Chapter 5 3 Armed with sharp weapons

The ability to legally harm others is the housekeeping skill of officials.This is a real art in which resources and wealth are allocated and realigned accordingly. 【Low cost damage capability】 Zhang Juzheng was probably the most capable minister in the Ming Dynasty.He was well aware of all kinds of malpractices and tricks in the officialdom, and he handled them skillfully, and he actually accomplished the great cause of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty by himself.Such a clever gentleman must have a deep meaning when he tells the official story that the big officials are afraid of the small ones, and you must listen to it.

Zhang Juzheng said that the promotion of generals and schools in the army depends on the leader's rank.One grade is clearly defined.Once upon a time, a small official from the Ministry of War (Ministry of National Defense) deliberately washed out one word on the report and filled in another word, and then showed the report to the officials of the Ministry of War.When the bribes from the generals came up, the little official said that although the words had been altered, after careful inspection of the yellow stickers, it was found that it was a single word and there was no cheating.So the officials of the Ministry of War will no longer pursue it.Zhang Juzheng asked: "Whether the generals are promoted or demoted, all the power is in the hands of this little official. Can you not bribe him?"

This story has a background of the times: at that time, there were very few generals who did not pretend to be credited.It is said that there are many beheadings, and many of them are fake.After investigation, they probably chopped off the heads of local people, so-called indiscriminate killing of innocent people.If no one complains about Qu, these heads are military exploits, everyone gets promoted and get rich, and everything will be fine; if someone complains about Qu, these heads may become evidence of crimes.Therefore, the fate of the general is indeed in the hands of that little official to a considerable extent, although his official may not be as good as a platoon leader under him.

Zhang Juzheng concluded: People are afraid of those officials, so they must bribe them, not because they hope to get some benefits from them, but because they are afraid that they will harm themselves. The ability to legally harm others is the housekeeping skill of officials.There is a real art in which resources and wealth are being fertilized and realigned. Volume 20 of the Ming Dynasty novel "Two Moment Pai An Surprise" tells the story of a county magistrate using this art to strip a rich man.The story says that a rich man named Chen Ding in Wujin County had a wife and a concubine.The wife's surname was Chao, and the concubine's surname was Ding. The two had a quarrel, and Chao vomited and died of illness.A few good-for-nothings in the neighborhood, who usually looked at his family with envy, urged the deceased's brother to sue the officials, claiming that the death was inexplicable, and they wanted to make a deal.The brother of the deceased was very happy to follow suit, so he made an agreement with those hooligans, and let them come forward, and he hid in the dark to play tricks and knock out the money to get half of the money.

The story says: The magistrate of Wujin County is a greedy husband.At that time, there was a fellow villager who was here playing games, but he was not dismissed.Seeing that this first statement is about human life, and he knows Chen Ding's name, he is a rich family. We should put some place on him and send the folks to get up.Immediately, the quasi-certificate came, and Chen Ding went to the official with the card, and he was imprisoned without any explanation. Please pay attention to the choice here: firstly, the petition can be approved or not; secondly, after the approval is used for interrogation, Chen Ding's defense can also be heard or not.At these two thresholds where there was room for legal choices, the county magistrate chose the most harmful one: immediate approval, without explanation, and no one can say that he was out of line.I am a layman in law, and I don’t know what to call this right to choose to legally harm others, let’s call it the legal right to harm.

But he said that Chen Ding was in prison, so he quickly asked someone to invite his wife and brother to let him take care of everything.After spending hundreds of taels of silver, all parties got it done, especially the county magistrate, the fellow who beat the autumn wind, was satisfied, and said good things for Chen Ding, and he let Chen Ding go.This release more fully embodies the rubber-band-like nature of the legal right to harm, or conversely, the legal right to favor. Unexpectedly, the brother-in-law thought that he was not earning enough, so he caught up with the fellow magistrate and demanded back the forty taels of silver that he had bribed.Converting the forty taels of silver into the current NT dollars, let's say less than 10,000 to 20,000, and say more than 70,000 to 80,000, it is obviously worth chasing.However, he underestimated the flexibility of the legal right to harm.When the county magistrate heard about this, he was furious, and asked Chen Ding's brother-in-law again on charges of private and human life.The wife and brother fled immediately.

The story says that after Chen Ding and his concubine Ding were brought back to the government, they couldn't help but beat them hard and sent them to prison.Then he ordered the exhumation and autopsy to find out the cause of the dead wife's death.At the same time, local people from all walks of life were called together to conduct an autopsy while investigating and understanding the situation.The magistrate has intentions, as long as he is convicted seriously, he first orders the forensic doctor to report the injury seriously.Wu Zuo figured out the meaning, and there was nothing to do, and what he reported was fatal wounds from punching and kicking.When Chao Shi liked to eat sweets when he was young, he lost a tooth in front of him and was injured by a hard object.He actually asked Chen Ding about the law of fighting and killing people, and his concubine Ding's law of threatening the death of his relatives and elders.Chen Dingyang spoke up for a few points, but he just didn't listen.

The case had already been settled, but now, the county magistrate wants to retaliate, and he can make the two of them a capital crime again.It can be seen how strong the ability of a magistrate to harm others legally.People at that time were in awe of this ability, and called the magistrate the magistrate of Miemen, also known as the county magistrate of Pojia.In the end, the county magistrate really called Chen Ding to break his family.Seeing that neither of them could survive, Ding simply took all the crimes on himself, wrote a confession, and then hanged himself in prison, thus closing the case.

Taking a closer look at the stakes in this story, we find that the costs or risks borne by the parties involved are extremely asymmetric.All the actions of Wujin County Magistrate were carried out under the banner of law enforcement. As long as he uttered a word, the country's violent machine would be activated according to his wishes, and he did not need to spend a penny personally.For the review above, he has the support of forensic evidence, it should be said that the risk is extremely small.His situation of being able to advance and retreat freely, in the words of an ancient folk proverb, is called ten ways for officials to judge.No matter how it is broken, it is not wrong.Contrary to the county magistrate who can advance and retreat freely, Chen Ding's life is completely in his hands.He was at risk of being hanged.Even if you are lucky enough to save your life, you will not be able to escape these losses if you go to jail, lose your concubine, be punished, or delay your business.

This is like the Americans facing Iraq.The United States has cruise missiles that can bomb other people's presidential palace or any place they can find at will.You can hit someone anytime and anywhere, but they can't hit you.This is the magic of sharp tools.With such a sharp weapon in hand, who would dare to make you angry?How can you not be arrogant?There is an old Chinese folk saying that when you have a sharp weapon in your body, you will kill yourself.In such a war with such disparity in strength, at most he could only scratch the surface, but captured many children and treasures. Naturally, he likes to fight such a battle, and he is especially good at it.If officials want to resist the temptation to fight more battles, they must be determined.

【The legal right to harm is blooming】 No matter what the official rules are, people who have the legal right to harm are bullshit as hell.In their eyes, ordinary people are like fish and meat.Our ancestors also used the term fish and meat to describe the relationship between these people and the common people. According to "Miscellaneous Notes on Bamboo Leaf Pavilion", there was a very popular bad practice in Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty, called Thief Blossoming.Whenever there is a case of theft among the people, after the local officials of the prefecture and county receive the report, the officials and government officials will not conduct any investigation, and will first refer to the wealthy households around the stolen house as the hidden households.Since it is the legal authority of officials to identify suspects, it is also their legal authority to imprison suspects, so of course there is no risk for them to do so.Those families who are accused of being illicit households also have a common characteristic, that is, no one in the family is an official, and there is no backer.So the government confidently and boldly detained them for extortion. Every time a case was reported, several families were often implicated, hence the name Thief Blossom.Those wealthy households who were accused of concealing stolen goods were particularly afraid of going to jail, so they could only admit that they were unlucky, and spent a lot of money to bribe officials and take care of the servants.The officials released these wealthy households after they had made enough money, and announced that they had not concealed any stolen goods. In terminology, this is called laundering the names of thieves. When I first saw these historical records, I put myself in the shoes of those who were blackmailed, and concluded that if it were me, I would have to study for the imperial examination, and get a good name so that they would not dare to blackmail.However, this is a very personal countermeasure. It can only protect oneself but cannot save all sentient beings, and it cannot quench the thirst of the near and far. Obviously, it is not a serious method.Later, I found a serious way. In a book written by Duan Guangqing, a man from the Qing Dynasty, I saw the clever tactics used by the people in Susong County, Anhui Province to deal with this kind of extortion, and I couldn't help but be impressed by the creativity of the people. According to the "Jinghu Self-Compiled Chronicle" recorded in the 17th year of Daoguang (1837), in September of this year, the tenants of the small landlord Duan Guangqing (who had already won the Juren at that time, that is to say, had the status of a state cadre) and their family conditions were slightly reduced. Several good neighbors were suddenly summoned by the guards, who framed them as taking stolen goods.Duan Guangqing said that it was a collusion between the owner and the arrester, and ordered the thieves to bite them in exchange for a sum of money.The tenant found Duan Guangqing's brother and cried, and Duan Guangqing's brother asked him to discuss countermeasures. Duan Guangqing first looked back at history and sought inspiration from the wisdom and experience of predecessors.He said that his father once said that in the early years of Jiaqing (around 1797), there was a bad habit in the village. When beggars fell ill and died, local scoundrels would take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, saying that they had to undergo an autopsy by the magistrate before they could be buried.And every time the magistrate goes to the countryside for an autopsy, he must bring a large group of people with him.Wuzuo and punishment books are necessary, but also include the door seals, signatures, escorts, small envoys of the inner courtyard of the county yamen, the sixth room and third squad of the outer courtyard, plus the Yiwei, Zaoli, and horse servants of the local officials. There are as many as a hundred people, and there are bearers.As a result, with the sound of the gong of the magistrate's autopsy, the family with hundreds of acres of property in the countryside was about to go bankrupt, and there was not even ashes left. Duan Guangqing said that his father's method at that time was to call the gentry from the same village to the county to ask the leaders for instructions. If the beggar really died by himself and there were no injuries after inspection, he could be buried by the local security guards, and there was no need to report to the government for an autopsy.The leader agreed, and engraved this rule on a stone tablet and stood it by the roadside.Duan Guangqing didn't say whether his father brought any money when he met the county leaders. It is reasonable to speculate that he should not beg for help empty-handed.It is speculated from the following that the predecessors probably honored their parents and officials in some way. Duan Guangqing contacted the reality and said that now entrusting thieves to plant money is another bad habit.Brother, it is best to call a meeting with fellow villagers, and everyone will pool a sum of money to give thousands of dollars to the arresters in charge of the township every year, as a reward for their hard work in catching thieves for us, and at the same time ask them to stop entrusting thieves to falsely rape good people.Duan Guangqing's elder brother accepted the suggestion and called a meeting with his fellow villagers. Sure enough, everyone actively paid for it, and the problem of thieves blossoming was thus resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.As for the specific process of negotiating with Lixu, Duan Guangqing did not record it, but I am afraid that there are three meanings that need to be expressed in many circles: We admit that you can harm us, and we pay for it, so don't use this method to harm us again.It looks a lot like dealing with the Mafia, and I admit that I often feel dumbfounded when it comes to discerning the substantive difference between authoritarian government and the Mafia. In conclusion, the legal right to harm is very valuable.With this kind of power, no money can have money, no rules that collect money can create rules.To express it with a concise and appropriate word in ancient Chinese, this is called the inevitable.Wherever the momentum comes, unspoken rules emerge.Even if this rule is not legal, it can be played around the bush to pretend that the general public loves the people's police and raises some money to express their gratitude. Is there anything wrong with that? 【Treasure of Zhenshan】 The legal right to harm is most fully manifested in prisons, and there are especially many bad rules. Fang Bao, a litterateur in the Qing Dynasty, spent time in a central-level prison and wrote an article titled "Miscellaneous Notes from Prison".He wrote: In March of the fifty-first year of Kangxi (1715), I was in the prison of the Ministry of punishment, and every day I saw three or four prisoners die and dragged out of the hole in the wall.Magistrate Du of Hongdong County, who was jailed together, said that he died of illness.The weather is right now, and the number of deaths is relatively small. In previous years, more than a dozen people died every day.I asked: There are municipal prisons in Beijing, and there are five city censors square (system of the Ministry of Supervision). Why are there so many prisoners in the Ministry of Punishment?County magistrate Du replied: those directors of the Ministry of Punishment who like to make troubles, the clerks, prison officers, and jailers below all benefit the prisoners a lot. As long as they are connected, they will try to get them here.Once in prison, regardless of whether they are guilty or not, they must be handed down and placed in old prisons, making them miserable, and then enlighten them, teach them how to get bail, and let them live in prison, forcing them to go bankrupt and relieve their pain. They divided the money privately. The means of extorting money mentioned by Fang Bao were described in detail in the late Qing Dynasty denounced novelist Li Boyuan in "Living Hell": There was a man named Huang Sheng in Yanggao County, Shanxi, who was implicated and imprisoned innocently.Shi Xiangquan, the leader of the fast team of the yamen servants, put him in prison and deliberately locked him next to the urinal with a chain. One end of the chain was wrapped around his neck and the other end was wrapped around the fence.The chain was tightened so tightly that he couldn't sit down, and he was held in this way for most of the day.When it was time to light the lanterns, Shi Xiangquan came out to negotiate the price with Huang Sheng: You want to be comfortable, but it’s easy. Inside the room, there are high bunks and tables, and what you want to eat is there.Then he untied Huang Sheng's chain, took it in his hand, and went with him to the small door at the north end, pushed the door in, and saw another large room inside, with more than a dozen beds on both sides, some sleeping and some lying down. Smokers.Huang Sheng looked at it for a while, then said to Shi Xiangquan: This room is also good.Shi Xiangquan said: "This house is not easy to live in."Huang Sheng asked him what was the matter, and Shi Xiangquan said: There is a price for entering this house.First spend 50 hangs (converted according to the grain price, each hang is equivalent to at least 200 NT dollars) before you can enter this house; spend another 30 hangs to remove the chain; spend another 20 hangs to build a shop underground; The high shop costs another thirty hangs. If you want to eat opium, you can bring it yourself, or we can do it for you. Turn on the light once, and you will get five hangs.If you open it every day, you can take a hundred slings and drop it.For the rest of the food, there is a price, whether it is a long bag, or a meal is a meal. After hearing this, Huang Sheng stuck out his tongue and said: Do you want these?Shi Xiangquan said: "This is a common practice, and it's not too important for you."Look at the one squatting over there, he has done three hundred hangs in total, and I haven't laid a bed for him yet. This Huang Sheng didn't have any money with him, Shi Xiangquan was furious, and sent him into a fence gate, where the prisoner asked him to pay filial piety, but Huang Sheng couldn't get it out, so everyone rushed up, beat him half to death, and I was fined to stand all night. The death row inmates who are about to be executed should be the most difficult to blackmail, but the servants still have a way, they can make deals in the way of execution and binding. According to Fang Bao's records, when the execution was about to be executed, the executioner waited outside the door first, and asked his accomplices to go to prison to negotiate and demand property.The term at the time was Slo.If the prisoner is rich, talk to their relatives.If the prisoner is poor, talk to them personally.They said to the prisoners executed by Ling Chi: If you obey me, stab the heart first, otherwise your arms and legs will be removed, and the heart will not die.He said to the hanged prisoner: Follow me, and I will let you die as soon as you come up.Otherwise, you will be hanged three times, plus other means, and then let you die (to mention here, Mr. Li Dazhao was hanged three times before he died).The most difficult thing to do is beheading. They can still pledge the head. Can the executioner still detain the head?I don't know how to texture my head, so I will copy the original text for the time being. The above is the way the executioner trades.Relying on the legal right to harm in their hands, they can generally knock out dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver from the rich, and they can also knock out clothes and luggage from the poor.Those who couldn't get it out at all would be tortured according to the method threatened in advance. The same is true of those responsible for tying up prisoners.Fang Bao said, if you don't bribe him, you will break his tendons and bones first.Every year when the verdict is pronounced, all prisoners on death row and death reprieve are tied up and sent to the execution ground to stand by. Three out of ten of them are executed, and it takes several months for those who survive to recover from their wounds.Some people are left permanently disabled. Fang Bao once asked an old Xu, saying that you just want something, and you don’t have any hatred. If you really have nothing, don’t torture him so much in the end. Isn’t this a good thing to do good deeds?Lao Xu replied: This is legislation, the purpose is to warn others and future generations.If you don't, others will get away with it. The officials and servants are obviously meticulous about the unspoken rules of law, punishment and prison that they set up.Three people were arrested and sentenced at the same time as Fang Bao. One bribed with thirty taels of silver. His bones were injured a little and he had to take care of him for a month. It will be fine in ten days; the third person will pay twice as much money, and he can walk as usual that night.Someone once asked such a question: sinners are not equal in wealth, and it is enough to pay for it. Why make a difference in the amount?He replied: There is no difference, who is willing to pay more? Prisons and prisons (similar to temporary detention centers) are the strongholds of legal harm rights, so they are also treasures for corrupt officials.Speaking of extremes, the government does not have to bear responsibility for prisoners who died of cold, starvation, illness, or death in prisons and classrooms.This is a weapon more powerful than cruise missiles.Cruise missiles are a low-risk low-risk weapon, after all, they still need money to produce, but you don’t need to pay a penny to kill a few people, and they can even help you earn some money for prison food, prison clothes, medicine and bedding.Since the foundation of the legal right to harm is so beautiful, it is reasonable to have many thick black branches and tricks. 【Conscience and etiquette completely defected】 A word often appears in ancient Chinese history books: 赇. The explanation in "Ci Hai" is bribery.In fact, there is no need to explain, everyone will know what this word means at a glance. Isn't it just a power-for-money transaction? Wielding a sharp weapon that hurts people requires malicious intentions in the user's heart, which requires overcoming the obstacle of conscience.Jian saved these troubles for others.As long as you have power in your hands, it will come to your door actively, love you sweetly, and tell you to disarm and surrender in a situation where you are absolutely embarrassed to turn your face.You don't need any malice, even on the contrary, to refuse this kind of money, you need a bit of malice, and you need the courage and strength to turn your face and deny people.Because it is usually through the way of relatives and friends to come to the door.Not only do you have to turn your back on the humble and enthusiastic gift-giver, but you also have to turn your back on your relatives and friends. As a result, the cost of corruption and breaking the law has been further reduced, while the cost of refusing bribes has been further increased.The obstacles of conscience and the discipline of decorum are here to turn against what they are supposed to uphold.People can not escape from doing wrong?Most people can only sigh, and then sweetly, helplessly, half push and half fall into the arms of the beauty.Another upright official has since disappeared. Notes: ① See Zhang Juzheng's "Zhang Taiyue Collection", Volume 18, <Miscellaneous Works>.Quoted from "Research on the Political System of the Ming Dynasty", by Guan Wenfa and Yan Guangwen, page 251. ②The second volume of "Fang Bao Ji", "Chronicle", page 710.