xu Yikui of Hangzhou Fuxue's "Congratulatory Biao" has a bright sky, a born saint, and sets an example for the world.Yuan Zhang read it and said angrily: "The living monk also scolded me for being a monk."Just shaved hair, said I was bald.Zeyin was close to a thief and called me a thief.Frightened the officials of the Ministry of Rites to death, and begged the emperor to make a statement so that the subjects could abide by it.In the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, Liu Sanwu, Zuo Chunfang, and You Zanshan Wang Junhua, academicians of the Imperial Academy, were specially appointed to compose a form of congratulatory thanksgiving, which was promulgated by all departments in the world.According to the regulations, only the official title and name should be filled in the banknote record, so the life of the literati is guaranteed.

The Literary Prison lasted from the seventeenth year to the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, and lasted for thirteen years.The only literati who survived was Zhang, the editor of the Hanlin Academy. When he was in the Hanlin Academy, he had a problem with his speech and was duped as Shanxi Puzhou Xuezheng.As usual, he made a celebration form. Yuanzhang remembered his name. Looking at the words in the form, there were two sentences in the world, and longevity was boundless. He said angrily: This old man still calls me a robber!Send someone to arrest you for face-to-face interrogation, saying that you will be sent to the judicial department, what more can you say?Zhang said, there is only one sentence, and it will not be too late to die after saying it.Didn't your majesty say that you are not allowed to fabricate the table and text, and all of them must come from the classics, have there been evidences?There is a Tao in the world is what Confucius said, longevity is boundless comes from the Book of Songs, saying that ministers slander, but that's all.Yuanzhang was overwhelmed and had nothing to say. After thinking for a long time, he said: This old man is still so talkative, let him go.The left and right courtiers discussed in private: It has been a few years since I saw this person! Wei Guan, the prefect of Suzhou, built the prefect's yamen on the ruins of Zhang Shicheng's palace. He violated a taboo and was denounced.Yuanzhang looked at the "Shangliang Wen" of the new house, and there were dragons and tigers occupying the four universes. He was furious and cut Wei Guan in half.Chen Yanghao wrote a poem about the matter: There is a woman in the south of the city who cries every night to conscript her husband.Yuanzhang hated him for shaking morale, so he took it to Huguang and threw it into the water to die.Gao Qi, editor and editor of the Imperial Academy, wrote a poem titled "Picture of a Court Lady": A dog barks across the sky, who will come after the palace ban in the middle of the night?Yuan Zhang thought it was a satire on him and kept it in his heart.After Gao Qi retired, he lived in Suzhou. When Wei Guan's crime happened, Yuan Zhang knew that "Shangliang Wen" was written by Gao Qi again.There was a monk named Laifu, to curry favor with the emperor, and wrote a thank you poem, with two lines: Jin Pansu Helai Special Domain and Self-ashamed Wude Praise Tao Tang. Yuanzhang was very angry, thinking that special characters were divided into evil Zhu Obviously scolding me.He also said that I have no virtue to praise Tao Tang, which means that I have no virtue. Although I wanted to praise me with Tao Tang, I couldn't, so I beheaded this chaotic monk. Local officials have suggestions based on their own duties, and if they suspect a word, they will die.Lu Xiong, the magistrate of Yanzhou, said in his memorial that the word Yan in the seal of the state was incorrectly similar to the word Dagon, and asked for correction.Yuanzhang was very unhappy and said: "Scholar is unreasonable, just tell me Yanli!"It turned out that the word Dagon was used as a rolling character again.Soon, Lu Xiong was killed on a party case. From a personal taboo, it has developed into a generalized taboo.In the third year of Hongwu, it was forbidden for ordinary people to use the words Tian, ​​Guo, Jun, Chen, Sheng, Shen, Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou, Qin, Han, Jin and other words in their names.In the 26th year, a list was published to prohibit people from naming Taizu, Shengsun, Longsun, Huangsun, Wangsun, Taishu, Taixiong, Taidi, Taishi, Taifu, Taibao, Dafu, Daizhao, Dr., Taiyi , eunuch, high official, and doctor, and the names that the people have been used to for a long time are prohibited. For example, doctors are only allowed to be called doctors, doctors, and doctors, but not imperial doctors, doctors, and doctors. Those who call the imperial edict, the fire of the official house, are only allowed to call the eunuch, not the eunuch, and those who violate it will be severely punished. Other landlords and literati were killed, such as Su Boheng, a professor in Chuzhou, commented on his death; Zhang Yu, Taichang Qing, threw himself into the river and died, and Xu Ben, the Zuo Buzheng in the south of the Yangtze River, was imprisoned and died. Zhizhou Wang Meng paid homage to Hu Weiyong and looked at paintings at Hu's house. Wang Xing was once a guest of Lanyu's house, and he was killed because of the party case. Guo Kui once joined Zhu Wenzheng's army. Zhang Mengjian, deputy envoy of Shandong, Fu Shu, magistrate of Boye County, and Xie Su, a governor of Fujian Province, all died in accidents; Dai Liang, who defected to Kuango Timur, offended him and committed suicide.Undead, such as Zhang Xuan, who once edited "Yuan Shi", was relegated to Haozhou; Yang Ji was punished to do hard work; . The four famous poets in Wuzhong in the early Ming Dynasty: Gao Qi, Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, and Xu Ben all had contacts with Zhang Shicheng. Yang Ji and Xu Ben were also officials of Zhang Shicheng. The four were killed and relocated successively. It was not a coincidence, but a conscious blow.Only Linhai Chen Ji was an exception. Chen Ji had participated in Zhang Shicheng's military, was called to compile "Yuan History" in the early Ming Dynasty, and died in the third year of Hongwu.When he was in Zhang Shicheng's shogunate, he drafted a lot of books scolding Zhu Yuanzhang. It was not that he died early, but he was inevitable. Zhu Yuanzhang used severe punishments and punishments to kill more than 100,000 people. The main people killed were the princes, lieutenants, and generals; Confucian scholars, literati, scholars; monks, Taoists; rich people, landlords, etc., in short, are all members of the feudal ruling class and enemies in his mind.He carried out a long-term internal cleansing work by means of bloodshed, implemented the policy of governing the country with violence, and consolidated the rule of the Zhu family dynasty. On the other hand, he resolutely opposes the long-standing political views of regions and localities in society.He believes that to be an emperor is to be the emperor of the whole country, not to be the emperor of a certain place, and the talents selected should also be from the whole country. Prejudice is one of the focal points of internal conflict between him and the Huaixi Group.It is precisely because of his opinion that in the 30th year of Hongwu, the case of the North and South Lists occurred. The thing is that this year's general examination was conducted by Liu Sanwu, Ji Shan, Bai Xindao, etc., who are Hanlin scholars from Chaling, Hunan. Song Cong, from Taihe, Jiangxi, took the first place in the exam. There was not a single northerner on the list. People were arguing and unconvinced. Could it be that there is not even a single northerner who is qualified?Yuanzhang was furious, and ordered his servant Zhang Xin to check the examination papers. The northerners still failed, and Yuanzhang was very upset.It was also reported that Zhang Xin and others were entrusted by Liu Sanwu and others to deliberately review unqualified papers.Yuan Zhang was furious and killed Bai Xindao and others. Liu Sanwu was already eighty-five years old this year.Yuan Zhang re-examined the exam himself, and 61 people passed the exam, all of whom were from the north. At that time, this exam was called the North-South Ranking, also known as the Spring and Summer Ranking. In fact, the actual situation at that time was that the production level in the north was lower than that in the south after being destroyed by long-term wars, and the development of education and culture in the south was higher than that in the north.The examination papers were sealed as usual, and the examiners could not know whether the examinee was from the south or from the north.Liu Sanwu and others decided to take them only based on the text of the examination papers. Although all the people who were taken were from the south, there might be differences between the north and the south.After several protests by candidates from the north, Zhu Yuanzhang paid close attention to it. In order to win over the landlord intellectuals in the north, he re-examined the results. All the candidates ranked first were from the north, and none from the south. He started from politics. Yes, starting from the premise of a unified country, not simply based on the merits of the examination papers.Bai Xinwu and other examiners were killed, and Song Cong's exile was wronged. The internal contradictions of the ruling class are also manifested in regional relations. There are extremely fierce struggles between Huaixi groups and non-Huaixi groups, and between southerners and northerners.The former contradiction was resolved with the elimination of the Huaixi Group.However, the conflict between the southerners and the northerners was not resolved. Later, the capital of the country was moved to the north, and the emperor became a northerner. Whether it is the northerners or the southerners, each protects the interests of their own class and region, and excludes each other. There have been several political struggles, all related to the conflict of interests within the class between the southerners and the northerners.